Reclaiming The Beauty of St. Michael's Hospital

Mural of St. Michael's profile on the front wall
of St. Michael's Hospital in Toronto


Sculpture of St. Michael
in the front lobby of St. Michael's Hospital.
St. Michael is slaying Satan,
with his finger pointed up at God.


[Above photos by KPA: 2014]

Above are photos I took of St. Michael's hospital, and more specifically, the mural of the angel's profile, and the sculpture in the lobby.

Here is the background to the sculpture:

For almost a century the statue of Saint Michael the Archangel has graced St. Michael's as a symbol of hope for employees, patients and their families. The artist and date of creation of the statue are unknown, but the name of 'Pietrasanta' chiselled on the back of the statue indicates the stone is from the same quarry in Italy where Michelangelo procured the marble for his famous 'Pieta'.

How the statue made its way to Canada is unclear, but what we do know is that during the latter part of the 19th century the Sisters of St. Joseph found this statue, dirty and blackened, in a second-hand store on Queen Street. Recognizing its value, they wisely bought it for the sum of $49 - money they had accumulated from the sale of old newspapers.

The statue now stands in our Cardinal Carter lobby, meticulously restored, a symbol of hope and healing for all who visit. It is why St. Michael's is affectionately known as Toronto's Urban Angel.
[Source: St. Michael Hospital's website]

Key chain I received from the St. Michael's foundation,
after I gave a very modest contribution.
(Here is the foundation's webpage for online contributions).

I had taken photographs of a side street entrance to the hospital at Bond Street several years ago. St. Michael is the sculpture above the entrance door. The sculpture was designed by Frances Loring.


St. Michael's entrance on Bond Street
The sculpture above the doorway is stiffer
than the life-like sculpture in the lobby


Archway above Bond Street entrance
[Above photos by KPA: 2012]

Here's the hospital's history at its website:

In 1892, in an old Baptist church on Bond Street, the Sisters of St. Joseph operated Notre Dame des Anges, a boarding house for working women. Responding to the need to care for their own and the poor population in the south end of Toronto, the Sisters founded St. Michael's Hospital.

The hospital opened its doors with a bed capacity of 26 and a staff of six doctors and four graduate nurses. Within a year, accommodation was increased to include two large wards and an emergency department. By 1912, bed capacity reached 300, and a five-room operating suite was added.

As early as 1894, St. Michael's Hospital received medical students and, in 1920, negotiated a formal agreement with the faculty of medicine at the University of Toronto that continues to this day.

Between 1892 and 1974, St. Michael's school of nursing graduated 81 classes, totalling 5,177 graduates. The school was closed in 1974 when nursing education was moved into the province's community college system. Later, the hospital opened a school for medical record librarians, the first in Canada, and also participated in the preparation of dietitians and X-ray and laboratory technologists.

As Toronto grew and expanded, so did the hospital. Ongoing physical expansion, most prominent in the 1960s, increased the original 26 bed facility to a high of 900 beds.

I have criticized the hospital's latest wing, completed in 2011, and its funding source here. But, the St. Michael's Hospital legacy is long and sustained. There is Saint Michael's Cathedral, and St. Michael's Choir School for boys, both in the vicinity of the hospital (more here), giving it moral support.


St. Michael's as it appeared in 1892 - the year of its founding.
[Image Source: St. Michael's Hospital Archives]

The plaque at the Bond Street entrance:


[Image Source:Toronto's Historical Plaques]

There were three architects involved in the original design of the hospital (more detailed biographies here - pdf file):

- Albert Asa Post (1850-1926):
Albert Post was born in Pickering, Ontario, and attended St. Michael's College in Toronto before entering an apprenticeship with Henry Langley...In 1879, Post opened his own practice in Whitby, Ont. before joining A. W. Holmes to form Post & Holmes in Toronto.

- James Patrick Hynes (1868-1953)
James Hynes was a Toronto-born architect...He was president of the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada, The Ontario Association of Architects, The Architectural League of America, and The Town Planning Association of Ontario. He was a fellow of the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada, president of the Ontario Association of Architects, and writer for the Canadian Homes and Gardens magazine.

- William Lyon Somerville (1886- 1965)
Willima Somerville, born in Hamilton, and responsible for designing McMaster University, practiced in New York before opening an office on Bay Street in 1919.

These architects continued to expand and renovate the hospital into the late 1960s. The original design and aesthetics of the building were never compromised, and the new additions fitted seamlessly with the original building.

The addition of the newest wing, completed in 2011, is an eye-sore. Glass, the preferred style of post-modernist architects, is the main material. Carefully patterned brick and delicately carved stone are substituted by relentless sheets of blank glass. Glass doesn't leave much for ornament, and instead exposes messy interiors, or to avoid that, empty interiors:



Li Ka Shing Knowlege Institute's empty interior, exposed by the sheets of glass.
Rather than fill the area with objects, both ornamental and functional,
it is left empty. This is a deliberate strategy, both for safety reasons
(exposing antique cabinets for all to see?), and for aesthetic reasons,
since the over-exposing glass will accentuate and magnify any object,
thus visually confusing the space.

With this new addition, the hospital's original aesthetic and design is destroyed.

[Image source: Diamond Schmitt Architects]

The stark contrast of this post-modern structure with the rest of the building might alert people, patients, doctors, donors and other city folk, that this new addition is a mistake. And since the hospital is still undergoing renovations, future projects can still reclaim the beauty and dignity of the original ideas.



St. Michael's Foundation webpage for online contributions.

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Posted By: Kidist P. Asrat
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Four Good Reasons for Marriage

The Basics:
British Army folding bed: ca. 1860

More of the above at:

Royal Warrants, Circulars, General Orders and Memoranda
Issued by the War Office and Horse Guards
August 1856 - July 1864

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Allan Roebuck, over at The Orthospehere writes on the topic of marriage:

I argue here that most men should attempt to marry, for several basic reasons. First, marriage is necessary for the survival of a people. Second, men (and women) need to be a part of a good order if they are to live well and a good social order includes marriage. And three, men were designed for leadership, as they are more attuned to the practical application of truth and justice, and are more able to impose their will on a situation, than women are.[Bolds are mine, for clarity]

He forgot one important point:

Fourth: Wives have a civilizing influence on husbands. Other than the desire to protect their wives, and the children that ensue, the very character of women civilizes men.

I think this is noticeable in the home. Regardless of the domestic influence of the wife (making the house habitable, the environment clean, and the atmosphere peaceful), a husband behaves far more civilly in his home than when in his workplace or other exterior environment.

And if his home life is civil and peaceful, and he has a trustful wife to tend to that, then his external behavior is also affected.

Think of soldiers, who have been away from their homes for months, and whose only company are other soldiers. Their existence, outside of the brutality of war, is a camaraderie of loud, boisterous interactions. They would not behave this way towards woman, and would most likely not behave this way with each other if they were in their homes with their wives and children nearby.

Or think of bachelors. Even those with erudition and great education are victim to the infamous "bachelor's pad," which is really more about having the proper environment to accomplish a purpose, whether it is to write the novel, or to have a place for whisky and frolics. They are content with the basics of domestic life: food, shelter and sleep.

When the purpose is to protect his wife and children, and their upkeep, the man's behavior and environment change accordingly. This domestic civility manifests itself with social and cultural civility, upon which societies, and countries, are built.
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Posted By: Kidist P. Asrat
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Young and Lesbian: An Epidemiology?

Photo from article: "Why Are So Many Girls Lesbian or Bisexual?"
From: Psychology Today, April 3, 2010
By: Leonard Sax, M.D., Ph.D.
These look just like the "college best friends" I write about below

Camille Paglia would be intrigued, and horrified, at this epidemiology of young lesbians, cheerfully "coming out."

Ellen Page

A few days ago, a young and pretty Canadian actress, Ellen Page, declared herself to be a closeted lesbian, that is until that moment when she dramatically announced to whomever bothered to listen: I am gay. She's twenty-six years old at this announcement, but according to her testimony, had been "gay" for years.

I found her video on New York Post's online magazine. It was hard to miss on the side column, with a large photo of her, and the headline: Tired of Hiding: Actress Ellen Page Comes Out as Gay.

Page is claiming that her "coming out" is "a personal obligation and a social responsibility [direct quote from the Youtube video here around the 6:15 minute point]", and is otherwise a "traumatic event."

It is interesting to see that "coming out" in the 21st century is such a traumatic event. I thought we had taken care of stigmatizing gays and had built such a "gay-friendly" world that people were declaring their "true selves" left and right.

Well, not so, apparently. Page tearfully declares: "I suffered for years because I was scared to be 'out'." Didn't Ellen DeGeneres, pernicious model for this young Ellen, present us with her "secret" in a similarly tearful declaration seventeen years ago? Her career hasn't diminished one bit, and in fact has climbed since then.


Page with "girlfriend"

Page was brought up in Eastern Canada, in Nova Scotia. Her parents divorced when she was very young, and her father remarried. She lived with her mother. At about fifteen, Page enrolled herself into a "Buddhist" school, with no academic structure, which emphasized "the arts." And her parents let her do this! Divorce is hard on any child, but a structureless one must be harsh. And worse, letting a young teenager decide on her intellectual and spiritual development is bizarre and cruel.


This is the best I could find of Page with her father.
Notice the impish quality of the father, who looks like he's out with his young son.
But then, what young boy would cling to his father like that?
Such is the ambiguous world of tomboys.


Page with her mother, looking dishevelled and tomboyish.
It looks like they were both out at some film premier,
where Page should be the star, but is upstaged
by her glamorous mother instead.

But homosexuality is still a social stigma, if "celebrities" have to make such a spectacle about their revelations. Normal, ordinary people, those that pay the films and shows to keep DeGeneres and Page in the business, will momentarily forget a gay person his abnormality as long as he entertains well. And if homosexuality is still a social stigma, despite all these efforts to normalize it, then it will always remain a social stigma.

And just in time for Obama's homosexual agenda of equality, the PBS program To The Contrary "for women, by women, about women" (my quotations), recently included on its panel an articulate black women, Danielle Moodie-Mills. I wondered who she was, with her caked make-up and twisted stringy hair.


Moodie on the PBS program To The Contrary, which aired a couple of weeks ago

I found her profile all over the internet, since then. She is a black lesbian, whose "marriage" to another black woman was profiled in the black magazine Essence. They "married" in 2010, Mills at 32 and Moodie 31, and had "been together" for six years before that, which means they started this "relationship" when they were in their early twenties.


Danielle Moodie, on the right, is:
Advisor, LGBT Policy and Racial Justice
Center for American Progress
Nonprofit; 201-500 employees; Think Tanks industry
(LinkedIn Profile)

and Ayisha Millis is:
...a Senior Fellow and Director of the FIRE - Fighting Injustice to Reach Equality - Initiative at the Center for American Progress, where her work explores the intersections of race, class, and sexuality.
(Center for American Progress profile)

They both have those fluffy jobs just right for the Obama administration.

There must be dozens around of these "lesbians" around. Girls walking around the mall, chattering and laughing: are they "young lesbians"? Two young women eating in a restaurant, fancily dressed: are they on a date? A couple, women, picking up a young child at school or at a day care: are they "two mommies"? And so on.

I won't go into the pshychological, sociological, cultural, School of Camille Paglia, analyses of what I'm seeing here, so here's my take, at least on Page, Moodie and Mills.

There is very little information forthcoming from Moodie or Mills. I've gleaned what there is available from various websites and their limited profiles in their professional biographies.

Danielle Moodie

Danielle Moodie's only reference to her parentage (from searches around the web) is a photo of hers which appeared on Essence magazine's profile of her "marriage" to Mills. Here, she is standing with a white man, named as Michael Newton, with the caption:

Dance with my father:
Danielle’s dad Michael Newton was close to tears as he danced with his daughter on her momentous day.

Below is the photograph:


(Source: Essence)

I can only assume that she is adopted. Where is the mother (adoptee)? Why isn't she included in this wedding photograph? Is she white, black, other? What kind of life does Moodie live where she has to call a white man as her father? How hard was this for her as a young girl (assuming she was adopted young)? How much harder did it get as she became conscious of her surroundings? How did the "black identity" culture affect her identity? How does she relate to whites, and to the ominous White Male?

Aisha Mills


Mills posted this photo collage on her Twitter page

Mills was raised by her grandmother. She says: "My entire life, I have been a variety of 'others'." According to this post, her mother had "Asian" roots, but she was raised by her Black Southern Baptist grandparents, as the photos above indicate. The young, light-skinned boy in the photo collage could be her brother. Or is it her dressed in a suit and tie (as a young boy)? Yes! It is her, dressed as a young boy! So there you have it.

And here below, she is with her MIU (Missing in Upbringing) father at her "wedding."


Source: Essence
Caption reads:

Proud Father
Aisha's father James Mills kisses his baby girl and wishes her well on her big day

The Mills-Moodie "elegant affair" of a wedding included baskets of chopsticks. The ominous absence of her Asian mother must make even the most mundane of Chinese objects into bouquets of roses.


Chopstick elegance: Reaching for some ephemeral roots
Chopsticks, from the wedding album by Essence
The caption reads:
Cocktail Hour:
"The entire wedding was an elegant cocktail affair," Aisha explained.

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So what is it with these young women?

- A chaotic home life?
- A dearth of masculine young men?
- Feminism pushing young women into competitive and masculine roles, where they clash with young men, both the feminized ones, and those standing their ground and refusing to give in easily to a woman-centric environment?
- Black men, unavailable, either through their dropping out of society, their criminality, or their immaturity?
- Men refusing marriage, for fear of repercussions by feminism, and feminist women and wives?
- Men refusing to mature, and instead delaying marriage and family?
- The culture pushing, through mass media, that marriage is not necessary?
- Divorce rates, and divorce costs, high, especially (uniquely?) for men, so many opting out of marriage?
The "otherness" of the other becoming too much to deal with for young people these days, who are not used to natural competitions, and eventually some awe for differences.
- The desire by contemporary people to make everyone the same, to avoid this natural alienness or otherness of people?
- The desire to make everything "nice" and non-combative?

In any case, this "best friend" type of coupling is well suited for girls in college and high school. Under normal conditions, these girls will find staunch mothers or grandmothers who will diminish that seductive environment, give them the education they need, and place them in situations where they can lead a normal life, including building their future families.

The women I've described above are traumatized orphans, both in society and in family. They have been dealt with difficult beginnings. Since their families didn't come through for them, then it should have been up to the larger society to see that they didn't normalize their ambiguities and abnormalities. Now, as adults, they are seeped in their iniquities, and will only further terrorize society. Our job now is to see that they don't do that, and that they don't amass more vulnerable innocents along their way.
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Posted By: Kidist P. Asrat
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#valentineheartthrob

No I'm not on twitter. But my yahoo mail has a red Valentine's heart on the top corner, and it throbs!

I thought it was cute.

But all cuteness aside, a day of lighthearted celebration of love is a good thing. The problem is when people take it so seriously that it means everything (or nothing). Red hearts all over the place are a nice burst of color, in this dark depths of winter, and after the festivities of Christmas and New Year, it brings a holiday mood into February. Our next holiday is Easter, and that is as late as March or April.

I was recently watching You've Got Mail with Meg Ryan (as Kathleen Kelly) and Tom Hanks (as Joe Fox). Kathleen sends herself a dozen red roses for Valentine's. She says to Joe that she does it for the possibility of love.

That is how we should all live: for the possibility of love, for the possibility of goodness, for the possibility of beauty, for the possibility of summer.

So many possibility, it gives us quite a busy schedule!

Here is a simple menu:

- Plate of sweet potato fries
- Glass of Cabernet Sauvignon Vista Point from California

Wine description from the menu:

Intense blackberry and currant, a smooth easy drinking wine for any occasion.

I don't know why the wine is described as "intense" but it is more flavorful than intense.

Here's one more site (pdf) with this brief description of the wine: "pleasant, semi-dry, smooth."

My evaluation is that the wine's fruity notes makes it a great match with the sweet potatoes.

Happy (belated) Valentine's to all!




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Posted By: Kidist P. Asrat
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God's Garden

Plaque from the website Life With Tess
(The flower growing by the bark is a Star Jasmine, or a Confederate Jasmine)

The kiss of the sun for pardon,
The song of the birds for mirth,
One is nearer God's heart in a garden
Than anywhere else on earth.

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God's Garden
By Dorothy Francis Gurney

The Lord God planted a garden
In the first white days of the world,
And He set there an angel warden
In a garment of light enfurled.

So near to the peace of Heaven,
That the hawk might nest with the wren,
For there in the cool of the even
God walked with the first of men.

And I dream that these garden-closes
With their shade and their sun-flecked sod
And their lilies and bowers of roses,
Were laid by the hand of God.

The kiss of the sun for pardon,
The song of the birds for mirth,
One is nearer God's heart in a garden
Than anywhere else on earth.

For He broke it for us in a garden
Under the olive-trees
Where the angel of strength was the warden
And the soul of the world found ease.

About Dorothy Francis Gurney:

Dorothy Frances Gurney (October 4, 1858 – June 15, 1932) was an English poet and hymn writer. Though both her father and husband were Anglican priests, Mrs. Gurney became a Roman Catholic (as did her husband) in 1919. The second to last verse of her best-known poem, "God's Garden" is seen everywhere on signs, plaques and other garden ornaments, but few people know its author.

“[God's Garden was] originally written in Lord Ronald Gower’s visitor’s book. It was inspired by his exquisite garden at Hammerfield Penshurst.”

From a copy handwritten in England on an envelope circa 1925, and found in a book on the Church of England’s Liberal Evangelicals in 2010. [Source: Wikiquote]

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Posted By: Kidist P. Asrat

Man, Nature and God

Aksel Lund Svindal of Norway skis during the Alpine Men's Downhill.
He finished fourth

Many of the Winter Olympics' events are frighteningly dangerous. I recently watched a replay of a female skateboard competition, where the Czech Republic contestant fell in a dramatic way. She came back to show she was O.K., although her helmet was cracked!

I feel sorry for these contestants. I think they are being pushed to the extreme. But what else is there but for more - more speed, more height, more aerial acrobatics, more danger. Perhaps it is time to stop these Olympic events (and other championships too). But that will never happen.

It is sad that I have to feel sorry for athletes, whose role (if I can call it that) is to show me their strength, not for me (or spectators) to detect any weakness. The Olympics, and the inhuman standards that have been set, have made these athletes into vulnerable creatures, instead of confident and bold humans. The joy of watching sports is lost once we suspect that the athletes aren't up to the standards.

So, do we lower these standards that we have set? I think it is too late for that. Either we have to re-invent the Olympics' sports, or we have to watch each competition with the dangers (of death, even) that are imminent. If we chose the latter, than we have truly become barbarians, sending our men into the lion's den to be devoured for our enjoyment.

So all we can do is watch with bated breath at these incredible feats of these mere humans. We want them to be god-like. We want more of everything, for them to prove their mettle. After all, humans have always aspired to, and admired, physical strength. But I don't think we've ever gone this far, pitching one human being with nature, with the mountains.

And we watch in horror as nature takes one of them and plays with him as a puppy does with a ball.

But, there is an option: NOT to watch. That is the one I have chosen, which is the only one I have control over. And of course, that means not listening to the news for the next couple of weeks, and to click past all postings that fill every webpage. We have to be inhumanly absent from the world around us, for two weeks, at least.

Leni Riefenstahl, Hitler's filmographer, understood the god-like energy of man that can be displayed in the best of men. Her film Olympia, on the Berlin Summer Olympics accentuates the incredible feats of the athletes. She was a skier herself, and had already acted in several mountain films, and understood the majesty of nature, and the thrill of conquering it.

Her magnum opus is the film Triumph of the Will. It has been labeled as a "Nazi film" or a "propaganda film for Hitler," The initial shots of the film are of Hitler hovering above in an airplane, ready to land, god-like, on earth. But Triumph of the Will is bigger and more ambitious than a propaganda, or even a Nazi, film. Riefenstahl's artistic vision (and mission) was to show the glory of man, who can reach the skies. Yet she forgot, or ignored, Icarus, one mere man who tried to reach the heavens where only gods could reach.


Henri Matisse (French, 1869–1954)
Icarus, plate VIII from the illustrated book, "Jazz"
Date: 1947
Medium: Stencil
Dimensions: 16 1/2 x 10 1/4 in.
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

And the biggest irony of all, which she in her frenzied passion didn't see, was that Hitler is not even an Icarus, but a stringy, spindly, short, dark-haired man, who was ready to destroy the world for the Nordic Blonde Gods of Germany. His Icarus moment was short-lived, although devastating to Germany. His vision of heaven transformed quickly into a Götterdämmerung, leaving Europe shell-shocked for decades to come.

Here we are adulating athletes, and urging them to fly close to the sun. How close are we to Hitler's vision now?


An unidentified skier takes part in the first training session
of the Val Gardena Men’s World Cup Downhill on December 16, 2009
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Posted By: Kidist P. Asrat
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The Nuts and Bolts of Beauty

Email and Photos from Dean Ericson:

Let me show what I've done yesterday to reclaim some beauty. I'm renovating our 1924 apartment, as you may recall. In our front entry door is the original "lockset" -- the 1924 door lock and handle hardware. I've taken it out and prettied it up.

It works well now, oiled and adjusted, the action smooth and easy, and the soft luster of polished and waxed brass looks warm and lovely. Nobody will ever see it except my wife and a few friends (if I point it out to them), but it pleases us, and I like to think it pleases God.

Your work is just like my lock. (Only I hope more people see it!)

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Dean's unique take on beauty, that the nuts and bolts can be beautiful, is one I hadn't thought of before. Of course, sometimes the end result of nuts and bolts is to create objects of beauty, but how about the nuts and bolts themselves? They can also be beautiful, albeit often hidden, and add to the overall dignity of beauty. Someone who considers the beauty of nuts and bolts is a true advocate of beauty.

Below is a print of a 1924 Russell & Erwin home hardware advertizement. The script describes the homeowner who devotes attention to the details, and the beauty this "nuts and bolts" type of designer aspires to.

About the Russel & Erwin ad:

This is a rare stunning original 1924 color print ad for the Russell & Erwin Manufacturing Company of New Britain, Connecticut, as well as New York, Chicago, San Francisco, and London. This ad features their Russwin distinctive hardware for home improvement, including their doorknobs and locks.

And about Russel & Erwin:

Established in 1846, Russell & Erwin Manufacturing Company of New Britain, Connecticut, created some of the most innovative hardware designs of the Victorian era, including the highly collectible "Doggie Doorknob" and a sought-after line of door hardware ornamented with a geisha. [Source, including photos of hardware items]

Even the 1924 poster has elegance.

Below is a contemporary Home Depot poster. Although the soft-focus effect of the photography is pleasant, it doesn't reach the level of refined illustration of the 1924 ad. The dark handle has a simple and attractive design, but I would wager that it isn't inexpensive. I would rather have a Russel & Erwin style lock and handle in my home, and the cost probably won't be that much different.



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Posted By: Kidist P. Asrat

Baltimore Federal Era Furniture

Drop-leaf dining tables, 1795 - 1810
Baltimore
Mahogany, holly with yellow poplar, white pine, sycamore;
28 3/4 x 47 7/8 x 78 1/2 in.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art



Drop-leaf dining table (from above)
Detail of leg showing the graduated bell flowers
and the American Eagle



Drawing room of the Craig House, Baltimore, Maryland, ca. 1810
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City

Notes from the online exhibit:

The architectural elements of the Baltimore Room are from the parlor of a brick row house built for Henry Craig between 1810 and 1811. The parlor was the most important room in Henry Craig's dwelling devoted to entertaining guests. Accordingly, it contained the finest woodwork, which illustrates a delicacy and restraint typical of the Neoclassical style of the period.

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I usually sit pen in hand while watching PBS' Antiques Roadshow. It is one of the few programs (or places) where old and hidden treasures get revealed.

This past week, the show was from Detroit. We forget that before Detroit deteriorated, it was a wealthy city.

One lovely piece of furniture that showed up at the auction was a Baltimore Federal Era Center Table.


Baltimore Federal Era Center Table
Mahogany
ca. 1790
From the Antiques Road Show, Detroit
Which aired in February 3, 2014


Baltimore Federal Era Center Table
Detail of leg, showing graduated bell flowers

The appraiser says about the table:

They made these Baltimore style tables in the 1880s, 1890s, 1900, 1910. And so they were copies of the original tables.

...The good news is that you have a really fully inlaid table. A really high styled table...We're going to try and figure out now whether its First Period or Second Period...You have period table from 1785 to 1795, maybe 1800, so it's a real thing.

...The legs have graduated bell flowers, which are sand-burnt to make them three dimensional....

This is what I could find out about this style:

In the years immediately following the Revolution, Baltimore became an important port, and a school of cabinetmaking flourished there during the Federal period [1780-1820]. Elaborate pieces of painted furniture made the Baltimore pieces’ sophistication and grace hard to match. In addition to the painted furniture, Baltimore was known for its use of églomisé (glass panels with symbolic figures) and large ovals inlaid in mitered panels. Like Baltimore, Annapolis also became an important Maryland cabinetmaking center. The most prominent craftsman was John Shaw. A labeled mahogany bookcase-desk by John Shaw was made in 1797 and formerly stood in the Kennedy Green Room in the White House. It is now is shown in the Diplomatic Reception Room. The Maryland State House holds a desk for the President of the Senate made by John Shaw in the same year. [Source: Bartley Classic Reproductions]

And:

Baltimore furniture, decorated with paint or fancy wood inlays, and beautifully detalied Baltimore silver of this period [the Federal era] took their places in the forefront of American design. The merchants=craftsmen John and Hugh Finlay typified the trade; they advertized in 1803 that they had for sale but would "also make to any pattern all kinds of fancy and Japanned furniture." Their wares and shop skills ran to car, pier, tea, dressing, writing and shaving tables; stands for candles and washpans; bedsteads along with bed and window cornices; cane-seat, rush-seats and Windsor chairs; and fire and candle screens "with or without views adjacent to the city." In this flush time of European war and Baltimore profit, the wealthiest Baltimoreans could afford interiors, furnishings and finery that spoke clearly of personal and family taste. [Source: The Architecture of Baltimore: An Illustrated History. Mary Ellen Hayward and Frank R. Shivers, eds. John Hopkins University Press, 2004. P. 29. Full Text Online, here]

General information from Wikipedia:

Federal furniture refers to American furniture produced in the Federal Period, which lasted from approximately 1789 to 1823. Notable furniture makers who worked in the federal style included Duncan Phyfe and Charles-Honoré Lannuier. It was influenced by the Georgian and Adam styles, and was superseded by the American Empire style...

Pieces in this style are characterized by their sharply geometric forms, legs that are usually straight rather than curved, contrasting veneers, and geometric inlay patterns on otherwise flat surfaces. Pictorial motifs, when extant, usually reference the new federal government with symbols such as the eagle. [Source: Wikipedia]

Contemporary version of a Federal Style side board
At Bartley Classic Reproduction

The full Antiques Roadshow video is here. The section on the center table appraisal starts around the 8 min. point.
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Posted By: Kidist P. Asrat
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First-time Publisher

Cover Design and Photo by Kidist Paulos Asrat

I sent the following email to a publisher, whose reputation I discerned from having published a recent book of someone I esteem.

I got back a positive reply.

If anyone has any publisher that would be interested in the kind of book I'm preparing (have been preparing), please let me know at: cameralucidas@yahoo.com.

To whom it may concern,

I am writing a book titled Reclaiming Beauty.

Its premise is that we have been given a world of beauty by God, who is the pre-eminent lover of beauty, and who has told us to make the world more beautiful.

My book explores beauty, historically, culturally, artistically, and through a religious (Christian) lens. My thesis is that we have veered far away from God's desires, especially in the 20th and now the 21st century.

But, I conclude that it is not too late. And that with faith, and our own creativity, we can revive and reclaim beauty.

One way I propose is to start a "beauty movement" which the book can be a reference to, and which can continue online at Reclaiming Beauty, and beyond in communities around the country.

Please let me know how, as a first time writer, I can have my book published.

Here are:
- My resume
- My website: Reclaiming Beauty
- The outline of my book's chapters
- My proposal for a beauty movement

Thank you,
Kidist Paulos Asrat

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Posted By: Kidist P. Asrat

February Month Of The Violet

Eduard Manet (1832-1883)
Bouquet Of Violets
Oil on canvas
1872
8.66" x 10.63"
Private collection

Rather than find flowers and gems related to a horoscope sign, I thought it would be interesting to find them as they relate to a month.

February is the month for violets. According to Wikipedia, February's:

- Birth flower is the violet (Viola) and the common primrose (Primula vulgaris).
- Birthstone is the amethyst
- Symbols are piety, humility, spiritual wisdom, and sincerity.
- Zodiac signs are Aquarius (until February 18) and Pisces (February 19 onwards)

This month, which is in deep winter, already has four things that I like:

- The violet flower is part of a perfume that I find delicately pleasant: Elizabeth Taylor's Violet Eyes has the essence of the violet flower (below is my review I wrote in 2011)
- The deep purple amethyst is my second favorite stone
- I am Capricorn, but as I read Aquarius astrology notes signs, I find that I have a lot in common with that sign, including getting on well with the creative, imaginative and often visionary Aquarians. Perhaps it is to do with the moon, sun and planets?
- Humility, spiritual wisdom and sincerity? I think I do have a certain sincerity in what I do. That is probably why I decided to be a blogger.
- I did a post on Elizabeth Taylor only a month ago. It was mostly about her perfumes, where I wrote:

...[I]n Taylor's time, celebrities didn't run around in embarrassing outfits confessing all kinds of unmentionable things to callous magazine interviewers who have to take things (gossip and ugliness) up a notch in order to sell their stories. Despite their clearly difficult lives (Elizabeth Taylor was married eight times), there still was an aura of mystique and mystery around these celebrities. This provided them with the shelter to continue with their creative energies. And it gave Taylor room to create her perfumes.

She had been in the news mostly about her readmission into hospital because of her heart. Even for such a trip, she put on her best face and best clothes.

She still had energy to compose one final perfume, Violet Eyes, in 2010, perhaps her most personal...

Here is perfumer Carlos Benaim describing the perfume, and Elizabeth Taylor:

At first, you perceive the brightness of her gaze. Then she looks straight at you, and there you are, staring into the most famous eyes in the world. And they are indeed violet, absolutely unique and truly beautiful.

Both the bottle and the outer package were carefully designed to my specifications. The contrast of both shiny and matte surface and watercolour violets combine to make this an exquisite design.

And here are the notes for Violet Eyes:

Top: White Peach
Middle: Purple Rose, Jasmine
Base: Violet, Cedar Wood, Amber

I took the photograph below of a field of violets sometime in spring. I'm not sure what violets have to do with February, but I have noticed this small, unassuming flower, which gives a purple carpet on fields where it is allowed to grow.


Violet Garden (2011)
[Photo By: KPA]
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Posted By: Kidist P. Asrat
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It Is Up To Us To Reclaim Beauty

Commenter Jennifer K. writes regarding my post Fighting For My Coffee in Multi-Culti Canada:

I live in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, which is in the Midwestern region of the United States. Starbucks is the closest coffee place to me, but I always bypass it for our local, independent coffee shops. Not only do they offer a great cup of various types of coffees, they also offer a great selection of teas, fine pastries and delicious sandwiches, soups and salads.

As for the perfume, well, Kidist, if you want to know the notes of a perfume GOOGLE IT!!!! It's not that hard. Sure, I'd expect someone at a high end parfumerie to know about various notes, but at a standard mall shop? Well, no. Just like I don't expect a cashier at my grocery store to know everything about a bottle of wine I purchase. Sure, if I go to a high-end wine shop, I expect some knowledge. But my local Pick n' Save? Nope.

Here is my reply.

1. Re: Coffee shops

- I agree that there are many nice, cosy independent coffee shops. But, I think that Starbucks coffee is as good as (some, a few) and superior to many. Many of these coffee shops also have their "cultural" elements to wade through, e.g.: oddly dressed owners/receptionists/customers; music which is often not my taste; strange decorations, or "artwork" by patrons for sale or on some rotating exhibition; food and drinks that I'm not familiar with (e.g. funny flavored muffins); items that are too expensive; etc.

- These "cosy" coffee shops are often too cosy, with crammed seating too close to the patrons (and their conversations) around me.

- The spaces are also old, or not as modernized as Starbucks, and I often wonder about their hygiene.

- I don't usually drink tea. And when I do, I prefer to make my own, strong, brew at home.

- At Starbucks, I can buy my freshly ground coffee to take home and drink at my leisure. I doubt that many coffee shops can provide ground coffee for their customers.

2. Re: Perfume knowledge

- There is no excuse for "perfume" girls not to know the perfumes they're surrounded with all day. How many do they sell per day, let alone discuss with a customer?

- I'm not talking about Jennifer Lopez's latest, or the Body Shop's bubble bath. I'm talking about Chanel, Christian Dior, Nina Ricci, Armani (you get the drift?). A few perfume girls (I should call them women) at Sephora's are very good, and will tell me what the dry down is (what scent is left on your sweater or scarf at the end of the day). But, I usually have to deduce this from the perfume guide they have put up conveniently. And I always ask for a sample for that very reason: to see how the perfume interacts over the course of the day. How difficult is that for a shop girl to do? In fact, what fun! She can start the month at the beginning of the store, and work her way around.

3. Re: Wine and supermarkets

In Canada, we cannot buy wine in supermarkets (which is probably a good thing). At liquor stores, I can always find someone who tells me exactly what I need to know. I don't bother with those who are shelving, and I bother the least with the cashiers. I don't expect them to know much about wine, just as I don't expect help on wine selection from the cashier in the grocery store.

Conclusion

What is going on, as I keep writing at Reclaiming Beauty, is a gradual deterioration of our culture. I don't mean this in an elitist way at all. The shop girl's "nose" will be more refined the more she is expected to elevate her standards. And all this terrible stuff coming at us from alcohol drenched factories wouldn't exist because no-one would buy them. Then, those less expensive scents which have disappeared, can make a comeback (like Coty, Yardley, Max Factor and Revlon). Or women can buy one perfume a year, if only to replenish an existing bottle - how difficult is it to save $70? Or women can start making their own scents at home - what a concept!

Wines from California (and some regional Canadian wines) are great, and really inexpensive (you can always get the expensive ones if your wallet leans that way). The French have wine at dinner (I don't think it is, or has become, a myth), and their wineries produce wine for a pleasant home consumption. Like perfume, the more people demand, the more manufactures will deliver.

So, my final point is: it is up to us to elevate our standards; it is up to us to reclaim beauty.
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Posted By: Kidist P. Asrat
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Birds of America

Iceland or Jer Falcon
By John James Audubon (1785-1851)
From: The Birds of America
Publication date 1827 - 1838

Falco Islandicus, Lath. Iceland or Jer Falcon - Gyr Falcon. Labrador Falcon.

Tooth-like process of the bill generally obsolete in old, festoon slight in young birds; tail from three to four inches longer than the wings. Adult white, with slate-grey sagittate spots above, the bill pale blue, the cere and feet yellow. Younger birds light grey, the feathers white on the edges; the bill and cere light blue, the feet greyish-blue. Young brownish-grey above, the feathers margined and spotted with reddish-white, the lower parts yellowish-white, longitudinally streaked with dusky.

Male, 221/2, 49. Female, 231/2, 511/4.

Breeds in the extreme north, and in Labrador. In winter, migrates southward as far as Maine.
[Text source: A Synopsis of the Birds of North America
By John James Audubon
Edinburgh: Adam And Charles Black;
London: Longman, Rees, Brown Green and Longman
1839]

I recently posted on bird illustrations by Charley Harper (1992-2007), where I said:

His whimsical world captures, despite his best intentions I'm sure, some of that movement (chaos, as he calls it) of life, and especially the life of birds.

John James Audubon is another American illustrator who drew a large number of birds. His world is less whimsical than Harper's, but no less bewitching. His gyrfalcons, with their dark, and perhaps cruel, eyes, still win us over with their thick, mottled, black and white feathers.

From the University of Pittsburgh:

The Donation of Audubon’s Birds of America

The daughters of William McCullough Darlington and Mary Carson Darlington, of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, donated their family library to the University of Pittsburgh in 1918 and 1925 as a memorial to their father. Birds of America was part of the collection that became the Darlington Memorial Library, established in the University’s Cathedral of Learning. According to one of Mr. Darlington's record books, he paid $400 to purchase the complete set in 1852.

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Posted By: Kidist P. Asrat
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Computer Glitch

I am working on my image postings. It looks like I have reached my bandwidth limit for image posting. I have subscribed to another image posting site, and will update all those "empty" images as soon as I can.
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Posted By: Kidist P. Asrat
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#Biracial And PROUD

Michelle Malkin's Biracial Children

The useless Michelle Malkin is in an uproar because someone called her racist. Or rather, someone tweeted on MSNBC about a new Cheerios cereal ad which depicts a white mother and a black father, and a biracial young girl who I suppose is meant to be their offspring.

The tweet on MSNBC says (about the ad):

Maybe the rightwing will hate it, but everyone else will go awww: the adorable new #Cheerios ad w/ biracial family.
on.msnbc.com/1dpgQEU

Then there's a whole lot of twitching going on at Malkins #myrightwingbiracialfamily, which is at "Twitchy," a custom made twitter type of site made for Malkin. She has her latest hashtag as: #myrightwingbiracialfamily. It should be #biracial and PROUD.

There is nothing wrong with the instinctive (perhaps knee-jerk, and thoughtless) reaction of the MSNBC guy, who is only saying what he sees. True conservatives are ambivalent about inter-racial marriages, and will not put it in the focus of others' attention if there is one (in their own marriage, or a family member's marriage). They understand the difficulties of inter-racial marriages, and that such families' dynamics are distorted, often incurring split family loyalties.

Generally, if the offspring resemble the dominant culture (whites in America) these children often ambivalently follow and support that culture, but they are always on unstable ground, having to refer all their lives to the non-white member of their family. If the offspring don't resemble the dominant culture, then these children begin a long life of rejecting this dominant culture, some vociferously, others tamely. But still, rejecting it. In any case, nobody's life is easy with inter-racial marriage.

Malkin could have been humble about her family situation by saying that somehow she and Jesse Malkin made the leap to get married and raise a family, but that it was a difficult step, and is a difficult ordeal.

But perhaps it isn't so difficult for her. With her high-volume opinions, she must either intimidate or brain wash her friends, family and now political audience, into believing that her way is just fine, and that is what America is all about now.

But the fact that she's getting so worked up shows that it is still a big deal, and people (left, right, old and young) will notice such couples and families, and some might even comment on it. Theirs is not a racist reaction. It is a human reaction.

I've posted below the screenshots of Malkin's back-and-forth twitches because they are likely to be taken down by Twitchey et al. And here a the link to a site which has screen-shot the posts.




















Malkin's Twitchy site even has a "biracial,"
"bi-gender" - is that the right term? - couple.
Such is the extent to which she will take her
conservatism to defend a legitimate point.


Jesse Malkin, from a 1991 photo.
He is Malkin's husband, and the father of her two children.
I don't see any resemblances between him and his children.
This is part of the tragedy of mixed race children.
They often look nothing like one of the parents, and often have a
slim resemblance to the other. They are true orphans.

How will Malkin's Philipino-looking children behave when they grow older? I would wager that they try to be as "Philipino" as they can, and given that they are thousands of miles away from the country, this will be quite a feat. So instead, they will stick to an amorphous "non-white" narrative, even as their own father is white, and elect people like Barack Obama, and all else that follows from there (and has followed)...

Malkin's amalgam of a family has long-range consequences, least of all changing the consvervatism (and liberalism) of America.
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Posted By: Kidist P. Asrat
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