woke at 8:00 waiting for the alarm to go off, I decided to get up and get going…hopped in the shower…ate a couple of donuts…took my pills…did the last bit of packing…my sister came home from her volunteering a little before 9:00…she took me to the airport for our tearful parting…that sweet sorrow…she went in to get my chair… but I needed to check in first…so we said goodbye again…as I left my sister to check in…I wondered how different my life would be if I hadn’t met Nancy…if I hadn’t moved to Philadelphia…first of all, there wouldn’t be any Pam or Phil or Ben or Julia or Hana…or Jim or Miho in my life…no reason to fly to Philadelphia…Nancy and I had intended to move back to San Francisco…but it obviously never happened…we both had jobs…started a family…Pam came along in 1968…Phil in 1971…we had bought a house…and life in Philadelphia just rolled along…and here I am on the way back home to Philadelphia…bringing back some sour dough bread…4 pounds of it…I have to say American Airlines takes care of us handicapped…I appreciate what they do…Julia orders me a chair to the gate…they get you through security one two three…then leave you at the gate…then they let you on the plane first…Julia just happened to get me a window seat 24F…I got my luggage up in the bin…both of them…took out my computer and Julia’s Kindle in the case that Jim loaned me…I held that with me…the two pieces Jim also loaned me, his perfect Always luggage…and a large bag which held a lot…perfect also…thanks Jim…got myself settled…and waited for the rest of the passengers to come aboard…found out I was in 25F… hahahaha…so moved myself to my seat…then the couple handed me my turkey leg…the flight was pretty good… only bumpy for a few seconds toward the end…so I went from daylight to nighttime..took a pretty picture or two heading East…smooth landing, not as good as the bumpy ride’s landing in San Francisco…Phil was waiting for me outside Baggage Claim…the young woman wheeled me across the the street to the island…got in the car and we were off…we sort of planned to go see Napoleon…figured out which one to go to…ending up the Plymouth Meeting Regal near the Ikea…had a bite at Wendy’s…I had a burger and a chocolate frosty…Phil had a Caesar Salad and french fries which we shared…I don’t often go to Wendy’s…maybe once every 5 years…Keith and Doris were big on Wendy’s…their fast food of choice…they would often stop at Wendy’s on the way back to DC when Doris would fly up to accompany him back home…she would go with him in the Spring…and fly back to DC then complete her round trip ticket to fly up in October to drive back…there were many years when they would stop here on the way up…I always had a dinner party of them…with Pam and her crew and Susan sometimes…and also on their way home…they started to stop at Keith’s cousin in Tarrytown…and then when Doris was unable to do that anymore, recently…Keith skipped Elkins Park for half way to Maine, staying at a Hotel…that was always a fun time for us…we went to the 9:30 showing at that Regal…it was almost a private showing…there were 2 other people in the theater…after about 20 minutes of previews and a couple of commercials…Napoleon started…I have to admit, I took a few cat naps during the movie…lots of battles…Napoleon was constantly conquering… hardly ever home…they started the film with the beheading of Marie Antoinette…”let’s them eat cake”…they replied by cutting her head off…I remember the 1938 film which starred Norma Shearer as Marie…Shearer’s Marie, proud and hopeful said “I will be Queen of France”…her Mother, Maria Theresa…probably my first encounter with Marie Antoinette…from Wikipedia: “Marie Antoinette (/ˌæntwəˈnɛt, ˌɒ̃t-/; French: [maʁi ɑ̃twanɛt]ⓘ; Marie Antoinette Josèphe Jeanne; 2 November 1755 – 16 October 1793) was the last queen of France before the French Revolution. She was born an archduchess of Austria, and was the penultimate child and youngest daughter of Empress Maria Theresa and Emperor Francis I. She became dauphine of France in May 1770 at age 14 upon her marriage to Louis-Auguste, heir apparent to the French throne. On 10 May 1774, her husband ascended the throne as Louis XVI and she became queen.” and we all know how that turned out!…she was tried and sent to the guillotine in October of 1793…her husband had been tried and sent to the guillotine in January of 1793…Robespierre and the French Revolution let to the rise of Napoleon and his coup by which he crowned himself Emperor…after they did away with Robespierre…Napoleon the movie was no Oppenheimer the movie…doesn’t hold a candle to it…but worth seeing if you like history and battles…and Napoleon’s defeat and exile to St. Helena where he died…his dying words were “France Army Josephine”…Josephine, in the film was big on sleeping around…who knew?…
Harry Kissinger dies at 100…which proves the point that only the good dies young…hahahahaha….and more haha…Hunter Biden calls the Republicans bluff…they flow…they have nothing…nichts…nada…to impeach his father with…all hot air…trump tells the idiots to impeach Biden on nothing just to save his ugly face…
good to be home again…this morning in San Mateo…this evening in Elkins Park…
I’m always in search of foods that I love…wherever I go…if I see it on the menu, then I order it…things like The Wedge Salad…love The Wedge…or a Cuban Sandwich…or a Burger, of course…and then there’s the Louie Salad… over the years, I used to get it at Fisherman’s Wharf…at The Franciscan…at Tarantino’s…at Scoma’s…and over those years, the price has gone up and up…and I would get a bay shrimp and crab combo…Dungeness Crab, the Pacific Coast Crab…Candy and I had Crab Louie at The Market restaurant in St. Helena when we were in wine country last Wednesday…it was $34.00 and no good…not good at all…
today was my day to pack…”leaving on a jet plane, don’t know when I’ll be back again”…my sister always sends me home with clean clothes…so I did a little laundry this morning…and I had to make a stop at Raymond’s Outlet…for some sour dough bread to take home…Julia’s request…I’m always happy to oblige…I packed much better going than coming…I have room to spare…Henry left a shirt here…I’m bringing it back…and we left a little present for Susan…I’m bringing it back too…when I was here in October, I left one of my pill weekly boxes…when I got home, I searched everywhere…couldn’t find it….so I called my sister to check “my” room to see if I left it… she wasn’t home…and called me later to say it was here…just where I left it…when I do my pills three weeks at a time…three weeks goes by quickly…two weeks goes by that much quicker…so I’m happy to bring my third home to roost…decided what to wear on the plane…and pretty much packed…all I have to do is put my dob kit and close it up in the morning…Julia left me her Kindle…I was reading Lessons in Chemistry on the way out… hopefully I’ll read the rest of it on the way home…I wrote my postcards today…postcards I bought at the de Young Museum to send in October…but they came with me to Elkins Park unwritten and back out to San Francisco…the origin of their birth…so now they will make their way back East…as I will also…I got a prompt from American Airlines…would I be willing to give up my seat for three amounts of money…I’m tempted…but they wouldn’t let me know when or what time I would be rescheduled…but I would have to get to the airport as if I’m flying anyway…so maybe it’s in the works…I just want to be home by Thursday…to get Phil back to JFK…he’s going back home…he’s been at my apartment, using my car…he came for his 33rd High School Reunion…only because he got a really cheap ticket…to and from JFK…and Wednesday/Thursday would be the only day we overlapped…tonight he went in town with Pam and Ben for pizza at Julia’s apartment…to see her apartment…and he met Henry…he met Allegra on Sunday…gotta keep him in the loop…tonight we went to Westlake Joe’s for dinner…an early dinner…originally we were going for lunch but Candy’s walking buddies were late getting there…and she wouldn’t be back in time for our 12:00ish lunch…I woke up early…supposed to be ready at 11:30…lay in my bed watching Antiques Roadshow…and finally got up to eat some donuts, take my pills and hop in the shower…ready or not…lunch postponed for an early dinner…we would go at 4:00…to have my Louie Salad…we would go to the Fist Market for their Combo Shrimp/Crab Louie…always delicious…the only difference was the price…over the years…but alas and alack, The First Market closed…they sold the land…to build residences no doubt, since it was on the water…they haven’t torn it down yet…it sits vacant for now… anyway, first to Raymond’s to get sour dough to take home…the loaves are still warm…now that’s fresh…I understand Westlake Joe’s closed for two years during Covid…now people are coming in there all night…by the time we were finished there were people lined up for a table…Nancy and I used to go there for their burger…a delicious burger on sour dough bread…but today…Janae and Sydney met us…and Patricia and Denny were going to meet us for lunch…which was messed up…they were sitting at the counter…watching the cooking…they had almost finished eating and came to our table afterward to say so long…ordered the Bay Shrimp Louie… which was just great…I had a bowl of Minestrone soup first…we lots of sour dough bread…also some sour dough garlic bread…the Bay Shrimp Louie was everything I’d hope for…so delicious…so delicious!…I ate the whole thing…we don’t get those baby Bay Shrimp back East…my search for my Shrimp Louie was over this time…good to know Westlake Joe’s is still good after opening up again…
we came home, Janae and Sydney were there, Sydney had to print out something for school…said our good byes…then Candy and Marcus and I relaxed to watch Places in the Heart…the movie that won Sally Field her second Best Actress Oscar…her first for Norma Rae from 1979…in 79 she beat out Jill Clayburgh in Starting Over, Jane Fonda in The China Syndrome, Marsha Mason in Chapter Two and Bette Midler in The Rose…in 84 she beat out Judy David in A Passage to India, Jessica Lange in Country, Vanessa Redgrave in The Bostonians and Sissy Spacek in The Riverfrom Wikpedia: “Places in the Heart is a 1984 American drama film written and directed by Robert Benton. It stars Sally Field, Lindsay Crouse, Ed Harris, Ray Baker, Amy Madigan, John Malkovich, Danny Glover, Jerry Haynes and Terry O’Quinn. The film’s narrative follows Edna Spalding, a young woman during the Great Depression in Texas who is forced to take charge of her farm after the death of her husband and is helped by a motley bunch.”…notably by Danny Glover and a special appearance by the KKK…John Malkovich plays a blind boarder…who recognizing who the KKK are, by their voices…
then we watched Author! Author!…one of my favorites with Al Pacino as a playwright…with a pack of children, mostly mothered by Tuesday Weld and then leaves…”when she leaves, she leaves for good.”…it’s and adorbale movie…I love it…also starring Dyan Cannon…from Wikipedia: “Author! Author! is a 1982 American autobiographical film directed by Arthur Hiller, written by Israel Horovitz and starring Al Pacino.”…from IMDb: “Playwright Travalian feels pulled limb from limb these days. He has a Broadway play in rehearsal and they want rewrites. His tramp wife is leaving him, leaving him as well with four children from her previous marriages plus his own son. And his lead actress wants to move in with him but isn’t used to kids.—Paul Emmons <pemmons@wcupa.edu>…from Wikipedia: Casting: “Cannon was originally asked to play Gloria, but turned it down because she found the character “bitchy” and had played that kind of role before. She was then asked to play Alice and agreed because she loved the character. Cannon enjoyed making the film and compared the experience to “being on a cruise”. Alan King also enjoyed filming, and said that his character was a cross between Hal Prince and Zero Mostel.
Pacino did not get along with Hiller while filming. Pacino said, “sometimes people who are not really meant to be together get together in this business for a short time. It’s very unfortunate for all parties concerned.” Pacino told that he made the film, because he thought he would enjoy making a film “about a guy with his kids, dealing with New York and show business. I thought it would be fun.” Pacino said that he enjoyed working with the actors, who spend time with his children.”…the great line for Author! Author! “the only thing that I regret about you’re being my father, is that I inherited your tremendous nose!”…
good day today…a little cold but not as bad as Philadelphia…blue skies…sunny…and leisurely…ready to go home…all is well and a Shrimp Louie in my stomach…Yum!…
Rosalynn Carter is lying in repose at the Jimmy Carter Presidential Library in Atlanta…First Lady Rosalynn Carter died on November 19 at age 96…she was a tireless advocate of mental health reform…and for the destigmatization of mental illness…she will be remembered for that as her legacy…her funeral will be on Wednesday…the Carters were married for 77 years…sadly, she was diagnosed with dementia….President Carter, at 99, will attend his wife’s funeral…a tribute service on Tuesday will be attended by President Biden and Jill and Vice President Kamala Harris and the second gentleman, Doug…show up for the Democrats…a good thing…
emotions ran high as Hamas released 11 more Israeli hostages today…it was the final day of the four day truce, which possibly could be extended 2 more days…from The New York Times: “Israel and Hamas agreed on Monday to extend their fragile truce for 2 more days, an act of continued cooperation that could allow for additional aid to flow into Gaza and the release of more hostages, prisoners and detainees than initially expected.
The extension, coming as the initial four-day truce was set to expire on Tuesday, was announced by Qatari mediators a few hours before 11 more Israeli hostages — including 3-year-old twins — were released into the custody of Israel’s military late Monday.
Hours later, a Red Cross bus of Palestinian prisoners and detainees arrived in the West Bank town of Ramallah as crowds cheered their arrival, according to The Associated Press.
It was the fourth swap of prisoners and hostages, one for each day of the cease-fire so far. The Israeli prime minister’s office said the released hostages included a 12-year-old boy and multiple members of four other families. The Israeli military said that they would undergo initial medical assessments and that its troops would accompany them until they were reunited with their families.
Hamas released 11 Israeli hostages — all women and children taken from Kibbutz Nir Oz — on Monday, the fourth day of the cease-fire, according to the Israeli government.
The new releases followed an initial release of 13 Israelis on Friday, 13 more late on Saturday and 14 on Sunday. Some of those released are dual nationals.
An official briefed on the negotiations said that avoiding family separation was critical for the Israelis and that their concerns had escalated as the final day of the initial truce began on Monday. Two sets of siblings returned with their mothers to Israel late on Monday, but their fathers were believed to still be held in Gaza…those released: Sharon Alony Cunio, 34, and her 3-year-old twins, Emma Cunio and Yuli Cunio…Karina Engelbert, 51; Mika Engel, 18; Yuval Engel, 11...Eitan Yahalomi, 12…Erez Kalderon, 12; Sahar Kalderon, 16…Or Yaakov, 16; Yagil Yaakov, 12…none of the fathers were released….
Elon Musk…wtf…”Elon Musk traveled to Israel and met with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday, touring the scene of a Hamas attack in a visit that appeared aimed at calming the outcry over his endorsement of an antisemitic conspiracy theory on X, the social media platform he owns.
Dozens of major brands suspended their advertising on X after Mr. Musk this month agreed with a post that accused Jewish communities of pushing “hatred against whites that they claim to want people to stop using against them.” The flight of advertisers threatened to cost X tens of millions of dollars, and the White House denounced Mr. Musk for “abhorrent promotion of antisemitic and racist hate.”…by Ryan Mac: “
Less than 24 hours after Elon Musk endorsed an antisemitic post on X as “the actual truth” of what Jewish people were doing, IBM paused its advertising on the social media platform as X’s chief executive, Linda Yaccarino, and others at the company scrambled on Thursday to contain the fallout.
X employees said on Thursday that they had gotten calls from advertisers wondering why Mr. Musk was making comments seen as antisemitic and why their ads were showing up next to white nationalist and Nazi content, according to internal messages that were viewed by The New York Times. IBM cut off about $1 million in advertising spending that it had committed to the platform for the last three months of the year, the messages said.
In a note to employees on Thursday morning, Ms. Yaccarino said that “X is a platform for everyone” and that “discrimination by everyone should STOP across the board.” She said the company had been clear about its work to fight antisemitism and discrimination, and later shared a similar message on X.
In a statement, IBM said it “has zero tolerance for hate speech and discrimination, and we have immediately suspended all advertising on X while we investigate this entirely unacceptable situation.”
Mr. Musk, who bought Twitter last year and renamed it X, has faced increasing criticism that he has tolerated and even encouraged antisemitic abuse on his social media platform. He has attacked George Soros, the financier who is a frequent target of antisemitic abuse, and threatened to sue the Anti-Defamation League, a rights group that has highlighted the rise in antisemitism on X.
On Wednesday, Mr. Musk went further when he agreed with a post from an X account accusing Jewish communities of pushing “hatred against whites that they claim to want people to stop using against them.” Jewish people are now “coming to the disturbing realization that those hordes of minorities that support flooding their country don’t exactly like them too much,” the account added.
“You have said the actual truth,” Mr. Musk replied to the post.
Jewish groups have compared the statement that Mr. Musk endorsed to the “Great Replacement Theory,” the far-right idea that minorities are replacing white European populations.
“It is the deadliest antisemitic conspiracy theory in modern U.S. history,” the American Jewish Committee, a U.S.-based Israel advocacy group, wrote on X on Thursday. “To amplify it on @X is incredibly dangerous.”
Social media platforms in general have faced rising scrutiny since Hamas attacked Israel last month and Israel retaliated. Antisemitic and Islamophobic hate speech has surged across the sites and has been especially prominent on X, according to the Anti-Defamation League and researchers. On Wednesday night, more than a dozen Jewish creators and celebrities also confronted TikTok executives in a private meeting, urging them to do more to address a rise in antisemitism and harassment on the video service.”…the only and best thing to do is hit him in his pocketbook…
45 years ago…from SFist: “Monday night vigil mark the 45th Anniversary of Harvey Milk and George Moscone Assassinations: One of the darkest days in SF history will be marked with the annual vigil in the Castro honoring the legacies of Harvey Milk and George Moscone, both murdered 45 years ago today.
But it’s impossible to exaggerate how shocking it was that a former SF supervisor, Dan White, snuck a gun into City Hall 45 years ago and killed both the sitting mayor and a supervisor, and suddenly ended Milk’s trailblazing tenure as the first openly gay man elected to public office in the state of California.
As it is every year, the legacy of both men will be celebrated at a joint vigil Monday night at Harvey Milk Plaza.
“Sometimes it feels like a million years ago, sometimes like it was just yesterday,” says activist and friend of Milk, Cleve Jones, in an Instagram post Monday about the vigil.
“The vigil will bring together community members, activists, and leaders to reflect on the impact and significance of Harvey Milk and Mayor Moscone’s contributions to the LGBTQ+ community and civil rights movement,” the Harvey Milk LGBTQ Democratic Club says in an Instagram announcement. “It will serve as a solemn yet celebratory occasion to remember their unwavering dedication to creating a more inclusive and equitable society.”
House Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi put out a statement Monday saying, “45 years ago, in a moment of horror and heartbreak, San Francisco Mayor George Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk were assassinated. We mourn these two beacons of hope whose transformational legacies continue to inspire our quest for LGBTQ+ equality, and freedom from gun violence.”
The 7 p.m. vigil will also feature a candlelight walk, and performances by the Lesbian/Gay Freedom Band of San Francisco and the San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus. (That chorus actually gave their first public performance, Mendelssohn’s “Thou, Lord our Refuge,” at an impromptu memorial for Milk the night he was assassinated.)
The vigil will also commemorate the victims of last November’s Club Q shootings in Colorado Springs, where five people were killed and 25 more injured at an LGBTQ bar, in what prosecutors considered an anti-gay hate crime. The one-year anniversary of that shooting was last week.”…
today was my day to visit my Mom and Dad’s grave…at Holy Cross Cemetery…I took some of the Thanksgiving flowers and a stone…a stone to denote my visit…a Jewish culture tradition when visiting a grave…I also placed a sunflower on Tony and Shirley’s grave…our neighbors on Massasoit Street…they’re in the same row a number of graves apart at Holy Cross…I noticed how close together the couples died of each other…my Dad died on January 5, 1999…Mom died January 9, 2019…Tony died February 12, 2007 and Shirley died February 11, 2016…
I then made my way to the SFMOMO…the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art at 3rd and Mission in The City…I walked over 3.5 miles today…mostly at the Museum…it’s such a beautiful building…when we were here in 2019 at Thanksgiving we all went to the Museum to see the Diego Rivera retrospective…a wonderful exhibition…they had the fresco from the City College of San Francisco…called the Pan American Unity mural…he painted the mural in June 1940 during the Golden Gate International Exposition which was held on Treasure Island…he painted it over several months before a live audience and with the support of local artists and assistants…he completed The Marriage of the Artistic Expression of the North and of the South on this Continent, commonly known as Pan American Unity…it was the last mural he created in the United States…it remained in storage until 1961 when it was installed in the campus theater at what is now The City College of San Francisco…The City College has loaned the mural to the Modern while the College builds a new performing arts center…a number of years ago I went to City College to see this fabulous mural…I kept asking students where it was…they had no clue when it was let alone what a treasure they had on campus…I eventually found it…it’s huge…it was on a wall at the entrance Art Center…you couldn’t get that far away from it…but it was as close to me in a not so wide hallway…today there were several exhibitions I wanted to see…and I made it to all 7 floors…I was immersed in Art for several hours…I had to park a block away in public parking…okay getting there, but I was tired going back…rushing too to get home…Bill and Judy invited my sister and I for dinner…dinner at 6…Judy goes to bed early, hence the early time for dinner…Bill cooked us Short Ribs, rice pilaf and mixed veggies…dinner was so delicious…freshly baked sour dough bread too…I was late getting to Candy’s so we were late getting there…I blamed it on the full moon…the Museum was great…I saved it for this trip since I didn’t have time when I was here in October…I took Phil and Hana to the De Young in Golden Gate Park…so crossed that off my list…I used to have an out of town membership there…but since my Mom died I don’t get there as often as I did…
a portion of the Pan American Unity mural…see Frida in the middle bottom?…it’s amazing…
The first retrospective of Pacita Abad (born 1946, Basco, Philippines; died 2004, Singapore) features more than 40 works including her signature trapunto paintings: stuffed, quilted canvases Abad adorned with materials and methods she investigated during her lifetime.
The Fisher Collection: “The Doris and Donald Fisher Collection is among the world’s greatest private collections of contemporary art. Founders of San Francisco–based Gap Inc., the couple began collecting prints to enliven the company’s offices in the mid-1970s, and they soon expanded their efforts to include paintings, sculptures, and drawings. They agreed early on that they would never buy a work unless they both liked it, a decision that has ensured that the collection reflects their shared sensibilities. Never interested in working with an advisor or a curator, they developed their knowledge independently by visiting galleries, museums, and artists’ studios around the world, building lifelong friendships with many artists along the way. As the late Don Fisher once put it: “The collection is the result of our looking a lot and then looking some more.”
The Fishers delved into the work of artists they admired over the course of many years, and as a result the collection is distinguished by significant concentrations of works by Alexander Calder, Ellsworth Kelly, William Kentridge, Anselm Kiefer, Sol LeWitt, Agnes Martin, Gerhard Richter, Richard Serra, and Andy Warhol, among others. Spanning more than three floors of the museum, the initial installation of the Fisher Collection at SFMOMA honors that strength with numerous monographic galleries and highlights the collection’s notable focus on American abstraction; American Pop, figurative, and minimal art after 1960; and German art after 1960.
Although the Fishers lived with many favorite artworks in their home, their belief in the power of art to enrich lives and spur creativity led them to share much of their collection with Gap employees by displaying it throughout the offices and in dedicated gallery spaces at the company’s headquarters. A similar spirit has guided the Fishers’ decades-long relationship with SFMOMA. Since the 1980s, they have served on the museum’s Board of Trustees, made exceptional gifts of art, and supported numerous major exhibitions, acquisitions, and education programs. The family’s connection to SFMOMA now extends into the future through an unprecedented partnership to present the Fisher Collection at the museum. With the opening of the expanded SFMOMA in 2016, a collection built on one couple’s shared passion for art became a vital part of the cultural fabric of San Francisco.”…their collection includes a number of Andy Warhols…Ellsworth Kellys…Agnes Martins…Cy Twomblys…Anselm Keifer…Gerhard Richter…Roy Lichenstein…Alexander Calders…Chuck Closes…you want to own what they own…it’s good to have what money can buy and share it with everyone…I admire that…my time at the Museum was well spent…enjoyed every aching feet/knee moments…it was a good day in the neighborhood…all 4 hours I was there…all the numbers for today…
woke up this morning to go to the bathroom…then back to sleep…to wake up again and back to sleep…to wake again to lay there, watching and listening to Antiques Roadshow…finally up at 11:30 in time to hop in the shower…then appear in the kitchen to eat a donut and coffee…take my pills…Candy had my coffee ready in the Kuerig…all I had to do is press brew…Candy made the three of us ham and eggs…I fried up a mashed potato patty and some stuffing…it was time to watch football…in the meantime, I’m told Sydney and Koa were still sleeping at 11:30…Pam and Julia and Henry landed at 8:00ish…Pam ran for the train and made it with minutes to spare…Julia and Henry Ubered to her apartment…a day of chill for them too…Phil paid a visit to Pam’s but she was sleeping…he got to meet Allegra…breakfast was great…Marcus is a die-hard Denver Broncos fan…they were playing the Cleveland Browns the same time the Eagles were playing the Buffalo Bills…and we couldn’t find where the Eagles were playing so Marcus could record for me…he got it streaming on his computer so I could watch…the Broncos were on a four game winning streak…and handily beat the Cleveland…29-12…the Eagles game was another story…Eagles were at first winning 7-0…then the 7-3…then Bills 10-3…a Bills field goal was blocked…but at the half it was Bills 17-7…the Eagles trailing, playing catch-up the second half of the game…after the third quarter it was Bills 24-14…in the fourth quarter…it was Bills 24-21…they managed to overtake the Bills 28-24…then the Bills overtook the Eagles 31-28…pushed to the point where the Eagles had to kick a field goal to tie up the game in a do or die kick…Eagles kicker Jake Elliott nailed a game-tying, 59-yard field goal with 20 seconds left in the game…how exciting was that?…very exciting!!!…it rained the entire game in Philadelphia… then it was Bills 34-31 in an overtime field goal…then after a nine-play, 75-yard drive, Hurts ran in 12 yards for a touchdown…Fly Eagles Fly to a win 37-34…our record now 10-1…what a game!…what a game!!!…the rest of the day which ended the daylight at 5:00…Candy managed a nap on the recliner…I managed a cat nap…Candy made turkey soup for dinner which we ate around 8:00…turkey noodle…I had a couple of bowls…Marcus only one…to decline a second saying he was “sick of turkey”…we paused watching The King’s Speech…Prince Albert, Duke of York who studders ascends the throne after his brother Prince Albert, Duke of Yorkfrom Wikipedia: “The King’s Speech is a 2010 historical drama film directed by Tom Hooper and written by David Seidler. Colin Firth plays the future King George VI who, to cope with a stammer, sees Lionel Logue, an Australian speech and language therapist played by Geoffrey Rush. The men become friends as they work together, and after his brother abdicates the throne, the new king relies on Logue to help him make his first wartime radio broadcast upon Britain’s declaration of war on Germany in 1939.
Seidler read about George VI’s life after learning to manage a stuttering condition he developed during his own youth. He started writing about the relationship between the therapist and his royal patient as early as the 1980s, but at the request of the King’s widow, Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother, postponed work until her death in 2002. He later rewrote his screenplay for the stage to focus on the essential relationship between the two protagonists. Nine weeks before filming began, the filmmakers learned of the existence of notes written by Logue that were being used by his grandson Mark and Peter Conradi as the basis of a book, and were granted permission to incorporate material from the notes and book into the script.
Principal photography took place in London and around Britain from November 2009 to January 2010. Hard light was used to give the story a greater resonance and wider-than-normal lenses were employed to recreate the Duke of York’s feelings of constriction. A third technique Hooper employed was the off-centre framing of characters.
The King’s Speech was a major box office and critical success. It was widely praised by film critics for its visual style, art direction, screenplay, directing, score, and acting. Other commentators discussed the film’s representation of historical detail, especially the reversal of Winston Churchill‘s opposition to abdication. The film received many awards and nominations, particularly for Colin Firth’s performance, which resulted in his first Academy Award for Best Actor. At the 83rd Academy Awards, The King’s Speech received 12 Oscar nominations, more than any other film in that year, and subsequently won four, including Best Picture. Censors initially gave it adult ratings due to profanity, though these were later revised downwards after criticism by the makers and distributors in the UK and some instances of swearing were muted in the US. On a budget of £8 million, it earned over £250 million internationally…from the Plot: “George V dies in 1936, and his eldest son David ascends the throne as King Edward VIII. A constitutional crisis arises with the new king over a prospective marriage with the twice-divorced American socialite Wallis Simpson. Edward, as the supreme governor of the Church of England, cannot marry her, even if she receives her second divorce, since both her previous husbands are alive…Edward VIII abdicates the throne “for the woman he loves”…Prince Albert ascends the throne as George VI… Logue, who received the Royal Victorian Order for service to the Crown, was always present at King George VI’s speeches during the war and that they remained friends until the King’s death from lung cancer in 1952.”…in 1952 Princess Elizabeth becomes Queen Elizabeth II and reigned for over 72 years…it was a great movie…great performances by Colin Firth and Geoffrey Rush…Helena Bonham Carter as Queen Elizabeth…Guy Pearce as Edward VIII…Timothy Spall as Churchill…Derek Jacobi as Archbishop of Centerbury…and Michael Gambon as George V…Michael Gambon became Prof. Albus Dumbledore in the Harry Potter series after Richard Harris died in 2002…
then I watched the 5th installment of The Guilded Age…juicy…racial trouble in the South Peggy…Aunt Ada marries Forte over her sister’s almost dead, furious body… Mrs. Winterton tries to ruin Bertha’s Duke of Buckingham’s Newport dinner party…I love this season more than the first…don’t get me wrong…I liked the first season…this one’s better…so ends my day of chill along with everyone else I know in the family…the day of chill…
I do not like saying goodbye…but all good things come to any end…we had a wonderful Thanksgiving week… we all loved being together…so important to my sister…and me…that we were all together here on this particular Thanksgiving…and we got to have my grandchildren’s significant others here also…that was a real treat…to be together for fun and games…to get to know them better…what could be more perfect?…the exodus started this morning…Ben and Allegra had an 11:30 flight…the same one I will take on Wednesday…I wanted to take them to the airport, since I didn’t pick them up on Tuesday…they didn’t get in until 2:00 AM…their flight was delayed… they made it to their hotel…not far from Candy’s or Janae’s…sort of in between…they had the use of Ray’s car to go back and forth…they got little sleep on Tuesday night, actually Wednesday since we were meeting at 7:30 to get ourselves to Napa…this morning I would take them to the airport…to be there at a little after 9:30…it was pretty much smooth sailing…I set my alarm for 8:30 so I would be ready for them to pick me up to take them to catch their plane…in the meantime, I packed them a linner…each w a turkey sandwich on sour dough bread…4 small bags of potato chips…a little bag of nuts…2 brownies..an apple fritter cut in fourths…2 little bags of pretzels…I got them to the airport at 9:45…on the way they told me they kept getting emails from the airline…if they were willing to give up their seats the could get a voucher for another flight…the amount of the voucher kept going up and up…ending at $1,000…Ben said he would have taken them up on their offer except that Allegra had to be back at work on Monday…and they were flying to Philadelphia to stay at his house overnight before she returns to NYC…she couldn’t be at Pam’s by herself…so no go with the airline…as we were walking around Bernal Heights they texted us that they had landed…around 3:30 Pacific time…we got ourselves together at Candy’s house…I stopped at the donut shop on the way home from the airport…bought a few more bear claws and another apple fritter…came back to Candy’s, finished my coffee with a couple of donuts…hopped in the shower and ready to go around noon…took some of the leftover to Janae’s where we ate lunch…turkey, ham, mashed potatoes, stuffing, cranberry sauce and gravy…we made a nice litter lunch for us before going a walk to my house on Massasoit Street…but first we met Patricia and Denny ( a S.F. fireman ) up on Bernal Heights… where we walked around …a portion of it now closed to traffic…I pointed out the location of where my brother Cliff totaled our 1955 Chevy…and the place where I first saw San Francisco when I was 8 years old…a truly magical happening…those many years ago 72 years ago…the skyline was different then…of course…then a short drive when we got back to the car…to Massasoit Street…on short block in length…when I great up from 1952…I had met the fellow who lives there now…he painted the top Hunter Green…it’s been many colors over the years…and where Tony and Shirley and their kids lived…in the bottom apartment…my brother and Sarah and their 6 kids lived…also my grandfather in another little apartment across the street from us…Candy told me that her bestie, Wanda, also lived where Tony and Shirley lived when she was first married…my sister’s other friend Diane lived across the street…Bobby McFerson now lives there…you know Bobby of Don’t Worry Be Happy fame?…it turns out Tony’s and my Mom and Dad’s graves are a few feet away from each other…neighbors in life and now death…I will go put flowers on their graves tomorrow or Monday…as we were stopped at the bottom of the street, Candy and I were pointing out another house where renowned jazz musician, John Santos, grew up… they had a portrait of John Santos at the National Portrait Gallery a while back…I saw it on one of my trips to DC and the National Portrait Gallery…his brother was a designer who died young…a guy came up to our car because we were blocking his ride…we told him we lived there, original owners…my Mom and Dad bought that house for $11,400…they sold the should in the 70’s for $47,000…he bought his house for $700,000…his house has a great view of The City…we continued up and around and back down Massasoit then down Rutledge…the narrow little street which leads to Alabama passed the store where we bought penny candy…down the street was Precita Park…our elementary school named Le Conte, now some other name…I went there for two years, 4th and 5th… Candy went there for Kindergarten…then we all went to St. Anthony’s…up the street on the other end of Precita Park…an adorable little neighborhood…then Denny led us to the Noe Bakery in the Noe Valley…we went there to get some almond croissants…but of course they were sold out…but we bought a few other things…then we raced back to Janae’s so Pam and Julia and Henry could say goodbye to Sidney…she was going out with her friends…we decided to go the the California Pizza Kitchen which is around the corner from Janae’s…Candy drove me…I was tried of walking…I walked over 2.6 miles today…their was a long wait, a half hour wait…we tried going somewhere else but it was the same scenario…and we ended up the the California Pizza Kitchen…where we had salads…a pizza…avocado egg rolls…I got The Wedge…and a buffalo cauliflower for the table…that was delicious…but pricey for portion…dinner was great, just what we needed…then back to Janae’s for them to pack…Candy went home to go to bed…I would go with them to say goodbye…by that time Sidney has come house so she joined us…the four of them smashed into the back seat…the traffic was bumper to bumper in the turnoff for the Domestic Flights at the airport, unlike this morning…it seems there were many “red eye” flights and perhaps people coming back to the San Francisco Bay area…again, parting is such sweet sorrow…we said our goodbyes…hugs and kisses all around…and they were off to their gate…I suspect their security line was a bummer…they were boarding at 11:00 and they were taking off at 12.05…onward and upward…they will arrive at 8:00 AM…to take the train to Elkins Park…Henry and Julia to Uber to their respective apartments…another great visit to San Francisco…my sister and Marcus and Janae and Sydney were so appreciative of us coming…I’ll be here to take off Wednesday morning…another parting of such sweet sorrow…
up early to go to the bathroom, then back to bed…still watching/listening to Antiques Roadshow…I always enjoy Antiques Roadshow when I happen upon it, channel surfing…my favorite recently, a woman’s husband bought two Escher prints directly from him for $30 each…two iconic Eschers…she came to the Roadshow to have them appraised…turns out they’re worth $80,000…quite a return of his investment…she had correspondence with her husband and Escher and a bill of sale…I go to sleep with it and wake up in the morning with it…I do especially like the art that they bought 50 years ago or inherited…where their $300 investment…which at the time was a fortune, the painting is now worth $15,000-$20,000…it was too early to get up…so I went back to sleep only to be awaken by Candy…she was leaving for a walk and I was supposed to pick Julia and Pam and Henry and Sidney for our day shopping in the Haight Ashbury district…Ben and Allegra met us at Janae’s…they pulled up right after me…after a couple of dip of tortilla chips into the Tostitos Queso…which, by the way, is delicious…sitting a short time in the dining room, while we got ourselves together…then we were off…this time Ben and Allegra and Sidney came with me…Pam drove Julia and Henry…we made our way to the Haight…Henry wanted to see the Grateful Dead house…located at 710 Ashbury Street…a block and a half from Haight and Ashbury, the iconic hippy intersection…the Victorian home is now privately owned…the Grateful Dead lived there from October 1966 to March 1968…first, famous for the band’s home for those 3 years but also famous for a drug bust in 1967…from Taylor on a Trip: “The Grateful Dead, also known as ‘The Dead” was a jam band founded in Palo Alto, California in 1965. Known for their eclectic style and long bouts of noodling, the band fused together elements of rock, blues, jazz, folk, and country to form their own psychedelic sound. Though they had no radio hits, the band is on the charts as one of the most successful touring shows in music history.
The founding members of the Grateful Dead were Jerry Garcia, Bill Kreutzmann, Phil Lesh, Ron “Pigpen” McKernan, and Bob Weir.
That said, known for way more than just music, the Grateful Dead became synonymous with the embodiment of the hippie movement and for their ever-traveling fans, who became known as “Deadheads.”
Grateful Dead Fast Facts:
The Grateful Dead played to an approximated 25 million people over the course of their career
The band was in the Guinness Book of World Records for having played the “most rock concerts ever performed”. At the time, this record was set at 2,138 shows.
The Grateful Dead was the highest-grossing American band of the 90s, having made $285 million from touring alone
Jerry Garcia, one of the band’s founders and perhaps the most famous member, passed away in 1995
Ron “Pigpen” McKernan passed away at the age of 27 in 1973 due to an alcohol-related hemorrhage
Friends of Ken Kesey and the Merry Pranksters, the Grateful Dead was the house band for Kesey’s San Francisco “Acid Tests”. In fact, Jerry Garcia had the nickname “Captain Trips” because of his LSD affiliation
It was at the Acid Tests where the Grateful Dead began a partnership with LSD manufacturer Owsley Stanley, who would later finance the band, produce some works, and engineer the iconic “Wall of Sound Stacks” (not affiliated with Phil Spector)
The Grateful Dead were the most notorious residents of Haight-Ashbury in the 60s
The Grateful Dead’s 710 Ashbury house was the location of the infamous 1967 drug bust, which was reported in the front-page news as “ROCK BAND BUSTED”
The Grateful Dead had a roster of 500 different songs during their improvised sets
The book The Electric Kool-aid Acid Test by Tom Wolfe details what it was like to be at the house during the late sixties; especially given that the house was financially taken care of by LSD guru, Owsley Stanley, and was frequented by characters such as author Ken Kesey and Jack Kerouac muse, Neal Cassady. On October 2, 1967, narcotics officers, reporters, and TV crews stormed the Grateful Dead house looking for drugs and they found a pound of pot. Bob Weir (the Grateful Dead’s rhythm guitarist and sometimes vocalist) and Ron “Pigpen” KcKernan (vocals, organ, harmonica) were arrested along with 8 others for possession of marijuana.
The charges were eventually dropped (all they got was a $200 fine), but not before a news conference was held in at 710 Ashbury to protest the drug bust. The incident made local headlines and was reported in the very first issue of Rolling Stone Magazine.
Due to the commercialization of Haight-Ashbury and the increased use of hard drugs in the area, the Grateful Dead left 710 Ashbury in March 1968.”…now a haven for vintage clothing…plant stores…restaurants…and bars… the kids loved shopping there four years ago…and we played our day to be there today…in and out of stores… scoping out what they had to offer…trying on clothes…everyone found stuff except for Allegra…there are bargains to be found…but few and far between…even with Black Friday “discounts”…stuff was still expensive…for used stuff…hahahaha…we were ready to sit…and maybe eat a little something…we went to this taco place we had gone the last time…ordered too much…and a mishap…Pam left the key to the restroom on the sink…locked out customers that came after us…Pam felt badly…and the woman behind the cash register didn’t hop to it before she came with another key…portions were big…and we were expected for leftover dinner…by 5:30 it was dark and we had been up and down the street shopping til we dropped…they have lights lining the street at change colors…a happy sight…off Pam and Julia and Henry and Sidney to get to Candy asap…Ben and Allegra and I lingered a little longer while they shopped at the store next to our restaurants…Ben drove home… making our way down Lincoln, then through Golden Gate Park for a little to make the left turn onto 19th Avenue…home again, home again jiggity jig…we sat but they hardly ate anything…but did manage to drink more wine…I ate part of my turkey leg…the doctored mashed potatoes by Candy which made them creamy and delicious…after dinner and dessert…we played another game…a kind of Password…giving clue to the word or phrase…on Julia’s phone…amazing tech…with some sexual references the we tried to censure…since Sidney was in on the fun…Ben and Allegra go back tomorrow on an 11:30 Flight…Pam and Julia and Henry tomorrow night on a red eye…so we have the day together…it’s been a great trip…but always too short…we’re talking about the next trip…for for today…another fun day in San Francisco…
a wonderful day in San Mateo…San Francisco…blue skies forever…to afternoon sightseeing before dinner…two cars, one with me the driver and tour guide, Julia and Henry and Sidney…the other with Ben as diver with Allegra and Pam…first to Twin Peaks…to see The City in all its splendor…always an amazing sight…I never tire of seeing it…it was especially clear today…spent about 15-20 minutes there with all the other people enjoying the sight, then down Market Street passed by The Castro…the Mint…with the Ferry Building in the distance…left on Buchanan to right on Oak to left on Gough, passed my High School…to left on Lombard…cross over Van Ness and up Lombard to the top and down “the crookedest street in the world”…crowds there too…seems like tourists are out and about before their dinner too…then down to right on Bay, cross over Columbus to left onto The Embarcadero into Fisherman’s Wharf, Pier 39…crowds there too…up passed the Buena Vista Cafe to Ghiardelli Square…back to right on Bay to left on Van Ness to right on Bay again to right to Marina Boulevard, passed the San Francisco Yacht Club where my Senior Prom took place…to left of Baker to see the Palace of Fine Arts…crowds there too…to right on Lombard to the Golden Gate Bridge…”San Francisco open your Golden Gate, you’ll let no stranger wait outside your door!”…the plan was to cross the Golden Gate Bridge to Vista Point but we couldn’t stop…the entrance was blocked off…bummer…so looped around to go back on the bridge to right in get through that part of the Presidio by Baker Beach to right in the Sea Cliff area of multi-million dollar homes to stop to see the view of the Golden Gate from that angle…to up and around the Palace of the Legion of Honor to see their Rodin’s The Thinker…having decided to go back the quicker way, not by Ocean Beach to get back to Candy’s to help prepare the meal…Candy called us to pick up the turkey dinner at Max’s…she got a turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, two containers of gravy…I got another…you can never have too much gravy…back at Candy’s for hors d’oeurve…everyone was starving…a little wine…make salad…make my Mom’s mashed brussel sprouts with carrots …Marcus cut the guest of honor…the Turkey…the table was set while we were gone…I did the flowers last night…and then the meal and what we are thankful for…and aren’t we all thankful for our family…being together…missing those who have gone before us…a lovely dinner…delicious food…love all around…and wine that we bought yesterday, flowing…
dinner over…played a game Allegra told us about…first you write the name of a celebrity on a piece of paper…Ben recorded everyone’s answer…he reads the names twice and the rest of us guess who wrote the name…if you guess correctly they become your team member…so much fun…followed by a movie title…and then a musical singer or group…really fun…Thanksgiving was great…and I hope your’s was a great as mine…it was wonderful, beyond wonderful…
everything came together…Ben and Allegra landed after a bumpy flight, part of it, like our’s on Monday…made their way to the hotel…we had picked up the van that my sister rented…in the driveway for our jaunt to Napa… arrangements for Koa were made…my alarm was set for 6:45…we would all gather together by 7:30…to get on the road by 8:00…Napa an hour and a half or so north…Marcus is our designated driver…bagels were eaten… coffee made and drank…we were all together to board the van…which turned out to be roomy, comfortable, and raring to go…we were on the road by 8:05…making our way to Napa for our 10:00 appointment…winery hopping has turned out to be big business…you must make appointment…pay their fee…to get your foot in the door… everyone so happy to be together…lively conversation…and I pointed out various places of interest for Allegra and Henry in particular…traffic was okay…no problem…crossed the Bay Bridge reminding us how a piece of it had collapsed in the earthquake of 1989….it was repaired in record time…being a main artery into San Francisco…we passed a major refinery on the way…I can never understand why California’s price of gas is so expensive…when they have major refineries here…the only reason I can figure out is because they can… especially since the price of gas has come down dramatically since this time last year…inflation is stable…jobs are up…pay is up…unemployment down…the price of our turkey is down from last year…even though Fox “News” is complaining their turkey cost $90.00 just to “inform” their viewers, actually feed misinformation about our economy…I digress…we arrived at our first appointment…the Paraduxx Winery…a beautiful building and we were early for…they weren’t ready for us, but let us use the facilities…before we sat down at a table on the patio…it was a beautiful day to be sitting outside…blue skies over the vineyards…have you ever started drinking wine at 10:00 in the morning?…but we were ready…they gave us a number of wines…with little dishes of giant corn nuts…cheddar cheese made for goat and cow milk…and various raisins…with explanations of each wine…3 white and 2 red…it was lovely…my favorite after having been to the other two…the harvest of the grapes was over since October..the vines were yellow instead of green…in beautiful rows…we were there for an hour and a half or so…we bought a couple of bottles for Thanksgiving dinner…then on to the next…to the Del Dotto Caves… where we were given wine from their oak barrels in the cave…nice caves built under the hills at this winery…we were given our first glass of wine and they asked for our order of 3 pizzas…which turned out to be 4…part of the deal…which we would eat after the wines from the caves…it was lovely also…delicious wine…and our pizzas on the patio…chees…2 pepperoni…and veggie… outside on the patio…under the same beautiful blue sky…we bought a magnum of red for our Thanksgiving dinner…then on to St. Helena…to the restaurant Market for lunch…who’s hungry?…but be ate…we had our same waiter that we had a couple of years back…Julia told me she looked back into my blog for the last time…what we ordered…this time Candy and I had the Crab Louie…Marcus had the Burger…Janae the French Dip…Allegra and Ben shared the tuna tartare and French Dip…Julia had the Adult Mac and Cheese and Henry ordered nothing…he would share Julia’s …we we shared our lunch with him…Henry was the only sensible eater…Julia and Janae had expresso Martinis…lunch over we moved on to our last winery…the Peju Winery…filled with sculpture…and good wines…free persimmons…and a couple of bottles of their refreshing red we were on our way back home…day turned into night…Marcus a good driver…stopped on Treasure Island…halfway over the Bay Bridge…to view San Francisco’s skyline…all the lights and iconic buildings…a beautiful view…back in time to take the van back by 8:00…Ben drove me to the Rental Return…Candy and Marcus taking the van back…Henry, Pam and Janae to picked up papusas…they are little corn meal cakes stuffed with beans, or cheese…served with a mild sauce and a cole slaw…the national dish of San Salvador…just delicious…we’re told Henry ordered in Spanish…the product of his Spanish immersion elementary school in Arlington…Bruce and Bernice’s kids, Rachel and Simon, also attended a Spanish immersion school in Maryland on the outskirts of DC…the immersion served them well…we all loved the papusas…more lively conversation…Ben and Allegra got very little sleep last night…so we all dispersed to meet again tomorrow…for sightseeing in the morning before our Thanksgiving dinner…to give thanks for our blessings of the past year…Happy Thanksgiving…will you watch the Macy’s Parade?…I’ll try to be up…to watch a little of it…heavy security I saw in the news…a great, fun day in Napa…enjoying the blue skies and the “fruit of the vine”…
went to bed at 6:00 East Coast time…3:00 West Coast time…and woke up at 7:30 West Coast time…4 and half hours sleep…what?…said to myself…”self, go back to sleep!”…woke up again at 10:00…committed to going with my sister to her accountant…at 11:00…to straighten out a problem from 2021…what?…all is well…will be taken care of by her able accountant…I jumped into the shower…got myself together by the time the cleaning crew were at the door…and we were off to the accountant…on the way, she spoke to her friend Sharon who was on her way to Costco…could she get anything for her…Candy said sure…a pumpkin pie…have you ever seen a Costco pie?…it’s huge…and easily feed 12 pie lovers with a hefty slice…how do they do it?…they must sell hundreds of pies, especially the week of holiday…like Thanksgiving…we’re thankful for Costco pies!…I asked her if she could get me some Rose’s Lime Juice…I make myself a Gimlet…with vodka or gin…Doris turned me on to Gimlets…another thing to be thankful for Doris…we made our way to Janae’s…she lives a stone’s throw to the Hilsdale Shopping Center…in High School we would drive to Hillsdale for an ice cream sundae of milk shake…it’s gone now…and I don’t remember the name except that it was in Hillsdale…sort of like a Mel’s Drive-in…just a fond memory…it’s really a built up shopping center now…full blown…they just built a multi-plex theater a couple of years ago…it’s where we went shopping when Hana and Phillip were here…to the DSW and the Old Navy…having a 50% off everything…what a great sale…how do they do that?…we took advantage of that sale…I just paid that bill this past week…I also got 2 $30.00 vouchers to be spent in December…it was a pretty good deal…we spent a little time at Janae’s while they got ready to roll…Candy took us on a walking tour of two parks near Janae’s house…lovely little parks…walking with my cane…I walked a couple of miles today…1.9 miles to work off the two donuts I ate this morning…we decided to have Chinese for lunch…a late lunch…my sister was making her special chicken soup for dinner…after we left them after lunch we needed a few more things…salad stuff for Thanksgiving…lettuce and avocados and tomatoes…flowers for the table…Rose’s Lime Juice since Costco didn’t have it…bought vodka…Absolute…the big one for $25.00…had to get carrots and brussel sprouts for my Mon’s veggie side…mashed together with a lot of butter…delicious and so colorful…and good for you…string beans for Pam to saute with garlic…we are only responsible for sides…my sister ordered the turkey and stuffing and mashed potatoes and gravy and cranberry sauce…to be delivered still “hot”…we are on our way to tour a few wineries in Napa…my sister rented a van…we picked it up this evening…Ben and Allegra are arriving this evening…their flight was supposed to take off at the same time ours did last night…only from JFK…it was delayed….arriving at 2:00 AM instead of 12:00 midnight…we faced-timed with Ben just before he was scheduled to board…they arrival time was changed to 1:30 AM…they will Uber to their Hotel…and Candy will pick them up in the morning…we’re all to be ready at 7:30…
after Open AI ousted Sam Altman…500 employees wrote a scathing letter to the board asking for their resignation and the return of Altman or they would leave and follow Altman to Microsolf…he was off to Microsoft…it’s been a chaotic 5 days in Silicon Valley…Altman will return to the Company he founded…he’ll be reinstated as it’s Chief Executive…from The New York Times by Cade Metz, Mike Isaac, Tripp Mickle, Karen Weise and Kevin Roose: “Sam Altman was reinstated late Tuesday as OpenAI’s chief executive, the company said, successfully reversing his ouster by the company’s board last week after a campaign waged by his allies, employees and investors.
The board of directors will be overhauled, jettisoning several members who had opposed Mr. Altman. Adam D’Angelo, the chief executive of Quora, will be the only holdover.
“We have reached an agreement in principle for Sam to return to OpenAI as CEO with a new initial board of Bret Taylor (Chair), Larry Summers, and Adam D’Angelo,” OpenAI said in a post to X. “We are collaborating to figure out the details. Thank you so much for your patience through this.”
The return of Mr. Altman and Greg Brockman, the company’s president, and the remaking of the board, capped a frenetic five days that upended OpenAI, the maker of the ChatGPT chatbot and one of the world’s highest-profile artificial intelligence companies.
The company’s revamped board of directors will include Mr. Taylor, an early Facebook officer and former co-chief executive of Salesforce; Mr. Summers, the former Treasury secretary; and Mr. D’Angelo.
Mr. Taylor will act as board chairman, the company said.
Mr. D’Angelo was leading the negotiations, according to two people in touch with the board. The general framework for the changes was in place by late Sunday, one of those people said.
The company’s revamped board of directors will include Mr. Taylor, an early Facebook officer and former co-chief executive of Salesforce; Mr. Summers, the former Treasury secretary; and Mr. D’Angelo.
Mr. Taylor will act as board chairman, the company said.
Mr. D’Angelo was leading the negotiations, according to two people in touch with the board. The general framework for the changes was in place by late Sunday, one of those people said.
Sam Altman’s Ouster From OpenAI
The chief executive of OpenAI was abruptly pushed out of the company by its board of directors on Nov. 17, upending the A.I. industry.
Steve Jobs’s Long Shadow: Altman’s recent troubles have deepened the comparison with the Apple founder, who was marginalized by the board of his company in 1985. They have also proved how hard it is to be a visionary founder.
Who Is Emmett Shear?: The former chief executive of the livestreaming site Twitch was named the interim chief executive of OpenAI. Here’s what to know about him.
Determining the composition of the board slowed down the decision to let Mr. Altman back, according to that person and one other. OpenAI called the new board its “initial” board, indicating it could expand.
A person close to the board’s deliberations on Tuesday said that Mr. D’Angelo, Tasha McCauley and Helen Toner pressed for certain concessions from Mr. Altman, including an independent investigation into his leadership of OpenAI.
In the end, Ms. Toner and Ms. McCauley agreed to step down from the board because it was clear that it needed a fresh start, this person close to deliberations said. If all of them stepped down, they worried that it would suggest the board erred even though they collectively felt they did the right thing, this person said.
Microsoft, OpenAI’s largest investor, supported the move. Satya Nadella, Microsoft’s chief executive, said on X that he was “encouraged by the changes to OpenAI board, calling it a “first essential step on a path to more stable, well-informed, and effective governance.” He said Mr. Altman and Mr. Brockman should return to OpenAI.
OpenAI’s board surprised Mr. Altman and the company’s employees on Friday afternoon when it told him he was being pushed out. Mr. Brockman, who co-founded the company with Mr. Altman and others, resigned in protest.
The ouster kicked off efforts by Mr. Altman, 38, his allies in the tech industry and OpenAI’s employees to force the company’s board to bring him back. On Sunday evening, after a weekend of negotiations, the board said it was going to stick with its decision.
But in a head-spinning development just hours later, Microsoft, OpenAI’s largest investor, said that Mr. Altman, Mr. Brockman and others would be joining the company to start a new advanced artificial intelligence lab.
Most of OpenAI’s more than 700 employees signed a letter telling the board they would walk out and follow Mr. Altman to Microsoft if he wasn’t reinstated, throwing the future of the start-up into jeopardy.
“I love openai, and everything i’ve done over the past few days has been in service of keeping this team and its mission together,” Mr. Altman said in a post to X. “with the new board and w satya’s support, i’m looking forward to returning to openai, and building on our strong partnership with msft.”
Four board members — Ilya Sutskever, an OpenAI founder; Mr. D’Angelo; Ms. Toner, a director of strategy at Georgetown’s Center for Security and Emerging Technology; and Ms. McCauley, an entrepreneur and computer scientist — had initially decided to push Mr. Altman out.
But as the employee revolt grew, Mr. Sutskever repented in a message on X: “I deeply regret my participation in the board’s actions.” He also signed the letter. Now that Mr. Altman has been reinstated and a new board is in place, Mr. Brockman, who has worked closely with Mr. Altman for more than a decade, will also return to OpenAI. Mr. Sutskever is no longer on the board but remains an OpenAI employee.
“Ilya is thrilled that Sam is back as C.E.O. and he has been working tirelessly for days to make this happen,” said Mr. Sutskever’s lawyer, Alex Weingarten. “It is what is best for the company.”
OpenAI employees celebrated a return to normalcy Tuesday night, after five days of uncertainty. Workers had been given the week off for Thanksgiving, but many remained in the office or glued to their screens to follow the drama. “Thank god,” one employee said. “We’re so back,” said another.
Thrive Capital, which is leading a new funding offer than will value OpenAI at more than $80 billion, said it would continue to partner with OpenAI “now and in the future.”
Sam Altman phoned The New York Times and said: “I hope you have a lovely Thanksgiving.”…I hope we all have a lovely Thanksgiving…!!!…and speaking of turkeys…Biden pardoned Liberty and Belle on Monday…
a revolting development…Speaker Mike Johnson “met” briefly with trump at Mar-a-Lago…he was there “supposedly” to attend a fundraiser for Florida representative Gus Bilirakis…yeah!…after Johnson endorsed trump for the presidency…
not a revolting development…Israeli Cabinet has approved a hostage deal…release of hostages and prisoners on both side, plus a four day cease fire…hallelujah!!!…
ready for bed…I’ll be up and ready to go to the family’s field trip to Napa…another Hallelujah!!!…Happy Thanksgiving Eve Eve…
that great line that Bette Davis delivers in All About Eve…”fasten your seat belts, it’s going to be a bumpy night”…went to bed early for me…and woke up early…had a lot to do today…before my 5:57 train to the airport…had to change the sheets…make my car payment…pay the auto insurance…get some cash…take back chicken salad… fill the car with gas and finish straightening up the apartment…and managed to go out for breakfast…First Watch opened in Huntingdon Valley…where Kappy’s Deli used to be, like 40 years ago…all our deli’s closed…we still have Ben and Irv’s…only open to 7:00…except Saturday, open til 8:00…I discovered a new deli…Manny’s on Welsh Road over there where Lowe’s and BJ’s is…I’ve had a couple of good sandwiches there…I went after I got shots in my knees at Rothman…pleasantly surprised…not as extensive a menu as Ben and Irv’s but good…I spent $30 for breakfast…am I crazy?…and I ordered the wrong thing…was disappointed in what I ordered…I should continue to go to the Keswick Diner…a bargain…the Keswick Sampler…a bargain and delicious…I have brought Giant’s chicken salad…it’s really good…but the last one I bought had a big chunk of cartilage…turned me off of eating it…and I decided to take it back…they gave me a Giant Gift Card for $6.93…bought Peter Pan Peanut Butter for Candy’s friend who can’t find it here…they took it away from me at security…like throwing the $7.00 bucks out the window…it was worth a try…we didn’t check any bags…bummer…Phillip decided to come to his high school reunion…he got a really cheap round trip ticket…his reunion is Saturday night…he’s flying to JFK, arriving on 1:00 AM Friday…and making his way to my apartment where he will stay…and use my car…hence the reason I got gas, paid the insurance bill and made the car payment…and straightened the apartment…and changed the sheets…it’s his bed that my bed now…haha…I left my King at Fairview Road went I moved in 2015… everything worked out…I was ready to roll when Pam picked me up at 5:30 to take me to Elkins Park Station, she would leave her car at home and a walk to the station…they was a young woman who helped me and Pam with our luggage onto the train…and Jay, my neighbor got on at the Melrose Train Station, right next to our apartment building…he was going in town for a program…Julia and Henry got on our train at Suburban Station… Julia had my boarding pass on her phone…and got me wheel chairs in Philadelphia and in San Francisco…it’s great…gets you through security fairly quickly and delivers you to your gate…we were over an hour early for our flight…and the flight was pretty bumpy for the first hour or so…faster your seat belts, it’s gonna be a bumpy flight!…and it was pretty uncomfortable…and scary…once the turbulence stopped, I got up to go to the loo… flushing is always scary…it sucks the toilet with fury….the toilet paper reaches for the toilet…its pretty funny and I always wonder where it goes…however, it was the smoothest landing I’ve ever experienced…I listened to a little of the arguments about trump’s gag order…disgusting…in a big, giant projection, trump calls special counsel Jack Smith “deranged” and “a lunatic”…we have yet to hear what the 3 Democrat appointed judges will rule… and Rosalynn Carter died…I’m sure you heard that…she was diagnosed with Alzheimer a while back…it’s so sad…she was so vital and a mental health advocate…and also helping Jimmy with Habitat for Humanity…I watched regular news when I got to Candy’s…and I know the reason i don’t watch it at home…”Auto theft caught on video shows several men breaking into Hayward’s City Motors and stealing four cars driving one through the front of the building to get it out of the showroom.”…the cars were worth $100,000….and in San Jose people just ransacked a store running though, picking up merchandise and out the door…and San Francisco is back to his “dirty self” after they cleaned up for Xi and Biden…San Francisco also the victim of hit and run stealing… Nordstrom closed it’s flagship downtown store because of theft…I like flying at night only because of the beauty of all the lights…the jewel box taking off and landing…time for bed…it’s 6:00 AM for me and time to unfasten my seat belt…it was a bumpy night/flight…
Art Salazar 