Charity Alert: Encourage reading! The Literacy Site

Weather: It's TIME for soft snowfalls, and we're getting them.

Wildlife: That California Blue Jay is still mooching around our bird feeder -- the guidebooks say he doesn't live here.

In the Community: College Xmas party tonight -- talent show and all. I'm supposed to videotape it -- can you spell B-L-A-C-K-M-A-I-L?

Media Watch: We enjoyed watching Charlotte Greenwood in Buster Keaton's rather drab Parlor, Bedroom, and Bath. The much-maligned Passionate Plumber is better than we thought too, even though Jimmy Durante is really mis-matched with Keaton as a partner.
Next is What, No Beer? in which Keaton looks like he is bottoming-out from the preview. It WAS his last feature film for many years.
Speak Easily was also a pretty grim effort, despite Durante and the doomed actress Thelma Todd, I hope it isn't worse than that.

Wildlife: Eagles are haunting and hunting around Middle Foy's Lake. The aereator is keeping a central pond area ice-free again, and all the birds love it.

Weather: Ice and snow -- starting to look like winter, even though most of the action has been south of Montana -- in Utah and Colorado.

Charity Alert: Animal Rescue Site -- Click once, help a lot!

In the Community: Sick as HELL during the Art Walk -- missed it this year.

Media Watch: While I was waking up from the fog of a fever, I saw some closely-fought battles on NFL Football Sunday and Monday nights. I also dozed in and out of a nice interview with Tom Wolfe on CSPAN.
TCM showed most of the movies Buster Keaton made at MGM. Not only was he sinking into alcoholism in the early sound era, but his failing marriage and an ill-advised contract with control-obsessed MGM also helped grease the skids for him.
The Cameraman was an alright film, although it may have been a touch too long, but Spite Marriage (silent) and Bedroom, Parlor, & Bath (sound) both look pretty misguided so far, except that the latter co-stars the wonderful Charlotte Greenwood. I gave up on Free and Easy (sound) -- it was TOO pathetic, and Keaton's Mr. Butz character was too much of a loser to be really funny, except in very short bursts.
Time eventually vindicated Buster Keaton the artist, and that's all that matters now.
Just for showing these films warts-and-all, and the none-too-flattering documentary Buster Keaton; So Funny It Hurts: Turner Classic Movies
Here's a Web Site with many Buster Keaton links: Juha's Buster Keaton Site
Oh yeah, while I was recovering, I was able to read a book about the city of Athens through the ages -- from village, to ruinous empire, to Roman "college town," to medieval backwater, to emotional capitol of post-Ottoman Greece -- amazing story -- amazing place.