“I call that bold talk for a one-eyed fat man.”*
by chuckofish
Oh, I do love a three-day weekend, don’t you?
That extra day just makes a huge difference. Saturday and Sunday were filled with the usual activities: Estate sale-ing where I found this vintage needlepoint pillow
and this little garden armadillo with a broken ear and tail.
I went grocery shopping and the boy came over to borrow tools. I went to church, did yard work and laundry. Then the boy and daughter #3 came over for a Memorial Day bar-b-que on Sunday night.
We sat outside and drank beer. Then ate inside–James Beard’s steak and onion sandwiches that were one of my mother’s specialties.
We had a fun evening (and cake). If you are wondering, we had our Memorial Day bar-b-que a day early, because they were going to the Cardinals game on Monday. It was the 5oth anniversary re-match World Series game with the Yankees (can you believe it’s been 50 years?!) and everyone got a World Series replica ring.
On Monday I read leisurely and then proceeded to clean out the bookshelves in the den. Quelle dusty job. I moved some books around and made many, many trips to the basement and to the second floor. I found some books that daughter #2 might like to add to her shelves and I found some others that can be moved to the give-away box. In the cabinets below the bookshelves I rearranged and straightened the photo albums. I threw some stuff away like all our VHS tapes of recorded from TV Miami Vice episodes. I found a few long-lost gems, but a lot more things that are in the why-have-I-kept-this-all-these-years category. I was in a clear-it-out mood. Zut alors! The corner looks nice and refreshed.
While I was doing this I half-watched some rather schmaltzy war movies on TCM, including The White Cliffs of Dover (1944) made during WWII with Irene Dunne. They pulled out all the propaganda stops with this one! It was enjoyable though, because Irene Dunne is always good and it had the MGM line-up of supporting stars including Frank Morgan (the Wizard of Oz) who personified the all-American American. When the American troops arrived to save the day in both WWI and WWII while the band played Sousa, even I got a little misty-eyed.
But it being John Wayne’s birthday, I had to cleanse my palate with something better.
I chose True Grit (1969).
*Ned Pepper in True Grit (1969)







Love the pillow! And nice shot of the cat pillow! xo.
I always love hand me down books! I have a couple for you, as well :-*
Your den looks great! Is that wing chair new? I also love your patriotic dining room table (Mother would have approved) and especially the armadillo. I put up my bathroom shelves this weekend and they look great — I’ll have to post about it later this week…
The wing chair is from Selkirk’s. I can’t wait to see your shelves! And I think Mother would have definitely approved of the meal and table setting!
It was a lovely weekend, indeed! Our Sunday evening grill-out was a real treat. Monday was a very nice holiday (the Cardinals did a great job honoring all fallen servicemen) and Notre Dame lost the NCAA Lacrosse Championship (to Duke) so that’s good. I should also mention to Aunt Sarah that I started reading “Huntingtower” last night. I really like it and expect to read lots more Buchan now!
I guess I joined you in watching White Cliffs of Dover which I DVR’ed for evening viewing so I could watch baseball in the afternoon…expected to hear that great song of the same name by Vera Lynn but no dice! I agree with your critique and thought the supporting cast was interesting…young Roddy McDowall and Liz Taylor before they were “Hollywoodized” and a fresh Peter Lawford BR (Before Ratpack). Van Johnson was silly but guess this was just a token appearance while he was recovering from a serious accident. Also must admit to an emotional uptick when the Yanks “go marching in.” All in all, pretty enjoyable with Irene Dunne and the others (including Miss Marple!).
Correction: That wasn’t Miss Marple. I think she was the “the lady who vanished” ala Alfred Hitchcock…sorry about that.
[…] I have watched the movie fairly recently, so I really should watch the new version tonight, but as I make it a rule never to watch re-makes […]