Hello everyone. I haven’t posted in a while. I’ve been trying to decide whether I wanted to continue on with my 7 things posts or just periodically do blog posts when I felt like. I’ve decided to sort of do both.
I’m going to switch from a weekly 7 things post to a monthly one. Maybe I’ll go back to weekly some day, but lately it’s been more and more difficult for me to find things to include.
In going to a monthly post I think it’ll make me feel freer to send out other posts periodically, on specific topics. Initially I wanted to do more posts on subjects like women’s health/mental health (obviously menopause), beauty, cooking, film & music, books, history, and other subjects that I’m passionate about or that catch my interest but during the pandemic my brain fog was fairly epic. So that’s the plan.
Okay, before we get started…
HAPPY BIRTHDAY JOHN CANDY!
John Candy would be 72 years old today. Hard to believe we lost this comic genius nearly 30 years ago. If you’d like to get a little infusion of the late, great Mr. Candy, here’s a VIDEO counting down his top ten films. I most definitely agree with #1.
Here’s another little bit of John Candy news – Ryan Reynolds and Colin Hanks are working on a documentary about John Candy. Can’t wait to see that!!!
On with the BOOOOOOOOOO…
1. This David S. Pumpkins SNL Skit – They’re BACK! Tom Hanks returned in his titular role as David S. Pumpkins with his two skeletal sidekicks, Mikey Day and Bobby Moynihan.
Moynihan returned to SNL to appear not only in the David S. Pumpkins skit but in his recurring role as “Drunk Uncle” on Weekend Update.
Click on the picture below to go to YouTube to watch the video of the skit.
2. This Collection of Ghost Stories – This is my favorite ghost stories of all times. Intelligent, literary, clever, with just the right amount of scary. Back in the late 80s when I worked at Webster’s Bookstore on the east side of Milwaukee we were lucky enough to get Robertson Davies for an author visit. He was way too big to have at the store so we collaborated with the Milwaukee Public Library and held the event at Centennial Hall at the central library. A couple hundred people attended.
Robertson Davies was a notorious curmudgeon and true to form he was a bit of a stickler about signing books at the event. He only would sign one book per person and only his name.
Fortunately I was the staff person chosen to drive Davies and his wife to O’Hare after his appearance. It was one of the greatest moments of my life. I played a Gregorian Chant cassette that I had bought in Oxford. They liked it so much I gave it to them. I even got Robertson to laugh once. What an accomplishment! I waited until I dropped them off to ask him to sign my books (two of them.)
It took me a long time to figure out what “cofion gorau” meant. I assumed it was Latin. Turns out it’s Welsh for BEST WISHES! I received a thank you note from Mrs. Davies a few weeks later which I still treasure.
One more brief note – one of the best audio books I’ve ever listened to was High Spirits. Narrated by Christopher Plummer it was released on audiotape in 1991. Back then people weren’t really buying audiobooks; they were mostly found in libraries or used by sight-impaired individuals. I borrowed it from my local library and loved it so much I decided I needed to own a copy. I ordered one from my local bookstore (it cost a pretty penny) but who has a cassette player anymore?! Sadly the audio version isn’t available in a “modern” format BUT some kind soul has put the book on YouTube. It’s in four parts so you’ll need to search for the other three parts. Enjoy.
3. This Brief History of Witches by Aubrey Hirsch – a concise and eye-opening history about how women healers were portrayed as being harmful, scary, and evil by greedy misogynists.
[Found on The Audacity, a newsletter from Roxane Gay]
4. These Halloween Costumes – my nephew as Gomez and my sister-in-law as Morticia. Are they not the cutest?!?
5. This Halloween Illustration/Artwork – by one of my favorite illustrators, Kirsten Ulve (who just happens to be a fellow Dubuquer… though like many people from Dubuque, we both moved away. Kirsten moved way further than I did.)
6. This Spooky Film Written By Kids – This is everything.
7. And THIS Halloween Cartoon. Tom Gauld is my soulmate.
Word of the Month
Quote of the Month
Video of the Month
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Jester, I still have the Robertson Davies High Spirits book *you* bought for me years ago! You have inspired me to read it again.
YAY!!!