http://my.greasy.com/susil/ susil's Blog en-us © 2010 Greasy.com All rights reserved. Fri, 12 Mar 2010 14:15:47 GMT 30 http://my.greasy.com/susil/oscars_2.html Sandra Bullock looked terrific, and won best actress. I hardly recognized her with long sleek hair, and a gorgeous simple gown--and she wore red lipstick! I hope the monochrome looks disappears and women aren't afraid of using lipstick again. Jeff Bridges won best actor; good for him. Molly Ringwald was a presenter, and talk about unrecognizable! She looked sleek too, with long straight hair and a beautiful gown, but nothing like I remember her. The actress who played "Princess" in the tit ... http://my.greasy.com/susil/oscars_2.html#comments Mon, 8 Mar 2010 21:23:52 GMT http://my.greasy.com/susil/axis_bump.html I heard on NPR that the Chilean earthquake bumped the Earth three degrees off its axis. That is astonishing, and I assume the earth righted itself and went right back to its usual orbit and axis right away. I was just grumping about how dreary and bleak everything looks now; then I think of our blue planet, a blue and white pearl in the vastness of interplanetary space, of how precious and special it is and how remarkable and extraordinary that we live and breathe on its surface as it make ... http://my.greasy.com/susil/axis_bump.html#comments Sat, 6 Mar 2010 23:14:59 GMT http://my.greasy.com/susil/town.html Junior Duggins and his wife Pearl have a business on the outskirts of town and like a lot of other small business owners, they are trying hard to survive during these lean economic times. Their place has two gas pumps out front. Inside to the left is a convenience store type setup, and they've recently converted the right side into a restaurant. They hired an artist to paint the Biloxi lighthouse on the back wall, and shrimp boats on an opposite wall. In between the paintings is a draped f ... http://my.greasy.com/susil/town.html#comments Sat, 6 Mar 2010 22:18:11 GMT http://my.greasy.com/susil/idiot_driver.html Early Monday morning I went to see the cardiologist--about seven years ago I had a spell of atrial fib, so once a year I go back to the doctor, the nurse runs an EKG, the doctor looks at it, every year it's been fine and I go home. As long as I stay away from caffeine, everything's hunky dory. Something in the de-caffeinating process changes the taste of coffee and tea for the worse, but that's what I have to stick with. What's interesting is, the doctor says beer or some hard liquors trig ... http://my.greasy.com/susil/idiot_driver.html#comments Fri, 5 Mar 2010 15:42:19 GMT http://my.greasy.com/susil/powers_gone.html I saw some men who work for the Canadian National Railroad in the general store in town. Did you know the Canadians own the trains and the tracks they run on in the United States? So I ask what's to keep some terrorist from putting one of those suitcase sized atomic bombs on a train in Canada, and have it come into the heart of any American city? They kind of laughed and said "We have our own policemen." Yeah, I'll bet. They didn't really seem to believe that this would be any great hindra ... http://my.greasy.com/susil/powers_gone.html#comments Fri, 26 Feb 2010 22:12:19 GMT http://my.greasy.com/susil/geographers_library.html Jeri sent me a book, "The Geographer's Library" by Jon Fasman for Christmas. This novel is so good, so packed with great writing it's like a piece of rich dense cake that you enjoy a little at a time--I have to force myself to put it down--(however my eyes only hold out for a few pages every day anyway, so it's a moot point.) I'm only halfway through but already hate the thought of it ending. This is an intertwined story about the past and the present. Here goes: Paul Tomm is a young colle ... http://my.greasy.com/susil/geographers_library.html#comments Thu, 25 Feb 2010 21:56:05 GMT http://my.greasy.com/susil/little_perfect.html My only grandchild, 18 year old grand-daughter Shelle, is in the Miss Teen Texas International beauty pageant. She and her mother are stressed out from the tanning sessions, the work out sessions, the dieting, the shopping for gowns and shoes, the whole nine yards of the beauty pageant scene. Each Teen Texas contestant must have a topic platform, such as heart disease or breast cancer. Shelle chose diabetes--I'm proud of that; it's a devastating and under diagnosed disease. I've seen the T ... http://my.greasy.com/susil/little_perfect.html#comments Sun, 21 Feb 2010 20:01:43 GMT http://my.greasy.com/susil/red_beans_rice.html Here at Mardi Gras time everybody cooks red beans and rice, even myself who rarely make the effort because cooking red beans is like cooking rocks. When southerners say "red beans" they mean kidney beans. You have to soak them overnight, then I put them in a crock pot and cook them all day. Even after hours of simmering, you can stir a pot full of these rocks--er--beans and still find some, well, still rock-ish. But after I think they're completely soft (think) then I add sausage or bacon, ... http://my.greasy.com/susil/red_beans_rice.html#comments Thu, 18 Feb 2010 03:03:35 GMT http://my.greasy.com/susil/heiress.html TCM is having an Oscar retrospective in February. They're showing Oscar winning and Oscar nominated movies all month. The Heiress was shown tonight; one of the best. From 1949, here is the cast: OLIVIA deHAVILLAND--as Katherina Sloper RALPH RICHARDSON--As Doctor Sloper,her wealthy father MONTGOMERY CLIFT--As Morris Townsend, Katherine's penniless suitor MIRIAM HOPKINS--As Aunt Lavinia "a fortune hunter charms a doctor's plain daughter 1n 19th century New York." Katherine is raised by her f ... http://my.greasy.com/susil/heiress.html#comments Tue, 16 Feb 2010 06:34:42 GMT http://my.greasy.com/susil/father_lord.html Israeli movie,2007, subtitled. I've seen a lot of good foreign films lately and this is another one. Abraham, an aging Hassidic rabbi and his wife Esther feel blessed by God when a son, Menachem is born to them. They delight in the boy and love him deeply. The boy's mother never lets him out of her sight because the child is so precious to her. One day the rabbi and his wife takes the boy to the Dead Sea for a day at the beach. The men gather on a separate beach from the women. Mid afterno ... http://my.greasy.com/susil/father_lord.html#comments Mon, 15 Feb 2010 03:31:37 GMT http://my.greasy.com/susil/greetings_siberia.html Hello, and I'm not kidding when I say greetings from what normally is deep south temperate climated Mississippi. It's been Siberia around here. It is ironic that snow is having to be trucked in to the Winter Olynmpic site, while here there has been snow galore. Following a day of sleety rain on Thursday, it started to snow during the night and Friday morning woke to a world covered with a blanket of white, and still coming down. Falling snow is so beautiful, fairy like, fascinating. I push ... http://my.greasy.com/susil/greetings_siberia.html#comments Sat, 13 Feb 2010 22:04:09 GMT http://my.greasy.com/susil/lady_chatterly.html I intended to go to bed early Sunday night because I had errands to run Monday--but noooo, just as I was turning off the TV, "Lady Chatterly" came on the Sundance Channel. This was the French version of D.H. Lawrence's novel "Lady Chatterly's Lover." It had subtitles, and when a movie has subtitles you can't make a run to the bathroom etc. because you'll miss what's happening; you have to be reading the bottom of the screen continuously. A movie in English, you can wash dishes or go to the ... http://my.greasy.com/susil/lady_chatterly.html#comments Wed, 10 Feb 2010 04:40:47 GMT http://my.greasy.com/susil/shadows_doomsday.html I was watching just now a show on National Geographic called "Doomsday," about what would happen if terrorists detonated a nuclear weapon on Washington D.C. So the current head of FEMA and other government agencies made statements about how that situation would be handled--and getting a handle on it would chaotic at best. The aftermath would probably be managed better than the mess in Haiti, but organization of resources would be scatter shot at best, because no country can be really prepa ... http://my.greasy.com/susil/shadows_doomsday.html#comments Sat, 6 Feb 2010 20:59:55 GMT http://my.greasy.com/susil/poem_twa_corbies.html Author unknown, Middle Ages, Old Scottish   As I was walking all alane I heard twa corbies making a mane The tane unto the tither did say ' Whar sall we gang and dine today?' 'In behint yon auld fail dyke I wot there lies a new slain knight; And naebody kens that he lies there But his hawk, his hound, and his lady fair.' 'The hound is to the hunting gane His hawk to fetch the wild fowl hame, His lady's ta'en another mate So we may make our dinner sweet.' 'Ye'll sit on his white hause bane ... http://my.greasy.com/susil/poem_twa_corbies.html#comments Wed, 3 Feb 2010 19:35:34 GMT http://my.greasy.com/susil/twa_corbies.html Now this is how inane things come about with me--I mentioned to friend Dottie that the prolonged bitter cold must have killed off a lot of songbirds, because I don't hear them singing in the morning anymore. The only thing you can count on hearing are crows. Then I say to Dottie the cold has even  grounded the buzzards. They have to have warm thermals to help get up in the air and soar without flapping their wings. The thermals also bring them scents of carrion from the ground below. But ... http://my.greasy.com/susil/twa_corbies.html#comments Mon, 1 Feb 2010 18:36:51 GMT http://my.greasy.com/susil/putz_times.html John Edwards has come out and acknowledged he is the father of his mistresses' baby. On Dateline, his aide worker who first claimed to be the father, has written a book about it and all the devious, underhanded, sneaky, sordid conniving that Edwards did to cover his tracks. Edwards kept telling his mistress they would marry as soon as his wife (Elizabeth) died. What a putz! I hear Elizabeth his finally kicked him out of the house, and according to the Enquirer, Edwards is hanging around ba ... http://my.greasy.com/susil/putz_times.html#comments Sun, 31 Jan 2010 21:01:39 GMT http://my.greasy.com/susil/battle_ready_i_hope.html Yesterday was nice; mild and sunny. Coming back from the store saw a convoy of Army vehicles. During the breaks in the weather, the National Guard has been training at Camp Shelby, located through the woods in the DeSoto National Forest. I could hear the distant "thumps" and "whumps" of artillery fire and big guns. Not the big stuff that rattles the windows, though. Helicopters flew over. The sand colored Army trucks rolled past. Our boys playing soldier, dressed in their desert camo. I pu ... http://my.greasy.com/susil/battle_ready_i_hope.html#comments Fri, 29 Jan 2010 20:23:26 GMT http://my.greasy.com/susil/stinky.html Phew! My kitchen area is past odiferous, gone into the realm of stinky. I noticed a bad odor coming from the refrigerator area, so I cleaned out the frige with soapy bleachy water and looked in all the nooks and crannies for moldy stuff or for a forgotten package of meat etc. but actually the frige was in good shape. I only found some sealed old cheese dip and threw it out, but that wasn't the source of the smell. I finally realized there must be a dead mouse either under or behind the fri ... http://my.greasy.com/susil/stinky.html#comments Wed, 27 Jan 2010 16:07:41 GMT http://my.greasy.com/susil/witch.html Okay, I heard this on the "Rick and Bubba" radio show Thursday morning. These two dudes are religious and had on their show two young women who were missionaries to Haiti. I tuned in just in time to hear one of the young ladies saying they had visited an orphanage on the Haitian coast to see how things were faring there. This orphanage is run by Haitian Christians. She said the Haitian man in charge of the orphanage told them "they had seen a witch flying over the orphanage, and recognized ... http://my.greasy.com/susil/witch.html#comments Sun, 24 Jan 2010 00:13:55 GMT http://my.greasy.com/susil/magnolias_story.html Talking with a visitor about straying men (re: Tiger Woods, et al) I remembered a nurse aide who worked on my hospital floor years ago. "Magnolia" was a black lady who worked hard and enjoyed her job. She had raised four kids by herself. Also working sometimes on the night shift was Mary, a little woman who often came to work with bruises on her arms and face. Mary would always say she had "tripped" or "fallen" but it was sub rosa knowledge that she was beaten by her big galoot of a husban ... http://my.greasy.com/susil/magnolias_story.html#comments Fri, 22 Jan 2010 02:30:02 GMT