Know What This Is?

...I didn't, until a couple of weeks ago.  

That's when our 1956 Philco V-handle quit on us...

...and our investigation into electrical mysteries from the 1950's began.

And yes, this is the same beast we just put in service again, having finally solved the problem with the sweating freezer door.

With some pointers from a FB group, I tipped Phil over on his side, and found that electrical start relay you see in the first pic.

It lives underneath the fridge next to the compressor, and apparently had gone bad...at least I hoped that was the problem, and not the compressor itself.

Since I'm not an electrician, finding someone willing to deal with vintage appliances is no easy task.

Typically when I start the conversation with, "I have a 1956 Philco V-handle refrigerator..." the next sound I hear sounds a whole lot like a dial tone.

But the good folks at...

...who've done all our residential electrical work during our restoration of The Castle Frankenstein...

1961 write up in New Homes Guide for Dean Bryant Vollendorf's "Baysweep" house plans

...have one gentleman with ice water in his veins, and he was willing to have a look.

He came out, did some analysis, we tipped Phil on his side and he removed the old relay.

We checked Amazon, I bought a replacement for $12, and a few days later he came back out and installed it.

Had to wait 24 hours after standing Phil up again to let all the refrigerant settle, and then the moment of truth:

Voila!  Man Cave Fridge back in action, and all is well in MCM Appliance Land once again.

For now.

Well, they done dooded the dirty deed:

Karen's youngest daughter tied the knot.

She married her long time beau, but at a different park than Karen scouted.

This park is right across the street from where the happy couple first met, so it holds some significance for them.

It was a Moms only affair; just the the bride and groom, the officiant, Karen and the groom's mother were in attendance...a cozy, intimate ceremony.

Wishing the newlyweds every happiness in the years ahead.

In my last outing of the season...

...I opted for "simple golf"...a wood, a mashie and a putter.

On a par 4 using guttys, that's typically my brassie from the tee and the fairway, my mashie for a chip onto the green, and Calamity Jane for my (usually vain) attempt to 1 putt for par.

'Twas a gorgeous, late fall day, sunny and a brisk 50 degrees, but I did ok...

...as I managed one unlikely par by sinking that putt on #6, and 4 bogeys.

The others were the uglier 2nd and 3rd cousins...

...of the bogey family.

Hate to admit it, but we're more than just casual acquaintances.

Even so, it was an enjoyable round...

...due in part to the beautiful colors.

We're at peak, or maybe just a bit past now.

I was also striking the ball pretty well from the tees...

...and the fairways, mostly straight to a slight fade.

Sadly, the course I play closes Monday, so it's farewell and adieu to my favorite pastime...

...at least until April.

Heavy sigh.

For no particular reason, I'm renaming Parting Shots to "23 Skidoo", so here we go:

Line up according to IQ points and for those of you rushing to the front of the line, I didn't specify if it's high to low or vice-versa.

In any event, 23 Skidoo:

2023 Art Prize entry: "Anonymous Vagrant Standing On Weltron"

some color up north near Larry's cottage

Karen made the happy couple a wedding cake

Big Frank standing guard

the treat factory is almost done for another year

With All Hallow's E'en almost upon us, it's time to buckle up...

...and hold on tight.

The downhill race through the holidays to the end of year is about to begin.

later, mcm fans...

Gotta Love...

...the beauty of fall golf. 

Even if you're not a fan of the Old Game, you must admire the verdant manicured fairways and the russet autumn colors.

Why, you'd have to be a pointy haired cretin to disdain nature's glorious symphony of arboreal splendor.

(You're not one of those, are you?)

It's truly a visual delight, and my enjoyment of all this vernal grandeur was enhanced by my not too terrible play.

I mean, yeah...I played ok.

Not great, but I managed to tame my slice into a slight fade by the third hole.

And when I teed off on 7, 8 and 9, I was hitting straight or a slight draw.

I even managed 2 legitimate pars and 1 mulligan par.*  The rest were all double bogeys.

However, those were not my fault; Calamity Jane was being temperamental again, thus almost every green hosted my DIY tutorial for...

Almost.

a rare tap in for par

Even I couldn't screw that up, the result of a 40 yard chip shot with my mashie that rolled to within a foot of the pin.

Something about blind squirrels and nuts, I guess.

And I finished the round with a par in the traditional manner: on the green in regulation and 2 putt.

All was right with the world - or at least my tiny little corner of it - when I strolled off the 9th green.

Now if I could just settle my feud with you know who...

the real CJ

No, not her...her:

Calamity Jane.

*mulligan par, as explained in a prior post (Happy Fodders Day), is my name for one do-over any where on the hole, that results in a par.

After a flubbed shot you must recite the appropriate petition to make the mulligan come true:

“O demigods of the golfing netherworld, have mercy on me a hopeless duffer...ignore my previous failed attempt and accept this, my replacement shot in its stead...may it fly straight and true and may we never speak of this again.”

The result - you hope - will be a mulligan par.

For obvious reasons I prefer that name to the more common and perhaps more accurate "cheater's par".

In other news, Karen has been scouting around for an appropriate locale for her youngest daughter's outdoor wedding...

absolutely stunning...and the trees aren't bad, either.

...and her travels brought her to this park near where we used to live.

Gorgeous fall scenery, and seems an ideal spot to say "I do".

No idea if her daughter will agree, but in a few more days all will be revealed: she'll be married on Monday.

Stay tuned.

Just finished watching the 2016 BBC version of Tolstoy's War and Peace.

It stars Paul Dano as Pierre Bezukhov, James Norton as Andrei Bolkonsky, and Lily James as Natasha Rostova.

Celebrated for its in depth examination of Russia's involvement in the Napoleonic Wars...

...as experienced through the eyes of 5 aristocratic families, Tolstoy's 1600 page masterpiece* was a world wide phenomenon when published in its entirety in 1869.

Quickly translated into other languages, it was hailed as a new, albeit confusing, genre of literature, blending history, fiction and philosophical essays into one massive amalgam.

As you might imagine, bringing a work of this scope to the stage or screen is no easy task, but this version from the BBC has done an admirable job.

It's an aesthetic delight on multiple levels, from the glittering ballrooms of the morally bankrupt elite to the bloody battlefields of disorganized Russian military to the agrarian hardships of the beleaguered peasants.

And the acting is top notch across the board, but especially that of Paul Dano as the socially awkward but always sincere Pierre Bezukhov...

...who endures the devastating vagaries of life and triumphs in the end.

This one is definitely worth your time.

*Tolstoy considered Anna Karenina his first true novel.

And now, without even asking your permission, it's time to commit everyone's favorite recurring micro-aggression*...

same park where Karen's daughter *may* tie the knot

gorgeous foliage pic courtesy of Larry...looks like peak up north

missing summer already...from the KBH files

ditto

All Hallows E'en only at the St. James Infirmary:  The Bones Brothers

*micro-aggressions:  a fanciful array of petty infractions imagined by pathetic wimps who've never learned Life is a full contact sport. 

And that Dear Readers, brings us to the end of another foray into blogging excellence (take note: henceforth known as "blexcellence").

We trust your stay with us was satisfactory, and if your plans should ever call for stimulation of the cerebral cortex and unabashed incitement of adrenal hormonal activity, please keep it to yourself.

We run a respectable outfit here.

later, mcm fans...

Learned Something This Week...

...at a place I'd never been before:  the driving range.

Seems strange, but prior to this week I'd never gone to one.

I didn't care enough to bother in my misspent youth, and once I took up hickory golf, a driving range wasn't a possibility.

The golf balls are way too hard for original hickory clubs from 1920's and 30's.

Not that I didn't need the practice; the one part of my game that's remained as certain as the sunrise is a butt ugly slice.

My solution has been to give up on my woods, but for whatever reason, this year I resolved to deal with the problem...but how?

I finally decided to grab my hybrids and venture to the driving range.

True, they're not hickories, but they're sorta shaped like woods...

...and I hoped I might learn something.

As it happened, wish granted.

While hitting one medium bucket of balls I changed my consistent slice into a straight drive, just by relaxing my grip a little and consciously rolling my wrists over sooner.

That eliminated the open club face that's the root cause of every slice.

Probably can't pronounce the patient cured yet but I finally have a point of view on what the problem is and how to fix it.

Guess who's going to be visiting the driving range again?

It's an unhappy day here at the Castle Frankenstein...

hey, I know that guy

...and not just because it's Friday the 13th.

No, what's really got us in a blue funk is we closed our pool:

A sure sign summer fun's in the rearview and winter's on its way.

Rats.

A shout out to #1 son who's about to enjoy yet another birthday:

Congrats on arriving at the perfect age; my advice is stay right there...I'd be your age forever if I could.

Love you, and have a wonderful day!

We've found our way back to Danish TV, having first been hooked by the excellent Danish series, Badehotellet...

...and are now enjoying another hit series, Carmen Curlers:

that's Rosalinde Mynster with Carmen Curlers in her hair; she played Fie in Badehotellet

This one's based on the true story of Arne Pedersen, a radio dealer from Jyderup...

...who decided in 1963 to mortgage everything, go in debt up to his eyeballs, and build a factory to produce electric hair curlers.

It was a do or die, "put it all on red" type of move...

...and the good money was definitely not on him.

He didn't invent the electric hair curler - that honor belongs to African American Solomon Harper in 1930 - but he did perfect it, mass produced it, gave it a cute name based on a movie...

...came up with a brilliant advertising slogan...

Arne, with one of his many admirers

"Become a New Woman in 10 minutes!"

...became fabulously wealthy...

Arne on top of his Rolls Royce, with his personal driver

...then sold it all to Clairol in 1969.

He moved to Switzerland for their favorable tax laws, then to Queensland, Australia where he ran a cattle farm.

He rarely gave interviews, but when asked why he did all this, he replied, "I had the money, I had the time, and I was bored."

So there you have it: the blueprint for success.

Next time you've got the scratch, the time, and nothing else going on, sell everything you own, start a company that becomes a worldwide sensation and retire a billionaire.

In the meantime, check out the Danish TV series, Carmen Curlers.

They definitely take some liberties with the truth -

(There's a repeating theme about Arne being bullied in his youth at a boarding school which never happened...

a young Arne at a vegetable oil plantation in Malaysia

...the beatings he endured came from his hot tempered father.)

- but they retain the story's wild entrepreneurial spirit, and they don't coddle our hero.

He's presented as a driven, almost manic personality who lets nothing - and no one - get in the way of his goals.

Of course there's the requisite gay subplot that advances the story not at all - Arne Pedersen would probably scratch his head in bewilderment, wondering "what's that doing here?"

Clearly its sole purpose is to virtue signal and appease.

Yet in spite of its failings, this series is very well acted with high production values and a whimsical sense of the 1960s that makes it irresistible.

Watch for those delightful moments when cast members break into choreographed dance moves, lending a dream like quality to the scene.

Plus the lead actor (Morton Hee Andersen)...

...really does resemble Arne.

Check it out on PBS Masterpiece as part of their "Walter Presents" international programming.

Speaking of whimsical, this poem was published in a 1930 edition of the Nebraska Star newspaper, and was quoted by the great Scottish preacher Alistair Begg in part 3 of his "Hard Pressed But Not Crushed" sermon series.

While the passage of years may have obscured the author's identity, its timeless message still rings true today:

Comfortless

I found him underneath a tree,

"And what is wrong?" quoth I.

"Are you so solemn seem to be

under this summer sky?

"The birds above you gaily sing,

the wild flowers brightly bloom.

"What is this awful horrid thing

which seems to seal your doom?

"Round you children romp and play,

the gentle breezes blow.

"Sad stranger!  Tell to me, I pray,

the burden of your woe!"

"I do not see the sunbeams dance,

nor hear the birds," said he.

"There's something faulty in my stance,

I can't get off the tee!

the incomparable Harry Vardon

"All day I've shanked my mashie short;

my putts rim every cup!

"I'm doing something I should not!

I think I'm looking up."

"Poor man!" said I, "'tis very clear

no help for you appears.

"The woes you bear I tried to cure

myself for thirty years!

"And still my mashie shots I shank,

and still I slice the drive.

"And with the Dubs expect to rank

as long as I'm alive."

Though time all other griefs may cure,

all other hurts may mend,

The miseries of golf endure:

To them, there is no end.

On this cold and rainy October morning, let's paddleboard our way through Parting Shots...

ooh, that's gotta hurt

...shall we?

a nighttime visitor stopping by for a snack

mr. squirrel munching acorns on my chair...hope he cleans up his mess

coming back from the driving range I spotted these guys in our neighbor's yard

beautiful lakeside vista at Larry's cottage

ditto

The battle rages on between Israel and Hamas, so this one is worth a repeat:

later, mcm fans...