Heavenly

Detail from “Sunset”

Paintings by Shirley Deane/Midyett

By Vic Midyett
[c. 1952–2/11/2022]

[Published originally in the “Tuesday Voice” column on May 5, 2015.]

Shirley has completed two new paintings, both commissioned.

The Sixties

50 & 60 years later

By Ed Rogers

[10 years ago (on April 2, 2013), Ed Rogers remembered the Sixties. This re-run of his “Tuesday Voice ‘The Sixties’” gives us [and him] a chance to remember (or imagine) them again: the Vietnam War, Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, marijuana….]

Reflecting back on my life, as most of us old farts do, I realized that most people only know about the sixties through history books, newspapers, or bullshit stories that people like me tell. I don’t claim to have been in the belly of the beast, but I had a hold of its tail.

Tuesday Voice

A Thanksgiving dream

By Bob Boldt









I hope your Thanksgiving was better than mine.

I spent the awful occasion on licensed premises,
alone with a “Tyson Frozen Turkey Parts Dinner,”
“with added tryptophan”
and “no more than 20% additional sponsored contents.”

Tuesday Voice: El Camino de Santiago, Part I

Challenge and reward

By Valeria Idakieva

[Editor’s note: The author frequently goes hiking or running in the mountains of her native Bulgaria.]

A lot has been said and written about the Camino de Santiago, because a stream of people of various nationalities pass along it. Like a powerful magnet, it attracts about 200,000 people each year. Is their objective to worship one of Jesus’s favorite disciples in his tomb and to obtain remission of sins? Are they drawn by the great cultural and artistic monuments that make the Santiago Route the “first European cultural itinerary” (as it was described in 1987 by the Council of Europe)? Or do they simply want to leave behind the habits and routines of their everyday life? Whatever the reason, visiting the route is a unique experience, a combination of challenge and reward that transforms everyone.

Tuesday Voice: Feel

Others can’t make us do it

By Vic Midyett

Others cannot make us feel – we allow that to happen to ourselves. This is a very difficult subject, but I am going to try to write about it simply.
    I just said it was a very difficult subject, but I wonder? Is it difficult because we make or assume it so? We even seem to be in the habit of looking to schools, authorities, and governments to fix our reaction/feeling issues for us. Surely the solution must be rooted in individual families – I suspect that good, solid parenting is the foundation.

Tuesday Voice: Truth

It does not alter

By Vic Midyett

It escapes me who it was, but a famous person once said something like this: “Truth does not alter according to our desire or willingness to accept it.”
    A funny example (that I know to be true) is when a three-year-old girl had what she considered a terrifying experience with a medical nurse. Back then all the nurses wore white stockings. A short while later this little girl saw her first live chickens. What did they have if not white legs! She was absolutely terrified of chickens and saw no point in their existence.

Tuesday Voice: Guilt

Both positive and negative

By Vic Midyett

In all things, including feelings and emotions, there is a negative and a positive. Consider guilt.
    At great risk to my longevity, I say that in American and Australian societies, with both of which I am familiar, the female gender uses guilt to such an extent from a very young age, it begs the question whether it’s genetic. Not that men don’t also use guilt, especially if their first answer to most requests is a stupidly blurted “no.” Bosses and leaders – political or otherwise – and religious organizations are masters at using guilt in manipulating people to achieve their objectives.

Tuesday Voice: Liam’s Wuff

Members of the family

Edited by William A. Johnson

[Editor’s Note: Liam’s most recent wuff appeared two weeks ago, on October 6.]

Tuesday Voice: Liam’s Wuff

Communicating with your dog

Edited by William A. Johnson

[Editor’s Note: Liam is a 9-plus-year-old dog with three legs. In his interview on September 9, he answered questions posed by his dad, told us about his childhood, and provided some insights about life.
    Subsequently, he has received further inquiries about various important things. Today we share Liam’s views on the first topic.]

Tuesday Voice: Portrait of Belle, by Shirley Deane/Midyett

“Belle” (detail)

For Patsy

By Vic Midyett

As you may recall, Shirley paints pet portraits. Of course, when you announce something like that, you receive inquiries. And when you report it on an international blog, the inquiries are likely to come from far away...and quickly. One such came three days later:

Tuesday Voice: From the mouth of the Swan River

By Vic Midyett

At least once a week Shirley and I like going to the mouth of the Swan River, in Fremantle (it also flows through Perth, as does the Canning River; read about where you can go in the Riverpark). Something is always happening.

Tuesday Voice: The plantation of the mind

It rots more than 
the soul of the South

By Ed Rogers

I was taught in school that a plantation was a very large farm that was owned by one person or one family, and they were normally white. Because of the magnitude of the farm it required a sizable workforce. This workforce came in the form of slaves. Not all slaves were black, as we have begun to think of slaves. In fact, before Africans were imported to the Americas, the slaves came from the prisons of Europe. However, unlike the black slaves that followed, these men and women could work off their sentence within a prescribed number of years – usually seven or fourteen – and become free.

Tuesday Voice: From a farmers market

By Vic Midyett

Aussies are big on local growers and fresh produce. Dotted throughout​ even the big cities​ are fresh farmers markets. The Beaconsfield market, the one closest to us in Fremantle, Western Australia, is about five blocks away in a big field attached to a school. It appears every Sunday.
    One stall sold coconut milk ice cream, another all manner of custom leather workings, all kinds of fruit and vegetables, jerky, honey, crafts, and a long row of multinational ready-to-eat​ hot​ food. There is always a busker playing his choice of instruments. [A busker is a person who entertains in a public place for donations.] The featured performer changes most ever week.

Arrival

A farm-animal petting zoo for kids

Families bring blankets and make it a longer outing

The busker when Shirley and I were there

    And finally my favorite – the food row! J​u​st some of the options: roasts, soups, felafel's and crepes with various fillings, Egyptian cuisine,​ Chinese, South African,​ Korean and, of course, Indian. Heavens!!​ I also got some to bring home.​

Copyright © 2015 by Vic Midyett

Tuesday Voice: The robot’s challenge

A walk in the woods

By Chuck Smythe

Simply fascinating, the August 18 NY Times science article, “Atlas, a Humanoid Robot, Takes a Walk in the Woods,” by Katie Rogers. The best part of it is the set of videos near the end of the “DARPA Robotics Challenge 2015.” It’s about nine hours worth, much of it as lively as watching paint dry – but nevertheless extremely interesting as engineering, as drama, and as pop philosophy. I encourage readers to skip around and sample a few things to get the flavor.

Tuesday Voice: Paintings at Ben's, by Shirley Deane/Midyett

"Sailboat on the Horizon"
(detail of painting at the bottom)

By Vic Midyett

A recent visit with our son Ben reminded me that we hadn't yet shared images of Shirley's paintings that hang in his house. Ben is a recreational diver and photographer, and his underwater photos inspired this painting of fish and coral:

Tuesday Voice: Revelations of talk

And what they suggest

By William A. Johnson

Long ago I realized that talking is more revealing than writing. We don’t edit our talk as much as we do our writing. We let things emerge that we could hide if we were writing. Psychotherapists of course gain insights into a person from these revealing disclosures. Someone says that “he would like to have done something,” and the use of the future perfect tense is a tip-off that he is highly unlikely to actually do it.

Tuesday Voice: Growing up in America

Into America’s interior

By Rolf Dumke

[Sequel to “Arrival in New York Harbor,” March 17]

Through the Susquehanna wilderness. The growling diesel engines in the front of our passenger train could be heard during every second long bend of the majestic river, which I only recently identified as the Susquehanna.

Tuesday Voice: Portrait of a dog, by Shirley Deane/Midyett

Friend of a friend

By Vic Midyett

Shirley has made it known at the church we attend that she paints pet portraits. She suggests that people whose pet's portrait she paints donate $20 to the church.

Tuesday Voice: From Mission Hills, San Diego

Testimonial litter

By James Knudsen

The earth's surface is littered with mankind's attempts at immortality – the pyramids of Egypt and Central America, The Great Wall, 2,867,737 TAD on Ms. Pac-Man. Having spent most of June in the Mission Hills area of San Diego, I've discovered another archaeological testament to our constant quest to leave our mark in the universe.

Tuesday Voice: Posthumously Speaking 10

Detail

Morro Rock

By Mary Alice Condley (1925-2007)

[Editor’s Note: The artist’s daughter, Karen Abbey, recently brought to my attention that her oldest son, Mark Denham, has his grandmother’s painting of Morro Rock, near where Karen and her husband Cliff lived for many years, in and around Morro Bay, California. The rock is a 581-foot volcanic plug located just offshore from Morro Bay, at the entrance to Morro Bay Harbor.