Category: photography

Lorin Duckman at 78

So, I made it. A year ago, I sat in a hospital bed, didn’t know if it was my birthday or death day. Have regained my spirit, if not my endurance, memory and flexibility. Blood perfect for CLL/lymphoma, but not for humans with good blood. Hard not to reflect on my failed existence. I’ll pass.

Still have Sharon, a few friends and a passion for photographic art.

My Dad Fought

“Six hundred fifty-five thousand Americans died in combat in the Civil War. At the time, the population of the United States was about 32 million. That means one in fifty Americans died between 1860-65—two percent of the total population. There are ten times the number of people living in the U.S. today, so that death toll would be equivalent to 6,550,000 dead in 2023. Everyone was affected by the Civil War. Everyone had loved ones who died. Everyone—in the North as well as the South….”

Major Leonard Duckman didn’t die in the war, well, he lost his mind, hair, teeth and changed (according to biased accounts), but he just may well have. He had leukemia which was probably from some agent something which they sprayed on the trees in New Guinea when they weren’t shooting up the place or bombing it. I didn’t really know him. He was always tired or in pain or under some spell. Smart. Handsome. Would have had a great legal career. Deserved better.

Perfect Pour

So, you and I aren’t bartenders whose tip depends on filling the glass, dramatically. She doesn’t use built in measurers or shot glasses. She just pours. Sometimes the martini juice reaches above the rim, held together by capillary action. And, her martinis always come with no fruit, vegetable and only a sniff of vermouth (almost bone dry). But the best thing is that I have to go to the glass for the first sip. The martini is undeliverable. Drink it where you find it.

Passover Food

Usually, around Christmas, the stores abound with songs. Some of them like Silent Night or Little Town of Bethlehem refer to the birth of little baby Jesus. Some like My Favorite Things doesn’t have anything to do with childbirth or Mary or Joseph or the Three Wise men, but is considered a classic because it brings comfort and warmth.

We JEWs have our symbols, too, for the holiday of Passover. FOOD. Ah, the tears from the salt water. The burning of the throat and clogging of the nose from the horseradish. A lamb shank never to be eaten. The unleavened bread, matzoh. Apples, nuts and wine which somehow represent the bricks used to build pyramids. And for dinner, stomach clogging gefilte fish, chicken stock with matzoh balls, brisket, chicken. Plus four glasses of sweet, concord grape wine – guaranteed to hangover. Oh, did those askenazis know how to live?

Dayenu

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CZgDNPGZ9Sg