Good morning! [It's Tuesday morning, here and now...]
I watched Hobson's Choice (1954) the other night---another David Lean–directed film about which there is much to say (sexual awakening + shoe-making... and funny!), but what most affected me was watching the characters drinking tea:
their teacups were truly a cup: one cup. Eight ounces.
Cups of such size used to be considered normal, before we started drinking out of mugs the size of small plant pots.
I drink my morning coffee out of a hideous plastic travel mug, which keeps the coffee hot and off my keyboard,
but I decided to start using my favorite ceramic mug---only 8 oz.
I'd bought it for its Moomin character Too-Ticky--but even as I bought it, I thought it was too small to use.
Ridiculous.
I drink the smaller amount of coffee before it can get cold, and the mug's too short to knock over as easily as the big mugs I've spilled before.
_________
So, here we are in August and it seems as if half the bloggers and other folks I know are on vacation, or otherwise occupied.
(I am sending loving thoughts to OCA, who is on blog hiatus to be with his seriously ill father.)
I'm at loose ends, myself, waiting for stuff to start, or end, or end and start again.
The publisher has offered me four books to edit--hurrah!--but they are not ready to be worked on yet.
Next week, someone is coming to repair my leaky old windows (hopefully), so this winter I won't be frozen in (literally, the windows would freeze over, on the inside!). The home-owner is arranging this, so all I have to do is get me and my furniture out of the way.
Luckily Sister offered the use of her kitchen next Friday, for me to bake 100 cupcakes in for Jill's wedding. Not only does she have central a/c, but she has a professional oven. Mine is like my windows: old and leaky.
Marz moves on September 1, and both of us wish her new place had been open August 1, so the move would now be behind us.
I was limp with sadness yesterday, thinking of her being gone.
Then she came home and was such a rude child, I thought she couldn't be gone too soon!
It's a little weird when it's not your child, but I imagine many parents will recognize these contradictory feelings.
I don't know how we will relate once we live apart. Better, in the long run, I hope, but perhaps not. I want to hurry up and know.
But Too-Ticky wisely advises, "Don’t be in such a hurry… Sit down and wait."
She also says, when asked about a song she's singing,
"It’s a song of myself… The refrain is about the things one can’t understand. I’m thinking about the aurora borealis. You can’t tell if it really does exist or if it just looks like existing.
"All things are so very uncertain, and that’s exactly what makes me feel reassured."
_________
Too-Ticky is a commonsense maker of things.
Moomin creator Tove Jansson (below, right) based Too-Ticky on her real life-partner, sculptor Tuulikki “Tooti” Pietilä (below, left).
Photo, 1960, via [Finnish site]
Too-Ticky reminds me a bit of bink, and also of Nick Offerman (woodworker and actor who plays Ron Swanson on TV's Parks & Rec).
Not Ron, but Nick (though I say that cautiously, not knowing a whole lot about N.O. except he makes stuff and he says whacko-common sensical things).
Here's Offerman and his wife, Megan Mullally, from a New York magazine interview:
I watched Hobson's Choice (1954) the other night---another David Lean–directed film about which there is much to say (sexual awakening + shoe-making... and funny!), but what most affected me was watching the characters drinking tea:
their teacups were truly a cup: one cup. Eight ounces.
 | |
| Legendary British actor John Mills drinking a cup of tea during a break in filming Hobson's Choice |
but I decided to start using my favorite ceramic mug---only 8 oz.
I'd bought it for its Moomin character Too-Ticky--but even as I bought it, I thought it was too small to use.
Ridiculous.
I drink the smaller amount of coffee before it can get cold, and the mug's too short to knock over as easily as the big mugs I've spilled before.
_________
So, here we are in August and it seems as if half the bloggers and other folks I know are on vacation, or otherwise occupied.
(I am sending loving thoughts to OCA, who is on blog hiatus to be with his seriously ill father.)
I'm at loose ends, myself, waiting for stuff to start, or end, or end and start again.
The publisher has offered me four books to edit--hurrah!--but they are not ready to be worked on yet.
Next week, someone is coming to repair my leaky old windows (hopefully), so this winter I won't be frozen in (literally, the windows would freeze over, on the inside!). The home-owner is arranging this, so all I have to do is get me and my furniture out of the way.
Luckily Sister offered the use of her kitchen next Friday, for me to bake 100 cupcakes in for Jill's wedding. Not only does she have central a/c, but she has a professional oven. Mine is like my windows: old and leaky.
Marz moves on September 1, and both of us wish her new place had been open August 1, so the move would now be behind us.
I was limp with sadness yesterday, thinking of her being gone.
Then she came home and was such a rude child, I thought she couldn't be gone too soon!
It's a little weird when it's not your child, but I imagine many parents will recognize these contradictory feelings.
I don't know how we will relate once we live apart. Better, in the long run, I hope, but perhaps not. I want to hurry up and know.
But Too-Ticky wisely advises, "Don’t be in such a hurry… Sit down and wait."
She also says, when asked about a song she's singing,
"It’s a song of myself… The refrain is about the things one can’t understand. I’m thinking about the aurora borealis. You can’t tell if it really does exist or if it just looks like existing.
"All things are so very uncertain, and that’s exactly what makes me feel reassured."
_________
Too-Ticky is a commonsense maker of things.
Moomin creator Tove Jansson (below, right) based Too-Ticky on her real life-partner, sculptor Tuulikki “Tooti” Pietilä (below, left).
Too-Ticky reminds me a bit of bink, and also of Nick Offerman (woodworker and actor who plays Ron Swanson on TV's Parks & Rec).
Not Ron, but Nick (though I say that cautiously, not knowing a whole lot about N.O. except he makes stuff and he says whacko-common sensical things).
Here's Offerman and his wife, Megan Mullally, from a New York magazine interview:
"...I imagine many parents will recognize these contradictory feelings."
ReplyDeleteOh, ABSO-lutely! It is the transition that causes the chaotic, contradictory feelings - the uncomfortable limbo, nothing going forward, but things too far forward to go back. Arrrggh!
But, just like the belly full of gas from eating all those bean burritos, this, too, shall pass.
Still, I'm sending an empathetic hug your way - and one for the rude child.
More proof, if any is needed, that what we complain of in other only reflects what is the matter in ourselves. Nothing, really, to do with you. Her rudeness is all about her. You are in her *way* right now, physically, emotionally, psychically. "Don't you know that?" she asks. Well, jeeze.
ReplyDeleteI *like* my big mugs of tea. I like a mug I can get my hand in, to clean it properly. But then, I'm clumsy, and break delicate things.
Love the photo of Offerman & spouse.
CROW: Thanks for the confirmation... and the hug!
ReplyDeleteZHOEN: Jeeze, exactly! That's it--I'm in her way, and she's impatient with that, which she lets me know.
I break dishes too---I like my little Moomin mug because it's sturdy.
I'd send those bone china cups & saucers flying!
I love when people with regular bodies are brave about showing them. Not the Hollywood norm. I appreciated Jennifer Aniston being honest enough to say that it's not hard to stay in shape when you get a million dollars for it.
Too-Ticky is so wise.
ReplyDeleteAnd Tove looks a LOT like Marz in that picture.