What Are You Doing...

As for us, this year we're with the terrier presented to us by dear Mr. Addams in a rare non-macabre mood. Although I don't think, knowing Our Little Condo as I do, that there will be much in the way of festivities to lure us to the windows.

Onward and Upward with the Arts

I wonder, a lot, if I spend too much time online, to the detriment of filling my mind, such as it is, with better things.

Birthday Girl: Illusions

The extraordinary creature born Marie Magdalene Dietrich was a belated Christmas present to the world some 114 years ago today.

Box It Up - I'll Take It

Sometimes I think it's really on Boxing Day that we ought to be getting presents. Failing the gentleman himself, those fetching little boots might do nicely.

Have Yourselves a Mamie Little Christmas

A very Merry day to all, from Mr. Muscato, Koko, Boudi and me, with a little help from Ike and Mamie's 1960 Christmas greeting - a Café tradition, on and off, since 2009. There's just something about those calligraphic bangs that sends me into gales of giggles.

Redux: Heavenly Peace

I first posted this on Christmas Eve of 2013. As fast away this old year passes, the old world I was raised in feels ever further away - as far away on this warm December evening as a snow-covered lawn all those years ago. What the next year brings us, none of us yet can know, but I still hope for a measure, just a measure, of that himmlischer Ruh.

Another time the year goes 'round; another chance to revisit one of my earliest memories...

Three Little Girls with Three Little Curls

We'll revert to the traditional this evening, but here to get us through this most hectic day of the year, a salutory lesson:

Fancy Running into You Here!

"Well, it is a season for chance meetings, isn't it?"

How the Gretch Stole Christmas

Trust Loretta Young to have everything ready days in advance.  Even at the holidays she annnoys me.

The Fix is In

I'm afraid that this year, the holidays have been somewhat delayed chez nous.

A Holiday Fashion Moment

Trust dear Miss Alice Faye to have the perfect seasonal outfit.

And Now, a Word from our (Holiday) Sponsor

Hard to believe it's just a couple of years before little Susie there will be demanding cha-cha heels and knocking over the tree.  A sentiment that, on opening her fourth Hoover household appliance, Mum can more than sympathize with.

And what the hell did a Keymatic do?

Over the River and Through the Woods

Every day, I think how my Mother would have laughed.

Book Report: Love it All

"What are standards?"

So This Happened: Yuletide Edition

Who knew that Cher went through a Kay Francis-impersonating phase?

'Tis the Season

Well, it's time to kick off the festive season, and with that comes traditions - few dearer to me than starting off each year with this little gem as the first Christmas song I listen to on purpose (as opposed to all the elevator music that's been being pumped out hither and yon since something like the week after Labor Day).

All My Darling Daughters

So my new office, now that the good people of Golden Handcuffs Amalgamated International have moved our exiguous little unit up closer to the mother ship, as it were, is rather centrally located. Because we are in Our Nation's Capital, it's come as no surprise that one thing that means is that we are near museums.

Three Girls Three

Lo, how the mighty...

Talking Turkey

Oh, for a chef as festive as Annie in our little condo kitchen!

Mother of Exiles

The New Colossus

Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame, 
With conquering limbs astride from land to land; 
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand 
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame 
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name 
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand 
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command 
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame. 
"Keep ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she 
With silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor, 
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, 
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me, 
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"

- Emma Lazarus

There and Back Again

Well, if nothing else, we certainly picked a good week to have a news blackout. Instead of dealing with the multiple awfulnesses and idiocies of the past seven days or so, I got to look at Caribbean sunrises. Here's one, in case you need it.

Here Am I, Your Special Islands...

We've been itching for a change of scenery, the Mister and me, and now we have one.

Bright Song for a Dark Night

I posted something lighter-hearted earlier today; now that seems inappropriate. Maybe it will come back on a better day.

Tonight there can only be Piaf, the Little Sparrow and her "Hymne à l'amour."  I have to believe, no matter how the awful the moment may be, love will win. It seems a fine and correct coincidence that the film this is from is called Paris Still Sings.

Maybe not tonight, but it will again, and soon. Love wins.

The Day is Gone

The great Miss Karen Akers takes a staple of M. Brel and, simply by the way she sings "In Flanders field the poppies die" turns a bittersweet love song into a sweetly bitter song that seems wholly appropriate for this eleventh day of the eleventh month.

Meanwhile, at Work...

Well - the title is close. No hussies this week, but more than enough hissy fits at the office.  We moved, you see, and believe me, there is something about an office move that does not bring out the best in one's colleagues.

Witchy Women

We're having a quiet Hallowe'en this year, but if we were to head to some theoretical costume party, I think I'd like to go as Aunts Enchantra and Hagatha.

Ring It Off The Wall

Today, whoever it is who handles Things Digital for Miss Debbie Harry and company decided to startle me by pointing out that this little ditty first thrilled the waiting world 37 years ago today. As is now quite routine, I feel Old.

Jumble

An Excellent Woman in her natural habitat, at a jumble sale

With fall coming on - the trees in the landscape beyond our little terrace are turning, and the mornings are increasingly chilly when I go to walk the dogs - my thoughts as usual turn to things cozy and familiar.  As a result, I am rereading Excellent Women.

Miracle of 34th Street

Like most great stars, she had a face the camera loved; even more, she had a coloring that the tricky, fickle Technicolor camera turned into something as rich as cream and as a invigorating as a dose of cinnamon.

Revolting? You Bet We Were

Grainy photographs, pictures of neatly dressed, stone-faced people, walking, signs in hand.  Making history.  I'm reading a great book right now, kids, and I think you should, too.

Meanwhile, in Morocco

This stunning image, Irving Penn's 1951 snap of model Lisa Fonssagrives at a palace in Morocco, appeared in this morning's throwaway free paper, in among the sports scores and banal headlines, and my whole day has been the better for it.

Up to the Glitter

Well, darlings, on the (I'm sure very) off chance that your weekend hasn't turned out to be quite as soigné as perhaps you were hoping, why don't we drop in on Mr. Hefner and see what's happening up at his place?  As it turns out, the marvelous soul queen Carla Thomas has popped by as well, doing something rather magical to "Where do I Go?" from Hair.

"You Get to Live When You are Living"

Orchids and royalty in Mrs. Post's front hall

The end of another week, elhamdulileh, and a busy one it's been, too, with some odd and unexpected ups and downs.

In the Garden of Good and Abstract

Canton Palace, Ohio, 1980

One of the little joys of my drudgery work is that it lies within hailing distance of Our Nation's Capital's principal tourist attractions, including the vast and sober museums that line the stately National Mall.  Today at lunch, it being a singularly quiet sort of Tuesday, I went for a walk.

Mock Time That Flies

Earlier this week we celebrated National Poetry Week, and while I missed out, here, belatedly, is my contribution: Dame Edith Sitwell intoning her hypnotic "Through Gilded Trellises" against Sir William Waton's evocative, spare music from Facade.

Ladies and Gentlemen, Dame Helen Mirren

Here to brighten up what is, at least in Our Nation's Capital, a gray and dreary day, one of the United Kingdom's most distinguished thespians.  And I bet you thought her appearance in Caligula was as far a cry as one could imagine from The Queen.

This Much is Tru

Things fall apart.  That may be a title devised by Chinua Achebe, but it's as good a description of the life of Truman Capote as I know.

Brave Little Oysters (Etc.)...

You know, there are a lot of oysters at the National Gallery.  I mean in the paintings; we were there this past weekend, My Cousin the Architect and I, and while we enjoyed our lunch in the Garden Café, sadly the otherwise excellent buffet was oyster-free.  But in the Dutch still lifes, and even tucked here and there amid the Renaissance banquets?  Those bad boys are everywhere.

Splish Splash

As summer gives way to fall, it seems time to indulge in a little fantaisie orientale, don't you think?

Pretty Pierrot

Yesterday, she would have been 110.

Ev'rybody Dance Now!

For no good reason other than it's a suddenly autumnal Sunday morning: ladies and gentlemen - the Penguin Dance.  Apparently this was a thing.

Severe Clear

A day so perfect, so crystalline; one on which there's truly not a cloud in the sky.  That's what it was.

Still Reigning

Well, she's done it, and if it the "it" is simply having lived this long, the manner in which she's done it comes as close as I can imagine one human's efforts could to actually deserving the global outpouring of praise and sheer affection that's coming her way.

See the Man

I don't believe I'd thought of Martin Milner, in anything more than the most fleeting of ways, in 20 years, at least until the sad news of his journey to Fabulon came out over the weekend.

Remember, Remember...

...The sad story of poor, ill-fated Juror Number Eight. Fashion's edicts are ignored at your peril.

Home and Dry

I've always liked the duality of this song - the usual glossy Pet Shop Boys beat, here augmented with scenes of arty anomie, contrasted with what amounts, in this context, to a frankly sentimental lyric.

What's My Wednesdays? # 13: Two Curvy Ladies

I don't know about you, but I seem to know a startlingly large number of people who are Jayne Mansfield fans - serious ones, too,  not just glancingly nostalgic ones.

Had to Get Away...

So I pulled a Bueller today.  I decided mid-morning that, given the choice of staying in Cubeland at Golden Handcuffs or heading home, napping with the dogs, and taking a swim in the condo pool (not, perhaps, quite as scenic as the one shown here in a fetching snap by dear Mr. Slim Aarons), and given that it is already the last week of summer, I really had no choice at all.  Off to the Metro it was.

Lily is in Bloom Again

Isn't it nice when a National Treasure gets to remind us how she got that way?

A Fine Day for Singing

Over in another corner of the cyberverse, dear TJB has noted that today would have been the 102nd birthday of a now nearly forgotten lady who was once one of the great éminences grises of Broadway and Hollywood, Sylvia Fine Kaye.

Redux: Thar She Blows!

In honor of today, the 132nd anniversary of the eruption of Krakatoa, a cataclysm that killed thousands and had repercussions as far away as Europe and the Americas, this admittedly only marginally related little gem (and accompanying favorite memory) that originally appeared here on August 4, 2012.

Birthday Boy...

...from all evidence in this snap, in his birthday suit.

Happy birthday, Maestro, you sexy thing, you... Like Auntie Mame, he was the pied piper, and how I lucky I was, for a little while, to follow his tune.

Sister Act

The late Countess of Snowdon would have been 85 today, and really I rather wish she were.

The Marriage of True Minds

Because I have a useless mind, one that retains bits and pieces from the distant past, but not, unfortunately, vital information put before it yesterday, I can tell you that today would have been my paternal grandparents' 95th wedding anniversary.  This happy couple, I should note, is not they, but it might as well have been, for isn't there something almost wholly interchangeable about most wedding pictures?

Damn, Damn, Damn

The news from Bangkok is horrifying.  When you read about the bombing of the Erawan Shrine, with the chaotic pictures taken in the dark of a scene that's impossible, really, to decipher except as the latest in the long and endless string of acts of pointless, horrible political violence that stud the world, I want you to remember this picture.

Come to Me...

...My melancholy Barbie...

Once More, Let's Open That Door

I don't usually, magpie-like, post things I run across on other, infinitely more-trafficked sites, but over at his shiny new digs, dear JoeMyGod did us the favor yesterday of spreading the word about this gem, and I can't resist.

Hat Check

For no good reason other than it's a dull Tuesday, let's look in on Sra. Peron as she picks a chapeau from her imposing collection.  The year is 1950, and Life is there, in the person of the excellent photographer Gisele Freund (whom I most know from her photographs of Virginia Woolf, which are disconcertingly in color - if only the same were true of these hats!).

Metropolitan Life

Our Nation's Capital, by and large, is not an excitable city.

Bloodied but Unbowed

Your correspondent (artist's impression)

Bother.  I fell again.

The Joy of Dressing Up

Sad news on Seventh Avenue tonight; an era of American* fashion closes with the flight to Fabulon of the one and only Scaasi.

Lions in the Garden

With the sad tale of Cecil and the Despicable Dentist so much in the news, I thought it would be nice to check in with a far luckier lion.  This regal specimen lords it over the principal lawn of Hillwood, the resplendent home of the rather-resplendent-herself Marjorie Merriweather Post.

Of Mad Lords and Archaeologists' Wives

Mrs. Marie Beazley, Harry Bloomfield, 1923

Collection of the Classical Arts Research Centre, 

Faculty of Classics, Oxford University.

I seem to be on something of a portrait jag this summer; I do hope you'll forgive me.

Things Epistolary

For no good reason except that we both have more than our wont of leisure these days, My Dear Sister and I have taken to writing long letters to each other.  Granted, they're e-mails, but still somehow it feels terribly Edwardian to be communicating in something other than statuses or Tweets...

Summertime...

...And the livin' is easy.  My goal for the final week of my leave is to be as carefree as an illustration by our dear M. Gruau.

Portrait of a Lady

No, this one I didn't see at the National Portrait Gallery.  But, if the price is right, it could be yours - it's up for auction on e-Bay.

Hey, Old Friends.. (and One New, Too)

I had a nice long stroll around Our Nation's Capital yesterday, and I grabbed the opportunity to drop into the National Portrait Gallery and pay my respects to some old familiar faces.

Three Girls Three

As part of my ongoing efforts to share with you lucky Gentle Readers the treasures of Egyptian pop culture, herewith we find the ensemble once billed as the Supremes of the Nile. I don't know that I'd go that far, but they certainly had their moment.  And their hairdos.

You Want to Kick Them Blues

While perhaps I could do without the twee tots and their proto-Lincoln Logs, I have to say that the product they're shilling certainly would have come in handy around our house last night.

Heaven Much Better

If you're looking for a little diversion for a Sunday (or any other, for that matter) evening, may I recommend the above?  Here, in its glorious entirety, is the video record of the Divine Miss M.'s Depression Tour, which is best known as the basis for her epic double album (remember those?), Live at Last, but which was apparently (and unknown to me) also turned into a cable special called The Better Midler Show.  I just love finding essential pop ephemera that I should have known about during the Carter administration...

He Was Man

Goodnight, sweet prince...

Broken Goddess

I rarely wax dictatorial, but today if you're able, I'd like to recommend you do a good turn for a great lady.

'Neath the Red, White, and Blue

I don't normally approve of ostentatious displays of patriotism - but in this case, I'll make an exception.