Mammy

New York State Of Mind

In my latest installment of my tribute to children's books I present "Eloise", written by the sublime Kay Thompson, illustrated by Hilary Knight.

I was introduced to this book in high school. My dear friend David , had an old family copy and he was always paraphrasing and using Eloisiana(the 0fficial language).

David and I identified with Eloise even in the throws of teenage angst.The idea of behaving in a raucous manner in public places had a ton of appeal.



I then introduced JieJie to it when she was little. We would read it over and over, unfolding the extra big page with Eloise using the Plaza's elevator system for her own mayhem and "skibbling".

When JieJie was about six, I had the pleasure of spending a glamorous Plaza time in NYC with a dear friend and we brought JieJie some of the out of print Eloise books from a local book dealer.(they are now back in print,due to Eloise demand)
It was then that I made the connection that the author Kay was the same Kay Thompson who was the amazing side kick to Fred Astaire in "Funny Face" with the Divine Miss Audrey.

Kay was an author, singer, songwriter, dancer, humorist and icon maker.( Ms Liza Minnelli, recently did a tribute to her on Broadway).

Now Mary is enjoying the antics of the precocious Miss E. with her dog Weenie(a pug no less).
and her band of employees and merry makers.
We once again unfold the long page and trace the antics of Eloise maneuvering her way through the elevator system of the Plaza, much to the chagrin of the white gloved, elevator operators.

A true classic.


Kay Thompson performing in "Funny Face"

Graduation Day

The countdown until JieJie graduates has begun.

(Nothing But) Flowers

This photo captures how Terry and Greg feel about the Fairy Festival

Last weekend was our 2nd annual outing at the May Day Fairy Festival.

This time we had Aunt Cindy, Uncle Greg, and Daddy with us.

First we enjoyed a lovely lunch at French Laundry in Fenton and then on to the festivities.

There was a May queen, a Maypole and teeny fairies abound.
Of course the divine Miss M. had a wonderful time getting tattooed and making a mysterious fairy treasure box.

We did the Maypole dance and due to a rogue ribbon, I joined in. The average age of the dancing fairies was around 6 so you can imagine the spectacle.

The pictures look make the weather look a little ominous but it was lovely.
We found more teeny furniture for our fairy garden and more flowers for the fairies to seek shelter.

Miss M says that she is going to hook up cameras at night to get living proof of the fairies. She has become a skeptic in her old age.

Happy Birthday

Yesterday was the birthday of the marvelous Audrey.

Gotta Love It

Wild World

Collage "Memorial" was created by Andrew Emil age 15
From the book "The Day the World Changed"



As last Sunday's details began to unfurl, my Miss Mary began to ask all sorts of questions.
Mary is very aware of what goes on around her and she doesn't miss much.

I was paralyzed by the enormity of addressing the subject with her. I really didn't know where to begin.

Truth be told, I knew that she would have questions.As I was watching the reverie going on after President Obama's announcement , I was grappling with feelings of sadness and loss. I was thinking of healthy, intelligent ways I could convey the dreadful story. I made a note to self that I would clearly and concisely discuss the subject if she asked me about it. After all, Mary is a smart, tough cookie.

I was then actually faced with the insurmountable task of explaining that horrible day. I immediately flew into "my seat of the pants mode". I decided for lack of a better solution,on my part, to leave out a lot of detail.


I started with her questions.First question being, who was Osama bin Laden? I offered out a fairytale like statement "Osama bin Laden was a very ,very bad man."
Next were questions like, why was he bad? and that led to much stuttering and back peddling on my part.

I could have really used the news post from this blog at that point.

I didn't want to scare the hell out of her. Details of 9/11 are so daunting and not easy to convey to a seven year old kid who worries about every natural and unnatural disaster in the world.
I did want her to understand that the way that our world worked had changed dramatically on that day.

I thought about how I could talk to her about the mourning for all of the people lost in the 9/11 attacks and their families.
I could explain that I didn't think it was appropriate to be partying in the streets as if we were going to hang Mr bin Laden's head in the Lincoln Memorial.
I couldn't say that I knew that the death of Mr bin Laden does not mean the end of the struggle.
I could say that it is a good thing that America feels that it is safer and stronger now that he is gone.
I thought I would evoke wisdom and provide comfort. I would not admit that I was so confused by everyone's elation and relief over the Mr bin Laden's death, this was not a happy time.

Of course when the moment arose, I went back to the seat of my pants. I lolled into my "once upon a time" cadence .I explained to Mary, that Mr bin Laden was a bad man, who killed many people and did many bad things,for reasons that we couldn't understand and that now he too had been killed.

Mary responded by saying,"This whole story is sad, very sad."