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.Please feel free to post new blog posts or old ones you want to bring attention to again.
Look for the post to go live about 9:30 PM EST on Thursdays.
I can’t remember if I mentioned my injured cat on one of these posts or not but I thought I’d update that the cat with the injured paw is doing much better. In fact, she started walking on the sore foot again yesterday for the first time, the day before we were set to take her to the vet.
A new kitten was dropped off at our house a couple of weeks ago and she is also doing well, and we have not found her family so far, so it looks like she’ll be staying with us.
I told the kids, and my husband, that this is the last pet though. Three cats and a dog who want to go in and out all day and two cats who either chirp or yowl, plus the three cats currently fighting with each other is quite enough for me.
If any other cat gets dropped off at our house, they are going to the local no-kill shelter. There is no more room at our inn for stray pets.
Don’t get me wrong — I love the cats and our dog — I just can’t handle worrying about anymore animals.
With all that being said, let’s move on to introducing our hosts for this link up!
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.
Cat from Cat’s Wire is a bookworm, movie fan, crazy cat lady, armed with beads, cabs, wire and a very jumpy brain which loves to go down rabbit holes!
Rena from Fine, Whatever writes about style, midlife, and the “fine whatever” moments that make life both meaningful and fun. Since 2015, she’s been celebrating creativity, confidence, and finding joy in the everyday.
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!
My blog is a wonderful way to reflect on life changes i.e., work commitments, getting older, children leaving the nest…. (then, returning, ha-ha), and relationships – the list goes on. My writing style is authentic and down-to-earth, probably my North East of England roots.
My mum worked in “high fashion” throughout my youth, which ignited my love of all things “couture”. Most days, after school, I would go to wait for her at her place of work. There was always the latest copy of Vogue and Marie Claire to read. I’d still rather read a physical copy than a digital one. This is partly because I don’t like to overdo being online. I enjoyed wandering through the classy showroom wafting through the new stock of the season, thrilled by the beautiful colours, sumptuous materials and wonderful cut of cloth. Sometimes, I would be asked to try things on for customers, which I loved. This is where I earned my pocket money. It awoke something in me that I have never switched off.
Thank you for joining our link-up!
And now some posts that were highlights for me this past week:
The first book I read for Nancy Drew November was The Mystery of The Fire Dragon. The cover of this one caught my attention a while ago, so I was excited when I was able to get a copy of it and start it.
This one takes Nancy and her friends (Bess Marvin and George Fayne) first to New York City and then Hong Kong, to investigate the disappearance of a young Chinese-American woman named Chi-Che Soong.
Chi Che’s grandfather, Mr. Soong, doesn’t know his granddaughter is missing. He thinks she’s gone on a trip with friends, so he buries himself in writing a manuscript about – actually I don’t remember what the manuscript about, but I think it was about Chinese artifacts or something.
Chi-Che worked at a bookstore of antique books when she disappeared. Nancy wants to help her aunt Eloise, Mr. Soong’s neighbor, find out what happened.
At the same time, her lawyer father, Carson Drew, is preparing for a trip to Hong Kong and wants to take Nancy along. He sends her to New York to help his sister first though because he won’t be leaving for a week. I often wonder, by the way, where Carson Drew is going to investigate cases because sometimes the books don’t say. I always imagine he’s actually the lawyer for the CIA or something and is on big spy cases. I find it weird he often sends Nancy to solve cases on her own while he goes to investigate something else. She is often sent into very dangerous situations with just herself and her friends and this one is no different.
Anyhow, as soon as Nancy and her friends arrive at Aunt Eloise’s someone sets a large firecracker off in the apartment building hallway. Nancy and her friends try to find who did it but are unable to.
While at her aunt’s, Nancy notices how much her friend George Fayne, looks like the photos of Chi Che. She decides it will be a good idea to have George dress as her and then take her to the college campus and see if anyone thinks she is Chi Che and acts suspicious.
They will eventually meet one of Chi Che’s friends who is confused when she thinks Chi Che is on campus because Chi Che also told her she was traveling. The friend, Lili Allis, will work with Nancy and her friends by taking a job at the bookstore where Chi Che used to work.
Nancy is knocked out at least once in every book and this one is no different when she gets hit in the head with a flowerpot that falls out of a three-story window during this one. Ouch.
A friend, who studied Nancy Drew books in college told me that the Stratemeyer Syndicate only allowed for one knock out per character and only for a certain number of minutes. That absolutely cracked me up. I don’t care what the rule was, Nancy Drew definitely had some major brain damage from all the hits she took to her head over the years.
Eventually, Nancy’s investigation leads her to Hong Kong to search for the missing girl and find out if she found out about a crime that was going on in New York.
Two boons to her having to travel to Hong Kong for this case is that she will travel with her dad and that she will be able to meet up with her boyfriend Ned Nickerson who is studying at a college in Hong Kong. So many coincidences in this one — like Ned going to college there and when Mr. Soong’s brother is actually the ex-police chief in Shanghai so Nancy can meet up with him when she travels to Hong Kong.
I really enjoyed the history in this one. It was released in 1961 and mentions a lot of history about Hong Kong and China which I believe is accurate, though I didn’t look all of it up to double check. What I did look up is when China received control of Hong Kong again after British rule. In this book, the island is still controlled by Great Britain and the people have a great deal of freedom. The control of island went back to China in 1997, though I thought it was much later.
While Hong Kong was able to remain mainly separate from China even after control was handed back, the People’s Republic of China has begun to assert more control in the last five years.
The relationship between Ned and Nancy is cute with Ned always excited when her sleuthing stops and they can spend time together.
Some of the history was dropped while Nancy and Ned were spending time together. At one point they take in a Chinese opera and then visit a houseboat restaurant in a village called Aberdeen, which I thought was odd since it sounded Scottish.
I did look this up online and there is a real Aberdeen on the southwest side of the Island of Hong Kong. It is a fishing village and features a floating village and floating restaurants. It turns out the town is named after the former UK Prime Minister, George Hamilton-Gordon, 4th Earl of Aberdeen, which explains the name.
There is a scene where Ned and Nancy visit the floating village and unlike other books that don’t focus as much on descriptions, there is a more lengthy description of the village and the lights and how beautiful it all is. This makes me think that whomever the ghost writer for this book was, had visited Hong Kong at some point.
There are some rather “odd” sections in this book, such as when Grandpa Soong asks George and Bess if they believe in transference.
“They both admitted that they did. Then Grandpa Soong said” There are men in this world who are more dangerous than fire dragons. I am sure my Chi Che is being held by one or more of them and really was calling out in her thoughts to me and Miss Drew for help.”
Mmmmmkaaaay.
I also didn’t understand the end of the book and why Chi Che was found where she was (maybe I’ve read too many darker mysteries and figured that in reality the ‘bad guys’ would have just killed her) but it was still an intriguing mystery with a lot of interesting characters.
I seem to like the books where Nancy travels out of the country or away from River Heights more than those that take place in River Heights. I think that is because the books away from River Heights feel more rounded or flushed out due to the addition of historical elements.
Another one of my favorites, before this one, was The Case of The Whistling Bagpipes, which took Nancy to Scotland.
I know a lot of my blog followers have not read Nancy Drew before but if you have read this one, let me know in the comments.
I enjoyed what Avery from True Drew Podcast had to say about this episode too. You can find that here.
Today’s prompt was: Modern Books You Think Will Be Classics In The Future (submitted by Veros @ Dark Shelf of Wonders).
I don’t read a ton of modern books so I couldn’t think of any for that prompt. Instead I decided to share ten children’s books I didn’t read as a child but did read as an adult.
The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett
I saw a movie adaption of this when I was a child but never read the book. I honestly think I appreciated it more as an adult. I read it myself and the next week read it aloud to my 11-year-old daughter and she enjoyed it too. What a sweet book with so many lessons. I didn’t like the way it ended, but only because I wanted more. I think most people know what this one is about but a quick summary is that it is about a girl who is orphaned, is sent to live with her eccentric and strange uncle at his mansion on the moor of England. While there she uncovers some family secrets and learns how to be kind and to love life.
2. Gone Away Lake by Elizabeth Enright
This was a quirky one but very fun to read with our daughter. This one is about two kids who go to visit their cousin and find an abandoned village that was left when the dam was destroyed and the lake that had been there disappeared. It turns out, though, that the whole village isn’t abandoned. There is a brother and sister living in two of the houses that are still standing.
3. The Middle Moffat by Eleanor Estes
This is a book in the series of books about The Moffat family. This one is about Jane Moffat, who is the middle Moffat. It is such a cute book with each chapter being it’s own story, yet one theme running throughout — the theme of Jane’s relationship with a 100-year-old Civil War vet. It was so sweet. I read this one first and then read it again with our daughter.
4. Caddie Woodlawn by Carol Ryrie Brink
Little Miss and I listened to this one on Audible and really enjoyed it. Well, most of it. There are some chapters we skip because the stories are either dark or weird.
The story follows the Woodlawn family in Wisconsin, with the main focus being on 10-year-old Callie. It takes place during the Civil War years.
5. The Good Master by Karen Seredy
Little Miss and I just finished this one.
It takes place in Hungary and follows the adventures of young Kate and her cousin Jancsi. Kate is sent to stay with Jancsi and her aunt and uncle because, quite frankly, she is a brat and her dad wants his brother to teach her to be a nicer little girl.
Kate learns about sheep farming, life in a rural area, and how to be part of a family in this sweet book (though it did also have a disturbing chapter where she is kidnapped by gypsies).
6. Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery
I saw the 1985 version of this when I was young, but didn’t read the book until a few years ago. Two years ago I read it, while summarizing some parts, to Little Miss. We loved this book and love Anne. I think most readers of my blog know what Anne is all about, but if you don’t — it’s about an orphan who is mistakenly sent to live with an older couple and grows up to be a charming, whimsical and spunky child.
7. Miracles on Maple Hill by Virginia Sorensen
I loved this one and read it in the spring two years ago. I then read it this past spring to Little Miss. This is the story of a young girl whose father has PTSD from World War II. The family goes to stay at the girl’s great-grandmother’s farm, abandoned since the great-grandparents passed away. They go for the visit to help her father heal but it becomes a place for the whole family to heal.
8. The Green Ember by S.D. Smith
I read this one with my son years ago and enjoyed it and have started it with Little Miss. This book is an adventure book that stars young rabbits with swords who go on a quest that leads them through a journey of good and evil, searching for family, and learning about themselves and what they can do.
9. The Black Stallion by William Farley
I saw the movie adaptation when I was a child but did not read the book until about a year ago. I read it to Little Miss and it was good but there were some sections we skipped because it just dragged and dragged. This book is about a boy who is shipwrecked with a wild, Arabian stallion which he befriends and takes with him when he is rescued. Eventually he begins to work with a trainer to make the horse a race horse.
10. The Cabin Faced West by Jean Fritz
This one is about a young pioneer girl from Pennsylvania whose family moves from the Philadelphia area to a very rural area of the state and learns what it means for a family to become self-sufficient and help to settle a new world.
Have you read these books? What did you think of them?
Are there children’s books you didn’t read until you were an adult?
If you write book reviews or book-related blog posts, don’t forget that Erin and I host the A Good Book and A Cup of Tea Monthly Bookish Blog Party. You can learn more about it here.
Hello! Welcome to my blog. I am a blogger, homeschool mom, and I write cozy mysteries.
You can find my Gladwynn Grant Mystery series HERE.
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. Feel free to link your posts about
Last week I mentioned our cat Scout had been injured. She was unable to put weight on her back paw.
We had a vet appointment for her last week but thought she was doing better and canceled it. Sadly, she came back into the house that day and was not doing better so we now have another appointment for next week and are on a cancellation list.
She is allowing us to touch her paw now and is less cranky. She is also learning how to run on three legs, like when she slips out the door and tries to run off down the street. We’ve let her outside a couple of times, either because we thought she was better, or yesterday because I knew she could get away from a predator fast even with her injury. I watched her run on three legs at me across the yard the day before when I called her inside.
The animals have been a comfort to me this week as we mourn the death of a close family friend.
This weekend I focused on comfort shows and books and shut down social media and news sites. It’s been so nice, I’ll probably continue it into the rest of the week.
This week I finished Nancy Drew: The Mystery of The Fire Dragon and started The Mystery of The Whispering Statue for Nancy Drew November.
I also finished At Home in Harmony by Philip Gulley.
I really enjoyed The Mystery of The Fire Dragon, even though the Nancy Drew books are pretty simply. I definitely loved the heartwarming stories in At Home in Harmony and will read more of the books in the series. The chapters are a series of short stories that connect with the same characters.
As I mentioned, I am reading The Mystery of The Whispering Statue but I am also reading Rebecca by Daphne De Mauier.
I plan to read The Triple Hoax, a Nancy Drew Mystery, later this week and follow it with Pure Poison, another Nancy Drew Mystery.
Then I will start My Beloved by Jan Karon.
Little Miss and I are reading a book about two young girls who went through the Civil War — one as a regular citizen in the South and the other as a undercover boy/soldier for the North.
This week I watched Murder, She Wrote, The Dick VanDyke Show, and started a movie called A Weekend At the Waldorf but it got a bit boring so I bailed for now. I also rewatched a couple of All Creatures Great and Small episodes as a comfort watch.
My son has been showing his sister all the Marvel movies so this week we watched Captain America: The First Avenger and The Avengers. Or I should say rewatched since I’ve seen most of these movies more than three times over the years, some of them in the theaters.
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.
What I like about winter is that it forces me to slow down and really focus on the things that bring me joy.
“Winter?” you might say. “Isn’t it still fall?”
Technically, yes, but this week in addition to our temps falling, we had snow on the ground, which to me is the sign that winter is really here. Because of our steep driveway that tends to get slippery, I spend a lot of time at home in the winter.
When I am home, I try to keep things as cozy as I can, which means watching movies and reading books I find comforting and that aren’t full of dark subject matter that will remind me of dark moments of my past. This past week, the little bubble I usually create around me this time of year was punctured against my will, so this week I will be doubling down on creating a cozy atmosphere around me.
This is even more important this week as our family lost a very close friend on Thursday.
I won’t be on social media much, and I will only be reading books and watching movies I feel comfortable with. Today, for example, I am reading a Nancy Drew book for my Nancy Drew in November. Nancy Drew books can sometimes be silly, but that is totally fine with me.
My family has asked me to turn off all news sites (not that I was on them much anyhow), social media, and even refrain from visiting a lot of blogs, so I can get some peace back before the next depressing thing in my life hits.
What depressing thing?
Who even knows?
They just keep coming, so I am actively searching for those little pockets of peace I once wrote about on the blog.
That means that even if I only have an hour, half an hour or even a few minutes, I work to do something that will bring peace to my soul.
I do allow some cozy mysteries during this time because they’re usually fairly clean and light without super dark subject matters- other than murder. Ahem. However, even if a person dies in a cozy mystery, they don’t show or describe it or linger on suffering and I appreciate that these days.
Some might call me a prude or unrealistic or whatever they want to call me when I choose not to watch films with certain subject matters (cancer deaths, r*pe, suicide, incest, etc.) but quite frankly, I have hit the point in my life where I no longer care what others think.
I face enough sadness and heartbreak in my life, I sure as heck am not going to choose “entertainment” which offers the same.
This will sound selfish but this weekend, members of my family will have to figure out their own ways to get places or do things, or be entertained.
I am making a cup of cocoa, warming up my rice packs, putting on a favorite show and pulling my blanket around me in an attempt to keep my peace tight against me.
I know I can’t keep it all out.
There could be another tragedy, another sad call, another family member who isn’t feeling well or my husband’s former boss trying to get him fired yet again (two months from now, Imma gonna let loose on this subject.).
Those will be things I won’t be able to control.
For the things I can control, though?
Oh yeah — I’m going to control the ever-living heck out of those things. Because my soul doesn’t need to have any more sadness dumped on it – at least not by choice. I hope you all have a great weekend, and I’ll see you tomorrow for Sunday Bookends!
If you write book reviews or book-related blog posts, don’t forget that Erin and I host the A Good Book and A Cup of Tea Monthly Bookish Blog Party. You can learn more about it here.
I also post a link-up on Sundays for weekly updates about what you are reading, watching, doing, listening to, etc.
Hello! Welcome to my blog. I am a blogger, homeschool mom, and I write cozy mysteries.
You can find my Gladwynn Grant Mystery series HERE.
This is part two of The Hardy Boys Nancy Drew Mysteries, The Hollywood Phantom. If you want to read the first part of my recap of this two-parter, you can find it here:
When we left off from part one, Joe had been snatched from outside a building he was snooping around, looking for his father and the other detectives who had been kidnapped from the conference. Frank was stopped by the security guard he and Nancy had a run-in with right after Weatherly disappeared. Nancy was on her way to the hotel to “get help” (cue the funny scene from Thor Ragnarok in my head.).
The security guards escort Frank to the head of security, and Frank takes them to the set.
Nancy has run back to the hotel and finds Fox talking with a police officer. She tries to tell them what happened, but the police officer rolls his eyes for a bit before agreeing to go with her to look at the photograph.
You know what’s going to happen, right?
The photograph is gone when everyone gets there — Frank with security and Nancy with the police. It’s been switched to a normal photograph. Dun-dun-dun. I don’t know why they didn’t just take the framed picture with them.
So now no one believes Frank and Nancy even though Joe hasn’t come back yet either.
Back at the hotel, Frank is pacing, worried about his dad because there was blood on the ring that was sent to the hotel.
“That means they ripped it off him,” he tells Fox.
Fox assures him that his dad will be fine, saying he’s known him since he was a lieutenant with the NYPD (huh…I haven’t read enough Hardy Boys to know this yet).
We switch to Joe tied up somewhere and trying to get loose and then back to Frank saying he’s going to look for his brother.
Nancy, who by the way has been without a sidekick this whole time, which is weird for her, says she’s going with him, Frank says she needs to stay behind.
Nancy goes to talk to the police and Jason Fox and they tell her to keep her nose out of things.
The manager of the hotel is also upset at her because she suggests that someone from the staff could be involved in the kidnapping and the ransom note.
She goes back to Studio 24 to look for Frank and Joe and this time she sees a photo on the floor and when she stoops to get it a man in a mask begins to chase her. This is the creepy masked man we’ve been seeing throughout the two episodes.
She hides behind a set, and the man runs by, and I thought she was safe but nope, he finds her and she climbs a scaffolding, which was so stressful for me to watch.
She escapes, though and finds an exit on the roof. Girl is running in her heels this whole time too.
Then she manages to balance across a wall and jump to another building (in heels!) and run inside and down a flight of stairs and out into the street, where she runs into Casey Kasem again. Whew.
He asks her if she’s okay and she says the sound stages are just scary at night. Why can’t she just tell people the truth? “A man was chasing me! Holy crud! It was scary!”
They chat a few minutes and he says something about leaving the country for an acting job. Nancy is like, “yeah, that’s nice. Okay…gotta go…” and starts running back to the hotel.
Next, we flip to Frank who is still wandering around looking for Joe. While wandering he stumbes onto the Charlie’s Angels set where Cheryl Ladd is being told she’s going to have to kiss the extra as soon as he comes around the corner. Ladd is up for it, but hasn’t met the extra yet.
Of course, Frank walks around the corner instead of the extra and bam…he’s suddenly making out with Cheryl Ladd.
He’s distracted though so he pulls away when the director yells “cut” and says, “Any other time I would discuss spending my life with you because that was nice but right now, I’m in a hurry. Thanks.”
I can’t help admiring Frank’s bellbottoms as he walks and as someone pulls up behind him in a car and starts chasing him. Frank is running well but hits a dead end. He’s sweating and his hair is all 70s wavy and now I get why the girls back then wanted to watch the show.
Anyhow, it’s the security guard and he tells Frank he’s taking him back to the main gate. Again.
Next, we see Joe waking all the way up and looking around him. He manages to scoot and roll to the door and open it with his feet.
Scene switch again — Nancy is grilled by the police and Fox who say she needs to tell them where she’s going from now on. (There are so many scene switches in this one and they are like three minutes apart.).
Back to Frank who is climbing walls back into the sound stages to find his brother, who is rolling out of his prison area and trying to find a way to get the ropes off his hands while we see the guy in the mask driving toward him.
Joe manages to get himself untied and hides under a wagon and sees the security guard and the masked man get out of the car and go look for him.
He runs to the car and climbs in the trunk but leaves the license plate number scrawled on the wagon for Frank.
Nancy is with the police officer looking in a microscope at the negative she retrieved from the sound stage and says she sees makeup on it and a fingerprint.
“Your forensics guy should be able to pick that up,” she says (sort of arrogantly).
So the guy is taking orders from a very young woman now? I have no idea how old they are supposed to be in these shows but they don’t go to school so I would guess early 20s.
The police say Frank is back at the hotel now after being picked up so Nancy goes back to the hotel.
After we see Joe sneaking around and finding his dad and the other men, right before he’s knocked out yet again, we switch to Nancy looking out a window and someone sneaking up behind her.
Is it the bad guy? Has he found her?
No. It’s Frank and he scolds her for leaving her hotel room door open.
“It could have been anyone!” he says.
“I can take care of myself,” she says with a whispered tone.
“You’re not doing a very good job of it,” he responds, somewhat breathlessly, standing close to her and I think… Oh my gosh, they’re going to kiss!
But the scene cuts away and suddenly (whiplash!!) Nancy marches into the room where the police officer and Fox are and thrusts a piece of paper in the officer’s hands. She says the kidnapper only wants her to come, no police, with the ransom money.
The officer says he won’t let her do it and she says he will because the kidnapper will know if he switches to someone else.
Not only that, but Frank says he’s going to go too.
The officer says he will not be going and Frank snaps, “I’ll go whether you allow it or not. It’s my brother and dad you’re rescuing.”
Honestly, these kids are hindering an investigation and should be thrown in jail, but the cop just sighs and says, “Fiiiiine.” Or something like that and they start to concoct a plan to set up the exchange.
Everyone heads out soon after that and there is a zoom in on the hotel manager’s face so now we have to wonder if he is involved.
Nancy and Fox get on a tour bus with the briefcase of money and head off to meet up with the person for the exchange.
Scene switch and Joe in the jail cell with his dad and the others.
Suddenly he remembers a nail file in his sock. Yes….Joe has a nail file in his sock and begins to pick the lock. How very convenient.
Another scene switch and Nancy and Fox are going through a tunnel on the tour and then a warehouse. Suddenly the doors close in the warehouse and the woman leading the tour gets nervous. The masked man grabs Nancy and pulls her down and when Fox turns to say something to her, she’s gone.
Nancy is being put in an elevator by the fake security guard and the masked man. They check the money in the briefcase they stole, and then smuggle her out into a car and make her lay on the floor. Meanwhile, Joe has broke out and comes out the door and sees the men leaving with Nancy.
He finds his way to security to tell them Nancy has been grabbed and suddenly a police chase ensues. I don’t know how Joe got to security so fast so they could tell the police officer, but he did I guess and Frank and the officer take off after the car. The only problem is that the water is drained from the fake lake enough for the bad guys to drive the car over but the masked man pushes a button and the water fills in again so they can get away.
In the end, they won’t get away, though, because they come around down a street where shooting for a show is going on and can’t turn anywhere, which means the police corner the car. The masked man jumps out, pulling Nancy with him, and Frank leaps from the car and then leaps over the hood of another car and tackles the masked man. He flips the guy over and rips his mask off and it’s — oh my gosh! Casey Kasem!!!
He’s the kidnapper?!! Well, there’s some American Top 40 for you.
But Casey isn’t down yet. He flings his arm back and knocks Frank back off him and tries to take off. Sadly, he takes off right into the fist of Robert Wagner, who knocks Casey flat on his back.
Robert cockily says he’s always glad to help, “especially when there’s a beautiful girl in distress” while watching Nancy.
Nancy runs up to him, all mooney-eyed and says, “How can I ever repay you?”
Robert smirks and says, “We’ll think of something.”
Gag. He’s old enough to be her father. He always was a dirty old man. *wink* (I really have no idea…I’m just messing around. I won’t mention *cough* Natalie *cough* Wood *cough* here.)
“I don’t believe it,” Frank cries. “I did all that and she hugs him.”
“You’re not a movie star kid,” the cops says.
But he does have good news for Frank. His dad and brother have been found and are safe.
Joe Fox is happy with the outcome when the kids go to visit him at his hotel room the next day, but they say it’s not all good news because Casey (Paul Hamilton) wasn’t the only one involved. Yes, the security guard was but so was…yes! Joe Fox!
“You engineered this whole plot,” Frank says. “Hamilton wasn’t smart enough to do it on his own.”
Joe and Nancy lay out their case with Frank, pointing out how Hamilton and the guard were always one step ahead of them. Someone must have been on the inside, they say.
“What motive could I even have?” Fox says with a smirk.
Nancy tells him they’re sure if they look things up they will find out that he is flat broke.
“That’s why you were insisting real (cash) ransom money,” she says.
Frank says they have one piece of evidence. It’s Bronson’s medallion which showed Fox’s fingerprints on the bottom of the medallion, showing he’d ripped it off his neck during the kidnapping.
Fox smirks again, can’t say anything to refute them so tries to leave the room. Unfortunately for him, the police are waiting for him at the doorway. He congratulates the kids on their sleuthing.
“You are three of the most remarkable detectives I’ve ever worked with,” he says.
He’s taken away by the police with another smirk.
At the end, Fenton is discussing what happened with the boys and then Frank decides he is going sightseeing.
Nancy marches up and demands to know where he’s going.
“I’m going sightseeing. There’s more to LA than just this hotel. Is that alright?”
“No, it isn’t,” Nancy says sharply. “You didn’t ask me.”
“I didn’t know I had to clear it with you first,” Frank snaps.
“No, you didn’t ask me to go with you,” Nancy says.
Frank laughs and smiles and asks if she’d like to join him.
“What I’d like to do is thank you,” she says with her tone softening.
“For what?” Frank asks and now we are getting the profile view of them.
“For saving my life,” Nancy says tenderly.
Oh. My. Gosh. Are they going to kiss??!!! Are they????
Yes. Yes, they are because Nancy gives him a very tender kiss on the mouth.
Swoooon.
Joe steps behind them and asks where they are off to, essentially making him the third wheel.
End episode. Sadly, we are never to see Nancy and Frank shipped together because soon the show’s name will changed to Hardy Boys and, alas, there will no longer be a Nancy included.
That’s the end of this recap.
I haven’t decided which episode I will recap next because I watched one where the Hardy Boys went to Egypt and … wince …. It was pretty horrible.
If you want to read my other recaps you can find them here:
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.Please feel free to post new blog posts or old ones you want to bring attention to again.
Look for the post to go live about 9:30 PM EST on Thursdays.
I hope you are all having a great week. We had our first snowfall this week. I knew we might get some flurries but on Tuesday we actually had a full covering.
If the temps weren’t enough to show me that Winter is here, that was.
We plan to light our woodstove for the first time today. We had to replace some piping so hopefully it all goes okay. By the time you read this, we should know if it is working okay.
Now, let’s introduce our current 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.
Cat from Cat’s Wire is a bookworm, movie fan, crazy cat lady, armed with beads, cabs, wire and a very jumpy brain which loves to go down rabbit holes!
Rena from Fine, Whatever writes about style, midlife, and the “fine whatever” moments that make life both meaningful and fun. Since 2015, she’s been celebrating creativity, confidence, and finding joy in the everyday.
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!
I’m an American expat who lives in Shëngjin, Albania with my exceptional husband, and a 7 pound chiweenie who rules the household. (I swear he was a cat in another life.) I love picking up shells on the beach, sunsets, learning about my new country, interacting with blogging community, and of course books!
I will read most genres. Mystery and science fiction are my favorites. I tend to avoid romances. My all-time favorite books are ProjectHailMary and the Murderbot series.
I add books to my to-be-read list almost daily and it is long enough to last me the rest of my life.
Thank you so much for joining us for our link-up!
And now some posts that were highlights for me this past week:
Erin from Still Life, With Cracker Crumbs and I watched movies again this year for Comfy, Cozy Cinema
For our last movie we watched The Storied Life of AJ Fikry (2022).
The movie is based on the book of the same name by Gabrielle Zevin.
The story follows AJ Fikry (Kunal Nayyar), the owner of a small bookstore who lost his wife years earlier. He now lives a lonely existence and drinks himself into a stupor at least once a week. He’s also quite grumpy to everyone around him.
A book seller named Amelia and played by Lucy Hale, stops to sell him books and he brushes her off, overcome with depression.
Later that night he drinks himself into a stupor while looking at a collectible Edgar Allan Poe pamphlet/book that he hopes to one day sell to keep himself afloat.
When he wakes up in the morning the book is gone so he runs to the police station where he meets Chief Lambaisse (David Arquette). He has a panic attack in the police station and is sent to the hospital where the doctor suggests he exercise more. He does start running again, which he used to do before.
After awhile it is determined that the book cannot be found and AJ is distraught but moves on with his life. One day he comes home from a run and finds a toddler in his shop with a note pinned to her shirt, asking for him to take care of her.
Later the child’s mother is found dead, so AJ adopts her and his life begins to change.
The movie will eventually come full circle in many ways and the mystery of where the little girl, Maya, came from weaves in and out of the plot.
The movie also starts Scott Foley and Christina Hendricks.
I didn’t find this movie comfy or cozy in some parts, but in others it was those things because it showed friendships being formed, romantic love blooming, and new love coming alive for a man who felt his life had ended and he had no future.
The acting was outstanding and there was a ton of deep thinking produced by almost every scene.
Disclaimer: there were a few difficult subjects in this movie and I am only sharing this just to give a heads up to anyone who is uncomfortable with subjects like infidelity, miscarriages, suicide and cancer deaths (none of these are focused on extensively or in great detail). This movie was much less cozy to me than other movies we’ve watched in the past and I share that just so my blog readers are not totally blindsided.
I found a few facts and trivia I enjoyed reading about the movie, but did not find as many as I did for other movies. Maybe because this was a quieter movie that wasn’t a huge “blockbuster”? I’m not sure.
Kunal Nayyar also played Raj Koothrappali in The Big Bang Theory where he and Howard Wolowitz discuss the correct pronunciation of “Halley’s comet”, which is talked about in this movie. (Source IMdb)
This was David Arquette and Scott Foley’s second time working with each other. They previously worked together on Scream 3 (2000).(Source IMdb)
This story is called by some a modern retelling of the classic “Silas Marner” by George Eliot.
Erin expresses the message and feel of this movie in a much better way than I am able to so please check out her post here:.
This brings us to the end of our Comfy, Cozy Cinema. I hope you all had fun following us along!
Here I am with another recap of an episode from The Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew Mysteries show from 1977 to 1979. This month it’s perfect because it fits in with my Nancy Drew November event.
As I’ve mentioned before in previous recaps, in the first season of this series, the episodes switched back and forth from The Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew episodes and in the next season, which is the season I am in now, they started to join together. Eventually, they began to phase out the Nancy episodes and focus more on The Hardy Boys. A new actress also stared as Nancy part way through season two when Pamela Sue Martin became disenchanted with the lack of parts that were being written for her character.
According to trivia on IMdb: “Upon Janet Julian replacing Pamela Sue Martin in the second half of season two, Nancy Drew was only seen teaming up with the Hardy Boys, and never any solo stories. ABC however, did continue to air Martin’s episodes over rerun periods. For the third season, Nancy Drew was completely eliminated from the series, which was re-titled simply “Hardy Boys.””
I haven’t decided if I will watch the episodes that are just Hardy Boys, but I probably will.
This time around, I am tackling The Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew: The Mystery of the Hollywood Phantom.
This is the second two parter I am writing about, with the first being The Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew Meet Dracula.
This time around I am going to share my recap in two posts, instead of one.
In this first episode, Nancy and the boys fly, separately, to Hollywood to take part in a detective conference. As Nancy is walking into the terminal, we see someone cutting a pol polaroid picture of her, removing her head. When she pauses at the payphones to call Bess (her sidekick for this season, but who does not show up in these episodes other than that call), we see someone cutting across a photograph of a man wearing a cowboy hat, and removing his head (in the photograph, I mean) as well.
We then see the Hardy brothers walking through the airport and picking on each other.
When Nancy looks across the airport, she sees a man trying to put a polaroid in the bag of the man with the cowboy hat. She runs to stop him, but the other man gets away and the cowboy thinks she’s the one trying to put something in his bag.
Frank and Joe see the interaction and rush to her rescue, telling the cowboy that they are with the airport police, juvenile division. Joe says to Nancy he thought he told her not to show up at that airport anymore.
The cowboy isn’t buying it and tells them he thinks they are all in on it together and were trying to steal from him.
As usual, Nancy is a bit uptight about it all when the cowboy leaves, but laughs a little at the boys. She catches a taxi and leaves them behind, being somewhat rude as usual.
The Hardy boys figure out she’s going to the same conference and will see her at the hotel.
While in the taxi, Nancy pulls out the photo of herself with the head missing. That means someone was able to shove a photo into her bag too. On the back are the words, “No one will shed a tear when you’re gone” written in sharpie.
Back at the hotel famous detectives are arriving but then we also see Fenton Hardy’s head being cut off in a photo too. Someone is using a typewriter to write, “The best shall also go.” The camera pans up, and we see a person wearing a creepy blue rubber mask.
A detective named Jason Fox arrives and the media all rush to talk to him. Fox chats with the media some, then brushes them off and see Fenton and goes to talk to him while the cowboy — Arlo Weatherly — comes in behind Fox and grabs him in a bear hug. They are all old buddies, I guess.
Weatherly sees Nancy, excuses himself, and approaches her. Nancy says she’s an investigator and Weatherly asks her why she put a photo of him with his head missing in his bag.
Nancy says she didn’t put the photo there and shows her own photo.
The Hardy Boys show up and together they all decide that this must be some sort of prank, even though Weatherly’s photo says, “You’re first, Cowboy.”
The boys later find similar photos in their room. “Brothers can disappear too,” is written on the back.
Soon Fenton, Nancy, and the boys are all comparing their photos.
Nancy says she thinks it is something important and dangerous and the boys laugh it off, because, you know, chauvinism.
Jason Fox shows up, and he says the same thing, reminding Fenton of all the pranks they’ve pulled in the past at this, and other, conferences.
The boys and Nancy start to walk back to their rooms later and Nancy says she still feels like something bad is going on. Frank pulls the sexist line, “Is this what you call women’s intuition?”
Then Nancy throat punches him. Oh. No. I mean. She should have.
Instead, she just roasts him by saying, “It’s called detectives intuition. Don’t you have any at all?”
Joe and Frank watch her leave and are like, “Girls. Psht. Whatever.”
Next, we are on a tour with the attendees. They are touring the sets and various sites of the movie and television making industry. Part way through, though, Nancy announces that Arlo Weatherly is missing.
She asks the boys if they remember the threat he got. That he’d be the first to go?
The boys brush her off yet again.
“Please, Nancy, don’t start on all that again,” Frank says with an eye roll.
Nancy shows them there was a polaroid on Weatherly’s seat and it’s the second half of his photo, his head.
The boys still aren’t buying it. Because they are stupid and don’t remember she helped solve the mystery with Dracula the last time they met her. Duh-uh!
So, Frank and Nancy go off to look for Weatherly and run into Columbo or Peter Falk who is shooting his show but wait — that’s not really Peter Falk. It’s an imposter! Something is off.
Oh, because that isn’t really Peter Falk. It’s ….. Casey Kasem?!
No. It legitimately it is. But his name in the show is Paul Hamilton and he eventually tells them that is who he is.
He does impressions and used to have a show in the 1950s called The Raiders, he says.
“Ever heard of it?”
Nancy and Frank have no idea what he’s talking about.
On the other side of the park Joe and Fenton are trying to find the Cowboy too but Jason Fox shrugs it off again and says it’s just a prank.
We see it isn’t a prank in the next scene when we see Weatherly sitting in a chair with his hands tied behind his back in a dark and empty cell.
Back in the park, a security guard questions Frank and Nancy about what they are doing there and escorts them out of the park.
Later that night at the conference, the boys ask Nancy if she’s heard anything on Weatherly.
She hasn’t but she has found a shooting schedule for a movie called The House on Bracken Moor.
The boys are confused and she explains that it is based on a book where eight people are stranded in an old house on an English Moor and they each receive a photograph of themselves and then each one disappears. (This is similar to the plot of And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie, by the way).
The boys are still not convinced that it has anything to do with Weatherly’s disappearance but Nancy points out that they were on a studio tour when he disappeared and that studio is shooting The House on Bracken Moor.
To keep the plot going, the boys dismiss her again and she says she’s going to go find the set herself and investigate.
I don’t blame her this time around. I find Pamela’s portrayal of Nancy overly aggressive on a god day, but the boys are being absolute jerks this time around.
To speed things up a bit, Nancy goes to the studio were the movie is being shot and finds a set with a picture propped up that features photos of all of the main detectives at the conference. Someone laughs and she runs after him, chasing the down a dark alley. She eventually finds herself on a set that looks like a dock and soon is tilted off a platform into some water. A fake shark chases her (think Jaws style), but she’s able to get out of the water. Staggering down the sidewalk, much less soaked than she should be if she’d really fallen into water, a truck attempts to back over her, but she is rescued by a man on horseback.
That man turns out to be Dennis Weaver who was acting in a show called McCloud at the time.
He takes her back to the hotel where the boys meet her, and Weaver tells them someone tried to run her over.
She tells the boys about the picture and as she goes in to change her clothes, she is thoroughly annoyed at them. After she leaves, they talk amongst themselves and finally agree that she’s been right all along after all.
They see Bronson, one of the detectives at the conference, get an envelope with a photograph and Frank goes to find Nancy. Nancy opens the door to her hotel room, but says, “Turn around, I’m getting dressed,” after he comes inside. Ummm…so what was she wearing when she opened the door?
Let us not think about that.
Anyhow, they confront Bronson and he says it’s a photograph of his son, not of him. They’re barking up the wrong tree, he adds.
He says Jason Fox is trying to play pranks on people and not to worry about it.
Nancy feels like the boys still won’t believe her now and they all go downstairs and see Jason Fox who is looking for Fenton because it appears that he is now also missing.
Joe, Nancy, and Jason start to go to look for Fenton, but Franks sees a photo in Bronson’s mailbox. He says Bronson sent him to get it. It’s a photo with Bronson’s head cut off.
They can’t find their dad and meanwhile we’re shown that Weatherly and Fenton are tied to chairs. Fenton says, “We should have believed Nancy. This guy’s crazy.”
Fenton’s ring, Arlo Weatherly’s watch, and some pendant belonging to Bronson are in a box given to Jason Fox. They all decide it is time to call the police, even though a ransom note in the box with the items says not to — just to bring money.
“Three of your detectives already gone,” the note reads. “$500,000 will free them. Don’t call the police.”
Jason says he will call the police and the boys apologize to Nancy for not believing her and they all agree to combine their forces and find out what is going on.
There is an argument between Frank and Nancy because Nancy was pushed into water earlier and could be in danger, but she points out she came there alone without them before because they didn’t want to believe her so she will be fine.
After Joe urges them to put their argument aside, they go onto the set and find the same photograph that Nancy told them about.
As they are talking someone begins to laugh again and they see the person’s silhouette outside the set window.
They all take chase. Joe gets onto a golf car type thing, while Nancy runs for help, and Frank gets stopped by studio security. Joe is busy searching an abandoned set when he is also snatched.
That ends episode one. I’ll share about episode two in a separate blog post tomorrow.
Before, I close, I will share what I liked about episode one: I liked the intrigue and how everyone was blowing off the idea that something dangerous was really going on util Fenton and Bronson disappeared along with Weatherly.
What I didn’t like was how all the men treated Nancy like she was a hysterical girl. I think that they could have moved the plot of the show along even if they had believed her. They really didn’t have to be so rude to her all of the time.
Even though, again, I feel Nancy is often rude in these shows. I think the writers, and Pamela herself, were trying to make Nancy appear confident, but instead I feel like it makes her look curt, abrupt and dismissive.
