Hale-Maher
@hale-maher.bsky.social
Retired theatre teacher, ambler, amateur gardener, scribbler about the arts, sciences, cooking, music, & a protector of birds. No politics. Double lung transplant survivor. Resides in a quiet hamlet east of San Diego. 🏳️🌈
"Sphere": Photo taken during a perambulation through my hamlet.
November 8, 2025 at 1:31 PM
"Sphere": Photo taken during a perambulation through my hamlet.
Music for Tonight: ‘Where To From’ by Hildur Guðnadóttir
November 3, 2025 at 4:24 AM
Music for Tonight: ‘Where To From’ by Hildur Guðnadóttir
I inherited a small ionized NASA plate from Mom & Dad. It shows a straight line through our galaxy, that of a satellite or a spaceship’s voyage with a red dot as an endpoint. We can only travel so far, both in space travel & in our lifetime. Our accomplishments end when we arrive at the red dot.
October 20, 2025 at 12:44 PM
I inherited a small ionized NASA plate from Mom & Dad. It shows a straight line through our galaxy, that of a satellite or a spaceship’s voyage with a red dot as an endpoint. We can only travel so far, both in space travel & in our lifetime. Our accomplishments end when we arrive at the red dot.
A night out at the Mingei Museum's new exhibition: The San Diego Modernist Movement of the mid twentieth century. Here I am being quite dapper. (Laura Andreson created the ceramic art shown here in the 1950's.) Such a charming evening.
October 12, 2025 at 1:07 AM
A night out at the Mingei Museum's new exhibition: The San Diego Modernist Movement of the mid twentieth century. Here I am being quite dapper. (Laura Andreson created the ceramic art shown here in the 1950's.) Such a charming evening.
Artist of the day: Irma Boom. I’ve always had a gravitational pull towards exquisite tomes. Each page is an aesthetic design poem. In an article I read Mark Smith introduced me to Irma Boom. She said, "What I realized is that you make books not for the past or for the present… but for the future."
October 4, 2025 at 2:26 PM
Artist of the day: Irma Boom. I’ve always had a gravitational pull towards exquisite tomes. Each page is an aesthetic design poem. In an article I read Mark Smith introduced me to Irma Boom. She said, "What I realized is that you make books not for the past or for the present… but for the future."
Last night I watched the La Jolla Playhouse's musical, 'The Heart'. In it a woman receives a heart transplant from a young man. She writes to his family her gratitude as I did to the wife of my donor. I'm a recipient of a pair of lungs from a man whose family I'll never meet, yet he lives inside me.
September 30, 2025 at 3:14 AM
Last night I watched the La Jolla Playhouse's musical, 'The Heart'. In it a woman receives a heart transplant from a young man. She writes to his family her gratitude as I did to the wife of my donor. I'm a recipient of a pair of lungs from a man whose family I'll never meet, yet he lives inside me.
The joke is always how medication commercials spend half a lifetime disclaiming how patients might grow a second head. I would prefer they get right to the warning: “Snake Oil”. YOU WILL DIE. (Must be old enough to vote. Do not take with embalming fluid.)
September 22, 2025 at 12:19 AM
The joke is always how medication commercials spend half a lifetime disclaiming how patients might grow a second head. I would prefer they get right to the warning: “Snake Oil”. YOU WILL DIE. (Must be old enough to vote. Do not take with embalming fluid.)
What I'm listening to: David Bowie’s version of Prokofiev’s Peter & the Wolf pulls me back six decades ago to our parent’s living room floor where my sister & I listened to it on a mono stereo. David Bowie’s narration charms, capturing the wonder of a child in small Russian village from long ago.
September 17, 2025 at 10:00 PM
What I'm listening to: David Bowie’s version of Prokofiev’s Peter & the Wolf pulls me back six decades ago to our parent’s living room floor where my sister & I listened to it on a mono stereo. David Bowie’s narration charms, capturing the wonder of a child in small Russian village from long ago.
My Garden of Earthly Delights... Fall edition: Tomatoes, Chives, Lettuce, Bell Peppers, Scallions.
September 1, 2025 at 1:13 PM
My Garden of Earthly Delights... Fall edition: Tomatoes, Chives, Lettuce, Bell Peppers, Scallions.
My American Gothic Revisited
August 31, 2025 at 9:05 PM
My American Gothic Revisited
I’d like park bench plaques to be more interesting. “In memory of all the women who are glad Robert's dead,"would be nice. Or, “Elma took her famous rhubarb pie recipe to the grave, Jen.” Or “John's family dedicates this bench to their father's estate lawyer, may he burn in hell for all eternity.”
August 27, 2025 at 4:50 AM
I’d like park bench plaques to be more interesting. “In memory of all the women who are glad Robert's dead,"would be nice. Or, “Elma took her famous rhubarb pie recipe to the grave, Jen.” Or “John's family dedicates this bench to their father's estate lawyer, may he burn in hell for all eternity.”
“I have no idea to this day what those two Italian ladies were singing about. Truth is, I don’t want to know. Some things are better left unsaid. I’d like to think they were singing about something so beautiful, it can’t expressed in words, and it makes your heart ache because of it.” Shawshank Red.
August 24, 2025 at 12:23 AM
“I have no idea to this day what those two Italian ladies were singing about. Truth is, I don’t want to know. Some things are better left unsaid. I’d like to think they were singing about something so beautiful, it can’t expressed in words, and it makes your heart ache because of it.” Shawshank Red.
Although I’m not a Dead Head, the world's a better place because of them. All too soon they'll have descended into a curious counterculture bookmark in Americana, but that doesn’t diminish their relevance. I admire their pacifism, their loyalty to a vague natural order, their tie-dyed existence..
August 23, 2025 at 1:05 PM
Although I’m not a Dead Head, the world's a better place because of them. All too soon they'll have descended into a curious counterculture bookmark in Americana, but that doesn’t diminish their relevance. I admire their pacifism, their loyalty to a vague natural order, their tie-dyed existence..
Six months after my double lung transplant I hike my first trail. This is me out of breath & thrilled to be alive. It's a whole new world.
August 18, 2025 at 12:59 PM
Six months after my double lung transplant I hike my first trail. This is me out of breath & thrilled to be alive. It's a whole new world.
“The rest of the world has something important to learn from Japanese hospitality. Details are not just details in Japan — they’re everything.” —Beniya Mukayu, a traditional 'ryokan' inn
August 16, 2025 at 3:21 PM
“The rest of the world has something important to learn from Japanese hospitality. Details are not just details in Japan — they’re everything.” —Beniya Mukayu, a traditional 'ryokan' inn
I frequent our Japanese Friendship Garden. Yesterday, as I wended down the paths of maples, stone lanterns, koi ponds and a large irascible Buddha, a Japanese woman emerged from the trees. She’d been cleaning the leaves. My look said “I see you.” Her reply look was “I’ve been seen.” This is the way.
August 16, 2025 at 2:48 AM
I frequent our Japanese Friendship Garden. Yesterday, as I wended down the paths of maples, stone lanterns, koi ponds and a large irascible Buddha, a Japanese woman emerged from the trees. She’d been cleaning the leaves. My look said “I see you.” Her reply look was “I’ve been seen.” This is the way.
Zen & the Tossed Towel. After the museum floor, the doctor’s office, the pagoda’s entryway have been washed down, scrubbed, and polished visitors will only remember the unwashed hand towel carelessly tossed in the corner.
August 15, 2025 at 2:35 AM
Zen & the Tossed Towel. After the museum floor, the doctor’s office, the pagoda’s entryway have been washed down, scrubbed, and polished visitors will only remember the unwashed hand towel carelessly tossed in the corner.
What I’m listening to: Jóhann Jóhannsson’s, Drone Mass. Describing music eludes me. Yet a piece like Drone Mass reverberates from crystal caves unsuitable for daylight. It echoes the songs of the druids hunkered in underground enchantments, guttural rivulets of sound. I know... pretentious. I tried.
August 13, 2025 at 11:52 PM
What I’m listening to: Jóhann Jóhannsson’s, Drone Mass. Describing music eludes me. Yet a piece like Drone Mass reverberates from crystal caves unsuitable for daylight. It echoes the songs of the druids hunkered in underground enchantments, guttural rivulets of sound. I know... pretentious. I tried.
Today’s dish... Garlic Roasted Endive. Ingredients: an assault of chopped garlic & walnuts, drawn & quartered endive, a blush of sesame seed oil, a misting of salt & pepper, & a whisper of shaved parmesan. Bake first, broil after. Served with cold black tea with squidged lemon. Would you join me?
August 12, 2025 at 10:14 PM
Today’s dish... Garlic Roasted Endive. Ingredients: an assault of chopped garlic & walnuts, drawn & quartered endive, a blush of sesame seed oil, a misting of salt & pepper, & a whisper of shaved parmesan. Bake first, broil after. Served with cold black tea with squidged lemon. Would you join me?
Today I made Jyoya Nabe, a healthy Japanese soup with a kombu broth, spinach, shaved pork, shiitake mushrooms, & tofu dipped in ponzu sauce. I’m convinced that a hay stack of spinach would, when steamed, fit into a tea cup along with tempests, kittens, & socks. Care to join me for dinner?.
August 9, 2025 at 1:54 AM
Today I made Jyoya Nabe, a healthy Japanese soup with a kombu broth, spinach, shaved pork, shiitake mushrooms, & tofu dipped in ponzu sauce. I’m convinced that a hay stack of spinach would, when steamed, fit into a tea cup along with tempests, kittens, & socks. Care to join me for dinner?.
Worst case scenario>
August 5, 2025 at 12:52 PM
Worst case scenario>
’Tis time to deprogram the programming that pisses down on the unwashed from the specious pundits.
July 31, 2025 at 2:57 AM
’Tis time to deprogram the programming that pisses down on the unwashed from the specious pundits.
Scurvy Knaves: You leaches, clingers to aphorisms, influencers to the easily influenced spouting out hyperbole, always searching for an idol no matter how flawed, stop, just stop. Read a book. Read lots of books. Go for walks, long walks where you might get lost. And protect mud wasp habitats.
July 28, 2025 at 8:23 PM
Scurvy Knaves: You leaches, clingers to aphorisms, influencers to the easily influenced spouting out hyperbole, always searching for an idol no matter how flawed, stop, just stop. Read a book. Read lots of books. Go for walks, long walks where you might get lost. And protect mud wasp habitats.
In the Hall of the Mountain King
July 27, 2025 at 5:11 PM
In the Hall of the Mountain King
There needs must be a mist to weigh heavily the air around my cottage muffling sounds.
July 26, 2025 at 3:13 AM
There needs must be a mist to weigh heavily the air around my cottage muffling sounds.