Last night I was sitting out on the porch, reading The Two Towers by J.R.R. Tolkien, enjoying the warmer weather. I looked out at our front yard and yes, our old maple tree ismissing, but it doesn’t feel as weird as it did the first few days after it was gone.
One night this week the wind was whipping outside, and I got that familiar clench in my gut that I always get when the wind blows and I worried about that big tree out there and what might happen if part of it fell. Then I remembered that there was no tree, and I didn’t have to worry about it anymore. Relief flowed over me.
We had two nicer days this week, but yesterday was even warmer and nicer. On Thursday, I couldn’t take sitting outside to read because the wind was just too cold. Yesterday, though, it was love and warm, despite the wind.
Little Miss drew with sidewalk chalk while I read. This was after we’d traveled the thirty minutes up and thirty minutes back to retrieve a grocery pick up from Aldi and spent a couple hours at my parents while The Boy helped his grandfather rearrange tools in the garage.
Little Miss wanted to take a ride on my dad’s golf cart, so we did that while we waited.
Today Little Miss, The Husband, and The Boy went to an Easter egg hunt.
We will spend the rest of the day hanging out and maybe watching a family movie. We’ll also be getting ready for Easter tomorrow.
We don’t usually attend an in-person church but will be trying to do so tomorrow so we can find more friends for Little Miss. After that there will be a small Easter egg hunt in our backyard and then lunch at my parents.
.
It feels weird to be home alone. The house was so quiet. It’s usually me and at least one of the kids. Shortly after they left, I looked for a movie to watch and settled on one from 1934 that I’d never heard of. It’s called She Had To Choose.
I had to choose it because the man on the preview was quite handsome
I might also have time for a Murder She Wrote. I watched a couple episodes from Season 12 and they were well done. Better than some from the earlier seasons. The Husband says the writers probably got better, one, and two, it was the final season so they went all out for it. I would say they did. So far there are at least three episodes filmed overseas, or at least the story takes place overseas.
Earlier this week The Husband took Little Miss to a meeting of the chamber of commerce in the town he works on to show her how small organizations work. It was a good educational experience, but Little Miss said she was bored and “zoned out” toward the beginning. She will still be asked to write a paragraph to share in her homeschool portfolio.
Before the meeting they visited the library in that town and The Husband picked me up a book of short stories by Louis L’Amour and his biography. I am looking forward to reading both. That’s if I ever finish The Two Towers and my James Herriot book. Both seem very long and dense. I am going to finish The Two Towers this week and am savoring the Herriot book, reading a chapter here and there before bed.
After the library visit and meeting, The Husband took Little Miss to an ice cream stand which also has a playground.
They had a good time.
I was at home enjoying the weather, even though it was chillier that day.
We have finally fixed The Husband’s old truck and that means Little Miss and I will have a car during the week. Where we will go with said car, I am not sure, but I do know I will be headed to my parents once or twice a week to help clean and maybe cook them some meals. They are definitely slowing down these days and could use the help.
I can hardly believe there is only about a month and a half left of the school year.
Little Miss and I will be focused on art the final month of the year, like we did last year. We will be reading about artists, watching documentaries on them and doing art most days with some math lessons and literature thrown in. Little Miss isn’t excited that I’ll be having her do a couple math lessons a week during the summer to help her not forget what she’s learned for next school year.
The Boy graduates at the end of May and will be looking for a job shortly afterward. Yes that fact has my mind racing but I am trying to reel my emotions in a little bit when everyone is around and having a good cry when they aren’t.
On Wednesday I visited my parents and dug into some old history, finding some extra letters from my great-great grandfather that I had wanted to find before so that I can write a final post to my series about my ancestors who fought in the Civil War. In the final post I want to follow up with how the brothers continued their lives after finding out Charles had died in Libby Prison.
If you haven’t read those posts, you can find them here:
How was your week last week? Did you do anything exciting? Is the weather warming up where you are? Let me know in the comments so we can catch up.
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Do you write a similar weekly wrap up or chat post? Feel free to link it below. It doesn’t have to be the exact same as mine or have the same title, but you are welcome to borrow the title and format (not that there is much of a format other than chatting). I’d love to visit your blogs and meet new bloggers!
Welcome to the Weekend Traffic Jam Reboot where we offer a place for bloggers to link up and get a fresh set of eyes on their posts. We also feature one blog a week, letting our readers know about the blog, and providing a link so readers can learn more about it.
Look for the post to go live about 9:30 PM EST on Thursdays.
I can not believe it is still as cold as it has been in our area when it is supposed to be spring! As I am writing this, though, the temperatures are increasing and the sun has come out which is very nice.
I hope you are having some lovely weather where you are!
Let’s introduce you to your hosts for the Weekend Traffic Jam Reboot
Marsha from Marsha in the Middle started blogging in 2021 as an exercise in increasing her neuroplasticity. Oh, who are we kidding? Marsha started blogging because she loves clothes, and she loves to talk or, in this case, write!
Melynda from Scratch Made Food! & DIY Homemade Household – The name says it all, we homestead in East Texas, with three generations sharing this land. I cook and bake from scratch, between gardening and running after the chickens, and knitting!
Lisa from Boondock Ramblingsshares about the fiction she writes and reads, her faith, homeschooling, photography and more.
Sue from Women Living Well After 50 started blogging in 2015 and writes about living an active and healthy lifestyle, fashion, book reviews and her podcast and enjoying life as a woman over 50. She invites you to join her living life in full bloom.
We would love to have additional Co-Hosts to share in the creativity and fun! If you think this would be a good fit for you and you like having fun (come on, who doesn’t!) while still being creative, drop one of us an email and someone will get back with you!
WTJR will be highlighting a different blogger each week this year! We invite you to stop by their blog, take a look around and say hello!
A little about the blog: Welcome to my little corner of the world! I am a stay at home mom of 4 boys who loves to travel and dress cute while doing so. I grew up in France and Mexico City and my favorite places to travel abroad are France, Spain and the Republic of Georgia. To be able to travel with a family of 6, I have learned to budget so that we can save and visit our friends in different parts of the world and the US. Join me as I share our adventures and tips to make these adventures possible as well as my tips for dressing on a budget.
Thank you so much for joining us for our link-up!
Everyone else, Please remember that this is a link-up where you can share posts from the previous week or posts from weeks, months, or even years ago. All we ask is that they be family-friendly!
And now some posts that were highlights for me this past week:
You may add family-friendly blog post links, linked to specific blog posts.
Be sure to visit other links and leave a kind comment for each link you post (it would be too hard to visit every link, of course!)
The party opens Thursday evening and ends Wednesday.
Thank you for participating. Have fun!
*By linking to The Weekend Traffic Jam Reboot Link Up, you give permission to share your post and images on the hosts’ blogs for their highlighted posts. Proper credit with a photo and link back will be provided.
Erin from Still Life, With Cracker Crumbs and I are watching movies that take place in Paris this spring.
Up this week was Paris Blue, which isn’t as happy or cheerful as the other two we watched but it’s the real Paris in the 1960s at the height of the Jazz movement. It shows the difference between the U.S. and France when it came to how black people were treated, the way Jazz was exploding around the world at the time, but especially Paris, and just what Paris of the 60s was like.
It also shows the struggles musicians often have with trying to break into the business and become more than a musician simply entertaining a small group in a Jazz club.
The movie was shot in Paris and was based on a book Harold Flenders 1957 novel.
The movie stars Paul Newman as Ram Bowen, a famous jazz trombonist who is trying to become even more famous while living and working in Paris. He plays the music but now he wants to also write it and become even more famous.
He and his friend Eddie Cook, portrayed by Sidney Poitier, play in a band together, attracting music lovers who aren’t at the club to drink but to really take in the music.
It’s clear right from the beginning that Ram can be your stereotypical temperamental musician. He finishes playing a piece for Eddie and wants his opinion, but when Eddie seems less enthusiastic than he hoped, Ram pops off some frustration at his friend.
“If you don’t like it, just tell me,” he says.
Eddie assures he likes the music just fine and tells Ram to calm down.
The next day Ram is in the city at the trainstation, along with a bunch of screaming young women who are excited for a musician named Wild Man Moore, who is arriving to play a concert. We are shown Ram is fairly well-known when a young woman stops him and asks for his autograph.
Ram hops the now stopped train with a folder of music in his hand and we aren’t sure what he’s going to do but before he gets to his destination, he runs into Connie (Diahann Carroll) trying to communicate with a French-speaking porter who is trying to take her bags for her.
Ram zeroes right in on Connie, a cocky smirk crossing his mouth, signaling that he is ready to flirt. She tells him she’s waiting for her friend who she is on vacation with, looks him up and down and adds, “She’s white.”
Ram quips, “She might be hard to pick out. There are a lot of white girls in Paris and they all look alike.”
A few minutes later we will learn that Connie’s friend is a pretty blond with short hair named Lillian (Joanne Woodward…Paul’s wife in real life, which is one reason they click so well in the movie).
When Lillian does show up, Ram is quite dismissive of her and that continues later that night after the friends show up at the club to hear him play. He had invited Connie to come but she didn’t want to. Lillian, however, wanted to because she’s heard Ram’s records and wants to hear him live. It is clear she has a pretty big crush on him by the way she looks at him.
Connie does agree to go and when she does and gets out of the taxis and sees Eddie…well…hello — she’s happy to be there, shall we say.
Eddie and Connie are used to the idea of segregation from the United States. White man with the white woman and black man with the black girl. Ram doesn’t care about those rules in Paris and his eye is on Connie through the first part of the movie.
He makes that very clear when the club closes and Eddie says they all should go out for breakfast. He’s flat out rude to Lillian and Connie both when Connie resists. Eddie, Connie, and Lillian call him out on it.
He ends up offering a very fake and snotty apology and then softens and offers a sincere one, saying he needs to decline the breakfast invitation because he’s in a bad mood.
Lillian watches him leave, still enamored with him despite his rudeness and maybe because of it and his bad boy image.
The race issue will come up later in the movie as well, by the way, and while it is a big part of the movie, it is not the only focus.
The other focus is Ram and his all-consuming desire to become successful, no matter who he hurts.
The race issue is an overarching issue because at this time Paris was a refuge for black musicians — a place they could perform and express themselves without being judged as “less than” because of their race.
This movie isn’t a happy movie in many ways. It deals with drug addiction, depression, failed expectations, etc., but the music and acting were great.
While I don’t want to give away too much of the film, I do think it is worth mentioning that the original screenplay and the book coupled the white man with the black woman and the black man with the white woman.
It was later decided that America wasn’t yet ready for such a “revolutionary” idea so, at the last minute, the decision was made to made the two black people a couple and the two white people a couple. What I won’t say is what happens to the two couples by the end of the movie.
Ram and Lillian will eventually start an affair while Eddie starts one with Connie. According to an article on TCM.com the affair between Diahann and Sidney was almost real after they’d fallen in love during the filming of Porgy and Bess (1959). Both stayed with their spouses but the tension was real on the set of Paris Blues.
Sidney’s family was even with him on location during the filming.
I got the feeling while watching this movie that these actors were just having a blast together, not only the couples. They were laughing and messing around, which I am sure was part of the script, but it also seemed extremely genuine. There were also tense moments, of course. I wasn’t a fan of how the women seemed to want to change the men in only two weeks and how Connie was trying to tell Eddie that he had to come back to the US and fight for all black people when he was simply happy with how kind and normal he was treated in Paris.
The whole movie might just be worth the trauma of some of the topics in the movie, if just to see the ten-minute jam with Louis Armstrong and his band and Ram (Paul) and his band. That and to watch four physically beautiful people interact and enjoy each other’s company.
I’ve watched this movie before, so I previously researched to see if he actually learned to play the trombone for the movie and he did. He was coached by composer Billy Byers. He did not play the music on the soundtrack, however. That went to Murray McEachern. The soundtrack and score was composed by Duke Ellington, who was nominated for an Oscar. The soundtrack was also performed by Ellington with Louis Armstrong showing up for two of the songs on the soundtrack.
There are some great lines and exchanges in this movie.
Eddie to Lillian: “That’s because you are one of the day people and we are of the night.”
Lillian laughs. “Do you think they can mix?
Eddie grins. “Well, I certainly wouldn’t want one of them marrying my sister.”
Have you seen this one?
If you want to read Erin’s impression of the movie, visit her blog here.
Up next on our schedule is Hugo.
If you have watched any of the movies on our list and shared your thoughts on your blog you can link up below.
I’ve been enjoying coloring in the black and white illustrations in “old” Nancy Drew books.
These are not original Nancy Drew books from the 1930s and 1940s, but instead are reprints of those books.
For those who don’t know who Nancy Drew is (like those from other countries), she is an amateur sleuth created in the 1930s by Edward Stratemeyer for Stratemeyer Syndicates. He also created several other books for children, including The Hardy Boys.
Nancy was a teenager who solved mysteries along with her friends, Bess and George, and “boyfriend” Ned Nickerson. The original books didn’t push the idea of Ned being Nancy’s boyfriend too hard but it was mentioned.
Nancy’s father, Carson Drew, was a lawyer and her mother had passed away when she was young. I’m not sure if we are ever told how her mother died, but she and her father have a housekeeper named Hannah Gruen who acts as a mother figure.
Incidentally, the first Nancy Drew book was released on April 28, 1930 so Nancy will be 95 years old in a couple of more weeks!
A podcaster (www.truedrewpodcast.com) who talks about Nancy Drew and collects her books and who I follow shared on her Instagram a few months ago that she had decided to color in some Nancy Drew illustrations. Around the same time I saw this, I had recently picked up a few of the reprints of the old books and decided it would be fun to do the same, so I started it and haven’t stopped.
I have two original Nancy Drew books that I will not be coloring in simply because they are collectors.
I don’t plan to ever sell them (I don’t think they are worth anything anyhow) but I still like the idea of having them in their original condition.
I use colored pencils to color in the illustrations and I don’t always take my time, but it’s a relaxing activity that I do when my mind is racing too much.
The world and life can be heavy at times so coloring or drawing can be a nice distraction.
The illustrations in the original Nancy Drew books were drawn by Russell H. Tandy.
Tandy was a friend of Stratemeyer, according to information online.
Much like the many authors of the books, who all wrote under the name Carolyn Keene, the illustrators also changed throughout the years.
Some of those illustrators include Bill Gillies, Rudy Nappi, Ruth Sanderson, and Paul Frame.
Over the years the illustrations were updated so I am not sure if the ones I am coloring are Russell H. Tandy or not. The reprinted books I have, which were reprinted in 1993, do not list the names of the illustrators.
Here are some of the illustrations I have colored in so far:
Today’s prompt is: Ten Unpopular Bookish opinions, but I decided to change the topic up and share a list of top ten literary friendships (for me anyhow) instead because I could only think of one or two unpopular bookish opinions I have.
Lt. Tragg and Perry Mason from the Perry Mason Mystery books by Earle Stanley Gardner.
Are these two really friends? No. They are usually on the opposite side of things or competing for information but there is still a kind of friendship between the two. They play off each other, exchange witty banter, and would probably miss each sparring with each other if one of them was gone. Tragg in the books is much younger than the one depicted on the show from the 1960s, by the way.
2. Sherlock Holmes and John Watson from the Sherlock Holmes books and stories by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Of course these two are close friends -solving crimes together with John Watson having to deal with an erratic, drug-addicted, brilliant Sherlock Holmes. John saves Sherlock from danger and himself more than once.
3. Sam and Frodo from The Fellowship of the Ring trilogy by J.R.R. Tolkien
In the movies, it’s Sam that does most of the work for Frodo it seems. I’m only on the second book of the trilogy so I will have to see if the books are the same. Frodo, a hobbit from Hobbiton must carry a magic ring to Mount Doom to throw it in and destroy it to stop evil from taking over Middle Earth. Sam, loyal beyond anything imaginable, sticks close to Frodo’s side, battling Orcs, huge spiders, and many other perils to make sure his friend makes it safely to his destination. I would love to have a friend who is even half as dedicated to me as Sam is to Frodo.
4. Anne Shirley and Diana Barry from Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery
These two young ladies become fast friends when Anne Shirley is taking in my Marilla and Matthew Cuthbert. Diana lives not far from the Cuthbert farm and she and Anne quickly become “bossom buddies” or “kindred spirits” after meeting. I love their friendship, which survives many ups and downs and challenges.
5. Nancy Drew, Bess Marvin, and George Fayne from The Nancy Drew Mysteries by Carolyn Keene
Teen amateur sleuth Nancy Drew often solves her mysteries with the help of her friends Bess Marvin and George Fayne. Bess and George are cousins. Bess is a bit plump and afraid of everything and George is brash and, honestly, sometimes rude to her cousin Bess.
The interaction between these three are fun and keep the books interesting as readers watch to see what trouble the girls will get into next and whether or not Bess will faint during the investigation.
6. Hercule Poirot and Captain Arthur Hastings from the Hercule Poirot Mystery series by Agatha Christie
Some might call Captain Hastings, lackey and friend of infamous private detective Hercule Poirot an idiot since he always seems to stumble into trouble or ask really ridiculous questions but he is a support system for the brash and sometimes blunt Poirot. Hastings’ presence helps to soften the interactions Poirot has with interviewees and others as he conducts his various investigations.
7. Piglet and Winnie the Pooh from the Winnie the Pooh series by A.A. Milne
Oh, who can forget these darling friends. Of course we could add in Eyore and Rooh and Tiger too but Piglet and Winnie are the closest of the group and the most darling. When I think of them I think of a cartoon I once saw of them walking away from our view, hand in hand. Piglet says to Winnie, “Winnie?” Winnie responds, “yes, Piglet?” and Piglet simply responds, “Just checking you are still there.” Or something along those lines. It always makes me weepy.
8. Scout, Jem, and Dill from To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee
This is my favorite book and has been since I was in sixth grade. The friendship between young Scout Finch, her brother Jim Finch, and their friend Dill during the tumultuous summer when their father represents a black man accused of rape in Alabama in the 1930s, is bittersweet, heartwarming, and impactful. This book and their friendship hit me even harder when I reread it as an adult two years ago with my son for his English course.
9. Huckleberry Finn and Jim from Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
Huckleberry is a young boy whose abusive father disappears and reappears over and over again, pulling Huckleberry from the warm and (sort of) comforting home with Widow Douglass and Miss Watson. When Huckleberry decides to run away from the widow and Miss Watson and his father to have an adventure on the Mississippi River, he meets runaway slave Jim. The two continue on their journey together and form a storm, unlikely, friendship that forces Huckleberry to examine his ideas about slavery and black people.
10. Digory Kirke and Polly Plummer from The Magician’s Nephew by C.S. Lewis
Digory and Polly meet one afternoon, begin to play by hopping across the rafters in the attics of the connecting row houses and it all takes off from there. Polly is pulled through a portal when she touches a ring that belongs to Digory’s evil uncle and Digory has to follow her. Evil queens, talking animals, and much more will await these children who become fast friends thanks the adventure they are thrown into.
Are you familiar with any of these literary friendships and if so, do you have a favorite?
It’s time for our Sunday morning chat. On Sundays, I ramble about what’s been going on, whatthe rest of the familyand I have been reading and watching, andwhat I’ve been writing. Some weeks I share what I am listening to.
This past week was a fairly relaxed one until yesterday.
Little Miss needed some cheering up, so I suggested that after I picked up a friend of The Boy’s we head up to the town where we used to live to watch The Minecraft movie.
The kids were excited but since I wasn’t really interested in watching the movie, so instead I headed to an Italian Deli and Bakery near the theater after I dropped them off and picked up some cookies and cannoli, headed back to the park across from the theater and sat in my car reading books and eating fudge filled cookies.
Well, I ate one cookie actually and then I ate some string cheese and drank a natural ginger ale. It was nice and relaxing, as the rain fell around me.
One weird thing and funny thing that happened while I was sitting in the car: a car pulled up next to me and parked and then three people got out – they looked to be about the age of a mom, a dad, and maybe a 12-year-old boy. The park has a sidewalk that goes all the way around, and this family started walking on the sidewalk and then walked all the way on the other side of it toward the hospital, which is across the street from the park. They disappeared from my sight, so I went back to my book. About ten minutes later they passed in front of my car again, and I noticed all of them were looking at their phones. The mom said something to the boy, and he laughed, but they kept their eyes on their phones.
Then they started another loop around the park. I thought maybe they were playing something like Pokemon Go (is that still a thing), but they were just walking in a circle, staring at their phones.
They did this four more times, then crossed the street near the gas station, came back again, walked to their car, got in and left.
It was kind of, well, creepy … and funny. I have no idea what was going on, but it felt like some kind of Twilight Zone episode. Part of me wanted to ask them what was going on, but in this day and age, I think it is just better not to know.
For some reason, the movie didn’t start for almost 45 minutes after it was supposed to start so we got home a lot later than I wanted to. Remember when I told you last week that to get anywhere with places like theaters we have to drive 45 minutes north, south, east or west? To get to the theater, we had to drive 45 minutes north and then 45 minutes back home.
I was pretty tired by the end of the day and ready for my blanket and tea.
I didn’t actually have tea when I got home, and the evening wasn’t as relaxed as I wanted but maybe I can find some relaxation tonight instead.
This past week I finished Chocolate Chip Cookie Murder by Joanne Fluke and The Horse and His Boy by C.S. Lewis.
I am still reading The Two Towers by J.R.R. Tolkien and enjoying it.
I am also reading All Things Wise and Wonderful by James Herriot.
Next week I am going to be looking for another mystery but I might step out of my comfort zone and try a Christian regency romance by Joanna Davidson Politano. We will see how that goes.
I forgot to ask The Husband what he is reading before I wrote this. He’s taking a brief nap after a busy morning so I’ll update this later or share next week.
Little Miss and I are going to be finishing up The Littlest Voyageur this week for school and she is finishing up the third Harry Potter book.
I had to step away from Great Canal Journeys. It was becoming too heartbreaking to watch with Pru’s mental and physical health declining.
Pru is the wife of the canal riding team and it’s starting to really wear on me to watch her forget what she’s doing some days. I have elderly parents and them developing dementia is a huge worry for me.
Last week I watched How to Steal A Million as part of the Springtime in Paris feature I am doing with Erin from Still Life, With Cracker Crumbs.
You can still jump in to watch the movies on the list and write about them. We have a link up where you can link to your posts until May 10th. The link and our list of movies and where you can find them can be found at the link at the top of my page.
This week we are watching Paris Blue with Paul Newman (swoon), Joanne Woodward, Sidney Poitier, and Diahann Carroll.
When I am doing dishes during the week, I listen to The Two Towers by J.R.R. Tolkien, and the rest of the week, I read it.
Photos from the week
What have you been doing, watching, reading, listening to, or writing? Let me know in the comments or leave a blog post link if you also write a weekly update like this.
Welcome to the Weekend Traffic Jam Reboot where we offer a place for bloggers to link up and get a fresh set of eyes on their posts. We also feature one blog a week, letting our readers know about the blog, and providing a link so readers can learn more about it.
Look for the post to go live about 9:30 PM EST on Thursdays.
This week has been full of chilly days and even a dash of snow. Where is spring already?! I’ve been very slowly working on book four in my cozy mystery series and hope to work on it even more this next week. I need to buckle down and get this story really going!
How is the weather where you are?
Your hosts for the Weekend Traffic Jam Reboot
Marsha from Marsha in the Middle started blogging in 2021 as an exercise in increasing her neuroplasticity. Oh, who are we kidding? Marsha started blogging because she loves clothes, and she loves to talk or, in this case, write!
Melynda from Scratch Made Food! & DIY Homemade Household – The name says it all, we homestead in East Texas, with three generations sharing this land. I cook and bake from scratch, between gardening and running after the chickens, and knitting!
Lisa from Boondock Ramblingsshares about the fiction she writes and reads, her faith, homeschooling, photography and more.
Sue from Women Living Well After 50 started blogging in 2015 and writes about living an active and healthy lifestyle, fashion, book reviews and her podcast and enjoying life as a woman over 50. She invites you to join her living life in full bloom.
We would love to have additional Co-Hosts to share in the creativity and fun! If you think this would be a good fit for you and you like having fun (come on, who doesn’t!) while still being creative, drop one of us an email and someone will get back with you!
WTJR will be highlighting a different blogger each week this year! We invite you to stop by their blog, take a look around and say hello!
A little about Amy and her blog: I’m a lifestyle blogger who writes about fashion, travel, gardening, card-making, Bible Journaling, home decor, and much, more!
Thank you so much for joining us for our link-up!
Everyone else, Please remember that this is a link-up where you can share posts from the previous week or posts from weeks, months, or even years ago. All we ask is that they be family-friendly!
And now some posts that were highlights for me this past week:
You may add unlimited family-friendly blog post links, linked to specific blog posts.
Be sure to visit other links and leave a kind comment for each link you post (it would be too hard to visit every link, of course!)
The party opens Thursday evening and ends Wednesday.
Thank you for participating. Have fun!
*By linking to The Weekend Traffic Jam Reboot Link Up, you give permission to share your post and images on the hosts’ blogs. Proper credit with a photo and link back will be provided.
For the months of April and May, Erin from Still Life, With Cracker Crumbs and I are watching movies set in Paris and rambling about them on our blog.
This week we watched How to Steal A Million with Audrey Hepburn and Peter O’Toole.
I actually think I watched this movie or part of it at some point over the last 20-some years but I couldn’t remember most of it, other than a few scenes.
The movie is about a con-man, Charles Bonnett (Hugh Griffith), who sells fake recreations of famous artist that he has painted. It isn’t something his daughter approves of so when he loans out a fake “Cellini” Venus statue to a museum in Paris she is horrified and panicked. Her father assures her that because the item is only being loaned out and not purchased, no one will inspect it and actually find out it is a fake. Unfortunately, Charles signs a loan agreement with the museum without reading it and later learns it includes an inspection clause.
On the same night the statuette goes on display, a burglar named Simon Dermott (O’Toole), breaks into their house to try to steal Charle’s recreation of a Van Gogh painting.
Terrified, Nicole sneaks downstairs and grabs a collector gun off the wall to confront whoever is in the house. After some bantering back and forth, and knowing calling the police would lead to an investigation of all her father’s paintings, Nicole agrees to let him go. When she lays the gun down, though, it fires and grazes Simon’s arm.
This leads to an entertaining exchange where he makes her drive him home using his car and then she discovers she has no way to get home. He calls her a taxi, but not before he asks her to wipe his fingerprints off the painting he tried to steal so he won’t get caught.
She asks him what else she should do for him. Did he want to kiss her goodnight?
He lets her know that he’d rather like to do that and the bold fellow kisses her passionately right there by the taxi.
Nicole is, of course, a bit enamored with him, especially after that kiss, which is clear when she later tells her father about what happened.
After she and Charles find out about the inspector who will come to look at the statuette at the museum so it can be insured for a million dollars, she worries that the inspection of the item — which her look alike grandmother posed for by the way — will lead to all of her father’s work being exposed as fakes and send him to jail. She tracks Simon down and asks him to help her steal the statuette, even though it is under very heavy security at the museum.
Much jocularity ensues.
Yes, I did just write that sentence.
But, a lot of fun does unfold at this point and the viewer already knows a bit about Simon and that he isn’t what he seems but now we want to know what else we, and Nicole, will find out. As if things couldn’t get any crazier, we also have an American dealer Davis Leland (Eli Wallach) who is trying to buy the statuette and wants to marry Nicole.
I won’t provide any other spoilers in case you haven’t seen this one and want to.
This one was a fun one for me. Lots of funny, quirky moments and beautiful views of Paris. Of course, these actors were all supposed to be in Paris but sounded British, other than Audrey.
Audrey has never been my favorite actress but I enjoyed her more in this one than I thought I would. I thought Peter O’Toole was a delight all around. He was…sigh….dreamy. Those impulsive kisses…whew!
I loved the ins and outs of the movie, the misdirection, etc.
Toward the beginning of the movie, Nicole is reading Hitchcock Magazine which made me wonder if she’d ever been in one of his films. After a quick search online, I learned that the answer is no. However, in her Oscar-winning performance as the princess in the 1953 movie Roman Holiday, Audrey is in bed reading a book about Hitchcock.
My husband says he never wanted Audrey in his movies because he liked actresses with talent. Ouch. It’s clear my husband is not an Audrey fan. He added that Hitchcock had a “type” and Audrey wasn’t it. Most of the actresses in his movies were blond. There you go.
There were rumors when the movie was made that Peter and Audrey had an affair during the filming but those were later squashed by the pair who said while that wasn’t true, it was true they became close friends after the movie.
Some trivia about the movie that I read about during my research:
After Nicole dresses up as a cleaning lady at one point in the movie, Simon Dermott says, “That does it. For one thing, it gives Givenchy a night off.” Hubert de Givenchy was Audrey Hepburn’s costume designer.
When Peter O’Toole first sets off the museum alarm, he says, “Ring out, wild bells.” This is the title of a poem by Alfred Lord Tennyson published in 1850, which was part of his work entitled “In Memoriam”. It was an elegy to his sister’s fiancé, Arthur Henry Hallam, who died at the age of 22.
The film was directed by William Wyler.
Have you ever seen this movie? What did you think of it? If you wrote a blog post about it or choose to do so later, you can link up below anytime from today until May.
I’ve been watching and writing about episodes from the Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew Mystery Show from the 1970s. For the first season the show would switch back and forth between The Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew.
Last time around, I wrote about a Nancy Drew episode.
Now here we are back to a Hardy Boys episode called The Mystery of Witches Hollow. The Hardy Boys stars 70s teen heartthrobs Parker Stevenson and singer Shaun Cassidy.
We start out with the boys and Frank’s girlfriend, or their dad’s secretary, or whoever she is, Callie, and their friend Chet.
They are all driving in the dark somewhere and Joe says he sees a barn with a hex sign.
It seems like each sleuthing team — Nancy or the boys – have that one friend who is afraid of everything. In the Nancy Drew books it is Bess but in the show they eliminated Bess and gave the fear to George. As someone commented on my Instagram post about the Nancy Drew portion of the show, “They did George wrong in this show.”
I don’t know enough about Chet to know if he was done wrong but in this show the poor guy is afraid of everything and always hungry (yes, like Bess too).
So, we open with the boys driving through Witches Hollow near Salem, Mass and when Joe says he sees a hex sign on a barn roof, Chet fearfully asks what that means.
Callie explains that people in this area of the country are afraid of things that go boo in the night so they place hex signs as a way to ward off evil spirits.
Now Chet is whining that he should have gone on vacation somewhere else and wants to know why they are even going this way when they were supposed to be going camping.
In an info dump, Joe tells Chet that Callie’s Uncle Captain McGuire said there were some strange things going on up here and asked their dad to come up an investigate. As so often happens, Fenton Hardy, Frank and Joe’s dad, seems to be pushing his responsibility off onto his young sons who don’t appear to go to school or have a real job since they have so much investigation time.
When they go to look for Captain McGuire at his house (while it is thundering and lightening, of course), a rather creepy woman answers and says she doesn’t know when the Captain will be back. She’s just there to clean the house, she says.
Frank, always perceptive, sees mail piled up behind her and asks her about it, suggesting it means the captain has been gone for a while.
She says she doesn’t know how long he’s been gone.
Umm….okay. Has she not been cleaning his house everyday?
She does let them in to wait for the Captain, though, and then warns them that there are scary “goings on in these here parts” but says the Captain will never listen to her about them. She suggests the kids “get on out of here before things get worse,” but they decide to stay and wait for the captain. She leaves with a warning shake of her head, and once she leaves they immediately start snooping around. Chet is looking for food and the boys for clues. They notice the mail on the counter is dated about a week back and Callie notices her uncle’s favorite shotgun is missing.
They decide they better call their dad, who, in true Fenton (and Carson Drew for that matter) fashion, blows off their concerns.
Fenton tells them they are simply getting wrapped up in all the haunted and creepy stories of the area. None of it is real, he says, and the captain is known to wander off for days on hunting trips.
While all this is going the camera keeps taking us outside to some man staggering toward the house and no offense to this guy but it certainly has taken him a long time to get to the house. He’s been staggering around out there since the housekeeper was giving her creepy speech and left, and all while the kids were digging through the captain’s mail.
Now, though, he seems to be being stalked by a black panther. I kept help wondering what state these guys are in and if black panthers are actually native to that area.
Eventually the guy finally gets to the house after everyone is asleep and slowly lets himself in to steal some food. The scream of a panther wakes everyone up and the man takes off into the storm, quickly followed by Joe who is then followed by Frank. When Frank finds Joe, he’s fallen over the edge of a ravine and Frank has to help him up. After a heart-to-heart about Frank saving Joe and how much Joe appreciates it, the pair find a empty shotgun shell and decide it’s time to go to the town sheriff and tell him they think something happened to the captain.
The sheriff is none too happy they’ve woken him up in the middle of the night and says Captain McGuire is probably off hunting, which is why he bought the cabin in the first place.
They leave the sheriff without much information. The next day, though, they do find out from the owner of the gas station that there is a man who is also a city slicker who has bought some property near the captain. They find the man man — Donner (yes, I know – foreshadowing much?) — tells the boys he hopes to build a large condominium if a road project goes through. There are some in the area who don’t want the project to go through and many of those people are superstitious, Donner says.
They believe that area is haunted by the ghost of a woman back around the time of the Sale Witch Trials who raised cats, including one very large, black one.
The woman probably raised the large cat, probably a panther, from the time it was a baby, Donner says, but because people in the town believed she just acquired it after it was grown, they labeled her a witch. That would have meant a trial but when the towns people came to get her, she barricaded herself in her house with the cat.
“It’s not a very pretty story,” Donner says.
“It’s not a story at all, without a finish,” Frank counters.
“Well, when she wouldn’t come out, they set fire to the place,” Donner finishes.
And now locals say they hear the woman screaming in the night.
There is something a bit shifty about this Donner guy that we the viewers know already because we’ve seen him in a basement jail holding the captain hostage while a large panther guards him. Apparently, the dude built a cage into his wall for the specific purpose of kidnapping the captain. Why has he kidnapped him? It isn’t yet clear.
Flash forward and the boys finally get their man — the man who broke into the house that is. Only he isn’t a man. He’s a young, mute boy. Not deaf, it appears, but mute.
The boy tries to sign to them that he only broke into the house for food. I’m guessing he has no family who feeds him, but I don’t know.
The boys have no idea what else he is trying to say to them after they take him back to the house. Callie is no help either but in the less than 20 seconds they all discuss how they don’t know what he’s saying the kid somehow sketches a fully detailed and colored in picture of the panther. The guy can’t speak but he is apparently an art savant of some kind.
No one is sure what this drawing means but they know the kid knows something.
That night they all fall asleep and “someone” (cough..Donner…cough) jams a block into the front door of the house so it can’t be open and then lays something over the chimney so that the smoke from the fireplace comes back into the house. The smell of smoke wakes Joe who breaks a window to get fresh air. I’m really not sure what Donner thought was going to happen since even with the door locked the boys could break a window and save themselves. Joe and Frank decide whomever did it simply wanted to scare them.
By the way, most of this episode Chet is just eating and being useless. He even whines when the boys tell him to remove whatever is blocking the chimney while they go get the sheriff. The boy, Simon, is able to communicate to them that the captain was taken away, which is yet another reason they need to find the sheriff. Apparently Simon can’t write all this out because he can’t write. I can’t remember how they figured out his name was Simon.
Before they get to the sheriff, though, the boy points to the side of the road, to indicate he wants them to pull over. They do and see tracks in the dirt. That’s when the boy begins frantically pointing and they look down over the embankment and see two trucks with large speakers affixed to the top, broadcasting a screaming woman over the area.
Ah, so this is why locals think they hear a screaming woman in the woods at night.
The boys jump onto the back of one of these trucks and find cement that belongs to the contractors who were working to build the freeway. It appears someone is stealing their supplies so they can’t complete the project.
When the boys get back to the house, their dad is waiting for them and was just about to send out a “posse”. I think Fenton thinks it’s 1833 or something.
Anyhow, the boys fill their dad in by saying they think someone is trying to stop the project and that the captain found out about that and that’s why he’s missing.
Fenton says e’s going to get that sheriff to round up a posse and find the captain, but the boys will have to stay at the house, and out of trouble.
“You’re certainly good at poking holes in our balloons,” whines Joe.
“Only when there isn’t enough air in them,” Fenton scolds with a little shake of his head.
During this scene, Joe goes into the next room to “change his shirt” and starts to unbutton it. I’m sure all the teenage girls were hoping for a shirtless scene with this teenage heartthrob, but, alas, it did not help. A few seconds later it appears Joe either has another version of the same shirt or he just changed his mind about changing because he comes out tucking in the exact same shirt. On closer inspection, though, it appears the shirt is the same color but the last one was plaid and this one has stars of some kind on it.
Fenton tells Callie to come with him to get the sheriff because he’s going to need some feminine charm to convince the sheriff to send a posse out to look for her uncle.
When he leaves Simon becomes very animated and draws the boys a picture of a foot, which leads them to the nickname “flatfoot” which is what Donner called the captain when they visited with him.
“What’s that, Simon? Donner is holding the captain hostage?”
Okay, they don’t really say that, but close and Simon nods emphatically, which sends them all rushing out the door, leaving Chet to finish yet another meal while saying, “Here we go again.”
Well, here you go again what, Chet? You’re just shoveling more food in and not going anywhere.
Back we flip to Donner talking to the captain and telling him there is a bill about to pass in the state legislature to stop construction on the freeway pending a study.
First, Donner is clearly an idiot, nothing actually passes in a state legislature and if it does, it is many years after it needs to and by then the bill is completely pointless.
Second, I completely lose Donner’s reasoning at this point. Something about killing the captain and throwing his body at the construction site will delay the project even further. Why does the guy want the project delayed? He stands to get a lot of money from the construction of condominiums and other structures.
Finally it clicks when he says that other business owners will panic when it looks like the freeway is going to be scraped and will sell to him for a dirt cheap price to get out of what looks like an area that isn’t going to bring their businesses any money. Then, when the project is back on again, he’ll own all that land to mow over the little mom and pop stores and build his more expensive tourist traps.
Donner gives the captain his “final meal” before leaving the basement cage. That meal which includes a steak, but that doesn’t seem very smart of Donner because before long the boys arrive to save the captain and are able to use that steak to distract the wildcat from attacking them.
They then break into the cage and free the captain who bolts from the basement and chases after Donner. The previously useless sheriff shows up at just the right moment, though, and arrests Donner, without even hearing the entire story that the boys only learned after their dad left, I might add.
Maybe Chet told them what was said around a mouthful of scrambled eggs. I have no idea.
I will say that this episode, though a bit cheesy, was much better than The Mystery Of the Diamond Triangle with Nancy Drew.
I bet you didn’t know that there is a Hardy Boys Fandom site, but there is, and here is a bit of trivia from it:
“This is the only episode in the entire run of the 1977 show to be adapted from an actual Hardy Boys book, in this case #41 The Clue of the Screeching Owl, with the opening scene at the circus and the sub-plot dealing with Bobby Thompson and Mystery the beagle & the dog-napping ring being deleted, and a few relationships being changed. An example of a changed relationship, in the book, Captain Maguire is a friend of Fenton Hardy, the boys father; in the TV episode Captain Maguire is the Uncle of Callie Shaw (Callie, while mentioned in the book, never made an actual appearance).”
