NYC strike is causing big problems
The strike of New York City transit workers is causing big problems, and several instances are reported in the Dec. 22 New York Times.
The paper reported that the economic burden was felt citywide, but there were other costs, too – – hundreds of thousands of children missing school, commuters spending extra hours shuttling to work and back, and fear of how long it will go on.
In a hairdressing shop, the owner said the week before Christmas should be her biggest week, but she had to shut down her business. Hairdressers in that shop earn only on commission. So, no work, no pay.
The Visiting Nurse Service said it feared that if the strike continued, its workers would not be able to keep up with the need for in-home care. It warned hospitals in the coming days, they might have to hold patients longer than usual, rather than releasing people who need home care.
Stores and restaurants appeared to be especially hard hit, losing customers and workers at what would ordinarily be their biggest season.
Many New Yorkers said that while they had some sympathy for the transit workers, it was wearing thin. In particular, some said, walking out just before Christmas seemed intended to inflict maximum pain.
There were several comments by people living near the elevated train lines. Since the trains stopped Dec. 20, people who live and work along Roosevelt Avenue in Queens, seemed slightly disoriented. The decibel level that has defined life there, as well at other places in Queens, Brooklyn and the Bronx is conspicuously absent.
One lady, a Filipino immigrant, said, “You get used to it. It’s part of life here, the sound of the city. Living here is like having the subway running through your living room, and now it’s turned off.”
A street vendor was pleased. “The silence is good. That noise can drive you nuts,” he said.
Some residents living on or near Roosevelt Avenue spoke of finally getting a sound sleep. Others confessed to feeling a bit uneasy; things seemed just a little too quiet.
Mahmud Hossain, 31, a Bengali immigrant who owns the New York Deli and Grocery at Roosevelt Avenue and 76th Street, said life on the avenue had always been about “the big noise.” For the past seven years, he has worked at his counter 12 hours a day, separated from the El outside by a pane of glass. Since he lives in an apartment on the avenue, he also hears the train all night. He said, “It’s funny to say, but the silence is driving me crazy.” He also said, “I feel bad about the quiet because at least when I heard the noise, it means the city is working and running.”
Study cracks Mona Lisa’s smile
The above headline in the Dec. 18 New York Post refers to a recent study by scientists from the University of Amsterdam.
They ran the Mona Lisa’s facial features through emotional-recognition software developed in collaboration with the University of Illinois.
The Mona Lisa was painted between 1503 and 1506 by Leonardo DaVinci, in Florence, Italy. It now hangs in the Louvre, the famous museum in Paris, France.
This article says, “the famous smirk has been solved – – she’s 83 percent happy.” The study found that her face expresses 83 percent happiness, 9 percent disgust, 6 percent fear and 2 percent anger.
Well, I don’t call her look “a smirk”; it’s just a nice and perhaps shy smile. I have a book on the paintings and objects in the Louvre that calls the Mona Lisa the most celebrated painting in the world.
“The figure has more solidity than the rocks in the landscape behind it; yet the famous smile and the express around the eyes are elusive – – moving and alive with the very breath of life. Leonardo worked on this picture over a period of four years, and into it he put all the skills of perhaps the most universal genius of all time; the exquisitely subtle modeling of a master painter, plus his astounding knowledge of human anatomy, his keen psychological perception – – and the refinement of his own noble spirit. The face of a young Florentine woman, Mona Lisa, helped him to realize this image. Perhaps the smile also stands for the movement of life and the mystery of the soul.”
I prefer this excellent description to the scientific study, with all of its software.
Longevity secrets revealed
We read in the Dec. 17 Boston Herald that the world’s oldest woman, Maria Esther de Capovilla, of Ecuador, is 116 years old, and that her daughter Irma, 79, says that Maria’s calm disposition may be the secret of her longevity. She comes from a wealthy family.
She is pictured in the article, an attractive white-haired lady, wearing long, white earrings and a pretty dress.
She had been bedridden and very ill when she was 100, so weakened from a stomach ailment that a priest administered last rites. But she recovered, and 16 years later she has become the oldest person on earth, according to the Guinness World Records.
She was born in 1889, the same year as Charlie Chaplin and Adolf Hitler, and was married in 1917, the same year the United States entered World War I. She was widowed in 1949.
Her daughter told a reporter that what is admirable is not only that she reached this age, but that she got here in this shape, in very good health. “She does not get upset by anything. She takes things very calmly and she has been that way her whole life.”
Many of us elderly don’t aspire to equal Maria Esther de Capovilla’s age, but I feel that her daughter’s description, that she has always taken things calmly, has greatly helped her reach this advanced age.
RECIPE
This cake recipe is from the cookbook sent to me by my niece, Marianne Blanchard Pepper who lives in St. Louis, Mo. the book, “Color Me Cooking,” was produced by the St. Louis Artists’ Guild.
ELVIS PRESLEY POUND CAKE
3 cups flour (not self-rising)
2 sticks melted butter, softened
3 cups sugar
7 large eggs, at room temperature
1 cup heavy cream
2 tsps. vanilla
Grease and flour a 10-inch tube pan. Sift flour twice. Beat butter and sugar; add eggs, 1 at a time. Beat half of the flour into the batter and beat. Add the cream; beat again, then add the rest of the flour. Add vanilla. Pour into pan. Place it in the middle of cold oven. Set over to 350 degrees. Bake 1 hour and 15 minutes.
Submitted by Charlotte Remard
I doubt, if Elvis baked this cake himself, and wonder how this cake uses his name.
Also, I had a call from Colleen Reed of Westbrook, she was going to make last week’s recipe, the Marshmallow Squares, but I had not indicated the size of the pan in which to place the graham crackers. It is a 9 x 13 pan. I hope she enjoyed them.
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