Adorable!!

Can these two get any cuter? I also love hearing their mommas' accents: Jack's mum is Scottish, Lennox's mum is Chicagoan. Great-grandma also is learning new tricks--how to post a videoclip on blogger. Problem is, both g-g and her laptop are ancient. I've got lots more of these clips. Be prepared....

 

Top, Jack trying to get a striped sock on his foot.

Below, Lennox giggling for/at his momma.  

Liberatrice!!

 

This lovely statue of Jeanne d'Arc sits in the park on Meridian Hill in NW DC.  Saturday was the first day I'd ever been in that park.  As the front of the statue says, the statue was a gift "from the women of France to the women of Ameria." The year of their donation was 1922.  I was amazed that such a lovely, meaningful gift has been virtually hidden away--far from the National Mall and the places where tourists hang out.  Many people visit this park, but when I first arrived here, the park had the reputation of being a drug dealers hangout, so I stayed out and away.  Recently, however, it has been "cleaned up," and the dealers banished, or so they say.  Anyway, it's an enchanting place...you can walk on paths through the woods below the top of the hill, or you can walk up on top and observe the frisbee competitions and football tossing among the young.  Or listen to the drum circle music played by various small groups every Sunday afternoon.  If you enter at the corner of Euclid and 16th Sts. NW, at the NW corner of the park, you will have a gentle slope to climb.  Yesterday, I took the bus from downtown and entered an the corner of 16th and W Sts NW.  Whoa!  What a perspective!  flights and flights of stairs leading up to the top of the park where the Jeanne d'Arc statue sits. 

(My own photos forthcoming, but I need to get down there and take them. I was too busy hoping I  would not conk out on the climb yesterday.)  And as you might imagine, any place that serves as a gathering spot for the young and hip (many of whom appear to be students at Howard, Georgetown, and George Washington Universities not far away) would be scented by the smoke of funny tobacco, now that Mary Jane has been decriminalized in DC.  It was.  Still, it was a glorious place, with young people, dogs on leashes, drumming, and peaceful vistas.  I can't believe I've lived in this city for 22 years and never set foot in it. And I was enchanted by the gift of this lovely statue from the women in France to we women in America.  Merci beaucoup, mesdames!

Here's more info from Wikipedia:

"The piece was first proposed in May 1916 by Mme Polifème to the Commission of Fine Arts in order to celebrate the friendship between France and the United States. During its creation, DuBois worked closely with the French Minister of Education and Fine Arts in producing a credible representation of the peasant girl.[5]"

"The statue was completed in 1922 in Paris; the original is located in Reims, France in front of the Cathedral of Notre-Dame. The replica in Washington was donated by Le Lyceum Société des Femmes de France to the women of the United States of America."

Here's what else it says:

"According to the National Commission of Fine Art it was described, at the time, as being "regarded by artists as the finest equestrian statue of modern times."[5] Henry Bacon wrote that "[Paul] Dubois's statue of Jeanne D'Arc is one of the fine things of the world and no setting is too good for it."[7]

"It is the only equestrian statue of a woman in Washington, D.C."

who was the sculptor? http://www.rugusavay.com/who-is-paul-dubois/

Grassroots winter dinners.....

I made New England Boiled Dinner tonight (substituting a slice of ham for corned beef as in the original recipe):  slice of ham, head of cabbage, half a dozen carrots peeled & sliced, three large potatoes peeled and sliced, one big onion peeled & quartered.  big pot of boiling water, bay leaf, 2 T salt, a generous grinding of black pepper, 5-10 juniper berries (couldn't find the whole allspice).  I think all that cabbage and other veggies puts my daily consumption of veg & fruits at 6 cups today.  I love this dinner.  Reminds me of home.  Especially my in-laws' home.  Julia, my m-i-l used to make it with the hambone & remaining meat and juices after every time she'd cook a ham.  Sort of like Irish leftovers.  The guys ate all the ham, too.  OK with me.  I love the cabbage, potatoes, carrots, and onions with a good knob of butter on them.

It wasn't snowing or raining when I got home tonight, but the 7-day forecast says it's going to rain and sleet tonight.  I'm refraining from saying ISH.  I'm just glad I don't have to go out any more today.  One thing I've noticed lately about getting older in this icy weather we've been having is how exhausting it is to think of all the places I used to be able to go.  I passed the dance school on 14th street, and remembered going there and feeling TIRED just thinking of walking there.  I still go out every day to the library or the grocery store, Kramerbooks, or to visit friends--except in this very frigid, icy weather we've been having.  Walking is not easy when you have to watch where you place every step.  Can't get a good rhythm or pace.  As Eric Shansby's illustration in Sunday's "Below the Beltway" column by Gene Weingarten advises: "Precede with caution."

Car Trouble....

Hattie's Web has a nifty post today.  She needs a new battery for her car,  the Freudian is out of town, and Walmart doesn't carry one for her very old car, which somehow leads her to making a typically hattiean observation on why people blog: to provide a back door into their lives.  Ok, Hattie....I'm walking right through that back door.

When I had a car, I also had battery trouble (semi-annually, it seemed), but the worst time was when I bought a replacement battery from the hardware store in our little Iowa town.  The owner said his young clerk could install it for me, and off I went half an hour later feeling very warm about living in a friendly place like that where kids could fix cars!  A day later, I was driving the 13-mile shortcut to work over the back roads, when my car started sputtering.  I pulled over, went around the back (it was a Karmann Ghia) and opened the back lid--and saw that the brand new battery was ON FIRE!  Yes, it
was burning merrily and giving off that stinky black smoke you get when plastic burns.  I tossed a few handfuls of roadside sand on the battery and slammed the lid.  Well, now what?  Nothing.  I was standing there in my weenie panty hose, heels, a women's bidness suit, and holding a briefcase.  One of the women who drove past without stopping when I tried to thumb a ride was from our town--some kind of interior decorator.  (Warm feelings about small town life chilling rapidly).  Then an old Chevy, probably from the mid-60s, stopped, and two guys hollered "Need a lift?"  I got in the back seat and as the door closed, I could smell alcohol on their breath--enough to stun a housecat.  They were unemployed plumbers, and they insisted on driving me right to the front door of my work place.  Well, lesson learned about small town life:  women of a certain age are afraid to stop on the highway, even for another woman.  But the drunks will stop every time.

Long story short, after I got to my office, I called Bill, the local gas station owner, and asked him to come pick up my car with his tow truck.  Bill told me later that the kid who installed the battery had not tightened the straps sufficiently, and that the battery had slid so that a post hit the metal strap and threw sparks, which ignited the plastic battery case. And so on. 

Carry Out/On -- Update

New York City's famous Shake Shack has an outlet here now (at least one, probably more).  When you pay for an order (not just burgers, but their frozen custard is fabulous) to go, they ask for your first name.  My first name, Mary, is something of a family heirloom:  mother, aunt, great-grandmother all donated their names to me.  And it's a very common (frequently encountered) name.  So I'm tempted to say "Beyonce" to see what they do.  Shake their heads, roll their eyes, laugh, smile.  Next time.

UPDATE:

Well, I did it.  I used my cousin's name (Alice) when I went to pick up a burger from Shake Shack. As noted in original post above, I have been thinking of using a different name just for fun. Originally, I had picked "Beyonce," but at the last minute, I thought of my cousin Alice who just died earlier this month, and that my mom was going to call me Alice, too, (actually Alicia for both) but she was overruled by my dad and four brothers (the name I wound up with was Mary Ellen--same as their favorite baby sitter's) so I said Alice when they asked and then waited to see what the experience of answering to another name would be like. Well, they also give you one of those light stick things that flash when your order is ready. So....I saw the girl pick up what looked like my order and bring it to the counter. she said "Alice," but it didn't sound like that. We always say "ALiss," but she said "ahLEES." If I hadn't had all that experience lip reading, I might have missed it--the light stick went off a second or two after she said my name. You can call me Al.

Still Here, New Name!

My longtime blogger pal, a sparkplug from Ohio (no, not Boehner!  he's not a sparkplug, he's just a dud), has changed the name of her blog from "Kay's Thinking Cap" to Kay Dennison Skelly.  She has a lovely new format but the same gentle humor.  I'm keeping Kay's Thinking Cap for a while in my list of "Blogs I Love," but if you click on the link, you'll get the new version!!  Pay her a visit, why don't you??  She's talking about snow, wouldn't you know....and Miss Ruby, and her lovely neighbors.  Hey, there, Kay!  So glad you have not abandoned us!!

This is Stinking Politics!

Reading over the news and blogs today, I was aghast to see this in Daily Kos.  Is this some kind of cruel joke?  Cut off the food stamps only in states who voted for Obama?  What idiocy.  Click the link to see the whole post.

The following states will bear the overwhelming burden of food stamp cuts: California, Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Montana, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington & Wisconsin.