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There is a roiling controversy in our house. And like all things we disagree on, it just doesn't pay to continue to argue about it because there's just no winning. (I love you honey) Anyway, this point of contention revolves around the ripening of fruit and its place in our lives.

A little background is necessary. Dave likes to buy produce… and leave it in bowls around the kitchen. It’s a Martha Stewart thing I guess as I can’t ever picture Sheila Lukins bothering to do anything like that. I digress…. The fruit tends to ripen, as all fruit eventually does. But, sometimes the fruit doesn’t ripen FAST enough, as is the case with the bowl full of persimmons that is currently tightly wrapped in plastic on the island in our kitchen. Earlier this week Dave was lamenting the disastrous eventuality that the persimmons wouldn’t be ripe enough to make pudding by the party. (Hmmm, love that alliteration. Sounds a little like a nursery rhyme…) I looked at the hermetically sealed bowl of fruit and commented, “why don’t you try putting them in a paper bag….” Which immediately refueled the old discussion: Which is better, paper or plastic? Only this time it was in terms of how to ripen fruit.

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We've all seen them, and we've all felt the inexorable pull to stop and browse, perhaps even purchase one... the black velvet painting.  The draw is only stronger if there is a tasteful selection displayed at an abandoned gas station or vacant lot.  To many, the velvet painting screams "MIDDLE AMERICA" at its worst, but in all actuality the practice of painting on velvet dates back long before there was that dirty underbelly of american pop culture.

In Black Velvet Artist  (Running Press, Philadelphia, 2003) Pamela Liflandera offers a brief history of the  craft.  She notes that "The birthplace of black velvet paintings can be traced to ancient Kashmir, which is considered to be the fabric's original homeland. These paintings were religious in nature, portraying the iconic artwork of the Caucasus region by Russian Orthodox priests." She goes on to report that Marco Polo and others introduced the West to this art form, and that some of these early works still hang in the Vatican.  (Get OUT!)  Liflander also details the life of Edgar Leeteg (1904–1953), "the father of American black velvet kitsch," whose "raucous and bawdy" life was previously captured by James Michener in Rascals in Paradise (1957).

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"Umbrella" is another term for the parasol, which was first used as a protection against the scorching heat of the sun, "para" meaning stop or shield and "sol" meaning sun. The word "umbrella" has evolved from the Latin "umbella" (and "umbel" is a flat-topped rounded flower) or "umbra," meaning "shaded."

History

Middle East

In the sculptures Nineveh the parasol appears frequently.[2] Austen Henry Layard gives a picture of a bas-relief representing a king in his chariot, with an attendant holding a parasol over his head.[2] It has a curtain hanging down behind, but is otherwise exactly like those in use today.[2] It is reserved exclusively for the monarch, and is never carried over any other person.[2]

In Persia the parasol is repeatedly found in the carved work of Persepolis, and Sir John Malcolm has an article on the subject in his 1815 "History of Persia."[2] In some sculptures, the figure of a king appears attended by a slave, who carries over his head an umbrella, with stretchers and runner complete.[2] In other sculptures on the rock at Takht-i-Bostan, supposed to be not less than twelve centuries old, a deer-hunt is represented, at which a king looks on, seated on a horse, and having an umbrella borne over his head by an attendant.[2]
 

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