Received via WhatsApp forward.
Onward and upward, friends!
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Happy New Year!
Category: Life
That is just one the many memorable lines from onetime Hollywood hunk Val Kilmer in this winding and revelatory profile by Taffy Brodesser-Akner in the New York Times Magazine. Highly recommended.
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Merry Christmas from New Delhi
Best wishes from me, Anasuya, and Ginger*!
*Yes, Ginger is wearing a Christmas-themed sweater. Not only is it stylish, but it is functional, with temperatures dipping down into the low 40s Fahrenheit these days!
Last week – November 4 – marked two years since we adopted Ginger.
She continues to be a delight. She is clever, loyal, playful, energetic, silly, and sometimes slightly devious. And she definitely loves her long walks.
The photo at the top is from a Lodhi Garden trip. She loves that place. Here’s another pic of her there:
And here she is at rest in the sun at home:
One of her most endearing traits is her love of pouncing. Here’s a video of her hopping on me when I called her recently! 🙂
Dogs: What would life be without them?
Previously:
The latest shenanigans from Ginger.
Do I detect a bit of a smile in that second photo?
I believe I do.
Received this gem here in New Delhi yesterday and after consulting my collection…I’m happy to say: yes! It’s a new one!
Who knew having an uncoventional name, combined with a love for coffee, could be so much fun? 🙂
I hope your holiday was full of food, friends, family, and festivities.
Ginger got a candy cane dog toy, which, because she is a #PowerChewer, lasted all of ten minutes!
November 4th marked one year since we adopted Ginger.
If you missed my post from March, here’s the backstory and some pics of her as a puppy. This was the day we got her:
To recap: She is a New Delhi street dog and displays many of the characteristics of desidogs (also known as Indogs or Indian pariah dogs.)
Now almost a year and a half old, she is fully grown, weighing about 20 kg (45 pounds).
She is an alert, cautious, playful, smart, athletic, and affectionate dog.
She is also quite protective of our house, springing into action and barking if anyone unfamiliar rattles our gate.
She also loves to play fetch.
She is a powerful jumper.
She doesn’t demand to be by our sides constantly, but does enjoy sleeping near (or sometimes directly on) us.
Oh, and she definitely has a mischievous streak. She seems to enjoy nothing more than stealing a shoe or a sock as I sit down to put them on before leaving for the office in the morning, prompting me to chase after her (which is no doubt the point of the “game” for her).
If you’re interested in adopting a desi dog here in New Delhi (or just want to donate to a good cause) check out the Indian Canine Uplipftment Centre, or ICUC, where we got Ginger.
They do great work rescuing pups and providing medical services to the city’s huge population of strays.
We’ve also had some very informative training sessions with Namratha Rao of Pawsitive Tales. She really knows the breed well and is highly skilled. Get in touch with her if you have any dog training needs.
Here’s to 2019 and beyond with Ginger!
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A Psychedelic Temple for the Ages
I’m not quite sure how I missed this story by Drew Zeiba in The Architect’s Newspaper in June. It begins:
Tucked away on a tree-studded, 40-acre plot just a quarter mile from the Hudson River, one of New York’s most unusual construction projects is underway. The Chapel of Sacred Mirrors (CoSM)—a transdenominational church and registered nonprofit—has been constructing the Entheon: “A place to discover god within.”
The piece, which has many images of the construction, such as the one above, continues:
As with the foundation of the Greys’ relationship and their church, psychedelics and entactogens play a central role in the eccentric design of the Entheon. It was, in fact, a (then legal) shared MDMA experience that showed the Greys they should not sell their work, but rather build a chapel to share it with a “worldwide love tribe.”
But by far the most amazing sentence is this:
Selecting a point on their 40-acre plot that aligns with the solar plexus of a projected goddess, “the kabbalistic sephirot of justice,” CoSM has begun converting a former carriage house into a three-level, 12,000-square-foot concrete structure replete with modern amenities, including an ADA-compliant elevator.
Remarkable. Here’s more on the CoSM church and the Entheon itself.
Reading the story, I couldn’t help but think: It seems like this would an extraordinarily frightening place to visit while under the influence of psychoactive substances.
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Animal Crackers, Redesigned for 2018
File under: Ch-ch-ch-ch-Changes…(Turn and face the strange).
The lede of this New York Times story by Matthew Haag:
After 116 years of captivity, animal crackers have been freed from their cages.
It was a symbolic victory for animal rights activists, notably People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, which had argued that the immediately recognizable yellow-and-red boxes by Nabisco portrayed a cruel bygone era when traveling circuses transported exotic wildlife in confinement.
The new boxes are expected to arrive in stores this week. They show a zebra, an elephant, a lion, a giraffe and a gorilla roaming free side-by-side in a natural habitat, a sweeping savanna with trees in the distance.
And here’s what the old packaging looked like:
As the great David Bowie once sang (emphasis mine):
I still don’t know what I was waiting for
And my time was running wild
A million dead-end streets
Every time I thought I’d got it made
It seemed the taste was not so sweet