"Spoilers"

Now that I've thought about it all morning, had my tea and started eating one of the banana and choc chip muffins I had to make last night because the 'nanna was going bad (which had presented me with the dilemma of making muffins or trashing said banana muffins of course....DON't JUDGE ME) I feel sufficiently fortified to discuss today's Sherlock fandom outrage.

Surprise, it has nothing to do with which is the hotter better Sherlock Holmes (sorry RDJ) but specifically with Spoilers.

Playing the "Luke I am your Father"/"Rosebud was his SLED" game on internet message boards in response to a "OMG! You just spoiled the ending of LOST for me!!!!!" when the show has been off the air and discussed ad nauseum can be fun.

But yeah, spoilers suck, even when a book is over 100 years old and you know that while for all intents and purposes Sherlock Holmes was dead at the end of Reichenbach Falls (that is what Conan Doyle wanted) he ended up not being completely dead and was cleverly (of course) resurrected in The Empty House.

Why do they suck?*

Because you are watching Sherlock for a wholly new and creative interpretation of the canon, well that and because Cumberbatch makes you all wobbly inside, but still, it is about doing something new and different with very well known material.

I know something bad might happen at the end of Season 2, but I don't want to know what and how it will happen.

This angst all came about because of filming in London and digital cameras and the internet and it seems a couple of "newspapers" (I think I might be using the term loosely) may have written published pictures and/or written what they think is the ending to the last episode of the next season.

Hell, Benedict Cumberbatch himself let go a juicy spoiler (and in his last interview Le Carre did say he approved all changes that have been made in the movie) about his character in Tinker Tailor Solider Spy, Peter Guillan, in a recent interview. A spoiler that is a departure from the novel.

And yeah, I was a bit annoyed....not because "there is anything wrong with that" but because it does change the character, plus it won't be a new twist when I see the movie.

AND it did effect my second read though of the novel.

Which was perfect as I had just dickishly said on Twitter "can you be spoiled if a book has been out 40 years or so?"

Well fuck you Julie, yes you can.

*I already know I will get spoiled because while those bastards in the UK will see Sherlock in 2012, I will have to illegaly legally view it somewhere on the intertubes PBS in 2013 and....nevermind. Though I do still think that whining you found out that Snape killed Dumbldore before the movie came out but years after the book makes you a prat. Especially if you spend time on the intertubes. I do promise not to tell how Bella has Edward's baby because ( A) It is redonkulous and disgusting and (B) BECAUSE TWILIGHT SUCKS PEOPLE.....WHY ARE YOU WATCHING THOSE MOVIES?

Coat Love

I love this coat.

If I owned this vintage coat I would move someplace very chilly so I could wear it everyday.

Coat via OldRags on Tumbler.

Folded

Evening dress by Charles James, 1950 United States (NYC), MFA Boston

I saw this glorious gown on Tumbler this morning. It made me think of all the designers out there in the last few years with their folding and poofing of evening gowns and how in the end none of them could manipulate fabric the way Charles James could.

Lists

So there are lists that people want you to make.

Normally I won't, but I will do two for you.

The first is what's the most played songs on your iPod. Well I don't have an iPod, but I do have a iTouch and these are the top 20:

1 Songbird (Fleetwood Mac)
2 Hymn to Love (Cyndi Lauper)
3 One and Only (Adele)
4 You Belong to Me (Jason Wade)
5 The Cave (Mumford & Sons)
6 Carved in Stone (The Subdudes)
7 Love of My Life (Queen)
8 Bad Romance (Gaga)
9 Mr. Blue Sky (ELO)
10 The Way You Look Tonight (Sinatra)
11 Not Ready to Make Nice (Dixie Chicks)
12 Me and Mr. Jones (Amy Winehouse)
13 You Know I’m No Good (Amy Winehouse)
14 When I Fall In Love (Nat King Cole)
15 Don’t Stop Me Now (Queen)
16 Rainy Night in Soho (Pouges)
17 Viva Gloria (Greenday)
18 Sigh No More (Mumford and Sons)
19 Elenore (Turtles)
20 The Irish Rover (Pogues)

The other list is inspired by Pajiba's yearly Top 10 Celebrates we want to shag in which we post our top 5 freebies list. Here is mine.

1. Benedict Cumberbatch

2. Idris Elba

3. Alexander Skarsgard

4. Timothy Olyphant

5. Robert Downey Jr.

I guess this was just an excuse to post picture of pretty manly men.

Blast From The Past

Vintage Playboy Bunny Manual has been scanned and added to the intertubes.

It's a bit of a hoot.

And yeah, sexist.

Via Jezebel.

Cocktails and Culture

North Star Vintage just sent out a Tweet:

An exhibit about two of my favorite things - vintage and cocktails!

I agree. What a fabulous combination for an exhibit:

As you enter Cocktail Culture, an intoxicating exhibit of apparel, accoutrement and ephemera at the Rhode Island School of Design's Museum of Art, it's hard not to think of Billy Strayhorn's lyrics in his jazz standard "Lush Life":....

The exhibit feels like an elegant and witty party that can be followed over six decades, from 1920 to 1980. You can almost hear the chatter. Think of it this way, say Kate Irvin and Laurie Brewer, both curators with the museum's Costumes and Textile Department. Cocktails — the word might be from the docked tail of a certain kind of show horse — are about mixing. Which, during Prohibition, was necessary to cover up the awful taste of bathtub gin......

Cocktail Culture: Ritual and Invention in American Fashion, 1920–1980 will be on display at the Museum of Art at the Rhode Island School of Design in Providence, R.I., until July 31.

How can this not be wonderful?

Wish it was a travelling exhibit....

As always my favorite scenes mixing wonderful vintage and liquor come from The Thin Man movies:

My Wild Jungle Cat

Opinions Are Like Assholes

because every fucker has one.

The most cringe worthy quote from this review of Bridesmaids?

This one:

About the only things all the bridesmaids have in common is that they talk like truck drivers and have low moral tones.

I like the old fashioned idea of looking up to women. They are our mothers and the mothers of our children. In almost every society they are placed on a pedestal. The idea here is to take away from women this respect they are due as mothers, and to view them as just no different from some bum in a bar. No need for a man to treat them special, like a lady, because that idea is passé.

I would respond but then I would be painted as "no lady" with low morals who talks like a truck driver & does not deserve to be treated special by all the manly men in my life.

So yeah, I'll be a good little woman who keeps her mouth shut so I can be put on a pedestal because I am a fucking mother.

Sheesh....

How Much Do I love Stephen Fry?

So much:

On Language

(So, to the pedants I say)

But above all let there be pleasure. Let there be textural delight, let there be silken words and flinty words and sodden speeches and soaking speeches and crackling utterance and utterance that quivers and wobbles like rennet.

Let there be rapid firecracker phrases and language that oozes like a lake of lava.

Words are your birthright. Unlike music, painting, dance and raffia work, you don’t have to be taught any part of language or buy any equipment to use it, all the power of it was in you from the moment the head of daddy’s little wiggler fused with the wall of mummy’s little bubble.

So if you’ve got it, use it. Don’t be afraid of it, don’t believe it belongs to anyone else, don’t let anyone bully you into believing that there are rules and secrets of grammar and verbal deployment that you are not privy to. Don’t be humiliated by dinosaurs into thinking yourself inferior because you can’t spell broccoli or moccasins. Just let the words fly from your lips and your pen.

Give them rhythm and depth and height and silliness. Give them filth and form and noble stupidity.

Words are free and all words, light and frothy, firm and sculpted as they may be, bear the history of their passage from lip to lip over thousands of years. How they feel to us now tells us whole stories of our ancestors.

Words to live by....

And Still Alive...

Really this year has just sucked in so many ways and I've just been unable to work though it for the past few months.

But that does not mean that there are not things to blog about.

Benedict Cumberbatch is adorkable and lovely with either his natural ginger with the epic sideburns or the dark locks of Sherlock Holmes.

I wish I lived in the UK so I could be a proper crazy old lady stalker.

He's in a small independent film, Third Star, that has a limited release in the US and will be in a couple of other "larger" films later in the year and of course Sherlock: Season 2 is filming right now in Wales.

Also Mrs. Obama makes me all kinds of happy:

And while I thought Harry Potter and the Deadly Hallows part one was BORING and had NOT ENOUGH SNAPE, I am looking forward to the end and will probably join some friends at the midnight showing next month.

AND I hear that Crazy Sarah Palin has made a movie about...herself!

Still Alive

I'm here.

Just have not been feeling chatty.

A blue funk indeed.

Here, look at this great picture my brilliant teenager took the other day.

People Die, That's What they Do

12/25/95
Julie,
Have a wonderful Christmas and always remember me at my best -
surrounded by beauty with my nose planted in the bible. :-)
(yes, seriously he wrote out a smiley face....remember when people used to do that?)

Jesus, look how skinny I am.

People have died.
That's what people do!
That's what Moriarty screamed at Sherlock.
And he's right.

Is there a word for the feeling you get when you Google the name of an old friend because you were too lazy to look for it and wanted to give him a call because you thought "man it has been awhile" only to find out said friend had passed away?
Because that just happened to me. My friend Frank Miranti has been dead since 2009 and I had no idea.
How much do I suck?
I need something cool and hip that describes the drowning sadness I feel at the loss of one of the most extraordinary people I've ever know known most of my life. Not just my adult life, but all my teen years and the whole time I've been a wife and mother. He was THE ONE who became the friend who refused to let me just drift away like I have a habit of doing with people.

I still dream about him, he was the hottest guy I ever kissed (we never dated which was a good thing...even though he did tell me, years later, that the one time I met his dad he told Frank he should marry me or that I was a "Keeper" or something like that....).

Hot, right?

But I lost touch with him in the last few years because I suck as a friend.
What is the name of the feeling you have when realize that you really SHOULD have called him back in April 2009 when he made his yearly birthday call to you.
But you, being the lazy bitch that you are just let it go and figured you would talk to him at Christmas instead. And then when Christmas came and he didn't call you just filed it away in your head until today when you think "you know Frank didn't call me at all last year, I'll see if he is on Facebook (which he would never have been) or Twitter (what a ridiculous idea) and get in touch and apologize for being such a shitty friend...again" but instead you find out that he didn't call because he was dead.
I guess fucking shitty is a good word to cover how I feel right now. Yeah and I'm pretty pissed off at myself too.

I used to think about driving up to see him (it's not that far away from here) but that never happened and I thought there would be time later to be more then the "over the phone" friends we had become.

Frank took me to see The Wall stoned and kissed me in his car after (I was 17) and broke my silly teenage heart. He was there when I graduated from high school, when I came back from Arizona and when I got married, he wrote me tons of letters when he went away to college (I still have them) and made sure I was sure and happy when I got married and ignored how uneducated I was about the world at times and really thought I could be more then I was and he always had advice about my sad pathetic gardens and worried about my spiritual life more then I did over the years.
He was brilliant and funny and so fucking generous and kind and was a better friend then I ever could possibly deserve.

I know...still cute for a middle aged guy.

So better late then never...I loved Frank and I think I'll go get drunk now and take to my bed for a few days in his honor and then start getting the gardens ready for spring.

So here is his obituary that even mentions his old car that he had when I first met him in the early 80's.
http://www.columbiamissourian.com/obits/obit/1369/

And a lovely post from a friend about Frank and his lemon tree and his life.
http://marciemcguire2.wordpress.com/2010/10/28/lemon-tree-very-pretty/

And since Sustainable Farms and Communities, Inc in Columbia Mo. seemed to be an organization important to him you can always donate in his name:
http://farmersmarketpavilion.org/donate/


(Frank would have also looked over this post and marked my grammatical/spelling errors....now all I have is spell check.)

Saturday Baking

I baked my own hamburger buns yesterday.
Delish.
I guess making buns (really they are good for all types of sandwiches) needs to be added to the weekly baking list.
Got the recipe here.
I cut the sugar to just 2 mostly because the hubby would have bitched about them being too sweet.
I made 10, but I think next time I will divide the dough into 12.

My Betsy Johnson....

Well, maybe vintage, not sure.
I've had this great Betsy Johnson neck scarf for a few years and I get to wear it once or twice a year. Today was one of those days.
So I wore it on the walk up the drive (SHUT UP!) to get the mail.

Brilliant Idea

There are a good number of networking sites that allow you to point others to interesting finds, but I don't think any are specifically focused on vintage until now.
Vintage Find It is "is the first independent social bookmarking site specifically for vintage. Shopping for vintage finds can be overwhelming. There are so many sites to look at. Here, you will find the best vintage on the web. Whether you love vintage clothing, home decor, art, you name it. Found by you. Curated by you. Show us your favorite vintage finds."

The site is the brainchild of Sandra at Debutante Clothing.

Brilliant!

http://vintagefindit.com/

The 1920's amazing silk embroidered coat at the top is in the possession of Ang at Dorothea's Vintage, but you can have it for $1200.

My God...Dior

From Tom and Lorenzo:
John Galliano once again goes back to the archives of the House of Dior for his inspirations, offering beautiful, whimsical, feminine looks that remind you of classic Dior without replicating it outright.

Calling Nora Charles

Via a link from Mary at Vintage Kitsch & Collectibles.

Winter in the City 1940's....

Downtown Little Rock in the 40's.....or is it?
Click to see the full photograph.



Nice bit of luck makes for a fun composition.

How to Respond

On Little Green Footballs some mook posted this about the shooting today:

I believe that people are ultimately responsible for their own actions. If it turns out he is a lefty wacko who thinks she did not go far enough provide health care or some other lefty cause who will you blame then?

In response a most awesome regular poster responded:

People are ultimately responsible for their own actions. However, if it turns out that the shooter was motivated by violent rhetoric from left-wing figures, I will hold THEM accountable for what they said.

See, this is the thing. If the Baader-Meinhof Gang, or the Weathermen, or WTF, come back from the crypt and start spewing hate and blowing shit up, I will not be backing them, because, you see, I am an American liberal, and they are freakazoid assholes, and will be even if I find one or two basic ideas we agree on. If their rhetoric starts to be parroted by Democrats in Washington, I will not vote for those people, and will actively campaign for non-crazy Democrats.

And I certainly won't be caught dead on LGF pretending that the Weathermen are 'really a mix' of extreme right-wing and left-wing ideas, I will just be condemning their asses as radical terrorists. I don't like radical terrorists.

This isn't so hard. No conservative is diminished by the actions of radical wingnuts. It's a fucking radical wingnut! But pretending that there is no problem, that the rhetoric isn't out there, that it isn't bad, and that we don't have a problem, is just plain dumb.

And all I can say is THIS!

Dear Sarah.

Dear Sarah step up, be an adult and please take a bit of personal responsibility for your part in how crazy things have gotten. It does not matter why. What matters is that what you said could have resulted in a shooting. As a public figure you have a responsibility for the tone of the conversations. In an effort to tone down the rhetoric you might want to apologize for the targets and vow to never use gun/violent language when it comes to political rivals.
Or make maps.
Maps seem to get you in trouble.
There should be no place in our society for that type of talk.

and I'll begin by apologizing for anything I might have said in the past.
Now it is your turn Sarah.

And a Happy New Year (with the Thin Man)...

Happy New Year....

Enjoy some epic drinking with the Charleses.

Oh Yeah....Merry Christmas!

Time for my yearly "Christmas Nap", but before I lay down, here is the most awesome creepy Christmas poem ever by Neil Gaiman (NICHOLAS WAS) and animated by the folks at Vimeo.
If you enjoy Nightmare Before Christmas, you will enjoy this short video.

39 Degrees North: Christmas Card 2010 from 39 Degrees North on Vimeo.

Christmas Tree

Oh Ye Of Little Faith

In light of today's historic nature this is just a reminder for those who were bitching how much Obama sucked and was so weak just a few weeks ago.

Cats in Planters

I'm sure there is a website that collects pictures of cats curled up in planters somewhere...here are mine.

Baby It is Cold Outside!

Two great vintage coats listed today!

1940's Black Gabardine swing coat with swanky top stitching.



1950's Brown wool swing coat with velvet inserts.

Adorable

I got this adorable desk calendar in the mail today...it is too sweet and just right for my desk.
Purchased from Sweetlifepaper on Etsy.

Haven

I'm sick of all the "Obama is the worst President evah" from all the libs/progressives/whiny ass babies on the internet.
So here's a haven from the crazy:
The Only Adult in the Room



EDIT:
I just wanted to add that yes, not everything Obama has done or is doing or will do makes me happy, BUT I blame the majority of our problems on the Congress he gets to work with. I think instead of bitching about how Obama has failed Progressives and liberals and talking about primarying him in 2012 (and screw you Daily Kos I can't even visit you anymore) the true conversation should be how to get rid of the Blue Dog Democrats in the House and Senate who refuse to support the President's (or the Democratic party's) agenda.

Dear Yankee Candle,

Seriously?
There is NO FRAKING way it should take you 10-12 days to ship an order from your website. It would have been faster to have a friend go to a Yankee Candle store, buy what I want and ship it to me via priority mail.
And yes, I should have read the shipping info...but who would think it would take 10-12 fraking days to get an item from ya'll.
I would go out of business if it took me that long to ship an item.
Sheesh.

Signed,
a moron who is still going to patiently wait for my order because I really, really want that North Pole Reed Diffuser....it better smell good.

All Will Love and Fear Me....

Reality sucks.
Thank God for designers like Chinese Couturier Guo Pei who allows us to see inside her overthetop "White Witch-Red Queen-Scheherazade" Chinese fantasy:

Make sure you go to T Lo and checkout the whole set of photographs AND the video. You must watch the video.

So Sick

Yeah, not feeling well.
Head and chest.
Ugh.

My Kindle 2 just got here.
Pretty.
$89 Black Friday Bitches!

Paula Dean's Bacon Cheeseburger Meatloaf is just. so. wrong. for you, but it is what heaven probably tastes like.

Cake Tips

I have been messing around with cake recipes the last 6 months.
My favorite has been the Coconut Cake and an Italian Cream Cake I got from America's Test Kitchen.
Yum, but pains in the ass, so they are not cakes for just everyday.
I tried their newest yellow cake recipe and while it was very good, it was not that much better then a box cake mix. What I did take away from it was the trick of making the cake according to the package (in my case a Duncan Hines Moist French Vanilla) except in regards to the eggs. Here I put in one whole egg and 2 eggs yolks (set the whites to the side) then mix according to package...though I always add a bit more vanilla. After that is done you whip those egg whites into stiff peaks and then just gently fold it into your mix until the white streaks are gone.
You get a fluffier and lighter cake.
So I go for an easy cake in exchange for a homemade butter cream icing.

2 1/2 sticks unsalted butter, softened (60-65) cut into chunks
1 cup powdered sugar
3/4 Dutch Processed Cocoa (I use either the Hersey's)
pinch salt
3/4 cup light corn syrup
vanilla
8 ounces chocolate*, melted and cooled a bit*

So I melt the chocolate in a double boiler and set aside.
Put the butter, sugar, coca and salt in processor and pulse till smooth...maybe scarping sides once or twice.
Then add the corn syrup and vanilla, process until just combined
Scrape sides and add melted chocolate (see note*) that is 80-100 degrees
Process until smooth and creamy (10-15 seconds)
Use right away or make ahead and keep in fridge (it will stiffen up and you will need to get it back to room temp.

*So here are the notes about the chocolate.
They used Godiva baking chocolate (milk or semi-sweet) which I have, but today I used half Baker's semi-sweet and half Baker's German Chocolate and I like that mix better.

Enjoy.

20% Discount From Damn Good Vintage

Hope everyone had a fine Thanksgiving.
I had stove issues so you can guess how mine went....

Anyway, here is a Black Friday/CyberMonday coupon that you can use in my Esty shop:

http://www.etsy.com/shop/damngoodvintage
Use the coupon code BUYONLINE

I have all my items listed there so nothing will be missed.
IF you are interested in vintage patterns from Sew-Retro just drop me a line and I will send out an invoice for you.

Sexy, What?

I agree with the two lovely men over at Tom and Lorenzo:

Beautiful men, no doubt, but the only ones who strike us as sexy are Jon Hamm (who SHOULD have been at the top of the list, dammit), Joe Manganiello, and Robert Downey, Jr.

I don't find Ryan Reynolds sexy in the least.
Meh.

RDJ is always at the top of my list.


I will admit that my new guilty please is Benedict Cumberbatch who plays the lead in the BBC's new Sherlock Holmes series Sherlock. Lovely looking man.


And here is special RDJ bonus:



Enjoy!

Dog Funny

This post from Hyperbole and a Half on moving your dogs cross country is hilarious and spot on.
We live with both a "simple dog" and a "helper dog".....

Found via Balloon Juice.

I'll Take White Again...

Louis CK on white privilege....(NSFW)

Glee Annoys Me

So first off, I must say that I liked last nights show and think that the comments from Tom and Lorenzo are worthy of a reprint:

To the straight people reading us: remember high school?
(Yeah guys, I remember high school...it sucked.)

Remember your favorite songs and movies, TV shows and music videos from that period? Imagine if all of that media bombardment telling you what to like, what to wear, and how to be attractive, popular, and cool, imagine that all of that aimed for and addressed everyone else but you? Imagine what it's like when every sappy love song (or angry breakup song), every rom com, every trendy TV show and blockbuster movie, even every video game, imagine if they all depicted a form of romantic love that simply isn't available to you. Imagine going through high school without even so much as a hint of yourself reflected in any of the things you watch and listen to, any of the things that literally every other kid is talking about. Imagine the one thing you want more than anything in the world: to be kissed, please god, just to be kissed, imagine you have never seen that depicted anywhere or referred to in any way but as something to be mocked and shunned.

We grew unexpectedly teary-eyed watching this number. Not because sappy teenage pop songs get us worked up, but because the sight of a sappy teenage pop song being sung by one cute teenage boy to another cute teenage boy is still, sad to say, an extreme rarity. All we could think while watching this number was, "My god. What would it have been like to see this at 14?" To have the media offer up a romantic fantasy that actually reflected what we secretly yearned for......

Teenagers see thousands of murders depicted onscreen by the time they reach 18 but most of them never see a boy kiss another boy or sing him a sweet love song. You want to prevent gay kids from killing themselves? Push for more scenes like the above. Giving a young gay boy the dream that someday Prince Charming will come and sing a love song to him? You cannot imagine. You simply cannot imagine how revolutionary such a thing is.

We're sorry, folks. We know other things happened this episode and other songs were sung. We know you're expecting a recap of those moments, but for us, and we pray to God for thousands of gay kids out there too, there was only one moment in last night's show and it left us a little breathless and on the verge of tears. We're afraid the rest of you are going to have to recap the episode for us.

Now watch the video and tell me you did not cry....




That was the good part of the show.

Now I will bitch about the part I hated.
Coach Bieste's story....which was so well acted BUT....
Ugh.
As if a kiss from Will Schuster is going to wipe away years of being thought of as not a "real" woman because she is not "feminine" enough to attract anyone (male or female!) to so much as kiss her?
Lame.
I just do not believe that a woman who has been successful in what is a traditionally male job would really give up a career that she had to (making assumptions here) fight tooth and nail to achieve because her feelings were hurt?
Not happening.

Plus what I really had hoped would happen is that she would have reviled she was in a long term loving relationship and that she really just did not give a shit what a bunch of little teenage boys thought of her sexually.
And she would have had no problem finding a way to earn back the respect she felt she had lost.

Mr. Sulu Thinks You are an Ass

Posted Without Comment

One More...Predictions

I'll predict that the Dems will lose around 50ish seats in the house which is what historically happens to the party in the White House.
Let me say this again...this is not a "wave" or an "earthquake" or a "tsunami" for the Republicans.
It is what happens historically during the midterms to the party that is in the White House.
Of course the Pundits and President Palin will spew how this means Americans hate Obama and that everything the Democrats have done is teh suck and that we are a center-right country.

I think the Republicans might pick up a few seats in the Senate, but will not take it and I would not be sad if Reid was out and someone (Schumer?) became Majority Leader.

Arkansas is going "almost" red (we have weathered the recession/almost depression well with a surplus and our Gov is a likable man with a tool running for the R's) and will lose all that sweet Agriculture Committee cash which is just what a small, poor, rural state needs...but hey that's what the TeaGOP Party folks here seem to want.
And they will get just what it deserve when Tim Griffin (who should be wearing a orange jumpsuit) takes Vic Snyder's seat in the House. Oh and I'm sure the ridiculous amendment to our state constitution to make fishing and hunting a RIGHT will pass...morons.

I've Been Very Good

And really, I've kept my mouth shut during these mid-terms, but I remember why we should not be handing the country (or at least some of it) back over to the Republicans:



BUT no matter who you might vote for please just go VOTE...or you lose your right to bitch.