Monday Evening, March 26

1) Y'know, I just had that Great Big Cold at the start of December, and that was gonna be it for this season. Now here I am on day four of the Next Big Cold and, just like the last time, I am too busy for this! Destroyed by fatigue, but at least got to make some headway on an important creative project for the office. And that's a plus.

1a) "You know dear lady, I've just been to Bath, to be cured of the fatigue. And now I'm so fatigued by the cure that I, I really think I shall have to go back to Bath again . . . to be cured of the fatigue."

1b) Homemade chicken soup for breakfast. Om sniffle nom nom.

2) Internet Discoveries I: So, slouching about after my second nap, I discover these peppy, upbeat Tunes of Another Era: "My Sweet Tooth Says I Wanna (But My Wisdom Tooth Says No)" and "Who Taught You This? Who Taught You That?" I won't say they'd rouse a corpse, but they make keep me going until bedtime.

2a) Internet Discoveries II: Pocket, the new thingie that seems to be part of F*****x, suggests articles I might be interested in, and today one of them was about "elder orphans" planning for the future. And I'm thinking, "Oh mercy, I don't want to deal with this now," and I hear Scarlett O'Hara answer back "But I MUST think about it!"

3) There comes a time in the life of every favorite T-shirt when those tiny holes begin to form up around the shoulders, and you know that the material is finally aging. And it's a sad day, because it's a favorite T-shirt. There will be others, of course, but never that favorite T-shirt.

Sunday Night, March 25

1) The painting above pretty much illustrates how I feel when Big Events are taking place in the world, and I'm staying inside my little house. This weekend was March for Our Lives and now the Stormy Daniels interview, and I'm in bed with a cold since Friday morning. Full of admiration for those I know who marched or spoke out this weekend - for all the people who actually enjoy mixing it up with debate on the Big Issues.

2) Among other things, today included: a column by 11 AM, a second viewing of The Scarlet Empress (that is a weird movie!), discovery of the Awesome Etiquette podcasts from the Emily Post Institute (and they are awesome!), housekeeping, a NAP, and a half-recipe of chikhirtma. And many cups of tea with lemon.

2a) Malheureusement, the nasal congestion portion of this cold began just after dinner.

3) But the clincher of the day: the breathtaking insensitivity of Rick Santorum. No wonder he got voted out of office!

Saturday Morning, March 24

1) Ugh. It's definitely a cold. Unable to sleep, so up by 5:15 AM. Coffee, devotional, breakfast, bathroom cleaning, shower, and off to Haymahket by 8:15 AM.

1a) Lemons! So necessary for a cold. Now I have seven, and they'll go into tea and soup.

2) Snatched up Valley of the Dolls to read on the subway, which I hadn't picked up in some time. It's still the best mindless beach read there is.

3) My friend Miss Percy Larsen will be delighted to know that I indulged in the DVD of Sternberg's famous The Scarlet Empress starring Marlene Dietrich. Clips on the Yewtybbe are simply too enticing to avoid this any longer!

Friday Night, March 23 - Sick Day

1) I've done nothing today but lie around, watch Maltese Falcon, The Heiress, at a lot of scenes from Feud: Bette and Joan; eat leftovers, hydrate, and wash dishes, and I am absolutely, scratchily prostrate.

1a) I am far too busy to be sick right now!

2) If you want a treat, look up the podcast "Help I Sexted My Boss," which just premiered.

3) The neighbors said it felt like spring today. More proof that if you don't like the weather in New England, all you need to do is wait five minutes.

Things That Tell a Story: A Cutting Board

A few days ago my old cutting board finally broke apart. One of the ends had come off months ago, so I knew the time was coming. It's been an important part of my kitchen equipment since I got it 30-something years ago. It's traveled with me from my studio apartment in Brighton to the Derriére du Nord, Medford, Allston, Back Bay, the Derriére du Sud, and now at Maison Robaire in JP.

How did I get it? Thirty-something years ago I was still in college and had a part-time job to make ends meet. After three months behind the counter of a Popular Doughnut Store* and nine days of prayers to St. Jude (I"m not kidding), I found what was the best job for me, working as a concierge in a Venerable Back Bay condominium, the V******. I forget how many concierges there were - eight, ten? - but for awhile I had two eight-hour weekend shifts. Junior year I took the seven-to-midnight shift five nights a week, five hours of almost uninterrupted reading, perfect for a college student. It's the only reason I ever aced English Drama After 1590, because I actually read all those Jacobean revenge tragedies.

I was definitely one of the youngest concierges. Most of the others were retirees, including a short Irish-American gent, R******, with too much tan, a gold link bracelet, and a very obvious hairpiece. If my gaydar had been working it would have been signalling "old queen, old queen!" But, as Sally Field memorably said in Soapdish, "I was very young then!" And besides, I wasn't even out to myself at that point.

We got to talking as colleagues do (I think I relieved his shifts rather than vice versa), and I mentioned that I was moving to a studio apartment and would need to go shopping. Immediately R****** offered to pass on some things he was no longer using, an offer I accepted gratefully. The weekend after I moved he provided a random selection of silverware, some glasses, and this sturdy butcher-block cutting board. And it started serving me well right away.

The glasses were probably all sacrificed on the Altar of Hospitality at some point (a few broken glasses are almost always the sign of a good party if you're under 35), and I passed on all my unmatched silverware to the Last Roommate in 2016 as part of my Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up. Only the cutting board remained of that long-ago generosity, and now its usefulness has come to an end.

R****** and I lost touch, as colleagues do, either when he really retired and moved to Florida or when I left the V****** in grad school to take a full-time job at that Suburban Weekly Newspaper. He had no need to offer a helping hand to a much younger man, nor did he attach a string to it. That's so much the popular narrative, isn't it, very Guy Kibbee in 42nd Street: "I mean, I'd like to do something for you . . . . if you'd do something for me." [pant, pant] Reflecting on his generosity now reminds me that Paying It Forward is important for good karma.

*People simply cannot believe I ever did such a thing in my life, but I still have my nametag to prove it.

Friday Morning, March 23

1) Yesterday in the late afternoon and early evening I staffed an information table for Interlochen at the state's High School Drama Festival. After some confusion (alas for them, one of the principal organizers was unable to be there due to illness), I was parked at a table in a large, low-ceilinged room jammed with teenage hubbub and emotion. Every ten minutes or so there would be a crest of screaming or other exclamation, until the room emptied for them to begin the program in another space.

2) This morning, in a most likely unrelated incident, I woke up with the unmistakable signs of a cold - bleah! Staying home and handling some work stuff from here will be better than spreading a lot of cooties all over the office, especially at a time when all of us need to be in good health.

3) The back story feature at the end of this morning's NY Times briefing shattered a myth for me. All this time I thought the expression "OK" originated with Martin Van Buren's 1840 presidential campaign. Turns out that first it was a joke in a Boston newspaper in 1839!

Thursday Midday, March 22

1) Static. Friction. Paralysis.

2) Finalmente, feedback on an important project, resulting in a different set of criteria that will require me to redo about 85% of my work.

3) The verse goes "Know the Truth, and the Truth shall make you free." Knowing the Truth means recognizing it as the Truth. So many do not. They see it, but do not recognize it.

Thursday, March 22

1) This morning's devotional somehow threw a spotlight on Matthew 23:15: “Woe unto you, scribes and pharisees, hypocrites! for ye compass sea and land to make one proselyte, and when he is made, ye make him twofold more the child of Hell than yourselves.”

2) I went to bed after 11 PM, and the snow hadn't started by then. Now, at almost 6:30 AM, it seems to be snowing a bit feebly. All this dramatic buildup for nothing.

3) Yesterday morning I arrived 15 minutes late for a large breakfast meeting, which sort of set the overall tone for the rest of the day. In other words, Lonnie Gordon's "Bad Mood."

3a) Which is not to say there weren't some lovely light moments as part of the day.

Wednesday, March 21

1) Yesterday being the first day of spring, a colleague and I persuaded everyone on the team to wear something floral. This actually involved me bringing in a couple floral neckties for a colleague who doesn't wear ties much. Later he reported a lot of compliments!

2) Last night for the third year I went to Taste of the South End as the guest of my friend Carl. Fabulous negronis in the Room No Longer Referred to as the VIP Room yielded the most fabulous event souvenir: faux-sapphire-tipped swizzle sticks.

2a) It's funny sometimes, the momentary rage for a souvenir. My delight in those swizzle sticks reminded me of my first ball for the Pastel Prison, for which the event planners arranged for Egyptian charms to be tied around all the napkins. One lady was so excited about them she commandeered ALL of them at her table and made them into a necklace.

3) Someone needs to write Fifty Million Users, a parody of Fifty Million Frenchman (a musical of which I know nothing but the name), about Cambridge Analytica.

BONUS: OMG, I cannot believe how people are just losing their minds over another snowstorm. It's New England, it's March - snow happens!

Monday Night, March 19

1) Quietly freaking out because a) my camera, which I just used to take photos when I got home, has disappeared, b) the news, and c) where is my damn camera?!

1a) There just aren't enough chocolate chips and tamari almonds in the house right now.

2) Tonight's soundtrack: the Barcarolle from Tales of Hoffmann. The Countess of Rothes remembered this being the last piece of music the band played on the Titanic before shutting down for the night - before the iceberg struck, of course.

3) Tonight at Doyle's I was shocked to hear someone ask for the wine list. A beer list, I could understand that!

Monday Morning, March 19

1) Last night's dinner went OK. Really interesting questions. Sometimes I can't stop myself from being more of a comedian than I need to be. #flaws

2) Today's Shakespearean insult seems tailormade for a Certain World Leader: "None but libertines delight in him; and the commendation is not in his wit, but in his villainy." [emphasis mine] - Much Ado About Nothing

3) Another sun-bright, bitter cold day featuring (among other things) the plume of steam atop the BU Law School across the river, a bacon breakfast burrito, and the constant battle with the office thermostat.

Sunday Morning, March 18

1) Today would be Gramma's 116th birthday.

2) I ended up going to bed quite late last night, and woke up at 6:38 AM to start the day. Lots to do, but right now I want to dribble off this sofa like a slug and somehow return to sleep.

2a) I'm going into the office later. Not only to make up some time from last Tuesday's snow day, but - and this is exciting! - tonight I am hosting a second etiquette dinner for MIT students! The senior class found out how well received the first one was and one of their class officers arranged another.

3) "I expect we'll find this is full of quotations."

Saint Patrick's Night, 2018

1) The fresh, spicy smell of carnations.

2) Afternoon Surprise I: the doorbell went off like an explosion while I was trying to take a nap. The result was no longer wanting to take a nap because my new eyeglasses had arrived. Two pairs: one identical to my current glasses, another (see above) with transparent frames, a totally impulsive purchase when I saw them in the store.

2a) Sunglasses arrive next week!

3) Afternoon Surprise II: My third-floor neighbors and I have a sharing economy: I let them park in my parking space, and they feed me occasionally. When Monsieur texted me "Chicken dinner?" I wasn't expecting him to come downstairs with Little Miss bearing an entire roast chicken! (And also yams, potatoes, cauliflower, and another vegetable dish.) I'll be eating off all that until Tuesday. Happily. Om nom nom.

3a) Little Miss was not wearing green, and I smilingly told her that if we were in Louisiana, I'd have to pinch her. And then I thought to give her one of my green carnations. What a smile from her!

3b) And she was very excited to come downstairs again with her father to bring me three of their homemade macaroons with chocolate chips.

Saint Patrick's Day Morning, 2018

1) Today is my unscheduled day this weekend, allowing freedom to create and keep house without the distraction of having to think about when to be where for what with whom. Aside from not being scheduled, I also have to accomplish something important by 11 AM to feel like the day has been productive. Usually I measure this by getting a column written. Alas, the most important thing I've been able to do today is get Etiquetteer's green carnation photo done and posted. Let's see what the rest of the day holds!

2) Insert whargarbl about backlash against the Parkland students here. I'm totally for the Parkland students, and I'm against the politicians who are calling them names, and I'm against the people suggesting that if they'd only been nicer to the shooter this wouldn't have happened.

3) I really don't want to let myself get distracted by the world today, but with a) a friend's report of the Russians hacking his Instygrym, b) the report of the Denver Post suffering even more staffing cuts by the hedge fund that owns it (and other failing newspapers around the US) making me fear for the future of journalism, c) M*Cabe's firing, d) and the British expulsion of Russian diplomats . . . WTF is our civilization coming to?!

3a) Happy Saint Patrick's Day! Where's my green beer?

Friday Morning, March 16

1) Yesterday might best be described as "So many carbohydrates, so little time." Om nom nom.

2) I will certainly need to get my Oscar Wilde Memorial Green Carnation today for Saint Patrick's Day tomorrow.

2a) When that LGBT group was rejected earlier this month by the Staten Island group planning their Saint Patrick's Day Parade, they should've rebranded as an Oscar Wilde Appreciation Society. After all, the parade organizer was quoted saying "Our parade is for Irish heritage and culture. It is not a political or sexual identification parade." And Wilde is undeniably one of the great Irish writers!

3) This morning's reading from Gracian's The Art of Worldly Wisdom included "No one looks directly at the sun, but everyone does when it is eclipsed. The vulgar will fasten upon your one failing rather than on your many successes." And how true that is!

Thursday Morning, Ides of March, 2018

1) Oldest Nephew Who Must Not Be Tagged gave me last Christmas a daily calendar of Shakespearean insults. It's been a big hit with me; I keep it at the office. The insults for Presidents Day and International Women's Day pulled no punches! (But I didn't save them, so don't ask what they were.) So I expected something good for the Ides of March, and instead got this from The Two Gentlemen of Verona: "How now, you whoreson peasant! Where you have been these two days loitering?" Which is rather off topic when considering regicide.

2) A nap + (1.5 manhattans + 1 plate of the spaghettini alfredo special + 2 chapters of The Colony: Portrait of a Restaurant) + Glenn Miller's "Moonlight Serenade" on repeat + online solitaire = last night

3) This winter we seem to be accumulating snow the way I tan in the summer: burn and fade, burn and fade, resulting in freckles and sunspots.

Tuesday Night, March 13 - SNOW DAY

1) Baking - in this case, baking bacon cheddar biscuits from a mix. Om nom nom.

2) Looking back on the day . . . what on earth did I do? Not as much writing as I'd hoped, but more housekeeping.

3) About 4 PM I headed out to do my share of the shoveling. It took me a bit over half an hour to do our entire length of the sidewalk and the front steps. I hope I put more of my legs into it than last week; I'm eager not to repeat the awful shoulder pains I put myself through last week.

4) And to start that prevention, as soon as I came in from shoveling I eased myself into a hot whirlpool tub with a glass of red wine and Kathleen Tessaro's Elegance to skim a few pages.

4a) What would Macbeth have been like if the cauldron of the Weird Sisters was really a hot tub and the Sisters Themselves were just Californians from the art community trying to sell Renoir etchings?

5) Yesterday I picked up a brisket at the food co-op, because a snow day at home is perfect for a New England boiled dinner. Too bad my horseradish expired last April, but it was still very good.

6) While the brisket was boiling I washed dishes and watched Kinsey on the DVD I got at the thrift store a few weeks ago when I was shopping for goblets. I hadn't yet seen the film. In some ways I found it quite sad. The cast just astonished me: Liam Neeson, Laura Linney, Peter Sarsgaard (oomph!), Chris O'Donnell, John Lithgow, Timothy Hutton (unrecognizable!), Tim Curry (!), John Epperson (the man who is Lypsinka!), and the guy who played the associate producer in Postcards from the Edge.

6a) I recalled when the film was released that a great deal of attention was paid to the Unnamed Female Film Legend who was interviewed by Kinsey at the end of the film. I didn't recognize her, and was floored when her name came at the end of the credits.

6b) I got a sense from the film of the candid honesty Kinsey's subjects gave him for his work, and how still today, sex is such an uncomfortable topic for so many.

7) I love to be in my home, and just before dinner, with the lamps burning softly in the parlor and the dining room . . . #gratitude.

Tuesday Morning, March 13 - SNOW DAY!

1) Ye Instytytte proactively announced yesterday that it would be closed today due to the latest nor'easter. Grateful for a day in my home. Just after 9 AM, the frosting is visibly thicker on the trees I see from my parlor window.

2) I wasn't going to read the news today, but sweet mercy goodness, one look at the Times and the sh*tsh*w that is our kakistocracy -- today it's a car crash I don't want to see, but from which I can't look away.

3) One year ago today we had a blizzard and a snow day - and it was the office's first-in-a-long-time 24-hour giving challenge. This year at least the giving challenge is tomorrow!

Monday Morning, March 12

1) Mercy goodness, it looks like we have another nor'easter coming Tuesday night, and people are just losing their minds. PEOPLE! We got through the winter of 2015, and we will get through this! Calm yourselves down and go stock up on French toast ingredients. Don't forget the cinnamon and vanilla.

1a) Interestingly, Tuesday afternoon I'm supposed to have a meeting with my oldest reunion committee at the office. I rather think we should reschedule.

2) This morning's devotional included a reading from How to Manage Your Day-to-Day about managing one's use of social media; the phrase "logging on with intention" somehow was the most important thing. And later I fully recognized that the only reason I logged onto ye Fycebykke was to post an opinion piece from the Times that I found meaningful.

3) I stand at the threshold of a new week not yet clear where it will take me. What's most present is the completion of projects over the last three days, not anticipation of work yet to be done - or indeed, of opportunities not yet clear or contemplated. Well, except snow shoveling. Let's see where it goes!

Sunday Night, March 11 - the Weekend Ends

Aside from the adventure of speaking at the WGBH Masquerade, it was an active weekend:

1) Saturday I was very surprised to run into a colleague twice: first on the platform at Green Station, and later outside Doyle's (!) at midday.

2) With my new presciption in my hands, it was off to Wahby Pahkah for new glasses at last. Madly, impetuously, I ended up getting three pairs, including sunglasses. Rejoicing that they still had my current frames.

3) Friends were quite right; I have very much enjoyed the podcast You Must Remember This. And I would love for Carina Longworth to do an episode on all the films made in 1939 by the cast of Gone With the Wind. Among others there's Stagecoach, The Rains Came, These Glamour Girls, Each Dawn I Die, The Women, The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex, and dozens and dozens more.

4) It's so valuable for me to have an unscheduled day in which to accomplish things.