What’s even better than a perfect game? A game in which the pitcher is so strikingly perfect that every batter up ends up striking out. Hope Trautwein accomplished such an amazing feat, and for that she earns her first turn as Dazzler of the Day. I can’t imagine throwing a single pitch that makes it over the center of home plate – or reaches home plate for that matter – so this sort of excellence is especially impressive.
My favorite color has arrived on the spring scene in this brilliant budding of a maple tree in our neighborhood. Though the allergies may be wreaking their typical April havoc, it doesn’t bother me much when it means warmer temperatures, sunnier days, and colorful peeps as seen here.
Today is due to be rainy with a side of rain, so I’m inhabiting the beauty that was yesterday, and hoping for similar beauty at some point tomorrow. There are lawn bags yet to be filled, corners still to be raked, and bare branches about to burst forth in bloom and leaf. There is hope in the air as well, as there can’t help but be in this happy month of April. This afternoon I get my second COVID vaccination, so two weeks from now we will begin the process of painting this town, and Boston, all bright shades of chartreuse and fuchsia and Tiffany blue.
We’ve had an abnormally dry spring thus far, leading to problematic brush fires, and a deficit in the water that has usually saturated the ground by now. Not that I’m wishing for rainy days, but I know their importance, and the way they quickly coax reluctant bloomers into unfurling their petals and releasing their delicate perfume, like the jonquils seen here.
This patch of Narcissus has performed reliably for a number of years – not always the case in our yard, where several patches have failed to take well after a first season of bloom, petering out to nothing but a few weak stalks of foliage, even when I’ve allowed them to ripen to shriveled form. That’s not the usual way of the otherwise-powerhouse performance of these bulbs, so I’ll enjoy the ones that do work, and keep trying every fall.
Putting on a show-stopper of a Super Bowl Halftime Show is no mean feat in this socially-distant time of COVID, but that’s precisely what The Weeknd did earlier this year, taking a cavalcade of hits to the middle of the field and entertaining the entire world. He’s more than earned this Dazzler of the Day, and was requested on FaceBook, as well as recommended for a road trip soundtrack by Skip. All good references. See more of The Weeknd’s majesty at this site.
People take the internet far too seriously these days. That seems especially true of the generation that has emerged not knowing any other world, and occasionally I engage in mourning for them, whether merited or not. I grew up before the internet was even a glimmer in Al Gore’s eye. I came of age in a time when our main form of long-distance communication was still the phone, but the landline version: cords and rotary dial and all. My niece and nephew widen their eyes when they hear what we lacked then, but I’ve only ever been immensely grateful for having grown up in a world without cel phones or social media. In so many ways, that absolutely saved me – not only then, but now.
When so much of our lives are based off of and compared impossibly against that which we see on social media, the fragile identity of my youth would have broken under such intense attacks. My generation (Generation X, or Xennials according to some) had what some might consider the best of both worlds: the emerging technology of computers and the internet coupled with the knowledge and memory of a lifestyle without such intrusions. It’s becoming a lost generation, for better and worse, and I marvel at those who don’t know what it’s like to spend an entire Saturday without computer or phone or TikTok.
Growing up without such distractions allowed me to use and develop my imagination, and at the same time learn to appreciate and live in the quiet moments of downtime that seem to make so many people uncomfortable today. More than that, when the internet and its accompanying barrage of social media advanced, I was able to take it all with a grain of salt. It was, at first, a whimsical thing of novelty – a new form of communication – sterile and removed from the closer mechanism of phone calls or handwritten letters which had been my preferred mode of connection. As such, I never had to take it all that seriously. Since I wasn’t raised on it, I knew I could easily, and perhaps quite happily, survive without it. That’s made a world of difference when I see people getting so outrageously bent out of shape on FaceBook and Twitter and Instagram.
Not that I don’t get dragged down in the muck now and then – and not that I don’t take some of what I do here very seriously indeed – but I’ve lasted for all these online years by keeping things more or less light and breezy – knowing full well that so much of this isn’t real, even if it’s forever.
Without warning or notice, Andy was not quite ready the first time he met my parents. He was picking me up from their house, and I didn’t think much of it when they came to the door to meet him, which, looking back, seems entirely at odds with my usual hyper-vigilant self, but for whatever reason it just felt right and easy and completely casual, so there it was, and there it was over, and his only concern was that he’d been wearing a T-shirt emblazoned with some alcohol-sponsored message of ‘GET WICKED TONIGHT!’ on it.
In all fairness, a silly message T-shirt was not entirely foreign to Andy, who had a whole collection of them when we met. My favorite was a simple black one, entirely blank but for one tiny square in the middle of the chest that you had to lean in and look very closely at to discern the words, “You are so fucking nosy.” It was one of the cute quirks that first attracted me to Andy, and he retains that mischievous sense of humor to this day.
In these old photos he recently unearthed, you see a bit of that T-shirt collection with something that was clearly from his thirtysomething days. Accompanied by gin – loads and loads of gin.
Wit and hilarity inform many a Dazzler of the Day, but nowhere do they find more masterful employment and comedic artfulness than in the written work of David Sedaris. We don’t feature enough authors as Dazzler of the Day, something I aim to correct starting here and now, and no one is better equipped for charging head-first into such calamity as Sedaris. I’ve been gleefully following his work since the mid-90’s (that’s the 1990’s for those wondering) and he’s always pointed a sharp assessing eye on the foibles and failings of humans, and more often than not such missteps are entirely endearing, if not outright revelatory in the long run. Sedaris captures life on many levels – the surface humor of our hijinks, and the deeper more resonant way they connect us to one another. Visit his official website here for further evidence of his brilliance.
Most of the time, the Lenten rose that has grown in our backyard for the past two decades keeps its flowered heads bowed down, drooping low to the ground and dangling like little mauve bells. This year, a couple of them deigned to raise their heads and defiantly look half-way up into the sky, and when that happens I try to get their photo, without throwing out my back. The crux of age and desire… these are dangerous waters.
I’ve mentioned the Lenten rose a number of times here, and this may be the year I add another one to our garden. When it’s the only thing in bloom this early, it gains importance, and its beautiful foliage remains gorgeous all season long. (If ever it gets ratty, I simply snip it off and often a new set of leaves will emerge to take its place, especially if it’s early in the season.)
At my parents’ home, there I a light cream version that lifts its blossoms a little more, carrying their heads a bit higher. I may look into that variety. These are enchanting plants on many levels.
For now I’m going to take advantage of their bold streak this spring, and enjoy their mottled beauty.
Coming out as bisexual is still very much a brave act, especially in the entertainment world, so whenever someone takes such a courageous step, I’m all for encouragement and support. This is Ronen Rubinstein, and he’s our Dazzler of the Day for taking that step. Rubinstein has appeared in ‘Orange Is the New Black’ and ‘9-1-1: Lone Star’ and looks to be adding plenty to that list in the near future.
We extended the Easter glory with a delayed Easter dinner yesterday, and the weather was so fine that I got a good deal of the yard cleared up this weekend (and about 25 lawn bags filled – we usually hit 40 per spring season). As such, the body and the mind are both exhausted. On with the recap…
For those who love a happy ending.
The battle of the Emmas looks to be glorious.
Portrait of a Lady by a gentleman.
Dazzlers of the Day included Eric Alán, Nicolle Wallace, Brian Centrone, Rachel Maddow, Shaun T, Cher, and Dan Levy.
When Andy was scheduled to have his second COVID vaccine on Easter Sunday, the family graciously moved our socially-distanced garage gathering to the next week, and then we moved it up a day to catch the most gorgeous April weather of yesterday, and avoid the rain of today. Being flexible worked – a lesson learned the rough way through most of 2020, when plans were pulled out from us at the last minute.
This marks the first garage get-together since last Thanksgiving, and for the occasion I switched out the hanging ladder of fall florals with this poppy-festooned circular mobile and some dangling paper flowers. Soon enough the weather will be fine for outside terrace dining, and our family dinners will commence.
This delayed Easter celebration was a delicious gathering of dishes and recipes that have sustained us through four decades of holiday dinners. I brought ambrosia, candied yams, and Key lime bars. There was sweet and sour fish, sliced ham, rice, mashed potatoes, green beans exotic, asado, spanakopita and starters of shrimp, deviled eggs, and mushroom knishes. It was a parade of holiday hits. The only thing missing was the jello salad. Aspects of spring threaded their way through it, and as we wandered through the desserts, everyone was happily full.
Desserts were the aforementioned Key lime bars, a homemade applesauce cake, and Gram’s old-fashioned profiteroles filled with ice cream. But better than any dining spread was the company, assembled again at our childhood home, as the sun spilled through the garage and the gardens slowly awakened from their winter slumber.
I didn’t get the blue memo, but I got the pastels.
Andy got the blue memo.
It’s been way too long since I’ve seen these cherubs – and in just a few weeks they seem to grow a few more inches. Soon we will be setting up a day visit as we did in late fall. Now that the weather is finer, we can resume more regular meet-ups.
Don’t forget that your family is gold.
Compelling testimony to the notion that comedic timing and dramatic brilliance runs in the family, this is Dan Levy as our Dazzler of the Day. His indelible turn on ‘Schitt’s Creek’ – not only as actor, but as writer, director, producer and executive producer – cemented his status as cultural icon, and his recent blitz of commercials seems to be priming the pump for his next artistic endeavor. (See also his Hunk of the Day post here.)
They’re having a rising season thus far, as the Boston Red Sox keep trundling along, and they have a series of home games in early June, the typical time Skip and I make our way to Boston for our annual BroSox Adventures. This year we are trying to resume the tradition after a year off when the world fell to pieces. There is much to catch up on – not just the changes the have come over Boston, but the deeper changes that a few quick meet-ups over the last year could never recapture.
Much like my upcoming anniversary weekend with Andy, I’m not making detailed itineraries – this is no time to tempt the fates. Instead, a more general announcement will go out, because I’m finally feeling a genuine sense of hope and happy gatherings on the vaccinated horizon.
That’s how this Sunday is vibing for me – hope and happiness and looking to the horizon. Even as the rains come – and we are badly in need of them – there are plans set not in stone, but in the wisps of Palo Santo smoke. Go Red Sox – we’re coming back, and it’s going to be a whole new ball game.
A Saturday spring evening when the scent of jonquils is just barely in the air. I can’t tell if it’s really there, or if I just really want it to be. And so I squat down and bring a bloom to my nose, inhaling the delicate aroma, faintly sweet with a sort of tangy and tart base. I can’t describe it other than it smells like spring – impossible to capture or duplicate, and maybe that’s for the best. If they bloomed every day, and were commonplace at the florist, the way that they conjure spring would be blunted.
Tomorrow the rains will arrive, as much a part of spring as they are cherished by the garden. If they get too rough, I’ll pick a few, as I did the ones seen here. Making it this far deserves some pampering, especially when they’re this close to the finish line.
Every now and then a Dazzler of the Day is crowned and I feel like it’s not enough, like it’s almost redundant to try to capture their magnificence in something as silly as a blog post, and then I remember that no matter how big you get, and no matter how many accolades you have already received, there is always grace in giving and receiving any sort of praise. And so we honor the already-award-festooned Cher as today’s Dazzler, and her accomplishments are too numerous and weighty to list out here, so I’ll let you recap your own favorite moments of this timeless diva, here are but a scant few of mine:
Favorite Song: ‘All Or Nothing’
Favorite Movie: ‘Mermaids‘
Favorite Album: ‘Believe’
