I understood...

...that they had been destroyed some time ago, burned, in fact. I wonder if the Sturgis family has any? I think Elinor may know what happened to them. I also understood from my mother that Mabel's "studio" over there on the rocks was built as a private spot for the two of them, or at least used as such. and I say, I'm happy for Aunt Pedge that she had a love of her life (if she did)

Aunt Pedge's Letters

Hello! So I have a question of family history: has anyone read the letters between Aunt Pedge and Mabel Sturgis?

I was just wandering around the internet kind of at random and found a list of the contents of the Curtis papers left to Radcliffe at http://oasis.lib.harvard.edu/oasis/deliver/deepLink?_collection=oasis&uniqueId=sch00133. What I found especially interesting were the following comments:

"MC never married, but worked in Europe and traveled frequently with her lifelong companion, Mabel Sturgis."

And in the content list:

"Margaret, 1883-1965 (#397-525). Personal correspondence with family, colleagues, and friends. (Some correspondence with Mabel Russell Sturgis (#420, 429-432) is closed until 2001."

Hmmm... So, what do you figure prevailed: cultural homophobia or congenital packratism? Or am I making wild assumptions? Just looking for more reasons to be proud of my progressive family history : )

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Hello, anybody here? No? All on Facebook? Come on, SOMEbody must be here. Hello?

OMG! How dare an art critic, critique the Hop Show.

Here is the link to the Boston Globe Sunday art review of the current Hop Show held at the Cape Ann Museum.
No family member who wishes to remain "correctly" a member of said family, is to utter any
comment of the "Five O'Clock in the Afternoon" huge painting on display, unless they feel that it is a "great" painting & worth every penny of the $100,000. purchase price.

No, the figures are not statues.

Here is the link:

http://www.boston.com/ae/theater_arts/articles/2009/08/23/view_from_the_terrace_considers_works_of_charles_hopkinson?mode=PF

Any blogger who utters a critically negative remark will have the choice of a third floor maid's room during Thanksgiving. It's cold there, I know for a fact.
Anyway, I did enjoy the Show & feel fortunate to view Hop. art at home.
Maggie only wishes she owned many more of his works.

Will C. Hopkinson ever be reviewed as "great" as defined as the equal to Sargent,
other than that Sargent ate lunch at the Estate?

Best to you all, but sorry time marches on in the Art world,
Jim Masek

MIT or UCLA?

Hello there, family.

So I'm currently trying to decide where to go to school. I'm going for a PhD in linguistics, and my choices are UCLA and MIT. I've visited both, and they're both lovely for their own reasons, and boy is it hard to choose.

One of the advantages for MIT is, of course, Manch, as well as several of you fine folks. On the other hand, I'm told some of your other fine folks are in LA.

Someone just tell me what to do!

~Meaghan Fowlie

a New Year, a New Washington...

... time for a new post to replace all those Thanksgiving pictures and stories.

I'm guessing that about 98.75% of us are pleased with the results of the 08 election, and are alternately thrilling and cringing as news of the days come and go.

Maine is having a plethora of snow, I guess the far northwest is getting much more than its usual allotment as well. I'm getting two to three good cardiopulmonary workouts every week, and my shoulders are getting some shape to them. Our fair city requires homeowners to clear the sidewalks down to the brick, and will fine us if we don't. We have another building dweller who handles one of the edges of our corner block, and we do the other. Twould be o so nice if the city balanced 'our' commitment to the sidewalks by keeping the street plowage from cresting the banks and refilling 'my' sidewalk, but no. Do other cities do this too?

Glimpsed warmer climes for a brief vacation, tho in NC it was down to high twenties at the end of last week visiting Lynne's daughter & family near Charlotte. Passed thru the Detroit airport on a leg home, it was well below zero there, made the high twenties back in Maine seem balmy... or was that just me?

So... let's hear more winter tales... and try not to be such a whiner like me.

Not done yet?

Doug are u done yet?

What shall I call this dessert?

Thanks Doug for the Show & more.

Doug,
You were thoughtful to not leave out anyone's pic, as far as I could see.
Everyone pitched in to cause a wonderful meal & companionship.
Maggie Gibbon Masek was ill with her COPD (breathing issues),
but she is thankful to have been there with loving family.
We are most thankful for the Rive Ladies & Bella for their major
domo efforts to get those birds done just right & all the fixings.

I plan to post the pic of Doug hiding the huge "COMBO DESSERT PLATTER",
that took him 30 mins. to consume.
Doug took the cake on that one.

Our Best to you all for Christmas & the Other Holidays,
Jim Masek (for Maggie Gibbon Masek)

Views from "A Giant"

(thanks L & C!)

Three Dozen Cozens...

...warts 'n all.

turkey gobbling, cider guzzling, teeth cleaning,
cheek glowing and pinching, facemaking,
guffawing, merrymaking!

[it's a slide show... click the Play arrow under
the picture, and start countin cousins!]


[ps >>> (3x12)-3]

Thanksgiving ought ate

Beth and Simon, Zoey, Emma
where to eat is no dilemma.

They'll join Tom and Joy and Nell and Bella
and poor Tom Turkey, most unhappy fella.

Doug and Lynne, Soren and Wyatt
down to try the Sharksmouth diet.

As are Jim and Judy, fresh from Greece,
wouldn't miss it (seconds, please!)

John, Jeanette, EJ and Lias
Manchester is their clear bias.

Schatzie and Mike -- time out from tennis
come to see how tough the hen is.

While Ric and Martha, Annie, Rose
eat this and that and autrechose.

With Mark and Ella, Xave and Nya
from the Barr House -- good to see ya.

Larry and Charlotte, from the Hopkinson tree,
but so far back it's hard to see.

Arthur, Sylvia, Elizabeth and Meggy
from Somerville now (are the drumsticks leggy?)

Jim and Maggie and Charlie (cousin)
and that, dear friends, is our three dozen!

-- CHS --

As promised...

Alright, I guess the awesome spide-o-lantern will do. Here's Hiromi and me at my school's Hallowe'en party. I'm a Sherpa.

And an update to go with

Well, if anyone is wondering what became of the conference I posted about so long ago, it went quite well. My audience was kind and supportive, and asked useful questions. I must say, it was really scary, though. Now I'm applying for graduate school. I'm applying to a couple in Mass., so perhaps I will see some of you more often next school year.

It's Halloween, and I do have a costume but currently no digital camera. So I'll make you a deal: if someone else posts a costume picture of themselves (ideally from this year, but any year will do), I'll post a picture after I get someone else to take one.

My goodness I forgot all about this thing..

So today for the first time in ages I posted to my linguistics undergrads collective blog, and noticed that I apparently had another blog. Wondering whether it was possible to be spammed into a membership in some kind of advertising blog, I clicked on it, with some trepidation. OH RIGHT, I thought, the Manch blog. I don't think I ever posted to this thing.

And then I noticed that there was a tag for linguistics. Linguistics?! I thought, is someone writing about me? So I read the post, and apparently I wrote a little update about my life. And now I'm thinking, you know, my neighbours smoke a fair bit of pot. And the smoke does sneak into my apartment sometimes. Isn't marijuana supposed to be bad for cognition?

Which is all to say, maybe we should send out a reminder to the members of the blog that they belong to it!

OK, everyone knows where this is, right?

Surely... someone...

...recognizes where this was shot. Some may even know when!

a stormy scene...