Escape into hats

Since my Christopher Guest film festival is waiting for the next offering, Princess Bride, to come in to the library, I thought I'd branch out into the frivolous (!)

Royal stuff.  Mainly about the 1936 excitement of the English  abdication when the King wanted to marry Mrs. Simpson.  There's a lot of constitutional history wound into this, and the second World War plays a role in the real life version, but the movies don't usually get into that very deeply.

No, we're in it for the hats.  At least I am.  Wallis' clothes are wonderful, and the interiors, and the cars, and the men's fashions, even, since Edward was a bit of a clotheshorse, too.  So this is my critical analysis and comparison and contrast of these three major artworks, and their production values. Or something. Hot chocolate may be involved.

I think I already saw Wallis and Edward on YouTube, but never mind. Anyway, if I have time in the evenings, I'll be watching them.  My evenings seem to get used up with reading and emailing and spinning and messaging and keeping in touch with people, and various other things.

Including baking.  In honor of the upcoming Thanksgiving, I baked a dozen pumpkin cupcakes.  Just the usual old banana bread recipe, only cooked and mashed pumpkin substituted for the bananas. Jury's out on these. The pumpkin may work best in soup.

The flavor is not as good as the sweet potato, but the texture works okay.  I think Handsome Son will like them, because they're not too sweet, since the sweetness of the banana was absent.  And, for once, I omitted inclusions, since I have walnuts in the house and I'm saving them to use in the Giant Cookie for Thanksgiving Day, whichever day that turns out to be for us.

He's working on the day itself, as usual, so we'll just fit in wherever we can.  I hope it's not Monday, since the cleaners are coming that morning, but even if it is, I expect we'll manage. And there will be a clean house, no matter which day we celebrate, always a Good Thing tm.

I said a dozen, and eagle eyed readers will note that there's one missing. That's the cook's privilege, first try.  Usually eaten too hot, can't wait.

Still reading Maisie Dobbs, yet another.  This one A Lesson in Secrets is excellent, and I hadn't read this one before, a plus right there. It's set in Cambridge University, and involves not only the Secret Service and the police force, but the powers of academia, too, all very complex and interwoven.