Have You Read This? Travel

From The Bookshelf

 
General intro: Imagine we are in a bookstore. I wander up to you, hand you one of these books, say ‘Have you read this one?’, then wander off. Whereupon you look at the cover, turn it over, look at the back cover, read the blurb, flip through the book, and decide for yourself if you are interested. It’s like that. Enjoy. Previous [Have You Read This? Graphic Novel Edition]

Specific intro: I prefer my travel narrative to be light on memoir. I don’t care a used ticket stub about the author’s inner life. I care about what author is doing as my proxy.

Road Fever
Tim Cahill
(Random House 1991)

“Tim Cahill reports on the road trip to end all road trips: a journey that took him from Tierra del Fuego to Prudhoe Bay, Alaska, in a record-breaking twenty three and a half days.” Penguin

Mentioned on the blog ” … but my vacation slides don’t rivet as do those of travel writer Tim Cahill.” [Peregrinatio in Stabilitate]

Into Thin Air: A Personal Account of the Mount Everest Disaster
Jon Krakauer
(Villard 1997)

“In March 1996, Outside Magazine sent me to Nepal to participate in, and write about, a guided ascent of Mount Everest.” Books

Mentioned on the blog, “I’m never going to climb Mount Everest. Reading Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer is as close as I’ll ever get.” [The End of the Road, In Which I Consider the Price Of Living Vicariously].

Crusader: By Horse to Jerusalem
Tim Severin
(Hutchinson 1989)

“In these astonishing true stories of his expeditions, Tim tells of how he recreated famous historical and legendary voyages and adventures, including sailing across the Atlantic in an accurately reconstructed sixth-century leather boat, and journeying on horseback from Belgium to Jerusalem retracing the route of 11th century crusaders.” Expeditions

Mentioned on the blog [Letter Art, AlphaBooks: S is for Severin]

The Lunatic Express: Discovering the World . . . via Its Most Dangerous Buses, Boats, Trains, and Planes
Carl Hoffman
(Broadway 2010)

“So off he went, spending six months circumnavigating the globe on the world’s worst conveyances: the statistically most dangerous airlines, the most crowded and dangerous ferries, the slowest buses, and the most rickety trains.” Books

Mentioned on the blog, “I am more likely to read for vicarious experience of something I would never do, for example …” [Referral Saturday: Horseback Reads], [Check Out My New Page].

Scanner broken. Cahill, Krakauer, Hoffam covers off the Internet; Severin from files.

What do you have for me to read?

Thank you for reading,
Katherine Walcott

Sea And Stone, Travel Week, Day 5, Lisbon, Portugal, Guest Photos

Random Images

 
Intro, week: Do you feel like traveling? I feel like traveling. Let’s hear it for vicarious travel.

Intro, today: More from Amy Vanderryn [Archives]. Welcome Amy.
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One of two seahorse statues in the Praça do Império (Empire Square) in the Belem section of Lisbon. Wiki calls them Hippocamps. Artist, António Duarte. Wiki: Praça do Império

Tile Museum, Travel Week, Day 4, Lisbon, Portugal, Guest Photos

Random Images

 
Intro, week: Do you feel like traveling? I feel like traveling. Let’s hear it for vicarious travel.

Intro, today: Blog contributor & globetrotter Amy Vanderryn has once again come up aces [Archives]. Welcome Amy.
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According to Amy, “It’s a very important part of Portugal’s history and one their people take with them when they have neighborhoods in other countries. Many many buildings are tiled all up the outside etc – it’s everywhere. Now they even have stick on ones so people can make their stuff look like it (so my friend says).”

Museu Nacional do Azulejo
Museu Nacional do Azulejo – English

General story on tiles, this is one of the illustrations. BBC, The story behind Lisbon’s beauty

“‘O Casamento da Galinha’ (The Chicken’s Wedding) – this is the most enigmatic tile panel in the museum, and perhaps of all time. Created in 1665, it depicts a chicken in a carriage on its way to a ceremony…” If you go over to this blog, click on the painting for the full caption. Dom and Jo’s travel adventures – Portugal 2016, Lisboa – Museu Nacional do Azulejo

A general article on tiles that I scanned briefly before the site asked me to register, this is the lead illustration. The Economist, Art Squared

“The habit of portraying your life through images you have approved has been around for centuries … António commissioned the seven panels … for his manor house on his estate in Póvoa de Santo Adrião, a small village on the northern outskirts of Lisboa. It was here he also built his hat factory. Becky in Portugal, The story of the milliner

“As opposed to the customary working methods of Portuguese azulejo painters, these panels were painted directly with no reference to engraved iconographic sources.”
Google Arts & Culture, The hat maker panels

“This tile panel depicting the t(h)reshing of wheat using animals originally covered the wall of a bakery in Lisbon.” Museum With No Frontiers, Tile panel ‘The Threshing of Wheat’

“The 20th century is represented by works produced by … Jorge Barradas …”
Museu Nacional do Azulejo, Explore the MNAz, Portuguese Tiles

Plus two spotted in the wild:

Atlas Obscura, Sao Bento Station. Be sure to scroll through the slide show at the top of the page. I was particularly taken with the wide shot of the lobby. Tiles everywhere.

Portugal Visitor, Rossio Station Lisbon

This is making me want to go to Lisbon.

Links
Museu Nacional do Azulejo National Tile Museum website. Border color from here.
Museu Nacional do Azulejo – English
VisitLisboa, National Tile Museum
BePortugal, Tiles in Lisbon: The History and Tradition of Our Iconic Art

Harvest of Giant Marshmallows, Travel Week, Day 3, Vermont, USA, Guest Photos

Random Images

 
Intro, week: Do you feel like traveling? I feel like traveling. Let’s hear it for vicarious travel.

Intro, today: Roaming Reader [Archives].
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“In the United States, silage is more often fed to cattle than horses …. Horses are fed hay in the United States because the weather is typically dry enough to allow for mass cultivation.” Q&A: Silage for Horses – Kentucky Equine Research

Process Notes
Vermont does not have an official state color. Photo border color from the background of the state flag. Internet says state flag background is azure. Internet says this is the hex color for azure. Color looks lighter than the blue on the images of the Vermont flag. Who am I to doubt the wisdom of the Internet.

Thank you for reading,
Katherine Walcott

A Man And His Horse, Travel Week, Day 2, Edinburgh, Scotland, Guest Photo

Random Images

 
Intro, week: Do you feel like traveling? I feel like traveling. Let’s hear it for vicarious travel.

Intro, today: More from Jennifer Garlen, aka Virtual Virago. Welcome Jennifer.
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The Wellington Monument on Princes Street, Edinburgh, Scotland,

Links
“Wellington mounted on his favourite horse, Copenhagen.” National Records of Scotland: The Duke of Wellington statue at Register House

Statue slide show. Canmore: National Record of the History Environment: Edinburgh, Princes Street, General Register House, Duke Of Wellington Statue

Copenhagen’s attitude. “His cantankerous temperament gave many a groom a bad moment and even nearly gave the Duke himself a severe injury.  He had dismounted after the final battle of Waterloo and moved to the rear and patted Copenhagen on the rump in thanks for a fine day’s work. The horse responded with a savage kick, just missing the General who had already just missed death many times that day.” Patricia Crane: Copenhagen and the Duke Of Wellington By Cheryl R. Lutring

Copenhagen’s breeding. “Copenhagen, Wellington’s future warhorse, was named for that same Battle of Copenhagen, because he was, in a sense, present in the early days of that siege. He was completely oblivious to the campaign, however, as he was in utero at the time.” Click over for, “The tale of his birth and his life up to the night of that famous ball given by the Duchess of Richmond.” The Regency Redingote: From Denmark to Belgium: Copenhagen — Wellington’s Great Warhorse

Process Note
Border color. According to CWR Flags, “The Scottish Parliament’s education, culture and sport committee has set the optimum shade of blue for the flag as Pantone 300, azure, or sky-blue. The committee’s decision is only advisory and it will have to go to Jim Wallace, the justice minister, for ratification.” Colour and Design of the Scottish Flag

Thank you for reading,
Katherine Walcott

Shipshape, Travel Week, Day 1, Greenwich, England, Guest Photo

Random Images

 
Intro, week: Do you feel like traveling? I feel like traveling. Let’s hear it for vicarious travel.

Intro, today: Travel photo by Jennifer Garlen, who blogs about classic movies at Virtual Virago. Welcome Jennifer.

Horse posts on Virtual Virago
Virtual Virago: Stars of the Stands: Classic Hollywood at the Kentucky Derby Museum
Virtual Virago: Classic Films in Focus: PHANTOM STALLION (1954)
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Ship Badge. From the collection of ship badges at the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich, England. “Official ship’s badge of HMS Turpin.” NMM Collection Record. From their extensive Ship Badge collection on display in the Sea Things Gallery, National Maritime Museum.

Badge Links
History of ship badges. HMS Turpin listed, along with an unofficial badge of horse & rider. RN Subs, Website of the Barrow Submariners Association: Submarine Badges

More on history, “In terms of ship’s badges it does not appear to have been formalised in the Royal Navy until the end of the First World War. By October 1918 a Charles ffoulkes was appointed to be the Admiralty Adviser on Heraldry to the Ship’s Badges Committee.” National Museum of the Royal New Zealand Navy: History of Ship Badges

Types. “Circular – Battleships & Battle Cruisers.” HMS Turpin not listed. Different kind of ship? Royal Navy Research Archive: Royal Navy Ship’s Badges

Other examples. HMS Turpin not listed. Retired? Military Insignia & Badges: British Royal Navy Ships

Does anyone know what the flower on the reins is all about?

Ship History
Specifications Royal Navy, Forgotten Fleets of WWII: H.M. S/M TURPIN

Timeline. “Transferred to Israeli Navy after an extensive refit and re-named Leviathan.” Naval-History.netService Histories of Royal Navy Warships in World War 2, HMS TURPIN – T-class Submarine

Another timeline & logbook entries. “Scrapped in 1978.” uboat.net: HMS Turpin (P 354)

That doesn’t even include the Wiki entry, HMS_Turpin_(P354)

Thank you for reading,
Katherine Walcott

Totally Off Topic Brag

You are looking at one full month of successfully completed NYT Crossword puzzles. This took me YEARS to achieve. Go me!

A while back, maybe 2010, I was in a headspace that did not provide enough concentration to read books. This left a significant hole in my leisure time. Blogs were popular but hadn’t exploded, or at least I hadn’t found them. Netflix was still sending out DVDs. I rented Wordplay, a documentary about the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament. Hmm. I like puzzles. I bought a few books and went to town. Actually, I went overboard. I reeled myself back in and compromised on one puzzle a day.

The NYT folks don’t do a good job of letting people know that the puzzles increase in difficulty throughout the week, from Monday to Saturday. Sunday puzzles are not the hardest. Saturdays are. Sundays are actually Wed/Thur level of difficulty. They are just bigger.

If you have a modicum of crossword skill, you should be able to do Monday and Tuesday puzzles straight out of the box. They took me 3 to 4 days to master. Wednesday and Thursday took me 3 to 4 months to get alongside. Friday and Saturday took me 3 to 4 years before I would even fill them out completely. Took me almost that long again before I got my first completely correct Saturday. There was a long time of missing by one.

A perfect record for the month? That means getting all the puzzles done and doing on them the day, or the night before. Puzzles are published 10 pm Eastern time.

Switching to digital helped. Although I was diligent about checking my print answers, I didn’t always find all my misteaks. That’s a lot of little letters to keep track of. Digital will keep you honest and provide hints if you need, either by square, word, or entire puzzle.

When the current crossword editor, Will Shortz, took over, he moved away from obscure rivers in Africa, among other changes. There is the occasional crosswordese, but the modern NYT crossword is more about clever clue writing.

If you like pencil puzzles but have been intimidated by reputation of the NYT crossword, please reconsider. I enjoy them every day, even the ones that stump me.

Thank you for reading,
Katherine Walcott