This is an excerpt from my journal a few days back, but the lunch discussion was so interesting, I thought I would add it.
August 28, 2017
We had a simple hot dog lunch and some interesting discussion. I talked to Mom and Dad about Can You Forgive Her?, and I said it wouldn't suit every reader's tastes as the writer used quite a few lines to describe the green drawing room.
“It wouldn't be everyone's tastes in movies either,” said Mom.
It reminded me of my brother Bruce who can't appreciate some of the historical period movies I like. “All the scenes take place in one room!” he's said.
I guess I still had “drawing room” on the brain, so I said, “With some of the period movies I like, they think everyone just sits in the drawing room.”
Dad couldn't resist punning. “Yes,” he said, “and they don't even do any drawing!”
I got into a silly mood as I took a hot dog from the platter and said, “Come along, little dogie.” We then had a discussion as to why cowboys said “Come along, little dogie” to cattle. From the sound of the word, it seems more appropriate for dogs. Mom thought it might have been influenced by a Spanish word.
I looked it up later and had difficulty finding the information I wanted. I finally found a definition of dogie with a possible word origin. The Spanish influence was one theory, that it was taken from the Spanish word for lariat, dogal. Dogies, apparently, are orphaned calves. Ramon F. Adams, a writer on western Americana, had one explanation for it, that orphaned calves, weaned too soon, got swollen bellies and were called “dough-guts” which then became “dogies.”
“Come along, little dogies,” was not the end of my silliness. For some reason, I began to sing, “Tiptoe Through the Tulips.” I tell people sometimes that my brain is a random jukebox. When I'm in a happy mood, my random jukebox can make some odd selections of very silly and stupid songs. This is one example. When I was a kid, my oldest brother Tim had an album of K-Tel novelty songs from the '60s and '70s called Looney Tunes. Tiny Tim's “Tiptoe Through the Tulips” was on it. My brother's record seemed like a kiddie album to me, and I played it plenty of times, but why this particular song popped into my head at lunch time, when I hadn't heard it recently, I can not explain.
This brought up Tiny Tim and his falsetto voice in discussion, and we talked about what an odd character he was. The discussion then shifted to ukulele players, and I made the case that ukulele players are not considered as nerdy as they may have been at one time. I listed several “cool” modern ukulele players: Youtuber Dodie Clark, Grace Vanderwaal who won America's Got Talent and Iz Kamakowiwo'ole who had a hit with his version of “Somewhere Over the Rainbow/What a Wonderful World.” This then made me think of Disney's Moana, and in Saturday's quick walk-through of the Disney store, the “Lava Song” (which has a ukulele accompaniment) had been playing. Somehow, magically, and not unhappily, the “Lava Song” replaced “Tiptoe Through the Tulips” as the song stuck in my head.
For the past several years, I have been tracking my reading on Goodreads.com. I liked the site as a reader even before I had an author page. Goodreads has a tremendous database of books. You can even add rare or out of print books yourself to the database. It's an excellent way to track your reading year by year and over a lifetime, keeping a digital record rather than a list on paper. There are many features of this site of which I have not taken advantage, but I do like Listopia lists. You can look over book lists in a given category, and, if you're a bibliophile, it's hard to come away from this without adding to your to-read list.
This year, in 2015, I've read 47 books. That's a fair amount, but my goal was to read 100 books. In 2013 and 2014, I came close to this goal, reading 90 and some books.
The Goodreads site gave me some interesting end of the year facts and statistics on my 2015 reading. According to Goodreads,com, those 47 books represent 10,382 pages.
The shortest book I read, only 18 pages, was Ezcape from Sobibor by David Fischler. This was a mistake. I thought I was downloading the book on which the movie was based, telling the true story of Jews that escaped this horrible Holocaust death camp. I failed to notice the Z in Escape. The story started out like a history, referencing the names of the key historical people. I wasn't anticipating the zombies, Holocaust victim avenging zombies that survive the gas chamber and wreak havoc on their persecutors. I'd like to think the writer had good intentions and that he found it satisfying for a kind of justice to be done this way, but, I found it, to put it in the politest terms, odd. I didn't like it ... at all.
The longest book I read in the past year was Jim Henson: The Biography by Brian Jay Jones, 608 pages.
I found myself really relating to this man as I read his biography and feeling like I was a lot like him. I'm also a puppeteer, on a smaller scale. I'm not on television. It wasn't merely the puppeteering connection I felt with Jim, and I wouldn't say that our style of creativity is similar. Every time, however, I read about some personality characteristic of Jim, it sounded just like me. He was quiet, soft-spoken, peaceful and diplomatic and hated conflict. He liked to stay out of the spotlight and let Kermit speak for him. He was also highly driven in his creative endeavors. One funny scenario I remember from the book is that Jim was in a position where he needed to fire someone from "The Muppet Show", after it got into the press that this person had bad mouthed a guest on their show. When the person was sent to Jim, however, Jim couldn't go through with it and ended up giving the guy a bear hug.
Personality typing is one of my little interests. As I read, I became convinced that Jim Henson was, according to the Myers Brigg system, an INFP just like me. (I realize that means little to you if you are not already familiar with the system, but, if you are curious, go to the link.) I did a Google search for Jim Henson and Myers Brigg and found the Wikipedia article on INFP listed Henson as a celebrity example of the type.
I learned so much from reading this book. I did quite a bit of reading on his life and career before I even began reading about either "Sesame Street" or "The Muppet Show." I found details about his early career quite interesting and had to look up vintage Wilkins Coffee commercials on Youtube to see his early work.
The average length of books I read in 2015 was 247 pages.
The most popular book in 2015 is "1984" by George Orwell. The least popular book is "Holidays in Verse" by Marie Clark Miller.
I see that "1984" seems to be required reading for most high schools, but it wasn't required reading for me as a high schooler or even for one of my college classes as an English major. It was always on my reading list as a book I should probably read some time, but I wasn't always in the right spirit of it. Now, I have read this influential book, and it makes me think of much of the nonfiction I've read on repressive governments.
It doesn't surprise me that "Holidays in Verse" is the least popular of my 2015 reads. I added it to the Goodreads database. It's a book written by my paternal great aunt. My cousin who joined us for Thanksgiving brought it to show that I was not the only writer in the family. My Great Aunt Marie was better known as a painter, but she illustrated this book of her children's poetry with her paintings. I'd love to learn more about this aunt. Some searches on Google brought up some interesting things, even her autographed photo for sale.
I did read the Escape from Sobibor by Richard Rashke, the book I had meant to download when I downloaded the zombie story. This is another sort of book for which you may need the right spirit. I remember sometimes wanting a break to think of something more cheerful. Sobibor, of course, is far from cheerful, but the story of the prisoners' escape and survival gives hope. The writer went to a lot of work in tracking down the survivors and traveling around the world to visit with them, giving updates on their (then) current lives.
In the past few years, I've been reading both a lot of mystery fiction and true crime books. The nature of the crime in The Devil in the White City is perhaps a bit more grisly than the average crime book that I read, but it was written in such a way that I was not overwhelmed with the grisly details.
This book tells the story of the man pictured below, H.H. Holmes. He had a hotel especially built with some murderous purposes in mind with a gas chamber and incinerator room among them. He was doing his murderous business at the time of the Chicago World's Fair. The writer alternates between telling the story of the planning of Chicago World's Fair, which I found tremendously interesting, and the story of Holmes and his murders. It was an interesting look at a murderer with some con man characteristics. He apparently seemed very gentle and likeable.
I really loved the description of the first Ferris wheel built for the World Fair with the idea of outdoing the Eiffel Tower. If this crime story seems too grisly for you, perhaps you would enjoy this bit of comic relief. The first Ferris wheel was quite a novel and fearful thing at the time, and each of the cars held a lot more passengers than just one or two. This story of a terrified passenger stood out to me.
Wherritt staggered in panic from one end of the car to the other, driving passengers before him like 'scared sheep,' according to one account. He began throwing himself at the walls of the car with such power that he managed to bend some of the protective iron. The conductor and several male passengers tried to subdue him, but he shook them off and raced for the door ... As the car entered its descent, Wherritt became calmer and laughed and sobbed with relief -- until he realized the wheel was not going to stop. It always made two full revolutions. Wherritt again went wild, and again the conductor and his allies subdued him, but they were getting tired ... A woman stepped up and unfastened her skirt. To the astonishment of all aboard, she slipped the skirt off and threw it over Wherritt's head, then held it in place while murmuring gentle assurances. The effect was immediate. Wherritt became 'as quiet as an ostrich.'
I also read Agatha Christie's Murder on the Orient Express.
I had already seen two film versions of it, the 1974 version, starring Albert Finney, Lauren Bacall, Ingrid Bergman, Sean Connery, John Gielgud, Vanessa Redgrave ...
And the 2010 version starring David Suchet as Hercule Poirot. After watching a number of episodes of the BBC "Poirot" series, Suchet and Poirot, to me, have become synonymous in my mind. Now, when I read a Poirot novel, I visualize Suchet.
The story, as you may know, has a very interesting twist ending. I enjoyed reading the novel even after knowing the surprise ending, but the story itself was filled with so much complexity and complications, I found it enjoyable still.
Another historical true crime book I read was The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher. The victim of this 1860 murder was a two-year-old boy who was found with his throat slashed in a privy. It was interesting to learn that this crime story was influential on the English manor mystery and on early mystery fiction writers.
This prompted me to read The Moonstone by Wilkie Colllins, one of the books the writer believes was influenced by this case. I had already read Collins' The Woman in White in recent years and enjoyed it.
I did enjoy this classic mystery of a stolen diamond. There is a lot of confusion and misunderstanding between some of the key characters. At times, I found the behavior of Rachel Verinder to be very strange, like she was making strange assumptions, and I began to wonder if Collins really understood women or if Victorian women were just different in nature than today's women. I remember there was a time when the plot seemed predictable and I was losing some interest, but then it turned and became suspenseful again.
Last year, my friend Debra recommended the BBC series The Paradise to me, and I watched the full season on Netflix.
I liked it so well that I was motivated to read the book on which the series was based, The Ladies' Paradise by Emile Zola. Sometimes, I am motivated to read books because the movie version is coming out or sometimes motivated to read a book because I saw a movie based on or related to the book. There are some differences between the original book and the drama, character names for one, but also plot differences.
You wouldn't think a story about a department store could be very exciting, but it is multi-faceted, a story about big business pushing out smaller independent ones, about a woman's career ambitions and romance. I like descriptive passages and was surprised at Zola's ability to beautifully describe rather feminine things, so you had a real feeling of the fictional atmosphere. Here's an example ...
At first stood out the light satins and tender silks, the satins a la Reine and Renaissance, with the pearly tones of spring water; light silks, transparent as crystals -- Nile-green, Indian-azure, May-rose, and Danube-blue. Then came the stronger fabrics: marvellous satins, duchess silks, warm tints, rolling in great waves; and right at the bottom, as in a fountain-basin, reposed the heavy stuffs, the figured silks, the damasks, brocades, and lovely silvered silks in the midst of a deep bed of velvet of every sort -- black, white, and colored -- skillfully disposed on silk and satin grounds, hollowing out with their medley of colours a still lake in which the reflex of the sky seemed to be dancing. The women, pale with desire, bent over as if to look at themselves. And before this falling cataract they all remained standing, with the secret fear of being carried away by the irruption of such luxury, and with the irresistible desire to jump in amidst it and be lost.
The final metaphor is wonderful too. These descriptive passages may not be to every reader's taste, but I love it.
The Princess Bride is another book I saw in movie form first -- several times.
The dialogue, of course, is just like the movie dialogue, but I think reading the book would be worthwhile for his humorous narrative style which can't completely translate into a movie script. I felt I got more backstory on some of the characters which was not included in the movie. I also enjoyed reading the book's extras and learning about the author.
In mystery fiction, it seems there is an almost endless supply of books in this genre, and, if you discover new fictional characters or a new author you like, most likely, you've discovered a series. After reading The Dante Connection by Estelle Ryan, I would like to read more books from this series. This mystery features an art-related crime, which got my attention immediately. Also, Genevieve Lenard, the key sleuth, is a person with both Asperger's and a genius IQ, so I was very intrigued by the character and both of her strengths and weaknesses. She writes Mozart in her head when she is deeply stressed. She doesn't understand idioms which leads to some occasional humor and doesn't have a natural instinct for reading body language, but through study and several degrees, body language is her area of expertise which helps her in her detecting.
I don't read much science fiction, but I do like time travel stories. I also love blue Morpho butterflies.
The Blue Butterfly by Lynn Murphy involves both. In fact, butterflies are the method by which the characters, the four members of the Donovan family, travel through time. I thought it was an intriguing concept.
This would, I think, be considered a YA novel, but I enjoyed it. The parents of the family are a physicist and a historian. Their children, Mollie and Jake, are highly gifted kids with their own areas of intellectual interest. When their parents disappear, Mollie and Jake go traveling through time after them. Suspenseful situations arise, because their time travel discovery is not fully understood. They will be led back in time to a time in history in which they have been thinking. They are not completely sure if they are completely able to direct the where and when of their travels, so parents separate from children and brother from sister. Various family members visit Matisse's Paris, the Titanic, the French Revolution, Darwin at the Galapagos Islands, etc.
I almost left I Am Malala off the list, not because it was not a highlight, but because I read it in early 2015 and thought it might be harder to remember my impressions. Another blogger reminded me of how special this book is. Malala Yousafzal is the Pakistani girl who, after becoming visible as an advocate for girls' education, was shot by the Taliban and survived. Although the girls' experiences are different, it reminded me somewhat of Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl. I was so impressed by Malala's intelligence, the depth of her thoughts and the beauty of her words in expressing herself. She says she does not remember being shot, but, while still in the hospital, looked at her injured self in the mirror with a scientific curiosity.
I am currently reading The Map Thief by Michael Blanding. It's a true crime story about a rare map dealer who became a thief, cutting rare maps with an X-Acto knife from books in various libraries. It also has a lot of history and intriguing details about this man's life.
In 2016, already I have several mystery fiction books I wish to read.
From Amazon, "When fashionista and television celeb Gina Monroe goes home to attend the funeral of her late grandmother, the last thing she expects to encounter is murder. And the reading of the will is anything but fashionable as unanswered questions arise. Who is the dead woman in the woods behind the family house? And why is she dressed in Milano designer clothes?"
From Amazon, "Crime is merely a hedgerow away in the sleepy British village of Halfereton, pleasingly nestled among gently rolling hills, cozy Old World cottages, and the latest unsolved murder.
As England's most reluctant murder host, Hugo Anstead is even more reluctant to believe that the latest village murder was anything but accidental.
But ambitious journalist and voice of the village Marjorie Branell-Markson can't dismiss the accidental death of local resident Camilla Alden, whose death might not have been as accidental as it seemed. And when a mysterious French railway timetable is found in her garden, she crosses her fingers indelicately, convinced that coincidences always lead to more crime. And she is right. Soon, another wide-eyed local becomes the focus of a string of crimes, and is attacked before she realizes the connection between her recent travels in France--and Camilla Alden's death.
But there's more than cafe and croissants on the menu, as the village's Amateur Sleuth Society travels to France to uncover the secret of a mysteriously illuminated fifteenth-century religious monument...before there's another murder.
Pack your bags for The French De Ception...and don't forget your passport!"
From Amazon, "In a landscape strewn with dollars, how do you catch a killer who's playing for higher stakes than money?
Ex-detective Evan Adair has a gift for working out how the dead got that way, but the truth never brought anybody back. After twenty-three years at the NYPD and a devastating private loss, he wants no part of another investigation.
But an old colleague comes calling with a tantalizing riddle. A Wall Street wunderkind, a young quant with everything to live for, has taken a bizarre public dive from an opera balcony. Was the fall his own idea? And his injuries, as it turns out, weren't enough to kill him. So how -- and why -- did he die?
Soon there is another death, this one a vicious knife attack. The dual investigation draws Adair into the byzantine worlds of finance and high-stakes biotech. He finds secrets with long histories and numbers that can talk -- if only he can figure out how to listen."
From Amazon, "Digital photographer Maggie Thornhill has been asked to do the impossible. Authenticate a Van Gogh painting, missing since World War II, by simply using a photograph. The challenge is presented to her by her long-time friend, Ingrid Rettke. When Ingrid is murdered, Maggie makes it her mission to analyze the photograph, find the painting and in doing so, track down the killer.
The photograph in question was passed down to Ingrid by her grandfather, Klaus Rettke. Maggie learns that Rettke was a key member of the German ERR, the Nazi organization appointed to confiscate art from the Jews. Obscure references in Klaus Rettke’s diary convince her that Rettke stole the painting from the Nazis.
Maggie works with homicide detective, Frank Mead, and two art experts, Emil Kahn and Henri Benoit, to track down the painting and the killer. Complicating her life, Maggie’s in the middle of a divorce, she is attracted to Mead, but also to Henri, who tries to seduce her.
She develops a software program to match certain key criteria of known Van Gogh paintings with those of the painting in the photograph. However, even using the latest digital photography methods, authentication of a painting must rely heavily on the word of experts and the provenance, or history, of the work.
Maggie heads to Paris to trace Rettke’s footsteps, hoping they’ll lead to the lost Van Gogh. After piecing together all her clues, she now believes there were actually four paintings: an original and three forgeries. She begins to fear for her life when one of those copies comes to light and its owner is murdered.
Encountering deception within deception in the high-stakes art world, she peels the layers back to reveal not one, but two killers. Both art experts have killed for the painting. Now one is dead and the other intends to kill Maggie. To stay alive, she reveals that she has the genuine Van Gogh. Now she must protect the precious painting . . . and herself from the killer."
My to-read list is almost infinite, which is why I hope to do a lot of reading in 2016!
Christmas Eve was spent doing a bunch of little last minute preparations. We did not make it to our church Christmas Eve service. It was an early five o'clock service. I had to work and, as I was having some car trouble, Dad picked me up. We stopped to do some shopping for a few things for Christmas dinner and my stocking stuffer chocolates. All of this put us behind schedule.
I did sing a solo in church on Sunday, December 20th, Amy Grant's "Breath of Heaven". The music director saw that I was having some stage nerves during rehearsals, and, at first, she was suggesting I should sing from behind the piano. I might not have minded being the mysterious voice from off-stage, but my mother would have minded. In the end, I was situated on the platform near the piano. With sheet music in front of me, I felt like I had an excuse not to look at the audience. I guess it went all right, because the music director's husband said it was "mellow and sweet" and our greeter said I sounded like "a songbird from the south", whatever that means, but I think it's a good thing. I tried to keep in mind that the lyrics are a prayer asking the "breath of heaven", (Holy Spirit) to "help me be strong." It seemed fitting.
Mom wanted to make oyster stew, a Christmas Eve tradition, but we were busy and tired this year. We did the next best thing and got some store-made lobster bisque from Kings Supermarket
with some other specialties ...
and ...
and ...
Dad bought some red and white roses for our Christmas table -- his idea! -- and I put them in water and trimmed their stems. Mom crimped two Pillsbury pie crusts, and I made two pumpkin pies. We just use the recipe on the Libby's canned pumpkin label, but we alter the spice measurements, one tablespoon of cinnamon instead of two teaspoons and one half teaspoon of ginger instead of one teaspoon. (I realize now that this is the first time I have written down Mom's spice adjustments, which shall now be preserved for next time.) While I was doing this, I caught bits and pieces of the West Point Holiday Special featuring the West Point Band, West Point Hellcats (buglers and drummers) and West Point Glee Club.
I also had some last minute wrapping to do, but not a lot, since my family draws names for our gift giving. I drew my nephew Justin's name. He is a twenty-four year old autistic man -- although I still think of him as a kid -- and a bit tricky to shop for. He does love music, so I got him some Disney music CDs:
and ...
The first has Disney movie songs sung by current artists like Gwen Stefani and Fall Out Boy, and the other has original movie soundtrack songs including "Bare Necessities" from Jungle Book, a favorite of mine, and "You've Got a Friend in Me" from Toy Story, another favorite. This gift was easy to wrap since I could just tuck it into a gift bag.
My gift to Mom and Dad was a Time Life collection of Bob Hope comedy.
One late night, while channel surfing, I came across this Time Life infomercial, and we were all laughing at it. I began to think it would be a good gift for them.
I closed the folding doors between the family room and dining room, so I could wrap in privacy. Mom and Dad heard strange noises coming from the dining room. I shrieked twice, once when I nearly hit my head on the chandelier and once when I actually hit it. (We had moved the dining room table, and I kept forgetting to duck.) I also referenced an earlier conversation I had with a professor friend, a college classmate's father, on Facebook. He had posted that he wanted to start a support group for those unskilled in wrapping. I told him that I would join his support group. The Bob Hope DVDs, the way they came packaged, were shrink wrapped to cardboard in two side by side stacks. I thought they were well disguised that way, and when I brought the wrapped package to Mom, she felt it, remarked about it being soft and was mystified.
I put my chocolates in the stockings, including two cute Lindt chocolate bears for nephews Justin and Matthew.
When my work was done, I again watched the original "The Bishop's Wife" on TCM. As I was watching it, I was thinking the movie has a bit of a humanistic message for a story involving a bishop and an angel. Still, there are aspects of it that I find charming even if it is not so completely theologically correct.
The bishop says in his final sermon:
All the stockings are filled -- all that is, except one. And we have even forgotten to hang it up. The stocking for the child born in a manger. It's his birthday we are celebrating. Don't ever let us forget that. Let us ask ourselves what he would wish for most, and then let each put in his share. Loving kindness, warm hearts and the stretched out hand of tolerance. All the shining gifts that make peace on earth.
It's true that Christ would desire these things from us, but it is not true, as the movie suggests elsewhere, that man is naturally good. It's not faith in humanity that we need to restore. He is, however; able to make us good. I was reminded of this quote.
I caught the last half of "It's a Wonderful Life", another favorite Christmas classic. I love this scene with George Bailey and Mary at the phone. You see George's resolve to follow a certain plan for his life melt away while in close proximity to Mary.
Earlier this season, I watched two different movie versions of "A Christmas Carol", both the 1984 and 1999 editions. I found myself drawing a parallel between "It's a Wonderful Life" and "A Christmas Carol." In both stories, a supernatural being shows the main character an alternate reality of his life. The Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come shows Scrooge how his life will unfold if he does not repent.
The Spirit stood among the graves, and pointed down to One. He advanced towards it trembling. The Phantom was exactly as it had been, but he dreaded that he saw new meaning in its solemn shape.
"Before I draw nearer to that stone to which you point," said Scrooge, "answer me one question. Are these the shadows of things that Will be or the shadows of things that May be, only?"
Still the Ghost pointed downward to the grave by which it stood.
"Men's courses will foreshadow certain ends, to which, if persevered in, they must lead. But if the courses be departed from, then the ends will change. Say it is thus with what you show me?"
Of course, Scrooge gets to evade this fate pointed out to him by the final spirit. Clarence, the angel who has not yet earned his wings -- another strange theological concept -- shows George Bailey what the world would be like if he had never been born, how circumstances would change in the world and for people he loves if his life had not impacted them.
Scrooge gets a chance at a new reformed life to do good, and George gets a second chance to continue to do good with hope.
As I watched, I wondered what the world would be like if there had never been a me. A strange thought. Would it make as dramatic a difference as it seems to be in the case of George Bailey? I don't know, but I am sure I am here for a reason and to fulfill a purpose.
Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens, bright copper kettles and warm woolen mittens ...
At first, I thought I would blog on my favorite things in an alphabetized list, with one item per letter of the alphabet. I pondered the types of things that I pin on Pinterest. Then, I realized I wanted to name more than one thing per letter, so I thought I would do a series, with maybe A through F in the first post. The interesting A items in my mind continued to accumulate, so here we are with just a list for A, but I still hope to do a series.
Action Men
I wanted to introduce myself as an author before I began my A list, but this actually fits right in. In my mystery comedy novel, "Action Men with Silly Putty", the "action men" are Jack Donegal and Andy Westin, my main characters. Jack Donegal is a toy inventor and the head of his own toy company who becomes an amateur sleuth when he just happens to stumble into a mystery after buying an antique teddy bear at an auction. Andy Westin is Jack's marketing manager and best buddy as well as the story's narrator.
Here is my explanation of the crazy title. In the process of writing my mystery, I learned that "action men" is the Britspeak equivalent of the toys Americans call "action figures." (Some time after writing it, perusing the toy section of an old antique store in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, I actually saw some action figures labeled as action men.) One of the chapters in the book features both this kind of action men and Silly Putty in a scene. I thought "action men" could also represent my main characters as men of action or men having an adventure, and the Silly Putty in the title would give readers a clue there was some silliness and comedy involved. I plan that "Action Men" will continue in ensuing titles in the series.
Is it strange to list my own fictional characters among my favorite things? I imagine all writers and creators feel this way about their creations. They feel like real people to me, like a couple of my buddies.
Jack is highly intelligent, dreamy and inventive, but like other brainiacs and creative types, has a poor sense of time and seems, on the surface, to be totally disorganized. He's an electrical engineer with a specialty in robotics. He surprises Andy with his knowledge of strange and obscure facts, often in areas outside of his official fields of study. Much to Andy's embarrassment, he also likes to dress like a children's entertainer or a walking gimmick for their toy business. In his trench coat pockets, he carries all sorts of electronic gadgets, toy parts, and other miscellany which he puts to interesting uses in tracking down the criminals.
Andy is almost Jack's polar opposite. He is down to earth, practical and time efficient as well as compulsively neat and organized. His genius might not be so obvious, and Jack loses him in the areas of his technical expertise, but he's not quite a dummy either. He's a good partner who contributes in his own way to the investigation. He balances Jack out. He's fashionable, but his ties don't have to announce his line of business, thank you very much. Andy's too reserved to do anything goofy (intentionally,) but that does not mean he's the unfunny one. In his narration, he often sees Jack and the rest of the world in a humorous way. He's also a bit of a wit who likes to use verbal irony and exchange playful insults with his waitress friend at the Salvador Deli.
Alice in Wonderland
The story of "Alice in Wonderland" is special to me. One Christmas, when I was a child, my brother Dan gave me two of these Big Golden Books like the one above. One was "Alice in Wonderland," and the other was "Peter Pan." I loved both, but I especially loved "Alice in Wonderland." I begged my mother and my three older brothers to read this book to me over and over again. Mom was quite dramatic when she read aloud! I had it read to me so many times that I eventually memorized it and could "read" it to myself.
Disney's "Alice in Wonderland" is also one of the few movies that I saw in the theater as a child. I remember watching a TV commercial for the movie one night, and, suddenly, Mom announces, "Let's go see it right now!" I was accustomed to not always having my wishes met, and I was so surprised by the treat and Mom's spontaneity.
It wasn't until I was in high school that I read the full Lewis Carroll's "Alice in Wonderland" novel. I've read many odd theories about Carroll's inspiration behind the book, that he was inspired by opium or by his migraine attacks. There is even a variation of migraine named Alice in Wonderland Syndrome that affects your perception, say, of your size. Migraine is my "thorn in the flesh," but I'm very glad I don't get this more rare variety. "Alice in Wonderland" is a fantastic story, but why do critics assume that an imaginative story had to be inspired either by drugs or some other mind altering experience? Children have wonderful imaginations and are not limited by adults' knowledge and sense of logic. My theory is that Carroll simply maintained this child-like imagination into adulthood.
Above -- Lewis Carroll's handwritten page with his own illustrations.
Art Nouveau
This particular taste of mine became more apparent when I curated a board on "art I like" on Pinterest. More and more, I began pinning works by Alphonse Mucha.
It may be partly the romanticism and extreme femininity that appeals to me, but I think my eye is attracted to pattern and ornate detail. I love the shapes and patterns in their hair ornaments and the shapes behind them -- I want to call them halos -- adorned with their highly ornate designs.Perhaps, it's also the nature themes in this art movement that I like, flowers, birds, dragonflies, moths, etc.
It's not just Mucha illustrations that I like. I've also collected images of art nouveau art objects and jewelry.
In an "Action Men" story in progress, the stolen object is an antique art nouveau ring by Lalique.
Audrey Hepburn
Thefirst Audrey Hepburn film I ever saw was "My Fair Lady", which is still one of my very favorites. (Musical theater will have to be listed under favorite things for M when I get to that.) Musical theater, in particular musical comedy, combines a lot of the artistic elements I like into one art form: beautiful music, extravagant and often colorful costumes, dance, comedy and storytelling. It engages all of your senses, and, I think, has the ability to give me a "high." If I'm in a very good mood, it is often Broadway music that comes to mind.
My mother's favorite movie in the world is Audrey Hepburn's "Sabrina" from 1954. She remembers seeing it when it was a new film. Back in the days when we did movie rentals from Blockbuster, we tried over and over again to find her favorite movie in the classics section. All she could remember was that it was the story of a girl who lived with her chauffeur father above the garage of a grand home. She confused it at first with "Gigi" and "Lili", both of which star Leslie Caron. It wasn't until the release of the "Sabrina" remake, starring Harrison Ford, in 1995 that we rediscovered this great movie. Well, Mom rediscovered it, and I discovered it for the first time, and I confess that I like the original best.
Now, I own several of the movies on DVD, and I like so many of them so well that it's hard to pick a top favorite. I love "Roman Holiday," the story of a princess who needs a break from her stresses to have some fun. I love "Charade," a suspense mystery story with another great star, Cary Grant. "Funny Face" is a wonderful entertaining story about a bookish girl who becomes a model. It features music by Gershwin. (He'll have to be listed again under G.)
Aurora Borealis
I have been collecting beautiful nature images of all sorts on Pinterest. When I come across photos of the aurora borealis or Northern Lights, I collect it. It's truly an amazing phenomenon, and the assortment of colors and variety is astounding. I don't live in a part of the world where this is visible, but I did hear news rather recently that there was a chance it could be visible in my part of the world.
These are some of my favorite colors in the world here.
Have you had your beauty overload yet? Perhaps, you should see one more.
Isn't it wonderful that we can, through photography, enjoy beauty from various areas of the world you may never see?
Jane Austen
Jane Austen really has quite a following of fans today. I wonder what she would have thought if she knew she'd have devoted fans in 2015? Maybe some of her popularity comes from the many film adaptations of her stories. I've enjoyed both the books and the movies. I didn't know of any Jane Austen fandom when I read my first Austen books. The only title of hers I had to read for a college literature class was "Northanger Abbey." As an English major, I always looked forward to getting my books for each quarter! My mother sent me two others in a college care package, "Pride and Prejudice" and "Sense and Sensibility."
They really are more than just romance novels. They take a satirical look at a lot of interesting characters and social conventions of the time. I'm not infatuated with Mr. Darcy as some of her fans are. (I'm not infatuated with any of the fictional characters.) I don't quite understand that, because you spend half of your reading of "Pride and Prejudice" believing he's not a good person, which, of course, he turns out to be. My favorite Austen heroes are Edward Ferrars from "Sense and Sensibility" ...
and Edmund Bertram from "Mansfield Park."
I guess I like the ministers ... the ones that aren't silly.
Avocado
Avocado may seem like a strange addition to this list of mostly artsy things. I suppose alphabetization and "favorite" is the only thing tying rather random things together. When people ask me what my favorite food is, I can not, usually, come up with a quick answer. I like so many different types of foods and cuisine. However, my recipe boards on Pinterest certainly have a lot of recipes containing avocado. Apparently, I have decided that any recipe with avocado in it must, therefore, be delicious. Humorously enough, Pinterest, the website, caught onto this trend and began suggesting avocado recipes to me.
I live in the New York City area, a long way from where avocados grow. My first exposure to avocado probably happened no sooner than my high school days and, most likely, in the form of guacamole. Now, I like them in salads, on burgers, and almost any way ... I can eat them with a fox. I can eat them in a box. I like them, Sam I am.
How about a bacon, brie and avocado sandwich? I don't think this even needs a recipe.
How can this go wrong? Three of my favorite ingredients in one sandwich.
Maybe you'd like to try an avocado salsa. It would be a little like having your guacamole and salsa combined. I've tried this avocado and edamame salad and enjoyed it. It has so many interesting ingredients, radishes and green onions, ginger and parsley ... This chickpea, avocado and feta salad sounds delicious to me.
So, we've come to the end of A but not to the end of favorites. Stay tuned ...
