1953 Movie Recommendation

"Peanut vendor and washed-up baseball player "Coop" Cooper teaches his 9-year-old son all the game's finer points. When Christy becomes the new bat boy, the youngster passes on his father's advice to the teammates and soon the team is winning. The team owner then names Christy the team's head coach as a publicity stunt."

This movie is playing this morning on MOVIES! channel on my air antenna TV but I have too much to do to sit and watch it. I found it on YouTube here in case you can't see the movie above. This is NOT an April Fool's joke, I love old movies with children. This one is about baseball and it looks very good. Enjoy! xo

UPDATE: I watched the film above and there were no commercials. I loved it. Another baseball movie started playing automatically after the first movie ended. It was the true story of Dizzy Dean, the pitcher. It grabbed my attention immediately and I ended up staying up until almost midnight. I loved it too.  Here's the link. 

The title of the movie is: The Pride of St. Louis.

Vintage Ice Skates and Some History

I wish they still made ice skates like this that attached to some sturdy shoes or boots. I was never very good but enjoyed my early days of venturing out on the ice. Don't you love this illustration?

I enjoyed the article where I found it and learned a lot I never knew about The History of Ice and Figure Skating.

https://www.liveabout.com/history-of-ice-skates-1991654

Thomas Heeremans, 1641–1694.

A winter landscape with figures skating and sledging on a frozen moat by a fortified town.

https://www.christies.com/lot/lot-5722299/?intObjectID=5722299

Enjoy. xo

🏸Tennis Poster: EMMA by Jane Austen🏸

This put a big smile on my face this morning. Isn't it clever? I love the brilliant idea of using tennis star Emma Raducanu's image juxtaposed on the movie poster for EMMA. Image found here. 

It really is the perfect match, isn't it?

 Missy had another event free night and was eager to go outside when I got up at 7:30. It was a chilly 22° so cold weather is back. It didn't seem very cold later and I was able to mow the way back. It was actually quite pleasant!

Enjoy your weekend. xo

Oscar Winning Documentary on NatGeo Tonight

I watched the Oscars this year all the way to the finish and saw this film win Best Documentary Feature. The preview intrigued me as I am fearful of heights. I can't even climb a ladder to clean my first floor gutters much less scale a vertical rock with no rope. That's what Free Soloing is -- rock climbing without a rope. I don't expect many of you will be interested in this film but maybe you can share with someone who might enjoy a free showing. This documentary appeared in theaters in 2018. The photo above is a screen shot from my phone via my Verizon FiOS app. Your channel number for the National Geographic channel will probably be different. 

{ click photo to enlarge }

IMPORTANT: Set your DVR tonight for this -- the final episode of VICTORIA, Season 3 on PBS. I'm looking forward to seeing Albert's project: The Crystal Palace in Hyde Park for the Grand International Exhibition of 1851. I will be so sad to see this series go. This is the last season Albert was in every episode. Sniff. Sniff.

Video: Nordic Skating on Thin Black Ice in Sweden

This small lake outside Stockholm, Sweden, emits otherworldly sounds as Mårten Ajne skates over its precariously thin, black ice. “Wild ice skating” or “Nordic skating” is both an art and a science. A skater seeks out the thinnest, most pristine black ice possible -- both for its special smoothness, and for its high-pitched sounds of cracking. This is so exhilarating to watch!!!!!

View full screen if you are watching this video on a computer. It is truly amazing and don't forget to turn on the sound. If you cannot see the video, here is the link for a National Geographic feature on YouTube.

Tennis: Katharine Hepburn in 1981

She was 74 in this tennis photo. I recently watched part of a movie on TCM entitled PAT AND MIKE with Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy. I didn't finish it because I thought the plot was too silly. I started watching it because the host who introduced the film said she actually played all the athletic parts, mainly golf and tennis and she was so good at both in real life. She also was an excellent swimmer and sailor but I don't know if she did either in the movie. Her father stressed the importance of exercise and she followed his advice and was active almost to the end of her life at age 96. 

I don't do any sports these days and I try to stay out of the sun. Walking, gardening, lawn work, and housework are about the only things I do with any regularity. Have you ever heard the old saying, "Housework, if done correctly, will kill you." That always makes me laugh. I haven't done mine correctly in a long time and I can see the wisdom behind the quote.

xo

Maggie Smith, Super Bowl Fan

Now I love her even more.

Sent to be by a friend.

Thanks, Corinne.

Sailing into the Sunset

via

Have a great weekend. xo

Best Media Room Ever.

I don't usually like flat screen TVs over a fireplace but I really love this one. Isn't this room fabulous? I love everything about it. I'm sure the Super Bowl party here will be fabulous. Me, won't be watching. PBS doesn't care and neither do I. via

Portrait of the Racehorse Sedbury with a Groom

Painted by James Seymour (1702-1752) All eyes are on the sporting events in London for the next couple of weeks. Will you be watching? History of this wonderful painting here.

Wonderful London Summer Olympics Poster

17 Days of Summer by Jordan Chueng. This poster is a masterpiece of graphic design.

Country Basketball Hoop

Remember when this type of basketball hoop was nailed over every garage or barn door? I think it looks so much better than the big plastic free-standing units that are everywhere now. Some things can't be improved upon, can they? I took this photo in the spring at an open house.

William and Kate at Wimbledon

They look as if they enjoy each other's company, don't they? Everyone is happy for them too, especially me. They wanted to watch British player Andy Murray's match. Katherine is a big tennis fan.

She believes in wearing tennis whites too. Back view of her lovely dress here.

All This and A Grass Tennis Court Too

This is almost too much to absorb. A fabulous old stone English country house with a walled garden, lovely sculpted plantings and a grass tennis court too. I'll take it without the tennis court please. Or maybe I'll convert it to croquet; that's more my speed.*

Help - Young Skater with Safety Cushion

This is the best photo I've seen in about a million years. "Dutch boy with a pillow strapped on his backside in order to soften the falling on ice while skating." The Netherlands, 1933 via Flickr

Click orange square to subscribe via feed reader or email.

Sarah McLachlan | 'RIVER' | Live Performance

Getty Images

I like this version too. Which do you like better, Sarah or Joni?




Click orange square to subscribe via feed reader or email.

Dutch canals freeze and ice skaters rediscover national identity . . .

This image is so beautiful. It really does look like a Dutch painting with the windmills and the skaters.

Canals in the Netherlands no longer freeze every winter, so the chance to ice skate outdoors created a frenzy in Kinderdijk and elsewhere in the south. (photo: Michael Kooren/Reuters)

For the first time in 12 years, the Netherlands' canals froze this month, bringing the Dutch, who like their tulips in neat rows, a heady mix of pandemonium and euphoria.

Hundreds of thousands of skaters, their cheeks as red as apples in the freezing temperatures, took to the ice, and hospital wards were filled with dozens of people with fractured arms, sprained ankles and broken legs. read more

I guess the injured ones lost their Hans Brinker skills over the 12 year period without ice.

Babe Ruth uniform sells for $310,500 . . .

"Never let the fear of striking out get in your way." Babe Ruth

Louisville, Kentucky ~ Hunt Auctions, a sports memorabilia auction company based in Exton, Pennsylvania, and the official auction company of Louisville Slugger Museum & Factory, sold Babe Ruth's final professional road uniform Saturday, November 15, for $310,500 at the fifth annual Louisville Slugger Museum & Factory Auction.

The Brooklyn Dodgers uniform (pre-auction estimate $150,000/200,000) is from Ruth's days as a coach in 1938 and is a record auction price for a coach's uniform.

"Babe Ruth proved once again he is larger then life," says David Hunt, president of Hunt Auctions. "The prices realized today for the Ruth uniform among others are an excellent indication of the resilience of the sports memorabilia market in the face of a difficult economy."

The uniform comes from Ruth's lone season coaching with the Brooklyn Dodgers, and features a heavy gray flannel Spalding jersey and matching pants, both of which include Ruth's full name in chain stitch. The uniform shirt displays the blue Dodgers team name across the front, and Ruth's uniform number "35" on the back.

The jersey remains in completely original condition, and exhibits the light to moderate use consistent with Ruth's position as the Brooklyn Dodger's first base coach. Ruth ended his illustrious career in baseball as a coach, though his dream had always been to become a Major League manager.

A Babe Ruth photograph by Charles Conlon, circa 1927 sold for $23,000.