Easter Goose

Crocii

Well, after a month the yellow ones (crocus, safron) are wilting. These purple puppies are brilliant. No blooms on the daffodils and other narcissi.

the foto speaks

a sign in a bookstore

To find things quickly, a sorting system is used. Reason requires a quick and sensible categorisation for recognition.

O Parma

Parma, in the old country, is a city and province of northern Italy, home of Verdi and Toscanini, and the world's most famous ham--prosciutto. In Ohio, it is the largest suburb of Cleveland; if it was separated by geography, its population would have it as one of Ohio's larger towns; but no town in or bordering Cuyahoga County exists independently from Cleveland.

After World War II, and especially during the 1960s, the population of Parma O. greatly expanded. For a time, it had the greatest growth of any town in the United States. It eventually reversed. During this great expansion, a local television programme, through Ernie Anderson, and Chuck Schodowski, poked fun at the phenomenon. Peyton Place was a very popular national television show, they made a recurring skit of Parma Place. That was part of the suburban success, and general American post war kitsch (chrome balls, pink flamingos) that was particularly identified with Parma.

Now, Chuck was Polish, so he had a recurring character, Stash*, who was a simpleton. Another character was the Kielbasi Kid. Many Poles were uncomfortable about this dumb Polack characterisation. So, instead the adjectival noun 'Polish' became 'Certain Ethnic'. And really, most Americans could not be bothered in differentiating the nationalities that came to Cleveland (and America). Of course, if certain other groups were depicted, uproar would have ensued. In the popular mind, even the national mind, Parma, Polishness, and goofiness became linked.

The United States is still suffering from the protracted economic depression of gwbjr and the Republican party. Older developed areas of population continue to suffer. Many advertising gimmicks have been tried to promote economic activity, one is the creation of art and signage to promote areas.

I have posted an earlier foto of this wall [click], which was then defaced. Since then the Warsawa scene has been flanked by the heraldic white eagle.
____________________
*Stash is pronounced with the European vowel 'a', as many Americans would pronounce the vowel in 'dot', 'pot', 'lock'. Stash is a familiar form of Stanisław, Stanislas is the formal English spelling (borrowed from the French). Stanley is an accidental, somewhat similar, substituting English name. The English name was originally a surname, the original Slavonic 'Stanislav' has no shared etymology with it. In the 1920s, both Stanley and Stanisław were popular names in English and Polish speaking communities. The Polish feminine name Stanisława has become the English 'Stella'. On the show, Stella was Stash's wife.

stop war

sandpiper drive

street sign for a private street in Parma

eye on the sparrow

Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing? and not one of them shall fall on the ground without your Father. But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not therefore: better are you than many sparrows. — Matthew x. 29-31

still cold

spring is here, everything is cold, it is good i have muffs, but this winter outfit needs to go in storage

Brecksville Metropark

female Downy Woodpecker  Picoides pubescens
smallest North American woodpecker

Eastern Grey Squirrel

Brecksville Blackie

Pray for Peace

pet the doggy

signage Patrick's Day on Cleveland's Superior

I took a slew of fotos to-day. There are several annual parades about Cleveland Ohio. This is the largest, and that means the most popular. To-day it did not exceed freezing, last year it was a record high. The crowds were about half.

 a sign on a float

One street towards the lake is Rockwell. That was the old China Town, very little remains. There faded on the brick, and besmudged with what i reckon is roofing tar, is painted "Welcome to China Town".

This sign of t-shirt shop needs paint touch up, the advertising copy has been updated, but that is not interesting.

This year's theme was immigration to America, and it must be remembered that America was not a welcoming land of milk and honey. And when the Émigrés did come they found N.I.N.A. signs. That spirit is still part of the American spirit.

Cleveland's last daily paper, and it may no longer be a daily. Decision in May?

green for shamrocks (clover)

sugaring time

 

Rocky River Metropark Reservation is having sugaring time and demonstrate to park visitors. When the French and the English came to North America, the Indians of the northern woodlands would collect the sap of certain maple trees, reduce the water to have syrup and sugar. To-day, more than three quarters of this gathering and cooking activity occurs in southern Quebec. By map, northeast Ohio is the geographic center. Locally, Geauga County and its county seat, Chardon celebrate its production.

Here a boy is fitted with a yoke an two [empty] wooden buckets. In generations past, the sap collected would be carried in such fashion. Metal buckets replaced wooden ones, and hosing, and plastic bags have replaced metal buckets. Before holes were drilled trough the bark, and short wooden, later metal taps would be inserted in the outer sap wood. In the days of late winter, and early spring, before leaf budding, and especially on days with greater temperature differentials sap would flow up and down. Some would drip through the taps. The sap would be boiled, until 1 part in 40 remained. Outdoor cauldrons were replaced with large evaporating stoves, housed in cabins built for them.

notice the steam leaving the sugar house (cabane à sucre)

pretty in pink

This is close to a Mother Goose in gingham, and the color matches well with the porch.

doggy daycare

 

Lakewood Ohio

Squirrel, bird feeder

Parma, O.

Erin's lasses go braless

Okay, this is not the name of the store, but i like the sign. Now in Cleveland and its 'burbs, there are not many store windows left. In Lakewood this particular one has five female dummies and from season to holiday they sport some racy clothing. It is March, so it is Paddy's day they're dressing for. As porch geese have their calendraic outfits, so do these faux gals.

 left

  center

right

Alice in the library

 Andrew Karoly and Louis Szanto. Scenes of Alice in Wonderland. Shaker Heights. 1960.

This wonderful painting is in the Children's Room of the Shaker Heights Library. Karoly and Szanto's mural work in Cleveland was mostly done for Society Bank, including a continuation of Walter Crane's work on the Public Square building.

other local library art [click], and tag below

auto parts sign

 on Denison near Pearl intersection. Cleveland, Ohio. 12/24/12 and 2/19/13

the painter needs to practice faces

tire burying ground

Cleveland was once the fifth most populated city in the country, and had only three or so adjacent suburbs of  more than small population; yet, the city had woods. Cleveland was the 'Forest City'. To-day there is still wooded acreage, some in public parks. In this little valley people disposed of tires.

Traymore Man

On Clifton in Lakewood Ohio there are apartments. One entrance is flanked with a pair of sculpted stone mediæval male heads, and another with mediæval female heads.

farming in Cleveland

 West 24th and Bridge. Cleveland, Ohio. 30 June 2010.

Don't kill your treasurer

Walter Crane. Goose that lays golden eggs. Cleveland. 1890.

“Call me not ‘fool’ till heaven hath sent me fortune”

Jaques in William Shakespeare's As You Like It, II.7.xix.

Ohio's first skyscraper was built in 1899, the red sandstone, ten storey Society for Savings Bank on Cleveland's Public Square. The English book illustrator, and painter, Walter Crane was hired to paint two scenes on the Goose that lays golden eggs. Crane was part of the English Arts and Crafts movement, along with William Morris (both were socialists).

The first scene the master is leading a motley bunch, with a professional fool. A girl carries a platter of golden eggs. They pass a tavern with a sign reading, “When Adam and Eve in Paradise”. A bare footed Eve is about to press a spade. Now, a female carries all the egg cells with her, and each one grows  and is then laid. The master is greedy, and wants all the eggs now. In the second scene the goose has been killed with a knife, and a regular egg has broken upon the ground revealing the yolk. Another tavern sign reads, “A bird in thy hand is worth two in the bush”. The second mural with the dead goose's Shakespeare inscription is, “Will Fortune never come with both hands full”. King Henry in Henry IV, Part 2, IV.4.ciii. 

Later, both Cleveland Trust, and Union Trust decorated their main lobbies with murals. Several government buildings also commissioned murals, and Roosevelt's New Deal furthered this public art.