You know when you are driving down the highway and you realize that you have just missed your exit? That is not exactly what happened here. Yesterday, after visiting the garden, we were headed home. As we merged onto the highway, we passed a pickup that was towing a trailer. The trailer was hauling interstate signs. Signs from downtown. It was just such an odd sight. Reacting quickly, Anne was able to snap this photo.
At 12:59, as we were about to enter the garden, we passed a docent at the door who was holding a placard advertising a free tour of the garden. The next scheduled one was at one. He asked us if we wanted a tour. We said yes and off the three of us went, a personal tour. These tours are held daily, but we have never taken one before. Our guide Bill had worked for the garden, retired and has come back as a docent. His theme for our tour was the garden’s early history. Its founder Henry Shaw figured prominently. Shaw had a love of the ginkgo tree. At one point he imported 5,000 saplings. He was such a booster for the tree that not only the garden has quite a few, but all of Saint Louis is blessed with an abundance of them. The pictured ginkgo, located next to the groundskeeper’s house is one that he planted.
Last night, our heatwave was broken by a thunderstorm. It wasn’t a violent storm, but it was still spectacular to see, hear and fall asleep to. The heat is gone, but after last night’s rain, the humidity still persists. With this break in the weather, I was able to get out, at least to shop for food. I listened to NPR on my drive to the store and heard an article that introduced the concept of micro dramas, which are ultra-short, vertical format video series with 1-to-3-minute episodes designed for mobile phone binge-watching. This concept is derived from Tik-Tok. Apparently, they are the new-new thing in Hollywood. Though each episode is tiny, a season of about 100 episodes scale in duration to that of a Netflix miniseries. Their viewer cost is an order-of-magnitude greater though. They are marketed much like video games, with opportunities to level up and save money, but fundamentally they are a profit driven vehicle.
Similarly, President Trump in the latest episode of his never-ending serial soap opera this last weekend banned CNN, MSNOW and Politico from the Whitehouse. Trump was upset with these three outlets for their editorial content. Payback is a bitch though. Today, CNN was the designated news agency responsible for hosting all network’s pool reporting. So, there was no network feed today of a photo-op for the new helipad’s ribbon cutting. Unprofessional bloggers tried to fill-in, but lacking the real pro’s skillset, nothing said was heard. How long this solidarity lasts is anyone’s guess, but at least for one day the Whitehouse press corps showed a backbone.
From 1776 to 1785, Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790) served as minister to France, representing the newly independent United States. To secure much-needed assistance from the French, Franklin framed the Revolution as a fight for shared values of liberty and independence. Jean-Antoine Houdon, a leading portrait sculptor in Paris, suggested Franklin’s personality through his facial expression, which evokes the statesman’s lively intellect, his benevolent warmth, and even a sparkle of sly wit. Houdon first sculpted Franklin in clay and then made many copies in plaster. This bust was likely first owned by a German prince who refused to send troops to fight for the British in North America.