Tuesday, December 23, 2008

Wednesday, December 17, 2008

Paul Caspari, M.D.: The Good Doctor





In memoriam for my grandfather, born February 27, 1867, died December 15, 1937. I never knew him my grandfather, since he died in Berlin, five years before I was born, but my mother, Beate Caspari-Rosen, often spoke about him with love and respect. She chronicled his life, in several essays, in her recollections. These are published on my website www.profkoslow.com. [Family button] In this photograph, taken around 1910, he stands on the left with his wife Flora Arnswalder Caspari, "Uncle Herman", also a physician, and Ernst, his nephew. My mother is the beautiful charming child with a shepherd's staff. The young woman next to Uncle Herman is a maid, who accompanied the family on this vacation in the mountains.
Why have I titled this blog "The Good Doctor"? First because he was an excellent family practitioner. Second. After the Nazi regime established anti- Jewish laws, doctors were denied the right to practice. Even though Paul Caspari visited the United States after his daughter moved there (1935) with her husband George Rosen, and had the opportunity to remain with his wife Flora, and even after he was strongly urged not to return to Berlin, he did. His reason: the Jewish population in Berlin would need physicians; it was his duty to care for them. Fortunately, he was spared the horror that was to befall millions; he died of a heart attack during the course of an operation. He was buried in a Jewish cemetery in Berlin. amazingly this cemetery was not destroyed by the Nazis and remains intact today.

Tuesday, December 16, 2008

Emma: Happy 10th Birthday, little scottie dog







Emma was born on December 16, 1998, at Great Scot Kennels, Saugerties, New York. Her mother was Biscuit who was also the mother of Emma's older brother Aesop. Emma was a little demon when we brought her home. She terrorized her older brother, about a year and half older with her needlelike teeth. She would charge and jump on his back and bite. Aesop was confounded. What to do. His older "sister" Kate was about 11 or 12 when moved in and she was no longer able to engage him. When he was too annoying she would move away and grumble at him. She took the path of peace rather than war. Also she was suffering from having lost her "brother" Fala not long before. Also, she may already have contracted the disease that would finally bring about her death. In any case Fala sought refuge from wild little Emma upstairs. Even though his legs were short he was able to rush up to the second floor and there ensconce himself on a couch and look down onto the street. Emma was far to small to make the ascent.
But once Emma's teething was over and she matured, brother and sister became the best of friends. Emma is extremely independent but seeks shelter with us when she is uncertain about how dangerous the other dog may be or what she perceives as a foreign object that does not fit the gestalt of known beings in her world.
We are very grateful for Emma and for who she is.
The pictures show Emma in the yard after waterplay , at Tallman State Park, NY, and in our neighborhood or yard.

Tuesday, December 9, 2008

John Milton: let us celebrate the birthday of the great English poet












born December 9, 1608, died November 8, 1675. Author of Paradise Lost

Saturday, December 6, 2008

Susan Joan Rosen, December 7, 1941 --



Susan Joan Rosen and Harold Olejarz



Susan Joan Rosen: born December 7, 1941, Pearl Harbor Day






Teaching art history at Brooklyn College, Boylan Hall, Brooklyn College, City University of New York Julian and Jennifer Koslow in the lap of a Max Ernst sculpture at Storm King Sculpture Park, New York, 1970s
My husband Harold Olejarz and the beautiful Kate at Tallman State Park, New York, 1998

Susan Joan Rosen: born December 7, 1941, Pearl Harbor Day



Richard Brignoli, my first husband, and I married on April 2, 1962. We are at Joe Wright's Pond, Canterbury Connecticut
The eye of Richard Brignoli, detail of a portrait I painted of my husband in 1962--1963
My brother Paul Peter Rosen and myself at Joe Wright's Pond, Canterbury Connecticut, 1960s

What happened? life went by so fast. family, grandparents, parents, brother, husbands, lovers, friends, children, dogs, history, teaching, writing, art, living history as it occurs, the personal and the historical moment. fortunate I am to have been born into this turbulent time a witness to the wonders and atrocities to a world that is tipping and may go off course pity to those who suffer the terrors that will ensue but I will not be present to observe that revolution, the past I recall and study and the present I experience but the future whatever predictions are made is unknowable

Susan Joan Rosen: born December 7, 1941, Pearl Harbor Day, 2


On a farm in South New Berlin, New York State. I was not able to speak yet. Three was the magic number when I began to talk. I am on the left, my brother Paul Peter Rosen, who is a famous breast pathologist at Cornell-Weill, New York City is on the right and the boy in the center lived on the farm. Summers later went spent at Garnet Lake, New York State. My father was working for the New York City Health Department, and stayed in Manhattan to deal with a polio outbreak in the city. T and I attended Hunter College Elementary School's Kindergarten. Her parents were at Garnet Lake too for one or two summers. T was my "best friend."

Susan Joan Rosen: born December 7, 1941, Pearl Harbor Day: then and now , 1






I was born in Brooklyn, New York CIty on December 7, 1941. My mother, Beate Caspari-Rosen gave birth withonly my father attending, according to my mother's account. All doctors and nurses were listening to the terrible news that had befallen the USA on that day. Hence the New Times frontpage. Then follows a self-portrait memento mori (c 1980s) , actually a course exercise, and the third a photograph taken when I was two.