PRESIDENTAL

I ran across this picture recently, somewhere, and for some reason it made me feel better, for a moment, that maybe one day, we'll have a president again.  This was a snapshot taken by a reporter two weeks before the country's transfer of power, mind you, peaceful as usual, from Bush to Obama. Bush, a Republican and Obama, a democrat met privately for some time ahead of this gathering. Then later that day, former Presidents, Jimmy Carter, and Bill Clinton, both democrats and George H.W. Bush, met both Bush and Obama in the ovel office to discuss many things, past on advice, and pick each other's brains, and to pass things from each to the incoming President.  It was younger Bush's idea to do so, and it was the first time such a gathering of former heads of state took place at the White House in over 27 years.

The one thing I found about that day was a quote from President Bush." One message that I have, and I think we all share is that we want you to succeed. Whether we're Democrat or Republican, we care deeply about this country," Bush said.

Boy how times have changed.

PRIDE INTERLUDE

The incredible Bobbie Gentry performing Fancy, which she wrote and sang first. Always seems to be a favorite of us gay boys, and I've long preferred this version over Reba's. It's also why I love the New York and Southern drag queens who introduced me to this song and story about a hooker who gets rich. I have the hooker part down but still working on the getting rich part! Bobbie also wrote the haunting smash hit Ode to Billie Joe, in addition to orchestrating her own albums, which blended multi- genres, and designed her own costumes and her choreography. Quite the talent. Is it any wonder this queen adores her. And I'm going to need that red ensemble.

SHIRLEY HEMPHILL

 

I always loved me some of the late, great and full of hilarity and sass of Shirley Hemphill. I also think back in the day I was the only white kid who watched and knew what, What's Happening was. I have no idea what this skit was from, but she cracked me up!

GOODBYE 2024

...step in & ring the New Year with a better attitude and outlook kids! 

Let's say good bye to 2024...

Ever notice how we can't wait to say goodbye to the current year to end? Yet when the new year rolls around and by the end of that year we say the same thing again? Can every year be that bad? The one time I really thought that was the two pandemic years. Over those. But overall, I can't complain about any one year, and I love the feeling of the freshness of a new year. And will this year be the start of a new turbulent time for us? Oh I'm sure. But I will try not to let the Party of Rot and Misery rain on my parade.

I hope that 2024 has treated you as well as you deserve. I feel 2024 treated me well and I look back in my many joys in my own life. But the good and bad combined just continue to make and mold us to become stronger and wiser people hopefully. I was surrounded by my heavily democrat and green party family, thanks heavens...good close friends and tight knit circle, continued excellent health, a fact I am proud of... I got my two raises this year, and met some new friends and a few more bloggers. The highlight for me though was my trip to Kenya, a dream come true, and a memory and pure magic moment being able to see and be in the presence of the animals I saw...what an honor. Not to mention to see it's people and a different lifestyle. I will be sharing more, not to worry.

I myself love New Years. While I stopped doing the big club things on the night years ago, I opted for a NYE dinner in with a lavish intimate dinner party and drinks. This year, a few of us are going out for a lovely dinner and then joining the clan at the home of two other friends of ours for a small NYE bash. Warbucks will be overwhelmed with my clan! Thanks heaven he will be there to unzip me tonight! Tomorrow? As always, don't stand between me and my pork and sauerkraut dinner....and a day and night, quite literally of the Mummers!!! I can almost smell it now. After New Years Day the Ann Arbor cousins and Warbucks all depart for home.

 In closing 2024...I'd like to thank the academy for this Os....opps...how did that happen? Id' like to thank you all for all your kind words, supports by commenting, writing, reading and sharing...we have really built together a place to enjoy some visual delights, support, encouragement, and a place of shelter from the more mundane things, and what seems to be a world getting more tarnished and the awful news, which are not always so positive, upbeat or fun. What a joy to have our little online community right? We lost some friends and let's keep several of the bloggers going through some tough days with us and in our good vibe pots. So chin up, stomach in, tits out...we will all get through 2025 together and survive. Cheers Everybody!

I wish us all a Happy, Healthy and Good New Year in 2025!!! Filled with everything and good things for us all.

Happy New Years Eve....

...and may we not find the Mistress like this tomorrow in the morning....

THIS WEEEKEND

 After the grueling week...we're keeping it casual girls.

THIS HIBERNATION...

 ...I've been keeping it mostly casual!

Grid your loins...I'll be back next week! 

MOOD BOARD

 Happy Monday everybody!

While summer may be my favorite time of the year, I will admit this is probably my favorite week of the whole year. There's just something about the crispness of the air, the Fall colors, the smell of a good bonfire not to mention all the spicy smells that I use as many things this time of year like cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, star anise, saffron and a few others, not to mention apple cider,  nice fall scented candles in the evenings. We enjoyed another bonfire this weekend. Of course this week is also a short work week for me, and probably my favorite holiday right after Halloween. I love Thanksgiving, and I love the smell of the cooking of  dinner the day of with the sound of the parade in Philadelphia in the background. It's nice just to get together enjoy some drink and a good dinner with family and friends. We have 13 this year. And in all my years of work in retail with my current job there's no more need for Black Friday as I'm off. Truth be told my previous retailers that I work for were all of the luxury breed, so we never had insane crowds wherever I worked thank heavens. So I plan on enjoying this 3-day week. And as I told Jon from across the pond, I plan on enjoying a 4-day weekend. For that I am thankful and I'll definitely drink to that. Don't you just love the feel this time of year? What's your favorite month of the "embers"???

MEANWHILE....

....just in time for Sunday Happy Hour with Miss Moorecock and the girls....

DRIVING IN STYLE

My earliest memory of being in a car was when I was a wee queenling. My mother's parents, and my grandparents I was closest too, had two cars, one being a vintage Citroen DS. Matter of fact my grandfather learned to drive very late in life, just to able to own and drive a Citroen. I remember enjoying being in the car when we went for rides, but it was much later that I really remember just how chic, and what style they had till I was much older and couldn't recall seeing other cars like it. Girls, when I say this car was chic and fun, it was just that. The car sat for years when he stopped driving. Even after sitting for years, the car started right up when my uncle took the car at the urging of my grandmother, who was razing the detached garage, to make way for a sunroom and more garden space a couple years after my grandfather's passing. How I wished I had that car now. I would totally drive it daily.

My grandfathers Citroen DS  in Belleview Park where they lived.

When the Citroen Ds was unveiled before an astonished crowd at the 1955 Paris Motor Show, the world had never seen anything like it. The DS captured the spirit of Citroen, innovative, daring, spacious, style and dripping with haute couture and Gallic comfort. The interior was huge and well appointed. Motorist around the world fell in love with the car, and it refused to die till the last 1, 456,115 produced came of the assembly line in 1975. It was a mainstream family car in Europe. And it was a car of choice for everyone from artistic and eccentrics, to businessman, doctors, engineers, and professor to housewives. After the DS was out of production, and Citroen left the American market, there was no comparable replacement in the American showroom that had its retro style.

 The features list tends to define what a luxury car is these days. And while classic cars arguably had style and grace, they can't compete when it comes to the bells and whistles of today. But at the time Citroen had offered a lot and was way ahead of its time. It's hydropneumatics, self-leveling suspension and aerodynamic styling, and adjusting headlights. In 2009, a panel of automotive designers named it the most beautiful care ever made. High praise, considering it faced off against the like of Mercedes, Aston Martin, and Jaguar. It was also the first mass-produced car with front disc brakes. The Citroen DS's real party trick was its suspension, though, which was like a magic carpet ride and one of the smoothest rides I can remember in a car. The ride quality was so impressive, Rolls -Royce borrowed it for its own fleet.

While regarded today as a technical masterpiece...it's beyond me why car makers now can't still have the amazing and convenient technology we now have, yet bring the style, grace and chicness back into one car. These days one can barely tell the difference between car makes anymore.

SHADOW DANCING

Groundhog Day is generally, to my knowledge, only a popular day in the United States on February 2, and mostly popular in Pennsylvania, where it originated from the Pennsylvania Dutch superstition that if a groundhog emerges from its burrow on his day, and sees its shadow due to clear weather, it will retreat to its den, and winter will go on for six more weeks; if it does not see it's shadow because of cloudy weather, spring will arrive early. The Groundhog Day festivities held in Punxsutawney PA are big business and its most frequently attended ceremony. While I'm not a meteorologist, and I hate to rain on their parade, six more weeks of winter, won't be a bad thing, as we have been extremely mild and warmer in January ...with February continuing the warm trend from what I'm hearing. It beeen a warm winter for us. The Mistress says put the sleds away and get the square cuts out!!!!

And yes, dear Phil did indeed see his shadow today if you're wondering. Can't they let the poor rodent rest in his den? 

Have a wonderful Groundhog Day and be sure to look for your shadow!!!

VARIETY HOUR

What an odd trio to have paired together...and not the first time Cher had Kate Smith on her variety hour show. Kate Smith made numerous appearances.

VINTAGE SHOPPING

 

It was a good weekend to get out and about. Friends of mine wanted to go antiquing and I thought why not? I never look for anything in particular but sometimes things will just jump out. I have really let my black belt shopping skills go since the pandemic, when we didn't really need anything, as we really couldn't go anywhere since places were closed. But this weekend between the antiquing and other places I did find some great clothing finds...but the Marketplace in Lemoyne has a interesting array of items. I hadn't been in, in some time. And again...some colored glass found its way home with me again, and two little vintage turkeys. Talk about some inspiring sights.

My first score were these two amber vases for $15 for the pair.

It's never too late to keep abreast for one's skills and keep things fresh.

Two swell records to set the mood for my behind closed door times!!!! I love myself a Backroom Ballad

What finds! 

Today has been pumpkin carving and clipping the last of the dahlias to bring in.

And without further ado....some Whipped Cream.