Kitty Corners

Romeo and Juliet have been with me now for nearly 5 months.  They have scoped out the comfortable places in their new home.

More Granary Burial Ground Photos

The Mary Goose buried here is not Mother Goose, but people still pay her penny-homage.

This monument reminds me of something...but I can't think what.

Gorey Hallelujah!

Yesterday was commencement day, an extra holiday for me and my library buddies.  So Sue, Julie, Laureen, Lynn, and I decided to see the Gorey exhibit at the Boston Athenaeum.  I'd never been there before.

Sue, Laureen, Lynn, Julie

Inside, photography was strictly forbidden, so you will have to take my word that the exhibition was awesome, or buy the exhibition catalogue.  My favorite items were the envelopes young Gorey used to mail letters to his mother when he was an undergraduate at Harvard.  He decorated them with weird watercolor pictures.  He must have been well-known by the post office.

Next we visited the Granary Burying Ground, which is visible from Athenaeum windows.

 

Note that the woman buried on the left was named Silence.  Talk about Puritan names.

Next we backtracked and ate lunch at Zen Grille and Sushi Bar.  I had noodles;  I don't eat anything raw.  The sushi was very attractive.  Take a look at Julie's lunch.

Next we stopped to look at a Memorial Day installation on Boston Common.

Now go to Youtube to see our  our Swanboat ride.

Catching Up

Lately I've been watching old TV that I missed the first time around.  I was only 5 when the series Thriller started up; it's a good thing I discovered it on Netflix, because it had many good episodes.

The Host of Thriller

Most of the plots had supernatural elements.  I've just finished season 1, in which I saw a very young William Shatner in  two episodes; but the fun doesn't stop there!  In The Hungry Glass Shatner played opposite Russell Johnson (a.k.a. the Professor on Gilligan's Island).  In The Grim Reaper Shatner was joined by Natalie Schafer (a.k.a. Eunice 'Lovey' Wentworth Howell on Gilligan's Island).  Small world!  What are the chances of running across two people from the same island?

So my Thriller-watching inspired me to seek out Thriller-host Boris Karloff's lesser-known films.  First I saw The Man Who Changed His Mind (1936), which was a classic mad-scientist story with the familiar theme of mind transplant.  By working really, really hard, Dr. Laurence manages to construct a machine that switches minds into different bodies.  But the scientific world won't even give him a chance to demonstrate his machine; they just walked away scoffing.  Then Laurence thinks of a practical use for his machine when his backer threatens to take away his lab...  Another noteworthy aspect of this flick is its strong female character, the lovely Dr. Clare Wyatt, who ends up saving the day at the end.

More History of the Future!

Thanks to Steve who saved the Wall St. Journal article that sent me looking for images of Arthur Radebaugh's syndicated strip: "Closer Than We Think"  This stuff is my kind of stuff!

The Overextended Month of May

May  (thank you Wikipedia)

• Cystic fibrosis Awareness Month ^[3]
• South Asian Heritage Month
• Haitian Heritage Month
• Asian Pacific American Heritage Month
• Borderline Personality Disorder Month^{[citation needed]}
• Asthma Awareness Month^[4]
• National Pet Month
• Science Month
• Celiac Awareness Month
• Jewish American Heritage Month
• National Law Enforcement Appreciation Month
• National Masturbation Month^[5]

What's the World Coming to?

When I found out that the so-called Botox Mom had not really injected Botox into her daughter, that she was a hoaxter, I felt the same sting of betrayal that accompanied the discovery that Dean Martin was not actually a drunk.  What's the world coming to when we can't believe what we see on TV and read on the internet?  One thing's for sure, when the rapture comes on Saturday, she'll be left behind!

Quit Looking at Cuteoverload and Listen to Me!

Gone to Her Reward

The cybersphere has been full of Dolores Fuller, who died on May 9.  Although known chiefly through her association with Ed Wood, Jr., her most successful enterprise was serving on the Elvis Presley song-writing team.  She co-write that unforgettable tune: Do the Clam.

Here she is running into her old boyfriend and his old friend in the after-life: (click to enlarge picture.)

May Day at the MFA

So Rosemary and I went to the MFA to see the Chihuly glass stuff and the Art in Bloom.flower arrangements.  The new cafe looks good.

The Chihuly stuff was mostly displayed against black, reflective surfaces.  Mr. Chihuly was OK with photos taken for non-commercial purposes.

There was also a room with a glass ceiling on top of which were many glass goodies that were reminiscent (in many cases) of sealife, which tempted me to call it a sea-ling.

I only photographed a few flower arrangements.

For more of my photos go to: https://picasaweb.google.com/bryant.colleen08/MuseumOfFineArtsBoston#

Two Birds with One Stone

It's the last day of National Poetry Month and the day after William & Kate's wedding.  So here is a poem by Stevie Smith in the nick of time.

The Hat*
I love my beautiful hat more than anything
And through my beautiful hat I see a wedding ring
The King will marry me and make me his own before all
And when I am married I shall wear my hat and walk on the palace wall. 

 *Stevie Smith, The Collected Poems, New York: New Directions Books, 1983, page 272.

Miscellaneous

I finished The Bones of Avalon.  I don't usually go for historical novels, but I love Phil Rickman's Merrily Watkins series.  So I was waiting for the next one to come, and instead out came The Bones of Avalon.  I did enjoy it.  It had many of the same themes as the Merrily Watkins series: mysticism, murder, church politics.  It takes place in Elizabethan times, but Rickman only slightly antiqued his language.  In his afterword he thanks various linguists for their advice which he ended up mostly not taking since, "a strict adherence to Elizabethan written structures and terminology would only have made it sound stilted in ways it never would have been at the time."  Fair enough.  He has a great talent for taking masses of material and making it into a riveting story

Speaking of stilted language, I was thinking about the pronoun thou, which is no longer used by most speakers of English, but which used to be the informal form of you--the form you'd use for family, close friends, or people you were insulting.  Nowadays we mostly hear it used in prayers and hymns, so that it has formal, exalted associations.   That's why The Philadelphia Story had this scene between Macaulay Connor (Jimmy Stewart) and a Quaker Librarian

Librarian: What is thee wish?
Macaulay Connor: I'm looking for some local b - what'd you say?
Librarian: What is thee wish?
Macaulay Connor: Um, local biography or history.
Librarian: If thee will consult with my colleague in there.
Macaulay Connor: Mm-hm. Dost thou have a washroom?
[the librarian points]
Macaulay Connor: Thank thee

It's hilarious to use a holy, exalted word in the same sentence with washroom--at least from the Judeo-Christian viewpoint.

In other news, we had pizza for lunch in the office today.

I think this must be a magic mushroom pizza.

Two Layers of Cat

The Romeo Suspension bridge over the Juliet river of snooze.

From above.

Romeo's famous thumbs.

A Snooty Cutie

I need to sleep like this so I can keep my nose up.

A Cat in a Box is Worth Two in the Bush

Vacation Recap: March 18

Friday morning we went back to the Leather School, so I could re-buy the items I lost.  We took the train back to Rome.

We wanted to eat dinner at a well-reviewed place, but it was full.  We ended up at La Scala, Via Sabotino, 2.  We had a mushroom pizza and some pasta.  The pizza was good; the pasta a bit salty. The next day, we flew back to Boston.

Vacation Recap: March 17

Museli, blood orange juice, and coffee, then it's off to the Basilica of Santa Croce.  We got the audio-guides and hit all the most important points (as indicated by our audio-guide pamphlet) as well as a few that interested us.  I only took one photo, because I bought myself a book of photos from the souvenir shop.

 

I was surprised that such a modern person would have a memorial in such an old church. 

I bought a pair of boots at a tiny shop.  Sue resisted buying a beautiful bag at a shop that had supplied her with other bags.

Of course we also checked out the School of Leather, where Sue ordered a belt.  I bought a wallet for me, a wallet for my brother, and a change purse for my sister-in-law.

We walked through the Farmacia of Santa Maria Novella, but bought nothing.

Then, after getting back to the convent, I realized I no longer had my bag of leather goodies.  I had either put it down somplace, or it had been snatched while I was tired and trying not to hit other people with my umbrella.  (It was drizzley in the afternoon.)  Sue felt so sorry for me that she insisted on taking me to dinner at Trattoria 4 Leoni that night, which brings me to my favorite dish of the trip: artichoke lasagne.  There was a nice British couple at the next table.  She had the lasagne; and her enthusiastic approval confirmed that selection plus a pasta (was it with pepper?) and the house red.  We had a gelati and cheesecake for dessert.  Sue said she was normally indifferent to cheesecake, but this one was good.  The British couple told us they had discovered the restaurant seven years ago, and wanted to come back. (And, obviously, they did.)

Vacation Recap: March 16

Now we took the train to Florence, where we would spend a couple of days before returning to Rome. The rocking train put us to sleep. At the station, Sue's Italian went back into action, finding us the bus we needed to get to Casa Santo Nome di Gesù, Piazza del Carmine, 21. An elderly Florentine woman on the bus gave us much friendly advice.
After checking in at our convent, we headed back out to Villa I Tatti.  This Harvard library and research center is Bernard Berenson's former home on the outskirts of Florence.  We had signed up for a 3 O'Clock tour to see some of the artworks Mr. Berenson left to Harvard.  It took a while to get there.  We took a long ride on bus !0, then we climbed a hill.
Among the other members of our tour was a woman Sue remembered from a Freshman or Junior Parents Weekend, at which event this woman had spent most of her time complaining about the fact that she hadn't been able to use Lamont when she was at Radcliffe.  And, strangely enough, when she found out that we worked at Lamont, she again bewailed her former exile at great length.  Well, it was an injustice, but that was over 45 years ago.  Was this woman a Lamont-access monomaniac?
No, I don't think so.  My further observations suggested that she simply needed to be the center of attention. She was the girl in your class who always had her hand up.  She had a Susan-Sontag hairdo.
Our guide was an enthusiastic, charming, and knowlegeable woman.  She told us a story about a portrait of a man who had been at a party where all the guests were massacred (by the Medicis?); but his name was the only one remembered among the massacred.  A previous tourist had asked our guide if it was worth being murdered, just so you could be remembered.  "You'd have to ask Achilles that!" said the Susan-Sontag wannabee.  OK.
Inside photos were forbidden, but here's a picture of the garden.

 

We also had a tour of the library, so it was after 5 when we left.  We wanted to eat at a place called Trattoria 4 Leoni that night, but it was full up.  So we made a reservation for the next night and continued our quest for grub.  We sat down in a casual place filled with student-types.  A peddler came in and began pitching his stock from table to table.  We agreed to leave.  Finally we ate at Il Magazzino, Piazza della Passera 2-3.  The guy told us we had to be out in an hour.  I can't remember the meal, but the receipt says we had bevande, piatto unico, and primi piatti. I do remember they had so much wine they were storing bottles on their window sills.

We Interrupt Our Regular Blogging For a Special Post...

I've been watching old movies again.  The Hideous Sun Demon confirmed my belief that the sun is our enemy.  But what a great surprise I had while watching Appointment with Danger, in which Alan Ladd played a hard-boiled postal inspector investigating the murder of another postal inspector.  In the opening scene, two very familiar-looking thugs lug the dead inspector to an ally.  They were the very young Jack Webb & Harry Morgan, who would later portray the iconic pair Sergeant Friday & Officer Bill Gannon in Dragnet!  Wow!  And what was really cool was what baddies they were is this film:

UPDATE:  Ranald has pointed out that bronzed baby shoes are not as heavy as this clip implies.  However, I'm willing to allow them poetic license.  The bronzed shoes are a load on the poor hood's heart.

Vacation Recap: March 15

More great Villa Rosa rolls and coffee in the morning, then it's off to the Colosseum!  Wow, it was already crowded.  We got the audio-guide, but we suffered geographical confusion when we tried to find the listening spots.  So many people were taking photos of other people, that I quit trying to avoid getting in the way.  We went to the souvenir shop, and I got a book called Rome Reconstructed which had layered pages showing sites as they were then/now.  It helped me figure out stuff the audio-guide told me that I didn't understand.

Next we went to the Forum, which was roomier and quieter.  I took out my book, but once again suffered geographical confusion.  The arch that I attributed to Tiberius actually belonged to Septimus Severus.  Then we found a shrine to Julius Caesar, and, since it was the Ides of March, it was filled with offerings.

We took a tour of an ancient church, the Oratory of the 40 Martyrs.  Tours were in Italian or English, so our group had Russians and others for whom English was not the mother tongue. In fact, I believe we were the only Americans.  I took a photo of the old-fashioned crosses with the yellow peacock.

We had some lunch and gelati at Valoran's Forum S.R.L. right near the Forum on Largo Corrado Ricci.  Sue had 2 flavors :bacio and kiss (chocolate with hazelnuts); I had banana.  Then Sue saw a couple of women standing near us as though waiting to sit down, so we got up for them.  But the women weren't together.  One ignored us; the other started telling us that she didn't know where her place to sit down in life was.  We fled.  I tried to use the debit card I'd gotten specifically for the trip.  However the mnemonic I'd invented for remembering the password was not good enough.  So Sue had to float me a loan, while I charged everything I could on my MC.

For dinner we went to La Buca di Rippetta Trattoria at Via di Ripetta 36. We got to the Piazza del Popolo and found our street.  We looked to our right and saw numbers in the hundreds.  Damn!  We were going to have to walk a long way for our dinner.  But suddenly there was our restaurant on the left.  The left side addresses were double-digit; the right side were triple-digit.  I've never run across such a diabolical numbering system in my life!  We had a fish-based meaL; small servings of salmon tartare, squid in red sauce, sliced octopus over something else, and linguini with tuna and tomatoes.  As usual, we had the house red wine.  All was very good.