Saturday Morning, October 7

1) My head is a rock tumbler this morning, disturbed and worrying about several different topics: issues of Southern heritage, yesterday's news about the "religious freedom" that will allow "Christian" conservatives to discriminate against me and people like me, home repair, The Happiness Project, and things that are urgent rather than important.

2) The surprise appearance in Boston of a former colleagues led me to do something last night I rarely do any more: go out after 9 PM, after dinner, for a drink. And it was good. As it happened, we both arrived at the Snub Café from different directions at exactly the same time. And I was surprised that there was a doorman who insisted on stamping my wrist before I went in, a new-to-me feature. Since my friend and I were there mostly to talk, we headed for the relative quiet of the Napoleon Room. Back in the day this was just the far end of the dining room, but moving the piano back there on a little stage, and glassing it in, has made a pleasant cabaret space - mostly for those of us Of a Certain Age. When I left after a couple drinks, I was genuinely surprised to see the small courtyard at the entrance, and the sidewalk, thronged with Young People waiting to get inside.

2a) Daddy needs to get out more.

3) OK, Robert, up and at 'em!

Friday Morning, October 6

1) Sometimes the theme of 2017 seems to be "system failure." Feet (I'm sure it's plantar fasciitis - I really must call the doctor), teeth (but those issues are resolved), and now it looks like I can add HVAC to the list. The air conditioning just stopped working in late August (thank goodness our summer was comparatively mild, so I didn't use it much), and last week I finally remembered to call the nice repairman. He's been in the cellar tinkering away for an hour, and it looks like my 14-year-old system is now ready for the glue factory.

1a) In the words of the late Judith Traherne, "I'll have a heaping dose of prognosisivo negatividad!"

2) So in a way it's good that yesterday morning I started reading The Happiness Project, because instead of having a meltdown over the cost and inconvenience, I am focusing on gratitude that there's a solution.

2a) A colleague lent me The Happiness Project as something to investigate after Reunions . . . in 2016. Well, I guess now is still after Reunions 2016! :-)

3) Working from home has its good and bad points.

Thursday Night, October 5

1) Where will Weeping Baby Pumpkin Head appear next?

1a) IN THE DARK!

2) Oh no. It's happened again. I've become obsessed with a musical passage from a film score. And, as you might have guessed, it's from Blanche Fury. Begin at 01:25:49, and continue through to the single toll of the bell at 01:26:45.

"LAVINIA! NO! Lavinia, don't! No Lavinia, come back!"

"It's all right, Aunt Blanche! I can do it!"

2a) I know very well that none of you are going to watch it. :-)

3) Farewell party for a colleague - that seems to be happening a lot these days - this time with a LOT of carbohydrates.

Thursday Morning, October 5

1) Well, I haven't become obsessed with Blanche Fury, but I think I've watched it ten times since Friday or Saturday.

2) Up at 5:20 AM, dining room breakfast, and now coffee, news, and social media in the studio/study/guest room/gray room/whatever. At my parents' home the third bedroom is The Room, which was where all the children's toys and books were so that the grandchildren would have their own space when they came to visit. I want to be a little more specific than just The Room.

2a) I love living alone!

3) Mercy goodness, next week Etiquetteer is both emceeing the HistoryMaker Awards and performing at the IAA reunion coffeehouse! I have work to do . . .

Wednesday Evening, October 4

1) Where will Weeping Baby Pumpkin Head appear next?

2) If you want accounting, hire an accountant.

3) Had to dodge a sidewalk full of Mayah Mahty suppahtahs and Tito Jackson supporters in front of the high school. Could there be a mayoral candidate debate tonight?

Tuesday Evening, October 3

1) Where will Weeping Baby Pumpkin Head appear next?!

2) I feel I have cleared the very last hurdle of an onerous assignment. Tomorrow will tell.

3) For the first time in some weeks, during which the locker room was renovated, I went for a swim after work. New lockers are great, but the steam room has disappeared! Consternation!

Monday Morning, October 2

1) 5:00 AM: Absolutely cannot sleep, must get out of bed and start the day.
6:45 AM: Completely exhausted, sleepy, and it’s too late to go back to bed.

2) Reading the news this morning - somehow I hadn't done that over the weekend - I can only wonder what's next. What an annus horribilis 2017 has been!

3) It's not only Weeping Baby Pumpkin Head that's come out for the autumn. I unpacked all the glass pumpkins this weekend, too.

The Fall Garden - Sunday, October 1

Now of course I've hardly done a blessed thing in the garden since the spring, but taking a look out the dining room window, I could see that the star magnolia needed some pruning. And taking a look out the parlor window, I thought "What on earth is going on out there?" So after a phone conversation with Mother, I grabbed the clippers off the back porch and sallied forth.

The impression I got was definitely of wild things taking over. Of course, nothing I planted this spring condescended to come up. This is not unusual. What did come up, in tall profusion, was china asters, a quatrefoil green plant I've always thought was a weed (it's probably a weed), and a plant with incomplete furry purple-green flowers or flowerets or whatever. I'd like to think that the latter is some of the Hidcote lavender seeds I planted a long time ago. Alas, a look at ye Gyggle shows they are not that. I'd've pulled it up but the bees love it. And we must accommodate the bees if we want honey and continued pollination of the world!

Much of all this errant herbiage seems to have grown up around and through the original stone paving. So it reminded me of the second Mrs. DeWinter's dream of Manderley, about the forest reclaiming the drive "with long tenacious fingers." But that purplish plant is growing all around the house, and so are the china asters. I also saw some white puffball thingies popping up near the gate. No idea what they are.

What is this?

The star magnolia is becoming infested with morning glory vines. Left to their own devices, they'd twine together and pull the whole thing down! What's interesting is that the vines seem to have started way up in the tree, not down on the ground in the hedge. It certainly made challenging pruning.

This is just ONE branch of pruning from the star magnolia.

Sunday Afternoon, October 1

1) Up quite by chance at 6 AM. Parlor coffee and devotional, finished a column, a video, my laundry, and marketing - all before 11:30. Yay me!

2) Where will Weeping Baby Pumpkin Head go next?

3) Yesterday my nephew's wife posted on Fycebykke "What's your favorite movie quote?" And I thought, "Where do I begin?!"

Answers to 28 Questions

I admit it. I love these lists!

1. Who were you named after? Robert for my mother's Uncle Bob; Byron for Barney Johnstone, who with his wife LIllian were great friends of my mother's family.
2. Last time you cried? Well, shucks, I don't really remember! It was sometime in the last two years, and I remember thinking I hadn't had a good cry like that in many years
3. Soda or water? Club soda.
4. What's your favorite topping on pizza? There is no other topping but pepperoni.
5. What's your favorite flower? There is no ONE favorite flower, but I'm a sucker for orange roses, hydrangeas, lavender, orchids.
6. Do you still have your tonsils? Yes.
7. Would you bungee jump? AIGH! It was bad enough watching a friend bungee jump at the Minnesota State Fair in 1990 or 1991.
8. Did you go to college? Yes.
9. Untie your shoes when taking them off? Not if they're sneakers.
10. Roller coasters? The last time I was on a roller coaster, in my mid-teens, I whacked a total stranger who was teasing me with a souvenir. I don't need that in my life.
11. Favorite ice cream flavor? Ben and Jerry's Urban Bourbon or Bourbon Brown Butter.
12. Favorite thing? Oh mercy, that's far too broad a question.
13. Shorts or jeans? Shorts in summer, not shorts not in summer.
14. What are you listening to right now? An airplane flying over the house.
15. Favorite color? Orange
16. Tattoo? NEVER!
17. The color of your hair? I defiantly continue to describe my hair as blond.
18. The color of eyes? Greenish.
19. Favorite thing to eat? ONE favorite thing to eat is whole wheat toast with butter and herb honey. Better than cake!
20. Scary or happy ending? What man doesn't love a happy ending?
21. Android or iPhone? QUILL!
23. Favorite Holiday? New Year's Eve, without question.
24. Beer or wine? Red wine . . . but every so often a Pilsner Urquell.
25. Night owl or morning? Comes in cycles.
26. Favorite day of the week? Any day that includes friends
27. Do you have a nickname? I've had many, but these days it's Reauxbaire or Dahling I hear most.
28. Pets? I supposed this month that Weeping Baby Pumpkin Head is my pet.

Saturday, September 30: Salem! with Weeping Baby Pumpkin Head

#weepingbabypumpkinhead is scared by Frankenstein. #PEMHorror

1) I am not what would be described as a spontaneous person, really. So when at 8:00 AM I suddenly decided to head to Salem on the 9:30 AM train to see the ocean liner exhibit at the Peabody Essex before it closes on October 9 . . . as Leonide Massine said in The Red Shoes, "Wellllll, dat's SOMEting!"

1a) The last time I did something like this it was not really spontaneous, but it did involve a museum. Roughly 20 years ago the Clark Institute had a fabulous exhibition on Orientalism in America, which I was determined to see. Unable to persuade any of my friends with cars to go (perhaps Orientalism, like Mabel Mercer and absinthe, is an acquired taste), I spent the money to rent a car and drive three hours to lunch at the Clark, see the exhibition, buy the catalog, and drive right back to Boston. And I don't regret it one little bit!

2) Made the train with time to spare, and managed to get a seat at one of the two tables on the upper level of the doubledecker car. One guy sat across from me, and there was another man at the smaller table. So when the four talkative blonde girls got on, they inhabited both tables. (If only that one guy had sat at my table . . . ) Their dialogue included (in order) "uncircumsized p****," "chemical engineering at MIT," and "J'amazing!"

3) The price of spontaneity is the weather. I had suddenly decided to go to Salem in the rain. But, in the words of the late Miss Catherine Allen, "It is first getting onto a steamer and then onto a train!" Truly the weather didn't inconvenience.

4) I'd barely been in the first gallery of this fascinating exhibition when I heard "Robert?!" I turned to be brightened by the sight of a Very Sophisticated Couple I know! We arranged to meet for coffee in the café afterward, since everyone goes through museums at their own pace.

5) I'd barely left them when I was riveted to the screen showing an animated film of the sinking of the Lusitania! OH MY GOD! And Winsor McCay had done it! And wow, you can see it, too, 'cause it's on the Yewtybbe!

6) My goodness that exhibition was fabulous. They had everything from carved wood paneling from the Titanic to Marlene Dietrich's Dior wool suit that she wore on the Normandie to the Duke of Windsor's trunks to bits of furniture from many of the liners, ship models, delightful menus, travel guides, bathing suits, china, and who knows what else. GO!

7) Wonderful coffee chat with my friends covering overseas travel, the museum, eating and drinking, event planning, and much else.

8) Then it was up to It's Alive!, an exhibition of posters and paraphernalia from horror movies. I had NO idea Valerie Hobson had been in so many of those Frankenstein movies! And only last night I saw her in Blanche Fury for the first time. And all this time all I knew of her was Kind Hearts and Coronets . . .

9) Anyway, I love that 1930s style, and the posters were all faaaaaaabulous. So much so that I knew I needed to retrieve Weeping Baby Pumpkin Head from the coat room for a photo op. Yes, I'd brought Weeping Baby Pumpkin Head with me. I mean, October starts tomorrow, and that means Hallowe'en is soon upon us! So Weeping Baby Pumpkin Head and I had fun seeing the rest of the museum, after which it went back in my bag, and I went off to lunch at the Hawthorne.

Weeping Baby Pumpkin Head surveys whatever that big room is on the second floor.

10) I didn't spent my lunch with Weeping Baby Pumpkin Head, but with John Julius Norwich's history of Venice.

11) Later in the afternoon I had my palm read at Omen on what seems to be the main drag. (I can't remember the name of the street.) The last time I remember having my palm read was in the 1980s, and I still remember how the palmist's face changed when she said "But you get very depressed." This 15-minute reading yielded some interesting tidbits.

12) I took some notes on the reading over a decaf and a cookie at Gulu Gulu Café, and then did a bit of shopping. I came away with no books (my default) but with candles and a very inexpensive hematite ring.

13) Having been surprised at the beginning of my Salem trip by two friends, I was surprised at the end of it by another! On the train platform I was surprised and pleased to run into a Friend of Long Standing, and we talked on the platform, and then on the train, and then on the Ligne d'Orange all the way to Mass. Ave. I hadn't seen this friend to talk to in - mercy goodness, at least two years.

14) So today at least, the rewards of Spontaneity far outweighed the price!

Thursday Morning, September 28

1) Gosh, last night was so hot you'd think it was high summer. And some nights all I can do is accept that there will not be sleep. Wide awake from 12:30 AM until sometime after 4.

1a) The forecast does indicate that the temperature will drop substantially this evening.

2) Staffing a big event for the office tonight.

3) And that's all I've got.

Wednesday Morning, September 27

1) This morning's earworm: Mabel Mercer's "Early Morning Blues."

1a) Mabel Mercer has been described as an acquired taste, and certainly when I first heard her recordings in college I thought she was awful. But I came around, and now I find her style and her repertoire charming and evocative of a small, dark, elegantly appointed room in which no more than 50 well-dressed people sit with their drinks, and perhaps the suggestion of a cigarette, in rapt fascination of a great artist. As my late friend Kathleen used to say "When she is good, she is very very good, but when she is bad, she enunciates."

2) I may be waking up early these days, but I am not in a "morning person" phase right now.

3) Spin the GTS Wheel and you get "Yes, I have something to talk about. I would like to talk about . . . Madeline Ashton!"

Tuesday, September 26 - From the World of Alumni Relations

1) Quote of the Day: “I will trust Robert’s judgment on this.” – Very Important Volunteer, foregoing his idea to screen a two-hour movie on the first day of his class reunion. I wish all my other volunteers felt the same way!

2) Another volunteer sent me the photo above, of me with Original Boss, taken weekend before last at our volunteer conference. We made a great team for seven years!

3) It is time for me to exercise my creativity in ways other than diplomacy involving tech support and software programs.

Tuesday Morning, September 26

1) From the Department of the Obvious: there's no souvenir as ephemeral as a candle. Once it's burned, it's gone; a wax stub rarely retains a full memory. The beeswax candles I bought at one of the monasteries of Meteora in Greece a year ago have now served their useful life. Visiting there was meaningful in ways I didn't expect, but I will have to remember that visit without this visual reminder.

2) A mantle goes over your shoulders. A mantel goes over your fireplace. Don't get them mixed.

3) These days even if I'm awake early, I can't really describe myself as a Morning Person.

Monday Morning, September 25

1) Surely the TSA has a drag queen working for them named Pat Down.

1a) And just as surely, there must be a little B and B someplace called Inn Cognito.

2) Up like a stone this morning after a restless night. "Phelps has had nervous indigestion for years. You should hear that bed rumble, like a truck on cobblestones!"

3) The warm weather is nice right now, but please don't let me forget to call the HVAC people.

Sunday Morning, September 24

1) This morning's devotional included #292 of Baltasar Gracian's The Art of Worldly Wisdom:

"Let your character be superior to the requirements of the job, not vice versa. No matter how great the post, you must show you are greater. Deep talent grows ever deeper, and more obvious, with each pursuit. The person with a narrow mind and heart will be easily caught, and eventually the weight of his duties will crush his reputation. The great Augustus was proud of being a better man than a prince. Here is where one needs a lofty spirit, and well-grounded confidence in oneself."

Quite a reflection on World Leaders Who Shall Remain Nameless - if not Unknown - who are letting us all down.

2) Nearly went into a tailspin of despair reading the news about #TaketheKnee, President Trump vs. the NFL. It seems like the only person to come out of this with any dignity is Roger Goodell. For me it proves that America is a sleeping giant until you mess with the Flag, Football, or the Pledge of Allegiance. Now that we have two out of three in play, does anyone want to bring back the "under God" controversy, too?

2a) What's on Twitter will really bring you down. Mother always said "When you lose your temper, you lose your point." So many Twitterers are not just losing their points, they're losing their sh*t.

3) In between all these observations, I celebrate domesticity and the joy of being in my own home.

Saturday, September 23

1) Awake before 6 AM - unjust on a weekend! - so seized the day anyway by starting a load of wash and the coffeemaker.

2) Morning devotional led me to The Complete Jesus, which I rarely pick up. A hymn from the Gnostic Acts of John fell under my eye, including these moving lyrics:

Divine Grace is dancing.
Fain would I pipe for you: Dance ye all!
Fain would I lament: Mourn ye all!
Amen.
The Heav’nly Spheres make music for us;
The Holy Twelve dance with us;
All things join in the dance!
Ye who dance not, know not what we are knowing.

Makes me wish I was a better dancer.

3) Now I sit on the third floor of the Athenaeum after a haircut and errands in town, writing and knowing that I will break for lunch soon, visit Haymarket and Stah Mahket, and then NAP instead of all the serious cleaning I need to do this weekend.

Answers to Nineteen Questions

Inspired by a friend on ye Fycebykke:

19 random facts about yourself that may surprise people.

1. Do you make your bed every day? Heavens no.
2. What's your favorite number? 7
3. What is your dream job? Etiquette writer
4. If you could, would you go back to high schoòl? Only the Interlochen years!
5. What is something no one would ever guess about you? I'm pro-weed.
6. A job you had which people would be shocked to know about you? Three months behind the counter at D*****' Donuts back in 1984.
7. Do you think aliens are real? I don't see why not . . . but they're not getting the Van Buren china, LOL!
8. Can you drive a stick shift? No. As I answered on another one of these surveys, the best kind of car is the kind in which I'm a passenger.
9. Guilty TV pleasure? None, 'cause I don't even OWN a TV.
10. Tattoos? NEVER!
11. If the world ends do you want to survive? No, thank you.
13. Do you have any birthmarks? No.
14. Favorite childhood game? Gosh, I honestly can't remember.
15. Do you talk to yourself? Oh yes.
16. Do you like doing puzzles? I guess not, otherwise I'd be doing them.
17. Music genre? I refuse to be pegged to one genre!
18. Tea or Coffee? Before 1993, tea. After 1993, coffee. I can't remember why or how I made the switch.
19. First thing you remember wanting to be when you grow up? Actor.

Copy and paste. I would love to see your answers!

Wednesday, September 20

1) Last night went to my first Opus Affair meetup, for the ahtsy types, at a new bar in the Financial District, Vanderbilt. All that black subway tile made me wonder what sort of parties they have there when the shades are drawn.

1a) Interesting group of (mostly) Women Younger Than I, one Man Much Older Than I, and a Very Amusing Co-Host. I was persuaded to stay through a second cocktail.

2) John Julius Norwich's history of Venice continues to engage me. To paraphrase the late Eleanor of Aquitaine, "What Republic doesn't have its ups and downs?"

3) I need to welcome Miss Leafy Greens into my life more.