"Hooray for Hollywood"

I've always loved the "old" movies.  You know the kind....made before 1970, maybe even black and white,  movies without blood, gore, non-graphic, sweet, simple, or funny....sometimes even a musical!  (Oh no, horrors!)

In its heyday, Hollywood made a gazillion of  'em.  Some are still considered among the best movies ever made.  But whether or not considered great by anyone else, there are several from that classic film era that I consider my favorites.  The reasons they are favorites vary all over the place and usually have nothing to do with the things that film critics look for.  It's not the technique, or the artistry, or the symbolism, or any of the other buzzwords, film snobs use.  Nope.  For me its all about films that pull an emotional reaction from me every time I see them.  They can be funny, or romantic, or touchingly sad...but something about them "speaks" to me.  I can see (and have seen) them over and over again to the point where the dialogue is so familiar I can say most of the lines right along with the actors!  These are the ones that make me say "Hooray for Hollywood"!

That is not to say, of course, that there are no films made after 1970 that I have enjoyed and could watch again.  It's just that there are fewer of them.

Would you care to know what those films are?  Well, I'm going to tell you anyway!  The list is in chronological order, except for the last two, which are  simply the best of the best!

15.   "It Happened One Night" ~~ Clark Gable and Claudette Colbert, 1934 comedy.  One of the very first and best of the romantic comedies.  Gable doing comedy, priceless.  A classic!

14.   "The Philadelphia Story" ~~ Katherine Hepburn, Cary Grant, James Stewart, 1935 comedy.  Three great actors in their prime and perfectly cast.  (Interestingly enough, both of these films revolve around an enormously wealthy young woman's wedding day.)

13.  "12 O'Clock High" ~~ Gregory Peck, Dean Jagger, 1949 drama.  WWII  film about aircrews in the United States Army's Eighth Air Force who flew daylight bombing missions against Nazi Germany and occupied France during the early days of American involvement in World War II.  Jagger won an Oscar, Peck should have!

12.  "We're No Angels"  ~~  Humphrey Bogart, Aldo Ray,  Peter Ustinov.  1955 Christmas Film.   Perhaps my favorite Christmas movie,  with 3 very unlikely "heroes".  A delight!

11.  12 Angry Men" ~~ Henry Fonda, Lee J. Cobb, Jack Klugman, Ed Begley. 1957 Courtroom drama.  Another classic.  Magnificent performances by all, especially Cobb and Begley.

10.   "Auntie Mame" ~~  Rosalind Russell.  1958 Comedy.  Funny film, chock-full of memorable characters and unforgettable lines, the most famous of which is probably "Live! Life's a banquet and most poor suckers are starving to death!"

9.   "Some Like It Hot" ~~  Marilyn Monroe, Tony Curtis, Jack Lemmon.  1959 comedy.   Directed by Billy Wilder.  Wonderful!  Monroe is sexy, Curtis is gorgeous, and Lemmon is at his frenetic best!
 
8.   "McClintock" ~~  John Wayne, Maureen O'Hara.  1963 Western (!)   Classic tongue-in-cheek cowboy movie with two actors who were great together.  You could practically see the "sparks" flying between them.

7.  "Come Blow Your Horn" ~~  Frank Sinatra, Molly Picon, Lee J. Cobb. 1963 Neil Simon comedy.  Worth seeing for Molly Picon's performance alone, much less Lee J. Cobb in a comedic role. 

6.   "Father Goose" ~~  Cary Grant, John Mills, Leslie Caron.  1964 Comedy/drama.  Another film about WWII, but one of the most quirky love stories ever.  It also has my favorite line of all time.  "Married!?!  Goody-Two-Shoes and the Filthy Beast??"

5.   "Dirty Dancing" ~~  Patrick Swayze, Jennifer Grey,  Jerry Orbach.  1987 Love story.  What is not to love??  Music, dancing, and Swayze??  Be still my heart!

4.    "Ghost" ~~  Patrick Swayze, Demi Moore, Whoopi Goldberg.  1990 Love Story.  Oh my, just about everything in this film is the best it could be.  Makes me cry and laugh and has the sexiest love scene ever!

3.  "The Birdcage"  ~~  Robin Williams, Nathan Lane, Gene Hackman, 1996 Comedy.  I have never laughed as much as I do with this film.  Williams and Lane are just inspired as two aging gay lovers, with Gene Hackman perfect as the hypocritical, bigoted Senator.  Funniest film ever, bar none. 

And now.....(big drum roll, please).....the creme de la creme:

2.   "The Trouble with Angels" ~~  Hayley Mills, Rosalind Russell.  1966 Comedy.  This one has a lot of personal meaning to us.  We saw it when I was pregnant and chose one of the character names for our  newborn daughter.  Ratchlet and I have watched this film at least 50 times together.  There are some parallels to her life that strike a cord in both of us.  Know the dialogue to this one and still laugh when we see it.  Mills and Russell are outstanding and perfect.  This one is my top two favorite movies of all time.

1.   "Two for the Road"  ~~ Audrey Hepburn, Albert Finney.  1967 Love Story/Comedy.  The perfect movie in my opinion.  It is the best story of marriage ever filmed.  Just the best ever! 

If there are any of these that you haven't ever seen, do yourself a favor and watch them very soon.   I can't guarantee you'll love them like I do, but you just might!  After you've seen them, I pretty sure you'll understand why they make me say, "Hooray for Hollywood"!!

Isn't it a shame that Hollywood can't get it right every time??

"Bits and Pieces" (ad infinitum)

Just a little of this and a little of that....

*** I love these warm summer evenings.  Unfortunately, sitting on the deck to enjoy them is not an option for a little while, because there are two enormous wasps nests under the overhang.   I just discovered them last night.  Mikey sprayed them this morning, but I won't take a chance sitting out there until they are well and truly gone.  Shouldn't take more than a day or two.

***  I have way too many days that go by when I don't actually speak to anyone except for Mikey and whatever restaurant/store staff I encounter.  Alone doesn't automatically mean lonely, but some days its just too quiet!

***  I went to Marie Callendar's yesterday to return to pie plates and get the deposit back.  Most of the restaurants around have raised their prices; not too outrageously, but enough for a meal to cost $3-4 more than had been the case.  It's understandable.  They run into a lot of increased costs from their suppliers.  I get that.  However, in the case of Marie Callendar's, that puts a single meal for one up over $20 (after the tip).  I like Marie Callendar's well enough, but it is not fine dining by any means, so that $22-23 tab for just me really is pricey, so I haven't been going there as often lately.

But as long as I was there with the pie plates, I went ahead and had lunch.  While I  was eating, the hostess who seated me came over and held out a business card and asked if I might be interested in having one.  The card was labeled
"Senior Class Discount".  They were discounting the cost of the meal for people over 55 by 25% if you presented one of these cards!  25%!  That's enough to negate the price increases and returns my total bill into a more affordable range!  So I took one!   And it doesn't expire until 12/2011!  The only drawback is that it says on the card that it's only valid at this location.  Well, that's okay, this is the one I go to anyway!  Still, if you have one close by and eat there occasionally, it would be worth asking about that location too, don't you think?  Good luck!!!

Now if they would just put their Beef Stroganoff back on the menu!

***  One day last week I decided to go to my favorite shoe store and get some cute summer sandals.  Oh, silly me!  Nada!  Zip!  Bupkis!  There was practically nothing on the shelves.  They were preparing to put out their winter line....in August....when it is 102F. outside! 

I do this every flippin' year and I never remember that you need to buy summer things in March.  And it makes me mad all over again, every year!   I don't know what that approach is called, but it really annoys me.  Every clothing and shoe store in the country does the same thing too.  It works well for the store; I guess, but I don't want to buy sandals in March!  It's still COLD in March.  I'm still thinking in terms of knee socks and corduroy jeans and heavy sweaters in March.  Nevertheless, the retailers have decreed that August is just too late to buy anything summery!  So I guess I'll make do with last year's sandals and try again next year.  Pooh!

***  My cousin, Kim, posted this on FaceBook.

"President Obama announced his plan to remove all combat troops from Iraq by the end of August. So thank you to all the men and women serving in Iraq and “Good luck in Afghanistan!”

I don't mean to be flip, but I suppose this could happen and that makes me sad.  :(

DISCLAIMER:  The above item is a piece of military satirical humor and is in no way intended as a statement of fact!  Sorry that wasn't clear.

***  She also posted this, 

"YES!!! I knew it!!! The world will not end in 2012 - I just found a bottle of ketchup that expires in 2013..."

I don't know about you, but I'll certainly be sleeping better knowing that!!  :)

***  Oh I almost forgot!  The bunny came calling again today!  I haven't seen him for a couple of weeks and I was pretty sure he had moved to a different neighborhood!  But either I was just missing him or he had gone away but came back for a nibble on our grass (and I use the term loosely!)  Either way he's still cute as a button and it was nice to see him.

So in the words of the inimitable Walter Cronkite, "And that's the way it is on Wednesday, August 4th".

"School Days"

Many of you already know about Shell's "Things I Can't Say" blog. She writes about her family, her kids, certain...uhhn, "types" of moms, a wide variety of other topics of her choice. She does giveaways and contests and participates in a bunch of different memes. She is funny, informative, caring. She is what I consider sort of the penultimate blogger!

Her button is here to take you right to her page if you've never been there. You should go, she's one of the best.

Anyway, the reason I am promoting her site today is that my post, which will follow in a minute, was directly "inspired" by Shell's post today. She does product evaluations from time to time and today, in preparation for "Back to School", she was doing one about backpacks for kids. 

And that reminded me of one of my very favorite photos of Maddie-the-Great.

It so happens that this photo is already downloaded to my computer and with a minimum of fuss I was able to find it. So I thought I'd share.

There she is our Miss Maddie at about age 3 (give or take a little) with her very first back pack! Obviously, this wasn't for real "School Days" yet. But she did like to take a bunch of things with her to day care. (You just never know when you might need a few books or an extra "lovey" or two!) She wanted to be like the big kids!

But first she needed to figure out the balance thing! There is a definite lean to her posture! In fact, she looks like she's just about to topple right over. Of course, she did figure it out, didn't topple at all, and she used that backpack until it was just too small to fit, but this first time photo captures the happy moment perfectly!

There might be a lot of kids with better balance, but I seriously doubt there is a cuter backpacker anywhere!!

Ya' gotta love this kid!

"I'm Looking for Someone to Love"

No, not like that!!  (Sheesh! Some people!!)  I just need some new authors to read. 

You see, I love to read (I'm sure I've mentioned that before!).  I also read very quickly, especially if it's a new book from one of my favorite authors!  I have learned over the years to at least TRY to ration the amount that I permit myself to read of a brand new book I just purchased, otherwise I have been known to finish a book on the same day I start it!  That's very frustrating and annoying!  Especially back before the bottom fell out of publishing (you know, back when we were willing to spend $25 or $30 for a hardcover book.)  It has happened more than once that a favorite writer will not complete or release a new book more than once a year.  If I then read it in a couple of days....well, that's a long time to wait for the next one to come along!  I'm working on the problem, but it's hard to change something like that.

The second thing that's a problem for me is that when I find an author I really enjoy, I will then proceed to read everything every written by that person.  Sooner or later I've read all of their published work, some more than once, and I am stuck waiting till the next time they publish.  And there is no way to speed them up!

Anyway I have gone through a number of authors through the years and I am in the market for some new writers to try.  Well at least new to me!  I try to expand my horizons by getting books from the library so I can reduce my expenses and maybe find new favorites.  That hasn't happened lately.  For some reason, I haven't found anyone new in a while.  All I've been doing is realizing that I've already read half of the books I check out!  So I'm asking for your help.  "I'm Looking for Someone (New) to Love."  Would you share your favorite writers with me? 

Just to give us a fighting chance for some success here, I listed below some of the writers that I already love and have read everything they've done:

Thrillers:
Robert Ludlum
Michael Crichton
Tom Clancy
Dan Brown
Ken Follett

General Fiction:
Nelson DeMille
Leon Uris
Greg Iles
John J. Nance
John Grisham
James Michener

Mysteries:
Dick Francis
Agatha Christie
Susan Wittig Albert
J.A. Jance

Womens' Fiction/Romance:
Nora Roberts
Susan Elizabeth Phillips
Sandra Brown
J. A. Krentz
Marian Keyes
Dorothea Benton Frank
Emilie Richards
Jennifer Cruisie
Anne Rivers Siddons
Robyn Carr
Susan Wiggs
Barbara Delinsky
Debbie Macomber
Kristen Hannah

Science Fiction:
David Brin
Robert Heinlein
Isaac Asimov

There are, of course, others; but these are the ones that come to mind at the moment.   Who do you love?

"The Uninvited Guest"

There are people who like all living creatures and others who are more selective about what creatures are tolerable and which are not!

I like most of the popular mammals....dogs, elephants, giraffes, people, gorillas, whales, dolphins, and so on.  They are generally fun or interesting to watch and/or get to know about.   I've known a number of dogs up close and personal and I've been known to spend extended periods of time at various zoos across the country watching the pandas or gorillas.  Mammals can be fascinating. 

There are exceptions of course.  Rodents are the spawn of the devil and MUST be destroyed!  As soon as possible would be fine!  That's not so unusual.  Most people don't care for the beady-eyed little critters.

I'm more ambivalent about birds, but I can admire much about them....their colorful plumage, their ability to fly, how cute they can be trying to find things to use in their nests, their songs.  I don't particularly care for some of their personal hygiene habits, however!!   (Once you've actually been pooped on, trust me, it changes you!!) 

For the most part insects are fairly tolerable and I can chase down inside spiders or lady bugs who visit and return them to their natural habitat.  I can spray wasps nests or ant hills or "bomb" a house to eliminate any roach species known to man!  Outside, insects and I have an agreement, I pretty much leave them alone and they leave me alone.  And that's just fine with both of us.  I'm not fanatical about bugs, the sight of one inside the house doesn't cause hysteria in me.  I can deal with it, and frequently do!

I don't like swimming in lakes very much because you frequently end up sharing the water with slippery,  slithery creatures with gills, who want to nibble on my ankles for some reason.  I don't swim well enough to feel comfortable actually swimming in deep ocean water.  So I've never been snorkling, or scuba diving to where it is deep enough to see the salt water fish.  That's what aquariums are for and there are a lot of wonderful ones all across the country where you can see the amazing variety up close without having to get your hair wet!

That leaves the reptiles....snakes and lizards.   ((....SHUDDERING....))  I reeeaaally can't stand reptiles of any sort.  I am 150% positive that the dinosaurs were large overgrown prehistoric reptiles, no matter what the "experts" theorize!  I am just sorry that whatever wiped out the dinosaurs, didn't take all the reptiles and lizards in one fell swoop (or one swell foop, depending on your mood!) 

I know that they have an important role in the food chain and the ecology and all that, but I just want them to take care of that role somewhere very far from me....like Antarctica! 

So where have I spent about 1/3 of my life??  In warm climates like Florida, Central California, and Texas!! 

 Florida didn't seem particularly over populated by reptiles.  There were supposedly a large number of snakes that lived in damp, swampy places, but I never saw one.  The only lizards I remember seeing were chameleons.  They were kind of cute in a way and they did tricks for our amusement!!  (Really!  What other creature do you know of that can change color at will?)  Of course, their palette was kind of limited, green or brown being the only choices, but it was still interesting to watch it happen.  They were usually no more than 4 or 5 in. long.  and they stayed outside with the plants where they belonged.

Although the reptile population of California was supposedly widespread they were by and large, pretty shy and I don't remember any personal encounters with either snakes or lizards.  So it was kind of a non-issue.

But now we live in Texas.  Oh my, my, reptiles LOVE Texas.  I've seen a few snakes, one notably on my back deck!! But he slithered away and I ran in the other direction, to our mutual satisfaction.

So what is left that makes me absolutely cross-eyed with discomfort?  In a word,  Geckos!!  Horrible, ugly, creepy Geckos.  They are everywhere!  On the plants, in the grass, on the buildings, by the pools, and if you are not enormously lucky....in the house!!   EEEEKK!  God, I hate them.  They are very nearly transparent and you can see their inside structure anytime they are near a light source.  They are incredibly fast when you get close.  They skitter at about the speed of light, to a spot possibly 2.7 feet away and come to a stop, where they stay until you move again, sending them another 2.7 feet away.  They don't move in straight lines!  Each spurt of movement can be in different directions, impossible to predict or catch!  And they are smaller than chameleons!  They are harder to see, being this sort of eerie, transparent flesh-tone!  Sometimes its not till they move that you are sure of what it is!

The adults come into the garage, leave whatever it is that turns into baby Geckos and leave again.  The little icky things are about 1.5-2 in. long and they can get in the smallest little spaces.  And once they're in, they stay in!   Ugh!! 

Texans will tell you that Geckos are good luck!  They even put statues of the creepy critters in their houses as decorations to bring them luck!   Oh, icky, icky!

The Big Guy tells me that they are more scared of me than I am of them!  HA!  If they're so scared, why the hell don't they move more than 2.7 feet at a time???  The idea of one crawling over me while I sleep, practically makes me break out in hives! 

To be totally honest, we don't usually get one in the house, mostly they stay in the garage or on the back deck (must be a reptile resort or something!)  But tonight, one has moved in.  Oh Goody, we have "An Uninvited Guest"!  It is hiding under the big chair in the corner of the living room.  When I asked the Big Guy to DO SOMETHING!  He said, "You got any ideas??"

Oh yeah, I've got an idea, you bet I've got an idea!!  "You can go...." but the Big Guy tells me that is physically impossible!

So, can I come stay at your house??  I promise I won't bring "an uninvited guest" with me!