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red convertible, raining, caught in the rain, top down, lawn furniture

Top Down and Caught in the Rain

Jim and Susan were lucky that they were near Wegman’s when the downpour started.  They took refuge under the building canopy at the drive-up window for prescriptions.  Talk about chagrined! Lawn furniture on its way back to the store because the style wasn’t right for their home after all and would only fit in the car if the top was down. Who knew it was going to rain??? Not to mention the automated voice asking them over and over again what was the number of the prescription they wanted to renew!!!

For some reason, I have become enamored with the idea that I should have some blog days that are designated to a topic.  And I am a bit hooked on Conspiracy Theory Wednesday because as I said I think it is a throwback to my Colin McEnroe radio listening days in Hartford, CT.

Since Dark Legacy stirred my deeply buried but not lost feelings about the Kennedy assassination, I came across, well actually Peter did, but this is my blog so… we have a deck of trading cards of all things, that expose and expound upon the conspiracy behind President Kennedy’s death.  I was really intrigued by the concept – can you imagine a company produced a deck of cards called Coup D’Etat?  You can’t? Believe me it exists and Conspiracy Theory Wednesday seems to be the perfect time to delve into this fascinating and complex conspiracy theory.  Think of it as jumping the gun (no pun intended) on the 50th Anniversary of the Assassination when surely there will be a new wave of books dealing with this 20th century haunting mystery.  The following is from the first card in the deck;

The Assassination

Politics brought John F. Kennedy to Texas in 1963.  The 35th president won the conservative state in the 1960 election largely for his tough stand on Cuba, his promised defense build-up, and his Texan running mate.   But Kennedy’s 1,026 days in office were characterized by increasingly liberal policies.  The failed 1961 Cuban Bay of Pigs invasion, the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis, the 1963  Test Ban Treaty with the Soviets and the administration’s support of Martin Luther King and the civil rights movement added to Kennedy’s growing unpopularity in right-wing circles.  In the nine months before the President’s visit to Dallas, the Secret Service had received more than 400 threats on his life.  On November 18 one of these caused the cancellation of a planned motorcade through Miami.  In Texas, a state dependent on the oil and defense industries, recent moves to repeal the sacrosanct 27.5% oil depletion allowance and plans to begin withdrawal of U.S. military “advisors” from Vietnam were viewed with particular alarm, nowhere more visibly than in Dallas, a hotbed of right wing fringe activity.  In October 1963, UN Ambassador Adlai Stevenson had been shoved, spat on, and hit with a picket sign there.  When Kennedy read the Dallas morning news on Friday morning, November 22nd, he was greeted by a full page ad in bold, black type suggesting that he was a Communist and a traitor.  A few hours later, as he rode through downtown Dallas accompanied by Texas Governor, John Connally and Vice President Lyndon Johnson, the motorcade route was lined with posters picturing Kennedy with the words, “Wanted for Treason”.  The stage was set for assassination.

If you’re interested (and it only gets better) check back next Wednesday for the next segment.

Kennedy Assassination, trading cards, John F Kennedy, Dallas, Governor John Connally, Vice President Lyndon Johnson,
Welcome to Conspiracy Theory Wednesday

Well not exactly HERE but at least nearby on the Jersey Shore,  so Chiara and Finny stopped by this morning to say hi!  And then they hit the beach in Bay Head.

Bay Head, Jersey Shore, Finny, Finley Ray, beach, Memorial Day

What IS she thinking???

Memorial Day, Decoration Day, May 30th, American Flag, furled flag

Oh Say Can You See?

Memorial Day means American Flags will be flying high.  In Ocean Grove many homes fly the Flag all year round and during the holiday, you can see bunting on porch rails, banners and multiple flags in all sizes in all places.

Memorial Day means small town parades, big city parades and decorated Veterans marching alongside fresh-faced Boy Scouts, vintage cars and high school bands.

Veteran, Memorial Day, parade, American holiday, Decoration Day

A Memorial Day Parade

Memorial Day means family gatherings, picnics and barbeques.

Family Guy

Memorial Day means going to the beach, or the pool or the lake.

kids in swimming pool, lake, dock

Cannon Ball

beach, flags, ocean grove, Memorial Day

All American Beach

Memorial Day means waiting in lines for ICE CREAM!

olde time apothecary, ice cream parlour, ice cream parlor, Ocean Grove, Nagle's

Nagle's Ice Cream

Memorial Day means the running of the Indianapolis 500

Indianapolis 500, speed race, nascar race, race cars, Indy, Memorial Day, 1911

The Indy 500

Memorial Day means…. well once upon a time, a long time ago,  Memorial Day was a Federally designated holiday celebrated each year on May 30th.  The first Memorial Day was May 30, 1868.  General John Logan, the National Commander of the Grand Army of the Republic proclaimed this holiday to honor the men and women of our country who died while in the service of  United States.  Memorial Day was formerly known as Decoration Day and was first called Memorial Day in 1882 and became more commonly known as such after World War ll and was officially declared a national holiday in 1967.  In June of 1968 Congress passed the Uniform Holidays Act which changed the dates of three holiday and made them into 3 day weekends.  This law moved Memorial Day from May 30th to the last Monday in May.  The VFW and Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War have opposed this change and in a 2002 in a Memorial Day Address stated the following: Changing the date merely to create three-day weekends has undermined the very meaning of the day. No doubt, this has contributed a lot to the general public’s nonchalant observance of Memorial Day. Since 1987, Hawaii‘s Senator Daniel Inoue, a World War II veteran, has repeatedly introduced measures to return Memorial Day to its traditional date.

How will you be celebrating Memorial Day this year?

Pinnochio could be so spell binding?

Pinnochio, jiminy cricket, Disney classic, Finny, Finley Ray

I Don't Think I Like This Part

It could be shades of Colin McEnroe who used to espouse a conspiracy theory every Wednesday on his radio talk show in Hartford CT, many years ago.  Still the information did come to us through a radio show, this time WBAI, a listener supported Public Radio station.

Will we ever REALLY know the truth about the Kennedy Assassination?  There isn’t a Baby Boomer alive that can’t tell you to the minute what they were doing and where they were when the news that our president, John F. Kennedy had been shot.  One man on a mission? Not likely!  The alleged assassin assassinated by a outraged and patriotic strip club owner??? WE KNOW this is just not the whole truth BUT no one has ever been able to prove otherwise.

They HAD to stop the bleeding, the nation was reeling, shocked beyond belief which meant we were apt to believe anything – at least for awhile.  So we were told that a very special holy ordained group of wise men would look into this event and explain once and for all what really happened – Voila! The Warren Commission.

This from Wikipedia: The ten-month investigation of the Warren Commission of 1963–1964, the United States House Select Committee on Assassinations (HSCA) of 1976–1979, and other government investigations concluded that the President was assassinated by Lee Harvey Oswald, who was murdered by Jack Ruby before he could stand trial. This conclusion was initially met with support among the American public, however polls conducted from 1966 to 2004 concluded approximately 80% of the American public have held beliefs contrary to these findings.[1][2] The assassination is still the subject of widespread debate and has spawned numerous conspiracy theories and alternative scenarios. In 1979, the House Select Committee on Assassinations (HSCA) found both the original FBI investigation and the Warren Commission Report to be seriously flawed. The HSCA also concluded that there were at least four shots fired, that there was a “high probability” that two gunmen fired at the President, and that it was probable that a conspiracy existed.[3] Later studies, including one by the National Academy of Sciences,[4] have called into question the accuracy of the evidence used by the HSCA to support its finding of four shots.

Then a plethora of books followed:

  • Josiah Thompson — Six Seconds in Dallas
  • Priscilla McMillan — Marina and Lee
  • Jean Davison — Oswald’s Game
  • David Lifton — Best Evidence

Crossfire
Jim Marrs. The virtue of this volume is its comprehensiveness. Marrs seems never to have met a crackpot witness he didn’t believe nor run across a conspiracy factoid he didn’t accept. You’ll get the full case for “conspiracy” here, the good, the bad, and the downright wacky.

Case Closed
Gerald Posner. A comprehensive “lone assassin” synthesis, and massive debunking of conspiracy factoids. Its real strength is a compelling portrait of Lee Harvey Oswald the man.

The Killing of a President
Robert Groden. The text is a mish-mash of conspiracy factoids, but the pictures are a treasure in this large-format volume.

High Treason
Harrison Livingstone and Robert Groden. A good introduction to the conspiracy view of the medical evidence, and much more besides. Rife with inaccuracies and wacky assertions, but fascinating too.

False Witness
Patricia Lambert. The definitive debunking of the Garrison investigation, based on the full documentary record (much of it recently released) and extensive witness interviews. Shows the real Jim Garrison.

Pictures of the Pain
Richard Trask. Nominally only deals with the photographers who photographed the assassination and aftermath, and their photos. In reality a detailed, accurate, and compelling account of what happened “on the ground” in Dallas and especially in Dealey Plaza that day.

And then in 1991 when those of us who were teenagers when JFK was killed and were now in their mid-forties  and were presumably more intelligent, more endowed with logical reasoning – Oliver Stone releases  JFK. A movie part fact, part speculation and part opinion (Garrison’s and Stone’s) – AND we loved it!  Someone finally came along and confirmed our long buried but not forgotten suspicions.  NOT that the books or at least some of them didn’t  also put forward the conspiracy theory,  BUT this was in cinematographic panavision!

Fast Forward to 2008 and George Bush and the murder of John F. Kennedy The Dark Legacy,  directed by John Hankey. What new revelations await us?  I am sooooo intrigued by the title with its implication that George Bush was, may have, might have been involved. I understand there might be some Skull & Crossbones involvement too!!!

Check back in the future for an unbiased review!!!!

JFK,  Kennedy Assassination, Warren Commission, Dallas, John Hankey, George Bush, Oliver Stone, conspiracy theory, Garrison,

The Dark Legacy



round table, Matilda, Frank Case, Algonquin Hotel, Tribal Tales of the Algonquin, the Oak Room

The Elegant Lobby of The Algonquin Hotel

I came across a little pamphlet the other day called Tribal Tales of the Algonquin.  I had picked it up at the hotel a hundred years ago one night when Peter and I met there to have a drink.  It’s just SO ELEGANT sipping a martini sitting in large overstuffed club chairs surrounded by aura, charm, history and mystery and you might even get to spot Matilda.

This pamphlet is a reprint of a series of advertisements appearing in The New Yorker during 1931. From time to time I’ll print  one of the Tales – there are quite a few and too many for one blog!

There are so many incidents, anecdotes and sagas connected with The Algonquin that have helped to give that noted inn its peculiarly individual character, that the minstrel appointed to sing its lays hardly knows where to begin.  But a start must be made somewhere, so we’ll lead off with:

The Last Three who Came

There’s a rule at The Algonquin that every clerk, waiter and bell boy must be able to address guests by name.  On one occasion a bell hop overflowing with zeal to prove that he knew his traditions said to the proprietor, “We are getting quite a lot of literary people the last few days Mr. Case.   “Really?” questioned the boss.  “Why yes” returned the boy.  “Last night Mark Twain registered, the night before William Makepeace Thackery and tonight Edgar Allen Poe has just gone upstairs.”  Having a suspicion that these illustrious three were at that moment inhabiting even more celestial realms than his own inn, Case inquiring of the night clerks learned that (humorist and practical joker) Frank Ward O’Malley had been seen about for several nights, which explained everything.

Trivia about The Algonquin

First to have electronic locks.

Charleston oilman Ben Bodne bought the hotel as a gift for his wife.

Seven Dwarfs, Snow White, Finny, Finley Ray Clark, Dopey

Hugging Dopey

We started our morning together watching Pinnochio in bed and after breakfast Finny watched Snow White while she clung to Dopey.

Snow White, book, Finny, Finley Ray
Papa Pete and Finny Read Snow White

Papa Pete and Finny spend some time reading before it’s nap time.  After a nap and lunch we were off to Central Park and the playground.   By the time we got home, Gigi was pretty tired so Fin had a quick bath which for some reason she does not like at our house.  I made her dinner, gave her some milk and she kept asking for a “movie” – oh  how quickly they learn who is the soft touch – why it’s Papa Pete of course.  So this is Finley Ray totally enthralled with Cinderella. BUT I did not let her watch the whole movie – we’ll finish it in the morning.

Cinderelli, Cinderella.Walt Disney classic, Finny
Enthralled

A bedtime story and it’s good night  to you sweet Finny!

I‘m going on record saying I LOVED watching Ridley Scott’s production of ROBIN HOOD starring RUSSELL CROWE.  However, I seem to be in the minority of film reviewers – but then again, I’m NOT a film reviewer, just an opinionated amateur.

Robin Hood, Sherwood Forest, Nottingham, Russell Crowe, archery, crusade, knight, Robin Longstride

Russell Crowe - Robin Hood

So here’s what They said; New York magazine: Scott’s Robin Hood is a pompous, interminable hash. New Yorker magazine: What do you get if you mix “Gladiator,” “The Return of Martin Guerre,” “Saving Private Ryan,” Elizabeth,” “Troy,” “The Seventh Seal,” and a hundred buckets of mud? The answer is “Robin Hood”—the latest version, that is, directed by Ridley Scott.  Anthony Lane neither applauds or derides the movie, his review is more of a plot synopsis.
Read more: http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/cinema/2010/05/24/100524crci_cinema_lane#ixzz0oVdwXti0

Slash Film: How does a good idea become a terrible movie? That’s the perennial question in Hollywood, where the intersection of creative ideas, business sense and big egos can so easily produce something very different from what was originally intended.  That seems to have been the case with Robin Hood, which was originally meant to be based on a hot screenplay by Ethan Reiff and Cyrus Voris called Nottingham. Then Russell Crowe and Ridley Scott came along and everything changed. Eventually the result was a film that stands at less than %50 Fresh on Rotten Tomatoes and was beat by Iron Man 2 in that film’s second weekend. So what happened? Cinematical: The results are in for the weekend box-office, and Tony Stark has officially delivered a beat-down to Robin Hood and his band of Merry Men. Everything seemed to be in place, you had two Academy award winners, a great figure from popular myth, and origin-story fever in full swing. But, so far the flick has only earned so-so reviews and unfortunately, even more bad press for Crowe. Collective Review, Nicholas Deigman: The acting is average; but when the acting is ‘average’ in a film with a cast like this, you know something is wrong. Poor performances have become a Ridley Scott trope as he tumbles into his winter years. He seems to have grown tired – or scared – of the questioning glances of his desperately confused actors; preferring instead to fawn over the stuntmen and choreographers that will garner him praise for his mastery of ‘action sequences’. The cast is enviable, and every one of them wasted. News in Film, Jeff Leins: Ridley Scott’s Robin Hood is an unnecessary entry to the lore, going to great lengths to uncover the man behind the myth by ignoring much of the beloved legend that has endured for centuries.  Masquerading behind a traditional title, this contemporary remake robs from a rich history and gives only a poor origin story in return.

BUT ENOUGH OF “THEM”

The movie is NOT your usual depiction of the legend that has become Robin Hood and his Merry Men stealing from the rich and giving to the poor.  OKAY so??? Why would a director like Ridley Scott just redo what has already been done and re-done again?  This is meant to be a prequel, a story of how Robin Longstride becomes Robin Hood.   I think the problem so many people have with it is that up to this point our image of Robin Hood is somewhere between Peter Pan and Zorro.  He is the good guy and the Sheriff of Nottingham is the bad guy….but that has been played out so much it’s taken on the aura of The Road Runner and Wile E. Coyote. And most of the prior incarnations of this legend have Robin Hood, lithe, lean and dressed in green! NOT so in this version and thank God!  I’ve seen the giggling, leaping and posing Errol Flynn and I’ll take Russell’s brooding, dark and powerful Robin Hood any day.  I’m not even a big Russell Crowe fan BUT ladies, he is reeking animal magnetism under that chain mail!!!  Sexy – YES!

Much has been said about the casting of Cate Blanchette as the fair Maid Marian.  She is not fair and she is not Olivia de Haviland  and again thank God because Olivia would probably not find the brutish, sweating and downright dirty Russell would not appeal to her more delicate sensitivities.   While Cate is SO real woman, so 12th Century and the scene of her washing the mud off her feet is perfect. The chemistry between them is palpable and yet demure because she is after all, a lady.

The film is full of blood and gore and mud – lots of mud! A lot of action, long fight scenes that have been artfully edited as they were in Gladiator. And some great actor portraying some pretty nasty characters.  This just isn’t a happy go lucky band of mandolin players and archers who are really anarchists led by a prancing, dancing  Jolly Green Good Guy.  Thank God! Thank Ridley Scott and thank you Russell for managing to bring your rough, angry man, all man film persona to this character.  Oh and by the way, the archery scenes are great BUT the arrows shot forth from Robin Hood’s bow make you just quiver – PUN INTENED!


Finley Ray Clark, fur dress, baby couture, hair bow, angel face,

This is Sweetie Pie Sugar Cookie Face

Finny will be HERE in TWO DAYS!