Feeling royal?

Where I live coverage of the impending Royal Wedding begins at 1 a.m. Don’t think I’ll be awake, so let me know what happens.

I can make a few assumptions. Like some people will take a lot of pictures. Women will wonder what the other women will be wearing. Everyone will be excited when they catch a glimpse of the big star of the moment. Think that’s the future king? Nope, it’s his bride.

It may be Royal, but it’s still a Wedding! I just read someone on Yahoo! who fears that Victoria Beckham might upstage the bride by wearing something showy. She could wear a dress knit from living parakeets. Still wouldn’t upstage the bride.

The Royal Couple are expected to possibly flub their lines. Diana did. And so did Fergie. Think they were, just maybe, . . . nervous? And future kings have a lot of names. William has four that she is supposed to say: William Arthur Philip Louis. I am guessing she’ll get the William part right.

And royal brother Harry might not have a date. But probably he’ll bring Chelsy Davy. She’s the beautiful blond young lady he has the on again/ off again romance with. (But I always think of “Chelsy Dagger,” because of the Fratellis song that gets played when the puck goes into the net:  doo doo doot . . .doo doo doot doo doo doo-doo doot doo doo doot)

I’m predicting they don’t play that one at the reception.

Which word is which?

Like most bloggers I use words.

Some are easy, and they play nice. Some are a little slippery around the edges and harder to get a handle on. Like skeevy. I’ve tried using this word a few times, and recently someone asked me what it means. I started, “I think it means . . .” and that kind of made me realize that . . . I don’t really know for sure if it really means what I think. Skeevy isn’t good, I know that for sure. But what if it’s a lot worse than I think it is??

So I looked up skeevy. Dictionary.com (the source of all knowledge) says, Skeevy (adj) means “sleazy and disgusting.” OK. Good so far. Then it gives an example, “That butterface sure looks skeevy.”

Okayyy . . . what’s a butterface?? So I looked up butterface, but there’s no entry. So now do I really now anything more than when I started?

On to skanky. I kind of thought this means about the same as skeevy. Except . . . maybe a little worse? Looked up Skanky next. It means “ugly & repellent; usually said of a woman.” OK, so that’s not good. But which is worse? Skanky? Or skeevy?

I’m thinking skanky sounds worse to me. Would you rather be “sleazy and disgusting” instead of “ugly and repellent?” Ugh, they’re both pretty bad! But skanky mentioned “usually said of a woman.” That makes it worse. Because she’s not going to forget. I am figuring that if you call a guy sleazy (or worse yet, call his ride sleazy) he’ll get mad and swear some bad stuff at you. Then again, he might laugh.

But if you call a woman skanky you are in a world of trouble. Especially, if she is!

Then there is perv. Or pervy. I am thinking “perverted,” which can be bad. But that can also be good, right? It’s like sick. “His game was sick!” So he had a good game, right?

“Their lead singer is perverted!” That has to be a compliment! But what about, “Their lead singer is a perv!” So . . . is he incarcerated, or what? What if, “Their lead singer is pervy!” I’m starting to get dizzy.

So I looked up perv and pervy. Right. Not listed. That’s perverted!

The amazing life of . . . Hedy Kiesler

1. Reading a bio (titled Beautiful by Stephen Michael Shears)
2. Hedweg Eva Maria Kiesler (born Nov. 9, 1914)
3. She had a long career as a Hollywood actress
4. You may have heard of her
5. But probably not
6. (The girl at the desk at my public library
7. Hadn’t)
8. Most of her film career was in Black & White & some don’t like to watch B & W
9. But she did a few in Color
10. Including probably her best known film role
11. She played Delilah
12. From the Bible story
13. Her most notorious film role
14. Was a nude scene
15. Ecstasy, 1932
16. Frequently called the first nude scene in film history
17. Which it wasn’t
18. It isn’t always described as the first  scene of female orgasm
19. Which it was
20. (faked
21. Including a pin prick by the director, in her leg)
22. Because I guess he knew the effect he was after
23. She was 18
24. And already routinely described as the “most beautiful girl in Europe”
25. Which no one believed
26. Until they saw her
27. Her Hollywood crew
28. Didn’t like to make her up for the lights
29. Because her skin was so perfect
30. She knew how to look glamorous for the camera
31. “It’s easy to look glamorous. Just stand still and look stupid.”
32.  Which she wasn’t
33. She registered a patent
34. In 1942
35. It was for an invention to help the WWII war effort
36. “Frequency hopping”
37. To be used in radio communications in weapons guidance
38. Especially underwater torpedoes
39. Which needed help because they often missed
40. Her innovation is still important in cellular phone broadcasting
41. But wasn’t recognized as hers until the 1990s
42. Because she gave the rights to the American military
43. She was an Austrian Jew
44. Her first husband was a wealthy arms manufacturer before the Nazis invaded Austria
45. (Remember The Sound of Music?
46. In 1965 they used her house for the film)
47. As a young wife she hosted many dinners where weapons systems were discussed
48. She was listening
49. And had a few ideas of her own
50. People thought because she was so beautiful
51. She couldn’t also be intelligent
52. Or interested
53. Louis B. Mayer was her boss at MGM
54. He was also a European Jew (born in Ukraine, but raised in Canada)
55. But he never gave her credit for anything but a pretty face
56. After her invention was accepted in Washington she offered to give up her film career
57. And concentrate on weapons development
58. But the US military asked her to concentrate instead
59. On sales of War Bonds
60. Carole Lombard (Mrs. Clark Gable) had died in a plane crash while she was the leading Hollywood fund raiser making appearances all over the country
61. So Hedy took her place
62. She could raise $7,000,000 in one day of pledge drives
63. Because when she spoke she told of family members dead or imprisoned in Nazi Europe
64. And she also signed photos
65. On Sept. 4, 1942, she shook hands with all 1000 employee of a York, PA munitions plant
66. They had pledged $25 each
67. Hedy’s career floundered a bit after the war years
68. She was still beautiful and glamorous, but the Hollywood studio system was changing
69. And they had never known exactly what to do with her anyway
70. So . . . maybe see if you can find an old film starring Hedy Lamarr
71. More than just a pretty face

Earth Hour: how to survive

Are you participating in Earth Hour? It’s tonight at 8:30 pm wherever you live.

It’s pretty simple. Just turn off the lights. And the TV and cable. And the computer. (Battery power? Aren’t you recharging it later? However you ARE allowed to finish reading whatever blog post you may be reading at the time. Just turn off before you click to something else.) And the washer and dryer. And your I-pod. And your phone.

And the furnace. Don’t forget to turn that off. And don’t even think about lighting the fireplace!! (We’re supposed to be decreasing the Carbon Footprint!)

Along the same line of reasoning: no candles!

My suggestion is to just sit in the dark and really, really think about the earth. It will be easier if you sit close to someone. In case you get cold.

Just kind of sit really, really close and start thinking about the earth together. Think about all the ways that people used to employ to entertain themselves in the dark long long ago. Before electricity.

I’m wondering what the electrical impact of one saved hour really amounts to. And I’m also wondering how many babies will be born the day after Christmas.

Clark Kent takes off his glasses Sat night . . .

. . . and turns into Supermoon.

This could be good, really really good: 15% bigger than normal with the extra gravitational pull needed to cause higher highs and lower lows That’s for the tidal forces. Hopefully no extraordinary flooding in lowlying or beach areas.

Here you go: http://www.upi.com/Science_News/2011/03/17/Supermoon-could-bring-high-tides/UPI-18331300392177/

just a comment

I will get back to the serialized story in a day or so, but:

I have been reading blogs tonight, just skimming and making a comment here and there, and remembering that . . . I used to spend considerable time doing that! And it really encouraged my writing.

Now I am remembering it’s great and it’s time-consuming.

BTW saw a news reference on importance of social media in the recent world cataclysmic events, e.g. Japan earthquake aftermath.

Part IV Girl on the other side of the sky

True story of Farah, continued from yesterday’s post

50. Crowded with other refugee families, the neighborhood was packed with people with no money no work and no food
51. After several months Farah and her Mom left and went to the care of a U.N. tent city
52. But Mom’s asthma worsened there in the cold & there was no work
53. Farah found work with a family offering a room and food in exchange for domestic labor
54. From age 12 to 14 Farah slaved for this family, taking Mom repeatedly to hospital for medicine when her asthma became bad & Farah’s prosthetic leg began wearing out
55. But one day their neighborhood buzzed with excitement about news that there were 1000 Afghan refugees who were going to be taken to America
56. This rumor proved true, so thousands of hopeful Afghans traveled outside the city to apply
57. Day after day, arriving before sun-up, Farah stood in the crowd hoping to be noticed and brought inside the compound
58. Eventually someone saw her prosthetic leg and pulled her forward to be interviewed
59. After four rounds of interviews over a period of weeks Farah and Mom were selected, but had to travel to Islamabad to be interviewed at the American embassy
60. They were selected and told to go home and await word for their flight to USA
61. The next month was September, 2001