So what do you do when you end up with two giant heads of celery less than a week? You make soup. I went through recipes for cream of celery soup and I didn’t really want something that delicate. I wanted something with a little bit of flavor, so I came up with my version. Yes, wing it soup.
I saved some of my celery for the salmon cakes I’m making on Friday, but the rest of it got a rough chop and tossed into one of my soup pots with about 3 tablespoons of butter, four cloves of garlic, also chopped, and rough chopped onions. I also added salt, thyme, a couple of bay leaves, and 1/3 cup of water. I put the lid on the pot and let the vegetables cook down a few minutes.
Normally cream of celery soup calls for leeks but when I went to Aldi this week they didn’t have any, so I used red onions and yellow onions specifically are used one big red onion and two regular yellow onions.
To the onions and garlic and celery, I next added two chopped up yellow Yukon Gold potatoes I had. I also peeled and chopped small a bunch of parsnips that arrived in my vegetable box from Lancaster this week. We use Doorstep Dairy if you’re interested and are in their delivery area.
I let all the vegetables kind of meld together and cooked down about another 15 minutes. Then I used a box and a half of prepackaged chicken stock. Each box is 32 ounces so in total, I added 48 ounces of chicken stock. Two that I added a dash of Herbes de Provence. I brought it all up to a boil, then reduced to low and covered, and let everything cook.
When the parsnips and potatoes were both soft, I removed the bay leaves, and I took out my Cuisinart hand blender and puréed everything. I then let it all cook down more. I did this part of the cooking on low heat, and I stirred fairly often, so nothing stuck to the bottom of the pan. This was probably about another 40 minutes.
Then I added half a cup of half-and-half, and a dash of curry powder. Not a spicy curry powder just Keen’s Traditional Curry Powder. I know that sounds weird to add, but it just struck me that it would make a good addition to the flavor profile and I was right. I love curry so I do add curry powders to a lot of recipes.
I then use my hand blender once again, and emulsified everything a little more. I served the soup with Italian breadsticks. I have always loved breadsticks, and people always forget about them.
Now you have my semi homemade recipe for cream of celery soup. I will note I rarely use heavy cream when I do a cream based soup because I don’t like the extra thick and heavy, which means I will use half-and-half, canned unsweetened coconut milk, or even buttermilk. I think this recipe could be done with any of the above, but I just happen to have half-and-half in, so that’s what I used.
I know people don’t like it when I say a dash of this or a dash of that, but it really just is depending on what your taste level is and if you’re unsure of some thing you can always add a little less at first because you can always add a little more later.
Good soup, even semi-homemade, does take a little bit of time, but the thing about soup is you can cook it while you’re doing other things. So if you work from home it doesn’t really interfere with life.
I have been working really hard to try to use and not be wasteful with food. That even includes with leftovers. Like a pasta sauce and ricotta that was the leftover last week became baked ziti.
Food prices are crazy and what’s even nuttier are what the stores are out of from week to week and it’s not even Covid anymore. And with high food prices, it doesn’t mean you can’t eat well, it just means sometimes you have to be a little more inventive and use what you have versus buying lots of new things. I have been shopping more at places like Aldi, because they have great prices and their products are not bad.
Anyway, this is an easy enough soup to make, so I thought I would share it with you, because it did turn out to be quite delicious. I will probably have more for lunch today since it’s damp and rainy.
This morning was a day when I wanted to hand my adulting card back. Another one of the great ladies of my childhood is gone. No, not my mother, one of her friends, a family friend.
So I have some bad news. My mom died this morning. She loved 95 good, healthy years. And if she’s right about the afterlife, she is now with my dad. We have no arrangements about services, but when I know something…we will share the details.
Loss truly is the companion of aging. Shit. Some days you do just want to curse. This morning was one of them.
We can’t escape death, as it is literally part of the cycle of life. But there are those people who touched your life whom you just wish would go on. Or you just think will go on.
This lady was someone I knew from the time I was a little girl. She and her late husband were friends of my parents, neighbors at one time. Yes, another one of those fabulous ladies of my Society Hill childhood. We also went to the same church, Old St. Joseph’s on Willing’s Alley. One of the first things I remembered was being in church with this family. I remember our first holy communion because one of the daughters was in my communion class.
An eminently practical person, but never dull or preachy or stuffy. Always fun to be around and she made you want to be a better person. She loved you for who you were.
I think our parents met when my mother and she would take kids to the park nearby. My mother may have been pregnant with my sister. The park is known today as 3 Bears Park. Maybe it always was because of the bear sculpture we would climb on, but to me it was just the “park” or “Delancey Park.”. It had a sliding board that kept breaking because the sun would dry out whatever it was made of – fiberglass I think. But they had great swings and we the kids would pump higher and higher.
The lady had a wonderful husband. Big and tall with a wide smile and a laugh that made his eyes twinkle. Her daughters were so close in age to my sister and I. The oldest daughter and I were in the same grade. The youngest daughter was maybe a year or so behind us, my sister was the baby of this little girls bunch. There were two older brothers as well.
This morning when I got the news, it kind of felt like the world of today spun into a kaleidoscope of the past. From being a little enough girl that this lady kept a straight face when we kept putting my sister into the youngest daughter’s doll bed in her room. Or patience when the tiny turtle’s living area needed to be cleaned. And laughing her wonderful laugh when they finally figured out when her husband’s pride and joy imported Italian car smelled. (The Alpha had an Italian worker who had dropped a salami sandwich inside the door of the car when it was being assembled. Who knows why the worker did it but it was a great mystery of our childhood for a while trying to figure out why her husband’s car smelled to high heaven.) I also remember day trips in a big old station wagon big enough for kids and moms.
Their house was where I first learned peanut butter and jelly was an actual thing you could eat. That was offered one day when one of the kids she was feeding lunch to along with us didn’t want a tuna fish sandwich. I remember where their dining room table was next to the kitchen, and the walled garden out back. I remember there was no messing with the big brothers, even if they were fun. They seemed so big to little girls at that age.
The family moved a few times over the course of the lady’s husband’s career. Before Philadelphia I want to say they were in the Princeton, NJ area, which to a little girl with no frame of geographical reference seemed a million miles away. After Society Hill they moved to Bethesda, Maryland. I remember the road where they lived was Arrowood Road. And for some reason I remember they lived near two big deal golf clubs for that area, Burning Tree and Congressional. And to get to their house you went on this crazy windy road. The kind where the dips and turns could be felt in the stomachs of little girls – River Road. For me initially visiting there as a then still city kid, it was so magical to be in suburbia with big lawns, backyards and big trees. For a while a raccoon inhabited one of the trees in their back yard. Don’t ask me why I have never forgotten that, but I never have. Probably because the lady’s husband hated that raccoon.
When the family moved away, we would go to Maryland, they would come to visit us. Going to visit this family was the ultimate in fun. The lady always had things lined up for us to do. One year it was the King Tut exhibit at The National Gallery in Washington, DC. I remember waiting in a long, long line to go in. That was I believe around 1976. I also remember the summer my parents house sat the pink stucco house that no longer exists on Cheswold Lane in Haverford and the lady and the daughters came for a longer visit. That was one of my favorite summers and they were part of it. That was a couple of years before we moved to the Main Line but my parents were contemplating moving to suburbia.
The lady was incredibly bright. I seem to remember that she went to a 7 sisters school, and when my family moved to Haverford, an adult neighbor’s sister had been her roommate in college.
This lady was a tremendous cook. Kind of Julia Child-like meets Galloping Gourmet, truthfully. (And yes I am dating myself because many won’t remember the Galloping Gourmet.) A few years ago I got a hold of her Florentine cookies recipe from when we were kids. I also remember one New Year’s Eve when she and her husband and the girls were up at our house, she decided to make a chocolate roll to take as a dessert. Only our springer spaniel Abigail jumped up and ate a section of the sponge cake cooling on the stove. I remember cursing, yelling, and a quick recovery and she made the remains of the cake into a decadent trifle.
We often spent Thanksgiving with them, and they with us. I loved being in her kitchen at Thanksgiving. She would put us all to work, but I think in part, this is why I know how to make Thanksgiving dinner today. I remember one Thanksgiving they came with us to my aunt and uncle’s home in Chestnut Hill for an awkward family dinner gather of part of my father’s clan. The dining room was dark and cold. But it was much more fun with our friends with us. One Thanksgiving when they were with us, my parents made a reservation at The Greenhouse in Radnor. You all know it today as 333 Belrose. When you did Thanksgiving there, it was an entire dinner, including your own small turkey and tons of leftovers to take home, but no clean up.
I remember being at their house in Maryland when the news broke on 3 Mile Island. I was in the kitchen with the lady, one of the brothers had the TV on in the family room.
The family moved from Bethesda to Summit, NJ and then in a way they were closer. Either way, Bethesda or Summit, as I got older I was only an Amtrak ride away to visit them.
I loved their house in Summit, NJ. And Summit was just a nice town. I have more memories of the lady again in the kitchen which had a lot of natural light, and a garden you could see from the kitchen. These were the days before gargantuan kitchens in houses, and I loved the kitchens of my childhood which is probably why I don’t mind my smaller kitchen of today. Except I remember the kitchen in Summit, NJ had stools you could sit at.
Today as I have processed this loss, I will admit there have been a lot of tears, And memories popping into my head randomly and out of order. But this was one of the families of my childhood that we stayed so connected to. I remember the lady and her husband going to a black tie in Washington DC with my parents to some dinner to honor Jacques Cousteau. I remember one spooky neighbor of theirs in Bethesda when they had a cocktail party that everyone thought was with the CIA whether that was realistic or not.
But one of the things I remember most about this lady is she never treated you like a kid even when you were a child. She spoke to you, she saw you. And she never judged. She might not always tell you what you wanted to hear because she was straightforward and plain spoken. With four kids of her own and all of the kids in and out of the house, she could be like a very affectionate drill sergeant. I don’t remember her yelling per se, but I do remember her with a stern raised voice when something was going on that she wanted to stop, or if there was something we should be doing. But even when I was a child, I just liked to talk to her. I feel so lucky that I had these adults who were interesting and loving in my life growing up.
Since she and her husband had retired to a warmer climate, the visits turned into phone calls, letters, Christmas cards. And one last text message early into the new year this year. She was a New Year’s baby essentially. I saved the message to remind me to call her soon, and then life went on and today my world paused to take in a loss combined with being so lucky to have known such an awesome woman.
Fly with the angels, we know your memory will indeed be an eternal blessing. Selfishly, I will say my world got a little smaller today.
So Downingtown Auction House? I know it’s got to be whom I am thinking of and they are wonderful and this is not them. They have been around, and do lots of American and portraits. This painting was shipped from Beverly Hills, CA I am told by a woman who used auctioneers in the past. That makes me wonder if she is an ex-Chester County native? An ex-pat so to speak? That is what I hypothesize, right or wrong.
Things that strike me as odd include: do we know the subject of the portrait or the painter? NBC 10 Reporter Deanna Durante’s report indicated other authorities perhaps getting involved who deal in art theft? And possibly being listed on a website called Art Loss Registry.
I do not pretend to know much about 18th century portrait painters, but as far as auctioning something, often people will send stuff to auction where they think they have a market. So I wonder if that is in part why a Downingtown, PA auction house was chosen? Could this painting have regional historical interest? This is of course why my inner Nancy Drew wishes authorities would release more information on the painting. Perhaps if we knew more about the painting, we could know more about why it was stolen, unless it was just a crime of opportunity perhaps originating in California and now whomever is stuck with a hot potato? What are authorities in California saying, for example?
So West Whiteland PD says it shipped from Beverly Hills, CA? If you Google there are 3 active Beverly Hills FedEx locations, or so I discovered. Maybe I am wrong, I don’t know. I am not exactly an expert on Beverly Hills.
So, it was prepared by a business in California and shipped FedEx ground? You would need someone to expertly crate it and ship it, right? I know FedEx can do that, I have done that through the FedEx in Malvern. But one thing about the FedEx in Malvern. A couple of times I have missed a delivery and had to go there to pick it up. I have had to show ID and so forth, so I am still confused as to WHY the person at FedEx in Exton released the painting?
I will note, that I do NOT believe UPS will let you change where something is delivered to once it is shipped, but someone will have to verify that. No clue about USPS because I do not see them as an avenue of shipping for art, do you? Again, maybe I am wrong.
Deanna Durante’s report mentions the painting may have been re-frames and may have “L Parks” on the back of it. It was packed and shipped at a FedEx in Beverly Hills. Christie’s Auctions actually has an article about how the BACK of a painting can tell as much of a story as the subject and painter of a painting.
I am kind of fascinated that I can’t find any media in the Los Angeles area talking about this yet. Maybe it will end up just stealing for stealing, but maybe it is because of whomever painted the painting or whom the subject was?
Doesn’t it seem this is a total FedEx thing? After all, has FedEx piped up about this at all? So FedEx is this an “inside job” that started in Los Angeles or Beverly Hills?
Police say this painting was taken Friday, January 27, 2023 at 7:15 A.M. Since the public has only recently heard of this can we say the poor lady who owned it exhausted all avenues with FedEx? Yes, I know, I am becoming repetitive. I am just fascinated by this, as are lots of people.
If you see the painting, please call police. Or wouldn’t it be nice if the thief just RETURNED the painting?
Recently I unplugged and took time for myself. I wanted to try something artistic I had not done before, so I took a stained glass class. It was so much fun!
I had learned about the class from a stained glass artist who has studio space in Gallery 222 in Malvern. Her name is Jill Huentelman and her business is Huentelglas. I actually know her a bit and one of her stained glass Christmas ornaments has hung on my Christmas tree a few years.
I love stained glass. I have since I was in elementary school and we took a field trip to a glass blowing and stained glass place. I wish I could remember where it was. I bought a pear stained glass light catcher that I still have today. I have light catchers all over. A bunch from my childhood that my mother gave me, some I found, and a bluebird that belonged to a mother of a friend once upon a time.
Before we started to work on what I was going to create, I learned about a bit of the history of stained glass. Then in with the history came to safety aspects of how to behave in the studio, and how to act around the glass for lack of a better description. Jill is a wonderful instructor and I loved every minute of my time in her studio.
So in the end, I decided I wanted to make a bird instead of a pear. Jill will choose a pear with people to make because that way it is a simple design and not extraordinarily complicated for the first time working with glass like this.
I drew my pattern. Next came choosing the glass.
Jill has so much glass and it’s so cool. There’s plain glass and glass that has pattern and almost texture to the top of it. The glass I chose was reminiscent to me of slag glass I have seen in church windows in Chester County.
Wow, I was learning to cut glass for stained glass! First, I learned how to cut straight lines. Then I learned how to cut curves, and then I was ready to cut out my pattern. It was fun! (And nerve wracking because I didn’t want to make a mistake!)
After I cut out my glass, we did the grinding to smooth any sharp edges and make the design look more like what I wanted. After it was cut out and ground, it got a quick wash off.
Next comes this copper foil. Wound and worked around the edges and rubbed smooth with a special stick which has a name- I think it’s a burnisher, but I think it also has other names.
Next comes the soldering. And soldering involves this stuff that looks like dark Vaseline called “flux.” It makes the soldering stick.
After the soldering and the gluing of the bird’s little eye came another bath and rubbing it down and shining it up with a finishing compound. It keeps the soldering silver and made the glass shine more. It’s a shine and buff.
My class was actually a few hours long and it flew by so quickly it seemed like it was half an hour.
The classes are reasonably priced. You can find everything on her website. The price of the class includes all your materials and there is also a waiver to sign before you enter the studio. Another thing that I should’ve mentioned before is that at various times during this creative process, you rinse your hands off with a special soap that pulls metal and things out of your skin because we’re touching things that contain metals like lead.
It was SO much fun and I think my bird turned out great! So far the classes are just a one off, but if Jill did a series, I would totally sign up! If I took another class, I would like to learn how to make those cool stakes that you can put in your flower pots.
Also, while I was there, I got to see what was hanging on the walls of Gallery 222 in Malvern, which is such an awesome place.
Having art in your life, and the ability for creative outlet is something I’ve always found to be important. Much like gardening, it’s just good for your head and soul.
A fox I snapped a photo of in 2020. You can see this fox has a small patch of bare skin on it’s shoulder? That is mange. It’s common with foxes, sadly.
One of my favorite animals in my gardens and woods are my foxes. I do not feed them or the deer (and deer are NOT welcome in my garden.) But I admire and watch for my foxes. They bring me joy.
Every year we have new litters of fox kits. One vixen in particular, will show me her kits. from a distance. I do not approach, but sometimes early in the morning, there she is with the babies. This vixen in particular is one of my favorites. She keeps down the rodent population. IU saw her today for the first time in a while. She has a patch of mange on her right shoulder in the front. She looks otherwise healthy. No scabs around her eyes and other mange symptoms. (CLICK HERE.)
Mange will spread by direct contact. So if a fox gets too close who has mange, or you have a dog who chases foxes, it’s pretty easy for your dog to get mange. You can treat your dogs under veterinary care, but ironically you can’t really treat the source, like a fox with mange. Mange is caused by a mite. (I forgot to mention that.) Essentially our domestic animal vets are not allowed to treat foxes and wildlife. And most wildlife refuges etc will tell you when you call they don’t really treat foxes.
But while it should be common sense in Pennsylvania to be able to treat our local wildlife for a very treatable thing, Pennsylvania as in the state, doesn’t seem to want vets to treat wildlife even if they wanted to. I think they should be able to within reason. Maybe not every vet, but maybe a selection of vets or say an SPCA or animal welfare league or humane society.
Mange can be fatal to an animal if it goes untreated for a long time. Here is something I found about mange in red foxes:
So Bravecto which is kind of expensive is a very effective drug. People also use ivermectin, although I am told an incorrect dosage can harm a fox.
Now I am sure all remember ivermectin. That was the drug that the crazies were sure cured COVID-19 which it does not. So I think in part we can thank stupid human tricks for not being able to now treat foxes for mange.
The Pennsylvania Game Commission has an entire page devoted to foxes as beautiful wildlife. (CLICK HERE.)
Mange is nasty – Penn Vet has written a big thing about it too. (CLICK HERE.)
So Pennsylvania, maybe doing something decent here and help us treat foxes as a source of mange when we see it. Don’t perpetuate stupid human tricks to the point that an otherwise healthy animal can spread this and lose it’s life eventually. That is not the cycle of life, I think that is cruelty.
The West Whiteland Township Police Department is investigating the theft of a painting. The painting was shipped by a woman from Beverly Hills to a auction business in Downingtown. An unknown person picked the item up at the FedEx Ground facility in Exton.
The painting has not been recovered.
A photo of the painting is attached.
Call Sgt. McCloskey or Det. Pezick if you have any information. Date:
Friday, January 27, 2023 – 7:15am
Incident Type: Theft Reference ID: WW-23-01853 Case
Type: Criminal Source: West Whiteland Police Department
OK so the date up there is January 27, 2023? why has it been so long before we would find out about this if it was a theft and I’m presuming it’s a pretty tasty, art theft, right?
So how many auction houses are considered to be in Downingtown, Pennsylvania? Two?
I went and looked up this FedEx Ground location. It’s on Creamery Way in Exton. It has a shockingly bad rating on Google of 2.3! And there are reviewers who accuse this location of theft. All you have to do is go read the reviews if you don’t believe me.
So I wonder did they really just give it to a random person or is this an inside job?
And if this occurred in January why is it only being reported now is it because the sender of the painting and whichever auction house it is have exhausted all avenues with FedEx and they went to the police?
I just also wonder how the FedEx could just kind of let a big piece of art walk out of the door? Don’t they have security cameras? Don’t they ask people for ID? Don’t they sign for a package?
I am totally fascinated by this and I hope the media picks up on it and runs with it. And I hope somebody goes to FedEx and FedEx corporate and ask them how paintings just kind of go missing? I would also like to know which auction house it was because I feel sorry for them.
I have posted the painting a few different times throughout this post because I tried lighting it differently so you could see the image better.
This is literally a Nancy Drew Mystery. I would love to know who the portrait is supposed to be and what it’s perceived value is? And is this one of those things were they get the FBI art theft unit involved?
See 1:09:27 time mark in meeting for when the discussion of the police disciplinary action starts.
Back in January I wrote about a disturbing incident involving the treatment of a black woman which occurred in Bala Cynwyd in the WaWa parking lot which was videoed and witnessed with horror by onlookers.
This was widely covered in the media, as well it should have been. So here we are in March. Now they are talking punishment for the police officer. Lower Merion’s website allows you to download their meetings. So I downloaded March 8th, 2023 Lower Merion Meeting and watched it. At the 1:09:27 mark starts the police discussion. That is at the top of this post for all of you. I am going to jump into some of the commentary.
Lower Merion Police Superintendent Mike McGrath who has been under fire with his own force (vote of no confidence in 2022) , suggested an EIGHT HOUR SUSPENSION. Yes EIGHT as in 8. That was so shocking. What a slap in the face for anyone not a white face in Lower Merion and concerning for anyone in my humble opinion, women especially, travelling through Lower Merion in their cars. That woman was also a victim no matter what else happened. What happened to de-escalation tactics?
So then the public weighted in, demanding change. Interesting to listen to was former Commissioner Brian Gordon who is a very kind, fair, and thoughtful human being. He spoke about things proposed in 2015 that never really happened. Among other things. Some commissioner unfamiliar to me named McComb was actually kind of rude to him.
The other commissioner comment that smacked of hail fellow well met and worse, was Scott Zelov. He has been on that board a long time , maybe too long at this point, sadly. Prior to the board of commissioners he ran unsuccessfully for Lower Merion Township School Board at least once. His comments make one believe 100% in term limits. And he should be ashamed of himself. He thought an 8 hour suspension was jolly good. And talked about the charges against this woman. Does what they did justify the things they charged her with or does what they charged her with justify what they did?
I watched that video taken while that woman was being put through it by Lower Merion cops. It was terrifying. The woman was terrified.
I am not being a drama queen writing that this made me want to scream in outrage, cry, and be terrified. What is going on with Lower Merion Police Department?
I never talked about Lower Merion and their police really before this. I have law enforcement in my family so I am extraordinarily aware of how difficult a career path it is and I have respect for the badge. But what happens when you feel that some of those who wear the badge don’t have respect for you and others? Do your feelings matter, no matter who you are? Also note from jump I am not saying police shouldn’t do their jobs. But was this thing that happened really good policing and good police?
Regardless of what that woman may or may not have done – which didn’t seem to show up on the video, did she deserve to be treated the way she was? Listen to the meeting. Think on it. I do not think the racial and civic divide in Lower Merion can get much worse, and I too remember the issues of the past that residents commenting referred to.
Lower Merion is indeed a dumpster fire right now. They need a new police committee, and they need to look at the Township Manager Ernie McNeely. There seems to be a lot of chaos since he came to town, which is astounding because he was supposed to the best thing since sliced bread, right? As for Superintendent Mike McGrath, I think for his own sake he should retire. I mean does he really have control over his department or respect from his force?
This is horrifying and sad all at the same time. And while they throw the book at the black woman who was dragged around and tased, where is the balance on the inappropriate actions of the police officer and the officers who didn’t step in and pull him off of that woman?
Lower Merion Commissioners, you need to represent all segments of the population equally and you know you aren’t. You need to do the best by all residents not just your popular kids.
The longer this issue goes on, the sadder and worse it gets. Did I mention dumpster fire?
A certain bizziness “lady” at present from Wayne (I say at present because there is always a chance for moving – New York, Delaware, Glen Mills, a quickie jaunt to Miami and more, right?) is due in court soon. Two different police departments seem to have taken issue with her. Newtown Township, Delaware County and Radnor Township, Delaware County.
She, blithe spirit that she is, has been taking to social media to air her grievances and promises doom and gloom on her website where she seems to be selling what used to be in her store. (She accepts GPay and Credit Cards, natch!) She also has to tell you how fab she is because if she doesn’t remind you, how else will you know?
She also has been posting comments of “supporters” which most people call sock puppets, so are they designer sock puppets?
What is a sock puppet? So glad you asked:
I am sure she will strike a pose in court. I am sure she will call anyone who objects to her behavior or has had le bounce bouncy checks, etc., etc. racist. She is pure of heart, it’s the rest of the world who is wrong. If your on her good list will she toast you with some vino from the Hamptons?
A few weeks ago I saw these Crimewatch PA blurbs from West Whiteland Township. White Collar crimes, something you do not see often. The names were Verna, Karen and Verna, Joseph.
Originally these popped around Valentine’s Day. I threw up a post based on what I saw. That was that.
I figured the media would find this curious and follow-up. Crickets. And white collar crimes seem to be a media thing these days, including on the Main Line. And because it’s white collar you would think consumer affairs TV reporters might be interested? Nope. Crickets.
Today I wondered “what ever happened?” so I went back to the court dockets. New dockets. New entries. A formal arraignment on March 23, 2023 at 9:15 AM in front of Judge Analisa Sondergaard unless it gets moved. And when I looked again at the Crimewatch entries were updated to include photos, so now the names have faces.
So I am guessing this guy is a chiropractor in Florida now? (It came up in a Google search. You can look up the FL license, it’s public, also listed on PA state site so I guess that is it, huh?) Business must have been in West Whiteland since that is the PD that did it? And now there is the Chester County DA listed on the new dockets?
Don’t know the man. Don’t know the wife. But that is some interesting stack of charges on him and if you read the dockets, the charges say 2009 which means this has been going on a while??? How do you do that? Greed? Malice? Stupidity? Whatever the case may be, this one has the earmarking of a doozy of a tale, doesn’t it?
Sure is interesting. Sure feel sorry for whomever they did dirty. Maybe now the media will pick it up now that there are photos on the Crimewatch listings and a late March court date?
Quotes. People love putting quotes out there on social media. But part of the context of quotes is not the quote borrower, but the quote originator. Like George Elliot. But I am getting ahead of myself. First we need to consider the borrower of a George Elliot quote, a politician running for DASD school board named Professor Christopher Bressi formerly known as Christopher Bre on Facebook.
Dear Professor Politician changed his profile before running for DASD school board. As in his old profile was made to poof disappear.
He talks about censorship, yet he censors comments he doesn’t like and yet he’s a politician running for public office? Quite amusing, yes?
Above is something the learned professor candidate posted yesterday. Ironic statements are highlighted. Why? Again….because before he launched his public page he deleted his old profile so that none of his old comments could come back to haunt him. So yeah funny ironic that he talks about hiding and trust, etc?
In this post are some screenshots his old profile, Christopher Bre. See how he talks about censoring in the one, which is also ironic given that he picks and chooses the comments he allows to post on his public politician page, right? And why is it politicians think that they can censor and ban although case law now dictates otherwise? Have they met Montgomery County’s Joe Gale?
Gosh and check out above for that old post, a classic, right? And again, what could be said about nouveau politicians who delete their old profile immediately prior to launching a campaign for school board? Below screenshot on the left was taken prior to him deleting his old profile. The one on the right is from today. His comment is gone because he deleted his old profile and made an entirely new one before he launched.
Now my personal favorite about this political candidate for Downingtown’s school board isn’t just new profiles and censorship. It’s who he quotes at the top of his “group” which to me is an amusing conversation in and of itself.
George Elliot was prolific writer of the Victorian era. Only George was not a George, that is to say he was a she. Mary Ann Evans. George Elliot was her pen name or pseudonym. She was a writer and poet. Creator of 7 famous novels : Adam Bede, The Mill on the Floss, Silas Marner, Romola, Felix Holt, The Radical, Middlemarch ,and Daniel Deronda. A lot of these books have been movies or PBS series.
She was born on the estate where her father worked as a miller. She was born Mary Ann Evans but wrote as George Elliot? Was that merely because in Victorian times it was unseemly for a woman to be a writer?
Before she became a writer, amusingly Evans/Elliot was the editor of what was then a radical left wing periodical called the Westminster Review, which existed to promote political and social reform. She was born the same year as Queen Victoria, so this was definitely not the era of women of independent thought.
Now here’s why I find it interesting other than this school board candidate is quoting a Victorian author who was a woman but masqueraded under a male pseudonym. Evans/Elliot also did not adhere to the rules of the day with acceptable relationships.
Evans/Elliot actually created scandal in the accepted mores of society. Her first relationship was with a guy who contributed to that Westminster Journal named George Lewes. Mr. Lewes was in an open marriage with a woman named Agnes Jervis. It was Victorian England so open marriages? Most definitely NOT a thing. Lewes was not divorced and could not get a divorce because although he and wifey on paper hadn’t lived together for years, he condoned her adultery after a sense because he allowed all of her illegitimate children to have his name and have their birth certificates all have his name, not the actual baby daddy’s name.
Following? Ok so messy non-divorce means that Evans/Elliot lived in sin with Lewes until he died.
Evans/Elliot was a fascinating writer. She called out anti-semitism before it was talked about for example. That was evident in her novel Daniel Deronda. But she was a writer who hid her true self from the public at large because society would not have approved or accepted her truth, would they?
So is this why this political candidate for school board seemingly hides who he is? Perhaps he is not even what his Stepford Wives for Totalitarianism fan base thinks he is?
Color me amused that this guy quotes George Elliot. Because if you follow the pretzel logic of these people, one would expect that her books would be on a banned list and her lifestyle and life would not fit their narrative.
Truthfully I am not sure George Elliot books are in public school libraries any longer. By the time I hit high school she was mostly taught in private schools, and if George Elliot were alive today you would probably find her writing about topics that are part of why banned book lists are popular with certain segments of society, right? So yup, a politician pandering to extremist groups who represent some of the worst theories of bigotry and hatred is quoting George Elliot, a dead Victorian author who was a woman named Mary Ann Evans who lived a lifestyle they would not approve of along with her belief system and writing subject matter.
