Library loot, Crown Center, and good things

The Sentence ~ by Louise Erdrich, 2021, fiction (Minnesota), 387 pages

This novel asks what we owe to the living, the dead, to the reader, and to the book.  A small independent bookstore in Minneapolis is haunted from November 2019 to November 2020 by the store's most annoying customer.  Flora dies on All Souls' Day, but she simply won't leave the store.  Tookie, who has landed the job selling books after years of incarceration that she survived by reading "with murderous attention," must solve the mystery of this haunting while at the same time trying to understand all that occurs in Minneapolis during a year of grief, astonishment, isolation, and furious reckoning.  The story begins on All Souls' Day 2019 and ends on All Souls' Day 2020.

The Doctors Blackwell: How Two Pioneering Sisters Brought Medicine to Women and Women to Medicine ~ by Janice P. Nimura, 2021, biography, 320 pages

Elizabeth Blackwell believed from an early age that she was destined for a mission beyond the scope of "ordinary" womanhood.  Though the world at first recoiled at the notion of a woman studying medicine, her intelligence and intensity ultimately won her the acceptance of the male medical establishment.  In 1849, she became the first woman in America to receive an M.D.  She was soon joined in her iconic achievement by her younger sister, Emily, who was actually the more brilliant physician.  Together, the Blackwells founded the New York Infirmary for Indigent Women and Children, the first hospital that was staffed entirely by women.  Elizabeth Blackwell herself predicted that "a hundred years hence, women will not be what they are now."

Born Curious: 20 Girls Who Grew Up to Be Awesome Scientists ~ by Martha Freeman, illustrated by Katy Wu, 2020, children's, 122 pages

Why do galaxies spin the way they do?  What’s the best kind of house for a Komodo dragon?  Can you cure malaria with medicine made from a plant?  The scientists and the mathematicians in Born Curious sought answers to these and many other fascinating questions.  Without their vision, insight, and hard work, the world would be a sicker, dirtier, and more dangerous place.  The twenty groundbreaking women came from all kinds of backgrounds and had all kinds of life experiences.  Some grew up rich.  Some grew up poor.  Some were always the smartest kid in class.  Some struggled to do well in school.  But all had one thing in common:  They were all born curious.  Are you curious, too?  Then read this book!

Crown Center is in the news

The St. Louis Jewish Light posted this announcement:  "Crown Center for Senior Living has received a $1 million donation from philanthropists Michael and Carol Staenberg to benefit Crown’s capital campaign to construct affordable housing for older adults, and a state-of-the-art community center to be named 'Staenberg Commons.'  Crown is planning to build new, high-quality, apartments for older adults on its site in University City, replacing the original 1960s era high rise.  Construction on the Staenberg Commons is slated to begin in early 2022."  The photo is from the article.  The only person I can identify in the photo is my friend Miriam, third from the left.  They were standing in front of a memorial wall in the Circle@Crown Café downstairs.

Good Thing #1

Women physicians, like my cardiologist and general practitioner.

Good Thing #2

The new building going up next year at the Crown Center.

Good Thing #3

Friendships, like with Miriam (above) and other neighbors at Crown.

Deb at Readerbuzz hosts

Sunday Salon, a place for us

to link up and share what we

have been reading and doing

during the week.

Why am I feeling joyful these June days?

Joyful June Calendar says:  "June 4 ~ Take a photo of something that brings you joy, and share it."  So I took this picture to share today.  I want you to enjoy the splash of color of these beautiful flowers outside my building, too.

We gathered to acknowledge our losses.  Fifteen of our neighbors died between March 2020 and May 2021, one of whom was my friend Sheila.  We met outside, wearing our masks and socially distanced from each other, but we gathered!  That's me in the center of the "crowd" photo.

The group of friends was permitted to play Bananagrams again on Saturday evening as they did weekly before the lockdown last year.  Donna, Sandy, Miriam, and Gail played on a table outside, since it's warm now.

Floyd scrubbed the patio this week.  I hope that means our Circle@Crown Café will open back up before too long.  A lot of us miss being able to socialize with friends in the Café.

Deb at Readerbuzz hosts Sunday Salon, a place for us to link up and share what we have been doing during the week.

Embracing my inner sloth

 

This sloth sentiment is dedicated to Donna, Miriam, Gail, Sandy M, and Marie.  These friends played Bananagrams together and soon discovered an "ai" is a three-toed sloth.  Knowing it's a legitimate word is valuable when playing their game, so they adopted a sloth as their spirit animal.  I hope this shirt will encourage my friends to embrace their inner sloth in what's left of 2020, since they can no longer get together every weekend in the Circle@Crown Café.

This design is perfect for this season.  There's a Christmas tree on the left for my Christian friends which is also an eight-branched menorah for Hanukkah for my Jewish friends when turned around.

This poster from Cool People Care is like a to-do list of ways we can make the world a better place for all of us.  My motto has long been Embrace Kindness and Practice Compassion, both right there in the middle.  And I talk to strangers.  One of my friends said I can make a new friend during an elevator ride.  I can't do that in 2020, though.  Since it's impossible to socially distance in an elevator, we have been told to ride our elevators at the Crown Center one person at a time, except for those who are family or have caregivers.  We all need to stand up for justice and offer hope to those around us during this life-altering time of COVID-19.

St. Louis Symphony Orchestra ~ at Crown Center

SLSO on the Go performed outdoors at the Crown Center recently, with interviews on YouTube of our Executive Director and Miriam, a resident.

Two quotes on TWOsday ~ Look, see?

When Donna finished coloring this, she said it's her favorite page of all time and hung it on her door so people passing by in the hallway can see this quote from Henry David Thoreau.

"It's not what you look at that matters, it's what you see."

Miriam responded with a quote from Anais Nin:

"We don't see things as they are, we see things as we are."

Both quotes give me a lot to ponder.  Thank you, friends.

UP-date on the lock-DOWN

Bonnie a few years ago in an art class at the Crown Center

How are you coping?

The Crown Center sent out an email last week asking, "How Are You Coping?"  It featured four residents, and I was one of them:

"Bonnie Jacobs uses her blog to reflect on what’s happening in the world at large, and in her world at Crown Center and beyond.  Her daily posts that often include the antics of her cat Clawdia, provide continuity of community between friends and neighbors during this crisis.  And if you’re looking for the name of a good book, Bonnie’s the one to ask.  Keep blogging, Bonnie."

Sharon

Sharon, my neighbor at the other end of the hall, who is also Clawdia's good friend, was another.  Sharon, being tech savvy, now uses Zoom, FaceTime, Skype, and GChat to study Torah, practice yoga, attend her cancer support group, and keep in touch with her family.  Miriam Roth was shown FaceTiming with one of her graddaughters, and I learned that Sandy Moreno got a list of people born in April so she could wish a Happy Birthday to those who would miss having a Birthday Bash.  Every month, we have a party with cupcakes and ice cream and a musical group brought in to play for us, so we can party with that month's birthday people.  This year, I got a call from Sandy (and others) instead of cake and ice cream and music.  Sandy is very thoughtful.  So is her daughter, Tricia Falmer, who provided face masks for every person at the Crown Center last week.  I have great friends and neighbors, don't I?

Clawdia is coping with the lockdown by finding unique places to sleep, like in the opening of her upside-down box.  New boxes are so much fun, if you are a cat.  She also likes sitting in an open window, looking down at the birds in the tree tops and watching people walking by on the sidewalks, sometimes social distancing themselves with one on the sidewalk and one out in the street.  I have had our windows open more this week, since the pollen count is not nearly as bad as it was when it was driving me crazy a week or so ago.

I got a call Friday morning from Pamela, and we chatted for about an hour and a half.  She's one of the Café volunteers, who has now become a Facebook friend.  Later, I got a call from Emily, one of two university students living in the Crown Center with us.  It's nice to have the young people residing here.  Emily, who is finishing up her Master's degree, exercised with a group of us on Friday afternoons before Crown's public places needed to be closed for our health.  I had called her yesterday to let her know there's a package for her on the delivery table downstairs.  I took Faye her prescription that had been dropped off at that table and called when I got back home to let her know I'd hung it on her door knob.

Linguine with chicken livers

Donna suggested we order dinner from Pasta House, a couple of blocks away.  Restaurants are closed here during the lockdown, but they still do pick-up orders.  So I placed an order online, donned a face mask and blue glove, and took my cart out for a walk.  People were waiting in several cars in the parking lot when I arrived and called the restaurant to bring my order out to me.  It's really a strange new world we're living in right now, isn't it?  I brought home eggplant parmigiano, a salad, and fresh broccoli for me; Donna got pasta linguine with chicken livers, a salad, and her favorite dessert — tiramisu.  Nothing like having dinner "together" in our own apartments in separate buildings.  But the food was good, and we'll probably do it again occasionally.

With all that time I spent talking on the phone, it started beeping at me that the battery was down to nothing, so I had to (once again) recharge my phone in the middle of the day.  Then I had to recharge ME — in other words, sleep — before I finally finished composing this post that I mostly wrote yesterday.

Recipe for Date Torte

While under lockdown at home, I've been cleaning out boxes of old papers and came across a 3x5 card with a recipe for Date Torte in my mother's handwriting.  The second line on the card says this recipe is "From the kitchen of" and Mom wrote "Ruby Thayer."  Ruby was mother's cousin, who lived with mother's family after her mother died.  So it's a family recipe, even though I don't remember Mother ever making it.  Here's the recipe, just as my mother wrote it.

1 cup dates — diced
1 cup English walnuts — chopped
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup flour
1 tsp baking powder
2 eggs
Bake 275° — 50 minutes

I chose the illustration above from an online search because it seems to have similar ingredients, but I have not yet made Ruby's date torte.  I'm putting the recipe here, so I can find it later and try making it.  It seems simple enough.  Want a taste of it?

Stay mentally active

A fun way to maintain strong mental health during this lockdown is to play mind-stimulating games and solve riddles.  How many of these can you solve?  (I'll give you the answers at the end of this post.)

1.  Where is the ocean the deepest?
2.  If you were running a race, and you passed the person in 2nd place, what place are you in now?
3.  If you have me, you might want to share me.  But if you share me, you will no longer have me.  What am I?
4.  What gets wetter as it dries?
5.  There are three apples on the table, and you take two away.  How many apples do you have now?

Take a virtual tour

If there is ever a time we need a dose of beauty and inspiration, it’s now.  You can tour the Frank Lloyd Wright House in Ebsworth Park (the Kraus House) from home.  Just click on the blue link.

Answers to the riddles:

1.  On the bottom.
2.  Second place, since you didn’t pass the first place runner.
3.  It’s a secret.
4.  A towel.
5.  You have the two you took away.

There's a cat licking your birthday cake

Here's the birthday girl, wearing my face mask "uniform" as usual when leaving my apartment.  Notice the tissue in hand for punching elevator buttons, so as not to waste a disposable glove just to take the elevator down once and back up.  Donna had ordered me birthday dinner from Panera — Fuji Apple Salad with chicken and apple chips, and a blueberry muffin for dessert.  I met her where deliveries are left on that table next to me because outsiders may no longer roam the halls of the Crown Center.  We met the delivery guy there and each took food to our apartments to eat, all socially distanced to stay safe.

I'll show you what I ate, and it was delicious.  I shared a few nibbles of the chicken with Clawdia.  Maybe it's because they are trying to be extra good to any customers they can get right now, but it seemed to me there were more of all the goodies in the salad today — more sliced up tiny tomatoes, more feta crumbles, more pecans, even more of the chicken.  It was very delicious.  Clawdia concurs.


Donna sent me a singing birthday card, and I've found it on YouTube for you.  If the video here quits working, click on the link to view it there.  The words are appropriate, since Clawdia would act just like these cats.

Cats on an antique player piano

As if one musical card weren't enough, I got another lively one from Mary Grace (Gigi) entitled "Kit Cat Boogie."  She wrote:

"Happy Birthday!  Hope you'll boogie on your birthday, Bonnie!  Last picture I saw of you, you looked well and happy — hope that is still the case.  Enjoy your special day.  xxoogg"

Yes, I'm doing well and have been doing the boogie all over my little apartment today.  My cat didn't lick my cake when I ate a little Hostess cake for lunch.  For breakfast, I ate a small can of Vienna sausages and the last three green olives left in the jar.  There's a back-story for that.

When I was ten, I went off to summer camp with my cousin Carolyn, who's a year older than I am.  Mother sent me a care package that week, and in it were a can of vienna sausages and some green olives.  She knew I loved those special treats.  So for my breakfast today, I gave myself a treat from my childhood and thought about what my Mom sent me seventy years ago. 

Marie brought me a gift last night and, wearing our masks, she handed off the bag she'd used to bring it up to me and backed off across the hall.  I had a hard time deciding whether to open it last night — who would know, right? — or wait for my actual birthday.  I did manage to wait to discover a wooden box full of Tea Drops.  On the side are directions:  "Pour in boiling water, add Tea Drop, stir and enjoy."  Tea Drops, it says, "are pressed teas made with genuine tea leaves that dissolve in hot water."  And inside are five kinds of tea:

• Citrus Ginger
• Sweet Peppermint
• Blueberry Acai
• Rose Earl Grey
• Matcha Green Tea

I've had so many text messages and phone calls and long conversations that I had to recharge my phone at midday:  Barbara, Sandra, David, Sheila G., Susan, Sandy.  I got Facebook birthday wishes from Sylvia, three books shopped off her own shelf from Donna (stay-home orders, you know), and these birthday cards from Donna, Miriam, and Marie.

When Clawdia woke from her latest cat nap, we ventured out into the sunshine for the walk she's been wanting for days.  Miriam called happy birthday to me from a distance, while she was out sitting in the sun after days of rain.  We're both 80 now, since her birthday was in March.  As Clawdia sat in the lush grass looking around, I decided the pollen count seems to be down.  The mowers and trimmers were working here on this sunny Sunday, even though they usually come here on Mondays.  Maybe they've gotten their days as mixed up as the rest of us during this lockdown, or maybe they're worried about "rainy days and Mondays."

That's not all, yet.  Later in the day I got a couple of other singing electronic cards, both from Sharon.  One was these goats yodeling, and the other was William Shatner singing to me and putting my name in lights as I posted at the top of the page.  Okay, Sharon, how'd you do that, getting both of them to sing my name?  Thanks for the shout out!

And at the end of the day, more birthday wishes on Facebook from Gina, Toni (who included another birthday cat for today's collection), Annette, Judith, Charlotte, Bonnie M, Jimmy, and Terri.  Thanks to all.

Update 4/27/2020:  Birthday wishes keep pouring in, like floodgates have opened.  Facebook friends continue to send belated good wishes ~ Nancy, Jess, Alyssa, Cindy M, Jean L, Dora, Sharon L, Sylvia, Diana, Laurie, Mary Virginia, Cindy Z, Carol H, Ginger, Rosemary, Vickie, my brother Jim, Pamela, Ginny D, Candy, Sheryn (who added a dog to celebrate with us), and Rosie (who added a cat flying around in a small bi-plane to my cat collection).  And I forgot to include the twenty-plus who have clicked "Like" or "Love."  Feeling very blessed by all of you.

LOCKDOWN ~ humor

For more fun during our lockdown, here's a short video from a music teacher, who has composed a sweet little song.  In her viral video, Liz explains:

"As some of you guys might know, I'm a music teacher, and I've found that one of the best ways that I can process the whole transition to online learning and teaching is to write a song.  So, I wrote a song, and I'd like to share that with you guys now.  Here we go."

 What follows quite succinctly sums up the collective feelings of many, many teachers, parents, and students around the country.  And I'd say, it applies to the rest of us, too.  Shall we sing it with her?

Thursday thoughts

Cara, Bonnie, and Barbara

Today we welcomed Cara to the Crown Center staff.  She's our new controller.  I thought someone had misspelled the word "comptroller," but Donna looked it up and found this link about the two words.

At the right, Mary is at the end of the table with Cara, across from me.  In the photo below, Cara was at a nearby table greeting Miriam and other residents.  In the background, you can see Donna and Walter at the other end of my table.  Iva (on the left) was talking to Mary.  Lots of us were in the Café this morning to welcome Cara.

One more thing ... Donna brought her new tee-shirt to show friends.  I encouraged Randi to get in the photo (below), so she is feigning surprise at the shirt.  A sloth hangs upside down with these words:

Click the photos to enlarge them

"I finally found my spirit animal ... SLOTH ... does absolutely nothing and just sleeps."

For more about Donna and sloths, read my blog post from last Friday.  Now she has a sloth keychain, a sloth book, and a sloth shirt.

Another Chanukah dinner update

As I was going past the Link Desk (in the hallway between the two buildings of the Crown Center) one day last week, I happened to notice this picture on the monitor showing events and calendars.  I stopped and waited until it came around again so I could snap this photo.  Sandy, Miriam, Susan, and I were putting latkes on our plates at Chanukah Dinner last Monday when one of our staff asked us to pose, getting Susan to stand so she could also be in this shot.  I shared my photo of Gail and Sandy last week, taken (of course) from the opposite direction.

Shalom Y'all ~ coincidences

I nearly always have bookmarks in fiction and nonfiction at the same time.

This week, I've been reading The Muralist by B. A. Shapiro, a 2015 novel about a 21st-century woman searching for what happened to her grandfather's missing sister in the early 1940's.  They are Jewish, they are from France, and Danielle's relatives had been trying to get out of Europe.  The book follows both Danielle and Alizée, her grandfather's sister, and I've just read about each of them in France this morning.

I've also been reading The Chamberlain Key: Unlocking the God Code to Reveal Divine Messages Hidden in the Bible by Timothy P. Smith (2017 nonfiction).  I'm in the middle of the book, and the author and his son are also in Europe, having discovered that Jews in Spain learned to hide their Torah scrolls inside statues of Mary after they were forced to "convert" to Christianity.  The statues became, in effect, their "hidden" Torah ark.  I read this morning about their visit to a site in Spain.

On my birthday two days ago, a new resident came over to my table at dinner time to ask about the Hebrew letters on the back of her new black tee-shirt.  Having learned the Hebrew alphabet, I said with my Jewish friends, "Shalom ― it says Shalom, which means peace."

My friend Miriam, who had not eaten with us, had come to wish me happy birthday as we sat and talked around our very-talkative table after the meal.  When I went back upstairs, I found a birthday card from Miriam in the box beside my door.  Inside with the card was that bronze Shalom gift I'm holding in the top photo.  Shalom, again!  Tee-shirt and gift.  Wow!  But I was puzzled about those symbols around the words שָׁלוֹם and Shalom.  So I asked Miriam and learned they represent the twelve tribes, the twelve sons of Jacob.  Although no one knows for sure these days, judging by her birth name, she thinks she may be of the tribe of Naphtali, represented by a doe, a female deer.

Click to enlarge image

Caturday ~ window cat

Bonnie told me she and Miriam were talking about how hard it is to open the windows in our building, so I thought I'd show everybody how it's done.  See?  Simple!

Clawdia, 'til next time   >^. .^<

Sunday Salon ~ bookshelves

I'm following the advice of these book shelves by reading my own Jürgen Moltmann books.  Can you see that it says "read your book case"?

This has been a good week, but not what I expected.  For one thing, I didn't complete Moltmann's autobiography, as I had hoped to do.  On the other hand, I managed to get six posts written (if I get to count the one my cat "wrote"), and I enjoyed socializing with friends several times:  visiting with Sandy and Donna over a meal, "Talking It Over" with a group of Crown residents, eating out with Joan, meeting Rosie for lunch in the Circle@Crown Café, and getting to know Miriam over dinner with other residents downstairs.  (I'm Miriam's ambassador, a volunteer who helps a new resident get to know about the Crown Center.)

Book just completed:

• The Indigo Children: The New Kids Have Arrived ~ by Lee Carroll and Jan Tober, 1999, psychology, 8/10

Books I'm reading now:

• Waking Up White, and Finding Myself in the Story of Race ~ by Debby Irving, 2014, race relations
• Stress: The Good and the Bad ~ by Paula Ceccaldi, Agnès Diricq, and Clémentine Bagieu, 2001, health
• A Broad Place: An Autobiography ~ by  Jürgen Moltmann, 2007, theology

Books up next:

• The Living God and the Fullness of Life ~ by Jürgen Moltmann, 2015, theology
• Jürgen Moltmann: Collected Readings ~ ed. by Margaret Kohl, 2014, theology

Bloggers gather in the Sunday Salon — at separate computers in different time zones — to talk about our lives and our reading.