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Freezing Sunday
Feb. 2nd, 2014 02:02 pmCold and dark with sleet -- appropriate weather, possibly, for the passing of Philip Seymour Hoffman. My favorite role of his was in Magnolia, and my favorite scene was the one where he's trying to convince a nameless, faceless operator to give him a phone number.
It's just a small scene, but Hoffman plays it perfectly. Such brilliant work. :-(
It's just a small scene, but Hoffman plays it perfectly. Such brilliant work. :-(
Hazy sun, warm. Pruned tomatoes a bit yesterday; Chango helped by barking enthusiastically at two squirrels that were chasing each other in the trees. Still reading The Secret Lives of Somerset Maugham -- Maugham traveled to the United States in 1910, and here is a short bit Maugham wrote later in life about visiting the American novelist Henry James (who was also just visiting the U.S., and who felt quite uncomfortable in his native land), and about how James insisted on accompanying him to an intersection to catch the streetcar from Cambridge to Boston:
I protested that I was perfectly capable of getting there by myself, but he would not hear of it, not only on account of the kindness and the great courtesy which were natural to him, but also because America seemed to him a strange and terrifying labyrinth in which without his guidance I was bound to get hopelessly lost ... The street-car hove in sight and Henry James was seized with agitation. He began waving frantically when it was still a quarter of a mile away. He was afraid it wouldn't stop, and he besought me to jump on with the greatest agility of which I was capable. ... I was so infected by his anxiety that when the car pulled up and I leapt on, I had almost the sensation that I had had a miraculous escape from certain death. I saw him standing on his short legs in the middle of the road, looking after the car, and I felt that he was trembling still at my narrow shave.
:-D
Still pleased and excited over last night's Sherlock, and very much looking forward to the next season, whenever it arrives.
Also, ( some last-moment musing and speculation on 'House' ... )
Whatever happens tonight ... it's been an amazing ride. Not a valediction, but a valentine. ♥ to all of you.
I protested that I was perfectly capable of getting there by myself, but he would not hear of it, not only on account of the kindness and the great courtesy which were natural to him, but also because America seemed to him a strange and terrifying labyrinth in which without his guidance I was bound to get hopelessly lost ... The street-car hove in sight and Henry James was seized with agitation. He began waving frantically when it was still a quarter of a mile away. He was afraid it wouldn't stop, and he besought me to jump on with the greatest agility of which I was capable. ... I was so infected by his anxiety that when the car pulled up and I leapt on, I had almost the sensation that I had had a miraculous escape from certain death. I saw him standing on his short legs in the middle of the road, looking after the car, and I felt that he was trembling still at my narrow shave.
:-D
Still pleased and excited over last night's Sherlock, and very much looking forward to the next season, whenever it arrives.
Also, ( some last-moment musing and speculation on 'House' ... )
Whatever happens tonight ... it's been an amazing ride. Not a valediction, but a valentine. ♥ to all of you.
And the news comes at last ... 'House' ends its eight-year run this May.
Today was grey and overcast all day, but it was still a good day because I didn't have to go anywhere and I actually managed to get some domestic-type things done. Also finished reading All Clear last night -- YAY, NOW I GET TO READ SOMETHING ELSE, and no, I still don't know how it won a Hugo and a Nebula. Making a pot of chili for dinner because it is cold outside (although Chango loves it and tried to give me a kiss this morning, heh).
Today was grey and overcast all day, but it was still a good day because I didn't have to go anywhere and I actually managed to get some domestic-type things done. Also finished reading All Clear last night -- YAY, NOW I GET TO READ SOMETHING ELSE, and no, I still don't know how it won a Hugo and a Nebula. Making a pot of chili for dinner because it is cold outside (although Chango loves it and tried to give me a kiss this morning, heh).
"Mothers Billie Boy"
Nov. 11th, 2011 03:16 pmOne of my favorite sites, The History Blog, has an excellent post up today on WWI, including the discovery of a time capsule in West Hartford, Connecticut, the effort to identify the war dead at the Killian Shelter in the Alsace-Lorraine region, and a new Flickr exhibit by the Imperial War Museum called Faces of the First World War, which I have been looking at all morning. I was particularly struck by this face:
July 3rd, 1916, was during the Battle of the Somme. There were over one million total casualties.
July 3rd, 1916, was during the Battle of the Somme. There were over one million total casualties.
