Cross Town Thoughts
Home from a wonderful week in New York. Grad glow indulged. I’m a proud Mama Bear, what can I say?
Re-entry. Started A.S. Byatt’s, The Children’s Book. Cubistic Carroll-esque journey, but I digress.
So, I’m quietly reading on the porch, and look up to see Goldilocks’ family crossing the street! We don’t live in Manhattan, but geez. Where’s my banjo? Mama took her cubs to play in our back yard. It’s a Mama moment.
And Dr. Dad’s wonderful photos, of course.
It’s a good day to reprise my 4/27/10 post- favorite obit headline ever: ‘Helen Lavalle, 94, Advised Elizabeth Taylor’. “Amongst her many jobs, Helen was a waitress at the former Williams House, where she was the only waitress who could tell Elizabeth Taylor that one lobster was enough.” -Gazette
Elizabeth Taylor was here at Smith College in the 60’s filming “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf”, with Richard Burton. Assume that’s when she may have tried to indulge in local lobster binge-ing and Helen would have none of it. The old Williams House in nearby Williamsburg, Massachusetts, was famous for its haute cuisine brought to the Valley by Jim Wolff, featured in Table’s Edge.
LastMadCap of the season: Really? Don’s turn of heart shocking. He likes her with his kids more than the mature one who doesn’t like children. Plus mature one wants him to face his past, he’s opting to stay the course into the future. Didn’t see this coming. Betty more evil than ever. Peggy is the true creative genius, Joan’s gambit with pregnancy predictable. Can’t believe we have to wait a year for more. Staying in period costume, I’ll put on my pearls and housedress now to honor June Cleaver RIP.
JoanB introduced us to Henning Mankell’s Kurt Wallander mysteries as an antidote for Stieg Larsson Salander withdrawal. I’m late to the game, but just discovered Kenneth Branaugh as Wallander rebroadcast from BBC on PBS. Watched one episode and it recalls the grit and mood of Stieg’s Sweden as well as its architecture and culture. Dark, bloody in spots, but good.
JeanJean reports Universal in Orlando no walk on Pebble Beach. Flip flopped back and forth between Giants, Pats. Rooting for one, and against the other as always. Both won, so split the cheer. Branch looked good for the Pats, dang nab it. Exciting games and brewskis galore. Yanks now tied 1-1.
21 years ago yesterday we were rockin and rollin in SanFran, Seth Thomas clock on the shelf still stuck at 5:04 p.m.
Local newspaper, Daily Hampshire Gazette, has taken to putting headlines above each obituary. This one caught my eye the other day, “Helen Lavalle, 94, advised Elizabeth Taylor”. Â Amongst her many jobs, Helen was a waitress at the former Williams House, where “she was the only waitress who could tell Elizabeth Taylor that one lobster was enough.” Therein lies her illustrious advisory career.
Ms. Taylor was here at Smith College in the 60’s filming “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf”, assume that’s when she may have tried to indulge in local lobster binge-ing. Of course, the old Williams House was famous for its haute cuisine brought to the Valley by Jim Wolf, both featured in Table’s Edge.
Good news, Alice Waters is coming to television, the pioneer of green cuisine actually started the notion that real food is better than all the processed crap we were brought up on. We do need new cooking people on t.v., cannot stand Rachel, Paula, Emeril. Now that aging hair and skin have been covered, it’s time to talk diets. Shorts season is upon us. I have gone back to actually skipping dinner, rather than pretending to skip dinner, and it’s helped. Last night’s Final Jeopardy was about Danielle Steel’s book “The Ghost”. It’s the only Steel book I’ve ever read, really. But, it was well researched about the French-Indian-Anglo skirmishes around Deerfield, Ma. It was fun and I learned stuff.
When Ben Levine was invited to sit in on a New York Times editorial board meeting yesterday, he ran into a familiar looking guy. Frank Rich. “Frank” asked what brought him to the meeting. Ben told “Frank” that he was the Editorial Board Chair of NYU’s newspaper.  “Frank” said, “oh, the Washington Square News!” Ben was surprised and impressed and had a great time sitting in on the meeting- found the discussions to be heady and educational. Outsiders are rarely invited to the ‘Times’ inner sanctum, so quite a coup.
See Trek Books for March List.
Side Trek . NYC 