Author: jennymcphee

So today I'm posting to you from bed where I have been languishing all day--not with "the roni" as my sons call the virus, but with what is probably a hang-over after too many quarantinis exacerbated by the usual middle of the night panic: "Do I have it?" "What will happen if I get it?" …

Continue reading "Silver Linings (16) In Bed with Mae West"

Today I found this stunning image of a film being projected onto a building in Rome, an effort to keep people entertained during quarantine, an encouragement to the citizens of Rome to stay inside and watch from their windows. Accompanying the image was an article in Air Mail entitled "Some Things Never Change," comparing our present …

Continue reading "Silver Linings (15) Imagining Sisyphus Happy"

And as we head into the weekend, have any travel plans?   Virtual Orchestra Performance of the Week:  "What the World Needs Now" from the quarantined Berklee College of Music Students (via a friend in London) Limerick of the Week: The Virus of Penzance If Gilbert & Sullivan were alive today. I think there's half …

Continue reading "Silver Linings (14) Post-Coronavirus Males"

One of my favorite podcasts is Radiotopia's "The Allusionist: Adventures in Language" hosted by Helen Zaltzman. Recently she asked her listeners to send in their favorite calming words and she reads them in her mellifluous English accent in a brief episode (10 minutes) to help us soothe our inner monologue. Is your favorite soothing word …

Continue reading "Silver Linings (13) Antimacassar, Gloaming, Hoi Polloi, Kerfuffle, Lugubrious, Tintinnabulation"

I'm not sure this is a silver lining, but I woke up this morning, and imagining myself as Gloria Swanson standing in the ruins of the Roxy Theater near Times Square in 1960, I thought, "I am at the epicenter of something truly catastrophic." I have been feeling very sorry for my beloved Italians, but …

Continue reading "Silver Linings (12) The Diva of the Epicenter"

From our Mexican Friends: From our Italian Friends who are Mayors trying to control their (mostly younger) citizens during the era of coronaquarantine: From Patrick Stewart who is reading a Shakespeare sonnet a day to keep the doctor away on social media: And finally the Puzzle's Progress:

I have always loved the creepy, fantastical, other worldy, whimsical, gorgeous, perverse Dutch painter Hieronymus Bosch. The Garden of Earthly Delights is in the Museo Del Prado and the last time I was in Madrid, gosh, ten years ago now, I was with my family including my Dad (who wrote about our trip to Spain, …

Continue reading "Silver Linings (10) The Garden of Earthly Delights"

  and they love me..." 🙂 I got it from Rick* who got it from Ed** who got it from Agnes? (I mean the video, of course.) Happy Sunday *Whitaker **White  

I am a devotee of podcasts and listen when I run or clean, both of which I am doing a lot of right now. This morning I listened to one of my favorite podcasts from the BBC Radio 3 called Arts & Ideas and their most recent episode is entitled "Future Thinking." In it, one …

Continue reading "Silver Linings (8) Falling in Love with the Future"

Passed along to my Dad from our British Friends: The English are feeling the pinch in relation to the recent virus threat and have therefore raised their threat level from “Miffed” to “Peeved.” Soon, though, the level may be raised yet again to “Irritated” or even “A Bit Cross.” The English have not been “A …

Continue reading "Silver Linings (7) “Let’s Get the Bastard”"