Merry Christmas! An incident in our neighborhood was mentioned in the Law Enforcement section of the local paper today -- Last Friday, while I was shopping, my wife saw a pair of Labrador Retrievers trapped in the near-freezing waters of the aereation pond on Middle Foy's Lake -- the rain-slick ice made it impossible for them to escape. She quickly called the right people and both animals were saved. She was also still shaken by the near-tragedy when I got home.

Updates are coming: Theater X-Net

Featuring: Ida Rubinstein Belle Epoch Russian/Parisian beauty.
Read more about Ida in Sisters of Salome by Toni Bentley

Visit: Michael's Montana Web Archive
Theater, Art, Flash Gordon, Funky Music and MORE!

Weather: Low 30's (F) and gray skies again -- banks of icy fog rolling through. I see stars as I write, but I hope that doesn't mean a deep freeze.

Charity Alert: Make your holidays merrier by clicking on The Hunger Site.

Wildlife: More gross stuff, plus a possible answer to an earlier question. We heard Coyotes howling right after I wrote yesterday's blogpost. I grabbed a flashlight and looked out the back, but my neighbor had beaten me to the punch, waving a big powerful floodlight back and forth over the lake -- I saw no Coyotes, but I saw some inert lumpy things near the same neighbor's ice-fishing spot. I thought nothing of it until this morning, when those lumps turned out to be another deer carcass. Yuck! It's possible that the Coyotes are responsible for last week's body too. We wondered why the Bald Eagle couple by the pond didn't feed on these things like the Magpies did. Was it because the carrion was too close to people's houses?

Media Watch: Whatever else, the day started on a sublime note -- literally!
Montana Public Radio played a complete performance of Vivaldi's Gloria, sung by an all-woman Norweigian choir. (It was originally written for a convent in Venice.) I just stayed in bed until the beautiful singing was over.
There was only one NFL Football game on TV today -- Chicago isn't perfect, but it has a better team than Green Bay this year, and the Bears beat the Packers in Wisconsin during their approximately 150th matchup. (No pregame show, I was busy cooking.)
In the kitchen, I watched part of the third Flash Gordon serial (1940). Errol Flynn's Robin Hood and Sigmund Romburg's Student Prince inspired the costumes -- both in the movie and in Alex Raymond's original strips of the time. The good guys started out smart, fast, and effective, but something happened halfway through and they began bumbling around, getting captured, and otherwise padding the plot. (Uh oh, is THAT it?)
There was a nasty spy named Lady Sonja, but the women's characters were generally passive to a fault. Prince Barin and Princess Aura were portrayed by other actors -- the Prince was much slimmer and quicker, but this version of the Princess had no charisma whatsoever.
You are STILL missed, Priscilla Lawson -- Princess Diana (Wonder Woman's given name), Princess Leia, and Xena, Warrior Princess, all benefitted from your leadership as Princess Aura!


Carol Hughes as Dale Arden (Left) strikes at evil Lady Sonja (Right)
played by Anne Gwynne. Later Dale gets the best of Sonja, but a gas
bomb knocks her out cold the next second, and she's captured again.
Inset above is Shirley Deane as Princess Aura (in name only).
Inset below is Queen Frija of Frigia played by an as-yet-unknown actress.