Sunday, January 01, 2012

THE SEARCHERS






I was going to begin my vintage movie night with "Bunny Lake is Missing" but Hubs and I stumbled on "The Searchers" earlier and decided it would be a good thing to spend the afternoon watching.  It was on the Turner Classic Movie channel and was introduced by Ben Mankewicz.  Ben described it as possibly being the best western ever created.  I would have to disagree with him on that.

It is the story of a Confederate soldier (John Wayne) returning to his brother's home after the Civil War.  Shortly after his arrival there was an Indian attack which claimed the life of his sister-in-law, one niece and one nephew and the kidnapping of his youngest niece, Debbie (Natalie Wood).  It took years of hunting and Indian fighting but he eventually found his niece and brought her home. 

The movie was supposedly set in Texas but I am pretty sure it wasn't filmed in Texas.  If I had to guess, I would say Arizona, Montana or possibly Utah.  I have only seen a bit of West Texas but this just didn't look right. 

The cast was a big name cast -- John Wayne, Vera Miles, Natalie Wood, Ward Bond, Jeffrey Hunter.  However, with all those big names, the acting, for the most part of atrocious.  I don't know why half the movies John Wayne is in seem like comedies when they are clearly not. A bit of trivia here, his wife lives here in Fort Worth.

It was a good movie in spite of all the over-acting.  I have always loved westerns and this was always at the top of my list.  Maybe it is because I always thought Natallie Wood made a cute Indian!
Happy New Year!

I am wishing you all a Happy New Year this morning since I was out like a light at 9:30  pm. in a Benadryl fog! I finally got into bed at 10:22 p.m. and if there was any fun and frivolity to be had -- I was not a part of it.  Why you ask?  Well, between December and February I become like the walking dead  -- unable to hear, breathe, smell and barely talk -- yes, welcome relief for some, I know.  It is the season of Mountain Cedar here in Texas.  I was plagued with it my whole life in San Antonio and thought when I moved north I would be free of it -- upwind so to speak.  Yeah, not so much.  Thanks to the builders of the big, ugly condo behind me, it is worse this year because apparently they were able to buy hundreds of cedar trees at a great price and planted them all behind my house.  Yay!

Here is the map from pollen.com and you will see what I mean.


Doesn't it look like fun?  It will be this way through February and maybe by my birthday I will start to feel like a human again.  I wonder if I can sue the condo people for planting all these trees  after we talked to them about it.  Stellar folk they are.

So, enough about that -- on with the rest of my new year.

I am still reading the two books I started a few days ago -- "Aunt Dimity's Christmas" which I am almost finished with and "A Plain and Fancy Christmas" which I have just started.  I had planned to read both of them in December for Christmas but here I am, still reading and really quite over Christmas. 

I am going to try a new recipe I found in "Fine Cooking".  It is for chicken with lemons and oranges and roasted in a broth of juice and garlic.  I think it sounds wonderful  -- we will see what Hubs says.   I will have it with rice and some green veggie, maybe some carrots and a salad.  There isn't much to it and the only thing I am going to change about it is the cut of chicken.  I am going to use only white meat instead of chicken quarters as Hubs doesn't like dark meat.  If it is good, I will let you know.  If  not, well, you will be spared the details.

So, on that note, I am off to undress a Christmas tree and get things back in order here so I can get rid of all the cedar dust that has undoubtedly blown into my house from the property behind me.  Chances are I will be in another Benadryl fog is a while and Mucinex is my new BFF. 

Have a wonderful day, all! Happy New Year!

Update

 Ok, so we visited our cardiologist yesterday to get the lay of the land for the Hubs.  Seems there is an issue with one of the grafts from ...