Who needs to think?

Geothermal Features of Yellowstone

Posted on August 2, 2019 by forstegrupp

Grand Prismatic Spring of Yellowstone For ten days, SH and I explored Yellowstone National Park. We visited just about every geothermal feature: geysers, fumaroles, hot springs, mudpots, and hot spring terraces.

The one feature SH really wanted to see was the Grand Prismatic Spring — 370 feet in diameter and more than 120 feet deep and scalding hot. The incredible colors of turquoise blue, green, yellow and orange are due to thermophiles, bacteria which feed on the hot minerals of the spring. Except in the turquoise blue center which is too hot for any living organisms. We walked to the overlook above the spring as the last stop of our tour of Yellowstone. Our guide said he had never come to the spring in the morning since most folks want to see it before the crowds; however, we got there in the later afternoon when folks were tired and leaving after a long day of sightseeing. Our guide observed he had never had such a good view of the spring because in the morning the steam rising off the hot spring in the cold air obscures the colors.

The Grand Prismatic Spring was like a bright agate dropped from the sky with bands of vivid color around that piercing turquoise.

We saw many of these bright turquoise pools and they reminded me of huge pieces of sleeping beauty turquoise with no cracks or discolorations. Just dropped from the sky as though they were eternal tears of God.

Another thing we noticed about each of the geothermal features was the sounds which they made. Each geyser or mudpot or hot spring had its own distinctive sound. It was like the entire caldera of Yellowstone was a giant stove with many different pots boiling and bubbling and gurgling. Some of the springs glubbed as if they were big pots of cooking oatmeal. Some sprightly spritzed like a tall cylinders of spouting hot water which occasionally splashed out. Some sounded like a percolating coffee makers.

Often we would just stand still and listen to the voices of the geyser and hot springs — catching their music between gusts of wind or bits of conversation.

Posted in nature | Leave a comment

How does the second Democratic debate connect to the threat of conspiracy theories?

Posted on August 1, 2019 by forstegrupp

Last night, I watched the second part of the second Democratic debate. I did not watch the previous three. I could not bear the thought of seeing more than twenty Democrats rip each other down when our real target needs to be the man who is currently desecrating the White House — him and all his enablers including #MoscowMitch.

As a few of the candidates said, any one of them would be better than what (not who) is now occupies the presidency. That is a fact.

Each one of the folks on stage spoke with knowledge and passion and made reasoned arguments in grammatically correct sentences. Generally, they adhered the rules of the debate as outlined by CNN, and this indicated to me that they would adhere to the traditions and institutions of our political process which ends with the election of the electors who actually elect the president (weird antediluvian idea from the founding fathers). They are all decent, rule-following folks.

But they are not vying to challenge someone who follows rules or cares about any rules. Neither the man in the White House or his supporters believe in following the rules if they can get away with bending or breaking those rules. They just trample on the rules or the traditions.

Why?

The President of the United States and his supporters honestly believe that the entire world is out to get them and that justifies them using any means to subvert and defy precedent, justice, and reason. They are conspiracy theorists mainstreamed.

Elizabeth Kolbert wrote an article for the April 22, 2019 New Yorker exploring whether Americans are suckers for conspiracy theories. Click here for the article. She summarized the work of two political scientists who examined letters to the editors for the past 100 years and concluded that Americans’ tendency to promulgate conspiracy theories has actually declined. But newspapers are not the only source for the spread of conspiracy theories — just think of the internet and cable tv which have specific little corners where conspiracy theories hide out and emerge to scare and titillate readers/viewers. Or the fact that the current president spews conspiracy theories with unsettling frequency. If the liberals are the source of the “Deep State,” why doesn’t this very democratic liberal have no idea what the “Deep State” is and would reject it immediately.

According to work done by Joseph E. Uscinski and Joseph M. Parent, the folks most likely to believe in conspiracy theories are:

those with less education
those with less money
those not aligned with any political party

Keeping these points in mind, I did some reading on voting patterns from the 2016 presidential election. Nate Silver of FiveThirtyEight had the most comprehensive data set showing that generally, those who voted for tRump were less educated — income level was not a major factor. Click here to see his article and statistics.

Now the connection.

I am watching the debate last night and asking myself who among the people up there would be able to reassure a stressed nation that we can overcome the suspicions and divisions? Who up there can calm down the conspiracy theorist? Who up there can make folks believe we can come back together as a nation? Who up there will calm down those folks who are afraid of others and change?

Posted in politics | Leave a comment

Knitting and Window Boxes

Posted on July 31, 2019 by forstegrupp

I will return to Yellowstone and the Tetons in a later post, but wanted to throw this up there about a recent weekend spend in Nantucket in June.

This was my second weekend in Nantucket and once again did some yarn shop tourism by visiting the local establishment, Flock, which sells luscious yarn 🧶 The shopkeeper was quite nice, and we became Ravelry friends. She loves making critters designed by Claire Garland. I saw this cute winter wreath with little knitted animals around the periphery.

When I walked the half-mile to the shop, I passed all of these lovely window boxes full of flowers and plants with contrasting colors and textures.

Posted in knitting | Leave a comment

Coming to Grand Tetons in the Twilight

Posted on July 21, 2019 by forstegrupp

Yesterday SH and I arrived in the West for a vacation in Yellowstone but we started yesterday day with an overnight at Lake Jenny in Grand Teton National Park.

The Tetons resemble the Alps in Grindelwald. Both raise straight up. The Tetons have their roots in the plains and the Alps in a deep valley. They both have angles cut by glaciers. Fewer and smaller glaciers before global warming. Each mountain has a distinctive face so no wonder each is named.

What I also love is how the temperature drops precipitously as the sun goes down in the mountains. The sun in quite strong during the day. I noticed that in both the Tetons and the Alps the flowers grow profusely with all the sunlight. Huge baskets overflowing with blossoms.

Twilight and early morning are best in the mountains because the angled light is not so harsh and glaring.

When I come to mountains, I feel my spirit expanding and opening up. It’s like I am pulling all the space and height and majesty of those mountains inward and losing myself. It’s an ecstatic experience unique to coming to only this type of landscape.

Maybe it stems from my parents taking us to the West and these parks — and Glacier. Maybe it was the two week Outward Bound experience in the Maroon Bells. Or occasional forays to the Swiss Alps. But mountains enlarge and revitalize me.

I am so happy and grateful to be here today with my darling SH in this place — the Grand Tetons.

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

The Horses of London

Posted on July 1, 2019 by forstegrupp

Recently SH and I were in London and visited the National Gallery and the British Museum on the same day. I was fascinated by the horses we saw in the art.

First, we paid our respects to Whistlejacket in the National Gallery. George Stubbs painted the Marquess of Rockingham’s magnificent stallion after spending 18 months dissecting horses to understand their musculature. The portrait hangs in the center of its gallery so when you first enter the long adjacent gallery, you see the horse rearing skyward beyond the doors. Whistlejacket is a magnificent golden colored bay and his intelligent soft eyes gaze directly at the viewer, asking for admiring attention.

I first saw Whistlejacket 10 years ago and was utterly stunned by the scale and vivid life of the portrait. As I stood staring at him, an older man nodded and said that he came regularly to visit Whistlejacket. We stood together admiring the gloss of his hindquarters, the sheen of his chest, the brightness of his white stocking, and the golden waterfall of his tail.

Second in the British Museum, we saw the Greek horses prancing under their riders on their way to honor Athena on her special feast day. The horses and riders are part of the frieze which once adorned the Parthenon (completed in 438 BE) until Lord Elgin brought all of the marbles to London in a dubious act of colonial acquisition. I am not sure how many horses and riders are depicted on the frieze but they are all unique, caught in various attitudes of gesturing for the men and cavorting for the horses. Tightly reined in, the necks of the horses arch dramatically in restrained energy.

Third, and also in the British Museum, we saw the horses depicted in the Assyrian king Ashurbanipal’s lion hunt (859 BCE). These stone panels celebrate the king’s prowess hunting lions as a metaphor for his (untested) martial prowess. The horses are not the center of attention. The wounded and dying lions are. These horses are more ritualized, more abstract because they do not present individual horses but the idea of HORSE in service to man.

Posted in london | Leave a comment

Nantucket Weekend

Posted on July 1, 2019 by forstegrupp

For the second year in a row, SH was invited to speak at a conference given by a certain private equity firm. As an added perk, he is allowed to bring a + one. Thank goodness he still wants me to be his + one!

Before last year, I had never ever been to Nantucket even though we had lived in Boston for nine years. Beaches are generally not my thing, and, besides, there was no way we could afford Nantucket when we first got married and he was finishing his medical training and I was working on my doctorate.

The empty Cristal bottles after one happy hour.

The investment group sat in a conference room for one and a half days listening to presentations and asking questions. I did manage to crash one of the talks to hear a former head of the FDA give an insider perspective on how that department is run. He was an incisive speaker with impressive experience, and he shared specific stories of how he facilitated the intersection of science and politics to produce results — such as more swiftly approved drugs.

After gate-crashing that talk, I joined the other ladies (spouses and significant others) for a cruise on a beautifully restored 1920s yacht called Belle. We enjoyed a two-hour cruise of Nantucket Harbor, saw the Great Points Lighthouse, ate lunch, and drank individually made cocktails. Not too bad.

The conference ended on Saturday and so SH and I had an entire day to explore Nantucket on our own. We borrowed bikes and rode 4 miles across the island to Cisco Beach. We should have also borrowed a couple of towels from the hotel so we could sit more comfortably on the hot sand to watch people and dogs playing in the waves. One Golden Retriever had a great deal of fun racing into the waves to bring back a floating toy which his master threw in multiple times. Then it was his master’s turn. The man suited up in a wetsuit, grabbed his board, and left his good dog under an umbrella while he did some body surfing. The dog just laid down in the shade and watched his master with his toy held between his front paws.

It was a glorious day for the beach after the previous day which had been grey and misty.

On our way back to the hotel, we stopped at Cisco Brewery to have a beer and a bite of lunch. SH ordered the tacos and Mexican street corn — he even got me an ear of corn to eat. I ordered the Chef’s choice poke bowl. The bowl came with lots of pickled ginger which I happily shared with SH who adores ginger more than I do. We both had refreshingly cold beers. He ordered the English style Whale’s Tail Pale Ale, and I got the Belgian style Grey Lady.

This summer, we two are spending a great deal of time together on various trips which are all the byproducts of his scientific and clinical success treating pediatric cancer.

We tell each other it will not last — and it won’t.

However, for now, we are going to enjoy each of these opportunities to have amazing experiences together. And I am grateful.

Posted in dog, literature, travel | Leave a comment

What’s to do in Sheffield?

Posted on June 21, 2019 by forstegrupp

Plenty.

After I left SH in the hotel room working and dropped off my suitcase at the hotel desk, I visited the Millennium Gallery.

They have the exhibit “John Ruskin: Art & Wonder” to celebrate the bicentennial of Ruskin’s birth. The exhibit showed how Ruskin observed nature minutely to discover its essence, its form, and its beauty. The exhibit consisted of Ruskin’s own sketches and paintings with quotations from his writings and works by artists whom he admired (Turner) or whom he inspired (Kate Greenaway, Tania Kovats, Dan Holsworth).

Ruskin thought that drawing trained the scientist to see and thus think. He also said many scientific debates could be avoided if scientists drew their diagrams more accurately. He writes in a time where drawing was only means of recording something– at least until the invention of photography.

The most unusual and exceptional piece in the exhibit was Holdsworth’s “Acceleration Structures.” This mesmerizing film of geometrically rendered landscapes takes the viewer through the topography of three different glacial valleys.

Next I visited the Graves Gallery housed in the fourth (and top) floor of Sheffield’s library. The small collection had works from the seventeenth century to present day.

They did have a Pissaro of women working in a field and a Sisley landscape and a Courbet wall with flowers. But the highlight was Burne-Jones painting of “The Hours.” This representation of the hours of the day shows six figures engaged in six different activities from waking to sleeping. Burne-Jones seems to have had an obsession with painting the same female archetype over and over again.

Another painting that caught my eye was James Barry’s huge canvas of Juno seducing Jupiter so the Greeks would start winning against the Trojans. Juno is totally in control of this encounter with her direct gaze and fingers framing her nipple. Jupiter has no chance.

After viewing the collection, I decided to avail myself of the facilities and found a special surprise.

Walking back toward Sheffield city center, I passed a little sandwich shop and decided to pop in for a bite. I settled for the “Twisted Buttie” or bacon with Brie and mango chutney on a granary bun. So yummy!

And now I await SH sitting outside in the sunshine on a wicker settle.

Oh?

What was the surprise in the Graves Gallery’s loo?

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Dogs in the Rijksmusem

Posted on June 17, 2019 by forstegrupp

Yesterday SH and I went to this museum and spent most of our time on the second floor in the 1600-1700 galleries.

Given the vast number of paintings by famous artists, including Rembrandt’s “The Night’s Watch,” I decided for this entry to just focus on the many dogs in various works. So below you will find zoomed-in images of just dogs. Dogs fawning. Dogs growling. Dogs begging. Dogs waiting.

Written for my 🐰

Posted in dog, life in general, travel | Leave a comment

Yarn Tourism in Amsterdam

Posted on June 16, 2019 by forstegrupp

Yesterday we arrived early in the morning and after a brief nap, SH and I went our separate ways for a few hours. He had to go in to load his slides for his talk the next day and I had a mission.

Find a LYS. After googling yarn shops in Amsterdam, I found three possibilities and settled on finding the one called Stephen and Penelope.

Little did I know that this was THE yarn shop because it is Stephen West’s yarn shop!

It was an adventure finding the place and I almost gave up after wandering around the city center which just happens to be near the Red Light district where all sorts of items and activities are available for purchase.

But then I got stubborn and asked at least three people where Nieuwe Hoogstraat was. Finally I saw an older couple emerge from their apartment building. The lady asked, “Eine Frage?” I showed her the street name on my iPad and she told me in English to walk up to the first busy street and turn right.

I had wandered by that street several times but it was not marked Nieuwe Hoogstraat. I decided to trust her and turned right. Through crowds of young folks (mostly men) I wove, passing shops selling drug paraphernalia and the drugs themselves and shops right next door selling breads or coffee or vintage clothing.

Until finally I found my Mecca. Me and a gaggle of about five or six older women also homing in on this shop — Stephen and Penelope’s.

In front of the shop is a bicycle covered in yarn: all the tubes and the wheels are encased in wool. Inside the shop is stocked with all kinds of luscious wool richly dyed.

I met a mother and daughter from Denver who had been traveling in Europe for two weeks. Both were knitters and this was the one spot they both agreed they had to find. The daughter said Stephen West was her favorite designer.

I also overheard one of the shop workers helping a man buy stuff for his wife. He said that she was furious that she could not be with him at this yarn shop and she had given him a list of things to buy. The woman helping him shepherded him around the store and when he had found everything his wife wanted, he asked her, “I want to get her something not on her list. What do you suggest?” It was so sweet to overhear him worrying about wanting to make his wife happy. Later I told SH that they must have just gotten married or she had just had a baby. Or maybe he was really just a very uxorious husband!

Of course I did not walk out of the shop empty-handed. I found two skeins of yarn and presents for various people. I also found inspiration for future knitting projects looking at all the Stephen West samples which the store had on display.

It never hurts to get stubborn.

And while it seems silly to make a yarn store a destination when traveling, I find it gives me a purpose for exploring a city and making new discoveries on my way to the LYS.