Ten on Tuesday

Ten Favorite Cocktails/Mocktails

This topic takes me back to my drinking days. Even in more carefree times I never drank much, having discovered early on that more than three drinks in an evening would have extremely unpleasant consequences, and eventually I started getting wicked hangovers even after only one drink. Now alcohol is on the forbidden list, and I've bent the rule a couple of times at weddings, but not otherwise. There seems little point, what with the hangovers, but I am feeling a bit nostalgic.

1. Vodka and tonic. This used to be my go-to summer drink.
   
2. Margarita. It made a nice change from vodka and tonic.
   
3. Virgin strawberry daiquiri. Sadly, strawberries are forbidden fruit, but once in a while I sneak one anyway.
   
4. Sombrero/white Russian/black Russian.
   
5. Screwdriver. Chock full of vitamin C.
   
6. Cosmopolitan. What I drank the last time I got tipsy, which, with me, doesn't take much.
   
7. Tequila sunrise. I once got carded while buying grenadine.
   
8. Rum and coke.
   
9. Muskrats of various hues. The muskrat was an invention of a crowd Grant hung out with in college. The varieties included red (beer and tomato juice), black (beer and kahlua), white (beer and milk), and, my personal favorite, green (beer and creme de menthe). To the best of my knowledge and no one's surprise, none of these was ever actually mixed, never mind drunk.
   
10. Jack Daniels and Fresca. Marjorie once seriously asked my dad to get her this at a political function. My dad said if she really wanted it she would have to ask the bartender for it herself.

Ten on Tuesday

Ten Favorite Oscar-Winning Films

For many years I've had a combination of minor claustrophobia and agoraphobia: I hate having to sit still and silent in one place surrounded by strangers. This afflicts me most strongly at concerts, to which I must admit I usually go because Grant wants to hear the program, and where he won't let me knit. (Even if we are sitting 47 miles from the stage at Symphony Hall and my seat is located behind a pillar, so that even if the performers happened to be wearing telephoto nightscopes I couldn't possibly distract them.) Sometimes he is in the program, and I like those more, especially pops concerts. In any case, I prefer to watch movies at home, and I'd rather watch an old favorite than something new. This explains why everything on my list is so last century. In chronological order:

1. The Lion in Winter. "We know, and he knows that we know, and we know that he knows. We're a knowledgeable family."
   
2. Cabaret. This is a family-friendly blog, so I won't quote my favorite line (well, actually three lines) from this movie, but you know what they are, and I know that you know, and so on.
   
3. Coal Miner's Daughter. Same with this one, come to think of it.
   
4. Tootsie. I love watching Geena Davis before she was a redhead.
   
5. The Accused. Within a few months in 1988 Grant and I saw four or five excellent but extremely downbeat movies. This was one of them, and Clean and Sober was another; I don't remember the rest. I think Roger Ebert was right when he said it's easier to make a great drama than a great comedy; fortunately at least one was made in 1988.
   
6. A Fish Called Wanda. This is it. Don't call me stupid.
   
7. Ghost. Whoopi Goldberg should have won for The Long Walk Home, but I'm glad she won for this one instead, because I get to put it on the list, and it really is one of my favorites.
   
8. The Fugitive. This is probably my favorite Harrison Ford movie.
   
9. Dead Man Walking. Another great downer movie. I've also read the book, and my favorite Helen Prejean observation is that we don't trust government to pave the roads right, but we somehow do trust it to decide whom to put to death. (Only a minority of convicted murderers get executed even in death-penalty states. Pun intended.)
   
10. The Full Monty. It won for best music. This is at or near the top of my all-time list of great movies, and not just because it lets me end this list on a high note. It might have done better had it not been up against Titanic, which I've never seen except for a few minutes here and there, but which apparently kept about 90 percent of Hollywood employed for a year.

Honorable mention: Flashdance, Ed Wood, To Kill a Mockingbird.

Ten on Tuesday

Ten Things on My Night Table

Some things, the normal things, live on my night table; others roost there while awaiting some resolution or seeking a permanent home. I've made great strides on getting organized, but my nightstand's entropy is especially strong.

1. alarm clock
   
2. lamp
   
3. single glove, mate's whereabouts unknown
   
4. half chocolate bar I just discovered and don't remember seeing before
   
5. water glass
   
6. yarn
   
7. $1 coin
   
8. comb
   
9. felted mittens awaiting decoration
   
10. five floppy discs of uncertain origin

This is only a partial list, of course. Some things are just not meant to be known.