Post Box

Mortlake High St

I chat up two fellows who are stripping and painting a red mailbox, ubiquitous across the UK and one of the things this country known for, by tourists anyway, along with the red double-decker route master buses and red telephone booths, both long gone or ornamental. I learn there are 133,000 letter boxes across Britain and each painted on five-year cycles but usually it is ten; the guys I'm talking to cover the southwest of the Southeast or maybe 10,000 boxes ("job for life" one of them offers through gnarly teeth).  They can do about 40 in a week but "a proper job, stripping off the old paint and all" requires four hours "at the least, mate. This be serious business". Today it is a scrape and brush job.

Braces

Choppers

The inevitable upon us: braces. Our orthodontist, who does most of the Chelsea football club and Harry Potter, has been waiting eight years and now it's payback time as I pocket the invoice.  Eitan will go in Friday for "a fitting" and then 12 to 18 months of "brace face" (his term).

I had braces at 10 or 11 - the fabulously named Dr Wompler did the work - and I recall the rubber bands and all-night head gear that left your jaw aching in the morning. Ghastly stuff. Now there are a number of options from interior to exterior of mouth, clear or coloured style. . . the metal is glued to the teeth so no hooks or wires which made things very Frankenstein in my day.

Back To Work

The day of reckoning is here. Sonnet out the door to work at 8AM while I bike to my office shortly later, newspapers in hand, kids sound asleep.  Unlike yester-year, sans email, I am never that far behind so the catch-up not too bad - mostly it is getting used to, well, talking to people again.  That and reading the Financial Times.

Meanwhile the French celebrate summer's end by disbanding government. Prime Minister Manuel Valls says the new cabinet will be "consistent with the direction [the president] has set for the country." Consistency ? The country lurched from cook-the-rich in 2012 to a pro business in 2013 yet growth is flat and public spending now 56% GDP.

In the 1970s President Valery Giscard d'Estaing's tough love in reaction to the oil shocks rejected for Mitterrand's dreams of socialism and expansion. The chickens are coming home to roost.

One More From America

At the Met

We fight the jet lag but, happily, Monday (today) is a Bank Holiday which means a) we can sleep late and b) it is raining. I do the usual tidy-up on the backyard and Sonnet has a to-do list that fills up one page. We are still in August and not much will happen until September 1 when, like a dog kicked hard in the stomach, the UK snaps to and goes to work. 

Me: "When somebody calls your mobile, what do you say ?"

Madeleine: "Huh?"
Me: "When someone calls me, even though I see their picture, I always act like I don't know who it is. "
Madeleine: "Use the phone, like, for talking?"
Me: "So I say, 'Hello?' which gives the caller a chance to start the conversation. It's polite."
Madeleine: "I don't know. We just talk, I guess."
Me: "Does that mean you just launch right into it ? Like, 'did you do your homework?' or 'what time is class tomorrow ?' "
Madeleine:
Me: "When I was your age, and when your grandparents were your age, all every kid did was talk on the phone, every night, for hours. One phone line. It drove our parents crazy."
Madeleine: "What's a phone line?"
Me: "Life was pretty rough back then, I admit."

We Made It

Following 44 days covering 13 states, 7 national parks, 6 hikes, 25 family members, 27 friends, ca 4,000 car miles, 308 bike miles, 4 museums, one baseball game, a rodeo, 4 DQ visits, the world's once longest and steepest roller coaster , the original Starbucks, an outdoor sunset symphony, fireworks, Eero Saarinen, the best damn BBQ in the world, alpine slides, sushi, a museum "hack" at The Met, The Million Dollar Highway, Kinky Boots, Tavern On The Green, Frank Lloyd Wright,  the original Buffalo Wings, the world's largest waterfall, the Underground Railroad, the world's largest arch, the world's first cantilever bridge (Eads Bridge), Louis Sullivan and a Presidential Library.

A trip of a lifetime.

God Bless America.

Last Day Va-Ca

We spend our last day in Bronxville packing and organising for the overnight flight to London.

Larry prepares special photographs for an upcoming exhibition, Legacies, Landmarks and Achievements: Celebrating 350 Years ­– Eastchester, Tuckahoe, Bronxville, which opens Sept 4. 

His work celebrates Tuckahoe Marble which, from 1818 became a major marble producer for the world. Tuckahoe Marble was used to construct grand early nineteenth-century NYC Greek Revival buildings such as Federal Hall (1830), and Brooklyn Borough Hall (1840), the Italianate Stewart's "Marble Palace" (1846) - New York's first department store - and the Washington Memorial Arch in Washington Square. 

Tuckahoe Marble was the single most important white marble deposit in America until the latter part of the 1800's, at which time reliable access to the extensive high-quality marble deposits of southwestern Vermont - including Dorset -  was established. Quarrying of Tuckahoe Marble ceased in 1930.

The Met

Taking in some intelligence.

We see Duccio's 'Madonna and child,' which the Met acquired in 2009 for $46 million, their most costly purchase ever, raised in 48 hours, when the curator discovered it was coming to market. One can imagine the calls along 5th Avenue.

Prior to the 13th C, the Byzantines painted 2D 'cartoons' and religious icons with hardly any emotion. Duccio changed all that - his paintings put figures in architectural settings. He began to explore and investigate depth and space with a refined attention to emotion - in short, "Duccio is where Western art begins, " says Nick.

Madonna w Child

Monet or Manet?

Katie, Eitan and Ethan discuss Monet's 'haystacks'

Katie arranges a wonderful tour of The Met lead by a couple of guys from "Museum Hack" who shows us their favourite things including a 13 century Astrolabe which is an inclinometer historically used by astronomers, navigators and astrologers to tell time to within 15 minutes and determine latitudinal location using trigonometry (The West caught up with spring-driven clocks in the 16th century). According to our guide Ethan, these things were the ipods of the day.

We discuss Edouard Manet (who created "impressionism") and Claude Monet (the world's beloved impressionist). Our group breaks into teams and tasked to find their favourite Monet or Monet and defend it : Manet wins, 6-2 but, for the year, it is about even. 

Monet believed that by mixing fine colour strokes he was fooling the viewer's eye into seeing changing colours or intensities as the looker drew closer to the painting (Sauret took this to the next extreme; premise false btw).  Also: Manet's most famous paintings are of hookers and whores (black neck ribbon; he didn't have to pay them much) and fabulously engaging.

Hello New York

Metro-North to Grand Central Station

We say a sad good-bye to Dorset and Marcia and Larry's red house : VT-30 to US 7 N then the Saw Mill River Parkway to Bronxville, which is unmarked and impossible to find ("Just the way we want to keep it", notes Larry). On many an occasion I have sworn like a sailor lost in upstate NY or alongside a road awaiting Marcia to guide me in.

We unload for the last time - thank goodness - and head for pizza in neighbouring Eastchester and a restaurant straight from the Sopranos. We order pepperoni (Larry: "Best pizza anywhere").

From the road: Southern Vermont Arts Center, Manchester, VT; Bennington Museum, Bennington, Vt, Locust Grove Estate, Poughkeepsie, NY;  Mid Hudson's Children Museum, Poughkeepsie, NY;  Home of FDR and US Presidential Library, Hyde Park, NY, Elenore Roosevelt House, Hyde Park, NY. Henry A Wallace Visitor Center, Hyde Park, NY,

Scrabble Master

Eitan spells "pleonastic".

We go for a 4 mile hike on the moist Appalachian Trial whose trailhead off Rte 9 and straight up marble stones, into the trees, before levelling off and finally offering a view of the low rolling mountains and Bennington, Vermont. 

The hike notable for the return : Katie and Sonnet disappear.  Like really disappear. Several returning hikers have not seen them and I begin to worry, retracing our steps, until the end-point. No sign.

Turns out that Sonnet and Katie take a different path back, exiting three miles south of the car-park. I was ready to call the police.

Batten Kill

Batten Kill at Sunset

The Batten Kill River is a 59 mile-long river rising in Vermont that flows into New York and is a tributary of the Hudson River.  "Kill" means a creek, the name "Battenkill River" is pleonastic.

The mouth of the Batten Kill is in Easton, New York,  and the source of the river is in East Dorset, Vermont, not far from my photo, which captures the view from Larry and Marcia's property.  The area is protected and a special place in VT.

The house (purchased by the Lees in 1987) came with a taxidermied tiger, which Larry hoisted into a tree across the pond, unbeknownst to certain houseguests at the time. Marcia was awoken to screams of terror.

Op-Ed Off Site

Katie's fabulous team organise an off-site pow wow in Dorset, joining us for an early afternoon cocktail at Marcia and Larry's house.

"We - our leaders and the public - are not getting the information and ideas we need to make the best decisions. Our world conversation is currently an echo chamber that reproduces the same narrow range of (85% male) voices over and over. Even worse among academics: a May 2008 Rutgers University study found that 97% of op-eds by scholars in the Wall Street Journal are written by men. What is the cost to society when so many of our best minds and best ideas are left out? What could we accomplish if together we invested in our missing brain power?"
--From The Op-Ed website

Kindle-rama

Madeleine's summer reading: Lee Harper's "To Kill a Mockingbird", John Fitzgerald's "The Great Brain", Judy Blume's "Blubber" and "Are You There God, It's Me, Margaret", Huntley Fitzpatrick's "My Life Next Door," John Green's "The Fault In Our Stars" and Jay Asher's "Thirteen Reasons Why."

Madeleine and I have a conversation about growing up.
Me: "One day you will grow wings and fly from the tree."
Madeleine: "You mean I'm going to fall and die or something?"
Me:
Madeleine: "What's so funny Dad?"

A Proper Drink

The winner

Moe and Grace face off in a martini making contest, which is a serious business. Grace makes a slightly dirtier martini with large olives to Larry's dry martini with small pitted Spanish olives.  Both prefer gin and, Larry points out, using vodka is a "vodka martini" while gin is simply a "martini." In a blind test, Larry wins by one vote.

My mom's father made pitchers of dry martinis and Manhattans to serve guests while entertaining, or hosting bridge, in Upper Arlington, Ohio, in the 1950s.

Madeleine: "Blech! That is so awful."
Larry: "It is an acquired taste."

Outlet

Fresh shoes

I take Madeleine to the factory outlets in Manchester, Vt.  She's no dummy and knows I can't resist her. We end up in the usual places - Ralph Lauren, J Crew, Banana Republic.  She scores some shoes at Coach which makes us both feel good . .. At RL I try on some Polo cologne which every teenage male doused himself with in the 1980s. Sonnet crinkles her nose while Eitan accustomed to using my cologne from G F Trumper which, he informs me, "smells more like a man."

Madeleine: “Can I have my Ju Ju Fish?”

Me: “No. You can take a break from sugar.”

Madeleine: “What? ! Eitan is eating Pringles !”

Me: “You can have four.”

Madeleine: “10.”

Me: “Five. And that’s a final offer.”

Madeleine: “You are so unfair.”

Me: “Remember when we talked about the glass half-full and how other people influence your perception? You only care about Eitan getting to eat Pringles.”

Madeleine: “Who cares about some dumb glass?”
Me: “You got me there.”

Happy Vermont

Scrabble

We arrive in Dorset, greeted by Marcia, Gracie and Moe.

In 1987 Marcia and Larry discovered Dorset, a small semi-rural community outside of Manchester, Vermont, where they found a red house with a pond and a fourteen-foot dam immediately adjacent to the property. They fell in love with it immediately.  Since then, they rebuilt the dam (including relocating at their expense a family of beavers), modernised the home and added a large ceiling kitchen and sun room next to the Battenkill river, beneath the dam.  The living room overlooks the pond, and its ducks, with all-glass windows. It is the perfect gathering place for family and friends.

The property began its life in the early 19th century to polish marble from a nearby quarry - the dam's ancient turbines provided the energy. The marble was then sent to New York City including the New York Public library, which uses marble from the Dorset quarry about .75 miles away.

Robin Williams commits suicide, age 63. Lauren Bacall passes away at 89.

Dog Days Of Summer

Rest Area, Somewhere, upstate NY

From Medina, NY: NY-36 N to I-490 W to NY-30, NY-60 W to NY-22 S to VT-133, VT-153 and VT-315 to Marcia and Larry's house in Vermont.

Off the Road:

Erie Canal waterfront and historical point, Buffalo; Railroad Museum, Medina, NY. Fall gun raffles, Route 65; Oakfield-Alabama Middle-High School, Oakfield, NY; Women’s Rights National Park, Exit 41, E 90; Montezuma National Wildlife Reserve, mile 316, Route 89

Fresh Fudge, Seneca, NY; Salt Museum, Liverpool, NY; National Wrestling Hall of Fame, Amsterdam, NY; Robert Elmwood Museum of the Mohawk Valley, Amsterdam; Old Fort Johnson, Schenectady, NY; Wildlife Museum and Art Museum, Gloversville, NY; New York State Military Museum, Saratoga, NY; Historic Salem Court House (1869), Salem, NY

Saratoga High School: “Why fit in when you can stand out?”

Madeleine: “Dad can I get Ju Ju Fish because they don’t sell Laffy Taffy ?”
Me: “Are you expecting a reasoned answer ?”

Medina, NY

Sister brother reunion

Marcus and Adrienne are in play as the saying goes : they have recently sold their house and moving to a suburban block where Adrienne knows 12 neighboring families. Adrienne continues to kick ass and raise money for Niagara University (home of a Sweet 16 basketball team) and Marcus the Director of a refugee organisation in Buffalo. They are in process of adopting a child. I stand still around them.

Following a tour of Buffalo including two Frank Lloyd Wrights and a Louis Sullivan, we end up at Adrienne's cousin's house for a High School graduation party and backyard BBQ (taped to the beer chest: "Must be 21"). The Shakespeares overcome their fatigue and bashfulness and engage in the teenage action while Sonnet and I enjoy our extended family, including Patrick, who is implementing Obamacare in NYC and owns a tall building in Manhattan's East Village, and Judith, who creates costumes and hires out stock for films, theatre and television.

Sonnet and I bike along the Erie Canal (363 miles from Albany to Buffalo, 36 locks, total elevation differential of 565 feet. Opened October 26, 1825, an engineering marvel).

Madeleine: "You owe me five dollars. Can I have it?"
Me: "Since when ?"
Madeleine: "Two dollars that you borrowed. One dollar for walking ten feet with a plastic cup on my head. And the rest is interest."

Honeymoon Falls

A lot of water

We visit Niagara Falls, a "7th Wonder of the World," which drops 750,000 gallons of water a second over the 22-meter American and Bridal Veil Falls (closest in photo) and the Canadian "Horseshoe" Falls. The city of Niagara Falls, on the Canadian side and pictured, has been built up around hotels, convention centres and gambling, while the NY side has not done so well. For some reason there are a lot of tourists from India, go figure.

The connecting Robert Moses Niagara Hydroelectric Power Station, built in the 1950s, supplies one-quarter of all power used in New York State and Ontario.

Me: "You know, they put chlorine in the water. So you can swim in the river."

Eitan: "Yeah, right."

Me: "You don't believe me ?"

Eitan:

Me: "Watch, I am going to play the same joke on Madeleine. It's the swimming bit at the end which is the give-away. I can't let you guys feel like complete idiots."

Eitan:

Me, later, to Madeleine: "You know, they put chlorine in the water. So you can swim in the river."

Sonnet: "Really ? Who would have thought they could do that."

Summer Philharmonic

We take I 90 East to Buffalo, skirting alongside the Lake Erie, passing through Western Pennsylvania. We stop in Cleveland to visit the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame which is great fun - something for everybody. The Gay Pride Games (which includes ballroom dancing) start same day, also in Cleveland.

From the road : Great Lakes Science Museum, Cleveland. James A Gardner Historical Site; Spire Institute, Olympic and Paralympic Training Site; Geneva, Ohio.

We arrive just in time for the Buffalo Philharmonic's final concert of the summer season at Old Fort Niagra, performed outdoors on a perfect evening sunset complete with cannon blasts and fireworks. Marcus and Adrienne meet us with chairs and blankets.

Sonnet: "From Rock & Roll to the philharmonic. How appropriate."