Gasper Special

There is a dinner tradition in the Catanzaro family that we all call the Gasper Special and it is highly anticipated at dessert time. To have the Gasper Special means to put some of everything from the dessert table on your plate. At Christmas and Easter dinners and almost any time the family gathers to eat there will always be several desserts including cookies, cakes and pies. Usually some candy and nuts somewhere on the that fancy table too.

This expression honors and memorializes Uncle Gasper who was known for making a scene about having some of everything on the dessert table at family dinners even though he was diabetic. Apparently those dinners were the only time he indulged in sweets anymore so he took full advantage. Towards the end of his life he even switched to non-alcoholic wine.

He was certainly a very unique character and highly entertaining. I first met him at my first Catanzaro family dinner in 1976 or 77 on one of my early visits to Buffalo. He was Becky’s uncle and lived the bachelor life in the West Side house he grew up in along with his two unmarried sisters Aunt Jo and Aunt Toni. He was the only boy in an Italian family with six sisters. When I met him he was a Buffalo Fire Department Chief but retired not long afterward. The illustration above is from a painting of his fire helmet made by his sister the artist Catherine Catanzaro Koenig, my mother-in-law.

After Becky and I moved to Buffalo in 1979 he would take us out to dinner on Niagara Street. We had dinners with him for many years and had many fascinating conversations. He liked to tell us about his gambling adventures in Las Vegas. He also regularly hung out at the local Off Track Bettin'sg (OTB) parlors for playing the ponies.  

Gasper Catanzaro was the son of Italian immigrants who ran a fish store on Grant Street on Buffalo’s West Side. As a young man during the depression he worked as a woodsman in the Pacific Northwest at part of the Civilian Conservation Corps. He was always proud of his time there and he was also very proud of his service in the Marine Corps during World War II where he served and saw extensive combat in the Pacific theater. After he left the Corps he joined the Buffalo Fire Department and made it his career.

I had some interesting conversations with Gasper over the years and when he learned that I was a veteran who served in the Navy he told me a few of his more harrowing war stories.

He also enjoyed playing his harmonica for his nieces and nephews and later for their children. At family gatherings he would often sit in a chair with a beer pontificating about something in a large booming voice. When our daughter Katie was a toddler she would often skirt around Uncle Gasper's chair which he thought was amusing. She was just learning to talk and when asked why she was running past her uncle she would exclaim "scared of Gasper". Everyone had a good laugh including him. Much later we would fondly remember that phrase and use it when one of the children in the family was acting funny running around the house.

It was sad when he passed away. His fire helmet was on a table next to the painting of it at his memorial service. We all miss Uncle Gasper but his name seems to come up during every meal as everyone anticipates the upcoming Gasper Special.

Dune... again

The What When Book List 1970 - 2020

Dune by Frank Herbert, 1965

I first discovered and read Dune in June 1976. I've read it again about once every decade since then and is one of my favorite science fiction novels. It is considered the world's best selling science fiction novel.

I've never read any other non-Dune books by Frank Herbert but I did read the Dune sequels but only once each.

Dune Messiah, 1969 - August 1976

Children of Dune, 1976 - December 1976

God Emperor of Dune, 1981 - September 1983

Heretics of Dune, 1984 - September 1984

Chapterhouse Dune, 1985 - March 1985

I also read Brian Herbert's prequel

House Atreides, 1999 - March 2000 

But that was it for me with the Dune books although there are about 20 more novels in the Dune franchise.

And then there was the movie in 1984. I was really looking forward to this film by David Lynch when it was announced.  There had been some previous attempts to make a movie of Dune by Alejandro Jodorowsky who had directed El Topo and also Ridley Scott among others.

I enjoyed the film but was disappointed overall by the plot changes that jumped all over the place and the overall feel of the movie. Too much was squeezed into too little time but then some of what seemed to be of paramount importance were not there at all. With such a popular and complicated novel there would also be something missing for someone in a movie version.  It was a flop at the box office although over the years it has developed a cult following. Apparently people who watched the film without ever reading the novel were completely baffled as to what was going on and repeatedly called it "the worst movie of the year"

I watched it a second time but was still disappointed. I should try it again.

  After the squeezed in time frame of Lynch's movie I was

again excited when it was announced that there would be a TV mini series of Dune. It turned out to be a 3 part 6 hour miniseries on the Sci Fi Channel. It was better than the previous film because it had more time to develop the characters and the plot but still was not the definitive visual experience.

There was Children of Dune second sequel miniseries on the Sci Fi Channel in 2003. I didn't watch any of it.

Now there has been an announcement of a new movie coming out in late December 2020 and is supposed to be the first of a two part adaptation of the novel.

Duck and Cover

I was recently writing about the basement rooms in the house I grew up in and mentioned the dozens of bottles filled with water in one of the rooms. They were part of an attempt by my parents to prepare the family in case of a nuclear war. We were all ingrained with the fear that the Russians would drop bombs on us any day and we needed to be ready to survive throughout the 1950's and 60's.  We all learned to "duck and cover" in school. 

As kids we were taught to fear the Russians. Nikita Khrushchev was going to bury us and we were constantly reminded of that by the regularly scheduled air raid siren tests that we learned to almost ignore. We also spent a lot of time learning how to duck and cover in our classrooms as if hiding under our desk was going to save us from a nuclear explosion. Sometimes they had us hiding along the hallway walls. Was that supposed to be safer? Apparently studies showed that hiding under a desk or along a wall did make a difference if you were not directly in the bomb fireball.

And then there was that film. We probably saw it every year for some time. I just watched it again and I certainly remember every bit of it.

Now we still have the Russians to fear but instead of the bear from the steppes threatening to bury us we now have the moronic orange turd dangling on the Putin puppet strings willing to do anything for his masters to hide his crimes and someday maybe get a hotel in Moscow with his name on it that he won’t ever own.

And we now have active shooter drills in our schools which is pretty sick. Our society has gotten worse because instead of worrying about the danger from national enemies we now have to fear our neighbors and someone down the street with a house full of guns.

Duck and Cover; A 1952 civil defense social guide propaganda film for personal protection against the effects of a nuclear explosion.

Revenge of Geography

The What When Book List 1970 - 2020

The Revenge Of Geography: What the Map Tells Us About Coming Conflicts and the Battle Against Fate by Robert Kaplan, 2012

Read this in August 2014.

Looking back now one can see that having good geography cannot help a nation with a moron in charge.

This was a thought provoking examination of geopolitics through the lens of geography. The author examines critical pivot points in history based on geography and applies the lessons learned to the current evolving political scene.

This is also one of the many books  I've read about maps. I've always had a fascination with maps and books about maps.

At the Zoo

We walked over to the zoo today. Me and Becky, our daughter, grandson granddaughter. It was a beautifully sunny and cool summer day and there was a crowd. Everyone needed to have advance tickets arranged and scheduled ahead of time. Nobody was admitted without registering first at least the day before. We got our tickets online the previous day and Katie had the tickets on her phone. They had to verify our identities and check out temperatures before we were allowed to pass through the gates.

We were members of the zoo but our annual memberships had expired in May. However, the zoo had a policy that all memberships would be extended by the amount of time the zoo had been closed during the pandemic which was about three months so the visit was still covered by the last year’s annual membership. We all wore masks except for Clara. Even recently turned four-year-old Henry wore his mask. All the zoo visitors were required to wear masks and it looked like everyone we saw there was in compliance. There were one way signs throughout the zoo and the places where people would gather to see the animals had six foot markers to indicate where people would stand. For the most part people were courteous and respectful toward each other and kept adequate social distancing but as always there were a few zombies that ignored other folks personal space and pandemic etiquette. They were aggravating.

The staff was very attentive about wiping down everything with disinfectant such as the merry-go-round and train ride. Several indoor exhibit buildings were open although we did not venture into any of them.

Overall we had a wonderful time with a couple of memorable moments. The first was in the farm area when a cow let out a series of very loud bellowing moos over a short period of time while we were nearby. They were awesomely loud and really nothing like I’ve heard before. It impressed the kids too. Afterwards Clara was saying over an over… “cow go moo”.

The other standout moment was a polar bear that approached the edge of the glass enclosure to within a foot of the kids. This happened several times as he paced back and forth between the water and the glass partition. That bear was huge and none of us had ever experiences being that close to a polar bear before. Usually they were always for across the enclosure with a moat between them and the zoo visitors. Very impressive. We watched for a few minutres before moving on to let another family enjoy that unique experience.

One other impressive sight occurred as we watched a large nearby rhino eating grass he suddenly let out a fire hose like stream of pee that shot out of the rear end about six feet. Not sure the kids knew what they were seeing and we did elaborate.

A little while later we headed out the gate and walked the three blocks to home.

 

Backyard vs Porch

I love sitting in the backyard but my social life definitely improves when I sit on the front porch. Pandemically speaking.

I’ve always enjoyed sitting in a chair under the trees reading. Lately I’ve also been doing more of my writing out there too. I also recently set up the cabana room for writing. I rearranged the table, got out a comfortable desk chair that we were ready to throw out and set up a fan to blow on me. I have music playing and I put on the party lights in the evening. Sometimes I stay out there working on something well after dark. I like watching the sunset while working on my laptop. I also sit out there with a can of sparkling water or a beer. I like watching the wildlife too and there are always plenty of rabbits and birds around. Hummingbirds too.

I’ve also always enjoyed sitting on the porch and look forward every Spring to the time when I take out the chairs and set them up. I often read with headphones on listening to music. There always seem to be breeze on the porch. People are constantly walking or jogging by the porch and there are many opportunities for a little conversation which happens quite often. There have been many more people walking by since the lockdown began in March and especially as the summer progressed. People also stop by and look at Becky's garden in front of the house which is particularly spectacular this year.

Between the front and the back I'm covered.

 

Picture Study

 

The Influence of Art

The closes thing to any kind of art appreciation I had as a kid growing up was our Friday afternoon Picture Study sessions in our grade school. It was always a few minutes looking at and discussing a classic work of art from centuries ago.

The Gleaners by Jean-Francois Millet painted in 1857 somehow has remained in my mind when I think about art history at St. Francis of Assissi School and being taught by nuns. I guess this was the work ethic they wished to instill.

My parents did take us to many museums as kids but mostly science and natural history but I do remember trips to the Philadelphia Art Museum on the Parkway. However, I was really interested in the armor collection and all the recreated buildings and rooms scattered about the museum. I don't think I spent a lot of time looking at paintings during those years.

What is she doing now...

I’ve written about the things I’ve been doing to keep busy during this time of the stay at home pandemic but what has my wife Becky been doing. She has been very fortunate that her art studio that she has had for over twenty years now is in a commercial building that has been somewhat empty during the health crises although it is conveniently located on Hertel Avenue. She can get to it easily without being near or hardly even seeing any other people in the building. She wears a mask going into the building where she is often the only person on her floor except for the landlord’s office down the hall which has a separate entrance. So every day she makes art.

She has a show scheduled in the fall but with everything that has been happening with the pandemic it's hard to know what will happen when but she is working and preparing to be ready whenever it happens.

She goes over to the studio every morning and stays until early afternoon. If we need something she will stop at the market or co-op down the street to shop on the way home. It works out well.

Another thing that keeps her busy is buying and selling on e-bay and some other sites. She has also been baking bread and cooking a lot. Every evening while I’m sitting at a table in the kitchen or in the backyard cabana writing she is watching an old movie using one of the several film streaming services we have subscriptions for. And of course she has her spectacular garden to work on throughout the day which has been the best one in over twenty years.

We take a walk together around the neighborhood or through the nearby park each evening.

On Voting

The people screaming about the problems of mail-in voting are driving me crazy and the whole voter suppression thing reeks with the stink of fascist anti-democracy. The long voter lines is clearly anti-American. This is also a concerted effort by the Republican Party to suppress voting in America in an effort to preserve their obviously dwindling voter base.

Some solutions IMHO: 

Election day should be a national holiday

If you are a citizen and pay annual state and federal taxes you should be automatically registered to vote. Period.

People should be able to vote during a designated election season not just election day.

There should be a national law requiring X number of voting places available per X number of people eligible to vote. 

Mail-in voting should be allowed everywhere. There should also be drop-off voting where you can take a completed ballot to a pre-designated drop-off station ahead of time at a specified safe predetermined official location.

No politician from any party should ever at any time have anything to do with creating, modifying or changing in any way shape or form a voting district. All voting district changes should be made by a non-partisan, non-party affiliated community based non-profit local organization representing all aspects of that community.

All voting districts should follow pre-existing community or geographic boundaries or as close as possible. Any unusually drawn voting district should be immediately investigated by a federal voting commission. 

There should also be a national effort to make online voting a reality. People pay taxes online, bank online, social security transactions online, conduct financial stock purchases online, have medical appointments and records available online, gamble online, etc, etc. The list goes on and on so why can't voting be conducted safely and securely online. There is no reason other than more voter suppression. 

And while we are at it we should eliminate the Electoral College or at least require it to reflect actual voting in a state. The Senate should also be made up senators that accurately reflect the population of their state. It is simply undemocratic for a state with the population of Wyoming or North Dakota to have the same number of representatives in the Senate as a California or New York. That is not fair.

Pink Floyd - A Response

A friend recently said on Facebook...  " How much I love Pink Floyd cannot be quantified. One of the greatest groups in the history of music".

Well, I couldn't disagree more although I did have a period where I liked early Pink Floyd's British psychedelia in the late 60's and especially their first two albums were very good and then they did some interesting noodling for a few records before the serious sellout of Dark Side. Wish You Were Here was a valiant attempt to gain some non-commercial credibility but it was all down hill after that IMHO. 

Now while writing this I've been listening to the Echoes compilation double CD and I found myself really disliking anything from The Wall with maybe Hey You being somewhat tolerable. I found that their cliched commercialism made them just another brick in the wall they were supposedly protesting against to the point of labeling them just another fascists band. Yuck.

So what is it about Dark Side of the Moon that I find distasteful? The blatant commercialism just happened to coincide with the changes happening in corporate radio that would culminate in the over saturation of the classic rock radio format. It took several years for this to happen and Dark Side became the poster boy of overplayed radio to the point that any time I heard something from that album come on the radio I immediately turned the station or shut it off. Those mid to late 70's albums were the epitome of what would be called dinosaur rock and directly lead to the coming punk and new wave era of the late 70's and early 80's.  I would think that it was Pink Floyd's The Wall and the incessant overplaying of that album on the radio that contributed to driving me to making my own mixes to avoid all that dreck on the radio while on trips.

I've never given any of the Pink Floyd catalog after The Wall. Four more studio albums I think. Never paid any attention to Animals either. It all ended for me then.

I should also add that I did see Pink Floyd perform an awesome show at the Electric Factory in Philly  in 1968 and another short set with a lot of noodling in 1969 and a large festival show at the convention center.

Pink Floyd in my collection:

• The Piper at the Gates of Dawn, 1967
• Saucerful of Secrets, 1968
• Ummagumma, 1969
• Meddle, 1971
• Dark Side of the Moon, 1973
• Wish You Were Here, 1975

And these live and compilations:

• Relics, 1971
• Pulse, 1995
• Echoes, 2001
• The Early Years 1967-1972 Cre/tion 6 CD Box Set