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[Ron Pulliam]

When I was little, I had toys.

Oh, yes!  I had toys.

I had blocks, and I had Lincoln Logs.  I had a gun and holster (Hopalong Cassidy).

I had a small stuffed bunny with which I slept.

I had various board games, coloring books and crayons. 

I had Pick-Up Stix.

I had a small choo-choo train and tracks.

I also had books written for children.

And, then, I had my imagination.  I'd often have an old towel safety-pinned to the shoulders of my t-shirt so that I could become Superman at any moment.  Sometimes, old blankets could be tossed across a couple of chairs, and I'd have a fort or a tent or whatever secret place I wanted it to be.

None of these things were ever anywhere but in my bedroom...or out on the porch.  They did not fill a living room with oversized things as kids get today.  In the living room, I had my own child-sized rocking chair. 

Today, I watch HGTV and shows about people needing more room, and I discover that their living rooms and dining rooms are loaded down with kids' toys leaving no room for adults.

Seriously? 

[Ron Pulliam]

Very humbled to have begun page 3!

[elmore3003]

DR ELMORE if you click on the "VIEW ALL SIZES" link on Flickr pictures,  you should get a link that lets you download a photo.

http://www.wikihow.com/Download-Images-from-Flickr

I appreciate this, but i'm not getting any of the pages this info tells me I should!

[Ginny]

DR Ron, the dessert I made for tonight is the Jello pudding easy version of Boston Creme Pie.  The yellow filling is instant vanilla pudding, milk, and Cool Whip.  The topping is more Cool Whip and semi-sweet baking chocolate melted together.  This time I used store-bought angel food cakes, but I think I'd rather bake my own.

[Ron Pulliam]

DR Ron, the dessert I made for tonight is the Jello pudding easy version of Boston Creme Pie.  The yellow filling is instant vanilla pudding, milk, and Cool Whip.  The topping is more Cool Whip and semi-sweet baking chocolate melted together.  This time I used store-bought angel food cakes, but I think I'd rather bake my own.

Good to know.  Good to look at.  Yum-Yum Eat-'em-up! Eat-'em-up!

[elmore3003]

The "Las Vegas" RIGOLETTO is great fun.  They don't change a word or a note of music (nor should they!), but certain lines of the English subtitles are adapted to the setting and to a bit of Rat Pack-style lingo.  It wasn't overdone, and I found it enjoyable and engaging.  You could even hear the Met audience enjoying some of the same subtitles.

For the most part, the setting was convincing and conducive to the general storyline, and the set design, costumes, and characters were wonderful.  The one thing that threw me for a moment was the fact of the "curse"... or rather, of the cursee's reaction to being cursed.  Of course that's what the opera is about.  But such curses don't really translate to modern times and settings, and you just have to roll with it.  I sort of talked myself into relating it to the casino setting, re good luck / bad luck superstitions of lifelong gamblers, and to the related crime world vibe.

Another weirdness is the fact of the daughter being confined to the apartment in a modern-day setting, although I was more bothered by her shocked/sad reaction to her father's telling of her mother's death -- as though she'd never known about that.  Maybe I need to review the libretto, but it sure would have made more sense in this to have her react in understanding and sympathy for her dad's grief as he tells a story he surely has relived and related many times over the years.

Oh well.  I'm sure all of this has been written about by people far more qualified than I.  I haven't sought out any of the criticism.  Just talking outta my arse here.

In the 1980s the English National Opera had a version by Jonathan Miller that was set in Manhattan's Little Italy and the waterfront with the Italian mafia, and it was wonderful.  I saw them perform it at the Met in the summer of 1984 or 1985, and it's available on DVD. There was a river to dispose of the body at the end, as specified by the libretto, and it worked very well. The problem with Las Vegas is where's the river?

[Ron Pulliam]

The "Las Vegas" RIGOLETTO is great fun.  They don't change a word or a note of music (nor should they!), but certain lines of the English subtitles are adapted to the setting and to a bit of Rat Pack-style lingo.  It wasn't overdone, and I found it enjoyable and engaging.  You could even hear the Met audience enjoying some of the same subtitles.

For the most part, the setting was convincing and conducive to the general storyline, and the set design, costumes, and characters were wonderful.  The one thing that threw me for a moment was the fact of the "curse"... or rather, of the cursee's reaction to being cursed.  Of course that's what the opera is about.  But such curses don't really translate to modern times and settings, and you just have to roll with it.  I sort of talked myself into relating it to the casino setting, re good luck / bad luck superstitions of lifelong gamblers, and to the related crime world vibe.

Another weirdness is the fact of the daughter being confined to the apartment in a modern-day setting, although I was more bothered by her shocked/sad reaction to her father's telling of her mother's death -- as though she'd never known about that.  Maybe I need to review the libretto, but it sure would have made more sense in this to have her react in understanding and sympathy for her dad's grief as he tells a story he surely has relived and related many times over the years.

Oh well.  I'm sure all of this has been written about by people far more qualified than I.  I haven't sought out any of the criticism.  Just talking outta my arse here.

In the 1980s the English National Opera had a version by Jonathan Miller that was set in Manhattan and the waterfront with the Italian mafia, and it was wonderful.  I saw them perform it at the Met in the summer of 1984 or 1985, and it's available on DVD. There was a river to dispose of the body at the end, as specified by the libretto, and it worked very well. The problem with Las Vegas is where's the river?

Over by the Grand Canals of Venice?   Or somewhere in the vicinity of the Sphinx near the Nile?  If you want one there, they will dig it and fill it,.

[ChasSmith]

What I thought they might have done was change the river to a gulch or some other location-friendly geo-political-graphical feature.

[ChasSmith]

Never saw the Jonathan Miller production.  Thanks for the heads up on the DVD!

[elmore3003]

Good morning, all! Things have been curiously quiet about the apartment building. No word from the super, nothing from the landlord. I do not want to make waves, but at some point someone's got to address this dead stove or the bathroom ceiling, and it had better be soon....

DR Elmore, not paying your rent would probably get their attention.

DR Ginny, it would take at least two months of non-payment before they'd begin to notice, and I think something will happen quite soon, anything from my being found dead or beaten to a crew coming in to repair the ceiling and, perhaps, my stove as well.  We'll see.

[elmore3003]

I've spent the morning watching the 1935 film of ROBERTA, which actually incorporates several incidents from the novel that are not in the stage show.  And i worked on the notes for the booklet.

Here's a question: how many of you called a great-aunt "Aunt ____" as opposed to "Great-Aunt ______"?  I always called my Great-Aunt Lucy "Aunt Lucy."

[ChasSmith]

We always addressed or referred to them as "Aunt", even though we used "Great-Aunt" in reference to the actual relation.

[Ron Pulliam]

Same here.  Simply used "Aunt" for all regardless of "status" in the family tree.

[MBarnum]

TOD:

Shabby Chic

[elmore3003]

I'm glad to know that I'm not the only one using Aunt in nomenclature for a great-aunt. The Man from Philadelphia can drive me up the wall.

[elmore3003]

I remember when "plating" meant covering an object with a thin metal coating. Now it refers to shoveling shit onto a serving plate. It's a term I loathe as much as "de-planing" or "de-training." De-lightful? Effin no!

[singdaw]

I do adore the now-missing Grey Poupon ads in which various people inform us what it is they "Poup" on....

I posted one of those here yesterday.


No one thought fit to comment upon it.     

[singdaw]

No one can be accused of writing Shakespearean thoughts on the internet, so why the odd-ish toss-in of words from that idiom?

I am guilty of employing this tactic once in a rare moon.  But when I do it, I am trying to be whimsical or ironic.       

[ChasSmith]

I do adore the now-missing Grey Poupon ads in which various people inform us what it is they "Poup" on....

I posted one of those here yesterday.


No one thought fit to comment upon it.     

Or to Poup on it.

[singdaw]

Very humbled

Let us be the judge of that.       

[ChasSmith]

No one can be accused of writing Shakespearean thoughts on the internet, so why the odd-ish toss-in of words from that idiom?

I am guilty of employing this tactic once in a rare moon.  But when I do it, I am trying to be whimsical or ironic.       

I do it occasionally, and that's all it is.

Doesn't BK do it, too?  Maybe it's time for a REBUKING.

[singdaw]

DR ChasSmith, I enjoyed reading your comments about the Met transmission of Rigoletto.


I haven't seen the majority of these, by any means. But for the most part, I have truly enjoyed all the productions I have seen in this manner.

[singdaw]

I do it occasionally, and that's all it is.

Youthinks?       

[Jane]

From DR Cilla:

They did the work on my parents' basement at the lake and it was bone dry yesterday

I would wait for them.

I'm sorry about the dock, boat & your basement.

VIBES NOTHING WORST COMES ALONG!!!

[Jane]

Thursday morning greetings!  My book group meets here tonight to discuss The Art Forger by B. A. Shapiro and I've just made 2 of these:



Can you guess where the story takes place?

LOL I had to look it up to figure out what you made.  I never saw those when I lived there.

[Jane]

And now the thunder and lightning are back!


The dog is still not amused. To put it mildly.

Poor baby.  Have you ever tried the storm jacket?  I know people who say it works.  It didn't help Yogi so Craig gives him medication when he knows a storm is headed their way, especially if Craig won't be home.

[Jane]

Our first night, before moving into our house, in Massachusetts was at the Parker House.  Since the Parker House invented the Boston Cream Pie we of course had to try it.  Oh my, it was delicious.  I stopped ordering it when nothing compared and we never returned to the Parker House.

http://www.omnihotels.com/FindAHotel/BostonParkerHouse.aspx?cid=sd_psg_b-property&gclid=CjkKEQjwlIqdBRDy6JSK4Lmn1akBEiQAVa9dPQvKPtFc3YUJgS6yxbUnOo0YjEOv17PcFedlKodppODw_wcB

[Jane]

I've spent the morning watching the 1935 film of ROBERTA, which actually incorporates several incidents from the novel that are not in the stage show.  And i worked on the notes for the booklet.

Here's a question: how many of you called a great-aunt "Aunt ____" as opposed to "Great-Aunt ______"?  I always called my Great-Aunt Lucy "Aunt Lucy."

I attempted to get my grand nephews to call me Grand Aunt but their mother said it was too much.  We aren't there enough anymore for them to even know me so they don't call me anything

[Ginny]

DR Elmore, my sister and I called our great aunts Auntie Ruth and Auntie Grace.

[ChasSmith]

DR Elmore, my sister and I called our great aunts Auntie Ruth and Auntie Grace.

I don't think anyone in my family ever used "Auntie", but a couple of close friends and their families in these here parts have always used it.

Oh, and it seems "Grand" is the official or preferred term in genealogy.  I only recently became aware of that.