Hello from Madrid. Can’t really blog without a proper keyboard, but here’s a new post for your abundant conversations in my absence. Also, a picture of an amazingly gruesome Jesus in the cathedral in Segovia, taken yesterday. Home by the weekend! See you soon.
On the base: “By his stripes we are healed.”
Jim said on October 11, 2022 at 5:42 am
Jesus was olive skinned NOT white . Born out East .
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nancy said on October 11, 2022 at 6:00 am
Everyone loses color when they bleed out, but if you quibble with artistic Jesuses you will miss a lot of grand pieces.
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Mark P said on October 11, 2022 at 9:06 am
What a strange religion.
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ROGirl said on October 11, 2022 at 9:42 am
Aren’t some Spanish Catholics into self-flaggelation rituals at Eastertime?
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Dorothy said on October 11, 2022 at 9:53 am
Happy birthday, Deborah!
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Robert said on October 11, 2022 at 9:58 am
Good to see even a mini-post. Safe return. Me encanta Segovia.
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Jeff Borden said on October 11, 2022 at 12:02 pm
ROGirl,
Johanna and I were in Seville, Spain over holy weekend in 2017. As the center of Spanish Catholicism, Seville boasts the third largest church in the world (behind St. Peter’s in Rome and St. Paul’s in London) and contains the remains of Christopher Columbus under a huge memorial. Each Easter the city draws hundreds of thousands to celebrate the rituals, which are intense, though I saw no self-flagellation.
Every parish in Seville creates a float depicting some element of the Passion Play, which are then paraded around the city in somber, solemn columns preceded by penitents (wearing those super creepy peaked hoods in heavy velvet) and followed by a brass band playing a dirge. The floats themselves can weigh up to two tons but are carried on the backs of men. . .35 per float. . .who pause occasionally by kneeling on the street before they work en masse to raise the float again. We saw two emergencies where someone under the float passed out, requiring the attention of paramedic crews. Generally, the groups carrying the floats trade out with other marchers over the course of the parade route, but the real zealots will carry them until they pass out or fall down. I guess. you could call that a form of self-flagellation, but not like the stuff in the Dan Brown books about Opus Dei style Catholics.
One last thing: We were there by accident because neither of us is religious and had no idea it would be Easter weekend when we visited Seville. We feared the town would be closed tight and it would be tough to find a meal or a drink. Ha! The crowds on Good Friday were as raucous as a New Year’s Eve party and we had no trouble finding plenty to do on Easter itself. We visited Seville at the suggestion of a student and I’m so glad we did. It’s quite amazing.
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Deborah said on October 11, 2022 at 3:14 pm
I had a great 72nd birthday in Paris, thanks well wishers. Yesterday we walked 9.3 miles and today we walked 9.2 miles. We’ve been disappointed to see how negatively the pandemic effected Paris, favorite cafes and shops are no more but they do seem to be rising from the ashes in a lot of ways with some new places. Paris is still fabulous as it probably will always be.
We went to a cool kitchen shop today that has beautiful copperware, where my husband bought me a beautiful small sauce pan for my birthday. It must be where Kamala Harris bought her lovely piece of copperware that she was criticized for buying when she was here. It’s a shop going back to 1812 and Julia Child is known to have shopped there when she lived in Paris. They have everything there not just copperware.
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Julie Robinson said on October 11, 2022 at 5:45 pm
That statue…eww. That’s a side of Catholicism I’ve never understood.
Many of you have had a parent with dementia, and I’ve seen it firsthand with my in-laws. In fact, because of the family history D will be having baseline neurological testing himself. But I’m getting ahead of myself.
My mom had a Medicare well check today, the first time she’s had one. Mostly it was a lot of questions about lifestyle and safety, and from that it came out that she needs a different bath chair.
They also did a quick neurological test. She did okay with remembering three words, though she got them out of order. Next, the clock test, where you draw a clock, write the numbers in the correct place, and put hands on for a time, in this case 11:10.
And it was painful. She got the numbers correct, though her spacing was off, but she was absolutely stumped by the hands. She finally got the 11 hand in the correct place, though she drew it long, like a minute hand. The minute hand took forever, and she put it alongside the hour hand. Hoo boy.
This, along with the news that the grand dame Angela Lansbury has died, has got me feeling more than a little melancholy.
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LAMary said on October 11, 2022 at 8:04 pm
They get into some serious self flagellation in The Philippines. They do cruxifictions too. The Penitentes in New Mexico 500 years ago did those rituals too. Some churches still do. Spain probably exported those rituals post inquisition.
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alex said on October 11, 2022 at 8:42 pm
I was gonna crack a joke about “flagellating the pope” but thought better of it.
But aren’t Catholics also the ones who coined the term “self-abuse”?
The house smells divine tonight. I quartered my latest harvest of tomatoes, tossed them in a 2-gallon baggie with olive oil and Italian seasonings and garlic cloves, then spread them out onto three baking dishes. They’ve been roasting for about an hour. I’ll give them another half hour or so, then get them ready to go into freezer bags for future dishes.
Next up is a sheet pan full of peppers, although I’m not too keen on having to skin those fuckers tonight. A mix of poblanos, bells, Anaheims and jalapeños. Those will make a good pozole or southwesternish stew. And when I’m done I won’t be flagellating the pope. I will, however, have to figure out how to remove my contact lenses.
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Dexter Friend said on October 12, 2022 at 2:16 am
A few years ago in Roma the bones of Pope John XXIII were covered in wax for a great resemblance to that pope from the early 60s. He was the first pope I remember from those days when I’d rise early for a newspaper route and read the paper before starting my route. That is how I got a good bit of my early education, and formed a bitter opinion of USA foreign policy from reading the liberal national columnists in the old FW Journal-Gazette.
All the years later, there were the bones of that old pope, the real bones, re-assembled and wax added to make that facsimile. It’s the way they do things, and ya jes’ don’ forget stuff like that.
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nancy said on October 12, 2022 at 3:56 am
Parts of Columbus are buried in Seville, but not all of him. Our friends from Detroit who we met up with here took a side trip to Seville and got the scoop. There’s about a hamburger’s worth in Seville, I gather. And it’s been DNA tested against the remains in his son’s grave, so they’re sure. Hamburger Columbus would be a great name for a restaurant in Ohio’s capital city.
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Jeff Gill said on October 12, 2022 at 7:51 am
From Willa Cather to Georgia O’Keefe, the Penitentes in New Mexico play a rather interesting role in the complex culture of that area, Native American & Hispanic & Anglo. The obvious link is not a bad overview:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penitentes_(New_Mexico)
and for some visuals of the New World version of the more artistic Seville “Corpus Christi”:
https://craftsmanship.net/gallery/a-penitente-holy-week/
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LAMary said on October 12, 2022 at 8:42 am
New Mexico, southern Colorado and northern Mexico have descendants of the Crypto-Jews as well. When they fled the inquisition and landed in the new world they changed their names. At least this is what I was told by someone who said his ancestors came to Mexico for that reason.
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Deborah said on October 12, 2022 at 5:25 pm
Jeff, I can’t read your link in Paris so it may have included this, the ritual of walking to Chimayo during Holy Week is also practiced by penitentes, but they are said to walk the last mile on their knees. I don’t know if that’s true or not but that’s the lore. There is a Penitente church in Abiquiu.
We only walked 5.4 miles in Paris today because I wore some new shoes I bought yesterday. No blisters just kinda sore. I’ve been having trouble falling asleep but once I do I’m dead to the world and waking in the morning is not easy.
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Jeff Gill said on October 12, 2022 at 8:13 pm
Waking in the morning – isn’t that what espresso is for?
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Deborah said on October 13, 2022 at 7:33 am
I have to drink decaf espresso or I’ll be jittery all day and that defeats the purpose.
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Heather said on October 13, 2022 at 9:37 am
Happy birthday, Deborah! Paris for a birthday sounds wonderful. And it looks like Nancy is having a great time in España.
I just got back from a wonderful trip to South Africa. We were in Cape Town for a few days and went on safari at a reserve near Kruger National Park after that. The safari was really the highlight. I don’t know if I can describe how transformative it was. Just to be in that environment and able to watch the animals interact with the landscape and each other was extraordinary. I don’t think I’ve ever been so relaxed after a trip. I’d love to do it again someday if I can afford it! On our last day we met an American woman who was on her eighth (!) safari.
Observing the society and culture there was also interesting. There is clearly a lot of poverty as well as class issues based on race. I hope that will change though as there is a big effort to provide Black and colored people (that’s what they call people descended from slaves from South Asia; the term doesn’t have the same negative connotations as it does here) with better opportunities, and in fact a lot of white men are leaving the country to find better work. I won’t pretend I have any special insight into the state of things there though–just going on what our guide in Cape Town told us.
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JodiP said on October 13, 2022 at 10:21 am
Happy belated birthday, Deborah! How wonderful to celebrate in Paris.
Heather, your trip was so amazing!
We just spent two weeks in the Netherlands and Belgium. We saw a lot of art, including a “lumiere” installation about Dali. Lots of good casual food, and our first rijsttafel, or “rice table” an Indonesian meal of many small dishes and rice. And the beer. OMG. Here in Minneapolis, it’s all about IPAs (which I love) and sours, so it was really fun to explore other types.
My favorite city was Delft. It’s just so charming, small and of course full of history. We are remodeling our kitchen, and had bought some decorative tile from a store here. We bought Delft-made tiles to use instead. So excited to get this project started–our cabinets are done, so just waiting for the start date. My wife and I are lucky because we have a wide taste overlap. We picked out countertop material yesterday in about fifteen minutes.
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Julie Robinson said on October 13, 2022 at 10:46 am
All of you world travelers, do you have Global Entry, and if so, is it worth it? We were talked into applying, and they have our non-refundable $100 apiece, but there are no openings near us for the personal interviews. We spent 45 minutes looking, each of us on a computer, and went through mid-February before we had to call it a day.
Heather, our daughter is headed to Kenya for a conference and she’s excited to go on a safari. Her plane ticket is paid for and they even gave her church money to cover a supply pastor. She’s been working for the organization on a voluntary basis for years and she wouldn’t have been able to go otherwise, so she’s taking an extra week to be a tourist. This is part of the United Nations COP 27, a climate change conference.
Anyone here have a reusable Qtip? I’ve just been given one. My feelings, they are mixed.
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Heather said on October 13, 2022 at 12:06 pm
I don’t have Global Entry. On this trip at least it wouldn’t have made much of a difference, and I’ve never had to wait that long to get back in the US. If they had some sort of way to expedite entry into foreign countries, I’d be all over it, having waited about an hour and a half in line at the Lisbon airport to enter Portugal last time.
Julie, I’d love to go to Kenya too, especially since Out of Africa was one of my favorite books (although the author’s attitude toward the native population is, shall we say, outdated). I wanted to go there for this trip but the other women wanted South Africa, which was wonderful, so no complaints. Next time maybe I’ll do Kenya and go back to South Africa. I’d better start saving now.
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Dorothy said on October 13, 2022 at 12:13 pm
My upcoming excursion is not at all exotic, unless you think Disney’s Caribbean resorts is described that way. I am making up my mind to look at everything through my 5 year old granddaughter’s eyes, and if I can pull that off, I know it’s going to be extremely magic. I might just cry seeing how happy she is going to be. I’m hoping the Next Big Trip with them might be Legoland in California. My son and his wife are huge Lego fans, and now their daughter is. Remains to be seen if the 7 month old will follow in their footsteps but why wouldn’t he?
I’m ready for the next January 6 Committee hearing. I will not see it all live because I have to meet the school bus around 3 PM. But I can go back and watch what I miss tomorrow morning. Tonight is quilt guild meeting and so no t.v. viewing until Friday.
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JodiP said on October 13, 2022 at 12:25 pm
Julie,I also don’t have global entry becaue we travel abroad only once a year.
Flying to Amsterdam was a snap–about 45 minutes door to gate (includes a 20-minute commute) with luggage check-in and a very short security line.
Flying home was much different. We arrived at the airport 3 hours prior to departure. We wasted about 15 minutes trying to get reimbursed for VAT. However, the biggest delay was the secuirty checkpoint. Don’t know how long we were in it, but by the time we got to our gate, they were in the midst of boarding! We also had to go through passport control but that was maybe 10 minutes.
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Deborah said on October 13, 2022 at 4:42 pm
We are in Le Thor after our train ride here. No hiccups everything went just fine. The only bummer is it took 2 hours for me to figure out Wordle on the train. I have no idea why it took so long except that I kept getting distracted by the surrounding landscape through the train windows.
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Julie Robinson said on October 13, 2022 at 5:32 pm
Huh, I don’t think we should have bothered with Global Entry, but we’re stuck now. I could have renewed my Pre-Check online, too.
Another blockbuster hearing, especially indicting TFG at the end. The Supreme Court rejected his latest attempt to shut things down today, too. I bet the food is really flying at Mar-a-Lago.
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Julie Robinson said on October 13, 2022 at 6:40 pm
Correction: not indicted but subpoenaed.
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Dexter Friend said on October 14, 2022 at 1:42 am
I must vent here, lashing out at the wicked ways of the world and the justice metered out to mass murderer Nikolas Cruz, the Florida school monster.
Up until around 1999 I was always for life imprisonment and against the death penalty, thinking it was just the way these types of crimes should be handled.
Now , and reinforced after watching the parents relate just how their kids were shot multiple times in a way that could be called demonic, I say that Cruz does not deserve to live and should be executed.
A couple of nallers posted that prison for him will be more of a harsh hell than the needle.
I say he got a break he does not deserve and should be put to death. Some or one jurors disagree. Did you see the look of horrific surprise on the parents’ faces at the reading of the jury’s decision? I stand with them.
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David C said on October 14, 2022 at 6:04 am
We’ve built a society with the belief that one of the best ways to solve problems is to kill someone. It isn’t working.
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Marie said on October 14, 2022 at 8:17 am
My husband and I got Global Entry when it first was offered as we do travel out of country 1-3 times a year. At the time, it was 85 for Tsa Precheck/Trusted Traveler and 100$ for Global Entry so it seemed like a no brainer. Problem was we had to travel 2 hours to go to the interviews, since we didn’t live near an airport that offered them. Now many more smaller airports have offices for enrollment. We often fly into JFK and it is a lifesaver. You insert your passport into a Kiosk and are through in 30 seconds. Perhaps a minute wait at most to use a kiosk. Our local airport is small and gets very few international flights, doesn’t make much of a difference there. I would still get it again. It lasts 5 years and you don’t have to re-interview to renew. And of course it includes the TSA precheck also.
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Julie Robinson said on October 14, 2022 at 11:19 am
David C, I’m with you. Don’t kill, or we’ll kill you? It’s not a true deterrance. I’m not sure this man even functions on a high enough level to think that through. Parents who want vengeance will find it hollow in the end.
Neither Global Entry or PreCheck have increased their prices, so that’s good news. We are finding dates in Miami, which is about four hours away and it’s been suggested we look at it as an overnight getaway. But really, Orlando has over two million people and three interview sites, so it’s ridiculous that there’s no times available. I feel like writing to Pete Buttigeig, except Homeland Security runs this program.
Have lost two eldster friends this week and am really feeling it. One had a kitty and no family. Sarah found a friend in Atlanta who will rescue her, now we just have to get her there.
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Icarus said on October 14, 2022 at 3:27 pm
I suspect there are a few here who remember when flying on an airplane was an experience worthy of wearing your best dress and you were treated like royalty. (Not me, I’ve only heard stories). Metal detectors were not a thing.
Now we have Global Entry and PreCheck and pay through the nose for it. All because someone flew an airplane into a building.
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Dexter Friend said on October 15, 2022 at 4:42 am
As late as 1988 I carried my Walkman radio on board and listened to the great cacophony of many FM stations coming in so clearly and constantly changing. All the while, I had a pint of Wild Turkey 101 in my jacket pocket for a nip every now and then, and even passed it around to my traveling seatmate if s/he desired a pop. Oh yeah, 1988 was when a partial smoking ban went into effect, strengthened in 1990. I had quit cigarettes in 1981 so this didn’t affect me, and truthfully, I can’t remember if smoking was allowed on my flights that year. It was shortly after this period when the electronics ban went into effect as well. No more radio listening.
Now since I am cane-dependent and get put in a wheelchair to get through TSA checks, I go right through as a handicapped traveler. Airports ain’t for the lame and slow. My son-in-law wants me to fly down to Port St. Lucie in March to attend some Mets Spring Training games. Airports are getting to be a bit too much for me.
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