tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2716833846895246215.post7518865835892697326..comments2024-01-25T10:40:26.593-08:00Comments on Light, Bright, and Sparkling: Letter from New York: Part 2Diana Birchallhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18291540900938654707noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2716833846895246215.post-56877603280095798832011-02-14T12:26:22.851-08:002011-02-14T12:26:22.851-08:00From Elissa:
Dear Diana - Am in a huge rush today...From Elissa:<br /><br />Dear Diana - Am in a huge rush today, so I'm responding to your marvelous whirlwind "NYC in Winter" blog entry#2 first.<br /><br />Surely Diana, no one does nyc better than you do [remind me to meet up with you in Paris or Firenze sometime soon]. First, I am so glad you got to the Morgan to see the amazing Cobbe portrait of Shakespeare. He is so incredibly self-assured. His riveting gaze, so intent, so knowing of mankind, reminds one instantly, as Mark Z. has recently said, of that marvelous Borges poem. What other treasures are languishing in darkened corners of people's houses one wonders.<br /><br />And surely you were blessed in that some of the most charming of our city's creatures came out to greet you!! I am speaking here of those simply gorgeous, cathedral-sized cardinals who appeared so majestically in Central park against the dramatic backdrop of mounded white snow for you. I actually have a cardinal-friendly feeder-breeder area in our backyard that attracts clans led by alpha males who have become good friends over the years [they really do communicate with humans with special vocal tones, etc.]. But never, short of peacocks and members of the parrot family, have I seen such an architecturally magnificent display of, well, size-plumage-color combined as in your Central Park cardinal-of-cardinals! <br /><br />Which brings me to the third [were you aiming for a secular Trinity??] item of pictoral magnificence - the simply luscious, satin-y soft, heavenly chocolate cake, molded with perfectly smooth Genoise icing. Surely no patisserie in Paris has seen its equal; even Vienna's Marzeipanteiggen would be hard put to match it.<br /><br />Obviously your stay here was much too short.<br /><br />ElissaDiana Birchallhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18291540900938654707noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2716833846895246215.post-22455900826467674362011-02-14T12:00:40.864-08:002011-02-14T12:00:40.864-08:00Ellen: It seems pretty accepted, the text stops ju...Ellen: It seems pretty accepted, the text stops just a hair from stating it as fact, but they put it in the "very strong probability" class.<br /><br />Barbara: Yes, you picked up on the schematic nature of my trips - I do indeed plot it out in advance, email people, and make some attempt to juggle so I see the West Side people and things one day, East Side another. When all fails, I take a cab! Obviously I wouldn't want to live my life this way, but each day in NYC I have as many "big events" as I might do in three months in LA. It gets kind of stunning sometimes, to go from a museum to a reunion to a fancy dinner all on the same day - but it certainly is exciting.Diana Birchallhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18291540900938654707noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2716833846895246215.post-29149215657884808422011-02-14T10:00:09.821-08:002011-02-14T10:00:09.821-08:00Or sledge?? Diana, what wonderful literary days yo...Or sledge?? Diana, what wonderful literary days you spent last Tuesday and Wednesday. Was it hard work bringing this trip together and managing to fit in so many meetings each day so 'effortlessly'? When I say effortlessly I don't mean that it wasn't an effort to criss-cross New York getting from one place to another - but that you managed to get to see so many friends and family in sequence. BarbaraBarbarahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02196530511497772957noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2716833846895246215.post-40310007775485506562011-02-14T04:25:54.893-08:002011-02-14T04:25:54.893-08:00The depictions are lovely: the visit to the museu...The depictions are lovely: the visit to the museum. Is that Shakespeare portrait that accepted now? I had a lunatic come to my blog on Anne Vavasour indignant at the way I described [off hand, not to the central point of the blog about Vavasour as a woman poet] De Vere who of course wrote Shakespeare's plays. The man is a professor -- or so he and a student claimed.<br /><br />The morning scene of you and Laurie among the cardinals is beautiful. <br /><br />EllenAnonymousnoreply@blogger.com