Mirth and Musings Part 10

100th Post! For you all out there thank you! Hope you will all hang in there with me through the months ahead.
Serious withdrawals this week. Its now 320 days until Halloween 2014.
While I don’t plan on posting a running countdown, I can’t help but look around at all the red and green and cast my mind back to just a short while ago when orange and purple and acid green were the colors of the day. To be honest, I still have my orange and black lights up (inside my dining room), along with a few other Halloween decorations I couldn’t bring myself to take down, yet. I’ve a couple of weeks, right? Anyway – as I un-bubblewrap ornaments from years past I pause and reflect just why I try to drag it all out as far as I can, simply the place never feels so cozy than in the Fall and I try to keep that going well into Winter. When it is mostly packed up and the upcoming holidays firmly take over, I still long for and compare subsequent manifestations of my homes decor to those three months in Autumn, the highlight of the year. Time to start planning. Really never too early, I think. Themes and plans and lofty goals. Looking forward.
Here is another lovely New Yorker cover, the intense orange is simply wonderful.

New Yorker Magazine, Kovarsky, 1961
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Perils and Perseverance

Once in a night as black as pitch, Isabel met a wicked old witch.  The witch’s face was cross and wrinkled.  The witch’s gums with teeth were sprinkled.  Ho, ho, Isabel! The old witch crowed, I’ll turn you into an ugly toad! Isabel, Isabel, didn’t worry, Isabel didn’t scream or scurry.  She showed no rage and she showed no rancor, but she turned the witch into milk and drank her.  Isabel met a hideous giant, Isabel continued self reliant.  The giant was hairy, the giant was horrid. He had one eye in the middle of his forehead.  Good morning, Isabel, the giant said, I’ll grind your bones to make my bread.  Isabel, Isabel, didn’t worry, Isabel didn’t scream or scurry.  She nibbled the zwieback that she always fed off, and when it was gone, she cut the giant’s head off.

Excerpt from The Adventures of Isabel, Ogden Nash, 1931

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Mirth and Musings Part 9

The holiday season provides ample opportunities for socializing amongst family and friends, coworkers, club members, and others and I look forward to such occasions with heady anticipation.  I’m usually a homebody, so this time of year is nice to step out and experience the excitement and expectations in the wind up to the big day and New Year beyond.  I hum carols to myself as I get ready to attend an event, package goodies to deliver as host gifts, wrap small gifts for friends I won’t see at the end of the month.  There is much that is undergoing change at present and just now it feels the time will slow briefly so that we can savor the season, I hope that you all find a little downtime to do just that.  Between parties, of course.

The New Yorker Magazine, Charles Addams, 1987
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Arsenic & Old Lace a reminder against overindulgence

The day after Thanksgiving you may feel yourself in need of savory sustenance of a different variety,  I can recommend Arsenic & Old Lace as a lovely alternative to raiding the fridge.  The classic Frank Capra film starring Cary Grant, Peter Lorre, Raymond Massey and Priscilla Lane is a favorite to watch while waiting for the waistline to return to its usual proportion.  Instead of posting the usual shots of the movie, I present you with some fun visuals in the form of playbills. Enjoy and don’t forget overindulgence can be deadly – or at least really uncomfortable.

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What’s your wish?

Love this scene at the end of A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving, 1973.  Each time I watch I wait for the moment Snoopy and Woodstock are left to their own celebration.  Here at the end of their meal is what I refer to as the “Wishbone Protocol”.  While I am thankful for many things, my wish is to always have my husband with me on Thanksgiving, he is a soldier and we’ve missed too many in the last twelve years of our twenty year marriage.   Although we share ”Anydays”, it is nice to have him here on the days when others are doing the same. So mine has come true. How about you?

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