Happy weekend!
As mentioned in the headline, today is a day to celebrate gin and knitting in public. By sheer coincidence, I happen to be very fond of both of these things. It's also National Rosé Day and, frankly, I'm into that as well. I will say that I'm not super into the idea of knitting in 85 degree weather, and I'm really more of a crocheter, so perhaps I'll be slightly less festive and continue my attempts at crocheting “chainmail†today, whilst drinking a gin and tonic. Or several gin and tonics.
Today is also the anniversary of the day in 1774 when Rhode Island, land of all my ancestors (after they got off the boat anyway) and relatives, became the first English colony to ban slavery. I didn't know that, actually. I did know that it was the first state to accuse someone of being a vampire (Sarah Tillinghast in 1776 — not a witch-burning situation, she was already dead from tuberculosis — even though the Wikipedia entry for the New England Vampire Panic fails to acknowledge this), but I did not know that.
And it is the birthday of two Holy Roman Emperors in a row — Charles the Bald (823) and Charles the Fat (839). Imagine being a whole ass Holy Roman Emperor and you still can't get people to not give you a terrible nickname. Also, every picture of Charles the Bald shows him as having hair. Is this why people obsess over the Roman Empire? Because, admittedly, I do have questions.
It is also the birthday of funny/tall girl icon Mary Wickes, who, along with Margaret Hamilton, Beulah Bondi and Thelma Ritter, was really one of the first great character actresses, and to this day has probably one of the most recognizable voices in the history of show businesses.
To celebrate that, I'm gonna first drop a clip from the film Now, Voyager, which you may know is my favorite. It's not technically her first film (that was The Man Who Came to Dinner, also with Bette Davis), but I think it's probably where our girl made the biggest impression. I mean, it must have been, because she ended up playing a whole lot of maids in the 50 movies she made throughout her very long career.
How long a career? Well, here she is as a singing nun in 1992's Sister Act. So … pretty long!
Though she didn't always have such a lovely voice.
And here she is, teaching her longtime pal, Lucille Ball (with whom she also often worked), how to dance. Sort of.
So now I'm going to go watch Sister Act, and possibly Postcards From the Edge, possibly also while drinking a gin and tonic and trying to crochet chainmail. Hope you all have an equally productive day!
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