dual personalities

Tag: grandchildren

July 28, 2023

Just slip on a banana peel, the world’s at your feet*

by chuckofish

Well, the first sleepover at Mamu and Pappy’s house is in the books.

Since the wee twins are not quite old enough to be introduced to our classic film favorites in their entirety, daughter #1 and I had the genius idea that we would introduce them to some favorite movie dance/song sequences from movie musicals. Their favorite was “Make ‘Em Laugh” from Singin’ in the Rain (1952):

Who can blame them?

We also watched the square dance/barn-raising scene from Seven Brides For Seven Brothers (1954), “Everything’s Up-to-Date in Kansas City” from Oklahoma! (1955), “Getting to Know You” from The King and I (1956), and the rehearsal scene from Viva Las Vegas (1964). When we watched “Do Re Mi” from The Sound of Music (1965) Lottie said, “They keep saying my name!”–Do re mi fa so la ti do! She was not wrong.

We also showed them the Moses parting the Red Sea sequence from The Ten Commandments (1956) because they love The Prince of Egypt (1998). They thought it was pretty cool, but were non-plussed to see the Pharaoh was also the King of Siam. Somehow this does not compute.

Anyway, all parties lived through the night.

*”Make ‘Em Laugh” by Arthur Freed and Nacio Herb Brown

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October 4, 2021

“There’s the respect that makes calamity of so long life”*

by chuckofish

Can you believe it’s October already! Zut alors–We are on the downward slide to Christmas. I am a little discombobulated by the alacrity with which the year is speeding by. And my weekend, which I thought would be a quiet one, turned out to be busier than I anticipated and it flew by.

Not that I did anything particularly noteworthy…The OM is trying to put the complicated audio/visual system back together in our new built-in “entertainment unit” and that has been very stressful. The boy came over for awhile and helped. We are 90% there.

We also hauled a bunch of electronics (old computers/printers/monitors etc) to an electronic recycling event and felt that we had really accomplished something. I also moved some books around to make room for other books…the usual stuff.

The wee twins and their parents came over for dinner Sunday night. We had not seen them in three weeks!

They ran around merrily outside for awhile after dinner. They are getting to be such big kids. (Well, not really.)

After they went home we celebrated having our DVD player working again by watching My Darling Clementine (1946)–a movie that is literally perfect (except for Linda Darnell’s hairdo.) I had been meaning to watch it ever since watching the heinous Tombstone (1993). It did not disappoint and I highly recommend it. The minor characters are all wonderful John Ford regulars. The wildcard is Victor Mature and, boy howdy, he pays off.

The movie was filmed in Monument Valley, which is next on my travel wish list (after Oklahoma City).

Meanwhile back in Maryland baby Katie et famille did the pumpkin photo op thing and we texted our appreciation back and forth.

Fall is just about here and that’s okay with me, although I still feel like I am lagging behind in August somewhere. Well, I’ll catch up.

*Hamlet (III.I.66-70)

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