THE KING'S SPEECH - SUPERB

Since the movie, "The King's Speech", is not showing at the movie theater nearby in Houma, La., I decided to see the film while I was in New Orleans on Monday. After I dropped off my grandchildren from Thibodaux to visit their aunt and cousins in New Orleans, I headed for the theater. The movie is superb, intelligent, adult (NOT meaning sexually explicit!) entertainment. The actors, the sets, the witty script, everything about the movie is just right. Before seeing the movie, I read only one review in the New Orleans Times-Picayune, and that one was all I needed to get me there. I left the theater with great satisfaction at the close of nearly two hours, thinking that my time was very well spent.

Have a look at the cast:

Colin Firth - King George VI

Helena Bonham Carter - Queen Elizabeth

Guy Pearce - King Edward VIII (later, The Duke of Windsor)

Michael Gambon - King George V

Geoffrey Rush - Lionel Logue

Timothy Spall - Winston Churchill

Jennifer Ehle - Myrtle Logue

Derek Jacobi - Cosmo Gordon Lang (Archbishop of Canterbury)

Anthony Andrews - Stanley Baldwin

Eve Best - Wallis Simpson

Freya Wilson - Princess Elizabeth

Ramona Marquez - Princess Margaret

Colin Firth performed the best I've ever seen him in a film. He didn't play George VI, he was George VI. Helena Bonham Carter performed in her usual excellent style as Bertie's (as he was known in the family) wife Elizabeth, later Queen Elizabeth, and for many years after her husband's death, known and loved as the Queen Mum.

Since Bertie stutters, public appearances are painful for him and for those who listen to him speak. Enter Geoffrey Rush, in a brilliant performance as Lionel Logue, an Australian speech coach, and the story takes off with the focus on the relationship between the two men, as Logue puts Bertie through his paces to rid him of his stutter.

As war looms, and Bertie's brother, the Prince of Wales, played well by Guy Pearce in his brief appearances, is determined to continue his relationship with the twice-divorced, Wallis Simpson, the possibility that Bertie, rather than his brother David, as the Prince of Wales was known in the family, would succeed their father on the throne increased. Bertie ever more desperately needs to overcome the stutter.

Derek Jacobi, as Archbishop of Canterbury Cosmo Lang, is a delight to watch and comes close to stealing every scene he's in, and Michael Gambon as George V is excellent. Claire Bloom, as usual, shines in her cameo part as George V's consort, Queen Mary. Anthony Andrews plays Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin. I hadn't seen Andrews act since the TV series "Danger UXB". Of course, I remember him best from his role as Sebastian Flyte in the magnificent "Brideshead Revisited" series. He's grown old, but not so old as I have. Although her appearance is brief, Eve Best is stunning as Wallis Simpson. The only casting with which I would take issue is Timothy Spall as Winston Chruchill. To me, Spall did not fit the part.

My fairly clear memories go back to the later years of World War II, so I remember seeing the Royal Family in the newsreels in the movie theater and in Life and Look magazines. I remember the times, and I remember the people, which probably made the film more enjoyable for me, especially since every aspect of the movie is so well done.

During the Blitz, George and Elizabeth remained at Buckingham Palace, which received several direct hits, and the girls were sent to stay at Windsor Castle. The two visited the bombed areas and the bomb shelters in London and conducted themselves altogether honorably throughout the war.

After Edward's abdication, he married the woman he loved, and, as the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, they traipsed around the world partying for many years, with intense coverage by the media for, I suppose, their great skill at having a good time.

Well, I've rambled on with my reminiscences about the period, but I hope I did not do a spoiler review, and I urge you all to see the movie. Watch the trailer, if you like.

A GOOD PUN IS ITS OWN REWORD

* Energizer Bunny arrested - charged with battery.

* A pessimist's blood type is always b-negative.

* Practice safe eating - always use condiments.

* Shotgun wedding: A case of wife or death.

* I used to work in a blanket factory, but it folded.

* If electricity comes from electrons . . . does that mean that morality comes from morons?

* Marriage is the mourning after the knot before.

* A hangover is the wrath of grapes.

* Corduroy pillows are making headlines.

* Sea captains don't like crew cuts.

* Does the name Pavlov ring a bell?

* A successful diet is the triumph of mind over platter.

* A gossip is someone with a great sense of rumor.

* Without geometry, life is pointless.

* When you dream in color, it's a pigment of your imagination.

* Reading whilst sunbathing makes you well-red.

* When two egotists meet, it's an I for an I.

Last time Paul (A.) showed up here with his puns, we thought asking him to leave the stage was far too mild a punishment. We threatened horsewhipping, tarring and feathering, and exile to Siberia, but he seems not to have learned his lesson. I found this lot waiting in my inbox this morning. I don't know what to do with Paul (A.). He's incorrigible.

STORY OF THE DAY - COMING SOON

I know I promised I wouldn't complain,
she said, but I'm not ready to start just
yet.

Exactly. :-)

From StoryPeople.

PLEASE PRAY FOR COUNTERLIGHT'S MOTHER

Ma Latest

My mother is currently at a rehab unit attached to Baylor Hospital in Dallas. She used to work at Baylor for many years training new PTs. Some of her former students are still there and come by to visit her.

She is very frail, but mentally much sharper than I had anticipated. She is very strong willed, and deeply resents losing her independence. I understand that she was a handful when she was first admitted to Doctors' Hospital in Dallas. At Baylor, they still have to put a loose harness on her to keep her from falling out of bed, and to keep her from getting up, and falling. She very much resents this, but she cannot make it across the room without assistance. She puts in long days in OT and PT rehabilitation, and I would imagine that she does not make it easy for the staff, since she knows their jobs and is used to being in charge.

Read the rest at Counterlight's Peculiars, and if you care to leave a few words, please comment over there. Thanks.

ALL'S WELL THAT ENDS WELL

From the Thibodaux Daily Comet.

A young mother-to-be, Kristy Moore, didn't make it to the hospital to have her baby. She and her husband Jason left the house to get into their minivan to make the trip, but when they got out on the carport, the baby started coming.

She laid on the cold concrete floor and her tinsmith husband, guided by a 911 dispatcher and EMS worker, delivered their third child and only daughter in the dim glow cast by the minivan’s interior light.

Jason used a shoe string pulled from the pair he wore to tie off the umbilical cord and a pair of scissors used hours earlier while wrapping Christmas presents to cut it.

Born about 5:50 a.m., Lylah Ann Moore weighed 7 pounds, 2 ounces and measured 18 inches long. She’s back at home now, following a brief hospital stay.

Last night, the weather around here was cold, so I imagine that the concrete floor felt icy to Kristy. Jason kept his head and did what he had to do with the materials at hand. My congratulations to Kristy and Jason for a job well done. Welcome to our world, Lylah Ann.

THE REV. DAN MARTINS RECEIVES CONSENTS FROM STANDING COMMITTEES

The Episcopal Diocese of Springfield reports that the Rev. Dan Martins has received consents from the Standing Committees of the Episcopal Church.

Responses from the Standing Committees

Consents: 64

Non-Consents: 15

54 consents are the required number from the Standing Committees.

There is no word yet on consents by the bishops.

H/T to Peter Carey at The Lead.

PLEASE PRAY FOR CATHY

hi Mimi,

Alas I am no better. I am as sick as a dog. I have this horrible bug, which hasn't shifted since last Sunday, and which is honestly making me feel really ill. I slept really badly last night as well because my runny nose and feverishness kept waking me up. It's a nasty one, this virus. I really am not a happy bunny right now.

Poor baby!

O God, the strength of the weak and the comfort of sufferers: Mercifully accept our prayers, and grant to your servant Cathy the help of your power, that her sickness may be turned into health, and our sorrow into joy; through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen.

UPDATE: Cathy works on contract and asks:

Please pray for me to get enough work in January to pay the bills, since this week I only had three shifts booked and have had to pull out of two of them because of sickness, and later this month I have very little booked as things stand at the moment, I do trust God to provide but prayers of course don't go astray,

xoxo cathy

CHRISTMAS SERMON FROM CANTERBURY

Whenever I read or listen to a speech or a sermon by Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, I confess that I wait for the "Gotcha!" moment. Very likely, all of us, myself included, have moments when we appear to contradict ourselves by our words or by our actions. So I preface my comments here with the sorry disclaimer of a bad attitude, hardly in the spirit of the present season, because I have been puzzled more times than I can count by the seeming contradictions in the words and actions of the ABC. I read the text of the archbishop's Christmas sermon in just such a manner. There is much that is good and true in the sermon, but I did not have long to wait for the moment. Early in the sermon, come the following wonderful words:

The story of Jesus is the story of a God who keeps promises. As St Paul wrote to the Corinthians, 'however many the promises God made, the Yes to them all is in him'. God shows himself to be the same God he always was. He brings hope out of hopelessness – out of the barrenness of unhappy childless women like Sarah and Hannah. He takes strangers and makes them at home; he brings his greatest gifts out of those moments when the barriers are down between insiders and outsiders. He draws people from the ends of the earth to wonder – not this time at the glory of Solomon but at the miracle of his presence among the humble and outcast. He identifies with those, especially children, who are the innocent and helpless victims of insane pride and fear. He walks into exile with those he loves and leads them home again. (My emphasis)

Inevitably, my mind moves to the daft Anglican Covenant. If the covenant is put in place, the result could be to raise barriers between member churches of the Communion, rather than bring barriers down, to declare certain members insiders and other members outsiders, or the lesser discipline, to label certain churches of the Communion as second tier, not quite up to par, assigned to the fringe as "not like us".

I cannot resolve in my mind the seeming contradiction that the man who speaks such words in the sermon about bringing down barriers, at the same time, urges upon the member churches of the Anglican Communion the exclusionary and divisive Anglican Covenant. I don't get it.

Archbishop Williams goes on:

And lastly, a point that we rightly return to on every great Christian festival, there is our solidarity with those of our brothers and sisters elsewhere in the world who are suffering for their Christian faith or their witness to justice or both. Yet again, I remind you of our Zimbabwean friends, still suffering harassment, beatings and arrests, legal pressures and lockouts from their churches; of the dwindling Christian population in Iraq, facing more and more extreme violence from fanatics – and it is a great grace that both Christians and Muslims in this country have joined in expressing their solidarity with this beleaguered minority. Our prayers continue for Asia Bibi in Pakistan and others from minority groups who suffer from the abuse of the law by certain groups there. We may feel powerless to help; yet we should also know that people in such circumstances are strengthened simply by knowing they have not been forgotten. And if we find we have time to spare for joining in letter-writing campaigns for all prisoners of conscience, Amnesty International and Christian Solidarity worldwide will have plenty of opportunities for us to make use of.

Our Christian brothers and sisters call out for help and we must pray for them, support them, and help in any way possible.

Those who suffer for conscience sake as they strive for justice and equality deserve our same help and support.

But what about our brothers and sisters who suffer persecution, violence, and even death in areas of the world because of who they are? What about our gay and lesbian brothers and sisters, many of them Christians, many of them Anglican? A mention urging prayer, support, and help for LGTB persons is strangely absent from the archbishop's Christmas sermon.

Is it just me? Is my habitual nitpicking of the archbishop's words and actions in play here in an unjust manner?

"A SHORT TESTAMENT" - ANNE PORTER

Today the The Writer's Almanac features a wonderful poem by Anne Porter, titled "A Short Testament".

Whatever harm I may have done
In all my life in all your wide creation
If I cannot repair it
I beg you to repair it,

The poem fits the winter season and the approaching end of the year, a time for taking stock. In the poem, Porter repents, confesses, desires to make amends, and calls for help where she cannot.

Read the rest at the website. It's lovely.

PLEASE VOTE FOR MATT'S TREES

The story is HERE. Please vote today and every day until December 31. Only three days left. Thanks.