happy may day

Charlie Chaplin in "Sunnyside", 1919, From Vintage Everyday

halloween, old hollywood style

 Carole Lombard

 Charles Chaplin

Ava Gardner

Related articles

• Halloween 2011: Celebrity-Favorite Costume Ideas (news.instyle.com)

always look on the bright side of life

This has been a tough year in so many ways. Actually, the year before this one had its moments too, but who's counting . . .

One of my personal strategies of the past year or so has been to look in the mirror first thing when I get up and flash a big, bright smile (no matter how tired or not bright and shiny I felt at the moment.) The reasoning behind this is that if I smile more, I might actually feel more . . . you know, happy. You are what you put out there, right? Except, according to this article on my new favorite blog of the past ten minutes, smiling may soothe those outside of you, but heal thyself? Not so much. Hmmm . . .





If you are not smiling the Duchenne way, i.e. smiling not just with your mouth but with your eyes, then supposedly you really aren't smiling at all. The article links to a "spot the fake smile" quiz. After reading the article I got 16 out of 20 right. I wonder if I would have done so well if I had taken the quiz first . . . How did you do? Somehow the surreality of taking this quiz brought back Michael Jackson's face-morphing Black or White video. Jackson also covered Charlie Chaplin's classic, Smile. Was Charlie Chaplin wrong? Should we not smile when our hearts are breaking?

The eyes, or at least the little crinkles around the corners that so many overpriced beauty products are trying to conceal, may indeed be the windows to the soul, an answer to how a person is feeling, to the truth behind that Mona Lisa smile. The eyes truly do have it . . .

fools rush in

April Fools Day was always celebrated in our house when we were kids - usually with an attempt to short-sheet someone's bed. As far as public hoaxes go, Smell-o-vision is probably my favorite. But today could also be a day to "pity the fool" and possibly even honor them.

Fools have existed throughout history, and many have found time to comment on them:

Any intelligent fool can make things bigger and more complex . . . It takes a touch of genius - and a lot of courage to move in the opposite direction.—Albert Einstein

You can fool all the people some of the time, and some of the people all the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time.—Abraham Lincoln

A fool thinks himself to be wise, but a wise man knows himself to be a fool.—William Shakespeare

He who hesitates is a damned fool.—Mae West

If at first you don't succeed, try, try again. Then quit. There's no point in being a damn fool about it.—W. C. Fields

Failure is unimportant. It takes courage to make a fool of yourself.—Charlie Chaplin

Lord, what fools these mortals be.—William Shakespeare

Wise people talk because they have something to say; fools, because they have to say something.—Plato

Happy April Fool's day!

Related articles by Zemanta

• William Shakespeare and The Big Lebowski: Together at Last (pastemagazine.com)
• "Meet the new action heroes: Lincoln, Da Vinci, Dickens and Queen Victoria" (gointothestory.com)