Author Archives: TheRealTamara

For an opinionated woman such as I, blogging is an excellent outlet. This is one of many fori that I use to bloviate. Enjoy! Comment on my commentary.

Tango

I am kind of over the moon over dance, dancers, and dancing. My passion covers all genres from the à gogo to the ballet to zumba. My affection for the Iberian-inflected dances like Flamenco and Tango is extreme.

Truth is The Tango, that great dance of love, originates in Argentina, not in Spain.

If Tango is seen as romantic, Flamenco can be sexy but edgier. And I have no idea what prompted me to include à gogo in my list, but it too is pretty provocative.

The ballet engaged my interest from an early age. I came to appreciate ballroom dancing later.

Of course, all of the dance, except the zumba, for me is basically a spectator sport. For instance, I always loved watching all sorts of ballet but hated ballet lessons.

Fancy flight

It might be enough that Amelia Earhart was a woman and a pilot.

Her disappearance adds a touch of tragedy to her profile.

For me, it is the fact that she took to the sky that makes her story. Losing her in flight is a poignant fact that grows out of that story.

You can admire her for her staunch advocacy of women’s suffrage as well.

In her honor, the Amelia Earhart Hangar Museum opened in Atchison, Kansas, this week. Earhart was a native of the town.

The Museum was founded by Karen Seaburg, with the inspiration of her late husband Ladd. It combines, she says, information about Earhart’s life with the science and technology of aviation and centrifugal force.

Earhart’s legacy will be front and center at this new center for learning.

En_joy_ment

What are 5 everyday things that bring you happiness?

Happiness is fleeting, and it is also enduring. Ordinary things can be so satisfying that they bring on smiles.

When I smile, it is in gratitude for the small things.

To all the crocuses that peak out to commemorate the spring, I say thank you.

Hey, it’s a bright sunny day! Wow, that drizzling rain just feels so good.

Did you notice how adorable that hat looks on that little fella over there?

And fifth but not least, let’s be grateful for a well-toasted bialy. For today.

The object of our affection

What animals make the best/worst pets?

Creepy crawlies seem to appeal to some. Perhaps you’ve walked in the park and seen the pet-owner embraced by a rather large snake.

I cringed just writing this description. I guess that answers the “worst pets” part of the query. At least in part.

Rats, I read just this past week, are very affectionate. Not buying it. They fit my definition of creepies.

Now, what -or who- is the ideal pet? With whom do I want to share my home?

Wet noses and button eyes are very seductive, as is that head tilted quizzically sidewise.

Little dogs can be adorable but they are also frequently yappy. My favorite would be a pup who grew to 30 or 40 lbs.

I like a longish waggable tail, as well. It’s how your pet will tell his tale of happiness.

Let’s face it, we offer them so much of our affection, we want them to welcome us. A wag says “hi, so nice to see you.”

Inflation

Lexington & 80-something Street **

What is it about us as we age that we can’t recognize prices rising? You know, like when you find yourself saying, “That cab ride was $2.50 in my day.”

For two-cents plain is probably at least the above quoted $2.50 these days at any half decent soda fountain. Wait. You won’t find a soda fountain (unless you live in my nabe. **This one boasts a 75-year run.)

Whenever I pass that** soda fountain, I free-associate to the Robert Redford film 3 Days of the Condor. The movie was based on a novel called Six Days of the Condor.

All I recall from the Redford film was that he seeked a back exit to escape some baddies. The counterman pointed with a motion of his head.

In honor of the April fool

The fool, if memory serves, was a foil for the foibles of a monarch. At least, that was the case in Shakespeare’s liturgy.

The jester, in jest, could shout truth to power. The King, since it is his fool speaking, is not offended.

when thou clovest thy crown i’ th’ middle and gav’st away both parts…thou hads’t little wit in thy bald crown when thou gav’st thy golden one away.

See King Lear, Act 1 Scene 4.

Fools made mockery of great men. The Bard’s Fools told it like it was.

Although this post foolisly lags behind the day it is meant to commemorate, it carries the spirit of a beau jeste. Laugh on and be merry. Or, as Donald O’Connor danced and sang it, “Be a clown.”

This’n and that’n

Things I learned from Nat Geo and CNN Science newsletters this week

Aging pandas

Talking plants

Yolk-based paints

Stressed lizards

Mexico is home to a 33-year-old panda named Xin-Xin, who was born by artificial insemination.

It appears that plants respond to life events by making sounds. There is no evidence that they have actually developed a language.

The egg yolk found in your da Vinci is not accidental. Painters seemed to have used it to “stretch” the life of expensive paints.

Living near a noisy military base has made these lizards nervous.

Passing on knowledge gives, I think information an added value!

I did not know this

What’s something most people don’t understand?

Yang Bing-yi opened a modest shop in Taiwan in 1958. He built it into a dumpling and noodle empire, earning a Michelin star and introducing the soup dumpling to a global audience. Yang died at 96.

NYT Good Morning read

Understanding is different from knowledge. There are many things – way too many- I and you and you don’t know. If we did, or when they came to our attention, we would know them and understand them.

So now I know about Yang’s culinary contribution and appreciate his accomplishments.

I still don’t understand how you get the soup to stay in the dumpling.

Do you?