My mom’s vision . . . was that there would be glass so she could see, every day, the change of colors, the trees, and the ships travel up and down the Hudson River,” says Michael Wolf in the short documentary Origins about the home his parents, Benjamin and Ruth Wolf, commissioned.  Built in 1949 by the preeminent American architect Philip Johnson, Wolfhouse is a classic Mid-Century Modern home tucked into a hillside in Newburgh overlooking the river.  Inspired by German Modernist pioneer Mies Van der Rohe, Johnson’s signature architectural style favored open-plan designs allowing for easy circulation within the home and a seamless integration with the outdoors through the use of plate glass walls.  Among Johnson’s best-known works are the Glass House in New Canaan, Connecticut; the postmodern 550 Madison Avenue in New York; and the Museum of Modern Art’s sculpture garden.  In 2017, Jeremy Parker purchased a brick Federal-style home in the city of Newburgh, which he says has a “vast housing stock of really incredible homes.”  Two years after buying the house, Parker joined forces with his friend Jiminie Ha, senior director of graphic design at the Guggenheim Museum, to buy investment property in Newburgh.  Wolfhouse caught their eye.  As part of their offer, the partners wrote a compelling letter to the seller, who accepted their proposal.  “I knew other buyers were more interested in tearing down the house and using the land to rebuild,” Parker says.  “Fortunately, the seller intended to sell to somebody interested in preserving it.”  Once the papers were signed—a week before the pandemic shut the city down—it was time to start the rehab.  “The trees were dying, and wild grapevines were growing all over the trees and the yard, which was essentially brown,” describes Ha.  Previous owners took liberties outside by painting the entire home baby blue, adding wood paneling around the house so you could not see any of the first-floor brickwork that was originally there.”  Parker located the original floor plans at the Avery Architectural and Fine Arts Library at Columbia University in New York City.  “All of the specifications on how to rehab the home were provided—the type of wood, measurements, how many wood panels, etc.,” says Ha.   In addition to outdoor modifications, the first floor had old carpet, and the second-floor bathrooms had cheap tubs covering the originals.  “Luckily, there were enough remnants of fixtures and hints of what was supposed to be underneath that we were able to salvage it and follow the floor plans,” says Ha.  See pictures at https://upstatehouse.com/the-restoration-of-wolfhouse/   

How to Cook Snow Peas

Prep Time  5 minutes   Cook Time  5 minutes    Total Time  10 minutes    Servings  4   8 ounces snow peas   Find ingredients and instructions at https://www.stetted.com/how-to-cook-snow-peas/#how-to-cook-snow-peas    

Bar Keepers Friend is an American brand of mass-produced cleaning agents.  The original canned scouring powder product has been manufactured and sold since 1882.   It was invented by a chemist in Indianapolis, Indiana, where it continues to be manufactured by SerVaas Laboratories.  The canned product's primary active ingredient is oxalic acid.  Bar Keepers Friend has various cleaning uses.   It was invented by chemist George William Hoffman in Indianapolis, Indiana. The product was originally sold to bars in Indianapolis and Hoffman asserted in a patent application that the name had been used since January, 1887.  The formula contains oxalic acid as a primary ingredient.  The Bar Keepers Friend logo represents the swinging doors of a saloon.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bar_Keepers_Friend    

The Monuments Men is a 2014 war film directed by George Clooney, and written and produced by Clooney and Grant Heslov.  The film stars an ensemble cast including Clooney, Matt Damon, Bill Murray, John Goodman, Jean Dujardin, Bob Balaban, Hugh Bonneville and Cate Blanchett.  The film is based on the 2007 non-fiction book The Monuments Men:   Allied Heroes, Nazi Thieves and the Greatest Treasure Hunt in History by Robert M. Edsel and Bret Witter.  It follows an Allied group from the Monuments, Fine Arts, and Archives program that is given the task of finding and saving pieces of art and other culturally important items before Nazis destroy or steal them during World War II.  The Monuments Men was co-produced by Columbia Pictures (in association with 20th Century Fox) and Babelsberg Studio.  It received mixed reviews from critics and grossed $156.4 million worldwide against a $70 million budget.  In 1943, the Allies are making good progress driving back the Axis powers in Italy. Frank Stokes convinces President Roosevelt that victory will have little meaning if the artistic treasures of Western civilization are lost.  Stokes is directed to assemble an Army unit nicknamed the "Monuments Men", comprising museum directors, curators, art historians, and an architect, to both guide Allied units and search for stolen art to return it to its rightful owners. that Stahl is taking her gallery's contents to Germany as the Allies approach Paris.  Richard Campbell and Preston Savitz learn that Van Eyck's Ghent Altarpiece was removed by the priests of Ghent Cathedral for safekeeping, but their truck was stopped and the panels taken.  Eventually, they find and arrest Viktor Stahl, who is hiding as a farmer, when they identify the paintings in his house as masterpieces, at least one stolen from the Rothschild Collection.  Even as the team learns that the artwork is being stored in various mines and castles, it also learns that it must now compete against the Soviet Union, which is seizing artwork from its occupation zone of Germany as war reparations.  Meanwhile, Colonel Wegner is systematically destroying whole art caches.  Eventually, the team has some success, as it discovers at least one mine hiding over 16,000 art pieces.  In addition, the team captures the entire gold reserves of the Nazi German national treasury.  See plot at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Monuments_Men   

Namaste, sometimes called namaskār and namaskāram, is a customary Hindu manner of respectfully greeting and honouring a person or group, used at any time of day.  It is used worldwide among the Hindu, Buddhist and Jain traditions.  Namaste is usually spoken with a slight bow and hands pressed together, palms touching and fingers pointing upwards, thumbs close to the chest. The gesture of folding hands during a namaste is called the Añjali Mudrā.  In addition to namaste, this mudra is one of the postures found in Indian classical dance such as Bharatanatyam, and in yoga practice.  The gesture is widely used throughout the Indian subcontinent, parts of Asia and beyond where people of South and Southeast Asian origins have migrated.  Namaste is used as a respectful form of greeting, acknowledging and welcoming a relative, guest or stranger.  In some contexts, namaste is used by one person to express gratitude for assistance offered or given, and to thank the other person for his or her generous kindness.  Since namaste is a non-contact form of greeting, some world leaders adopted the gesture as an alternative to hand shaking during the 2020 Coronavirus pandemic as a means to prevent the spread of the virus.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Namaste  Pronunciation:  naa·muh·stay   

A stray Lamb stood drinking early one morning on the bank of a woodland stream. That very same morning a hungry Wolf came by farther up the stream, hunting for something to eat.  He soon got his eyes on the Lamb.  As a rule Mr. Wolf snapped up such delicious morsels without making any bones about it, but this Lamb looked so very helpless and innocent that the Wolf felt he ought to have some kind of an excuse for taking its life.  “How dare you paddle around in my stream and stir up all the mud!” he shouted fiercely.  “You deserve to be punished severely for your rashness!”  “But, your highness,” replied the trembling Lamb, “do not be angry!  I cannot possibly muddy the water you are drinking up there.  Remember, you are upstream and I am downstream.”  https://fablesofaesop.com/the-wolf-and-the-lamb.html  “The tyrant will always find an excuse for his tyranny, and it is useless for the innocent to try by reasoning to get justice.”   

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 2911  February 25, 2025