dual personalities

June 12, 2026

Ride on

by chuckofish

Yesterday was the 47th anniversary of the passing of John Wayne in 1979. His legacy lives on through the John Wayne: An American Experience Museum in the Fort Worth Stockyards where visitors can explore the life and career of Duke, as well as through the work of the John Wayne Cancer Foundation, dedicated to the fight against cancer in his honor. His family has done an impressive job preserving his name and image.

We also remember that 22 years ago yesterday, President Ronald Reagan was laid to rest at the Reagan Library in Simi Valley, California.

I have been reading his autobiography, An American Life, and it really is the quintessential American story–small town boy with brains, talent and good looks, who through hard work becomes a movie star and then the governor of a (then) great state and ultimately president. Only in America.

My personal favorite: Santa Fe Trail with Olivia de Haviland and Errol Flynn

Today we also remember the wonderful character actress Mary Wickes, who was born Mary Wickenhauser on June 13, 1910 in St. Louis, Missouri. She grew up in University City in Ames Place about two blocks from my childhood home. She graduated from Washington University in 1930 and then moved to NYC and appeared on Broadway, before transitioning to film and television.

Mary Wickes and Patrick Knowles in Who Done It? (1942)

From the 1940s to the 1970s, she often played supporting roles as professional women – such as secretaries, nurses, therapists, teachers, and housekeepers – who made sarcastic quips when the leading characters fell short of her high standards.

And who can forget her as Emma, the busybody housekeeper in White Christmas (1953)?

I don’t know about you, but in our family we are constantly quoting her exclaiming, “This calls for champagne!”

She never married or had any children, but she left a large estate and made a $2 million bequest in memory of her parents, establishing the Isabella and Frank Wickenhauser Memorial Library Fund for Television, Film and Theater Arts at Washington University. She is buried in the Wickenhauser family plot in the Shiloh Valley Cemetery in Shiloh, St. Clair County, Illinois.

So why not watch a movie starring John Wayne or Ronald Reagan or a movie or TV show featuring Mary Wickes tonight–I know I’d love to find Season 2, episode 1 of Murder She Wrote, wouldn’t you?

Have a good weekend!

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June 11, 2026

A nobler or a lovelier scene than this?

by chuckofish

I made it back from the prairie–it was a windy (as usual) drive, but uneventful. The sky was big and blue.

I stopped once to stretch my legs and change the radio station–in Coalfield, south of Springfield–the Tiger Lilies were abundant!

…The clouds

Sweep over with their shadows, and, beneath,

The surface rolls and fluctuates to the eye;

Dark hollows seem to glide along and chase

The sunny ridges. Breezes of the South!

Who toss the golden and the flame-like flowers,

And pass the prairie-hawk that, poised on high,

Flaps his broad wings, yet moves not—ye have played

Among the palms of Mexico and vines

Of Texas, and have crisped the limpid brooks

That from the fountains of Sonora glide

Into the calm Pacific—have ye fanned

A nobler or a lovelier scene than this?

Man hath no power in all this glorious work:

The hand that built the firmament hath heaved

And smoothed these verdant swells, and sown their slopes

With herbage, planted them with island groves,

And hedged them round with forests.

–from “The Prairies” by William Cullen Bryant–read the whole poem here.

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June 10, 2026

Watching the clouds roll by

by chuckofish

The Tiger Lilies are in full bloom on the prairie, as they are in my flyover home town where I am headed this morning. I had a great time hanging out with the prairie girls and their adorable brother.

I mean really

Hopefully all will go smoothly with my drive home in the speedwagon and it won’t rain!

I’ll keep the path open, the path in my mind
I’ll see to it that there’s no love left behind
I’ll play Beethoven’s sonatas, and Chopin’s preludes
I contain multitudes

–Bob Dylan

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June 9, 2026

Postcard from the prairie

by chuckofish

Drama on the prairie! How did Curious George end up on the ceiling fan? I-dah!

Well, there’s never a dull moment here on the prairie.

It has been raining most of the time, but we did manage to get our first swimming lesson in, so all is not lost.

Stay tuned for updates…

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June 8, 2026

We will sing with our hearts restored

by chuckofish

I made it to the prairie and the rain held off until I turned off the highway for the last 10 minutes into town. #grateful.

The speedwagon did me proud.

I left after church and Sunday School which was more on the subject of prayer–this week’s lesson led by a seminary student who was wonderful.

And here’s a little Billy Strings to start off your Monday right:

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June 5, 2026

Happenings.

by marycompton

Hello good readers. As you may recall, the last time I blogged, I was watching Inspector Lewis and was kind of horrified by the number of fictional murders taking place in Oxford. Well, you’ll be glad to know that I am now in the final season (9) and I am still shocked. I don’t know how they stay in business. Plus they had not one, but TWO professors murdered in the Observatory. In totally separate and unrelated episodes. It is an impressive setting…but yikes.

Anyway, thought you’d appreciate that update. In other news, I started a “Statistics Bootcamp” this week because I am starting the MBA program at UMSL in the Fall and as an English Major, it is required.

This is how it’s going.

Pray for me.

In more exciting (fun) updates, I had my deck replaced with a patio. I found this in my backyard when I came home from work the night before they started.

Note the sad deck. They also brought a small excavator (that honestly looked like a toy compared the ones I see at work). Quite the endeavor but three days later, I had a pretty patio that is level and contains no holes or food for squirrels.

Mr. Smith did have to work up the courage to go up and down six stairs (we previously had four) but he has mastered it like a champ. And he’s a fan.

The yard is a work in progress, but it’ll get there. In the meantime, I’m very pleased with the patio and look forward to much outdoor wine time in the shady backyard.

And bonus content—look what I found at the Hill Antique Market!

I mean…

…so accurate.

Don’t judge the slipcover—it is to protect the chair. Mr. Smith has ruined several and I’ve just accepted that this is my life.

Count it all joy.

2 Comments
June 4, 2026

The line of words becomes a trail of crumbs

by chuckofish

Vincent Van Gogh, 1889

I had an entire blogpost written and then something happened and I lost it–poof. I did not have it in me to start over. C’est la vie.

So here’s a poem by Billy Collins, “Books”:

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June 3, 2026

Something understood

by chuckofish

Last night I stayed up late finishing Craig Johnson’s latest mystery, The Brothers McKay. Not a masterpiece, but another solid entry in the Longmire Oeuvre. This one riffs on The Brothers Karamasov and that’s an interesting twist. Johnson’s formula is a winning one–Sherriff Walter Longmire spends a long time interviewing suspects while a forest fire rages in the background and then there are 30-40 pages nearing a denouement where Walt fights with natural forces to save his life and the life of one suspect. His sense of duty to the badge never lets him give in when a lesser man would etc. A few familiar characters reappear, as well, and, of course, there’s Dog. I have to admit that one of my favorite characters this time around was a big Mule named Borax.

I had lunch with one of my 90-year old friends at her assisted living residence. We had not seen each other for some time so it was quite a gabfest. I hope I am that sharp twenty years from now.

I also gabbed with my DP on the phone and caught up with her. We discussed how now that Ida got a haircut (“They’re called bangs!”) she looks even more like her great aunt…

And so it goes.

Life is good. Keep the faith. Call an old friend.

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June 2, 2026

The soul in paraphrase

by chuckofish

June is here and summer with it, and by that I mean it has really warmed up. But that’s par for the course in flyover country.

I am reading Tim Keller’s book on Prayer. Here is George Herbert’s poem Prayer (I), which I have shared before, but good things bear repeating:

Prayer the church’s banquet, angel’s age,

God’s breath in man returning to his birth,

The soul in paraphrase, heart in pilgrimage,

The Christian plummet sounding heav’n and earth

Engine against th’ Almighty, sinner’s tow’r,

Reversed thunder, Christ-side-piercing spear,

The six-days world transposing in an hour,

A kind of tune, which all things hear and fear;

Softness, and peace, and joy, and love, and bliss,

Exalted manna, gladness of the best,

Heaven in ordinary, man well drest,

The milky way, the bird of Paradise,

Church-bells beyond the stars heard, the soul’s blood,

The land of spices; something understood.

And here’s a word from Jorge Luis Borges:

I found America the friendliest, most forgiving, and most generous nation I had ever visited. We South Americans tend to think of things in terms of convenience, whereas people in the United States approach things ethically. This — amateur Protestant that I am — I admired above all. It even helped me overlook skyscrapers, paper bags, television, plastics, and the unholy jungle of gadgets.

–Autobiographical Notes (1970)

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June 1, 2026

I said a prayer from the banks of the river

by chuckofish

How was your weekend? Mine was pretty quiet and it was off-and-on rainy but c’est la vie. I did make it to my local electronics recycling event where I dropped off an old microwave and a printer. I felt such a sense of accomplishment! I stopped at the grocery store on the way back and made it home before 8:30 a.m.!

Later in the day I took a trip down to Ted Drewes (in the rain) for some frozen custard. Quelle treat! (I deserved it!)

As usual, I went to church with the boy and the twins, who are out of school and fourth graders now. We heard a good sermon on the end of the book of Joshua (Joshua 24: 1-33).

“Now therefore fear the Lord and serve him in sincerity and in faithfulness. Put away the gods that your fathers served beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the Lord. 15 And if it is evil in your eyes to serve the Lord, choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your fathers served in the region beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” (Joshua 24:14-15)

There is nothing you can do to save yourself. Only God can do that. So put away the foreign gods, and serve the Lord. Excellent exegesis by our pastor and we sang good hymns including “It Is Well With My Soul”. Adult Sunday School is one big class on prayer in the fellowship hall for the next six weeks. It was so good! It is based on Tim Keller’s book Prayer, which I have and will now re-read. As a recovering Episcopalian, this is all so life-changing. Everything makes me want to cry.

In the afternoon daughter #1 and I went to Lottie’s dance recital which was, as always, very special.

Another highlight of my weekend was daughter #2 sending me a video of 3-year old Ida singing her rendition of Jamie MacDonald’s song “Left It In the River”, while accompanying herself on the xylophone. Here’s Jamie singing Ida’s new favorite song:

Glorify God and enjoy Him forever!

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