A Few Pics and No, I’m Not Dead

Hey everybody!

I have so appreciated the pokes and prods and gentle nudges about when the hell I’m going to blog again; you guys are sweet and it’s so great to know that this blog is read and enjoyed by so many of you! We had a great time at the Mac/Eddy Club Meeting here at my home in late September; lots of great food and great conversation with a good-size group of friends! Among the items made from scratch and served were Jeanette’s baked beans, Boston brown bread and Philadelphia-style peach ice cream, all from her own recipes — it was the first time I’d made the brown bread, and I was totally nervous that it would be a failure, but it was AWESOME. I feel like Jeanette gets a lot of crap from all of us and both men in her life about her kitchen habits and cooking abilities, but I’ll just say this: literally everything I’ve ever made from her recipes has been a-freaking-mazing, so I’m pretty sure we all need to shut up. The Mac has yet to steer us wrong in the chow department.

Well. Okay. I’m not even touching that putrid milk-and-applesauce routine and I don’t care what she says it does for the skin or any other such business. I mean, mother of God, Jeanette, that is revolting and you’re freaking weird. I say that in the most loving way imaginable.

And I can’t get cottage cheese anywhere near my mouth for any reason whatsoever, so her favorite pre-concert meal is also off the table for me. (For the curious: cottage cheese with pears and blueberries was a favorite concoction to eat before a show–it was easy on her nervous tummy and gave her protein for performing. Someone once witnessed her scarfing three(!) helpings of that.)

Angela came down a couple of days early and pretty much ran Friday’s dinner. She lugged two huge blocks of frozen eggplant parm (another MacSpecialty) with her on the train all the way from Connecticut and kept me sane and hung out and prepped food and was generally excellent. Obviously. 😀

We screened Rose Marie in the garage, using my big projection screen and projector from the June LA meeting. It was supposed to be an outdoor screening, but it effing rained LITERALLY ALL WEEKEND, and actually the garage worked really well. Angela and I hung Christmas lights everywhere, hauled in a bunch of seating and scattered tea lights all on the floor. It was cozy and rustic and really cool. Perfect for that movie!

We spent some time watching the interview footage that Sharon shows at meetings, there were a couple of interviews that I hadn’t seen and I requested those (there are perks to being the hostess!!), in addition to some favorites of mine from before. One that I love is Peggy Seo, who was one of the children in The King and I with Jeanette in 1956. It’s just such a sweet accounting of a summer friendship between my favorite human and a kid with whom I can so easily identify…something about her and her recollections of Jeanette really resonates with me. I just love that stuff. Jeanette was such an incredible presence–it sounds sappy, but it’s true. And while I’m always up for a good brawl about did-they-or-didn’t-they, I don’t want to ever lose sight of the specialness and the humanity of this wonderful person.

Speaking of which: “Nelson had her up on a pedestal. She deserved to be up on a pedestal.” So said Samuel “Sunny” Griffin, in interview footage that opened up a whoooole new layer of how I feel about this relationship and these people. It is so worth your time to get yourself to a club meeting and watch the stuff that Sharon Rich has gotten on tape. Just incredible. Sunny was one of the people I had NOT seen in the various club functions I’ve been to and hosted, and I got a sense that I loved him from reading what is quoted in Sweethearts. I felt validated in that feeling – he tells some great stories and there is absolutely no denying the authenticity of the way he speaks, and not a shred of doubt in my mind that he knew all parties well. What cracks me up is that he attended and, I believe, spoke at, a JMIFC meeting, where Gene Raymond recognized and reminisced with him. Blossom did the same thing, when Sharon put them back in touch. It wasn’t until he started talking about the Nelson connection that he was swiftly branded a “pathological liar”…… *giant eyeroll* amazing how that works, huh? Silly rabbits.

Beyond that, I don’t really have a whole lot of earth-shattering news to report. Trust and believe that I’ll share, when I do. I’m super busy with that whole real life thing right now, as well as trying to get Novel #2 finished in anticipation of a possibly-very-ambitious winter release, and that is taking up pretty much every available ounce of my writing energy. I have, however, acquired a few new lovely pictures, and I include them forthwith. Please feel free to download, print and enjoy, but I appreciate them *not* being altered and [insert usual threat about selling my stuff on ebay here].

Oh, and here are a couple of screen shots from Rosalie because Nelson Ackerman is an egregiously beautiful specimen.

You. Are. Welcome.

Talk soon!