Power Home Painting and Washing

Rodney Dangerfield -- who sold aluminum siding before making it in comedy -- knows what it's like to do home painting and power washing. To paraphrase Rodney, "You don't get no respect." That's because home and business owners see the clean, attractive result not the workmanship that produced it.

Micheal Lessa and cousin Nick Lessa, who own and operate Power Home Painting and Washing in Mamaroneck, NY, say before and after pictures, testimonials, and referrals all help, but it's their free consultations that dispel the "no respect" image. Their pitch? It takes more than quality products, professional skills, and state-of-the-art equipment to achieve dramatic, long-lasting results. It takes the hands-on, on-site management at which the Lessas excel. And it's their skilled management that brings every job in on-time, on-budget, and at reasonable prices.

Licensed and insured and with more than fifteen years experience, Micheal and Nick offer their Westchester, Rockland and Putnam County neighbors not just interior and exterior painting and power washing, but also deck staining and repair, driveway sealing and patching, skylight and gutter cleaning, landscape clearing, and property management as well. Micheal says "No job is too big or too small. We do it all."

That's Power Home Painting and Washing: They do it all -- and get respect, too.

Back in Brandywine, DE

Everyone's idea of heaven is a little different.  Mine includes bright sunny days in the 60s with blue skies, fresh green leaves, and a profusion of color from trees in blossom and flowers wakening.  We found a piece of heaven in the Brandywine Valley last week, where Spring had just arrived at Longwood Gardens, near Philadelphia (photo left).  We returned home to White Plains to find another piece of heaven in the park (photo right) which is part of our cooperative development. It doesn't get much better than this!

Poor WiFi Service
Our Brandywine trip had only two downsides.  The first seems to be endemic to Best Western Hotels equipped with WiFi.  We stayed, as usual, at the Best Western Brandywine Valley Inn , booking the same suite we'd enjoyed before.  Like the WiFi in the Best Western in Escondido, CA in February, the WiFi here was Willful and Finicky.  But the worst of it is that, here too, the hotel doesn't take ownership. If the microwave were on the fritz, they'd send up a replacement. If the toilet malfunctioned, they'd send up a plumber.  But when the WiFi connection is non-existent to lousy, they tell you to call the outside provider.  In Escondido, it was Speedlinks whose service desk was next to useless.  In Brandywine, it was GuestLinX whose internet access varies in speed, in quality, and in availability.  To make matters worse, the telephone line dataports (for dial-up access) are no longer working.  This traveler thinks: don't advertise high-speed internet access unless you have it; and if you offer it, train your personnel to deal with the problems.

Chadds Ford Inn
Once upon a time, the Chadds Ford Inn restaurant on Route 1 near Longwood Gardens was our favorite restaurant, bar none.  In July 2005, we found it greatly changed for the worse and counseled avoidance in droves. This trip, we found it being renovated by the landlord, who, if the prominent "For Lease" sign can be believed, is looking for a tenant. Hopefully, there's an enterprising and talented restaurateur willing to recapture the Chadds Ford's 200-year tradition of great service and fine dining.

Feby's Fishery
We know two local restaurateurs who could do it.  Our first candidate is the DiFebo family, who own and operate Feby's Fishery at 3701 Lancaster Pike in Wilmington, DE. We found Feby's on our last trip and enjoyed them again this time.  Feby's, in business since 1974, is a family operation, including an attached fresh seafood market.  We think prices are a little higher (around $60 for two with cocktails) and the selection a little thinner since last July, but we're not surprised. Great seafood, service and modest prices translate into a full house at every sitting.  Reservations recommended for weekend evenings.

Pescatores Restaurant
Our other candidate for the Inn is Enzo, with 35 years experience, the owner of the relatively new Pescatores Restaurant (1810 Wilmington Pike, Glen Mills, PA) and the nearby, longer established Enzo's Italian Eatery (1400 Wilmington Pike, West Chester, PA), both near Route 1. We haven't sampled the fare at Enzo's, although we see good ratings online.  We enjoyed Pescatores twice, both times getting excellent seafood, prepared Italian style of course, plenty of it (plan to take some home), and reasonable prices ($45-60 for two with cocktails). This is an up and comer with a staff trained to entice you back.  Ask about Happy Hour half-price drinks and appetizers.  Speaking of which, I had a broccoli rabe entree masquerading as a half-price appetizer -- perfetto!

Franklin at the Constitution
This Brandywine vacation was initially motivated by a desire to take in the Benjamin Franklin Tercentenary Exhibit, which was at the National Constitution Center until a few days ago.  Now on its way to Paris via St. Louis, Houston, Denver, Atlanta, the exhibit was a blast.  There was a lot wrong with it -- too hot, timed tickets, noisy class-trip crowds, noisy exhibits, too little floor space.  But who cares?  The interactive exhibits aimed at younger Franklin fans were clever, educational, and, judging by the kids we saw, great fun.  The attraction for older sophisticates was the artifacts, including Ben's copy of the Constitution with his hand-written marginalia, a first edition copy of Poor Richard's Almanack, his armonica, etc., and the intelligent, comprehensive portrayal of the many aspects of Franklin's genius.  If this exhibit comes your way -- in fact, if you have to go out of your way -- see it.  You won't be sorry.

Wyeth Triple-Header
Motived by Franklin, this trip became an Andrew Wyeth extravaganza.  We never miss an opportunity to visit the Brandywine River Museum, which has fabulous permanent collections of about 40 Andrew Wyeth paintings, 40 more of Andrew's father and mentor, N.C. Wyeth, and another gallery of paintings by Wyeth family members including Jamie Wyeth, Carolyn Wyeth, Henriette Wyeth, and by Peter Hurd and John McCoy, who studied under N.C. Wyeth. The Museum also sponsors tours of N.C. Wyeth's house and studio, and of the Kuerner farm, which Andrew often paints. This trip we enjoyed an additional exhibit Andrew Wyeth: Master Drawings from the Artist's Collection, which features amazing pencil and charcoal drawings and sketches, most of which were studies for full-scale paintings. 

The Brandywine River Museum look at how Wyeth works and thinks was bolstered by another exhibit, Andrew Wyeth: Memory and Magic, at the Philadelphia Museum of Art (PMA). The PMA exhibit includes about 100 tempera paintings, watercolors, and drawings, many from the artist's collection, which illustrate his creative process.  Wyeth thinks like a poet and edits like a writer.  The descriptive wall-captions were fairly direct and informative, but we found the free audio tour haughty, presumptious and superflous.  Interesting side note: the PMA's "Wyeth Store" includes large, ready-to-hang, plaque-mounted posters of some of Wyeth's famous paintings for only $42.  We picked up a print of one our favorites, Wind from the Sea, painted in 1947.

The third leg of our Wyeth triple was the exhibit Something Waits Beneath It: Early Work by Andrew Wyeth, 1939- 1969 at the Delaware Art Museum.  The exhibit comprises about 30 early water-color and tempera paintings from both Maine (Wyeth's longtime summer residence) and Brandywine, and about a dozen letters to family friends illustrated with water-color and ink sketches.  A rare look at the way a great artist thinks made even more fun by the newly-renovated building whose entrance is a massive Dale Chihuly installation he calls Persian Window.  The Chihuly alone is worth the visit.  All three Wyeth exhibits continue through July 16, 2006. Enjoy!

The Day Lincoln Was Shot

I read The Day Lincoln was Shot when it was first published in 1955. It was one of my first "adult" books, and I remember it as a good read, although a lot of it was probably over my head at the time. I've just read it again in a Recorded Books edition, read by one of my favorite narrators, Nelson Runger.

The Day Lincoln was Shot is deservedly called a classic. It's good history built up painstakingly from original source material. Good dramatization a la McCullough, Goodwin, and Morris. And good, lively prose liberally sprinkled with sparkling poetic imagery. In short, it's still a good read a half-century later.

This is not a book about Lincoln or Booth or the other actors in the drama, nor even about America at the crossroads of its adolescence and The Emancipation Proclamation. Rather, it's about all of that as it would have been seen by a sensitive observer, a dispassionate journalist, who knew the people and the times.

If the book has a fault, it's that it spends a lot of time on Lincoln's dreams and premonitions of assassination. As a psychologist and student of history, I know that it was proper, even fashionable, in 19th century America to give credence to the "unconscious" products of the mind. Still it's hard to reconcile Bishop's fastidious separation of facts from speculation with his reporting of Lincoln's dreams as a matters of fact.

That quibble aside, I can only wish Jim Bishop had gone on to treat of Grant, Stanton, Booth and the other characters and events with he knew so well.

General George Washington: A Military Life

Edward G. Lengel's title -- General George Washington: A Military Life -- belies his thesis. He sees Washington as a great leader who led a military life, but wasn't a particularly convincing military leader.

The Luck of the Brave.
A lot of factors contributed to Washington's eventual victory over the British. Certainly there was luck, as when a pea soup fog covered an inglorious retreat from Brooklyn Heights. And then there was luck compounded with pigheaded bravery. Washington repeatedly led battles by example, dodging bullets with a charmed impunity.

The Luck of the Howes.
Early on there was the luck of having in the Howe brothers opponents who fought in style. The Howes not only followed the 17th century rules of engagement, allowing the crude Continentals to better them by dint of cunning and persistence, but enjoyed long winters off in New York, dallying with the ladies while Washington reconstituted his spent forces, recruiting and training fresh armies.

French Luck.
Later, particularly at the decisive battle of Yorktown, there was the luck of the French -- thanks to years of importuning by Franklin -- who ignored Washington's ill-conceived plan to attack New York City, and engineered and powered the siege and victory at Yorktown.

A Few Good Men.
And besides luck, there was the power of a few good men. Loyal and capable leaders like Green and Knox somehow made up for a host of listless laggards. And more amazingly, the empowering determination of a small number of patriots fighting for the liberty of their families and country overcame the world's most professional army under conditions of hapless privation.

The Great Leader.
Of course, there was Washington the administrator, Washington the politician, and Washington the leader of men. Without Washington's tireless concern for his troops, tireless and skillful politicking of Congress and the local Governors for men, munitions, and money, and his tireless, micromanagement of administrative details, the war could never have been won. He was a great leader, just not much of a military tactician.

Father not King.
Most amazing of all was not that Washington somehow won the war, but that he kept his eye on the prize -- liberty. He could easily have been not the Father of His Country, but its first Dictator. He had the power during the Revolutionary War, but never abused it. He had the power as a first President without precedents, but relinquished it. Our freedom is a lasting tribute to his greatness!

The Lost Painting by Jonathan Harr

Books by accomplished journalists, and second books by best-selling authors are sometimes edited more lightly than others. The Lost Painting: The Quest for a Caravaggio Masterpiece by Jonathan Harr is such a book. Harr's second book -- his first was the 1997 chart-topper, A Civil Action -- is a good book that could have been great.

Misplaced Caravaggio.
The Lost Painting is the true story of the discovery of Caravaggio's The Taking of Christ, a powerful work executed for the patrician Mattei family of Rome in 1602. Later misattributed to Gerrit van Honthorst, a Dutch follower of Caravaggio, it was sold in 1802 to Scotsman William Hamilton Nisbet, in whose home it hung until 1921, when it went to auction and "disappeared".

Found and Restored.
The Lost Painting is principally the story of Sergio Benedetti, an Italian art restorer working at the National Gallery of Ireland, who recognized the painting in the Dublin home of some Jesuit priests; of Francesca Cappelletti, an art student who uncovered new information about its provenance in the Mattei family archives; and of Dennis Mahon, the eminent British art historian who guided both. It includes masterful "flashbacks" that bring Caravaggio, the bad-boy genius of the seicento, colorfully to life. And it explores without technicality the process of restoring an old masterpiece.

Hard Story to Write.
Jonathan Harr tells this fascinating tale in clear, uncomplicated prose (I listened to the unabridged audio edition narrated by Campbell Scott). But the book is slow to get underway -- Harr's hard start should have been expunged at Random House -- and bogs down frequently in picayune personal details that don't develop the characters or the story. More troublesome is Harr's inability to clearly distinguish hard facts from suppositional fiction. Harr needs to go to school to McCullough, Morris, or Goodwin to see how to write history that reads like a novel. Russell Shorto's The Island at the Center of the World: The Epic Story of Dutch Manhattan, the Forgotten Colony that Shaped America proves a journalist can do it.

Focus, Focus, Focus.
Harr spent a lot of time writing The Lost Painting, learning art history and Italian in the process. But he spent too much time with the "characters" he likes, particularly Francesca, and not enough with those he doesn't, like the more important Sergio. The Lost Painting is a good book that could have been great had Harr kept his distance from the characters and got closer to his editor.

Andrew Jackson: His Life and Times

H. W. Brands' new book, Andrew Jackson: His Life and Times, gives Jackson a full and sympathetic treatment that firmly places him in the pantheon of great Americans, but not on the same footing as George Washington, Benjamin Franklin or Thomas Jefferson.

A Rousing Read
Brands, whose story-telling skills have increased with each outing -- his last was the well-received The First American: The Life and Times of Benjamin Franklin  -- paints Jackson's rough and tumble biography in lively, sometimes inspiring prose that makes this long book an easy read. (I listened to it in the unabridged audio version narrated by John H. Mayer.)  He's quick to credit Jackson for his two best traits -- an unwavering belief in participatory democracy, and an unshakeable devotion to the American union.  But he doesn't flinch when calling out Jackson for small-minded and unprincipled behavior.

Pugnacious War Hero
Jackson, who almost single-handedly annexed Florida to the United States, and whose military acumen and tenacity won the battle of New Orleans against overwhelming British skill and manpower, was a popular war hero in his time.  But he was pugnacious, engaging in street brawls, duels, and canings until too old to be a bully.  And he often acted for the country based on his own beliefs -- despite explicit orders to the contrary.

Dictorial Democrat
Sometimes haled as the first true democrat, Jackson expressed complete confidence in the will of the people, but, like other powerful leaders, came to believe his opinions best expressed that people's will.  A strong unionist at a time when many Southerners were leaning toward secession, he was a mystical, not rational unionist.  He ignored the logical advice and counsel of others about preserving the union when it didn't mesh with his thinking or came from people he didn't like.

Roots of Devotion, Democracry
Brands' biography makes it pretty clear that Jackson's single-minded devotion to the union and his willingness to act without orders derived from his mother, whose bravery in facing down the British and rescuing her captured sons from two enemy prisons would be remarkable even today.  But at book's end, Jackson's belief in democracy is still a mystery.  He was literate, but not a scholar or thinker.  He was a lawyer, but barely.  He commanded by fiat, not consensus.  The antecedents shout dictator; the facts say democracy.  Go figure!

San Diego: Take Two

Judith and I are not swallows, but like those that haunt Capistrano, we tend to go back to the same places over and over again. We've been back to the Brandywine, PA region at least six times in the six years we've been married. We've been to San Diego twice, the last time just a few days ago. We'd visit more often, if only California weren't six air-hours away from our White Plains home.

We stayed in Escondido, 30 quick minutes from downtown San Diego, except during rush hour. (Why do they call slow travel times rush hours?) (more...)