Friends, I am back from a very intense, thankfully short, bout with something I'm guessing was Influenza. It came on rapidly Saturday evening and within 3-4 hours I could hardly lift my head off the pillow. I'm a big believer in letting fever do its thing (unless you have other medical problems or are a small child or elder) and now, roughly 36 hours later, I'm 85% of the way back. Was this a cold, a flu, something else entirely? Who knows. Suffice it to say I'm glad to be vertical once again and not shivering under three blankets, a ski cap, and a heavy fleece.
How did I entertain myself during this brief illness? Fortunately, I had a few DVDs from the library I could watch on my laptop while lying down.
Readers, has there ever been a truly entertaining film about West Point? Perhaps, but I'm afraid 1934's Flirtation Walk, starring Dick Powell and Ruby Keeler, ain't it.
You may think, given the leads, that this is one of those big Busby Berkeley spectaculars, but you'd be wrong. There's a lot of precision marching, sure, but it's all West Point cadets. I am almost certain none of you have seen Flirtation Walk -- which unbelievably was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Picture -- and if you never get a chance, don't worry about it. That said, I think Dick Powell had an amazingly charismatic screen presence.
Have you ever heard of The Bell Telephone Hour? These were musical shows made primarily in the Sixties featuring musical theater stars of the day, and this is a fantastic series if you find it at your local library. Yesterday I watched one featuring two beloved TV moms, Shirley Jones and Florence Henderson.
You may not know that Florence Henderson was a Broadway ingenue in the Fifties and Sixties and starred in the first national tour of The Sound of Music long before The Brady Bunch. She's delightful on this DVD, and if you have roughly four hours to spare, listen to her multi-part interview for The Archive of American Television that starts here.
This woman has had a sixty-year career (so far) and has never stopped working. Poor Shirley fares much less well on her portion of the video, I'm afraid, sounding somewhat off key and ragged throughout -- these were recorded live so maybe she had what I have now -- but looking beautiful in a series of Grecian chiffon gowns.
The Daily Ditches continue! I sold this Joe Colombo plastic cart (I had three) on Craiglist on Thursday, so even though I haven't sold any sewing machines, I now have space for all of them, sort of.
And now a very specific question one of you Blogspot bloggers might be able to answer. Since I started MPB, whenever I imported an image into the blog through the "insert image" icon, the image would automatically end up in a Male Pattern Boldness file in Picasa. Since last week, unfortunately, this no longer happens. Each imported image ends up in its own Picasa file, which is extremely inconvenient. Any idea how I can fix this, or if it's something that's changed in Picasa and/or Blogspot?
As you can see, the colder weather means the dogs are exercising on their treadmill again, which they can do for 45 minutes at a time. They seem to like it; I mean, if they didn't they could always jump off. In the background you can see that my Featherweight table sits in the far corner; I've placed a big teak tray over the hole -- there's something about the look of a gap in the middle of a table I don't love.
Readers, that's it! I am drinking lots of tea and eating lots of citrus, and just taking it easy. Sewing will have to wait but it's certainly on my radar. I hope everybody's well -- fortunately flu viruses can't be transmitted over the Internet.
Have a great -- and healthy -- day, everybody!
Sing out, Florence...
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