Thanksgiving 2013 in Richmond, VA

Liz spatchcocked the turkey - ouch!

Mary made apple pie, Liz made pumpkin.

Hi, are there any other Fessendens out there!  Cagie was hoping for lotsa  news when she joined the family blog.  I'll keep hoping.

Hi everyone...ever since I posted my first blog I've been waiting to read about some new and exciting happenings.  Maybe I'm not on the right page!
I'm slowly adjusting to retirement.  I've joined an exercise group that meets three mornings a week and a card group ("May I"...does anyone play this game?) that meets every Monday afternoon.  I may become so busy that I will need to retire again!
I'm planning to spend Thanksgiving with the Swords...either here in Avon or on the Cape.
Hope you all have a Happy Thanksgiving...may there be no lumps in the mashed potatoes and may the gravy be HOT!   Marcia    11/17/13

Hi everyone...this is Marcia, sometimes referred to as Cagie.  I'm still experimenting with using the Fessenden blog so have no idea who might read this.  If it happens to be a relative. PLEASE let  me know...hopefully, I will be able to find your response.  Would appreciate hearing what's NEW with you.
  Martha, many thanks for inviting me to join the family this way.  Believe me, it's pretty hi-tech for my generation!
LOVE to all........

Videos

The Big Five Personality Test

Take this psychology test to find out about your personality!

http://www.outofservice.com/bigfive/

Active Shooter - How To Respond

After the tragic events of September 16, 2013 at the Washington Navy Yard, .......... would like to provide the following standard Department of Homeland Security guidance to help you prepare for an active shooter incident.  

Because active shooter situations are often over within 10 to 15 minutes before law enforcement arrives on the scene, individuals must be prepared both mentally and physically to deal with active shooter situations.

RESPONDING TO AN ACTIVE SHOOTER – RUN. HIDE. FIGHT

Quickly determine the most reasonable way to protect your own life.  Remember that visitors are likely to follow the lead of employees and managers during an active shooter incident. In short, the immediate actions are RUN, HIDE, or FIGHT; further details on these actions are provided below.

RUN – EVACUATE

If there is an accessible escape path, attempt to evacuate the premises. Be sure to:

·         Have an escape route and plan in mind.

·         Evacuate regardless of whether others agree to follow.  Leave your belongings behind.

·         Help others escape, if possible.

·         Prevent individuals from entering an area where the active shooter may be.

·         Keep your hands visible.

·         Follow the instructions of any police officers.

·         Do not attempt to move wounded people.

·         Call 911 or appropriate emergency number when you are safe.

HIDE – HIDE OUT

If evacuation is not possible, find a place to hide where the active shooter is less likely to find you.  Take some time now to examine your surroundings to determine where would be good place to hide, or a good place to avoid.

Your hiding place should:

·         Be out of the active shooter’s view.

·         Provide protection if shots are fired in your direction (e.g., an office with a closed door).

·         Not trap you or restrict your options for movement.

To prevent an active shooter from entering your hiding place:

·         Lock the door.

·         Blockade the door with heavy furniture.

If active shooter is nearby:

·         Silence your cell phone and/or pager.

·         Turn off any source of noise (e.g., radios, televisions).

·         Hide behind large items (e.g., cabinets, desks).

·         Remain quiet if evacuation is not possible.

·         Remain calm.

·         Dial 911 as soon as possible to alert police to the active shooter’s location.

·         If you cannot speak, leave the line open and allow the dispatcher to listen.

FIGHT – TAKE ACTION AGAINST THE ACTIVE SHOOTER

As a last resort, when you cannot run and cannot hide, and only when your life is in imminent danger, attempt to disrupt and/or incapacitate the active shooter by:

·         Acting as aggressively as possible against him/her.

·         Use whatever improvised weapon available and commit to your actions to incapacitate the shooter as quickly as possible

Ithaca Times interview with Mary: Preview of the Cornell Cinema Fall Season

Moira Shearer in The Red Shoes

Ithaca Times : Arts & Entertainment

www.ithaca.com/arts_and_entertainment/preview-of-the-cornell-cinema-fall-season/article_00618670-1a5d-11e3-bda2-001a4bcf887a.html

Wednesday, September 11, 2013 12:00 am

Since its return in late August, Cornell Cinema has already screened a dizzying array of films, ranging from Dr. Strangelove to the recent black-and-white indie Frances Ha. The Ithaca Times checked in with Cornell Cinema’s Mary Fessenden before her departure for the Toronto Film Festival to talk about the coming fall schedule. For more information, check their calendar website.

Ithaca Times: It’s barely mid-month, and Cornell Cinema is already going strong. Let’s pick up the calendar with Stanley Kubrick, never a bad guy to start with

Mary Fessenden: You’re referring to our “3 Kubrick Classics + 1” series. The plus 1 refers to the recent documentary Room 237 which explores several rather wacky theories about the hidden meanings behind The Shining. It’ll be shown before screenings of The Shining. We’ll be utilizing our fabulous new DCP [digital cinema projection] for both the documentary and the feature. At the end of the month is Lolita—also DCP—which celebrated its 50 anniversary in 2012. For those who don’t know, Vladimir Nabokov, who wrote the novel upon which Kubrick’s film is based, did so while he was a professor at Cornell.

Speaking of Cornell, we’ve got two upcoming guest events that involve artists who attended Cornell. Shelly Silver graduated from Cornell in 1980 with a B.A. in Intellectual History and a B.F.A. in Mixed Media, and her varied work in video, film and photography reflects these degrees. Her work has been shown in festivals and museums around the world and was the subject of a recent retrospective at Anthology Film Archives in New York. She’ll be here to present her first feature-length film, Touch, on September 19. Like a lot of her work, it’s a hybrid creation, using footage Shelly shot as well as archival stills. The film explores New York City’s Chinatown, where Shelly has lived for many years, and it’s almost entirely narrated in Mandarin Chinese by a fictional protagonist, even though Shelly doesn’t speak the language. Woody Allen makes a surprise appearance in Touch while shooting a film of his own in Chinatown, and that’s a really interesting sequence in the film. In addition to presenting the film at Cornell Cinema, Shelly will be giving an artist talk for the Department of Art and visiting with filmmaking students.

IT: I’m especially excited about Ricky Jay’s appearance. Most people might recognize him as an actor, but he’s an amazing magician.

MF: Right. Just a few days later, we’ll be hosting acclaimed magician, sleight-of-hand artist, author and actor Ricky Jay, who attended Cornell’s hotel school in the late ‘60s. He’ll be here to present the recent documentary about him, Deceptive Practice: The Mysteries and Mentors of Ricky Jay. This event isn’t listed in our Fall ’13 Flicksheet, because it didn’t come together until that publication had gone to press. The documentary includes footage of him while at Cornell, when he was already an established entertainer making television appearances. I’ve been told he also did card tricks at the Chanticleer!

IT: I saw him doing card stuff on the Commons when his book “Cards as Weapons” came out.

MF: Well, speaking of magic, we have another interesting double bill on September 26, when we’ll be showing two films in our “World Witches” series in conjunction with a display of movie posters from Cornell's Witchcraft Collection. Over 60 witchcraft/possession movie posters from around the world were just added to the Collection, which is part of the Cornell University Library’s Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections. Patrons will be able to view a selection of the posters right before or right after a screening of the recent Oscar-nominated film, War Witch, which is an amazing film about child soldiers in sub-Saharan Africa that includes magical realist aspects, or before or after the late show of the screwball classic, I Married a Witch, starring Veronica Lake and Frederic March.
IT: There are more filmmakers scheduled to visit in October.

MF: October features three visiting filmmaker events and two of our popular Cinema in Sage events. Jem Cohen has been a guest at Cornell Cinema before and he’ll return to present his lovely film Museum Hours, which was filmed in and around the Kunsthistorisches Art Museum in Vienna and features lots of great art. The film, which is basically about the friendship that develops between a museum guard and a visitor, is quite unlike anything I’ve ever seen before and feels very lifelike. It’ll be interesting to hear Jem talk about how he developed the story and worked with his two actors, something he’s done relatively little of in his other films. Penny Lane’s film, the documentary Our Nixon, is a collage film primarily made from home movie footage shot by presidential aides Dwight Chapin, H.R. ‘Bob’ Haldeman, and John Ehrlichman, and focuses on their respective relationships with Nixon, both before and after he resigned. I was surprised when I saw the film to realize how little I knew about what became of these men after their convictions in relationship to Watergate, and found the stories fascinating. As you can imagine, the film has its detractors, so it’ll be interesting to hear Penny talk about how she’s handled the feedback, in particular from Dwight Chapin, who is the only one of the three men still living. Earlier that week we’ll host Quebecois filmmaker Caroline Martel with her latest film Wavemakers, a documentary about the history and recent rebirth of the early electronic instrument the ondes Martenot, which was invented in 1928 in France by Maurice Martenot. [Martel will] be joined by professional ondiste Geneviève Grenier, who studied at the Conservatoire de musique de Montréal, and will provide a demonstration of the instrument. The Martenot has an otherworldly sound and look, somewhat like the theremin, but for a variety of reasons, isn’t as well known as the theremin. We’re drawing attention to it with this event and a series of films whose soundtracks make use of the instrument, including The Red Shoes and Ghostbusters. Caroline is a wonderfully creative filmmaker with an interest in the history of technology and communications.

IT: Halloween is returning to Sage Chapel.

MF: Patrons will get a chance to compare the Martenot to the theremin as musician Dennis James will be playing it and the organ in Sage Chapel to accompany the German Expressionist silent film The Hands of Orlac on Halloween. He’ll be joined by pianist Frederick Hodges in providing the accompaniment to a film that was made by the director of The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari. It’s the second year we’ve teamed with the Department of Music to present a free Halloween event in Sage Chapel. The Ithaca Motion Picture Project (IMPP) has gotten involved this year as well, and this screening will be the grand finale of Silent Movie Month in Ithaca, an IMPP initiative. But patrons don’t need to wait until Halloween to experience a film screening in Sage Chapel, as we’ll be doing a program called “Ancient Loops” on Tuesday, October 8. The program features two films by renowned filmmaker Bill Morrison, who pairs archival silent film footage with extraordinary musical soundtracks. The short Just Ancient Loops is inspired by the traditional notion of ‘music of the spheres,’ and has gorgeous soundtrack by Michael Harrison, performed by cellist Maya Beiser. It will be followed by Morrison’s feature-length masterpiece, Decasia, which has previously shown at Cornell Cinema, but will take on new dimensions when projected in Sage Chapel. It has an evocative score by Bang On A Can co-founder Michael Gordon that’s performed by the 55-piece Basel Sinfonietta. I saw Just Ancient Loopsat the Rotterdam Film Festival in January and immediately knew I wanted to show it in Sage Chapel, so I’m really looking forward to this program.

IT: Moving on to November.

MF: November begins with a three-film tribute to one of my favorite actors, Burt Lancaster, as November 2 marks the 100 anniversary of his birth. We’ll be showing fantastic DCP versions of From Here to Eternity, The Swimmer and Sweet Smell of Success, and much to our delight, New York Times film critic A.O. Scott will be on campus to introduce Sweet Smell of Success on November 6. He’ll be delivering the Daniel W. Kops Freedom of the Press Lecture on Thursday, November 7, an event that’s arranged by the American Studies Program.

IT: Anything else?

MF: I wanted to mention three other live music/film events this fall: perennial favorites the Alloy Orchestra will return the second weekend in November to accompany Buster Keaton in The General, and perform their new score for He Who Gets Slapped. Advance tickets for both of these shows are already available online. Cornell Cinema will also host the first Ithaca International Fantastic Film Festival (IIFFF) cine-concert on November 15 when local musical duo Tzar (Michael Stark and Brian Wilson) will accompany two silent shorts by French film pioneer René Clair.

On December 5, we’ll team with the Department of Music again to present an unique evening of live, improvised rock by Powerdove, the creation of pianist and singer Annie Lewandowski, a lecturer in the Department of Music. Powerdove also features John Dieterich (Deerhoof) on guitars and Thomas Bonvalet (L’ocelle Mare) on banjo, small instruments, body percussion, and electronics. They’ll perform songs from their new album Do You Burn? alongside some music videos. Advance tickets for this special event are also available now at CornellCinemaTickets.com.

Happy 150th Birthday to Fessenden Farms!

Congratulations Tim and Ronda!
Happy birthday to the farm!

Edwin and Hattie Fessenden with Mamie and Thomas McCormick

Tim and John may someday reconcile

Maureen and her MN friends!

America's right side profile for you, Aunt Martha! :)

Sam and Miss America

A weekend with Sam that included milking, farm tours, the Padua Pub, and Miss America!



A treat for America :)

 

Winter Storm Nemo: Northeast, New England Brace For Potentially Historic Blizzard

!Mary on the Radio!

From Cornell Cinema –a media arts center with a national reputation– to Cinemapolis -downtown's venerable art house- to Ithaca's growing list of film festivals, there's a lot to keep up with. Join host Felix Teitelbaum each week to meet Ithaca's cinema programmers and join the conversation about the many films lighting up our big screens.

https://soundcloud.com/ftizzle/wrfi-01-31-talking-pictures

Kate's Matron of Honor Speech

Super Bowl Ad Used This Poem

Watch the video here to help Chrysler raise 1 million dollars for the National FFA!

SO, GOD MADE A FARMER

And on the 8th day God looked down on his planned paradise and said, "I need a caretaker!" So, God made a farmer!

God said I need somebody to get up before dawn and milk cows and work all day in the fields, milk cows again, eat supper and then go to town and stay past midnight at a meeting of the school board. So, God made a farmer!

I need somebody with strong arms. Strong enough to rustle a calf, yet gentle enough to deliver his own grandchild. Somebody to call hogs, tame cantankerous machinery, come home hungry and have to wait for lunch until his wife is done feeding and visiting with the ladies and telling them to be sure to come back real soon...and mean it. So, God made a farmer!

God said "I need somebody that can shape an ax handle, shoe a horse with a hunk of car tire make a harness out of hay wire, feed sacks and shoe scraps. And...who, at planting time and harvest season, will finish his forty hour week by Tuesday noon. Then, pain'n from "tractor back", put in another seventy two hours. So, God made a farmer!

God had to have somebody willing to ride the ruts at double speed to get the hay in ahead of the rain clouds and yet stop on mid-field and race to help when he sees the first smoke from a neighbor's place. So, God made a farmer!

God said, "I need somebody strong enough to clear trees, heave bails and yet gentle enough to tame lambs and wean pigs and tend the pink combed pullets...and who will stop his mower for an hour to mend the broken leg of a meadow lark. So, God made a farmer!

It had to be somebody who'd plow deep and straight...and not cut corners. Somebody to seed and weed, feed and breed...and rake and disc and plow and plant and tie the fleece and strain the milk. Somebody to replenish the self- feeder and then finish a hard day’s work with a five mile drive to church. Somebody who'd bale a family together with the soft strong bonds of sharing, who'd laugh and then sigh...and then respond with smiling eyes, when his son says he wants to spend his life "doing what dad does". So, God made a farmer!

(Author Unknown. Paul Harvey, radio show host, delivered a reading of this poem at a 1978 FFA Convention.  Chrysler developed a video using Paul Harvey’s reading for a Dodge Ram ad that first aired during the 2013 Super Bowl.)

Hillary's Last Day as Secretary of State

Buh-bye Hillary!