Mawwiage If you had asked me who wrote The Princess Bride, I would have said Christopher Guest. In actuality he only acted in it as Count Rugen, the infamous Six-Fingered Man. Rob Reiner actually directed the movie, but one of the standouts that we all vividly remember is when the clergyman, played by Peter Cook, presides over the marriage of Prince Humperdinck and Buttercup. Despite not wanting to be cast in the Trumpian light of…
If You Need Me I’m Here The new way of life with regard to movies seems to be that when a studio wants to release a film they partner with one of the established streaming platforms like Netflix, Prime or Apple much like they used to partner with a distributor and then eventually sell the TV rights to an HBO, Cinemax or Showtime. The truth is that I have little or no idea how movies…
The Long Haul We are settling in here on the hilltop. It’s been ten months now and while it is a bit arbitrary, I suppose that at one year we can declare this as home sweet home. All my life, through fully twenty-seven addresses I have called home, I have been forced by repetition to settle in quickly wherever I have gone. Kim knows that I want pictures on the wall on day one. That’s…
An Unimaginable Life Last night we watched a Netflix show called My Octopus Teacher. Kim had heard about it from two separate animal-friendly friends and wanted to watch it. We share the same problem the rest of the world struggles with these days. It’s less that there is nothing good to watch on TV, but rather that we all rely so much more on TV to entertain us and the array of choices is seemingly…
Planning to Plant People are amazed that I have gotten into gardening as I have. I do not find it so amazing, but rather somewhat predictable. While I have owned sixteen homes in my lifetime, three have been apartments in NYC (one with a large terrace that I planted and then replanted by my own design), nine have been vacation homes (two in the Hudson Valley, one in the Hamptons, five for skiing in Utah…
Driving Miss Betty It’s been two months now since we rescued Betty from the Group Home called Frosted Faces. That name for a senior pet rescue center seems to be focused on the graying of dogs and cats as they age, but now I think it is more about the shock of dependency that shows on the faces of pets that have been abused, abandoned or simply forgotten in the rush of modern life. Kim…
Nixplay This title is stolen from the brand name of a digital device I was given by my daughter. It is a photo frame (perhaps 9”x6’) that is WiFi connected and to which any number of authorized contributors may submit photographs for my viewing pleasure. While the manner of display has many settings optionalities, I imagine that I employ the most common of simply having the photographs rotate through their sequence for several seconds each.…
Biting the Hand Yesterday, Kim had to take Blind Betty to the doggie eye doctor. I can’t quite bring myself to say canine ophthalmologist, but that is indeed what this specialized veterinarian is. When you think about it, fixing dog (and presumably cat) eyes probably isn’t so very different than fixing human eyes. An eye seems like something that may vary in size and acuity, perhaps even in certain receptor capabilities (Can it see colors?,…
The Unfriendly Skies On Sunday I took a motorcycle ride to the East, up from Castle Creek through the small canyon into Valley Center and the Rincon Indian Reservation to the base of Palomar Mountain. It was a near perfect day with sunshine and blue skies and a temperature just barely tipping into the 80’s. This is always one of my go-to rides that makes me feel free and wonderful. I had picked up Jeff…
Are You Havin’ Any Fun? Tonight I turned on that wonderful movie Quartet starring Maggie Smith, Billy Connolly, Tom Courtenay, and Pauline Collins about four aging opera singers who find themselves in the same old age home for musicians in the outskirts of London. They are struggling with their old relationships and their fading talents as singers. They struggle to agree to sing Rigoletto, an opera written by the most famous operatic composer of all…