Day Eleven – June 28, 2018

Day Eleven – June 28, 2018 – Chautauqua

A typical morning here at Chautauqua – everyone wanders upstairs/downstairs at their own pace and finds something for breakfast. Nick makes coffee and there is oatmeal and leftovers and banana bread and fruit.

The 10:45 lecture is a popular choice. Kory Stamper is a lexicographer and author, and an editor for the family of the Merriam-Webster Dictionaries. Her book is Word by Word: The Secret Life of Dictionaries. She is hysterical! We could have listened to her for ever!

She told us that she is an obsessive reader. When she’s on a train with nothing to read, she will read the receipts in her pockets! That doesn’t mean that she retains any of what she reads! She says she’s a lot of fun at parties!! (But I’m certain that she really is!) Reading is one of the prime requisites in her field.

Some of her current reading. Everything is fair game, from regional newspapers to trade journals to the yellow pages!

Just two of the twelve catalogs full of index cards from before the time of computers.

A comment on the value of the word "irregardless" before she did more research!

She walks us through the process of adding a word to the dictionary, including finding a new word, or a new usage for a word. To be qualify a word must have widespread use, sustained use, and meaningful use. (Antidisestablishmentarian no longer has meaningful use. It’s just the longest word…or it was.) Here’s a depressing tidbit – there are only thirty-five professional lexicographers in the whole country. “They can have their meetings in a bar!”

Ms. Stamper reminded us that word use is constantly changing. For example, the use of "you" as a singular pronoun is relatively new. It used to be "thee" or "thou" as used by the Puritans. But we hated the Puritans and quit using their words!

When asked for her favorite word, Ms. Stamper tells us about “gardyloo”, a corruption of the French garde l’eau, or watch out for the water! It was used in Edinburgh to warn passerbys that a chamber pot was about to be dumped from an upstairs window into the street!

Ms. Stamper leaves us with a parting quote, “Be joyful though you have considered all the facts.” Wendell Berry

The Brick Walk runs through the center of the grounds and makes navigating much easier

They're everywhere!

Peace Pole

There are lots of Ferlinghetti quotes posted around, including "The poet is a pickpocket of reality", "Poems are lifesavers when your boat capsizes",and "Poetry is the shortest distance between two humans'>

The Hall of Philosophy

From here we go to the Mystic Heart Meditation Seminar, “Sitting/Meditating with a Monk: Stories from the Buddhist Monks” with Bante Chipamong Chowdhury. He encouraged us to sit as close as possible and he told us about life as a monk. There are forest-dweller monks and city-dweller monks! I never knew that! He briefly reviewed The Buddha’s life and referred to the 227 rules which govern monks’ lives. They are only allowed to own eight items, including three different layers of robes, a razor, a water screen (filter in case of insects), an alms bowl, and umbrella. He also has an iPad!! He told us that overseas the monks can only eat once a day, and only food which has been donated that day. Here, he is allowed to store food in the fridge overnight! Paula, Ginger, Betsy, and I are the attendees.

Hi-Tech monk. He says he's "green" because his iPad saves paper!

Betsy got this great shot of nearly all the participants!

Afterward, Ginger, Betsy, and I wander the end of the grounds which Betsy and I haven’t seen yet. Always more to see! We wind up at the ice cream store to see what is available and at the bookstore because I still think I want that Chautauqua t-shirt. We heard the orchestra rehearsing and Ginger gets a text from Pete, so she goes there to see him, while Betsy and I go after a pretzel and coffee. We take them upstairs to sit on the balcony in comfy rockers and Myra joins us! Then Paula and Ginger find us, too, and Myra goes off to a lecture on Sharia law.

Ginger, Betsy, and I stop into the Chautauqua Literary Society's house to use the bathroom and discover the creative banners that each year's class creates to represent that year's theme.

It’s time to move off our comfy rockers. Ginger and I are going to the art center and Betsy is heading home for a bit. Myra and Paula are going…somewhere!! It turns out they are going to the art center, too. We run into them in the Strohl Art Center. Myra is eager for Ginger to see the quilts in the Masters of Craft exhibit. While we are looking at the juried exhibit I share the story the curator told us about the winter forest scene, and a lady behind us asks me to repeat it! I bask in the reflected glory!! I just happened to have been at the curator’s lecture!!

After that we head back to the townhouse (I realize, now, that it’s really a condo!) and have some time to relax before dinner. Betsy is making a salad from all our left over veggies and cleaning the kitchen, while Nick creates one of his signature dishes, Raspberry Chicken, and sauteed green beans and squash. Dinner is served and is delicious. There are a few leftovers for breakfast or lunch tomorrow afternoon. Tomorrow night we’ll be joined by Pete and the family.

We’re leaving early for the Orchestra concert tonight, so that we can get front-row seats in the choir loft. That will allow us to actually see Pete and the conductor. We start out walking, but the tram comes by and it will save us some time, so we ride part of the way.

We’re early enough to have our choice of choir-loft seats! Roddy, Betsy, and Myra are stage left and Ginger, Nick, and I are stage right. Paula and Jorge are out in the audience.

When the conductor, Rossen Milanov, enters, he cues the tympany before he even reaches his stand, and the orchestra begins the national anthem. It is such a treat to hear the anthem played by an orchestra, and to be with people who all know the words! The first selection of the evening is Brahms’ Violin Concerto in D major. The guest violinist is Ilya Kaler, an international prize winner.

View from our seats in the choir loft! Seating here isn't available after the concert begins.

Ginger says this lady has been playing with the orchestra for FORTY-EIGHT YEARS!

Pete and his family. He'll be playing after intermission.

Ilya Kaler, guest violinist

After intermission, Pete, joins the orchestra for Dvorak’s “New World Symphony”. From our seats we can watch Pete as well as the conductor and that’s the treat of the evening! Mr. Milanov is so expressive and his hands are so graceful! Every expressions crosses his face and you can tell how pleased he is with what the orchestra is producing! What a treat! I don’t know why orchestras across the country don’t have screens above the stage so you can watch the conductor!!