Because I'm desperate....

....I'm glomming onto Char's 7-link challenge. Of course, she borrowed it from Susannah, who borrowed it from Darren at problogger, so maybe I'm not such a thieving wretch after all. And here we go.....

Your first post...Here I Am...where I introduce myself as a chicken farmer, Grammy and potential writer.

A post you enjoyed writing the most...was actually a series I call "Mystery Ladies" and it begins with Bon Voyage, Ladies. The subject is a photo album which I found at an antique store of three women who embark on a Trans-Atlantic journey. There are seven posts and they are photo heavy. There's a ringer in the middle called 'Let's Play Tag'. You can just move on past that one, if you decide to check them out.

A post which had a great discussion...my post about birth order called Youngest, Oldest, Middle, Only. I loved the give and take on this one.

A post on someone else's blog you wish you had written...well, that would have to be my pal Ruth at synch-ro-ni-zing. While it was difficult to pinpoint one out of the hundreds of eloquent, deep, thought-provoking, and gorgeous posts that she writes, her recent offering of "Wheat" put her in the realm of short-story writer extraordinaire. If you look at just one of the links I've cited here, you should look at this one. Of course, most of my friend followers are already hooked on Ruthie.

A small disclaimer has to be added here that all of my blog friends are wonderfully talented women who write and photograph with great skill and creativity.


Your most helpful post...I guess that would have to be Susan's Helpful Hints and Susan's HH II...kinda obvious, huh?

A post with the title you are most proud of...was the post about our camping vacation in the '80s with our kids called "Are you crazy? Three weeks in a pop-up camper and...". That was a fun post. First runner-up:  He floored me. Second runner-up:  1-800-JENNY-20. You knew I could never pick JUST one!

A post you wish more people had read...one that tells a little about my growing-up years called Random thoughts from my childhood. My writing and photography skills have made progress since then, but this one is dear to my heart.

I would love to see your own answers to this challenge. Want to join the party?

And, just because the post feels naked without a picture...

Christmas movies make me happy

Holiday Faves is the theme for this week's Monday Movie Meme hosted, as always, by The Bumbles. Oh dear, how can I pick just a few?

Little Women (1994) is the one I want to watch when I decorate the tree. I know that purists  prefer the 1933 version with Katharine Hepburn and Joan Bennett, or even the 1949 version with June Allyson, Elizabeth Taylor, Margaret O'Brien and Janet Leigh, but the newer one is a sentimental favorite because it's the one that Aimee and I watched and cried over together when she was a teenager. And it's just prettier. And let's face it...Christian Bale is a much better actor than Peter Lawford.

This year I couldn't watch 'Little Women', because the VCR is broken, so I watched another longtime favorite....White Christmas. Sure, it's kind of hokey and Bing Crosby got a little carried away with the stage makeup and the settings are totally unbelievable, but the main reason I watch this year after year is for Rosemary Clooney's singing and Vera Ellen's dancing. And who doesn't love the last scene when the whole crew dresses up in their beautifully lush Santa-inspired costumes to sing 'White Christmas'?

On everyone's list is A Christmas Story. There are so many memorable lines in this movie that it would take all day to quote them here, but my favorite is "Fra-gee-lay. That must be Italian!". I even have it written on a box of fra-gee-lay stemware in my basement!

National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation, another perennial favorite of the whole world it seems, has topped many a list. Who doesn't love to laugh at the "old-fashioned Griswold family Christmas"? Again, too many gut-laugh-worthy lines to mention here, but I bet you can guess my favorite one:

Hey! If any of you are looking for any last-minute gift ideas for me, I have one. I'd like Frank Shirley, my boss, right here tonight. I want him brought from his happy holiday slumber over there on Melody Lane with all the other rich people and I want him brought right here, with a big ribbon on his head, and I want to look him straight in the eye and I want to tell him what a cheap, lying, no-good, rotten, four-flushing, low-life, snake-licking, dirt-eating, inbred, overstuffed, ignorant, blood-sucking, dog-kissing, brainless, dickless, hopeless, heartless, fat-ass, bug-eyed, stiff-legged, spotty-lipped, worm-headed sack of monkey shit he is! Hallelujah! Holy shit! Where's the Tylenol?

I've never been able to memorize that one even though I drive my kids crazy when I say every other line along with the actors!

One Magic Christmas is relatively obscure, but I love its message of hope for a despairing mother. It's a nice take on 'It's a Wonderful Life' (a fave, of course) with excellent performances by the under-appreciated Mary Steenbburgen and Harry Dean Stanton who portrays Gideon, the angel.

Honorable mentions:

Elf (I love Zooey Deschanel)
Miracle on 34th Street (the original and not colorized)
Home Alone
Christmas in Connecticut

Monday Movie MeMe--Howdy Pardner!

I couldn't resist posting  The Bumbles' movie meme this week. It's all about cowboys! I must be part guy, because I love a good western. I don't know if it's the great western scenery, or the handsome cowboy scenery that lures me in....well, maybe it's both, but there's nothing like a good shoot-'em-up for me!

The hard part is just choosing a few, that is if you consider 13 a few! I suppose you can, considering all the great western movies that have been made in the last 106 years. Which brings me to the first movie on my list:

The Great Train Robbery (1903) was directed and photographed by Edwin Porter, a former Thomas A Edison cameraman. It was a silent film, of course. It is 10 minutes long and has only 14 scenes and was filmed in the rugged wilds of....New Jersey? Of course, they could hardly film it on location since it really was still the wild, wild west at that time!  The story was said to be based on actual hold-ups perpetrated by the real Butch Cassidy and his Hole-in-the-Wall Gang, which leads me to.....

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.  Were Paul Newman's eyes ever bluer? Was Robert Redford ever sexier? Was any western "bromance" any closer...until Brokeback Mountain? I've watched this movie a hundred times and know almost every line. "Are you crazy? The fall will probably kill ya!"

Gunfight at the O.K. Corral.  Yeah, Tombstone (both Kurt Russell's and Kevin Costner's versions) told more of the background story and they were prettier to look at, but "Gunfight" was an original (My Darling Clementine with Henry Fonda was the first). And you can't go wrong with Burt Lancaster and Kirk Douglas as Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday...two over-the-top performances that are an impersonator's dream.

Lonely Are the Brave.  Kirk Douglas plays a cowboy in the sixties who can't quite adjust to the modern world. He finds out that a friend is doing time in jail for helping illegal immigrants to cross the border, so he decides to get himself arrested to help his friend escape. When he gets inside, he finds out the friend would rather stay and do his time so that he can go home to his family, instead of spending his life on the run. Kirk breaks out with the help of his faithful horse, Whiskey, and is pursued by the sheriff, played by Walter Matthau. ( I know! Walter Matthau as a sheriff? But, it works.) The lovely Gena Rowlands plays his friend's wife. It has one of the saddest endings ever.

The Man from Snowy River. Jim Craig (Tom Burlinson) lived his first 18 years in the mountains of Australia on his father's farm. The death of his father forces him to go to the low lands to earn enough money to get the farm back on its feet. Kirk Douglas plays two roles as twin brothers who haven't spoken for years, one of whom was Jim's father's best friend and the other of whom is the father of  Jessica (Sigrid Thornton) the girl he wants to marry. A 20 year old feud re-erupts, catching Jim and Jessica in the middle of it as Jim is accused of letting a prize stallion loose. The scene when Jim rides the stallion down a steep cliff is just breathtaking.

Cat Ballou.  The drunkest gunfighter in the West takes on evil Railroad magnate! Jane Fonda plays Cat and she hires Kid Shelleen (Lee Marvin) to kill the S.O.B. railroad man who killed her father. It's really funny and Lee Marvin plays the best drunk ever....hmmmm, maybe he wasn't acting? There's also singing.....which leads me to.....

Paint Your Wagon.  Now, tell me, do you think of singing when you think of a Clint Eastwood western? Clint and Lee Marvin (in another funny role) play prospectors who share the same wife (the beautiful Jean Seberg). Believe it or not, this film was written by Paddy Chayefsky, directed by Joshua Logan, and the music was written by Alan Jay Lerner .

The Outlaw Josey Wales has Eastwood as a wanted man. He was a peaceful farmer near the end of the Civil War until a gang of renegade Union soldiers burns his home and murders his family. He vows to destroy the ones who took his "life". He joins up with a band of guerilla fighters after the Confederacy surrenders and sets out on a mission of mayhem and destruction. No matter how much Josey tries to deny it, his persona of peaceful farmer and builder of life comes through and finally he is able to listen to his inner yearnings to be that person again.

Unforgiven has been hailed as one of the greatest westerns of all time, with good reason. This movie is chock-full of great characters and performances by Eastwood, Gene Hackman, Morgan Freeman and Richard Harris. Clint Eastwood tells a great story about good and evil and the not-quite-good and the not-quite-evil. The shootout with "Little Bill" Daggett is classic and pure Eastwood.

The Cowboys is my favorite John Wayne movie and you can't mention western movies without listing a few of his films. Mark Rydell, who wrote and directed "On Golden Pond", directed this movie. Wil Anderson (John Wayne) is a rancher who has to get his cattle to market to avoid financial disaster. All the cattle drivers who usually ride with him desert him for the promise of  "thar's gold in them there hills". He is forced to resort to hiring young schoolboys. There is only one among them who has any experience, and he is only 15 and the oldest of the bunch. Needless to say, they run into their share of troubles and catastrophes along the way, but none more menacing than a gang of cattle rustlers led by the evil Long Hair (Bruce Dern in a perfectly cast role). These "cowboys" may have started out as greenhorns and little boys, but they ended up as true men of the west.

True Grit. Slap an eye-patch on John Wayne and give him a bottle and you've got "Rooster" Cogburn, a washed-up, drunken, don't-give-a-damn U.S. Marshal with a reputation for getting the job done. Mix him up with a teenage girl, Mattie Ross (Kim Darby), seeking vengeance for her father's death and you've got a match made in Cowboy Heaven. Throw in a little Glen Campbell (what?) and you've even got some cowboy singing. Now that's what I call a western!

Open Range. 

"Boss Spearman (Robert Duvall) and Charley Waite (Kevin Costner) freegraze their cattle across the vast prairies of the West, sharing a friendship forged by a steadfast code of honor and living a life unencumbered by civilization. When their wayward herd forces them near the small town of Harmonville, the cowboys encounter a corrupt sheriff and kingpin rancher who govern the territory through fear, tyranny and violence. Boss and Charley find themselves inextricably drawn towards an inevitable showdown, as they are forced to defend the freedom and values of a lifestyle that is all too quickly vanishing. Amidst the turmoil, life suddenly takes an unexpected turn for the loner Charley when he meets the beautiful and warm spirited Sue Barlow, a woman who embraces both his heart and his soul." (from IMDB.com)

This is one of David's favorite recent westerns, and he thinks it is a great vehicle for Kevin Costner's talents. And you can't miss with Robert Duvall playing the ultimate cowboy, and that leads me to......

Lonesome Dove is THE greatest portrayal of western cowboy life. Some of you will argue that it isn't a movie, and you would be right, it is a television mini-series. But to me it is a cowboy movie that just happens to be nearly six hours long (on DVD without commercials). The combination of Robert Duvall as Capt. Augustus McRae and Tommy Lee Jones as Capt. Woodrow Call is even better than Newman and Redford. They epitomize the former Texas Rangers turned cattle thieves that they portray. None of the actors who played them in the sequels can compare with their performances. Lonesome Dove has everything that you could want in a cowboy movie:  cattle thieving, a cattle drive, lonely women, a prostitute with a heart of gold, beautiful breathtaking scenery, bad men with a heart of gold, bad men who are pure evil, witless bad men who bid the call of a woman who hankers after a bad man, hangings, boys who grow up in the time space of a cattle drive, death, snakes, and the neverending familial love between two men.

One of my favorite scenes is when Gus and Woodrow are getting ready to leave Lonesome Dove for the cattle drive to Montana. Gus insists on taking the wooden sign on which he has written something in Latin....

[referring to the Hat Creek Cattle Company sign]

Woodrow Call: ...and if that ain't bad enough you got all them Greek words on there, too.
Gus McCrae: I told you, Woodrow, a long time ago it ain't Greek, it's Latin.
Woodrow Call: Well what does it say in Latin?
[Gus blusters some gibberish]
Woodrow Call: For all you know it invites people to rob us.
Gus McCrae: Well the first man comes along that can read Latin is welcome to rob us, far as I'm concerned. I'd like a chance t' shoot at a educated man once in my life. 

For those of you who have read Larry McMurtry's great book of the same name, you will know that in the book Gus and Woodrow run into a man who does read Latin and translates it for him.

Never let it be said that cowboys were politically correct:

Five random words

Do you like memes? I love ones that make me think, but I suppose that is what memes are all about...

Violet Sky was doing one that I thought was interesting and she has some excellent responses to the words chosen for her. I wanted to play, too, so she came up with some thoughtful words for me to kick around.

Jars
I suppose you could say that jars are an important part of my life. I grew up beside my mother who filled jars every summer with wonderful things from her garden. If she didn't can the green beans, corn, pickles, beets, jellies and jams, we would be sorely lacking for food in the winter. She even canned meats, especially sausage, and even squirrel. I know some of you might think that eating squirrel meat would gross you out, but when you live on a very limited income as we did, you learned that many things that God provides make good eating when you're hungry. Squirrel meat is pretty tasty when you stew it, then dredge in flour, salt and pepper and fry it in an iron skillet. My sister Judy always complained when we had it for supper. She said she always got a piece of buckshot that escaped my dad's fingers when he was picking it out of the flesh.

I save jars. My mother-in-law cans a lot, so of course I save them for her, returning the ones that she has given me containing her hard work. I also save nice ones that I buy from the grocery store with jams, jellies and preserves. Sometimes they're just too pretty and useful to throw into the recycling container.

looking down from Mt. Washington at Point Park in Pittsburgh

River
Rivers have always been a part of my life. I grew up in southern Ohio near the Ohio River. We weren't right alongside it, but I would see it every time we went to town. If we wanted to go to Ashland, Kentucky or Huntington, West Virginia, we had to cross the bridges. I remember my mom (who was full of superstitions) would tell us to raise our feet off the floorboard of the car when we drove across. I'm not exactly sure what evil this peculiar gesture was supposed to ward off, but we always did it. I have a feeling it led to my unreasonable fear of bridges.

I've lived near other large rivers since I've been married. We lived in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, whose very high and curved bridge gave me apoplectic fits just thinking about driving over it. We lived there five years and I finally, in the last couple of months we were there, made myself drive over it to try and conquer my fear of it. I did it, but I can't say it made me any less fearful.

After that, we moved to the Pittsburgh area, where there are lots of bridges and tunnels. Anyone familiar with Pittsburgh probably knows that there are three rivers. The Allegheny River and the Monongahela River merge to form the Ohio River. Once our son got stuck in the city and called me to come and get him. Of course, I immediately started panicking, because the highways in Pittsburgh are like a big spaghetti bowl with scary bridges that lead to god-knows-where...sometimes baaaad places. Well, I took off, my heart pounding, and of course, I got lost...stuck on top of Mount Washington, with no clue as to how to get where I needed to be. I called David at work, sobbing so hard that he could barely understand what I was saying, and he had to first rescue our son and then rescue his hysterical wife. I did finally learn a little about driving in Pittsburgh with my friend Lynn, who had almost as much trouble with it as I did.

Here in central Ohio we have several rivers...the Olentangy, the Scioto (which flows into the Ohio River), Mad River, and the Big Darby Scenic River.

Map
I love maps. David tells me I'm a great navigator when we're traveling. I like to find out-of-the-way places on maps, because I'm not fond of interstate travel. I like the little towns and the big cities. Our kids are good navigators as well. When they were young, they would spend hours in the van on our road trips learning about the highways and byways in the atlas that was always kept handy in the car or van...we have one in each vehicle.

Every time we moved to a new place, the first two things we did were study the city or county maps, and then find the local library. Then drive around to familiarize ourselves and find landmarks to go by. They're also handy for games to play on the road; such as, naming state capitals, state flowers and trees, etc. I know, we're such nerds.

Lately, my maps and atlases have been feeling a little lonely. We have come into the 21st century with GPS navigation. David has one in his vehicle and my recent purchase of a new cell phone gave me one I can take anywhere. I love gadgets and this one fits right into my love of navigation. But I still look at the atlases occasionally. I wouldn't want my faithful companions to think I've deserted them!

Wallet
I'm really picky about purses and wallets. When I find one that works for me, I hang onto them forever, and it's starting to show. I've been scouting recently for a new wallet, but I just haven't been able to find the right one. This one is getting very worn around the edges. To me it's just broken in, but it is a little embarassing when I take it out to pay for a purchase. Anyone know where I can find one just like it?

Penguins
Who doesn't like penguins? When I take my grandkids to the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium, we always have to watch the Humboldt penguins. It's especially fun when it's feeding time. Watch this video (by someone else) of our zoo's penguins following the reflection from someone's camera.



This is a no-pressure meme. If you would like to play, let me know in a comment with your email and I will try to come up with interesting words for you.