We’re halfway through September and there’s one more week of summer left. However, I’m sure many of us are already in the fall frame of mind.
I’ve already decorated for two reasons — I’ve been over summer for some time now and I also decorate early for Christmas!
Thank you for checking out my random thoughts.
TURKEY & NOW MOROCCO
Two months after I returned from an incredible trip across Turkey last fall, the southern part of that country and Syria was struck with a 7.8 magnitude earthquake that killed almost 60,000 people and injured twice that many.
Now, more than 2,900 are dead in Morocco after a 6.8 magnitude quake last Friday in the High Atlas Mountains near Marrakesh.
I was there five years ago next month to celebrate my birthday. The people were so nice and I had such a magical evening in Marrakesh with my new friends — Pom, Sheila, Po Po, and Izzy.
The evening started with a horse-drawn carriage ride through the streets of Marrakesh at sunset and a jaunt through the crowded souk (an Arab marketplace or bazaar) on the way to dinner. Once we were dropped off, we made our way through a series of alleys and at the end of the maze was the incredible and gorgeous restaurant.
I felt like royalty at this lavish dinner with this gorgeous group!
Our three course tasting menu started with incredibly colorful and tasty Moroccan salads. I chose fish Tagine for my entree, and had pastilla with light cream and crushed almonds with fresh mint for dessert.
I’ll hold on to the fond memories of that trip and keep them (and Turkey and Syria) in my thoughts and prayers.
PUMPKIN SPICE CRAZE GETS CRAZIER!
Forget about Starbucks and Dunkin Donuts and their pumpkin spice coffees and baked goods, the pumpkin craze has gone to the dogs.
Anheuser-Busch is offering a non-alcoholic Pumpkin Spice Dog Brew.
Miss Xanadu will likely pass on this — she’s more of a vodka girl! 🙂
SOMETHING FOR THANKSGIVING
The Portland, Oregon-based company Salt & Straw is ready for the fall holidays with “The Harvest Festival Series” of ice cream. I’d love to sample the “Beecher’s Cheese w/Apple Pie Cinnamon Rolls” and the “Pinot Poached Pear Sherbet”.
For the fall holidays in 2018, the company offered “Roasted Peach & Sage Cornbread Stuffing” (ice cream infused “with fresh-picked sage…handfuls of sweet and crunchy cornbread brown sugar shortbread cookies and spoonfuls of spiced peach jam brightened with a splash of peach vinegar).
And, “Salted Caramel Thanksgiving Turkey” (“sweet and buttery turkey brittle into a turkey fat caramel ice cream”)!
AND, OF COURSE, CHRISTMAS!
Cher announced October 20th as the release date for her first Christmas album, “Cher Christmas”.
So far, three possible covers have been presented and this is my favorite.
While there is still no track listing, I know that Cher and Darlene Love covered Love’s 1963 classics, “Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)”.
Love wrote on Facebook, “This is one of the BEST duets I’ve EVER done!!! I’m so so proud and honored to be part of Cher’s FIRST EVER Christmas album and to be reconnected with Cherilyn Sarkisian whom I’ve known before she became CHER the mega star!!”
Other duets on the album feature Michael Bublé, Stevie Wonder, and Cyndi Lauper.
CAMELOT WEDDING ANNIVERSARY
70 years ago this week, (September 12, 1953), John Fitzgerald Kennedy married Jacqueline Lee Bouvier in Newport, Rhode Island.
The reception for 1,200 people was held at Hammersmith Farm, her mother and stepfather’s estate. And, because I love food, cake, and desserts, here is the wedding cake!
P.S. There’s also sexy Bobby Kennedy! Um, asking for a friend. How did his son running for president become such an idiot? (Okay, he was a drug user as a teenager and young man, but…)
A FAVORITE RETURNS
Red Velvet Oreos are back for a limited time.
We last enjoyed them in 2020.
“MAFIA MAMMA”
When it comes to movies, I’m more into dramas than comedy.
But, I recently took a chance on “Mafia Mamma” when Redbox offered it to me for $1. It came out last spring and it wasn’t a big box office smash.
It stars Toni Collette and I’ve loved her since 1994’s “Muriel’s Wedding”, one of my all-time favorites. If you haven’t seen it, you must next year for its 30th anniversary.
In “Mafia Mamma”, Collette plays Kristin, who works for a cosmetic company as an ad campaign writer under three sexist and juvenile men. And, she also catches her husband having an affair.
So, when she gets a call that she has to attend the reading of a will of her last living relative, her grandfather, who just died, she takes off to southern Italy.
And, yes, you guessed it. Her “family” is in the mafia and it’s funny watching this fragile American woman trying to run the family “business”.
GRADE: B+
“GOLDA: THE LIFE OF ISRAEL’S PRIME MINISTER”
Over the past weeks, I’ve been sharing some tidbits from Peggy Mann’s incredible 1971 biography of Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir.
Here are the final few:
An example in the book about how much Arabs hated Jews, this was a math problem that was still printed in textbooks in the late-1960s, “If there are eleven Israelis and four are killed, how many are left?” 😦
While the book was published in 1971, things were said then that are truly offensive now, like Mann’s line “And slant-eyed Chinese Jews….”
Some know a lot about the Holocaust that exterminated six million Jewish people and some only know a little about that atrocious event! Here’s a description from the book about the men, women, and children before they were shunted into the ovens to their deaths:
“… each corpse was gone over by trained technicians. One pried open the jaw, knocked out gold-filled teeth. In a single camp, Auschwitz, seventeen tons of gold were collected in this manner. Another technician shave the heads of women. The hair was used in the manufacture of mattresses and textiles. An apprentice member of the team removed such items as watches, rings, and false limbs. Jewish fat was used to make inexpensive soap. Bones which did not burn in the ovens were used for the manufacture of phosphate. And the final ashes were made into fertilizer for German fields and flower gardens.”
“A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE”
This 1951 classic was nominated for 12 Oscars including four in the acting categories. It won three of the acting awards (Vivian Leigh, Karl Malden, and Kim Hunter). It became the first movie to win three Oscars in the acting categories. (Since then 1976’s “Network” and 2022’s “Everything Everywhere All At Once” did that.)
I’m surprised at how boring it was and the acting of Vivian Leigh and Marlon Brando was over the top. (And, that’s not a compliment!)
GRADE: C
MARLON BRANDO — WHAT A HOTTIE!
But, it was worth watching just to lust after a young Marlon Brando — if only Stanley Kowalski wasn’t so loud and obnoxious!
THAT’S IT
With all the craziness in the world, make it the best in your little part of it!
Anthony
What's Peeps Thinking About Now? It's Probably Random! 