Trumped: In Which I Admit To Agreeing With The Donald On One Point

February 25, 2016December 12, 2016 / Ally Bean / 53 Comments

Earlier this week did you happen to see Rob Lowe as a guest on Conan?

[If not, I’ll wait here while you watch this clip of it. Take your time. No rush.]

[Okay, continuing on…]

~ ~ • ~ ~

IN THE ABOVE INTERVIEW Conan reminds Rob Lowe that The Donald thinks that Rob Lowe is the most beautiful man he’s ever seen.

As much as I dislike The Donald, for many reasons, on this particular point I agree with him.

I’ve seen Rob Lowe in person. In an airport. Waiting for his wife [girlfriend?] to exit the Women’s Rest Room.

He smiled at me as I walked by, tipped his ball cap– and I swooned.

Yes, Rob Lowe is as incredibly handsome in person as he is on-screen. I’m talking really. good. looking.

~ ~ • ~ ~

THANKS TO THE FOREGOING remembrance I got thinking about all the celebrities I’ve seen in person, usually in airports, occasionally at business events.

Or sometimes just out and about.

The following is a list of these celebrities, presented in no special order, intended to get you, my gentle readers, talking about famous people you’ve seen in real life.

Go on. Tell all.

~ ~ • ~ ~

MY LIST OF CELEBRITY SIGHTINGS

Rob Lowe [Movie + TV]

Paul O’Neill [MLB]

Phylicia Rashad [TV]

Richard Belzer [Comedian + TV]

James Cromwell [Movie]

Sela Ward [TV]

Peter Frampton [Music]

Big Show [WWE]

Joe Theismann [NFL]

Ann-Margaret [Movie + Stage]

Anthony Muñoz [NFL]

Carrot Top [Comedian]

Melanie Griffith [Movie]

Richard Chamberlain [TV + Stage]

Tim Russert [News + Author]

Tasha Tudor [Artist + Author]

Richard Dean Anderson [TV]

Don Budge [ATP]

~ ~ • ~ ~

Links I Love: Use Your Words

February 11, 2016May 6, 2021 / Ally Bean / 29 Comments

… because information is FASCINATING & FUN dammit.

• • •

BE ~~COO~~L ON FLEEK AGAIN.

Learn the latest slang, and feel old because you don’t know it, here.

HELP SAVE THE WORDS!

Become aware of some perfectly good English words, destined for extinction, here.

MEMORIZE THEM ALL.

Review some of Nancy Drew’s most delightfully cutting quotes here.

THEORETICALLY ABSURDLY FASCINATING.

Ruminate on the Snunkoople Effect, a made-up Seussian-style word for a mathematical explanation of why something is funny, here.

SNARK MUCH?

Find out how to express yourself like a true-born and bred Southerner here.

WE’LL NOT SPEAK OF THIS AGAIN.

Remind yourself about the Noodle Incident, and how much you loved Calvin and Hobbes, here.

JUST BECAUSE YOU NEED TO KNOW.

Determine which character you are in Downton Abbey here.

• • •

Snow Is Falling, Books Are Calling

January 12, 2016 / Ally Bean / 31 Comments

The snow has arrived. It’s falling like salt drifting down from the sky. Everything is covered in white, slightly sparkly.

Contented, I am enjoying the slow pace of Winter days.

Coinciding with the snow’s arrival is the end of mold and pollen, my archenemies. My eyes are feeling less itchy, and combined with prescription eye drops, I know longer look like a drunk rabbit. That is, my eyes aren’t pink & bloodshot, rimmed in red.

I’ll enjoy this itchy-eye respite for as long as it lasts, because I know that Spring weather will change everything.

# # #

In the meantime I’m going to start reading for pleasure. I didn’t do much of that last year, for whatever reason. But this year, as I move forward, I’ve decided that I’m going to make a point of reading for pleasure, and I’m going to do it with a plan.

I’m following Modern Mrs. Darcy’s 2016 Reading Challenge as my guide. With one exception [“a book published this year”], I’m choosing my books from the piles of books that are strewn throughout our home.

To wit, my first book, which will satisfy the “a book you should have read in school” criteria, is: Footsteps in the Dark by Georgette Heyer.

# # #

This may seem like an unusual choice, but when I was in college here in the USA majoring in English, I did my study abroad at the University of Exeter in Devon, England. My official independent research paper was on Agatha Christie’s Miss Marple series.

Georgette Heyer was a contemporary of Agatha Christie. Back then I didn’t have the time to read any Heyer mysteries, being forced as I was to focus on Miss Marple, star of 12 novels + 20 short stories.

But now, in light of this challenge, and with all the time in the month of January to make it happen, I’m going to read a Georgette Heyer mystery.

Just because I can.

I’ve Read 23 Out Of 35, But I Don’t Know About This Book List

July 24, 2015May 6, 2021 / Ally Bean / 45 Comments

Earlier this week Time magazine published 35 Books Everyone Should Read in Their Lifetime. I’ve added the list to the bottom of this post. The list, compiled from responses by Reddit users, attempts to answer the question:

“what is a book that everyone needs to read at least once in their life?”

# # #

WHAT IMMEDIATELY STRUCK ME about the list is that out of the 33 authors, only 3 are women: L.M. Montgomery [Anne of Green Gables]; Harper Lee [To Kill A Mockingbird]; and Margaret Atwood [The Handmaid’s Tale].

Considering that the first two books are about children for children, and that the last one is about a society in which women are slaves, this list doesn’t lend credence to the idea that in 2015 we are living in a post-feminist society.

You with me here?

# # #

I THINK THAT WE can all agree, to use the article’s words, that: “Books have the profound capacity to stay with us for the rest of our lives.”

This is good + positive.

But by accepting this premise I think that it becomes even more important to turn a critical eye toward all the possible books that one can put on a list such as this. If one is going to have these books with him or herself forever, one must be discerning.

N’est-ce pas?

# # #

TO MAKE THE LIST more balanced, I’d suggest that we include &/or replace on it, at a minimum, the following books written by women: