Author Archives: therealtamara

For an opinionated woman such as I, blogging is an excellent outlet. This is one of many fori that I use to bloviate. Enjoy! Comment on my commentary.

Starring New York

What are your top ten favorite movies?

Top ten New York centric films are:

  • Annie Hall
  • Hannah and Her Sisters
  • Moonstruck
  • When Harry Met Sally
  • Breakfast at Tiffany’s
  • Goodfellas
  • Saturday Night Fever

Pause here before the final 3 plus 4 are announced. Bada Bing …

  • West Side Story [1961] & West Side Story (2022)
  • Rear Window
  • The Devil Wears Prada
  • Autumn in New York
  • Sunday in New York
  • Barefoot in the Park
  • The Way We Were

Some repetitions from my other favorites list are inevitable.

My home is

What do you love about where you live?

It’s a long list, that one that answers your question about what I love about where I live. Got some time?

  • The river is at my door;
  • There’s a playground less than a block in the other direction;
  • Convenience is on my corner: drugstores, groceries; coffee joints; restaurants;
  • There is also a school, a library, a barber, and a cleaner, all a short walk away;
  • Quirky stores that are original to my neighborhood;
  • My friends and neighbors;
  • And the person I love lives with me, too;
  • Buses and subways to take me in every direction.
Not this convenience necessarily
There’s a Starbucks under the scaffold
Cherokee Place is a special kind of landmark
Food and drink and quiet near to home
Our homes are also landmarks and special
The playground is a lovely place to sit
Or to play: if that’s your thing, grab a swing
Quirky. It’s a treat to pass the Tiny Doll House
Coffee and Frenchified goodies
My walk is full of decorations and flowers
It’s someone’s project to put up birdhouses
More coffee. More French goodies*
This is near enough to my house.
*Italian, too. See below. I’ve done a huge coffee quest just in my own neck of the woods.

Bad guests

Hosts are expected to be generous. In some cultures, generosity is taken to extremes. Praise an object in his home, and you are obliged to take it with you. Admire the jewelry box, and your hostess will make you pack it.

Hosts, even if not given to giving away their household items, might also generally be understanding when a guest makes a misstep.

It seems that guests around the world have ceased respecting local mores when traveling.

Apparently, some are stripping in the sunflower fields to send home a nude postcard. A woman recently stepped into a fountain to refill her water bottle.

Misbehaving is a temptation while we are vacationing. You want to let loose a little:

  • Maybe dance a little harder and longer
  • Be out in the sun past sundown
  • Dress less, or more if you are so inclined
  • Drink one [ I suggest just one] too many
  • Eat a little more but much more luxuriously
  • Get up earlier
  • Stay up later
  • Walk everywhere
  • Sit in a café half the evening
  • MIND YOUR MANNERS.

Reflection

Claire’s small is in a class by itself. Their outdoor street barn is expansive by comparison.

What brings you peace?

Peace is always linked to quiet. Guilt by association, I say. There can be noise, and one can still find peace.

The sound system was blaring Footloose and my feet and lower extremities could not help but bop along.

Today, I found peace at a tiny little itsy bitsy (you get the idea) café where good food and nice drinks are on the menu. I have said that veganism has made incursions into everyday life. We ordinary meat-and-potato eating folk can enjoy vegan grain bowls, too.

The cheese tastes like feta and has the texture of mozzarella and a little bit of its flavor as well. It’s such a bright white as to make me feel like it was sent from somewhere else. You might say heavenly.

Early morning java in a beautiful cup is also peaceful. And quiet this morning.

Architects

What profession do you admire most and why?

Sometimes… oh, it’s hard to choose, but for the purposes here, what’s better than an architect.

We had family friends who used to razz their son-in-law as Frank Lloyd Wrong. Even a wrong architect is a big deal in my books.

It’s like a page out of the Seinfeld script, in which George impersonated Art Vandelay out of pure admiration.