What Else Can Be Said About This Year's June?????????????????????????

                              It certainly was not like June in "Carousel."  Nor in Freddy Cannon's song, "June, July, And August," which, some of you may notice, I did not play this year.  And for understandable reasons.  This has not exactly been a celebratory time.

                                But we made some strides.  We visited some doctors.  I visited two bookstores and ended up with a pile, we watched, on computer, the dazzling Jessie Mueller, move us with her renditions of "If I Loved You," "She Used To Be Mine," and the big surprise of the evening, "On My Own," from "Les Miz."  She sang it, like nobody's business!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

And, also a sad farewell, to Seamus, who is now in retirement.  Oh, he is very much alive, thank God, but his will not be as pubic a presence, in Bay Ridge, as it has been.  The original Paws Truly, run by Deirdre and Michael Butler opened almost to the year David and I moved here. Two years ago, prices forced them to find a new locale, at Apple Tree, the health food store, here on Third Avenue.  After a valiant struggle, it was decided to call it quits.  Seamus was never happy with the place, though he got along famously with the actual store's mascot, Nicholas, the cat!  I love him, too!  He was actually sunning himself in the door, as I walked past him, after my disillusioning trip from Manhattan.  He gave a "Meow!," and raised a paw!

So, I understand Seamus' POV, too.  It was a treat to see him, last Friday, where he came up, and gave me a hug, as I patted him.  I think he knew it was our farewell moment.

Though, who knows?  We may bump into Seamus on the street,   And maybe a future St. Pat's parade!

God bless you, Seamus, Deirdre, and Michael.  You brought happiness to many in Bay Ridge, including this allergic animal lover!

Have a great retirement, Seamus!

And, of course I read lots of books.  You can scroll on here to see them!

That's all for June, kids?

What's up for July?  Indoors, and, possibly Little Edie's Sparkler Dance!

Can You Believe We Are Halfway Through 2020 Already?????????????????

                                  Normally, I would be jumping for joy girls, but face it, this has been a lost year.  And, to think, when I saw the double digits drop on New Years' Eve, I thought this year would be filled with excitement.

                                   Not that it hasn't been, but not the excitement I, or I am sure, any of us, were looking for.

                                    Yet, as I write this, and you read this, I cannot help but express gratitude that we are all still here!  And may I be saying this, when it comes time to ring down the curtain on 2020.

                                      Each year has its own, special history, including people's personal memories, but this year, as time marches on, will be especially historical, for reasons well known to us who are living through it.

                                        Nevertheless, I consider today the halfway point.  May we all be together like this at the end of the second half!

Another "Lace" Like Movie I Am Dying To See!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                               "Thunder On The Hill" came out in 1951, one year after "Three Secrets", so hidden secrets were big story material during this period of filmmaking.  It seems to combine elements of the aforementioned movie, with secrets concerning the suicide of the sibling of one of the nuns, a girl having been wrongly convicted of murdering her brother, and others being poisoned, I guess, in some way to keep their mouths shut.

                                    But the cast!  Claudette Colbert as the most glamorous Mother Superior ever to be seen on screen, and also on hand, that badass of nuns, Gladys Cooper, playing here a Mother Superior.  Remember, in "The Song Of Bernadette," she was only Mistress Of Novices, though I am sure, before Bernadette showed her the light, she was determined to oust the present Mother Superior from her job.

                                     The film even manages to get in a little bit of "Black Narcissus," what with a climatic scene where, someone is attacked in the bell tower.

All this, plus Claudette and Ann!  You just gotta love it, darlings!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Did This Movie Inspire Shirley Conran To Write "Lace???????????????????"

                                                 There is this sketch, on "The Carol Burnett Show," where Eunice decides to walk out on Ed, because he has been seen visiting a massage parlor!!!!  A lickee  lickee joint in Raytown, Missouri?  Hard to believe.  Bet it was several towns over.

                                                    Anyway, when Eunice arrives, distraught, her mother is distracted by the movie she has been watching.  A movie where it is about to be revealed which of three women is the mother of this child, who survived a plane crash.

                                                      Eunice spoils it for her, telling her who the mother is.  I won't spoil it for you, though, if you watch the sketch, you will find out.  Better to wait and see the movie.

                                                       What I am getting at here, is that, all this time, I thought this movie, whose title is never mentioned, was fictitious.  Then, when I looked up the cast member mentioned by Eunice, who has seen the movie before, I found out it is real, and now I have got to see it.  The other thing is, when I examined its plot, it is very close to Shirley Conran's "Lace."

                                                           Consider this.

                                                            "Three Secrets," released in 1950, which was unfavorably compared to Joseph L. Mankiewicz' film of the previous year, "A Letter To Three Wives," and was directed, way before "The Sound Of Music," by Robert Wise, concerns three women--Eleanor Parker, Patricia Neal, and Ruth Roman, all of whom, several years before, gave birth to an illegitimate son.  In the present time, a plane crashes in the California mountains, and each woman examines the past, wondering if the 5-year-old boy, who survived, could be their illegitimate son.  The mother's identity was not revealed until nearly the end.  I wonder if I could have figured it out.

                                                                 I did figure it out with "Lace," having read the novel and seen the mini-series, because, once I discovered Bess Armstrong was in the cast, I knew she was going to be the mother.  I never could stand Armstrong, who came off like Miss Perfect, but whom I could tell was a raging bitch.  She never fooled me with that wholesome act.

                                                                  Phoebe Cates plays Lili, this one-step-up- from- a whore film actress, who tracks down, and confronts three women, played by Bess Armstrong, Brooke Adams, and Arielle Dombasle.  They all knew each other when young, and in boarding school.  All are basically tramps, who become involved with older men, but only one of them gets knocked up.
When the child, born on November 17, 1960, and given the name of Elizabeth Lace--hence the title--the girls, afterward, decide to go to go to a local doctor, who arranges for the child to be adopted.  He tells the girls, or, specifically, Lili's mother, that of the three, she was the one he would least have suspected.  He is fooled by that Bess Armstrong wholesome act, when I always knew, all the way back to the sitcom, "On Our Own," that she was a total bitch!

                                                                   Get this--the girls are found out (the mother's name is given as "Lucinda Lace) by the headmaster who threatens to expel them, but--oh, girls, this is a hoot!--this is foiled when the girls uncover photos of him having homosexual sex with the school's chauffeur, Paul!

Imagine!  Not just gay sex--but sex with a SERVANT?  The thought today still makes me shudder today!  Never do this, girls!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                                                    Lili is placed with Felix and Angelina Dassin.  One of the girls' aunts, named Hortense, agrees to pay for the child's upbringing.  But the couple are gunned down by soldiers in a tragic accident, and Lili is placed in a detention camp, where she remains for the next decade of her life.  After this, she begins to transform herself, become Lili, and when she is wealthy enough to do so, hires aa private investigator, to track down the girls, one of whom has become a journalist, the other the wife of a British aristocrat, and the other a French socialite.

                                                                    Lili, who gets the best lines, wants to get even for them making her life hell, and wants to also find out who her real mother is.  When Hortense tells Lili that this child is most likely dead, she says, "They'll wish I was.  They made their schoolgirl pact and sent me to Hell--I'll teach them what I learned there!"

                                                                    Honestly, girls, you just don't see this kind of writing anymore!  What a shame!

                                                                    The best line comes at the end, which is actually how "Lace" opens.  Most of it is told in flashback.  Having gathered the three women together in a hotel room, she faces them, and delivers the classic line, "Incidentally, which one of you bitches is my mother?"

Priceless, and this was probably the crowning moment of Phoebe Cates' career!

                                                                     Once the flashback ends, there is a shot of legs walking up a set of stairs to visit Lili, and it is learned that Judy Hale (Bess Armstrong) is her mother!  As stated, I was not fooled for a second, and when Armstrong's face is finally shown in this scene, I shouted, "I knew it!"  What a bitch!  If I had been Lili, I would have smacked her across the face!  Maybe all of them!

                                                                      So, think about it, dolls!  A 1950 movie about three women with a secret illegitimate child, and a 1984 novel  adaptation, of a story about three boarding school girls who agree to keep secret the illegitimate pregnancy of one of their friends.

                                                                        Coincidence, or inspiration?  What do you think?   The plots are eerily similar.

"Lace" is camp of the highest order!  I can't say the same for "Three Secrets," having not seen it yet, but I bet, at Miss Porter's "Lace" is required reading, along with "The Group," "Valley Of The Dolls," and Lillian Hellman's play, "The Children's Hour."

And just look at this jacket cover!  Isn't this all how we should be living, darlings???????????

You mean, you aren't?????????????????

Happy Gay Pride!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                    Who would know, right?

                                     The only thing I can say is to congratulate all of us still here, and may each of us celebrate it in our own way.  Playing the entire Streisand oeuvre, or your favorite Broadway show,
sharing the day with the one you love--as I plan to.  The time is now upon us to appreciate the smaller things we sometimes take for granted--like each other, and the beauties and colors of nature.

                                       So, this Gay Pride should not be forgotten.  It will be more reflective, and less celebratory, but it does not take away that this is "our" day.

                                         I wish you, one and all, a Happy and Safe Gay Pride!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Who Knew Esther Was The Butch One????????????????????????

                                            Girls, Amy Sedaris' "First Dates" show was such a brilliant send up of the 1960's Olivia de Havilland movie, "Lady In A Cage" that I now am going to have to see the actual movie.  But the real treat was the visit with Ruth and Esther.

                                              I know that Ruth, who acts as spokesperson is "The Lady Who Lives In The Wood," her toilet is a hole in the mud, but she is so passive aggressive, it is no wonder Esther sulks.

                                                This week, a new Esther emerged.  Esther, who always has beautiful hair, and looks like something out of Jane Austen, especially when dressed in white, took charge .  She wanted a television--I don't blame her--and Ruth said "No!"  So, Esther gets up, leaves, saying, "Well, I am going to a sports bar, where there is television."  Then, we hear the car speeding off.

                                                   Who knew either heard of sports bars?  Or owned a car, let alone drive one?  There is more than meets the eye, here.   I bet Esther has built a modern bathroom in the woods, where only she can use it, as opposed to Ruth's "natural," disgusting, one.  I am not even getting into the questions I could ask, here.

                                                     Michael Shannon did his standard thing in the movie spoof, playing the James Caan role.  He was perfect, but Amy carried the show.  Even the Wine Lady showed up.

                                                      But that Ruth and Esther.  We need to see more of them!

                                                     

Better Than A Course In Botany!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                         Not since Elizabeth Gilbert's "The Shape Of All Things," has a novel, dealing with aspects of science, engaged me.  Set in rural Appalachia, "Prodigal Summer" skillfully interweaves the stories of three women--Deanna, a middle-aged spinster, but not repressed, who works as a park ranger, and lives a solitary rural life, straight out of Thoreau.  Then there is Lusa, recently widowed, and close to, if not possessing a Ph.D. in Entomology.  She has to deal with her husband's less educated, borderline, White Trash family, and the touching chronicle of how she does and finds herself, is the best part of the book.  Then, there is Garnett Walker, and his next door neighbor, Nannie Rawley, and how they come to terms.

                                           Having previously read Dickens, finding something afterward is, admittedly a tough act to follow.  "Prodigal Summer" is perfect; it is satisfying American fiction, the language is gorgeous and compelling, as are the characters.  And, like Dickens, by the end everything is interconnected.  But I am not going to tell you how.  That would spoil things.

                                              This is one of my best recent reads, and I recommend highly.

                                               Then, go out, and thank Mother Nature, girls!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!