Super Tuesday

 No one ever went broke underestimating the taste of the American public.

                                         - H. L. Mencken, 20th Century U.S. journalist and publisher

Today is what we call Super Tuesday in this country. It goes without saying that we have the most bizarre, convoluted system of electing our president of any democracy on the planet. Each state has its own process of selecting delegates to the parties' national conventions, done at different times and under different rules. The delegates select the candidates. The selection may be a foregone conclusion or there may be a free-for-all on the convention floor. The president is not elected simply by the popular vote. Each state appoints Electors, through a weird process better described here. It is possible to lose the popular vote and still win the presidency, as happened with George Bush against Al Gore in 2000.

As the comedian Yacov Smirnoff says, is this a great country or what?

So Super Tuesday is the day with by far the greatest number of state primary elections and caucuses. It has a big impact on the eventual nominee. It's just that the person who, at the moment, has the best chance of winning the Republican nomination, is an egotistical, unqualified, blow-hard buffoon who opposes most of the parties policies. And he doesn't raise many donations or advertise all that much. Dirt cheap populism by a billionaire.

(By the way, Dirt Cheap is a local chain of discount tobacco and alcoholic beverage stores. Its advertising theme is a person who runs around in a chicken costume shrieking "Cheap! Cheap! Fun! Fun!")

                

March CDP Theme Day: Where I belong

March is upon us. Where does VDP belong? Well apart from the fact that her screen name acually gives it away, she belongs in a book shop. Not an ebook shop mind you. A shop like this second-hand one located rue de la Paroisse... Happy March everyone! Don't forget to have a look at all this month's contributions by clicking here!

Nous voilà en mars et le thème du premier du mois dans la communauté des blogueurs City Daily Photo, c'est quel est votre sentiment d'appartenance. Bon, si on met de côté le pseudo de VDP qui en dit long, VDP se sent bien dans des librairies, comme celle-ci rue de la Paroisse. VDP vous souhaite un excellent mois de mars et n'oubliez pas de jeter un œil à toutes les contributions de la communauté de par le monde en cliquant ici !

Theme Day - Where do you Belong?

Where do I belong? Right here, in Sydney Cove, the birthplace of my country as a member of the international community of nations. Though there had been indigenous peoples here for millenia, working the land, living, sharing, restoring the land; that was truly THEIR land. Their land is different from my land, although both lands are identical. A conundrum we need to work harder to explain to each other. This central part of my city, nestled around this cove, gives me peace, and immense solitude, even amongst all the hustle and bustle. It is where I feel at home.

Today is Theme Day for the City Daily Photo group of bloggers. See where other photo-bloggers feel at home.

Art in the City

In front of the Gherkin is a sculpture of bicycle wheels. simply titled "Stainless Steel" by artist Ai Weiwei.  A comment on how the thousands of bicycles was seen on the streets of Beijing are steadily being replaced by cars.  

I couldn't help but think about the towering glass and steel buildings that surround the work and the number of cyclists who have been killed in the city go London.

The Monster That Ate My Front Yard

The local electric company has been doing some ominous work in the street in front of our house. It's a condominium (although it doesn't look like one) so no requirement to contact us individually. Mrs. C called me at work Friday afternoon - we have no water service! This complicated bit of machinery cut through the water main that serves our house and some of our neighbors. (Chez nous is at the left of the top picture).

The crew found a way to bypass the problem by early evening, cheerfully telling us "you're off your water meter. Use as much as you want!" They also tore up most of the roots of the tree in the top picture so that will have to be pulled out. And, um, they didn't cover that hole very securely.

Worse things can happen around here. We get violent thunderstorms, ice and heavy wet snow that topple large trees,  bashing in people's roofs and crushing cars. Always look on the bright side of life.                 

 

Détails architecturaux

Details of yesterday's chapel...

Détails architecturaux de la chapelle du Lycée Hoche...

Library Lovers Month, expansion

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Before February is over, let's have a post for Library Lovers Month!

Our town's library is being enlarged, and on December 4 the day came when all the material in the main reading room had to be moved away so the builders could build.
Students and their teacher from the school across the street came in to help.
These two used their legs to maneuver a book shelf.

When I approached on foot and heard the lively music from this speaker, I knew something very unusual was happening in the normally quiet library.

I guess the girls were waiting for instructions from the librarians.

Behind the hedge and the scaffolding you can see the fresh gray concrete of the new addition.

Outside on the trash bin was this nice scale model of the library made by a 3rd-grader.

Kind of painful to see holes in the wall, especially during Library Lovers Month.

Meitar's library was built in 2003.
The community, founded in 1984, is expanding and it is time for a bigger library.
The construction work has been going on for many months, and we will be glad when the library reopens, bigger and better.
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Ted and the secret agent

Back In The Lou

We've been home for a week, actually, but I had a lot of Costa Rica material to use and the week at work was horrid. No new local material so I had to get myself back on the street. Not an idea in my head, I drove to Forest Park and decided to walk around the Grand Lagoon and Art Hill. There were things to see.

When I'm out with the big DSLR and white lens, sometimes people call out to me, "hey, mister, take my picture!" Always happy to oblige. These young people were beautiful.                    

La chapelle de Richard Mique

So... two days ago, VDP showed you a key. It was the key to this place. The chapel of Hoche school. The building, which was designed by Richard Mique and completed in 1772, was once a nunnery and school for young ladies, founded by Queen Marie Leszczyńska, Louis XV's consort, though she died before its completion. It became a school after the French Revolution and was named after Versaillais General Hoche. During WWI, the school was a military hospital. Read more about it here.

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Donc... il y a deux jours, VDP vous montrait une clef. C'était le sésame pour entrer dans la chapelle ci-dessus, qui se trouve au lycée Hoche. Antérieurement un couvent et maison d'éducation pour les jeunes filles, fondé par la reine Marie Leszczyńska, achevé en 1772 sur les plans de Richard Mique, il est ensuite devenu école après la Révolution et nommé d'après le général Hoche, versaillais de naissance. Pendant la première guerre mondiale, le lycée devint en partie hôpital militaire. Pour ceux qui veulent en savoir plus, c'est par ici 

Lights, lines and one way.

Adios

Time to leave la hermosa Costa Rica. We hope to return but the future is unknown. We depart with a few final shots of Horizontes del Mar where we stay.

The pool overlooks the ocean, refreshed by concrete fish. Mrs. C takes a final dip and then relaxes with a piña colada. Her shirt has a quotation from Gertrude Stein: you can either buy clothes or buy pictures. That's right up to a point. Even better if you can make pictures.

Oh, and I was going to get back to my friends blogs, right? Well, our friendly electric company was digging up about everything in front of our house yesterday and cut our water service. One thing led to another... 

                

Les jours rallongent... surtout quand il fait beau !

A look at Tuesday's sunset on Avenue de Paris... It was also sunset this week for Tina and her husband Tom. VDP is so sad, her blog was wonderful.

Le coucher du soleil mardi avenue de Paris...

Tell A Fairy Tale Day

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Tell A Fairy Tale Day is being celebrated today!

What better time than now to tell you about a unique experience I enjoyed while staying with the Franziskusgemeinschaft in Austria last November.
The community invited Eva Meierhofer, a professional storyteller, for an evening of fairy tales!

Eva came with a thick book of  "the world's most beautiful fairy tales."

Also a strange little book, "Tales of Idiots, Poor, Beggars, Jews, and Gypsies."

Since I didn't understand all that much of the German, I could concentrate on Eva's pointy shoes and special umbrella.

The Feenhaar, literally fairy hair, played with a bow, gave ethereal music.
I think it is also called a psalter.
You can hear a sample of its music and see beautiful photos of how the instruments are made in Switzerland here: http://bit.ly/1UoNHu0

All the members of the Franciscan farming community gave it a try.
It was really a magical evening in rural Austria.
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You can look for Eva Meierhofer on Facebook and see more of her special work.
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The "Honeymoon" Cottage Is About Over

This old shack, an iconic Cedar Key landmark, is not much longer for this world. As I recall, the bottom photo was taken in 1988, the first time we vacationed in Cedar Key.

It is known as the "Honeymoon Cottage," and was built by Henry Taylor in 1959 for Phillip and Margaret Thomas of Gainesville.

Constructed on stilts about 300 feet from the shore, it was connected to land by a long narrow boardwalk also on stilts.

Over the years, various storms have taken their toll. In 1985, the cottage was pretty much destroyed by Hurricane Elena. Since then, other storms have destroyed bit and pieces of it until there is nothing left except a few of the stilts and a few boards.

Personally, I think the city of Cedar Key should rebuild the cottage for it has become such an important part of Cedar Key's soul!


RIP.  The entire photo blogging community is in mourning today after learning of the death of Tina and Tom Forrester who were killed in a car accident a couple of days ago in southern Ontario.  Tina, known as EG, or Cameral Girl, was a good friend and an excellent photographer.  We will miss her greatly.  Our deepest sympathy goes out to their families.

[This was cross-posted to Ocala & Central Florida Photos].

Free Gym

No need to pay hefty gym fees, just pop down to your local park and take advantage of the equipment  in the great outdoors.  More and more parks are opting to provide these facilities.