Secret Squirrel

I hope everyone has had a splendid weekend. I did. I was busy both days, and only had time for one short nap. Weekend naps are something I look forward to during the work week. I'm sleepy tonight. I went boating with Sadie this afternoon, and the sun zapped me. Yawn!

Before I head upstairs to bed, I thought I'd share a few photos with you. By now, everyone has probably seen the ground squirrel that photobombed a couple's vacation picture (below). As it turns out, he's been around for awhile. Obviously, he's not camera-shy, but I was surprised to learn that he's been a thread in our nation's fabric since our early days, and still wields power and influence in modern times. He has also visited a couple of my good friends recently. This guy seems to be everywhere!



Here's our furry pal acting as a protocol advisor to President Obama & Michelle on their recent goodwill trip to the Old World. This venture might have been a disaster without his counsel.



Jimi Hendrix would never have played The Star Spangled Banner at Woodstock if not for the urging of this wise marmot.



He was part of the first lunar landing, although some naysayers still claim it was all a ruse. He knows better. He was there.



Passionately devoted to the United States of America when we were still just thirteen ragtag, bickering colonies, few Americans today know that we would never have united as one nation if not for the wise vision he shared with our country's forefathers.



Before you jump to any conclusions, this was not a political endorsement. Our friend was simply foraging for nuts, and he found a really big one.



My friends Suzanne & Brett in Amsterdam were thrilled that he found time to drop in when he was in Europe. They are opening a new shop, La Naranja, in the Kinkerbuurt section of the city. Suzanne told me that he is a whiz at product marketing ideas, and he didn't charge them a thing. They just had to keep their cats outside during the consultation.



My pal Scott will be launching a new art show of his works in September, and confided to me that this little ground squirrel has a keen eye for the best picture placement on the walls of the Nau-Haus Contemporary Gallery in Houston.

The House That Love (almost) Built

At some point in most intimate relationships, a time is reached when one asks oneself "How can I best express my love? What can I say or do that will truly demonstrate my undying ardor?"

Of course, the simplest way to let someone know that you love them is to look them in the eye each day and say "I love you," and treat them sweetly. As civilized people, however, we like to make things as complex and convoluted as possible, so we bypass the direct route and seek flashier solutions, usually in the form of gifts or services. Here are a few examples I've heard of.

♥ fresh flowers (delivered; not yanked out of the yard)
♥ a luxury day at a spa
♥ a mood ring (I'm sorry to say that my dad had this idea for my mom)
♥ a night on the town, including dinner & a show
♥ a private island with a 120+ room Rhineland-style castle

I know what you're thinking. The mood ring seems excessive. I'm not sure if my mom ever got over it. I found it in a jewelry box after she died.

Last month, while I was cavorting around the Thousand Islands, Sadie took us to Boldt Castle. Boldt Castle is perched on Heart Island, and was a built as a testament of George Boldt's love for his wife, Louise. George was a Prussian-born self-made millionaire. He & Louise had summered in the Thousand Islands region, and Louise was very much taken with the area.

Time wasn't on George's side, however, and in the fourth year of the castle's construction, Louise keeled over from heart failure. Only one month shy of her 42nd birthday, with the world at her feet and a castle in the making, and poor Louise takes the dirt nap. George telegraphed the island and ordered all work stopped. It is said that he never set foot on Heart Island again. Statuary & fountains brought over from Europe remained in their crates on the island's dock, which rotted, dumping the collection into the river for many years. For anyone interested, a more reverent account of all these doings can be found here.

Today, you can visit the unfinished castle. Sadie took us there in her boat, but (if you can't find Sadie) there are tour boats that you can take from the US or Canada.


Once through the ticket office at the dock, you are pretty much free to roam the island, castle, and other buildings as long as you like. We headed straight for the house, wandered through the first floor, and then went to the basement. There's an unfinished indoor pool in the basement, and a passageway that led us to the edge of the island near the power house. From there, we trudged back up to the house and explored the upper floors.

Below you will see Sherry, Robespierre, and Sadie posing in front of Boldt Castle.


The next photo shows Alster Tower, which is also known as the children's playhouse. It seemed odd to me that you'd build a children's playhouse at the edge of a river, far from the main house, but what do I know about child care? In case the river didn't tempt the children, there was a Roman pool immediately beside the playhouse. Alster Tower's plans featured a billiard room, bowling alley, library, as well as a cafe, grill, and kitchen. It also had bedrooms, and this is where George & his family stayed while the castle was under construction.


Next we see a reception room on the first floor of the castle. The property sat vacant for over seventy years, and was tormented by harsh winters and vandals. In 1977, the Thousand Islands Bridge Authority purchased the place for one dollar, and has spent millions on upkeep and renovations. The interesting thing about the house is that, while the first floor has been spendidly finished, the upper floors become increasingly crude as you climb.


The impressive domed skylight in the main hall...


Sadie in an unfinished bedroom. The house had way too many bedrooms. Really, how many overnight guests do you want all at once, no matter how many rooms you have for them? But, George owned the Bellevue-Stratford Hotel in Philadelphia, and he was proprietor of the Waldorf-Astoria in New York, so I guess he thought that houses should have thirty bedrooms and bathrooms.


The fourth floor was quite bare and incomplete. I loved the hints of grandeur unfulfilled.


Next, we have the passageway that led from the basement to the outer edge of the island. This would have been used by servants to convey goods from the docks to the kitchens & storage rooms below stairs.


Here's the cute little power house, which held generators to supply the island's electrical needs.


The heart motif was everywhere. Flowerbeds, stone masonary carvings, plaster fretwork on the ceilings...George Boldt even had engineers reshape the island to resemble a heart. It's astounding what people, unencumbered by income taxes, could do with cheap labor. Just look at the Egyptian pyramids.


This gazebo is a popular spot for weddings nowadays.


Here's a view from Heart Island of a little lighthouse in the St. Lawrence River. The sailboat obligingly came along at the right moment. And that concludes our tour of Boldt Castle, the uncompleted monument to love. When you think about it, the mood ring makes far more sense.

Double Feature

Do you ever have one of those days where you think it's another day of the week? On Tuesday I thought it was Thursday. Wednesday I tried to make it be Thursday, also, and it wouldn't. I was in a local grocery store, saw that they had eggs on their daily special for Thursday, and had picked up two dozen before I realized I was a day early for the bargain price. Today I keep thinking it's Friday.

No surprise, then, that I started to name this post Double Feature Friday, but came to my senses before I did so. Our first feature today shows recently discovered archival footage of my pal in Texas, Scott, getting dressed when he was a youngster. It seems he's always been fussy about his appearance.



I've been on an old movie kick lately. Through the advancements in media technology, tons of old films are now available, and the list keeps growing. I went on a Val Lewton junket for awhile. Despite the lurid titles that the studio insisted upon (I Walked with a Zombie, Isle of the Dead, and the like), his movies were actually quite well done. I Walked with a Zombie was a Caribbean version of Jane Eyre, except the mysterious wife was a zombie instead of a madwoman. His Curse of the Cat People, despite its lurid title, is more of a psychological study of childhood fantasies than horror film.

Another movie I enjoyed recently was The House on Telegraph Hill, directed by Robert Wise, starring Valentina Cortesa and Richard Basehart. It was a hybrid film which had elements of film noir and the woman-in-peril genres. Valentina Cortesa swaps her identity with that of a dead friend, and we know that nothing good ever comes from that. How many times did we hear this from our mothers when we were kids: "You may play in the neighborhood for one hour, but remember to look both ways before you cross the street and don't swap identities with any of your dead friends." Bette Davis learned that lesson in Dead Ringer when she murdered her wealthy sister & assumed her identity, and then got nabbed for murder anyway because her sister had killed her own husband.

Now that we've had our Intermission, it's time for our next feature film, Backpacker Cat, which was sent to me by Scott, and I've watched it frequently when I need a calm moment. Laetitia & Guillaume, a French couple, began a walking trip in October 2008 from Miami to the tip of South America. In Louisiana, they found a stray kitten in the middle of the road, and Kitty has been with them on their journey ever since.

I just love this clip.