Her Name Is Judy: My Featherweight Has an I.Q. of 172

Judy Holliday in the film Born Yesterday, 1950

My Featherweight now has a name -- it's Judy, after comic actress Judy Holliday.  Judy Holliday won the Oscar for Best Leading Lady in 1951 (the year my Featherweight was "born") for her performance in the film Born Yesterday -- and my little Featherweight hums along as if she was only "born yesterday," too!



Actress Judy Holliday, the Dumb Blonde with an I.Q. of 172

Furthermore, although Judy Holliday's fame was built upon her role as a "dumb blonde," she was actually a bookworm with an I.Q. of 172, which is pretty remarkable when you consider that only 0.4% of the population is estimated to have an I.Q. above 140.  To further put this into perspective, consider that Bill Gates had an I.Q. of 160, Stephen Hawking has an I.Q. of 160, and Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen has an I.Q. of 170.  This is also like Judy the Featherweight, whose diminutive size and cutesy appearance belies her reputation as one of the best engineered, most reliable, and most beloved sewing machines ever created.  Maybe I should get an obnoxious bumper sticker for my car that reads, "My Featherweight is Smarter Than Your Honor Student?"  It would look great with my Skull and Scissors Decal...

Judy the Featherweight: Judge Me By My Looks, Do You?

Judy the Featherweight has been set aside for the time being while we wait for her new electrical cord, foot pedal, and missing thread guide to arrive.  I did talk to my Bernina dealer about her this morning, and he's going to service the machine for me once I get those parts -- which is wonderful news, because he takes great care of my Berninas and is only a few minutes away from where I live.  That will give me the peace of mind of knowing that all the electrical parts are safe, but I also know that Berry (my dealer and service tech) will be able to make any timing or tension adjustments needed and help me keep her in top shape.

As you might imagine, I have accomplished ABSOLUTELY NOTHING today, except for naming a sewing machine and answering a couple of emails.  Ahem.  Back to work!



Of Christmas Trees, Candles, and Electric Lights

Bing Crosby and Marjorie Reynolds in Holiday Inn, 1942

Lars and Anders were watching Holiday Inn for the first time this morning, enjoying the silver screen shenanigans of Bing Crosby and Fred Astaire.  Anders, my snappy dresser, especially enjoyed Fred Astaire -- dancing in TUXEDOS?!  What's not to love? 

I was startled when I noticed that the Christmas tree in this scene was lit by actual CANDLES.  In 1942?  Didn't they have electric Christmas tree lights by then?


First Electrified Christmas Tree, 1882

Well, my curiosity was piqued, so I did a little online research and found that, although Edward Johnson, Vice President of Edison Electric Company, first wired up electric lights on a Christmas tree in his home in 1882 as a publicity stunt, the majority of American Christmas trees continued to be lit by candles for another half century.  Wealthy people began electrifying Christmas trees for their parties around the turn of the century, but not only did this require hiring electricians to individually string and wire bulbs together, but they also needed to be hooked up to generators.  The first pre-strung lights weren't introduced for sale until after 1917, but even then they were so expensive that some department stores rented them rather than selling them outright. 

Still, Holiday Inn was made in 1942, and it was a big Hollywood studio production -- surely they could afford electric lights for their sets, right?  So here's the really interesting part, the part I knew but had forgotten: The introduction of electricity was confined to urban areas for decades, creating huge disparity between the lifestyles of city dwellers versus the millions of Americans who lived in rural areas.  This was because the power companies paid to create the infrastructure necessary for providing electricity, and it just didn't make good business sense to spend a lot of money running wiring to rural areas that were sparsely populated, with so many fewer potential customers.  It wasn't until after World War II that the majority of Americans had electrical power in their homes -- so, in 1942, the Christmas Trees in "rural Connecticut" absolutely would have been lit by candles, because the farm-turned-inn and the entire town of Midville, Connecticut would have still been without electricity at that time. 

If you're interested in reading more about the history of electric Christmas lights, I found the most complete history here from the NECA National Electrical Contractors Association.

Merry Christmas, everyone!

Happy New Year 2012! Cheers, Hugs, Movies and Champagne Bubbles Headed Your Way

Happy 2012, Everyone!  No, this isn't the one where I recap the adventures, successes, and missed opportunities of 2011.  This isn't the one where I stand up on the Internet and publicly declare my ill-fated resolutions (that one might come later this week...  or not at all...  we'll see). 

This IS the one where I count my blessings and share the highlights of our quiet New Year's Eve celebration, home as usual, with our kids. 

One day, I might like to go to a black tie New Year's Eve party in a fabulous, glittery gown, having forced Bernie into a dashing tuxedo against his will, and I shall sip champagne and be devastatingly elegant into the wee hours of the morning.  For now, though, we like to stay home for New Year's Eve and watch movies.

Jeremy Sumpter as Peter Pan, 2003

We watched the 2003 Peter Pan movie with the boys, and loved every minute of it.  How did I miss this film when it first came out?  This Peter Pan is faithful to the original 1904 play and 1911 story by J. M. Barrie, and the film conveys much of the Victorian cultural and historical context out of which the Peter Pan stories were written as well.  This was definitely a film that kept our entire family enthralled from beginning to end.

We wrapped up Peter Pan at ten o'clock, and I decided that was late enough for little boys to stay up on New Year's Eve.  We tucked them into bed and I annoyed them by singing bedtime songs in French, Italian, German, Latin, and finally, when Anders begged me to stop singing in foreign languages, I couldn't help myself -- I sang Rachmaninoff's Vocalise (a song without any words at all).  Don't be too impressed -- I didn't claim to have sung it well!  I believe the hounds joined in with my howling towards the end...

Natalie Portman and Ashton Kutcher in No Strings Attached, 2011

After torturing my children musically, my husband and I cracked open the champagne and settled down to a recent romantic comedy, No Strings Attached starring Ashton Kutcher and Natalie Portman.  It was pretty cute as far as these fluffy-feel-good-romantic-comedy flicks go.  Funnier moments included Kutcher's character, Adam, presenting his girl with a bouquet of carrots on their date after she forbade him to get her flowers.  We were enjoying our movie and our bubbly so much that we lost track of the time and realized, at the end of the movie, that we were half an hour late ringing in the new year.  I hope this is not a portent foretelling that I will be late to everything important all year long!  Oh wait, that was last year...

Happy New Year, Everyone!