dual personalities

September 15, 2012

Dare to be different

by chuckofish

The newest rage in kitchen decorating seems to be subway tiles. They can look cool to be sure,

Picture from thekitchen.com

but why not show some creativity and dare to be different? Take a look at these prototype glazed bricks from the ancient Near East. Imagine having this in your kitchen:

Or, if you want to go funky, what could be better than a pair of bearded griffon-demons?

Maybe a bird-man?

Why keep up with the Joneses when you can surpass them? I would love to redo my kitchen to include any or all of the above, but for now I’m stuck with old cabinets and fading wallpaper. Heavy sigh….

4 Comments
September 14, 2012

Fat Baby Friday– blast from the past

by chuckofish

No neck, no teeth and only one leg, but definitely fat and happy!

Dual personality, do you remember what color that dress was? Did our mother make it?

5 Comments
September 13, 2012

Why I love Bob Dylan

by chuckofish

From yesterday’s Wall Street Journal Speakeasy blog:

Bob Dylan, who just released a new album titled “The Tempest,” is taking aim at critics who think he is taking too much artistic liberty by incorporating the work of others into his own. Reportedly, some of the lines on Dylan’s 2006 album “Modern Times” bore a resemblance to lines written by Henry Timrod, who was considered the poet laureate of the Confederacy and died in 1867. In an interview with Rolling Stone, the 71-year-old Dylan declared, “…in folk and jazz, quotation is a rich and enriching tradition. That certainly is true. It’s true for everybody, but me. There are different rules for me. And as far as Henry Timrod is concerned, have you even heard of him? Who’s been reading him lately? And who’s pushed him to the forefront? Who’s been making you read him? And ask his descendants what they think of the hoopla. And if you think it’s so easy to quote him and it can help your work, do it yourself and see how far you can get. Wussies and p#$sies complain about that stuff. It’s an old thing – it’s part of the tradition. It goes way back. These are the same people that tried to pin the name Judas on me. Judas, the most hated name in human history! If you think you’ve been called a bad name, try to work your way out from under that. Yeah, and for what? For playing an electric guitar? As if that is in some kind of way equitable to betraying our Lord and delivering him up to be crucified. All those evil motherf*&kers can rot in hell.” 71-years-old and going strong!

By God, I do love him. And for the record, I totally agree: All those evil motherf*&kers can rot in hell. Oh that felt good.

4 Comments
September 12, 2012

And a happy birthday to our very own “Christopher-distopher-doozy-dotes”

by chuckofish

Today is the 20th birthday of my middle son, Chris. Happy Birthday!!! Although he got off to a rocky start in more ways than one (I’m saving the pics for an ugly baby post), he quickly became the most happy and adorable child you could imagine. You’ve already seen him in his birthday suit, so I’ll just add a few characteristic photos. Here he is dancing in his crib after a nap.

Besides being very good-natured, he has always been adventurous,

and super cool (he could also do binky tricks).

As the middle child, he has been stuck with more than his fair share of hand-me-downs, but occasionally, he got to be twins with his older brother, which made him very proud.

Wee monsters

But he has always been happiest when with his brothers — even if it involved sharks.

We’re very proud of our Chris. And in case the birthday boy reads this, I’d just add that he is lucky I couldn’t find some of the choice photos I had intended to post (e.g. teenaged heart-throb…). Happy birthday, dear! Can’t wait to see you for tea.

5 Comments
September 11, 2012

Happy birthday, cupcake of love

by chuckofish

Our cupcake, daughter #1, celebrates her birthday today.

From the beginning she was beautiful,

2 weeks old

opinionated,

and surrounded by really cool guys.

She was always a glamor girl.

As the oldest child, she was the trail blazer and looked up to by her younger siblings. She still is.

Have a great day, darling girl. Your country mouse mother can’t wait to visit you in the Big City later in the week!

Please Note: Lots of interesting people were also born on this day as well: Mungo Park, D.H. Lawrence, Tom Landry, Earl Holliman, Brian De Palma, Leo Kottke, Moby, Harry Connick, Jr., Ludacris. Hats off to all of them!

7 Comments
September 10, 2012

Embarrassing picture Monday

by chuckofish

Here is a picture of daughter #2 (on the right) with her friend Beth circa 1994. Even then she certainly knew how to accessorize, didn’t she?

4 Comments
September 8, 2012

Saturday sour day…

by chuckofish

It’s Saturday morning and where am I? Sitting in the office trying to make myself get to work. Glumness and complaints. I’d rather be fleeing “the king’s men” here

Somewhere in Devon, England (pic. by SCM)

or fighting off the Vikings here

On Iona with the boys (pic by SCM)

or trying to catch a Selkie here

Mull (pic by SCM)

Is there anywhere you’d rather be today?

2 Comments
September 7, 2012

More good news

by chuckofish

Really. Where was I at the beginning of the month? No one told me that it’s Lauren Bacall month on TCM! Or if I knew, I promptly forgot (which happens a lot) until I was escaping from convention-land and happened upon To Have and Have Not Wednesday night. Oh happy day!

Don’t you just love Lauren Bacall?

Born Betty Joan Perske, she first became a star in To Have And Have Not in 1944 at the age of 19. What an auspicious start to a fine career! Although I had recently seen this movie, I happily watched it again the other night. Besides the sultry young Bacall and an engaging Humphrey Bogart (who clearly likes his young co-star and is putting in extra effort), this movie boasts one of the best Walter Brennan performances ever (“Was you ever bit by a dead bee?”) and Hoagy Carmichael. If that isn’t enough, the screenplay was written by Jules Furthman and (yes) William Faulkner–based on a novel by Ernest Hemingway. You can’t get much better than that. Seriously.

Our mother always liked Lauren Bacall, in large part, I think, because the actress never allowed Hollywood to do crazy things with her hair. It was (almost) always its beautiful natural color styled in a conservative, part-on-the-side pageboy–even in the 1940s! She had class. Once when I was in college a friend’s father told me I had Lauren Bacall eyes, and I was actually flattered.

Anyway, September is Lauren Bacall’s month on TCM where they will spotlight her movies every Wednesday night. Oh boy. By the way, she made two movies with John Wayne. Blood Alley (1955) will be shown on September 19 (at 12 am.–set your DVR!)

Here’s the schedule.

3 Comments
September 6, 2012

Why study literature?

by chuckofish

Why study literature?

College books from the 1970s

M. H. Abrams, founding editor emeritus of The Norton Anthology of English Literature, answered this way: “Ha — Why live? Life without literature is a life reduced to penury. It expands you in every way. It illuminates what you’re doing. It shows you possibilities you haven’t thought of. It enables you to live the lives of other people than yourself. It broadens you, it makes you more human. It makes life enjoyable. There’s no end to the response you can make to that question Why study literature…”

Here’s the whole interview.

Henry Beetle Hough, the celebrated editor of the Vineyard Gazette, put it this way: “Any one person’s life is inexperienced and narrow, straight through to the end–poorly informed, too. Books are the only hope.”

And then, as we’ve mentioned before, there’s C.S. Lewis, who said, “We read in order to know we are not alone.” We are always looking for spiritual kin. And the amazing thing is, we find them, don’t you?

7 Comments
September 5, 2012

In case you haven’t noticed

by chuckofish

It’s September!

The summer, of course, is not officially over, and, yes, it was 93-degrees yesterday and they’re saying it’ll be 96-degrees today. But it is September.

Oh boy. Ol’ John Updike covers a lot about September in this poem:

“The breezes taste
Of apple peel.
The air is full
Of smells to feel-
Ripe fruit, old footballs,
Burning brush,
New books, erasers,
Chalk, and such.
The bee, his hive,
Well-honeyed hum,
And Mother cuts
Chrysanthemums.
Like plates washed clean
With suds, the days
Are polished with
A morning haze.”

Yes indeed. Soon it will be time to get out the sweaters and the black tights. Maybe someday soon we will be able to open a window at home and in the car! I shouldn’t get carried away, but October is just around the corner.

What are you looking forward to?

5 Comments