All Purls. No Swine.
One of the most delightful parts of my weekend is opening my email (yes, really, I know how sad that sounds) on Sunday sometime and discovering Douglas Murray’s latest “Things Worth Remembering” installment for The Free Press. I’m a basic (paid) subscriber to the site, so I get all the links and can read the… Continue reading “Seeing God in a Cat”
Breathes there an English expat girl with soul so dead, who never to herself has said, “Well, having heard that bloody song again, I’m just going off–not for the first time–to have a quiet little cry…” Here's the song: https://youtu.be/hKdRpDpIR70 Unlike most popular stars of the 1970s and 80s, Roger Whittaker ploughed his own furrow… Continue reading Roger Whittaker: The Last Farewell
A gently revised revisit of a post from many years ago: Dear Dad, Sixteen years ago today I got the phone call that I’d been expecting for several months, but kept on hoping would never come. My sister told me that you were gone. I don’t think I’ve ever completely recovered. Oh, I’ve moved on… Continue reading Dear Dad–2023
The following is a lightly edited version of a post I wrote on the Queen's death, a year ago today: The only British monarch of my lifetime died a year ago today. She was crowned in June 1953, slightly more than a year before I was born. I was named after her, “Elizabeth,” and–for my… Continue reading “I have to be seen to be believed”–Queen Elizabeth II
I think she first crossed my radar in 1971 (or so) when she appeared on Masterpiece Theatre in the United States, in the six-part (or so) program Elizabeth R. It was glorious. So was she. I was excessively irritated today on GBNews when some clown or other asserted (if you insist on making me look… Continue reading Ave Atque Vale: Glenda Jackson
Chinggis is my (by this time) rather elderly rooster, he who once was lost (as have been a startling number of others in my life) and was one of two whom I tripped over on a walk down the road, on a day towards the end of January 2021. His lucky day. After a frantic call… Continue reading Chinggis Makes His Move
Gosh. Some of the loveliest music of my childhood, from a man who lived through, took risks, and stood tall, during a difficult, and often infamous time in which people of his color were regarded by some as less-than-human. I don't remember many of those occasions. But this one, I do. Harry Belafonte and Petula… Continue reading Harry Belafonte, R.I.P.
Dateline, the Daily Telegraph, April 16: “Brecon Beacons to be renamed over links to climate change: National Park says the symbol of a ‘carbon burning beacon’ is incompatible with its ‘push to net zero.'” I can’t even. For first (channeling Christopher Smart, because I am an unregenerate Boomer Bluestocking who still has a connection to her past… Continue reading For the Beacons: A Lament
You find out who your real friends are when you're involved in a scandal--Elizabeth Taylor Oh, boy howdy. She should know. And yet. To be clear, there are scandals, and then there are "scandals." Those of the first part are limited to celebrity and worldwide interest. Such as that surrounding ET (I see what I… Continue reading Quote of the Day: On Scandal
Something of a train wreck at the personal level, but he leaves behind some lovely music. Rest in peace. https://youtu.be/OVAA9Ov-z0k