Dinner Success

I'm not trying to romanticize it, because it did end horribly, with Smiley and LuLu getting into it and whipping broccoli at each other BUT for a moment dinner was grand. I made chicken breasts with diced tomatoes, mashed potatoes, the before mentioned broccoli, and sautéed cherry tomatoes and mushrooms. There were literal thumbs up from around the table, and best of all (to me) Smiley and YaYa  both gobbled up the mushrooms.

Rest in Peace Little One

Lisa encountered a couple yesterday whose newborn son passed away. I didn't know 3 week old Owen, but if you've got a prayer to spare for his family I'm sure they'd appreciate it.

Quote(s) of the Day

The following letter came home with Ginger the other day:

Mr. + Mrs. Slap –

[Ginger] has been bringing a lot of toys to school and as you know this causes problems.

She sneaks them out during the day to play when she should be working. I have quite a collection of things I have taken from her.

Please do not let her bring any toys to school. Make sure she brings in her folder and other things she needs for her day and keep toys at home.

Thanks,

Mrs. Charn-

Note that in addition to scolding Ginger for the toys, there’s that late little jab at how ‘unprepared’ we send her off in the morning.

That kid is trouble, pure trouble.

****

Lisa and her Entourage went shopping, and when they returned they were eager to tell me that they’d seen my doppelganger at the store, someone who could pass for my identical twin.

“So you were attracted to this guy?”  I asked Lisa.

Without pausing for so much as a millisecond she gave me her answer:

“No, not at all.”

*crickets chirp*

******

I greatly enjoy Pierniczk Alperjskie, which may be a Polish brand name or just the name of the food itself; a Bing search would settle the issue by damnit, sometimes a mystery adds spice to life.  They are soft, chocolate covered gingerbread cookies with a strawberry filling. No one else in the family can stand them, which is bully for me. 

Quote

40 Years Ago Today

40 years ago today George Steinbrenner bought my beloved Yankees and within 3 years returned them to October ball. RIP sir, you did the universe proud.

Four Very Different Films

The Disappearance of McKinley Nolan is a documentary which traces one man’s search for his brother, a soldier who went missing during the Vietnam War. By ‘missing’ I don’t mean MIA; Nolan defected to the Viet-Cong, apparently because he fell for a native woman (never mind his wife and son at home) and never returned to the states. He participated in propaganda efforts in Hanoi, told possibly apocryphal stories of killing American MP’s, and was rumored to have been killed by the Kymer Rouge in Cambodia following the unification of Vietnam.  Small wonder then that the US government hasn’t gone the extra mile to check on his well-being, and his family’s anger about that, and their mild belief that a grand conspiracy is afoot,  strikes me as absurd.

 Not that I blame them for venturing to Southeast Asia to look for him; whatever he’s done, he is still their kin.  I won’t spoil the result of the search, but regardless of what happens in the end, the trip fleshes out the story of his post-defection life, as his brother encounters his friends, fellow VC, and even his Vietnamese step-son.

It’s a sad film, but a good one.  Grade: B+

VHS is a collection of ‘found footage’ horror shorts held together under the narrative guise of being part of disturbing collection of videos in a dead man’s house. There’s quite a wide range of quality between the best and the worst here. “Tuesday the 17th’, about a picnic on a lake that goes awry, is better than the work of any fourth grader I've ever met; that’s about the extent of my praise for it.  And yes, I caught the not-so subtitle homage to '80's slasher films. Big wup. 

On the other hand , segments like 'The Sick Thing that Happened to Emily When She was Younger’, about a woman whose apartment may be haunted, and “10/31/98” about an ill-fated Halloween  night, are worth the price of a rental  The movie is hard to watch though, with the signature choppy 'found footage' camera work and a confusing overall structure.

Grade: C

Resident Evil: Retribution is a mindless, video game romp through a zombie infested former Soviet submarine base. There’ s not much to recommend this movie aside from the fact that somehow, someway, even as you’re a little embarrassed to be watching it, you’re also very entertained. Grade: C

The Good Doctor stars Orlando Bloom as a socially isolated intern who becomes infatuated with a young female patient and sabotages her treatment so that she can remain in his care. It’s a frightfully boring film that slogs forward at a tortoise’s pace, and despite two valid efforts I could never watch it start to finish.  You may think that disqualifies me from rendering a true verdict, but I think the evidence was clear. Grade: D

That He Does :)

My gosh, Smiley loves his Momma :)

:)

LuLu's pronunciation of Indianapolis: "Indy-ana-op-olis"

Two Dates

Today would have been my maternal grandmother's 90th birthday.

Today is also the 50th anniversary of the Battle of Ap Bac, where Viet Cong forces pinned down and defeated a South Vietnamese force 5x it's size, along with their American advisers. It's been described as the Viet Cong's first major battlefield victory and credited with all sorts of influence on how events played out in the next 12 years. IMO, that 'influence' seems exaggerated by historians It was influential in the moment, but I don't see its reach extending that much into the future.

The 150th Anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation

I almost forgot one of the most important anniversaries in all of history: today is the 150th anniversary of Abraham Lincoln issuing the Emancipation Proclamation. Yes, yes, it was the 13th amendment that ended slavery forever, but only the harshest revisionist would argue that the Proclamation was anything less than the nail in the coffin for that 'peculiar institution'.