Saturday 9

 Saturday 9: Love on Top (2011)

Unfamiliar with this week's song? Hear it here.

1) Beyonce sings that she and her lover have worked through a tough time and now they are happier than before. Do you agree with the lyrics that relationships take effort? Or do you think that if a couple is well-matched and their love is real, happiness will naturally follow? I think all relationships take effort, not just romance. Which reminds me, I owe my friend Elaine an email and Cousin Rose a letter.

2) She tells us that he's the one she can always call. But that was in 2011. If someone needed to get in touch with you today, would you recommend they call, send an instant message, or text? Call me on my landline. I don't always hear my cell. (It's often in my purse.)

3) Beyonce goes through many costume changes in this video and in her concert performances. What are you wearing right now as you answer these questions, and will you change clothes throughout the day? I just changed into my pjs. (8:30 on a Friday. Do I live a wild life or what?) Earlier in the day I wore jeans and a t-shirt.

4) The choreography in this video was inspired by Janet Jackson's videos in the 1990s. The Jackson family -- Janet, her brothers as solo artists and as The Jackson 5 -- have sold a staggering 750 million records. Can you think of another successful musical family? Nancy Sinatra had 4 Top 10 hits. I hear her dad was a singer, too.

5) Beyonce and husband Jay-Z have an impressive classic car collection, including a restored and customized 1959 Rolls Royce Silver Cloud II, reportedly worth $1,000,000. If you suddenly received a million, what would you splurge on? We want to hear about a gift you'd give yourself. (It doesn't have to take the whole $1,000,000.) I'd like to rent an apartment, move in, and then renovate my condo. Hardwood floors with throw rugs instead of carpeting. Fresh paint everywhere and faux exposed brick in the dining room. New refrigerator and stove. New kitchen cabinets. What the hell! Let's have new bedroom and bathroom doors, too! Why stop there? Let's get new window treatments. All this work would be so much easier if the unit was empty, hence the rental, and I had unlimited funds. When it was finally done I'd move back into a home that reflected me.

6) Beyonce "loves to lather" and enjoys shampooing her hair. What's a simple, everyday thing that relaxes you? Who knew Beyonce and I had something in common! I love my time in the shower. Afterward, the world always looks a little better.

7) In 2011, when "Love on Top" was popular, so were movie franchises. Sequels to Harry Potter, Transformers, Twilight, Kung Foo Panda, and Disney's Cars and Pirates of the Caribbean all topped the box office. What's your favorite movie series? Between 1934 and 1947, there were six Thin Man movies. The first three are my favorites. Nick and Nora Charles, and their very cool dog, Asta, solve murder, drink martinis, make marriage seem sexy and are just so damn funny.

 

8) Speaking of sequels, Stieg Larsson's The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and two of its sequels (The Girl Who Played with Fire and the The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest) were on the NY Times list of fiction bestsellers for 2011. Have you read any of them? I tried to read the first one. It was so violent and dystopian that I quickly gave up. I know they're popular -- all the "Girl Who" books re-sell well at the annual library book sale -- so if you enjoy them, well, chacun a son got.

9) Random question -- Which of these items do you misplace most often: your cellphone, your keys or the TV remote? It's a tie between one and three.

 

Thursday Thirteen #379

This one is for her. I am currently reading Ted Kennedy: A Life by John Farrell. It's a serious yet very readable book. While it's sympathetic, it's balanced. That means Chappaquiddick is explored in detail and unsparingly. 

Chappaquiddick continues to break my heart not because of what it meant to Kennedy's career or Camelot. It haunts me because of Mary Jo Kopechne. Even now, decades later, she's "the dead girl."* "The blonde in the backseat." The implication is that she was a party girl or groupie, looking to lay a powerful man.

It's not true. 

There is no evidence that she and Ted Kennedy had a physical relationship. None. Zip. Zilch. 

But here are 13 facts about the serious young woman who, by dying one week shy of her 29th birthday, made her way into American history.

1. Mary Jo was the only child of Gwen and Joseph Kopechne. Her mom was a homemaker, her dad an insurance salesman.

2. She was a Red Sox fan and her favorite player was Carl Yastrzemski. 

3. Though naturally shy, she participated in high school musicals because she loved to dance.

4. After high school she intended to become a career secretary so she studied business administration New Jersey’s Caldwell College for Women (Class of '62).

5. But she was moved by JFK’s admonition to “Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country.” So she instead explored ways to participate in the Civil Rights Movement.

6. First she moved to Montgomery, AL, where she used what she learned at Caldwell to teach typing and shorthand at an inner city high school to help the girls get jobs after graduation.

7. Then she moved to Washington DC, where she took a position in Sen. George Smathers’ office. While he had a reputation as a rake, she became known for her reserve. The standing joke was that she was the secretary hired to actually type and take dictation.

8. She didn’t drink or party with her coworkers but did play catcher on the Smathers softball team.

9. When Robert Kennedy became a Senator in 1965, she took a job in his office. She considered herself on-call 24/7. Ethel Kennedy recalled her husband bringing Mary Jo home so they could continue working overnight as he revised a Senate floor speech on Vietnam. She also occasionally babysat Robert and Ethel’s youngest children.

10. She threw herself into RFK’s 1968 Presidential campaign, becoming one of the six “Boiler Room Girls.” They were political operatives, not secretaries, as they would later dismissively be described in the press. They were in constant communication with regional Kennedy campaign offices, advising and notating the ground game. At the end of the day, they reported directly to Bobby and his campaign manager.

11. When Bobby Kennedy was assassinated, she was devastated. She lost the best job she could imagine in the worst way possible. She was eager to leave Washington DC.

12. She joined the Southern Political Education and Action Committee, concentrating on registering African-American voters in Florida.

13. In July 1969, 13 months after RFK's death, she went to Martha's Vineyard. She told friends she was looking forward to a “Boiler Girls” reunion and hoped to play touch football. She said she'd be back to work on Tuesday.

RIP, Miss Kopechne.

Please join us for THURSDAY THIRTEEN. Click here to play along, and to see other interesting compilations of 13 things.

*Farrell's book treats her with respect, I'm happy to say.

WWW.WEDNESDAY

 

WWW. WEDNESDAY asks three questions to prompt you to speak bookishly. To participate, and to see how other book lovers responded, click here. 

PS I no longer participate in WWW.WEDNESDAY via that link because her blog won't accept Blogger comments. I mention this only to save you the frustration I experienced trying to link up.

1. What are you currently reading? Murder by the Book by Rex Stout. The new year begins on a promising note for Archie Goodwin. Inspector Cramer (Manhattan, homicide) shows up on the doorstep of Archie's boss, private investigator Nero Wolfe, asking for a favor, and Archie so enjoys it when the police are indebted to Wolfe. Cramer wants help with a murder, a law clerk who was fished out of the East River on New Year's Day. They have no leads. Alas, Wolfe is no help. He listens, but he's lazy and after all, there's no fee involved.

 

But then, weeks later, a distraught father from Peoria, IL also rings the bell. His 20-something daughter is dead, the result of a hit-and-run in the Bronx. Dad refuses to believe it was an accident and hires Wolfe, who immediately sees a connection between the two cases.

Two deaths, two seemingly unrelated victims, 10 miles and 5 weeks apart. What's the link? Leave it to our genius, Nero Wolfe, to see it. So far, it's been great fun to investigate along with Archie.

 

2. What did you recently finish reading? We Are Too Many by Hannah Pittard. The emotional and self-revelatory memoir of the end of a marriage. Hannah and Trish are best friends. Trish, already married, introduces Hannah to Patrick. After a promising beginning, Hannah and Patrick begin to drift apart. Trish and Patrick have an affair and Hannah's life goes BLOOEY!

 

A very interesting book. The author is smart and talented and her writing is innovative. But I'm not sure I enjoyed it, so I don't think I recommend it.

3. What will you read next? A biography of Ted Kennedy.