Happy Valentine’s Day, loyal readers!
Do you have special plans? Me neither. The OM and I will watch Bullitt (1968) which is our Valentine tradish. He will probably fall asleep.
Here is a fine poem by Billy Collins to celebrate the day…
And lest we forget: this. You’re welcome.
Yikes–we’ve been working remotely at home for 11 months now! I had four Zoom meetings yesterday. I can’t wait to walk away from my computer for the weekend.
But it will be a cold and frosty Valentine’s Day in flyover country.
C’est la vie. In other news, I finished my thistle needlepoint and have started back on my elephant.
Slowly, day by day, I am making progress. It is like that with all things, right?
Above all, trust in the slow work of God. We are quite naturally impatient in everything to reach the end without delay. We should like to skip the intermediate stages. We are impatient of being on the way to something unknown, something new. And yet it is the law of all progress that it is made by passing through
Pierre Teilhard de Chardin
some stages of instability—and that it may take a very long time.
The twins have had a fun week at school getting ready for Valentine’s Day. I was glad to hear that they still decorate shoe boxes to collect Valentines in.
Later today daughter #1 is driving home for a quick visit. We’ll have a little Valentine party with the wee babes and their parents. There will be party favors. And cake!
I kind of love The Simpsons updated take on the classic Cinema Paradiso (1989) Montage of Kisses, which I found when googling the original.
What haven’t The Simpsons referenced at some point in their 32 seasons?
Have a great weekend. Love the one you’re with. ❤️
A Valentine picture from the past!
“You think you will never forget any of this, you will remember it always just the way it was. But you can’t remember it the way it was. To know it, you have to be living in the presence of it right as it is happening. It can return only by surprise. Speaking of these things tells you that there are no words for them that are equal to them or that can restore them to your mind. And so you have a life that you are living only now, now and now and now, gone before you can speak of it, and you must be thankful for living day by day, moment by moment, in this presence. But you have a life too that you remember. It stays with you. You have lived a life in the breath and pulse and living light of the present, and your memories of it, remember now, are of a different life in a different world and time. When you remember the past, you are not remembering it as it was. You are remembering it as it is. It is a vision or a dream, present with you in the present, alive with you in the only time you are alive.”
―
*Wendell Berry
Looking for a romantic movie to watch tonight? Good luck.
Here’s a list from Vanity Fair that isn’t terrible. It even includes some old movies, which most lists don’t. I don’t agree with a lot of it, but why quibble–although it’s difficult to validate any list which includes the dreadful An Affair to Remember (1957).
What amazes me is that the most romantic movie ever is not on it. What about The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938) with Errol Flynn and Olivia de Havilland?
I sent this movie to daughter #2 and her fiancé so they could watch it together tonight. Nate is woefully ignorant when it comes to old movies–but think of what he has to look forward to!
Also missing from this list is Breakfast at Tiffany’s (1961)–I know I sound like a broken record, but c’mon. I saw this movie again recently and Audrey Hepburn and George Peppard are tops in this film.
Another movie which I re-watched recently that is surprisingly quite romantic is The Best Years of Their Lives (1946). All three of the returning G.I.’s have romantic storylines. There’s Myrna Loy and Frederick March as the reunited middle aged couple and there’s dreamy Dana Andrews realizing what a big mistake he made in his quickie war marriage, who finds true love with Teresa Wright. And then there’s poor Harold Russell, who has lost both of his hands in the war, discovering that his high school sweetheart Cathy O’Donnell still wants him.
This is powerful stuff.
Well, to each his own. Maybe you will have something better to do than watch a romantic movie on Valentine’s Day! More power to you.
If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 3 If I give away all I have, and if I deliver my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.
4 Love is patient and kind; love is not jealous or boastful; 5 it is not arrogant or rude. Love does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; 6 it does not rejoice at wrong, but rejoices in the right. 7 Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
8 Love never ends; as for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. 9 For our knowledge is imperfect and our prophecy is imperfect; 10 but when the perfect comes, the imperfect will pass away. 11 When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child; when I became a man, I gave up childish ways. 12 For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall understand fully, even as I have been fully understood. 13 So faith, hope, love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love. (I Corinthians 13)
I have seen a couple of good movies recently which I heartily recommend for your weekend viewing.
Woodlawn (2015), directed by Andrew Erwin–
It is a “Christian” movie and a very rousing one I thought. When I attended a conference last summer at the University of Alabama, Jeremiah Castille, Bama grad and a former NFL football player, gave the keynote address. At the end he mentioned that his son Caleb was making a movie, so I had been on the lookout for it. It was released on dvd last week. The film tells the story of how one Birmingham high school (Woodlawn) was integrated in 1973 and how the football team that was converted together helped to ease racial tensions. There are a few well-known actors in the movie–Jon Voight (as Bear Bryant), Sean Astin and Nic Bishop–but the rest are for the most part newcomers like Caleb Castille (on the poster above). They are all excellent and the production values are very high. I was impressed.
The Man From U.N.C.L.E. (2015), directed by Guy Ritchie–
Everyone my age watched the original The Man From U.N.C.L.E. on TV in the 1960s. My dual personality, in fact, had a huge crush on David McCallum who played Ilya Kuryakin. (He was probably her first crush ever since she was a kindergartner at the time.) Well, let me tell you that Armie Hammer as the new Ilya is pretty adorable, and, boy, can he drive a speed boat. He definitely steals the show. Henry Cavill is appropriately cool as Napoleon Solo and I really liked Alicia Vikander as Gaby. The direction by Guy Ritchie is stylish and fast-moving without being too stylish and fast-moving, if you know what I mean. The ’60s vibe is strong but does not take over. I really enjoyed the whole thing.
I also watched the truly terrible Of Human Bondage (1934) starring an awful Bette Davis. It was worth it to see Leslie Howard who, as always, was quite appealing and redeemed the movie somewhat. Reportedly Bette did her own make-up and thought she deserved to win an Oscar for looking so bad, but her fake accent and over-acting are really quite heinous.
If you are a Vin Diesel fan like me, you might like The Last Witch Hunter (2015) about the guy who “stands between humanity and the combined forces of the most horrifying witches in history.”
Vin co-stars with Michael Caine and Elijah Wood in what is basically a comic book-movie hoping to spawn money-making sequels. It was enjoyable, but you would be better served to watch one of the first two movies described above.
P.S. I nearly forgot that Valentine’s Day is Sunday. Well, it’s just not on my radar these days. If you want appropriate Valentine viewing suggestions, I blogged about romantic movies/screen kisses here. Of course, there is nothing like Nelson Eddy and Jeanette MacDonald for romance. Here’s a great one to sing along with now:
Have a good weekend! I am co-hosting a baby shower for the daughter of a friend, so I will be knee-deep in gender-neutral baby stuff. How about you?
*Tandy Gerelds, the coach, in Woodlawn
Wait, no, it’s just more snow.
Well, for those who need to find that (last minute) one right thing for their one true love and don’t mind braving the February weather, here are a couple of unusual suggestions.
1. Buy the fastest selling Playmobile character ever, Martin Luther!
Seriously. I’m not a Playmobile fan, but who wouldn’t want their very own Martin Luther? It restores my faith in humanity — I mean just the fact that they made it is cool, but that it has sold out world wide is just awesome. And I’m not even Lutheran.
2. Make your own Lego Valentine. Our middle son made this for us when he was about 9. I think it was for our wedding anniversary, but it doubles nicely as a Valentine, don’t you think?
3. Do a chore that your Valentine has been wanting to get done for a long time. Put up those drapes
hint, hint
or help with the piles of ironing
not ours, but you get the idea
4. Bake something yummy and give it to someone who lives alone.
5. If you don’t have time for any of the above, just be sure to tell your loved ones that you love them and give them lots of hugs and kisses.
XOXOX to all!
Emily McDowell, of course
Here’s hoping we all have a happy Valentine’s Day, complete with candy and grocery store flowers. If you don’t have someone to give them to you, buy your own. And love your life. Enjoy the day! Smile, even when you don’t feel like it! Someone will smile back.
Just remember: your glass is half full, not half empty.
And if you are lucky enough to have a husband/wife/partner, remember that having the same exact thought at the same time is not habit or routine–that’s a blended soul. You are meant for each other. Set me a seal upon your heart.
I have no specific plans, but I will probably watch one of my favorite romantic movies. I have to say that the lists of such movies I’ve seen on the internet are pretty pathetic. Usually they include nothing older than twenty years and those chosen are pretty lame. Maybe the list will include some old chestnut like An Affair to Remember (1957) with Cary Grant and Deborah Kerr–which really is a terrible movie and doesn’t deserve to be on any list ever–but that’s a big maybe. List-makers usually haven’t seen a movie older than Titanic (1997)!
My list would include:
Captain Blood (1935)
The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938)
Casablanca (1942)
Key Largo (1948)
The Quiet Man (1952)
Breakfast at Tiffany’s (1961)
The Princess Bride (1987)
Green Card (1990)
The Man Who Went Up a Hill and Came Down a Mountain (1995)
Shakespeare in Love (1998)
Chocolat (2000)
Dear Frankie (2004)
Of course, there are many more, but I couldn’t think of them and particularly anything from the 1970s (Worst. Decade. Ever.)
What is your favorite romantic movie?
As Valentine’s Day approaches, I thought I would share some Valentines from days of yore–specifically some I received in 1975 when I was a freshman in college.
You can guess who sent me this one. Isn’t Holly Hobbie great?
Here’s one from my aunt. So seventies.
And here’s one I got from my pseudo-love Chucko who went to Cornell. Funnily enough, the postmark was from a women’s college in Norton, MA.
There is even a naughty poem by John Donne transcribed inside!
I found these cards while going through a box of my mail from freshman year. This chore has been a hoot and a half–especially reading the letters from my sister (and dual personality)–alias soror idiocritus–who was a high school sophomore at the time.
The letters from my DP frequently arrived in an envelope like this.
The return address was always from “Pierre Dumaine’s #1 fan” or “Lumpy Rutherford’s #1 fan” or “Cool Hand Luke’s #1 fan”–or “Old Faithful” or “Guess Who?”
I was kept up to date in minute detail concerning every J.V. hockey game she started in, school gossip, her social life (much fuller than mine), and how her classes were going (badly per usual).
Yes, I am alive. I haven’t broken my hand or even lost my eyesight. No, you’re right those aren’t good excuses–but I do have a good one. I’ve had a nervous breakdown. Ruth [her math teacher] sent me to it. It was the last straw when she made me get up and be a point on a line–I was -A (that’s negative A). Actually, I probably could have stood that, but when she put her arm around me and breathed on me…I thought I would faint!…I’m not going to be able to stand a whole year of her!
As it turned out, it was the teacher who did not make it through the year. The replacement, according to my sister, was even worse. But then, according to her, all her teachers were pretty terrible and all had a very low opinion of her and were always accusing her of never working.
(I’m sure they were all shocked when she got into Smith College and then got a a PhD from Yale. Are nine out of ten high school teachers always clueless?)
Well, these distant days are indeed gone with the wind. But it is fun to visit them via letter and look back, isn’t it? I am reminded of many things that I had totally forgotten. It is also a fascinating window into the world at home and all the Life that went on without me. It did, really.
In conclusion: “You’re all wool and a yard wide!”
Have a great weekend. Find something to laugh about.
*Herman Melville, Moby-Dick
Sunday is the birthday of Eugene Hugh Beaumont (February 16, 1909 – May 14, 1982) who you will recall was an American actor and television director. He was also an ordained Methodist minister. Hugh Beaumont is best known for his portrayal of Ward Cleaver on one of my favorite TV series, Leave It to Beaver (1957–1963) which I watched for years after school when it was in syndication.
Ward was not perfect. He made mistakes and he tried too hard sometimes and he lost his patience with his sons when they didn’t act as he thought they should. But he loved them and he could laugh at himself. Ward was a role model, and I have to say, it was very comforting to watch that syndicated show after school every day.
It has been suggested that Hugh Beaumont felt that he had been type-cast as Ward Cleaver and that his career suffered. Maybe it did. But I hope he knew that besides entertaining generations of people, he probably touched a lot of kids out there whose parents were not perfect and whose family was not as “functional” as the Cleavers. He touched me. I still cannot watch the above clip without getting a little misty-eyed.
Rest in peace, Hugh.
And here’s hoping you all have a nice Valentine’s Day and that someone gives you a nice card like the one above.
P.S. FYI One of the writers for the show was Joss Whedon’s grandfather. This does not surprise me in the least.
*Ben Folds
As Valentine’s Day fast approaches, I would just like to say that I hope I do not get a dozen long-stemmed red roses. Nothing says “thoughtless, auto-pilot gift” like roses. Do you know what I mean? They are expensive and let’s just admit it, not so great-looking.
I don’t mean to sound ungrateful, and my intention is not to hurt anyone’s feelings. I have friends who will say, “Roses are better than nothing!” But I don’t think so.
Don’t get me wrong. I would like something. Tulips from the grocery store. Daisies. A book. A plant. Booze. Red wine, just not red roses.
Okay, yellow roses would be okay. White even. Just not those big honking red ones.
I didn’t mean to rant, but it is just a pet peeve of mine.
Since it is Monday, I will leave you with this adorable picture of the kiddos all dressed up for Valentine’s Day in the not-too-distant past.
I miss those days of the handmade Valentines and the school essays. “I love my Mom because she makes my lunch…”–never very creative, but earnest anyway. I suppose the red roses are the earnest gift of a spouse, and we should not sneeze at that.
dual personalities 