Natalie Carried That Show

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Recently I discovered that episodes of The Facts of Life are available “on demand” along with other (bad) classics like One Day at a Time, Silver Spoons, Fantasy Island and others. After watching a few episodes of TFOL I was struck by how bad the show is. The writing, the plots, the acting are all awful. Was everyone brain dead in the 80s? Don’t get me wrong, I loved TFOL when it was on the air. I guess my excuse had to do with being a closeted 7th grader who wanted to go to a private school in Peekskill where boys (aka the bullies who made my adolesence hell) were nowhere to be seen. But I would assume that actual adults were responsible for the content and execution of TFOL. I am not sure what their excuse was for making such a bad show.

Having said that, Natalie, played by the ever-perky Mindy Cohn, was the only thing that gave the show any kind of humor or intelligence. She was heads and shoulders above the rest of the cast in terms of acting ability as well. I think what worked for Natalie was that she had some sense of comedic timing and verbal slapstick. It is kind of like Happy Days vs Laverne and Shirley. Decades later Happy Days is boring, preachy, overly sweet, and not funny. L&S on the other hand still has some real gut laughs thanks to the slapstick skills of Penny Marshall and Cindy Williams.

I don’t really have a point other than to say Natalie was my favorite and still is 25 years later.

All of the Womenfolk on iTunes

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At long last all of the Womenfolk’s LPs are availabe on iTunes. I am happy that I was able to help get these recordings back in circulation. But bigger thanks go to the Womenfolk themselves and particularly to Babs Cooper, the feisty blond Womanfolk who really put the leg work into getting their recordings online.

And on the Womenfolk’s MySpace page they have written a short history of the group and have included their own Bios.

You can read about The Womenfolk and WF related items here, here, here, and here.

I am REALLY sad to report that the fabulous video I have a link to elsewhere on this site has been deleted from the MySpace page where I found it. This is hugely disappointing. That makes the second video of the WF that have disappeared into the ether. Sigh.

Best Book Ever!

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I stumbled across Alan Bennett’s The Uncommon Reader while browsing the fiction section of the lovely but run down Mt. Pleasant Library here in DC. A novella of 120 pages it only took me about an hour to ready this little lovely. The story imagines the current Queen of England chasing after her corgis as they climb into a mobile library parked near Windsor Castle. Once inside to retrieve the dogs she feels obligated to check out a book. The result is that she ends up actually reading the it and going back for others. After a lifetime of meeting and knighting famous authors of all kinds, HM finds herself actually reading books for the first time in her life. For anyone who loves reading and/or is a bit of an Anglophile this book is a must. I hate to sound cliche or trite but this book really is a delightful romp. I wish it could have gone on forever.

Bermuda Part II: Get Lost Bertha!

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I am beginning to feel like I am bringing bad luck to my vacation destinations. Since we visited Northern California in May the wildfires there have wreaked havoc including one that is doing untold damage to Big Sur. We have our fingers crossed that Deetjen’s Big Sur Inn will survive.

And now, just a week after our trip to Bermuda, Hurricane Bertha is bearing down on the island. What people do in a location like that when a Hurricane shows up I have no idea. It didn’t really seem like there was anywhere for residents to flee to.

These pictures were taken in the Southern part of the island where the majority of the best beaches are. Also the scene of a disappointing snorkeling expedition. First, there wasn’t really much to see underwater. I think I saw maybe four fish. Apparently Bermuda is better for divers who like exploring shipwrecks, but being so far north in the Atlantic the reef life was pretty boring. But perhaps the worst part of the expedition was a vomitous boat ride out to the reef. The combination of being in the sun in a wet suit and the rocking of the boat made this snorkeler more than a little queasy. The embarrassment of hurling over the side of the boat in front 20 other people was mitigated by the physical relief in doing so.

Bermuda Part I: St. George

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We had a wonderful long holiday weekend in Bermuda. Neither of us had been there before and were really bowled over by how beautiful it is–and only 2.5 hours from DC by air. Right smack in the middle of the Atlantic this fish-hook shaped country is an amazingly picturesque place to spend four days. The re-insurance capital of the world, the island has plenty of money flying around with financial services outpacing a somewhat stagnant tourist industry. No doubt not everyone benefits from the prosperity. How can the middle or working classes afford housing in a country where the average home price is about $1.3 million? Although the island is starting to feel the pains of (over)development the style of the housing fits so pleasantly into the landscape it doesn’t feel overdeveloped.

Unfortunately Bermuda has a spotty record on welcoming gay and lesbian travellers. Rosie O’Donnell’s R-Family cruises dropped Bermuda as a stop when island churches threatened to protest the gay and lesbian cruise. Similarly a Bermudian was recently sentenced to 7 years in prison for attaching a gay resident with a machete to the face. However if you are not a gay traveler, but just a traveler who happens to be gay (i.e., you aren’t looking for gay clubs, beaches, etc.), then you shouldn’t miss out on this jewel of a destination.

The pictures here are of St. George on the eastern most tip of the island. It is a pretty little town and a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

California Part X: Quirky, Creative San Francisco

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Frequently on our travels as we visit great cities around the country and around the world, we are struck by how dull DC is in comparison. Believe me this is not a revelation to us and there are indeed many fascinating and wonderful things about living in DC. But man, oh, man does it lack the creative heart of so many other cities.

In our wanderings around the Hayes Valley neighborhood, we came across Symposium Great Books Institute. It is one of the dozens of cool, creative shops you can find in Hayes Valley and no doubt one of the hundreds you find spread across the city. The stock and staff at Symposium focus on the Classics. (That’s right with a capital ‘C’) Not only do the sell the Classics, but they hold discussion group classes on them as well. With space at the back of the store for a big table for folks to gather round, customers and staff come together for a little literary discussion.

It is the kind of place that you could imagine the legions of well-educated types who call DC home could really get into if they could only tear themselves away from reading politic science and political biographies. In fact Symposium is run by two graduates of St. John’s College in Annapolis, just a hop, skip and a jump from Washington. Offering only one course of study and one degree, St. John’s is a “Great Books” school where all students pretty much follow the same curricula of reading and dissecting the major works of Western Civilization. For the classics of Eastern Civilizations students can head out to the Santa Fe campus for a Master’s degree.

California Part IX: San Francisco

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After several days exploring the coast, we headed into the City for two nights at the Fairmont and two nights staying with friends. Besides taking in “Sex and the City” the weekend it opened, we spent most of our time enjoying the lovely, cool weather and the fresh breezes–all the more glorious to us because we knew the hot, humid, polluted air we would be headed back to in DC.

The first two pictures were taken from the ferry on our way across the bay to Sausilito. (As much as we love San Francisco, we had to admit that Sydney Harbour is more impressive.) The third picture is taken from a residential neighborhood in Sausilito. The final picture is the de Young Museum.
Unlike DC, buses in SF are actually convenient and rather pleasant to use. Not to mention the fact that most run on electricity which makes for a much quieter bus.