dual personalities

Month: October, 2012

October 19, 2012

Fat Baby Friday — British edition

by chuckofish

I thought I would shake up your mellow Fall Friday with a series of pictures showing my hubby as a plump 6 month old (it says so on the back of one of the photos) enjoying his first introduction to the potty chair.

They started potty training early in England (my poor mother-in-law must have thought I was crazy or lazy with my own kids, who were much indulged in that regard — but we need not go into that now).

Maybe I was right to wait…

On the up-side, he seems to have survived the experience largely unscathed and we now have these photos with which to embarrass him (ha, ha!).

3 Comments
October 18, 2012

Being green

by chuckofish

I think I’ve mentioned that one of my favorite blogs is Reggie Darling, written by Reggie Darling. Reggie and I are definitely on the same page. I was reminded of this once again when I read this the other day:

…Which brings to mind one of the reasons that I enjoy collecting antiques (or “previously owned” things): namely, that I appreciate owning objects that someone else (and, depending on the age of the object, possibly many people) owned and enjoyed before me, and which I shall pass on to someone else to own and enjoy in the future. We are but stewards of our possessions, Dear Reader, and it is up to us to appropriately care for them while enjoying them, so that those who come after us may do so as well. Collecting and living with antiques (whether they be objects or houses), is the original definition of being green in my book.

I concur. (And the stewardship view is so Episcopalian!) It’s the way we were brought up.

In addition to loving and living with the things I have inherited, I enjoy going to estate sales and looking at other people’s things and occasionally picking up nice vintage items for very little–like this mid-century Russel Wright green tray I got a few weeks ago. I have re-purposed it for use in my bathroom.

I also love to buy good old books for a dollar! I found the large 1892 Book of Common Prayer last weekend and the little handmade book holder a few weeks ago.

Sometimes I put absentee bids on items at our local auction house. And sometimes I win! I picked up a few nice 19th century lustreware pieces for less than a lunch out would cost.

Ah, the joy of hunting and gathering in the 21st century! I love being green and scoring a bargain makes it all the more sweet.

P.S. I can’t do a post on being green without this:

5 Comments
October 17, 2012

Happy birthday, Marshall Mathers!

by chuckofish

Marshall Bruce Mathers III (born October 17, 1972), better known by his stage name Eminem (often stylized as EMINƎM) and by his alter ego Slim Shady, is an American rapper, record producer, songwriter, and actor. And he turns 40 today!

And, yes, I am a big fan. Surprised? You shouldn’t be. I think Em is a latter-day poet and an example to all frustrated, unhappy, unchallenged kids in bad family environments who need to express their anger and channel their emotions into a creative outlet like writing. Using their words, as teachers have been saying for years, instead of violence. He is the real deal.

I suggest we all watch 8 Mile in honor of his birthday. This is a great movie, directed by the talented Curtis Hanson in 2002. It is not just a “rap-version of Saturday Night Fever“, a movie I despise. Eminem is really good in this movie and very appealing. I also have to hand it to him for not wanting to be a movie star and for turning down all offers to make more movies.

This is not to say that I didn’t feel like Ned Flanders at a Chris Rock concert while watching this movie. And I am no fan of rap or hip-hop. No, I am not. But Eminem works hard at his craft. I can appreciate that. He bettered himself. I like to think that under the vulgarity and the bravura is a fine young man who wants to do the right thing.

Happy Birthday, Marshall!

15 Comments
October 16, 2012

What memo?

by chuckofish

Clearly the boy did not get the memo about the guys wearing their soccer or basketball uniform as a Halloween costume in the seventh grade. No, someone forgot to give him the message. He’s the nerd on the left dressed as a bag of leaves. (Not that you were really a nerd. No way. They were the nerds!)

Oh, well. C’est la vie, right?

6 Comments
October 15, 2012

Back to the salt mine

by chuckofish

Another weekend gone with the wind. I finished the Alexander McCall Smith book I have been reading–the 13th installment of the #1 Ladies Detective Agency series, The Limpopo Academy of Private Detection.

It was another slow, easy read about Precious Ramotswe and her sometimes often irritating friends.

In the end, however, McCall Smith teaches us the same lesson we have been waiting for: “The human heart, you see…is pretty much the same wherever one goes.” It is a lesson worth repeating.

I also finally watched Joss Whedon’s The Avengers. Daughter #2 had liked it very much when she saw it last summer, so I thought I would check it out. I am also an old Joss Whedon fan from the old Buffy days and also like all things Serenity. But I have to say, I wasn’t all that impressed. They are, after all, super heroes, so you don’t get a lot of character development and/or good dialogue. Yes, there was lots of CG pyrotechnics etc. Yes, the final fight in NYC was pretty darn swell. But not really my thing, you know?

The best line in the movie was from Captain America

who was responding to Scarlett Johansson’s character who had referred to Iron Man, Thor and Loki as gods:

There’s only one God, Ma’am, and I’m pretty sure He doesn’t dress like that.

The highlight of the weekend, even for this self-admittedly fair-weather fan, was definitely the Cardinals beating the Washington Nationals to advance to the National League Championship Series against the Giants. Go, Cards!

And we won game #1 against the Giants. That’s the way I like it. Uh Huh.

4 Comments
October 14, 2012

Meet Pierre

by chuckofish

…so debonaire!

and unquestionably the best pumpkin ever. Back in October of 1985 (or thereabouts) while living in a graduate dorm (fondly dubbed Helen Hadley Hell), I and fellow 3rd floor inmates spent an afternoon creating Pierre to enter into the dorm pumpkin carving contest. He had prune eyes, apple mouth, potato nose and ears, and some sort of grass/straw eyebrows and mustache. His beret was a freebie cloth frisbie from some local bank and someone donated the cig. We were so proud of Pierre…but, alas, the judges rejected our creative vision and disqualified him because of all the add-ons. We were outraged. Much drowning of sorrows ensued…

Nowadays, everyone uses templates, but there’s still nothing quite as satisfying as creating a pumpkin character freehand. There’s something so Dr. Frankenstein about it! Hence, I challenge you to create your own pumpkin personality and, if possible, post pictures.

5 Comments
October 13, 2012

Cowabunga, Dude!

by chuckofish

Halloween has always been a big favorite in my family and when the boys were young I tried hard to be creative the way I thought my mother would be. My first big Halloween costume effort was appropriately for my oldest son’s first trick-or-treat outing. He was three and really into the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles at the time (We never watched Sesame Street. I’m afraid I found it too boring. But if my boys didn’t know about Big Bird, at least they knew their Renaissance artists).

I made the shell from cardboard, foam and fabric — the rest was pretty easy. You can’t really tell from the picture, but he had a Ninja Turtle belt and shoes. We went all out.

Alas, as is usually the way with such things, the costume succumbed to the boys’ loving attention and within a year it looked like this on the little brother

And for those of you who feel nostalgic about the turtles, there’s good news from lego, which has announced that they are coming out with a line of TMNT:

Cowabunga, indeed!

3 Comments
October 12, 2012

Fat Baby Friday!

by chuckofish

Here is a picture of our grandmother, two of her daughters, their spouses, and her first three grandchildren–all boys! It is probably early in 1952, since our brother Chris (center) was born in July 1951 and he appears to be about 7 months old.

Let’s take a closer look.

Our cousin Stephen is the “fat baby” on the left. Granted, he is wearing a puffy snowsuit, but what a well-fed bambino he is! (He grew up to be 6’4″ and thin as a rail.) He, of course, is sitting quietly for the photographer, while our brother, true to form, seems to be struggling to get out of the Cadillac of all baby buggies. Perhaps he is just happily wiggling, but he is moving. Both of his parents are looking down at the squirming babe.

His father looks annoyed. Perhaps he is just annoyed because he didn’t get the memo about wearing his uniform. Oh well. C’est la vie.

Have a great (fat baby) Friday!

(P.S. If you double-click on the images, you can see them even bigger.)

3 Comments
October 11, 2012

Snail mail

by chuckofish

I do love receiving a card in the mail.

Don’t you?

6 Comments
October 10, 2012

Just for the record: fun facts to know and share

by chuckofish

Interesting fact for the day: Ralph Richardson, Yul Brynner and Orson Welles all died on October 10–Richardson in 1983 and Brynner and Welles two years later in 1985. What about that?

Ralph Richardson

All three were great actors and leading men, known for their fine speaking voices (back when that was valued in the movies). Yul Brynner was arguably the only superstar. Richardson, however, was knighted in 1947, a year before Laurence Olivier!

Brynner and Welles acted in one movie together: The Battle of Neretva (1969).

Have you seen it? Neither have I.

Brynner and Welles both acted in film versions of Faulkner novels with Joanne Woodward. Welles in The Long Hot Summer (1958) playing Will Varner and Brynner in The Sound and the Fury (1959) playing Jason Compson (with hair).

All three (separately) appeared in big-scale religious movies. Welles played Saul in David and Goliath (1960). Brynner appeared as Solomon in Solomon and Sheba (1959) and as Rameses in The Ten Commandments (1956).

Richardson was especially memorable as Simeon in Jesus of Nazareth (1977).

Richardson and Welles participated in many filmed versions of an array of Shakespeare’s plays. Brynner did not. It is some consolation that Brynner at least got to play Dimitri Karamozov.

Richardson, of course, played God in Time Bandits (1981). I don’t know about you, but that is how I always picture God. A Cambridge man. Brynner played a god, or at least a pharaoh, in the aforementioned Ten Commandments. Welles famously played a megalomaniac in Citizen Kane.

And Welles was in the original Muppets Movie (1979).

Point and game to Welles?

I think not. All three made great movies and also some really bad ones. Let us remember the great ones: The Four Feathers (1939). Citizen Kane (1941). The King and I (1956). A toast to our absent friends!

3 Comments