dual personalities

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July 21, 2022

Don’t fence me in

by chuckofish

Since Saturday is the National Day of the Cowboy, I will remind you to watch a movie with a cowboy prominently featured. That is a no-brainer. I have made lists before and suggestions ad nauseum, so I will desist from doing so today. Traditionally I watch Red River (1948) which, as cowboy movies go, is A+.

So instead of movies today, I’ll suggest listening to great cowboy songs. Here are a few classics.

Here’s one I’ve loved since I was a little girl. It’s so sad!

Another one I’ve known since childhood–and particularly this version by Burl Ives–is “The Cowboy’s Lament/Streets of Laredo”. It can be heard in myriad movies, most memorably for me in 3 Godfathers (1948) and Bang the Drum Slowly (1973).

Here’s yet another sad one–“Oh Bury Me Not on the Lone Prairie”–in a straightforward version by Christian Larsson.

Everyone knows Gene Autry’s “Back in the Saddle Again”…

And here’s our friend David Byrne doing his own version of Cole Porter’s “Don’t Fence Me In.” Classic.

I always loved “Buffalo Gals” when I was kid and here’s Bruce Springsteen’s version.

What’s your favorite cowboy song?

P.S. Who said, “I was not born to be forced. I will breath after my own fashion. Let us see who is the strongest.”

No, it wasn’t John Wayne. It was Henry David Thoreau in Civil Disobedience.

(The painting at the top of this post is by Harold von Schmidt for The Saturday Evening Post)

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July 20, 2022

“Out of the tree of life I just picked me a plum”*

by chuckofish

July is whizzing by, as is the summer! But I don’t want to forget to note that in our family we have several anniversaries to toast during this month.

There was daughter #2 and DN on July 1…

…and coming up, the boy and daughter #3 celebrating their 10th (!) on the 28th…

My DP and her DH got hitched in July as well…back in 1989…

(It was another HOT summer in England that year!)

Sunrise, sunset…well, we all pray the best is yet to come, right? Love, love, love to you all!

*Cy Coleman and Carolyn Leigh, “The Best is Yet to Come”

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July 19, 2022

 “All the watches in your cabinet are safe”*

by chuckofish

It grew harder and harder. Even within these four walls there was too much misery, too much seemingly pointless suffering. Every day something else failed to make sense, something else grew too heavy. Will You carry this too, Lord Jesus? But as the rest of the world grew stranger, one thing became increasingly clear. And that was the reason the two of us were here. Why others should suffer we were not shown. As for us, from morning until lights-out, whenever we were not in ranks for roll call, our Bible was the center of an ever-widening circle of help and hope. Like waifs clustered around a blazing fire, we gathered about it, holding out our hearts to its warmth and light. The blacker the night around us grew, the brighter and truer and more beautiful burned the word of God. “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? . . . Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.

I am reading several books, but at the moment I am concentrating on re-reading The Hiding Place by Corrie Ten Boom. I read it many years ago, but I kept running across references to it and thought it was time to read it again.

You will recall that Corrie Ten Boom was a watchmaker in Haarlem, the Netherlands, who lived with her family above their father’s shop. A devout Calvinist Christian, she, along her family, never thought twice about sheltering and aiding Jews in need after the German occupation of the Netherlands in 1940. Ten Boom’s involvement in the Dutch resistance grew beyond gathering stolen ration cards and harboring Jews in her home. She soon became part of the Dutch underground resistance network and oversaw a network of smuggling Jews to safe places. All in all, it is estimated that around 800 Jews were saved by Ten Boom’s efforts. As a result of her and her family’s efforts, they were arrested by the Nazis and sent to a series of concentration camps. Casper Ten Boom and Betsie Ten Boom never returned. The story is a harrowing one, but a truly inspiring one.

I must note that what the Ten Booms did, they did not do for any political reason. They acted by faith alone. As Christians they could not do otherwise.

I used to think that such a thing as the Holocaust could never happen in America, but I don’t think that anymore.

*Code for “all the people hiding in your secret room are safe.”

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July 18, 2022

“He who regards the clouds will not reap”*

by chuckofish

I had a busy week. We even went out on a weeknight.

The OM got to use his office’s (air-conditioned) suite at the ballpark so he invited a group of friends and clients to watch the game. I had not been to a Cardinals game in many years, not since my flyover university used to sponsor nights at the ballpark. Also I lost interest in the redbirds when they fired Mike Matheny in 2018 (sigh). Anyway, it was fun to watch a game right on the third base line.

The little bud made a new best friend, who taught him how to yell, “You’re a bum!” to the manager. (Our manager is a bum, so it’s okay.) We had a 6-0 lead through seven innings and then lost the game because we have no relievers. C’est la vie.

After my busy week, all I wanted to do was chillax and watch the 150th Open at St. Andrew’s. I did get to see a little, but since I went to church on Sunday I missed the end. (Congrats to Cameron Smith who to me always has a disconcerting Nathan Bedford Forest vibe.)

We celebrated the OM’s birthday with a little party after church.

(The pictures of our birthday parties always look the same, don’t they?) Mr and Mrs Crypt Keeper–c’est la vie.

I’m impressed the OM blew out all the candles with one breath. (So was he.)

The French Silk pie was from Tippins and a big success. I made a tater tot casserole which was also a hit.

Here’s hoping this week will not be so busy and maybe it will cool off a little. It has been a hot summer, but that is par for the course and I am not complaining (as long as the electric grid holds out.)

And here’s a bonus picture of precious Katiebelle doing her chores:

*Ecclesiastes 11:4

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July 15, 2022

A crazy planet full of crazy people

by chuckofish

Yesterday I met a friend for coffee. We had a lovely time, although we observed more than once that everyone we know, whatever their politics, feels bad about the state of the world and worried about the future and their place in it. There’s not much we can do about the world — it will go as it goes — but we can cheer ourselves up while we attempt to navigate through it. In an effort to do so, let’s look at a few of Gary Larsen’s Far Side cartoons.

You remember The Far Side, don’t you? Larsen’s single-panel cartoons appeared in newspapers, calenders, books and other paraphernalia from 1979-1995, at which point he retired. I have fond memories of my Far Side mug. The caption reads “Chad Billingsly experiencing a period of disinclination” – a sentiment that speaks to me on many levels.

This one, being simply perfect, requires no additional comment.

This classic cartoon has been on the DH’s office door for nigh on thirty years now.

And this one raises many deep, existential questions.

The final cartoon reminds us that as a species we are amazingly clueless, so when everything goes wrong we have only ourselves to blame.

As the DH is fond of saying, humans are at the top of the food chain because we can outwit sheep and lobsters.

Have a wonderful weekend and don’t let the turkeys (or sheep and lobsters) get you down!

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July 14, 2022

Loomings

by chuckofish

We seem to roll our eyes a lot these days. At the grocery store, at the gas pump, and so on. We say, “Is there no balm in Gilead?” and we aren’t kidding.

When in doubt, we re-read the first paragraph of Moby Dick…

Haven’t we all felt like methodically knocking people’s hats off in the street? Well, it may be high time to get to sea, but that is out of the question for me. So I watched John Huston’s 1956 version of Moby Dick. It is a wonderful and quite faithful rendering of the great novel and I recommend it.

Starbuck to Stubb and Flask: “It is an evil voyage, I tell thee. If Ahab has his way, neither thee nor me, nor any member of this ship’s company will ever see home again.”

Stubb: “Aw, come on, Mr. Starbuck, you’re just plain gloomy. Moby Dick may be big, but he ain’t THAT big.”

Starbuck: “I do not fear Moby Dick – I fear the wrath of God.”

Even better, re-read the book!

Maybe, as we approach Herman Melville’s birthday on August 1, we should have another Moby Dick reading party…

or at least make some punch…

…food for thought.

P.S. Anne is back after a four week break. Thanks be to God.

And daughter #1 sent me a link to this fabric and it made my day. Clearly there is a market for this! How great is that?

4 Comments
July 13, 2022

“Oh, is it from the American Journal of No One Cares?”

by chuckofish

Hello, gentle readers. Daughter #1 here. Back after a several weeks hiatus. I’ve had a busy few weeks with a vacation mixed in there. Last week, I was on the road in Springfield, Kansas City, and St. Louis on consecutive days. NEVER AGAIN, I declared. I’ve got one more busy weekend and several days and then I’m off the hook for a bit. Fingers crossed.

Big news in my world is that I got a new tablecloth.

It’s block print, it matches my pink candles, it’s from Amazon, and it brings me joy. I spent this weekend doing laundry, running errands, and generally catching up on life. I also attended a DAR event and a church event where my main purpose was to lower the median age. I’ve accepted this role.

Please enjoy this video that makes me laugh.

This guy is generally a guaranteed laugh for me. He and Sassy Nighttime Terry on Brooklyn 99. This version of Terry, trapped on the overnight shift as punishment, is the source of today’s post title. Have a great Wednesday!

3 Comments
July 12, 2022

“Whate’er we leave to God, God does/And blesses us.”*

by chuckofish

We are deep into summer here in flyover country. The Hibiscus is blooming!

This is always thrilling to me because this plant has grown from seeds harvested from a friend’s yard which I planted years ago. Yay Hibiscus!

Today we note the birthday of Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862).

Thoreau was an intriguing character, even to his contemporaries, but particularly to a whole generation of Americans who grew up in the 1950s and became hippies in the 1960s. I always think of Rockwell Gray, who was an adjunct professor of English at my university and who I knew and liked. He was a certain type of WASP, highly intelligent and very kind, who would have preferred to be Jewish or at least Irish so he could just relax and be a square peg. He loved Thoreau. Like so many others, he felt he was a kindred soul. And don’t we all, to some extent.

Perhaps I am more than usually jealous with respect to my freedom. I feel that my connection with and obligation to society are still very slight and transient. Those slight labors which afford me a livelihood, and by which it is allowed that I am to some extent serviceable to my contemporaries, are as yet commonly a pleasure to me, and I am not often reminded that they are a necessity. So far I am successful. But I foresee, that, if my wants should be much increased, the labor required to supply them would become a drudgery. If I should sell both my forenoons and afternoons to society, as most appear to do, I am sure, that, for me, there would be nothing left worth living for. I trust that I shall never thus sell my birthright for a mess of pottage. (Life Without Principle)

*Henry David Thoreau, “Inspiration”

3 Comments
July 11, 2022

What’s playing at the Roxie?

by chuckofish

I was sad to hear about James Caan passing away. He was one of my first movie star crushes. When I saw El Dorado (1966) when I was ten or eleven years old, I thought he was the coolest. I still do.

Yes, most people will remember him for starring in The Godfather (1972) but he had a long career and was a working actor right up to the end. I’m sure he knew he was pretty lucky to have gotten the chance to appear in a western with the Duke and Robert Mitchum, directed by Howard Hawks. For a few years he even took time off to ride in the rodeo circuit. Like Dean Martin, he loved being a cowboy.

I just watched El Dorado very recently so I will have to watch something else in memory of James Caan. Maybe this Civil War classic, which you will be happy to know is available to watch in its entirety on Youtube:

Besides Caan (in a wig)…

…Journey to Shiloh boasts some other soon-to-be-famous actors (including Harrison Ford) and a lot of old reliables, but even as a twelve-year-old, I knew it was pretty bad. My brother and his friend Randy went with my sister and me to see Journey to Shiloh at the Tivoli Theater and fifteen or so minutes into it Randy was so disgusted with the film that he wanted to leave. No one else wanted to go, so he marched out the side exit door in a huff. We did not hear him banging on the door and yelling to let him back in (he was just kidding) so he had to walk home to our house, where he talked to our mother until we returned when the movie was over. It was a real Eddy Haskell moment and we thought it was hilarious.

In other entertainment news, last week the OM and I watched all eight episodes of the new Amazon series The Terminal List starring Chris Pratt, because the OM is obsessed with Jack Carr (who wrote the books on which the series is based) and had been waiting with baited breath for months for the series to be released.

I wanted to like it, but I just couldn’t. (He enjoyed it.) The story is about a former Navy SEAL officer investigating why his entire platoon was ambushed during a high-stakes covert mission and then methodically wreaking vengeance on all the bad guys involved. There is no moral to this story and (spoiler alert) the hero does not pay for his crimes. Call me old-fashioned, but I have a problem with that. Regarding vengeance, let’s remember what the Bible says–leave room for God’s wrath (Romans 12:19).

I also started watching season two of Only Murders in the Building starring Steve Martin, Martin Short and Selena Gomez. It is much more “me” and it is off to a good start.

“Where is the Charles in Olimabel?”

My only old movie recommendation is Westward the Women (1951) which I watched on TCM. I had seen it 50 years ago on television, but not since. Directed by William Wellman, it tells the story of a trail guide (Robert Taylor) who escorts a group of women from Chicago to California in 1851 so that they can marry men that have recently begun settling there.

It was not nearly as melodramatic or sex-filled as the poster suggests (of course). Indeed, the story by Frank Capra and the screenplay by Charles Schnee focuses on the hardships endured and the determination needed by the women in order to go West for a better life. I was actually moved to tears several times. Really. I thought it was excellent–quelle surprise.

What have you been watching?

6 Comments
July 8, 2022

These I have loved: White plates and cups, clean-gleaming, Ringed with blue lines*

by chuckofish

Some people like to rescue lost animals or devote themselves to gardening. While I admire their altruism, I’m better suited to inanimate objects that never bite, aren’t bug-infested and don’t die. We all need to play to our strengths. Recently, I rescued some antique dinnerware at a local auction and then spent a blissful afternoon adding a few new pieces to my hutch and putting others away for a rest.

Then I got down to research. Though representing different Staffordshire manufacturers, the new (old) plates (three blue transferware plates on the lower shelf), the tea pot, sugar jar (top of hutch) and the creamer (all by itself on the bottom) all date to 1850 or earlier. Let’s take a closer look at the plates on the lower shelf. Here’s the one on the far left.

I learned how to read the diamond mark here, but basically it tells us that the piece was registered on August 26th, 1848, by John Meier and Son, a company located in Tunstall, Stoke-on-Trent, England. The pattern is called Roselle.

On the opposite end of the shelf, we find this plate.

W.  Adams and Sons were also based in Stoke-on-Trent, but the family developed several different inter-connected companies. If you are interested, you can read about it here. I gather from other sites that this plate pattern also dates to about 1850.

The similar looking plate next to the one above was made by yet another Stoke-on-Trent based entrepreneur, this one being Thomas Goodfellow, who operated between 1829 and 1854.

The plates are all in very good condition, as are two large platters that, alas, I have nowhere to display.

I’m still researching their marks, but so far all indications are that they are English Staffordshire from Stoke-on-Trent and were made around 1850. Whoever owned all of these pieces clearly had a penchant for obscure mid-19th century transferware. Delighted as I am with these finds, I can see why Spode outshone and outlasted the smaller manufacturers, whose blues are less vibrant, and whose patterns are busier and sometimes less sophisticated (i.e., the edge design on the middle plate and bottom right platter). Still, they are lovely and definitely worth rescuing!

That’s all I have to show for the week unless you count tidying, doing genealogy and reading. All is well and blessedly quiet. How are things with you?

*Rupert Brooke, “The Great Lover”

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