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 |  Here's to bloggin' around the block--one word at a time. |
| for your favorite movie quote(s) I enjoyed your movie quotes so much yesterday that I'm opening up my blog for more. (Yes, I'm fudging with this entry in my quest for a blue month. It probably won't be the only time.  )Here are some more of my favorites. From Ed Wood George Weiss: I don't make major motion pictures. I make crap. Edward D. Wood, Jr.: Yes, but if you take that crap and put a star in it, then you've got something. George Weiss: Yeah, crap with a star. And a couple from My Big Fat Greek Wedding (I need to watch that one again) Nia Vardalos (Toula): When I was growing up, I knew I was different. The other girls were blonde and delicate, and I was a swarthy six-year-old with sideburns. and: I had to go to Greek school, where I sat in a room translating, "If Nick has one goat and Maria has nine, how soon will they marry?" So, what are some (more) of your favorite movie lines? |
Here’s lookin’ at you, kid. What’s your favorite movie line? I have several. One I like is a line in from an old Bette Davis movie All About Eve “Fasten your seat belts, it’s going to be a bumpy night.” Another old movie with lots of great lines is the one based on Oscar Wilde’s novel The Picture of Dorian Gray One of my favorites is Lord Henry Wotton (played by George Sanders): "If I could get back my youth, I'd do anything in the world except get up early, take exercise or be respectable." If you ever saw the 1976 movie Marathon Man you no doubt remember the torture scene where Laurence Olivier had Dustin Hoffman in the dental chair asking “Is it safe?...Is it safe?” (I probably shouldn’t add that my husband was practicing dentistry back then and liked to use that line on his patients. Warped sense of humor, that guy.) A more recent flick that I really like is V for Vendetta There’s no way I could ever memorize this mouthful, but it’s fun. V is speaking: Voilà ! In view, a humble vaudevillian veteran, cast vicariously as both victim and villain by the vicissitudes of Fate. This visage, no mere veneer of vanity, is a vestige of the vox populi, now vacant, vanished. However, this valorous visitation of a by-gone vexation, stands vivified and has vowed to vanquish these venal and virulent vermin van-guarding vice and vouchsafing the violently vicious and voracious violation of volition. [carves V into poster on wall] So tell me. What’s your favorite movie line? |
I’ve been reading though the weird news and here are a few things I found: A woman in Nebraska was arrested for drunk driving after she caused $26,000 in damage. First she struck a fence while she was trying to turn into an alley then a garage as she was trying to turn into it. Then her car crossed a yard, rammed a fence and hit a house and another garage. I’m assuming it was late at night and no people had to jump out of the way. She was released after she posted a $200 bond. By the way, she also caused about $5000 damage to her car. This reminds me a little bit of one of our neighbors. One evening we watched her careen around the corner, blast her horn at a truck sitting near her parking place then pull into her carport, banging the rear end of her car – twice – on the carport post. By the looks of her car that wasn’t the first time that had happened. In another bit of weird news, a New York woman was accused of stealing 500 pounds of gold from her employer. Apparently over a period of about six years this woman was smuggling out gold bullion and jewelry in the lining of her purse. After an audit of the business showed 850 pounds of gold missing and an investigation began, the woman returned 66 pounds of it in a suitcase. Authorities found another 448 pounds still in her residence. I wonder if she took the other 300 plus pounds and hocked them or if somebody else sneaked them out in their underwear or something. In Washington State a small airplane crashed flipping upside down, but the pilot was able to walk away unharmed because the plane was cushioned by a row of outdoor toilets. I’m hoping the outhouses were empty since there was no mention in the story of injured occupants. Once when we were walking in the park we saw one of those “honey dipper” trucks pulled up to an outhouse. The driver, a young woman, was sitting in the truck smiling and shaking her head while angry shouts came from inside the toilet. I got the impression that had been going on for awhile and showed no sign of letting up. Finally, this from London. I just have to quote it directly from the AP story of May 1: Queen Elizabeth II was at home at Windsor Castle, the sentries who guard her were on duty, and the large park surrounding the magnificent building was full of tourists on a Sunday afternoon. So it didn't take long for people to realize that something was out of order when an inebriated couple arrived from a nearby restaurant and began having sex on a grass bank outside the castle, according to witnesses. "One window from the guardroom opened up and when a soldier saw what was going on he told his mates — and lots of windows opened up," witness Mark Robinson told The Sun newspaper. "The couple did not care who was looking and just kept going as if they were in their own bedroom." Japanese tourists filmed the couple, who only stopped when police officers arrived on the scene, witnesses said. Thames Valley Police said the man and woman were arrested and given a written warning about outraging public decency. The queen was in the castle at the time, but her office declined Friday to comment about what had happened. |
| or will I ever be? Geez. When I blew my blue month in April I really blew it. Eleven entries is not cool. I wonder if I can do any better in May. I may or may not try. I can't seem to get motivated. I'm not really writing anything. Maybe I'm not really a writer after all - or I'm just the world's laziest writer. That could be it. I did buy a new image for my blog head, though. Did you notice? What have I been doing with my time? I'll try to say it in a list of five - since that's the rule here. 1. We took our trip to Kentucky and stayed a couple of nights with our friends. It was nice to see them, but Jack and I both were exhausted and kind of sick to our stomachs by the time we got back. The drive home was windy and rainy and seemed long. Besides, we're just not very good travelers and we're real homebodies. (whine, whine) 2. We finished my father-in-law's second book for him - Work to Retirement (and beyond). It's pretty dry but we loaded it with pictures and Jack added a few things that hadn't really occurred to his dad - like when his grandson was born and when his wife of 60 years died. He did talk a little about their honeymoon. He's still upset because she caught a bigger fish than he did. 3. I've picked back up on the spring cleaning again finally. We bought a new mattress so that was the perfect time to tackle the bedroom. The office we're saving until last. It is such a disastrous mess it will be a real relief to have it cleared out and cleaned up. We're going to get rid of a lot of stuff and make it more of a hobby room for the model airplanes. There will always be lots of plane repairs to be made after the "boys" crash them. 4. I couldn't sleep the other night so I watched two movies I bought on clearance at Half-Price Books. The first was Soul Food, which I'd never seen before. I liked it. The second one I had seen a couple of times but it's been awhile. Fried Green Tomatoes Great movie. Earlier in the week we watched Casablanca. Of course that one really holds up well. 5. Did you know that yesterday was National Honesty Day? The motto is "honesty is the best policy." But George Bernard Shaw said, .“We must make the world honest before we can honestly say to our children that honesty is the best policy” Tall order, huh? Sweet dreams. |
“I love talking about nothing. It is the only thing I know anything about.” Oscar Wilde So, I understand that today is actually Blah, Blah, Blah Day. This post should fit that. Ever get a song stuck in your head and can’t get rid of it? I’ve had part of this song running through my head since Thursday morning. It’s because I couldn’t sleep at all on Wednesday night and at 4:30 am I was watching an old episode of Rosanne. They were having a party outside and sang this song. It’s still haunting me. You Really Got a Hold On Me I don't like you but I love you Seems that I'm always thinkin` of you Though-oh you treat me badly I love you madly You really got a hold on me (You really got a hold on me) You really got a hold on me (You really got a hold on me) Baby I don't want you but I need you Don't wanna kiss you but I need to whooah , you do me wrong now My love is strong now You really got to hold on me (You really got a hold on me) This version is the Beatles. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zs26kKHxjS4 It’s probably better than what Jack kept singing the other day. It was a line from the old Coasters song Poison Ivy -- You're gonna need an ocean of calamine lotion He told me he was going to be listening to some tunes on his Ipod to get rid of it. Later he came in the kitchen singing Paul Parrot, Paul Parrot they’re the shoes to buy. I know that wasn’t on his Ipod, but he’s always loved old TV commercials. Anyway, I asked him if he’d please go back to the calamine lotion but he wouldn’t. I think he’s forgotten both of them now, though. I'm not going to ask, of course. It could set him off again. We’re leaving tomorrow to spend the week-end with some folks who live in the hills of Kentucky. They’ve given up on trying to have internet where they’re at, and are pretty much out of cell phone range. Gee, I’d be lost without my internet. With that I’ll stop. Hope everyone has a nice weekend! |
1. I missed the Friday deadline to blog, meaning I blew my chance for a March blue month. One miss apparently made it easier to skip a couple more days since I missed Saturday and Sunday, too. My only excuse is I appear to be suffering from a discipline deficit. 2. On the other hand, I’m still on track for reading at least 50 novels this year. I have growing stack of books I’ve finished and several waiting for me to begin. I just wish I was listing and commenting on them as I go along. I’m so behind on that. I did, however, organize our large collection of VHS movies. It took a little brain power to alphabetize the mess from Z to A. 3. Saturday we drove past the scene of one of our city’s weirdest crimes. A 77 year old woman was fatally stabbed while she tried to break up a sword fight between her 39 year old grandson and her 69 year old brother-in-law. All were admitted with stab wounds, with hers being the only one fatal so far. The house, not far from where my father-in-law lives, looks like your average middle class home and there wasn’t even any yellow tape around it. A police officer evidently lives next door, too. 4. Our city will also be featured on an Extreme Makeover Home Edition, I think in May. They fixed up a house for a single father of three teenage boys who is trying very hard to revitalize the rather rundown neighborhood. They put up a basketball court and built a library in the home the man plans to use also for a youth center. We haven’t driven by there, but the neighbors are getting a little sick of the 24- hour-a-day traffic from the sightseers. 5. While I’m talking about our fair city, the media also made hay with our mayor whose cell phone was stolen by a pickpocket while he was in Detroit for the NCAA. He stopped to help a man who looked like he was having a seizure, and the pickpocket, posing as another Good Samaritan, made off with the phone. That’s all he got, though. Conned or not, I’m not the only one who feels like our mayor, a former Marine, was just being a nice guy. Thanks to all who offered comfort and wisdom on Thursday. |
| “Give sorrow words. The grief that does not speak whispers the o'er-fraught heart, and bids it break.” - William Shakespeare I’m sad today. I didn’t start out that way. In fact I felt pretty cheerful this morning. But this afternoon, as I was looking around the Thrift Store, a wave of homesickness swept over me. It hit me that my mother is really gone, and I could hardly stand it. It seems strange that it has taken me so long. Her funeral was in November. I always did like to live in the state of denial a little too long. Anyway, I had a good cry - long over due - and I took a nap. I’m feeling some better now but I don’t think I want to write anymore today. |
“Here cometh April again, and as far as I can see the world hath more fools in it than ever” – Charles Lamb Today was “Draw a Picture of a Bird Day.” Darn! I didn’t do that. In fact I think I’m too old. It was intended for young ‘uns. But I did celebrate yesterday with “No Housework Day.” Not that I need a holiday for something I do so often. “Tell a Lie Day” has passed but “National Honesty Day” is coming up at the end of the month. April 11 is “Eight Track Tape Day.” Anyone remember those? And April 12 is “Big Wind Day.” Doesn’t that just blow you away? Yes, I know. *groan* “Look Up at the Sky” day is coming soon. I think I could certainly do that instead of housework or maybe writing. There are a several good days this month for eating: “National Eggs Benedict Day,” “National Cheese Ball Day,” “National Prime Rib Day” and “National Shrimp Scampi Day.” I can’t imagine who thought these up, can you? April is, among other things, Uh-Huh Month. It is the birth month of Tiny Tim (and a lot of other people.) Uh-Huh. |
| “Attitudes are contagious. Are yours worth catching?” While searching through some of my old writing I found this from a couple years ago. It’s about a nonfiction book I read called “The Contest Winner of Defiance, Ohio.” Here it is with only a few edits: The thing I was most impressed with was Evelyn Ryan’s attitude about life. Here she was, a woman stuck in a very small town, in the 1950s, raising ten children with an alcoholic husband. She didn’t even have a driver’s license, and she didn’t want one because that would make her be the family chauffeur. She walked everywhere she went in town, or was driven by her husband or a child, or someone else. Her husband worked in a machine shop, made about $90 a week and spent about $30 of that on his whiskey. That is something that had to be hard to take. But she, for the most part, accepted it. His own sister, Lucy, bought most of their groceries and Evelyn’s contest winnings sometimes made the difference in surviving their hand to mouth existence. Yet every day she looked forward to getting out of bed, she loved writing her jingles and poems and little articles. She was witty and light hearted and she put up with some extreme inconveniences, to put it mildly. Once her drunken husband broke the handle off the oven and she had to sit with her chair back up against the oven door to hold it shut while she baked a cake or something that need the door tightly closed. While she sat there she worked on her contests. She worked on them while she ironed. With ten children, just keeping the laundry done would be a full time job. Once, a nun suggested that taking in other people’s laundry might be a more respectable way to bring in money for her family than contests. Hooray for Evelyn for standing up against that! It isn’t that Evelyn never got angry; it’s just that she chose her battles, and she seemed to be a naturally upbeat person. Her husband, Kelly, even said to her once, “You know what’s wrong with you, Mother? You’re too darn happy!” When she and the children all roared with laughter at him, even he realized he sounded ridiculous Once when Kelly was drunk and out of control, she called the priest. He came over and talked to him for awhile then basically told Evelyn it was her job not to upset her husband. The priest had liquor on his breath. Kelly was physical with some of the boys, and once he shoved Evelyn until she fell and hit her head. She ended up in the emergency room that time. The kids were furious with him. He never did that again, but once he acted like he might and five kids jumped on him at once. Evelyn entered the contests as many times as she could under different family members names. Once she won $5000 and a bike in a Western Auto contest under her son Dick’s name. Dick had been hit by a car on his bike delivering papers, and broken his arm. She wanted to win him a new bike so he could keep his paper route. She ended up winning the grand prize instead, and the $5000 back then would be about $30,000 today. |
| "In the book of life, the answers aren't in the back." -- Charlie Brown Did you know that today is Knock Your Socks Off Day? In the 1953 comic strip “Peanuts” this is when poor Charlie Brown first got his clothes knocked off by a line drive during a baseball game. Good grief. I was leafing though a Prevention magazine and noticed some advice titled The Best Snack for Your Lifestyle. Refuel without eating back all the calories you burned… I was really excited to learn that if I do a thirty minute walk my option is a glass of water. Hmmm. I hope that doesn’t mean I have to walk off every glass of water that I drink. I sure hope I’m not turning into a vampire. No, I haven’t developed a craving to bite into someone’s neck yet, but I do seem to have my nights and days backwards. I spend most of the day feeling sleepy then at night I’m suddenly wide awake. The last two nights I’ve watched videos. Sunday night I watched the movie The Ice Storm and last night I watched John Grisham’s A Time to Kill . I’d seen both of them before but not for a long time. If I can’t sleep tonight I’m thinking I’ll put on A Thousand Acres. I guess I needed a little break from reading until 3 am. I just finished the book Bridge of Sighs by Richard Russo that I bought at the library sale. I had only recently read his Pulitzer Prize winning Empire Falls . Both of them were very good, the kind of book you don’t really want to end because you’ve become so attached to the characters. Sunday we had rain all day and today we had more of a wintry mix. We didn’t get nearly enough snow to cover anything, but the wind was pretty cold when we took a walk. We passed by a duck couple who waddled out of our way as fast as their little webbed feet would carry them. One of our neighbors had some pretty plastic eggs hanging on their evergreen bush and they cheered up the gloomy day. The sun finally came out when it was about time for it to go down. It peeked through the clouds with a lovely peachy yellow glow. I guess this is random enough. |
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So glad to see your blog again, and I like the idea of a 'new' Clean Slate. I may just do that myself! I look forward to reading more from you! 
