1. Happy Birthday, Lillian Cahn! Lillian and her husband founded Coach Inc., maker of fine leather goods and handbags.

Do you own a Coach bag? Which model? Second-hand rose or dreaded knockoff?

I do own one; Ash bought it for my one Christmas maybe 6 years ago. Here it is:

Bonus question. At the time of this writing, Coach bags are 30% to 50% off. Do you pay retail or wait for things to go on sale?

I almost always shop for things on sale. It is very rare I pay full price for anything.

Super bonus question. Coach is offering free shipping. Does free shipping influence your shopping decisions?

Yes, sometimes. Sick deals are what I’m looking for.

Mega bonus question. Will the Hannukah Fairy or Santa Claus or the Kwanzaa Fairy bring you what you want? Do you shop or order it yourself? Or you are not the fussy type / happy with what you have?

Ash is very good at buying for me. He doesn’t always buy exactly what I want but he does buy things I didn’t know I wanted but end up loving.

2. Happy 85th Birthday, Maila Nurmi! Vampira, Maila’s alter ego, was television’s first midnight horror movie compère. Just think. If Maila had married Enrico Fermi, nuclear physicist, she’d be Mrs Nurmi Fermi. Know anyone with an unusual name?

Hmm, that’s a tough one. I knew this woman in the English department named Etkin Camoglu, which I always thought was weird. And then a guy I knew in high school was named Yalkin Gencel. To me, both those are unusual. Also, both people are from Turkey.

3. As you can probably tell, it is kind of a slow news day around here. Not much going on. So. Today is National Noodle Ring Day.

What is a noodle ring? It is a dish prepared with cooked pasta and baked in a bundt pan. Sounds yummy. Like made-from-scratch baked macaroni and cheese. Or circular lasagna. If you were really desperate, I suppose you could set the oven to 350° and schlorp a couple of cans of SpaghettiOs into a tin Jell-O mould.

Have you ever whipped up one of those kwik ‘n’ e-z-type recipes from a soup can label or Women’s Day magazine?

I definitely have made recipes like that, though can’t think of it. I mean, my mac and cheese is a variation of Martha Stewart’s if it counts.

4. On this date in 1968, The Rolling Stones Rock And Roll Circus was filmed.

Notorious for their elephantine progress, Circus, originally intended as a BBC special, premiered 1996 October 12 at Walter Reade Theater as part of the New York Film Festival.

Have you attended a film festival?

It’s a hazy memory but I’m pretty sure in high school, the local pretentious movie house, The Enzian, had a film festival one weekend and I attended.

Ultra bonus question. Never Stop was the working title of Start Me Up for years until it was released on Tattoo You. When undertaking a project, are you gung ho and git ‘er done? Content to accomplish a little at a time? Or put it on the back burner and conveniently forget about it?

Depends on the project. If I have been thinking about something for a long time and then I set out to work on it, I usually do get quite a bit done up front. Sometimes if it gets difficult, I will shelve it for later. But I like to get a lot done in one sitting.

5. On this date in 1936, The Scandal Of The Century. King Edward VIII of the United Kingdom and the Dominions of the British Empire and Emperor of India, caused a royal scandal by abdicating the throne “to marry the woman I love”, his mistress, American divorcée Wallis Simpson.

Can you think of something scandalous?

Ha, these days, does anything shock anyone? So it’s really hard to think about something that we’d consider scandalous.

6. Please share something interesting about your week.

Been a weird week!  Friday was my last on-campus day for teaching so then on Saturday, we had soccer practices, my middle and husband ran a 5 mile race, then in the evening, my mom came through. We had dinner and then she left the next morning to go spend some time with my sister. Ash and I brewed a pale ale and watched football. Then Isaac got sick so he was home Monday and Tuesday and I tried to grade papers and get kids to practices, etc while my husband is out of town for work. Thankfully he comes home today.

I saw this on insta earlier and that about sums it up for me:

It’s the holiday season for sure! On top of soccer practices and our normal obligations like brew club, we have Christmas parties and events, and all that jazz. I like having things to do, for sure, but at the same time, I get a little overwhelmed and just want to sit in my chair under a warm blanket and chill.