Communion with a Bagel

Quarter to five,
Inky black sky.

Fifteen after...
(Where are those slippers?)
Stretch.
Yawn.
Yes, little things do matter!

Lamplight. Shadows.
Oven's on. A toasty glow.

Poppy seed bagel. Cream cheese and lox.
Simple stuff. Doesn't have to be a lot.

Beatles on the radio. Frosting on the window.
Feet up. Chair creaks. Soft sigh as I settle back onto the pillow.

Poppy seed bagel. Cream cheese and lox.
Pink and white, brown and crisp.
Suspended.
(For a second, at least.)
Then....
.....big crunch.
(Oh, does this little bagel ever pack a heavenly punch!)

A hollow in time. A little trench in life.
Slow food, slow thoughts. Savorin' every bite.

Quarter to six. Bagel's gone.
All said and done,
life lived. Right in the moment.

Refreshed. Ready to face the day.
No matter what happens, it started my way.

Nothing to beat that.

Meaningful Meals

For the Chinese, food (the cornerstone of their culture) is more than a means of physical nourishment. Each dish is imbued with the characteristics of yin and yang - cool and hot; sweet and sour; rich and light. Flavours and textures contrast, each dish a continuous striving for culinary harmony, a balancing act of opposites.

This quest for equilibrium is essential for food is supposed to sustain and nurture mind, spirit and body. Food is chosen with care for what it represents, whether it be health, prosperity, longevity, fertility, or fidelity, all noble qualities much admired within the Chinese community.

Duck, for example, is served at Chinese weddings because it represents faithfulness in marriage. Whole fish, with head and tail intact (and quite intimidating), is always served at Chinese New Year feasts because the word for fish - "yu" - signifies abundance.

Altough choosing the right foods for the right occasion may often seem complex, the underlying principle is always the same - a wish for happiness for oneself, one's family and one's friends. And what, after all, could be simpler than that?

Madame X Revealed

The painting is enormous, standing nearly seven feet tall. There is a strong use of dramatic monochromes, a stark difference between black and white and a powerful use of rich, deep browns.

John Singer Sargent, painter of beautiful women and powerful men, displayed his portrait of 23-year-old Virginie Gautreau at the 1884 Paris Salon. There is an intimacy implied in the relationship between the master painter and the great beauty he depicts. Madame Gautreau, like Sargent an expatriated American, had made it to the top through her wit, her looks and her social strategy. Sargent portrays her as a creature of tense elegance, with a profile as sharp and precise as if carved out of some hard, brittle material. She wears the crescent-shaped tiara of Diana the huntress - she is a woman of predatory sensuality.

In the original version, Sargent shows the New Orleans Creole with one strap of her dress dangling from her shoulder suggesting, to outraged Parisian viewers, either the prelude or the aftermath of sex. It scandalized the Paris establishment, causing a furor that neither Sargent nor Gautreau would live down. It crippled Sargent's bid to establish himself as a portrait painter in the City of Light and drove Gautreau into social exile.

Some say Madame X was Sargent's greatest painting - the brilliant but superficial society portraits with which he will be eternally associated came after that.

"Strapless: The Rise of John Singer Sargent and the Fall of Madame X" by Deborah Davis provides a closer look at this chronicle of miscalculation.