The AH Coffee Shop and Reading Room 02: A Comma (is a Restful Pause)

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I'll consider coffee in the morning. Or a nasty strong tea. Whatever unleashes me.

We lounged the last couple days. Tomorrow, into town for minor but needed shopping. Then we'll await the incoming atmospheric river, a new Pineapple Express threatening Oroville Dam. Uh, hey there, weather gods, our reservoirs are full, y'all can stop now.

Can we drive over the mountains and back before the passes close? Dare we try? Even with another quadruple espresso?

Looking that up ( here ) I get the impression that those in the north of Texas are going to get C c c cold, while the Bear's gonna get wet!.

Have some hot coffee, people.
 
Speaking of cold fronts. It has been in the mid 60's at night and low to mid 80's during the day. It's 50 this morning, feels like 45. High is only supposed to be mid 70's. We usually have a cold snap around or just after Easter. This must be it. Maybe.

Okay, I'm awake way too early so there is fresh coffee and a hot kettle. Have at it.
 
I got my picture in a local glossy magazine! Actually, I'm with my wife, one of my daughters and her husband. It was taken last fall at an art show where my daughter was exhibiting.

There were no TV or movie productions in the way of my commute this morning. There was a brilliant blue sky dotted with hot air balloons.
 
Research

One picture is worth a thousand words?

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It's all in the name of research when you write a story about flappers.
 
I've never done a story on the 20's.

I did one on the 30's that came from an old photo my grandfather had stashed in the barn. :D
 
I've never done a story on the 20's.

I did one on the 30's that came from an old photo my grandfather had stashed in the barn. :D

I never have but I have one I plan on setting in 1930s Shanghai. And another in WW2 Chungking. 2 girls, an American officer and a microscope. Time for some biology lessons.
 
I've never done a story on the 20's.

I did one on the 30's that came from an old photo my grandfather had stashed in the barn. :D

I've learned a few things. The flappers had some cute slang. Some of it seems pos-i-lute-ly charming to an old flat tire like me. I've just caught on to the fact that they didn't wear panties. I'm going to have to rewrite a little to fix that.

I may have to add a glossary to the story.

I want to write captions for that photo. Things like "Lips that touch cigarettes shall never touch mine," and a few other things that aren't quite as tame.
 
One for Chloe

Anna May Wong.

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America's first Asian film star.

There's a gob of photos of her available through Google. Most aren't so artsy as this one.
 
I've learned a few things. The flappers had some cute slang. Some of it seems pos-i-lute-ly charming to an old flat tire like me. I've just caught on to the fact that they didn't wear panties. I'm going to have to rewrite a little to fix that.

I may have to add a glossary to the story.

I want to write captions for that photo. Things like "Lips that touch cigarettes shall never touch mine," and a few other things that aren't quite as tame.

For 1920s that caption would be wrong. The slogan was from a movie and was 'Lips that touch liquor shall never touch ours'.

In the 1920s smoking was seen as sophisticated and some were advertised as having health benefits.

I like Thorne Smith's novels about the Prohibition Era particularly Night Life of the Gods.
 
For 1920s that caption would be wrong. The slogan was from a movie and was 'Lips that touch liquor shall never touch ours'.

I wasn't quoting anyone, and neither was I misquoting anyone.

In the 1920s smoking was seen as sophisticated and some were advertised as having health benefits.

I'm aware. The caption was meant more for today than it was for 1926.
 
For 1920s that caption would be wrong. The slogan was from a movie and was 'Lips that touch liquor shall never touch ours'.

In the 1920s smoking was seen as sophisticated and some were advertised as having health benefits.

I like Thorne Smith's novels about the Prohibition Era particularly Night Life of the Gods.

As in THIS ONE ?
 
I never have but I have one I plan on setting in 1930s Shanghai. And another in WW2 Chungking. 2 girls, an American officer and a microscope. Time for some biology lessons.

If you like complications, 40,000 Russians fled to Harbin in far Northern China in1920 following the Russian revolution. Many married Chinese women and had families. But the majority fled back to Stalin's USSR in 1949 because they were scared of Mao. They were never heard from again particularly by their families left behind in China.

In the 20's Harbin was the very unlikely high fashion capital of China. This was because Harbin was on the end of the railway line from Europe and before planes was the first point of entry for western, particularly Paris fashion. Over the next 20 years some Russians from Harbin travelled south to Shanghai and they and their part Chinese families were there in 1949. So if you wanted your Chinese girls (one of them could be half Russian) It would lead to some interesting conflicts for the character because these half Chinese had a pretty tough time being Chinese but not really accepted.

I looked into the history of whether the character could possibly be Chinese/Polish, but who would ever believe that! Insufficiently oriental perhaps. :D

PS I have a Chinese woman who works for me who was born in Harbin. Her grandfather was a Russian and they had a very tough time during the Mao era aggravated by the fact that they were financially successful in the 20's 30's.
 
I got my picture in a local glossy magazine! Actually, I'm with my wife, one of my daughters and her husband. It was taken last fall at an art show where my daughter was exhibiting..

Congratulations!

I have been watching a show on PBS for the past few months set in Australia during the Flapper period. It is called "Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries". It is on Thursday nights here.
 
Congratulations!

Thanks, but the whole thing was kind of funny. The photographer was the newly-acquired fiancée of one of my daughters' friends. She got there a little late and she needed pictures.

I have been watching a show on PBS for the past few months set in Australia during the Flapper period. It is called "Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries". It is on Thursday nights here.

Maybe I'll see if that's also on here. My TV hasn't been on since the Superbowl. It might be interesting, but I don't know that it would help my story that much. My flappers are pleasantly upbeat ghosts (usually), so they're current rather than in the flapper era. They speak flapper and they're confused by post-war slang.

EDIT: I checked. We have five channels carrying PBS, but "Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries" isn't on any of them tonight.
 
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Congratulations!

I have been watching a show on PBS for the past few months set in Australia during the Flapper period. It is called "Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries". It is on Thursday nights here.

Great show - the star is Essie Davies who spent 25 years before becoming an overnight success as Phryne Fisher. It dismays me how a superb actress like her can be ignored for years whilst the consistently hopeless Nicole Kidman is a mega star.

Essie Davies made a low budget psychological horror film in 2014 called "The Babbadook." Brilliant and scary as hell. See it if you get the chance, but don't watch it alone.
 
Congratulations!

I have been watching a show on PBS for the past few months set in Australia during the Flapper period. It is called "Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries". It is on Thursday nights here.

Yes, we get that in England. It's really not bad.
Of the more 'recent' Ozzy programmes, I think I prefer the Brokenwood mysteries.

Great show - the star is Essie Davies who spent 25 years before becoming an overnight success as Phryne Fisher. It dismays me how a superb actress like her can be ignored for years whilst the consistently hopeless Nicole Kidman is a mega star.
.

I've not seen enough of her work to judge, but I think she's quite pretty.
Of course, one must assume that the advertising budget in the 'States is greater than that in Oz.

Now please, all of you, keep quiet; we got sunshine and +8C temperatures, mid morning. I'd rather not wake the weather gods and change their minds.
Time, I think, for a nice long coffee. . . .
 
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I have nothing appropriate to add. Time is too early for coffee. The forecast atmospheric river hasn't started pouring. Fancy 'organic' maize corn tortillas aren't as good as the cheap guys. The Mand'uke is working well. Otherwise, it's fresh espresso after dawn.
 
Good morning one and all.

Looks like the start of a nice day. A bit chilly for shorts but...

Fresh coffee and kettle are ready to go.

Waffles for breakfast.
 
~sets down a pan of warm, gooey, chocolate brownies...with only a tiny hole from the center missing~

I hope everyone has a lovely day. :)
 
~sets down a pan of warm, gooey, chocolate brownies...with only a tiny hole from the center missing~

I hope everyone has a lovely day. :)

Brownies are always welcome. Even holy ones. ;)

Maybe they are trying to tell you something. The brownies, that is.
 
Over here, the term "Brownies" does, or did, refer to part of the Boy Scout (actually, the Girl Guides) movement, who dealt with a younger age group.

And with that detail out of the way, I'll settle for a decent coffee, please.
 
Brownies are always welcome. Even holy ones. ;)
Good one. ;)

Maybe they are trying to tell you something. The brownies, that is.
Yeah, they are saying, "Eat me!" I'm finding them terrifically difficult to resist...warm, gooey center and all.

Oh, wait. The warm, gooey center is gone, devoured by that mischievous nymph. I may triumph in my resistance after all. :cool:
 
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