entertainment – Page 4 – beckycochrane.com

In clover

Have you ever heard the phrase “happy as a cow in clover?” Simply put, a cow with lots of clover to eat is a happy cow, so the simile is an obvious one. In time, the idea was shortened to the phrase “in clover,” as in, “You’re in clover here,” or “If we win the lottery, we’ll be in clover,” making it a metaphor instead of a simile (like The Dude in The Big Lebowski, The English Teacher abides).

I can still remember the first time I read the phrase “in clover,” including the book it was in, and though I had no awareness of that old happy cow connection, I knew at the very least, it meant lucky. This could have been because as a child, I was encouraged to look for “lucky” four-leaf clovers. Or it could have been because a 1927 song, “I’m Looking Over A Four Leaf Clover,” was often sung on variety shows in the 1960s and 1970s (Mitch Miller, Lawrence Welk, Donny and Marie), plus both Bugs Bunny and Tweety Bird sang variations of the song in cartoons. As recently as 2013, actress/singer Emmy Rossum included it on her album Sentimental Journey.

Clover continues to be a plant I think of as happy, and it’s one of the few things that survives in our yard, even during drought years. Fun fact: shamrocks never have a four-leaf clover, so if you find one, you’re either looking through white clover or a similar ground cover.

The photo at the top of this post shows some of the clover in our yard. It’ll happily jump right into our pots to keep plants company, too. Like its theme song and use as an idiom, The Clover abides.

Tiny Tuesday!

Eva Ruby, the tiniest member of the Batpack, did start coughing less over the weekend, so we thought things would be okay. Then yesterday, her appetite went away, and in the evening, we feared we saw a little blood in a liquid-y stool (sorry; dog people overshare). Off she went with the Supreme Ruler of Her World, Tom, to the emergency vet. After x-rays, bloodwork, and no coughing for the doctors, she was thought to be on the mend from whatever caused the cough. For a dog her size, eating even a blade of grass could have irritated her throat. She had no fever, nothing too alarming in the x-rays, but her bloodwork showed she was severely dehydrated. So she got sub-Q fluids, anti-nausea meds, and about four hours worth of monitoring before Tom brought her home. Now she’s on a bland, small-portion diet several times a day, and the credit card bill is not so tiny. Worth it for that smile and our peace of mind.

There is one topic about which Eva is serious and wants to have a word. (We think it’s from hanging out in a house with too many fashion dolls.) She says, “This is the day after Labor Day. Pack those white shoes away immediately. You’ll see them again at Easter and beyond. Yes, Florida, even you. If Texans can pack away their white boots and strappy heels, so can you other coastal fashionistas.”

She does, however, make allowances for sneakers, tennis shoes, running shoes, and gym shoes. This is not simply because they’re sporty. They’re also optimal dog-walking shoes. Priorities…

As for me, I tried to rewatch this 1998 movie while Tom and Eva were at the ER. There was a lot of stopping and restarting because of ongoing texts. It was still fun seeing Sigourney Weaver play Katharine, a treacherous boss, and Melanie Griffin play Tess, who’s smart, sweet, and sexy. As she tells Harrison Ford’s Jack (why are so many RomCom leading men named Jack?), “I have a head for business and a body for sin.” A stellar supporting cast portraying working women (Joan Cusack is gold, as always) and sleazy men (though there are good guys, too). Bonus: A brief but good appearance by Olympia Dukakis as a personnel director at an employment agency is one of several characters who show the value of women mentoring women in the workplace.

Sunday Sundries

Little boxes. Their value is in who gave them or that they contain small gifts of nature from loved ones. Not all boxes are square, right?¹

Here were today’s RomCom rewatches from 2005 and 1991. As with many of these movies, the number of years since their release dates often stuns me.

¹From The Polymer Arts, 2013, “Today’s thought on boxes is pretty simple: a box does not have to be square. It doesn’t even have to have straight sides or be flat on the bottom. A box is basically a container used to hold or store things and has a lid. That’s a pretty wide open definition, which is great for an artist.”

Yesterday Once More

Since I was only able to get about three hours of sleep Thursday night, even though I managed a couple of short naps during the day (the dogs approve of this lifestyle), my brain was too tired to offer me much that was productive. I posted to Photo Friday, paid some bills, and got the dogs in and out between rain showers, but mostly I gave myself over to two RomComs. Nor did I try to atone for passive entertainment by coloring or researching for the Neverending Saga. T.I.R.E.D.

First up was 1996’s One Fine Day with Michelle Pfeiffer and George Clooney. George was looking mighty young in this film. At one point, his newspaper reporter character Jack describes Michelle Pfeiffer’s architect character Melanie as “luminous,” which is how I’d still describe her. Movie cameras love her. The one scene I always remember from this movie is the first time (of several) Melanie’s son stains her shirt. She carries a leather bag (how Jack envies this bag) filled with things a mom-on-the-go needs, and grabs one of her son’s T-shirts, emblazoned with a dinosaur, switching it with her shirt. TINY woman! But enough about their looks. The movie is frantic with the pace of two busy New Yorkers trying to balance work with parenting. They meet; they bicker; they negotiate; they commiserate over children who are sometimes maddening, sometimes wonderful; they give each other some grace with a lot of sass; they fall in love–all in the same day. It would take me hundreds of pages…or many books…to write such a thing. =)

Then after dinner last night (and an episode of the funny TV show “Ghosts,”), I wanted to keep myself awake long enough not to go to bed too early and then be wide awake in the middle of the night. I chose the 1995 Sandra Bullock (playing Lucy)/Bill Pullman (playing another Jack) RomCom While You Were Sleeping, about a misunderstanding taken to an extreme. Can anyone play more likable characters in this genre than Sandra Bullock? Equally likable is Jack, and unlike in Sleepless In Seattle when Bill Pullman lost the girl, this time, he’s the lucky guy. The talented supporting cast is by turns funny, sweet, and ridiculous. It’s a good comfort movie to see before bedtime, and YES! I slept six hours, woke up for a while, then slept again off and on for at least another two hours. SO GRATEFUL to feel rested in the morning.

Cats and dogs (both my Coventry novels have dogs) are always good in RomComs. These movies both featured cats. In One Fine Day, the newspaper editor keeps a cat, Lois Lane, in his office who is important in a couple of plot points. At one point, Jack’s daughter chases a stray tabby cat, who she follows into a store, where she finds the cat has kittens, including one named Bob. These cats, too, are all part of the action and plot development.

In While You Were Sleeping, Lucy has a cat named Mel (played by rescue cat actor Princess) who provides some amusing moments. When Lucy realizes that Peter, hospitalized in a coma, has a cat which no one in his family knows about (he was only catsitting), she gets into his apartment to take care of Fluffy, providing more comedic moments with Jack.

This afternoon, Tom and I both had hair appointments with Larry in our old ‘hood. That’s three hours in the shop, the drives there and back, plus picking up dinner for us and Debby on the way home. We wanted to thank her for sitting with our dogs for those hours. We’d been a little concerned about Eva, who was hacking and coughing periodically before we left. We gave her some warm water with honey, which can sooth an irritated throat. She didn’t have a fever, and none of the dogs have been around any other dogs who could have given them anything like kennel cough, but since she wasn’t interested in breakfast this morning, we wanted to be cautious. Debby said she only coughed a couple of times, though she did cough a lot when we got home–maybe she was over-excited, because Tom is her whole reason for existence. Seriously, she starts watching the front door an hour and a half before he gets home from the office. But she ate her dinner with no problem and hasn’t coughed so far since dinnertime. Fingers crossed!

My hair is very short! Which is fine, but strange to see in the mirror. And since last night’s film got me in the mood for more Sandra Bullock, tonight’s DVD rewatch will be 2000’s Miss Congeniality, with Sandra Bullock as FBI Special Agent Gracie Hart, Benjamin Bratt, Michael Caine, Candice Bergen, William Shatner, Ernie Hudson, and John DiResta among the cast. After the movie, I’ll read a while before I get another hopefully good night’s sleep on this Labor Day Weekend. If so, tomorrow: WRITING!

Mid-week once more

Yesterday was spent writing and rewriting. Editing and revising. Writing a little more, and working out plot points in the Neverending Saga. My thoughts were so much north of here with Lynne and Minute, and I tried to memorialize that funny, sassy, brave, and loyal Westie in the post I wrote and the photos I picked. My brain was tired by the time I ate dinner, so I decided to delve into RomCom adaptations of Jane Austen’s novels.

I started with the 1996 DVD of Emma, with Gwyneth Paltrow. I think she does a wonderful job of portraying Emma and her well-intentioned meddling in the romantic lives of others. This movie makes me laugh a lot, beginning to end, so it was just what I needed. (Favorite quote from Gwyneth as Emma, when Emma fears that Mr. Knightley has gone to visit his brother John, and possibly ask his advice about taking a wife, and Emma tells her former governess: “Oh, but if he seems happy, I will know that he’s decided to marry Harriet, and I will not, I know I will not, be able to let him tell me. But if he seems sad, I’ll know that John has advised him against it. I love John! Or he may seem sad because he fears telling me he will marry my friend. How can John let him do that? I hate John!”

I fell in love with Jane Austen’s writing at age eleven, when I read a “condensed” version of Pride and Prejudice (adapted for younger readers in my Readers Digest Best Loved Books For Young Readers, shown on the lower left in the photo above). It was only later, thanks to library books, that I read more of Austen when I was old enough to appreciate her as an adult reader. Then I was either a struggling student, teacher, or whatever other jobs I took to keep my head above water, and you can see the used books I grabbed so I could read more Austen or reread favorites. (I also have Pride and Prejudice as an eBook, and several novels by other authors that feature fictitious versions of Jane Austen herself, or use her literary romances to create novels of their own.)

The book on the lower right is an edition of Sense and Sensibility that came out in 1995, the same year as the movie with Emma Thompson, Kate Winslet, Alan Rickman, and Hugh Grant. It has photos of the cast in costume inside it. This evening, while I cooked, so I wouldn’t BURN THE PEAS, Lynne and Debby, I put my laptop on the bar in the kitchen and finished watching the movie that I’d started after I did my writing/editing for the day. Tom got home from work and was looking over my shoulder while he was feeding the dogs, and said this movie has some of his favorite actors. I know for sure no one could portray Colonel Brandon as well as Alan Rickman, but he’s right. The entire cast, leads and supporting actors, is stellar.

I’ve seen a couple of film adaptations of Persuasion, and several of Pride and Prejudice, but without a doubt my absolute favorite is the 1995 BBC television series with Colin Firth. Once I saw him, there will never, never be another Mr. Darcy for me, and I don’t care how many beautiful actors rise up to play the part. I mentioned watching it in this post in 2016. I rewatched it at some point during the pandemic after I got laid off. It’s such a comfort watch for me, but it is an investment of time, so I think my recent watch of a newer version of Persuasion, and these rewatches of Emma and Sense and Sensibility will conclude my Austen RomComs for this go-round.

Sunday Sundries

The plan for today is to keep working on Book 7 of the Neverending Saga. For some reason, I’m in the mood to listen to Holland, a classic Beach Boys album among Beach Boys fans and collectors.

Thinking of Holland in general, I decided to show this assortment of items from the dresser in the master bedroom. From left to right, that’s a ginger jar that belonged to my mother and still has potpourri that she put in it. (I don’t think it has a lot of scent anymore.) On the bottom, she wrote “Lola, 2001,” so possibly it was a gift to her from Aunt Lola. Next to that is a blue and white candle bowl which may have come from Bombay Company. If so, it was likely a gift from my mother to me (she liked to shop there for me, and I liked their merchandise). The three in the middle: a small ashtray, a windmill, and two Dutch boys sharing a kiss, were all gifts from our friend Steve C after he went to The Netherlands one year. On the far right is a vintage vase that Tom’s parents gave us from his grandmother’s house after she died. She was the only one of his grandparents that I got to meet, and I just adored her mischievous humor.

Behind these items is the Holland doll from the Arco Gasoline Dolls of the World collection. I had several of those when I was a child, and somehow they were donated or discarded. A few years ago, I replaced the ones I’d had thanks to the magic of eBay!

I rewatched 1998’s Hope Floats this morning. It’s categorized as a RomCom, and I do really like it, but I’d forgotten how sad it is, too. I’d also forgotten how uncomfortable the beginning is, because it hits a little too close to home related to an incident from my past. Thankfully, my humiliation wasn’t televised in every time zone. That part will go well with what I’m currently writing.

The main reason I picked the film was to honor the late Gena Rowlands, who plays Sandra Bullock’s mother and is a longtime favorite of mine. In mid-August, I edited a post from July 25 to note that Gena Rowlands had died on August 14. I’ve appreciated seeing so many tributes to her on Instagram. She truly was a gifted actor with a long career.

ETA: Couldn’t resist some of these photos that have shown up on Instagram of John Cassavetes and Gena Rowlands. Their longevity as a couple seems like an uncommon thing in their business.

Low Key Saturday

Today I didn’t color anything or reread anyone’s novels or rewatch any movies. I only reread the Book 7 manuscript of the Neverending Saga and resumed working on the chapter I’ve been stalled on for a while. There are no photos to illustrate that, or the dinner I cooked, which is noteworthy only because I cook so few meals these days. We’re eating light or picking up from restaurants (not fast food, which is even rarer than homecooked) this summer.

Maybe things are stalled at Houndstooth Hall because a few things are waiting for Mercury to go direct. I don’t mess around with Mercury. =)

I uploaded the cartoon below early in July but don’t think I ever shared it. Conventional wisdom has it that we don’t particularly enjoy hearing accounts of other people’s dreams. My own dreams have been busy, with very large casts, and I’ve kept them to myself. But imagine if you were a therapist…or went to a therapist, and… 🤣

Movies, a TV show, a book

Since I was definitely in the mood for something more lighthearted than the previous movie I watched, last night, Tom and I streamed 1999’s Dick, a fun comedy with Michelle Williams and Kirsten Dunst as two teens who stumble into encounters at the Watergate facility on a fateful night. This happenstance later repeats on a class trip to the White House, when they encounter Nixon, his dog, and major players in the Watergate scandal. The timeline was compressed a bit, and it was a fun watch for me. I was an avid Watergate follower (and kept making little asides to Tom about how true facts were bent to involve the girls). It was also nostalgic to remember being a teen in that era, having fun and cutting up magazine pictures of our teen idols with a best friend. (Note to Lynne: Can you believe they love Bobby Sherman? Like Susan B.)

The dog Brunswick played the movie’s version of another Checkers (Nixon’s original dog Checkers, who died at the age of 13 in 1964, never lived in the White House, as Nixon was elected president in 1968).

There were three dogs in the Nixon White House: King Timahoe, Nixon’s Irish setter, Vicky, Julie’s French poodle, and Pasha, Tricia’s Yorkshire terrier. All three dogs wore flowers and participated in Tricia’s wedding.

I don’t remember if there’s a dog in my last RomCom DVD with a president to rewatch during DNC week, 1995’s The American President. I haven’t seen it for quite a while, and I’m sure I’ll enjoy it again.

Directed and produced by Rob Reiner and written by Aaron Sorkin, Sorkin has said that the film influenced his later TV series, “West Wing,” which aired from 1999 to 2006. Websites attest that Sorkin says much of the first season was actually taken from material he edited out of the first draft of The American President’s script. Though it was highly recommended by Denece and Tom, I didn’t watch “West Wing” when it aired, but watched it in full a few years after it ended. Marika simultaneously watched it late at night (she from either New Orleans or Arkansas; I from The Compound). We Google-messaged each other with commentary while we watched each episode. Some of you may remember I joked that from November 2016 to January 2020, I chose to keep my head in an alternate universe wherein WW’s Josiah “Jed” Bartlet (Martin Sheen) was my president. =)

As predicted, I started reading this last night and finished it today. Once again, enough time has passed that things seemed fresh and new to me, and it was nice to read it without an inner critic. Some things are dated, of course; it was written over the years 2006-2008. But I no longer think the beginning is problematic. It may take a little effort for some readers: We’re being dropped into someone’s life as she deals with an automotive crisis and has time to think briefly of how she got to that point, plus she tells us about two encounters with the person who’s going to help her resolve said automotive crisis. Basically, we’re getting her backstory as she mentally processes it in three parts before the action begins.

Hump Day

Here’s another shot of the Super Full Moon. Wish I could have captured how it looks to the human eye, but my camera or camera skills just weren’t up to it.

As predicted, I did watch Moonstruck yesterday, and it was as entertaining as always. However, I’d said I thought the movie was quoted by members of the Revere family in my novel A Coventry Christmas. As the DVD played, I grabbed the novel from the library and started flipping through it to look for the quotes when my brain suddenly went, “D’oh! The Revere family isn’t in this book, they’re in A Coventry Wedding, and you are a moron who can’t remember your own novels.” I mean, it’s been a decade and a half since I wrote them, and they’re all set in my fictitious small town of Coventry, Texas, but still… I corrected yesterday’s post.

A little Baby Beanies hamster given to me in honor of my character’s hamster, Hamlet.

That little bit of page flipping lured me in, and after the movie was over, I began rereading A Coventry Christmas. It turns out that even though the Neverending Saga is not the same style or narrative (it’s not chick lit or contemporary romance or lighthearted), my characters were storytellers back then (as are my current characters) and there were a lot of them (that’s still true, too…bound to happen when you’re writing a series spanning decades).

The novel made me laugh, it gave me tears, and I read it all the way through. Afterward, I talked about it with Tim, Jim, and Tom and wondered if my satisfaction with it was vanity. The consensus was, NOPE. To paraphrase Tim, isn’t it the goal for a writer to be happy with what s/he creates? Of course, now I’m going to end up rereading A Coventry Wedding, which I remember as having a beginning that challenged some reviewers. Can’t please everyone…

I’m glad I watched my co-favorite RomCom movie and enjoyed reading A Coventry Christmas, because the movie I watched in recognition of DNC week was an emotional and mental about-face. It did have some comedy and even had some romance (I think this is the first time I’ve seen a movie with Timothée Chalamet, and his character was one of the movie’s redeeming features for me–really, it’s full of good actors), but mostly 2021’s Don’t Look Up just made me sad.

Tiny Tuesday!

This is a link to NASA’s information on this month’s Super Blue Moon. I started trying to get good photos of the moon on Sunday, and last night Tom drove me around chasing it with my camera. I’m using the wrong camera–I have at least one better–so what looked huge to us in the sky looks a bit tiny and poorly defined in the photos I shot. Still, we got to see the beauty, especially from points where it would have been physically dangerous to stop and shoot photos. It may also be impressive tonight into Wednesday.

My second DNC-inspired RomCom rewatch was 1993’s Dave, with such a great cast in Kevin Kline, Sigourney Weaver, Frank Langella, Ben Kingsley, Laura Linney, Charles Grodin, Kevin Dunne, a quick and fun glimpse of Bonnie Hunt (“We’re walking; we’re walking.”), and who may be my favorite movie Secret Service agent, Duane, played by Ving Rhames. Even though I’ve seen this movie several times, it still makes me laugh.

I have two potential DVD rewatches today, starting with 1987’s Moonstruck, to honor the Super Blue Moon. I never stop quoting this film that ties with Notting Hill as my favorite RomCom. I’m trying to remember if this is the movie the Revere family quotes in my contemporary romance A Coventry ~~Christmas~~ Wedding. ETA: Corrected to name the right novel.