So I guess the Oscars were presented on Sunday night. Who knew? Who cared? I had not seen any of the movies and I hardly recognize any of the actors anymore.
As is our custom we picked a great movie to watch that did not win the prizes it deserved in the past. We chose The Russians Are Coming theRussians are Coming (1966) which was nominated for Best Picture, Best Actor (Alan Arkin), Best Writing, Best Editing and won nothing. It was the year any of Best Actor nominees deserved to win except the actor who won.
Anyway, we watched it and howled with laughter. If you need a good laugh (and who doesn’t), I recommend it highly. Remember, it features my spirit animal, Muriel Everett (Doro Merande)…
and Parker Fennelly, playing the OM. What a great cast!
On a more serious note, here’s a good answer from Kevin DeYoung to the question “How should I deal with prayerlessness in my life?” He even manages to get a dig in at the BCP (while recommending getting an old version before “it got goofy.” How right he is.)
And here’s a story about a bear:
“When we believe that we ought to be satisfied, rather than God glorified, we set God below ourselves, imagine that He should submit His own honor to our advantage; we make ourselves more glorious than God, as though we were not made for Him, but He was made for us; this is to have a very low esteem of the majesty of God.”
Today we remember actress Claire Trevor, who was born on this day in 1910.
Claire wasn’t your standard Hollywood beauty, and maybe because of that, she always brought something special to each of her roles. She appeared in 65 feature films from 1933 to 1982, winning an Oscar for her supporting role in Key Largo (1948) as a washed-up lounge singer. She received nominations for her roles in The High and the Mighty (1954) and Dead End (1938) and top billing ahead of John Wayne in Stagecoach (1939). Other stand-out performances include: Alleghany Uprising (1938), Murder My Sweet (1944), and hold the phone, she appeared on an episode of Murder She Wrote in 1987!
All of these movies are well worth watching tonight. We might try to find Two Weeks in Another Town (1962) which also stars Cyd Charisse who shared March 8th as her birthday.
Or maybe not. I think I’ll stick with one of my faves.
In other news, this sounds like a great new album. You can scroll down in the link and listen to Rosanne Cash’s rendition of Doc Watson’s classic “I am a Pilgrim”.
I am a pilgrim and a stranger
Traveling through this wearisome land
And I've got a home in that yonder city, good Lord
And it's not, not made by hand
--Roger Miller
So have a good day! Watch a Claire Trevor movie. Listen to some good music. Check out the daffodils which are insane this year–at least in my neck of the woods. And, hey, are the Forsythia bushes starting to pop?
March has entered like the proverbial lamb, but I’m not taking the down blanket off my bed just yet. I know we will experience another hard freeze sometime in the next few weeks. Just you wait and see.
And while we’re waiting and seeing, did you hear that a bear escaped its enclosure for the second time at the St. Louis Zoom? I mean, come on, who is running the zoo these days? Are all the keepers smoking pot while on duty? Now we are having lockdowns at the zoo? Zut alors–I am not amused.
In honor of famed film producer Walter Mirisch, who died last week at 101, I suggest we watch one of his movies, which include: Some Like It Hot (1959), The Horse Soldiers (1959), The Magnificent Seven (1960), The Great Escape (1963), The Pink Panther (1963), The Russians Are Coming, the Russians Are Coming (1966), In the Heat of the Night (1967) The Thomas Crown Affair (1968), Fiddler on the Roof (1971) and Same Time, Next Year (1978). As Elmore Leonard characterized him, Mirisch “was one of the good guys.” I read his memoir, I Thought We Were Making Movies, Not History, and I have to agree with Leonard, although, as I said at the time, it is always amazing to me how smart guys can make some really dumb decisions. But he made a lot of good movies and was, for the most part, a gentleman.
Here are six movies to celebrate NASCAR’s 75th anniversary. I am not particularly a fan of this film genre, but the wee bud is a huge NASCAR fan and of cars in general. When we were driving to church the other Sunday through our new cut-through, his eyes nearly bugged out of his head at the sight of an orange Charger in a driveway. It is his “favorite street” now.
This month is also the “31 Days of Oscar” month on TCM, so there are a lot of good movies to see. Check out their schedule here. We watched The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938) last night. Mr. Smith was riveted. (Best. Movie. Ever.)
This is a good one from Sam Bush. “Many contemporary children’s books are fixated on an end-goal (whether it’s encouraging your child to use the potty or challenge the patriarchy), but the classics refrain from telling a person what to think.”
I appreciated this article by an American medical doctor about insufferable patients. He even references Planes, Trains and Automobiles. It is also interesting in light of the horrific state of medicine in Canada and their suicide on demand policy. “We stopped speaking in terms of her merit – as a vagabond who deserved her state and did not deserve our medicine. But this took explicitly naming all I’ve said above, interrogating it candidly in community, repenting over what we had said, disrupting the momentum of morning rounds to point toward a different way of treating and speaking about the insufferable. Amy forced us to ask crucial questions we should have been asking long before: What are we doing here again? Who are we becoming? What is medicine for … and who is medicine for?”
Blessings upon you, readers. Take a walk, pat a dog, read a poem. Maybe one by that scoundrel Roald Dahl:
‘My teacher wasn’t half as nice as yours seems to be. His name was Mister Unsworth and he taught us history. And when you didn’t know a date he’d get you by the ear And start to twist while you sat there quite paralysed with fear. He’d twist and twist and twist your ear and twist it more and more. Until at last the ear came off and landed on the floor. Our class was full of one-eared boys. I’m certain there were eight. Who’d had them twisted off because they didn’t know a date. So let us now praise teachers who today are all so fine And yours in particular is totally divine.’
Today we honor the first president of the United States, George Washington on his 291st birthday.
We will also toast the artist Rembrandt Peale, who was also born on this day in 1778. In 1795 at the age of 17 he painted the above portrait of Washington. Impressive, I think.
Today is also the birthday of actor/producer Sheldon Leonard (1907-1997) who you would recognize immediately by his heavy New York accent. He played Nick the bartender in It’s a Wonderful Life (1946)…
…along with countless gangsters, various Damon Runyon types, the occasional American Indian, and even J. Edgar Hoover before becoming a very successful television producer of shows like The Andy Griffith Show, Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C., I Spy and so on.
As far as I know, he never played George Washington, although he did bear a certain resemblance to him.
Maybe I’ll watch To Have and Have Not (1944) in which Leonard plays Lt. Coyo (in the boater)…
Well, a toast is in order for all three men, especially G.W., the father of our great country.
And for Jimmy Carter, 39th president and Sunday School teacher, we offer this prayer:
Be near me when I am dying,
O show thy cross to me;
And for my succor flying,
Come, Lord, to set me free:
These eyes, new faith receiving,
From Jesus shall not move;
For he who dies believing,
Dies safely, through thy love.
–Medieval poem, translated by Paul Gerhardt (1607-1676) and James W. Alexander (1804-1859)
I know you all think of me as being such a deeply spiritual and devout person (and I am), but in honor of Valentines Day, here is my Top Ten Most Handsome Actors list. Back in August I listed my Top Five Favorite Actors, so this a variation on that theme, only focussing on male pulchritude.
So Jesse sent for his youngest son and brought him in. He was ruddy, with beautiful eyes and a handsome appearance. And the LORD said, “Rise and anoint him, for he is the one.”
–1 Samuel 16:12
(In alphabetical order)
Yul Brynner
Errol Flynn
Don Johnson
Jude Law
Gregory Peck
Steve McQueen
Toshiro Mifune
Paul Newman
Channing Tatum
John Wayne
You’re welcome.
If we were doing a Top Twenty list, we would quickly add Rock Hudson:
The OM and I watched Bullitt (1968) last night as is our Valentine tradition. (I love Steve and he loves the car.) What did you watch?
So there is joy in our flyover state because the Kansas City Chiefs won the Super Bowl. But we only watched Chris Stapleton sing the National Anthem because we love him and, I must say, he did a super job.
The only time I have ever cared about the NFL was when Kurt Warner played for the Rams back in the day. ‘The Greatest Show on Turf’ offense was fabulous and I loved those guys: Isaac Bruce, Marshall Falk, Aeneas Williams, and, of course, Kurt Warner. Therefore, instead of the Super Bowl, we watched American Underdog (2021) which tells the story of Kurt and Brenda Warner and his road from stock boy at the Hy-Vee to a two-time NFL MVP, Super Bowl champion, and Hall of Fame quarterback.
It is an inspiring story and this film tells it well. I recommend this movie–I mean, who doesn’t love an inspiring sports story with a (spoiler alert) happy ending?
Fun fact: Considered the NFL’s greatest undrafted player, Warner is the only undrafted player to be named NFL MVP and Super Bowl MVP, as well as the only undrafted quarterback to lead his team to a Super Bowl victory. He is also the first quarterback to win the Super Bowl during his first season as the primary starter. Warner was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2017 and is the only player inducted into both the Pro Football Hall of Fame and the Arena Football Hall of Fame.
In other news, did you see that lightening struck Brazil’s iconic Christ the Redeemer statue over the weekend?
(Photo from The Daily Mail)
Well, it did, and once again I ask, Are these the End Times?
Anne wrote a good one about the flailing (and failing) Church of England. “The most essential thing we should notice about Jesus this morning is how different he is from the Archbishop of Canterbury. Justin Welby doesn’t have the power to heal all your diseases. But he has been given the gift of the Gospel which he could proclaim—it’s literally his main job—if he would trouble himself to discover what it is.”
And I enjoyed this article about the movie Ride the High Country (1962) and the Western genre in general. “The classic Western era was a distinct period in American film, establishing a genre with singular moral and artistic rules. These were stories about honor culture in the wilderness, a limbo space where rule of law was tenuous or nonexistent. Other critics have noted the difference in ethos between the old and new eras of Westerns, but Terry [Teachout] ‘s conservatism, and the erstwhile Christian faith of his childhood, gave him unique insight. The lawless world of Westerns, he noted, seemed to dramatize Dostoyevsky’s warning in The Brothers Karamazov that ‘If there is no God, then anything is permitted, even cannibalism.’”
Have a great Valentines day. “Owe no one anything except to love one another, for he who loves another has fulfilled the law.” (Romans 13:8)
Last night we watched The King and I (1956) because it was on TCM. Although I have seen it many times, it did not disappoint!
It is on my Top Ten Best Movie Musical List–indeed, probably my Top Five. Yul Brynner is stupendous and Deborah Kerr holds up her end admirably. The Siamese rendition of Uncle Tom’s Cabin–“The Small House of Uncle Thomas” ballet sequence–is wonderful. The sets, the costumes–wow. It won Oscars for Bests Actor, Best Art Direction, Best Costumes, Best Sound, and Best Music, Scoring of a Musical.
It is a movie that has it all. And by that I mean, mostly Yul Brynner.
If you are in need of a little escape from the madness, watch The King and I (1956). You’ll be glad you did.
The origin of today’s blogpost title is usually credited to the American author and newspaper editor Horace Greeley (1811-1872) whose birthday we celebrate today. The quote, of course, concerns America’s expansion westward. It was a rallying cry for those 19th century pioneers who hoped to find a better life through hard work in the West.
“Washington [D.C.] is not a place to live in. The rents are high, the food is bad, the dust is disgusting and the morals are deplorable. Go West, young man, go West and grow up with the country.” (New York Daily Tribune, July 13, 1865)
(Photo taken by Matthew Brady of Greeley between 1844 and 1860)
Much was made of this quote in American history…and in quite a few movies. Mae West made a movie, Go West Young Man (1936) with Gary Cooper, and here’s Groucho Marx in a scene from Copacabana (1947):
Mr Horace Greeley was no fool I’m sure that you agree with me that Greeley was no fool What he is getting at is that Mr Greeley was no fool Boy The wisdom of the man can be denied by none For he’s the one that said
Before you go to Buffalo to Baltimore or Borneo To Eastern Pennsylvania or Japan Go West! Young Man!
How was your weekend? Mine was a nice back-to-normal one–estate sales, going out to lunch, happy hour with music at home, and church on Sunday. The boy and Lottie came over after church for Presbyterian Souffle. (The bud was sick and stayed home with Mom.) Mr. Smith continued to grow.
And Baby Ida went for her first walk in the stroller.
We watched some good movies: The High and the Mighty (1954), The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962) and Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (1954).
This was an interesting article about the turnaround of Barnes and Noble (and a lesson for the church.) “There’s a lesson in the Barnes & Noble turnaround. Remember your first love. And don’t lose sight of your ultimate purpose.”
Keep reading, keep praying, keep showing up. Pay attention. “Therefore we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it.” (Hebrews 2:1)
It makes me happy every year to open up our big box of Christmas ornaments that I have collected over the years and see them on a new tree.
Some were made by my aunts many years ago or by people I have worked with and some were made more recently by my daughters.
Some have been handed down from my parents and even my grandparents. Some were “store-bought” and quite a few were made by my children at school. (Do they make Christmas ornaments in elementary school any more?)
Some are part of a collection (bears).
Well, it’s nice to remember.
It’s also nice that TCM remembers all those performers/writers/directors/etc who die every year. Here is their 2022 in memoriam tribute:
They always include the little known actors who may have had just one scene in a great movie, like Mickey Kuhn who played the young Montgomery Clift in Red River (1948) and Virginia Patton who played Jimmy Stewart’s new sister-in-law in It’s a Wonderful Life (1946). I must say I think James Caan deserved more than the split second inclusion he got. C’est la vie. But I like that the last snippet of Sidney Poitier is of him playing a cowboy. He played several cowboys in his career and I think he enjoyed it.
Here’s an interesting article about the Magi and why they worshiped Jesus.
I liked this article about dealing with sleeplessness. “A good night’s sleep, like so many of God’s gifts, is one of those ordinary glories you don’t quite appreciate until it’s gone.”
Do you need to be reminded of “10 Ways to Be a Christian this Christmas”? These are 10 good ones.
Enjoy the week before Christmas! Slow down. Watch a Christmas movie. Read a poem.
*”The Three Kings” by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow–read it here.
dual personalities 