An odd post…..
Posted: November 5, 2019 Filed under: Discussion, Neighborhood Anecdotes (NYC) | Tags: D/s, Death, dievca, Life, Love, Mass Cards, Relationships, Religion, Saint Patrick's Cathedral, sympathy 1 Comment
The WSJ: Saint Patrick’s Cathedral NYC
dievca hasn’t gone to Mass in a long while. she’s no longer a practicing Catholic. The drift happened many years ago and started with an unwelcoming Diocese and misuse of funds from a family Parish.
Oddly, Saint Patrick’s Cathedral in NYC is welcoming enough to allow anyone to offer up a Mass. One does not need to be a Parishioner of the Church. A Mass card can be sent as an acknowledgment of passing by anyone of any Religion or Church. A chance to have a devout group add their prayers to dievca’s more secular wishes.
It’s pretty much the first time since dievca’s Theology courses in College, the Catholic Church has shown her a form of tolerance and inclusiveness. Granted a donation is involved – but whatever works.
The Gentleman at the Parish House now knows dievca’s face and name, she’s been in 11 times this year. Family members, friends, friend’s family members have passed and dievca had a Mass said and sent a Saint Patrick’s Cathedral Mass Card.
What to Say When Someone Dies
- When in doubt, reach out
- Show up in person
- Send a Sympathy Card
- Consider sending a gift
- Anticipate their needs
- Don’t try to “fix” their grief
- Don’t avoid saying the deceased person’s name
- Keep checking in
- Don’t worry about getting it 100% right
(click here for more information)
Olisipona kneels
Posted: October 13, 2019 Filed under: Discussion, Entertainment, submissive | Tags: BDSM, D/s, dievca, Elegant, kneeling, lisbon, nude, photo, São Jorge castle, statue, travel 1 Comment
Hidden in the trees.
Visited by peacocks, kitties, and tourists.
Olisipona kneels
Offering herself.
Offering the City.
The city of Lisbon’s ancient name, Olisipo (Ulyssipo), may be derived from the Phoenician alis ubbo (“delightful little port”) or from the legend that the city’s founder was Odysseus.
Olisipo was used by the Lusitanians, the Visigoths changed the name to Olisipona and the Moors modified it to Lishbuna – moving towards the modern-day Lisbon.
And in the Castelo de São Jorge which stands majestically above Lisbon. The Lady – Olisipona, from whom the City of Lisbon gained its original name, kneels.
Photos: dievca, Castelo de São Jorge Lisbon Portugal 08/2019
A bit further than a stone’s throw…
Posted: September 28, 2019 Filed under: Accessories, Discussion, Fashion | Tags: 1968, 50 years, BDSM, Birthday, crossbody, D/s, dievca, Elegant, fashion, France, Life, Shopping, Sonia Rykiel, submissive 1 CommentThe May 1968 events in France refers to the volatile, two-month period of civil unrest throughout France punctuated by demonstrations, major general strikes, and occupations of universities and factories. At its height, the events brought the economy of France almost to a halt. The protests reached such a point that political leaders feared civil war or revolution; the national government itself briefly ceased to function after President Charles de Gaulle secretly fled France for a few hours. The protests spurred an artistic movement, with songs, imaginative graffiti, posters, and slogans. (more below)
Half a century after student protests gripped the Left Bank of the French capital, a crowd was drawn to the Sonia Rykiel store to celebrate a new handbag, the Pavé, or cobblestone, meant as a playful nod to an era when angry protesters lobbed the stones at riot police.
Sonia Rykiel pavé bag May 2018
That period of rebellion also gave birth to the label, still famous decades later for its striped and colorful knitwear.
And dievca finally found something to buy honoring her age. It took a year :
Sonia Rykiel red pavé bag – ShopBop on sale
Continued.
The social unrest began with a series of student occupation protests against capitalism, consumerism, American imperialism, and traditional institutions, values, and order. It then spread to factories with strikes involving 11 million workers, more than 22% of the total population of France at the time, for two continuous weeks. The movement was characterized by its spontaneous and decentralized wildcat disposition; this created contrast and sometimes even conflict between itself and the establishment, trade unions and workers’ parties. It was the largest general strike ever attempted in France, and the first nationwide wildcat general strike.
“May 68” affected French society for decades afterward. It is considered to this day as a cultural, social and moral turning point in the history of the country. As Alain Geismar—one of the leaders of the time—later pointed out, the movement succeeded “as a social revolution, not as a political one”.
Thank you to Wikipedia, WWD, French Vogue
Midwestern moment….cookies.
Posted: September 27, 2019 Filed under: Accessories, Discussion, Home and Garden | Tags: 1950's Household Kink, baking, BDSM, cookie cutters, D/s, dievca, fox, hedgehog, Life, Love, submissive, Sugar cookies 3 Comments
IKEA Woodland Pastry Cutters (click photo to purchase)
The fox knows many things,
but the hedgehog knows one big thing.
— Archilochus, 700 BC.
Here is a table from Silver’s book describing the differing attitudes of foxes and hedgehogs.
| How Foxes Think | How Hedgehogs Think |
| Multidisciplinary: Incorporate ideas from different disciplines regardless of their origin on the political spectrum | Specialized: Often have spent the bulk of their careers on one or two great problems. May view the opinions of “outsiders” skeptically. |
| Adaptable: Find a new approach – or pursue multiple approaches at the same time – if they aren’t sure the original one is working. | Stalwart: Stick to the same “all-in” approach – new data is used to refine the original model. |
| Self-critical: Sometimes willing (if rarely happy) to acknowledge mistakes in their predictions and accept the blame for them. | Stubborn: Mistakes are blamed on bad luck or on idiosyncratic circumstances – a good model had a bad day. |
| Tolerant of complexity: See the universe as complicated, perhaps to the point of many fundamental problems being insolvable or inherently unpredictable. | Order-seeking: Expect that the world will be found to abide by relatively simple governing relationships once the signal is identified through the noise. |
| Cautious: Express their predictions in probabilistic terms and qualify their opinions. | Confident: Rarely hedge their predictions and are reluctant to change them. |
| Empirical: Rely more on observation than theory. | Ideological: Expect that solutions to many day-to-day problems are manifestations of some grander theory or struggle. |
Master and dievca have their differences, but they have learned to work with and honor those differences. On the other hand, it does make things interesting sometimes.
dievca has found that these pastry/cookies cutters made everyone smile and they fill her heart when she has a ‘Midwestern’ baking moment.
Brown Sugar Cookies
Ingredients:
3 c unbleached, all-purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 c brown sugar (packed firmly)
2 sticks (salted) butter, cold & cut into chunks
1 egg
3/4 tsp pure vanilla extract
1/2 tsp pure almond extract
Instructions:
Preheat oven to 350.
Combine the flour and baking powder, set aside. Cream the sugar and butter. Add the egg and extracts and mix. Gradually add the flour mixture and beat just until combined, scraping down the bowl, especially the bottom.
The dough will be crumbly, so knead it together with your hands as you scoop it out of the bowl for rolling.
Roll on a floured surface to about 1/4″ to 3/8″ thick, and cut into shapes. Place on parchment-lined baking sheets (I recommend freezing the cut-out shape on the baking sheet for 5-10 minutes before baking) and bake for 10-12 minutes. Let sit a few minutes on the sheet, then transfer to a cooling rack.
Thank you to 'Bake at 350' and 'gimmesomeoven'.
Social Butterfly – who were you?
Posted: September 17, 2019 Filed under: Discussion, Entertainment, Master | Tags: BDSM, childhood, D/s, dievca, Dominant, High School, Life, Memories, personality, Relationships, reunions, social structure, submissive 3 Comments
Social Butterfly
Someone who is VERY social and easygoing; can be either a male or a female. Usually, these people don’t belong to a particular group, but rather jump from one group to another. They are somewhat accepted in all of them but don’t really have any deep friendship connections in any of them.
dievca was a Social Butterfly in High School (HS). she missed a lot of school due to training/competing, so her socializing was sporadic. she made herself agreeable wherever and whenever she could. (No lunch, no study hall, no gym and perhaps some classes are missing – Driver’s Ed, Consumer Ed, etc.) she touched down lightly for a short time with whatever group was at hand and open to her company.
People mix-up her ability to socialize with popularity.
When she goes back to her HS Reunions, she remembers her Elementary School friends much better than HS people. That extra 8 years of Catholic School leaves an imprint. In turn, High School mates remember her…that is a bit of a scary thought.
The Geeks in her Science classes knew her best and she is always happy to see them.
Her close friendships were childhood friends and sports training friends. They stuck.
Apparently Master was “Popular” in High School.
Hah!
Something dievca did not know.
He never talks about childhood friends.
Master mumbled something about owning a car, dating more than His nerdy friends, people not knowing His background and them thinking that He was very self-assured, confident, smart and funny.
Not a lot of details offered, but it sounds like Master had a good time at his High School Reunion.
Hurrah!
Who were you in High School or Gymnasium?
Good Morning Starshine – for the Littles and More
Posted: August 24, 2019 Filed under: Discussion, Entertainment | Tags: Anniversary, BDSM, childhood. children, D/s, dievca, Joy, Life, Littles, Love, muppets, music, NYC, submissive, TV show Leave a comment
In the indigo glow before the Dawn, dievca watched the stars twinkle over the NYC skyline. she had just finished going into a deep read of an NYT Article:
How ‘Sesame Street’ Started a Musical Revolution.
As a youngster who recently reached her 50’s dievca was part of the initial target audience for the show. she has fond memories of the classics: Rubber Ducky, 5 People in My Family, etc. Apparently, people who worked on the show or were guest stars had/have some impressive resumes, which at 3 years old – one does not care about…. The catchy tune which teaches you to count? That’s an important piece.
If you are a ‘Little’, in the demographic of dievca or a parent the article above may bring you Joy to read — just give yourself some time to click through all the musical links for a fine ride.
A Thing of Beauty – Recycling Station
Posted: August 21, 2019 Filed under: Discussion, Home and Garden | Tags: BDSM, D/s, dievca, Environment, garbage can, Life, photo, recycling, submissive, travel 3 Comments
Photo: dievca – McDonalds’ Waste Center Sweden 08/2018
“There is no such thing as ‘away’.
When we throw anything away it must go somewhere.”
– Annie Leonard, Proponent of Sustainability
dievca ran into a Swedish McDonalds for a friend’s children. They like the coffee drinks offered (Frappe?).
This garbage/recycling station was a thing of beauty. A hole to place every piece or shape of garbage possible. (Yes, I thought of other useful holes as I wrote that line.) A slot for ice/liquid, a slot for excess food, a slot for paper.
Where does it go?
A question that has been on dievca’s mind for….well…years.
China is no longer taking USA recycling. New Jersey, USA garbage collection services, with Mob ties, treat garbage as a commodity and as recycling doesn’t make money, the process doesn’t happen. The single-stream sorting process is expensive to start and doesn’t always work. If there is no market for paper-recycling or an area doesn’t have the types of business to use recycled paper – paper bales go into a landfill because they are too expensive to ship.
Etc., Etc., Etc.
Perhaps if garbage/recycling is sorted at the point source, smaller amounts could be collected and handled immediately – making the “products” cleaner and easier to transport.
A little bit being recycled is better than nothing being recycled. Right?
dievca cleans and sorts – hoping that her efforts can be used, sold or something.
But, she knows her food scrap composting has reduced her solid waste by 1/3 to 1/2 and its being used in NYC, she sees it. That story is for another post.
The Mass has been celebrated in the Cathedral for 140 years. Today at St. Patrick’s Cathedral the Mass is celebrated seven times each weekday and eleven times on Holy Days.
It is a time-honored Catholic tradition to have Masses said in honor of a particular person and to provide Mass Cards to comfort relatives, friends and loved ones.
Mass Requests
Because we take so seriously the need to match every Mass request to an actual Mass time and date, Mass requests must be done in person at the Parish House during regular business hours.
You can request an announced Mass to be said for a living or deceased family member, friend or loved one by coming in person to the Parish House located at 14 East 51st Street and completing a request form.
The suggested offering is $20 for each Mass.
You can also request an unannounced Mass to be said for a living or deceased family member, friend or loved one by coming in person to the Parish House located at 14 East 51st Street and completing a request form.
The suggested offering is $10 for each Mass.
This gift helps to cover the extraordinarily high costs of maintaining St. Patrick’s Cathedral.