Picasso: The Doodling Genius

The third exhibit that I saw at the Hammer Museum in October, and maybe my favorite, was titled Picasso:  Cut Papers.  The exhibit spans the full career of Pablo Picasso, from his first cut papers of a farm animal at age 9, through the 1960's, with works he made in his 80's.  It features some of the artists most whimsical and intriguing works made on paper and in paper, alongside a select group of sculptures in sheet metal.  Was there anything this man couldn't do?  How did his family know to catalogue all his cut papers  when he was age 9? 

Although Picasso rarely sold or exhibited his cut papers during his lifetime, he signed, dated and archived them just as he did all his works.  Many examples have been stored flat or disassembled in portfolios until now and will regain their original three dimensional forms when presented in the exhibition.

The Picasso exhibit will be at The Hammer Museum until December 31, 2022.  I hope you get a chance to see it.

Anytime Is The Right Time For Lunch At Tartine

 A tartine is an open faced sandwich on great bread with great ingredients.  That's exactly what you will get if you visit Tartine for breakfast, brunch or lunch.  I was lucky enough to go to the Tartine in Santa Monica last month.  It resides in an old church, and is the perfect place to sit and eat, people watch, or work.  Tartine has two locations in the Bay Area, five LA locations, and six locations in Seoul, Korea.  More will be opening in the U.S. soon, I hope.

The bread is the star at Tartine, although everything is so good.  I had a mushroom conserva tartine.  It was served on a slice of their delicious bread.  It had cooked mushrooms, chilis and some great seasoning.  The also offer avocado, lox and cream cheese, peppers and cheese, and other tartines.  One of my favorite desserts is the lemon bar.  Fantastic, but you can't go wrong with a bavarian fruit tart or a banana creme tart.  Croissants are great, served with butter and homemade jam.  Grain bowls, quiches, scones and sandwiches and salads complete the menu.  Coffee is also hot and strong. 

If you've ever been to Le Petit Quotidian, Tartine is similar.  I loved the atmosphere at the Santa Monica location, and I look forward to going again.  If you're in LA or San Francisco, try to go for breakfast or lunch.  

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Who Was Joan Didion? Find Out At The Hammer Museum

 My mom and I went to the Hammer Museum in Westwood one drizzly morning, and were delighted to find three exhibits there, all so interesting.  We saw Joan Didion:  What she means.  But more about the actual exhibit in a minute.  First, who was Joan Didion?

Joan Didion was a writer, a journalist, a screenplay  writer, and a keen observer of culture and chaos in America, especially California,  where she was born and raised.  She established a distinctive voice n American fiction before turning to political reporting.   She died earlier this year from complications of Parkinson's.  

Joan was attracted to trouble spots, disintegrating personalities and incipient chaos.  In some writing, she included her own psychiatric evaluation.  Her talent was for writing about the mood of the culture.  She wrote about the 1960's and 1970's and was perfectly matched to the times, with her slightly paranoid, slightly hysterical, high-strung sensibility.  She wrote for Vogue, Mademoiselle and National Review.  One of her most famous books, "The Year of Magical Thinking", became a Broadway play.  Check out the documentary on Netflix about her life.  It is excellent.

The Hammer's exhibition is a portrait, a narration of her life, featuring approximately 50  artists and more than 200 works including painting, ephemera, photography, sculpture, and video footage from some of her films.  It follows a meandering chronology that grapples with the simultaneously personal and distant evolution of Didion's voice as a writer and pioneer of the "New Journalism."  If you're in Los Angeles between now and February 19, 2023, you might want to check it out.  And for a special treat, have lunch at Lulu, Alice Waters new restaurant in the museum.  It will be a very special day.

A Day At The Hammer

 The Hammer Museum in Westwood, steps from UCLA, is one of the most interesting museums for me to visit.  Changing exhibits make it fun to go again and again.  While visiting my mom one weekend, we decided to go, and were delighted to find not one, but three fabulous exhibits.  I will tell you about one here.

An artist by the name of Bob Thompson was have his first retrospective in 20 years.  His short, dynamic, career began in the late 1950's and ended in his premature death from a heroin overdose less than a decade later.  He was prolific beyond anything you can imagine during his short life.

Thompson grew up in Boston, after moving there from Louisville at age 13, due to the death of his father in a car crash.  He was depressed as a young man, and after beginning his academic career in pre med, he moved to art.  He met and befriended all the young artists of the 1960's.  He won many awards, and critics proclaimed him the genius of the new, young, African-American artists.  

He painted Renaissance themes with a contemporary focus.  His paintings were large, figurative, bright, raw and unorthodox.  He was influenced by German abstract expressionism, as you can plainly see from his work.  

He loved music, and that can be seen in his work.  He loved Europe, lived there for a time, and when he died of an overdose in Rome, was getting ready to move to Florence to study Renaissance painting.  

I didn't know of him before this exhibit, but I loved his work.  Imagine what he might have done had he lived more than 29 years!!

A Memorable Meal At Felix's

 About six years ago, one of my favorite restaurants on Abbott Kinney in Venice, California, closed.  I'm talking about Joe's.  It had been a fixture for years.  Housed in an old home with multiple rooms and a charming, homey feeling, it was our go to place in the 1990's.  Felix's replaced it a few years ago, changed the decor some, and brought some memorable Italian food to the area.

I went there with a group of four, and upon the waiter's recommendation, we shared everything.  The menu is divided into four distinct Italian regions, offering specialties from each region.  The chef likes to have the complete meal ordered at one time, then ty bring your courses, one at a time.  

We started with a most delicious foccaccia bread.  It was light and airy, golden brown on top, and salty.  Next we had stuffed squash blossoms, the best I've ever had.  They were stuffed with ricotta that oozing from them, hot, golden brown and crispy.  Next came an apple salad, with lemon, fennel, celery, parmigiano reggiano.  It was outstanding.  Next came a pizza, and we were not disappointed in the mozzarella di bufala, meyer lemons, and other cheese atop a wonderful crust.  Next came pasta.  We ordered tagliatelle with a bolognese sauce and linguine al limone.  Both were exceptional.

I didn't think we had room for anything more, but our group ordered cannoli and budino.  I loved the small, thin pastry on the cannoli.  It was a little different.

The restaurant was expensive.  Without drinks, it was probably about $100 per person.  It was worth it.  I can't wait to go back again.

The Crisis of Men and Boys

 If you're the parent or grandparent of a boy, you better listen up.  Boys and men are struggling across the U.S. and the globe.  Take a look at these statistics.  American girls are 14%more likely to be school ready than boys.  By high school 2/3 of the students in the top 10% are girls, while 2/3 of the students at the lowest part of the class are boys.  In 2020, at the top 16 law schools in America, not a single one had a man as editor of law review.

The biggest drop in employment is among  young me aged 25-34.  Pretty much all of the income gains that middle-class Americans have enjoyed since 1970 are because of increases in women's earnings.  Men are struggling with drugs and suicide at a far greater rate than women.  For every 100 middle-aged women who died of Covid up to mid-September 2021, there were 184 middle-aged men who died.  

Boys are more hindered by challenging environments than girls.  Girls in poor neighborhoods are more likely to climb out of the situation than boys.  Boys raised by single mothers are less likely to enroll in college than women.  Programs designed to promote social mobility often work for women, but not for men.  One policy to help men have a better chance for success, is to hold them back in school for a year.  Girls are able to start school successfully than boys.  The prefrontal cortex and the cerebellum mature much earlier in girls.

Many men just seem less ambitious.  They don't seem to be the go getters they once were.  Richard V. Reeves's book "Of Boys and Men" is a place to start to learn more about this issue, and what you can do about it.  Men and women are different, and those differences seem to be in all phases of development today:  education, work, social life, health, etc.  I have tried to summarize some of the salient points made by Richard Reeves in his book, but for more information, I suggest reading his book.

Taking Care Of Your Eyes

 You only get one set of eyes, so you must be so careful.  I started seeing flashing lights on the periphery of one eye recently.  It alarmed me, so when it continued for a week, usually most apparent at night, I called the Opthomologist.  He too was concerned, and I was in his office in less than three hours.

Here's what I found out.  There is a vitreous gel inside your eye, that may dry up as you age.  The gel may pull or rub on your retina, causing the flashing lights.  This may appear on and off for as much as several months.  It's a normal part of aging.  Usually it is not dangerous. 

What I was worried about was a detached retina.  This is a possibility, that's why if the condition continues too long or gets worse, or more floaters (which may or may not be present) are present, it's time to get to the eye doctor immediately.  A tear in the retina can cause diminished vision or worse.  To me, eyes are not something to fool around with.  I'm glad I went to the doctor right away.  He eased my mind, after giving me a complete examination.  Still, he referred me to a retina specialist, just to be sure.  I love my doctors, they so thorough, and don't leave any stone unturned.  As we age, so do our eyes, and we've got to give the same attention to them as we do to the other parts of our body!  

Ever Try Catsup Leather On Your Burger?

 My mom and I were looking for a new restaurant in LA on a Saturday night.  Unless you make reservations at least a week in advance, there's not much available.  We settled on a burger bar on Sawtelle in West Los Angeles.  Sawtelle is mostly Asian restaurants, very crowded, and very good food.  We went to Plan Check, a bar and burger joint about a block off the main action.  We sat outside, which was completely full, and had a great burger, fries and fried cauliflower with ranch dressing.

What sets Plan Check's burger apart from the competition is catsup leather, something they make in house each day.  They take a sheet pan, cover it with catsup, then cook it low and slow, about 150 degrees, for about 3 hours.  The result is catsup leather, which is then cut into squares and put on each burger.  The heat from the burger softens the leather, but doesn't melt or get messy.  The leather, instead of catsup from the bottle, keeps the bun from getting soggy.

The burger was delicious, as was the catsup leather.  The fries were delicious too.  We loved the place, and besides several different burgers, the restaurant has wings, pretzels, and other bar food snacks.  It was a nice change, and I loved their twist on catsup.

Do You Know About Facticious Disorder?

 You've likely heard about Munchausen's Disorder, but have you heard about Facticious Disorder, or sometimes called Munchausen's by Internet.  I learned about this disorder while listening to an interesting podcast by AARP, call The Perfect Scam.  The podcast's goal is to inform seniors to the many scams that are being perpetrated on them.  

The scam I was listening to went as follows.  A healthy middle aged man came home one day and told his fiancee he was just diagnosed with stage 4 cancer.  The couple were expecting their first child in a few months, and each had a child from a previous marriage.  It was devastating news to everyone in their small, close knit  community.  One woman took it upon herself to start a Go Fund Me page for the couple, ultimately raising over $50,000 to help pay for bills, pay for a wedding, and pay for travel to events to make sure this man's last months were memorable.  The woman who set up the Go Fund Me page started to get suspicious.  Things didn't add up.  This very sick man didn't look sick, didn't take any meds, and would not allow his now wife to go to doctor visits with him.  The bottom line was he was not sick and never had been.

The scammer had facticious disorder, or what is sometimes called Munchausen's by Internet.  It is a serious mental disorder in which someone deceives others by appearing sick, by purposely getting sick or by self injury.  

Scammers are everywhere, as I have learned from this podcast.  On the one hand I hate to be cynical, but on the other hand, I don't want to get taken.  Please check out anyone or organization asking for money on the internet.  It may be for real, it may not.  Don't get taken.

The Downward Trajectory of Child Poverty

A comprehensive new analysis shows that child poverty has fallen 59% since 1993, with need receding on nearly every front.  It has fallen in every state, and has fallen about the same amount for white, Black, Hispanic and Asian.  In 1993, nearly 28% of children were poor, meaning their households lacked the income the government deemed necessary to meet basic needs.  

Millions fewer children are considered poor today than they were 25 years ago.  In 1993, 19.4 million children were considered to be living in poverty.  In 2020 there are 8.4 million children living in poverty.  Deep poverty is likely to effect Black and Latino children about three times more than white children.

The decrease in child poverty has coincided with profound changes in the safety net, which has become more generous.  Starting in the 1990"s tough welfare laws shrank cash aid to parents without jobs. Subsidies grew, and total federal spending on low-income children roughly doubled.  Multiple forces reduced child poverty, including lower unemployment, increased labor force participation among single mothers, and the growth of the minimum wage.  But a dominant factor was the expansion of government aid.

The plunge in child poverty is the opposite of what most liberal experts predicted a quarter century ago when President Bill Clinton signed a law to "end welfare as we know it."  Conservatives say the landmark law pushed more parents to work and call it the main reason child poverty declined.  Progressives say many working families would still be poor without the expanded safety net.  Whatever the reason, the result is more children are out of poverty and have a better chance for a bright future.  Isn't that what we want for all Americans?

Senior Dating In The 21st Century

 Have I mentioned how much I dislike the process of online dating?  Well, I don't like it!  It is such hard work, and so far, the results have been underwhelming.  My recent coffee date at Monarch in Del Mar, which I had high hopes for, turned out to be disappointing.

I read Lew's profile online, and he seemed to be someone I had a lot in common with.  Politically liberal, Jewish (but not practicing), travelled around the world, divorced, no children, lives in Marina area downtown San Diego, sounds promising. 

When he first walked into Monarch, I could see that he was having some difficulty.  He was taking small steps and just didn't look like a fit, active man.  That's because he wasn't!  BTW, Monarch is a great to meet for drinks and snacks in Del Mar.  Great food, beautiful view, good vibe, but I digress.  We sat at an outdoor table, great view of the ocean, quiet and so perfect, until I started to find out more about him.

Lew was married for 16 years, and just recently divorced.  That means that he was single until he was 60.  That's kind of a red flag for me.  Anyway, he moved to San Diego in 2004, but still most of his good friends are from New Jersey, where he grew up.  Not much of a social life here.  We talked a little about politics, travel and food, and were having a nice time, until he mentioned his heart attack a few years ago, his low back problem which will probably lead to back surgery, and one other major health issue I can't remember.  You have probably figured out what I was thinking.

So I had decided early on that we would split the check on this first date, since I had picked the time and place.  That was, until he started ordering food.  I ordered a glass of wine and a farro bowl with butternut squash and brussels sprouts ($5) which was delicious.  He order 12 oysters to start, followed by a bowl of crispy brussels sprouts, glass of wine, cookies and coffee for dessert.  I decided to let him pay the bill.

He wants to come visit Ocean Hills with the prospect of moving here.  Oh, no.

Are You A Listmaker?

 I am.  I've always been a listmaker, and even more so as time goes on.  Making a list accomplishes a lot of things on one small piece of paper.  It motivates you to complete tasks.  It reminds you what needs to been done, sort of a memory aid that relieves anxiety about forgetting things.  It keeps you organized.  

Lists have been around forever.  The ultimate list is the 10 Commandments, a list of commandments to live by.  In more modern times, the iPhone allows one to constantly keep lists.  If your the person in charge of making a Starbucks run for your co-workers, you list them, in order to keep everything straight.  I make one big list each day that includes grocery items that need to be bought, plus all the various other tasks I may need to do.  (bank, cleaners, gym, visit a friend, make business calls, etc).  Then, I love to cross them off as I complete them.  It is so satisfying to do that, I don't know why.

Not everyone is a listmaker.  There are several personalities that typically keep lists, including those who are detail oriented, highly organized, planners.  I am all of those things.  People who just "go with the flow" probably don't keep a list.  Which type of person is more productive?  I don't have the statistics on that, but my sense tells me the listmaker is more productive.  Now that you've made your list for the day, all you need to do is remember where you put it!  How often have you made an extensive list, only to get to get to the first stop on the list and found you left the list at home?  Happens all the time!

Green Chili Verde Chicken Chili

 There's no better time for chili or soup than fall.  I had a bridge party recently, and served a delicious dinner that included a rotisserie chicken from Costco.  You know how big those chickens are, so I had to do something with the leftovers.  Here's what I did, and was it ever delicious.  I made a chicken chili, using green chili verde sauce.  It freezes beautifully, so I ended up getting six meals out of the leftovers.

To say that it was easy, is an understatement.  The hardest part of the recipe was taking the chicken off the bone and shredding it.

                                                     Green Chili Verde Chicken Chili

2 cups shredded cooked chicken

2 cups mild green chili verde sauce

4 cups chicken broth

4 small can chopped green chilis, mild

2 cans northern beans, drained and rinsed

1/4 cup cilantro (optional)

1 tsp cumin

chili powder to taste (add at the end)

salt to taste(add at the end)

Throw everything in a pot and heat.  That's it!!!!

I froze most of it, in small batches, for future dinners when I don't feel like cooking.  It is really delicious.  Enjoy.