A Postcard A Day - Tuesday 28 July 2020 - T for little cup of joy and some history, plus a BBQ

(Translation: 

reflections for the soul: if you wake up badly ... take a little cup of joy. Good morning)

Hello, Good morning lovely ladies!

Have you got your 'little cup of joy' ready? Then we can join Elizabeth and Bluebeard at the T-Party.

My postcard for today comes from the USA:

A  tongue in cheek statement that I don't agree with. But some people might. I do like a good glass of champagne at special occasions though. The back of this (advert) card reads: 

"When does luxury become a necessity? 

When it's Taitinger's Comtes de Champagne. 

One sip, and you'll recognize the elegance and finesse which are the hallmarks 

of Taitinger's style - and yours."

The stamps are interesting. I had fun reading up on these. Feel free to scroll past all this 'history lesson', as I don't want to bore you.

First of all Johns Hopkins was a very interesting man. Wikipedia writes this of him:

Johns Hopkins (May 19, 1795 – December 24, 1873) was an American entrepreneur, abolitionist and philanthropist of 19th-century Baltimore, Maryland.

His bequests founded numerous institutions bearing his name, most notably Johns Hopkins Hospital, and Johns Hopkins University (including its academic divisions such as Johns Hopkins School of Nursing, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, Johns Hopkins Carey Business School, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, and Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies).

Johns Hopkins grew up on a plantation. The Hopkins family were members of the Society of Friends (Quakers). In 1807, they emancipated their slaves in accordance with their local Society decree, which called for freeing the able-bodied and caring for the others, who would remain at the plantation and provide labor as they could.

Johns Hopkins is described as being an "abolitionist before the word was even invented", having been represented as such both prior to the Civil War period, as well as during the Civil War and Reconstruction Era. There are several accounts that describe the abolitionist influence Hopkins was privy to as a 12-year-old participant in his parents' emancipation of their family's slaves in 1807.

The Alliance of Progress was another thing I had never heard of. So I went to Wikipedia again:

Alliance for Progress  aimed to establish economic cooperation between the U.S. and Latin America.

The United States government began to strengthen diplomatic relations with Latin America in the late 1950s during the presidency of Dwight D. Eisenhower.

In March 1961, the newly inaugurated President Kennedy proposed a ten-year plan for Latin America:

• an annual increase of 2.5% in per capita income,
• the establishment of democratic governments,
• the elimination of adult illiteracy by 1970
• price stability, to avoid inflation or deflation
• more equitable income distribution, land reform, and
• economic and social planning.

The Alliance for Progress achieved a short-lived public relations success. It also had real but limited economic advances.^[11] But by the early 1970s the program was widely viewed as a failure.^[18]

The program failed for three reasons:

• Latin American nations were unwilling to implement needed reforms, particularly in land reform.
• Presidents after Kennedy were less supportive of the program.
• The amount of money was not enough for the entire region: $20 billion averaged out to only $10 per Latin American.

The Organization of American States disbanded the permanent committee created to implement the alliance in 1973.

So, what have i been up to this week? I go walking with my friend Antonia every Monday. Yesterday we just marveled about the abundance of crops and produce. Everywhere we walked we could see trees laden with almonds, vegetable plots full of produce and this orchard was spilling its fruit over the fence:

 There were pear branches and apple branches, all hanging over the fence.

 Halfway our walk, we came to an industrial estate and we stopped at the bar for a freshly squeezed orange juice and a glass of water.

The cigarette machine in the corner caught my attention as the company was called 'Coronavending'! 

We had a BBQ with our best friends the other day and I had bought lots of meat to cook.

We never even got round to cooking the lamb chops, so the next day I cooked the chops and made a lovely Rogan Josh curry.

 We are still enjoying the kombucha (all raspberry now. It is our favorite flavor). 

That's it from me today. 

Looking back over this blog post, I can see I have plenty of qualifiers for the T-Party.

Happy T-Day all!

Stay safe,

Hugs,

Lisca