Halloween Questions....

It is all about Halloween!

Terri is hosting and you can join in here
 1. You’re in a horror movie. Are you the final person left, the first to die, the comic relief, the skeptic, the smart one, or the killer?

The smart one who lives and solves the crime.

2. While watching scary movies, are you the person who yells at the characters, the person with
their eyes covered the whole time or the person who falls asleep?
The person not there, actually. I do not like horror movies. If they are mildly scary I yell at the characters who are always so dumb!

3. If you were dared to spend the night in a “haunted house”, would you do it?

No. I don't like dares.They turn out badly.

4. Favorite horror monster or villain?
Godzilla/the Krell Monster of the Id from Forbidden Planet

5. Favorite horror or Halloween-themed song?
Pretty Little Liars Theme song:


6. Tell us something random about your week.

 Nothing much going on. Did some makeup for people going to parties.

Questions on Sunday

On this dark and drizzly first day of the week I am participating in Sunday Stealing!
You can too, if you want, by clicking the logo.


   1. What is on your mind right now?
Thinking of eating my tomato sandwich on a toasted  super thin bagel and that my coffee is too cool and whether or not I want to go reheat it! And, I do.....   and now I did...I ate the sandwich and heated up the Pumpkin Latte and all is right with the universe once again!
It was a treat. I have run out of groceries and need to shop, so I had to have bread, a thing I rarely if ever eat at all, though I love it. My carb intake is extremely low and I avoid breads and pastas like the plague.


    2. Do you know anyone who has attended Harvard University?
     Yes, I know lots of anyones who attended Harvard.
 

    3. How many books are in the room you’re in?
             About 400 or so.
  
  4. Do you save at least 15 percent of your income?
     Yes, I do but more like 10%.





5. When was the last time you had a rainy day spent at home?

Looks like today will be that day. It is a drizzly, dark and chilly day and I have no place to go.

 6. When was the last time you stayed home from school/work?
     I work every day even when I am feeling bad. I work from home.

 7. Do you write “yes” or “no” answers to surveys or do you explain more?   I write more if it is appropriate to do so.

 fav pajamas

    8. Is there any type of medicine you can’t take? For what reason?
Yes, because I am very allergic to it.

    9. Do you have a favorite pair of pajamas? What do they look like?
      My pajamas are usually  tap-style shorts and a tank or Tee shirt. My favorite shorts are two pairs: one is athletic gray with design on it and the other black with cats on it.



10. Would you rather have potato or chicken noodle soup if you had to?
Potato soup, hands down. I like chicken noodle, but I love potato soup :).
  
    11. Do you believe that when a person appears in your dreams, that person wants to see you?
   I never thought about it, but I guess no. I do know that when I begin to think of a person a lot
they will call and if I begin to feel badly about a person they are going to die and that has never failed.

  

My mother's Nursing School Graduation photo

 12. When’s the last time you saw your mom?
          October 11, 1997.
         It was Yom Kippur so easy enough to recall the exact day.
   
   

13. What is one food you could eat for a month, straight, and not get sick of?
          Tomato sandwiches on toast like I had today.  My carb intake is low as I said, but I love bread and would eat it all the time if I could.
  

 14. Have you ever spray painted something about your love somewhere?
No. I have, however, spray painted men in Central Park who exposed themselves to us girls on school trips. DayGlo paint!  One fellow told me that we should have used a pepper spray.

   15 Do you live in a town where basically everyone knows everyone else?
 I grew up in a town like that which was a  'bedroom' town for people who worked in New York City.  Today my town is huge in square area, but it is a shore town consisting of many little villages along Barnegat Bay. Our summer population is large, winter not so much. But the whole township is

Area: 56 mi much of it water and forest including ocean front property.

Population: 41,747 (2017)

while my hometown was just  1 mile square and 10,000.

Today's Public Soap Box

My old hometown recently was required to remove a memorial to veterans because it contained a Christian cross on it.
The lawsuit was settled and the image removed, unfortunately.
The article said, in part:

 "Under terms of settlement of a federal lawsuit challenging the placement of a veterans’ display that features a Christian cross, officials in Roselle Park, New Jersey, have agreed to refrain from erecting the display or similar displays in the future. Leaders at the American Humanist Association (AHA), which brought the suit on behalf of two local residents, say this settlement protects the separation of church and state.

“This is a victory for the Constitution and for veterans of many faiths, and none at all, who served our country proudly and deserve to have a memorial that respects everyone,” said Roy Speckhardt, executive director of the American Humanist Association. "
Well, respects everyone except Christians, that is.And it certainly does not respect the Constitution as envisioned by the founding fathers of the nation.
I hate to burst bubbles, but, there is NOTHING in the Constitution about so-called separation of church and state.
That is a fiction that has been elaborated on through the years to push an agenda that is decidedly anti-Christian.
The idea came from a vague quote by someone, Jefferson perhaps, but has no basis really for what it has become.
The Constitution states that government cannot mandate a state religion or require you to take part in one, etc. Also the government cannot outlaw your religion and your freedom to participate in it.
Now think that over.. when that cross was removed, the man who erected it and the town had their religious rights taken away for the sake of a small minority (2 complained). Their religious right to show a cross was  OUTLAWED.  That IS a violation of the Constitution.
If you fail to speak up when these outrages occur, don't be surprised to find your religious freedom and your freedom of speech gone very quickly.

Alfred Hitchcock and Halloween

Hello and welcome to another weekend at the New Jersey shore.
The tourists are gone and the roads are once again passable. The snow birds have fled to Florida and we have the beaches to ourselves once again.  Some years it is warm enough even into October. But not this year. It is cold out already  and the blustery storms of autumn are upon us.
So, pull up a chair, have some coffee and some Belgian pastry and enjoy another weekend with me as we await the arrival of another  Nor'Easter!

We are participating in another Saturday 9 today. I hope you will join in as well because these are a great way to get to know other bloggers and open up a whole new world in some cases.

Saturday 9: "Alfred Hitchcock Presents" Theme

This week's song was chosen because this is the last Saturday 9 before Halloween. Are you unfamiliar with this week's tune? Hear it here.


1) The Master of Suspense, Alfred Hitchcock, was born in England. Name another pop culture contribution England has made.
 The Beatles and the Mersey beat music and a lot of the silly fashions of the 70's. The ugly mop top hair styles and the pin straight hair and super short Twiggy styles.
I only liked the Beatles music when I heard it played by others. I believe that England also started the punk and rave culture, the bad boy stuff. None of it very good contributions.

2) This week's song is recognized as the theme to Hitchcock's long-running TV show, but "Funeral March for a Marionette" is a classic piece written for piano in the late 1870s by Charles Gounod. Do you often listen to classical music?
Yes, I do.  I like classical music quite a lot. Cable TV has a classical station I enjoy. 

 By the way, Charles Gounod is most famous for his Ave Maria, one of the most beloved songs of all time.  Here is Sarah Brightman singing it....


3) Janet Leigh's shower scene in  Hitchcock's Psycho is considered one of the scariest sequences ever filmed. What's the most frightening movie you've ever seen?

I have not seen many scary movies because I don't like them at all. I did see Psycho. It was awful. I don't see a need to do movies like that at all.
There was one I found kind of scary called Village of the Damned. It was awful. I went with my friend from Belgium, Vivian  and we were about 13 years old.
We were good friends in those days. She was a transplant to our junior school from the local Catholic School which only went from kindergarten to 6th grade.  Her mother was from Belgian, her dad from Britain and he ate his hamburger with a knife and fork.
 She spoke Flemish fluently and French haltingly and, as  I spoke some French, and we both spoke English, we got along famously in all those languages. 

Her family lived in a second floor apartment .. really the top half  of a  two family Victorian house. The kitchen was built into a sun porch that over looked the back garden and had windows on three sides! It was so amazing.All that light and the view! 
 My grandparents had an apartment like that over my father's business. They were huge, house sized places, not little at all. Really they were huge Victorians where the bottom floor served as a business and the  upstairs was for the family.
My grandparents sun porch,however, was used as a sun porch complete with sofa, chairs and all manner of plants that loved the big expanse of windows. There is something very special about second floor enclosed porches like that. They are the kind that are warm all year round.
Vivian and I listened to French singers and watched French movies without subtitles. Those were good days.  We spoke a good deal of French together. She wanted to be a translator for the UN, but, never saw that dream come true.
Village of the Damned was shown as a re-run movie  late on an autumn Sunday afternoon.
 All the children in the movie looked like Julian Assange with white hair and crystal blue eyes.
We exited that theatre to a foggy, chilly, dark early evening that fed our imagination  with all manner of terrors.
Bad,scary movie.. avoid it like the plague.
Vivian passed away a couple of years ago, way,way too soon. We had lost touch over the years but I think of her very often.

4) Hitchcock admitted that he "never trusted birds," and he took that fear and turned it into the movie, The Birds. Is there a member of the animal kingdom that just gives you "the creeps?"
  Not really, no.  I am not fond of some animals like I am of others but, no creeps really.
By the way, birds never trusted Hitchcock either.

 5) Halloween will soon be upon us. Will you carve a Jack O'lantern this year?
Probably not but I would like to.  Some of them are so artistic and beautiful.


6) What candy will trick or treaters get at your house?
Individual bags of chips that the supermarket sells.  I will buy 2 great big packages of them and maybe some candy as well.   

7)  When you went trick or treating, did you prefer fantasy costumes (like a storybook character) or scary ones (like a monster)?
I have dressed up as  Queen Esther from the book of Esther in the Bible, Martha Washington  and a cowgirl.

8)  Which candy was your favorite? Which one were you disappointed to find in your trick or treat bag?

Get real seniors!

My favorite candy is always Snickers, though chocolate gives me migraines.  
My least favorite are cheap candies most older people give out.
 Or.. the absolute worst are homemade cookies made with whole wheat flour and carob and all natural ingredients! They are like eating door stops or paper mache. 
 Gag, yuk...They are horrible.
Please, please stop making "healthy" treats to give to people. Those older ladies who gave them out were sadists.
 Oh and then you have the people who give out apples and carrots.  Seriously? Really?This is how you want to be remembered by neighborhood kids after you're gone?
Senior citizens... Hear me.. save your reputation and give out calorie filled chocolate and chips!! Kids will build memorials to your memory.

9) Which do you find scarier -- cemeteries or haunted houses?
Hands down it is a haunted house!
One house in my neighborhood had an old Victorian double door on the front.All homes in my neighborhood were old Victorians.
The house was surrounded by a black wrought iron fence and the yard was planted with ancient  thorny roses and, in summer, tall beds of hollyhocks . 
But now, that autumn, piles of colorful leaves covered the lawn all around and the hollyhocks were wilted from the cold.
Once you mounted the steps to the porch, you could look into that big double front door and see a  diffused faint light coming from the end of the long center hallway that separated the living room on the right from the stairs to the left. In most of these Victorians on my block, that hallway went to the winter kitchen. All our homes had summer kitchens and winter kitchens separated by a little butler's pantry.

That lone light barely illuminated the hallway that seemed to go on forever.
It sent  chills down our spines to think that someone might actually answer the door this time. Would anyone open that door at the end of that long hall and walk towards us? What would we do if they did?
We both longed for it and dreaded it.
The bell was original to the house. You had to twist a key-like doo-hickey that made the bell ring with a brrrinnng.. brrrringgg.. sound.
We would twist it, like winding up a clock and wait. And wait. And wait some more.
We waited because we were curious as to who lived there. None of us kids  ever saw anyone and we never asked our parents who lived in that house.Why? I don't know why we didn't, but we didn't.  
After what seemed like forever, we walked back down the steps, through the creaking wrought iron gate and back onto the slate sidewalk and went on our way.   Nothing was ever said but we all knew what everyone was thinking!   It had to be a witch that lived in that house.  A witch who would not show her face to us! We didn't believe in witches.. but like all kids.. we really did in our heart of hearts!
One year,  as we were leaving, I saw the upstairs drapes part slightly and a face look out to see us as we went.  It was a malevolent face without kindness, without warmth. It chilled me to see it.  "Look!" I said to my friends. "A face in that window up there." They looked but only saw the drapes swinging shut.
We never went to that house again.








 Here is the Brrrring..brrrinng doorbell of yore:

Foto Friends on Friday

Chilly! That's the word for the weather despite prognostications to the contrary. Let me also add sunny to that as it has been very nice outside lately. Neighborhood kids are enjoying evening games of touch football in the street and on the beach and having a great time.

Here are some offerings for Friday Foto Friends and SkyWatch Friday.
If you click on the photos you can see them in larger size.
The first is the Empire State building during the Christmas holidays, all lit up in red and green and taken a few years ago.

Going into the city takes no time if we take a ferry.

People in New Jersey call New York City "the city".

Philadelphia, we call "Philly".

They are equidistant from me but no big roads lead to Philly. I can take the water to get to the city :)

Some people use a helicopter.

The sky by the bay at sunset is next.

Backyard photos of autumn leaves, maple, green ash and oak. Holly stays green as do the pines and cedars.  I am surrounded by water and woods.

Tomorrow is Saturday 9 and I will be participating.

Wednesday on Thursday

How about Wednesday on Thursday since my Tuesday and Wednesday posts were already set to go! Terri, our sweet friend from Florida, set up this meme and if you would like to take part, go and visit her here.

On this day theme...


1.  On this day in 1908, Billy Murray hits the charts with his “Take Me Out to The Ball Game”.  Did you watch the MLB playoffs, and are you watching the World Series?
No. I can't get interested in watching sports. I only enjoy them if kids are playing.I have said before that I do sometimes put on a Yankees game or a Giants football game out of nostalgia. My mother was a great sports fan.. baseball, football, basketball and she loved the New York teams.

2.  On this day in 1962, “The Manchurian Candidate”, directed by John Frankenheimer, starring Frank Sinatra and Laurence Harvey, was released.  What is your favorite Frank Sinatra song?
There are two I am very fond of. Young At Heart is probably very dear to my heart. I remember hearing it on a radio station that played music from the 40's through the 90's but easy listening ballads, etc. A lot of offices used that station. When I was an attack secretary (for a lady who didn't want to be bothered with calls and if you want protection I am the person you call as I can be very formidable)  we played that station in the office.. this was 1990's or so. Young at Heart played a lot. I loved it.
I also like The Lady is a Tramp in the way Sinatra sings it.
Frank Sinatra had a voice that sang to you.. not just at you, but right to you.

3.  On this day in 1968, Mick Jagger and Marianne Faithful were busted for pot and released on £50 bail.  Has your state approved the sale of medical marijuana?  In a nutshell, what are your thoughts on the subject?
Recreational marijuana should not exist but medicinal opiates and marijuana are natural drugs that can offer relief and healing for those who need it. Relief from pain alone aids in healing.

4.  On this day in 1979, the Guinness Book of Records presented Paul McCartney with a rhodium disc as the all-time best-selling singer-songwriter. What is your favorite song by Paul McCartney?
This Never Happened Before which was used in the movie The Lake House with Sandra Bullock and Keanu Reeves. A very nice movie by the way and if you love romance, get a hold of this movie. You will enjoy it.

5.  On this day in 2017, Albert Einstein’s “Theory of Happiness” written on a note as a tip for a bellboy in 1922, sold for $1.6 million.  His Theory of Happiness is: “A calm and modest life brings more happiness than the pursuit of success combined with constant restlessness.”   Was Einstein right?
 For the most part, I agree with him. But he leaves out God, without whom, there can be no happiness at all.


6.  Tell us something random about your week so far…

We are only 3 days into the week.. Sun, Mon, Tues.. as I write this. Weather's been cool and  moderate, very little humidity and that is good. As for me, I haven't done anything memorable or important. I have been painting winter scenes and updating some paintings I did for headers for the winter season to come.

Haiku.. Sado Island

Sado Island in Japan is a great place to see the milky way and millions of stars at night. People from all over go there to take photos.

photo: Sado Island at night.
Author unknown

             Seas are wild tonight . .

          stretching over

          Sado Island

         Silent clouds of stars

—Basho
(1644–1694)

Matsuo Basho, saw this same view back in the 1600s  on the beautiful Sado island, with its crystal clear waters and lovely shore. It only gets more dramatic at night!

I remember seeing the milky way as a child before so many lights began to blot out the view of the stars in so many places.

My father also bought a large telescope and we would view the moon up close and personal.  

 How about you?

 Have you seen the Milky Way?

 

About Autumn―

Autumn doesn't last long enough I think. Only three months, like all of the four seasons, but somehow, autumn seems to be all too short. This I find sad because the vivid colors come and
go so quickly. The cooler weather wakes one up and makes you feel alive and revitalized after a long, hot, humid summer when people tend to get lazy and sluggish. Autumn comes in with a breath of fresh, clean, chilled air and nudges you to get up and get going again.
God knew what he was doing when he invented it, that is for sure.
This painting is by my favorite artist, impressionist  Edouard Cortes. I adore his paintings and especially his Parisian scenes. I learned to paint light from him and a few others, though I am not even partially as good. Anyway, I love the warmth of autumn in its colors, and in its indoor delights of cozy days and nights. I like fall and winter clothing best too.
Tell me, what do you enjoy about autumn?

Theatre du Vaudville ― Eduard Cortes

“Delicious autumn! My very soul is wedded to it, and if I were a bird I would fly about the earth seeking the successive autumns.”  ― George Eliot

 Look at the warmth in the oranges and yellows of the painting below. See how it contrasts with the gray, snowy evening? It is alive with warmth. The streets are slushy but the store windows are bright and inviting. "Come in,"they say.
In impressionism, you get the sense of what the artist wants you to see even though detail is lacking.  There is an entire story in these pictures.

Place de la Republique ―E. Cortes

Monday and My Day So Far....

Welcome! Today I am joining Melanie's My Day So Far. You can also join in here.

The date today:

Monday, October 22, 2018

How's the weather?

It is a blustery, sunny but chilly day by the shore today.

What are you wearing?

I am wearing denim and a purple and green plaid flannel shirt.

What chore around the house have you been putting off?

Straightening out the laundry room. I have to be in top condition to do it and sometimes the pain doesn't allow me to get going on some things.

Is there anything in your fridge you need to throw out?

What?  Do you even recognize it?

Yes, leftovers of roast beef dinner I forgot about and an old bottle of open sauce long past its use by date!

What are you reading?

G.K. Chesteron's Orthodoxy

A scripture verse you'd like to share.

Proverbs 17:18
"A man lacking judgment strikes hands in pledge and puts up security for his neighbor."

Is here a prayer request you'd like to share?

Having another ablation on November 8th.. a bit afraid. could use prayers for courage and that it works completely this time.

How about a creative project you are working on?

 One in progress or one still in your head. 

 The Thanksgiving menu and entertainment for the day

What special dish or baked item are you planning for this week?

Nothing special this week.

Your latest acquisition?

A new tablecloth for winter, a bit sparkly 

A photo you'd like to share?

This is a magazine cover I made using the little pond.

A funny graphic, photo or quote?

How about a snapchat photo of me incognito with rabbit ears?I think its pretty funny.

Any parting thoughts?

Yes. Some advice on authors to completely avoid reading.

One notable one is the works of John Updike a thoroughly awful, perverted man.

Here is a quote from Updike that accurately describes who and what he is though the record of his garbage is long and ugly in addition to this:

"I read and talked into a microphone and was gracious to the local rich, the English faculty and college president and the students with their clear skins and shining eyes and inviting innocence, like a blank surface one wishes to scribble obscenities on."

All too often, modern literature is obscene, decadent and perverted, sometimes subtly so. It is a parents' and grandparents' obligation to monitor what their children are reading and who the schools promote. A child has a pure, clean mind that needs tending like a fine garden.
So, research authors and their quotes and opinions before you subject your mind to garbage disguised as "fine literature".  Pull apart sentences and ideas and don't let the over all first impression "good feeling" deceive you. Think over what you read before you endorse it.