Thomas Jefferson

The object of walking is to relax the mind. You should therefore not permit yourself even to think while you walk; but divert yourself by the objects surrounding you. Walking is the best possible exercise.

Unattributed

In antiquity, modest utilitarian objects, whether household or personal, were often treated by craftsman with the same creative attention and skill as monumental art.

--Description of a hand mirror, Greek, 500 to 480 BC, bronze. The J Paul Getty Museum: Handbook of the Antiquities Collection (2002), page 109.

Anna Quindlen

A finished person is a boring person.

Thomas Moore

The ordinary arts we practice every day at home are of more importance to the soul than their simplicity might suggest. 

Sherelyn Siy

An 80-year old friend of mine from Cleveland told me that whenever anyone described her marriage to a Japanese man as being a mixed marriage, she would say: "My husband does the same things that drive me crazy that my father did that drove my mother crazy. As far as I'm concerned, when a woman marries a man, it's a mixed marriage."

Marie Benedict

"Whether Hedy Lamarr's work in spread-spectrum technology was purposefully disregarded or unconsciously forgotten, it appears that embedded in that oversight were misconceptions about her abilities -- about all women, really. Faulty assumptions about women's capabilities, stemming in part from the conscripted roles into which they'd been slotted, has caused many to think more narrowly about the manner in which the past has been shaped. But unless we begin to view historical women through a broader, more inclusive lens -- and rewrite them back into the narrative-- we will continue to view the past more restrictively than it likely was, and we risk carrying those perspectives over into the present."

-from Author's Note, "The Only Woman in the Room"

Alix Strauss / Mark Braly

At 86, Mark Braly may be the world’s oldest water polo player. And according to Mr. Braly, a Texas native who now lives in Davis, Calif., he’s “certainly the worst.” 

“I sometimes make goals, but there is always the suspicion they were the gift of a kind goalie,” Mr. Braly said. “Every player in the region knows my name because they have to shout constant directions.”

What have you learned about yourself through the sport? That I can accept praise and support and not feel diminished by it. That I can do almost anything if I don’t mind not being good at it. Being forced to be good at something has excluded me from doing things all my life. I learned I’m more capable and have a greater stamina than I thought.

"It's Never Too Late to Take Up Water Polo" August 2022
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/08/style/water-polo-aging-elderly.html

Elle Steitzer

When paramedic and firefighter for Lake Country Fire and Rescue Amber Christian got the call that she'd be rescuing over 50 puppies from a plane crash, the dog-lover knew it had the potential to be one of the worst calls of her career.

On Nov. 15, a plane carrying dozens of shelter dogs from Louisiana to the Humane Animal Welfare Society of Waukesha crashed on to the Western Lakes Golf Club course in the town of Delafield. At the scene, Christian took a deep breath and fell back on her training, she said, and the potentially worst call ended up leading her to meet her newly adopted puppy, Artemis.

The three people on board, and all 53 dogs, survived with minor injuries. Christian wasn't the only one to adopt a puppy ― over the following days, several first responders adopted one of the dogs they rescued.

The second that Lake Country EMT and firefighter Elle Steitzer got to the scene, she knew she wanted to adopt one of the puppies.

"I couldn't have not adopted him," Steitzer said of her puppy, Lucky. "I'm going to be thinking about these little guys for the rest of my life."

While Steitzer is an animal-lover, she said, Lucky is the first dog she's ever owned.

"I didn't know if I was a dog person or a cat person, but now I know I'm a lucky person," she said.

https://www.jsonline.com/story/communities/lake-country/news/2022/11/21/lake-country-first-responders-adopt-puppies-saved-from-plane-crash/69666945007/

 

Richard M. Fierro

 “My little girl, she screamed and I was crying with her,” he said. “Driving home from the hospital I told them, ‘Look, I’ve gone through this before, and down range, when this happens, you just get out on the next patrol. You need to get it out of your mind.’ That is how you cured it. You cured it by doing more. Eventually you get home safe. But here I worry there is no next patrol. It is harder to cure. You are already home.”

Ed. note: Fierro is the veteran who stopped the Club Q gunman in Colorado Springs on November 19, 2022. https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/21/us/colorado-springs-shooting-club-q-hero.html?smid=url-share 

Marlowe Granados

To start fretting endlessly over your reputation can restrict your world in a way that is counterproductive. Every one of these people you’re worried about will have done something worse than you by the end of the semester—I guarantee it. Any finger-wagging about harmless behavior is for those who lack imagination, and this also goes for how you regard yourself. In my experience, the only time I can get a little ashamed about my behavior is if I was mean in any unwarranted way. Anything else, well, that’s just me letting my hair down. As Marlene Dietrich says in Shanghai Express, “Don’t you find respectable people terribly . . . dull?”

--https://thebaffler.com/designs-for-living/everybody-says-dont-granados

Sarah Ruhl and Alexis Soloski

Alexis Soloski: The majority of the accused and executed in Salem [for witchcraft in the 17th century] were women. It seems like the most Arthur Miller choice to center one middle-aged white dude instead. 

Sarah Ruhl: It's incredible. And it's not just Arthur Miller. In Salem, the place where all the executions took place is called Proctor's Ledge. But I thought about Rebecca Nurse. Why is no one writing about the oldest woman? Why is she not the center?

AS: When did you begin to write this play?

SR: I started after tRump was elected and people were still chanting, "Lock her up," which really upset me. I felt their hatred for this woman. It felt very personal, very visceral. It felt like Salem to me. 

--Sarah Ruhl is a playwright and the author of the new play Becky Nurse of Salem. Rebecca Nurse was hanged for witchcraft in 1692 at the age of 71. Interview by Alexis Soloski in "Of Course They Believe in Magic," New York Times, November 13, 2022.

Nathaniel Hawthorne

I cannot endure to waste anything so precious as autumnal sunshine by staying in the house. So I have spent almost all the daylight hours in the open air.
–from his 1842 notebook

Marlowe Granados

Some people need small reminders that what they're doing is not only annoying but bad etiquette. For some reason, if you say someone lacks decorum it makes them straighten up their back more than if you accuse them of any kind of systemic impropriety. I guess people don't want to seem undignified. If he asks you a math question, just say, "I'm not in the mood to entertain today" and go off to do a task. There is a certain skill that forms after a number of these inconveniences that I will call "withering unaccountability." There is nothing more terrifying than a woman who can go from sunny to cutting at the drop of a hat—and with nothing to pin on her! Get to know your anger from all angles. A little rage can be enlivening.

https://thebaffler.com/designs-for-living/the-involuntary-misandrist-granados

Eileene Harrison Beer

The Scandinavian sees no valid reason for mediocrity in design or workmanship, regardless of whether an object is costly or inexpensive. He believes that food for his body should be served on tableware handsome enough to be food for his soul.

Scandinavian Design: Objects of a Life Style (1975)

Michael Kimmelman / Bill Harmon

Years ago I met Bill Harmon, who traveled over 400 miles a week to pour concrete for some of the scupture's curbs. Harmon told me how Heizer would angrily rip up a 78-by-240-foot slab because it was off by a sixteenth of an inch.

I asked Harmon why he put up with it. His answer seemed like a definition of art.

“Mike is demanding,” he told me, “but I’ve worked in concrete all my life, and I’ve never had the time or money to do something to the best of my ability. Everything is hurry up. It’s about making money. That’s the American way.” On the other hand, Harmon said, Heizer asked him “to produce something that has more to do with accuracy than I’ve ever been allowed even to imagine. This here is my chance to do the best I can.”

- Michael Kimmelman, NYT "It Was a Mystery In The Desert For 50 Years" about Michael Heizer's 'City'

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2022/08/19/arts/design/michael-heizer-city.html