Links I Love • November 2022

Cheers · Santé · Tchin tchin · Skål · Clink

• How Toasting Drinks Is A Bit More Complicated In France

• Which Authors do You Wish You Could Have Dinner With? Sign me up for an expat dinner party in Paris is the 1920s — Hemingway, Fitzgerald, etc.

• How to Nurture a Personal Library

• The Apartment Above the Famous Book Shop from “Notting Hill” Is for Sale

• The Paris 2024 Olympic Mascots Are Hats. Here's Why. (NPR)

• The Transformative Power Of A Fringe At 50 (Vogue)

• 11 Films that Encapsulate French Girl Style (Vogue) — I’ve seen 8/11.

• 21 European Cities That Are Even Better in Winter (CN Traveler) — I have visited only 4 and will be revisiting 3 in 2024, but I haven’t been to any of these cities in winter.

Currently • November 2022

"As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest form of appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them." — JFK

READING: A lot of professional development and some palate cleansers

• Make Just One Change: Teach Students to Ask Their Own Questions by Dan Rothstein and Luz Santana — “The authors of Make Just One Change argue that formulating one’s own questions is ‘the single most essential skill for learning’—and one that should be taught to all students” (Goodreads).

• A Handbook for Developing and Using Proficiency Scales in the Classroom: (A clear, practical handbook for creating and utilizing high-quality proficiency scales) by Jan K. Hoegh et al.

• The Age of Light by Whitney Sharer — “The true story of Vogue model turned renowned photographer Lee Miller, and her search to forge a new identity as an artist after a life spent as a muse. ‘I'd rather take a photograph than be one,’ she declares after she arrives in Paris in 1929, where she soon catches the eye of the famous Surrealist Man Ray…Lee's journey of self-discovery takes took her from the cabarets of bohemian Paris to the battlefields of war-torn Europe during WWII, from inventing radical new photography techniques to documenting the liberation of the concentration camps as one of the first female war correspondents. Through it all, Lee must grapple with the question of whether it's possible to stay true to herself while also fulfilling her artistic ambition--and what she will have to sacrifice to do so” (Goodreads).

• The Radium Girls: The Dark Story of America's Shining Women by Kate Moore — “Written with a sparkling voice and breakneck pace, The Radium Girls fully illuminates the inspiring young women exposed to the "wonder" substance of radium, and their awe-inspiring strength in the face of almost impossible circumstances. Their courage and tenacity led to life-changing regulations, research into nuclear bombing, and ultimately saved hundreds of thousands of lives” (Goodreads).

WATCHING:

• Notre-Dame: La Part du feu on Netflix — “During the night that Notre-Dame burned. It's about the destiny of men and women who have their own fire to put out. As the Paris firefighters try to stop the flames from spreading in the Cathedral, the show also follows characters being put through the wringer they will have to fight each other, love each other, come across each other, hate each other, smile at or help each other so that, in the end, they may have a chance to start all over again” (IMDb)

• The Crown - Season 5 on Netflix — 1991 to 1997 (just before the fatal crash in Paris): “These years were always going to be provocative, spanning marital chaos, fragile mental health and public confessions of infidelity among members of the royal family” (NYT).

• Where the Crawdads Sing on Netflix — “A woman who raised herself in the marshes of the Deep South becomes a suspect in the murder of a man with whom she was once involved” (IMDb). Great book. Good movie.

• A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving — “Peppermint Patty invites herself and her friends over to Charlie Brown's for Thanksgiving, and with Linus, Snoopy, and Woodstock, he attempts to throw together a Thanksgiving dinner” (IMDb). I love Peanuts.

LISTENING TO: I’m still in cool jazz mode and will likely keep listening to Vince Guaraldi radio on Pandora throughout the holidays. A November favorite is always George Winston’s Autumn.

ENJOYING:

• Beyond Monet at the Wisconsin Center — It was lovely, yet although I prefer Monet’s paintings of waterlilies, regattas, picnics, etc., I do think that last year’s Beyond Van Gogh was more engaging.

• The first snow of the season — I just love it.

• Slowly decorating for the holidays — I was home sick for two days (bronchitis) and beautifully falling snow inspired me to slowly start bringing out the holiday decorations. Usually, I am insistent about celebrating one holiday at at time; therefore, no Christmas decorations come out until after Thanksgiving. Yet, this year, I started with “winter” decorations — my little white village, snowflakes, etc. I will go full-on Christmas on November 25th. We are having guests stay with us from December 1-4 and I want our house to be festive and welcoming.

Beyond Monet

« Il faut capter la lumière et la jeter directement sur la toile . » — Claude Monet.

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October 2022 in Pictures

“I’m so glad we live in a world where there are Octobers.” — Lucy Maude Montgomery, Anne of Green Gables

Links I Love • October 2022

“You can have the finest pen, typewriter, or computer, but without a set of eyes that truly see the world, you might as well have none of it.” — Thurman P. Banks Jr.

• How To Find Your Personal Style — I just did a fall purge of my already well-curated capsule wardrobe.

• Legendary Paris Restaurants That Live Up to the Hype (Food + Wine) - Maybe I’ll visit one in March. Probably should reserve now.

• The 18 Best Places for Shopping in Paris — How have I only been to four of these? So much to discovery!

• Five Paris Museums for Fashion Lovers

• The Paris 2024 Olympic Games: Everything You Need to Know

• Paris Métro Paper Ticket Reaches End of the Line After More than 120 Years — While I completely understand the cost and environmental ramifications of the paper tickets, this does make me sad. I still find canceled Métro tickets in pockets of my coats and used as bookmarks in several of my books. I even wrote my name and number on an old green ticket the night I met my husband.

• What Hemingway Left in Sloppy Joe’s Bar 80 Years Ago — Four unpublished short stories, drafts of manuscripts and boxes of personal effects…I continue to be intrigued by this fascinating albeit problematic man.

• Apple Original Films Lands Animated Short Film “The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse,” Based on the Beloved Award-Winning Book by Charlie Mackesy

• 19 Punctuation Marks You Never Knew You Needed — A great read for grammar geeks like me and perhaps an extension of my 2022 Word of the Year.

Currently • October 2022

“Autumn is a second spring when every leaf is a flower.” — Albert Camus.

READING:

• Jacqueline in Paris by Ann Mah — “Evocative, sensitive, and rich in historic detail, Jacqueline in Paris portrays the origin story of an American icon. Ann Mah brilliantly imagines the intellectual and aesthetic awakening of Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis, and illuminates how France would prove to be her one true love, and one of the greatest influences on her life” (Goodreads).

• Hotel Nantucket by Elin Hilderbrand — “After a tragic fire in 1922 that killed 19-year-old chambermaid, Grace Hadley, The Hotel Nantucket descended from a gilded age gem to a mediocre budget-friendly lodge to inevitably an abandoned eyesore — until it's purchased and renovated top to bottom by London billionaire, Xavier Darling. Xavier hires Nantucket sweetheart Lizbet Keaton as his general manager, and Lizbet, in turn, pulls together a charismatic, if inexperienced, staff who share the vision of turning the fate of the hotel around. They face challenges in getting along with one another (and with the guests), in overcoming the hotel's bad reputation, and in surviving the (mostly) harmless shenanigans of Grace Hadley herself — who won't stop haunting the hotel until her murder is acknowledged” (Goodreads). This genre is outside my comfort zone, but this summer, I did enjoy a couple of books by Elin Hilderbrand. I think what I liked most is the Nantucket setting and lifestyle. This one fell short for me — too much gratuitous, predictable romance and ridiculous paranormal activity.

WATCHING:

• Hocus Pocus and Hocus Pocus 2 on Disney+ — The Sanderson Sisters are back. Great seasonal fun.

• Derry Girls Season 3 on Netflix — “Derry Girls,” the raucous Netflix comedy created by Lisa McGee, is about two long-simmering states of conflict: the Troubles in Northern Ireland and adolescence…returns for its third and final season Friday, is first and foremost a brutally funny coming-of-age story, following five working-class friends at a Catholic girls’ school in the 1990s. But the larger political battle is ever-present, even in the show’s title… “Londonderry” is the official name, preferred by Protestant unionists who support Northern Ireland’s remaining part of the United Kingdom; “Derry” is how [the girls’] Catholic friends and neighbors know it. In the intro, the camera sails above youths spray-painting over the “London-” on a road sign, as a military vehicle passes and “Dreams” by the Cranberries plays on the soundtrack” (New York Times). This was such a good show.

• The Sound of 007 documentary on Prime — “the remarkable history of six decades of James Bond music, going behind the lens into one of the greatest movie franchise and the iconic 007 theme song” (iMDb).

• And of course, It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown, a seasonal tradition (at least once in October)

LISTENING TO:

• My personally curated Halloween playlist: “Thriller” (Michael Jackson), “Superstition” (Stevie Wonder), “Zombie” (The Cranberries), “Devil Inside” (INXS), “Ghost Town” (The Specials), “Psycho Killer” (Talking Heads), “Peek-a-boo” (Siouxsie & the Banshees), “Dead Man’s Party” (Oingo Boingo), “I Want Candy” (Bow Wow Wow), “Time Warp” (Rocky Horror Picture Show), “Season of the Witch” (Donovan), “I Put a Spell on You” (Nina Simone), “Banana Boat Song” (from Beetlejuice - Harry Belafonte) “Evil Ways” (Santana), “Ghostbusters” (Ray Parker, Jr.), “Somebody’s Watching Me” (Rockwell), “Spooky” (Classics IV), “The Munsters”, “The Addams Family”, “Love Potion Number Nine” (The Searchers), “Purple People Eater” (Sheb Wooley), and of course, “The Great Pumpkin Waltz” (Vince Guaraldi).

• Cool jazz: It just reminds me of fall.

ENJOYING

• October — The crisp air, the brilliant colors, the smell of fallen leaves, the evenings that are still warm enough to linger on the deck with a fire and a glass of red, and even the snow (yes, it snowed on October 17th).

• A long weekend in Door County