Jane Kean (1923–2013)

The actress and singer Jane Kean has died at the age of ninety. She played Trixie Norton in The Jackie Gleason Show revival of The Honeymooners. The New York Times has an obituary.

One detail that the Times omits: Jane Kean was the voice of Belle in Mister Magoo’s Christmas Carol. Which might not sound like much, but it means that Kean sang the Bob Merrill and Jule Styne song “Winter Was Warm.”

In 2007, Joyce Randolph, the original Trixie Norton, was the subject of a lovely Times article.

Found in my mother’s kitchen

“I got tired of trying to find the end all the time”: masking-tape hack by Louise Leddy. That’s part of a toothpick at the tape’s end. I’ve pulled the tape away to show the workings.

Thanksgiving 1913

[“No Hungry Ones on Thanksgiving Day: Turkey Served in Prisons, Missions, Hospitals, and Lowly Tenements. Zelaya Dined in Tombs. Alimony Club Feasted in Jail, but the Down-and-Outs Fared as Well.” The New York Times, November 28, 1913.]

My 2012 Thanksgiving post also dropped in at the Ludlow Street Jail. Ephemeral New York has the dope on the Alimony Club.

Happy Thanksgiving to all.

Previous Thanksgiving posts
A found letter : A 1917 greeting card : Competitive eating, 1911 : Sing Sing, 1908 : Sing Sing, 1907

[Zelaya? See this article.]

A Thanksgiving essay

“The worst Thanksgiving I had came two days after they sliced me open, belly to pubic line, and the surgeon, coming to see me in recovery said, ‘We got most of it’”: Joyce Wadler, writing in The New York Times about a holiday, an illness, and mortality. No expiration date, but this essay is best read today: Bad Thanksgiving.

A joke from my dad

How did Samuel Clemens do all his long-distance traveling?

I think you already know the answer.

A related post
A joke for the day

Paterfamilias repurposing

My dad too likes to repurpose household items as “supplies.” These paper-clip cups once capped shaving-cream cans.

My dad continues on the mend. Please send good vibrations his way.

Orange Crate Art repurposings
Bakeware : Box flap : Dish drainer : Doorstop : Tea tin

Progress, slow, and more of it

About yesterday’s post: my dad Jim is in the hospital. After many difficult days, he is making slow progress, and more of it every day. Please send good vibrations his way. Thanks.

My dad’s most recent Orange Crate Art appearance took the form of a seasonally-themed joke. There are many other appearances. Just search for dad or James Leddy or Jim.

Making Slow Progress

Many things to work on. Key word: Progress. Adjective: Slow.

Postcard available from Hold the Mustard Photo Cards.

November 22, 1963

[Photograph by Art Rickerby. From the Life Photo Archive.]

I remember being let out of school early (second grade). I remember standing in the doorway between my brother’s bedroom and mine and being aware that everything was now sad in a way that was beyond any previous sadness. And I remember seeing Lee Harvey Oswald shot on television — that is what’s most vivid. What do you remember?

The Margaret Mary Vojtko story

L. V. Anderson looks into “what really happened to Margaret Mary Vojtko” and concludes that “better benefits and job security would not have altered many of the personal factors that precipitated Vojtko’s crisis.” Even so, Anderson says, the use of adjunct labor in higher education is “a scourge.”

A related post
Death of an adjunct