104 Not the heat

It’s NOT the Heat ~
I Know: It IS HEAT PLUS HUMIDITY

Dear Readers, hello from what I consider hell on earth. It is 7:15 p.m. on a sultry summer evening. It’s 88 degrees but feels 93 (Accuweather)! 

It’s 7:15 p.m. I mean really! This is NOT fun. Our lake is about a football field distance from the house (you remember, where the dreaded Canada geese are), so I have my “Amazon PREMIUM citronella candle burning” to attract the mosquitoes before they get to me. 

Mosquitoes LOVE me! Hormones? Didn’t think I had any left! Then I made the mistake of looking in the mirror a few minutes ago. My face is red and splotchy. I even put my pile of frizzy (humidity 77%) grey hair in a pseudo-ponytail to get it off my neck. 

You may remember from prior blogs that our 1808 house is not air conditioned. It’s a wonderfully built old place, though. The thermometer here on the desk reads 78. Not bad. The exhaust fan is whirring away. The two Schnauzers are comatose. On a cooler evening, they would be barking at fireflies.

I am waiting for the 60% (Accuweather) chance of rain. I hear thunder in the distance. Were I of American Indian descent I would go perform a rain dance. However, English and Russian genes prefer other than this weather. 

Oh, just call me Scarlett O’Hara without Rhett and petticoats. I don’t know how southerners lived in the “good old days.” I really just don’t know. I am alabaster pale. I do not tan. I get red, breakout out in prickly heat rash as well as those splotches. Heat gives me headaches and stomach aches. I would prefer not to move many muscles until October. Keep checking back with me though; maybe I will be more fun this winter!

While the other two SAVVY BROADS are out enjoying the sunshine, taking walks, and being good, health-conscious women, I am sitting here drinking water, diet Cokes, iced tea, and any other cold, non-alcoholic liquid anyone hands me! 

Just for the record, I don’t like sand. NOPE, not going to the beach or on a cruise. I don’t like picnics. Our lawn looks green and smooth, but it’s not. It’s bumpy and lumpy to walk on. Yes, enough is enough. No more whining. I am cheering myself up with funny cartoons. Obviously other people agree with me as there were hundreds of amusing sites from which to choose. 

Oh, just one factoid for this blog: According to a Huffington Post study, the number #1 Smartphone use is checking the weather. Does this help or does it just confirm the agony? 

Stay cool. Enjoy YOUR time in the sun. Glenne     

103 Semi--Green Circle

The (Semi) Green (Semi) Circle

Winchester has a Green Circle or part of a green circle that is part green and is partially finished and partially proposed. That is what I have discovered along with my walking buddy, Trish, another Savvy Broad, and our canine companion Tootsie.

The circle is intended for bikers, runners, walkers, etc. The literature states it is to connect major destinations for citizens and tourists and areas of historic, recreational, educational, and natural interest.

From U.S. 50 along Jubal Early

The seven- to eight-mile circle project began over a decade ago, and progress has been slow and somewhat steady. Recently, a stretch from U.S. 50 through Jubal Early Drive was opened where the new John Kerr Elementary School is located. The trail is wide and nicely landscaped and easy to access from either direction.

Walking east along Jubal Early Drive, there is a section to the right that runs through the Abrams Creek Wetlands Preserve off of Jubal Early Drive that definitely is a green area. This completed one-mile section offers rare Virginia plants and is part of the 25-acre preserve. You can walk this section for some lush greenery and come back to the main trail.

You must enlarge a great deal to be able to read map.
Map has not been updated to reflect recent opening at Jubal Early and 50.

Continuing on Jubal Earl Drive is where it gets a little tricky as it moves along the four-lane drive which is heavily traveled. 

Then it progresses to Millwood Avenue, University Drive, Lowry Drive, Opequon Avenue, and then onto the section that runs along Shawnee Springs to Pall Mall Street. You have to use the map to make the circle that snakes around these streets.


A proposed section that will not include as much traffic will somehow run along Featherbed Lane and then connect with Apple Blossom Drive.

Trying to navigate this curve of this part of the circle takes determination and a willingness to put up with the noise of the traffic, and you must forget this is supposed to be a GREEN circle. 

But there is hope --- a green side to the circle is coming up at this section. The Shawnee Springs Preserve provides a walk through the woods and views of the old city water works site. It runs along the completed Town Run Linear Park Phase I that ends at Pall Mall Street.

When you come to Pall Mall Street instead of continuing on the proposed section, Town Run Linear Park Phase II, that has been under construction for more than a year, you must forgo the green landscape for another streetscape. The new section is locked up tight so no one can enter. I have walked it in past months before the lock was put on, and it appeared to be finished. 







For some reason, it has not been opened but no answers have been given. Hopefully, it won’t be long before the locked fence is taken down and the public will be allowed to traverse the lovely, green section.

Walkers have to continue on Clifford, Cameron, Cork, Loudoun, Boscawen, and Amherst streets to finish the circle, meeting up with the trail along the busy thoroughfare heading west on Route 50.

It has been a challenge to walk the entire circle, but we did not give up. Anyone who wants to try it should go to winchestergreencircle.com to print out a map to follow the proposed as well as the finished trail.

Our city would be an ideal setting for a walking trail that takes us all around the town. For health reasons, this would be very helpful for residents to take to the trail and put in a few miles daily or weekly, plus educate the public on what the city has to offer.

Maybe some day Winchester residents and visitors will have a true green circle that winds through lush landscapes and stays away from heavily trafficked areas of the community. 

We have been reassured by members of city council that it will be a reality, but no timeline has been given. We can only hope and keep on walking!

Savvy Walker Frances       

102 Triangle Diner as metaphor

We all have   . . .   our Triangle Diners

I frequently drive by the Triangle Diner. I don't know the name of the man who has been working on it, but I sympathize with his plight. 

The Facebook page on the diner has entries going back to 2010 but I am sure he has been at it longer than that. The Facebook page details many improvements through text and photo; however, the last update on the page is dated June 2014.

Frances Lowe told me she had heard someone comment about a project, "Well, that will be completed when the Triangle Diner opens!"

Then I started thinking about all the unfinished projects in my life. I mentally listed the current ones such as purchases of craft projects yet untackled, trim paint still needing a second coat, several started and as yet not completed writing projects, shut-ins I should visit . . . the list is long and depressing. Even more depressing was the ones that I had abandoned in the past--to discouraging to enumerate!

I consoled myself with the thought that everyone in Winchester does not drive by my unfinished projects.

Diane Nyad swam for two days to reach Cuba from Key West when she was 64, just a tad younger than me. That was her fifth attempt to make the swim. Her first four attempts had been halted by minor inconveniences such as sharks, storms, jellyfish bites, and an asthma attack. 

Her advice on reaching the goal: “I have three messages. One is we should never, ever give up. Two is you never are too old to chase your dreams. Three is it looks like a solitary sport, but it takes a team.”

A psychologist commenting on persistence pointed at that many people who succeed in spite of the odds have a support system of people who mentored them or provided the right suggestion when needed. If you keep your goals to yourself, you are less likely to achieve them. Nonetheless, I still do not intend to display my unfinished craft projects on Amherst Street!

Priorities need to set as well. Walking for health is more important than that second coat of paint--more fun too!

Wikipedia has a page devoted to Unfinished Creative Work, which made me feel better as well as insignificant. Here are some of the items listed:

The Triangle Diner shrinks to nothing compared to the Sagrada Familia church in Barcelona. Construction began in 1882 and was delayed by the Spanish Civil War. The basilica is still incomplete but the church draws 1.5 visitors annually. And heed this, oh, Triangle Diner: Barcelona Cathedral, different church, took 615 years to complete. The Cologne Cathedral in Germany, 632 years!

I don't believe Winchester officials will be that tolerant of delay!

As a former English major, I was delighted to discover that Chaucer never completed Canterbury Tales to its full length. 

I probably could have sloughed through it to the end, but I could not have read SIX more books of the Faerie Queene! (Edmund Spenser wanted it to be twelve books long but finished only six. It is still the longest epic poem in the English language.)

Cincinnati started an underground rail system in the 1920s. Work stopped in the Depression, never to resume. The tunnel system, sometimes called Cincinnati's biggest embarrassment, is still visited by tourists.

Two unfinished examples from authoritarian governments:

According to Wikipedia, the Ryugyong Hotel in Pyongyang, North Korea will never be completed because of cost and poor structural integrity. It was planned to be the tallest hotel in the world.

So you can dream big, but have to design better!

In China the New South China Mall, Pearl River Delta was supposed to be the world's largest shopping mall (notice a trend here?). Although it opened in 2002, it has just 20% occupancy and is called the "ghost mall."

Now, don't we all feel better?

Unfinished, but hopeful

Trish      

101 Film Fans Unite

Film Fans Unite:

A Salute to Andy Gyurisin and Film Club 3.

Once upon a time, back in the 1950s, a little girl and her grandfather used to drive in his BIG teal/green Plymouth each Sunday afternoon to a matinee at the Capitol Theatre about ten miles away. It mattered not what was playing as movie censors of those days took care of not subjecting folks to unseemly activities on the screen! 

We watched a newsreel, a cartoon, and then the feature film. We saw everything from Alice in Wonderland and Lady and the Tramp to Rock Around the Clock, Ben-Hur, Oklahoma, East of Eden, Sunset Boulevard and Bad Day at Black Rock. 

Quite an education for an elementary school child, hum? But what special memories these titles hold. I have been a movie buff (not quite the stature be a cinephile – aka: a serious film historian and critic) since I was about five years old. We continued our Sunday tradition until I was old enough to drive! I needed my weekly movie fix! And I did have my opinions even then according to my family. Imagine Sunday night supper with me wanting to tell the whole story, plus describing set and costumes. I am sure I was a PAIN! 

Movies continued to captivate me in college. William & Mary offered film series each semester for one credit! I fell in love then with Italian films – the stranger the better. I saw Fellini and De Sica films, picked up some Italian, and fell in love with Marcello Mastroianni. 

My favorite was 8½ about a filmmaker trying to satisfy his wife, his mistress and develop his film project. I wrote a critique of it back in the 1960s. Wish I could find it!

Now, retired, I can still get my weekly movie (or more) thanks to one of the students I remember fondly from teaching days, Andy Gyurisin. Andy is the founder of our local film club. What Andy and his wife Jen started as a movie group with a book club format in 2008 is now filling a theatre at the Alamo. 

In eight years, Andy has given my husband and me the chance to see movies we had wanted to see and, even more exciting, to see movies we didn’t know we wanted to see, but so very glad we did.

Andy shows us screenings of old films, new cutting-edge films, out-of-the-ordinary films, foreign films, indie films, and series by directors (right now it’s Hitchcock/Truffaut). [Remember you must look for Hitchcock in each of his movies.] 

Working with various small independent film distributors, the Club gives the community a chance to be together to experience - on the big screen - movies that do not have the same impact on Netflix or streaming on your computer. Often, Andy elaborates, it is the joint reactions of the audience that add depth to your understanding of the film. The collective laughter or the collective sigh becomes a community experience. 

We see films that were critically acclaimed but never shown before in our small city. Documentaries! Oscar shorts (a rare treat!). The Club themes are diverse. Coming soon are films by women directors and then the BIG EVENT called “Lost Weekend” in September wherein one sees about a dozen movies in a three-day period for one flat fee. Last year’s event sold out in 30 minutes! And, fun fact, as this blog goes out, we are watching 3.0’s 230th screening! 

Since the film club outgrew Andy and Jen’s house, the Club now partners with the Alamo theatre. Andy has been able to help the Alamo in selecting its film choices and he has brought in directors, producers, speakers, and live acts. Andy and the Club help the Alamo Drafthouse Cinema make some extraordinary connections with folks in the film industry. 

A club that started with only a handful of members, now eight years later, Andy says that the no-fee-to-join club has upwards of 2500 members. Incredible numbers in a small city of about 80,000. Each showing also gets a little bit of movie talk before the show to set the stage and an audience group picture is taken that shows up in social media (but the crowd is large and the faces hard to see – thank goodness!) The group photos, says Andy, tell the distributors much more about the popularity indie films in our region than saying we had 90 people attend the show.

I salute both Andy and the Alamo. 

The Nerangis family, owners of this particular Alamo franchise, and even Tim League, founder and CEO of the Alamo Corporation had the foresight to see how Andy’s dream could help them. And Andy’s personality and reputation have brought in loyal followers to Film Club 3.0. He leads by passion and knowledge.

Checkout Film Club on Facebook and find additional information about what’s happening with the Club on the Alamo website. You, too, may want to grab your spouse or bff and head to show!

Plaudits and kudos!

And, please, honey, share the popcorn.

Glenne       

100! 100 blogs later

100 blogs later

Two years later and 100 blogs strong, Three Savvy Broads has explored topics close to their hearts and forever on their minds. From family situations to reminiscences to current events, nothing escapes the weekly barrages of details, mundane or extreme. 

Beware, anything can be snatched and recorded for a very savvy blog.

Thoughts swirl around sometimes for days and days until they finally make it on paper or the computer screen, ultimately to be published on the weekly site. Often times the idea flies out like a missile but other times, it slithers slowly like a snake in the grass, ready to pounce.

A three-week rotation keeps the savvy broads on task and on time, usually. Some weeks it seems lightning fast and other times it creeps up unexpectedly. Gab sessions often reinforce an idea that is hanging out in a crevice of the mind waiting for approval or rejection or help bring on new thoughts that no one had ever considered.

But it is always a constant--we have never missed a week whether on vacation or in the middle of a holiday. Somehow, some way, we manage to get the blog written and on its way to the blog master who readies it for publication. Our goal is to have it ready the week before it goes live, but some weeks that is not a reality and we are pushing the Sunday night final deadline.

Two years later, we all agree it has been an interesting journey of evaluation, interpretation, and education. The idea for a blog can be readily available, but the background and research may take some delving into treasure troves of information. But we never give up and forge ahead into what we hope are interesting topics for our readers.

 Our Facebook site lists more than 1,500 likes! Our readers often comments on this page with similar observations as those that were expanded upon in the musings of the writer. Our web site, threesavvybroads.blogspot.com, gives the reader the entire blog. Readers can sign up at this spot to receive the blog in their personal email.

As we look at the future, we plan to continue, hoping to relate to more and more readers about the topics we find important or nostalgic. We stay away from controversy, but occasionally it will meander in by way of the back door of our topics. We don’t want to offend anyone, but we do like to challenge our readers to look deep into their own feelings and reflections to help give meaning to whatever life hurls in their path.

From apostophes to grammar, from TV shows to movies, from shopping to traveling, from walking to hiking (see our walking locations page, above right), we leave very few topics untouched. We value our loyal readers and are always on the search for more victims of our weekly tirades. 

So please don’t hesitate to join us and offer comments, suggestions, disagreements, or whatever else to these 
        Three Savvy Broads!!

                          Frances

099 The Donaldtrump

It just came to me while the Donald was attacking someone: "Beware of the Jabberwock!" Then to switch metaphors, it grew like Topsy. Lewis Carroll's original Jabberwocky follows my version.

Any resemblance to real people is purely coincidental! 

The Donaldtrump Went Jabberwocky

    with sincere apologies to Lewis Carrol

Twas brillig, and the “crooked" Hillary and the “lyin'" Ted
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:
All mimsy are the misled,
And the fundraisers outgrabe.

"Beware the Donaldtrump, my son!
The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!
Beware the Bully Donnie, and shun
The trumpious university snatch!"

He took his Sword of Truth and went to arms.
Long time the trumpious foe he sought.
He wanted specifics about programs,
And was there any trumpious thought?

And, as in uffish wait he stood in near delirium,
The Donaldtrump, with eyes of flame,
Came whiffling through the auditorium,
And insulted as it came!

One, two! One, two! He gave the trumpious one many a verbal whack!
The hard-hitting questions went snicker-snack!
The Donaldtrump mocked and heckled but details he did lack!
The trumpious bully went galumphing back.

"And, has thou shamed the Donaldtrump?
Come to my arms, my beamish boy!
O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!"
He chortled in his joy.

`Twas brillig, and the slithy politicos
Did gyre and gimble on the talk shows;
All mimsy were the polls; the emperor has no clothes;
And the poor voters say, Oh Woe.

JABBERWOCKY

Lewis Carroll

(from Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There, 1872)

`Twas brillig, and the slithy toves

Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:

All mimsy were the borogoves,

And the mome raths outgrabe.

"Beware the Jabberwock, my son!
The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!
Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun
The frumious Bandersnatch!"

He took his vorpal sword in hand:
Long time the manxome foe he sought --
So rested he by the Tumtum tree,
And stood awhile in thought.

And, as in uffish thought he stood,
The Jabberwock, with eyes of flame,
Came whiffling through the tulgey wood,
And burbled as it came!

One, two! One, two! And through and through
The vorpal blade went snicker-snack!
He left it dead, and with its head
He went galumphing back.

"And, has thou slain the Jabberwock?
Come to my arms, my beamish boy!
O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!"
He chortled in his joy.

`Twas brillig, and the slithy toves

Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;

All mimsy were the borogoves,

And the mome raths outgrabe.

Nothing can replace the original!

Trish              

098 The Apostrophe

The APOSTROPHE
          or
It Is Still Greek to Many Folks!

Dear Readers, I know ALL of you will be big ans of this week’s blog. Surely you want to know more about the apostrophe and how to use it. Certainly, the beginning of summer (or it feels like summer) is a case for grammar! Please don’t go away. I’ll tell you how this choice was made.

My good friend James (musician, composer, educator, and PhD, along with many accolades) sent me an email asking me to verify the current standard for making his name – James – possessive. [James wrote some new music. James’/James’s new music will be published soon.] Which one is correct? My immediate response was to go with the second choice – s’s. Since I am really not an authority (how do I get to be an authority anyway?), I should check my memory before giving my talented and erudite friend my opinion.

First, I go to Google. Eleven million hits in .39 seconds. Whew. Go back to Google and search for style manuals that are respected. Went to the bookcase, pulled out Strunk & White, Warriner’s, and Fowler’s grammar books. Blew the dust off the tops. Headed to the indexes (indices – OH, another day!!) for use of the apostrophe in names ending in “s.” 

Now armed with Google printouts and my reference books--the three books listed above, a legal writing site, Chicago, AP (or NY Times), and APA style manual excerpts, I became a student again. OH, MY…I made a chart of who said what about which; I made a chart of which said what about plurals; I color-coded the charts. Fair WARNING – don’t, please, don’t go to British sites. They will muddle your mind for sure.*

The apostrophe is from the Greek word apostrophos meaning “a turning away of” or elision. The etymology for our English word is from Greek to Latin to French to English. This should tell us the apostrophe has a long and circuitous route to our usage today.

We learned, once upon a time in school, that the apostrophe is used for contractions: it is = it’s; do not = don’t.

We learned a second use of the apostrophe: to mark the plural of some plurals that are not words as such - “mind your P’s & Q’s.” HOWEVER (again) some grammarians argue that the apostrophe is superfluous. 

Which do you prefer on your child’s math homework: find all the 7’s or find all the 7s? Apparently, the answer is BE CONSISTANT. We used to write the 1970’s, but now the 1970s is preferred. Context has become the more important aspect say AP and Chicago style manuals.

Also, I learned about ATTRIBUTIVES! The easiest examples are with holidays and organizations. Veterans Day – the plural word Veterans is NOT showing possession. 

It is most closely associated to an adjective or modifier. The Chicago Manual of Style (15th ed.) says this is still a grey area. Is it the English Majors’ Society (a club belonging to English majors) or is it one of many societies and English majors is the modifier.

Most important to my friend James and to this blog is that we learned to show possession with apostrophes. John’s cat or Mary’s hat. Do not, we were admonished, use the apostrophe with possessive PRONOUNS – yours, his, hers, ours, its, theirs. I believe we had to memorize the list.

FINALLY, I have the answer for friend James. Okay, James, you may proceed! Use JAMES’S! If pronouncing the plural name sounds an –iz at the end, add the ‘s! 

It can be stated (AP style) that the “s” after the apostrophe is dropped only if there are two or more sibilant sounds preceding the apostrophe: e.g. on Moses’ behalf. Jesus is special and the use of Jesus’ (just the apostrophe) is known as the liturgical archaism. (Good to know!!)

Thanks for wading through all this. And if your brain has been stretched as much as mine, remember it is happy hour somewhere! 

Cheers, James!











P.S. *Muddling your mind in Britain. Place names rarely use apostrophes. St James Park. Glovers Road. NO apostrophes. This decision was standardized by the postal service and government. One paragraph in an article that was really funny explained how a student at a prestigious university went driving one day and spray painted apostrophes on road signs. Earned him a BIG fine and probation. HOWEVER, greengrocer markets still use the apostrophe to make plural their products for sale: tomato’s, bean’s, etc. It is known as--you guessed it--the “greengrocer’s apostrophe.” Just FYI.

Glenne