Death is a Debt

A surprisingly flip epitaph from Surry, NH:

In Memory of Miss
Lucina Willcox, who
Died May 7th, 1800,
Aged 20 years.
Death is a debt
By nature due;
I’ve paid my shot,
And so must you.

I very much enjoyed the movie “Paddington.”  It’s based on the popular series of novels about a bear from “darkest Peru” who comes to London and ends up living with a family on whom he wreaks havoc.  The movie is faithful to that basic plot – with additions.  I know technology is getting better and better, and that all sorts of magic can be performed on the silver screen.  But this was remarkable, because the special effects were not in support of huge explosions and creatures like elves and orcs.  Instead there was this young bear, about four feet tall, who walks upright and speaks English, who comes to stay with this perfectly ordinary English family living in a mostly-ordinary row house.  And the bear was just as believable as the humans.  It was extraordinary.

Here’s my own Father Hugh of Paddington advising the Queen at an SCA event back in 1980.

I went to a “blocking” rehearsal of “HMS Pinafore,” which is to open in early March in Minneapolis.  It took place in a big church basement, where about a third of the floor was marked off with tape in the shape of the stage where it is to be performed.  A chair or two and a long table on its side substituted for the big gun and a couple of capstans.  The scene rehearsed involved the entire company: the captain and his numerous crew, and the Lord Admiral with his many sisters and cousins and aunts.  They weren’t to just wander about at random in the space, but everyone had several places to be at different points, ready to burst into song, and had to get there within very precise time limits, without bumping into one another or looking rushed.  The director, a woman, managed them without shouting or confusing the actors, amazing. 

On Saturday I did a signing for Darned If You Do at a Minneapolis mystery bookstore called Once Upon A Crime.  It was well attended, the chai and miniature cupcakes were particularly delicious, and several of the women who came to buy a book wore hats.  Wonderful!  Here I am in one of my more amazing hats.

There will another signing February 14 at the bookstore on Water Street in Excelsior, from 1 to 3 pm.  I plan to have lunch at Antiquity Rose beforehand.  If you’re in the neighborhood, please stop in.

Visit Monica-Ferris.com to read Chapter One of Darned If You Do.