BIG Movie & Book Buys

☘️ Happy St Patrick's Day🍀 from us and Maxine (photo below).

First, braggin' rights to many fellow bloggers, who correctly named Big as the 1988 movie featuring Zoltar, the antique fortune telling machine in the previous post.

Correct first response was from Kathy followed by Ginny, Emma (mimmylyn), Rita, Michelle and Denise. Also, braggin'rights twice to Emma for providing this synopsis: Of course I remember the movie. It was Big. The first time it was shown was when the boy was at the carnival and wanted to ride a ride that a girl he had a crush on. He was unable to ride because he was too short. He came upon the Zoltar machine and made a wish to be big. The next morning he was indeed 'big'. He spent the rest of the movie waiting to see Zoltar again so he could be back to normal. When he saw Zoltar at the end of the movie his wish is again granted.

Big starred actor Tom Hanks who also received an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor. However, at the 1989, 61st Academy Awards he lost to Dustin Hoffman who won for Rain Man. Ironically the late actor Gene Hackman was also a Best Actor nominee for the film, Mississippi Burning.

My total book sale purchases were under $10

The annual book sale of Friends of the Nashua Public Library was a huge success. We attended the Friday night preview which was quite hectic with book sellers looking for bargain buys. I bought a couple of books the first night, David O. Selznick's Hollywood and a Simple Weeknight Meals cookbook (America's Test Kitchen. It's not that we needed another recipe book, but this oversize softcover is similar to a couple of other ATK books, so it fit well in the bookcase.

Always room for an ATK cookbook

On Saturday, I volunteered for 6 hours basically tidying up books and adding more to the sale tables from the overflow books stored below. It's amazing how tired you can get bending up and down after doing so for a couple of hours. After that, sorting and re-filling tables in the paperback fiction room was much easier. Boxes there were all displayed on tables and it was just a matter of condensing and filling in empty spaces in boxes.

The other books shown in the above photo were all purchased Sunday, the final sale day, when I went to return some borrowed books and to browse the sale (without volunteering) just as a buyer. 

My 2-day buying total was $9.50 and that was a definite bargain when compared to the $193 suggested retail cost for all six books. Most hardcovers with the exception of very large oversized ones (like Selznick's Hollywood) were priced at $2; paperbacks were priced at $1 or 50 cents. So, you can readily see why book sellers always attend this sale in large numbers. The Friends' goal is to clear out as many books as possible since more will be donated in time for the 2026 sale.

The official sales tally hasn't been announced yet, but I heard from other Friends members (in the know) that Preview Night sales were around $17,000. This was before the general buying public shopped all day Saturday and half-day Sunday. (Once it's known, I'll share the total in a future post.)

Maxine was all decked out in her finest greenery for a St. Patrick's Day celebration which will take place at the Hudson Senior Center this week.

She's a permanent resident at this senior center where we meet to play dominoes weekly. There's no resident housing there; Maxine hangs out in the center office when not celebrating a holiday and never misses the chance to dress for the occasion. In reply to a blogger's comment, it does look like she's holding an angry stuffed cabbage 🥬.

Friday Funnies

Today's post is a trip down movie trivia.

Can you name the 1988 movie that featured this antique fortune telling machine ?

Bonus Point if you know why the machine was used and what happened. (This isn't an internet grab, as I took this photo of the machine, but can't recall its location.)

Zoltar granted a wish in the film

This fantasy-comedy film, directed by Penny Marshall, met with widespread critical acclaim, especially for the lead actor's performance. It established him as a major box-office success and crowd favorite. The film was a commercial success; it grossed $151 M worldwide against a production budget of $18 M.

As always, no prizes, just braggin' rights. The answer (and winners) posted next week.

Nashua Public Library Friends Book & Media Sale Set-Up

This weekend, the Friends of the Nashua Public Library are holding their Annual Friends Book & Media Sale. The 3-day sale starts with Friday Preview sale night for Friends and invited book sellers and ends Sunday afternoon. Monies raised fund various library programs and events throughout the year. The 2024 sale brought in $35,000. The sale includes thousands of donated books, hundreds of movies,  music CDs, assorted games and puzzles. It takes place in the library's entire lower level. Set-up was done several evenings this week by Friends members, including myself, assisted by local high school students.

Enjoy Your Weekend, Everyone

As Friends members, we're going to Preview night

We vow not to buy more books, but then we can donate them back

Nashua River Happenings

Just Ducky is the best way to describe happenings on the Nashua River the past couple of weeks from melting snow and ice, new ducks seen on the river, favorite ducks returning and ongoing construction work in the nearby pocket park. It's been a busy time.

This is how the portion of the Nashua River viewed from our apartment window looked during most of February, snow-covered, but not frozen over, with no ducks in sight.

What a difference in the past two weeks as warming temps arrived and the formerly frigid temperatures started to moderate. The ice was breaking up and floating downstream.

The river's ever-present population of seagulls returned. This group was spotted on some of the remaining river bank ice, but no problem with cold feet. 

Why? seagulls' feet can get cold, but they're not susceptible to frostbite as they are mostly bone and tendon with little muscle or nerve tissue. Gulls have a countercurrent heat exchange system, which helps prevent blood from freezing in their feet. Here's how that works: warm arteries that carry blood toward the feet are in contact with cooler veins that return blood from the feet. So, heat transfers from warmer arterial blood to cooler venous blood, and prevents excessive heat loss in the feet. If only humans were as fortunate as seagulls.

Common Mergansers

Last week, the river had new visitors as a group (waddling or flock) of up to a dozen Common Mergansers appeared on the river below our apartment window. These ducks are part of the Anatidae family which consist of ducks, geese, and swans. It was the first time we'd seen any  on the river.

I read that in the UK, these ducks are called Goosanders. The word, merganser, comes from Latin words mergus and anser, which mean waterfowl and goose, respectively. The name roughly translates to plunging goose.

There's been some very windy days on the river

Mergansers are diving ducks and a member of the sawbill family, with serrated bills used for catching fish. It's considered a very sociable bird and whenever we've seen them, there's always several in the flock and these flocks are usually small. Unlike Canada Geese, common mergansers do not mate for life, but form monogamous pairs for at least one breeding season.

Common mergansers are carnivores (piscivores) feeding mostly on fish but also hunt a range of other aquatic prey: mollusks, crustaceans, worms, insect larvae, and amphibians. 

Male (top) and female (bottom) Common Mergenser

The Common Merganser is a sexually dimorphic bird which refers to visible differences in physical and behavioral traits between males and females of the same species. These differences can include size, color and markings. Males tend to be bigger in size and weigh. Female ducks are slightly smaller with less colorful markings. The female merganser in the above photo was the only one seen in the flock this week.

Legs of Mergansers are positioned for swimming and diving

Mergansers move clumsily on land, and can resort to running when there's a perceived threat. They assume a very upright position similar to penguins and frequently fall and stumble. As shown in the photos above their legs are positioned towards the rear. While an asset when diving, this makes it difficult for them to walk on land.

Early morning flock of Mergansers on the Nashua River

For the past week, we've watched this flock of Common mergansers hunting either in the early morning or late afternoon. (All images were taken from our 5th floor windows.) When not diving for food, the mergansers were usually swimming on the water surface or floating with the stream and would fly or fish their way back. This week, we watched as they followed this procedure for several mornings.

The river also hosted returning favorites and perhaps the most familiar of all ducks, Mallards. These very social ducks prefer to congregate in groups or flocks of varying sizes. This group of males and females were seen pairing off on the river over the weekend. Unlike mergansers, the mallards will swim closer to the river bank, especially if they anticipate that walkers on the river walk will toss bread, which is never the best thing for them. Just as for humans, bread is a poor source of protein, fats, vitamins, and minerals that ducks require for a healthy diet.

Male (top) and female (bottom) Mallard

Male mallards (drakes) have a striking iridescent green head, yellow bill, white band around the neck, rusty-colored chest, gray body, and a blue speculum (wing band) on the wings seen during the breeding season. Female mallards (hens) are mainly speckled brown and tan with a dark brown cap and brown eye stripes. 

The name, mallard, originally referred to any wild drake, and it is sometimes still used this way. It was derived from the Old French malart or mallart for "wild drake" although its true derivation is unclear. The Mallard is the ancestor of nearly all domestic duck breeds (everything except the Muscovy Duck). While Mallard pairs are generally monogamous, paired males often will pursue females other than their mates. (Perhaps, as in the above photo?)

Meanwhile, now that the weather has been improving, work has resumed in the Le Parc De Notre Renaissance Française, locally known as the French Park, which is adjacent to the mill apartments. Construction work had been halted with the snowfalls and ice, but it resumed this past week. A permanent amphitheater is being installed and walkways are being placed along the river walk. Unfortunately, we won't be enjoying this open space area this summer. Completion has been predicted by year-end 2025.

AWARDS NIGHT: The Tiny Film Festival we attended at the Nashua Public Library last weekend was a fun, if very short, film premier event. All 60-second films were submitted by community members with 15 entries jin categories ranging from grade school, high school to adult film makers. The library did have a shortened red carpet. A photographer was on hand to take photos of three winners in each group and a final group photo. Winners were awarded a small trophy and gift card. Snacks were provided by the library staff.

Friday Funnies

This is a random collection of photos that provoked some phun thoughts in my mind and, believe me, some days it doesn't take much. Feel free to groan.

This shoe owner was not well heeled and definitely without sole.

This was definitely a shattering scene.

Maybe this sign is pointing the way to a very small town ?

Some days are cagey or you might feel caged in.

No ifs, but so many frozen butts were seen on city sidewalks and streets after most of the snow and ice melted. This nasty scene was repeated in many areas; a sidewalk cleanup will be very welcome — the sooner, the better. Like many others, I also thought that folks were smoking less due not only to health concerns but costs; however, this was only one of several areas that was littered with cigarette butts, so there's still many smokers.

This is good advice for anything traffic-related and even more so for life.

Tonight, we're going to view some very short movies and attend a film awards ceremony. But, we're not going to a cinema. The third annual Tiny Film Festival is at the Nashua Public Library complete with a red carpet for the presenters and popcorn for the attendees. Best of all, we can walk to the show.

Enjoy Your Weekend, Everyone

For most U.S. states, clocks are set 1 hour ahead this weekend 

Spam-a-Lot or Not

Apologies for borrowing a word which, most often is associated with something that's entirely different and entertaining; however, my use of the word definitely is not. The other Spamalot is a musical retelling the legend of King Arthur. It's based on the 1975 film, Monty Python and the Holy Grail. Its title is a portmanteau (a word or part of a word made by combining the spellings and meanings of two or more other words or word parts) in this case, Spam and Camelot.

My use of spam-a-lot refers to the proliferation of spam comments that myself and other bloggers have to deal with, sometimes on a daily basis. This comment ↓ is an example. 

Often, an identical spam comment will be repeated for multiple blog posts. Most times, the comments are left overnight, an indication that spammers are in another country/time zone.

In recent weeks, I've been reporting many of these multiple spammers to Google. In the above example, clicking on the spammer's name, Mostbet, brings up this page where I click on Report Abuse.

Next, this screen to Report a community violation displays to identify the URL of the spammer you want to report and I click on Report.

This next screen presents a selection of violations and one can be selected by clicking on it.  I've been selecting spam, malware, or phishing. However, despite selecting this violation, in the past few days, the same spammer has been leaving spam. So, this week, I selected harassment or bullying and will see if that brings any results in halting this spammer.

After I've selected the reason for reporting the violation, this next screen displays and then I click on Submit Report.

The final step is to go back and delete the spam comment. 

This is the email that Google sends every time a violation is reported. Some days, I have received multiple thank you emails for reporting multiple violations.  

Does this process work?

Yes and no because some days I have had zero spam comments and then other days, there will be anywhere from a few to 6 or more. I've noticed that there has been a reduction from certain spammers with a few exceptions. That's why I plan to select a different violation to report in the future as spam actually is a form of harassment or bullying.

If any other bloggers have gone through this process, please share your experiences in a comment especially whether it's been successful or not in stopping some of the spam.

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Our thanks to everyone for your condolences on the recent passing of my friend and of Patrick's cousin. Also, thanks to those who commented on coincidences in your own lives.

Friday Funnies & Not

This is what waiting for warmer weather looked like on our recent road trip to the White Mountains in NH on a -10℉ morning. During warmer days these porch chairs are the perfect place to relax, of course, in season.

Chairs on porch at Mountain View Grand Hotel, Whitefield, NH

Today is the last day of the month — good great news is that Spring arrives in 20 days.

The recent snowfall was followed by freezing rain and frigid temps, this week's weather was quite balmy in the mid-40s by the end of the week. There's a lot of melting snow and ice around here also large puddles and potholes.

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In an entirely different and not funny matter, we're going to NJ this weekend for a family funeral. Patrick's cousin passed away shortly after my college friend (mentioned in a previous post) died. What was interesting to me were a number of similarities in these passings. Both men were named Tom, their Irish surnames started with the letter C, both lived in the same state (NJ), their date of death had the same numbers (Feb 12 and Feb 21), their ages ended in the same number (79 and 89). Dissimilarly only one Tom was married and had children; the other was a lifelong bachelor and their professions differed as well.

The probability is statistically low, but not entirely improbable that two people with the same name would die around the same time. However, figuring out the odds of that happening is nearly impossible, dependent on factors like common names, population demographics, ages, lifestyles, life expectancy and geographic location. In short, it's a very complex and situational calculation. In most cases, like this one, it's purely coincidental and, according to some sources, a matter of chance, which seems to me as the same thing.

Just wondering — has anyone else experienced any coincidental situations ?

Enjoy Your Weekend, Everyone

Call a friend and/or family to say "thinking of you"

Life is short attributed to Greek physician Hippocrates; repeated through history 

Light Show & Concerts

Memories of Christmas past is the theme of this post, not ones from long ago, just in 2024, which now seems rather long ago. Does anyone else feel this year is going too fast?

This post came about after I looked through drafts after several bloggers commented about finding drafts they started but never posted. The same is true for myself, and is why this post dates back to last year's holiday season and was completed this week.

To recap, December was a stay-at-home month for us, not in the sense of staying in the apt, but staying local and enjoying nearby events. This included seeing holiday lights at an area winery and going to several concerts at the downtown Nashua Arts Center. The events were our holiday gifts to ourselves — it's all about experiences!

Holiday light show at LaBelle Winery, Derry, NH

We've been to some holiday light displays in past years, but this was our first successful visit to one at the LaBelle Winery in Derry, NH. Plans to attend last year were upended when a wine storm blew down many of the displays.

We went on a very warm evening in early December. The light display, set up on the winery's golf course, featured over a million lights in various holiday displays. It started a couple of weeks before Thanksgiving 2024 and ran through the first week in January 2025.

Our Crazy Hats at LaBelle Lights

LaBelle Lights featured several theme weeks, including holiday card week, holiday pajama week, Santa costume week, crazy holiday hat week, ugly holiday sweater week, find the hidden elf week and ‘80s ski week.

 We attended during crazy hats week. My barely visible hat was penguin-themed and Patrick sported a Santa cap.

It took just under a half hour to walk through the display which was not a timed event so that there was no rush to get through it. 

This event could be a pricey family outing for the holidays. General admission tickets were $18 for adults, $12 for seniors age 65+, $8 for children age 4 to 12 and free admission for children 3 and under. But, the way to reduce the admission cost was to attend on Twinkle Tuesdays when all tickets were 50 percent off — and that's when we went with two friends.

This event was a one-and-done for us. It was a nice holiday season outing last year, but we're good without a return visit. Maybe you've gone to events and felt the same afterwards?

Nashua Center for the Arts on Main Street, Nashua, NH

In December, we attended several concerts at the local arts center which is within walking distance of our mill apartment. Here's a few photos with some brief info about the performers.

Sara Evans

Sara Lynn Evans is an American country music singer, songwriter, record producer, actress, and author. She's sold over 6 million albums with five number one hits on the Billboard country song chart and is well-regarded for her singing, songwriting and record production. 

Canadian Brass

Canadian Brass is a brass quintet that was formed in 1970 in Toronto, Ontario. The group is known for the use of humor in their live performances and an irreverent attitude that includes their signature attire of formal black suits and white running shoes. They've recorded over 170 CDs and DVDs and performed internationally. Canadian Brass made its American debut at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC, in 1975. 

The Tenors

The Tenors (formerly The Canadian Tenors) are an international vocal group consisting of Victor Micallef, Clifton Murray, Alberto Urso and Mark Masri. They perform operatic pop music that's a mixture of classical and pop. They have performed in Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center, the Israeli Opera House, and in Las Vegas.

About these images — A point and shoot digital camera was used to take photos of the outdoor holiday lights. An iPhone was used for the indoor concert images. Admittedly, I had better results with the indoor photos than the outdoor night ones, which were handheld. 

As for taking photos of the performers, at all of these shows, the only announced restriction was for no flash photography or audio recordings. I did neither.

How about you — Do you have posts in draft form that you will someday complete ?

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A fellow blogger, Jon, The Lone Wolf Concerto, (a link on my sidebar) is going through very rough times (an understatement) and remains hospitalized for various medical issues. While there's little that can be done as far as fellow bloggers helping physically, kindness can include leaving a positive comment or sending a card: He's posted his address, if you want to snail-mail a message or card: Jon Varga, Signature HealthCare, 208 N. Duncan St., Room 601, Jamestown, TN 38556.