#Madison Resorts Hotel

[doo-wop-city]

Restoring Ocean View's Rooftop

See the progress as Madison Resorts restores Wildwood Crest's Ocean View Motel's caved-in Blast-Off! rooftop.

The Ocean View’s rooftop on Rambler Avenue in Wildwood Crest is the last existing example of Blast Off! architecture remaining in America. Unfortunately, a heavy snowstorm did permanent damage to the already stressed roof. Madison Resorts purchased the property and are dedicated to restoring the roof to its original glory, so future generations may be able to appreciate this slice of Doo Wop…

[whitepolaris]

Some Classic Lake Monsters Encounters

Folklorists Charles E. Brown was an inveterate collector of monster tales. Many of the following stories are derived from his classic work Sea Monsters.

Elkhart Lake

A creature with "big jaws" and "flashing eyes" pulled a fisherman end over end into Elkhart Lake in the mid-1890s.

Lake Mendota

The scales of a sea serpent were found on Lake Mendota's Picnic Point in 1917. That fall, a fisherman angling off the point was startled when a "large snake-like head, with large jaws and blazing eyes" popped up from the depths less than a hundred feet away from where he was standing. And in that same area, a University of Wisconsin coed tanning on a dock reacted with a speed she didn't know she possessed when she turned over to yell at her boyfriend to stop tickling her feet, but instead witnessed the head and neck of a huge serpent whose long tongue was lapping at her toes. Bozho, as the marine anomaly was known locally, had a reputation as a prankster, overturning canoes and piers, chasing sailboats, and scaring swimmers half to death. Back in 1899, a group of ladies had spotted Bozho while they were out boating on the lake. They reported that the serpent's head, which reared some distance out of the water, was ten inches in diameter and that the end of its tail, decorated with two big horns, lashed the water into a frothy foam as the creature dove beneath the waves.

Lake Michigan

During one winter in the late 1990s, Kim, thirtysomething, was riding on a bus near Grant Park in Milwaukee when a movement in Lake Michigan caught her eye. Weaving in and out of broken chunks of ice was a dark object resembling the submerged roof of a Volkswagen Beetle. Kim immediately signaled for the bus to stop. She got off and, despite wearing a skirt and inappropriate shoes, went running through the snow to the water's edge to get a better look. The object appeared to be feeding as it moved farther out from shore.

Lake Monona

In June 1897, Eugene Heath of the Garr-Scott Company fired two rifle shots at a twenty-foot serpent plying the waters of Lake Monona, near Madison. The marine monster may have been responsible for swallowing a swimming dog a few days earlier.

Lake Waubesa

An Illinois resident who went rowing on Lake Waubesa in the 1920s claimed to have seen a serpent "sixty-seventy feet in length and of a dark green color" apparently sunning itself on the surface of the lake. In the same period, a couple swimming off Waubesa Beach were terrified when a creature with glittering eyes surfaced near them.

Lake Kegonsa

A "dragon" was frequently sighted during the 1920s in the waters of Lake Kegonsa, off both Colladay and Williamson points. Unlike the mild-mannered Bozho, this habitué of the deep was characterized as vengeful and destructive.

Pewaukee Lake

In the 1890s, a "huge green thing traveling like a gray streak" and "spouting water" was frequently reported near the resort hotels that at the time dotted the shores of Waukesha County's Pewaukee Lake. One man claimed he'd tried to spear the green leviathan, but his "weapon bounded back as though it had struck a rock or iron plate."

Red Cedar Lake

The famous sea serpent of Red Cedar Lake in Jefferson County was first seen by fishermen in 1891. One witness said it had a "very large head with protuberances like saw teeth on its back." It was fifty feet long.

Rock Lake

Not to be outdone by other Wisconsin lakes, Rock Lake in Jefferson County is the lair of a monster named Rocky. Although he became more benign with age, Rocky started his career much like the vengeful dragon of Lake Kegonsa. It was August 1882 that rowboat racers Ed McKenzie and D. W. Seybert spied what they thought was a floating log. However, as they approached the "log," it suddenly "manifested life," thrusting its "head about three feet out of the water" and opening "it's huge jaws about a foot or more" before diving out of sight. McKenzie screamed in terror as the creature resurfaced near his boat. Seybert yelled, "Strike him with the oar!" But McKenzie, terrified out of his wits, called in desperation to the group onshore. A Captain Wilson, shotgun at the ready, came to the rescue, but by then the monster had vanished, leaving the air "heavy with a most sickening odor."

That was not to be Rocky's only sortie. Passing boaters reported being hissed at by the monster form the rushes near the shore.

[practically-an-x-man]

I'm back with an OC ask :3

What would your characters bring for a week long camping trip? Who's actually prepared and has done this before? Who's running out of food on day two? Who's saying 'fuck it' and disappearing off into the woods, never to be seen again?

Ooooh thank you!!

Rae: Hasn't been camping before, but she grew up in a rural town and has spent a lot of time traveling internationally. She'd do some research, bring some decent supplies (but might overpack a little out of first-trip anxiety), and would have a decent if not perfectly streamlined week.

Robin: Probably ends up underprepared and has to send Peter out for a quick resupply halfway through the week, but they have a really good time despite the struggles and hitches.

Madison: Dude, she LIVES for this! She grew up camping, and at one point spent five years living out in the wilderness, so she's absolutely golden here. If she's on her own, she's probably just bringing her knives and the clothes on her back, as a challenge to keep her survival skills sharp. If she's going with her family or friends, she'll bring some more typical camping supplies (and a lot of marshmallows) so it's actually fun and decently comfortable.

Ophelia: Nope. She is a city girl, has been her whole life, even getting her to agree to a camping trip in the first place would take an act of god. If she has to go, she's picking a camping resort with cabins and dedicated trails and organization, and she's still a little miserable with the spiders in the shower stalls and the mosquitos and the lack of technology.

Gia: She's a tough one: she'd enjoy camping itself, and she'd have fun hiking through the forest and looking at all the plant life (especially the interactions between species, like parasitic vines on trees and that sort of thing). However, getting her to leave her shop, and the clover that holds her life force, is a very difficult task even just for a few hours, so it would be hard to convince her to leave for a whole week. In the end, she brings a pot of her clover with her for security, and is anxious and jumpy the first couple days, but eventually settles down a little and learns to enjoy it.

Jasper: Grew up out in the boondocks on the outskirts of New Orleans, so stuff like bugs and wildlife isn't going to bother them. Kyle gets a little uncomfortable (the humidity makes his scars itch, and some of it reminds him of Misty from when he was first brought back), and they end up calling it quits halfway through the week and spending the second half of the trip at a hotel, but it was kind of a nice break from their usual chaotic lives.

Kestrel: Is just disappearing into the woods. I mean, they're a changeling, they already live in a cabin on a magical wildlife preserve, a camping trip would most likely just be a mission to another preserve for them, which they've done hundreds it not thousands of times. It's easy, it's familiar, it's not even a big deal.

Katherine: Has been camping a few times as a kid, but never as long as a week. I could see her taking a little trip upstate with Jace and Emily and turning it into a little friends-trip, but they'd definitely rent an RV and go to a campsite somewhere instead of just going out to the middle of the wilderness. It would be fun! Definitely becomes an annual thing, though not any more than an annual thing, if you get what I mean.

Quinn: Please god no. She would probably die. She's lived in cities her whole life, sleeping on the ground would be an absolute nightmare for her joints, and there's just... really not much for her to do? If there's water nearby, she could swim, but she's not going hiking up a mountain any time soon. If it was some cosmic curse where she has to go camping Or Else, they'll book a camping resort somewhere and spend most of the week just killing time in the cabin they rented.

Eris: Probably brings a few basic supplies, but could also just live off the land if they had to. They honestly don't enjoy camping very much (it's just so quiet, and they've gotten used to the comfort of the modern world), so it's kind of a dull week for him, but he doesn't run into any serious trouble... unless she tries to fight an alligator or mountain lion just for the hell of it, because she would.

Nikoletta: She's a tough one. She knows how to survive on her own, but only in an urban setting, so there's pros and cons to all of this. Pro: she doesn't have to deal with people or social situations or anything like that. Con: she would really rather be back at her apartment, in her bed with her cats and Abner, instead of a sleeping bag in a tent. Pro: she's never been camping before, and finally has the freedom for new experiences like this. Con: she's never been camping before, and has no fucking clue what she's doing. Pro: she could bring Abner and turn it into a nice bit of alone time for the two of them. Con: that just reminds her of Corto Maltese, and he's even more uncomfortable with the bugs and the mud than she is.

Jimmy: I mean... he's a ghost. He doesn't need to eat, drink, or sleep, he can't get hurt by any animals or toxic plants, a camping trip for him would really just be him wandering through the woods for a while and hoping he doesn't get lost. It probably turns into more than a week... he's a city boy in his life and his death, and he definitely doesn't know where he is.

[rabbitcruiser]

New York-New York Hotel and Casino, NV (No. 2)

The resort's exterior was designed by Neal Gaskin and Ilia Bezansky, who closely studied travel books and architectural drawings rather than visit New York City. However, the design firm Yates-Silverman Inc. did send a team to the city to study its skyline for eight weeks.

The hotel is contained in a single building, although its exterior is designed to represent various New York skyscrapers joined together. The buildings are roughly one-third the size of their real-life counterparts. The tallest building is a 47-story, 529-foot-tall (161 m) replica of the Empire State Building. This made New York-New York the tallest building in Nevada until the completion of Wynn Las Vegas in 2005; by comparison, the real Empire State Building is 102 stories tall.

Other buildings depicted in the hotel's skyline include the Chrysler Building, the Manhattan Municipal Building, the New Yorker Hotel, and The Century. The interior differs throughout the hotel to reflect the design of four skyscrapers: the Empire State, Chrysler, Century, and New Yorker Hotel buildings. The other skyscrapers depicted in the skyline are not represented within the interior. Although the skyline is meant to represent New York City during the 1940s, it does include several buildings completed after that period, such as Lever House (1952), the Seagram Building (1958), the CBS Building (1965), 55 Water Street (1972), and 550 Madison Avenue (1984).

Source: Wikipedia

[dknuth]

The rest of Backroads and independent travel near Anchorage

I have been putting off writing this post. Hoping for more interesting material I guess.

The Backroads trip was generally rainy. Sometimes light, sometimes more, and generally cloudy and damp. So not terribly exciting, or good for photography. In addition, Cathie was very optimistic about her ability to do the walks. In general, one mile of walking on pretty flat ground was enough to do her in for the day. It also typically took an hour. So she wasn't really walking with the group, as the "short walks" were more like 3 to 5 miles. So I needed to decide whether to support Cathie and do something with her, or walk with the group and leave her behind by herself.

I went on the walk to Exit Glacier. There were two options, the "Toe of the Glacier." and an upper-level viewpoint. It was explained that the trail to the upper level was steep and muddy with switchbacks that were very steep and slick in the corners. I had done that on the last glacier hike and it wasn't fun so I went with the Toe. Most people made the same decision and the three that went for the upper option came back only having gone a third of the way.

So here's the view from the Toe viewpoint.

I pointed out that the Toe had receded out of view and we were looking at the ankle.

When everyone was there I did take a loose group photo.

As you can see it was another damp day, but not heavy rain.

Our last night we went to dinner at the house of a woman that runs a place for weddings and other events. It was a very Alaskan place: woodsy and folksy. But the food was good and it had a lot more character than most restaurants.

Our last night was at the Alyeska ski resort. A very nice hotel, but pretty dead out of season. With little else to do, I took the tram to the top of the ski area. Overpriced in the summer at $39 (with a discount). But some good views.

As you can see the views of the mountains were clear, but still oppressive skies.

My plan was to spend an extra week in the Anchorage area where we could pick things Cathie was able to do. But there's really not much in the Anchorage area that fits that bill.

Just up the valley from us is the Eagle River Nature Center. They pointed out a short one-mile loop and we did that. There was a moose in the water just up-stream, which was nice.

I thought that if we stopped for lunch Cathie should be able to do the local small botanical garden, but it became clear that would be too much, so we called it a day.

The next day we went to Reflection Lake which has a one-mile flat trail. My thought was we would do that little walk and then drive around and sight-see a bit. But that was also too much.

But it was a nice walk around the lake, with views and reflections in the water.

So I took Cathie back to the Guesthouse and headed back out for the afternoon.

I headed up Highway 1 to the east of town through a section labeled "Glacier." There was one glacier in the distance, but really not worth the several hours of driving.

The next morning we went back to the botanic garden. It's pretty small with one 3/4 mile loop. But some nice flower gardens.

Then back to the apartment before dinner. The apartment was another strategic error. It's up the Eargle River Valley about a half hour out of town, so every extra trip out there was an extra hour of driving.

Then we discussed our situation and decided we weren't getting that much out of our stay here, so we should go home a few days early. I checked with American and determined we could get a flight 3 days early and save $78 there. Then canceled the last three nights in the guesthouse and got a $400 refund, plus fewer days on the rental car and fewer meals here in Anchorage (where the food is very expensive.)

So we went for it and will head back to Madison tomorrow night.

It hasn't been a terrible trip, but not exciting either. We did come to a better understanding of Cathie's ability to travel and I've been changing future travel plans accordingly, so that was a good thing!

[bike42]

PAWs Old World Wisconsin Ride

Saturday June 1, 2024

We’re no strangers to riding our bikes in the rain, in fact, we did it just two weeks ago on a training ride up north! We set out early this morning to try to get a bit ahead of it. We were riding by 7:30am, with just three other riders. Down the Capital City Trail, over the fantastic Lower Yahara River Bike Trail towards McFarland.

We’re on a 7-day ride put on by PAWs (Pedal Across Wisconsin), run by a family from northern Illinois. We’ve twice ridden their Northwoods Tour (Eagle River WI), as also their San Juan Islands (Washington State) tour. They do a great job with the logistics and we’ve met many like minded riders along the way. This is their Old World Wisconsin tour: starts in Madison, two nights in Whitewater, two nights in New Glarus, and two nights in Spring Green. If you know Southern Wisconsin, you know this is hilly territory!

The rain started as we were leaving McFarland. We had our cycling rain jackets on, tights over our bike shorts, and wool socks on with our bike sandals - so we were mostly ready. Jeff had dug out his booties, arm warmers and full-fingered bike gloves, but left them at home on the laundry room counter (along with his wallet!). It didn’t take long for me to realize that my 20-year old cycling rain jacket was no longer water resistant, and I got soaked through my layers. It was about 65 degrees, so not too cold, and thankfully not windy at all. We’ve had some terrific storms these past few weeks, but this was just steady rain, no thunder or lightning.

We rode through beautiful scenery on really good roads with very little traffic. After 24 miles we got to the food stop at a park in Cambridge. I’d been thinking of coffee shop instead, but the had the table under a shelter and it was actually quite pleasant to hang out there with about a half dozen riders (there are 90 registered riders but most were hanging out at breakfast when we left the hotel, and some were strapping their bikes to their cars having decided to sit today out I guess).

We left the food stop and headed down the Main Street of Cambridge - quiet on this early rainy Saturday morning, but fun to window shop the boutiques there. Doing so, we made our first navigational error of the day. They mark the turns with yellow paint which I can’t see from the back of the tandem. I have a plastic wrapped cue sheet in JT’s pocket so I generally know the name of the road for our next turn. We also have downloaded “Ride With GPS” and have the routes on our phones, but decided we didn’t need the turn by turn instructions. We turned around, and I pulled off my phone and found we were parallel to the route so it was easy to get back on course.

We rode along the shore of Lake Ripley, a beautiful cottage / resort area I didn’t know existed! Then through rolling hills, past pretty farms and into the town of Ft Atkinson. We got to Highway 12 and stopped, and I realized we’d missed another turn. We decided to detour into Downtown to find a cafe. I noticed a bike shop too, and suggested we stop there for a shopping excursion. There we bought a new rain jacket for me (I will get a lot of use out of it this week), a warmer shirt for JT (he thought it was too expensive, but I insisted … his rain jacket is working well, but he just had a short sleeved Jersey under it), and warm gloves for JT. We left our bike chained there and walked to a cafe I’d spied: Scottie’s Eat-Mor. Our kind of dive! There were about 12 stools at the counter, where 10 heads swiveled to stare at us as we walked in out of the rain wearing bike helmets covered with those disposable shower caps that we take from hotels (our secret weapon when riding in the rain!). We peeled off our wet layers and squeezed into the remaining two stools. The waitress, Jackie, was a hoot. A women of few words, and many facial expressions! Randy was the talented, multi-tasking cook. We saw that the portions were huge, so we tried to order a smaller sized meal, but one pancake was still more than I could eat! That was a great stop, and we were able to continue on after a nice break.

While in the diner, I researched how to get us back on course, and saw that the route was a bike trail just the other side of the bike store. We collected our bike, and then began to see a few other cyclists with orange tags identifying them as part of our group. We rode a few miles on the Glacial River Bike Trail, and it was really beautiful! Awesome sculptures and landscaping - raining too hard for photos though, we’ll have to go back!

Back out to country roads, about 10 miles of mostly gentle up and down until we reached the hotel in Whitewater. We’re at a Baymont Inn - not glamorous, but the front desk lady was friendly and helpful, offering old towels for people to wipe down their bikes. We collected our bags and brought them to the room - then back for the bike, carrying it up the stairs to our second floor room. We cleaned it up, and cleaned ourselves up. The hotel has a hot tub, but it’s out of order so I soaked a bit in the tub in our room. Felt fantastic!

We’d arrived at the hotel just before 1pm, so had lots of time to relax! Jeff walked to the hardware store, and when he came back he reported the rain had stopped and the crew was setting up the 4pm Happy Hour at the UHaul van. We went out and grabbed a beer and met a few more people. Just after 5 we were ready for dinner, and I suggested we walk the 1.5 miles down to a brew pub that had a good dinner menu. Along the way, we met Mary-Claire and Roger, and struck up a conversation with them. We walked quickly and were soon at the brew pub, so they joined us for dinner and we continued the conversation. They live in Delaware, and this is their first PAWs ride, although they have friends that have recommended the rides. They were really interesting and have done some awesome adventure, including a 10-Country Self-Supported European tour last year! Dinner was good, and we decided to walk back versus jumping on the shuttle bus they were running. Whitewater has a UW campus, and it seems this is the slow time between Spring and a summer session - town seemed quite, and just a few frat houses seemed occupied - one with kids outside playing Beer Pong. For some reason, it felt like TRAM to me (might have been the school bus shuttle), and I felt nostalgic for those fun times riding across Minnesota and searching for dinner in a small town.

We have a Culver’s just down the road, so JT and I deviated there for a small concrete mixer. We returned to our room for some cribbage before bed time.

51.6 miles, 1843 elevation gain

3 hours, 45 minutes of riding time (5 hours elapsed time)

[shahananasrin-blog]

[ad_1] A representational image of a young alligator. — AFP/FileA rare event took place in Florida where a woman reported to have stolen an alligator for taking pictures on her birthday to make it a memorable moment of her life and left it in a bathtub of a hotel where she was staying.Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission maintained that the alligator was taken from a place where the woman Madison Stephan previously worked. The event was reported in which it was stated that an FWC officer was dispatched to the Grove Resort and Water Park in Winter Garden after the Orange County Sheriff's Office requested assistance in dealing with a young alligator that Stephan was keeping inside the hotel bathroom.The woman told the authorities that she was employed at Croc Encounters in Tampa and "borrowed" the alligator without permission to bring to the hotel to take pictures with it for her birthday.According to the officials, she went to the wildlife facility before it opened and used the keys she still had to nab the alligator. She came back to the hotel and put it in the bathtub.The woman’s friend told officials that Stephan "had a surprise for her" upon driving to Croc Encounters and snatching the alligator, the incident report noted.The alligator was cold to the touch from being inside the cold water in the bathtub, the report quoted, citing FWC officials as saying.Officials also talked to the owner of Croc Encounters, who confirmed that Stephan was an employee there, but not anymore.The owner stated that she was not an authorised person to be on the property or take the alligator. Moreover, he declined to pursue charges of theft or trespassing. Stephan was issued a notice to appear in court for possession of the alligator. [ad_2]

[heyscroller]

Man geht nicht zum Feiern ins Sun Valley

In den letzten Jahren haben Amerikas Top-Skigebiete den Einsatz mit Fünf-Sterne-Hotels, Kooperationen mit Luxusmarken an den Hängen und Außenposten teurer Großstadtrestaurants in der ganzen Stadt erhöht. Aber manchmal wird die Madison Avenue-in-the-Mountains-Atmosphäre ermüdend und ein altmodischer Skiausflug ist angesagt. Letzten Winter ging ich also nach Sun Valley. Das Resort in Idaho war seit…

[whatsyourghoststory]

Updates on Endangered Locations: Mineola Resort (Fox Lake, IL) & The Wonder Bar (Madison, WI)

Check out the Mineola Resort in Fox Lake, IL & The Wonder Bar in Madison, WI are two haunted Mafia-connected buildings with uncertain futures.

[spidermaninlove]

Tomdaya Holiday Baecation

1. I had no idea what the Madison Club was until the morning of the deuxmoi post above. 

2.  When I saw the December 26 tweets below about Tom’s pit stop in “moval,” which is an abbreviation for Moreno Valley, I assumed he was en route to the Palm Springs area (La Quinta is just 18 miles from Palm Springs) and would be staying in a nearby hotel or resort frequented by celebs such as The Parker or La Quinta Resort & Club.  I never dreamed he would stay in a private residential community such as The Madison Club.

3.  Whoever submitted the tomdaya sightings to deuxmoi also spotted Meghan, Harry, Kylie, and Phil Knight.  I had no clue who Phil Knight was until I Googled him. 

4.  Their baecation was confirmed today by photos of Tom and Z together at The Madison Club on New Year’s Eve. 

Exhibit A

Exhibit B

Exhibit C

The Madison Club on New Year’s Eve 

Source (slide 2)

As you can see in Exhibits A, B, and C, the white chairs are the same

So there ya have it, folks.  I may be clueless about the lifestyles of the rich and famous, but the evidence doesn’t lie.

[tcm]

Doris Day Was Far More Than Virginal By Susan King

Oscar Levant once quipped: “I knew Doris Day before she was a virgin.”

The actor-composer-pianist-writer starred with Day in her first film, ROMANCE ON THE HIGH SEAS (‘48), in which she played a bubbly singer. And it is true that she played 30-something-year-old virgins beginning with PILLOW TALK (‘59), the first film she made with Rock Hudson. But Levant’s comment diminishes the former band singer’s accomplishments as an actress and ignores the fact that her characters were quite modern and progressive. In fact, you could call her an early feminist.

During her “Golden Age,” which I define as between LOVE ME OR LEAVE ME (‘55) and SEND ME NO FLOWERS (‘64), she played successful career women at a time when there weren’t that many being portrayed on screen. In the George Abbott-Stanley Donen cotton candy-colored musical THE PAJAMA GAME (‘57), she’s a worker in a pajama factory, a member of the union leadership who doesn’t take any guff from her bosses. In the delightful romantic comedy TEACHER’S PET (‘58), she’s a successful journalist and college professor; in PILLOW TALK, a flourishing interior decorator; and two years later in LOVER COME BACK (‘61), she goes toe to toe with Hudson as a rival Madison Avenue ad executive. And, in the often-neglected comedy IT HAPPENED TO JANE (‘59), she’s a widowed mother of two who takes on the meaner-than-mean head of a railroad (Ernie Kovacs) when the company causes the death of 300 lobsters she was shipping.

Day’s characters were also incredibly feisty. In PILLOW TALK, the only film for which she received a Best Actress Oscar nomination, she learns that the man she’s fallen for, the shy handsome Texas Rex Stetson, is actually the womanizing composer she shares her party phone line with, so she redesigns his apartment into a gaudy mess reflecting his lothario ways. Speaking of lothario, Day’s leading men often played long-term bachelors-serial daters, like Clark Gable in TEACHER’S PET and Cary Grant in THAT TOUCH OF MINK (‘62). Her characters fall in love with them but won’t become their latest conquests. It’s actually the men who succumb to her charms and give up their womanizing ways when they fall in love with her.

Still, the virgin quote harmed her legacy. “People don’t take her seriously,” said former L.A. Times film critic Kenneth Turan in 2012. “It was a lifetime battle for Marilyn Monroe to be taken seriously; that was a battle she won. Audrey Hepburn was taken seriously. People are reluctant to take Doris Day seriously. It’s too bad.” Cari Beauchamp, a film historian and writer who specializes in the history of women in film, told me in 2012 that when she talks to people about Day “they tend to say she played the girl next door. And you look at her movies, particularly at the time of those films and she wasn’t the girl next door. She always had a backbone.”

Day was a popular singer with Les Brown and His Band of Renown, scoring her first No. 1 in 1945 with “Sentimental Journey.” Hollywood soon came knocking on her door, and she answered in the Warner Bros.’ Technicolor musical ROMANCE ON THE HIGH SEAS, directed by Michael Curtiz, in which she introduced the Best Song Oscar nominee “It’s Magic.” Not only was she adorable and a breath of fresh air, Day seemed totally at ease in her big screen bow.

“I wanted to be in films,” she told me in 2012. “I wasn’t nervous. I just felt ‘I’m here. I am supposed to be doing this.’ I was so lucky to have such terrific actors and directors. Everything was different and everything to me was great.”

Her films at Warner Brothers were a mixed bag. She got to demonstrate her dramatic chops reuniting with Curtiz for YOUNG MAN WITH A HORN (‘50), starring Lauren Bacall and Kirk Douglas. And I also loved the Booth Tarkington-inspired musical comedies ON MOONLIGHT BAY (‘51) and BY THE LIGHT OF THE SILVERY MOON (‘53). Turan loves her musical-comedy CALAMITY JANE (‘53), in which she has a field day as the famed Wild West heroine, because “her energy is kind of irrepressible.” Day also introduced the Oscar-winning song, “Secret Love” in the freewheeling classic.

But she really came into her own when she went to MGM to do the musical drama LOVE ME OR LEAVE ME, in which she gave a tour de force performance as torch singer Ruth Etting, who has a particularly volatile marriage to a gangster (James Cagney). But she was totally ignored by the Academy and the Golden Globes. The film was nominated for six Oscars, winning for Best Motion Picture Story, with only Cagney, brilliant as Marty “the Gimp” Snyder, getting nominated for his performance.

Turan described LOVE ME OR LEAVE ME as a “provocative film. It almost defines a kind of thing that you would say: Doris Day would never do something like that. But when we say that we are thinking of the cliché Doris Day, not thinking of the actual actress who made interesting choices and interesting films.” Day also counted the hit, directed by Charles Vidor, as a career highlight. “I really loved working with Jim,” she said of Cagney, who had previously appeared with her in the disappointing THE WEST POINT STORY (‘50). “The wonderful thing is that when you have someone like him to play opposite, it’s very exciting. You just feel so much from a man like that.”

She didn’t do research into Etting’s life but went by the script and “just how I felt and what I listened to. You react. It was so well-written. It just comes out of you. I don’t know how to explain it.” But it probably wasn’t hard. Like Etting, who endured abuse at the hands of her husband, the four-time married Day was mercilessly beaten by her one husband, musician Al Jordan, the father of her only child, Terry Melcher.

Mastering drama and musicals, Day was also a fabulous comedian. Just look at her expression when Gable, as a seasoned newspaper editor, kisses her for the first time in TEACHER’S PET. She crosses her eyes and is literally weak in the knees. Or when she realizes in THAT TOUCH OF MINK that Grant wants her to share his bed when they go to a resort. It’s brilliant. And of course, she and Hudson had a chemistry few actors get to share on screen. Ironically, Day admitted she didn’t know who Hudson was when they were cast together in PILLOW TALK, even though he had been a major star for most of that decade and earned an Oscar nomination for GIANT (‘56). “Isn’t that amazing?,” she said laughing. “I thought he was just starting out. I didn’t know about the films he had made. I just loved working with him. We laughed and laughed.”

The quality of her films declined after SEND ME NO FLOWERS. Her third husband and manager, Marty Melcher, put her in poorly received comedies such as DO NOT DISTURB (‘65) and CAPRICE (‘67). He squandered her money and signed her up to do the CBS sitcom The Doris Day Show without her knowledge before his death in 1968. The series ran from 1968 to 1973.

After the series, Day went to Carmel, co-owned a pet friendly hotel there and concentrated on animal welfare. In 1985-86, she did the pet-forward TV talk show Doris Day and Friends, best remembered for guest Rock Hudson, who was suffering from AIDS. She admitted Hollywood never lured her out of retirement. “No one really said that – ‘Oh, come back.’ I was just here.’”

[natromanxoff]

19 - The Dynamic Duo V Montreux

Hello folks. I was sitting around twiddling my thumbs and I thought I would give the old hard drive a clean up, so before I dump a load of rubbish I thought I'd better answer these before I throw everything in the recycle bin. Let's start with a lady from New Jersey who goes by the name of Dorothy who gave me a very interesting offer for the next time I'm in New York. If you're reading this Dorothy, could you send Jacky your email address so I can reply to you. I've just opened up a "secret" Hotmail account so I can send replies without pestering the lovely Mrs Smith all the time, and to test it I went to the guestbook and picked a few names at random. Maybe I should reply to the irate drummer, but if I do that he'll just reply to me and the girls in the office will miss out on laughing at him as well. Staying with the skin bashers for a mo, Ron Hansen in Madison is a drummer, and said he liked my jokes and reckons Mr Irate uses three sticks, two in his hands and one up his arse (his words not mine). Would I be correct in saying your a Zep fan Ron? Today's question is, "What do you get if you cross a drummer with a roadie?" The answer is a stupid roadie.

Moving on, last time around I mentioned a drink which we consumed in Brazil, and the charming Sonia and Dina informed me it was called Caipirinha, and a pleasant little tipple it was to. Somewhere in Australia there is a lady called Karen who is listening to the Offspring CD non-stop, so I'm gonna have to try and answer her question as she has such great musical tastes, even though she wants to know the..........(flashing lights, fireworks, drum roll) Hoover Salesman Story. ARGHHHH. Its actually a very short tale, and I think it's quiet boring but it seems to have grown in stature over the years, and as always I'm gonna drag it out and start from the first skiing expedition that I ventured on with RT.

Having checked my trendy little biog mag, I reckon the year is 1980, and the dynamic duo are in Montreux putting the finishing touches to Fun in Space and we have a few days off before a tour starts in Zurich when Rog says, "Let's go skiing." He had skied a few times before and was ok at it, but I had never put a pair of skis on in my life. I said, "Lets go, but you ski and I'll just get pissed." He then went on about what a buzz it is and how I would love it, etc. As we were touring soon our American crew had to fly out, so I called up Jim Devenney and told him to come over a couple of days earlier cause we were gonna ski. Jim is a great skier and was on the first flight available and I picked him up at Geneva airport ready for some fun. That night we hit the town and have too many drinks and Rog goes off to bed semi early, while Jim and myself sat out on the jetty of Duckingham Palace with a ghetto blaster, Derek and Clive tapes, and a vat of wine singing disgusting songs at full blast, which must have echoed over to France. Suddenly we hear a French voice screaming at us and we have no idea what he was saying so we carried on goofing around, and the next thing I hear is a huge splash as Devenney falls in.

Let me assure you that a drunk trying to get a drunk out of Lake Geneva is not an easy task, but we succeed and head back to DP and retire to our rooms. I'd just got into bed when I hear a crash and go to investigate, only to find JD had gone in the wrong room and was trying to get into a baby's cot, and getting him out of there was harder than getting him of the lake.

Next day Roger, Dave Richards, his wife Collette, Jim and myself set off to Zermatt, and on arrival we stock up on skis, passes and other skiing paraphernalia (big words now!) Dinner, drinks and off to bed. Next morning we're up and ready to go, and thinking I'll never ski again after this I refuse to waste money on a ski suit, so I wear jeans. My second wrong move, the first was agreeing to go. The hotel owner wouldn't let us leave the hotel without first drinking a couple of Sambuccas, not my idea of a good breakfast, eggs, bacon, tea, toast and Italian liqueurs, but who are we to refuse. Next I've got to try and walk in those godamn boots, and we eventually arrive at the top of the Matterhorn.

The OK skiers, RT and Dave set off on their own, Collette begins a very slow trip down while JD tells me he'll stay and teach me. On go the skis, and down I go, flat on my arse. Up I get and I'm off, for all of about 2ft before I'm down again. This is not any fun. After a couple more tumbles my great mate Jim said, "If you're gonna f*** around I'm going." And thats the last I saw of him all day. Thanks pal. I'm standing there watching people ski and think, "It can't be that hard. If you stand like this, lean like that, you can ski." So I stand and lean in the correct positions and I'm away, screeching down a mountain with only one very small problem, I have no idea how to turn or stop, so as I'm flying past Collette, and she reckons I looked very worried, I yelled for some advice and all she said was, "DIVE." Sound advice, so thats what I do, and by now I'm getting wet. I wait for her and then we set off together, the blind leading the blind, with me diving at the slightest bit of speed or bend in the piste. A million years later we eventually reach the bottom of this awful slope and it's finally over. Wrong. Theres a T-bar to get on so we wait in line till it's our turn. You're supposed to put the bar just under your bum and it drags you up, but I'm 6ft and Collettes about 5ft 5in, so the bar was either in the middle of her back or around my knees, and no one told me not to sit on the f***ing thing and we bounced around for a while until we fell off. I'm now getting really pissed off with all this, "Get me a helicopter," I demanded from Collete. She told me they don't just send them, you have to be hurt. I replied with, "I'll break my f***ing arm but I've gotta get off this mountain." Realising I'm not getting a copter I light a ciggie and ponder.

We agree to split up and go with someone our own height, so I ended up with a great German guy who was really helpful. Once on the T-bar I can see that it goes way up and I would have to ski back down to base camp, and in case you've forgotten, I can't ski, so I said that I was gonna bail out, and jumped off. I then head of in a straight line to the cable car, skis on the shoulder and wading through 3ft of snow in a pair of very heavy and very cold jeans. What seemed like hours of wading I make civilisation and head to the bar for a triple strength coffee and a triple scotch while everyone gawked at me cause I looked like I had a shower fully clothed. Yeah, I wanna do this again.

Dinner that night was great fun for the others cause they got to take the piss out of me. Their day will come. The rest of the nights activities shall remain sealed away, but a good time was had by one and all. The tour went smoothly and I try and put Zermatt behind me, except Collette, still to this day, takes great delight in telling everyone about it, and everytime she says it she makes me look more and more pathetic.

The next winter appears and I'm at home and the phone rings, "CT, wanna go skiing?" To which my reply was nothing like, "Oh I'd love to you fabulous little drummer boy." I can't believe he talked me into it again, but this time we were gonna do things correctly and go to Aviemore in Scotland and take lessons, this was the saving factor in his plan. So once again we pile into the Range Rover and aim north. We split the driving (for a change) and had a good journey up through the snow covered mountains till we get to the resort. A usual night was on the cards, dinner, drinks and bed, then up bright and early for some lessons and a good day on the slopes. This time we've both got the correct outfits so we head off to where our little group of idiot skiers are. We're all standing in a line, with Rog and me at the end, and each person gets to snow-plough a few feet. These clowns have less idea than my first try, and it's also incredibly cold and we've now got icicles hanging off our hair. It's our turn and we both look like olympic champions, but the only thing wrong with getting it right the first time is that the instructor then turns his attentions back to the start of the line. Here I am once again standing on the top of a mountain, freezing cold with two 'things' stuck on the end of a pair of stupid boots, and I inform His Royal Highness that the next trip away involves sand and sun, no excuses, end of argument. RT agreed that this wasn't much fun and thought my idea worth considering.

We finally heard the two magic words, "Lunch Break." We're gone in search of some good HOT food and a nice beaujolais, and we found both. We also found that the hotel bar had an amazing selection of whisky, and we had to try as many as possible. We're now semi pissed and decide that as we're warm we might as well go back to this lesson even though we are very late, and the instructor looked at us and said, "Where have you two been?" Rog came back with "Trying lots of your wonderful scotch's." He was fine with that answer and we carried on trying to learn something, and would you believe by the end of the day I could actually turn and stop.

Back to the hotel for a nap before dinner. Over a very nice meal and a couple of little drinkettes we agree that it's far to cold here and we'll clear off the next day, so into the bar we go with our earlier mission of trying all the scotch's. We were sitting at a table chatting away and cracking jokes with each other and end up talking to the couple on the next table, swapping skiing stories, needless to say mine were very short, and having a bit of a laugh, when the woman said, "What do you two do for a living?" God knows why, but I said; "We're Hoover salesmen." At first they didn't believe us but we both started going on about the difference between domestic and industrial cleaners, uprights, backpack types, ones you pull along the floor. We went on about the different wattage, suction power, the amount of pressure on Axminsters and Wilton carpets, even a couple of car expressions like overhead this and thats. What the hell do we know about vacuum cleaners? But boy are we good at this. After about 30 mins of utter bullshit the subject finally changed and they wished us all the best with our door to door salesmanship and off they went to bed. We then had to reassure each other what we actually did for a living, had some more drinks and tried to work out how we knew so much about cleaners as both of us have spent most of our lives trying to stay well away from them. We spent the drive back to London having a good laugh about the one day we spent in a Scottish ski resort.

Well that's it folks, the story of a small company, R & C Taylor,..... Hoover Salesmen. I did learn to ski quite well, and whilst in Gstadd doing the Shove it album Spike flew out cause he fancied learning to ski, and the fool asked me to teach him. I wasn't much help because everytime he fell over I burst out laughing cause I kept seeing myself in Zermatt, and Spike looked just as worried and stupid as I did.

Before I go I noticed that Jacky had to get her boiler fixed and said for me not to make a comment, but little things like that spark me off and I remembered that when we were recording in the Townhouse Studios I had a little, no a big affair with the studio chef. Every three months Virgin would do a magazine for all their staff, written by all the heads of various departments, airlines, studios, video, shops, films, etc. and they would say what was going on with their particular section. Alan Douglas, who was chief engineer of all Virgin studios wrote who was recording where, and he wrote, "Queen are in studio 4, and Crystal, their main man is stoking the kitchen boiler." I thought that was hilarious, but Jane went ballistic. That's it for now.

Loadsa luv Crystal (Carpet cleaner to the stars)

[myneurodiverseblog]

Intro

I'm Nikolas and my pronouns are he/him/his: they/them/theirs.

I was born in Evanston, Illinois but I was adopted, grew up, and was raised in Chicago for the past 17 years of my life.

I was diagnosed with Autism Level III at 3.5 years old in 2004, but with OT, PT, Water Therapy, Music & play Therapy, HippoTherapy, and Sensory Integration Therapy; My progression significantly increase to where I am now still diagnosed with Level II Autism having Asperger's Syndrome. In addition, I also have ADHD, Anxiety, and Tourette's Syndrome. I also am Unilaterally Hard of Hearing due to my severe upper respiratory Illnesses at an early age & struggle with IBS. I am an openly Transgender Male and I am currently three weeks post-op from masculinizing top surgery (Masculinizing Total Bilateral Mastectomy). I have medically transition now for three years and socially transitioned for four and a half years now.

I am currently a student at Southern Illinois University Carbondale studying Hospitality and Tourism Event Management/Admin. as my major & a minor in Music Business. I plan to continue on with a Master's in Entertainment & hope to take my career as a full-time Country Music Singer-Songwriter along with also working in between managing and improving hotels and resort areas/venues across the United States.

When I am not studying or working around the house I love filming my Youtube Videos, Posting on Instagram and Twitter, and watching Saturday Night Live on Peacock. When I am not on social media, I enjoy cooking, cleaning, Playing on my Nintendo DS Lite, and online shopping. I also enjoy finding auditions, attending casting calls, and dancing/singing.

Some of my favorite videogames are Pokemon Generations 1-7; Super Mario 64, Kirby 64, Sonic Heroes, Donkey Kong 64, Donkey Kong Country Returns, Kirby's Dream Land Deluxe, Super Smash Bros, Mortal Kombat, Mario Kart, Mario Party, Banjo and Kazooie, Ratchet and Clank, Crash Bandicoot, Legend of Zelda, and any vintage game known to man.

Some of my favorite musicians are Keith Urban, Green Day, Weezer, Fall Out Boy, Rascal Flatts, PATD, TOP, Foo Fighters, Kirk Franklin, Tauren Wells, Nirvana, Luke Combs, Eric Church, Zac Brown Band, Jason Aldean, Brad Paisley, Keith Whitley, Chris Young, Kane Brown, Carrie Underwood, Miranda Lambert, Jon Pardi, Lady A, Jimmie Allen, Granger Smith, Mitchell Tenpenny, Russell Dickerson, Carly Pearce, Colt Ford, Nappy Roots, Lecrae, Cory Asbury, Lauren Daigle, Ryan Upchurch, Merkules, Jelly Roll, Brantley Gilbert, and many more.

My favorite foods include Sushi Maki, Pho, Vietnamese Springrolls, Chicken Tenders, French Fries, Cheese Pizza, Watermelon Sorbet, Thai Boba Tea, Matcha Boba Tea, Starbucks Vanilla Bean Frappuccino, Caesar Salad, Kale Chips, Gnocci, Candy (Non-Chocolate) Steak Tacos, and my mom's meatloaf.

My favorite holiday is Christmas, and Thanksgiving *(planning a cheap Disney Trip I found for thanksgiving for only $653 dollars for five days). I would also count the entire summer but there are several holidays within the seasonal calendar.

My favorite movies include the Studio Ghibli Anime Movies, Cars, Toy Story 1&2, Finding Nemo, Monster's Inc, Tommy Boy, Caddyshack, Dirty Dancing, Breakfast Club, Star Wars (Episodes V-VII) Footloose, Ghostbusters (1984), Top Gun, Home Alone 1&2, Happy Gilmore, Big Daddy, Billy Madison, Mr. Deeds, Anchorman 1&2 and Tarzan.

My Birthday is February 18th and my sign is Pisces, my moon sign is a Capricorn, and my rising is in Virgo.

I would love to discuss more myself, however, this post is myself in an eggshell. I am super excited to see what each of you post, and I hope you get to know me as well

[theinsiderrp]

THE CALLOWAY RESORT: JULY 2021 JULY 3RD - JULY 17TH.

You have been invited to the opening of the calloway resort based on the french polynesian island of bora bora. An invitation has been extended to every student at the top 5 talent academies to stay at the hotel for two weeks as part of a PR deal with Gerald Calloway & the hotel itself.

THE DEAL 

two weeks of fun, luxury living and paradise in exchange for constant posting on your social media feeds, working with PR managers to get the word about the hotel out there and causing a general stir amongst the general public. keep all eyes on you for these two weeks and you’ll be paid well! anybody not pulling their weight and holding their end of the deal will be sent home.  you will be given things to do via the insider, told to post certain things and also given PR dates/hang outs that will be reported on the insider. the key is this; PEOPLE CANNOT KNOW IT’S FAKE. we want the island to seem glamorous, exciting and scandalous. if people are just admitting to being fake, it’s going to ruin the illusion. 

ROOMMATES

VILLA 1 - Everleigh, Zara, Jayde, Issy & Arabella VILLA 2 - Winona, Lacey, Riley, Remy  & Margaret VILLA 3 - Blair, Mina, Isla, Cameron & Darius VILLA 4 - Kun woo, Daveed, Owen, Anthony & Sangwoo VILLA 5 - Phoenix, Madison, Amber, Natalie & Vanessa VILLA 6 - Soraya, Christelle, Hensley, Poppy & Athena VILLA 7 - Delilah, Sawyer, Elodie, Natasha & Eloise VILLA 8 - Lorelai, Elora, Rosalie, Felicity & Alyssa VILLA 9 - Drew, Blake, Kyle, Dom & Levi VILLA 10 - Ezra, Rory, Oliver, Mason & Trystan VILLA 11 - Sienna, Tate, Philip, Nero & Scarlett VILLA 12 - Brielle, Imogen, Evie, Yulia & Lexi VILLA 13 - Otis, Seo Jun, Julian, Jude & Garrett VILLA 14 - Tanner, Lucas, Nate, Harvey & Duyi VILLA 15 - Maria, Ava, Mackenzie, Janey & Annabel VILLA 16 - Jack, Danny, Jackson, Felix & Joe VILLA 17 - Ivy, Alani, Jiwon, Quinn & Persephone VILLA 18 - Florence, Clover, Holly & Eleanor VILLA 19 - Charlie, Naira, Zelda, Leo & Yannis VILLA 20 - Brody, Park, Wesley & Marcus VILLA 21 - Mallory, Kobi, Ruby & Roxy VILLA 22 - Hanuel, Louis, Kristofer, Bash & Luke VILLA 23 - Adrian, Dallas, Dwight, Matt & Clyde VILLA 24 - Margo, Disney, Kendall & Gisele 

[myhauntedsalem]

Mount Washington Hotel Bretton Woods, NH

This hotel and resort in Bretton Woods is located inside a 1902 Spanish Renaissance building and is considered a Historic Hotel of America. Room #314 is said to be a paranormal hot spot inside the hotel, which is rumored to be haunted by Carolyn Stickney, the wife of the original owner. Haunting reports have occurred ever since her death, and her ghost has been seen wandering the halls, brushing her hair on the end of the bed in Room #314 and some have claimed to see her walk through the walls. Another female spirit is said to haunt Room #206 and is not a very nice ghost, and phantom babies crying have been heard coming from the Madison Room.