The Pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela is a centuries old trek across northern Spain done by following "The Camino de Santiago", the road to Santiago. Before February of 2001 I had not heard of "The Camino" nor of the Pilgrimage. By the end of October of that year I was in Santiago after completing the walk myself. I thought that when I reached Santiago my journey was over but I see now that my journey started way before I got to Spain and still has not ended.
I've watched lots of YouTube videos, read a bunch of articles, and even bought a felling presser foot.
Figuring how to put the presser foot on my sewing machine took up quite a bit of time and cost me one broken needle- my first one. Breaking a needle taught me to always check the needle position to see if the needle will hit the new presser foot before starting to sew.
I am learning how to sew flat-felled seams because I am altering some of my husbands old shirts so they fit him better and they all have flat-felled seams. I am surprised by how easy it really make a shirt smaller but I am not sure how easy it is to sew felled-seams into an altered garment but I will be finding out soon. Wish me luck.
I've been reading Agatha Christie's Hercule Poirot stories and came across this:
Sir George Conway proceeded weightily. Phrases fell easily from his lips- the extreme delicacy of the Government's position- the interest of the public- the solidarity of the Party- the necessity of presenting a united front- the power of the Press- the welfare of the country... It all sounded well - and meant nothing.
He [Poirot] steeled himself to endure patiently. He felt, at the same time, a sympathy for Sir George Conway. The man obviously wanted to tell him something- and as obviously had lost the art of simple narration. Words had become to him a means of obscuring facts- not of revealing them. He was adept in the art of the useful phrase- that is to say the phrase that falls soothing on the ear and is quite empty of meaning.
-The Augean Stables from The Labors of Hercules by Agatha Christie (1940)
And now I understand why I dislike politicians so strongly.
On one of our twice a day walks Belle discovered that sometimes there are bunnies hiding under the parked cars in the neighborhood. Since the word "sometimes" is not in her vocabulary this means she has to look under every single parked car on every one of our walks.
Glenn Miller's recording of Chattanooga Choo Choo becomes the first record to be certified as a Gold Record after 1,200,000 copies are sold.
Glenn Miller (on right) being presented with a Gold Record for Chattanooga Choo Choo by an unknown RCA executive. The man on the far left is CBS sports announcer Paul Douglas who would go on to a Hollywood acting career. He would star in movies with Linda Darnell, Barbara Stanwyck, Judy Holiday, Marilyn Monroe, and Janet Leigh.
On February 4, 1946 the comedy play Born Yesterday opened at the Lyceum Theatre in New York City. In the part of Billie Dawn was a newcomer named Judy Holliday. By the end of its run Judy Holliday was a star.
1946 Playbill for Born Yesterday
Judy Holliday around the time she was staring in Born Yesterday on Broadway
In 1947 Columbia pictures paid one million dollars for the screen rights to Born Yesterday. In 1951 Judy Holliday won a Motion Picture Academy Award for Best Leading Actress playing Billie Dawn on the screen in a field that included Bette Davis for All About Eve and Gloria Swanson for Sunset Boulevard. Holliday, a very intelligent woman, was so identified with Billie Dawn, a stereotypical dumb blonde, that when she was summoned by the Senate Subcommittee on Internal Security in 1952 to explain why her name was linked to what the committee called "Communist Front Organizations" she was advised to play dumb. Billie Dawn returned to Washington and even though she was cleared by the committee, Holliday was blacklisted from television and radio for three years.
Below is the entire movie version of Born Yesterday staring Judy Holiday, William Holden and Broderick Crawford. This upload is a bit difficult to watch as for some reason the person uploading it has put a spotlight in the center of each frame of the film. If this proves to much for you I suggest you at least watch the Gin game between Billie Dawn (Judy Holliday) and Harry Block (Broderick Crawford) to understand Holliday's appeal and comedic genius.
(The Gin game starts at about 25:33 minutes.)
One of Winston Churchill's generals said about him, "He is 50% genius and 50% fool."
Clementine Churchill was the one person Winston Churchill would listen
to and she kept that 50% fool part of him in check. A great women who
helped a great and difficult man become all that he could be and who, in her
own right, inspired a nation at war.
