Rockefeller Center

 In New York City recently, I walked past Rockefeller Center.  Once again I was stunned by the interesting and beautiful sculptures.

Atlas is a collaboration between two famed artists, Lee Lawrie, who envisioned and designed the figure, and Rene Chambellan, who modeled the statue from Lawrie's sketch. In Greek mythology, Atlas was a half-man, half-god giant known as a Titan, who helped lead a war against the Olympic gods. After the Titans' defeat, Atlas was condemned by Zeus to carry the world on his shoulders as punishment.

The doors are massive and stunning.  I had time limitations, so I didn't have the time to study each one.  Oh well, I will be back.

The Society of Pope Pius X

The Society of Pope Pius X is a fundamental Catholic sect.  It has been criticized as being anti-Jew and anti-Muslim, opposing interactions with other religions except to preach conversion. Last month Pope Leo excommunicated members of the sect after it ignored his directions and consecrated four new bishops.

Christ the King Church in Ridgefield is run by the Society of St. Pius X.  

It has had a presence in town since 1978.  

The sect broke with the Catholic Church after the Second Vatican Council in 1965, objecting to reforms like normalization of relations with other religions and the use of languages other than Latin in masses.

Princesses

Princesses crossed the street.

Steve

 I met Steve at Starbucks.  His shirt said "Whitehead 1901."  I asked him what that meant.  He didn't know; his son gave him the shirt.  

By the time I came back outside after ordering a coffee, Steve had looked it up.  Whitehead was a man who claimed to invent manned flight two years before the Wright Brothers.

Steve grew up in the wealthy nearby town of Darien.  His father was a successful lawyer and his brother was a good scholar, but Steve didn't like formal education.  So, he became a machinist.

An interesting guy.  We had a good conversation.

Deaf and Hard of Hearing

I showed this mural in an incomplete form a month ago when it was being painted.

The artwork highlights the legacy of Deaf education through an image of Laurent Clerc in the upper left.  Clerc is historically regarded as the founder of deaf education in the United States.  

 In the early 19th Century, along with Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet, Clerc founded what is today the American School for the Deaf in West Hartford.  The mural illustrates a variety of ways that deaf and hard of hearing individuals have been taught to communicate.  Michael Rice painted the mural.

Linked to Monday Murals.

SummerFest

 Yesterday was SummerFest in Ridgefield.  It was unbelievably crowded.  

Tents were massed together along Main Street and adjoining streets for crafts, artists, politicians, school groups, businesses, civic organizations, and more.

Children at ACT's summer camp sang in front of Town Hall.  Their parents took photos and videos.

A lion sat next to the Lions Club's tent.

Barbershop singers waited for their turn.

And a very attractive and glittery young woman walked through on stilts.

Chanin

 I met Chanin -- pronounced "Shannon" -- at Starbucks.  She is the payroll manager for a nonprofit that helps foster children.  She was working on her laptop while waiting to pick up her daughter from camp.

I enjoy talking to strangers, learning a bit about them, and then doing some portrait photographs.  But, ever since the COVID pandemic, I have got out of practice.  I need to start doing it again.