Isolation Photo Project, Day 106

Dad was an avid audiophile. When I was young, it wasn't unusual to wake up on a Saturday or Sunday morning to Dad's records filling the house with music. He had a few favourite performers was Neil Diamond. I think Dad had all of his albums and I remember sitting with Dad in the living room listening to Song Sung Blue, Sweet Caroline, Cracklin' Rosie, and many others. Although our relationship wasn't always the best, these were magical moments for me, time spent with Dad listening to a record, reading the liner notes.

Me and you are subject to the blues now and then But when you take the blues and make a song You sing them out again


After my Fuji X-T2 started rattling and the Really Right Stuff tripod L-bracket felt loosey-goosey, I removed the L-bracket to discover that the screws around the tripod mounting thread had disappeared and the thread had sunken into the body of the camera. After some Google-foo I found this blog post which described exactly the problem I had.

Fabian's post detailed which screws I needed. I initially had problems sourcing the screws. I contacted Fuji Support of North America but received a generic response use their support web site, which of course has nothing to offer. I tried eBay but I didn't find screws in the right size. After some more focused Google-foo, I think I have found the proper screws. I ordered eleven M1.6-0.35 x 2.0mm Nickel Wafer Head Screw #10422 screws which cost me just $17 with taxes and shipping. I hope I can repair my camera.


When my wife had the television on the local news channel last week I saw that some people in the Italian-American community are upset over efforts to remove statues of Christopher Columbus. I think they are tone-deaf. Christopher Columbus has nothing to do with America. The continent is named for Amerigo Vespucci, the first Italian to ever set foot on the America continent. Columbus was not even the first European to reach its shores, having been preceded by Erik the Red in 10th-century Greenland and Leif Erikson in 11th-century Vinland at L'Anse aux Meadows.

Christopher Columbus came to be considered the discoverer of America in the US and European but America had already been discovered and populated by its indigenous population. But somehow were are supposed to give credit to an Italian man?

Modern estimates for the pre-Columbian population of Hispaniola, where Columbus was Governor, vary from several hundred thousand to more than a million. According to the historian Gonzalo Fernandez de Oviedo y Valdes, by 1548, 56 years after Columbus landed, and 42 years after he died, fewer than 500 Taíno were living on the island.1

The natives of the island were systematically subjugated via the encomienda system implemented by Columbus, a Spanish style feudal system. Basically a lord offered "protection" to a class of people and they owed him their labour. Spanish colonists under Columbus's rule were allowed to buy and sell natives as slaves, including children.

Does it make sense to defend a statue of a man who tortured and mutilated natives and then paraded their dismembered bodies through the streets in an attempt to discourage rebellion? This is the proud Italian heritage that needs defending?

Submitted as part of the 100DaysToOffload project.


  1. Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Columbus#Accusations_of_tyranny_and_brutality