How A Caste System Destroyed Others But Can't Help Itself

In my later years, especially since moving to the desert 10 years ago, I have become a ardent BBC Show fan. I have watched many BBC series borrowed from the excellent collection at the Palm Springs Library.

As I have watched many dramas, comedies and murder shows (who would EVER want to live in Midsomer?), mostly top rate and much better than mainstream American TV shows, you can't help but see the caste system, a medieval attitude, alive and well in the UK. And today,  if you are British, you treat Irish, Scottish and Catholics "differently" and set it out there for all to see. I won't even dwell on East Asian or Africans.

The main character in MURDOCK MYSTERIES worries aloud about a promotion because he's Irish and Catholic. He lives in Toronto, Canada! That he is an excellent detective and introduces the audience to Edison, Tesla, Harley & Davidson, Mary Pickford plus many inventions of the day and future, his religion and heritage are up for discussion?

Along with Lords and Ladies come a long list of perks seen maybe during the Antebellum period in the slave holding South where, as in Europe, people were considered property prior to our Civil War. Many plantation owners were of English, Irish and Scottish heritage and copied what they knew and admired. Nearly every founding father owned slaves.

The biggest perk, one probably originated from the Norman Conquest of 1066, was the amount of land the royalty seized. On that land farmers labored paying rents with a portion of what they produced and villages sprouted on the same lands with merchants paying rent. We are introduced to this in detail with DOWNTON ABBEY, one of the most popular shows BBC ever produced here and abroad. 

You saw firsthand how the "locals" lived and the grand manner the Lord and Lady lived in stunning houses maintained by a cast of, often, 100 servants. DOWNTON begins with the tragedy of the Titanic's loss and death of the heir to this entire estate.

While the story is compelling it shows how by the early 20th Century this style of living was already beginning to crumble. You see servants leaving and not being replaced. One servant tries for a better position only to land in an estate near collapse. In HEARTBEAT the local lord, in the 1990's now, has let all his staff go and is doubling rents of those on his estate just to stay afloat. He fervently defends the fish and game as "his" on land held by his family for generations. They quibble over inches of land lost or gained 100's of years ago.

The same story follows the young laird in MONARCH OF THE GLEN when a medical event calls him home only to find that his sweet but addled father has left the 400 year old, 39,000 acre estate in near bankruptcy. In this series you see the locals agitating for distribution of the land and a gamekeeper forever chasing poachers off the estate that's rich with salmon, deer, and many types of edible birds. The land is beautiful beyond belief, the castle overwhelming.

THE CROWN

However, for me, the lifestyle that proves my point was clearly shown in THE CROWN, the history of Queen Elizabeth II. Talk about medieval. The royal family lives in a style not all that different the Queen Elizabeth I  in the late 1500's. There are servants for everything ... waking up, getting dressed, cooks creating sumptuous meals barely touched, drivers, butlers, valets in a way King Henry VIII would surely have approved. The cost of all this, in the millions of pounds yearly, is bourne by the English people. I can only wonder why? The queen raced her horses, for example, and kept the winnings though they were boarded, groomed and fed in the royal stables.

It was this hard held belief of Europeans about the ownership of "things," like land, that set the conflict between Europeans on a violent and catastrophic collision course with Native Americans. While native tribes often fought over the 'use' of the land they never imagined 'owning' it. Their lifestyle and religious beliefs held the land in awe and were ever aware of how fragile that balance could be. Settlers on the other hand felt the land was 'unused' and couldn't wait to develop it often discovering what natives already knew.

To me, the irony of English colonization was their breaking down of local governments and replacing them with their own without any context. The most famous case, one we studied in school, was their attempts to dismantle the Indian caste system. They tried valiantly to reform India's political structure and succeeded somewhat but old habits die hard. What was so amazing was their inability to see and reform their own caste system.

There isn't a single BBC show where some lord or lady isn't deferred to before a commoner. Truly, is a Lord or Lady any different from Joe or Mary down the street? If anything it could be they are wealthier but in today's world you don't bet on it. Even in poverty royal deference is still given.

Monarch of the Glen

There are many who say we have a caste system here, one defined by wealth. While nothing new, it has been with us since the first colonists. While we praise democracy, the revolution of 1776 only involved at most 10% of the population. At war's end, well over 100,00 left for England or Canada.

Nathaniel Philbrick's MAYFLOWER recounts the Pilgrims journey from England, Holland and finally Plymouth Rock, how the natives helped them survive that first winter. He also notes the clash of Pilgrim beliefs with Native Americans and a missed opportunity to create something new in an already settled, land.

After all, our Constitution begins:

We the people of the  United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, Insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

It does NOT state, as at the end of Orwell's ANIMAL FARM, "Some animals are more equal than others!"

Thank you for reading my blog! Please be sure to visit on a regular basis or contact me at KrugsStudio@gmail.com. New blogs are added all the time. In conjunction  with my store I feel that “design” is an important part of our lives. Everything we use or live by was designed by someone. Please tell your friends, artists or anyone who appreciates design about my blog.

Please be sure to visit my store, KrugsStudio.etsy.com on a regular basis. New birdhouses, craft items, photography and canvas paintings are added all the time. Please tell your friends, artists or anyone who appreciates local handcrafted items about my store.

OWN or GIFT an original work of art this year!

Creating Hungry Cats Birdhouses; A Wicked Take On A Age Old Rivalry

One of my all time favorite cartoonists is Gary Larson. His FARSIDE comics besides being hilarious take age old beliefs and turn them upside down, in the sort of way Stephen King does. They just think differently. I think my favorite Larson cartoon is a dog saying goodbye to his mistress. It certainly makes me consider how to treat a dog.

I too was faced with a "what to do next" when another Larson comic about the cat-dog conflict got me to thinking about the birdhouses facing me. What if the cats were waiting at the birdhouse? Why chase around when you could just wait?

Illustrations of cats

I chased down some images of illustrated cats on Google images and used them for ideas. I knew I wanted cartoonish cats and they weren't hard to find. In fact there were too many so I decided I only wanted the birdhouses to have cats ringing the bottom since all three were to be hung on a flat surface with only three sides showing.

The next thing was to paint the raw birdhouses. I decided on a red, yellow and pink color. Because the wood seemed extra dry it needed several coats, especially the red paint. However, I decided I liked the Red paint with wood grain showing. By wood grain showing threw it added character as it allowed the cat figures to be only outlined in black with the whites of their eyes showing.

Using different colors

What attracted to me to these birdhouses was they were meant for birds as small as hummingbirds and could be opened and cleaned out. I was careful in not putting paint or varnish inside them.

Red with wood grain

While the theme may be the same I wanted each birdhouse to have its own unique identity. The red one just red and black with white eyes to pop! The pink one used a variety of colorful cats while the yellow cat used basically brown tones. the finishing touch was roof top paw prints with the yellow version has a cat looking down into opening. All fun, whimsy and hope for the waiting cats!

Finished red birdhouse

Paw prints, the added touch

Sorry, this program runs like typical old Microsoft Front Page web design software; one of the worst programs ever. 

However, you can see the three color schemes and how they all follow the "hungry cats birdhouse" theme.  It was fun to do and shows you can have a bit of whimsy in your designs. Cat lovers might cringe but, as we all know, cats do chase birds!

Thank you for reading my blog! Please be sure to visit on a regular basis or contact me at KrugsStudio@gmail.com. 

New blogs are added all the time. In conjunction  with my store I feel that “design” is an important part of our lives. Everything we use or live by was designed by someone. Please tell your friends, artists or anyone who appreciates design about my blog.

Please be sure to visit my store, KrugsStudio.etsy.com on a regular basis. New birdhouses, craft items, photography and canvas paintings are added all the time. Please tell your friends, artists or anyone who appreciates local handcrafted items about my store.

OWN or GIFT an original work of art this year!

All For The Love of Coffee

Probably, like most Boomers, I grew up to the smell of morning coffee. Back in the 40's and 50's most kitchens had a percolator coffee pot. My mother had a complete set of Faberware pots and pans. That included an electric 12 cup Faberware coffee pot that was on often all day. The sound of a percolator inspired a Maxwell Coffee jingle I still remember today!

The irony today is that after more than a few sets of pots and pans I'm back to using Faberware. It just does the job even on my induction stove. The big difference is that the frying pans now have a non-stick surface something we could only dream of back then.

I remember my dad was a cream and sugar man. Back then people used sugar cubes and he put two cubes with milk in every cup. My grandfather used just half & half a special treat that my grandmother let me use with my breakfast cereal.

Faberware perculator

I didn't really make my own morning coffee until after college and two years in the Peace Corps. Oddly we didn't often have coffee as we only had a two burner kerosene stove. Kerosene was precious and ANY water we used needed to be boiled for 15 minutes then filtered to be safe to drink. After a bout of amoebic dysentery I made sure that water was boiled. That same kerosene powered our refrigerator and any lantern light we needed at night.

When I came home in 1969 and started my own household I too bought Faberware and a 12 cup electric percolator. It was what I knew and what I brought to my marriage. We added more pots but the percolator finally wore out and we bought a Mr. Coffee drip coffee machine, all the rage in the 70's up to the 21st Century. The coffee never tasted as good though it did leave a nice aroma. 

Keurig

Drip coffee pots don't last long. Hard water clogs them up, the pot gets broken. Then came the Keurig with its little disposable pods that required that you kept the reservoir filled.  You inserted a small coffee pod, chose the amount of coffee for your cup, hit start and a few minutes later you had a cup of so so coffee.

However, it seemed to me each simplification removed the taste away from coffee. Realizing this, manufacturers made mini home style expresso machines that, to me at least, needed an engineering degree to use. Yes, the coffee had taste but was all the fuss worth it?

Breville Expresso 

About a month ago, as I was de-liming my drip coffee pot, I thought about percolator pots and never having to do this. I remembered the smell and taste and how good that coffee was. You didn't need an engineering degree to make good coffee either. A percolator pot has an heating element in its base.  There is a stem where the heated water rises and empties into a basket holding the coffee. Gradually the water heats up and for a certain amount of time the water washes over the grounds pulling every bit of flavor from the grounds not once but multiple times Actually it makes a pot of coffee in about the same time and entertains you with a burble of sound as it bubbles up the tube.

Newer style percolator

I was all set to buy a Faberware or Presto percolator when I saw a Chinese brand on Amazon that instead of the cord being plugged into the pot, plugged instead into a base the percolator sat on allowing you to remove the pot to pour coffee without unplugging a cord. I had a tea pot like that and it worked perfectly. So I ordered it and will never go back again. The coffee is smoother without bitterness and worth the little bit of effort required. NO pods to fill up disposal sites instead grounds good for garden mulch! In fact I have a small mulch pile that benefits from coffee grounds I'm sure.

If you've never tried it, as most generations born after the Boomers haven't, give it a try. It's a simple way to enjoy a good cup of coffee with a wide variety of beans or ground coffee to experiment with. And that goes for regular or for us diabetics decaf coffees!

Thank you for reading my blog! Please be sure to visit on a regular basis or contact me at KrugsStudio@gmail.com. New blogs are added all the time. In conjunction  with my store I feel that “design” is an important part of our lives. Everything we use or live by was designed by someone. Please tell your friends, artists or anyone who appreciates design about my blog.

Please be sure to visit my store, KrugsStudio.etsy.com on a regular basis. New birdhouses, craft items, photography and canvas paintings are added all the time. Please tell your friends, artists or anyone who appreciates local handcrafted items about my store.

OWN or GIFT an original work of art this year!

Bankings New Ways To Get Your Money

The other day I received an email from Synchrony Bank alluding to a bill being overdue. It appears Lowe's uses this bank for their credit card which I in fact discovered in tiny type on the back of the card.

Since I had received no other notice than this I called them and after saying I wanted an agent about 100 times, waited the obligatory 15  + minutes, spoke to a real person. (Why does every company say their call volume is greater than usual?)

I explained that I had received no other bill, a statement or eBill but did remember the purchase. I told her in the future I needed a statement as I never pay from an eBill. "Oh, but you are signed up for eBilling!" I told her I NEVER sign up for eStatements or billing. AARP suggests seniors, especially, get a printed statement and go over the charges carefully to make sure you haven't been fraudulently charged. I told her, in fact I had been and was on my third Costco/Citi because of this. That's when she said, "If we send you a printed statement there's a $1.95 fee." "Each and every time," I asked? "Yes. Is that OK?"

I agreed to use my bank debit card, paid the bill and noted it showed up on my iPhone bank statement almost immediately. I also decided the 5% discount on purchases at Lowe's wasn't worth a nearly two dollar statement fee each time except on large purchases, like my shower remodel. That 5% was a discount worth having!

However, we weren't done yet. As I was working on my computer it alerted me to another email from

Waiting for a REAL person

Synchrony Bank. Opening it, it again stated I owed $56.83, money I had just paid on my Debit card and had showed up in my checking account not even an hour before. So back on the phone waiting to speak to a human and finally told her the info she needed and asked why I was being dunned again. After muttering a few nonsense sentences she admitted it took one to two days to record the payment. I told her this was the 21st Century and my bank showed the payment immediately. Silence.

So finally I asked, is my bill paid or not? She admitted it was but would take a day or two to show up. I  thanked her and hung up. Talking to a senior friend later he warned me about cutting the card up. Just don't use it he said. And trust me I have no plans to.

Some of us still use pen and paper.

I guess old geezers like me are a dying breed. We want printed statements that seem more real than something on a flickering screen. There are SO many online scams a paper statement generally seems valid because there is a return address, phone number that you can call with questions. I can't even count the scams I've spotted on my credit card statements or bogus bills I've received. Investigating a manufacturers Verizon statements once I got them a $4,000 + check for fraudulent billings.

With generations generally unable to write a check, something we were taught in the 8th grade, I think it behooves banks to waive such fees until we, well, die off. It won't be that much longer and as a follower of the stock market, the big banks are doing very well indeed. They better beware though that such charges may get us to move our money and use credit where fees are not charged. In times like these, especially times like these, every penny counts!!!

Thank you for reading my blog! Please be sure to visit on a regular basis or contact me at KrugsStudio@gmail.com. New blogs are added all the time. In conjunction  with my store I feel that “design” is an important part of our lives. Everything we use or live by was designed by someone. Please tell your friends, artists or anyone who appreciates design about my blog.

Please be sure to visit my store, KrugsStudio.etsy.com on a regular basis. New birdhouses, craft items, photography and canvas paintings are added all the time. Please tell your friends, artists or anyone who appreciates local handcrafted items about my store.

OWN or GIFT an original work of art this year!