Easiest (for me) Houseplants

I don't like babying and pampering plants only to have them die on me. I'm willing to try a plant 2 or 3 times, but if it continues to die I don't get more of them. Jade plants, for example, always die at my hands. I've had several over a span of decades, and they always die. I've been told how easy they are. I've been shown fine specimens that have survived abuse at the hands of others. I'm done. Truly. I'll give my love to plants that seem to appreciate it.

These are the plants that seem to most appreciate what I'm able to provide:

Pothos:

Pothos is generally considered one of the easiest. I have several, including the mother plant that came from my great aunt's house by way of my mother. There are care tips at HealthyHouseplants.com, BalconyContainerGardening.com, OurHouseplants.com, and WikiHow.

Spathiphyllum (Peace Lily):

The Peace Lily is another plant universally acclaimed as being easy as pie. I'm telling you, I just don't mess with delicate flowers that languish. Like with pothos, I have several of these, as I separate them and plant them in smaller pots. Large pots are just too difficult for me to manage as I move them onto my patio during the warmer weather. Southern Living Magazine calls it the perfect house plant. See care instructions at HealthyHouseplants.com, BalconyContainerGardening.com, OurHouseplants.com, and WikiHow.

Sansevieria (mother-in-law tongue or snake plant):

The start of this plant came in a dish garden that was sent to my daddy's funeral. One by one, all the other plants died, but my mother kept re-potting this into bigger pots as it grew and grew. She eventually divided it, and my sister and I each got a huge plant. I have several of these, too. It will bloom, which surprises people who keep them in dark corners. These websites (and many others, of course) provide information on caring for these plants: HealthyHouseplants.com, OurHouseplants.com, and WikiHow.

Rubber Tree:

My rubber tree is entirely too big, multi-branched and in a pot that's awkward and takes up too much space inside. Every year I take cuttings and pot them in small pots and vow to get rid of the big plant. Every year it somehow ends up back inside for the winter. Maybe this year.... Care instructions can be found at OurHousePlants.com and WikiHow, among other places.

Dracaena Marginata:

Here's another one I have several of. When my original plant got too tall, I cut off the top and stuck it down in the pot. The one end sprouted new growth, and the other rooted. I was amazed. You can find care instructions online, including at OurHousePlants.com and WikiHow

There are several other kinds of houseplants I have, but I haven't had them long enough to know if they'll thrive where I am. I'm pretty sure my one attempt at an orchid is a failure, as it was in bloom when I got it but now -3 years later- it hasn't bloomed again. The verdict's still out on my asparagus fern and my parlor palm, though I have high hopes for them. Succulents don't do well for me, and neither do Norfolk Island Pines. Both of these have been popular at various times, and I've tried to grow them but failed each time.

I'm always looking for suggestions for easy-to-grow houseplants that would be happy on the patio during the warmer weather.

Coffee with James Baldwin

View image | gettyimages.com

James Baldwin was an American author, who moved to France when he was 24 and lived there much of the rest of his life. He found the prejudice in the USA against African Americans and homosexuals frustrating and sought a more congenial environment. He died of cancer on December 1, 1987, when he was 63 years old. The photo above was taken in France.

from his 1956 novel Giovanni's Room:

Sometimes, in the days which are coming -God grant me the grace to live them- in the glare of the grey morning, sour-mouthed, eyelids raw and red, hair tangled and damp from my stormy sleep, facing, over coffee and cigarette smoke, last night's impenetrable, meaningless boy who will shortly rise and vanish like the smoke, I will see Giovanni again, as he was that night, so vivid, so winning, all of the light of that gloomy tunnel trapped around his head.

from "A Negro Assays on the Negro Mood," The New York Times, 12 March 1961:

At the rate things are going here, all of Africa will be free before we can get a lousy cup of coffee.

I think the coffee maker in the photo here is of an espresso maker. One of these days, I think I'd enjoy having an espresso machine to play with. I don't want to spend money on an expensive electric contraption, and the only stovetop units I've seen work better on a gas stove. I've quit actively searching for one, but perhaps I'll come across something someday.

Please join the T Tuesday gathering hosted by Bleubeard and Elizabeth and share your beverage of choice with us.

When Harry Met Sally

When Harry Met Sally 1989 Rob Reiner comedy starring Billy Crystal, Meg Ryan, and Carrie Fisher. The Husband and I both enjoyed this one. It's a really sweet -but not too sweet- romantic comedy. I chose it because part of it takes place during the fall of the year. There are also a couple of Christmas and New Year's Eve scenes, so this would make a good change from the usual holiday mainstays.

trailer:

The Guardian has a positive review. Rolling Stone calls it "a ravishing, romantic lark brimming over with style, intelligence and flashing wit."

Roger Ebert says, "what makes it special, apart from the Ephron screenplay, is the chemistry between Crystal and Ryan." Rotten Tomatoes has a critics score of 89%.

Christmas Movies

As you start getting in the mood for Christmas and are looking for something to watch, I'd like to invite you to check out a list of holiday fare here. They are in order by year, oldest listed first, and many are available to watch online. You can find everything from live action and cartoon shorts dating from the early days of film to names of current TV show episodes.

May I ask a favor? Two favors, actually:

1. If you see any links that aren't working I'd appreciate a heads up in the comment section of the defective post; and
2. Please pass along any suggestions for seasonal shows I've missed.

Thanks!

The Day the Rabbi Resigned

The Day the Rabbi Resigned by Harry Kemelman is the 11th in the 12 Rabbi Small mystery series. I like these books. I enjoy the Rabbi and his wife Miriam, and I've learned a lot about Jewish religious life from them. I pick these books up whenever I come across them.

from the dust jacket:

So he's back. Rabbi David Small, that is. The best-loved and most unorthodox rabbi ever seen in or out of temple. Part Talmudic scholar, part Sherlock Holmes, Rabbi Small has been delighting mystery fans for twenty-five years. The New Yorker calls Harry Kemelman's Rabbi Small books "first rate" and The Cleveland Plain Dealer says they are "delightfully different." The Houston Chronicle declares him "America's favorite kosher detective."

Now the bad news. The rabbi wants to leave. Although his years at Barnard's Crossing have never been dull, Rabbi Small is bored with clerical duties and wants to teach. But before he can say alma mater, the rabbi is enlisted by Police Chief Hugh Lanigan, his partner in crime-solving, to set his scholar's mind to a drunk driving accident that looks like murder.

Victor Joyce, a local college professor who'd do anything for tenure, was known around the quad as much for his extracurricular activities as for his classroom demeanor. Joyce had been drinking heavily the night his car was stopped by a massive tree trunk on the side of a dark road. But when Dr. Abner Gorfinkle passed by the wreck, the victim was definitely not dead, just unconscious -which makes Rabbi Small consider the victim's demise a suspicious turn of events indeed.

Chief Lanigan and the wise rabbi discover that there were quite a number of "innocent" citizens driving down the seldom-used road on that rainy Saturday night. And any one of them could have had it in for the not-so-revered-professor. But it is Rabbi Small, combining the wisdom of Solomon with an analyst's understanding of his fellow man (and woman), who ingeniously lays out all the answers like a delicious holiday feast.

The New York Times says, "Very smooth, this, and wonderfully sly." Publishers Weekly closes by saying, "Lively dialogue, dry wit and wonderfully authentic detail make this a sure winner." Kirkus Reviews has a short review.

I've read these:

#1 Friday the Rabbi Slept Late (1964) (read in January, 2006)
#3 Sunday the Rabbi Stayed Home
#6 Wednesday the Rabbi Got Wet
#7 Thursday the Rabbi Walked Out
#10 One Fine Day the Rabbi Bought a Cross (1987) (read in March, 2006)

The Little Orphan

The Little Orphan is an award-winning 1949 animated short. Tom and Jerry have a guest for Thanksgiving.

via Youtube:

Tom and Jerry Cartoon The Little Orphan 1948 by RosannaQualls

Blue Calhoun

photo from Amazon.com

Blue Calhoun is a 1992 novel by Reynolds Price. from the back of the book:

"This starts with the happiest I ever was, though it brought down suffering on everybody near me. Short as it lasted and long ago, I've never laid it all out yet, not start to finish. But if I try and half succeed, you may wind up understanding things, choosing a better road for yourself and maybe not blaming the dead past but living for the here and now, each day a clean page."

April 28, 1956, was the day Blue Calhoun met a sixteen-year-old girl named Luna. And for the next three decades, their love has borne consequences of the most shattering -- and ultimately, perhaps healing -- kind for everyone they know. As Blue recounts the years and their events for us -- fervently, tenderly, knowing full well his own deep responsibility -- we are made witnesses to a story of classic dimensions, a story of love and suffering, family and friendship, death and redemption.

I started this book, having read and enjoyed novels by this author before, but I didn't finish it. I'll just say I agreed with these reviewers and let it go at that:

The New York Times closes with this: "Reynolds Price is too good a novelist to continue in this vein very long. I would like to think that something more characteristic of his strengths is already in the works." Kirkus Reviews calls it a melodrama and concludes, "The characters speak to each other in conspicuously sad/wise parables; themes are paired too smoothly; and a certain gooey smugness -in the classical self-condemnatory/self-congratulatory mode- lurks everywhere."

Hour of the Wolf

Hour of the Wolf is a 1968 Ingmar Bergman psychological/horror film starring Max von Sydow and Liv Ullmann. I am alone in my family for liking Bergman's films, but I always seem to get into them.

You can watch it online at Veoh.com. or via Youtube:

Empire Online concludes, "A must for fans of horror and of Bergman. So good it makes you wish he had dabbled in the genre that bit more often." Bright Lights Film Journal has an article. Moria gives it 4 out of 5 stars. DVD Talk gives it a positive review.

HorrorNews.net says,

Explained in the film’s tagline, “The hour of the wolf is the hour between night and dawn. It is the hour when most people die, when sleep is deepest, when nightmares are most real. It is the hour when the sleepless are haunted by their deepest fear, when ghosts and demons are most powerful. It is also the hour when most children are born.” And so the audience must decipher whether these fears and demons are physical or psychological.

The New York Times says, "it is unthinkable for anyone seriously interested in movies not to see it." Time Out calls it "A brilliant Gothic fantasy".

Roger Ebert says, "if we allow the images to slip past the gates of logic and enter the deeper levels of our mind, and if we accept Bergman's horror story instead of questioning it, "Hour of the Wolf" works magnificently." Rotten Tomatoes has a critics score of 88%.

Lost Pizza

We have always been huge fans of Memphis Pizza Cafe and get pizza there almost weekly, or, well, we used to. However, we have recently found out that they are continuing supporters of a major Memphis Zoo event that involves massive overflow parking with drivers directed out onto the open green space in one of our large city parks. As you probably can realize, open green space in urban areas is rare and valuable, and there's been much controversy -especially in the last several years- over the zoo administration's continued abuse of our Greensward for this purpose. That Memphis Pizza Cafe would enable this destruction of a free common green space shocked us, especially in view of the fact that this is a huge local story and they've been asked to refrain from participation. We won't be going back there until they stop supporting this.

That has led us to search for other local pizzas, and we have happily settled in at Lost Pizza, which is a locally-owned part of a regional chain. Locations are all in Mississippi except for one in Jonesboro, AR, and the one here in Memphis.

The interior is fun:

The pizza is great! You can view their menu here. Here's what I got at two recent visits:

tomato and spinach

Happy Hippie

That first drink is water and the second was Coke. The Husband and The Younger Son are meat eaters, so my veggie choice wouldn't do for them. The Younger son favors Italian sausage, and you can see his in the background of the first photo. I didn't get a picture of The Husband's selection, but I think he got ground beef, maybe. We are impressed and quite satisfied with our find. There's also a covered patio where we sat the last time we went:

Just in case you're unfamiliar with the controversy involving the zoo administration's encroachment into and destruction of the larger park in which they are located, I'll offer a few links detailing that history and a few photos.

• SaveTheGreensward.com has information.
• OvertonParkForever.org is the website of Citizens to Preserve Overton Park, which has as its mission "To preserve and defend the Old Forest and open spaces of Overton Park for the enjoyment, education, and inspiration of this and future generations."
• A Brief History of the Dispute

We want this:

Not this:

And lately, they've taken to directing drivers into the protected Old Forest. Here's an example of what happened to four acres of Old Forest they decided to clearcut when they wanted to build an exhibit there:

So, as sad as it makes me, no more Memphis Pizza Cafe for my family. Not until they stop enabling this abuse. But Lost Pizza is very good, so there's that.

I'm offering this rant, and pizza, and Coke to the participants of the weekly T Tuesday gathering hosted by Bleubeard and Elizabeth. Please bring a drink and join us!

Jerky Turkey

Jerky Turkey is a 1945 animated short film directed by Tex Avery. A "historical" film, opening with the landing of the pilgrims in 1620 7/8. The deliberate historical anachronisms are cute. The shooting of the turkey is the main plot.

via Youtube:

The cartoonish stereotypes are stunning to see these days.

Autumn in New York

Autumn in New York is a 2000 drama movie starring Richard Gere and Winona Ryder as star-crossed lovers. I chose this because it takes place in the fall of the year. A more depressing film you could never want to see, but it's not touching in a way that brings a tear to the eye or an ache in the heart. No, it's just tiresomely depressing. I've got other problems with it -it's choppy, slow, dreary, Gere's character makes no sense, etc.- but they aren't worth going into since it's sooo depressing. Or maybe it's just so bad that the story never reached me. Yeah, I think that's it.

trailer:

The Guardian has the only positive review I saw.

The NYT has a negative review and calls it "a flagrantly old-fashioned, triple-hankie tear-jerker". New York Magazine says, "Autumn in New York is terrible". Empire Online gives it 1 out of 5 stars and concludes, "By the halfway mark you'll be desperate for Ryder to end her misery and yours."

BBC says it "proves unsettling thanks to the nauseating amount of glucose sentiment that infuses this predictable slice of doomed amour." Entertainment Weekly calls it "tastefully embarrassing". People opens a negative review with this: "They don’t make ’em like they used to, and Autumn in New York proves that maybe it’s time to stop trying."

Rotten Tomatoes has a critics score of 20%.

Outsider in Amsterdam

Outsider in Amsterdam is the first book in the Gripstra and de Gier detective series by Janwillem van de Wetering, who died in 2008 at the age of 77. This book was published in 1975, and books followed every year or so. The fourteenth and last in the series was published in 1997. The author may be gone, but I have a delightful time ahead of me reading the rest of these books.

from the back of the book:

On a quiet street in downtown Amsterdam, a man is found hanging from the ceiling beam of his bedroom, upstairs from the new religious society he founded: a group that calls itself "Hindist" and supposedly mixes elements of various Eastern traditions. Detective-Adjutant Gripstra and Sergeant de Gier of the Amsterdam police are sent to investigate what looks like a simple suicide, but they are immediately suspicious of the circumstances.

This now-classic novel, first published in 1975, introduces Janwillem van de Wetering's lovable Amsterdam cop duo of portly, worldly-wise Gripstra and handsome, contemplative de Gier. With its unvarnished depiction of Dutch colonialism and the darker facets of Amsterdam's free drug culture, this excellent procedural asks the question of whether a murder may ever be justly committed.

The New York Journal of Books says,

Soho Crime has reissued Outsider in Amsterdam as one of 25 “classic” mysteries to celebrate the imprint’s 25th anniversary. The book certainly lives up to that “classic” billing and should definitely be read (or reread) for its unforgettable characters, unexpected plot twists, dry humor, and presentation of the facts in a way that lets the reader sift through them along with the detectives.

Kirkus Reviews concludes with this: "Originally conceived and exceptionally well-written with lots of cross-cultural exotica to inform the trip."

Facebook 42

I came across this as someone's Facebook profile picture. I have no personal connection, which I find oddly sad. We have something in common, after all!

Holiday For Drumsticks

Holiday For Drumsticks is a 1949 Merrie Melodies short animated film, in which a jealous Daffy Duck sees the feast fed to the turkey to fatten it up for Thanksgiving.

Holiday For Drumsticks by GameGirl34

The Three-Body Problem

The Three-Body Problem is a 2008 science fiction novel by Cixin Liu. Written in Chinese, it was translated into English by Ken Liu. It is the first book in a trilogy. I found it slow going while reading, but now that I'm done I find myself continuing to think about it and looking forward to the next book. It won the 2015 Hugo.

from the back of the book:

With The Three-Body Problem, English-speaking readers got their first chance to experience the multiple-award-winning and bestselling Three-Body Trilogy by China's most beloved science fiction author, Cixin Liu. Now the opening volume of the series is available in paperback for the first time. Set against the backdrop of China's Cultural Revolution, a secret military project sends signals into space to establish contact with aliens. An alien civilization on the brink of destruction captures the signal and plans to invade Earth. Meanwhile, on Earth, different camps start forming, planning to either welcome the superior beings and help them take over a world seen as corrupt, or to fight against the invasion. The result is a science fiction masterpiece of enormous scope and vision.

The NYT has a positive review. NPR praises it concluding, "as a science-fiction epic of the most profound kind, it's already won." The Wall Street Journal concludes: "Not a page-turner, but packed with a sense of wonder, coupled to human experiences few of us have had to face."

Locus says,

The main reason The Three-Body Problem is noteworthy is that it’s for the most part a compelling piece of work, brilliantly translated by Ken Liu, whose astonishing con­trol of tone lets us experience the novel as a speculative thriller without losing the sense of Chinese language and culture that makes it uniquely different from the familiar rhythms of Western SF.

SF Reviews closes with this: "The Three-Body Problem aims high and then higher, which ought to be the goal of science fiction generally. While its breathtaking vision is occasionally tripped up by shortcomings in storytelling, it remains a true achievement by an important writer on the global SF scene." Eyrie has a mixed review. Strange Horizons says, "The science is very convincing and up to date, but as a science fiction novel The Three-Body Problem feels like something written in the days of Asimov and Clarke. Devotees of hard science fiction will find a lot to like".

Still Life with Coffeepot

Still Life with Coffeepot:

by Camille Pissarro, who died on November 13, 1903, in Paris at the age of 73.

I have a number of coffee pots, none of which look anything like the one in this painting. I have 2 drip coffee makers (different sizes), 2 French presses (different sizes), a 6-cup Chemex pourover and a 1-cup pour-over. Spoiled for choice, aren't we! I do have an insulated thermal carafe, though, and a carafe is what this picture looks like to me rather than a coffee pot. I'm just probably misusing the word "pot" here.

Please join the bloggers who gather for a weekly "T" to share a drink of one form or another. Bleubeard and Elizabeth are our hosts, and you'll find a warm welcome there.

Was it here or yesterday, or wasn't it the 14th of november

Things in My Life:

by Men Without Hats

Lyrics excerpt:

We can never remember the things we always forget
Things like polyester pants and shoes don't make it easy to remember
Was it here or yesterday, or wasn't it the 14th of november

Well I think that I'm in scotland
And I'm walking through a forest in the rain
And I wonder if I'll fall in love again

Autumn Tale

Autumn Tale is a 1998 French film directed by Eric Rohmer. It is a love story about a woman, a lonely widow with two grown children, whose friends want to help her meet a suitable man. It's a beautiful, delicately told story, with sweet touches of humor. You can't go wrong spending time watching this movie.

via Vimeo:

AUTUMN TALE ROHMER 1998 from Sam Levy on Vimeo.

Senses of Cinema says, "Autumn Tale is practically flawless; a musical and lyrical exploration of middle-age life." Empire Online says the director "has found a fresh spin on old obsessions -the pursuit of romance, the differences between the sexes- turning in a sprightly, hugely enjoyable treat that renders many of his younger counterparts leaden by comparison."

CNN says, "There's a sensuality to Rohmer's films that informs even the most mundane situations, and his vital take on the complexities of modern love never reveals the advanced age of the man behind the camera.... Rohmer's films are like lazy afternoons, but the director always keeps it interesting." The Telegraph calls it "playful". Boston Review says it "finds a world of beauty in the lives of women."

Roger Ebert gives it 4 out of 4 stars and says this of the director:

His movies are about love, chance, life and coincidence; he creates plots that unfold in a series of delights, surprises and reversals. When there is a happy ending, it arrives as a relief, even a deliverance, for characters who spend much of the movie on the very edge of missing out on their chances for happiness.

Rotten Tomatoes gives it a critics score of 94%.

East of Eden

East of Eden is a 1952 John Steinbeck novel, a multi-generation saga tracking the connections between two families. Steinbeck considered this his magnum opus. Back in 2003 it was chosen for Oprah's book club (where it's described as "Three generations, two love triangles, one timeless story. East of Eden is an epic novel full of good and evil, love and hatred, failure and redemption"), and I meant to read it then but never did. Better late than never. This is a powerful novel I really should have read earlier in life. High school, maybe, or college at the latest.

from the back of the book:

This masterpiece of Steinbeck's later years -a powerful and

vastly ambitious novel that is at once a family saga and a

modern retelling of the Book of Genesis.

In his journal, John Steinbeck called East of Eden "the first book," and indeed it has the primordial power and simplicity of myth. Set in the rich farmland of California's Salinas Valley, this sprawling and often brutal novel follows the intertwined destinies of two families -the Trasks and the Hamiltons- whose generations helplessly reenact the fall of Adam and Eve and the poisonous rivalry of Cain and Abel. Here is the work in which Steinbeck created his most mesmerizing characters and explored his most enduring themes: the mystery of identity; the inexplicability of love, and the murderopus consequences of love's absence.

Biography.com has an article on how Steinbeck's life led up to the writing of this book:

East of Eden is an experimental book that captures Steinbeck’s wide vocal reach: his sturdy love of place; his fascination with the fictive process; his retelling of family stories; and his willingness to grapple with the full range of human experience—at its lowest ebb and swelling to startling acts of clarity and compassion.

The Yale Review of Books discusses its choice as an Oprah book club selection. Kirkus Reviews opens by calling it "Tremendous in scope- tremendous in depth of penetration".

Alice's Restaurant (film)

Alice's Restaurant is a 1969 movie based on the song by Arlo Guthrie. The film stars Guthrie in a reenactment of the song. It features a Thanksgiving dinner. I always loved the song, and the movie is really just the song expanded and adapted for film. It's a bittersweet movie for me, bringing back fond memories of my early teen years.

Here's the song, in case you don't remember it:

Here's the movie via Youtube.

The New York Times says, "In Alice's Restaurant, Penn has made a very loving movie, but the loving is not verbalized; it is sung and seen, in sequence after sequence" and closes with this:

Through it all, Arlo maintains amazing grace, which provides both the theme and the continuity for a very original movie whose structural weaknesses couldn't bother me less. With a film as interesting and fine as Alice's Restaurant, structural weaknesses, seen in proper perspective, simply become cinematic complexities to be cherished.

DVD Talk calls it "a casual, laid-back memento of the Woodstock year". Roger Ebert gives it 4 out of 4 stars and calls it "faithful to the spirit of Arlo Guthrie's original recording". Rotten Tomatoes has a critics score of 67%.