697 Comments
author

It’s one of my personal fave Christmas movies, “The Lion in Winter.” Read about it here: https://open.substack.com/pub/martiniambassador/p/the-lion-in-winter

Expand full comment
Dec 22, 2023Liked by Martini Glambassador

My personal favorite first scene of a movie, with fantastic music!

Expand full comment
Dec 22, 2023Liked by Martini Glambassador

somebody mentioned this movie yesterday (i think) as i was musing about what movie to watch after i finish The Desk Set on xmas eve, and it was perfect! an entire evening with Katherine Hepburn!

Expand full comment
Dec 22, 2023Liked by Martini Glambassador

Not only my favorite Christmas movie, but one of my all-time favorite movies.

Court Theater in Chicago did "The Lion in Winter" this fall. A wonderful production. The play is a bit different from the screenplay, but both are magnificent.

Expand full comment
Dec 22, 2023Liked by Martini Glambassador

I love this movie! It’s such an underrated part of the Christmas movie canon.

Though: The first time I ever saw it was in 7th grade history class, and I will admit that it was pretty amazing to watch my bright eyed, first year teacher’s soul slowly start to leave her body as Henry described his sexual conquests (particularly the bit about “little boys”). I’ve never seen someone move so quickly to turn the volume down on a television.

Expand full comment

I have never seen this movie and now you all are making me want to sit in front of the screen on a sunny day.

Expand full comment
author

LOL!

Expand full comment
Dec 22, 2023Liked by Martini Glambassador

OMG, I ❤️❤️❤️ that movie! 🥰 Thank you for choosing it!

Expand full comment
Dec 22, 2023Liked by Martini Glambassador

Row, row, row your boat......

Expand full comment
Dec 22, 2023Liked by Martini Glambassador

Some clever historian described that era as 'Your typical dysfunctional family, but with armies'.

Expand full comment

So, Ordinary People combined with Patton?

Expand full comment

"What family doesn't have its ups and downs?"

Expand full comment
founding

Henry II had three sons, and from the time they were teenagers one or more of them were in revolt against their father. Sometimes his wife, Eleanor of Aquitaine,

sided with them, sometimes with him. Nobility did not get to choose their spouses, because they all personally owned some bit of Europe and that bit got traded around with their lord. That is how, four centuries later, a member of the house of Hapsburg, Charles V, wound up owning most of the European continent, plus Spain's colonies in the New World and the Pacific, making him the single most wealthy and powerful human of the 16th Century.

Expand full comment

Charles of necessity had to be fluent in multiple languages. He said "Spanish is for speaking to God, Italian for speaking to your lover, French for speaking to your best friend, English for speaking to a business partner, German for speaking to a servant, and Polish for speaking to a horse or a dog."

Expand full comment
Dec 22, 2023Liked by Martini Glambassador

The solstice hit late last night (10:27 eastern). This is a perfect choice for the first full day of winter.

Expand full comment

Sounds like you need to celebrate with a nice little road trip, hon.

Expand full comment
Dec 22, 2023Liked by Martini Glambassador

Now I HAVE to watch it. We were just talking about this movie.

Expand full comment

oddly, I've been thinking about this movie lately as well

Expand full comment

I’m always thinking about this movie. Random dialogue just bubbles up unbidden in so many different situations.

Expand full comment

On the way to an SCA event years ago eight of us whiled away the long drive by reciting The Lion In Winter. Parts were more or less assigned but if anyone got stuck people would help out. Despite none of us knowing the movie by heart together we got about 90% of it in more or less the correct order.

Expand full comment

I know. You know I know. I know you know I know. We know Henry knows, and Henry knows we know it. We’re a knowledgeable family. 😏

Expand full comment
Dec 22, 2023Liked by Martini Glambassador
founding

Peter O'Toole in My Favorite Year, if I'm not mistaken.

Expand full comment

You are not mistaken.

Expand full comment

LOVE this film. Kate Hepburn tears it all down.

Expand full comment
Dec 22, 2023Liked by Martini Glambassador

Brilliant movie, so it is.

Expand full comment
author

Now you see that I had to BITE MY TONGUE when you were talking about it earlier this week because I'd already done the gif and didn't want to ruin the surprise. Anyway, you have exquisite taste in movies.

Expand full comment
Dec 22, 2023Liked by Martini Glambassador

I like the scene where he breaks through the ice in the bowl to wash his face.

Reminds me how comfortable I am.

Expand full comment
founding

Castles were cold, draughty places. Comfort was not invented for centuries. Peasants lived in shacks without window or chimneys, just a central open fire, and the smoke just rose until it filtered through the thatched roof. Insulation was not yet thought of.

Expand full comment
Dec 22, 2023Liked by Martini Glambassador

The Lion in question is Thornton, right?

Expand full comment
author

Yes, of course!

Expand full comment

"Does it matter how a man falls?"

"When the fall's all that's left, it matters."

Expand full comment

"especially at the end."

Expand full comment

Pffft

-Butch and/or Sundance

Expand full comment

No, that's: "The FALL will kill you!"

Expand full comment

Mark E Smith was a dangerous enemy to have.

Expand full comment
Dec 22, 2023Liked by Martini Glambassador

Big fav film!

Peter O’Toole was hot, hot, hot.

Full of great actors.

Expand full comment

Not to mention Timothy Dalton!

Expand full comment

Thornton looks amazingly like Kit Thornton in his latest FB post. Is there a familial relationship?

Expand full comment
founding

So glad Thornton is okay, looks like a sweet boy!

Expand full comment

Why would anyone want to attack North Korea? Their vast, untapped reserves of poverty and starvation?

Expand full comment

Notice Tiny D didn’t say he wished Trump hadn’t committed all the crimes.

Expand full comment

Xitter. Since the X is pronounced “sh” in Mandarin (I think-go with me here) I believe we can all get behind calling the site SHITTER now. Fits.

Glad that the kittles is happy and well. My new cat AKA the Orange Orca as my hubs has nicknamed her is getting to where she likes to wander around my desk on occasion. The Coops (Cooper) like to sit in the tall file cabinet. She came in and see that HE took the spot. Now the kitty bed in on the chair next to it while he’s top cat. They sit with me all day when I’m at the apartment office and crash on the bed at the house office. It’s nice to have company whilst you work.

Expand full comment

I'm glad your cat is ok. I like my cat to be near when I am writing too.

Expand full comment
Dec 22, 2023Liked by Rebecca Schoenkopf

Well, my nearly 4 year streak of not testing positive for covid was bound to end sooner or later. Though I could really wish not to have to isolate for Christmas, especially since I have kids young enough to only realize this year that Santa is mythological. Mr Demi developed symptoms Sunday, and youngest yesterday. Only eldest hasn't had any as yet.

Expand full comment

"Sad loser Ron DeSantis said, in an interview with Christian Broadcasting Network aired yesterday, “I would say if I could have one thing change, I wish Trump hadn’t been indicted on any of this stuff.”

So what you're saying is if Trump hadn't been indicted, people would want to vote for your policies of...hold on, it's around here somewhere. Oh yes. (sorry, the holidays and all. I've gotten REALLY slack in my housekeeping)

*checks notes*

"Woke bad and Disney is mean?"

Aww. Poor Meatball. Poor sad, deleuded Meatball.

Expand full comment
Dec 22, 2023·edited Dec 22, 2023

Well, he’d still have to deal with the fact that he’s an unlikeable asshole who smiles like Kaa from The Jungle Book.

Expand full comment

Kaa libel!

Kaa's cool. Meatball on the other hand is a creep in a human suit.

Expand full comment

Poor Thornton. Same thing happened to our senior kitty a few years ago, I just hadn't realized that can a problem for older kitties.

Expand full comment

Thornton is so handsome!

Expand full comment

Our cat Beaker, who looks a lot like Thornton, does the same thing sitting up next to the keyboard.

Expand full comment

Maybe the teaspoon of chipotle chili powder in my morning coffee was not, in fact, a brilliant idea.

Expand full comment

Depending on the capsaicin content, it might be good for arthritis. Double down on it!

Expand full comment

There are some ideas that should be researched a bit before you test them in the real world. That sounds like one of them, i.e., had you asked around, you would probably have been told that that is not the optimal use of chipotle chili powder.

Expand full comment

So you’re saying I should have gone with finding a bedroom use instead of a kitchen use?

Expand full comment

I suppose that depends on what you were planning to do there. I can't think of a use I make of my bedroom that would benefit from chipotle chili powder, but your kink may vary.

Expand full comment

“It was the biggest annual gain in nine years, with average fuel economy at 26 mpg”

It’s kind of funny that auto manufacturers can increase fuel efficiency when they need to stay competitive, isn’t it?

Expand full comment
Dec 22, 2023·edited Dec 22, 2023Liked by Rebecca Schoenkopf

Ahhhh. Simon and Garfunkel's seven o'clock news - that was on my first LP (round vinyl music thingey, for the youngs). I've told this story here before - my dad took 8-year old me to the music store to pick out my first LP (I had a lot of 45s), and though he wanted me to pick S&G's "Wednesday Morning AM" because it was the soundtrack for "The Graduate," but I wanted "Parsley Sage Rosemary and Thyme" because of the title track.

And I basically fell in love with the whole album, and still have that original copy.

The seven o'clock news one resonated strangely with the child I was. The VIet Nam War was just coming into my understanding of the world at large, and the anti-war movement, complete with Walter Cronkite's voice. And "Silent Night" was VERY familiar to me, as a child of a very musical family. The mix of the two chilled me and educated me.

And that might just be why I hang on to my vinyl, even though I haven't had my turntable hooked up for years.

Expand full comment

“Over a million sold” reminds me of part of a line a law school prof would say when emphasizing some point about something not being as unique as it is made out to be. His line was, in one rush of advertising-like words “Jeep Cherokee Limited Edition only a million sold.”

Expand full comment