Wednesday stuff....

We went to the movies this morning...... hardly anyone there for the first showing, which is always a welcome surprise. We were the only two people in theatre #18, to see Dr. Seuss' latest book-brought-to-film. The animation always amazes me.... so different than the animated films from years ago.

Horton Hears a Who was colorful, whimsical, musical..... and it's no wonder that the film is making millions upon millions of dollars since it opened. But today, in a small Texas town on the outskirts of a larger Texas town, there were just two of us sitting in the theatre watching Horton protecting the tiny white speck on top of the little pink flower.

And every time the word "speck" was said in the film, I thought of EKV, who used to work with me at the library back in NY. E's favorite thing to say, when the other women were gossiping or complaining or not being nice, was: "Don't they all realize that we are all just a tiny speck in this huge universe?" E, with her incomparable Greek wisdom, always had a wonderfully unique and wise way of looking at every-day life and putting in all into its proper perspective.


I colored some eggs yesterday, just to see if farm-brown eggs would hold the color from the drops of food-coloring. And indeed they did...... I now have half a dozen hot pink hard-boiled eggs in the fridge. Very Seuss-like eggs.


I'm reading "Texas," by James Michener. I've had this huge book for a couple of years now..... bought it for one dollar at a yard sale and it just kept getting buried at the bottom of my pile of books waiting to be read. As with all of Michener's volumes, the research is amazing, the story is gripping, and if this is how history could have been taught while I was in grade school and high school, I would have been more interested.


I'm also reading through a huge volume of "Amy Vanderbilt's Complete Book of Etiquette." Interesting reading, to say the least, and this world can certainly do with a bit more manners and proper etiquette. I bought that book (the 50th anniversary edition) for just $5.00 on Half.com----- the etiquette books in Barnes & Noble were too expensive, and the Half-Price Bookstore only had older copies in poor condition.

Etiquette (and the lack of it) has been the topic of discussion between me and my cousin L up in NY. She is always saddened by the disregard of "social, public manners" these days, and L said that children should be taught etiquette and manners at school if they're not taught at home. Which got me to thinking about social customs, and proper manners....... which led me to my search for this book.

So when I get overwhelmed by how horrible the early Spanish settlers were to the native Indians of Tejas (before they changed that to Texas), I pick up the etiquette book and I'm going through it page by page.

By the time I'm through with both books, I will know as much Texas history as Michener wrote, and as much proper etiquette as Amy Vanderbilt deemed necessary.