Baltimore Follow-Up

At the Conservatory in Druid Hill Park.

Earlier this month, we spent a day in Baltimore. Miriam now lives there, and the rest of the family joined us for the day. The following day, we were heading for our birding trip in Cape May, NJ, so I didn’t post everything — here’s a catch-up post.

Miriam and Alice at the Conservatory.
Later in the trip we visited Alice in Charlottesville, which I’ve already written about.

A Farmers’ Market

Baltimore has several local farmers’ markets, which take place on various days of the week. Fresh produce, grown locally, is the centerpiece: we heard one shopper ask for bananas, and the produce-seller explained that bananas do not grow in Baltimore, so no bananas. Besides produce, there are also craft-vendors, bakeries, dairies, prepared food for immediate consumption or to take home, and a few street musicians. This one is an easy walk from Miriam's apartment, and luckily its day is Saturday, when we were visiting.

A Mexican Dinner

After a day of intense touring in Baltimore, we ate dinner at Bar Clavel.

Interior of Clavel (from the restaurant website, https://barclavel.com/)
We ate in this room, which was completely full as soon as they opened at 5 PM.

Alice and Miriam had Tres Leches cake for dessert.

On From Baltimore

After our day in Baltimore, we drove to Cape May for our week-long guided bird trip. I wrote several posts about our birding, but here are a few more photos about our activities.

We took lots of bird photos.

We had a fantastic trip in the Cape May harbor on the flat-bottom “Osprey.”

Blog post © 2023 mae sander.

Photos © by  mae and other family members.

Palo Alto, California, Center of the Known Universe

I feel as if I just read 500 op-eds in a row. Many of them were informative and interesting and even original. But a book that has something like 500 topics — which I feel is the case with Palo Alto by Malcolm Harris— has some problems. That’s my opinion. 

Harris makes the case that Palo Alto is a center (if not THE center) of American thought, innovation, technology, entrepreneurship, and conservative politics. Also some radical politics. He sees Leland Stanford, Sr, founder of the town of Palo Alto and also of Leland Stanford, Jr. University, as a prototype and central figure in Western America. And he sees Herbert Hoover, a member of the first Stanford graduating class of 1895, as the leader and puppet master of a huge amount of American political life and thought: even after Hoover’s death in 1974. You wouldn’t believe how much there is in this book about Hoover!

The first chapters of Palo Alto are pretty interesting. I enjoyed reading about the early history of California with a Palo Alto twist — the gold rush, the building of the railroads in which Leland Stanford was a major entrepreneur, and the details of Stanford’s horse-breeding operations which occupied his huge tract of land before it was occupied by the University. I was interested in the intellectual efforts of the first academic departments (including the reveal of the racist and eugenic theories of the founding psychology department), initial academic political struggles, and quite a bit more. I was astounded to learn that the first president of Stanford seems to have had Stanford’s widow, Jane Stanford, murdered so that he could gain control of the University. Each trend and person is covered in an interesting, rather brief and politially opinionated way: as if the author was writing an op-ed in a big newspaper.

After that, I felt like I was drowning in a huge sea of miscellaneous history of education, racism, technology, Big Agriculture, political activism, conservative thought, interaction with national politics, and all kinds of other stuff. Throughout the narrative, conspiracies were a major topic, mainly conspiracies against ordinary people and against democracy.

I persisted. I read through it all. Actually absorbing all the stuff that was drowning me would be superhuman so I kept reading but didn’t master all this stuff. Finally, as the twentieth century ends, a reader like me can come up for air. At last, the twenty-first century tech companies become Harris’s focus. Apple, Facebook, Microsoft (it’s in Seattle but Harris seems to see it as a Palo Alto extension), Google, Theranos, and their founders both good and evil. More evil as embodied by Peter Thiel and Elon Musk — initially with PayPal but also with all kinds of other things they did and power grabs they accomplished. More conspiracies. A variety of interactions with government and industrial spying and collecting data on everyone. Each topic covered as if it were an op-ed. As I say, I drowned. 

Why did I read this book? I can’t remember. The reviews when it was published last winter weren’t that great. I guess I was curious, and once I started reading, I simply decided to go through with it. 

Wrap up:

• Did I leave anything out in this review? YES! 
• Do I think Harris regrets that he stopped writing before the trial of Sam Bankman-Fried, son of two Stanford professor, who is accused of criminal fraud in pursuit of a new crazy theory? YES!
• Do I recommend this book? NO.

From my last trip to the Palo Alto area: San Francisco seen from the edge of the Bay in 2019.

Review © 2023 mae sander

Charlottesville, Part 2

 Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello

Monticello, home of Thomas Jefferson, is just a few miles from Charlottesville. You can see the buildings 
of the University of Virginia from the terrace. Jefferson was the founder of the university.
He designed Monticello as well as the university buildings, and he watched the construction of the university with his spyglass.

Our vivacious guide to the interior of the house. She did a good job of describing Jefferson’s
life and its contradictions. His statesmanship, his idea of freedom and human rights in
the Declaration of Independence and the Virginia law on religious freedom all contrast painfully
to his possession of over 600 enslaved people and his treatment of them.

Jefferson had eleven grandchildren who lived at Monticello along with his daughter, their mother.
These children played in the house — in contrast to his own enslaved children by Sally Hemings.

Jefferson’s possessions are on display, such as these boots.

As an ambassador to France, Jefferson learned to love French food and wine.

Many books are on display as Jefferson owned a large library.
He gave most of his own books to the founding of the Library of Congress.

On display in his entrance hall: artifacts from Indian tribes collected by Lewis and Clark.
As President, Jefferson arranged the Louisiana Purchase and the expedition to explore the newly purchased territories. (Artifacts are not original)

The image of Monticello is familiar to most Americans because it is reproduced on the nickel.

Photos © 2023 mae sander

Charlottesville, Part 1

 A Few Murals in Charlottesville

We spent one day in Charlottesville.

Thai Dinner at Monsoon Siam, Charlottesville.

Soft-shell crab.

Duck with noodles.

Visiting Monticello

We visited Alice: here she is on the steps of Monticello.
More photos of Monticello tomorrow.

Photos © 2023 mae sander

A Week in Virginia

 At Tom and Evelyn’s House

We are spending several days visiting in Virginia after our recent birding trip in Cape May. Evelyn and Tom have made a number of changes to their house recently, such as painting the kitchen white and replacing the flooring. It’s all a lot of fun to see what’s happening here.

Evelyn and Tom are big fans of the Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama, and they have two wonderful
silk-screen hangings that they recently brought back from Japan.

They saw an art exhibit titled “All About My Love,” which is currently on view in Tokyo.
A few years ago, they saw one of the famous Infinity Mirror Rooms for which this artist is very well known. I enjoyed learning more about her and her work.

Kusama was born in 1929, and her list of accomplishments is huge. This image is from her web page,
where much of her work and life are documented: yayoi-kusama.jp/e/biography/index.html

A New Dumpling Maker

Here’s how it works: there’s a place for flattening a ball of dough.

In a different press on the gadget, you place the flattened dough with a ball of filling.

The gadget folds and crimps the dumpling. It’s actually quite time-consuming!

Evelyn made two fillings: one with mushrooms, the other with pork. She made 64 dumplings.

Dinner: dumplings, stir-fry vegetables, and a few other garnishes.

A Few More Things to Do

Evelyn and Tom are at work most weekdays. Monday, a holiday, was the day we went to the National Zoo in Washington, around 45 minutes from their home in Fairfax. Another day, Len and I walked at Burke Lake Park nearby.

Burke Lake.

The zoo was fun!

I’m also reading a very long and interesting book:
Palo Alto by Malcolm Harris, which was published earlier this year.

And we watched the first two episodes of the new Great British Baking Show.
It seems better than last year, so far, though I slept through one of the showstopper challenges.

Photos © 2023 mae sander