I went down to the Strip this afternoon. At one time this was Pittsburgh’s wholesale food distribution center. Today it’s mostly consumer oriented, with lots of exotic, ethnic food. It’s almost enough to make me start cooking again. Since I don’t cook very much I only bought a few things. It’s hard to cook for only one person. I generally make too much, then wind up eating it for days; not a good thing.

There are bakeries, restaurants and coffee shops in the Strip. Enrico’s makes amazing biscotti; the smell is irresistible. There is even a lovely chocolate shop. This time I resisted all of the nosh, getting only an iced coffee and my few groceries. I finally decided I should try to loose some weight. My wonderful son-in-law, the geriatric specialist, keeps telling me about all of the studies about obesity. He’s very nice. He doesn’t tell me I should loose weight, just tells me about the studies. So I’m not dieting. That doesn’t work for me. I’m just trying to eat better, more fruit and vegetables, less of everything. It seems to be working.

I confess. I am a terrible housekeeper. Cleaning is my least favorite activity. But I decided I couldn’t let it go any longer so I skipped my morning visit to the health club and worked out by cleaning the house. Except for my workroom, where I can’t figure out how to begin, everything is gorgeous. Maybe over the weekend I’ll start on the workroom. I’ve had enough of this for one day.

I have been largely preoccupied in the last three weeks with the war in Israel. I have many friends there and my heart goes out to them. One of the blogs I read, Octogenarian, has two excellent posts about the war. I urge you to read them. A comment on this post includes an article written in 1968. Sadly, it is still relevant today.

ISRAEL’S PECULIAR POSITION
By Eric Hoffer, May 26, 1968

(In
1968 the LA times ran this article, written by Eric Hoffer, a former
longshoreman and non-Jewish American social philosopher. Born in 1902,
Hoffer died in 1983, after writing nine books and winning the
Presidential Medal of Freedom. Although written 38 years ago, the
following is as timely and applicable today as then )

The Jews
are a peculiar people: things permitted to other nations are forbidden
to the Jews. Other nations drive out thousands, even millions of people
and there is no refugee problem. Russia did it, Poland and
Czechoslovakia did it, Turkey threw out a million Greeks, and Algeria a
million Frenchman. Indonesia threw out heaven knows how many Chinese –
and no one says a word about refugees.

But in the case of Israel
the displaced Arabs have become eternal refugees. Everyone insists that
Israel must take back every single Arab.

Arnold Toynbee calls
the displacement of the Arabs an atrocity greater than any committed by
the Nazis. Other nations when victorious on the battlefield dictate
peace terms. But when Israel is victorious it must sue for peace.
Everyone expects the Jews to be the only real Christians in this world.

Other
nations when they are defeated survive and recover but should Israel be
defeated it would be destroyed. Had Nasser triumphed last June he would
have wiped Israel off the map, and no one would have lifted a finger to
save the Jews. No commitment to the Jews by any government, including
our own, is worth the paper it is written on.

There is a cry of
outrage all over the world when people die in Vietnam or when two
Negroes are executed in Rhodesia. But when Hitler slaughtered Jews no
one remonstrated with him. The Swedes, who are ready to break off
diplomatic relations with America because of what we do in Vietnam, did
not let out a peep when Hitler was slaughtering Jews. They sent Hitler
choice iron ore, and ball bearings, and serviced his troop trains to
Norway.

The Jews are alone in the world. If Israel survives, it
will be solely because of Jewish efforts. And Jewish resources. Yet at
this moment Israel is our only reliable and unconditional ally. We can
rely more on Israel than Israel can rely on us. And one has only to
imagine what would have happened last summer had the Arabs and their
Russian backers won the war to realize how vital the survival of Israel
is to America and the West in general.

I have a premonition that
will not leave me; as it goes with Israel so will it go with all of us.
Should Israel perish the holocaust will be upon us.

I felt like I’ve been coasting for the last couple of months. Even though I’ve been traveling a lot, I haven’t really been able to focus on anything. I decided that things have to change. I have resolved to go to the health club every week day this month. I went yesterday and had a good workout; today I went to the Tai Chi class. I also went to the farmer’s market yesterday and got some beautiful tomatoes, peaches, Kirby pickles, which I prefer to cucumbers and a green pepper. Today I went to the grocery and got some more stuff to make gazpacho. I could have gotten most of this at the farmer’s market, but the sun was so hot I couldn’t wait to get back to the car (ac). This is the first time I’ve done anything even remotely resembling cooking in this kitchen. Most of the time if I can’t microwave it, I don’t eat it. This fit of cooking (?) was brought on because I have resolved to eat more fruit and vegetables and less junk. I’m also hoping to do something creative every day, but I’m not doing as well with that.

My contact lenses now correct my vision to 20-20, not counting the extra edges on most things. More than ever, I need reading glasses in order to read anything smaller than 36 pt. type. I’ve been buying readers in the drug store, but I now need more than three times magnification and that’s hard to find. Also, I found a huge area (middle distance) where nothing worked. I spent enormous amounts of time putting on and taking off glasses. When I complained to my contact lens doctor she suggested variable focus lenses with the Transitions feature so I would not even need sunglasses.

I got the new glasses yesterday. I can’t believe how amazing they are. With a little head movement I can now see almost everything. I’m still having a little trouble with the computer, but I suspect that isn’t only the glasses. I could use a better computer desk. So I’ve become a permanent eyeglass wearer, for the first time in about 40 years. I just have to remember not to take them off. It’s gotten to be a bad habit.
This is what I looked like before glasses.

Here I am with my new glasses.

I can’t help but reminisce when I go back to Chicago. It is, after all, almost my entire past. One of the places I visited was Uncle Freddy’s Gallery, run by a cousin. She started the gallery several years ago, but this was my first opportunity to visit. She and her partner, Tom, wanted to know about my work as a photographer. I told them about the galleries and artists I worked with. I recalled this picture of Ed Paschke, just another job for me at the time, but looking at it now, I think it is quite good.

(© R. Karlin)
Time gives you a different perspective. Paschke’s work was always strong and a little violent; it was hard to reconcile his sweet public personality with this work. I think my portrait tells the story.

I had a website in 1996 or 1997, years before most people knew about the Internet. I was teaching how to build websites and had a consulting job building one. My site had some personal and family things on it, similar to many at the time. This is the image I used on my homepage:

I thought of myself as the baglady on a bicycle. I used to love riding and did it until I moved to New Jersey. Coming from the flat land of Chicago I could not deal with the hilly terrain. Also, I developed a fear of falling. I heard one too many horror stories about falling off a bicycle.

The baglady part came because I could actually envision myself becoming a bag lady. When I thought about getting a divorce and not knowing whether I would get any kind of decent job that baglady crept into my psyche.

Back in April I went to a potluck fundraiser for the Fiber Arts Guild of Pittsburgh. They had a silent auction and a Chinese auction for lots of interesting, donated stuff. I bought a lot of tickets and put them all in the bag for this gardening basket full of fabrics,
which I won. It was much more interesting than it looks here, because I had already pulled everything out and used some of the fabric before I decided to take the photograph. The fabrics inspired me and I have already made two bags:



I used to do a lot of sewing. Among the things I brought from Chicago eight years ago are many boxes for fabric pieces. I have been trying to get rid of them so I’ve been making bags. I have probably made two dozen bags already. I use them myself or I give them away. I didn’t need any more fabric, but it was fun to win something.

Last week a tree trimmer came and worked on all of the trees on the property. I think he butchered the tulip tree and I’m very unhappy about it. He removed two large branches near the house. They weren’t close enough to do any damage; they just had a few small dead branches. The tree looks bare now. They cleaned up most of what they removed, but one small branch and some flowers remained on the ground. The inside of the flowers look like this:

then I have a bridge to sell you. I just sent an email to a friend and noticed this bit of advertising above the inbox: