Hi,
The most interesting tidal bores to me is the one that flows up the Amazon River. That can send a 15 foot wave 1,500 miles up stream. Check out the various tidal bores, they are all around the world!
I recently read an interesting book, Love Your Enemies by Arthur Brook. Unfortunately I have lent the book already to someone and don’t have it to reference. He talks about finding common ground and having a civil conversation on things you and your “enemy” agree on, not so much to convince them that they are wrong as to facilitate open and respectful conversation. He points out that there seems to be five “universal” things everyone agrees with, this is where I wish I had the book. There are I think it was five things we ALL agree on. Like fair play, equal treatment, etc. So he recommends discussing contentious issues with your “enemy” from those views.
This is the year of significant anniversaries, the first I want to mention is D Day‘s 75th anniversary. This was mainly the United States joining with Britain to liberate France. I like anniversaries because that’s when a lot of back stories come up like the king of England shortly before did a “morale building” tour of his forces where actually he was spying and sending the wrong message to Germany to divert their attention from the actual landing site. Dropping down from 75 years to 50 years it’s the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall Riots. Stonewall is considered the beginning of the fight for gay rights in America. 30 years ago Tiananmen Square became world news. The point is you have to fight for what you believe in. In referring to the above paragraph on Love Your Enemies, it doesn’t have to be 24,000 troops storming the beaches in Normandy, It could be having a civil conversation about the senseless killing of Americans with assault rifles.
Back when I first bought the property I turned into The Parador, my friend Kathleen stopped by and we discussed my plan to blend a tropical feel with the Victorian house and furniture. She came up with the idea of the water mark murals on the first floor. I can’t say how pleased I am with them. She finished the murals pretty much when the contractors finished leaving me to paint and put the seven guest rooms in the mansion together. Kathleen and I was standing in the ballroom as the contractors were adding the bathrooms and she looked at the three blank walls on either side of that spectacular bar and asked if I wanted her to do something there. Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall’s movie Key Largo is one of my favorite movies and that came immediately to mind and I said “You’ve seen the movie Key Largo? How about some of those palm trees?” I didn’t want her to get into a whole new mural project, just some palm trees. What does she do but get the movie and bring probably 20 black and white stills from the movie to pick the images she liked. The first image on the far left of the bar is the Indians coming in before the hurricane:
The last image on the far right from the bar she painted Hotel Largo, I walked in just as she was finishing and looked at her and said “Don’t get mad at me, but could you make that my Inn?” She laughed and said sure:
The middle image is where I had water damage. I repaired it and had this big splotch in the mural of plaster. I spoke with my friend Arlen from City Books to see if she knew someone that could repair the mural. I have met her husband Patrick, he teaches art and recommended this graduating student Kristen. Kristen was a bit nervous trying to match Kathleen’s original. I think she did fantastic, the art is different, that’s what’s great about art and why I never tell an artist what to do:
You can notice Kristen used a bit more red.
My current book is The Pioneers by David McCullough. It is the story of when the colonist colonized “the Ohio territory”. After the revolution the United States owned pretty much everything west of the original colonies, give or take. This is the story of Manassrh Cutler one of the founders of the Ohio Company. They built their first town at Marietta, Ohio (I had been there a couple of times when I was young with my father chasing auctions) and never realized it’s historical importance. As life would have it, in Sunday’s paper Dianna Nelson Jones did an article on the Ohio River Islands National Wildlife Refuge. If you are from Pittsburgh or neighboring areas you know how critical the system of dams and locks are for river traffic. Particularly the Monongahela and Ohio are known for getting so shallow in spots that you can pretty much walk across these huge rivers without the dams and locks. The refuge is a series of islands down around Marietta.
The Western Avenue & Galveston Avenue business district (I’m pushing for a new name WestGal business district to differentiate us from the Northshore (down around the stadiums) and East Ohio Street (over on the East side of the Northside), did a food drive in conjunction with the World Food Hunger Day (May 28). So local businesses 412 Brewery, Adda, Allegheny Sandwich Shop, Bear Dog Bikes, Bier’s Pub, City Books, Giorgio’s, Leo. a public house, Lola, The Modern, Motive, the Parador Inn, Peppi’s, Pittsburgh Acupuncture and Massageworks, Refucilo Winery, and Royalties joined together and collected over 500 pounds of food that we donated to the Northside Food Pantry.
The latest at the Cathedral of Learning, the Philippine Room has just opened.
Don’t forget to get your tickets for Ariana-Grande at PPG Paints arena. The concert is June 12, next week. Also book your room at The Parador Inn for that night. Remember there is nothing more convenient than parking for FREE in my lot getting ready in the convenience of your room and then taking the “T” from a five minute walk from my Inn and riding it FREE to Steel Plaza Station. No hassles driving, fighting traffic, finding and PAYING FOR parking. Then reverse sit in your car until you can exit the lot, fight traffic and worry about DUI if you had imbibed. 🙂
That’s about it for this post,
ed
