Lauren Bacall (1924-2014)

It’s official, amigos, the golden age of Hollywood glamour is gone forever with the passing of Lauren “Betty” Bacall today at the age of 89. Truly one of a kind, Bacall’s smoldering beauty lit up the screen for over 70 years but the thing she’ll probably most be remembered for is her voice. Oh, that voice!

I think my favorite Lauren Bacall movie is probably Key Largo, but I will always have a soft spot for that big ball of convulated craziness that is The Big Sleep. Even Raymond Chandler (who wrote the novel) used to joke that he couldn’t make heads or tails of that story. But when you’ve got a 19-year old Lauren Bacall making her screen debut opposite Humphrey-flicking-Bogart, who cares?! A true classic in every sense of the word!

I’m just glad old Betty finally got an Oscar before she died too. It might not have been the one she was hoping for — Bacall’s Best Supporting Actress loss to Juliette Binoche for The English Patient in 1996 is still considered one of the biggest upsets in Oscar history — but Bacall did take home a richly-deserved honorary Academy Award in 2009. So, rock on classy lady…and please give my regards to Bogey!

 

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Feliz Dia de los Muertos (2012)

Halloween pictures are coming, I promise! But, for now, wanted to share with you a picture I took of Greta yesterday while shopping for Pan de Muertos (Bread of the Dead) for our annual Day of the Dead fiesta. Greta has been unusually interested in the concept of death lately — the sudden death of one of our elderly neighbor’s husbands last week didn’t help — so, we weren’t sure if we were going to celebrate Dia de los Muertos this year, but, seeing as death is just another fact of life, we decided to celebrate as usual.

So, I cooked up some awesome Mexican food, built a little altar with assorted mementos from our dead relatives (cats too!) and celebrated their lives with candles, food, music and, of course, that delicious sugar-coated Pan de Muertos.

Yesterday was Greta’s fourth Dia de los Muertos and though I think she is finally starting to understand what the holiday is all about, something tells me that the awesome pink bread is her favorite part of the day. Hey, it’s a start. Happy Dia de los Muertos, amigos…