Thankful Sunday--June 29, 2014

I am thankful for popcorn.

Salty, crunchy popcorn is the perfect snack. The only thing better is when you eat it with M&M's. I am thankful that I have popcorn and will be even more thankful when I get some M&M's to go with it. (Spoiler Alert: Shopping trip planned for later today.)

A Second Look--June 25, 2014

Here are a few things I saw this week

 during a Second Look.

Showtime Annoyances

Ward and I recently went to a couple of shows. We bought our tickets months ago and had been looking forward to them. The first was a concert by John Prine. In case you're not familiar with him, he's a songwriter/singer who is great at telling a story and evoking emotions with simple words and a clever turn of a phrase. He's also a masterful guitar player. The concert had no special lights, no hanging from the ceiling, no dancers--just a man and his guitar occasionally joined by a bass, mandolin, or another guitar. To me it was magical and I loved it.

Unfortunately, so did the man sitting beside us. He was having the time of his life. He was dancing in his seat, singing along, and clapping vigorously. None of this was a problem even though we were in a small theater. The problem was his whistle. It was very loud. In fact, it was ear piercing. My ears literally hurt every time he did it--which was frequently because he obviously loved John Prine. I know that I was not the only one who was bothered. He got plenty of looks, and people were holding their ears all around him. Yet, he went along his merry way whistling with all of his might. I guess he was in the zone. He turned an otherwise wonderful concert into a painful one at times.

A week later, we saw a production of Ave Q. Ave Q is a Tony-award-winning musical loosely based on a Sesame Street format with puppets and actors. However, it is not for kids as it has adult themes. We also enjoyed this show very much. Except, for the problem with the woman sitting in front of us. She was not loud like the whistler. She was loud in another sort of way. It was her perfume. The smell of it was so strong that I had a headache by intermission. Another perfect show ruined by someone in the audience. Okay, maybe ruined is too strong of a word, but the overpowering perfume smell certainly distracted from the enjoyment of the show.

Now here's the question. Would you have done anything to change these less than optimum situations? Or would you have just come home and fussed about them like I did? 

Thankful Sunday--June 22, 2014

I am thankful for our hummingbird feeder.

A few weeks ago, I put up a hummingbird feeder and the hummingbirds have been slowly finding it. Finally, this weekend we are getting regular traffic making the cats as well as us very happy.

(In case anyone is wondering, the cats are watching from inside without any chance of reaching the hummingbirds.)

A Book Recomendation and a Celebrity Encounter--sort of

Jim Henson

Wally's Ernie doll. Ernie was a Muppet from Sesame Street.

This week I went to another one of those free fabulous events you can attend at your library. I heard Brian Jay Jones talk about his latest book, Jim Henson: the Biography. Believe it or not, this is the first book that has been written for adults about the creator of the Muppets. The talk was quite interesting and involved a lot of video clips. It was an evening filled with smiles, laughs, and insights into a brilliant man. I would highly recommend this book to anyone--that is if I had read it. But I haven't, so I will just recommend it based on the talk and the recommendation from a friend who has read it. She says it is quite good and I trust her judgement. Check your local library for a copy.

Okay, that's the set up for the real reason for this post--another celebrity encounter that involves Jim Henson--sort of. This story takes a while before I get to him, so stay with me.

I was visiting Miss Landers and we were helping her elderly neighbor with some clean up.  Her neighbor's second husband* had just died and she had decided to move. Her step daughters were there helping also. (Her first marriage was to their father.) We were in the basement sorting through old records when one of the daughters said, "Look that's Dad's old trunk." The trunk was nondescript and had definitely seen better days. She said that her dad was a puppeteer and used to carry his puppets in that trunk. Well, that was interesting enough for me because I had never known a professional puppeteer. But here's when my eyes got really big. She said that her father used to teach Jim Henson. Jim Henson attended the University of Maryland where her father was a professor and taught a puppet class. And here's the kicker--he told Jim that puppets were fun, but there was no money in them. Famous last words. :)

As I tell these sort of celebrity encounters, I have come to the conclusion that the most important part of a celebrity encounter is how big your eyes get when it happens. Not how much it impresses the other people you tell about it. I have a feeling that my eyes may have gotten bigger than yours during this story. But that's okay. Thanks for listening.

*As it turns out, her second husband was a well known Vaudeville performer. If I only knew a little more about Vaudeville, I might have also been impressed when we found some of his music. I wanted to be, but I wasn't.