McCarter's Ten Cents a Dance

While the music of Richard Rogers and Lorenz Hart is a always a pleasure, imposing a psycho-drama on top of this music is not a foolproof idea. Ten Cents a Dance tells the story, if you can call it that, of a man reminiscing about his relationship with a single woman over a long span of time. The reminiscing man is played by a single individual and the woman is played by five different actresses. Sounds fair enough. It's hard to make a single person appear 20 years old and then 60 years old, especially if the character shifts back and forth in time. A motion picture could accomplish this, but not a play.

This production, however, puts all five of the women on the stage at once to sing and dance about with the male lead. This in and of itself might work if you could be sure which woman is which. In Ten Cents a Dance you can't. You know who is youngest and who is oldest, but the remaining three are hard to differentiate. The time periods involved are hard to tease out also. All five women wear the same print on very similar gowns all of which would look right at home in 2011. Their hairstyles (all are redheads) bear no obvious marks of any particular era. This is a big fault as it would be so simple to fix. Pick a decade and research women's gowns and hairstyles and you could find plenty of differences over presumably a 50 year period. A twentyish woman from the 1920s should be easily distinguinguished from a fortyish woman from the WWII era, no? YES! And lose the print, it was inappropriate and made dating the characters more difficult than it was before. A black and white theme would have worked well....Think Zelda Fitzgerald for the 20s and go from there.

The five actresses did as much as they possibly could with the situation, we could have used a stronger male lead with a stronger voice. And why the heck did he keep taking off clothes? Perhaps to peel away layers of memory? Whatever.

A psycho-musical like this is an interesting concept, but it would need marvelous costuming and be truly representative of the time frames. The current costuming/hair is sloppy and distracting.

LOVE Rogers and Hart.

Of Ponzi schemes and working recipients

Why is it that someone can make a significant income, in many cases well over 100k, and still collect their Social Security retirement check at the expense of us working people who do not get a check?

Is it because the gov't should be in the business of financing cruises, BMW convertibles or vacation homes? Is it fair to let people take their retirement income before they decide to retire? And if you think someone will give up a 100K job to hunker down with about 25K or less, you are sadly mistaken.

Also about medicare, why has it been rewarded to the under 65 "disabled" crowd? Fine if you are truly and permanently disabled by an accident or a real medical condition like schiizophrenia, NOT fine if you brought it on yourself with drugs and alcohol.

I get sick to death of freeloaders

Shabby Chic

How I hate this term. Shabby is worn, threadbare, delapidated and there is nothing chic about that. I refuse to buy anything advertised as "shabby chic" because I find the terminology so revolting. Even if you are selling a great vintage item, I will ignore it because YOU have listed it as "shabby".

If you must indulge in crappy descriptions why not use "cottage chic" instead? Or just "vintage"?

Shabby garments are something I would not even donate to Goodwill, so please don't assume I want a shabby decor!

Update: I noticed a quilt fabric company called "Shabby Fabrics"...please. Aren't you just dying to feather your nest with shabby crap?

Me neither

Teachers, why the special discounts?

Yes I could see if these discounts were related to classroom use only, but I have not seen that stipulation. And I suspect school districts are footing the bill for most if not all classroom supplies.

I noticed today that JoAnn Fabrics gives teachers 15% off every day because they appreciate their hard work. The Maximalist is a nurse and nurses work hard too! PLUS we don't get all summer off, Christmas and Spring breaks and every holiday known to mankind. In fact we work holidays. Hospitals do not close for Christmas, Easter or for the summer. We work around the clock, too. And yes, while schools are closed for bad weather (and yes it's fine and dandy so our kids should not be at risk)nurses are expected to remain in the building and sleep at the hospital so that there will be adequate staffing. The Maximalist just spent Hurricane Irene at her place of employment and has spent snowstorms at work as well.

So please JoAnn and others, try recognizing other hard working professions for a change! Hmmm?

Things I hate today

Haven't done this in a while so here it goes:

Smacking noises when eating. Why oh why can't some people stop this habit. It's nearly as bad, and can be accompanied by chewing with the mouth open. I would love getting through a whole day without smack smack smack.

Inhaling one's food. Again, just inexplicable to me. I just can't abide the habit of breathing in deeply and loudly with every bite or SLURP of food and fluid. Those mouth-breathers, ugh! If you have to breathe through your mouth try gently exhaling as you load up with soup or hot food.

Dog names for humans. Brandy, Cheyenne, Corky, Prince...why not Spot, Lady and Tramp?

Obama isms like "bone-headed and folks". Are these usages really necessary?

Why Wimmyn hate Sarah Palin

Is it because she's "stupid"? Hardly. She's obviously not stupid at all. You cannot be Governor of a State or be chosen as a VP running mate and be "stupid".So let's have a funeral for that right now. And not reading Alinsky doesn't make you a lesser being, au contraire.

Is it because she's "pretty", as some have suggested? Nope. There are plenty of pretty politicians who are not roundly despised although they are entirely on the left. But, not even Michelle Bachmann has not received the scorn Palin has.

Here's my take. Sarah Palin makes all the women who went to public colleges and feel sorry for themselves because of their "lack of a priveleged pedigree" feel bad about themselves. If Sarah Palin could graduate from University of Idaho and could jump around from several other schools before graduating and then accomplish quite a bit while juggling a family of 4-5, then where is our excuse? We can't say our lack of Ivy League credentials is a barrier anymore, can we? We can't say that our kids prevent our achievement, hmm? We have to try to knock her down and belittle her to save our self-esteem?

Yepper. If Sarah Palin can work that hard while taking care of all those kids and staying married, why haven't we done more with our lives? She sorta, kinda makes people feel like slackers. And that includes the "priveleged" women who have the letters after their names but not the letters Gov. or Mrs.

So here is Palin standing up for the principles of hard work and accomplishment in a field of females who are screaming about "glass ceilings" and equal pay for "pink collar" jobs. And women choose to smash down someone who has lived their dream as much because she has an average pedigree as because she is conservative.

Makes the Maximalist want to puke.

Ronald Reagan went to Eureka College.

He was "stupid" too.

Bush and Obama both went to Ivy League schools, maybe it's not such an absolute qualification?

Bring back the Girl Scouts!

Circa 1963.

I recently bought a used Junior Girl Scout Handbook at a local seller and was blown away by it. Yes, I was a scout during the 60s but I guess I had forgotten just how logically the whole thing was presented and the ideals that were cherished.

Scouting was more than just an afterschool activity, it was a course on manners, friendship and even the arts. And yes, outdoor living was prominent as well, but that was presented in a way that made it look both fun and practical.

Back to the manners. Where do kids learn to set a table or eat in a mannerly style? Their classmates? Their parents? Well shouldn't it be codified and written down somewhere? The Junior handbook wrote it down on pages 151-152. We need this back! When I was on my cruise (see below)I was astonished by how far we have devolved in this area. People blithely and revoltingly chewed with their mouths open, ate soup in a splashy fashion and generally used utensils as primitive spears. Volume control is another place where we fall short.

No, I am not suggesting we drag our entire nation back to the times of limited rights for women and minorities or any such nonsense, so don't go there with me! But I do think that learning basic skills at the table would be beneficial.

Bring back the scouts of 63! More later...

Brief update: I have been informed that this trend toward piggish smacking and gobbling is called "relishing one's meal" or "eating with zest". I beg to differ. Just plain piggish and RUDE!