Silver Dish Research Articles

Rural development through solar and pyrolysis systems: Towards energy sustainability

Rural communities require socio-economic development and technologies that lead to the deployment of renewable energy systems. For these reasons, a solar parabolic dish cooker (SPDC), solar PV and fast pyrolysis systems were developed. The fast pyrolysis system is designed to generate biogas and biochar using an average biomass consumption and the generated waste per person per day in rural areas at a feed rate of 0.65 kg. 0.157 kg of biogas (CH4, H2 and CO) was recovered at the given feed rate and 73 % of the produced biogas is expected to be handed over to the feed provider since 27 % was burnt in the pyrolyser furnace. The SPDC utilised both aluminium and silver as the reflector materials and higher efficiency (4.182 %) was achieved using a silver dish reflector. Solar PV cooling from 82 °C to 25 °C was investigated and the findings revealed that 439.12 L of H2O and 0.164 kW are required at an operating cost of $0.571. An efficiency of 45.46–75.41 % for the pyrolysis unit, 60 % for the SPDC and 17 % for the solar PV were recorded. This study also recommends the installation of one pyrolysis system in each rural community and equip each rural household with the developed solar systems.

«Драгоценный подарок дорогому другу» (блюдо, поднесенное французскому президенту Э. Лубе от города Москвы)

The paper addresses a unique monument of political rapprochement between Russia and France at the end of the 19th – beginning of the 20th century — a silver dish presented by the city of Moscow to the French President Emil Loubet during his visit to Russia in 1902. Along with its memorial and historical significance, the dish has outstanding artistic merits. The second half of the 19th – early 20th centuries is rightly considered the period of the highest rise of domestic jewelry art, its triumphant entry into the international art market. The works of Russian silverware masters of this time combined the highest technical and artistic level of execution. The involvement of professional artists in the production of such goods greatly contributed to the latter. A vivid example of this is the dish under study. It was made at the Ovchinnikov`s firm — one of the most famous domestic gold-silver enterprises — according to the sketch of V.M.Vasnetsov. The study provides a detailed art history analysis of this work, drawing on documentary and material sources. It also examines a number of other works by V.M.Vasnetsov, which not only allowed for a detailed examination of a little-studied page in the work of a famous Russian artist but also identified a number of trends characteristic of the entire decorative arts of the period under review.

A SILVER DISH FROM THE SURROUNDINGS OF THE DAGESTAN VILLAGE ALMAK

The article introduces a silver dish found in a destroyed grave near the dagestan village almak (kazbekovsky district of the republic of dagestan) introduced to scientific circulation. The vessel has a hemispherical form. The edges of the vessel are designed in the form of a smooth, rejected board. In the manufacture of the vessel the techniques of forging and casting were applied. The body of the vessel is decorated with 12 spoons connecting the bottom with the board. A medallion is placed on the bottom of the vessel. The dish is made in khorezm and sent to dagestan by the international trade road that passed through the caspian lowland. Dated dish vii — the beginning of viii century.

A Central Asian Silver Dish with a Greek Mythological Scene found in Dulan (Qinghai)

One metal dish from Reshui royal Tibetan graves (Dulan, Qinghai Province) recently entered the collection of the Dulan County Museum after being confiscated by Chinese police. The scene on the dish is not easily distinguishable because of the bad state of preservation of this metalwork. The present short paper discusses the possibility that this scene could be identified as an episode of the Trojan War that included Ajax and Cassandra.

Three Silver Dishes from Yugra

We introduce medieval silver dishes found near Peregrebnoye, Oktyabrsky District, Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug–Yugra, Western Siberia. In our opinion, they are associated with the Peregrebnoye I fortified site, dating to the late first to early second millennia AD. They may also have belonged to an Ob Ugric sanctuary. A chronological and cultural attribution of the dishes is proposed. The dish likely representing an ibex is considered to be Sogdian, belonging to the second stage of School A, according to B.I. Marshak. It has several parallels among the medieval silver vessels from the Kama basin. The tripod dish, showing a lion clawing a deer against a background decorated with a circular stamp, is either Sogdian or eastern Iranian, dating to late 8th to 10th centuries. The one representing a king riding a horse and accompanied by two warriors is a somewhat simplified replica of Sasanian prototypes, and could have been manufactured in one of the trade centers of eastern Iran or Central Asia no earlier than the 8th century—likely in the 9th–10th centuries. The Peregrebnoye finds are analyzed with reference to the 8th–10th century Sogdian and eastern Iranian silver vessels from the Lower Ob region. Their distribution area includes the Severnaya Sosva and Synya Rivers, and the vicinity of Berezovo.

Три серебряных блюда с территории Югры

В научный оборот вводятся средневековые серебряные блюда, найденные на севере Западной Сибири в районе пос. Перегребное (Октябрьский р-н ХМАО-Югры). Выдвинуто предположение об их принадлежности к городищу Перегребное I, датируемому концом I- началом II тыс. н.э. Допускается также, что в более позднее время изделия были атрибутами священного места обских угров. Проведена хронологическая и культурная атрибуция находок. Блюдо с изображением козерога (горного козла ?) признано согдийским и отнесено по классификации Б.И. Маршака ко второму этапу школы А. Оно имеет несколько аналогов среди средневековых серебряных сосудов, найденных в Прикамье. Блюдо на трех ножках со сценой нападения льва на оленя при наличии пунсонного фона и ножек атрибутировано как согдийское или восточно-иранское и датировано концом VIII-X в. Блюдо с изображением царя на коне и двух воинов, отличающееся несколько упрощенной передачей сасанидских реалий, возможно, было изготовлено в каком-то ремесленном центре Восточного Ирана — Средней Азии не ранее VIII в., скорее всего, в IX-X вв. Находки из Перегребного проанализированы в контексте серебряных согдийских и восточно-иранских изделий VIII-X вв., обнаруженных в Нижнем Приобье. Ареал подобных изделий включает бассейны рек Сев. Сосьва и Сыня, окрестности Березова.

Thematic Review of the Royal Hunt on the Sassanid Silver Plates: Emphasizing the Roundabout of the King's Head

Metalworking is among the arts that have been considered for its unique features throughout history. Perhaps one of the most important reasons for using it a lot is its stamina and more durability than other materials. Another thing to consider about this is technology and the use of metals, which Iran has a valuable background in this regard. Lorestan bronze are a prominent example of this. One of the most important periods in the use of metals is the Sassanid era, during which the period of art also flourishes. Sassanid art can be considered an important part of Iran and even the world. This art period is a bridge between pre-Islamic and post-Islamic periods in Iran. During the Sassanid Empire in Iran, many silver dishes have been made in Iran, some of which has still been remained. Many of these containers are made of precious metals to symbolize strength and credibility. One of the most important drawings used in these containers is the picture of hunting and its role and related topics. Hunting in the pre-Islamic era was one of the best works and honors of the kings, because one more thing in Sassanid art is the attempt to show the holiness and authority of the kings of this era; which has been shown in the use of designs such as the roundabout of the king's head or magnifying the king's image. In this paper, by presenting examples of silver Plates that includes the role of hunting of kings, it has been tried to introduce and examine these cases.

The Triquetras from the Filippovka Kurgans, Southern Urals

The triquetra sign is comparatively rare in early nomadic cultures. It occurs mostly in the steppe area east of the southern Urals, specifically on petroglyphs, metal details on horse harness, bronze mirrors, metal plaques, and felted items. This article describes a series of triquetra signs from kurgans 1 and 4 at Filippovka I, representing the culture of the early nomadic elite of the southern Urals. The burials in which they were found have a “royal” status. Finds include gold onlays of wooden vessels in triquetra shapes, 20 gold argali figurines, and a horse-shaped handle of a vessel. The thighs of animals are marked with triquetras. Of particular interest is an iron sword with a gold-inlaid blade, showing scenes with humans and animals. The triquetra ornament occurs thrice in these inlays. Analysis suggests that the scenes are from Iranian mythology, and that the triquetra marks the *Hvarnah (farn). Similar scenes are found on Sasanian silver dishes, featuring Iranian kings who receive *Hvarnah. The fact that triquetra signs in Filippovka I occur only in “royal” kurgans, and that all of them are made of gold or mark the items made of gold indicates their connection with the symbolism, the use of which was the prerogative of the topranking nomadic elite of the southern Urals.

Evidence Relating to the Christian Missions in the Trans-Urals and Northwestern Siberia (8th to 16th centuries)

This study addresses the possible activity of early Christian missions among the Vogul (Mansi) of the Urals, Trans-Urals, and northwestern Siberia between the 8th–16th centuries. Three stages in their history are described. The fi rst (700–1000 AD) was marked by the import of southwestern Central Asian silver dishes (diskoi) reproducing biblical themes and Christian symbols. Specimens from Grigorovskoye, Anikovskoye, and from the Malaya Ob had been cast in Nestorian communities of Semirechye. The imported diskoi gave rise to the tradition of offering food to deities on metal dishes. The second stage (1200–1400 AD) began when silver plaques depicting the famous theme of icon painting (“The feat of the Martyr Demetrius of Solun defeating King Kaloyan of Bulgaria”) had been imported to the region. The third stage (15th and 16th centuries) correlates with the Russian expansion to Siberia and attempts to baptize the natives. At the ceremony, baptismal symbols such as tin plaques were given to the neophytes. Apparently, most plaques represent the biblical King David and were manufactured by Russians in the late 1400s to early 1500s. In the 16th century, plaques with the fi gure of St. George appeared in Siberia. The analysis of items showing biblical and hagiographical characters and of their distribution in northwestern Siberia suggests that Christian missions were unable to oust paganism from the region. Russian religious items were used in native rituals mostly if they represented horsemen, because these seemed to allude to the son of the Ob Ugric supreme deity Mir-Susne-Khum, also depicted as a horseman.

Human Flight on a Fabulous Superbird. Uplifting Images Between Sicily and Khurasan (part ii.)

In a pair of apotheosis scenes painted in the wooden Islamic ceiling of the Cappella Palatina in Palermo (1130 -1154), human figures are carried aloft by giant birds. Previous interpretations of these paintings range from Alexander's ascension or Ganymed's abduction, to Buddhist myths, to the Sasanian scenes illustrated in the Hermitage's famous Sasanian silver dish. This essay contends, instead, that the Palatina's flying birds conveying humans are to be identified as the fabulous avians of Islamic lore - either the Arabic ʿanqāʾ, the Persian sīmurgh, or the Turkic ḳarā-ḳuş/ṭughril. Anecdotes and tales about such super-birds' extraordinary powers, including their ability to fly humans, abound in Islamic, Turkic, and Persianate cultures, including Zāl's nurturing by the sīmurgh in the Iranian Shāhnāma, the black eagle transporting the hero in the Central Asian epic of Er-Töshtük, and Arabic sailors' tales-of-rescue by giant birds. The iconography of the Palatina apotheosis scenes - showing the hero tied by a rope to the super-bird - is traceable to tenth- to twelfth-century Iranian art, especially metalwork and textiles from Khurasan. The horned ears and double heads and/or prey of the Palatina birds (and in analogous Iranian scenes) derive from Iranian and Central Asian or Turkic traditions, connoting these legendary predators' might and cosmic mastery. Notions and images of apothesios were associated with the ruler in totemic signification and pictorial emblematization, as the fabulous super-birds depicted in the Palatina ceiling transport the princely couple to a symbolic heaven.

Dear & Decorations

Dear & Decorations Derrick Austin (bio) I ought to see myself as a man. Be proud and grateful.I’d much rather be your ermine with a silver bellon my pink satin collar. Let my farewell and arrivaltease the same gasp from you. Let your soundsurprise you every time. If you grant a silk pillow,I’ll make of myself a moon your guests can admire.When lords throw bloody chunks at their hounds,impress them with your finger dipped in honey or olive oil,all I need to survive. Let saints be wrapped in swaddlingclothes: cradle me, I’ll warm your hands. Tonight,like every other night, there is a fire, silver dishes of sweetsand almonds. You recite a French fairytale called “Winter”while the shadows of snowflakes drift across the floor.It’s the climax of a story about exile, which is a love story, too.The prince is scarred, has grown a grief-beard. He’s slainthe scaled beast, its eyes bright as a fallen star, its backlike a nautilus. He’s assumed the position of Christ.Three times, he’s spurned the love of the Fairy Queen.Until now he’s refused to ask for help or protection.I would be too ashamed to ask for these were I a man.The sky in the tale is like the sky outside: pinkish-gray,a greenhouse of jasmine and lilac filling with smoke.When the prince trudges out of the cold, tall as the pines,hair crowned with white that melts and chills againon his neck and ears, and rests his head on his lord’s lap,breaking the curse, your ladies draw closer to each other,their silences nearly touching. They return to their chamberswhen the story ends. You put me in a cage and go to bed.The fireplace bares red fangs. Outside, the fox and bear.Crows undulate in their night like a repressed mood.The last of the hunters return home with their kills,rabbits and squirrels they’ll skin and dress. They are silent.Bulky in fur, they are some new creature, a little bloodstaining here and there. Who is not with them? What losswill harden their hearts because they won’t speak of it?Would they know how? They are changed. They are at the gates. [End Page 167] Derrick Austin Derrick Austin is the author of Trouble the Water (BOA Editions, 2016). His work has appeared or is forthcoming in Best American Poetry, Image: A Journal of Arts and Religion, the Nation, and Tin House. A Cave Canem fellow, he was a finalist for the 2017 Kate Tufts Discovery Award. Copyright © 2019 Middlebury College Publications

Vaisselle d’argent, nourriture et service de table

Silverware is an essential part of the luxury of the table in the Roman world, especially in Late Antiquity. It belongs to the decor of the reception room just like mosaics or paintings, and is part of the staging that characterizes a banquet. However, its relationship with the food it accompanies is complex. Objects preserved in treasures, texts and images provide some clarification on this subject. They highlight the existence of indissociable groups, often emblematic, but also draw attention to the essential characteristics of silver dishes, especially their increasingly spectacular size, which should be related to the organization of dining rooms. The presence of inscriptions also characterizes this dish: they have an important role, because they often provide a key to understand the decor of the object that carries them.

Walking as Memorial Ritual: Pilgrimage to the Past

Walking as Memorial Ritual: Pilgrimage to the Past

Drinking from a Golden Cup, Eating from a Silver Dish. Metalwork in Islamic Iranian Sources (11th–12th century)

Very few precious metalwork reached our age, against a large number of base metal objects. Historical sources related to the Eastern Iranian lands and dating to the 11th–12th century describe medieval Islamic courts as glittering with gold and silverware, on a continuity with the ancient Iranian culture strong enough to defy even religious bans. In particular, a high rank metalwork production is attested in Ghazni, during the period the city enjoyed the role of capital of the Eastern Iranian world.

Fostering Learning in Microbiology with a Unique Awards System

Student motivation in class is extremely important because it may lead to a successful learning experience, followed by academic accomplishment. As a strategy to motivate undergraduate students in a microbiology course, we established an awards system named the “Gold, Silver, and Bronze Petri Dish Awards in Microbiology.” The awards system was either offered or not to a group of students (N = 34 for both cohorts). Students who had the opportunity to receive an award obtained higher grades than those for whom the awards system was not implemented (P < 0.01). Course evaluations for the teachers who used the awards system were also higher. The awards system fostered learning of microbiology by undergraduate students.

Human Flight on a Fabulous Superbird. Uplifting Images between Sicily and Khurasan

Painted on the great Islamic ceiling of Palermo’s Cappella Palatina (1140s) is a pair of apotheosis scenes – two human figures carried in flight by giant birds. Interpretations of these paintings have ranged from Alexander’s Ascension, to Ganymed’s Abduction, to Sasanian and Buddhist myths illustrated in the famous Sasanian silver dish in the Hermitage. This paper argues, instead, that the Palatina’s birds flying humans are to be identified with the fabulous avian figures of Islamic lore, either the Arabic ʿAnqāʾ, the Persian Sīmurgh, or the Turkic Tughril. Tales about such superbirds, their extraordinary powers, and their transporting humans abound in Islamic, Turkic, and Persianate cultures. Among these are Zāl’s nurturing by the Sīmurgh in the Iranian Shāhnāma, the black eagle transporting the hero in the Central Asian oral epic of Er-Töshtük, and Arabic tales of sailors rescued at sea by giant birds. The distinctive iconography of the Palatina apotheosis scenes – the humans secured with ropes to the superbirds – is traceable to Iranian art of the tenth to the twelfth centuries, especially to metalwork and textiles from Khurasan (eastern Iran). The horned ears and double heads and/or prey of the Palatina birds and analogous Iranian scenes hail from medieval Islamic and Central-Asian or Turkic traditions connoting these fantastic beasts’ cosmic potency. The well-documented travels of learned men, traders, and pilgrims in the area of Sicily, Iran, and Khurasan account for the transmission of this kind of imagery. The Cappella Palatina superbirds convey the princely couple to the symbolic heaven of the starry ceiling.

Isopiestic determination of the osmotic and activity coefficients of the {yKBr + (1 – y)K2HPO4}(aq) system at T = 298.15 K

The molality-based osmotic coefficients of aqueous mixtures of KBr and K2HPO4 have been measured at T=(298.15±0.01)K by the isopiestic method at KBr ionic strength fractions y=(0.18328, 0.38241, 0.58031, 0.79186, and 1) and over the ionic strength range (2.5452 to 10.0418)mol·kg−1, using KCl(aq) and CaCl2(aq) as the reference standard solutions. These experiments were performed using glass sample dishes because preliminary experiments showed that some corrosion of our usual gold-plated silver dishes occurred with dissolution of silver, presumably by “pinhole” corrosion at imperfections in the gold layer. These osmotic coefficients were modeled with an extended form of Pitzer’s ion-interaction model equations, both with the usual Pitzer mixing terms and with Scatchard’s neutral-electrolyte mixing terms, and with the Clegg–Pitzer–Brimblecombe equations based on the mole-fraction-composition scale. There are no previously published isopiestic measurements for this ternary system. The present assessment yields mixing parameters for these models. Model parameters for KBr(aq) at T=(298.15±0.01)K were also evaluated using the present results along with four sets of osmotic coefficients taken from the published literature. For the {yKBr+(1−y)K2HPO4}(aq) system, the model with five Scatchard mixing terms gave a significantly better representation of the osmotic coefficients than any of the other models and is therefore recommended for calculation of osmotic and activity coefficients.

SILVER DISH WITH FIGHTING SCENES FROM THE LOWER OB REGION

A medieval silver dish with hunting scenes from a hoard found on the Lower Ob is described in terms of composition, style, and the iconography of separate elements. The dish was apparently manufactured in the 12th or 13th centuries in one of the toreutic workshops in northeastern Europe, specifi cally on the Kama or in the Perm area of the Urals.

The Old System

The Old System Sarah Blacher Cohen from the story by Saul Bellow with permission by the author "The Old System" © 1967 by Saul Bellow. All rights reserved. "A Silver Dish" © 1978 by Saul Bellow. All rights reserved. Stage adaptations by Joanne Koch and Sarah Blacher Cohen. "The Old System," adapted by Sarah Blacher Cohen, was first presented with "A Silver Dish," adapted by Joanne Koch, as Saul Bellow's Stories on Stage in 1992 as a staged reading featuring Byrne Piven, directed by Joyce Piven at the Chicago Writers' Bloc New Play Festival with support from the Dramatists Guild Fund, Inc.; then in 1993 at the Lewis A. Swyer Theatre, the Empire Center at the Egg, sponsored by the New York State Writers' Institute and the College of Humanities and Fine Arts, University at Albany; at the Barbra Streisand Festival in San Diego featuring Hal Gould in 1995; in 1996; as a staged reading at the Florida Atlantic University Library Series in 2000; at the Empire Center at the Egg in Albany, New York, in a memorial performance directed by Rebecca Kaplan and sponsored by SUNY Hillel in 2005; as a staged reading at the Spertus Institute in Chicago and at the Milwaukee Public Library in 2005, both presentations directed by Sandy Shinner. The Old System Cast of Characters: Samuel Braun—an inward, ruminating intellectual in his sixties whose family reminiscences interrupt his scientific detachment. Referred to in the script as Dr. Braun or Dr. Samuel Braun. Ilkington—a seventy-year-old stuffy WASP gentleman with a streak of criminality. [End Page 170] Young Sammy Braun—an earnest young boy. *Young Tina—an angry hulk of a girl on the verge of puberty who is seductive and menacing. Aunt Rose—a hard-driving business woman with a slight Yiddish accent who has veto power over her family's choices. Uncle Braun—the docile Yiddish-accented survivor of the Czar's army and his domineering wife. Isaac—Born in Europe, coming to America as a boy. Initially an upright young man is his twenties who, in the course of the play, becomes a middle-aged man with old-world spiritual values and strong attachment to family. *Adult Tina—an embittered middle-aged woman who feels mistreated by her family and patriarchal society. Rebbe from Williamsburg—the religious equivalent of a perceptive psychiatrist who immediately discovers what's wrong and offers the right advice. He speaks with a slight accent from his Lubovitcher Hasidic ancestors. Mutt Braun—a streetwise tough-guy who, beneath the outward bravado, is still a little boy taking orders from Tina. *(If the right actress can be found, she can be both the younger Tina and the older Tina.) THE OLD SYSTEM adapted by Sarah Blacher Cohen from the story by Saul Bellow. Lights up on One Actor, who will play the part of the older Samuel Braun, scientist. Dr. Braun Winter. Saturday. The short end of December. Alone in my apartment. Working with a thought… a feeling. (Braun strides up and down, grappling with an idea, struggling to ascertain its meaning.) They said that I, a scientist, a specialist in the chemistry of heredity, did not love anyone. Not true. I didn't love anyone steadily. But unsteadily I loved, at an average rate… Especially my two cousins, in upstate New York… Isaac Braun and his sister Tina… from Albany and Schenectady. Isaac, a boy from Europe, grew up to be a man in the direct Old Testament sense, as that bird on the sycamore was born to fish in water. Isaac had the outlook of ancient generations on the New World. [End Page 171] Tents and kine and wives and maidservants and manservants. His old country Jewish dignity was very firm and strong… In childhood he showed me great kindness. He took me for rides in the wagon with the old sway-back horse. He used to call me Sammy, sometimes Sammele. Actors playing ISAAC and SAMUEL BRAUN as a boy are lit sitting atop a cube, swaying as if in a horsedrawn buggy. OLDER DR. SAMUEL BRAUN glances lovingly upon them. (A very soft musical three or four minute bridge of a Jewish-sounding Klezmer...

A Silver Dish

A Silver Dish Joanne Koch (bio) Adapted with the author's permission from the short story. "A Silver Dish" © 1978 by Saul Bellow. All rights reserved. "The Old System" © 1967 by Saul Bellow. All rights reserved. Stage adaptations by Joanne Koch and Sarah Blacher Cohen. Presented with "The Old System," adapted by Sarah Blacher Cohen, as "Saul Bellow's Stories on Stage" as a staged reading directed by Byrne Piven at the Chicago Writers' Bloc New Play Festival with support from the Dramatists Guild Fund, Inc. in 1996; at the New York State Writer's Institute, University at Albany, 1994; at the Barbara Streisand Festival in San Diego in 1995; as a staged reading at the Florida Atlantic University Library Series in 2000; at The Egg Center For the Performing Arts in Albany, New York, in a memorial performance directed by Rebecca Kaplan and sponsored by SUNY Hillel in 2005; as a staged reading at the Spertus Institute in Chicago and at the Milwaukee Public Library in 2005, both presentations directed by Sandy Shinner. CAST OF CHARACTERS WOODY SELBST………………………………expansive, likeable man of sixty YOUNG WOODY……………………………teenager shuttling between sex and the seminary MRS. SKOGLUND……………………………wealthy, Swedish widow, once a cook WOODY'S MOTHER………………………………English woman with Victorian airs (doubles as NURSING MOTHER at the fair) [End Page 202] POP……………………………………………loveable con man, zesty, crude, unpretentious REVEREND DOCTOR KOVNER…………a Polish Pat Robertson (doubles as FARMER) WOODY'S AUNT REBECCA………………suspicious, smart wife of Rev. Kovner (doubles as OLD PROSTITUTE, MAID HJORDIS) TIME: 1980 & 1932 PLACE: Chicago Note on accents: Woody's mother and Aunt Rebecca were born and raised in England. Woody's father was born and raised in Russia, spent his adolescence in Liverpool and has since hung out in pool halls and betting parlors in Chicago. Reverend Kovner has Polish accent, suggested by the "v" for "w." Mrs. Skoglund came from Sweden as a young girl and retains her accent. Suggestions of these rhythms, rather than any attempt to simulate thick accents works best. WOODY SELBST, a man of about sixty, a warm teddy bear of a guy, paces in a hospital waiting room, pauses to look out a window, listening to the distant sound of church bells. Woody (to audience) I can't go back to Pop's room just yet. For weeks now, every time I see him, I think, this could be the last time. What can I do? SOUND OF CHURCH BELLS RINGING What do you do about death? Be realistic. There's not much you can do. We're not much better at dealing with it than, well, water buffaloes, like the ones I watched in Africa. I'm a tile contractor with plenty of responsibility, believe me—a wife here, a mistress there, a mother, two sisters that don't exactly play with a full deck… and a father who may not last out the day. (He casts a somber glance back to the window.) But once a year, I get away. I go far—Japan, Mexico, Africa. It was on a launch near the Murchison Falls in Uganda, I saw a buffalo calf seized by a crocodile from the bank of the White Nile. (He gets into the telling of the story, moving downstage.) There were giraffes along the river, and hippopotamuses, and baboons and flamingos and other brilliant birds crossing the bright air in the heat of the morning, when the calf, stepping into the river to drink, was grabbed by the hoof and dragged down. The parent buffaloes couldn't figure it out. Under the water [End Page 203] the calf still thrashed, fought, churned the mud. It looked to me as if the parents were asking each other dumbly what had happened. They were just animals, but I believe they felt grief. SOUND OF CHURCH BELLS RINGING Woody (listening for a moment) Sunday… Bells. I have plenty of connections with bells and churches. Technically, I was born a Jew, but when I was still a kid our whole family—except for Pop—was converted by my uncle, the Reverend Doctor Kovner. Kovner had gone to the Hebrew Union College in Cincinnati, but then, I guess he got...