Weekend Traffic Jam Reboot - Week 149

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.

Happy International Whisk(e)y Day!
I'm not kidding. The event was announced in 2008 and launched March 27, 2009 in honor of English whisky and beer writer Michael Jackson. Don't confuse it with the World Whisky Day in May, though.
So here we go - cheers!

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 Huisvlijt.

Nicole from Huisvlijt says: "Al ruim 20 jaar blog ik op Huisvlit over alles waar je in het leven mee te maken krigt. Van praktische ..." Oh, excuse me, haven't I mentioned that Nicole is in the Netherlands? No worries, you can easily switch to English on her blog! Let's try this again. "For over 20 years, I have been blogging on Huisvlijt about everything you encounter in life. From practical matters to personal things. Huisvlijt offers practical information, inspiration, and recognition from personal experience. ... Nicole Orriëns: UU psychologist, mother and professional blogger. I studied psychology at Utrecht University and obtained my Master's degree in psychology there in 1993. On my blogs, I combine my academic background with daily life."

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.

Lisa is talking about giving the benefit of the doubt.

If you are not ready for going grey yet, Alison has some tips on grey blending for you.

I have never read Laura Ingalls Wilder's books myself (and only watched a few episodes), but if you are a fan, Lisa's post about "Pa" Ingalls might be interesting for you.

Do you love bookshops? Lydia shows you a special one in Venice.


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 - Princess Nicotine or The Smoke Fairy

I have another really short film for you today. It's a little weird but fun - "Princess Nicotine or The Smoke Fairy" from 1909 (I do not endorse smoking with this post, just watching silent films).

In the early days of film people very obviously liked to play around with the new medium - just think of the Méliès films I have already talked about - and this short is no exception.
We have a runtime of a little more than five minutes, so you can imagine there's not much of a plot.

A man falls asleep next to his smoking table - I call it that because it holds several smoking utensils. Those were the days when you needed a pipe, cigarettes, and cigars!
The cigar box holds a surprise, though. Two tiny fairies emerge, ready for some mischief.
The older fairy takes the tobacco out of the pipe and helps the younger one to climb in.

The man wakes up again and tries to light his pipe, but it doesn't work, so he taps it on the table and the little fairy comes back out. He notices the fairies hiding in the cigar box, so he opens it takes out a flower which is blowing smoke at him, it's our little fairy!
The man starts blowing smoke at her and threatening her with a match, she reacts by showing him her bottom.

Then she builds up a stack of matches and sets it on fire. The man uses seltzer water to put out the fire first and then spritzing the fairy, but in the end he spritzes himself.

Today a lot of people probably think of all fairies like a kind of Disney Tinkerbell, but in the old days fairies and elves were not regarded as kind and cute.
Fairies can be mischievous, mean, or downright dangerous.
They kidnap children and leave changelings behind instead (of course today we know that this was one way to explain if children were "different" in any way), but they also lure adults into their world from which they are not able to return or a long time has gone by in the real world once they do return.
Compared to that, our little fairies are still pretty harmless although this one went a bit overboard with her revenge plan.

Hidden wires, giant props, stop motion, double exposures, mirrors, and smoke - there are a lot of tricks in this short film.
It didn't fail to impress.
"Scientific American" published an article with the title "Some Tricks of the Moving Picture Maker" about it, and in his 1912 book "Moving Pictures, How They Are Made and Worked", Frederick Talbot called it "one of the finest trick films ever made in the United States".

Fun to watch!


Sources:

Fritzi Kramer: Princess Nicotine; or, The Smoke Fairy (1909). A Silent Film Review. On: Movies Silently, April 25, 2017

Nostalgia - Memories of writing

A while ago, an American friend and I started talking about school memories. The starting point had been my mentioning that my handwriting had seriously deteriorated since I mostly wrote things by hand that only I needed to be able to read and that I wanted to go back to my fountain pen, mostly for letters, after I have been neglecting it lately.

From the fountain pen we got to differences in our school systems (of course I can't list all of them here).
Something that never ceases to surprise me when I see it in a TV show or a movie are pencils in US schools. Not that we didn't use pencils of course, but not for as long and not as much and definitely not in tests. As far as I know, pencils are still not allowed in tests here.
The following is such an American picture to me (as I don't know which other countries also use pencils). I honestly can't remember if I ever did a multiple choice test in school at all. From what I read and heard they are still hardly used in German schools, but you find them at universities.

Picture by Nguyen Dang Hoang Nhu via Unsplash

I can't remember for sure in which class we started learning to use a fountain pen in the early 70s, but at first we had a plastic slate and a white pencil like the ones in the picture. The times of real slates and slate pencils were already over then.
These are not my original slates, I found them at the fleamarket (as you can clearly tell from the condition) and the pencils are new. Much to my surprise both plastic slates and pencils are still available and are also still used, mostly in the first class. I guess this old dinosaur had expected kids to start writing on tablets right away these days 😉
If you wrote on a slate that was still wet, your handwriting would get all fat and "creamy". I doubt I was the only kid ever playing around with that effect, but it was discouraged because it wore the pencil down more quickly.

Surprise - cursive writing is not all the same everywhere and
at all times. This is how I learned it in the olden days. 

The back - either with squares for numbers or empty for drawing.
As you can see, I'm a pro in both.

I found quite a bit of debate online on German pages about when to start teaching children how to use a fountain pen. There are even some schools - although they really seem to be the minority - that start in the first class, others let children use the slate for some things, but also paper with a pencil, then a rollerball, and the fountain pen follows in second or third class. "Ink killers" are usually not allowed.
My father had bought my first fountain pen for me and even got it engraved with my name which made it really special for me as my name was never on anything, due to its spelling.

It was a red "Pelikano" and I hadn't been aware that the red color - which was meant to appeal to the girls more than the blue one - had only been sold since September 1970 which was when I started school. I wouldn't be surprised if it's still tucked away somewhere here, but it wasn't fit for writing anymore. Should I find it, I'll add a picture.

In my time, you either had a Pelikan or a Geha pen (both German brands at the time) and you defended it to the death. The death of the fountain pen, I mean. Seriously, you can still read accounts of throwing matches to determine which brand was better! Less violent was arguing about the colors (Pelikano blue or red, later also black, Geha green) or about the fact that the Geha was the first one to have a viewing window (which I still find ugly because it disturbs the flow of the pen for me and yes, I know I'm talking about a "school pen") and a reserve tank.
I can't remember any matches in my own class, but there was a certain rivalry. Don't forget, we are talking about elementary school kids here.

While those two certainly made up the bulk of pupils' pens at the time, though, there were other brands as well, my sister for example had an Artus Prinz.
All of them had cartridges, I don't think I knew anyone who still used an inkwell then. You could use the Pelikan cartriges in a Geha, by the way, but not the Geha ones in the Pelikano. Pff. Made the Geha kids feel so special, but they gladly borrowed cartridges from us if theirs were empty 😉
I also remember my English pen pal sending me some cartridges, but I couldn't use them because they were too long. I don't know anymore what kind of pen they were meant for.

These days I use a Parker. I'm not a fan of fat ballpoint or fountain pens to write with (but sometimes to look at) and have always preferred the feel of a slim Parker in my hand.
It has a cartridge/converter filling system and I use a converter with ink bottles. It reminds me of my teenage days when my friend and I hung out at the office supply store (I wrote about us buying sealing wax there before which is part of my writing memories, but I don't want to repeat myself here). They had Pelikan ink bottles back then with different colors of ink. I have always enjoyed writing in other colors even in school and back then I wanted all of those bottles so badly - those expensive little bottles, sigh.
Nowadays I'm much more sensible and know how to limit myself meaning I only got "Intense Black" and "Tender Purple". Eight years ago! I only ever used my fountain pen for scribbling a short thank you when I sent off one of my jewelry pieces or on rare cards I wrote. Now that I have pen pals again, I finally have an excuse to buy more.
There's just one problem with ink and me, especially when I'm filling my Parker. I'm terrible at it. The last time I had to walk around with two nails rimmed in purple for three days because the ink just wouldn't scrub off! A small price to pay for being elegant enough to use an inkwell 😂

My handwriting has changed just a tad. At least
it's a little better with a fountain pen than a ballpoint.

For some extra nostalgia I'll show you how we learned to read and spell in my time. This so-called "Lese-Uhr" = "reading clock" was made by a local manufacturer for "learning aids and school games", E. Kuhlemann.

There were several versions over the years, but I can't tell you the time period when they were actually used in school (it ended sometime in the 70s, though, as my (not so) little brother didn't use it) or where exactly, but from a talk about them I know it was definitely not in all of Germany - different states, different rules - but also not just in my state.
I could already read when I started school, so I don't remember how helpful the clock actually was, but we did have fun with it.

This was the one I had. Blue plastic with
print letters. It's the one that is still rather
easy to find today, usually in quite good
condition and even with the original paper
jacket which had instructions how to use it.

I had only seen this one in museum pictures
for years, it's the older cardboard version
(which belonged to a school, there's a stamp
and inventory number). There are a few
differences from the newer one, like the
colored letters for example or the cover picture. 

This is a newer version with cursive
letters. There's no jacket, but two sheets
with explanations and exercises for the
teacher with synthetic teaching methods.

There were also big ones for the teachers which came in both cursive and print letters as well.

Picture via Wikipedia by Pomona under CC BY-SA 3.0,
taken at Museum Schönholthausen in Finnentrop 

Saarländisches Schulmuseum
This one is almost 3 feet high and made from
hardboard and coated cardboard.

And of course I have to end this post with my wax seal ... For those who hadn't seen it yet, do you recognize the image?

Forever borrowed

The other day I saw this cartoon on Instagram.
If you can't follow the link, this is part of it: "I borrowed your sister's book, but she left for home this morning! She won't be back for ages! I basically stole it!". "Oh, that's fine. Every book lover has at least one forever borrowed book."

Ouch. Do I really have to be reminded of that over and over again?
It's true. I have two forever borrowed books and after over 40 years I'm still feeling bad about it.

In this post, I told you about Kontakt, the German-American Friendship Club I was a member of for a few years.
Another member brought his stepson J along on some of our outings. Once he invited some of us for an evening and J showed me his books (he was such a flirt, but three years younger than me, not that you get the wrong idea here).
Two of them didn't quite seem to fit in as they looked pretty old. J pulled them off the shelf and told me he had got them from his father. Are you beginning to understand why I'm feeling bad?

Because that's when I saw they were children's books and saying that I had never read them in English - just stating a fact, honestly - prompted J to insist on lending them to me.
I should have fought harder to refuse, but I didn't.
Not because I thought I was going to keep them, but because I didn't know when we'd meet again. At that point, the club didn't meet as regularly anymore. Members had moved on to other bases or had left the Army, then we got a new club president who brought new members in, group dynamics shifted, not necessarily for the better.

As it happened, that was actually the last time J and I should ever see each other. Plans were made in the club, plans were cancelled, and the next thing I heard was that J and his family were gone.
Without the books which were still with me.
Now you may wonder why I didn't try to find out where they went. I did my best, but by then I wasn't in "Kontakt" anymore which made things harder as you couldn't just walk on the base of course. I would have had to find someone who knew J's family, but I didn't even remember his stepfather's last name if I had even ever heard it. I don't know if it would have been easier the other way round or if J even tried.

It's not as if I thought about them every second of the last 40+ years, but seeing them when I was at my children's book cabinet gave me a pang of guilt.
For years I told myself that J cherished the books because his father had given them to him, but you know something? Frankly, I don't even remember after all that time if he really said that or if I automatically implied it because that's the way I felt about gifts. And I only thought about that now that I'm writing about it.
"My father gave them to me" didn't necessarily mean that he read them to his son as a kid. It could have been just an explanation for two old books on the shelf. On the other hand, him having kept them could express his feelings for them.
Whatever the truth, I can't help it, I have them now. After overthinking this thoroughly as is my habit, I think I'll just go back to feeling guilty.

But - there's always a but - where did these books come from? Are they even the books?
Oops, more overthinking.
Actually both books seem to have come from British used bookshops or even from one shop as the handwriting in the price pretty much looks the same, not that it's not possible J's father bought them there, but at least that wouldn't make them family heirlooms.
Of course they had to get to that shop somehow. One has a name written in it (who was Ellen (I have the last name and yeah, I did a quick search)?), the other one came from a school.
Which then reminded me of the book we found in our old attic eons ago and which belonged to my elementary school library aaand which I can't remember ever checking out, so I'm just going to blame my sister for that one to keep my guilt in check.

How about you? Do you have any "forever borrowed" books? If so, how do you feel about them?

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.