Linda Eisenstein

Now that Selena & her dog are off the porch, Xander is enjoying the breeze at the screened front door as salsa music wafts in from La Playa Seafood across my driveway. #Caturday #CatsOfSpoutible

Xander looks out my wrought iron door with Art Deco tulips decorations at the street as birds twitter & salsa music plays from the corner Mexican seafood restaurant.

03:17 PM - Apr 27, 2024 (Edited)

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My neighbor Selena came to my porch to pick up mugs & a jewelry pliers & I agreed to have her organize a "hop" sometime in June in my backyard pavilion: a 2 hour event with a craft activity & a neighborhood acoustic house duo Rabbit & Dragon. Summer fun!

The woman guitarist of Rabbit & Dragon sits with guitar in a lawn chair in a tie-dye dress, decorated cap, & sunglasses at a Neighborhood Hop some months ago.

03:12 PM - Apr 27, 2024

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#DailyPictureTheme #storm

My urban neighborhood right on Lake Erie usually doesn't get much snow, but an occasional storm will blast us. This one in March 2015 had a snowfall so heavy it twisted off part of our driveway gutter & downspout.

Snow in what used to be our driveway side gutter & downspout after a heavy winter storm.

01:24 PM - Apr 27, 2024

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#CatsOfSpoutible #Caturday

Xander must have known how emotionally blasted I was after last night's concert, because he let me sleep in until 11 am & has snuggled with me since, often with his head next to my heart.

My tabby cat Xander looking up at me as he snuggles next to my heart.

01:19 PM - Apr 27, 2024

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Unsuk Chin's virtuosic miniature "subita con forza", written in response to Beethoven's Conversation Books, would be a perfect score to a 5-minute magical realist animation of a deaf Beethoven being assailed & seduced by fragments of his music that swirl around him.

Photo of Unsuk Chin, composer of subita con forza. Caption reads: Korean-born composer Unsuk Chin writes dizzyingly complex music that revels in wondrous and ear-catching sound combinations.

10:18 PM - Apr 26, 2024

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Bartok went from Hungary's hero to zero when he emigrated to the US until Koussevitsky rescued him from penury by commissioning this work. There's Vaso, my poker dealer, once conductor of the Albanian Symphony & my Romanian neighbors with music PhDs working in day care & as a handyman. #Immigrants

Portrait of Bela Bartok, composer of the 1943 Concerto for Orchestra we heard tonight.

10:11 PM - Apr 26, 2024

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I don't know when I switched to eating salad after my main course - probably after a trip to Europe - but I prefer it as a palate cleanser that often substitutes for dessert. In this case, it is between my catfish, shrimp, & pierogi extravaganza & cornbread dessert on my free pre-concert buffet.

Head lettuce, romaine, spinach, beets, black olive, carrot, cucumber with blue cheese dressing and a scattering of sunflower seeds from the Jack Cleveland Casino buffet.

06:16 PM - Apr 26, 2024

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#DailyArtSpout #AfricaAndByzantium

Mosaic, Date Palm, 500's, Synagogue of Naro, Byzantine Empire (now Tunisia)

Different Mediterranean cultures used this symbol. Here, 2 mosaics of palms flanked the Gates of Paradise. In Jewish iconography palms also symbolized the Tree of Life from Genesis.

One of 2 mosaics depicting a palm tree with dates hanging from it. Below are two flowering plants and a bird. The mosaic is in shades of tan & green on a light beige background.

02:12 PM - Apr 26, 2024

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Mom put her old Xmas letters in her address book, giving a snapshot of when things occurred. This came just before she was diagnosed with polymyositis, a rare immune disorder that attacks core muscles. She fought it for 14 years, doing 100's of crunches & butt lifts daily - starting at 82.

A section of my mom's Christmas letter.
December 2008
Warmest holiday greetings from Cleveland.
My past several months have been occupied with medical challenges. Eye surgery, then unexplained weakness & poor balance. After endless tests & scans by a string of Cleveland Clinic specialists, the only advice was lose a little weight & exercise! Oh well...I'm seeing a physical therapist & exercising in hopes of improving.

01:58 PM - Apr 26, 2024

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Going through Mom's address book to compare with my contacts, and phew. I had to be in a serene mood, because there are so few people in there still alive.
GIF: I see dead people. From The Sixth Sense.

12:43 PM - Apr 26, 2024

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#LazySingleCook

Late breakfast: Peanut butter & bacon on a cinnamon raisin mini-bagel.

My 2 mini bagel halves on a colorful plate, with a layer of crunchy peanut butter & crisp bacon on top

12:23 PM - Apr 26, 2024

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#DailyPictureTheme #pace

When you're hiking with kids, you learn to vary your pace. My brother & nephew on the Mist Trail, Vernal Falls, one long-ago summer in Yosemite.

A view of my brother Larry & his son Harold, around 10 years old, walking alongside Vernal Falls with walking sticks. You can see roiling water behind them in this black & white photo taken from above them by my brother David with his Nikon.

09:07 AM - Apr 26, 2024

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#SpoutibleScavengerHunt #cut

I bought these cheap electric clippers when Bob asked me to start giving him buzzcuts after his favorite barber shop closed. Also used to cut each other's hair through 2+ years of pandemic. I still give Dave a summer cut when he wants everything gone.

My Conair clippers in its black plastic box.

08:53 AM - Apr 26, 2024

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First time in a while that I chopped a poker tournament heads-up after being the chip leader for a time. It was a hard-fought 8-hour battle & we decided to split the prize pool evenly as we were near even in chips.
~$4000 profit isn't bad for a day's work, and it gives me more leaderboard points.

01:05 AM - Apr 26, 2024

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#LazySingleCook

I had a crazy-good bocadillo before my tournament: toasted baguette, bacon, cucumber, tomato, & a sliced chicken thigh. Hopefully it'll tide me over until 10 pm or so.

My Dagwood sandwich, tall enough it wasn't easy to get my mouth around.

05:38 PM - Apr 25, 2024

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#DailyArtSpout #AfricaAndByzantium

Large candlestick base, late 1200's-1300's. Brass, inlaid with silver. Mamluk Sultanate, Egypt. Among the treasures guarded in the monasteries of Lalibela, Ethiopia are examples of Islamic inlaid metalwork. The scrollwork is intricately beautiful.

This huge candlestick base is on loan from the Metropolitan Museum of Art, NYC. It is an exemplar of brass items still in use in the rock-hewn churches of Ethiopia & shows the connections between Christian & Muslim communities of the time. The entire base is carved ir inlaid with patterns, including some floral-like geometries, with some inlaid silver highlights peeking through the brass.

01:49 PM - Apr 25, 2024

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I discovered on a closer look that my cousin Michele made this box for Mom. Even when she was unhoused (she picked BF's that would throw her out on the street) she'd make Mom beautiful things & send them as gifts. The box says 1947-1997 on the bottom & is lined with white silk flowers.

The inside of Michele's gifted sewing basket. The perimeter of the basket is lined with white silk flowers with tiny pearl centers.

Linda Eisenstein @LindaEisenstein

#SpoutibleScavengerHunt #bud

I just brought in this sewing box decorated with rosebuds from my car backseat. It & its sundry contents were Mom's, unearthed a few weeks ago by my brother. Now most will be gifts I post today on #BuyNothing . More in ALT-TEXT.

11:36 AM - Apr 25, 2024

12:50 PM - Apr 25, 2024

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#SpoutibleScavengerHunt #bud

I just brought in this sewing box decorated with rosebuds from my car backseat. It & its sundry contents were Mom's, unearthed a few weeks ago by my brother. Now most will be gifts I post today on #BuyNothing . More in ALT-TEXT.

A basket-box decorated with a few flowers in the center & tiny rosebuds along its perimeter. Tglhe inside is partially lined with white silk petals. To its left are some contents: 4 decorative pins, a set of earrings, a faux ivory elephant on a keychain, and some safety pins. On the right, 2 Hot Wheels cars, 2 more pins, a tie clip, 2 tweezers, & a jeweler's needle-nose pliers.

11:36 AM - Apr 25, 2024

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The building where this beautiful leaded glass dome is used to be the #Cleveland Trust bank. Several years ago it was refurbished into the downtown branch of Heinen's, our upscale local grocery chain. It is lovely to eat lunch there with the light pouring in. More in ALT-TEXT.

The glass dome inside Heinen's at E. Ninth & Euclid Ave. The dome was designed by Nicola D'Ascenzo, whose stained glass work is in St
John the Divine & Riverside Church in NYC & Washington Cathedral.

11:14 AM - Apr 25, 2024 (Edited)

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Who knew that 40-year-old partial bottles of generic cologne would make so many women in my neighborhood happy? #BuyNothing

Generic versions of Veautiful, Tommy Girl, L'Air du Temp, Giorgio, & Xia Xian cologne from my mom's bathroom closet, cleaned out after my brother's bathroom remodel.

09:36 AM - Apr 25, 2024

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It's Fuck-It Thursday so I'm having a warmed buttered banana nut muffin from yesterday's Gypsy Bean & Baking trip for breakfast with my coffee.

My muffin cut in half with butter on a saucer.

08:27 AM - Apr 25, 2024

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#DailyPictureTheme #shower #CatsOfSpoutible

Young Xander was happy that I didn't hang up the towel after my shower, because he could better supervise me in the bathroom.

My tabby cat Xander lying on a white towel next to the bathtub, watching my every move.

06:29 AM - Apr 25, 2024 (Edited)

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Stopped at the casino on the way home. Went up & down the same $, then played 1 hand of blackjack with a $70 free bet, won, tipped the dealer a $5 chip, & left +$65 which covers breakfast & 2 dishes at Li Wah. It's easy to forget chips = goods. You'd be glad to find $65 in your pocket, right?

2 green $25 chips & 3 red $5 chips from Jack Cleveland Casino. If there's a long line at the cashier's cafe, I often don't bother cashing them in. I have a small zipper purse from Vegas that I use to squirrel away high value chips I'm loathe to give back.

10:22 PM - Apr 24, 2024 (Edited)

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After the museum, we headed to Li Wah, Cleveland's venerable Asiatown Cantonese restaurant. We ordered extra dishes so David would have food to warm up during the last of the remodel. Everything delicious. Shrimp dim sum, Mongolian beef, shrimp in lobster sauce, beef chow fun, Singapore noodles.

09:55 PM - Apr 24, 2024

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#DailyArtSpout #AfricaAndByzantium

I swear there were 50+ objects my eyes were too glazed over to notice on the last trip. Here is an extraordinary plaster & tempera painting from the Kingdom of Nubia, c. 900's. St. Peter protecting a local bishop.

A dark-skInned bishop is protected by St. PETER.

05:10 PM - Apr 24, 2024

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A fantastic Tennessee Williams quote. Full text in ALT-TEXT.

The world is violent and mercurial, it will have its way with you. We are saved only by love -- love for each other and the love that we pour into the art we feel compelled to share: being a parent; being a writer; being a painter; being a friend. We live in a perpetually burning building, and what we must save from it, all the time, is love.
Tennessee Williams

02:39 PM - Apr 24, 2024

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Just got our 4:30 tickets for the #AfricaAndByzantium exhibition with my brother. I really wanted to see this again, there was too much to take in last week. Here's a small metal sculpture I took a photo of, but didn't write a note about. The 2 things the figure is holding are oil lamps.

A small nude dark metal figure holding a large staff topped with an oil lamp in each hand.

01:48 PM - Apr 24, 2024

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Xander's selfie on my chest after tasting my fingers for Nikki's egg sandwich. The sun is streaming through the back windows but there's a freeze warning. #CatsOfSpoutible

Xander staring into the phone camera. His face is partly blocking my own, as he is high up on my chest against my clean black sweatshirt.

12:33 PM - Apr 24, 2024 (Edited)

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