Dispatches

[serpentinesheldonserpentine]

"I See A Boulder In A Park". Or, even the New York Times struggles to find nice things to say about President Obama's monument to himself.

The Obama Presidential Center has dropped on Chicago’s South Side. Its signature building is a blocky, granite-clad museum tower that the former president wanted to look like four upraised hands.

Maybe it’s me but I don’t see it.

I see a boulder in a park. — Michael Kimmelman in today's paper.

[serpentinesheldonserpentine]

[serpentinesheldonserpentine]

Shelly may have been a dentist, but Arkin was a great actor.

You once posted a picture you took of my hometowns library. So I wonder were the other places are.

Hello, for the past five years the libraries were in Connecticut. Rhode Island, Massachusetts, or New Hampshire.

Thanks for asking

[serpentinesheldonserpentine]

Who you gettin', bratty? Goggly Gogol? Johnny Zhivago? The Heaven Seventeen?

[serpentinesheldonserpentine]

Like your pictures but wish you'd add the towns info

You’re kind to write, thank you. The last time I added town names one of the kids reblogged and changed the name of the town to suit his narrative. I reminded him he was entitled to his own opinion but not his own facts and some… unpleasantness occurred.

If we know one another I post better pictures on the Instagram under my name and often name the location there. I leave town names off here because I enjoy the anonymity of Tumblr. Things can become a little stalkery around here.

Best wishes.

Shelly Kornpett, DDS

[serpentinesheldonserpentine]

Jim, it’s here. Really is here.

[serpentinesheldonserpentine]

Jim, it’s here. Really is here.

[serpentinesheldonserpentine]

Jim, it’s here. Really is here.

[serpentinesheldonserpentine]

Jim, it’s here. Really is here. Or, Brigadoon, New Hampshire.

Took a drive yesterday. And, I came across a small New Hampshire town that was like the towns I dreamed about when I was young.

This lunch spot was packed at 1:30 and my club sandwich took about 20 minutes. I didn’t mind, I enjoy people watching. To a person, everyone waiting was cheerful and friendly, even to this outsider. Which is unusual for New England where we practice reticence as though it were the law.

I ate my lunch seated on a bench in the town square and couldn’t escape the thought that I just might be the luckiest man in the world. Just to have made it this far is a miracle . Nobody was betting on me, except my mother. The odds were good that I’d be standing in line to punch in/out at the fiberglass plant instead of enjoying my life the way I do now.

Inside, I’m still that rube who doesn’t quite understand how this good life happened. I haven’t traveled much, life was busy; so I’m still awed by places and events you’d find to be cornball. So be it. I do know this much: I am deeply grateful for these moments.

[serpentinesheldonserpentine]

Why yes, yes this is a pedestrian suspension bridge.

[petaltexturedskies]

Katherine Mansfield, in a diary entry dated 14 October 1922, from Letters and Journals of Katherine Mansfield

[helpingthingsgrow]

Check, check, check, check, check, check and check.

[freiherr-von-naarenburg]

[serpentinesheldonserpentine]

[serpentinesheldonserpentine]

Well, it's early nights

And pillow fights

And your soft laugh

Fantasy world and Disney girls

I'm coming back

[serpentinesheldonserpentine]

Orienteering Merit Badge homework.

[serpentinesheldonserpentine]

Jim, it’s here. Really is here.

Country shade and lemonade

Guess I'm slowing down

It's a turned back world

With a local girl

In a smaller town

[serpentinesheldonserpentine]

The greatest achievement in the history of rock and roll music, Exile topped the charts on this date in 1972.

I won’t go on and on about its place in the Mighty River that is American music; I’ll simply state that if you didn’t know better it was easy to conclude that the musicians who made this music were members of a Black band from the American South.

This music will never be equalled.