Days Of Our Lives
Hello World,
Happy Jewish New Year! Although this greeting is somewhat belated, since Rosh Hashanah was actually last week, it is still very sincere and full of the very best wishes for a healthy, happy and prosperous year ahead. Because they started counting the new Jewish years so many centuries before the rest of us, they're way ahead of everyone else in terms of years, and in fact, as advanced as they are, it's a wonder that they haven't already developed all of those futuristic, science fiction inventions like flying cars and teleportation devices, long anticipated by eager visionaries. Also last week was the first day of Ramadan, although as holidays go, I have always felt that Ramadan doesn't have much to recommend it, and that's not just the eager visionaries saying that, believe me. Another noteworthy event in last week was the autumnal equinox, and if all of that is not enough to make everyone happy, repentant and full of equinoxity, then I just don't what it would take. In fact, if there were any more special days that needed to happen all at one time, we'd have to call for the week stretcher to squeeze them all in there.
Of course, we all know how Bill loves a research challenge, and he's not one to take that idea of "no famous Croatian painters" lying down, so we have him to thank for the following information:
===============================
Turns out that just because their names aren't household words doesn't mean there aren't great Croatian artists. I found a site that's full of them, running the gauntlet from sculptors through engravers and painters to miniaturists, which seems to have been a specialty. Of the latter, one of the biggies seems to be a gentleman named Julije Klovic, or Don Giulio Clovio de Croatia. His bio is below, but he seems to have hung out with all the big guys AND taught El Greco, which is a claim to fame right there. And he may not BE Michelangelo, but at present he's apparently right down the hall from one, tomb-wise. So Mario should rejoice in his Croativity (and maybe paint something smaller next time.)
*************
Julije Klovic, or Don Giulio Clovio de Croatia (1498-1578), is regarded as the last great representative of the classical European miniature. His works decorate many famous galleries: Uffizi in Florence, Museo di Capodimonte in Naples, Biblioteca Marciana in Venice, Galleria Sabanda in Torino, Bibliothek der Albertina in Vienna, Louvre in Paris, Towneley Public Library and Pierpont Morgan Library in New York (which is in possession of "Officium Virginis", 228 pages, his most famous and the best masterpiece, containing 30 valuable miniatures by his hand), the British Museum and Soane's Museum in London, Windsor Castle (Royal Library). His pupil was El Greco, who portrayed him in his work "Expelling merchants from the temple" (together with figures of Rafael, Michelangelo and Tizian, appearing on the bottom left of that work), now kept in The Minneapolis Institute of Arts (The William Hood Dunwoody Fund).
Among his friends let us mention Michelangelo. Klovic used to sign himself as GEORGIVS JVLIVS CLOVIVS CROATA
His grave is situated near Michelangelo's Moses in the church of S. Pietro in Vincoli, Rome, and bears an inscription "Pictor de Croatia".
===============================
I shared this with Mario the Croatian painter, and he was happy to tell me that Croatia is located across the Adriatic Sea from Italy, and includes many hundreds of small islands. It is nestled between Slovenia, Hungary, Bosnia and Serbia, and a stone's throw from Italy, Austria and Albania, of all places. He also said that a Croatian sailor holds the record for sailing solo around the world in the smallest boat, and was decorated by Queen Elizabeth of England for this achievement. So now you know.
Earlier in the week, Mario was busy patching and spackling along the ceiling, and at one point, he had his ladder directly in front of the door of our bookkeeper's office, who picked that very moment to open her door and try to come out into the hallway. She wasn't expecting the ladder to be there, and she stopped short in full stride with a little gasp and a plaintive wail of being trapped. Mario quickly came off the ladder to move it out of her way so that she could get out of her office, and assured her that he never meant to block her in. As I happened to be passing by at the time, I told him to stop right there, and rather than letting the bookkeeper out of her office just on her own say-so, we should instead put it up for a vote and see what the popular opinion might be on this issue. At this effrontery, she announced to Mario, "Don't listen to her, she drinks." I laughed.
There are times in Purchasing when we receive information that we are not supposed to divulge, such as therapy devices for specific patients or confidential financial reports. At other times, we may discover something that is just so interesting that it simply cries out to be shared, and confidentiality be hanged. This may be one of those other times. I'm thinking there should be fascinating days ahead, because I see that we've just processed a purchase order to a local construction company to demolish a chimney at the hospital. What the scope of work actually says is: "Demolition of existing chimney 3' from top of existing height due to poor/dangerous existing conditions." That should certainly add an element of excitement to the proceedings. It also calls for "rigging, sidewalk bridging, scaffolding, demo chutes and safety netting as required." If this is the chimney that I'm thinking of, it's along the back of the main hospital building, above the awning to the employee entrance and practically the focal point of the courtyard where everyone crosses between different buildings. Having a demolition project right there will certainly be the center of attention for as long as it takes, and I can see a productivity decline on the part of the staff, from whatever it is now to practically zilch for the duration. In fact, if it's anything like the last time they worked on this chimney, it will draw people from out of their offices all over the campus, just to watch and editorialize on the progress. For anyone who has never worked some place where they demolished anything, you can believe me when I say that it is guaranteed to draw a crowd, unlike almost anything else you can think of. Another part of the scope is to build a new chimney in the same spot, so this should be a rather ambitious undertaking by all accounts. And because of its prime location, we'll all have a ring-side seat, as it were, and I know from past experience that any time you can't get hold of someone in their office, you can find them out in the courtyard with the rest of the spectators. Count me in!
Last weekend, we had a visit from a friend's daughter, who has traveled 3,000 miles from her home in Oregon to attend classes at NYU, where she is pursuing her Masters degree in Science Journalism. It would seem to me that they would have places closer to home where you could engage in this field of study, but she seemed perfectly happy with the arrangement. Although she had never been in Grand Central Terminal before in her life, she braved the terrors of the unknown and took the train to New Rochelle, arriving as expected and none the worse for wear. We whisked her away for lunch at our favorite diner, and then drove around to see the sights, such as they are, of the local area. She was gracious and charming through it all, and not to mention, infinitely patient with two old geezers who kept peppering her with hopelessly outdated references for anyone born in 1984, such as Glenn Miller, The Dick Van Dyke Show and pet rocks. The weather could have been more cooperative, however, the one thing we all know about the weather is that it can always be LESS cooperative also, so we should remember to be grateful for small favors. After we had dragged the poor young woman around all day from pillar to post, and no doubt bored her to tears, since she probably didn't want to see the pillar or the post to begin with, we put her on the train back to the city with our best wishes for a safe and pleasant journey. So, if "wander aimlessly around the suburbs" was on her list of Things To Do once she got to the Big Apple, at least she can cross that off now.
Bill has been working at the same small local sign company for so long that the first signs they made were carved in cave walls using stone tools. The ownership over the years has been frugal to a fault, and in fact, calling them stingy would be putting it mildly. So it came as no small surprise when the helpful pension representative showed up to explain the plan options and benefits to all of the employees, and Bill discovered that his pension was worth some wildly extravagant amount undreamed of by mere mortals. Well, as long as he's dead, that is, which some people might consider a significant drawback. But not expecting much to begin with, he was pleased as punch with this information, and even shared it with me, although I pointed out that since I was the beneficiary, it could just give me ideas that he might not care for. The same cannot be said for me, however, as Bill would be in for no windfall from the hospital pension if anything happened to me. Realizing that I'm not worth more dead than alive, Bill had no choice but to speak to our mechanic about getting another car for me, since it has been agreed by all and sundry that the Tempo's days are numbered, and not in a very great quantity either. Our mechanic said that he had a Taurus on the lot that would be just the thing, as it was up for grabs and going at a reasonable rate. I said to Bill that in the typical irony of poetic justice, it would no doubt turn out to be a little silver doorstop with four doors and a spoiler, and now I'm afraid to go look at it. All I ask is, if anyone sees me driving around in this thing, please pretend you don't know me.
Happy Jewish New Year! Although this greeting is somewhat belated, since Rosh Hashanah was actually last week, it is still very sincere and full of the very best wishes for a healthy, happy and prosperous year ahead. Because they started counting the new Jewish years so many centuries before the rest of us, they're way ahead of everyone else in terms of years, and in fact, as advanced as they are, it's a wonder that they haven't already developed all of those futuristic, science fiction inventions like flying cars and teleportation devices, long anticipated by eager visionaries. Also last week was the first day of Ramadan, although as holidays go, I have always felt that Ramadan doesn't have much to recommend it, and that's not just the eager visionaries saying that, believe me. Another noteworthy event in last week was the autumnal equinox, and if all of that is not enough to make everyone happy, repentant and full of equinoxity, then I just don't what it would take. In fact, if there were any more special days that needed to happen all at one time, we'd have to call for the week stretcher to squeeze them all in there.
Of course, we all know how Bill loves a research challenge, and he's not one to take that idea of "no famous Croatian painters" lying down, so we have him to thank for the following information:
===============================
Turns out that just because their names aren't household words doesn't mean there aren't great Croatian artists. I found a site that's full of them, running the gauntlet from sculptors through engravers and painters to miniaturists, which seems to have been a specialty. Of the latter, one of the biggies seems to be a gentleman named Julije Klovic, or Don Giulio Clovio de Croatia. His bio is below, but he seems to have hung out with all the big guys AND taught El Greco, which is a claim to fame right there. And he may not BE Michelangelo, but at present he's apparently right down the hall from one, tomb-wise. So Mario should rejoice in his Croativity (and maybe paint something smaller next time.)
*************
Julije Klovic, or Don Giulio Clovio de Croatia (1498-1578), is regarded as the last great representative of the classical European miniature. His works decorate many famous galleries: Uffizi in Florence, Museo di Capodimonte in Naples, Biblioteca Marciana in Venice, Galleria Sabanda in Torino, Bibliothek der Albertina in Vienna, Louvre in Paris, Towneley Public Library and Pierpont Morgan Library in New York (which is in possession of "Officium Virginis", 228 pages, his most famous and the best masterpiece, containing 30 valuable miniatures by his hand), the British Museum and Soane's Museum in London, Windsor Castle (Royal Library). His pupil was El Greco, who portrayed him in his work "Expelling merchants from the temple" (together with figures of Rafael, Michelangelo and Tizian, appearing on the bottom left of that work), now kept in The Minneapolis Institute of Arts (The William Hood Dunwoody Fund).
Among his friends let us mention Michelangelo. Klovic used to sign himself as GEORGIVS JVLIVS CLOVIVS CROATA
His grave is situated near Michelangelo's Moses in the church of S. Pietro in Vincoli, Rome, and bears an inscription "Pictor de Croatia".
===============================
I shared this with Mario the Croatian painter, and he was happy to tell me that Croatia is located across the Adriatic Sea from Italy, and includes many hundreds of small islands. It is nestled between Slovenia, Hungary, Bosnia and Serbia, and a stone's throw from Italy, Austria and Albania, of all places. He also said that a Croatian sailor holds the record for sailing solo around the world in the smallest boat, and was decorated by Queen Elizabeth of England for this achievement. So now you know.
Earlier in the week, Mario was busy patching and spackling along the ceiling, and at one point, he had his ladder directly in front of the door of our bookkeeper's office, who picked that very moment to open her door and try to come out into the hallway. She wasn't expecting the ladder to be there, and she stopped short in full stride with a little gasp and a plaintive wail of being trapped. Mario quickly came off the ladder to move it out of her way so that she could get out of her office, and assured her that he never meant to block her in. As I happened to be passing by at the time, I told him to stop right there, and rather than letting the bookkeeper out of her office just on her own say-so, we should instead put it up for a vote and see what the popular opinion might be on this issue. At this effrontery, she announced to Mario, "Don't listen to her, she drinks." I laughed.
There are times in Purchasing when we receive information that we are not supposed to divulge, such as therapy devices for specific patients or confidential financial reports. At other times, we may discover something that is just so interesting that it simply cries out to be shared, and confidentiality be hanged. This may be one of those other times. I'm thinking there should be fascinating days ahead, because I see that we've just processed a purchase order to a local construction company to demolish a chimney at the hospital. What the scope of work actually says is: "Demolition of existing chimney 3' from top of existing height due to poor/dangerous existing conditions." That should certainly add an element of excitement to the proceedings. It also calls for "rigging, sidewalk bridging, scaffolding, demo chutes and safety netting as required." If this is the chimney that I'm thinking of, it's along the back of the main hospital building, above the awning to the employee entrance and practically the focal point of the courtyard where everyone crosses between different buildings. Having a demolition project right there will certainly be the center of attention for as long as it takes, and I can see a productivity decline on the part of the staff, from whatever it is now to practically zilch for the duration. In fact, if it's anything like the last time they worked on this chimney, it will draw people from out of their offices all over the campus, just to watch and editorialize on the progress. For anyone who has never worked some place where they demolished anything, you can believe me when I say that it is guaranteed to draw a crowd, unlike almost anything else you can think of. Another part of the scope is to build a new chimney in the same spot, so this should be a rather ambitious undertaking by all accounts. And because of its prime location, we'll all have a ring-side seat, as it were, and I know from past experience that any time you can't get hold of someone in their office, you can find them out in the courtyard with the rest of the spectators. Count me in!
Last weekend, we had a visit from a friend's daughter, who has traveled 3,000 miles from her home in Oregon to attend classes at NYU, where she is pursuing her Masters degree in Science Journalism. It would seem to me that they would have places closer to home where you could engage in this field of study, but she seemed perfectly happy with the arrangement. Although she had never been in Grand Central Terminal before in her life, she braved the terrors of the unknown and took the train to New Rochelle, arriving as expected and none the worse for wear. We whisked her away for lunch at our favorite diner, and then drove around to see the sights, such as they are, of the local area. She was gracious and charming through it all, and not to mention, infinitely patient with two old geezers who kept peppering her with hopelessly outdated references for anyone born in 1984, such as Glenn Miller, The Dick Van Dyke Show and pet rocks. The weather could have been more cooperative, however, the one thing we all know about the weather is that it can always be LESS cooperative also, so we should remember to be grateful for small favors. After we had dragged the poor young woman around all day from pillar to post, and no doubt bored her to tears, since she probably didn't want to see the pillar or the post to begin with, we put her on the train back to the city with our best wishes for a safe and pleasant journey. So, if "wander aimlessly around the suburbs" was on her list of Things To Do once she got to the Big Apple, at least she can cross that off now.
Bill has been working at the same small local sign company for so long that the first signs they made were carved in cave walls using stone tools. The ownership over the years has been frugal to a fault, and in fact, calling them stingy would be putting it mildly. So it came as no small surprise when the helpful pension representative showed up to explain the plan options and benefits to all of the employees, and Bill discovered that his pension was worth some wildly extravagant amount undreamed of by mere mortals. Well, as long as he's dead, that is, which some people might consider a significant drawback. But not expecting much to begin with, he was pleased as punch with this information, and even shared it with me, although I pointed out that since I was the beneficiary, it could just give me ideas that he might not care for. The same cannot be said for me, however, as Bill would be in for no windfall from the hospital pension if anything happened to me. Realizing that I'm not worth more dead than alive, Bill had no choice but to speak to our mechanic about getting another car for me, since it has been agreed by all and sundry that the Tempo's days are numbered, and not in a very great quantity either. Our mechanic said that he had a Taurus on the lot that would be just the thing, as it was up for grabs and going at a reasonable rate. I said to Bill that in the typical irony of poetic justice, it would no doubt turn out to be a little silver doorstop with four doors and a spoiler, and now I'm afraid to go look at it. All I ask is, if anyone sees me driving around in this thing, please pretend you don't know me.
posted by El Tango Fandango @ 3:07 PM
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