BONUS POST - CITY DAILY PHOTO THEME DAY IN FLUX

 

Some of you know that I've been involved with the City Daily Photo group and website for more than 13 years. People all around the world had their own local daily photo blogs. Once connected to the parent blog, a thumbnail of your quotidian image would appear there with a link to the post on your own blog. You made comments on other people's posts. They made comments on yours. We made friends around the world. We have such good memories of going out to dinner with our (sadly, former) colleague in Shanghai and having a two hour lunch on a terrace overlooking the vineyards of Provence with another.  

There were also theme days on the first of the month for anyone who cared to participate. The number of members has dwindled over the years. The person who started all of this, a Parisian, moved on. Two other members from Connecticut and Queensland carried it forward. But the web hosting company and the people who helped there aren't interested any more and the central portal is gone. There was a chance that September 1 would be the last theme day. We were invited to post a favorite photo with no other conditions. This might be mine. It was certainly the most difficult to get. We were traveling through Tibet with a small group and spent a night at Mt. Everest base camp on that side. The elevation was about 17,000 feet / 5,200 meters. I had bad altitude sickness. A couple of companions dragged me up the last little gravel hill to the overlook and I got this. One of the greatest days of my life.

There are still two CDP Blogger pages, http://dailyphotoportalnews.blogspot.com/ and http://cdpbthemeday.blogspot.com/ . Our friend in Australia would like some relief, too, and I have agreed to become co-administrator and choose the monthly themes. Check the links above for news very soon.

AN EXISTENTIAL THREAT TO THE SUBURBS

 

You may not remember their names by now but you remember the incident. Mark and Patricia McCloskey, St. Louis trial lawyers, standing in front of their Italianate mansion, brandishing a handgun and semi-automatic rifle at peaceful protesters on their private street. (The marchers were actually heading for the mayor's house a bit further down.) They appeared by video last week at The Republican National Convention, loudly defending the right to defend their property with lethal force from people who were not interested in them. They predicted that if Biden were elected, marauding bands of criminals would sweep through the beloved suburbs, destroying everything in sight.

Two problems. One. they don't live in the suburbs. They live in the central city on a street full of mansions built by STL's industrial and financial barons of the late 19th and early 20th Centuries. Two, when we say trial lawyers, we usually mean plaintiff's personal injury attorneys who get about a third of any recovery. Skilled ones, like the McCloskeys, can become so rich they can afford palazzi and AK-15s. The Republicans hate them because they aggressively suck the money out of corporations and insurance companies. Don't feed the hand that bites you.

The real threat may be illustrated above, found on a back street in the suburb where we live. Imagine a herd of these bounding through your subdivision, lusting for your electronics and Lexus? As the song had it, who needs TV when you have T. Rex?                  

A COMPANION PIECE

Another one of the monumental statues at the entrance to the Soldier's Memorial downtown. Loyalty is a tricky concept. It is a wonderful thing to have your family and close friends stand beside you - and behind you if necessary. On another level loyalty involves moral choices. Is it right to remain loyal to someone or something that has turned bad? The Nazi party and our current administration come to mind. I want something worth being loyal to.          

WOMEN'S BURDEN

 

Okay, I found something. Toward the side of downtown there is a building called the Soldiers' Memorial. It was built after World War I and extensively rehabbed in the last few years. The entrance to the museum is flanked by four monumental statues, a strong, solid person holding the bridle of a muscle-bound Pegasus. (They always remind me of the Anheuser-Busch Clydesdales.) The first three represent courage, vision and virtue. This one is a woman holding an infant. Who has to make the sacrifices? Combatants are mostly male, the ones being shot at. But who is behind the lines, carrying all the other burdens?      

A NATIONAL TALENT

    

I am so hard up. I got nothing. If I were playing poker I'd fold right now. The town isn't comatose but it seems to have taken a lot of sedatives. So, here is an appropriate subject if I have to go dumpster diving in the archives. This was just down the street from the cottage we rented in Michigan last month. Trash collection is done by private companies in lots of the US.

THE MOTHER OF INVENTION

Might flow from necessity. Or from Frank Zappa. (My favorite Mothers ditty is at https://youtu.be/wMSQ1vCxZJU. My daughter and I used to sing it together when she was little.) But the phrase is an old English proverb and it is often true. I got nothing to shoot. My brain is empty. I shot this on my drive home from work. Yes, I was driving but it wasn't so bad. Before I got on the highway I set the exposure, turned on autofocus and put the shutter on burst mood. Then, when I was on a straightaway, I propped the lens on top of the steering wheel and, without looking, fired away. And so, the blandness of the American suburban commute.

The sign with the bright numbers is promoting the two main lotteries in my state. It's a con game on so many levels. The two numbers represent the current jackpots in millions of dollars, but that's not what you get if you win. It's the sum of the payments of a 20 year annuity. If you want the money in a lump sum, as all winners do, you get a far smaller amount. Someone said that lotteries are tax on the stupid.              

WE THE PEOPLE

The side wall of what is now a microbrewery on Cherokee Street. It's a little hard to see, but the posters of three women, Black, Latina and Muslim, are all captioned We The People. They are the first words of the preamble to the United States Constitution. Our country has always been a blend, a masala if you will, but never more so than now. No turning back.