I hope you had a nice Thanksgiving. I was over at Pearl's, as part of a long standing tradition. My family has celebrated with hers for many years now. My sister Vickie came over with her husband and sons, and we had a wonderful meal, lots of good conversation and our fair share of beer and wine. The guys watched football (imagine that - guys watching football). All in all, a day to be thankful for indeed. When I got home, I went for a walk in the rain on the deserted CSUN campus, and yes, I brought an umbrella. The rain is over now, but it's currently 44 degrees outside, positively arctic I tell you. :)
I've got a new system to beat the cold : wearing layers. Over the years, I've heard that phrase again and again, "wear layers", so last year I tried it for the first time, and for me it worked better than a coat! My system of layers starts with a second t-shirt when the temp drops down to 60 or so. The first t-shirt would be a regular-length Tee, not a thin white undershirt but the thicker kind, meant to be worn as an outer garment, like a rock band shirt or something similar. That would be my standard garb in warmer temps (anything above 65). But when it gets down to 60, I employ my second layer, which is a larger T that fits over the first one, what you might call a "dress t-shirt", that is also thick cotton and meant to be worn as an outer garment. When it gets below 60, I add a Pendleton-type long sleeved flannel shirt as my third layer. The "three layer approach" served me well for most of this month, and of course we had some days in November when the temps were 90+ and I only wore a single t-shirt, but basically I needed no more than three layers until this week. My fourth layer is a sweat shirt, which goes over the two Tees, but under the Pendleton (which is actually an L.L.Bean). Tonight I had to employ the Fourth Layer because 44 degrees is doggone chilly, and it was raining.
The fifth and final layer is another sweatshirt, which would give you - from the ground up - two t-shirts, two sweatshirts, and a Pendleton-style flannel. I think I only had to go to five layers once or twice last winter, when it was 36 degrees or so. Now, you are probably thinking, "Good grief, Ad, why don't ya just put on a coat"? And the answer, for me, is that I wore coats and jackets for years, every year of my life until 2018, and they work fine.......but they are bulky and heavy. Now that I have tried layering, I am really liking it because I find that it holds body heat much better, and best of all I can adjust the layers, as described, to fit the temperature, which for me works well because I am out on my walks every night, so I am outdoors for 45-50 minutes, and best of all, every layer is relatively light, non bulky and cotton, so no matter how many layers I am wearing, it feels flexible. I'd much rather it be 90 degrees every day so that I would never need more than a T-Shirt, but unfortunately I live in Los Angeles, home of the dreaded L.A Cold.
Over the years, I have tried to tell you about the dreaded L.A. Cold, but I've come to the conclusion that the only way for you to understand it is to experience it for yourself. :):)
Tonight I watched a very funny movie called "I Was A Male War Bride" (1949), directed by the great Howard Hawks and starring Cary Grant and Ann Sheridan. The setting is postwar Germany. Grant is a French officer in the Allied occupation force. He plays it sans accent, because it would be ridiculous for Cary Grant to attempt to sound French. Ann Sheridan is an American lieutenant from the WACs (Womens Army Corps). They are called upon to stop a black market operation that has cropped up in Stuttgart, but they've worked together before and can't stand one another. So right away the "bickering leads to romance" premise is set in motion. The police action they are enforcing is secondary to the establishment of their relationship, and in movies like this, everything hangs on the chemistry of the stars, and you couldn't have a better pair than these two.
Ann Sheridan is one of my favorite actresses, but until now I'd only seen her in dramatic roles. I didn't know she could do Screwball, but she's as good a comedienne as anyone. Cary Grant of course is the King of Screwball, but Sheridan bosses him around all through the first half of the film, and it's fun to watch them "put up" with one another, knowing what their mutual insults will eventually lead to. Things happen that will cause them to fall in love, naturally, and it's when they decide to get married that the hijinx really begin. Because of various Army regulations, and the rules of the Catholic church and French law, they have to have three ceremonies before their marriage is official. But that's only the beginning of their difficulties, because now Sheridan is being shipped back to the States, and for Grant to be allowed to accompany her, he must jump through a new hoop - one stipulating that only the spouse of a serviceman can accompany him back to the U.S. Now, the actual rule is a whole lot more complicated than I've made it sound, and it's so precisely worded that Grant and Sheridan need a lawyer to help them discover a loophole, so they can travel back to America as a couple.
That loophole is eventually gonna require some gender-bending, and an appearance by Cary Grant in drag. He pulls it off with a straight face, and the last half hour of the movie is a non-stop riot.
I found the movie at Chatsworth Libe, where I'd seen it on the rack before, but in the past I'd been a little wary of the title. "Hmm, 'I Was A Male War Bride'.......sounds like it could be dumb". But I needed movies to carry me through the Thanksgiving weekend, so I checked it out, and boy am I glad I did. I loved this film so much that it's gonna become a holiday favorite. I should've trusted in Howard Hawks, one of the greatest directors of the Golden Era who made a wide variety of pictures, from comedies like "Bringing Up Baby" and "His Girl Friday" (the fastest talking Screwball ever) to crime classics like "Scarface" (the original with Paul Muni), to westerns like "Red River", to science fiction : "The Thing From Another World", which was the original "The Thing". Hawks could do it all, and he was from Goshen, Indiana to boot - just like my Dad. So yeah, I should've had more faith in him, no matter the title of this film, because as it turned out, it was one of the best and funniest Screwballs I've seen. I love Ann Sheridan; she is absolutely my kinda gal : smart, funny, nice........and yeah, beautiful too. She and Cary Grant have such great chemistry that I'm surprised they weren't paired together more often. The film is long for a comedy, 105 minutes, but it never drags for a moment, and in fact it runs at high energy throughout. Hawks must've been given a sizeable budget, because much of the early action was filmed on location in Germany, with bombed-out buildings in the background.
"I Was A Male War Bride" was shot in glorious black and white. Everything about it is great. I give it Two Gigantic Thumbs Up and my highest recommendation. Check out the fan reviews at IMDB and Amazon to see how much people love this movie, and then see it yourself. You'll be glad you did. /////
Well, that's all for the moment. I am back at work until Christmas, so I'm gonna head to the store for supplies and then over to Pearl's to set up shop. I hope you are enjoying your four day weekend, and I will see you tonight at the Usual Time.
Tons of love! xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo :):)
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