Apparently, the Revolution was Televised

This unnerving slice of '70s life in the USSR is either a particularly hapless commercial for portable TVs or a harrowing glimpse into one family's unhealthy interpersonal dynamic.  You be the judge.

Deviled by the Details

The Entrance to the Tautira River, Tahiti. Fisherman Spearing a Fish, John La Farge (detail)

So, under the twin thumbs of mandated exercise and my impending return to the grindstone, I decided earlier this week to hie myself downtown to reacquaint myself with the city.

Birthday Girl: Hot for Teacher

Many happy returns to the peerless Miss Peggy Lee, who joined us - in the almost comically unlikely form of Norma Deloris Egstrom in Jamestown, North Dakota - on this day in 1920.  I don't know about you, but I never had a math teacher quite like this...

Café PSA: A Timely Reminder

While I know that such Gentle Readers as regularly pass by here hardly need such basic information, once again I feel obliged to remind a broader cher publique...

Wedding Belles

A little tableau en style Warhol, in honor of yesterday's good news.  Café regulars are well aware of my longstanding amusement with American's vinyl sweetheart...

Join the Jubilee!

Well, it is, by all indications, a great day for the Irish, and who better to sing us in than St. Judy?

Ladies of a Certain Age

One of the goodies that appeared during My Dear Sister's recent whirlwind visit was a disc of family photos that she's had scanned.  The person who did the scanning did his or her level best to read the backs of those photos that were inscribed, which is helpful, but sadly this formidable lady is described only as "Auntie Harriet."*  Just think; here she's very likely just about the same age as Jane Fonda.  Getting old isn't what it used to be, although in Auntie Harriet's defense, she's less shy about showing her hands than Madonna.

And Then There's Me

  

As I may have mentioned once or twice, dear Miss Beatrice Arthur and I share more than an at times flinty temperament; we are both May babies, born today.  As the years go by, I feel ever more something of a kinship with the old girl, bless her memory.

Oh, What Can I Do?

I'm developing a thing about this perfectly awful song (given even more of an absurdist twist in this nearly phonetic karaoke cover).  See below for why in God's name that should the case.

But first, proof positive that my life, whatever else is happening, remains more interesting than some people's:

Redux: M is For...

M is for... first appeared on May 10, 2009 and appeared again in 2012, 2013, and 2014.  And yes, even as we head toward 15 years, I'm still getting over the surprise.  Happy Mother's Day, Mother Muscato, wherever you are...