Greetings from my home town

By the way, I'm spending the summer in my birthplace and home town: Olympia, Washington.

I'm in no way taking a vacation from blogging or writing, but lately posting on this blog has depended on my inspiration -- which was really the point of creating And So Forth anyway.

To tell you the truth, this entry is mainly just an opportunity to post this great image created by my friend and former student Siouxfire.

If you've dropped by here and aren't finding enough of interest to read, check out his excellent cultural "blogzine," Siouxwire.

Sunday Scribblings: Wicked

Originally posted in April, I thought I'd bring this one out again for this week's Sunday Scribblings prompt: "wicked."

While America mourns the victims of the Virginia Tech massacre...

"guns don't kill, people do," right Mr. President?

Don't forget to read articles about other massacres like in Iraq and Afghanistan ...

but maybe "bombs don't kill, people do." What do you think Mr. President?

"Well, look behind the eyes.
It's a hallowed hollow anesthetized
'save my own ass, screw these guys'
smoke and mirror lock down...

We're sick of being jerked around,
We all fall down."

(Lyrics from Bad Day by R.E.M.)

Blog Bulimia?

All right, so I was going to hold off on announcing the creation of my fourth blog until I had really set up its layout, until I had figured out how to insert this incredibly cool banner that my friend Siouxfire created for me, until I had lined up many fabulous links, until I had Typepad totally figured out...

Then I remembered that if I had thought about all of that before launching La France Profonde or Cuisine Quotidienne, I wouldn't even be writing a single blog -- certainly not this one.

And hey, I kind of like the post I just wrote over there. So feel free to stop by.

Favorite Childhood Flicks

I have been wanting to post to Ten on Tuesday for several weeks, but find it is pretty hard to think of ten of anything on short notice. I always seem to come up with five, but then struggle with the rest.

This week's subject struck my fancy, though:

Ten Favorite Movies from your Childhood

I haven't looked at the other posts yet, but know I will sadly realize that my childhood must seem practically prehistoric to many of the bloggers.

Be that as it may, this was still a fun list to write.

My parents encouraged my love of musicals, and I am carrying it on to my own children, who are participating (as I blog this) in an excellent summer musical comedy program in Olympia, Washington.

Most of these movies aren't really "kids' movies" as such, and a few are definitely adult movies. In fact, 2001 and Dr. Zhivago are among the first "grown-up" flicks I saw -- which may be why they left such an impression on me.

I'm not sure these are in order of preference, but they are roughly in the order of the number of times I saw them. For the top five, that was an awful lot.

1. The Sound of Music

2. The Wizard of Oz

3. Mary Poppins

4. 2001: A Space Odyssey

5. Oliver

6. The Pink Panther

7. Doctor Zhivago

8. My Fair Lady

9. Pinocchio

10. The Aristocats

Long, beautiful hair

I am relieved to see male college students once again sporting hair. I grew up in the sixties and seventies, and long hair gave boys not only a young, rebellious look but also hid a multitude of ills.

When I arrived at university in 1977, most of the older boys were still frequenting hair salons...infrequently. But by the end of my college experience, it was morning in America, and barber shops were sharpening their scissors and razors for a haircut-intensive decade.

Recently, I've noticed that long hair has crept back into young men's psyches -- and onto their heads.

This is as it should be.

(Click here for more hair, courtesy of Sunday Scribblings.)

From read to reel

It's been so fun participating in Sunday Scribblings that I feel like I could use another group to give some direction to And So Forth. Enter Booking Through Thursday -- a fun site I ran into through a fellow Sunday Scribbler. Every week it posts a question related to books, and this week the query is:

"1. In your opinion, what is the best translation of a book to a movie?
2. The worst?
3. Had you read the book before seeing the movie, and did that make a difference? (Personally, all other things being equal, I usually prefer whichever I was introduced to first.)"

I couldn't really come up with a "worst" rendition, but as far as a great movie version of a slightly sloggy book, I would have to go for The Wizard of Oz. It's one of those movies where the film version achieves such perfection that the existence of the book seems almost unnecessary.

I'm actually not sure if I read the book or saw the movie first, but it doesn't really matter -- all things are not equal in the two versions.

Sorry, L. Frank Baum.

Hilarity Guaranteed

Laughing hysterically while reading a book in public is not something I do very often, but Notes from a Small Island caused me to chortle, snort and sob in the most embarrassing places.

Although Bill Bryson's book about Great Britain is already 10 years old, and presents more about Thatcher's legacy than may be relevant today, it still gives a delightfully hilarious vision of the small but mighty nation.

Whether you're an Anglophile or an Anglophobe, you will find something to enjoy in Bryson's caustic, keenly astute, and ultimately fond portrayal of "the Small Island."

Salute to Sunday Scribblings

I was a bad girl and didn't do my Sunday Scribblings last weekend.

Not that I didn't want to. Let's just say the word "slippery" didn't inspire me to new heights of blogging brilliance.

73 scribblers did have something to write about "slippery' and as usual, the variety of their interpretations is overwhelming. From prose to poetry to posts, Sunday Scribblings presents a merry cross-section of writing genres, and the best thing is that it doesn't take itself too seriously.

I can't wait until next week, when my jet-lagged mind should be recovered enough to scribble a few lines...