No Dunkin' - Swan Song

I have been doing my Tuesday posts of "No Dunkin' Donuts" for 38 weeks now.  I had no idea when I started how long this would go on for.  But it feels as if I need to stop now.  I realized the last couple of weeks that instead of having a relaxing coffee and donut at the beach, I spend most of my time trying to find yet one more photograph.  So our Tuesday ritual has become something else, and so I have decided that this is the last post in this project.  I had done a photo of me holding one of these donuts between by thumb and forefinger months ago.  I wanted to make the ultimate version of the shot, so later on I brought two chopsticks with me, stuck them into the bottom of the donut and took this picture.  Then I carefully retouched the chopsticks out of the image, and here is my surrealistic image that I really love.  It may be my favorite photograph of the whole series!

So here are our empty chairs on the beach as a way of saying goodbye.  We will continue our weekly ritual, and things will be much more relaxed for me, not having to find a picture each week. I mean, if I do find something wonderful, then I will do a regular post on the blog.  I first learned of the term "swan song" when I was in my early years at Newsday.  Someone talked about one of the reporters who was leaving, as "writing his swan."  I had no idea what that meant.  This is what Wikipedia says about a swan song:  "The swan song is a metaphorical phrase for a final gesture, effort, or performance given just before death or retirement.  The phrase refers to an ancient belief that swans sing a beautiful song just before their death, having been silent during most of their lifetime.  This belief, whose basis in actuality is long-debated, had become proverbial in ancient Greece and was reiterated many times in later Western poetry and art."