Maine Time: Antidotes

LIFE IN MAINE

Our time in Maine is beginning to wind down and two friends have already departed.  We, though, are happily anticipating the arrival of our son and family with our two granddaughters.  That means making blueberry pancakes with E’s assistance and at least one visit to the botanical garden where F will be quickly in the sandbox and entranced by the children’s play house.  E will delight in showing her around.

On the food front, Maine has been a glorious feast, partly because the Chief Penguin was inspired to bake, even though this kitchen’s batterie de cuisine is somewhat lacking.  Two steamed lobsters downed, five lobster rolls sampled, blueberry muffins and blueberry lemon cake made and shared, plus fresh corn on the cob, homemade corn muffins, and lovely juicy local tomatoes! Toss in a slice of pizza or two, linguine a la vongole (love those tiny clams), veal scaloppini at Ports of Italy, halibut and scallops at the Newagen Seaside Inn, and I know that the scale at home will tell me I’ve over indulged!  I wouldn’t have it any other way.  September will be a return to reality.

Food and grandchildren and even the cinema are antidotes to the corruption, sniping, nasty tweets, and name calling arrayed on the national stage.  What a disheartening, yet perhaps encouraging, pair of trial results unfolded this week! What will happen next?

HEARTWARMING DOCUMENTARY

Itzhak

This is a wonderful documentary about Itzhak Perlman’s early life and career up to the present day. As a child and teenager in Israel, young Perlman’s talent on the violin was admired, but set aside due to his polio disability.  Once he got proper recognition, opportunities opened up and he was launched on an international career with New York as his base.  Instrumental and influential in so many ways, his wife Toby shines through as partner, critic and delightfully articulate commentator on the power of music. She is the force behind their music school on Shelter Island and the annual Suncoast festival in Sarasota, where we’ve heard her speak.  Included in these 80 minutes are lovely clips of various performances, conversations with violin makers, as well as interactions with Alan Alda, President Obama, and Perlman’s extended family.  It is a warm portrait of two individuals who are full of passion for music and life.

POLITICAL BOOK

This memoir is pretty much old news, but fascinating nonetheless.

A Higher Loyalty:  Truth, Lies and Leadership by James Comey

Whatever you may think about Mr.Comey, former FBI director, and even if your opinion changed over the past year, his book is worth reading.  More than just an account of the investigation into Hillary Clinton’s e-mail and his decisions and  interactions with the current president (which are strange and unusual), it is a memoir.  He details his childhood and his early career with a combination of pride and ego mixed with humility and hindsight.  In describing his bosses along the way, he critiques their management styles and indicates what he learned from them and how he tried to be a different kind of leader. At times, he’s quite hard on himself and is able to state how another person might have had a different response and taken a different action.

I don’t know that even now I forgive him for his press conferences about the Clinton investigation, but I better understand his rationale and gained some insight into his work environment from information that I don’t think was public before this book. (~JWFarrington)

Note:  All photos ©JWFarrington (some rights reserved)