Dr. E's Doll Museum Blog: New Year 2019

Dr. E's Doll Museum Blog: New Year 2019: Happy New Year to all!  May your doll dreams come true, and may we all have peace in 2019.  Out of the dark winter night, a light will shine...

Dr. E's Doll Museum Blog: Guest Blogger: Dr. David Levy, Skyward

Dr. E's Doll Museum Blog: Guest Blogger: Dr. David Levy, Skyward: Once again, it is our pleasure to feature Dr. David Levy as our guest blogger. Skyward December 2018     Inner Starlight  ...

The Tools of Writing

This morning, I reached for a peace of spiral notebook paper; I carefully pulled of the spiral ridges.  It made me think of how important paper was; theme paper v. notebook paper, lined paper in different colors, quite a collectible in the 70s for kids. Then, printing over cursive, pencil over ink, blue/black ink over Flair pens or markers.


Today,  I still sometimes need the feel of a good No 2 pencil, and find that pencils are a great keepsake, useful ones. Good art pencils are no exception, and I actually write in a day planner/calendar.  I am back to flair pens, remembering when during the late 80s, we wrote our bench memos in different colored pens for the Superior Court judges.


I've always loved notecards and stationery, fancy papers, crayons, typewriters manual and electric.  Many of these are coming back. 


There's just something about them


I won't even start on erasers, pencil cases, and sharpeners.


Happy Writing, Happy Thanksgiving

Dark Paradise

I recently picked up another Tami Hoag thriller; love her books when I want to immerse myself in escapist horror and mystery!  She is a friend of my friend, Kim Ostrum Bush, also a romance writer.  Kim was my mom’s student, and a doll collector.  I ran into her one time at the old Masonic Temple Women’s Club Antique Show where Ralph’s Antique Dolls used to set up.  Now, the MT is Terror at Skellington Manor, my favorite haunt, with great animatronics and an extensive doll collection.

 

The novel I’m reading is Dark Paradise, and it takes place in New Eden, Montana.  There is an attorney who is also a collector of many things, including toys.  His name is Miller Daggrepont.  Here are his thoughts on collecting:

 

This is where I keep my collections . .. I collect everything  Signs, toys, farm equipment you name it.  Never know when the next big rage will hit.  I made a killing on Indian artifacts when all the Hollywood types started moving in.  They think they’re going native when they hang an old horse blanket on the wall.  Damned fools, I say—not because of the collecting.  Nothing wrong with collecting.  They’re just damned fools in general!(95)

 

 

Here are some more links if you enjoy large toy collections.  Don’t forget the Strong National Museum of Play. http://www.museumofplay.org/

 

Jerry Greene world’ largest toy collection. https://rockandrolljunkie.com/2015/02/26/4109/

 

 

World’s largest toy museum Branson. https://www.bransonshows.com/activity/WorldsLargestToyMuseum.cfm

 

Toy soldiers: https://www.metro.news/worlds-largest-toy-soldier-collection-makes-a-killing/1038350/

 

 

 

Memoirs of Doll Museum

This weekend, Theriault’s will be hosting two amazing auctions.  Sunday is a very unusual and complete collection of Barbies and friends.  Saturday involves the sale of the contents of Yesterday’s Child Doll Museum, formerly Vicksburg, MS. Both will be in Chicago ,and Theriault’s.com has all the details.

 

During the late 80s, when I was just out of school, my family and I took a terrific trip down South, which included Vicksburg.  We walked the battlefield, and while I personally do not believe I ghosts, I did sense a presence there.  It was moving and sad to see the Civil War monuments put up by northern and southern states, and to realize how closely camped both sides were on that field.

 

We also saw Yesterday’s Child, just my mom and dad and me.  I’m the only one left.  I think it was the last of our great road trips, though we took a lot of smaller ones in later years.  It was charming, and a very pleasant day.  I still regret we didn’t buy a small composition doll wearing a white faux fur coat, hat, and muff in the gift shop  They did not have much for sale, but the museum was a feast for the eyes.

 

My dad, ever loyal to me exclaimed as we walked in, “she has more than this!” That was Dad; he also built doll houses, hauled us all over to buy dolls while he sat in the car, he brought dolls for me from all over the world, carved little dolls from sticks, carried two very large Italian dolls for me when we were coming back from a trip to Europe.  He often drove back out of his way so I could get a doll I forgot to buy, and he learned what a Jumeau was.  My mom was my partner in crime when it came to finding dolls; she also dressed them repaired them. After a while, it wasn’t “Ellen’s” doll collection; it was “our” doll collection.

 

I hate to see any doll museum close, especially when I am busy creating mine, but this one’s closing is particularly painful for me.  The silver lining is that the dolls will go to good homes, to people who will care for them and carry on the museum’s legacy.  For me, doll collecting has become a lonely hobby, full of lovely memories. 

Memories of Autumn

From my Dr. E's Greening Tips Blog:  https://dresgreening.blogspot.com/

Online Literary Magazine for CM 220, CM 107 Classes and Friends of KU: Guest Blogger: Dr. David Levy, Author and Astrono...

Online Literary Magazine for CM 220, CM 107 Classes and Friends of KU: Guest Blogger: Dr. David Levy, Author and Astrono...:   It is an honor and a pleasure for us to feature guest blogger, Dr. David Levy, noted author, astronomer, Shakespeare scholar, champ...

Dr. E's Doll Museum Blog: Coupons, Paper Dolls, Paying it Forward!

Dr. E's Doll Museum Blog: Coupons, Paper Dolls, Paying it Forward!: A gentleman I know works at our local Jewel grocery. Jewel has been part of Chicago ’s Dominick’s chain and is a cut above other chains ...

How to Join a Doll Club - Ruby Lane Blog

How to Join a Doll Club - Ruby Lane Blog: There’s more fun as well as safety in numbers. Collecting dolls is as social as it gets; great shows, conventions, shopping trips, museum tours, “collection hops,” the fun never ends. So, how do you find like-minded doll friends to share your hobby with? Join a doll club! Here’s how.

Dr. E's Doll Museum Blog: Rescued Open House 2018

Dr. E's Doll Museum Blog: Rescued Open House 2018: Rescued Open House September 22, 10-4; September 23, 12-4   Come celebrate with Rescued , and perform good deeds while you s...

Pulitzer, Roxanne, and Kathleen Maxa. The Prize Pulitzer. New York: Ballantine, 1987.

Pulitzer, Roxanne, and Kathleen Maxa.  The Prize Pulitzer. New York: Ballantine, 1987.

 

First, since I am a writer myself, I’d like to give my own unsolicited advice, not the opinion of Blogger, GoodReads, or anyone else.  Don’t be so impressed with the Pulitzer Prize; buy one of poor Lily’s bracelets instead.   I wouldn’t be so leased with being its winner after reading about its origins and descendants.  This sordid bunch of poor little rich children seems to exist to destroy other people’s lives, especially if those people are young women.

 

True, generally, there are two sides to every story, but not this one.  It’s unfair to label a woman as a gold digger because the history of marriage itself encourages “gold digging” or marriage as a career goal, perhaps the only one for women.  I’d even call it legalized prostitution at its worst. Think.

 

In the Ancient World, marriage was a political treaty, meant to seal the fate of nations and produce heirs. Review the sad history of Henry VIII and his wives. As he says in one of the many literary accounts of the marriage of Henry and Anne Boleyn, Henry didn’t marry Catharine [of Aragon]; England married Spain.  Remember Princess Diana was hailed for producing the “heir and a spare!”  Or, there’s the first Empress of Iran, wife of the modern, exiled Shah.  They were compelled to divorce because she couldn’t have children.

 

In many cultures “loss of consortium” is grounds for divorce.  That means, you are not performing sexually, or performing “wifely duties.”  Usually, it’s someone else’s fault.  Nonperformance is due to injury caused by a third party, but it could be something peculiar to the individual spouses.  Maybe it works both ways where a husband is concerned, but I don’t want to go off topic. 

 

According to Coventry Patmore’s “The Angel of the House”, women were meant to marry,  to suffer childbirth, take care of everyone else, and yet be childlike and submissive as Hubby’s little angel.  Patmore’s poem could have been the updated script for Herbert Pulitzer’s guide to marriage.  He isn’t alone; his pal Jim Kimberly is mentioned, as is many other crazy rich couple with nothing in common but their coke and their cocktails.  Lolita, anyone?

 

Roxanne Pulitzer was the ultimate submissive wife; if she enjoyed the perversions her husband encouraged, well, isn’t that the Patmore school of happy marriage?  Just read the books on the topic, fiction and nonfiction.  In Othello, poor Desdemona gets creamed just because of insinuations. Kate has to curb her strong personality after all kinds of emotional abuse and games are forced on her in The Taming of the Shrew. 

 

In “real life”  genius Sor Juan Ines de la Cruz went to the convent rather than enter an arranged marriage.

 

Barbara Pym’s novels, letters, and journals are a study of unsuitable attachments and male/female relationships of all kinds.  She would have had an entire saga based on the Pulitzer trial.  For starters, read Excellent Women, An Unsuitable Attachment, and No Fond Return of Love.  Pym realized that despite her love stories, there was often no happy ever after for the heroine.  Sometimes, the quest for a woman to lead a full life involved filing that Holy Grail, something to love.  Something to love could be a vocation, friendship, love of animals, or other passion.  It didn’t have to be a man, husband, or family.  As another writer, Vera Brittain put it, anyone can have a baby; only I can write my books. Virginia Woolf would have called it finding a room of one’s own.

 

Contact me if you want to know more about thee authors.

 

 

In several Ancient Cultures widows were burned on funeral pyres, otherwise killed, or just cast out.  Women beyond childbearing age were of no value at all.  Marriage was the only hope, and a well suited one at that. Hello!! Jane Austen’s everything, C. Bronte’s Jane Eyre, E. Bronte’s Wuthering Heights.  Sheila Jeffries’ study, The Spinster and Her
Enemies, Greer’s The Female Eunuch, Susan Faludi’s Backlash, Betty Friedan’s The Feminine Mystique,  the history around the defeat of the Equal Rights Amendment, the history behind the suffragettes, the century’s old persecution of women as witches, still going on in parts of the world today; it’s everywhere. All these texts explore the topic of misogyny and marriage.  So do Title VII, and the many cases and legal treatises dealing with sexual harassment ad discrimination.

 

Marry and listen to your husband, or else.  Don’t read A Vindication of the Rights of Women, or even Miguel de Unamuno’s Nada menos de todo un hombre. Stay away from historical texts like The Plantation Mistress and A Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass.

 

Roxanne Pulitzer had been married before Pulitzer, and it didn’t work out.  She was young and inexperienced.  It happens.  Her life was unremarkable; she had worked, tried marriage, and underwent trials many young women of the 70s and 80s struggled with

 

These struggles threw her into the path of her famous husband, whose family worked menial jobs as entertainment when they were bored, while others fought to get those jobs to survive.  While his obituary exalted him as a philanthropist, sportsman, business man, etc., he was another rich, controlling playboy who got away with a lot of emotional abuse.

 

He had no business marrying a young woman who lacked his experience any more than Milton, whom I usually adore for his poetry, had any business marrying an illiterate 16 year old when he was 33 and spoke at least seven languages.  Mr. Kimberly had no business at 60 something marrying a 19 tear old he’d met when she was 17.  She later committed suicide in her late fifties, after her apartment roommate and friend, another woman, died.  Kimberly tried twice to divorce his wife, and he succeeded the second time.

 

The Judge who wrote the Pulitzer opinion, published at the end of the book, was arcane in his thinking.  The standard even then was that the divorced wife receive enough monetary support to maintain the lifestyle to which she had become accustomed during the marriage.  He took the word of the husband in this case, without looking to the evidence that must have been everywhere about the Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous in his jurisdiction. Mr. P was no angel, and his own drinking, cocaine use, and predilection for threesomes should have found its way into the testimony.

 

Instead, a naïve young woman who couldn’t have had those experiences on her previous salary  was vilified.  He didn’t want to pay child support, the old cheapskate, and he wanted to hide his oedipal problems with his daughter from a previous marriage, so he sacrificed his wife. 

 

Similar cases in the same time period declared that a mother was still presumed to be the custodial parents under the tender year’s doctrine, lifestyle notwithstanding.  It was clear he didn’t want his kids even on family vacations, while she wanted the boys with her.  A mother’s lifestyle does not interfere with a custody award to her unless it can be shown it affects her children adversely.  That finding was lacking and weak in the Pulitzer case.

 

Anyone who wants to read more case law, let me know.  I have gobs from Prof. S’ family law class, which I was taking when this trial was going on.

 

During the Renaissance, there was a backlash against aristocratic women speaking their minds; they could only do it in the face of impending death, or if they were deemed mad.  Scolds bridles and other fun toys existed to shut them up.  Read the works of Lady Jane Grey, the little Anne Boleyn left behind, Catharine of Aragon’s last letter, Mary Cary’s plays, the letters of Jane Anger, and their biographers and editors like Mary Ellen Lamb and Ann Rosalind Jones.

 

500 years later, or so, we see this stifling of “wealthy” women taking place in the Pulitzer trial.  Eerily, it was the legal “foreplay” foreshadowing the O.J. Simpson murder trial that would occur some seven years later, when the victim, Nicole Simpson’s lifestyle was put on trial.  Ironically, Simpson is mentioned in The Prize Pulitzer briefly.

 

Furthermore, Ms. Pulitzer was chastised by the Judge and it seems the public, for dating after divorce papers were filed.  This should never have been brought up.  Once the papers are filed, that’s it.  Matters of custody and alimony are left to be worked out.  Unless they can prove her after divorce-filing dates caused the break up in the marriage, hands off!  If Ms. Pulitzer’s friend were involved in the divorce, it would have been mentioned in the original papers first filed. 

 

Even more medieval is the judge’s insistence on making Ms. Pulitzer’s religious beliefs an issue. I know I am being simplistic, but boys and girls, even judicial boys and girls, please read The First Amendment, and all of the legal analysis it has caused to be published.  Religious practice can be monitored and controlled, e.g., human sacrifice is no longer allowed.  Belief, however, cannot be punished. Pulitzer was obviously punished at least in part, for what she believed.

 

So, the double standard lives on. Roxanne Pulitzer seems to have moved on and found peace, her twin boys are grown, their father gone recently to his heavenly reward.  Hers was indeed a cautionary tale that could have been part of  The Canterbury Tales.  She has survived the “cruel world of the very rich”  (Author Pat Booth’s review) and managed to support herself and maintain her sanity.  We wish her the best.

 

As the Village Voice said, “Might not win The Prize Pulitzer, but does have the dish heavenly.”

 

 

Dr. E's Doll Museum Blog: Joey Bishop Show

Dr. E's Doll Museum Blog: Joey Bishop Show: Abby Dalton is to Bishop's left. A baby doll, I think early vinyl, was being used in parenting classes for couples expecting.

There Is No House Without A Doll - Ruby Lane Blog

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Update on Huguette Clark Bellosguardo Foundation Awaiting IRS Decision, Transfer of Santa Barbara Property

Bellosguardo Foundation Awaiting IRS Decision, Transfer of Santa Barbara Property: Heiress Huguette Clark’s beachfront estate on Cabrillo Boulevard is slated to become a museum open to the public

The Value of an Education

The Value of an Education

 

With the state of the American Higher Education system in somewhat of flux, I started to think about my own education and its value.  A woman’s education has been a controversial topic for centuries. Plato had something to say on it, hundreds of years later, so did Erasmus.  Anne Boleyn, Margaret Roper, Mary I, Elizabeth I were examples of women classically educated in more than the skills that would allow them to be good courtesans and royal wives.  Anne Boleyn studied with French noblewomen who also taught Charles V.  Mary I, Margaret Roper [daughter of Sir Thomas More], and Elizabeth I read and wrote Latin, and all women spoke several languages.  Anne Boleyn had an interest in theology, and her daughter would have been a noted writer and theologian in her own right had she not been queen.

 

I always had good grades, good test scores.  The rare times I got a B in grades K- College; I got sick and did everything to bring it up. I nearly hurt myself for good bringing up gym scores, even though gym didn’t count for me on my GPA. I think that’s changed now.

 

For years, I was National Honor Society, Phi Beta Kappa, Mortar Board, State Merit Scholar, Sigma Tau Delta, Sigma Delta Pi, Essay winner, you name it. I did as expected of me and earned m $5 and other rewards for good grades.  In 4^th grade, it was a plush white mouse wearing a diaper and a paper doll book with rub on transfers for furniture, compliments of my Dad.

 

After undergrad, where I double majored in English and Spanish, it was straight off to law school, which was difficult, demeaning, and disillusioning. I went on to sign up for a joint degree in the English Masters program and proceeded to suffer, yet I got good grads, and after a rough first year in law school involving stress induced illness and a brief hospitalization, I became a RA, wrote papers for a distinguished lawyer who polished on death penalty statistics, came near to Order of the Coif, and graduated both programs.  I passed English prelims with a high pass.

 

Then, I worked, teaching hours and hours of comp I, working in law offices in three states, couldn’t find a full time job other than the law office, and then went back to graduate school to earn a PhD. 

 

Meanwhile, I kept meeting people, writers and artists, who had no formal education, or who switched gears more than I did, to find what they wanted to do. 

 

Luckily, I excelled in earning my doctorate, but it was constant work, constantly dodging dept politicks and backstabbing friends.  I was sure I would land a great job at a major big ten school or university.  Then,  Kathleen Norris’s and  Kingsley Amis’s fiction about academia rang true.  They hated my law degree or the law professors hated my English PhD.  What to do?  I was lucky my parents were alive.  They helped me financially and my Dad schlepped me around to the three schools where I taught, as an adjunct.

 

Finally, I landed a job that lasted 20 years at a for profit school.   My worst academic fears came true. There was both verbal abuse and sexual harassment; I was cheated out of pay and stock options, and watched while secretaries were promoted to deans and chief academic officers.  Until the end, I was given raises now and then, and at one point, the discrepancy in my salary was rectified, but I was compelled to hire people, men usually, at salaries of more than $20,000 more than I made.

 

After a while, I taught all comp online under a younger, less qualified, misogynistic male.  The corporate culture of the school nurtured this type of abuse; even a civil rights claim didn’t quell them.  They just retaliated.  I left, threatened with all kinds of recrimination if I “talked.”

 

What I am doing now earns me a pittance of what I once made; I used to create programs and courses in law and criminal justice, foreign language, diversity and culture, Shakespeare, and English.  Some were Masters and MBA level.  I wrote self-studies for accreditation and won awards like Teacher of the Year, but then all I did was teach the same thing online . An incompetent dean, a young girl, with fewer qualifications, screwed up my credentials and resume.   I lost my place in legal studies and CJ, though I’d been the chair for 14 years and helped to create the programs. All the proof in the world could’ stop the corporate train wreck.

 

I left.  Like other writers, I am writing. I have several books and many publications to my credited, and I blog professional and do social media for big companies involving antiques.  Antiques and writing are my passions; I am self-taught in these fields, beginning my education at age 3.  I was reading adult antique books by age 7.  Had they had majors in the study of material culture when I was in college, I would have majored in that.

 

Since then, I have read of and talked to many people who have gained success following their passions.  They are self taught, and learned by experience. I’d rather have learned teaching from Anne Sullivan Macy, my idol, than taken the education courses I had to take. Princess Diana, Barbra Streisand, and others didn’t finish high school, and Bill Gates and Rush Limbaugh didn’t graduate from college, yet look at them.   This may be the best lesson.  Education today is prohibitive and expensive, and the truth is that in many of the big ten and ivy league schools, if you don’t spout the prof’s mantra, you may just flunk.

 

As Helen Keller once stated of Radcliffe, it seems one comes to college not to think, but to learn [what others want to ram down your throat].  Independent thought is not welcome, and for many lifelong debt follows.  I didn’t have that to suffer; my parents helped, we paid it off, and I had assistance ships and a fellow ship to help things along.

 

Still, I regret the time away from my parents, my extended family, and my dogs.  I regret the expense; what I could do with that money now!  I put my life on hold to work and to study what others expected me to do.  I learned to write, and I learned languages, but I am bilingual by birth, and I read all the time anyway.  I would have become a writer eventually; I had been creating stories since age3 or 4, and writing since age 10.

 

Perhaps it’s time to look at the Education Industry and to realize all schools are really for profit.  Education is not a right, but a privilege for which we pay.  Placement is not grate for a lot of majors; English and literature are being drastically cut; there simply are no jobs.  We don’t get any training for anything else, either. Yet, the vocational nature of the for profit system or trade school, whose culture tends to sneer at the seven liberal arts and learning for learning’s sake is not the answer either 

 

Myself, I’m tired.  I don’t know what I’m going to do the rest of my life.  I’m still relatively young, e.g., if you pinch the skin on my arm it still bounces back like a rubber band.

 

I will try to follow my writing and my antiques passion, and well, I’m a quick study, we’ll see.  While I’m at it, I’m going to reread Emerson’s “self reliance.”

Miss Charlotte Bronte meets Miss Barbara Pym: Lady Lazarus

Miss Charlotte Bronte meets Miss Barbara Pym: Lady Lazarus: Sylvia Plath   The notes below reflect my thoughts and opinions, based on a lot of reading on Plath that I did in the 70s and 80s.  ...

10 Clues You Might Be a Doll Addict - Ruby Lane Blog

10 Clues You Might Be a Doll Addict - Ruby Lane Blog: On the Dolls Lane, we live and breathe dolls all day, every day. It’s safe to say that we are doll addicts. If you’ve heard the saying, ‘it takes one to know one,’ let us know if any of these telltale clues apply to you! 1.    You tell your fiancé that you would rather have... Read more »

Healthy Eating

Healthy Living and Eating

 

Personally, I think stress is the deadliest malady of all.  We used to joke at my former job that we didn’t worry too much about future illnesses; our job was going to kill us.  Indeed that’s what happened to some of my work friends, and some of my other friends, too.  Work stress, family stress, care giving stress, financial stress, all deadly.  Take your pick, or should I say, choose your poison.

 

What can we do?

 

My good news is that I’ve been eating and drinking a lot of the things that help, and that are proven cancer fighters.  Heaven knows I’m no doctor, and my friends will tell you I’m not at all enamored of the medical profession, friends and family that are members excluded, of course. Law school probably ingrained that unfortunate attitude in me.  Yet, there is something to using diet to control maladies that plague us.

 

Here are some of the foods and drinks that are good for us, and that by default, maybe, I’ve incorporated into our family’s diet:  avocado, nuts [if you are not allergic], kombucha, wild caught salmon and other seafood, whole grains, oatmeal, broccoli, cauliflower, leafy vegetables and salads including kale, cabbage, lean mean if we eat it, bran sprinkled on everything, probiotics, certain vitamins, strawberries, bananas, berries of all kinds.  Fruits instead of dessert and sugar.

 

We try to stay away from processed foods, and watch the kind of cheese we buy.  We try to stay away from fast food, and I try to count calories and stay away from cookies.  A little dark chocolate is ok.

 

So, it’s a start. We’re all trying.  I admit I feel better cutting down on caffeine, avoiding carbonated drinks, high fructose syrups, red meat, junk food.  Now, if I could only pause the windmills of my mind.

Why We Need Dolls In Our Lives - Ruby Lane Blog

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Miss Charlotte Bronte meets Miss Barbara Pym: What is writing?

Miss Charlotte Bronte meets Miss Barbara Pym: What is writing?: What is writing?   Now that I’ve forsaken all else to write fulltime, I’ve actually had time to think about what I’m doing.    ...

Books and Literary Life; Two Memoirs

Lately, I've been reading Larry McMurtry's memoirs, the two books listed in the title.  He shows us what I've always believed, that reading and writing go hand in hand.  One can't exist without the other.  Here is a quote I found particularly inspiring:


Seeing my books reminds me that in a modest way at least, I'm part of literature and the whole complicated cultural enterprise that is literature.  . . . The commonwealth of literature is complex but a sense of belonging to it is an important feeling for a writer to have and to keep."


From Literary Life.


In talking about his book collection and the books he has amassed for his book stores, he confirms the importance of books themselves.  A Kindle, magical a it is, simply does not give one this feeling of belonging to a community of writers McMurtry calls "immortals."   As he says, "sitting with the immortals doe snot make one an immortal but the knowledge that they're around you on their shelves does contribute something to one's sense of what one ought to try for  (157)" [as a writer].

Dr. E's Doll Museum Blog: Guest Blog on Motiviation and Whole Journey; my Fr...

Dr. E's Doll Museum Blog: Guest Blog on Motiviation and Whole Journey; my Fr...: My name is Mary, I’m 26 years old and a Mom and Wife.   I have two boys, ages 6 and 5. Twin girls, about to turn 2  in one month . T...

Dolls Gotta Have Heart; Raggedy Ann, Legends, and History for Over 100 Years - Ruby Lane Blog

,Raggedy Ann was always one of my favorite dolls. I remember listening carefully, fascinated when my third grade teacher read the stories to us.  I think we made it through all the books. I used to enact them with my own dolls.  Years later, I saw the museum before it closed, and was able to go to the festival.  Now, I have neighbors named Ann and Andy!  My mom made a killer Ann Halloween outfit when I was six!  Love Gruelle and his books!





Dolls Gotta Have Heart; Raggedy Ann, Legends, and History for Over 100 Years - Ruby Lane Blog: Raggedy Ann has been a beloved doll and literary character for over 100 years.  Her face has graced countless story books, coloring books, paper dolls, toys, radios, canned goods, and posters about Diphtheria and Smallpox vaccinations.  Raggedy Ann and her brother, Raggedy Andy, have starred in their own animated films, and Raggedy Ann has flown... Read more »

Firestorm: a Review

Firestorm, but Iris Johansen.  A Book Review

Public Domain Image

 

For years, my closest friends, also mystery fiends have urged me to read Johansen. After a windfall of books that included one of her novels came my way, I eagerly picked up the book.

 

The first chapter reminded me of the opening scene of Legal Eagles, which is one of my favorite movies.  A young girl awakes to fire, a horrible fire, and loses her mother.  Fast forward and years later, she is an arson investigator, who is a little psychic.  Shades of Medium, another favorite, albeit on TV.

 

We meet the murderer/rogue govt. agent/arsonist from the beginning.  So, we don’t wonder about “Who done it?”  Yet, as the novel progresses, it is the violence and the fiery murders that become the real characters and runaway with the action.

 

The murder’s motives are not convincing; he isn’t the kind of pyromaniac I met up with in my days of working in law offices. In fact, some of them are pretty unassuming.  I sat in a locked conference room facing one down, and I asked point blank, “did you do it?”  Oh, no, of course not!” he insisted, all innocent and doe-eyed.  We ended up not taking the case; a few months later, he was arrested and guess what!!?? He did it and then some.  Other than the evidence that buried him, there was no initial clue that he was a fire bug.  Just a nice, average guy that liked to set fires and leave.

 

The story is masterful, and she is one of the most successful authors in her genre, but the characters are cardboard, they go up in flames in more ways than one.  If you forgive the pun that dies and is resurrected into analogy, the characters are just fuel for the flames.  They go up like Birdie, the hapless celluloid doll set on fire and murdered by the evil, but gorgeous Marchpane in Godden’s The Dolls’ House, or like the little paper ballerina who immolates herself on the remains of Hans Christian Anderson’s “Brave Tin Soldiers.”

Why We Love Dollhouses (And You Should Too!) - Ruby Lane Blog

Why We Love Dollhouses (And You Should Too!) - Ruby Lane Blog: The first dollhouses on record are probably the Dutch cabinet houses and Nuremburg doll houses, meant more for adults as cabinets of curiosities than for children.  The novel The Miniaturist is based on these. One great example that still survives is Mon Plaisir, from the 18th century. The Nuremberg House open, 1673 via Victoria and... Read more »

Why We Love Dollhouses (And You Should Too!) - Ruby Lane Blog

I dedicate this one to my mom and dad.  She made rugs and curtains and doll clothes for doll houses.  He built doll houses, doll rooms, and models.  Both of them drove me to all kinds of miniature shows and museums  She bought my first book by Flora Gill Jacobs. I miss you mom and dad, and I will always love you.



Why We Love Dollhouses (And You Should Too!) - Ruby Lane Blog: The first dollhouses on record are probably the Dutch cabinet houses and Nuremburg doll houses, meant more for adults as cabinets of curiosities than for children.  The novel The Miniaturist is based on these. One great example that still survives is Mon Plaisir, from the 18th century. The Nuremberg House open, 1673 via Victoria and... Read more »

Dr. E's Doll Museum Blog: Give us a Follow: Ruby Lane Dolls on Pinterest

Dr. E's Doll Museum Blog: Give us a Follow: Ruby Lane Dolls on Pinterest: Here is the link to Ruby Lane Dolls on Pinterest:  https://www.pinterest.com/rubylanedolls/ . Our boards cover our Blog, specials like ou...

Dr. E's Doll Museum Blog: Give us a Follow: Ruby Lane Dolls on Pinterest

Dr. E's Doll Museum Blog: Give us a Follow: Ruby Lane Dolls on Pinterest: Here is the link to Ruby Lane Dolls on Pinterest:  https://www.pinterest.com/rubylanedolls/ . Our boards cover our Blog, specials like ou...

Going Home

Today would have been my Dad's 86th birthday, and tomorrow is the 4 month anniversary of his death.  Both dates are hard to believe.


I am lucky in one thing; I can go home to their house every day, to what was my grandparent's house.  I can eat lunch or make coffee, lie down in my old room, listen to my old records.  Eventually, it will be my home again.  There is a particular peace there, and comfort.  As long as I can be there, they aren't really gone.


We all need a place of peace, a room of our own, as Woolf wrote.  It's good to look at the photos that trigger memories, and to drink coffee out of cups that my mother bought when I was still in high school.


It's nice to see t he light switch plate that says "Ellen's' Room" and to remember where it came from. What triggers memories for you--it can be a smell, or making a recipe, or maybe it's the time of year.  We did our share for St. Pat's, and my mother loved all holidays.  We always had a shamrock or two around, we made it to a parade once in a while, whatever it took.


Now, I'm in the autumn of my life, and while it's hard to fathom that I'm this old, I go back to that house, where the TV is in the same place it's been for over 60 years, where my birthday parties were held, where my heart broke and healed, and where my mother planted flowers.

Leprechauns and Dolls in Green - Ruby Lane Blog

Leprechauns and Dolls in Green - Ruby Lane Blog: 1909 German St. Patrick’s Day Embossed Postcard Irish Lady in Green Dress St Patrick’s Irish Boudoir Bed Doll Red Hair Shamrock Dress It’s almost that time for all things green. Leprechauns all over are gearing up to wear the green and toast the emerald isle!  Dolls in green look wonderful displayed around shamrocks and other... Read more »

Miss Charlotte Bronte meets Miss Barbara Pym: Time's Been Up for Women who are Working Stiffs

Miss Charlotte Bronte meets Miss Barbara Pym: Time's Been Up for Women who are Working Stiffs: Time’s Been Up, and this post is also on LinkedIn.     You’d have to live in a very, very subterranean cave to have missed the new...

You Might Be Child of the 90s If …You Played With These Dolls and Bears! - Ruby Lane Blog

You Might Be Child of the 90s If …You Played With These Dolls and Bears! - Ruby Lane Blog: 1.    1990s Holiday Barbie in her pink poinsettia dress.  The Holiday Barbies debuted in 1988 and were still hot tickets in 1990.  Other Barbies were noting included an unusual Bowling Champ Barbie and Stars N Stripes Barbie wearing a smart Sailor’s Uniform with a skirt. 2.    Wendy Lawton Dolls.  Lawton made her first... Read more »

October Doll Club 2017

Review: Memories of Midnight by Sidney Sheldon

Review: Memories of Midnight by Sidney Sheldon

 

 

Sing me no songs of daylight,

Fro the son is the enemy of lovers.

Sing instead of shadows and darkness,

And memories of midnight.

 

                                    Sappho

 

I was stunned that Sheldon, who also created TV shows like Hart to Hart and I Dream of Jeannie, got the title for his sequel to The Other Side of Midnight from Sappho.  I love Sappho; I titled my poetry chapbook, Sappho, I should have Listened, and my mother loved her and did research for her.  I loved her for the dedication she wrote to Artemis when she left her doll at the goddesses’ altar, “Despise not my dolls little purple cloak”, and I loved her courage and her passion. I even suffered for our art, hers and mine, when a fool who thought he spoke Greek publically tried to correct me at a poetry reading.  I was invited there to read from my book; he hasn’t published anything.  Dear Misha, how I wanted to call him a “Malakas,” and give him a good Greek tongue lashing, for I am a speaker of Greek first, and English second, but I didn’t do it.  I’m too polite. 

 

One can’t call Costa Demeris, the evil Greek Tycoon antagonist of both of Sheldon’s novels set in Greece polite. In fact, it’s hard to like anyone in this book, even sweet Catharine Alexander Douglas, who constantly plays mouse to Demeris’ cat.

 

In The Other Side of Midnight, Demeris gets even big time when his mistress Noelle Page and his pilot, Larry Douglas, husband of Catherine, betray him by falling in love, and well, doing the big nasty.  Catharine is meant to be a victim in the first book, but her book of victimology dictates she become a drunken shrew.  The sneaky lovers try to kill her of, but fail.  Only Demeris figures that out, and sequesters Catharine, who has amnesia after Larry and Noelle try to do her in.  Noelle and Larry pay with their lives before a Greek firing squad. 

 

Fast forward to Memories of Midnight.  Costa is stunned to discover Catharine is regaining her memory.  She’s a little stupid to boot.  It’s hard to feel sorry for her.  It’s also hard to feel sorry for Melina, Demeris’ long suffering wife, who is supposed to be smart and chic, yet takes insult after insult from him, and even though she knows he is a monster, stays because she “loves him!”  Seriously!  Not even in the 50s-60s atmosphere of the novel, the height of the Feminine Mystique, would real women put up with this!  Times up, Melina!  Her only way to get even is, spoiler alert, is to destroy herself, but she still fails.

 

Costa double crosses everyone, till he meets a Thelma and Louise ending with his lawyer, who must have influenced the villain in Stieg Larsson’s books beginning with The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.

 

Also, I’d like to know what happened to the museum curator caught up in the Demeris’ smuggling caper.  His character is dropped like a hot potato.  Other interesting villains are introduced, but their character development is dropped.

 

Yet, this is a page turner, for all its flaws.  Sheldon understands plot twists, even if he uses too many of them, and he is that rare character, a male author who can create believable women, albeit, sometimes women that are a little stupid.  Catharine reminds me of the heroin of Valley of the Dolls for her naïveté. .

 

His Greek phonetics are very good; I wonder at how good he is with the language and Greek culture. 

 

I liked listening to his books on tape, but when I heard him read his own Sands of Time, it reminded me of Booboo bear reading to Yogi; Sheldon didn’t have the greatest reading voice.

 

He could write the” sweeping” novel as few could today, maybe Dan Brown is a close contender.

 

Meanwhile, I hope he is somewhere with Sappho, and my parents discussing literature in another dimension, somewhere on the other side of midnight.

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