Music and Amusement.

Tonight, this:

The Beth Israel Congregation in Jackson, Mississippi (same name as my congregation in Connecticut), home of the Institute of Southern Jewish Life (home of a virtual Torah study I've enjoyed for years), was victimized by arson early this year.  It is one of many incidents of anti-Jewish action not just in the USA, but all around the world since Hamas struck in October 2023.

Today is Flag Day, and somebody in my community posted a poem:

I am the flag of the United States of America.

​My name is Old Glory.

 

I fly atop the world's tallest buildings.

I stand watch in America's halls of justice.

I fly majestically over institutions of learning.

I stand guard with power in the world.

Look up and see me.

​

I stand for peace, honor, truth and justice.

I stand for freedom. I am confident.

I am arrogant. I am proud.

When I am flown with my fellow banners,

My head is a little higher,

My colors a little truer.

 

I bow to no one!

I am recognized all over the world.

I am worshipped - I am saluted.

I am loved - I am revered.

I am respected - I am feared.

I have fought in every battle of every war for more than 200 years.

I was flown at Valley Forge, Gettysburg, Shiloh and Appamatox.

I was there at San Juan Hill, the trenches of France, in the Argonne Forest, Anzio, Rome and the beaches of Normandy.

Guam, Okinawa, Korea and KheSan, Saigon, Vietnam know me.

 

I was there. I led my troops.

I was dirty, battleworn and tired,

but my soldiers cheered me and I was proud.

I have been burned, torn and trampled on the streets of countries

I have helped set free. It does not hurt for I am invincible.

I have been soiled upon, burned, torn and trampled in the streets of my country.

And when it's done by those whom I've served in battle - it hurts.

 

But I shall overcome - for I am strong.

I have slipped the bonds of earth and

stood watch over the uncharted frontiers of space from my vantage point on the moon.

I have born silent witness to all of America's finest hours.

 

But my finest hours are yet to come.

When I am torn into strips and used as bandages for my wounded comrades on the battle field,

when I am flown at half mast to honor my soldier,

or when I lie in the trembling arms of a grieving parent at the grave of their fallen son or daughter,

​

I am proud.

I am the flag of the United States of America.

Originally entitled, My Name is Old Glory by Howard Schnauber

© 1994 the author [Mr. Schnauber has given permission to the public to use this poem for program or publishing purposes. Please credit the Fort Collins Public Library Local History Archive, Oral History Interview of Mr. Howard Schnauber, the author.] 

A friend told me about the "Rise Up, Sing Out" concert that No Kings is hosting today.

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It's been a fiber-y week otherwise.  On Monday evening, the Triangle Fiber Guild had a class on Tunisian Crochet.  I didn't get a copy of the handout, but figured out two of the stitches from the teacher's demonstration:

I plan to take this out and restart at seven inches width, so it can be a Warm Up, America! blanket piece.

At the end of the week I went to a professional conference, in St. Louis but not near the ballpark.  Which was fine because the Cardinals are not in town this week.  With the NBA and NFL finals, and the start of the FIFA World Cup, is anybody focused on baseball this week?

While there, I finished a scarf:

Middle is a strip of Red Heart All-in-One Granny 
yarn, left over from a scarf.  I picked up on the 
sides with Big Twist in red, and worked longways.

The photo was taken at the airport, just before I packed the scarf and took out another project.  It is a small sweater using two hanks of ChemKnits Creations yarn.  My return flight was badly delayed so I arrived in the wee hour of Saturday morning, and took this photo while I knitted at luggage claim:

Saturday was World Wide Knit in Public Day, and I continued to work on the sweater throughout the day, while I was at TheaterFESTival to learn about local companies (I found two or three with which I may work), and in the evening when I went to see "The Mystery of Irma Vep" as it was closing and that was my only opportunity.  My mother worried that I would be too tired, but the play is lively and full of tricks so I was fine.

The sweater now looks like this:

It's below the sleeves, working on the body until the rainbowy yarn runs out.

Her first opera.

Early this week, just a few days before I went to Texas, a friend posted about the Opera Arlington performances of "Carmen", for which he'd designed the lighting.  So we did a quick rearrangement of our plans so that I could see it, accompanied by a friend who had never seen opera before.  The production was updated to the 1920's and instead of bullfighters, they had soccer (futbol) stars, in part as a tribute to the upcoming FIFA World Cup events.  While the set was minimal and the costumes sometimes sketchy, the voices were amazing and I was very glad we had the opportunity to attend.

The next day we did a double header of "Laura" (with fun guessing the murderer among all the red herrings) and "Home, I'm Darling" which had a cute set and nice costumes but an unsatisfactory script and direction.  Well, it was a rare dud in our many weekends of seeing shows.

I got to see friends and do some catching-up with people.  I also finished a baby blanket, with just a very few feet of the pink yarn left, just barely winning at what is called "yarn chicken":

Lillies of the Valley for May

Briefly I worried that I hadn't gotten the May puzzle done in its assigned month - I'd meant to do it all week, and somehow never did - then realized it was because I had been looking into the next week's calendar for work.  So today, I put it together:

Because much of the puzzle is dark, I left some of the pieces
reverse-up for the photo so you can see the shapes more clearly.

It was trickier than I expected, but I finished in about the
length of one side of an LP.  Yes, I still listen to vinyl.

Current project is something I'll show next week, after it is delivered, and this baby blanket made of three balls of the pink/white and one of the blue/white.  I'd intended to work the pink until it ran out, growing the blanket from a corner, then even with the blue, and reduce with the pink.  But I was tired of increasing, so changed to a central square of pink, with a border of alternating pink and blue stripes:

The balls of yarn fit into the blanket, making it very
self-contained, rather like being its own bag.

I finished this month's SciFi Book Club reading today, which means I am not cramming it until the final minutes!  Because the library system's summer program is based on paleontology, we read "Jurassic Park".  I was impressed in some ways, underwhelmed in a number of others, and thought it a bit full of tropes and thinly drawn characters.  But if you are writing for the masses and the movie studios, it's probably spot-on.  We'll have an interesting discussion, I am sure.

Thanks to Books Among Friends, which raises money for the Durham County Public Library, I also have its sequel, "The Lost World", and will start reading it.  I should be able to finish before I get next month's assignment.

Memorial Day

 

Despite receiving a commission after high school, my father was unable to serve due to a heart condition.  He'd had it since he was a small boy (it was probably congenital) and despite it lived past his ninetieth birthday.

Today we remember many people who did not have that opportunity.

.

.

.

(It's also Towel Day, for the nerdy amongst us.)

Collaborative.

A designer offered a pattern for groups to use to make a shawl and asked if they would donate it to an event in May.  The shawls will decorate the hall and then be raffled, with proceeds going to domestic violence prevention.

A few of us in KnitTalk decided to contribute, with several persons knitting pieces or doing putting-together, and one writing a note in French to send with it:

I will use the ball in the centre to work the borders.

I've done the April puzzle:

Before, with most of the shaped pieces on the left.

Close-up showing a human-shaped
piece, which isn't as visible in the
upper photo.  And the flowers.

I sent off a box of thank you cards, totaling 282.  I didn't write six per day for Lent, as I'd intended, but the box is full (there were some in it already, for those checking the maths) and I will start another when I return from my next trip.

[Apparently I neglected to post this when written in April.]

Greek Festival at St. Barbara's

While I was in Texas on business earlier this week, my mother went to A Greek food truck she loves, and found out about a local Greek festival at St. Barbara Greek Orthodox Church.  We'd loved going to them in Chicago, and I've been to ones in Dallas and when visiting my grandmother in Florida.

We decided to go early in the day and  it was a good plan and it's a hot weekend.  We arrived just in time to get through the long line into the church, most of whom were heading to the food area, and with a quick left turn found ourselves in the sanctuary in time for a tour.  It wasn't a walking tour, but a tour of the iconography which is the many-years work of a paritioner.

Their shrine to St. Barbara, patron saint of the
church, carefully brought from their previous location.

The communion table in the area where only
a consecrated priest has access.

The altar, which is behind the iconostasis.

The Bible accessible only to the priest.

This signals the burial and is used only on
Good Friday, but is available the rest of the year.

Saints ringed the sides, including Joachim and Anna with an
infant Mary, Mother of Jesus.

Saints here include Nicholas at left, Peter and Paul in the center.

The back wall, under which you enter, showing the Dormition.

Interior of the dome.

The iconostasis.  You can see through to the priest-only area.

The Resurrection, with Christ pulling up Adam and Eve.

The Transfiguration, with before and after images on the sides.

After the tour we joined the food line, having spanikopita and salad for lunch, taking home pastisio and a gyro sandwich and baklava and the walnut cakes I like and and cannot remember the name.  There was dancing and music, a jumble sale and a tent of artisans raising money for Ukraine.  I bought a few things (carefully avoiding the table of books) and picked up some fresh feta cheese before we headed home.

Revisiting a childhood activity.

This week was busy with an assortment of things, including a professional organization mixer on Tuesday, which happened to be Cinco de Mayo.  So the food was a taco bar (tasty, but not worth photographing) and we made paper flowers to contribute to an artist's work:

I made this type of flower as a child, and it was very quick to remember how.  Of course the artist showed people how to do it, had the pieces of paper precut (you can see a pile of deep blue at the top of the lower photograph), and even some of the flowers ready to fluff.  I did several from start to finish, and we look forward to the finished image.

Most of my yarning this week was making Warm Up, America! pieces, using up leftovers of acrylic, because any pattern I wanted to do needed more focus than I could manage.

Three in various garter stitch patterns, lower right is crocheted.

Currently OTN is one from their 30th Anniversary Pattern Bundle, a block in bamboo stitch which I hadn't heard of before and looked intriguing.  I have some speckled yarn that I wanted to work into a pattern stitch, and so far it's going well.  I'll probably take it and some other balls of yarn on my business travel this week, something easy that doesn't need much focus.

I also had my book club at the library on Wednesday, and errands plus all the trip laundry, and time with my mother after being away for a week.  Today is Mother's Day and my brother and his wife and I went to my mother's house for brunch.  Going out on Mother's Day is too crowded and noisy for us.

This weekend I started a more complicated item, the "Winter Sapphire" pattern using yarn that I purchased in Iceland.  Because the yarn is a bit "sticky" I realized I will need to pull from the outside, so went on a hunt for one of my Lemonwood mini-minders.  I think it's not officially the two-ball size, but it works for me: