The Saturday Seven: Facts About Cary Grant

One of the things I enjoy about living in Palm Springs is the multitude of old Hollywood history that can be found nearly everywhere. I recently had dinner at one of my favorite restaurants, Copley's on Palm Canyon, which is at the former home of Cary Grant. This was the inspiration for this week's scintillating edition of The Saturday Seven: Facts About Cary Grant. Mr Grant was perhaps one of the greatest leading men on the silver screen. With a film career that spanned over thirty years, he made an indelible mark on Hollywood. With over 45 films, some of his best known include: That Touch of Mink (1962), Operation Petticoat (1959), North by Northwest (1959), Indiscreet (1958), To Catch A Thief (1955), People Will Talk (1951) The Bishops Wife (1947), Night and Day (1946), The Philadelphia Story (1940) and the very early She Done Him Wrong with Mae West (1933). Here are The Saturday Seven Facts About Cary Grant:

above: #1 Cary Grant had several homes in Palm Springs.

above #2 His real name was Archibald Alec Leach an American born in Britain.

above: #3 Married five times, Cary Grant had just one daughter, Jennifer in 1966 by his fourth wife, actress Dyan Cannon

above: #4 writer Ian Fleming modeled the James Bond character after Cary Grant

above: #5 Grant was nominated for two Academy Awards in 1941 and 1944 but did not win. He received an honorary Oscar in 1969.

above: #6 His estate was valued at $60 million when he died

above: #7 Rumors of being gay followed Grant for many years, due to his close friendships with fellow actors William Haines & Randolph Scott, but he denied such allegations.What are your favorite Cary Grant films, quotes or facts? Go ahead, leave a comment, it's fun and free!
-Rick Rockhill

Election Night Chocolate Chip Cookies

Last night I spent the evening glued to the TV set watching the results of the election roll in. I can't say there were any surprises in the results, but I have always enjoyed politics regardless of who wins the election, and find the political coverage interesting. I decided to make some chocolate chip cookies (from scratch of course) as comfort food while watching political history being made. Here is the dish full of cookies I baked while watching the coverage on NBC.

above left: the batter bowl... above right: It was still early in the evening, before the election had been called.

above: the fist batch of cookies comes out of the oven, and made their way to a plate to cool. I ended up eating too many cookies while watching the coverage. It was an historic evening with the world watching democracy at work. The best part of the evening was snuggling up with Sheldon, Koshimi, Owen and my plate of fresh baked, warm chocolate chip cookies.

-Rick Rockhill

I Voted...Did You?

At long last, Election Day in the USA has arrived. In some ways this seems like it has been the longest election season in my lifetime. But then again, I look at the voting roster and think, how did this happen? Somehow, these are the options we have, and its all a blur how they got here. Being the patriot that I am, I never miss an opportunity to exercise my right to vote, especially in a Presidential Election. Regular readers of this blog know that I try to avoid politics here, but it is sooo tough for me...I'm a political animal and love to banter and debate. But this is not the forum I choose to go toe to toe with folks. If you have not voted yet, PLEASE VOTE. It is your civic duty to do so. Well that's all I have to say about it really. Oh, and whoever wins, I hope they don't raise taxes. I'm tired of paying taxes and the government wasting our money all the time! I thought I'd end with a few retro posters to get you in the voting mood.

OK I'm not done yet. I know what we'll be doing tonight. We'll be glued to the television set, watching the returns roll in on FOX News. Of course I'll switch back and forth between NBC, CNN, CBS, and FOX all night, assuming there will be some scrap of election coverage I'm missing by just watching one network. I miss the old days when Tom Brokaw covered the major news stories. He was a great anchor, maybe he'll make a guest appearance tomorrow night. I think I'll stop and buy a pint of ice cream on the way home, so I can drown my sorrows as I watch the election results. Or maybe I can bake some chocolate chip cookies, that might be even better. I'll let you know tomorrow. Thanks for stopping by today. now GO VOTE!

-Rick Rockhill

A Palm Springs Wedding

This past weekend I attended a wedding held at a private home here in Palm Springs. The ceremony was a celebration of love between two people who have been together for a very long time, witnessed by a large group of friends and family. For this couple, and many others in California, the opportunity to marry could be taken away after Tuesday, so the ceremony had deeper meaning to all in attendance. The reception was elegant and festive with Chinese lanterns overhead, floating candles in the pool, and exotic flower arrangements.

above: A band was setup under the large awning, providing shade from the sun. Despite the presence of some clouds it was a warm day, and a gentle breeze kept temperatures quite pleasant. As dusk approached, the Chinese lanterns strung across the property glowed merrily; their reflection on the surface of the pool added to the ambiance and joyful mood of the evening. As I gazed across the estate, the majestic San Jacinto mountains were the perfect backdrop for the setting. Palm trees dotting the landscape, served as a constant reminder of the city's namesake. It's tough to see from this photo, but I was wearing one of my new blue and white ascots, a recent birthday gift from a friend. One of these days I need to do a post showing of all the different ones I have accumulated. Ascots have become my "signature accessory", as I single-handily attempt to bring them back in style. But I digress. Anyway, I was snapping photos all evening, trying to capture the mood, this was an ideal setting for a wedding reception.

above left: There were beautiful tables of cheeses, fruit, breads and crackers before dinner was served. The wedding cake was deeo chocolate, which was uber delicious! Above right: For most of the evening the band played a wonderful blend of standards, soft jazz. After dinner they transitioned to dance tunes which filled the dance floor with guests. Even I was drawn in by a "Kool and the Gang" song covered by the band.

above: I took these two photos trying to capture the moon in the sky, at dusk and early evening. There was a huge cloud mass hung up on the mountains, which had floated over from LA, I suppose but it never threatened our evening. (Our mountains usually shield us from most inclement weather from the coast.) If you look closely you can see the moon in the same position in the left photo as in the right. It was actually quite pretty.

above: I love these two photos. You can see how captivating the setting was.

above: As we left the house, I looked back at the front walk way and took this photo. These two palm trees seemed to symbolically represent the couple that had just celebrated their nuptials. I never stopped to think what sex each of these palm trees were (yes palm trees are either male or female). These two trees just looked happy together and that was all that mattered to me. It was a fitting way to end this post.

-Rick Rockhill

Sunday Art Review: Ceilings of the Vatican and Beyond

Today is the third installment in a series on art in and around Rome. After spending several weeks touring Europe I had a stiff neck from staring up at ceilings in The Vatican Museum, Cathedrals, Palaces and Basilicas. This was the inspiration for this week's Sunday Art Review: Ceilings of the Vatican and Beyond. These photos are mainly from the Vatican Museum, but others are from Monaco, Montenegro, Croatia and Malta. Sadly I didn't catalog these photos, so I have very few details to share. So I beg your forgiveness for being a total Philistine, and will ask you to just enjoy the photos without any credits or notations. (Maybe Olivia will come to my rescue once again). These are truly works of art:

To think that all the work was done by hand, in painstaking detail, it is mesmerizing and truly an inspiration. Thanks for stopping by this week's Sunday Art Review.

-Rick Rockhill

The Saturday Seven: Things Produced in Palm Springs*

While driving around doing errands yesterday, I started to ponder the subject for today's post. Over the past month I've had plenty of blogworthy material. With all the travel I've done lately, I realized that its been awhile since I wrote about home-sweet-home. When I reached the grocery store to pick up a few odds and ends, I saw a display of "local produce", which served as inspiration for this week's scintillating edition of The Saturday Seven: Things Produced in Palm Springs* (*and surrounding communities). So here they are, in no particular order....

above: #1 Lemons- They are probably the most plentiful fruit tree in the area, and sold to markets across the country.

above: #2 Dates- I've written about our dates before, I just love them, and they are so good for you too.

above: #3 Grapefruit-Another plentiful fruit. It's nice to be able to go outside in the morning and pick a fresh grapefruit from the tree for breakfast. (Orange and lime trees can also be found in the Palm Springs area too).

above: #4 Prickly Pear Cactus- a common cactus that produces an uncommon flavor, used to make candy.

above: #5 Pistachios-So delicious, so addictive, and so plentiful too.

above: #6 Gamblers-Speaking of addictive, Palm Springs has several Indian Casinos, which produce their share of gamblers....

above: #7 Wind Power- We have thousands of Wind Turbines, which produce a tremendous amount of wind power which we convert into electricity to use and export too.

Thanks for stopping by today, I hope you found this interesting.

-Rick Rockhill