Wednesday Ramble

One of my distant genetic cousins posted this photograph of my paternal great great great grandfather's tombstone in Warsaw. 

I found it on a genetics site.

Another genetic cousin translated the inscription for me. 

I had never seen it before. 

He was the renowned Polish silversmith Szmul Szkarlat (1814-1878.)

This is what it reads:

Szmul Shmelke, son of Mr. Avigdor his memory of blessing. He passed away in 1878.

A man walks in the path of righteousness,

Arrived to its end

He enjoyed all his days, a little poem.

Our dear father

Who is an honest man, fears God, and humble.

I guess they called him Shmelke, a Yiddish derivation for Szmul. More on him here.

Kind of cool. Nice that it is still standing. Will probably never go to Poland, great to see a picture of my ancestor. He enjoyed all his days a little poem, interesting...

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I was gifted another piece of Le Creuset yesterday, a griddle pan by two wonderful people Kathy W. and her son Eric.

That is two this week. Thank you friends.

I am sporting a pretty good burn on my index finger, wasn't careful enough around the peach cobbler. Cooking is a dangerous sport.

I have been working on my sourdough starter all week, tomorrow I bake my first loaf. I had to buy a new top knob for the dutch oven, the old knobs were not able to go up to the 475° I need for the bread. Pricy little bugger.

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Kip just came back from a trip to Montana, first stopping in all sorts of wonderful places, his shots were just great.

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Somebody sent this over. Pretty much hits the mark. I was thinking, woke definitely has its drawbacks, but it beats the shit out of dead asleep.

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What else? Restaurant Week is back but it looks like no Pampelmousse. Bummer.

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Harwood sends a picture of wild ceanothus.

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Competitive rock stacking. we pioneered this art, or Shawn did.

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Interesting article at the Smithsonian on forced jewish identification badges throughout history. Happy upcoming Passover!

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The father of cannabis research has died. A shirtsleeve relative, but they all are.

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My crazy friend Barry in Phoenix just bought twenty tons of rocks.

Can I get an oy vey?

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It rained like Woodstock today, enough already...