Tomaytoes, Tomawtoes and other pronouncements

Hi Carolyn,

A bit of this n’ that before hitting the road for festive family functions.

 

First, hopefully Smaug isn’t the cantankerous type when it comes to how his name is pronounced. The Tolkien promo tsunami is once again afloat and the gold gathering reptile has been referred to variously, in the stuff I’ve heard, as Smog, Smogue, Smawg and even Smag. Kind of a Smaug-asbord of pronunciations you could say ( yes, I just said that! ) I know the feeling. It’s strange to hear what people have done verbally with “ Braithwaite”, on occasion.

Last time around I mentioned, in connection with James T. Aubrey, that it would be good movie fodder but that maybe Hollywood finds it a bit too close to home. Well, I overlooked one movie incarnation that simply has to have been inspired in part by “ The Smiling Cobra” - Bill Murray in Scrooged. I’ll bet if there had never been an Aubrey,  the Frank Cross character in that flick may well have been a different fella.



Got our new kitchen plans and drawings set to go now and just finished picking the countertops, cabinetry, hardware and plumbing features. I’ve attempted to leave most all of those decisions to the one who will be using it the most - my long suffering better half. Right now she’s making sure the old kitchen goes out with a bang, not a whimper. Seventeen different types of cookies, dark and light Christmas cakes and untold other delicacies have emerged from it recently. Each relative we visit on our yuletide junket will be left a half bushell basket full of them and the various jams, jellies and preserves ( including the best dills there ever was or will be ! )  that were churned out in that kitchen in the late summer months of 2013. 

 

 

I have taken the ball on one item though. Our new plumbing will include a motion-sensing faucet which the geek within simply could not resist. I got so carried away with it when we were at the model kitchen that I inadvertently doused my LSBH with the detachable spray before I realized that my simple detaching motion had activated the sensor and she happened to be in the line of fire, er.. water. The  "long-suffering" moniker is well earned, it seems.

Two bigger picture acknowledgements to make before I go. Sad to see Nelson Mandela’s passing because he was such an inspiring figure worldwide but even much sadder to see some of the ultra-right-wing hate spewing in response to various public figures who have made their condolences in the blog and twitter spheres. It makes one shudder, sometimes.



Also sad to have to come back again and observe the thirty-third anniversary of John Lennon’s murder.

In October, 2013 Paul McCartney told Rolling Stone magazine, "I think I could pretty much forgive anyone else, but I don't see why I'd want to forgive him. This is a guy who did something so crazy and terminal. Why should I bless him with forgiveness?" 

 

Ditto for me, Sir Paul.


　

So it’s off to the wilds of Southwestern-Ontario early to-morrow. Preparations and such have once again left me unable to cough up a riddle, but that shall not become the norm. Not on my watch. 


Bye for now.


Don


All images sourced from Google Images

Fig. 1 - hollywoodreporter.com
Fig. 2 - tiff.net
Fig. 3 - moen.ca
Fig. 4 - huffingtonpost.com
Fig. 5 - popmatters.com
Fig. 6 - huffingtonpost. co.uk