-Benjamin Disraeli
I wasn't home all day- first at work, then out with family- so this post is late. And I'm just sitting down to watch a spooky movie recommended by a friend: The Changeling (1980) starring George C. Scott. I know nothing about it, so have no idea what to expect, although the fact that it's a 1980 Canadian production doesn't fill me with confidence. Who knows, though; maybe it'll be good though this friend's taste is a little suspect, considering some other films that she likes. I'll let you know how it goes. In the meantime I thought I'd link to some previously spooky works I watched/read:
Last Thursday through Saturday, I was away for a trip to the ladies' conference in New Brunswick that I attend annually, traveling with two of my sisters and four other women who were also attending. We had decided to go a day ahead of time (leaving Thursday morning at 5:30 am) and travel to Bangor, Maine to spend a day and night. The trip was uneventful and we arrived in Bangor around lunchtime, having gained an hour by changing time zones. Once there we did some shopping, though I only really spent any money in two places: After hitting these two spots, I was about done and so were my sisters; none of us are really big shoppers. But the other ladies were there with a plan- they had a list of stores they wanted to shop at, an itemized list of what they wanted to buy at each store, and a schedule for time allotted at each one. The book store hadn't figured in their plans, but once I saw it, I was going there so I and my sisters bought books while the other ladies went to Kohl's and a couple of other stores. We had a fun night; we went out to dinner at the local Olive Garden- my first time eating there- and then went back to our hotel where we went swimming in the hotel pool and then watched a movie. To my chagrin, a Hallmark movie was chosen. I had only sat through one of these before, and it had been terrible. The one we watched... I can't remember what it was called... was also bad, though not as ghastly as I recall the previous one I viewed being. This one featured some urban chick was staying at this inn in a rural area, leaving her jackass fiance in the city. The innkeeper just happens to be a salt-of-the-earth, ruggedly handsome smalltown guy. She's there incognito on business for her father and is supposed to get home before Christmas, but there are delays, there's a snowstorm, she and innkeeper guy are thrown together helping the townspeople... stop me if you've heard this before. Actually, I don't know exactly how the movie ended because I fell asleep before it was over but if I had to guess, I'd say that after some emotional drama, she ditched the fiance and got together with the rugged innkeeper just in time to have a Merry Christmas with him. The next morning after breakfast, the ladies were raring to go shopping again (we didn't have to sign in at the conference until between 6:30 and 7:00 that evening) so we checked out and hit the mall. I personally was about done with shopping as were my sisters, so we decided to drop the others off and then go do a little sightseeing; I mentioned that I'd heard there was a really big statue of Paul Bunyan in Bangor, so off we went to find him. He is really big. We met up with the others in time for lunch and ate at Chick-Fil-A, also a first for me. Then, after they shopped a bit more (sigh) it was time to head back to the border and then Hartland, New Brunswick. We were a little bit late arriving for the conference check in, but didn't miss anything. This is where we were staying while there: Most of the leaves had fallen, but there was still a beautiful view of the Saint Johns River behind the house. The conference was really good- so was the food- and then it was time to return home to Nova Scotia, tired but happy late Saturday night. I then overslept and had to rush to get to church in the morning. After this was Sunday family dinner, then yesterday it was back to work to catch up on two missed days of incoming orders and their associated invoices. Yesterday evening was spent carving jack o'lanterns with a few young nieces. Here's my finished product: Not as elaborate as some others I've carved over the years, but I was tired and didn't feel like fussing too much with it. Anyway, that's what I've been up to over the past number of days, and why I've barely been online.
Spent some quality time with a few young nephews the other night... it's been a number of years since I watched any Batman: The Animated Series, arguably the best iteration of Batman to appear onscreen, both big and small. We watched a couple of episodes: Almost Got 'Im and Joker's Wild. Almost Got 'Im is a great- and quite funny- episode of TAS in which some of the regular villains- Joker, Penguin, Poison Ivy, Two-Face, and Croc- get together to play a game of poker and swap stories of times when they almost took down Batman. Come for the well-written plot, the noir-esque style, and the witty repartee between baddies, stay for the twist ending. Here's a clip of the opening of the episode: The second episode we watched, Joker's Wild, isn't as iconic as Almost Got 'Im perhaps, but it's still a fun time. And it admirably demonstrates how this show never talked down to kids by basing the plot of the episode on- wait for it- insurance fraud. While the Joker is an involuntary guest at Arkham Asylum, a tycoon in Gotham builds a Joker-themed casino in the city. While he claims that any resemblance to the criminally insane Joker is purely coincidental, the casino is garishly plastered with what is unmistakably the Joker's face. It turns out that the casino went way over budget; faced with out of control costs and looming bankruptcy, the owner decided to make some cosmetic changes to the building (making it Joker themed) in the hopes that the actual Joker would show up, enraged, and destroy the place so that he - the tycoon- could collect the insurance money on it. The Joker is indeed inclined to be furious when, while watching television in the common room at the Asylum, sees the grand opening of the casino- (named Joker's Wild). He immediately declares his intention to take his revenge, setting out to break out of Arkham and make his way to Joker's Wild, intent on bringing the entire gambling establishment crashing down. And this brings him face-to-mask with Batman. Related Posts: Writing fake documents to trick the Nazis into believing Greece was the intended spot for invasion proved trickier than the conspirators realized it would be. Ewen Montagu had drawn up a list of requirements for the letter: it must mention the fictional invasion site in Greece, it must also let it drop that Sicily and another landing spot would be being used as decoys to draw attention from the actual (false) invasion point, and it must sound like an informal letter between two high ranking officers. It had to be an informal letter because any formal correspondence would have been sent by a diplomatic courier, or by encoded signal, and the Germans would know that. And, of course, only officers of considerable rank would have knowledge of plans for the invasion of Europe. The team decided to have the document be a personal letter between Lieutenant General Sir Archibald Nye, the vice chief of the Imperial General Staff and General Sir Harold Alexander, commander of the Anglo-American 18th Army Group in Algeria and Tunisia under General Eisenhower (he later became Governor General of Canada). However, every attempt the MI5 team made to write this letter within the necessary parameters failed; Montagu thought it repeatedly came off as stiff and unnatural. So it was suggested that they have General Nye write it himself, and to their relief the result was much better. To add realism, Nye also wrote to Alexander about a couple of actual issues- the awarding of Purple Hearts by the Americans to British soldiers who served with them (the British brass weren't in favour) and the necessary appointment of a new commander to the Brigade of Guards. The result was a missive which read as a normal communication between two acquainted serving officers. The important part of the letter read as follows: "We have recent information that the Boche have been reinforcing and strengthening their defences in Greece and Crete and C.I.G.S. felt that our forces for the assault were insufficient. It was agreed by the Chiefs of Staff that the 5th Division should be reinforced by one Brigade Group for the assault on the beach south of Cape Araxos and that a similar reinforcement should be made for the 56th Division at Kalamata." Just to clarify a couple of phrases, C.I.G.S. stands for Chief of the Imperial General Staff who was Nye's immediate superior, Sir Alan Brooke. Also, Boche (or Bosche) is a derogatory name for Germans dating back to WWI. It's a shortened form of caboche which is a Germanic term for a head of cabbage. The French had, in earlier times, taken to referring to Germans as tête de boche (basically, Cabbage Head) purportedly because Parisienne printers found the assistants they imported from Germany to be slow in picking up or comprehending French. So essentially they were calling them German idiots. The soldiers of WWI and then WWII adopted & shortened this to Boche. But it meant the same thing. The letter also just happened to mention that the two decoy invasion points would be Sicily and the Greek Dodecanese Islands. They also included a second letter in the briefcase- a fictional letter of introduction for William Martin from Vice-Admiral Lord Louis Mountbatten, the chief of Combined Operations, to Admiral of the Fleet Sir Andrew Cunningham, the commander-in-chief Mediterranean Fleet and Allied naval commander in the Mediterranean in which Mountbatten described Martin as an amphibious warfare expert who would be helping draw up the invasion plans. This letter had two purposes: to identify Martin's supposed rank and position to the Nazis- making it believable that he'd have such a sensitive letter on him- and also to include a test. An eyelash was carefully placed in the folded up letter before it was sealed into the envelope. If they received the papers back from the Spanish authorities and the eyelash was gone, they would know that the letters, even if the envelopes were still sealed, had been extracted and read. The original intent was to place the letters in one of Martin's pockets, but Montagu became concerned that the Spaniards, being strongly Roman Catholic, might balk at disturbing a body much and thereby miss finding the letters. To make sure this didn't happen, they placed the letters in a briefcase; they intended to place the handle in Martin's hand, stiffened in death. They thought better of this, realizing that, if rigor mortis wore off before the body was found, the corpse's hand would slip from the handle and the briefcase might very well be lost. Instead, they chained the case to Martins body in the manner described in Part II. Now that the clothing and documents for "Martin" had been sorted, it was time to turn their attention to finding a suitable place to dump the body to ensure that the currents would carry it close to the Spanish shore where it was likely to be discovered. (To Be Continued...) Related Posts:"I have been younger in October than in all the months of spring." — W.S. Merwin "Pale amber sunlight falls across The reddening October trees, That hardly sway before a breeze As soft as summer: summer's loss Seems little, dear! on days like these." -Ernest Christopher Dowson Related Posts:This is the Thanksgiving long weekend here in Canada, and we of course had a big family meal which, as usual, we all signed up to bring fixings to. I was on mashed potatoes and desserts, so was busy on Saturday night. I made a layered pumpkin gingersnap dessert, and apple and chocolate cream pies. Since we were travelling to the Valley for dinner, I mostly used tinfoil dishes so that I could leave any leftovers down there or, if there weren't any, just toss the pie plates, etc out. The only thing I had to bring home afterwards was the 13 x 9 Pyrex dish in which I made the pumpkin dessert. My sister who lives in the Valley has a birthday this coming week, so I brought her gift along- some autumn pot holders and coasters I sewed and, naturally, a book: Wives & Daughters by Elizabeth Gaskell, which I love and she's never read. Then, after church on Sunday, it was time to head for the Valley: Arrival of the dinner convoy: Most of the NS family was there, except for my brother and his family, because his wife's sister and kids are visiting from British Columbia as well as her parents from New Brunswick, so they did their own dinner rather than come to the Valley. Chloe the dog was in her element, surrounded by kids who kept sneaking her food... well, not just the kids; I must plead guilty of dividing my dinner roll with her and giving her a bit of my turkey. It's always a good time when we together- oh, my brother-in-law's parents also came- and there was plenty of food, fun, and family to be thankful for. Also, it was a lovely fall day, which meant the kids could go outside and run off some energy after dinner- something which we were also thankful for. Although this did result in one injury... a few of the young nephews thought it would be a good game to pelt each other with golf balls while jumping on the trampoline; we found out about this activity when one of said nephews came in with a rapidly swelling eye. He was fine though, and instructed to go put some ice on it; apparently he couldn't find an ice pack though, because when next I saw him he was walking around holding a bottle of freezer jam on his eye. But it was a wonderful Thanksgiving Day, and I hope yours was just as good. We ought to make the moments notes Of happy, glad Thanksgiving; The hours and days a silent phrase Of music we are living. And so the theme should swell and grow As weeks and months pass o’er us, And rise sublime at this good time, A grand Thanksgiving chorus. -Ella Wheeler Wilcox Related Posts: I recently watched Fifth Avenue Girl, the 1939 film starring Ginger Rogers. This movie was released a few months after my favourite New Years watch Bachelor Mother which also stars Rogers, and further proves her comedic chops, sans song & dance. I had fun viewing it. The film starts out with ultra-wealthy business owner Timothy Borden in a fractious business meeting. Years before he developed a new type of pump which made him his fortune and lead to his ownership of Amalgamated Pumps. But the company is now experiencing financial difficulties; the Depression is on, the market has experienced a downturn, and Borden, though a good and conscientious employer, has become overly cautious and hasn't invested in innovations/improvements to keep up with the times. Despite the company's floundering finances, the factory workers are demanding higher wages, which Borden would love to pay them but can't afford right now without jeopardizing the company. On top of everything else, his son and heir- Tim Jr.- ostensibly works for the family business, but is a playboy who frequently forgets to show up at the office. The company just lost a major contract because young Tim blew off a meeting with the client to go play golf instead. After his discouraging board meeting, Borden goes to his mansion on Fifth Avenue, tired and dispirited. We find out that it's his birthday, but no one is home except the servants. His straying wife Martha is out on the town with her boytoy. His daughter Katharine is partying with her idiot friends, while playboy Tim is goodness-knows-where. Left with no one to talk to except the servants, Borden converses with his butler, who tells him that he personally likes to relax by walking in Central Park. Having gone nowhere but the office for a very long time, Borden decides to take his butler's advice and heads to the park for an evening walk. There he meets Mary Grey, an unemployed young woman, sitting on a park bench watching the sea lions in the pool because that's about all she can afford to do. He starts talking to her, and her cynical, sarcastic wit amuses him greatly. He impulsively asks her to accompany him to a fancy restaurant to celebrate his birthday; Mary is understandably wary, but reasons the older gentleman seems harmless, a meal is a meal, and there will be plenty of witnesses in a crowded restaurant. Borden goes all-out celebrating his birthday with his newfound pal Mary; they dine sumptuously, dance, and Timothy- more than a little tipsy by this point (as is Mary)- generously buys drinks for everyone in the house. This brings them to the attention of his wife Martha, who is also dining here with the boytoy. Despite her present behaviour, Martha is scandalized by the sight of her stodgy husband out on the town with a sweet young thing, especially when the shameless pair saunter over to their table to say hello. The following morning, Borden wakes up with a hangover and a black eye, and very little memory of how he got home the night before. His wife, daughter, and son are shocked when Mary comes walking out of the spare bedroom; to be sure, Borden is a bit surprised himself. She explains that he invited her to spend the night- to sleep it off- and also explains his black eye: he got in a fight with the taxi driver who dropped them off. Tim Jr is inclined to be angry for his mother's sake, Katherine pretends to be sophisticated about the situation, and Martha is in the awkward position of wanting to be outraged but hampered by the fact that she's been stepping out on her husband. Getting a good look at this dysfunctional bunch, Mary is inclined to make herself scarce but Borden pulls her aside with a plan. This is, he tells her, the first time in ages that his wife has paid any attention to him and, whether she's jealous or just feels threatened, he wants to capitalize on the situation. To this end, he asks Mary to pose as his mistress- no funny business: she'll stay in the spare room, accompany him about in the evenings, and basically just act like they're attached at the hip. In return, he'll pay her a salary and provide her with a new wardrobe- as one would, I suppose, for a mistress. Mary has her misgivings, but figures it's better than sitting on a park bench with no money and no prospects, so agrees to the deception. (To Be Continued...) Related Posts: Life has been more than a little hectic lately, between work and, well... life. And my posting has suffered accordingly; last night when I had planned to be writing my next post on The Man Who Never Was, I instead spent balancing invoices against purchase orders because I hadn't had time to do so while at my place of employment. I don't like bringing work home but obviously it happens sometimes... I had a bit of time to make up anyway, because I had to nip out of work early last Friday to go pick up my passport- and yes, I'm still a bit waxy about that. After I finished up with the paperwork, I decided that I needed to relax a bit and so put on a movie which I've never watched before: Fifth Avenue Girl, starring Ginger Rogers. I also picked up a ball of yarn and crochet hook; a lifelong knitter, I'm endeavouring to teach myself to crochet, but that's a tale for another day. This is one of Rogers' non-dancing films and, for those who only know her in those types of roles, she's an equally impressive actress without having to hoof it. I'm starting a review of the movie when I finish this post. Coincidentally, the non-fiction book I'm reading right now has several selections about Rogers' musicals with Fred Astaire. Or, more specifically, a few of the songs in them. I'm currently in the section which is entitled 'Ladies Don't Write Lyrics' which is all about songwriter Dorothy Fields who proved definitively that ladies- some of them- can indeed write lyrics, and do it extremely well. Fields is certainly responsible for the lyrics to some of my favourite musical moments in the Astaire/Rogers collaborations- one of which is discussed in the essay pictured above: 'The Way You Look Tonight'. This song is from Swing Time (1936) which is just fun from start to finish. In a movie filled with great songs, this is a standout- and went on to win the Academy Award for Best Song. The magic happens when Astaire's character "Lucky" sits down at the piano while Penny (Roger's character) is in bathroom, washing her hair. She comes out with her hair lathered in shampoo, and the scene is both romantic and comical, as unlikely as that sounds. The other two Astaire/Rogers hits featured in Mark Steyn's examination of Fields' work are also from Swing Time: 'Pick Yourself Up', which is the scene where Astaire (Lucky) shows up at the dance studio where Rogers (Penny) works and asks for a dance lesson, pretending he has two left feet. Shenanigans- and song & dance- ensue. Incidentally, I love Eric Blore in everything. Steyn also discusses 'A Fine Romance' also written by Dorothy Fields and Jerome Kern for Swing Time- a rather sarcastic love song which fits the somewhat adversarial tone of the couple's fractious courtship: Anyway, my reading continues- in this book and others- and I'm trying to get back to my regularly scheduled posting... hopefully soon. Related Posts: Now that they had decided on the outline of a plan- planting false information on a dead body to fool the Germans- it fell to Cholmondeley and Montagu to flesh out the details of said plan, and make them convincing. One thing which proved more difficult than might be expected during the Blitz was finding a suitable body to serve as their fictional William Martin. As the chief coroner explained to them, while there were plenty of bodies to be had, each had a paper trail and, more often than not, family members to claim the body- or at least notice if it inexplicably went missing. Montagu began to fear that they might have to "do a Burke and Hare" (see below) but then managed to find a likely cadaver: Glyndwr Michael from Wales. Michael was a homeless drifter with no living family or connections who died in London after ingesting rat poison, either to commit suicide or accidentally, perhaps eating bread smeared with the poisonous paste to kill rodents. In any case, it was decided that Michael was likely to go unmissed and unmourned; as one team member bluntly remarked: “the only worthwhile thing that he ever did, he did after his death". Ouch. The consulting pathologist informed Montagu and Cholmondeley that there wasn't enough poison in Michael's stomach to be detected, especially months later and after a number of days floating in the sea. He also gave them other practical advice: the body could be kept for up to three months in refrigeration, but must not be frozen because then the corpse would show physical signs of being defrosted. It would also, he assured them, be unnecessary to pour water in his lungs because many air crash victims died immediately upon impact rather than drowning. Also, he informed them, the beginning of decomposition would mean there would be liquid pooling in the lungs; a coroner would be unlikely to look beyond the obvious as to the cause of death.
recovery would be routed to the Naval Intelligence Division (Montagu's department). Also, Marines wore standard battledress which was easily obtainable- no questions asked- and came in multiple sizes. Martin was made an Acting Major because this rank was high enough that he could be entrusted with carrying orders/ battle plans, but not so high as for him to be easily identifiable. Martin was also provided with a fictional fiancee named Pam; two letters from her as well as a photograph were placed in his pocket as was a receipt for an engagement ring. The woman in the photo-"Pam"- was actually a clerk in the MI5 offices. Also included in Martin's personal effects was a letter from his father- written in a stodgy, Edwardian way- and a note from his bank, informing him that he was overdrawn and asking for payment. Before having these letters written, Montagu had MI5 scientists test various brands of ink, to find which ones would remain legible the longest when immersed in water. Martin would also need an photo ID card (seen above) so they located an MI5 agent who looked a bit like Michaels if you squinted, and used a picture taken of him for the ID. After a few days in the water, Montagu and Cholmondeley reasoned, no one would be able to tell the difference. There were some other receipts, loose change, ticket stubs, etc., placed in Martin's pockets as well, to add verisimilitude. Some of the other items planted on the corpse are shown below: a St. Christopher's medal, cigarettes & matches, a wallet, watch and keys. The leather covered chain pictured was what secured the case carrying the fake plans to Martin's (Michael's) belt- the type of attachment used by bank clerks, etc. to keep their deposits from being snatched. Montagu and Cholmondeley were careful that Captain Martin not appear to be dressed in all new clothes, which would look suspicious. To this end, Cholmondeley wore the uniform they were going to use around for a while to give it a lived in look. Meanwhile, Montagu carried Martin's ID and other cards about in his pockets, and rubbed them on his trousers, so they looked used. Even Martin's underwear was given careful consideration; they didn't want new, and no one wanted to part with their own because, like everything else in wartime Britain, underwear was strictly rationed. They ended up obtaining some used but good quality wool underpants which had belonged to the Right Honourable Herbert Albert Laurens Fisher, Member of Parliament and Warden of New College, Oxford. He had unfortunately died in 1940 (having been run down by a truck during one of the blackouts) but his belongings- including his underpants- were still in residence at the university and were pressed into service, so to speak. So, now that they had the body of "William Martin" outfitted and accoutered, Montagu and Cholmondeley were ready to move on to the next stage of the plan: obtaining the deceptive documents and disposing of the corpse. (To Be Continued...) Related Posts: |
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