 ...Continued from yesterday: As it turns out, two readers knew the answer to yesterday's riddle as evidenced by their posted comments. The two readers who knew the answer just happened by coincidence to be two of my daughters.  Anyway, here's the answer:
 Starring a cast of real side-show performers that both shocked and scandalized the general public,  ... “Freaks” was a horror movie that was too horrifying for its time. The story line of “Freaks” goes as follows: The circus sideshow freaks are a good-hearted and sociable group and among each other they form a close-knit, supportive familial circle. A kind-hearted dwarf named Hans who is well-loved within the freak community and his sweetheart, a tiny dancer named Frieda, are engaged to be married.  A beautiful but evil-hearted trapeze artist named Cleopatra learns that Hans is due to inherit a fortune, though Hans does not yet know this. Cleopatra and her handsome evil lover, a circus strong man named Hercules, plot to get their hands on Han‘s money. Cleopatra pretends to fall in love with Hans and seduces him away from Frieda, then prevails upon him to marry her, which, completely smitten with the irresistible Cleopatra, he does.  Cleopatra, however, intends to poison Hans on their wedding day so that she will inherit his money. Hans and Cleopatra are married, and the freaks joyfully celebrate at their friend’s wedding reception, except for heart-broken Frieda.  While the guests sit around the banquet table feasting and drinking, Cleopatra surreptitiously drops poison into her groom’s wine. The freaks, tipsy and happy, propose a toast to Cleopatra, telling her that even though she’s different from them, they will accept her as one of themselves. Then proceeds the famous (among the film savvy), iconic scene from “Freaks,” in which the Freaks chant over and over again to the horrified Cleopatra: “One of us! One of us! Gooba gobble, gooba gobble, we accept her, we accept her!”  Here's the Youtube link to the "One of us! One of us!" scene in case anybody would like to watch it and become a film savvy: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=39Bnk6VU53Y Cleopatra throws the wine at the freaks and she and Hercules threaten them and insult and shame Hans, who succumbs to the poison.  Hans eventually recovers and he and Frieda are reconciled, but not before the freaks, who have discovered that Cleopatra and Hercules tried to murder Hans for his money, go after the evil pair and deliver to them their just desserts, carrying out a special vengeance on Cleopatra: they capture her and turn her into a sort of squawking duck-woman so that now she, too, is a circus sideshow freak and one of them. "Freaks" was considered so horrifying when it opened in 1932 that the final "duck woman" scene caused audiences to run screaming from the theater. One woman claimed the movie caused her to miscarry. However in the 1960's the film was rediscovered and has since picked up a cult following among hard-core movie buffs such as myself (I'm not actually a cult-follower of "Freaks," just a hard-core movie buff) and the line "One of us! One of us!" is a frequent in-joke reference (that few get but from now on you will) in pop culture, as it has been on The Simpsons, Big Bang Theory, South Park, in a hilarious kiddie book my grand daughter likes called Dog Man,  ...and now at the Columbus airport.  I wonder if whoever thought up the Columbus Airport slogan googled it first?  Reference:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freaks
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What Goodreads reviewers are saying about "Equal and Opposite Reactions": "It's Hallmark meets the Sopranos in this fun and engaging read." "The characters are well developed with lots of sass, drama and wicked humor." "The characters were hilariously and perfectly flawed." "Cleverly plotted and exceptionally well written... part drama and part slapstick comedy." Buy it on Amazon http://amzn.to/2xvcgRa  The other day I found myself once again in the Columbus Airport waiting for my flight to Portland, Oregon for a visit with my sister, Romaine.  Now, over the years I've been to, and spent considerable time in, quite a number of airports: ...Chicago,  ...Los Angeles, 
 ...Minneapolis, 
 ...to name but a few. But of all the airports I've departed from, arrived at, and waited around in, I do believe the best airport of them all is:
 I say this not out of hometown pride. Columbus is a great little airport, part of its charm being that, though an international airport, it's small. One can easily find one's way around and get to where one needs to be. 
 ...and shops,  ... that one need not go hungry or do without anything one might need for one's trip. And Columbus is a comfortable, traveler-friendly airport with lots of comfortable seats and lounges,   
   
 But what I really love about the Columbus airport is that it makes me laugh. The Columbus airport has been making me laugh ever since the inception of a new slogan sometime last year which is posted, 
 ...and hung,  ... everywhere.
 ...in one's line of vision. Which never ceases to crack me up. Now, before I explain to those of you who may have no idea why "One of Us" signs posted all over the Columbus airport is so funny, I'm wondering if there are any fellow aficionados out there who also find this phenomenon hilarious, especially where so presented?  So before I share why this tickles me, I'm going to put the question out there to any other possible culture vultures who might also be in stitches over these pics of the Columbus airport:
 Anybody?
I'll share the answer tomorrow. ;) "EQUAL AND OPPOSITE REACTIONS" SALE SALE SALE ON AMAZON! Was: $19.95 Now: $16.95 "Fun and entertaining read" "Captures the complex nature of Human Emotions." "Lots of sass, drama, and wicked humor." -Amazon Reviews BUY IT ON SALE AT AMAZON! http://amzn.to/2xvcgRa  Invasion Of The LOL Dolls  If you've never heard of an LOL doll, it's a pretty sure bet you haven't had any recent interchange with a little girl in the four-to-ten-year-old range. For the uninitiated, of which I was a member until recently, the phenomenon, which, if it has not yet taken over the world, has taken over many households,  ...like an army of tiny, variegated, doe-eyed plastic space invaders. 
 ...and the LOL pets.  But the wild popularity of these toys has, I believe, less to do with the little poppets themselves than the fact that they've been marketed with 1). a shtick, and 2). a narrative. 1). The Shtick The LOL Doll's shtick is a relatively recent concept in the toy world - as explained to me by a sales associate in a Barnes & Noble where I had the wildly unexpected luck of finding one of the dolls - known as the Blind Bag, which involves the child opening layers of surprises hidden in little bags before finding the main surprise, in the case of the LOL this being the doll. The LOL Dolls - and their companion L'il Sisters and LOL Pets - are marketed as collectibles and sold in colorful spheres,    ...which require peeling back several layers before the spheres can be popped apart and the bags hidden within opened one by one, offering first little tidbits such as clues to the doll's identity, paper tattoos and stickers, then the more exciting bags containing the teeny weeny clothes and accessories.  Then finally, with the anticipation at its peak, one finds the bag containing the LOL Doll itself, and learns which of the collectibles one has acquired.  But there’s yet another surprise to come.
 Thus opening an LOL Doll is a thrill; however the thrill is most certainly amplified by: 2.) The Narrative A feat of marketing genius, there have been created for the LOL Dolls a number of companion Youtube videos, each about twenty minutes long. The videos generally begin with The Narrator, as I’m calling her – an anonymous young lady one never sees but with a sweet, energetic voice – opening an LOL sphere step by step and voicing much excitement over each discovery. My granddaughters, having watched numerous times this engaging video demonstration on opening the LOL sphere, now imitate the The Narrator's ritual when opening a new LOL Doll, including her vocal inflections and ebullience over each surprise discovery. The opening of an LOL Doll sphere is, then, a highly stylized and time-consuming process, not to be pursued in haste. After the opening - opening – scene, there ensues a little live-action feature in which The Narrator moves the LOL dolls around and speaks the part of each character.
 The story lines tend to cover fairly quotidian subjects such as going to the beach and spilling the sunscreen on the towel then getting sand on the sunscreen; going to the hospital to visit one’s new L’il Sister with spots on one’s face, causing the spots spread to all the new-born L’il Sisters in the nursery; showing the ropes to a clueless teacher at school; a birthday party. The videos, sometimes off-beat as the subject matter may be, are entertaining and somehow highly relatable for young children. They’re also rather hilarious. But more importantly, the videos serve as wellsprings of ideas for play,    …and can even offer a conduit to express – rather than act out – emotions in the face of life’s little downturns.   4 Comments
Barb Martin( [email protected] ) 4/28/2018 05:18:22 pm Loved this blog! I loved dolls (still do!) can’t wait until my granddaughter is into a phase of loving a particular kind of dolls so I can buy them for her. Patti 4/28/2018 07:43:03 pm Thanks, Barb. You'll have the twice fun with two little ones to buy for! Delete www.downloaddrasticdsemulatorapk.comlink( [email protected] ) 11/28/2018 08:36:43 am I was very pleased to find this web-site. I wanted to thanks for your time for this wonderful read!! I definitely enjoying every little bit of it and I have you bookmarked to check out new stuff you blog post. Delete Find outlink( [email protected] ) 4/20/2020 04:20:33 am I think that tiny dolls have been ruling the hearts of young kids since time immemorial, so it feels great to find the unique doll designs on some of the popular sites.   "A Quiet Place," A Troubling Metaphor
 ...a really good movie, I thought, delightfully cribbing elements from the original (and still the greatest, in my book) alien invasion movie, the 1953 flick "War of the Worlds," 
 ...which are all the jumpier in this movie because most of the film transpires in silence,  ...as, per the plot line, the humanivore alien invaders are blind but have ears as sharp as their teeth, and one false noise will bring down a lightening-strike chomp upon the unfortunate, helpless noise-maker.
 Still, for most of us "A Quiet Place" is just a movie, the fear and anxiety it produces really nothing more than a few quick thrills of adrenaline that dissipate shortly after the theater lights come back up.
 "You know," said my daughter, a psychology major, "anyone who's been in an abusive relationship with a person with an anger disorder should not see this film. It could bring up some bad upsetting emotions." I could, in fact, understand how the movie could be an emotional trigger for anyone who'd ever lived in a state of subliminal anxiety, who'd ever been conditioned to watch every step so as not to suddenly arouse the inner monster lurking within some close and inescapable relationship.  I could understand how "A Quiet Place" could be an all-too-personal metaphor for an abusive relationship. In fact, since that conversation with my daughter about the movie I've been thinking about a book by Allen Long that I read and subsequently blogged about a few months ago called "Less Than Human" (See post from 10/16/2017),  ...in which the author recounts his childhood in a wealthy suburb at the hands of his socially respected parents who beat him and his brother at the slightest infraction, real or imagined, during an era when corporal punishment was considered such standard operating procedure in the raising of children that an adult's emotional distress and inner rage could be taken out on one's children in the name of love and with society's blessing.
Hence as children Long and his brother lived what seemed to them a normal existence regularly spiked with moments of terror and physical assault, sometimes the terror being worse than the assault. I recommend reading "Less Than Human." I also recommend seeing "A Quiet Place." They're really the same story.  ...Continued from yesterday: Tom an I returned from Monterey to Los Angeles on Wednesday. On Thursday we started the day at our favorite breakfast spot, a little local eatery called Mandy's, 
 ...while Tom went Rogue One and ordered the epic strawberry-topped Pancakes. 
    
Amazingly, Scotty's is never crowded, even though the price is right, it's located right on the beach with a view of the Hermosa Beach Pier,  ...and the food is soooo good. Among us we had the roast chicken,  ...the Veggie burger, 
 
 Mayhaps Scotty's simply lacks a schtick. Which is fine by us. To be continued...
...Continued from yesterday: On Wednesday, March 28, Tom and I said good-bye to our quarters at the Presidio of Monterey military hotel (see post from 4/1/2018).  On our way to the airport we stopped at the Presidio Historical Park, located on a hilltop next to the army post, to have a look at the views below us of Monterey Bay and the surrounding landscape,   
 ...which chronicles the history of the Presidio of Monterey - "presidio" is Spanish for fortress - from its construction on that site by Spanish soldiers in 1771 to the present. In the park was posted this sign,  ...the wording of which ― especially the use of the word "hosted" ― made me laugh. (The Native Americans really should have left the Spanish, Mexicans and Americans off their guest list). As the Spanish priest Junipero Sierro (see yesterday's post) accompanied the Spanish army to Monterey, founded a mission here (which he later moved to Carmel - see post from 4/7/2018), and oversaw the economic development of the region, there is a statue of him in the park on a spot overlooking Monterey Bay.  In 2015 when Junipero Serra was proclaimed a saint by the Catholic Church there was protest against his canonization because of his subjugation and mistreatment of Native Americans and his forced suppression of their culture. At the time of his canonization some mystery protesters cut off Junipero Serra's head and threw it into the bay where it was later found. A new head was made and reattached. After our visit to the Presidio Historical Park we headed to the Monterey Airport.  We grabbed some lunch at the sole airport restaurant, where the food was not noteworthy,   ...except, perhaps, for the noteworthiness of the bread of my veggie sandwich being remarkably stale and my French fries being remarkably cold. But then, this was the only restaurant in the airport, so I guess the customers are pretty much a captive audience. 
 
 ...Continued from yesterday: On Tuesday we headed back to California Highway 1 and this time drove 30 miles South from Monterey to Big Sur, the breath-taking mountainous stretch that runs for about 70 miles along the Central California coastline.    
 ...famous for the panoramic vista from the terrace of the mountains and the sea.  Though we arrived at the restaurant’s opening at 11:30 am, there was already a waiting list, but fortunately not a long one, so we had about 10 minutes to stroll around the restaurant and take in the view.       
  However, as we were perched atop a steep cliff I got butterflies when I looked down and was careful to keep my feet tucked in. 
 …and Tom’s crab sandwich was $24.50.  The sandwiches did not include fries, which had to be purchased á la carte, and of course everybody’s going to buy fries to accompany their sandwich, even at $9.50 for a large basket, or $6.50 for a small basket, one of which Tom and I ordered and shared.  The food was nonetheless good - my veggies were topped with a very tasty basil pesto– except that the buns were so big that our sandwiches were impossible to eat as sandwiches and the so chewy were these mega-buns that they were difficult to cut with a knife, especially on the surface of the paper-lined baskets they were served in. Still, I guess Nepenthe’s credits outweigh its debits, and when we left the restaurant about an hour-and-a-half after we’d arrived there was a pretty sizable crowd waiting around the terrace to be seated.   I felt sorry for the waiting children and their parents. As for the Nepenthe experience, I felt that it was fine to do once, but I have no need to ever go there again. If I’d had to wait a long time for a seat – especially if I’d ended up with a seat without a view – I wouldn’t have felt that the experience would have been worth the view, especially since there are such lovely views to be gleaned for free from other lovely spots along Big Sur. However, the restaurant’s gift shop – which one need not patronize the restaurant to enter – was another story. I loved the Nepenthe gift shop. It was full of the neatest, prettiest, stuff.       …and also had a beautiful outdoor terrace with a view.  All the neat, pretty stuff was, of course, too expensive to buy – all right, I bought two colorful woven $12 oven mitts as a gift for my daughter – but the place was inspiring to browse. In fact it was at the Nepenthe gift shop that I discovered the bedspread environment of my dreams:    …the whole ensemble costing about $1,000. I figured I could zip over to Joann Fabrics and for a fraction of that price and buy the material to make reasonable facsimiles of the quilts, skirts, throws and pillows of my Nepenthe Dream Bed. Eh, it’ll never happen, of course. But it was nice to dream for a few minutes. After lunch we turned and headed back north up California 1,   
   
   …that led to the most beautifully scenic beach.          The hills and rock formations reminded me of the setting of a scene from one of my favorite, watch-over-and-over-again movies, “Jason and the Argonauts," when the enraged giant metal god appears from behind a hill on the beach, chases the Argonauts into the sea,  ...then wrecks their boat.  I wondered if that scene was in fact shot in this location, so I looked up the filming info on “Jason and the Argonauts” and learned that the movie was shot in Italy. My thought is that the producer could have save some bucks by filming at Pfeiffer Beah. But then, really, what do I know? After Pfeiffer Beach we headed back to Monterey, stopping for dinner at a restaurant we found in Pacific Grove called Coco’s,  ...which, we later learned, is a California restaurant chain famous for its pies, of which we later partook, though the we found the dinner food really good, too. I ordered the open-faced sirloin smothered in mushrooms and onions with a side wedge of lettuce with bleu cheese dressing, all of which was delicious. The steak was especially good, not always the case with steak – of which there are dozens of ways to ruin it – but this piece was rare as can be and so tender, and the garlic bread atop which it sat was tasty and soft.  Tom liked his grilled salmon with vegetables equally well, 
 For dessert we split a slice of the berry pie with ice cream (which, sadly, I forgot to snap), which was also delicious. On our way out of the restaurant we chatted for a few minutes with the friendly manager who, we learned, not only enjoyed his job but was a fervent practicing environmentalist, conservationist, and low-consumptionist. We’ve been gifted with such a beautiful, wonderful planet, it’s nice to know that there are some people out there who consciously care about it.. 
...Continued from yesterday: After visiting the Dali 17 museum on Monday morning (see yesterday’s post), Tom and I drove to Pacific Grove, the next town over from Monterey, to seek out some lunch. We came upon a promising-looking pizza place in a strip mall,  
 ...to the town of Carmel-by-the-Sea.
 Junipero Serra was canonized a saint in the Catholic church over much controversy in 2015.  After our tour of the Carmel Mission we drove into town. Carmel-by-the-Sea is a beautiful gem of a place, 
    
       
   On our way back to Monterey we stopped again at Pacific Grove where there is a Monarch butterfly sanctuary full of eucalyptus trees to which butterflies migrate from colder Midwestern climates to winter over from October to February, .though now the butterflies have all returned to their homes.  Before heading back to Monterey we revisited Los Amigos where found the Mexican food so good the other night, and did again.   
...Continued from yesterday: Though our plans for Monday had originally included a visit to the famous Monterey Bay Aquarium, 
 Now, I'm as fascinated and charmed as anyone by aquatic creatures and habitats, but Salvador Dali is my favorite artist, even though I've seen only a few of his actual paintings, having seen mostly photos of his works in art books.  So rather than going to the aquarium I really wanted to go to the Dali museum. Which we did. As the museum didn't open until 10 am we started out Monday morning with another walk around downtown Monterey,    ...where we discovered a doughnut shop displaying the most wonderful-looking wares, which of course we had to sample.   After our doughnut break it was almost time for the museum to open so we headed down to the bay area to the Dali 17.  
 Interestingly, the museum was filled not with Dali's more known works, with the exception of a couple of "Persistence of Memory" doubles,  ...but rather with etchings, lithographs, mixed media pieces,     
 It was not the Dali I was used to, but wonderful all the same. At one spot in the museum there was a sofa shaped like a pair of lips across which the light fell to create lines, 
 An awesome coincidence, thought I. 
...Continued from yesterday: We arrived in Monterey on Saturday afternoon and settled into our quarters at the Presidio of Monterey (see yesterday's post). Making a brief foray into town on Saturday evening,  ...we decided rather to drive to the next town over to seek out dinner, thinking that mayhaps we could find some less expensive eateries outside the touristy area. So we drove a few miles down the road to the town of Pacific Grove, where we came upon a cute-looking Mexican restaurant,  ...with a likewise cute interior,   ...reasonable prices, and yummy food. Tom ordered the lentil and bacon soup, which he pronounced very tasty, 
 On Sunday we took our first proper walk around Monterey,    
  
 
     
  
 ...and snagged ourselves some nice bagels.  
 ...which is no longer the site of the sardine canneries of John Steinbeck's era, but rather, as described on the official Cannery Row website, "Monterey California's premiere destination for great hotels, shopping, dining, family fun and nightlife." 
 
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"Tropical Depression"
by Patti Liszkay Buy it on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BTPN7NYY Archives
June 2025
I am a traveler just visiting this planet and reporting various and sundry observations,
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