Weekend Traffic Jam Reboot - Week 148

Welcome to the Weekend Traffic Jam Reboot!
My posts for the link up will go live on Thursdays at 9:30 p.m. EDT or, if you live in the future like I do, on Fridays at 3:30 a.m. CE(S)T.

Sometimes if I love a movie I somehow feel compelled to read the book or story it's based on. I think it's easier than the other way around, watching a movie because I love the book it's based on.
I'm the kind of person that can get really worked up about at movie that doesn't do a book justice in my opinion. If I love a movie, but don't like the book, I'm either confused how someone could get their movie vision from the book (see my post about "The Bishop's Wife") or I appreciate the book separated from the movie. Why it works that way for me, I can't tell you, but the book "The Bishop's Wife" went to the public book cabinet. Maybe someone will appreciate it more than me while I'll happily watch the movie at least once a year.
How do you feel about book/movie combinations?

Are you ready for the weekend?

As part of the reboot, we will be featuring a different blog every week.
How about stopping by and saying hello? Let them know we sent you.

This week our spotlight is on Snapdragon Alcove.

Snapdragon Alcove says: "Just a blogger who love to write about all things nerdy. Love coffee and long walks wandering off the trail."

Marsha from Marsha in the Middle started blogging in 2021 as an exercise in increasing her neuroplasticity. Oh, who are we kidding? Marsha started blogging because she loves clothes, and she loves to talk or, in this case, write!

Melynda from Scratch Made Food! & DIY Homemade Household - The name says it all, we homestead in East Texas, with three generations sharing this land. I cook and bake from scratch, between gardening and running after the chickens, and knitting!

Lisa from Boondock Ramblings shares about the fiction she writes and reads, her faith, homeschooling, photography and more.

Cat from Cat's Wire has what she calls a jumping spider brain. She has many interests and will blog about whatever catches her attention - crafts, books, old movies, collectibles or random things.

Rena from Fine Whatever Blog writes about style, midlife, and the "fine whatever" moments that make life both meaningful and fun. Since 2015, she's been celebrating creativity, confidence, and finding joy in the everyday.


Here are some of my picks from last week's link up.

Amy's roasted asparagus soup looks really good, I love green asparagus.

Val shows us how to make a cute shamrock coaster.

Suzy tells us why she loves being 50!

Lynne has two craft ideas for us - a junk journal and embroidered cards.


Let's link up!

Guidelines:
This link party is for blog posts only. All other links will be deleted.
Please link only blog posts you created yourself. Please link directly to the URL of your blog post and not the main address of your blog.
Please do not link to videos, sales ads, or social media links such as YouTube videos/shorts, Instagram or Facebook reels, TikTok videos, or any other social media based content.
Please do visit other blogs and give the gift of a comment. 

Notice:
By linking with Weekend Traffic Jam Reboot, you assert that the content is your own property and give us permission to share said content if your post or blog is showcased.
We welcome unlimited, family friendly content. This can include opinion pieces, recipes, travel recaps, fashion ideas, crafts, thrifting, lifestyle, book reviews or discussions, photography, art, and so much more!
Thank you for linking up with us!

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Silent movies - Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm

Maybe you have heard the title of today's movie before as the book it's based on had many adaptations I didn't know the book or any of the movies it inspired over the years (one with Shirley Temple).
I'm talking about "Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm" from 1917 starring "America's Sweetheart" Mary Pickford.

Here's the plot (with spoilers!).

Rebecca Randall is one of seven siblings. As her mother's farm has a mortgage, she's sent to live with her two aunts.
On her arrival, Rebecca immediately makes an enemy - Minnie Smellie, the reverend's daughter - and a best friend - Emma Jane Perkins.

Rebecca doesn't care if Minnie complains
to her mother, the whole state of Maine or
even - the PRESIDENT!

She also learns quickly that Aunt Miranda is a very stern woman while Aunt Jane is kind, but doesn't have much to say.

If Rebecca isn't something, it's shy. She stands her ground, she says what she thinks - sometimes a bit too much - and she always has some mischief on her mind, like the big circus performance when her aunts are away.

She also has a good heart, though.
There's a poor family in town - and prepare to be shocked, the couple isn't even married (actually, there was a censor who required the intertitle informing us of this fact to be cut)! Rebecca and Emma Jane sell soap because for sending in 400 wrappers they can get the Simpsons a banquet lamp "which they greatly need" according to what Rebecca tells Alan Ladd, a young man who has made his fortune before coming back to his hometown of Riverboro.

Banquet lamps are tall elaborate oil lamps
which were popular in the 1880s. There
were different styles.

After Alan - well, officially his aunt - buys 350 cakes of soap, he and Rebecca become good friends and she calls him Mr. Aladdin (the name and the lamp, get it?).

When Aunt Miranda spanks Rebecca after she and Jane barge in during the circus performance, the girl decides to run away during a thunderstorm. She gets hit in the head by a flying piece of timber, but Alan finds her and also visits her at home during her recovery.
He even gives her his late mother's wedding ring for passing it on to Dave Simpson (who has stolen his horse before!), so he can finally marry his woman (Rebecca is convinced the problem was just not having a wedding ring). When the sheriff wants to arrest the thief at his wedding party, Alan says he'll drop any action against him as Dave and his wife will now run the farm for him.
Rebecca is so impressed that she tells him that she has decided to marry him when she's grown up.

First her aunts send her to a boarding school, though.
After three years Rebecca comes back as a well educated young lady, only to find Aunt Miranda on her deathbed asking for her forgiveness for being so hard to her. She leaves the house to Rebecca which means her family can live there now after selling Sunnybrook.
At a picknick, Alan reminds Rebecca of what she has said years before, but Rebecca slips away in the last moment and runs off, Alan running after her.

I'll say it before anyone else says it - there are clearly "Anne of Green Gables" vibes here. Or wait, was Lucy Maud Montgomery inspired by Kate Douglas Wiggin?
Actually, Wiggin's book was published in 1903, five years before "Anne of Green Gables" and there are definitely similarities, but Rebecca and Anne would not stay the only ones. Think of "Polyanna" or of the "Little Orphan Annie" comic strip.
As I have read "Anne of Green Gables", but not "Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm" or any of the sequels (maybe I will eventually), I can't judge those similarities myself, but I found an article on it which I will link in the sources.

If you have heard of Mary Pickford or remember my post about her in "Daddy Long Legs", you probably know that Rebecca wasn't the only child she played, girl or boy, not exclusively, though. It helped that she was only 5 feet and the audience loved those roles. There was an outcry when Pickford cut off her signature curls in her 30s!

The movie doesn't have a real narrative, but is showing episodes from Rebecca's life, in a way that allows Pickford to shine and show her range of facial expressions very well and in a very funny way.
The book itself is quite thick and screenwriter Frances Marion took some liberties with the adaptation. In the book, Alan notices at the end that Rebecca may seem a grown-up now, but her eyes are still those of a child, so he doesn't push her on the matter.
I don't know if Rebecca running off in the movie was Marion's way of hinting at a happy ending sometime in the future.
Again (see "Daddy Long Legs"), there's an age gap. In the book, Alan is 34 at the end and Rebecca probably around 19. Weird for us to see, but not unusual for the time.

The movie is more a comedy than a real romance, though. Rebecca entertains half the town with her shenanigans, you should see the audience she has at the circus!
While it's not a surprise that there are a few cringeworthy moments for a modern audience (like one example of blackface and also I didn't like to see the puppy in what looked like a birdcage during the circus parade), it's fun to watch Pickford, no matter if she defends herself with her parasol, wrestles with her conscience about a piece of pie or hangs on a wire in the circus scene for some "bareback riding".


Sources and further reading:

1. Lea Stans: Thoughts On: "Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm". On: Silent-ology, March 17, 2016
2. Chris Scott Edwards: Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm (1917). On: Silent Volume, January 12, 2011
3. Izawa Yuko: Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm and Anne of Green Gables : Similarities and Differences. In: Jinbun shakai kagaku ronsō, 20(2011), March

The magic cat potion

Have you ever been offered a magic potion by a black cat on a Friday the 13th? No? Me neither.
I have no doubt, however, that this would be the perfect bottle for one if my little witch should ever need it.

In fact, this is one of two little gin bottles I got from a pal a few years ago.
Of course I couldn't throw them away when they were empty because I knew I'd want to bead around them eventually.
This time I felt I needed to pay homage to cats and I did so with silhouettes of some typical cat positions.

As you may remember, I hardly ever use someone else's pattern. I'm not a peyote expert, so I always struggle a little with patterns there, but the sitting ones came to me quite quickly, especially because the sitting up position is one I have also used with other techniques, like bead looming and bead embroidery.

The ones in motion were a bit more difficult. I knew I wanted four positions and two rows (the second row are mirrored images of the first one) and being restricted to a small bottle and about 2 inch of height of beading space didn't make it easier. In the end it worked out quite nicely, though, I think.

Another small problem was that this particular bottle isn't as straight as the ones I have used before. It gets narrower at the bottom which is fine, but it also gets a little wider at the top of the neck, so the rows are not as straight as I would have liked them.
I also struggled with the decreasing towards the neck this time because the size didn't give me a number of columns that I could divide easily. So to hide a few spots that didn't come out perfect, I added size 15 silver beads and then thought that would be a nice extra for the whole bottle to give it a bit of sparkle.

I'm really happy how it turned out - especially after it took me quite long, again, I'm not a peyote expert, also not at reading my own patterns - and if Gundel comes up with a potion, I'll be ready!

P.S. If you want to see all of my beaded bottles, you can find them here.

From my children's book cabinet - Finchen

Last June I told you about wanting a living Kasperle when I was five years of age.
It seems I have a thing for living dolls unless they are named Chucky (I have never watched that film).
Lisa-Marie Blum had studied art and graphic design in Berlin where she lived with her husband who was also artist and graphic designer. When they lost everything in the war, they moved back to where Blum had been born and later to Hamburg where she became a children's book author and illustrator, but also published poetry and prose.
This book, first published in 1960, tells the story of a lovable living doll, Finchen.

Finchen is more 70 years old. She has been Ina's doll for five years, but before that he belonged to her grandmother Gabriele.
Although she complains about her old-fashioned name Wilhelmine-Josefine, Ina tells her nothing about her is old-fashioned. She has new arms, new legs, a new dress, even new hair which looks like a blowball.
Only her wooden head with the bright blue eyes is still old and knows so many stories.

One of them is about the time Gabriele and she went to the harbor. Leaning over to see the galley of a fishing cutter, Finchen fell on the deck and the cabin boy told Gabriele to get down and get her back herself. Then the fisherman showed her all around, so when leaving in a hurry - we learn later that her uncle had come to visit - Gabriele forgot Finchen and the cabin boy only found her when the cutter was already at sea.
That's how Finchen met the "Klabautermann" (a good-natured ship's goblin who can also be mischievous like all goblins). He gave her a pink shell belonging to another doll, "Blauer Mohn" (Blue Poppy), and told her she needed it to come to life again.

The fisherman sent Finchen home in a parcel where - Klabautermänner know these things - Blauer Mohn had been the gift Gabriele's uncle had brought her from South America, and indeed a shell was missing from her necklace.
Finchen, however, became sick before she had a chance to give her the shell, and when she was well again, Blauer Mohn had gone. She had been sent to someone who wanted to draw her and write a book about her before giving her to a museum.

So the search for Blauer Mohn begins at the local museum where Ina meets Stefan who invites her to come play with his model train. At his place they meet Nora, the landlady's niece.
Finchen invites the two children over promising to tell them the story of Blauer Mohn, too.
When they come home, Ina's father, an anthropologist, has returned from his trip to South America and destiny has it that he has brought a picture of the girl Schneeblüte and her doll. It's Blauer Mohn!
But if she's in South America, how will they return the shell to her?

The next day, the children go to the river and swim in a little cove. Finchen is resting under a little tent Stefan has made for her when suddenly a seagull lands next to her carrying the Klabautermann! He's angry when he hears that Finchen still has the shell, but luckily she has secretly brought it along.

The Klabautermann says he'll give it to his friend who's also an anthropologist and who'll travel there. And because kobolds know these things - had I mentioned that before? - he can tell her exactly what will happen and Finchen can pass the story on to her friends.
How his friend will travel on the river with a canoe, how everyone in the villages along the river already knows that he's bringing the shell to Schneeblüte. How he comes to the village and an old woman attaches the shell on the necklace and then ...
"Blauer Mohn feels the shell, breathes, moves her beautiful head, and raises her hand towards the stranger".

I loved that part as a child. There's nothing like a happy ending, right?
Actually, the book wasn't mine. It belonged to my sister and I bought my own copy many years later at a fleamarket. When I asked her if she remembered when she got hers, she had a look because in those days we often put our name, address, age, sometimes even the class we were in in books. Not in this case, it only had her name.
After a short pause she asked me about the illustrations in my copy and I said they were black and white. Hers weren't.

She hadn't remembered that she had colored most of them with crayons or felt-tip pens and, for extra artistic flair no doubt, also had added patterns to some of the pictures, for example on the bedding or on clothing.
What confused us a little was that there were notes on a few of the pictures which looked like school marks to us (we don't have letters here, but numbers ... 1 is the best, 6 the worst). We have no idea what the N. after the 1 could mean, though.
These are the little surprises I love so much about old books. You'll never know what you find!

What I also liked was the publisher's note at the end.
It explains how many people are involved until a book makes it into a child's hands - papermakers, illustrators, graphic designers, printers, and booksellers, but also the men (remember, it's 1960!) from the postal service and the railway - but that not all names can be listed except the author and the publisher.
It goes on to invite the children to write to the author at the publisher's address and tell her what they liked, but also where they would have done something differently. Isn't it nice that they encourage them to say their honest opinion?
They also promise more or less that the author will answer and send a real autograph.

It makes you wonder how many letters Lisa-Marie Blum got, doesn't it?
Have you ever written to an author?

Weekend Traffic Jam Reboot - Week 147

Welcome to the Weekend Traffic Jam Reboot!
My posts for the link up will go live on Thursdays at 9:30 p.m. EDT or, if you live in the future like I do, on Fridays at 3:30 a.m. CE(S)T.

Another Friday the 13th. Are you superstitious?
I couldn't believe that when I went to Pxhere to look for a fitting photo, I got five pictures of black cats (three of them the same cat) and one picture of "Jason" with the hockey mask.
Black cats are not unlucky! When will people get that?
I mean, look. Could I get any luckier than with this innocent  (and very loved) girl?

Are you ready for the weekend?

As part of the reboot, we will be featuring a different blog every week.
How about stopping by and saying hello? Let them know we sent you.

This week our spotlight is on Me And My Inklings.

Laura from Me And My Inklings says: "Laura's bright, energetic and creative style that appears in her designs mimics her personality. She is always willing to jump in and try new things, share ideas and work collaboratively to create amazing results. She faithfully volunteers in her local schools and in organizations all around the country to promote art and creativity."

Marsha from Marsha in the Middle started blogging in 2021 as an exercise in increasing her neuroplasticity. Oh, who are we kidding? Marsha started blogging because she loves clothes, and she loves to talk or, in this case, write!

Melynda from Scratch Made Food! & DIY Homemade Household - The name says it all, we homestead in East Texas, with three generations sharing this land. I cook and bake from scratch, between gardening and running after the chickens, and knitting!

Lisa from Boondock Ramblings shares about the fiction she writes and reads, her faith, homeschooling, photography and more.

Cat from Cat's Wire has what she calls a jumping spider brain. She has many interests and will blog about whatever catches her attention - crafts, books, old movies, collectibles or random things.

Rena from Fine Whatever Blog writes about style, midlife, and the "fine whatever" moments that make life both meaningful and fun. Since 2015, she's been celebrating creativity, confidence, and finding joy in the everyday.


Here are some of my picks from last week's link up.

Marsha has questions!

Olivia invites you to a discussion post on the subject of banned books.

Amy wants you to get ready for Christmas. No, hear her out, some things need to be started early - like a quilt.

Have you ever heard of a St. Patrick's Day tree? Deb will show you!


Let's link up!

Guidelines:
This link party is for blog posts only. All other links will be deleted.
Please link only blog posts you created yourself. Please link directly to the URL of your blog post and not the main address of your blog.
Please do not link to videos, sales ads, or social media links such as YouTube videos/shorts, Instagram or Facebook reels, TikTok videos, or any other social media based content.
Please do visit other blogs and give the gift of a comment. 

Notice:
By linking with Weekend Traffic Jam Reboot, you assert that the content is your own property and give us permission to share said content if your post or blog is showcased.
We welcome unlimited, family friendly content. This can include opinion pieces, recipes, travel recaps, fashion ideas, crafts, thrifting, lifestyle, book reviews or discussions, photography, art, and so much more!
Thank you for linking up with us!

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Silent movies - "It"

I guess we have all heard the term "it girl". But do you know that the term is 99 years old and was coined after a movie rather loosely based on a serialized novella by Elinor Glyn, a British novelist?
And do you know the original "it girl", Clara Bow?
Today I got the movie "IT" from 1927 for you. Let's find out more, shall we?

The plot (spoilers ahead!).

Waltham's, World's largest store (so modest).
The boss has gone on vacation leaving Waltham's in the hands of his son Cyrus.
Cyrus gets a visit from his friend Monty just when it's time to look over the store. After having read part of Glyn's novella, Monty decides to check which one of the ladies he'll be seeing has the mysterious "IT" which Glyn explains like this: "'IT' is that peculiar quality which some persons possess, which attracts others of the opposite sex. The possessor of 'IT' must be absolutely un-selfconscious, and must have that magnetic "sex appeal" which is irresistible."
Monty has already decided that he has it, Cyrus doesn't, and neither do any of the shopgirls he has seen until Betty Lou Spence catches his eye.

"Hot socks - The new boss!"

And just as smitten as Monty is with Betty, Betty is with Cyrus. She's trying to get his attention, but to no avail, so she's using Monty to get closer to Cyrus although he's dating society lady Adela, and this time it works.
When Cyrus takes Betty home after a date for which she took him to the amusement park, he tries to kiss her and gets himself slapped for it.

Cyrus is enjoying some working class fun.

Then drama strikes. Betty lives together with her sick friend Molly who has a baby (but obviously no baby daddy). Meddling neighbors have alerted welfare workers (official or self-appointed, who knows) who insist on taking Toodles "to the Home" because Molly has no means to support him.
Betty won't let them take the baby, however, she claims it is hers and asks Monty who has come to pick her up to confirm that she has a job.
Monty is so shocked about the baby that he has a few drinks too many and heads over to tell Cyrus who's just writing a letter to Betty asking her forgiveness. To make things worse, the welfare workers turn up as well to have Cyrus confirm that Betty is working at Waltham's.
Of course Betty doesn't know about that, so when she sees Cyrus again, she's confused why he's so aloof at first, but then he confesses he's crazy about her and she says she loves him, too.

The following proposition is not what she has been expecting, though. He offers her diamonds, clothes, everything she wants, but no marriage, and she storms out of his office.
Only when Monty visits her at home carrying baskets with flowers and food, she learns about the reason and being Betty, she plots her revenge right away.
She will accompany Monty on Cyrus's yachting cruise, make Cyrus propose to her properly and refuse him. And Monty will pay for her clothes because he messed things up.
Of course Cyrus isn't happy to see her - as isn't Adela, surprise, surprise - but the plan works out.

I would rather marry your office boy (who's
very much underage, we have met him before)!

Betty finds that refusing the proposal hasn't satisfied her as much as she had expected, rather the opposite.
After having her cry about it on his shoulder, Monty goes to Cyrus to clear things up and Cyrus leaves him at the steering wheel. Big mistake because Monty, distracted by the drama, manages to hit another boat.

Man overboard! Well, actually two ladies.

Betty starts saving the panicking Adela, then Cyrus jumps into the water to help and the yacht crew makes Monty go out in a boat (why does anyone think that's a good idea?).

"Take your girl friend. I had to knock her cold - but
maybe it'll do her good." Not sure about "had to",
there might have been more reasons.

Betty swims off declaring she's going home and Cyrus goes after her when Monty is close enough, leaving Adela to him.
Adela sees them standing on the anchor of the yacht together asking "Monty, I wonder if there's anything between them?" to which he replies smiling "I'm afraid there is."
See for yourself.

From what I read the shopgirl "Cinderella" storyline was very popular at the time - even if in this case the Cinderella doesn't lose her shoe, but throws it on the prince's head to alert him that she's standing on the anchor.
It's rather a light romantic comedy with a bit of social commentary on the side.
I haven't read Glyn's novella, but it doesn't sound as if I would want to read anything of hers. Of her story the film pretty much kept the concept of "it" and not much else it seems. They did give her a cameo in which she's allowed to explain "it" once more. Very unnecessary if you ask me, the blurb from the story would have sufficed. Not that she invented it anyway, by the way.
"'Tisn't beauty, so to speak, nor good talk necessarily. It's just It. Some women'll stay in a man's memory if they once walk down a street." Kipling in "Mrs. Bathurst" 1904.
Glyn extended that to both women and men.

Carl Sandburg said about the movie: "The interest of the picture is the bright stimulation of looking at Clara, of laughing at the subtitles, which are funny, and looking at Clara again."
No matter if it was flirting, enjoying a fairground ride, being angry, eating an apple, or swimming, Clara looked fresh, natural, and spontaneous during all of it.

Making faces at Toodles.

My favorite scene is actually the one in which she throws out the welfare workers (which features a young Gary Cooper as a reporter, by the way, whom I didn't even recognize, but I have never been a fan). The way she waves them out of the door and tells them off is brilliant.

Again Betty is taking things in her hand
(I don't mean Toodles).

I can see "it" in Betty, but maybe not so much in Cyrus. Of course the role didn't offer much opportunity except maybe in the fairground scenes.
Monty was the more interesting character to me because he was such a curious and silly mix. Other than Cyrus he came back to visit Betty (even though he came to "forgive" her for being the single mother she wasn't). However, he also made a - not very convincing - move on her more than once. When she cried about the marriage proposal, he hugged her, but when she pushed him off, he went straight to Cyrus to tell him the truth about the baby. He actually reminded me more of a gay best friend (with a touch of the confusion of Bertie Wooster), but in the end it was hinted at Adela and him getting together.
Adela wasn't treated very fairly. Of course she wasn't happy about Betty, but all she really did was testing her French once because Cyrus said Monty had met Betty in Paris (as if that would have been a reason to know French).

"We're just a couple of It-less 'ITS'!"

Definitely worth watching for Clara Bow!


Sources and further reading:

1. Fritzi Kramer: It (1927) - A Silent Film Review. On: Movies Silently, October 27, 2017
2. Stacia Kissick Jones: The White Elephant Blogathon: Clara Bow and It (1927). On: She Blogged By Night, April 1, 2012

Too late

"We're too late."
"We knew it would be tough taking the fawns along, Master Gnome, but hey, it was a nice family trip even if we didn't make it. The thought counts, doesn't it?"

Marsha, they tried to make it in time for your "Style Imitating Art" post, but you know how it is.
"Are we there yet?" "I can't walk anymore." "Can I have an icecream?" "Carry me!"
I wish we'd live closer to each other, we would have had you covered for all your deer needs (even if they are European roe deer).

All roe deer are of course vintage Steiff (no affiliation, I'm just a collector), the gnome was sewn by my deer dear friend Jennifer, I love him so much.