Alex's This and That

We went to Berlin in 2017 with Jenny and her parents and I loved it! I hope to go again someday. If you read my Steve/Nat stories, lots of them happen in Berlin.

The Brandenburg gate with the sun over it.


Drinking coffee at the Brandenburg gate and the man with the red umbrella. He has also made an appearance in at least one story.


Currywurst and Bratwurst!

Berlin Gendarmenmarkt Konzerthaus Steps - Larry and me

I love all of the incarnations of Holmes that I've seen... Jeremy Brett was the best the BBC Sherlock was my least favorite because of horrid writing. (I even loved the old Basil Rathbone films, as hokey as they were.

I love to read Holmes as well, and enjoy a good pastitch as well. I really love Neil Gaiman's A Study in Emerald.

A few pics of my favorites:

RDJ and Jude Law:


Cumberbatch and Freeman:


Miller and Liu:


Jeremy Brett:

I love books. My house is filled with hundreds, maybe thousands of them. I have most every genre, paperback, hardback, comics, old books, new books, stacked books, shelved books, boxed books, read books, unread books, books to keep, books to sell, books to trade, books to give away, books to reread, books to love and treasure...

And since I deleted 50 Shades of Grey from my Kindle, no hated books!

I met him in college and we fell in love in January 1979 and were married in May of 1980. We've been through a lot and we're still together.

The music comes on and the voice says If Adventure has a name, it must be Indiana Jones...





I saw the movie in 1981 and fell in love with the man, the idea, adventure, the whole thing!

Over the years, I saw the movies, read the books, saw the television shows and I still love Indy! My heart beats a little faster when I hear that song!! I cannot say love too many times when describing this whole franchise - even the awful Crystal Skull movie...I was in the hospital for six weeks the May it came out and I missed it. No matter how bad, I was going to see it. As soon as I was able, I saw it in the cheapie theater so I;ve seen them all in the theater.

My favorite travels have been those made in the pages of a book. I can go almost anywhere in the world on a plane but the only good way i can travel to ancient Greece, to Middle Earth, or to meet Sherlock Holmes is in a book. These things have been my best friends since I was a wee little girl...

My local library - I honestly buy books much more than I do library because they simply don't have much and I don't like the time constraints.


And my favorite bookstore. Yes, it's bigbox but my local bookstore is shitty - they have Trump stuff all over and don't know anything about books.

This song simply resonates in my soul. Jimmy Buffet did a wonderful cover many years ago but this is the songwriter, Bruce Cockburn.



Here are the lyrics:
Sunset is an angel weeping
Holding out a bloody sword
No matter how I squint I cannot
Make out what it's pointing toward
Sometimes you feel like you've lived too long
Days drip slowly on the page
You catch yourself
Pacing the cage

I've proven who I am so many times
The magnetic strip's worn thin
And each time I was someone else
And every one was taken in
Powers chatter in high places
Stir up eddies in the dust of rage
Set me to pacing the cage

I never knew what you all wanted
o I gave you everything
All that I could pillage
All the spells that I could sing
It's as if the thing were written
In the constitution of the age
Sooner or later you'll wind up
Pacing the cage

Sometimes the best map will not guide you
You can't see what's round the bend
Sometimes the road leads through dark places
Sometimes the darkness is your friend
Today these eyes scan bleached-out land
For the coming of the outbound stage
Pacing the cage
Pacing the cage

I've seen these in person:
Starry Night - it's fairly small and it's breathtaking. I remember crying at its beauty when we saw it at the MOMA in NYC.


These two are from the Folkwang in Essen, Germany:



And this one is at the Neue Pinakothek in Munich, Germany \


None of them need words.

Custer, you ask?

Yes. I am a student of history and I have been fascinated by George Armstrong Custer for a long time. He was a hero or a villain, or more truthfully, a little of both. He was a braggart who was reckless, brave, loyal, overbearing, a loving husband, devoted brother, animal lover, sportsman... He was a devoted brother and husband, famous for all the fun activities his family participated. His wife traveled to North Dakota to Fort Lincoln when he was assigned there. He loved his dogs and hunting and camping. He was never happy unless he was soldiering, but he always wanted his wife, Elizabeth, nearby.

He distinguished himself as one of the worst graduates West Point ever had, graduating near the bottom of his class and getting a record total of 726 demerits. He was a hero of the Civil War, distinguishing himself by leading his troops from the front. He was given his own cavalry when he went to fight 'Indians' in Kansas. During this time he was court-martialed for desertion when he left his post to find his wife, who he had not seen in several months. He was sent to find gold in the Black Hills when Grant needed a reason to encourage westward expansion and he found it in South Dakota. He was then assigned to Fort Lincoln and tasked with bringing the stray Native Americans into the reservations.

In June 1876, he led his troops to an encampment on the Little Bighorn River. They were outnumbered and ambushed by perhaps a thousand Sioux, Cheyenne and other tribes. All of the group that was with Custer died. It went down in history as the Battle of the Little Big Horn.

His wife, much as Jackie Kennedy did nearly a hundred years later, promoted the myth of her husband as a great American hero and was devoted to his legacy for the rest of her life. She wrote several books about him. History's view has changed over the years from hero to villain but I believe him to be a little of both. I have always found him interesting and still enjoy reading about him. I personally doubt I would have liked him as a person, but he is a colorful character to study.

Custer with his famous curls:


Custer and Libbie:


The place he died (my own photo):

I love dinosaurs! I have loved them since I knew what they were. I drew pictures of them all the time when I was a little girl. I had some little plastic ones, too, you know, the kind that come in a bag or tub! I checked all the dino books out of the library at school and I read and read about them and then I grew up, like you do, and kinda forgot about them.

This guy named Michael Crichton wrote a book called Jurassic Park and I was thrilled. The whole idea was wonderful! I remember telling hubby that the book would make a great movie... boy, did it! We went to a crowded theater with Sara when she 5 and sat in the back - the only seats available. When Alan Grant saw the dinosaurs, I felt chills. It was so wonderful! I enjoyed every single second of that one and all the sequels... because DINOSAURS!!!

This scene:


I remember when Sue was found and it made the news - I was in the hospital. Then nothing about her for years and then the actual-sized replica toured different nature centers and such... and I saw her. Wow!!! If you get a chance, see her or go to the Field Museum in Chicago and see the real fossil one! She is a 90%+ complete fossilized t-rex. She was found by a woman named Sue Hendrickson in South Dakota in 1990.

Sue:


I LOVE DINOSAURS!!!