It's warm: in the 30s, heading for the mid-40s. And sunny!
I wish I could take a walk, but my knee is still dicky.
Kirsten emailed a couple days ago: Do old dolls ever get donated to the store? she would like one.
Yesterday this doll came in. I've never seen one like her.
Would K. like her?
Yes!
I ran and got the doll.
"Beautiful!" she declared---"all handmade. Fully jointed cloth body, with mohair hair, the face is a fine papier-mache... Unmarked so not as valuable to a collector, but very like dolls by Lenci or Käthe Kruse."
BELOW: Dolls by Käthe Kruse, who began making dolls in 1909 in Berlin, German:
II. A favorite photo of mine
Me, below, left, holding yellow book, with coworkers (Big Boss in Santa hat; Jester, E.D., and Mr Furniture) pose in the donation door for a photo advertising our Wednesday Food-Giveaways during Covid.
This cracks me up because we're so scruffy, and it's so cute, me waving.
Due to politics, Society of SVDP no longer has a food bank. All grocery stores & distributors now give their expired/ excess food to one state-supported distribution facility, Second Harvest.
This is efficient–-monopolies are--but knocking out little rag-tag operations is a loss.
Also, groceries from the Society's food bank supplemented the staff's minimum wage, so it was a big loss to us. I've written about this before--sometimes my coworkers make their meals from the expired bakery that still gets donated directly to the store.
(The wonderful Sisters Camelot is one of the few indies in town who still operate. They handle a lot of produce, and they give out free meals from an old school bus.)
BELOW: I took this photo yesterday to show to the folks at the Food Shelf where I get free food to make hot lunch for my coworkers every week.
I aim not to cook red meat very often because some people don’t eat it (and especially not pork), but I take whatever looks good. Last week, organic (!) hamburger.
III. James Baldwin on Holding on to Your Humanity:
"There may not be as much humanity in the world as one would like to see.
But there is some.
...
I may know six people, but that's enough.
...
The world is held together, really it is—held together, by the love and the passion of a very few people."
I've watched this (1 minute) a dozen times:
--Meeting The Man : James Baldwin in Paris.
Dir. Terence Dixon, 1970.
