Bonni Brodnick Blog

"The Patty Duke Show" was one of my favorites. I remember watching it with my sister as we sat in front of the television wearing fluffy pink slippers that made us feel like teenagers, even though we were only in grade school. We wanted to be Cathy, who "lived most everywhere, from Zanzibar to Barclay Square" and idolized Patty, even though she only saw "the sights a girl can see from Brooklyn Heights" ... what a crazy pair. Who doesn't remember every word of the opening song to "The Patty Duke Show"? The lyrics are 20 snappy lines emblazoned in our memory. ( Click here  and sing along.) Meet Cathy, who's lived most everywhere,  From Zanzibar to Berkeley Square.  But Patty's only seen the sight.  A girl can see from Brooklyn Heights --  What a crazy pair!  But they're cousins,  Identical cousins all the way.  One pair of matching bookends,  Different as night and day.  Where Cathy adores a minuet,  The Ballet Russes, and cr...

(Click arrow above for Trump left hanging.) David Brooks's column today in The New York Times is aptly titled,  "No, Not Trump, Not Ever ." Following are excerpts that address Trump, the man, the buffoon, the showoff, the bully ... and one of most un-presidential candidates in political history.  " Donald Trump is epically unprepared to be president . He has no realistic policies, no advisers, no capacity to learn. His vast narcissism makes him a closed fortress. He doesn’t know what he doesn’t know and he’s uninterested in finding out. He insults the office Abraham Lincoln once occupied by running for it with less preparation than most of us would undertake to buy a sofa. Trump is perhaps the most dishonest person to run for high office in our lifetimes. All politicians stretch the truth, but Trump has a steady obliviousness to accuracy. This week, the Politico reporters Daniel Lippman, Darren Samuelsohn and Isaac Arnsdorf  fact-checked  4.6 hours of...

My husband and I are trying to put this recent escapade in the rearview mirror because my declaration comes with a bit of embarrassment ...  Click here   f or my  new   Huffington Post ,   " Car Talk: 'Running' Out of Gas ."

David proposed to Libby!!!!!    Annie writes from Grenada: David called this evening to say he had "big news." Indeed! Welcome to the family, dear Libby!

I am one of those people who notices the small things.  Like a missing comma or someone's label sticking out. (See the Tale of Leona Helmsley's Label. Click here . ) If I see a painting in someone's house that's hanging a tad low on one side, I'll give the opposite corner a gentle flick when no one is looking. What I don't see is when the gas gauge in my car is on "EMPTY." Don't tell my husband, but today I got as low as only 6 miles reserve to get to a gas station. When I got into the car, I asked Siri how many miles it was to my home address. "It's approximately 8 miles from here to that address," my male Siri said in his robotic Wales accent. The meter said that I had 13 miles left in the gas tank. That means I had 5 miles leeway before my car ran out of gas on the side of the highway. Thinking strategically, I thought it best to not waste  a single drop of gas. So I turned off the radio and heat. Unplugged my phone charg...

As you know from a few posts ago, I just celebrated a whirlwind three weeks of birthday celebrations. One of the many wonderful and thoughtful gifts bestowed upon me from dear friends was a deliciously sybaritic facial and massage at a spa. While chatting with the masseuse about my birthday (before she, literally, dug in with a firm Swedish massage), she commented astutely, "You are probably making a bucket list and saying to yourself, 'I need to this,' or 'I have to go there' ... but I bet you could make lists and lists of things you've accomplished." I loved her perspective. Sort of the "glass half-empty" or the "glass half-full." Not only did I start thinking of the things I've accomplished thus far in my life but I also thought she had an interesting suggestion: make a list. This is just a very, very, very short list of accomplishments for which I am proud. I encourage you to number yours as well. 1.      Nurturing a...

How will this marvelous series button up the story line/s tonight? Here are a few conjectures. (Top row, left to right): Mrs. Hughes and Mr. Carson get pregnant. Thomas will get the BF he has long needed. (His character has so mellowed out from the PITA gossip-boy he was in the beginning, hasn't he? And, we are happy he stopped smoking.) Mr. Molsley leaves housework behind to become a full-time teacher so that he can get summers off. Daisy teaches the guy to her left how to read and they open an independent school in Fairfield County. Mrs. Patmore marries the pig farmer and they successfully augment their business by selling sow's-ear purses. Mr. Bates and Anna open a night club. Sprat teaches Grandmama how to Charleston and her life takes a new turn.  Cora and Robert keep waiting for the next meal. Mary gets a new wardrobe to carry her through. To where, we're not sure. Hollywood? Edith stops the doe-eye stare. The Marquess come...

Along with their adorable smiles, slitty eyes and  cut-from-the-same-cookie-cutter  noses,  Trump and Liberace have another unmistakable bonding factor ...  Their hair.

Trump's and Rubio's behavior at the Republican debates on Fox this evening was repulsive. They were like two insolent brothers giving one another the na-na-na-boo-boo. One talked over the other, they raised their voices, attacked one another ... if they were my sons, I would have said, " Go up to your room! And don't come down until you can talk civilly to one another. If you can't do at least that, how you can expect there to be peace in the world?"  Getting even more fired up, I would add, "YOU'RE GROUNDED!! No more campaigning trails until you clean up your act. NOW GO TO YOUR ROOMS!!! And DON'T COME OUT until I tell you to!" Rubio and Trump turned around and all I could hear were their size-12 shoes clumping up the stairs, and the slamming of doors.  G R O W  U P, A L R E A D Y for crying out loud. We're talking about the welfare of our great country. Stop the frikkin' bickering and chicanery.

To see more of Pamela's portfolio of work, click here   ... and forever be inspired.

February 29th is that extra day added to the calendar every fourth year (except those evenly divisible by 400). To many, this brings up the word bissextus ?  (I know, I know. It's 2016. Nobody cares anymore.) Here's the skinny so you're in the know four years from now: Bissext , or  bissextus  ( Lat .  bis , twice;  sextus , sixth) is the day which is added to the  Gregorian calendar  every fourth year (except those evenly divisible by 100, unless they are divisible by 400) to compensate for the six hour difference in length between the common 365 day year and the actual length of the solar year. In modern usage, with the exception of  ecclesiastical  calendars, the intercalary day is added for convenience at the end of the month of February, as February 29, and years in which February has twenty-nine days are called "bissextile," or  leap years .