Sunday Stealing

 

ABC

A - Ambition: to be more Melanie than Scarlett

It's a battle every day

B - Birthday: the day before Thanksgiving, 11/22

C - Computer: MacBook Air

D - Dream: serenity

E - Exercise: weekly yoga and morning stretches (<<< if I remember)

F - Favorite Food: pizza or cheeseburger

G - Garden: the two happy philodendrons in my den

H - Hobby: baseball season is over so nothing is competing with my love of movies

 

Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis

I - Idol: JBKO. I admire her because she balanced responsibility and independence. She lived her life on her own terms. She survived tragedy in the spotlight. She rebuilt her life again and again. She never shirked her responsibility to her parents or her sister, as difficult as those relationships were, and she was a good mother.

J - Job: beginning tomorrow I am a Sales Associate (Seasonal) at the local card shop

K - Kids: only furry ones

L - Location: US, midwest, Chicagoland, my bedroom

M - Military: I've never served

N - Name or Nickname: None that I feel like sharing

O - Optimist or Pessimist: Optimist

 

P - Pets: Roy Hobbs and Constance MacKenzie

Q - Quote:

 

R - Reads: 38 books so far this year

S - School: a long, long time ago

T - Travel: I think my next trip is the TCM Film Festival in Hollywood this April

 

U - Unfulfilled ambition: to be organized

V - Vacation spot: I'm a domestic traveler; I have no dreams of going abroad

W - Wardrobe: jeans and a t-shirt, or jeans and a sweater (I don't do hoodies)

X - X-tra facts about me: When a doctor taps my leg with that rubber hammer, nothing happens. Never has.

Y - Years online: Many, many

 

Z - Zodiac sign: Sagittarius

 

 

15 years ago today I woke up happy

 ... because I was in Grant Park the night before, watching history being made as my Senator became our President-elect. The city has never felt safer or more hopeful than it did that night. 

I'm a proud Democrat and an even prouder campaign volunteer. This picture reminds me why I don't sit on the sidelines.

I got home and slept

I kinda sorta returned to work yesterday. I spent four hours at the card shop Friday. I got my name plate and my Employee Number. I filled out my W-4. I watched an hour's worth of HR videos about avoiding a hostile workplace. I met my coworkers, including the one who rescued me I looked blankly at a customer who asked me where the Bat Mitzvah cards were.

I went to the bank, made dinner, and took a nap. 

Then I woke up, answered some emails and did a little online banking. Then I went to bed.

So yesterday I made $80 and slept. 

Monday is my first real day of work. I can tell this is going to be an adjustment. I'm going to be using muscles left to atrophy for a year.

And I'm going to wander around the shop and learn where all the cards are.

Saturday 9

 Saturday 9: True (1983)

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

 

1) In this song, lead singer Gary Kemp tells us he's overwhelmed by his feelings as he and a girl dance "toe to toe." What song did you most recently dance to? This is kind of embarrassing but true: I danced over to the refrigerator while listening to the theme of The Dick Van Dyke Show. The TV was on and I was grabbing a snack in the kitchen.

2) Falling in love makes him want to listen to "Marvin all night long," a reference to Motown great Marvin Gaye. What's your favorite love song, and who sings it? "Close your eyes and I'll kiss you/tomorrow I'll miss you/remember, I'll always be true." Those simple, sweet words sung by his simple, sweet voice ... Sigh.

3) This song was inspired by Kemp's feelings for singer Clare Grogan. When they first met, they discovered a shared love of literature and for his birthday, she gave him a book she thought he'd enjoy. Who received the most recent birthday gift you gave, and what was it? I gave my friend Mindy a book. We've been talking about it for years. Every time it came up, she'd say was going to get it out of the library. So for her November 1 birthday, I placed it in her hands.

4) Despite the popularity of the song it inspired, the Kemp-Grogan romance never really took off. Gary was involved with another woman and Clare was seeing other men and reluctant to settle down. The timing just wasn't right for them. Do you believe luck plays a big part in romance? Well, yes. We can only fall in love with who we meet, and since there are billions of people on the planet, luck definitely plays a part. We're lucky when someone we really click with crosses our path. We're even luckier if that person happens to be unattached and open to a relationship at the same time we are. Love is really kind of amazing, when you think about it.

5) The cover art was created by Kemp's friend, David Band. David sketched it after seeing a man startled when a bird flew too close to him as he entered a pub. To Kemp, it represented how surprised he was by the sudden intensity of his feelings for Grogan. Band went on to become a world-renowned artist, with his work exhibited in galleries and museums in Australia, New Zealand, England and the United States. What museum have you most recently visited? In August I went to the Van Gogh exhibit at The Art Institute. It was my first time back to this Chicago treasure in decades! My friend Elaine is a member and the trip was her idea, but it was one of the highlights of my summer. This was my favorite.

Roadway with Underpass

6) In 2020, Kemp and bassist Guy Pratt launched their podcast Rockonteurs about the stories behind popular songs. Do you regularly listen to podcasts? Yes. Every week I listen to The Book of Joe, by baseball manager Joe Maddon. Every now and again I tune into a classic movie podcast, You Must Remember This.

7) Super Mario Bros. debuted in 1983. Without looking it up, can you name gaming's most famous siblings? Mario and Luigi.

 

8) Also in 1983, for the first time, London's Abbey Road recording studio was open to the public. Visitors were treated to a multi-media presentation called The Beatles at Abbey Road. During the two months it was open, more than 22,000 tickets were sold. What's the most recent ticket you purchased? I went to see A Haunting in Venice at my local movie theater.

 9) Random question -- At your favorite restaurant, a genie will grant you one of these two wishes: 1) you can eat whatever you want without gaining weight or 2) you can order whatever you want for free. Which do you choose? #2, definitely! 

 

Dona Nobis Pacem

 

I am a peace blogger, inspired by the struggle we see day in and day out. In Ukraine, in Israel, in Gaza. In our cities and our small towns. On the steps of the courthouse in New York. It seems that our sense of peace, decency, and fair play is under assault every day from all angles.

All we can do is keep on keeping on.

Find other peace bloggers here.

Thursday Thirteen #333

America's 13 most recognizable women. I looked at different lists from around the web and these are 13 the internet seems to agree on.

Now by recognizable, we're talking face recognition. Not beauty, not accomplishment (though some are both beautiful and accomplished). These are American women who can be identified by their faces alone. That accounts for the list beginning in the late 19th century, when it became easier for newspapers and magazines to reproduce photos.

Here they are in chronological order, based on when they dominated the national consciousness. I'm presenting it twice -- first photos, then names. How many did you recognize by face alone?

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7. 

8.

9.

10.

11.

12. 

13.

1) Lizzie Borden: 1860-1927

2) Amelia Earhart: 1897-1939

3) Eleanor Roosevelt: 1884-1962

4) Naomi Parker (Rosie the Riveter): 1921-2018

5) Lucille Ball: 1911-1989

6) Marilyn Monroe: 1926-1962

7) Rosa Parks: 1913-2005

8) Elizabeth Taylor: 1932-2011

9) Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis: 1929-1994

10) Sandra Day O'Connor: Born 1930

11) Oprah Winfrey: Born 1954

12) Hillary Clinton: Born 1947

13) Beyonce: Born 1981

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

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? Bogie & Bacall by William J. Mann. This year, I've been reading about people I've heard about my whole life but know little about. So far I've taken a little dive into the lives of Winston Churchill, Aristotle Onassis, Dwight Eisenhower and Babe Ruth. Now I'm turning my attention to Humphrey Bogart.

Within the pantheon of classic film stars, he's way, way up there. The American Film Institute named him the #1 Movie Actor of All Time. Yet he's not someone I always gravitate to, like his contemporaries Clark Gable, Cary Grant, and William Powell. And except for Lauren Bacall's recollections of their marriage -- which seem sincere but also understandably rose-colored -- I know nothing about his personal life. 

This 650+ page book is a dual biography of the stars and so far, I'm all in. The "dese dem and dose" guy on screen was a New York blue blood. He tried many jobs before landing in the theater, which gave him a sense of belonging and provided an outlet for his creativity, even though Hollywood's PR machine did everything it could to make him seem like an "accidental actor," because his more sensitive yearnings didn't fit his image.

 

One thing that makes me smile: so far (he's in his 20s), everyone calls him "Hump." I wonder when he became "Bogie," which is far more fitting for his image. Was it organic, or was his new moniker a product of PR machine, too?

 

2. What did you recently finish reading? The Last Politician: Inside Joe Biden's White House by Franklin Foer. This book takes us from the end of 2020 campaign, through the historically fucked-up transfer of power and into the Biden White House. It's about how Biden, a politician who is proud of his profession and believes in our institutions, tried to govern after the shambolic Trump years.

 

However, after the Administration recovers from the Trump team's willful obstruction and gets its bearings, it's not about a compare/contrast between Biden and Trump. It's about the CHIPS act, the American Rescue Plan and the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. These are ambitious pieces of legislation and it was not easy to get them passed. Yet Biden did it, and we're all the better for it. That's one of the interesting things about Biden: for an 80-year-old man, he's remarkably forward thinking, and has an eye on future generations. I find this refreshing and wonder why it's not emphasized more.

This book is similarly granular in its examination of Biden and Zelenskyy. These two men are of different generations and different cultures. One is a lifelong politician, the other a showman. Theirs is not a natural relationship and it's been personally rocky. But Biden is a pro and Zelenskyy is a patriot, so the personal has not gotten in the way of their collaboration. It makes me grateful that we have a President who has been a politician for most of his life and has the muscle memory to do the right thing in these situations.

That's the thing about this book: it appeals to the Kennedy Girl in me. I grew up believing that politicians are public servants, and that being good at politics is something to be proud of. Joe Biden believes the same. Yes, it's corny and certainly not in step with today's "drain the swamp" mentality, but I think it's that attitude will help (to borrow a phrase) keep America great.

 

3. What will you read next? I don't know.

 

 

At least there was movie group

Monday was not a good day. It started with me waking up pre-dawn (not unusual there) and unable to get back to sleep. I was too nervous and upset.

I admit I found this idea very satisfying

•  I'd spent all day Sunday trying to transfer my data from my old Motorola phone (fully functional,
cracked screen) to a new Motorola phone (seemingly demonically possessed). My old phone was deactivated. After three -- count 'em, 3! -- calls to Consumer Cellular, I was told I just got "a lemon" and should return it via UPS. So I awoke Monday without a fully functioning cell phone. I was so frustrated I fantasized about throwing the new phone through the window.

•  I was supposed to start my first new job since George W. Bush was in office. I admit it: I'm scared of the the cash register. I can't get my phone to work, why should I have any confidence about mastering a computer with a cash drawer?

•  Somehow it made sense to use this time to touch up my pedi. I dropped the nail polish into the bathtub and it splashed all over. I have a tub liner. I can't just use Comet to remove it. It took a wildly fragrant combination of rubbing alcohol and Mr. Clean Magic Eraser. 

•  I tried to distract myself with the local news and the oldies station. Have you noticed how many commercials there are for cell phone providers? I started getting angry again.

•  Then I got a phone call from my I-hope-to-be new boss. She didn't want me to come in Monday, after all. My heart sank. I was sure this meant that "corporate" (out of NYC) didn't approve my hiring for some reason. No ... it's not that. The job is still mine if I want it. Her concern stemmed from an incident on Sunday at about 5:30. The store was robbed. Two 50-something men came in, claimed to be armed, and demanded small bills. They were likely unarmed homeless men, but the girl at the counter wisely handed over the money. Why take the chance? Anyway, the store manager told me that her "head wasn't in onboarding me," and she wanted me to hear about the incident from her, just in case I wanted to change my mind about working there. Here's how I look at it: I live around the corner from the card shop. I could have just easily been stopped by these men while walking to the grocery store. Also this was the first robbery in more than five years. I'm not overly concerned about it happening again right away. So we rescheduled for Wednesday at 4:00. 

•  That left me with a free afternoon. Instead of returning my phone (as Consumer Cellular advised), I took it to a little mom-and-pop electronics repair shop. What the hell. I had nothing to lose at this point. The guy behind the counter took my phone and told me to come back in an hour. He'd either get my new phone up-and-running ($40) or swap the SIM cards so my old phone would be operational again (no charge). I went to the bank and had a sandwich at Potbelly's. An hour and $40 later, my new phone was working. (The keyboard, or G-Board as Motorola calls it, was obsolete but he updated it and moved all my apps over perfectly. Why didn't the techs at Consumer Cellular think of this? I don't know and I no longer care.)

•  Movie group was a ton of fun, though. The movie we saw, The Secret Beyond the Door, was spooky and silly and just right for Halloween week. I enjoy this happy band of movie nerds so much.

Photo by Salah Ait Mokhtar on Unsplash

RIP, Matthew Perry

 

Like Joey, I'll miss him

Chandler Bing got me through some tough times. In 2020, when I had covid and was scared ... ten years ago, when I was recovering from surgery and in discomfort ... those Friends marathons were a genuine comfort.

This past spring I read his memoir. It was unflinching and brave, and I admire him for writing it. He put a familiar and well-loved face on the disease of addiction.

This morning I'm more than sad. I'm angry. Conspiracy theorists are blaming his untimely death on -- wait for it -- the Covid vax. As though 40 years of alcohol abuse, 25 years of pills and a tobacco habit so powerful he was allowed to chain-smoke in the hospital didn't damage his heart, the vaccination did.

Matthew Perry wanted to be remembered as someone who helped people battling toward sobriety. To those who want to exploit his death for their hysterical, paranoid agenda, I say this with all sincerity: Fuck you.

Happy Birthday, dear Kwizgiver!

May this year unfold like the chick-lit of your dreams!

If you aren't reading Kwizgiver, you should! You can find her here.

Of you can go there yourself and wish her many returns of the day.

Saturday 9

 Saturday 9: Spooky Scary Skeletons (1996)

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

 

1) In this song, Andrew Gold sings that these skeletons send shivers down his spine. Do you often involuntarily shudder or shiver? Yep. I think it's probably tied to the cold beverage I'm drinking and has nothing to do with frights.

 

2) While they appear frightening, these skeletons are harmless and only want to socialize with us mortals. Can you think of something -- or someone -- that intimidated you at first but that you were more comfortable with as you became more familiar? Betty from movie group. She didn't intimidate but she did really, really annoy me. But she seems to be improbably fond of me, so I experimented with dialing back my inner snark and find that, while we'll never really be friends, I appreciate her more.

3) The video for this song was originally created in 1929. Skeleton Dance was a short movie produced and directed by Walt Disney himself. In 2006, Disney Studios paired Gold's song with this animation for a Halloween DVD. Do you have any DVDs that you watch seasonally (every Halloween, every Thanksgiving, every Christmas, etc.)? I try to find this on cable, but if I can't, I'll dust off my DVD. I love it so.

 

4) You may not realize it, but you likely already know one of Andrew Gold's songs. He wrote "Thank You for Being a Friend," the theme to TV's Golden Girls. Blanche, Dorothy, Rose or Sophia: Which is your favorite? Sophia. "Picture it. Sicily. 1922 ..."

These questions will help us get into the Halloween spirit ....

5) Introduced in the 1880s, candy corn was originally called Chicken Feed. It was developed by a candy manufacturer who gave it the orange/white color and special name to differentiate it from jelly beans. Do you like candy corn (a) all year around or (b) at Halloween only or (c) never? C

6) What candy will trick-or-treaters get when they show up at your front door? I'm not really expecting any trick-or-treaters, but any that show up with get a handful of individually-wrapped Life Savers. Then, on November 1, I'll start slipping them into my purse.

 
7) Halloween was a 1978 movie by John Carpenter about Michael Myers, who kills while wearing a ghostly mask. In the original movie, the mask used was a $2 Captain Kirk mask, painted white. Both Halloween and Star Trek are successful franchises of more than a dozen movies. Have you seen more of Michael Myers or Captain Kirk? I suppose Kirk. I don't really care for Star Trek, but my oldest friend is obsessed so I watched several episodes with her.

8) In 2022, a survey of California schoolchildren revealed that Buzz Lightyear was the top pick of Halloween costume. When you were little, did you prefer to dress up for Halloween as a hero, like Buzz, or a scary monster? My mom picked my costumes, and she never would have chosen monster.

 

9) Some long-time White House employees claim they have seen Abraham Lincoln's ghost wandering the halls of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. Have you ever seen a ghost? Nope.

 

22,362 days later ...

On August 4-5, 1962, my family went on a trip to Springfield to see where Abraham Lincoln lived. I was just 4 years old and remember little of it except for two things: 1) it was the first time I had apple butter, which I loved and 2) Marilyn Monroe died.

It was really hot and I've never done well in heat, even as a little girl. We were touring New Salem, the small town outside of Springfield where Lincoln lived when he first arrived in Illinois. Because I was so short, I got to be in the front when we looked into the log cabins. The railings were smooth and cool and I rested my cheek on one. A young man behind us -- I never saw his face -- held a transistor radio over his head and blasted some news. I didn't really hear it but I recall thinking a radio didn't belong here because Abe wouldn't have had a radio. 

Anyway, it turns out it was an early news report that Marilyn had died. I didn't know who she was, but my mom did and was upset. My dad was upset with my mom for being upset. I was hot and the railing was cool. That's the moment I remember with great clarity.

Over the decades I've been back to Springfield countless times. I love Abraham Lincoln and I never tire of immersing myself in his world. As an adult, I've gone down either solo or with friends, usually by train. It's a lovely, scenic Amtrak trip and I enjoy it, but that means we're without a car. New Salem is about 20 minutes away from Springfield and so it's just never been part of our itinerary.

Until now. According to the "days between dates" calculator I found, it took me 22,362 days or 61 years and 2 months and 21 days to return, but I did.

My friend Elaine got a new Mazda CR-something and wanted to take a road trip. Also, since she's newly retired and eager to fill every moment,* she was up for it. 

First on the agenda: apple butter! Our hotel shared a parking lot with Cracker Barrel and so I got to indulge in that.

Next up: fall colors! Like I said, I have never liked heat. It was lovely to wander through the reconstructed town on a 60º-something day when the trees were putting on a show.

And, of course, Abe. I love Mr. Lincoln. This cabin is a reconstruction of the Onstot Cabin. Abe never owned a home in New Salem, he boarded with different families. He never lived with Henry and Susannah Onstot but he hung out at their place in the evenings. He needed light so he could study his law books in the evenings and the people he lived with were not so agreeable. The Onstots welcomed him at night.

New Salem has about 20 of these cabins in all. Including the Rutledge Tavern, where he stayed for a while and met -- and maybe fell in love with -- their daughter, Ann. Historians disagree about whether or not they were in love, but I grew up on the tale of his doomed romance with Ann and I'm reluctant to let it go. I'm apparently not alone. Elaine asked if I wanted to visit her gravesite and when I said yes, we were surprised by how easy it was to find.

*Not me; I'm lazy as shit.

From Springfield to Lewiston to Colorado Springs

Let me tell you about the emotional journey I took this week.

First, Springfield. Tuesday afternoon, my friend Elaine and I took a quick road trip down to Springfield, IL. She wanted to show off her new car, I wanted to spend a little time with Abe Lincoln. We checked into our hotel and walked across the parking lot to The Cracker Barrel for dinner.

After dinner we saw the "shelter in place" order. A Springfield trooper stopped a car, the driver got out and began shooting. Then he fled. The suspect was arrested a few hours later, but it's disconcerting to be part of a "shelter in place" when you're away from home. Weird plot twist: He fled the Springfield trooper because he was on the run for a murder he may have committed 7 miles from my home. Isn't that a kick? Here I am, 200 miles away, and I'm sheltering in place to avoid a gunman from my backyard.

Then Lewiston. On Wednesday, a man in Maine took an automatic firearm and shot up first a bowling alley and then a bar. Then he fled. Citizens in Maine had to shelter in place, too, adding to their trauma. As I write this Friday night, his body has just been found. This was a tragedy. There's no more to say.

Then Colorado Springs. On Thursday a FedEx package arrived for me. It was a t-shirt I'd purchased in November 2022, and it finally arrived. Yet I'm not at all upset. For the t-shirt was from the Altreveda Beer Company in Colorado Springs.

You may not remember, because November 2022 is literally hundreds of mass shootings ago, but there was a tragedy in Colorado Springs, too. An anti-LGBT nutjob with an AR-15 walked into one of the area's few gay clubs and opened fire. 

Robert Fierro happened to be in the club that night with his wife, son and his son's boyfriend. An Army vet, Fierro went into "combat mode." He attacked the gunman from behind, wrestled the gun away and beat the shooter with it. Mr. Fierro said he was defending his family. His human family. 

I wanted to show my mad respect for Fierro somehow. I heard that his own bar, Altreveda Beer Company, was still struggling after covid so I ordered a t-shirt. Apparently a shit ton of people had the same thought and demand was massively greater than supply. Then they wanted to redesign the shirts to carry a message of diversity. Of course I didn't mind, and I will wear my Altreveda shirt proudly.

BTW, "altreveda" means "daring woman." Jess Fierro is Robert's wife, business partner and the brewmaster. In fact, she was Colorado's first Latina brewery owner. So this family was at Club Q that night out of support and love for their gay son and his lover. Again, I will wear my Altreveda shirt proudly.

But I am so fucking tired of guns. I'm afraid of guns. I'm sick of guns. No, I do not for one moment believe that anyone needs an automatic rifle to hunt squirrels. No, I do not for one moment believe that this is what our founding fathers had in mind. With Donald Trump's fondness for saying "Second Amendment people" should do this or that, I fully expect there to be political violence on top of our now garden variety mass shootings. This is possibly the only thing Speaker Mike Johnson and I agree on: There's something wrong with the "human heart" of this country. Only I believe that problem is his MAGA Republican party.

The only silver lining I see is that so many of us are sick and tired, and so many of us are going to vote, VOTE, VOTE! 

Thursday Thirteen #332

13 commonly misspelled words. According to the website Wordtips, here are the words we stumble over the most frequently. My personal bugaboo, diarrhea, didn't make the list. (And unfortunately, there's no elegant synonym for it.) Is there a word that regularly stumps you in your writing?

1. Coolly

2. Minuscule

3. Sergeant

4. Liaison

5. Protester

6. Supersede

7. Drunkenness

8. Millennium

9. Dumbbell

10. Bellwether

11. Ignorance

12. Playwright

13. Occasion

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