#the husband is based off of earl from waitress

[dolls-self-ships]

a little glimpse into Charity’s life before heaven

(tag list 💕 @menshusband @shiny-self-shipping @sunflawyer @westiefromtheeast @bat-anon)

[ablogofthecriminalmindsvariety]

WIP tag: Thank you loads @thefandomlesbian for tagging me <3 ily Spence.

So I’ve got a few working at the moment, and only one of these suckers is posted so. Have fun, lmao. Also, side note, just because something makes this list, it does not necessarily mean that it will be published. I am a very busy lady, and also a lot of ideas get tossed out the window. 

The Black Queen and The White Prince - This one has three chapters published rn, so go and check this sucker out! I’m v proud of it, and I do in fact plan to actually. Y’know. Work on it and get it finished at some point, but it’s a lot to keep up with, so postings of chapters is entirely irregular. So bare with me! Pretty much, it’s an AU based on Penelope’s Black Queen days, and Spencer is her lil bro, and he is a pickpocket who ruins corporate asshole’s lives. Penny gets caught, and she and Spencer get roped into working for the BAU together, and there might be something between Spencer, and this handsome agent by the name of Derek Morgan.

Sugar, Butter, Flour, and You: A Recipe for Disaster - So, this one is a Waitress AU (based off of the musical because I haven’t seen the movie, but I imagine the principle is the same). Essentially:

Jenna - JJ

Dr. Pomatter - Emily

Dawn - Spencer

Ogie - Aaron

Cal - Derek

Becky - Penelope

Joe (AKA The Old Man) - Rossi

Nurse Norma - Elle

Earl - Philip (because I don’t wanna be doing Will slander, leave me alone)

So, pretty much, JJ gets pregnant by her asshole of a husband. She works at a pie shop, owned by Rossi, and her coworkers are Derek, the kitchen worker, and Spencer and Penelope, her fellow waitresses/waiters. There’s a new doctor in town, an OBG/YN, Emily, and she and JJ start to fall in love.

Is This Seat Taken? - An AU in which Spencer is a broke college student in his last year, and he’s got a friend that works at the bar that sneaks him free snack and water. Aaron comes in and sits beside him. They talk to each other, only at the bar, and grow closer and closer with their sporadic, chance meetings with each other. Abstract sort of peace. If you have more questions about this one, lemme know because. I don’t know how to describe it, lol.

The Money -  So, an AU in which Elle is a drug dealer and JJ is an undercover cop. She works trying to take down the chain that Elle is a part of (I don’t know a lot of how. The chain of command as far as drug dealings go, so pardon my ignorance here). She manages to worm her way in to her heart, and they get into it with each other. JJ has to figure out if she wants to betray her job, or betray her heart.

We See the Light -  So, this is a college AU. They’re in dorms that are next to each other, and Spencer accidentally leaves a book of poems, one that his mother had given to him, filled with his notes, and maybe a few original works in the hall on a hasty run to a class. Aaron finds it, and returns it to him with a note about how he likes his work and he should write more attached to the top. From that point on, he starts to slip either his favorite poems, or original works under Aaron’s door. They pass notes that way, until one day, there’s a knock on his door, and there’s this floppy haired, cozy sweater wearing fellow at his door, holding a bouquet of flowers, carefully picked by meaning (a poem on their own) asking Spencer if he’s free tonight to go on a date.

Who’s Crazy - TW infant loss. If you’d like to know about this one, you can go to the original post, which I have linked.

Can I Love You Both?  -  Pretty much, this is an AU in which the two of them get together after Haley and Aaron get a divorce. He starts to notice, really notice that Spencer is pretty, and the way that he smiles makes his heart feel bubbly and his rambles are something that he could listen to for hours and hours on end. But it’s hard for him to come to terms with the fact that he would ever be attracted to a man, because the way that his father raised him, and the fact that he was married to his high school sweetheart, and they did the whole, house, white picket fence, baby, man working and wife staying at home with the baby thing. But, after a lot, a lot of work, Spencer helps to get him to get over that fear of his and they slowly begin to build a relationship.

That’s all, like I said, not all of these are definitely to be published, so. Hang tight. Lemme know if there’s any of these you really wanna see. 

I tag:

@whump-town @penemily @x-ry29 and anyone else who wants to! <3

[chiseler]

SWEET YOUNG INNOCENT

Coleen Gray and Sterling Hayden in The Killing

Long before Coleen Gray arrived in Hollywood, when she was still a teenager named Doris Bernice Jensen living in Staplehurst, Nebraska, doppelgängers playing the Coleen Gray role were already appearing on the big screen. In the 1940 RKO programmer The Ape, Maris Wrixon took a Coleen Gray turn as a sweet and innocent young woman with a spinal defect who becomes the focus of Boris Karloff’s affections. Unfortunately, being a mad doctor, Karloff’s efforts to find a cure for the poor girl drive him to kill a whole bunch of people. A year later in John Huston’s High Sierra, it was Joan Leslie in the Coleen Gray role, as the good hearted young woman with a club foot who very nearly convinces Bogart’s Roy Earle to change his criminal ways. Then she makes the mistake of telling him she’s engaged to someone else. And in an oddly prescient move, three years after Coleen Gray earned her first major role, Jean Hagen played Sterling Hayden’s lonely, desperate and long-suffering girlfriend in Huston’s Asphalt Jungle, some six years before Gray would at long last play the role herself in The Killing.

For all the doppelgängers who came along before and after—and there were plenty—none of them could top Gray herself as the embodiment of lovely, wide-eyed, corn-fed All American innocence—though an innocence, while incorruptible, that often wandered unknowingly into some shadowy territory and the company of some pretty rough characters.

After getting her BA in Dramatic Arts from Hamline University, Gray (still Doris Jensen at that point) set out to see more of the country, stopping first in La Jolla. She worked as a waitress for a few weeks before making the headlong plunge into Hollywood. She enrolled in an acting school, began appearing in some small theatrical productions around L.A., and, as the classic story goes, was spotted by a talent agent who offered her a contract with 20th Century Fox. In an early magazine interview, gray told the reporter of her girlhood dreams of being a movie star, particularly how she would decorate her dressing room and buy gifts for her staff—all the standard dreams of a typical Coleen Gray character. But as so often happened with her characters, after getting what she wanted she soon realized it wasn’t nearly as glamorous as the movie magazines would have us believe.

First came the name change, from Doris Jensen to Coleen Gray, the single “l” to make her unique, and the “Gray” to subconsciously remind people of Betty Grable.

After an uncredited role in 1945’s State Fair was followed by two other uncredited roles, in 1947, the year film noir really came into its own, the newcomer Gray established herself as a genre stalwart, nearly as inescapable as Ida Lupino, but with her own unique character and persona. In counterpoint to all those devious, dime-a-dozen femme fatales out there, and counter even to Lupino’s streetwise and world wary dames, Gray was redemption, a sign of hope within a dark and nihilistic world.

Her big break came as the narrator and co-star of Henry Hathaway’s seminal and groundbreaking Kiss of Death. Working opposite Victor Mature and a young Richard Widmark (making his unforgettable screen debut as sociopath Tommy Udo), it was Gray’s opening narration that established her screen persona for time immemorial.

Over shots of the snow falling on Midtown Manhattan, her gentle Midwestern voice explains:

“Nick Bianco hadn't worked for a year. He had a record - a prison record. They say it shouldn't count against you but when Nick tried to get a job the same thing always happened: ‘Very sorry. No prejudice, of course, but no job either.’ So this is how Nick went Christmas shopping for his kids.”

While most Noir Era opening narration tended to be stern and authoritarian, warning audiences about the scourge of crime, the dangers to be found in the shadows of the big city and what have you, Gray’s voice is empathetic and, yes, innocent, the voice of a young woman in love, and so willing to overlook a few of her beau’s minor character glitches. She understands nick’s circumstances and makes no moral judgment about his decision to rob a jewelry store in the Chrysler Building in order to buy Christmas presents for his family. What we don’t learn until later is that our narrator, Nettie, was actually the criminally young Bianco family babysitter when the events of the opening scene take place. 

Gray herself doesn’t appear onscreen until much later, when she shows up at the prison and breaks down, telling nick his wife has killed herself, his daughters have been put in an orphanage and, oh, yes, she’s been in love with him for years.

That seems A-OK with Nick, and through the narrative economy that so marked Hathaway’s film. The moment he’s sprung we jump months, even a couple years ahead to find Nick and Nettie married, settled down and living a deliriously happy suburban existence. Nick’s finally found work as a bricklayer, and Nettie has given her inner Midwestern girl free reign, keeping house and making dinner in a dress and apron. Even as things go to hell soon afterward, with Nick drawn back into the shadows to try and ensnare that cackling Tommy Udo, Netti’s perhaps naive optimism never falters.

It was a very good year for Gray, who also found herself co-starring opposite Tyrone Power in another, much darker noir touchstone. Her role in Edmund Golding’s Nightmare Alley (based on the William Gresham novel) would at first blush seem a radical departure from the sweet young innocence of Nettie, but you watch closely, and there’s still plenty of Nettie in Molly. Yes, Molly is a carny working a sideshow electric chair gag in a seedy traveling show , but for all the men lusting after her she remains sweet and virginal. Even when she takes up with the mercenary con man Stanton Carlisle (Power) and the two split the carnival to shoot for the big time with a mentalist act, her conscience comes with her. Once the act morphs from a simple nightclub routine into a spiritualist scam preying on the fragile emotions of the mourning and desperate, pretending to offer comforting contact with lost loved ones, that conscience rears up and Molly splits the show. She returns at film’s end, however, back at the sane carnival where Stanton himself lands after falling as hard and low as a man can manage. While all the other women Stanton has dealt with along the way proved themselves just as conniving and wicked as he is, Molly reappears as a singular symbol of possible redemption. Unlike the book, her presence offers that hope, however slim, Stan might pull himself together yet.

Five years later in Phil Karlson’s Kansas City Confidential (with Lee Van Cleef, Neville Brand, Jack Elam and John Payne), Gray doesn’t appear until late in the film, but works the same redemptive magic. Sweet and innocent as ever, she’s unaware that her retired cop father has turned criminal mastermind. She’s also wholly unaware her father’s about to settle a score with his three cronies while the patsy he framed for a million dollar armored car heist is closing in to settle a few scores of his own. She just decides to pay a visit, like any loving daughter, because she hadn’t seen her dad in awhile. Worse, during her unwittingly ill-timed visit, she falls for the patsy in question (Payne) even though she knows he’s already got a recored, because as ever she can see beyond such trifles.

The crowning jewel, and the perfect bookend to her role as noir’s ever-present symbol of goodness and light and hope within the darkness came in 1956 with Stanley Kubrick’s The Killing.

Losing the chewing gum and the cheap eyelashes, Gray essentially reprises Jean Hagen’s role in Asphalt Jungle, but with a certain melancholy purity that makes the role all her own.  Kubrick made it clear he signed Sterling Hayden specifically on account of his performance in Asphalt Jungle, and yes, Fay’s relationship with Johnny Clay (Hayden) echoes the relationship in the Huston film in many ways—the sad young woman yearning for little more out of life than a scrap of attention from her outlaw boyfriend. More interesting within the context of the film is how the relationship acts as a mirror image of that scheming Sherry (Marie Windsor) and her sap of a husband George (Elisha Cook) across town. Sherry endlessly belittles George, having not the slightest inkling he’s involved in planning a massive heist. Fay, meanwhile, is a simple kid who—like Nettie in Kiss of Death—knows full well what Johnny’s business is, and loves him anyway. Again, all she wants is a little attention in return, but knows she’ll have to wait to get it. Despite the company she keeps, she’s as wide-eyed and innocent as ever, and at film’s end, when everything goes to hell, she doesn’t run, doesn’t scream or panic. She offers a few gentle suggestions about possible escape, but when a clearly defeated Johnny shrugs off her suggestions, she waits again as he turns to face the cops, and you know she’ll keep waiting until he gets out of prison.

For noir nuts, that was the high water mark, though afterward gray was busier than ever, mostly on television and mostly in Westerns, where her midwestern beauty made her a natural. There were a few weirdies dropped in along the way, including her starring role in the 1960 low-budget drive-in hit The leech Woman. Essentially a knockoff of the previous year’s The Wasp Woman, and one of her very few villainous turns, Gray plays a middle aged woman who learns the secret to eternal youth lay in a formula that calls for the pineal gland of a male. Given the serum’s youth-restoring properties are only temporary, well, that means she’s going to have to start collecting a lot of pineal glands. In another less than wholesome turn in 1962’s The Phantom Planet, she plays the blond and manipulative daughter of a…well, to be honest it’s a bit too much and too mind boggling to get into here, but Gray does seem to be having fun playing against type.

In an era when such a thing wasn’t the kiss of death (so to speak), Gray was an outspoken political conservative and Christian, and as early as  1964 was lobbying Congress for a Constitutional amendment allowing prayer in public schools. She continued working steadily into the mid-Eighties, retiring from show business while only in her sixties. Along with her third husband Joseph Fritz Ziesier, she devoted the last three decades of her life to social work, from the Red Cross and Girl Scouts to an evangelical fellowship group aimed at prison inmates. Which is pretty much what you’d expect from a Coleen Gray character.

by Jim Knipfel

[taurielkeeperofbravery]

--- VERSES ⤏

Check back for any changes!

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[[ Hobbit/LOTR Based Verses ]]

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Little Warrior;; Any thread set in Tauriel’s childhood.

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Before the Storm (Pre-Hobbit);; Set before the events of the Hobbit, where Tauriel is immersed in her duties in Mirkwood as the Captain of the Guard. Can also be set before she was Captain, depending on the thread.

Deserter of the Guard (Pre-Hobbit);; (NEW!) At some point during the growing spider infestations, Tauriel feels caged, watching all that was once good about the forest fade around her. She wants to see the world, look upon the vast expanse of sky and horizon, with nothing in her way. So, after months of standing at the edge of the forest, wanting and wishing, she leaves.  

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Main (The Hobbit);; Takes place during or shortly after the events depicted in The Hobbit movies. May be some AUs mixed in (i.e. everyone lives AU)

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Wanderer of the Wilds (LOTR);; Tauriel has left Mirkwood after being treated badly by her kin due to her actions during the Battle of the Five Armies. She wanders Middle Earth, hunting orcs and the like to satisfy her thirst for revenge and lessen the pain she holds in her heart. This pain has made her more hardened and less willing to form close friendships.

Warrior of Mirkwood (Alt. LOTR);; Tauriel stayed in Mirkwood after the Battle of the Five armies, no longer Captain of the guard, but a warrior still. Through the years, she works her way back up in the ranks after most of her kin trust her again. She has changed, though: after the battle, she became more hard-hearted and less willing to form close friendships.

A New Home (Alt. LOTR);; (NEW!) Tauriel left Mirkwood not long after the events of the Battle of the Five Armies, after becoming disillusioned with Thranduil and his isolationist ways. It no longer felt like home to her, and she wanted to see more of the world, more of her kin. She traveled some, then arrived at Rivendell, where she decided to stay for some time. Would this be her new home?

——

Captain of Paperwork (Modern!Verse);; Tara is secretary to the head of a big wine company known for it’s quality, though it has had quite the few scandals lately. Her hours are very long and grueling, and her boss is known to work her hard. With so little time to herself, she has few friends other than those at her workplace. She feels trapped, like she may always be behind a desk and never travel or meet someone.

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Darkness I Became (Dark!Tauriel);; A darkness has worked its way into Tauriel’s mind, making her manipulative and power-hungry. She holds grudges and sees vengeance as her main priority.

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Another Life Beyond;; (NEW!)

[[Crossover AU ]]

Tauriel has found herself in a world that is not her own. Will she be able to return to the realm she has always called home or will she start anew in this unfamiliar land?

( Note: This verse will also be tagged with another verse that reflects where Tauriel is in her life. For example, if she finds herself somewhere before the events of The Hobbit, the thread will also be tagged as the “before the storm” verse. )

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[[ Other Verses ]]

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Stranger Than Mirkwood;; (NEW!)

[[Stranger Things AU]]

Tamara was widowed at 28 when her husband Keith died while away at war, leaving her alone with her then 2-year-old daughter, Joan. She raised her alone, working hard as a waitress in Indianapolis while spending as much time with her daughter as she could. There was some help from Tamara’s adopted family, but she refused to take too much money from them, wanting to earn her own living and feel independent.

By the time Joan was 13, the city had tired both of them out. Tamara was stressed by the sheer number of customers she had to deal with and Joan had nowhere to play outside, and there were few children her age. She would often find her cooped up in her room, nose in a book.

It was because of this that Tamara decided that they both needed a new start. They moved to Hawkins, a small town that seemed like the perfect getaway from the city. It had plenty of space for Joan to play, and a number of children she could make friends with.

They would be safe and cozy there, or so Tamara thought.

——

Home Sweet Home;; (NEW!)

[[ IT AU ]]

[ TW: ptsd, pregnancy, death ]

Tara Sullivan moved to Derry as a young child to live with her grandparents after her parents died during a home invasion. They thought it would be best for her, to live in a smaller town with other children her age. To them, the disappearances of 1988 and 1989 weren't cause for concern— Tara was responsible, and always came home before curfew.

She was quiet in school, a good student. There were a few people she talked to, but she really didn't have many friends outside of the classroom. The bullies teased her about her grandparents, occasionally slapped books from her hands and laughed, but nothing severe. Their sights were elsewhere.

During the summer of 1989, Tara had what her grandparents said were "night terrors". Vivid hallucinations dreams of the night her parents died, along with dreams of large spiders invading her room. They stopped suddenly later that summer. Her grandparents, and later, her as well, pushed them off as a reaction to the trauma she experienced from losing her parents. They shrugged off the idea of any kind of therapy, thinking it to be a show of weakness. Tara still suffers from anxiety and PTSD because of this.

Tara never left Derry. She grew up, spending most of her days in the public library, learning from books. When her grandparents eventually passed, she inherited their house, getting a part time job at the library to help maintain it. The money wasn't enough, however, so she took a job at the bar as well.

At age 28, she met Keith, whom she quickly fell in love with. They had a whirlwind romance, wonderful but fleeting. Six months in, Tara was newly pregnant and Keith died in a violent bar fight while she was at her library shift. Most of the town sneered at her for being an unmarried single mother, but Tara ignored them and clung to her precious daughter, Joan.

27 years later, strange things start happening again. Joan is 13 when some of her classmates start disappearing, and Tara feels as if she's young again, scared, trapped in her room with the night terrors.

She still splits her time between the library and the bar, often getting in trouble for leaving early to walk her daughter home. Part of her wonders if she should take Joan and leave Derry, but it's always been home.

——

Sea of Starlight;; (NEW!)

[[Pirates of the Caribbean AU. Note: This could also just be a normal Pirate AU if needed!]]

Tauriel was born the daughter of merchants. She had a relatively happy childhood, traveling through the countryside with her parents. When she was about nine, they were killed by highwaymen, their goods stolen. Tauriel barely survived. She was found by other merchants passing through, who rode her to the nearest village.

An orphan with no where to turn, she took to thieving to survive. One day, the royal navy came through the village on their way to the shore. It was the day Tauriel took to large a risk pick-pocketing and got caught by one of the soldiers. Their Captain, Thranduil, took pity on her, and decided to take her with him to the coast, where his son, Legolas, awaited. Tauriel has known family again since.

When Legolas was old enough to begin training to follow in his father’s footsteps, Tauriel trained beside him. They trained daily, and grew to match each other in skill and strength with a blade. Years later, they both joined the royal navy with Thranduil’s blessing. Tauriel now sails the seas, Captain of the Starlight under her adopted father’s armada. She has little love for pirates, as she grew up hearing Thranduil talk of the awful things they had done. Something about them also reminds her of the highwaymen that robbed her of her happiness long ago.

But some days she misses the thrill of thievery, and part of her wishes to be free of the boundaries set by her duties…

——

Blood and Fire;;

[[Vikings AU. Note: I created this AU back in 2015 when I was still watching the show and I kind of fell out of it. I would be willing to rp in this verse, but I might not know everything I need to.]]  

Tauriel is a budding shield-maiden of Hedeby. Her father was a warrior, her mother a shield-maiden— they both died in battle when she was young, leaving her to be raised by a few women there. She was always insisting on learning the ways of the battlefield, wishing to become like her mother. Battle had always interested her, and gave her a sense of belonging and adventure.

As she grew, she became better at combat, learning what she could from those who were willing to teach her. She took especially well to the bow, and uses it as her main weapon, though when in close combat, she uses two small axes. At the arrival of Lagertha in Hedeby, Tauriel is excited to meet her and learn from her, and is disappointed when she cannot speak to her at length, since Earl Sigvard keeps her so close. After his death, and Lagertha’s rise to Earl, she undertakes training, along with the other shield-maidens of Hedeby, with her whenever she can. She looks up to Lagertha, wishing to be as great as her in battle someday. Tauriel is headstrong, fierce in battle, but she is also very compassionate, and aware of other’s needs.

[larryland]

by Roseann Cane

  I remember the 2007 independent film, Waitress, well, and with a tinge of sadness. A charming and whimsical story of a young woman whose ingenious pie-making skills help guide her away from her abusive husband, I remember it so vividly because its writer, director, and co-star, Adrienne Shelly, was murdered in her New York office in 2006, just months before the film’s release.

  Because the charm of the indie film stemmed in part from a poignant sense of intimacy established by Ms Shelly’s writing and direction, I had difficulty imagining how this small story would adapt to the musical theater without becoming unrecognizable.

  Remarkably, Jessie Nelson (book) and Sara Bareilles (music and lyrics) have created a thoroughly charming concoction that manages to fill the stage (even in a big theater like Proctors) and maintain the feeling of intimacy so important to the original story.

  The cast is entrancing. As the eponymous waitress, Jenna, Christine Dwyer is at once fragile and strong, as an actress and as a singer, and seems to effortlessly command the audience’s affection. Equally charismatic and appealing are her two comrades-in-arms, waitresses Becky (the uproarious Melody A. Betts) and Dawn (the adorably goofy Ephie Aardema). As Jenna’s abusive, controlling husband, Earl, Jeremy Woodard manages to be menacing in a way that anchors the show in reality, yet doesn’t deflate the sense of optimism that carries the show. The actor, and, of course, the creators of Waitress, have managed to maintain a fine balance between darkness and whimsy that is essential to the show’s success.

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Steven Good plays Dr. Pomatter, the obstetrician/gynecologist with whom Jessie falls in lust, as tall, dark, handsome, tongue-tied and clumsy. It is the latter two qualities that soften the ick factor we might assign to the doctor-patient affair. While Jenna and Dr. Pomatter have a relationship that would be off putting, at the very least, in real life, the whimsy and abundant humor that infuse Waitress allow us not only to suspend our disbelief, but to acknowledge the essential goodness in each of the lovers, and to understand that nobody will suffer as a result of their affair.

  Jeremy Morse as Ogie, Dawn’s lovably eccentric boyfriend, was adored by the audience for his zaniness, as was Ryan G. Dunkin as Cal, whose nascent relationship with Becky causes his evolution from gruff loudmouth to a hunk o’ burning love. As Joe, the restaurant’s owner, Richard Kline’s curmudgeon with a heart of gold was as touching as he was funny.

  Diane Paulus’s sterling direction was inventive, tight, and fast-paced.

  One of the clever ways in which the production managed to maintain a feeling of intimacy was to place five musicians on stage (Robert Cookman, the music director, also played keyboards; Lilli Wosk, the conductor, also played piano; Tom Jorgensen, drums; Lexi Bodick, bass; Nick Anton, cello and guitar; and Ed Hamilton, guitar). As I have written before about Proctors, the music was amped up so high that I was unable to hear some of the lyrics. (So high, in fact, that the man seated in front of me placed his hands over his ears during every song, thereby obscuring my view as well. I can’t fault him; the volume was painful to me, too.)

  Scott Pask’s set design, a very authentic-looking diner that morphs into a dingy apartment to a doctor’s office and back again to a diner, was ingenious, as was Ken Billington’s lighting design.  Also deserving of kudos are Suttirat Anne Larlarb’s smart and colorful costume design and Lorin Latarro’s smart, inventive choreography.

  While I love a good dessert, and even have, on occasion, ordered it in lieu of dinner, I’ve always preferred cake to pie. In fact, most of the pies I’ve sampled I’ve found to be too sweet and rather monotonous in texture. But as we were waiting for Waitress to begin, my companion and I were chatting, and the subject turned to pie. I started to say that I didn’t care for it…then I remembered a dinner party I attended some years ago. The hostess, a professional baker, served a warm homemade sour cherry pie for dessert. I remembered her mentioning that she’d picked the cherries herself the day before. That sour cherry pie was luscious. The crust was light and flakey, and the juxtaposition of sour cherries with the slightly sugary ingredients in the filling was what, to my mind, made it so good. I think the same can be said of Waitress: the story is, in many ways, harsh, but the alchemy that results from the sum total of its ingredients makes it irresistible.

  Waitress by Jessie Nelson, based upon the motion picture written by Adrienne Shelly, with music and lyrics by Sara Bareilles, directed by Diane Paulus, runs June 13-16, 2019 at Proctors Theatre, 432 State Street, Schenectady NY. Orchestrations by Sara Bareilles & The Waitress Band. Music Supervision and Arrangements by Nadia DiGiallonardo. Musical direction by Robert Cookman. The band, conducted by Lilli Wosk, piano; Tom Jorgensen, drums; Lexi Bodick, bass; Nick Anton, cello and guitar; and Ed Hamilton, guitar. Choreography by Lorin Latarro, set Design by Scott Pask, lighting design by Ken Billington, costume design by Suttirat Anne Larlarb. CAST: Christine Dwyer as Jenna,  Melody A. Betts as Becky, Ephie Aardema as Dawn, Jeremy Woodard as Earl, Steven Good as Dr. Pomatter, Jeremy Morse as Ogie, Ryan G. Dunkin as Cal, Richard Kline as Joe, Genevieve Carmichael and Viviana DiMezza alternate in the role of Lulu.

Tickets for WAITRESS, beginning at $25, are available at the Box Office at Proctors, 432 State Street, Schenectady; by phone at 518.346.6204; and online at proctors.org.

WAITRESS at Proctors is part of the 2018–2019 Key Private Bank Broadway Series.

  REVIEW: “Waitress” at Proctors by Roseann Cane I remember the 2007 independent film, Waitress, well, and with a tinge of sadness.

[weekendwarriorblog]

WHAT TO WATCH THIS WEEKEND – May 11 (Mother’s Day!)

Usually, the second week of May wouldn’t necessarily be a dumping zone, but you’d rarely find a big hit, because whatever movies open are usually going up against the second weekend of whatever big superhero movie is kicking off the summer, usually something from Marvel Studios. That would be the case again this year except that Marvel Studios moved Avengers: Infinity War forward a week, which means that it’s now in its third weekend. That makes it a great time for a little female-friendly counterprogramming as two movies try to take advantage of the Mother’s Day holiday on Sunday.

LIFE OF THE PARTY (New Line/WB)

Actor/comedian Melissa McCarthy is back in theaters with a third movie directed by husband Ben Falcone following 2014’s Tammy and 2016’s The Boss.  This is McCarthy’s first movie in almost two years after starring in Paul Feig’s Ghostbusters, and it’s basically a remake of Rodney Dangerfield’s Back to School, in which she plays a mother who goes to college with her daughter after getting divorced.

McCarthy’s been making a name for herself as a comic actress since Paul Feig’s hit Bridesmaids, for which McCarthy was nominated for an Oscar. She reteamed with Feig a number of times after that for The Heat, Spy and the aforementioned Ghostbusters, all relatively big hits. In the last couple years, McCarthy has been seen more on television with regular appearances on Saturday Night Live, which probably has helped keep the attention of her younger fans, so we’ll have to see if her absence from theaters has created a vacuum that needs to be filled. (McCarthy has a couple more movies coming out this year, although they’re smaller releases.)

Life of the Party is a PG-13 comedy which means it won’t be limited by its R-rating, although it still seems like the type of movie that will appeal more to older women than younger ones. Guys? They’ll either go see Infinity Waragain or stay home and catch up on TV, since they’ll be out in force for next week’s Deadpool 2.  I personally haven’t seen the movie (thanks for not inviting me to a screening, WB!), but I also haven’t seen much in terms of promotion, which isn’t a good sign.

McCarthy still has enough of a fanbase that I can see Life of the Party opening with $18 million or more, but it doesn’t seem as strong as some of McCarthy’s other offerings in terms of potentially bringing in a wide-range audience, and that’s likely to keep it under the $20 million mark, even if it gets a nice Mother’s Day bump.

BREAKING IN (Universal)

Offering some counter-programming for audiences wanting something a little darker is this high-concept psychological thriller starring Gabriel Union as a mother trying to protect her family during a home invasion of their high-security home.  It’s the latest thriller from Will Packer, who has had quite a few hits among African-American audiences including Think Like a Manand its sequel, the Ride Along movies as well as last year’s summer comedy hit Girls Trip.

For this one, Packer is teaming with Final Destination and American Pie producer Craig Perry and director James McTeigue, who is best known for doing 2ndunit with the Wachowskis and directing V for Vendetta. Packer previously produced thrillers Obsessed, which grossed $68 million,and No Good Deed, which grossed $52.5 million after opening with $24.2 million. Both movies were quite profitable since they were made for less than $20 million, and this is Packer’s fourth movie with Union, who has carved a nice niche for herself among African-American audiences with movies like Love and Basketball, Bring It On and others.

Universal is well aware of the movie’s Mother’s Day weekend opening and the business it can bring in from women who happen to be mothers with the tagline for the film being “Payback Is a Mother,” which could give the film a nice bump on Sunday it might not have received otherwise.

Breaking In is opening in over 2,500 theaters, which is more than No Good Deed, but it’s about a thousand less theaters than Life of the Party, which means it’s likely to end up in third place with somewhere between $13 and 16 million.  (I will add a caveat here that I tend to under-estimate Packer’s films, maybe because I don’t see nearly as much as the marketing as I should to be able to gauge interest in his movies.)

This week’s Top 10 should look something like this…

1. Avengers: Infinity War (Disney/Marvel) - $60 million -48% 2. Life of the Party (New Line / WB) - $19 million N/A 3. Breaking In (Universal) - $14.8 million N/A 4. Overboard (MGM/Pantelion) - $7.1 million -51% 5. A Quiet Place (Paramount) - $5.4 million -30% 6. I Feel Pretty (STXfilms) - $3 million -38% 7. Rampage (New Line/WB) - $2.8 million -45% 8. Black Panther (Marvel/Disney) - $2.1 million -32% 9.Tully (Focus Features) - $2.1 million -37% 10. Super Troopers 2(Fox Searchlight) - $1 million -49%

LIMITED RELEASES

There is an absolutely CRAZY number of specialty releases this weekend, and as before, I’ve seen merely a handful of them, although there’s definitely some intriguing options to the wide releases if you live in a big city.

We’ll start with one of this week’s stronger genre films, Coralie Fargeat’s action-thriller Revenge (Shudder, Neon), starring Matilda Lutz as Jen, a young woman on a romantic getaway with her married boyfriend. When his two hunting buddies join them, one of them rapes Jen, and as she tries to escape, she falls off the edge of a cliff. Left for dead, she somehow survives and returns to get….  Okay, you read the title of this movie, right? Then you kind of know what to expect. I liked the movie but didn’t think it went far enough in terms of Jen’s revenge. It was gory enough, sure, but the trailer’s better than the actual movie.

I saw Michael Pearce’s Beast (Roadside Attractions) at Toronto last year, and it was also okay, starring Jessie Buckley as 27-year-old Moll, who has led a sheltered life in a small island community when she meets Johnny Flynn’s Pascal, a stranger who Moll is immediately attracted to. When she learns he might be responsible for murders, she worries that moving in with him might be a mistake.  Ya think? It opens in New York and L.A.

Anton Chekhov’s play The Seagull (Sony Pictures Classic) gets the big screen treatment with an all-star cast that includes Elisabeth Moss, Saoirse Ronan, Annette Bening and Corey Stoll, directed by Michael Mayer (Flicka). Bening plays aging actress Irina Arkadina who visits her brother Pjotr and son Konstantin (Billy Howle, who is amazing in the upcoming On Chesil Beach, also starring Ronan), bringing a novelist Boris Trigorin with her. A young girl named Nina falls in love with Boris but is rejected, and man, this does sound a lot like a Russian play. I haven’t seen it and have no interest in seeing it, but it will open in New York and L.A. if you do.

Gemma Arterton and Dominic Cooper reunite for Dominic Savage’s The Escape (IFC Films), which opens in New York at the IFC Center and L.A. at the Laemmle in Santa Monica. Arterton play Tara, a woman who wants to ESCAPE from her boring and mundane life, something her husband (Cooper) doesn’t understand.  I love Arterton as an actor, and I’ll definitely try to see this one soon, as she can do no wrong in my book.

Timothy McNeil’s rom-com Anything (Paladin) stars John Carroll Lynch as Earl, a widower who moves to L.A. to be with his family who rents an apartment in a bad neighborhood, meeting all sorts of characters include Freda (Matt Bomer), his transgender next-door neighbor. The film also stars Maura Tierney, and it opens in select cities Friday, including a first-run at New York’s Roxy Cinema, which looks to become a player in the city’s thriving indie theater business.

Vaughn Stein’s Terminal (RLJE) looks to give Revenge and Breaking In a run for their money with its tagline “Revenge never looked so good”… and it stars the beautiful Margot Robbie, so it might have a point. It’s about two assassins on a mission to kill a teacher, a janitor and a waitress, and it co-stars Simon Pegg, Mike Myers (where has HE been?!?), Max Irons and Dexter Fletcher. It’s in select theaters and On Demand/Digital HD.

The Japanese Anime film Lu Over the Wall (GKIDS) from Masaaki Yuasa (Mind Game), this one a family-friendly adaptation of the fairy tale about Lu, a mermaid who comes ashore and joins a middle school rock band, taking them to great fame. It opens in a bunch of theaters.

Let’s get to this week’s docs…

Sara Driver’s Boom for Real: The Late Teenage Years of Jean-Michel Basquiat (Magnolia) looks promising, and it’s fairly self-explanatory from the title.  Jennifer Peedom’s Mountain (Greenwich Entertainment) is a doc about mountains… what else?

I can highly recommend Filmworker (Kino Lorber), Tony Zierra’s documentary about long-time Stanley Kubrick accomplice Leon Vitali, who played Lord Bullingdon in Kubrick’s 1975 film Barry Lyndon and then went on to become Kubrick’s right-hand man on films like The Shining.  This intriguing doc is a must-see for Kubrick fans, and it’s opening at the Metrographin New York in conjunction with an 8-film retrospective, some of which I haven’t seen on the big screen. Filmworker will open in L.A. at the Nuart on May 18.

Always at the Carlyle (Good Deed Entertainment) is the new documentary from Matthew Miele, which looks at the Upper East Side institution whose guests have included George Clooney, Wes Anderson, Anthony Bourdain and more. It’s opening at the Quad Cinema in New York and elsewhere.

Other films out this week include Jim Loach’s The Measure of a Man (Great Point Media), based on Robert Lipsyte novel One Fat Summer, about a bullied teen and starring Judy Greer and Donald Sutherland; Pat Kiely’s comedy Another Kind of Wedding (Vertical) starring Kathleen Turner (holy shit! Where has SHE been) and Kevin Zegers; Elissa Down’s The Honor List (L) about a group of teen girls who go on a journey to fulfill their bucket list after tragedy strikes; and Eric Stolz’s teen comedy Class Rank (Cinedigm ) starring Skyler Gisondo, Olivia Holt, Bruce Dern and Kristin Chenoweth.  I tell you, that’s a lot of talent for a bunch of movies that are mainly getting digital/VOD releases this weekend.

This week’s Netflix offerings include its new true crime series Evil Genius about one of the strangest bank heists ever, and the streaming network will also premiere something called The Kissing Booth from Vince Marcello, which stars Joey King as a girl who has never been kissed so she starts a kissing booth.

That’s it for this week… I’ll be back next week with my thoughts on Deadpool 2!

[the-record-columns]

Sept. 6, 2017: Columns

Random notes on kindness and politeness...

By KEN WELBORN

Record Publisher

In the cutlines with some of the pictures in today's copy of The Record, last weeks rainstorms are mentioned. Now, before you think I'm going to compare our rain to that at the Gulf Coast that is not the case at all. Clearly we have a lot to be thankful for. However, even the limited amount of rain we received had to be dealt with and caused some interruptions, delays, and outright cancellations of events, and I managed to be caught out in the middle of it time after time.

       For example, take our Americana Day event at the Record Park, scheduled for Saturday with youth musicians honoring our VFW Post 1142 and their Honor Guard. While it was a bit gray and cool, the event itself went on as scheduled with no problems. The problems came Friday when we could do nothing to get ready for Saturday for the downpours that started every time me, Bucky Luttrell, and Monte Clonch started for the Record Park. That left us in quite a jam on Saturday morning, so we were there early putting up tents and doing the best we could.

       Enter the Boone group of Civil Air Patrol cadets who had volunteered to bring their Color Guard to be with the VFW Post 1142's Honor Guard for the noon opening ceremony and raising of the American flag. They came early, practiced their routine and then proceeded to volunteer to help do anything we needed. They were young, strong, and willing to help. In no time they had tied up a lot of loose ends and stood ready and able to do more. Indeed, that group of cadets were a breath of fresh air on a stressful morning. As the day of wonderful music unfolded, those same cadets offered to stay later than scheduled, to, if needed, help us take down and pack up the tents, chairs, and children's area when Americana Day ended. Clearly, they were a pleasant surprise and welcome help on a stressful morning.

       Back to Friday.

       One of the times I got caught in the rain on Friday was while I was at T J' s Cafe on Statesville Road in North Wilkesboro. T J's Cafe is located at the top of what used to be called "Liquor Hill," the section of Hwy 115 South from Armory Road to the top of the hill, which, for many years, had several places where bootleg whiskey was readily available. In fact, there was a drive-in window at the top of Liquor Hill long before Wilkes County even dreamed of a McDonald's.

While that part has nothing to do with my trip to T J's Cafe on Friday, I just like to tell it. I was there to enjoy the music being played by Tony Brooks, Jason Young, Gary Miller and Judy Triplette, who are there often on Friday evenings. I stayed a while longer than common, visiting with some of the folks there that I knew, and patting my foot to the music. As luck would have it, when it came time that I had to leave, it was still raining like a double-bladdered cow peeing on a flat rock. As I looked outside getting ready to open the door to a certain soaking by the storm, one of the waitresses from the cafe walked up to me and handed me a brand new umbrella. I, being uncharacteristically humble, told her I would just get a newspaper and cover my head, but she insisted, "Take the umbrella, we got them for situations just like this one---you may keep it." I was completely caught off guard, and so surprised I hardly even thanked her properly-but I am now. That was about as nice an out of the blue kindness as I could imagine-and I fully plan to return the umbrella so they can help the next person.

       These two brief vignettes about random acts of kindness have made me understand better the problem associated with one more ongoing pain in the neck.

       Four-Way Stop signs at intersections.

       I don't like to use the word hate very much, but I hate those intersections in North Wilkesboro, and now Wilkesboro has done it, too. They may work some places, but not in the South. People are just too friendly to each other, and, while they each motion over and over for the other guy to go ahead first, no one goes anywhere. Then, when one finally decides to proceed through the intersection, the other two or three decide to do the same-and then they all four stop again, beginning the same, "No, you go." stuff all over.

       Please, put back the stop lights. People around here are just too nice for Four Way Stops.

       Thank you.

 Rethinking negative experiences By LAURA WELBORN

I have found that as I have gotten older I am less likely to be bold, and more afraid of failure. I used to charge on and take on situations and now I am constantly second guessing myself.  My friends ask me "what have you learned from this past experience?" and I find myself beating myself up over why I didn't see things coming.  The lessons just get harder and more frequent.  So I started thinking intentionally about my past and where I am now.

 I realize that sometimes I can't move beyond a negative experience from the past, because my brain is subconsciously relating to it as if it's still happening right now, which means it's matching patterns improperly in the present.  I found some practices that are helpful when I start beating myself up over past experiences:

•Ask yourself: "What specific past negative experience and associated feelings do my present feelings remind me of?" Dig deep and be honest with yourself.

•Once you have determined the origin of your present feelings, list all the ways your present circumstances differ from the past (the original negative experience)-this should include the places, people, and details that caused you pain and discomfort. Review the differences over and over again until you have them completely memorized.  This can help you realize and remember that your circumstances have indeed changed

•Practice noticing your negative attachments to past experiences, so you can learn from these experiences and then update your belief system based on how your circumstances have changed (as they continuously do)." (Marc and Angel Hack Life blog)

 When it comes to making a meaningful change in your life-becoming more mindful, or any other personal journey that takes time and commitment-you have to build daily rituals into your life that reinforce your goal, so you can actually make real, lasting progress.

 I am citing a mindful practice to stop negative thoughts, this is especially helpful for those with PTSD or stressful experiences…

 STOP:  stressors make us vulnerable to reacting in a habitual way and when we are under stress we have limited access to our internal resources.

 S- Stop for just a moment.  Don't react.  Give yourself the gift of brief reflection

 T- Take a breath.  Breathe in and out.  Track your breath.  Sense the chest rising and falling.

 O-Observe your experience.  Notice the sensations in the body.  Observe the thoughts or the story going through your mind and appreciate that thoughts are not facts.  Explore your emotions and sense of where you are in this moment.

 P- Proceed.  Move forward in a way that feels right to you and is consistent with your values.

 Try building this into a ritual, as more and more studies are showing that become aware of your emotions and reactions are what changes behavior- simple awareness so you can make those big changes from autopilot to intentional living.

 In the eye of the hurricane… By Heather Dean Reporter/Photojournalist

Lat week was a rough week, with my firstborn being in Houston during Hurricane Harvey

    The complete feeling of helplessness when the conversations of "Mooooom, we're ok,  don't worry. And  turn off the news!" with a laugh and an every hour check in, turn  into a panicked  "Mommy! It's coming, and I'm scared and what if I’m trapped!?" A dual meltdown occurs,  as you both watch the reports of the levy's overflow and the dam (one of the 6 most dangerous in the country) get pushed to the limits. And the realization  that you can't get to your firstborn to get her safe. And then you get don't hear anything for several hours....

    Again I say:

    Complete.

    Helplessness.

   But now the rain has stopped, and my mind can return to pseudo calm.                                    "Pseudo" because there is still so much chaos and confusion to wade through. Literally.

    There are still people being rescued, or in shelters; people who have lost everything- including their children, family members and pets. My heart is still a wreck for those in the midst of crisis.

    And yet, even in the midst of all the worry, like the quiet space in the eye of a hurricane, my mind couldn’t help but wander to the families that live this life everyday. Those people who have husbands, wives, children, and best friends in our armed forces, rescue units, and fire/police brigades.

 These are the people who live on the edge of nerve-wrecking helplessness everyday.

    Knowing not only are they in harms way, but they have made a decision intentionally to do so, so that WE won't have to.

    I am still a hot mess over the whole situation, and now that I know my baby is safe and dry, will I take time to panic.

    Now the tears are shed for those who are mourning losses, off all proportions, and for those that are    giving sacrifices everyday.                  

 My heart goes with you.

 RIP

 •Houston PD Sgt. Steven Perez, 34 year   officer , 8/31/57- 8/29/17, who perished in floodwaters on the way to help victims of Harvey.

 •U.S Navy Soldiers aboard the USS Fitzgerald:  Dakota Kyle Rigsby, 19, from Palmyra, VA. ; Alexander Douglass, 25, from San Diego, CA.; T. Truong Huynh, 25, from Oakville, CT.;

Noe Hernandez, 26, from Weslaco, TX; Carlos Victor Ganzon Sibayan, 23, from Chula Vista, CA.; Alec Martin, 24, from Halethorpe, MD.; Gary Leo Rehm Jr., 37, from Elyria, OH.

•U.S Navy Soldiers aboard the  USS John McCain:  Abraham Lopez, 39, TX; Nathan Findley, 31, MI; Corey George Ingram, 28, NY; Dustin Louis Doyon, 26, CT; Kevin Sayer Bushell, 26, MD; Logan Stephen Palmer, 23, IL; Timothy Thomas Eckels Jr., 23, MD; Kenneth Aaron Smith, 22, NJ; Jacob Daniel Drake, 21, OH; and John Henry Hoagland III, 20, TX.

 UNESCO’s Globalist  Agenda ... minus Israel

By EARL COX

For The Record

It's time for member states to take a hard look at UNESCO-and discern the growing gulf between its actions and the noble precepts of its Constitution and the UN charter. Despite its public commitment to justice, the rule of law and human rights, "without distinction of race, sex, language or religion," UNESCO strips these rights solely from Israel and denies its religious heritage, history, and legitimacy as the nation state of the Jewish people. UNESCO's "unrestricted pursuit of objective truth," and commitment to preserve the historic heritage of all world cultures excludes Israel.

 Recent resolutions supporting contrived Palestinian claims to Jewish history, land and heritage are part of the UN's anti-Zionist track record. Despite the legacy of the 1922 League of Nations Mandate and 1947 Resolution 181, anti-Semitism steadily increased as UN membership swelled. By 1967, the tide had turned. In 1975, Ugandan dictator Idi Amin called for Israel's "expulsion from the United Nations and the extinction of Israel as a State" and this was to a standing ovation. Also under Secretary-General Kurt Waldheim, a former Nazi officer, Resolution 3379 equated Zionism with racism.

 Yet neither anti-Semitism nor Muslim majorities suffice to explain this organization's hatred of Israel-unless also seen through the lens of encroaching globalism.

 "The task before UNESCO," said its first Director-General Julian Huxley in 1946, is "the emergence of a single world culture" by transferring "full sovereignty from separate nations to a world organization."

 The "new world order" will be a socialist, authoritarian global government and court with "global rule of law" and a "one-world economy," according to the Commission for Global Governance.

 The Obama Administration provides an example of leftist globalists in action. Bankrolled by billionaire George Soros, and using the radical social-manipulation "rules" of Obama mentor Saul Alinsky, the Left exploits groups like Black Lives Matter as "agents of change" to help usher in their new world order. They fund and direct radical groups to sow chaos and division by politicizing leftist targets such as police by labeling them as "racist."

 "The black community is in a grave situation and they are being exploited and manipulated by the liberal left," said African-American Vanderbilt University law professor Carol Swain.  

 In the same way, UN globalists manipulate the Palestinians. They play the "racism" card to incite chaos, division and attacks against Israeli police and soldiers-just like in Ferguson, MO. Their strategy: foment societal disruption so as to undermine democratic foundations-then step in and take over.

 The Globalist agenda also includes the establishment of a one-world religion which means the

political globalists have a religious arm. The UN is riddled with New Agers, occultists and others who consider freedom of religion hostile to New Age global harmony.

 Former UN Assistant Secretary-General Robert Muller told the San Jose Mercury that religious fundamentalism's "inflexible belief systems … play an incendiary role in global conflicts." There'll be no peace without "taming fundamentalism through a United Religion that professes faithfulness only to global spirituality," he said.

 On two counts, Israel is a thorn in the side of one-world globalists. First, Zionism is Israel's call as the nation state of the Jewish people; its Jewish identity, history, and defensible borders are integral to its survival. As Israel's former U.N. Ambassador Chaim Herzog declared: "The key to understanding Zionism lies in its name. 'Mount Zion' is the place where God dwells according to the Bible. Jerusalem or Zion is where the Lord is King…. "Zion" grew … to mean the whole ... Jewish homeland, symbolic of ... Jewish national aspirations."

 Second, though Israel supports freedom of worship for all residents, including Christians and Muslims, the Jewish religion reveres G-d-not a New Age, cultic pantheon. In Deuteronomy, Moses conveyed Israel's calling to "a people holy ("separate") to the Lord your G-d. Out of all the peoples on the face of the earth the Lord has chosen you to be his treasured possession."

  A Theater on the Square, a 

President and a Golden History

By CARL WHITE

Life in the Carolina

So there I stood on the town square in Abbeville, South Carolina, and even before I met with anyone I could sense the presence of significant history. It was the kind of feeling you get when you can tell there is more to a place then what you see on the outside.

The town square has several well preserved historic buildings, and among them I discovered the impressive Grand Opera House with its 7,500 square feet stage. Local visionary folks lead the charge to build the Opera House in order to take advantage of the fact that many of the New York tour groups would often stop in Abbeville for lodging when they were traveling south. The Grand Opera House opened on October 10th 1908 with a performance of “The Great Divide”. The stage has had a successful run and has now undergone a full restoration with a few modern additions.

I had the opportunity to visit with Michael Genevie, the Executive Director, who shared many colorful stories about the theater, including one about the theater ghost. Michael and the people of Abbeville have done a fine job of keeping this Carolina treasure alive.

Another part of national history took place in Abbeville when, on November 22, 1860 three thousand people gathered to hear secession speeches.Eleven states would eventually secede from the Union however, South Carolina was the first to do so on December 20, 1860.

The Burt-Stark Mansion, not far from the town square, is the place where Confederate President Jefferson Davis reportedly held the last Confederate Council of War on May 2, 1865. After much conversation over the state of affairs it was determined that there was no possibility of victory. It is said that as the meeting ended, Davis stood and with the words “All is indeed lost”, he become faint and, if not for one of his commanders, he would have hit the floor.

While it is true that Jefferson Davis never returned, many others did, searching for Confederate gold. Millions of dollars' worth of gold was not accounted for after the war. There is much speculation as to where the gold may be. Some people speculate that President Davis used the gold to pay off as much government debt as possible, but there seems to be no accounting for this notion. The lost gold of the Confederate nation remains a mystery.

Just when I thought I had a good accounting of early American history connected to Abbeville, I stopped in to visit another historic building off the square. Trinity Episcopal Church dates back to 1841 and offers an opportunity to celebrate one's faith. It also offers a treat for history lovers.

Jack C. Calhone the 3rd, great nephew of John C. Calhone, who was born in Abbeville and was the 7th Vice President of the United States, was visiting Abbeville for the first time the day I was there. I was introduced to Jack and his wife, and we spent much of the afternoon visiting a few other places in Abbeville and getting to know more about our American history and each other. While the Confederate gold may or may not be in Abbeville, one thing is for sure: a treasure trove of history most certainly is here.