Quotes, URL's, Links And References-by:older Femmes, Butches, Ftms, Mtfs, Queer, Etc.

[sweetlady]

Hi everyone!

I'm starting this thread to provide a forum for quotes, favorite URLs, favorite films, books, ANY thoughtful review of some movie, book, quote or other reference. Link to the actual reference is appreciated! Let's start a Butch-Femme favorite ARTS thread here!

If there are favorite photos/artwork in the gallery, please note it here in the threads.(f) (f)

Love, Peace and White Light,
(k) (k) Sweetlady(k) (k)

[sweetlady]

My quote for today:

"You gain strength, courage and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face"
-Eleanor Roosevelt (1884-1962)

Have a lovely weekend friends,

(f)(l) Sweetlady(l) (f)

[sweetlady]

M. Degas Teaches Art & Science At Durfee Intermediate School
Detroit, 1942

He made a line on the blackboard,
one bold stroke from right to left
diagonally downward and stood back
to ask, looking as always at no one
in particular, "What have I done?"
From the back of the room Freddie
shouted, "You've broken a piece
of chalk." M. Degas did not smile.
"What have I done?" he repeated.
The most intellectual students
looked down to study their desks
except for Gertrude Bimmler, who raised
her hand before she spoke. "M. Degas,
you have created the hypotenuse
of an isosceles triangle." Degas mused.
Everyone knew that Gertrude could not
be incorrect. "It is possible,"
Louis Warshowsky added precisely,
"that you have begun to represent
the roof of a barn." I remember
that it was exactly twenty minutes
past eleven, and I thought at worst
this would go on another forty
minutes. It was early April,
the snow had all but melted on
the playgrounds, the elms and maples
bordering the cracked walks shivered
in the new winds, and I believed
that before I knew it I'd be
swaggering to the candy store
for a Milky Way. M. Degas
pursed his lips, and the room
stilled until the long hand
of the clock moved to twenty one
as though in complicity with Gertrude,
who added confidently, "You've begun
to separate the dark from the dark."
I looked back for help, but now
the trees bucked and quaked, and I
knew this could go on forever.
***************************************
From WHAT WORK IS by Philip Levine © 1992.

(f)(l)Sweetlady(l) (f)

[sweetlady]

Lorelei

The stones of kin and friend
Stretch off into a trembling, sweatlike haze.

They may not after all be stepping-stones
But you have followed them. Each strands you, then

Does not. Not yet. Not here.
Is it a crossing? Is there no way back?

Soft gleams lap the base of the one behind you
On which a black girl sings and combs her hair.

It's she who some day (when your stone is in place)
Will see that much further into the golden vagueness

Forever about to clear. Love with its chisel
Deepens the lines begun upon your face.

***************************************
From THE COLLECTED POEMS OF JAMES MERRILL by James Merrill © 2002.

Have a lovely Sunday,

Kindest Regards,
(f)(k) Sweetlady(k) (f)

[sweetlady]

April 22, 2004, New York Times:
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/04/22/opinion/22FRIE.html

Excerpts from Friedman's column:
"The bottom line: we are actually in the middle of two struggles right now. One is against the Islamist terrorists in Iraq and elsewhere, and the other is a competitiveness-and-innovation struggle against India, China, Japan and their neighbors. And while we are all fixated on the former, we are completely ignoring the latter. We have got to get our focus back in balance, not to mention our budget. We can't wage war on income taxes and terrorism and a war for innovation at the same time."

"And what is the Bush strategy? Let's go to Mars. Hello? Right now we should have a Manhattan Project to develop a hydrogen-based energy economy — it's within reach and would serve our economy, our environment and our foreign policy by diminishing our dependence on foreign oil. Instead, the Bush team says let's go to Mars. Where is Congress? Out to lunch — or, worse, obsessed with trying to keep Susie Smith's job at the local pillow factory that is moving to the Caribbean — without thinking about a national competitiveness strategy. And where is Wall Street? So many of the plutocrats there know that the Bush fiscal policy is a long-term disaster. They know it — but they won't say a word because they are too greedy or too gutless."

Whew! Friedman does it again quite succinctly. His columns are always provocative. He doesn't like Bush which is one reason why I read his columns.

Respectfully,
(f)(f)Sweetlady(f)(f)

[sweetlady]

A Great Love Story About Resistance: "November Moon" (1985)

I wish there were more movies like this one. Opening in Alsace-Lorraine before the Second World War, we follow the struggles of two women, one of whom is Jewish, and their families as they resist the German occupation. As their love ever deepens in the face of horrible oppression, we learn not only how deception can be honorable but the price of loyalty. This is not a very explicit movie nor is the print in pristine shape when they transferred the film to DVD, but it is a wonderful story very unlike many of today, particularly in the way that others not only accepted but defended their love. (l) (l)
Director: Alexandra von Grote.


(k) (k) Sweetlady(k)

[sweetlady]

Laughing, running, barefoot through the light-years
wish I may
wish I might
play hide and seek with you tonight.
However I wonder what you are.
Love-star-crossed lover, baby
You go you way and I go mine
Star-crossed lover
Time goes one way
While love remains and life goes on.
You be you
and I'll be me:
Star-crossed once in love, we
in our crystal stellar destiny
never were
and always will be.

Sweetlady, copyright, 12/2/1980

[sweetlady]

Building up my life around you babe
was never meant as right.
Because my life is mine alone
and I should keep my goals in sight.
Yet, if those plans are you or with
or by or in your life of preciouis time
how can I turn and find my mind
and stop this love-sick rhyme?

My time and energy I'd give, to one
I'd give me all, but how can I feel
that you'd feel then same
that you'd help me should I fall?

The reasons keep my minds secure
from being indepentently sure; you;d love me outside the sack.

Priorities are Astaire steps,
with you at me sky being shares and has as one
when my fears are gone.

Love,
Sweetlady(k) (k) (l) (l) (l)

[sweetlady]

"Mark Twain said, "The difference between the right word and the almost right word is like the difference between lightening and the lightening bug."

Anyone interested in other quotes? Maybe contribute a few? (f)

Love,
(k) (k) Sweetlady(k) (k)

[sweetlady]

Keeping the Forces of Decrepitude at Bay
By DAPHNE MERKIN Published: May 2, 2004
URL: http://www.nytimes.com/2004/05/02/magazine/02BEAUTY.html

The Nose Knows
By S.S. FAIR Published: May 2, 2004
URL: http://www.nytimes.com/2004/05/02/magazine/02NOSE.html

Unnatural Selection
By MARY TANNEN Published: May 2, 2004
URL: http://www.nytimes.com/2004/05/02/magazine/02SKIN.html

Tonic Youth
By MARY TANNEN Published: May 2, 2004
URL: http://www.nytimes.com/2004/05/02/magazine/02RECIPES.html

And now it's time for a nice bubble bath, facial and foot massage.
<sighs>

Peace,
(k) (k) Sweetlady(k) (k)

[sweetlady]

(~) (~) (~) (~) Gentle break during my writing today:
"Mrs. Brown" released in 1997. (BBC Films) Grieving widow Queen Victoria (played imperiously by Judi Dench,) withdraws into sadness for years, until plainspoken manservant John Brown (Billy Connolly) disrupts her mourning. Their friendship grows, resulting in personal and political ramifications for both. Funny, exquisitely shot and featuring sparkling performances, Mrs. Brown brilliantly portrays the world's most powerful woman behind an empire and the man who helped her live again. Outstanding and entertaining.

Ah, Judi should have received another Academiy Award, but this time for Best Actress, in addition to her Best Supporting role in "Shakespeare in Love".(l) (l)

She and Vanessa Redgrave are such favorites.

Peace,
(k) (k) Sweetlady(k) (k)

[sweetlady]

A darling on the film festival circuit, "Journey to Kafiristan" not only charts a physical journey from Switzerland to Afghanistan, it also explores the voyage of sexual self-discovery that writer Annemarie Schwartzenbach (Jeanette Hain) and researcher Ella Maillart (Nina Petri) embark on at a time when, as the saying goes, love like theirs dared not speak its name at that time.
Starring: Jeanette Hain, Nina Petri
Director: Donatello Dubini
Genre: Foreign Language & Int'l
Format: Widescreen
Language: German
Subtitles: English

Anyone seen it?

Peace,
(l) Sweetlady(k)

[sweetlady]

Laurent (Alain Chabat) thought he knew his wife, Loli (Victoria Abril), quite well. Chronically unfaithful, Laurent believes Loli is happy and will be hurt by news of his infidelities. But when a truck breaks down in front of their home and its owner, a female plumber (Josiane Balasko, who also directed this French film), asks to use the phone, Laurent discovers he and his wife have something in common: a sexual attraction to women.
Starring: Victoria Abril, Josiane Balasko
Director: Josiane Balasko
Genre: Foreign Language & Int'l
Format: Widescreen, More
Language: French
Subtitles: English

A spanish wife, a french unfaithful man and a lesbian (Josiane Balasko, who I just fell in love with!) who comes into their lives to wake both of them up form their lethargic predictable life.I enjoy all European films because of their perspective of life, infidelity means heartache not law suit. Their way of dealing with even the most unusual personal and social situations translate into "human relationships" not legal or political issues. thoroughly enjoyed this film. The story moves along swiftly. And the developing relationship between Loli and Marijo is both sweet and comical. This movie is packed with quick wit and touched with a smidgen of steaminess. Completely entertaining to watch.

Ah, the gift of teaching film appreciation!(~) (~) (and getting to choose the films for study)

<s>

Peace,
(k) Sweetlady(k)

[sweetlady]

Anais Nin (1903 - 1977)
US (French-born) author & diarist

And the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom.

We don't see things as they are, we see things as we are.

Anxiety is love's greatest killer. It makes others feel as you might when a drowning man holds on to you. You want to save him, but you know he will strangle you with his panic.
Anais Nin, The Diary of Anais Nin, volume 4, 1944-1947

Age does not protect you from love. But love, to some extent, protects you from age.

And the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom.

Each contact with a human being is so rare, so precious, one should preserve it.

Good things happen to those who hustle.

If all of us acted in unison as I act individually there would be no wars and no poverty. I have made myself personally responsible for the fate of every human being who has come my way.

If you do not breathe through writing, if you do not cry out in writing, or sing in writing, then don't write, because our culture has no use for it.

It is the function of art to renew our perception. What we are familiar with we cease to see. The writer shakes up the familiar scene, and, as if by magic, we see a new meaning in it.

It takes courage to push yourself to places that you have never been before... to test your limits... to break through barriers. And the day came when the risk it took to remain tight inside the bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom.

It's all right for a woman to be, above all, human. I am a woman first of all.

Life is a process of becoming, a combination of states we have to go through. Where people fail is that they wish to elect a state and remain in it. This is a kind of death.

Life is truly known only to those who suffer, lose, endure adversity and stumble from defeat to defeat.

Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one's courage.

Living never wore one out so much as the effort not to live.

My ideas usually come not at my desk writing but in the midst of living.

Our life is composed greatly from dreams, from the unconscious, and they must be brought into connection with action. They must be woven together.

People living deeply have no fear of death.

The dream was always running ahead of me. To catch up, to live for a moment in unison with it, that was the miracle.

The only abnormality is the incapacity to love.

The personal life deeply lived always expands into truths beyond itself.

The possession of knowledge does not kill the sense of wonder and mystery. There is always more mystery.

The role of a writer is not to say what we all can say, but what we are unable to say.

There are many ways to be free. One of them is to transcend reality by imagination, as I try to do.

There are very few human beings who receive the truth, complete and staggering, by instant illumination. Most of them acquire it fragment by fragment, on a small scale, by successive developments, cellularly, like a laborious mosaic.

There is not one big cosmic meaning for all, there is only the meaning we each give to our life, an individual meaning, an individual plot, like an individual novel, a book for each person.

Throw your dreams into space like a kite, and you do not know what it will bring back, a new life, a new friend, a new love, a new country.

What I cannot love, I overlook. Is that real friendship?

When we blindly adopt a religion, a political system, a literary dogma, we become automatons. We cease to grow.


Peace,
(k) (k) Sweetlady(k) (k)

[sweetlady]

“The age of mind refers to the shift in focus from the production and availability of information and its associated technology, to concerns about how people utilize that information, the barriers and challenges they face in accessing and interacting with information, what they do with information, and how it enables them to get on with their lives.”

Peace,
(l) (l) Sweetlady

[sweetlady]

Karla Jay Papers, 1961-1992:
http://www.nypl.org/research/chss/spe/rbk/faids/jay.html

Karla Jay's "Swimming with Sharks" short story (pp. 33-42) in the book, "Telling Moments: Autobiographical Lesbian Stories" is one of those cherished stories that I related to, but from the perspective of the French Baroness. Superby written!

Gloria Anzaldu'a 's "Swallowing Butterflies" was sweet. (pp. 3-11) in "Telling Moments".

Gloria E. Anzaldua, best known for her books Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza. and This Bridge Called My Back, is one of the foremost feminist thinkers and activists of our time. As one of the first openly lesbian Chicana writers, Anzaldua has played a major role in redefining queer, female, and Chicano/a identities, and in developing inclusionary movements for social justice.

http://www.queertheory.com/histories/a/anzaldua_gloria.htm

http://www.nagasaki-gaigo.ac.jp/ishikawa/amlit/a/anzaldua21.htm

What great writers to read before I try to sleep "to jump that synapse from left to right brain" late at night!

Peace,
Sweetlady(l) (l) (k) (k)

[sweetlady]

and one of my most favorites! Been there in person nine times!

http://www2.nature.nps.gov/air/WebCams/parks/grcacam/grcacam.htm

Love,
Sweetlady(k) (k)

[sweetlady]

http://www.bushin30seconds.org/

This site put together a video featuring 56 of the very best ads submitted in the Bush in 30 Seconds contest, plus footage from Bush in 30 Seconds Live featuring Michael Moore, Al Franken, Janeane Garofalo, Chuck D, Julia Stiles, Benny Boom, John Sayles, and the Bush in 30 Seconds team.

If you're ready to laugh your butt off, take a look!

"Anyone But Bush in 2004!"

Respectfully,
Sweetlady(k) (k)

[sweetlady]

July, 1937. Famous aviatrix disappears.

Amelia Earhart was an aviatrix who disappeared July 1937 in the Pacific Ocean while on a highly publicized world flight attempt. The FBI never investigated her disappearance. The records generally consist of correspondence from individuals speculating about her fate. In 1990, the International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery submitted a navigator's bookcase to the FBI Laboratory for examination. This item was suspected of having been part of Ms. Earhart's lost aircraft. Various technical analyses were conducted and nothing was found which would disqualify the artifact as having come from the Earhart aircraft.

http://foia.fbi.gov/earhart.htm

Maybe someday we'll all know what happened and if Amelia choose to "disappear" or whether she just wasn't quite ready skill-wise to take that last leg of an around the world flight. Deepest respect and honors for her regardless.

Have a delightful weekend,
(k) (k) Sweetlady(k) (k)

[sweetlady]

Amelia Earhart was the first woman, and only the second person (the other was Charles Lindberg), to make a nonstop solo flight across the Atlantic Ocean. On May 20, 1932, she set off alone from Harbor Grace, Newfoundland. The weather was a problem from the start, and at one point in the flight, ice on the wings forced her into a 3,000-foot, unchecked descent. She finally managed to level off and, constantly fighting fatigue, she landed in a field near Culmore, Londonderry, Northern Ireland. She made the 2,026-mile flight in 14 hours, 54 minutes.

The aircraft she used was a bright red Lockheed Vega 5B, a sleek, new monoplane with a fully cantilevered wing and roomy cabin area. It was the first airplane built by Lockheed. The first one flew in 1927 and 131 were eventually manufactured.

Amelia sold her Vega to the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia in June 1933. The aircraft was displayed there until it was transferred to the Smithsonian Institution on September 8, 1966. It is displayed in the Museum's Pioneers of Flight gallery.

Great photo: http://www.aviation-central.com/famous/ab1c0.htm

(k) (k) Sweetlady(k) (k)

[sweetlady]

[Written by: Mack David, Al Hoffman and Jerry Livingston, used in Cinderella]

A dream is a wish your heart makes
When you're fast asleep
In dreams you lose your heartaches
Whatever you wish for, you keep

Have faith in your dreams and someday
Your rainbow will come smiling thru
No matter how your heart is grieving
If you keep on believing
the dream that you wish will come true

No matter how your heart is grieving
If you keep on believing
The dream that you wish will come true
So dream...

(l) (l) Sweetlady(k) (k)

[sweetlady]

What's Going On
Written by: Al Cleveland/Marvin Gaye/Renaldo Benson
Performed by: Marvin Gaye

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Mother, mother
There's too many of you crying
Brother, brother, brother
There's far too many of you dying
You know we've got to find a way
To bring some lovin' here today - Ya

Father, father
We don't need to escalate
You see, war is not the answer
For only love can conquer hate
You know we've got to find a way
To bring some lovin' here today

Picket lines and picket signs
Don't punish me with brutality
Talk to me, so you can see
Oh, what's going on
What's going on
Ya, what's going on
Ah, what's going on

In the mean time
Right on, baby
Right on
Right on

Father, father, everybody thinks we're wrong
Oh, but who are they to judge us
Simply because our hair is long
Oh, you know we've got to find a way
To bring some understanding here today
Oh

Picket lines and picket signs
Don't punish me with brutality
Talk to me
So you can see
What's going on
Ya, what's going on
Tell me what's going on
I'll tell you what's going on - Uh
Right on baby
Right on baby


(k) (k) Sweetlady(k) (k)

[sweetlady]

Woman oh woman
Have you got cheating on your mind, on your mind
Something's wrong between us
That your laugher cannot hide
And you're afraid to let your eyes meet mine
And lately when I love you, I know you're not satisfied
Woman oh woman
Have you got cheating on your mind, on your mind
I've seen the way men look at you
When they think I don't see
And it hurts to have them think that you're that kind
But it's knowing that you're looking back
That's really killing me
Woman oh woman
Have you got cheating on your mind, on your mind
A woman wears a certain look
When she is on the move
And a man can always tell what's on her mind
I hate to have to say it
But that look's all over you
Woman oh woman
Have you got cheating on your mind
Oh woman oh woman
Have you got cheating on your mind.....

(k) (k) (k) SL

[sweetlady]

This girl walked in dreams
Playing in a world of her own
This girl was a child
Existing in a playground of stone
Then one night her world was changed
Her life and dreams were rearanged
And she would never be the same again

REFRAIN

This girl is a woman now
She's learned how to give
This girl is a woman now
She's found out what it's all about
And she's learning learning to live

This girl tasted love
As tender as the gentle dawn
She cried a single tear
A teardrop that was sweet and warm
Our hearts told us we were right
And on that sweet and velvet night
A child had died
A woman had been born


(k) (k) (k) Sweetlady

[sweetlady]

Fleetwood Mac - Hypnotized Lyrics
Written by bob welch.


It’s the same kind of story
That seems to come down from long ago
Two friends having coffee together
When something flies by their window
It might be out on that lawn
Which is wide, at least half of a playing field
Because there’s no explaining what your imagination
Can make you see and feel

Seems like a dream
(they) got me hypnotized

Now it’s not a meaningless question
To ask if they’ve been and gone
I remember a talk about north
Carolina and a strange, strange pond
You see the sides were like glass
In the thick of a forest without a road
And if any man’s ever made that land
Then I think it would’ve showed

Seems like a dream
(they) got me hypnotized

They say there’s a place down in mexico
Where a man can fly over mountains and hills
And he don’t need an airplane or some kind of engine
And he never will
Now you know it’s a meaningless question
To ask if those stories are right
’cause what matters most if the feeling
You get when you’re hypnotized

Seems like a dream
(they) got me hypnotized

(k) (k) (k) Sweetlady

[sweetlady]

Fleetwood Mac - Just Crazy Love Lyrics
Written by christine mcvie.


You’ve got a sweet, sweet way
You know you’ll always be the only one
And if you’ll let me say
You’ll never be a lonely one
Well you’ve just got something
Makes a girl start feeling crazy
And I’ll do anything if you’ll let me be your baby

Even when everybody tells me
I’m just being a fool
Something inside says I’ve got to have you
And I can’t play by the rules

Ooh baby baby tell me there’s a chance for me
’cos I’m crazy about you and I know this is love for me
Well you just got something
Makes a girl start feeling crazy
And I’ll do anything if you’ll let me be your baby

(k) (k) (k) (k) Sweetlady(k) (k) (k) (k)
P.S. any butch RELATE??

[sweetlady]

http://www.butch-femme.com/photos/showgallery.php/cat/500/ppuser/12944

Love
Sweetlady

[sweetlady]

http://www.marlamallett.com/obi.htm What an incredible story.

Not that I have many, but I'm a collector of vintage Japanese kimonos. They are so femme and are beautiful for going out to dinner or dining at home.<not that I've done that lately>

One of my favorites: Japanese Irosode Meiji Period, circa 1910. Woman's formal kimono of figured rinzu silk decorated with delicate yuzen dyeing and small touches of silk embroidery. One embroidered crest. http://www.marlamallett.com/k-2615.htm

Japanese Shiromuku Late 1940s. http://www.marlamallett.com/k-2655.htm

Japanese Kimono Mid to late 1940s. http://www.marlamallett.com/k-3032.htm

Ah, the lovely feel of old silk with a black lace camisole.(a) (a)

Have a lovely Friday.

Sun Thoughts,
Sweetlady (k)

[sweetlady]

On May 21, 1927, Charles A. Lindbergh landed his "Spirit of St. Louis" near Paris, completing the first solo airplane flight across the Atlantic Ocean.

http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/20040521.html

Sweetlady(k)

[sweetlady]

Seriously.

Check it out. Amazing, Changing Time Clock:
http://www.lares.dti.ne.jp/%7Eyugo/storage/monocrafts_ver3/03/index.html

Talk about making every single moment count.

Have a romantic, relaxing, safe Saturday night.

Peace,
Sweetlady(k) (k)

[sweetlady]

"A ship in harbor is safe, but that is not what ships are built for."

Sweetlady(k)

[sweetlady]

"The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert": This Oscar-winning, feel-good comedy won the hearts of moviegoers partly for its lavish costumes and devotion to ABBA, but mostly for the great performances of three drag artists who are on the road trip of a lifetime! Terence Stamp was wickedly funny and sexy. The one liners made me shake....I laughed that much!
This film won the 1995 Academy Award: Best Costume Design. And the costumes are truly gorgeous as was the Australian countryside. (as a femme, I wanted some of those costumes...)

Hugs across this digital tundra,
Sweetlady(k) (k)

[sweetlady]

but "She's Not There : A Life in Two Genders" by JENNIFER FINNEY BOYLAN definitely kept me interested and reading late into the evening.

The exuberant memoir of a man named James who became a woman named Jenny. "She’s Not There" is the story of a person changing genders, the story of a person bearing and finally revealing a complex secret; above all, it is a love story.As James evolves into Jennifer in scenes that are by turns tender, startling, and witty, a marvelously human perspective emerges on issues of love, sex, and the fascinating relationship between our physical and our intuitive selves. Through the clear eyes of a truly remarkable woman, She’s Not There provides a new window on the often confounding process of accepting ourselves.(l) (l)

By turns funny and deeply moving, Jennifer Finney Boylan explores the remarkable territory that lies between men and women, examines changing friendships, and rejoices in the redeeming power of family. She’s Not There is a portrait of a loving marriage—the love of James for his wife, Grace, and, against all odds, the enduring love of Grace for the woman who becomes her “sister,” Jenny.

To this extraordinary true story, Boylan brings the humorous, fresh voice that won her accolades as one of the best comic novelists of her generation. With her distinctive and winning perspective, She’s Not There explores the dramatic outward changes and unexpected results of life as a woman: Jenny fights the urge to eat salad, while James consumed plates of ribs; gone is the stability of “one damn mood, all the damn time.”

While Boylan’s own secret was unusual, to say the least, she captures the universal sense of feeling uncomfortable, out of sorts with the world, and misunderstood by her peers. Jenny is supported on her journey by her best friend, novelist Richard Russo, who goes from begging his friend to “Be a man” (in every sense of the word) to accepting her as an attractive, buoyant woman. “The most unexpected thing,” Russo writes in his Afterword to the book, “is in how Jenny’s story we recognize our shared humanity.”

Boylan, English professor and author of the critically acclaimed novels "The Constellations" (1994), "The Planets" (1991), and "Getting In" (1998), began life as a male named James Boylan. In this autobiography, she details her lifelong struggle with her burgeoning femaleness and the path she followed to become a female, both physically and mentally. For 40 years, the author lived as a man, seemingly happy and even marrying a woman and fathering two children.

(k) (k) Sweetlady

[sweetlady]

For those femmes like me who are attracted to butches, I have two words for you: Chloe Sevigny (circa 'If These Walls Could Talk 2''s second vignette... (k) (k)

Check the adorable Lori Petty as the sweet butch in 'Relax It's Just Sex' (and puzzle over the picture of her in the *dress!* on the video box!), the budding butch-femme love of 'The Incredibly True Adventures of Two Girls in Love', or the h-h-h-hot Gina Gerson and Jennifer Tilly pairing in 'Bound'.

Need I say more? Yes? Get your fingers on 'Tipping the Velvet', Sarah Water's book whose main character lived in Victorian England and was quite the "masher" (that'd be a male impersonator... ohhh yeah). And it even has a happy ending. Check out the frothiness of Leslea Newman's oevre: 'The Femme Mystique' or 'The Little Butch Book', among others.

'The Persistent Desire: A Femme-Butch Reader' is the perfect antidote to the single life-weekend blues. Lucid, descriptions of butch-femme lives from the 1950s to the present, and some really hot stories! If you're butch or femme, you may feel like you're coming home with this book. Joan Nestle is a queen among femmes and we all owe her much for putting this together.

Safe travels to those who are, and thoughts of a delightfully relaxing holiday weekend to all!

Love, Hugs and Light,
Sweetlady(k) (k) ({) (}) ({) (})

[sweetlady]

My absolute favorites include: Fresh seafood, grilled vegetables (from a local organic farmers' market), sushi, home-made chicken soup, Indian fry bread/tacos, blueberries, rasberries, blackberries. Frozen grapes are nice too.

It's so nice to take a breather from what's coming up in my two graduate courses. Once again it's draft final papers' time this coming and next week. I'm finished with this past week's assignments and feeling like doing something. Monday I'm having a cookout with beer-can chicken on the Weber grill. Not a beer drinker, but it's amazing how tender that chichen gets after sitting on top of a tall opened can of any kind of beer. Home-made potato and other salads, fresh white corn on the cob, watermelon and lots of other great foods - I can't imagine anyone going home hungry...lol. It's good to see neighbors after been indoors all winter - catch up on the latest news.

I hope that everyone here has a delightfully relaxing holiday weekend.({) (})

Hugs and Sun Thoughts,
Sweetlady(a) (a)

[sweetlady]

"Soldier, rest! Thy warfare o'er,
Sleep the sleep that knows not breaking,
Dream of battled fields no more.
Days of danger, nights of waking."

~Sir Walter Scott

The location of the first observance of Memorial Day is in dispute. Some claim the custom of honoring war dead began in Boalsburg, Pennsylvania. Others claim the custom was originated by some Southern women who placed flowers on the graves of both Union and Confederate soldiers after the Civil War. According to one writer, the first Memorial Day service took place on May 30, 1866, on Belle Isle, a burial ground for Union soldiers in the St. James River, at Richmond, Virginia. The school superintendent and the mayor planned the program of hymns and speeches and had the burial ground decorated with flowers. In 1966, however, the U.S. government proclaimed that Waterloo, New York, was the birthplace of Memorial Day. On May 5, 1865, the people of Waterloo had honored soldiers who had died in the Civil War.

In 1868, General John A. Logan, commander-in-chief of the Grand Army of the Republic (an organization of Union veterans of the Civil War), named May 30th as a special day to honor the graves of Union soldiers. The selection of May 30th is attributed to a Virginian of French descent, Cassandra Oliver Moncure, who may have selected this date because it was "The Day of Ashes" in France-the day that Napoleon's remains were returned to France from St. Helena.

The custom of placing flowers on graves is an old one that exists in many countries. Today, almost everywhere around the globe, people have a special day to honor not only those who gave their lives in battle, but also family members and friends whom they wish to remember.

The Northern states and some Southern states celebrate Memorial Day on the last Monday in May. This date was made a federal holiday in 1971. Some Southern states have Memorial Day celebrations to honor Confederate soldiers who died in the Civil War. Mississippi and Alabama celebrate Confederate Memorial Day on the last Monday in April. In Florida and Georgia, the date is April 26. May 10 is Memorial Day in North and South Carolina, and the holiday is June 3 in Kentucky, Louisiana, and Tennessee. Texas observes Confederate Heroes Day on January 19 (Robert E. Lee's birthday).

Eulogy for a Veteran
Do not stand at my grave and weep.
I am not there, I do not sleep.

I am a thousand winds that blow.
I am the diamond glints on snow.

I am the sunlight on ripened grain.
I am the Gentle autumn rain.

When you awaken in the mornings hush,
I am the swift uplifting rush
of quiet birds in circled flight,
I am the soft stars that shine at night.

Do not stand at my grave and cry,
I am not there, I did not die.

-Author Unknown

<in silent, respectful reflection>
Love,
Sweetlady

[sweetlady]

Sharon Stone: http://www.cinema-stars.com/sharon/

Glenn Close and others: http://www.megspace.com/entertainment/ggordon/close/

There, now that's a bit of lightness to brighten a Saturday afternoon. That and iced(c) or Good Earth tea, or whatever a favorite beverage would be right about now.

(k) Sweetlady(k)

[sweetlady]

Been here back in 1994. Would love to be there right now:
http://www.americansouthwest.net/colorado/mesa_verde/national_park.html

I stayed here a few times in my many trips to AZ and the Four Corners area: http://www.americansouthwest.net/utah/mexican_hat/index.html
The San Juan River is exquisite. And Monument Valley is south "down the road a piece" along route 163. A northern view: http://www.americansouthwest.net/utah/monument_valley/mvalroad2_l.html

My favorite "set of Mittens": http://www.americansouthwest.net/utah/monument_valley/mvbutte_l.html
The 17-mile dirt road takes me back through time. Next time I visit there, I plan to make a previous reservation for a day trip on horseback with a Navajo guide. The last few times I stayed at Goulding's, across the road from the Park, and their restaurant's Indian Fry Bread is to die for.

My first stop on my many desert drives is usually in Zion. http://www.americansouthwest.net/utah/zion/zioncyn4_l.html Nice hiking, terrific B&B's, and rocks and trees.

Ah, what a virtual tour to rest the eyes (computer screen fatigue) and the soul.
http://www.americansouthwest.net/utah/dead_horse_point/deadhorse_l.html

TGIF to my friends and to those who take the time to read my postings. Have a delightful weekend.

(k)Sweetlady(k)

[sweetlady]

I could definitely live here for a year or two. The train to Amsterdam takes about two hours. I fell in love with this place! http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com/Grote%20Markt%20/%20Grand-Place

360 degree view that you zoon in/out and move the camera angle around: http://www.ilotsacre.be/images/virtualvisit/Grand_Place-Grote_Markt.htm

(o) (c) (c) Time for some leaded coffee and back to writing that paper...:|

Hugs,
Sweetlady(a)

[sweetlady]

http://www.streetswing.com/histmai2/d2gypsy1.htm

(k) (k) http://www.brainyencyclopedia.com/encyclopedia/g/gy/gypsy_rose_lee.html

"I have everything now I had 20 years ago-except now it's all lower." Gypsy Rose Lee (f) (w) :|

(k) Sweetlady (k)

[sweetlady]

"The body is meant to be seen, not all covered up."

"It's not true I had nothing on, I had the radio on."
http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/m/marilynmon116142.html

(f) (f)
Sweetlady

[sweetlady]

Andes Mountain Range: http://www.blueplanetbiomes.org/andes.htm

The Andes run for 4500 miles along the west coast of South America, making them the longest mountain range in the world. Tucked within this sinuous continental backbone lie the ruins of ancient civilizations, the headwaters of the Amazon, and the highest peak outside of Asia, Argentina's 22,834 foot Aconcagua. http://www.mountain.org/andes.html

Andes photo taken from the Space Shuttle: http://www.solarviews.com/cap/earth/chile.htm

The Andes mountains form one of the longest continuous mountain ranges on Earth, extending from the shores of the Caribbean as far south as the Magellan Straits. Perhaps the most surprising aspect of this range is how narrow it is over much of its length - the high part of the range is typically less than 150 kilometers (93 miles) broad. Illustrated is the section of the Andes near Coquimbo, Chile, where the highest peaks are 6,300 meters (20,670 feet). Low lighting and the oblique perspective emphasize the narrowness of the range, which forms a formidable natural obstacle, and explains how the improbably long and thin country of Chile acquired its identity.

Anyone ever visited Chile and/or Peru?

(S) (S) Sweetlady

[sweetlady]

It's amazes me that GW Jr. can compare himself to the Gipper. His arrogance is so inappropriate. In this morning's LA Times:

A Week of Comparisons Between Bush and Reagan
LA Times (online) June 12, 2004

Re "A Week That Could Bolster Bush," June 8: Oh, puhleeze! George W. Bush as the second coming of Ronald Reagan?

Excuse me, but I was around when Reagan was the governor of California, and I was around when he was president. Reagan may have been a conservative ideologue, but he knew that progress requires compromise, not condemnation of the opposition. He may have believed in cutting taxes, but he recognized a budget-busting mistake when he saw one and altered course accordingly.

Reagan may have been a military hawk, but when things went wrong, he assumed full responsibility. And he may have had deep religious beliefs, but he understood the proper relationship between religion and government, and refrained from imposing his personal religious views on public policy.

Simply put (and to borrow that legendary campaign debate phrase): Mr. Bush, I knew Mr. Reagan. You, sir, are no Ronald Reagan.

Marcy M. Rothenberg
Porter Ranch



My impression of the passing of "the Great Communicator" is simple. He lowered the intellectual bar for all future presidents and George W. Bush proceeded to limbo under it. A sad, but true, commentary on the Republican Party.

Mark S. Roth
Los Angeles



Any GOP insider who thinks this week of mourning Reagan might lift Bush's waning popularity and sagging poll numbers is delusional. Reagan gave the Republicans new hope and lifted their spirits after they had been pummeled by the Nixon scandals. Who in their right mind would confuse nostalgia for Reagan with good feelings about Bush, when he has committed atrocities and shamed his supporters in ways that even Richard Nixon could not have dreamed of?

Sheila Fenton
West Hollywood



I am a Democrat, so I am not eager to give Republicans any good ideas, but it seems to me the best way for Bush to make political capital out of Reagan's death is to reverse himself on stem cell research.

It would be a worthy memorial to Reagan, benefit current and future generations and give Bush the opportunity to admit a mistake, something he seems loath to do about other issues plaguing him.

Joan Evans
Altadena



Epitaph for Ronald Reagan: He was in all respects the greatest president of my lifetime: a good and honorable man who changed the world and the course of history. I am glad that death has released Reagan from the shadow of his last years, and that he has now, in one sense or another, entered into the company of immortals.

Richard Healey
Seal Beach

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/letters/la-le-bush12jun12,1,1351241.story?coll=la-news-comment-letters

(f) (f) Enjoy a lovely Saturday,
Now, back to final graduate paper writing again....

Sweetlady

[sweetlady]

COMMENTARY

In Solidarity

By LECH WALESA
June 11, 2004; Page A8 Wall Street Journal

GDANSK, Poland -- When talking about Ronald Reagan, I have to be personal. We in Poland took him so personally. Why? Because we owe him our liberty. This can't be said often enough by people who lived under oppression for half a century, until communism fell in 1989.

Poles fought for their freedom for so many years that they hold in special esteem those who backed them in their struggle. Support was the test of friendship. President Reagan was such a friend. His policy of aiding democratic movements in Central and Eastern Europe in the dark days of the Cold War meant a lot to us. We knew he believed in a few simple principles such as human rights, democracy and civil society. He was someone who was convinced that the citizen is not for the state, but vice-versa, and that freedom is an innate right.

I often wondered why Ronald Reagan did this, taking the risks he did, in supporting us at Solidarity, as well as dissident movements in other countries behind the Iron Curtain, while pushing a defense buildup that pushed the Soviet economy over the brink. Let's remember that it was a time of recession in the U.S. and a time when the American public was more interested in their own domestic affairs. It took a leader with a vision to convince them that there are greater things worth fighting for. Did he seek any profit in such a policy? Though our freedom movements were in line with the foreign policy of the United States, I doubt it.


President Reagan, in a radio address from his ranch on Oct. 9, 1982, announces trade sanctions against Poland in retaliation for the outlawing of Solidarity.


I distinguish between two kinds of politicians. There are those who view politics as a tactical game, a game in which they do not reveal any individuality, in which they lose their own face. There are, however, leaders for whom politics is a means of defending and furthering values. For them, it is a moral pursuit. They do so because the values they cherish are endangered. They're convinced that there are values worth living for, and even values worth dying for. Otherwise they would consider their life and work pointless. Only such politicians are great politicians and Ronald Reagan was one of them.

The 1980s were a curious time -- a time of realization that a new age was upon us. Communism was coming to an end. It had used up its means and possibilities. The ground was set for change. But this change needed the cooperation, or unspoken understanding, of different political players. Now, from the perspective of our time, it is obvious that like the pieces of a global chain of events, Ronald Reagan, John Paul II, Margaret Thatcher and even Mikhail Gorbachev helped bring about this new age in Europe. We at Solidarity like to claim more than a little credit, too, for bringing about the end of the Cold War.

In the Europe of the 1980s, Ronald Reagan presented a vision. For us in Central and Eastern Europe, that meant freedom from the Soviets. Mr. Reagan was no ostrich who hoped that problems might just go away. He thought that problems are there to be faced. This is exactly what he did.

Every time I met President Reagan, at his private estate in California or at the Lenin shipyard here in Gdansk, I was amazed by his modesty and even temper. He didn't fit the stereotype of the world leader that he was. Privately, we were like opposite sides of a magnet: He was always composed; I was a raging tower of emotions eager to act. We were so different yet we never had a problem with understanding one another. I respected his honesty and good humor. It gave me confidence in his policies and his resolve. He supported my struggle, but what unified us, unmistakably, were our similar values and shared goals.

* * *
I have often been asked in the United States to sign the poster that many Americans consider very significant. Prepared for the first almost-free parliamentary elections in Poland in 1989, the poster shows Gary Cooper as the lonely sheriff in the American Western, "High Noon." Under the headline "At High Noon" runs the red Solidarity banner and the date -- June 4, 1989 -- of the poll. It was a simple but effective gimmick that, at the time, was misunderstood by the Communists. They, in fact, tried to ridicule the freedom movement in Poland as an invention of the "Wild" West, especially the U.S.

But the poster had the opposite impact: Cowboys in Western clothes had become a powerful symbol for Poles. Cowboys fight for justice, fight against evil, and fight for freedom, both physical and spiritual. Solidarity trounced the Communists in that election, paving the way for a democratic government in Poland. It is always so touching when people bring this poster up to me to autograph it. They have cherished it for so many years and it has become the emblem of the battle that we all fought together.

As I say repeatedly, we owe so much to all those who supported us. Perhaps in the early years, we didn't express enough gratitude. We were so busy introducing all the necessary economic and political reforms in our reborn country. Yet President Ronald Reagan must have realized what remarkable changes he brought to Poland, and indeed the rest of the world. And I hope he felt gratified. He should have.

Mr. Walesa, winner of the 1983 Nobel Peace Prize, was president of Poland from 1990 to 1995.

URL for this article:
http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB108691034152234672,00.html

(b) (b) Sweetlady ;) <part Polish, Swedish, English and Lithuanian......>

[sweetlady]

http://www.photolib.noaa.gov/corps/images/corp1977.jpg

http://www.terragalleria.com/images/mountain/icec3266.jpeg

http://www.cpaws.org/images/rockies-mayfield.jpg

Andes: http://staff.esuhsd.org/~balochie/studentprojects/peru/perures/andes.jpg

Tibet: http://community.webshots.com/s/image4/1/53/57/57715357qcfCXR_ph.jpg

Grand Tetons: http://www.winona.msus.edu/geology/imagearchive/mountains/tetons1archive.jpg

Sierra Nevada range from the air: http://www.wormley.com/images/200305/20030518-001-06-01.0.jpg

Denali: http://stevens.senate.gov/images/denali.jpg

Alps: http://www.planetfear.com/climbing/gallery/eyes-up/alps.jpg

Czech Republic mountains: http://www.boutiquebb.com/CzechRepublic/velke/Obr_6.jpg

Zion National Park: http://www.serve.com/wizjd/pics/zion06_m.jpg

Ah, nice rest for the eyes. Now back to my regularly scheduled programming - which at the moment is editing two final papers due this weekend. Then a two-week break......hmmm, wondering where to go for the break?

Peaceful thoughts,
Sweetlady (f)

[sweetlady]

http://www.ee.washington.edu/conselec/CE/kuhn/hdtv/95x5.htm

Academic explanations that the local consumer electonics' retailer sales people have no clue about. There are 18 different levels and profiles (resolutions) that are supported by the U.S. MPEG 2 video compression broadcast TV standard - which is why HDTV sets or receivers (true ones, that is) are still so expensive, and many still do not allow for display of all networks' HDTV broadcast transmissions.

<okay, enough girl-propeller-head speak> (o) It's Friday afternoon and I've been editing a 70+ page graduate course paper all day today. Guess I'm feeling punchy. ;) :| ;) That and a tall cafe mocha from Starbucks.<eeehaaa> (w) (f) That perked the brain cells right up....blew those mental cobwebs all to hell!

Hugs and kisses to my on-line and real-time f-2-f friends,
(k) (k) Sweetlady, the girl-propeller-head FEMME (k) (k)

[sweetlady]

http://www.hbo.com/deadwood/cast/

Thank goodness for digital cable VOD. (video on demand) since I'm currently taking writing breaks and watching a couple of shows every few days since the HBO series season ended last Sunday night. It's absolutely amazing how much I missed from each episode! Deadwood's exec producer and writer is David Milch (of N.Y.P.D. Blue fame) and once again he's got a "blow the doors off" winner. Come EMMY time, there will be some folks pushing out "The Soprano's" and other hit HBO series.

Hmmm, maybe I'll head for there in South Dakota during my two week break coming up. It's certainly cooler and less humid (my favorites) than here. I hope that it's also not like Tombstone, AZ was, which was kind of a tourist attraction rather than a true historical site. <okay, the Crystal Palace rocked as a museum in that it preserved the artifacts and feeling of the early 1880's>

Ah, where are my Victorian era ball gowns and hats? Better yet, where would I go wearing them? (6) ;)

Namaste,
Sweetlady (k)

[sweetlady]

Lapis is one of my favorites especially when set in gold by Hopi master jewelers:
http://www.tradeshop.com/gems/lapis.html

This site has every possible, imaginable gem stone that I have ever (or not) heard of: http://www.tradeshop.com/gems/rainbow.html

Amethyst: The Royal Purple. Great legend and another of my favorite stones.
http://www.gemstone.org/gem-by-gem/english/amethyst.html

With my love for all things southwest, I couldn't forget:
http://www.tradeshop.com/gems/turquois.html

Imperial topaz is another that I have a few of:
http://www.tradeshop.com/gems/topaz.html

Ah, rocks! (l) These and the ones picked up taking walks are also quite beautiful. there must be six or more as paperweights on my desk here.

(*) (*) (*) "Shoot for the moon, and even if you miss, you'll still be out there among the stars" (*) (*) (*)

Love, laughter and peace,
Sweetlady (k)

[sweetlady]

Subject: Abbott and Costello meet the 21st century


Who's on first...?

ABBOTT: Ultimate SuperDuper Computer Store. Can I help you?

COSTELLO: Thanks. I'm setting up a home office in the den, and I'm thinking
of buying a computer.

ABBOTT: Mac?

COSTELLO: No, the name is Lou.

ABBOTT: Your computer?

COSTELLO: I don't own a computer. I want to buy one.

ABBOTT: Mac?

COSTELLO: I told you, my name is Lou.

ABBOTT: What about Windows?

COSTELLO: Why? Does it get stuffy?

ABBOTT: Do you want a computer with Windows?

COSTELLO: I don't know. What do I see when I look out the windows?

ABBOTT: Wallpaper.

COSTELLO: Never mind the windows. I need a computer and software.

ABBOTT: Software that runs on Windows?

COSTELLO: No, on the computer! I need something I can use to write
proposals, track expenses. You know, run a business. What have you got?

ABBOTT: Office.

COSTELLO: Yeah, for my office. Can you recommend anything?

ABBOTT: I just did.

COSTELLO: You just did what?

ABBOTT: Recommended something.

COSTELLO: You recommended something?

ABBOTT: Yes.

COSTELLO: For my office?

ABBOTT: Yes.

COSTELLO: Okay, what did you recommend for my office?

ABBOTT: Office.

COSTELLO: Yes, for my office.

ABBOTT: Office for Windows.

COSTELLO: I already have an office and it already has windows! Let's say I'm
sitting at my computer, and I want to type a proposal. What do I need?

ABBOTT: Word.

COSTELLO: If I'm writing a proposal, I'm going to need lots of words. But
what program do I load?

ABBOTT: Word.

COSTELLO: What word?

ABBOTT: The Word in Office.

COSTELLO: The only word in office is office.

ABBOTT: The Word in Office for Windows.

COSTELLO: Which word in "office for windows?"

ABBOTT: The Word you get when you click the blue W.

COSTELLO: I'm going to click your big W if you don't give me a straight
answer. Let's forget about words for a minute. What do I need if I want to
watch a movie over the Internet?

ABBOTT: RealOne.

COSTELLO: Maybe a real movie, maybe a cartoon. What I watch is none of your
business. But what do I need to watch it?

ABBOTT: RealOne.

COSTELLO: If it's a long movie I'll also want to watch reels two, three and
four. Can I watch reel four?

ABBOTT: Of course.

COSTELLO: Great! With what?

ABBOTT: RealOne.

COSTELLO: Okay, so I'm sitting at my computer and I want to watch a movie.
What do I do?

ABBOTT: You click the blue 1.

COSTELLO: I click the blue one what?

ABBOTT: The blue 1.

COSTELLO: Is that different from the blue W?

ABBOTT: Of course it is. The blue 1 is RealOne. The blue W is Word.

COSTELLO: What word?

ABBOTT: The Word in Office for Windows.

COSTELLO: But there's three words in "office for windows!"

ABBOTT: No, just one. But it's the most popular Word in the world.

COSTELLO: It is?

ABBOTT: Yes, although to be fair there aren't many other Words left. It
pretty much wiped out all the other Words.

COSTELLO: And that word is the real one?

ABBOTT: No. RealOne has nothing to do with Word. RealOne isn't even part of
Office.

COSTELLO: Never mind; I don't want to get started with that again. But I
also need something for bank accounts, loans, and so on. What do you have to
help me track my money?

ABBOTT: Money.

COSTELLO: That's right. What do you have?

ABBOTT: Money.

COSTELLO: I need money to track my money?

ABBOTT: No, not really. It comes bundled with your computer.

COSTELLO: What comes bundled with my computer?

ABBOTT: Money.

COSTELLO: Money comes bundled with my computer?

ABBOTT: Exactly. No extra charge.

COSTELLO: I get a bundle of money with my computer at no extra charge? How
much money do I get?

ABBOTT: Just one copy.

COSTELLO: I get a copy of money. Isn't that illegal?>

ABBOTT: No. We have a license from Microsoft to make copies of Money.

COSTELLO: Microsoft can license you to make money?

ABBOTT: Why not? They own it.

COSTELLO: Well, it's great that I'm going to get free money, but I'll still
need to track it. Do you have anything for managing your money?

ABBOTT: Managing Your Money? That program disappeared years ago.

COSTELLO: Well, what do you sell in its place?

ABBOTT: Money.

COSTELLO: You sell money?

ABBOTT: Of course. But if you buy a computer from us, you get it for free.

COSTELLO: That's all very wonderful, but I'll be running a business. Do you
have any software for, you know, accounting?

ABBOTT: Simply Accounting.

COSTELLO: Probably, but it might get a little complicated.

ABBOTT: If you don't want Simply Accounting, you might try M.Y.O.B.

COSTELLO: M.Y.O.B.? What does that stand for?

ABBOTT: Mind Your Own Business.

COSTELLO: I beg your pardon?

ABBOTT: No, that would be I.B.Y.P. I said M.Y.O.B.

COSTELLO: Look, I just need to do some accounting for my home business. You
know--accounting? You do it with money.

ABBOTT: Of course you can do accounting with Money. But you may need more.

COSTELLO: More money?

ABBOTT: More than Money. Money can't do everything.

COSTELLO: I don't need a sermon! Okay, let's forget about money for the
moment. I'm worried that my computer might...what's the word? Crash. And if
my computer crashes, what can I use to restore my data?

ABBOTT: GoBack.

COSTELLO: Okay. I'm worried about my computer smashing and I need something
to restore my data. What do you recommend?

ABBOTT: GoBack.

COSTELLO: How many times do I have to repeat myself?

ABBOTT: I've never asked you to repeat yourself. All I said was GoBack.

COSTELLO: How can I go back if I haven't even been anywhere? Okay, I'll go
back. What do I need to write a proposal?

ABBOTT: Word.

COSTELLO: But I'll need lots of words to write a proposal.

ABBOTT: No, you only need one Word-the Word in Office for Windows.

COSTELLO: But there's three words in...Oh, never mind.

ABBOTT: Hello? Hello? Customers! Why do they always hang up on me? Oh, well.
Ultimate SuperDuper Computer Store. Can I help you?

(f) (f) (f)
;) Sweetlady

[sweetlady]

With the next two weeks yawning in front of me and I have a nice stack of books of fiction and other genres, I also have quite the list on my Netflix account of films that seem to be worth watching. In order so far:

1. Aimee and Jaguar (came today in the mail)
2. Out of Season (arrives this week)
3. Claire of the Moon (arrives this week)
4. The Locket
5. Lianna
6. The Seventh Stream
7. Better Than Chocolate
8. Big Eden
9. All About My Mother
10. It's in the Water
11. Antonia's Line
12. Normal
13. Gia
14. Tipping the Velvet
15. The Wings of the Dove
16. Babette's Feast
17. Central Station
18. Wit

Well, the last three aren't in my originally described category as "queer", but they sounded good. The nice thing about netflix is being able to re-number the queue and reprioritize or delete films. (h) Very cool. I love that I can also rate films and get recommendations based on what I've watched and/or rated. There must be about 700 films that I've rated so far - but many were films seen either at art/indie theaters, while I was overseas or back when I had a Blockbuster account and drove to rent those old videotapes.

Wonder how many films I'll watch before it's back to work - writing, and other work. (S) (S)

({) (}) Hugs,
Sweetlady (f)

[sweetlady]

The following <snip> was in today's New York Times (online of course):

The Senate vote on global warming is only days away.

Now is the time to speak up. Tell your senators you support
the McCain-Lieberman Climate Stewardship Act to undo
global warming. The best way to do that is to sign the
petition at undoit.org. The Senate vote could happen any
day, so make your voice heard NOW, click on the url below.

http://ads.nyt.com/th.ad/th-2004undoit2/defense/?_RM_REDIR_=http://iw.rtm.com/ed/undoit_petition_1.asp?sitecode=unyt
**************************
Maybe it's silly, but I just added my name to the signature list electronically. I thought that my B-F friends might see this and do the same. Since it was in the NYTimes, I know it's not one of those "urban legends" that continuously circulate through Internet emails.

And now off to brew some more coffee.......

Peace,
(k) Sweetlady (k)

[sweetlady]

Hatshepsut was an Eighteenth-Dynasty pharaoh......whose unprecedented act of apparent usurpation in donning the regalia of male pharaoh and stepping into the role of senior coregent.....(amazing that this happened 35 centuries ago :o

Fabulous academic article:

http://www.fathom.com/feature/190131/index.html

Can't help it, during my morning perusal of news web sites, I explore and often find things such as this unusual Pharaoh that I have a few books on and yet found this article to be one of the best on her/hym. (f)

Peace,
Sweetlady

[sweetlady]

http://live-fuji.jp/fuji/livee.htm

Mt. Fuji was once a national symbol of purity in Japan. Much more beautiful web site and photo (looks like when I flew by it a few times on business trips during the mid 1990's):http://www.mt-fuji.co.jp/index-e.html

The photo gallery of various times of day and weather make this sacred mountain seem like it's not the same mountain:http://www.mt-fuji.co.jp/Photo/Photo.html

(k) (k) ,
Sweetlady

[Beaudyk]

http://www.geocities.com/maniac1916/Boudicca.html

Take a look.... the bear

[sweetlady]

Hello and thanks for posting the URL that inspired your B-F name. What an amazing story! Boudicca, Queen of the Iceni is revered as a symbol of British freedom, stories of her heroism have been told to English schoolchildren for the past two hundred years. http://myron.sjsu.edu/romeweb/ladycont/art5.htm

Boudicca takes a mother's revenge: http://ancienthistory.about.com/library/weekly/aa051298.htm

http://www.hhhh.org/maia/boudicca.html

What strength, courage, intellect and other admirable qualities! Thanks so much for your post. It was extraordinarily interesting. (*) (*) It provides some insight into your name here, and I wish I had such a respected source for my own rather superfluous nickname on B-F. ;) Very cool and creative name that you chose for yourself. I wonder if the mention of the bear in ancient Celtic times is in any way similar to the medicine animals of some Native American tribes. <musing to myself>

Hope that you're having a lovely and relaxing weekend. (f)

Peace,
Sweetlady

[sweetlady]

Tower of London Virtual Tour: http://www.toweroflondontour.com/
Has anyone ever been? I have a three times and each time caused that feeling of deja vu......feeling ancient energy. There's even a wall dated back to 1050 from when the Romans were there. Founded nearly a millennium ago and expanded upon over the centuries since, the Tower of London has protected, housed, imprisoned and been for many the last sight they saw on Earth.
It has been the seat of British government and the living quarters of monarchs ... the site of renown political intrigue, and the repository of the Crown Jewels ... It has housed lions, bears, and (to this day) flightless ravens ... not to mention notorious traitors and framed members of court, lords and ministers, clergymen and knights.

http://www.twingroves.district96.k12.il.us/Renaissance/TowerofLondon/TowerLondon.html

"Hello, I am Anne Boleyn's ghost. During the Renaissance while I was still alive, the most distinguished and important people were the royalty, like me. If a king or queen wanted you to do something, you did it. There was no disputing the top."http://www.twingroves.district96.k12.il.us/Renaissance/TowerofLondon/AnneBoleyn.html

(l) (l) Sweetlady

[Collaredmerlot]

what about Billy Tipton who lived as a man for all of hys life? if hy could do that in the times during which hy lived, then let us give reverence to a queer inspiration to all today!

~merlot~

[sweetlady]

what about Billy Tipton who lived as a man for all of hys life? if hy could do that in the times during which hy lived, then let us give reverence to a queer inspiration to all today!~merlot~
({) merlot (}) wow! :| Where have I been?

"Tipton then is the biographer's ultimate challenge;, a person who lived life
beyond the reach of others, a performative character in work and in love." (*) (*)

http://www-music.duke.edu/jazz_archive/artists/tipton.billy/01/
What does matter is that she was able to make it successfully as a jazz musician. It is truly a shame that discrimination in the 1930s drove Dorothy to change her identity. Had she been able to play piano and sax as Dorothy, she could have had a tremendous influence, encouraging other female jazz musicians. As Dorothy, and not Billy, it is unlikely she would have feared fame, and the jazz community could have been blessed with her music much longer then 1958. Tragically though the world was not accepting of females with masculine qualities, especially not lesbians during this time period. According to Billy's wife of nearly twenty years, Kitty Oakes, jazz music was Billy Tipton's "magic carpet," an escape from reality and a vehicle to take her places. Unfortunately, this same "carpet" was responsible for putting Billy in the spot light that drove her from the music industry. Though one author says "Tipton couldn't really be considered a jazz musician," since she had only two mediocre albums, her life exemplifies the importance of jazz music and the sacrifices one person was willing to make in order to play (Firehammer, John. http://www.visionx.com/jazz/reviews/b1198_01.htm). Her life shows that many jazz musicians play for the love of music, not fame or fortunes since in actuality these are such rare achievements in the jazz industry.

What an incredible gift that you shared, Merlot, if I may call you that I hope. Thank you so much for sharing that in your posting. (f) Let's continue to share our views and feelings!

(l) Love and God/dess bless to all who read this (l)
Sweetlady
P.S. Let's have a "proper English tea", coffee, lunch or drinks girlfriend! PM, Email or call me! (f)

[sweetlady]

PM me and I'll give you my emails and chat IDs.

I hope that this post is taken with the humble spirit with which it is intended. (f) Sometimes my transexual friends have been shy in public forums and I can't blame them at all. Thank you for your wonderful posts! Let's stay in touch.

Love,
(k) (k) Sweetlady

[Electrocell]

WOW going to have to come back and read some more of this thread.

[Beaudyk]

MOJO HOODOO MAIL
This letter will protect you from any malicious wishes that may result from not forwarding a chain letter on the Internet. The following protections have automatically been applied to you because you have received this letter.

This letter hereby absolves you of any and all malicious consequences you may have been subject to by receiving a chain letter via the Internet.

In receiving this letter, you are bound not to send any chain mail to anyone you know. Chain mail is evil and pointless. Please consider the following examples:



Barry White received this mailing sometime in 1946, but, in spite of this warning, he forwarded a malicious chain letter to everyone in his address book. A week later, he was visited by a group of paranoid walrus worshipers who beat him senseless with uncooked lasagna noodles.

Gertrude Garth also received this letter and ignored it. After sending a chain letter to three of her friends, she was brutally beaten and mutilated by two Jehovah's Witnesses, angry that she answered her door in a party dress.

Don't let misfortune find you. This e-mail will protect you throughout your life and is unlimited in scope. Its protective powers will never expire nor become ineffective against any chain letter or clauses held therein.

Remember, you are bound to never, ever forward another chain letter or hoax as long as you live, so help you [enter the name of your supreme being here] !!!!!!!!!!!

[Beaudyk]

Urban Legends: http://urbanlegends.about.com/culture/urbanlegends/library/blhoax.htm
HoaxKill: http://www.hoaxkill.com/urbanlegends.html

[sweetlady]

"Out of Season" - This is the evocative romantic drama about two women who unexpectedly fall in love during a winter's stay in the resort town of Cape May, New Jersey.
Starring: Nancy Daly, Dennis Fecteau
Director: Jeanette L. Buck
Genre: Drama
Format: Full Screen, More
Language: English

Definitely worth the time. The book, "Afterlove" by Robert Rosenblum kept me up late last night and I finished it earlier this afternoon. After heading to Amazon.com to try to find any other the 20 books written under various pseudonyms the author writes under, I couldn't find any other books. :( "Afterlove" was an amazing story that kept me glued....and feeling grateful that I'm a speed reader on one hand, and sorry that the book had an end. Definitely worth the time to read. It gave me hope and confirmation that love trancends death. (f)

Have a peaceful Sunday evening. (l)

Love, laughter and lightness,
Sweetlady (k)

[sweetlady]

"Claire of the Moon" (1993) Notorious satirist Claire Jabrowski (Trisha Todd) meets Dr. Noel Benedict (Karen Trumbo), a dour sex therapist, at a women's retreat -- and despite their differences, the promiscuous Claire and the serious Noel find themselves passionately attracted to each other. Sparks fly as the two women clash at first, then reconcile and finally develop a romance that will change Claire's life forever. A sensual, provocative and deeply intimate film. (k) (k)
Starring: Trisha Todd, Karen Trumbo
Director: Nicole Conn

I really liked this film, for both it's sexiness as well as intellectual stimulation. I gave it 4 out of five stars.(*)

Sweet dreams tonight and lovely Tuesday (f),
Sweetlady

[Electrocell]

"Claire of the Moon" (1993) Notorious satirist Claire Jabrowski (Trisha Todd) meets Dr. Noel Benedict (Karen Trumbo), a dour sex therapist, at a women's retreat -- and despite their differences, the promiscuous Claire and the serious Noel find themselves passionately attracted to each other. Sparks fly as the two women clash at first, then reconcile and finally develop a romance that will change Claire's life forever. A sensual, provocative and deeply intimate film. (k) (k)
Starring: Trisha Todd, Karen Trumbo
Director: Nicole Conn

I really liked this film, for both it's sexiness as well as intellectual stimulation. I gave it 4 out of five stars.(*)

Sweet dreams tonight and lovely Tuesday (f),
Sweetlady

And Where might one find these movies ?

[sweetlady]

Thanks for asking. I joined Netflix earlier this year. Definitely worth joining in my opinion. You can sign up for a membership at www.netflix.com
The monthly membership is about $20 (they ask for a credit card) and includes as many films as you can watch - although you can have only three films at one time. They come in these envelopes that already have the return address and postage so that when you're finished either watching the movie (or like me, a few times I hated a movie and just put it back in it's self-mailer) and returned it. Their gay, queer, transexual, transvestite, etc. collection of films is the most extensive that I've ever seen! And, the more films that I watch, the less each movie actually costs.
(S) (S) I'm on a roll catching up on experiencing some great films that I usually don't have time for in-between grad school quarters, so have been watching a film each day the last week......either from Netflix or on cable pay-per-view. I watched "Calendar Girls" on cable for instance. I'm buying the movie sountrack for that and a few others. That's the other great thing about watching films - finding music I would have otherwise missed. (f)

Take good care and "see" you soon. ({) (}) Hugs to you!

Sincerely,
Sweetlady

[sweetlady]

July 1-3, 1863: Battle of Gettysburg. CNN (Monday, June 28, 2004)
"As the Civil War made a rare foray into the North, residents of the small southern Pennsylvania town of Gettysburg buzzed with excitement in summer 1863 and jockeyed for the best vista to watch the approaching Confederate and Union armies.This energized atmosphere was quickly dashed by the harsh reality of war. Described as the "work of the very devil himself" by one Union bugler, the Gettysburg battle on July 1-3 ended with 51,000 casualties -- an astonishing total given that about 165,000 troops on both sides participated."
The whole article is at: http://www.cnn.com/2004/US/06/25/gettysburg/

To say that this is a sad place is an understatement. (l) (l) <closes eyes for a moment>

Respectfully,
Sweetlady

[sweetlady]

By MARGARET WENTE Tuesday, June 29 Globe and Mail (Canada) "Did you have trouble figuring out who to vote for? Not me. I have always supported the tax-cutting, gay-marriage party that pledged to legalize marijuana and stop lying to us about health care. Unfortunately, this party, whose winning platform seems ridiculously self-evident to me, does not exist and probably never will. So I did the next best thing. I decided to vote strategically." The rest of her great column is at: http://www.globeandmail.com/servlet/ArticleNews/TPStory/LAC/20040629/COWENT29/Columnists/Columnist?author=Margaret+Wente

I often wonder what it would be like to live in Canada, especially in western CA. <sigh>

Margaret is one of my favorite columnists at the Gobe and Mail. Peggy Noonan is another at the Wall Street Journal, Dan Gilmor at the San Jose Mercury News, Tom Friedman and several others at the NYTimes.

I'm having a massage with reflexology and Reiki this afternoon - the first one in well, I can't remember, it's been that long. Being single has many, many advantages however hair and nail appointments just aren't enough for the need to be touched and poor Doc the boxer can't hug his mama back. ;)

Sun thoughts,
Sweetlady

[Electrocell]

Thanks for asking. I joined Netflix earlier this year. Definitely worth joining in my opinion. You can sign up for a membership at www.netflix.com
The monthly membership is about $20 (they ask for a credit card) and includes as many films as you can watch - although you can have only three films at one time. They come in these envelopes that already have the return address and postage so that when you're finished either watching the movie (or like me, a few times I hated a movie and just put it back in it's self-mailer) and returned it. Their gay, queer, transexual, transvestite, etc. collection of films is the most extensive that I've ever seen! And, the more films that I watch, the less each movie actually costs.
(S) (S) I'm on a roll catching up on experiencing some great films that I usually don't have time for in-between grad school quarters, so have been watching a film each day the last week......either from Netflix or on cable pay-per-view. I watched "Calendar Girls" on cable for instance. I'm buying the movie sountrack for that and a few others. That's the other great thing about watching films - finding music I would have otherwise missed. (f)

Take good care and "see" you soon. ({) (}) Hugs to you!

Sincerely,
Sweetlady


Thanks Sweetlady hugs to you too ((((((((( SL)))))))))))))))))

[sweetlady]

June 23, 2004 MOVIE REVIEW | 'FAHRENHEIT 9/11' New York Times
Unruly Scorn Leaves Room for Restraint, but Not a Lot
By A. O. SCOTT

Respect for the president is a longstanding American tradition and one that is still very much alive, as the weeklong national obsequies for Ronald Reagan recently proved. But there is also an opposing tradition of holding up our presidents, especially while they are in office, to ridicule and scorn.

Which is to say that while Michael Moore's "Fahrenheit 9/11" will be properly debated on the basis of its factual claims and cinematic techniques, it should first of all be appreciated as a high-spirited and unruly exercise in democratic self-expression. Mixing sober outrage with mischievous humor and blithely trampling the boundary between documentary and demagoguery, Mr. Moore takes wholesale aim at the Bush administration, whose tenure has been distinguished, in his view, by unparalleled and unmitigated arrogance, mendacity and incompetence.

That Mr. Moore does not like Mr. Bush will hardly come as news. "Fahrenheit 9/11," which opens in Manhattan today and in the rest of the country on Friday, is many things: a partisan rallying cry, an angry polemic, a muckraking inquisition into the use and abuse of power. But one thing it is not is a fair and nuanced picture of the president and his policies. What did you expect? Mr. Moore is often impolite, rarely subtle and occasionally unwise. He can be obnoxious, tendentious and maddeningly self-contradictory. He can drive even his most ardent admirers crazy. He is a credit to the republic.

While his new film, awarded the top prize at the Cannes International Film Festival this year, has been likened to an op-ed column, it might more accurately be said to resemble an editorial cartoon. Mr. Moore uses archival video images, rapid-fire editing and playful musical cues to create an exaggerated, satirical likeness of his targets. The president and his team have obliged him by looking sinister and ridiculous on camera.

Paul D. Wolfowitz shares his icky hair-care secrets (a black plastic comb and a great deal of saliva); John Ashcroft raptly croons a patriotic ballad of his own composition; Mr. Bush, when he is not blundering through the thickets of his native tongue, projects an air of shallow self-confidence.

Through it all, Mr. Moore provides sardonic commentary, to which the soundtrack adds nudges and winks. As the camera pans across copies of Mr. Bush's records from the Texas Air National Guard, and Mr. Moore reads that the future president was suspended for missing a medical examination, we hear a familiar electric guitar riff; it takes you a moment to remember that it comes from a song called "Cocaine."

Not that Mr. Moore is kidding around. Perhaps because of the scale and gravity of the subject of "Fahrenheit 9/11," perhaps because his own celebrity has made the man-in-the-street pose harder to sustain, Mr. Moore's trademark pranks and interventions are not as much in evidence as in earlier films. He does commandeer an ice cream truck to drive around Washington, reading the U.S.A. Patriot Act through a loudspeaker (after learning that few of the lawmakers who voted for it had actually read it), and he does stand outside the Capitol trying to persuade members of Congress to enlist their children in the armed forces. (The contortion that one legislator performs to avoid shaking Mr. Moore's hand is an amusing moment of found slapstick.)

Mostly, though, he sifts through the public record, constructing a chronicle of misrule that stretches from the Florida recount to the events of this spring. His case is synthetic rather than comprehensive, and it is not always internally consistent. He dwells on the connections between the Bush family and the Saudi Arabian elite (including the bin Laden family), and while he creates a strong impression of unseemly coziness, his larger point is not altogether clear.

After you leave the theater, some questions are likely to linger about Mr. Moore's views on the war in Afghanistan, about whether he thinks the homeland security program has been too intrusive or not intrusive enough, and about how he thinks the government should have responded to the murderous jihadists who attacked the United States on Sept. 11.

At the same time, though, it may be that the confusions trailing Mr. Moore's narrative are what make "Fahrenheit 9/11" an authentic and indispensable document of its time. The film can be seen as an effort to wrest clarity from shock, anger and dismay, and if parts of it seem rash, overstated or muddled, well, so has the national mood.

If "Fahrenheit 9/11" consisted solely of talking heads and unflattering glimpses of public figures, it would be, depending on your politics, either a rousing call to arms or an irresponsible provocation, but it might not persuade you to re-examine your assumptions. But the movie is much more than "Dude, Where's My Country," carried out by other means. It is worth seeing, debating and thinking about, regardless of your political allegiances.

Mr. Moore's populist instincts have never been sharper, and he is, as ever, at his best when he turns down the showmanship and listens to what people have to say. "Fahrenheit 9/11" is, along with everything else, an extraordinary collage of ordinary American voices: soldiers in the field, an Oregon state trooper patrolling the border, and, above all, citizens of Flint, Mich., Mr. Moore's hometown. The trauma that deindustrialization visited on that city was the subject of "Roger and Me," and that film remains fresh 15 years later, now that the volunteer army has replaced the automobile factory as the vehicle for upward mobility.

The most moving sections of "Fahrenheit 9/11" concern Lila Lipscomb, a cheerful state employee and former welfare recipient who wears a crucifix pendant and an American flag lapel pin. When we first meet her, she is proud of her family's military service — a daughter served in the Persian Gulf war and a son, Michael Pedersen, was a marine in Iraq — and grateful for the opportunities it has offered. Then Michael is killed in Karbala, and in sharing her grief with Mr. Moore, she also gives his film an eloquence that its most determined critics will find hard to dismiss. Mr. Bush is under no obligation to answer Mr. Moore's charges, but he will have to answer to Mrs. Lipscomb.

"Fahrenheit 9/11" is rated R (Under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian). It has graphic images of combat and its aftermath.

Written and directed by Michael Moore; director of photography, Mike Desjarlais; edited by Kurt Engfehr, Christopher Seward and T. Woody Richman; music by Jeff Gibbs; produced by Mr. Moore, Jim Czarnecki and Kathleen Glynn; released by Lions Gate Films, IFC Films and the Fellowship Adventure Group. Running time: 116 minutes. The film is rated R.
http://movies2.nytimes.com/2004/06/23/movies/23FAHR.html

The Political 'Fahrenheit' Sets Record at Box Office
By SHARON WAXMAN Published: June 28, 2004 New York Times: http://www.nytimes.com/2004/06/28/movies/28BOX.html

({) (}) to my dear friends (f) (f) ,
Sweetlady

[sweetlady]

"Success is something to shadow-box with, not embrace." July 7, 1974, NYTimes.

(k) ,
Sweetlady

[Beaudyk]

http://www.michaelmoore.com/

[Beaudyk]

http://members.tripod.com/~moviemaniac1/index.html

Boy, a person can get lost in this thread for days!!!!!!!!!!!!! Thanx for all the links!

[sweetlady]

WASHINGTON, July 2: -- Coast Guard headquarters was advised tonight that Amelia Earhart was believed to have alighted on the Pacific Ocean near Howland Island shortly after 5 P.M. Eastern daylight time today.

A message from the cutter Itasca, stationed in the vicinity of the island in the mid-Pacific, said:

"Earhart unreported at Howland at 7 P.M. [E.D.T.]. Believe down shortly after 5 P.M. Am searching probable area and will continue."

Admiral William D. Leahy, chief of naval operations, instructed the commandant of the naval station at Honolulu tonight to render whatever aid he may deem practicable in the search for Miss Earhart.

Plane Joins in Search

[A navy flying boat hopped off from Honolulu late last night for Howland Island, 1,900 miles distant, to join the cutter Itasca in hunting for Miss Earhart, The Associated Press reported. Two Los Angeles radio amateurs were said to have picked up weak signals on the frequency assigned to the Earhart radio.]

Coast Guard headquarters here received information that Miss Earhart probably overshot tiny Howland Island because she was blinded by the glare of an ascending sun. The message from the Coast Guard cutter Itasca said it it was believed Miss Earhart passed northwest of Howland Island about 3:20 P.M. [E.D.T.], or about 8 A.M., Howland Island time. The Itasca reported that heavy smoke was bellowing from its funnels at the time, to serve as a signal for the flyer. The cutter's skipper expressed belief the Earhart plane had descended into the sea within 100 miles of Howland.

Husband Asks Assistance

In a message to Washington, the flier's husband, George Palmer Putnam, who is awaiting her return to this country at the Oakland, Calif., airport said:

"Technicians familiar with Miss Earhart's plane believe, with its large tanks, it can float almost indefinitely. With retractable landing gear and smooth seas, safe landing (on the sea) should have been practicable.

"Request such assistance as is practicable from naval aircraft and surface craft stationed at Honolulu. Apparently plane's position not far from Howland.

"The plane's large wing and empty gasoline tanks should provide sufficient buoyancy if it came to rest on the sea without being damaged.

"There was a two-man rubber lifeboat aboard the plane, together with lifebelts, flares, a Very pistol and a large yellow signal kite which could be flown above the plane or the lifecraft."

Mr. Putnam said his wife had planned to take emergency food rations and plenty of water on the hazardous flight, the most dangerous on her trip around the world.

Earlier the Coast Guard had ordered the cutter Roger B. Taney to proceed from Honolulu to Howland Island to aid the cutter Itasca in the search for Miss Earhart. A message from Honolulu, however, said the Taney was undergoing repairs and could not participate.

Amateurs Pick Up Signals

Los Angeles, July 2 (AP) -- Two amateur radio operators claimed to have picked up signals tonight on frequencies officially assigned to the plane of Amelia Earhart.

Walter McMenamy said he picked up weak signals on 6210 kilocycles at 6 P.M. [10 P.M. Eastern daylight time] and heard the letters "L-a-t" which he took to mean latitude. The letters were followed by undecipherable figures.

The signals continued for some time. Mr. McMenamy expressed belief they came from a portable transmitter. he received other signals from a Coast Guard boat, presumably the cutter Itasca, requesting listeners to "stand by and listen on all frequencies."

At 8 P.M. [midnight Eastern daylight time], Carl Pierson, chief engineer of the Patterson Radio Corporation, picked up similarly weak signals on 3,105 kilocycles, Miss Earhart's daytime frequency. He said they were erratic and undecipherable.

Both Mr. McMenamy and Mr. Pierson said the signals came from a hand-cranked generator. Miss Earhart carried one in her plane.

Within 100 Miles of Goals

Honolulu July 2 (AP) -- Amelia Earhart, the world's best known aviatrix, and her navigator, Fred Noonan, were believed forced down at sea today in their $80,000 "flying laboratory" somewhere near tiny Howland Island on a daring attempt to span the South Pacific.

Apparently headwinds had exhausted their gasoline within 100 miles of the end of a projected 2,556-mile flight from Lae, New Guinea.

The alarming silence of the plane's radio spurred into search the Coast Guard cutter Itasca from Howland Island when Miss Earhart's estimated gasoline deadline of 8 P.M. [E.D.T.] passed without word.

A message from the globe-girdling plane, the time of which was translated at Washington by Coast Guard headquarters as 3:20 P.M. [E.D.T.] said she had only a half hour's gasoline and had not sighted land. A later incomplete message was reported at 4:43 P.M. [E.D.T.] Earlier at 2:46 P.M. [E.D.T.] the plane was approximately 100 miles from the island.

The cutter Itasca set out at 8:30 P.M. [E.D.T.] to hunt the missing plane. Coast guardsmen here expressed the belief that aviation's "first lady" and her companion had overshot the minute island and come down somewhere in the vast mid-Pacific region far removed from regular shipping lanes. The cutter prepared to search the little known area northwest of Howland Island.

Bound around the world on an equatorial trail of more than 27,000 miles, Miss Earhart had flown since May 21 from Oakland, Calif., in relatively leisurely stages.

Arriving at Lae, New Guinea, June 28 she awaited favorable weather for the attempt to negotiate the unflown miles to Howland Island, the dot of land that represents the United States' frontier in the South Pacific and is regarded as a potential stepping stone on an air line between the Pacific Coast and the Antipodes.

She left Lae at 10 A.M. local time July 2, which was 8 P.M. yesterday, Eastern daylight time, expecting to complete the flight in eighteen or twenty hours.

The navy tug Ontario stood by half-way between New Guinea and Howland Island, but was not heard from. The Itasca, waiting to receive Miss Earhart at the island received only the barest reports of her progress until the message came that her fuel was about gone.

The next nearest land to Howland is Jarvis Island, a similar mid-Pacific dot forty miles north. Aside form these virtual sandbars there is nothing but water for hundreds of miles.

Howland Island is many hours behind Eastern time, and daylight still existed there with a smooth sea and good visibility prevailing.

The Coast Guard reported receipt of the following message from the Itasca:

"Earhart contact at 3:30 P.M. [E.D.T.]; reported half hour fuel and no landfall. Position doubtful.

"Contact 2:46 P.M. [E.D.T.]; reported approximately 100 miles from Itasca, but no relative bearing. Sea is smooth, visibility perfect, ceiling unlimited. Understand she will float for limited time."

Coast Guard officers consulted the army commanders in Honolulu concerning the possibility of sending land or sea planes from Honolulu, but officials said this was unlikely.

Officers aboard the cutter reported they estimated 8 P.M. [E.D.T.] was the latest the plane could stay aloft an that if it had not arrived by then search would be started in the northwest quadrant from Howland Island "as the most probable area."

Headquarters officials said they could not understand the discrepancy between Miss Earhart's report that she had only a half hour's fuel and the Itasca estimate that she could remain in the air until 7 P.M. They added, however, that the Itasca officers might have taken into account a reserve fuel supply aboard the plane.

Information was sought concerning the sea, whether it was smooth enough to aid the fliers in keeping afloat until the Itasca could locate and rescue them or whether it was rough enough to endanger them immediately.

The Itasca radioed Washington the sea was smooth with visibility perfect.

http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0702.html#article

Have a smooth start of the holiday weekend,(f) (f) (f)
Sweetlady

[sweetlady]

(2002) An unusual love story told in three episodes, Tipping the Velvet charts the course of Nan, an ingénue who discovers a sexually charged world of male impersonators, actors and affluent women looking for female companionship in the usually controlled and corseted 1890s. Ultimately, however, Nan learns that she can only truly depend on herself. Stars Keeley Hawes, Rachel Stirling, John Bowe, Jodhi May, Anna Chancellor and Hugh Bonneville.
Starring: Rachael Stirling, Keeley Hawes
Director: Geoffrey Sax
Genre: Television

Don't watch it alone unless you want to take a cold shower afterwards.... :| ;) This BBC production was not only three superlative television shows in terms of continuing story, but the production (cinematography, editing, lighting, etc.) were quite extraordinary as well.

I won't give away the title except to say that the 1890's British accents and undercurrents of butch-femme dynamics were the best. ({) (})

Peace,
Sweetlady

[sweetlady]

You gain strength, courage and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face" Eleanor Roosevelt (h)

[sweetlady]

http://lesbianlife.about.com/mbiopage.htm

What in the world has changed for posting here?

Respectfully,
Sweetlady

[sweetlady]

This John Sayles drama follows the title character's changing world when she becomes fed up with her marriage to her oppressive, cheating husband and begins a homosexual affair with Ruth, her night school professor. But Lianna's joy at finding a new life and love soon disintegrates as the people around her start to treat her differently. Forced to find a new apartment, job and friends, Lianna finds that with freedom also comes loneliness.
Starring: Linda Griffiths, Jane Hallaren
Director: John Sayles
Genre: Drama

Four stars! (*) (*) (*) (*) Not as good as "Tipping the Velvet", however was much more poignant and I related to it more.

(S) <getting sleepy> Two more courses started a few days ago. (S) Off to bed soon since I'm up early tomorrow.

(f) (f) ,
Sweetlady

[sweetlady]

http://www.mediaspec.com/castles/

http://www.castles-of-britain.com/

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&q=Poland+castles&btnG=Search

http://www.castlesontheweb.com/search/Castle_Tours/Poland/

http://www.parmaitaly.com/castellik.html

(S) Have a relaxing Friday night and sleep tight tonight. (S) (f) (f)

Peace,
Sweetlady

[sweetlady]

http://home.bawue.de/~wmwerner/essling/english/glas01.html

Metropolitan Museum of Art: http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/glas/hd_glas.htm

http://www.palos118.org/south/curriculum/team6c/midages/stainedglass/

Rose Stained Glass Windows: http://www.elore.com/Gothic/Learning/rose_windows.htm

http://www.canterbury-cathedral.org/histglass.html

http://www.kent.k12.wa.us/staff/cspears/middle_ages/stained_glass.html

(o) (f) (w) (S)

Hugs,
Sweetlady

[sweetlady]

Summer at warp speed: Hurry up and relax

MARGARET WENTE
July 3, 2004 Canada Globe and Mail

When I was a kid, summer was simple. I would ride my bike, play house with my girlfriends, break into the boys-only fort to annoy them and lie around on the couch all afternoon sucking popsicles. Time passed slowly. Every July, my grandparents would load us into the car and drive to Michigan, where we stayed at a cottage with no running water. We brushed our teeth at the outdoor pump and had baths in the lake. It was great.

Kids today aren't so lucky. Their lives are much more organized. They have art camp, soccer camp, computer camp. They have T-ball and tutoring. When mom and dad are both working, they need someplace to stash the kids when school's out. They also know there's no time to waste. Without organized enrichment, their kids will surely fall behind in the great race of life.

I feel sorry for the grownups too. The average striving middle-class professional can't afford to take too much time off in the summer. Your company will think you're a slacker if you do. Worse, your colleagues might not miss you, and then where would you be?

The relentless march of progress (cell phones, email, laptops, CrackBerrys) has made it slightly easier to fake it, and sneak away at noon on Friday. But those loathsome devices also mean you can work all the time.

Take me. I was in the country yesterday. It was a perfect morning, and nature beckoned me to go right out and start killing things. (I kill things. My husband plants them. It's a sensible division of labour. ) I should have answered Nature's call. Instead, I plugged in my computer and checked my e-mail. I read the friendly ones, deleted the ones that started "You are such a jerk," and sat down to write this piece. No need to be in the office. Now I can obsess anywhere.

In Europe, they think we're insane.

In Europe, they think nothing of taking at least a month off every summer. But we're a nation that crams in our relaxing time. (It's the Americans' fault.) Nothing is more dismal than the traffic jams on Sunday night of people heading back into the city, 48 hours after they got stuck in traffic heading out of it. In between, you can bet they didn't lie around. They were busy, busy, busy.

Take entertaining. When I was a kid, my family's idea of a summer dinner party was hot dogs and potato salad on paper plates. Life is not so simple now. Last weekend some friends asked us over and served up homemade spring pea soup straight from Gourmet magazine, followed by impeccably grilled free-range organic chicken, tomatoes with bufala mozzarella, four kinds of cheese you can't get at Valu-Mart, and fresh-picked strawberries from the gourmet produce store. They had linen napkins, which they take back down to the city to wash and iron.
They are busy urban professionals, just like us, so we have no excuse. We are now obliged to invite them back. Paper napkins and hot dogs will not do. I love them, but it makes me tired just thinking about it.

Once upon a time, country living was a simple matter. People lived in simple cabins with cobwebs in the corners, furnished with a lot of junk. If they wanted something to do at night, they went out and watched the stars. Now people's country places are nicer than their city places. They have gardens to maintain and decorator pillows to fluff up. They have giant televisions to watch at night, and satellite dishes that get all the channels. The trouble with the country used to be that there was nothing to do. Now the trouble is that there's too much to do.
Then there's the summer culture obligation, upon which entire industries are built.

If you're a Torontonian of a certain age and not a total lowbrow, you are obliged to schlep down to Stratford or Shaw and sit through a bunch of plays you're not too sure you want to see. If you don't do this, you feel vaguely like a philistine, and if you do, you feel vaguely guilty for wishing you were lying around in the country instead of shelling out $180 for Titus Andronicus.

Of course, you only think you'd be lying around. You'd probably be washing your windows, putting on your screens, and sweeping up the heaps of dead flies that fell out of the windows when you opened them. That's what I did on Thursday. Then I went out and killed some things. Then I ordered Stratford tickets. It was hard to get the ones I wanted, because summer's almost over. Just nine weeks till Labour Day. We've got to throw a couple of dinner parties. Better hurry up.

www.globeandmail.com

(*) Margaret is definitely one of my favorite columnists. Canadians like her have such a refreshingly liberal worldview. (okay, so Margaret is often slightly right leaning at times in her columns). (*)

I'm off soon with the Doc - it's doggie spa-day for him! It's his 6th canine birthday tomorrow! >wondering if there is someplace to get a dog-friendly birthday cake>

Carp Diem,
Sweetlady (k)

[sweetlady]

Breck Girl Takes On Dr. No

July 8, 2004
By MAUREEN DOWD

New York Times

WASHINGTON - I'm happy for John Kerry.

Long-faced guy, as some Bushies refer to him, finally found
somebody to stand at the podium and give him an adoring
look.

Heaven knows Teresa was never going to do it. Her attention
rarely seems to light on her husband when she's at a
microphone with him.

It's sort of mesmerizing, really. She's unlike any other
political wife I've ever seen - unscripted and ready to do
as she likes, in her intriguing, world-weary way, even as
her second husband introduced his running mate at her
adored first husband's 88-acre, $3.7 million "farm" in
suburban Pittsburgh. The white-columned colonial mansion
and swimming pool were out of sight and bales of hay
strategically placed to give a populist touch.

She doesn't gaze like Nancy or glare like Lee Hart or look
appraisingly at her husband like Elizabeth Edwards. She
doesn't always seem to notice he's there. When Mr. Kerry
moves in for a nuzzle or a kiss, she sometimes makes a
little face.

She's easily distracted, waving and mouthing "Hello" at the
audience and languidly arranging her hair and the
red-and-blue "John Kerry for President" scarves she
designed.

She siphons attention from a husband who has a hard enough
time getting it. Yesterday, she distracted the audience
when she seemed to be trying to get young Jack Edwards to
stop sucking his thumb. Sometimes she'll laugh and smile in
inappropriate places - she once chuckled while her husband
talked about curbing tax breaks for the rich.

Teresa has the air, as Chris Matthews noted, of an
old-fashioned European movie star. She projects a quality
like Marlene Dietrich or Jeanne Moreau, a sultry
touch-me-and-you-die look with an accent to match: a rare
political perfume of I don't give a hoot, I'm worth a
billion dollars and you're not and he's not and the Bushes
are not; of I have four mansions and he doesn't; of I'm so
confident I can admit to using Botox and I can wear Chanel
while my husband complains about manufacturing jobs' going
overseas.

Her detachment seems all the more appealing now that John
Kerry can't stop patting and grabbing his new pup, John
Edwards. Mr. Edwards awkwardly reciprocates, sliding his
arm around the big guy's torso.

(But nothing was as painful as watching Mr. Kerry
determinedly trying to cavort on the farm's lawn with the
adorable little Jack.)

Ordinarily, the John-John ticket might seem a bit
off-putting - a little too glib, a little too ingratiating,
a little too forced, a little too expedient, a little too
eager to please. But when the competition is two oilmen who
don't seem to want to please anybody but Halliburton and
the Saudis - ask Pat Leahy, Old Europe and the 9/11 panel -
overeagerness is a relief.

It's hilarious that the Republicans are trying to paint
their ticket as the more optimistic one.

Mr. Cheney and Mr. Bush radiate negativity, even as Mr.
Edwards and his photogenic blond kids glow for the cameras.
Dick Cheney glowers for the camera, a Dr. No with a dark
vision that has resulted in a gigantic global mess. (When
he was stopped by applause at a campaign stop in Altoona,
Pa., on Sunday, he asked, "You guys want to hear this
speech or not?")

Unfortunately for this White House, it is Mr. Edwards's
great talent to talk about the class warfare of "two
Americas" in a sunny way. The Breck Girl is already getting
under the Boy King's thin skin.

President Bush should have easily knocked a question about
Mr. Edwards - nicknamed the Breck Girl by Bush officials -
out of the park. But he whiffed. Steve Holland of Reuters
noted that Senator Edwards was being described "as
charming, engaging, a nimble campaigner, a populist and
even sexy. How does he stack up against Dick Cheney?"

W. should have given a sly smile and drawled, "You mean you
don't find Vice sexy?" Instead, he looked irritated and
spit out his answer: "Dick Cheney can be president."
Indeed, he already is.

Except for the fact that the Secret Service has already
advised journalists to bring "escape hood respirators" to
the Democratic convention in Boston in case of a terrorist
attack, it looks as if happy campaign days are here
again.

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/07/08/opinion/08DOWD.html?ex=1090290586&ei=1&en=870bdf4a5cbce05e

The earlier posting with Margaret Wente from the Canadian Globe and Mail and this one by Maureen Dowd from the New York Times - these two along with Peggy Noonnan form the Wall Street Journal are pretty cool columnists. By the way?
www.globeandmail.com and www.nytimes.com are both free on-line. (f) (h) How cool is that?

Cool thoughts during the dog days of summer,
Sweetlady

[sweetlady]

If you can watch this and not laugh, then supposedly you are sane. LMAO

Try this (with the sound up) --

www.knplogic.co.uk/are_u_mad.html


Enjoy as I did,
Sweetlady (h)

[sweetlady]

July 10, 2004
OP-ED CONTRIBUTOR
The Closing of the American Book
By ANDREW SOLOMON

A survey released on Thursday reports that reading for pleasure is way down in America among every group — old and young, wealthy and poor, educated and uneducated, men and women, Hispanic, black and white. The survey, by the National Endowment for the Arts, also indicates that people who read for pleasure are many times more likely than those who don't to visit museums and attend musical performances, almost three times as likely to perform volunteer and charity work, and almost twice as likely to attend sporting events. Readers, in other words, are active, while nonreaders — more than half the population — have settled into apathy. There is a basic social divide between those for wh