Academy Award Surprises

I didn't see much of the Oscars on Sunday night.  But here are some random thoughts anyway.

Seth McFarlane - He's received some negative press for pushing the bad taste envelope a bit but, on the other hand, they chose him to bring in younger viewers.  And he did that - in spades. And he's cute as the dickens.

ARGO - This was a big "best picture" surprise.  I loved the movie - mostly for its important historical value.  But Jimmy Carter says it's not totally accurate.  Ben Afleck's movie didn't give those Canadians enough credit.  Ben's had a spotty career but looks like he's now firmly on the A list.  Both as actor and director.

Jennifer Lawrence - I liked Silver Linings Playbook but was surprised Jennifer Lawrence won for best actress.  I was kind of rooting for that old lady in Amour.  She's 85.  How many more chances is she gonna get?

Best Foreign Film - At least Amour won for that.

BRAVE - Best animated film.  I don't care for animated films.  But I watched BRAVE with some of my grand kids and enjoyed it.  An important kid's film in that a girl was the hero  First time ever for a Disney movie.

Best Supporting Actor - What a surprise that Christoph Waltz won for Django Unchained.  I didn't see this because director Quentin Tarantino is usually just too brutal for me.    But I did see the 2009 Tarantino movie, Inglorious Bastards, with Christoph Waltz playing a Nazi.  I though it and he were fantastic.  And he's so good looking.  (You know how shallow I am that way.)

Best Dressed at the Oscars - Who would have thought that young Jennifer Lawrence would come out with true old timey Hollywood glamour?


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The Compliment

Last night we went to a nice gathering.  While chatting with a stranger a woman who looked to be in her forties, came up to me and, right out of the blue, gave me a compliment.  I think.

Forty Something Woman:  You have beautiful eyes.  

Me:  Thank you.

Forty Something Woman:  My mother loved an old movie star and you look like her.

Me.:  Who, your mother?

Forty Something Woman:  Oh no, the old movie star!

OK, the image that immediately came to mind was that of Nora Desmond.  And I've been thinking about her since.  Don't know exactly how I feel about this.


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Eating Well

Dave and I are healthy eaters.  Or try to be.  Today my friends and I were discussing how difficult that is, what with the experts changing their minds all the time about what's in and what's out.

Remember when eggs were the perfect food?  Then we were told they would clog our arteries.  Now they're perfect again.   Now it's whole wheat that will kill us.

We try to eat simple stuff.  One of our favorite dinners is roasted chicken breast, mashed potatoes and a green vegetable.  A while back I stumbled on to Idahoan Mashed Potatoes.  They come in a bag.  You put them in a pretty dish, add water, put it in the microwave for 3 minutes and Viola!  Fantastic mashed potatoes.  But I mix in about a tablespoon of lite sour cream.  Perfect mashed potatoes.  And they come in different flavors.  My favorite is garlic and herbs.

By the way, on the front of the package it says "Made with 100% REAL Idaho Potatoes Perfectly Blended with REAL Butter.  And here's the best part.  110 calories per serving.

What could possibly be wrong?

Well, the back of the package lists the ingredients.  Yikes!  30 to 40 ingredients.  Most of them unpronounceable.  I confess that we ate them for a year before I looked on the back.

But in my defense, they are GLUTEN FREE.



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Pythons in the Everglades

Why folks want to sneak exotic pets into Florida, I don't know.  But they do.  Like the Burmese python.  It's estimated that there are 150,000 pythons in the Everglades killing off our native species.

How would you solve this problem?  OK, here's what we Floridians did.  We held a contest to see how many hunters could kill how many Burmese pythons in a certain time frame.  We called it The Python Challenge.

Despite the heat and wildlife of the unforgiving Everglades, along with armed contestants, nobody was hurt.

By the way, Florida isn't the first to do this.  In India they offered a bounty on cobra but the plan backfired when cobra breeders emerged.  I could have told them this would happen:  Many years ago when we had a problem with flies in the house my husband, Ken, offered our older son a nickel for every fly he killed.  Being highly motivated our ten years old son quietly opened the back door!

The Python Challenge is over.  Gun toting men in camouflage came from everywhere to participate.  I understand our congressman, Bill Nelson was one of them.  I like this quote from one of the hunters:  "Think like a snake, become a snake and you'll catch a snake."

So how many of the 150,000 Burmese pythons do you think they took out?  The answer is 68.

But Nick Wiley, executive director of the Florid Wildlife Commission, was quoted as saying, "I definitely anticipate we'll do something of the nature again."

Good for you, Nick.


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Cell Phone Etiquette

Here's what I know about a guy that I've seen only once, never spoken to, never read anything about, never heard about.

• He's about 40 years old. 
• He's just broken up with his girlfriend of 10 years. 
• She's a very bad person.  (I have details if you want.)
• He's Catholic. 
• He had lunch last week at one of my favorite restaurants. 
• He'd like his friend to ask his (insane) girlfriend out to get her off his back. 

I know all this, and much more, because I was in a medical waiting room and this guy was on his cell.  For 43 minutes.  And he was loud. 

When he hung up the young African American man sitting next to me whispered "Thank God.!"  I smiled at him and he said, "I can't believe he wants to palm her off on his friend."  As much as I didn't want to gossip I replied.  "You'd think he'd have figured this out in less than ten years."

And we, along with everybody else in the medical waiting room, were finally able to relax.

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A Big World View

Yesterday we heard Orlando Sentinel columnist Beth Kassab speak on the future of the newspaper.  It was more positive than I thought it would be.  Beth thinks the paper (print news) will be around for a while.

By the way, Beth is young, small and beautiful, as you can see from this photo.  But don't let that make you think she does sissy news.  She used to be the business news guy.  Her column now covers all sorts of important local issues.  And she calls it as she sees it.   I think that's good.  I think investigative reporting keeps us honest, whether it's local or world wide.

But, yes, the paper has shrunk.  Most of the things happening around the globe are left to other news sources these days.  I understand the need but I think it's sad.  Because some folks don't have a clue as to what's going on outside their own little area of interest.   And they intensely dislike most news sources (except the one that agrees with them.)

I like to read things that make me think.  

Thirty or so years ago there was a popular minister in Florida named Dr. George Foster.  He was known for "telling it like it is."  But he was most known for great sermon titles.  Here is my favorite George Foster sermon title.

The Myopia of Piosity.


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All You Need is Love

There's nothing you can make that can't be made.
No one you can save that can't be saved.
Nothing you can do but you can learn how to be you in time.
It's easy.
All you need is love
All you need is love
All you need is love
Love is all you need.
       - John Lennon and Paul McCartney

Today is Valentine's Day.  I hope you're having a good one.  Dave and I celebrated with friends on Tuesday night.  Here we are eating on Park Ave. (right out on the street) in Winter Park, Florida.  I'm having a dozen raw oysters.  Woo hoo!  How romantic!

But you know what?  Love is about way more than this.  I love many, many people.  I truly believe that all of life is about relationships.  When I did countless workshops and seminars back in my career days I would emphasis that, no matter the issue, "relationships" are the whole ballgame.

Want to end starvation or bring about world peace?  Start with relationships.

Yesterday my friend gave me three little flowers from her garden.  They'd been wrapped in a wet paper towel and then foil.  I stuck them in the edge of my briefcase then forgot to take them out.  This morning there they were!  I was thrilled.  Now they're in the middle of the table.  I love my friend.

We discussed in our class this week the concept that older folks tend to disengage.  Especially when we begin losing spouses and friends.  Juan Montalvo wrote "Old age is an island surrounded by death."  How sad.  Let's not let that happen to us.  Whether we're 17 or 82, let's get out there and make some relationships.  You can start by saying something positive to every person you see tomorrow.

Two of my younger granddaughters sent us a valentine.  It came in this envelope.  (I'm glad our mailman, Neal, knows us.) I'm happy that I sent valentines to grand kids and to tons of other folks as well.  Because I love many, many people.

All you need is love. 


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Still Alice

As you know, I read lots of books.  This one I read in just a couple of sittings.  Couldn't put it down.  It's a novel about Dr. Alice Howard, a professor at Harvard University who, at age 50, discovers she has Early Onset Alzheimer's disease.

I know about super smart people and dementia.  My husband, Ken, wasn't a professor but he went to Harvard graduate school (for a time) and, like Alice, he was brilliant.

Also like Alice, he tried to outsmart his doctors, along with the rest of us, into believing he was fine.  We used to sit in the car before a doctor's appointment so he could practice answering the questions he knew he'd be asked:  Who's the president?  What's today's date?  Both Ken and Alice got the answers right for a time but you can't outsmart dementia forever.

Like Alice, Ken's brain stumbled a long time before he acknowledged the problem.  Ten years before he died and five years before he had serious symptoms he got lost going to the cleaners and ended up in the next town.

Alice, of course, has a terrible time coming to grips with her situation.   As does her brilliant family.  But, at one point, she does come to grips with what's really important to her - and it surprises her.

Accepting the fact that she did indeed have Alzheimer's,...what did she want?  

She wanted to hold her daughter's baby.  She wanted to see her son fall in love.  She wanted to be with her husband.  She wanted to read every book she could while she could still read.

Nowhere on the list was there anything about linguistics, teaching or Harvard.

I could so totally relate to this.  I know my time as a healthy in mind and body older woman is limited - just because I'm older.   And my priorities have drastically changed.

"Still Alice" is a page turner.  Once you start reading you won't be able to put it down...either!


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Monopoly

My kids and I played non stop Monopoly when they were young.  In fact, I think this might very well be the main reason my older son became a real estate tycoon.  Monopoly and Risk!  He was the champ at both.

I guess you've heard about the big contest for replacing one of the Monopoly pieces.  The ones in danger of being voted off were Wheelbarrow, Shoe, Scottie, Iron, Thimble, Top Hat, Ship and Car.

Which is your favorite?  Which was your favorite as a kid?  If several people were playing, and you had to choose last, which piece did you think was really lame?

I actually liked the thimble.  It fit well in my hand.  My next favorite was that Scottie dog.

But I didn't like to play with a lot of people because, even with only two, it took hours and hours.  I guess they have ways of speeding up the game now.  Like an automatic banker.  Did you like being banker when you were a kid?  Did it make you feel powerful?

I think the contest for picking a new Monopoly piece was a brilliant P.R. move on Hasbro's part.  It's sparked new interest in the game.  Although I can't image it being very popular ever again since our attention spans have so drastically shortened.

If you haven't yet heard the results:  The Iron was replaced by a kitty cat.

Would this have been your choice?


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Florida Palmetto Bug

I think I've shared with you before that I read one time that when (or if) the world experiences nuclear war the only living things to survive will be cockroaches - and Cher!

Unfortunately, this isn't about Cher.  It's about our giant Florida Palmetto Bugs.  You probably know them by their other name, cockroaches.  They're the same thing only ours are bigger.

No matter what we do to keep them at bay, we occasionally encounter one or two.  Usually belly up.  That's good.  But, sometimes in weird places so you're really surprised.  That's bad.  And if you have company from someplace other than Florida, it's embarrassing.

For instance, we have a large, round table in our living room.  It's covered with a patterned skirt and a thick, heavy, heavy piece of round, clear glass covers that.

Yesterday I found a BIG cockroach under the glass!  Like he was being presented as a treasure!  How'd he get under there?  How long had he been there?  Who of our friends and family has seen him?

We don't know.

I wish I'd had the forethought to take a photo of him prior to us disassembling the table and getting him out but I've done the next best thing.  Below is a photo I took today of my golden spider pin sitting in the very same spot.

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Happy Birthday Rosa Parks

We're in the midst of celebrating Rosa Park's 100th birthday with this new stamp in her honor.

She's such a sweet looking little lady.  Lots of folks have this folklore idea that she  was just too tired to walk to the back of the bus so she sat down.

Not true.

Rosa Parks was a civil rights pioneer.  She was a strong, savvy civil rights activist.  When she was a teenager she was active in supporting the Scottsboro Boys.   When she was 30 she joined the NAACP.  A scary, brave thing to do in Montgomery Alabama.  That same year she was forced off a bus for accidentally sitting in a seat reserved for whites.

Here's how it worked.  There were 14 or so seats reserved for whites in the front of these buses.  Since far more blacks rode most of the buses they usually stood while the reserved seats remained vacant.  Furthermore, sometimes blacks paid the driver, then stepped off the bus to enter the back door, only to have the driver take off without them.

So, in 1955 Rosa Parks said "enough."  She sat in the front and was arrested.  That led to the Montgomery Bus Boycott.  And that led to the end of segregation.

So, thanks Rosa.


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Water, Water Everywhere, But Not a Drop to Drink

Most of you know that the quote in the title above is from "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner."

The quote below is from the Sunday comic section of the paper.  Most of you know that that's where I currently get many of my science facts.

The water on our planet moves in a continuous system called the "water cycle."  Surface water is evaporated by the sun and rises into the air as water vapor.  The water vapor condenses and falls back to the Earth.  Eventually, the water will find its way back to the ocean and the entire process begins again.

But I already knew the above because I learned it in a college science class when I was about 30 years old.  While most of the class was looking bored and glassy eyed I was totally amazed.  Prior to that I'd never questioned where rain came from.  Outer space?

Our little planet in this vast universe has a big water problem.  There's plenty of it but most of it makes us sick and even kills us.  Diarrhea, caused by contaminated water, is still a big killer of babies world wide.

Sunday, after reading the quote above in the comics, I attended a mission lunch in my church.  I heard, again, the inspiring story about my church continuing to dig wells in Costa Rica.  It's saving lives.

I, myself, drink lots of water.  I drink it straight from the tap.  And almost every time I do I say a little prayer of thanks for clean water.

So please don't throw your leftover paint down the drain.


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The Meaning of Life

...it is almost impossible to believe anymore (as we get older) that the meaning of life is not about doing.  The notion that it is about being - being caring, being interested, being honest, being truthful, being available, being spiritual, being involved with the important things of life, of living - is so rare, so unspoken of, as to be obtuse.   From "The Gift of Years" by Joan Chittister.

Last week, in our class where we're discussing the above book we talked about the freedom of not having to do so much...the freedom of just being.

But that doesn't mean, as one person pointed out, that we don't continue to do by using our gifts and skills.  Sometimes, that's just who we are.  I'm a writer.  That's what I am.  But now I do it on my terms.

Dave is an artist.  His profession was that of commercial architect.  But he always loved to draw.  Over the years he showed his work and he sold his work.  Now he does it because it's who he is.

Last week I had a frustrating experience.  Dave took some of his recent work to a family member's workplace because she'd requested it.  But when he got there the art director seemed to think he was auditioning.  She went on and on about giving him pointers about what he needed to do to get his work to sell.

He wasn't interested in selling.  He was interested in helping.  But, of course, as they talked. he remained caring, interested, available, spiritual and all about the important things of life.  Because that's who he is.  He's all about being in the moment because he has the gift of years.  No selling needed.

These are photos of some of his latest work.


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