MIRACLE NEAR 48TH STREET MIDTOWN MANHATTAN

Former fighter pilot Chesley B. Sullenberger III saves 155 souls on a Thursday afternoon...


"BRACE FOR IMPACT"


US AIRWAYS FLIGHT 1549 GLIDING OVER THE HUDSON RIVER


NICE JOB, SULLY !!!


ON THE WINGS OF A HERO ~ NOT ONE SOUL LOST


HELP TO THE RESCUE !!!


GLAD TO BE ALIVE


VIDEO OF ACTUAL SPLASHDOWN ON LEFT SIDE OF SCREEN ~

It's one of those events that brings the entire country together: A miracle, A hero,
A feeling of solidarity in a time of national crisis. It was just what we needed to
remind us of the bravery and kindness and tenacity of the American spirit.

You've seen it on TV, you've read about it on your computers, you know the details.
They are too fascinating to ignore. A veteran pilot with the coolness of god, set
down a plane in the middle of the Hudson River with no engines. His glider pilot
experience no doubt helped. But it was the man himself, who made those instant
decisions, said those powerful words, and brought the plane down smoothly.

Sullenberger's co-pilot was Jeff Skiles, 49, of Oregon, Wis.,
a 23-year US Airways veteran.

People who saw it said, "It was a controlled descent." "I thought they were making
a film on the river!" 35 people were rescued from the water. The air temp was 20F.
Riders on the Thomas Jefferson commuter ferry threw life vests and ropes to the
passengers in the water. A miracle near 48th Street, that gave us all hope.

Jiva

IT'S ABOUT THE HATS...

The thing was, someone designed hats to go with these costumes. Inevitably, the hats
would be either huge, or have feathers, or something that stuck out in all directions.
Nice to look at maybe, but for dancers performing acrobatics, those were unfriendly hats.
The Merriel Abbott Dancers usually had cartwheels, walkovers, or some such feat in
the dance numbers, and that tropical number featured in the photo had a few.

If you look at the hats, you can see that they are placed precariously
on one's head. There is a lot more hat off the head than is on the head, making it
unsteady, uncertain, and fraught with probabilities. You'd think that a designer,
with years of experience, would know this. But no, those hats kept coming at us.
Every dance number, every costume, had a hat, and the hats were usually cumbersome.

In this particular dance number, the boys had to jump over the girls. Well, you can imagine!
Not a performance went by, that a hat didn't go flying. Once off the head, they were in
danger of being confiscated by the audience, as we danced on the same level as our guests.
They ate and DRANK at their tables, then watched the show on a level dance floor. They
were not beyond a little mild frivolity. We tried not to encourage it.


You could stumble over a hat lying innocently on the floor, when you were tripping the
light fantastic. You could toss an errant hat on the bandstand. You could try to pin it
back where it had been originally, without missing a step. You could! Really.

Heard in the dressing room after a show:
"Has anyone seen my hat?"

Like our current government, it befuddles the mind with the irrationality of it all.

Jiva (who is 18, bottom right)

(Copyright 2009)

A LITTLE HOUSE IN WYOMING

I have this desire to live in Wyoming, with a nice big fluffy dog,
a lot of books, and my computer. I found this house on The Internet,
and can't remember where. I just know that it is my dream house.

I've lived in much bigger houses, lived on estates, lived on the shore,
in the woods, in the mountains, just about everywhere I can think of
except maybe Venice, Italy, or Paris, France, wouldn't mind living there either.
Or being in NYC, the center of the theater world.
But no, I want to live in Wyoming. This is the house for me.
I have nothing else to say about it, just wanted you to see it.

Jiva

THE GLAMOROUS MARY MEADE

It was March of 1953, and I was performing for the first time at The Empire Room of The Palmer House Hotel in Chicago, dancing with The Merriel Abbott Dancers. A dancer had not shown up for work, and they asked me to take her place, as I already knew the dance numbers. I was sixteen years old, a tall girl with long blond hair, quite attractive, a nice Catholic schoolgirl basically, suddenly thrust into the spotlight in more ways than one. The other girls had to show me how to put on stage make-up, fix my eyelashes with black wax to make them look thick and long, and put my headpiece on so it wouldn't fall off while I was dancing. That was the easy part. What happened next was something sudden. They asked me to walk out around the tables to the other side of the dance floor where we performed our shows, and wait for Miss Mary Meade who was the headliner.

They said, now just stand at the other side of the stage, and when she comes out, she'll hand you her black fox fur. You take it to the dressing room the same way you came out. This meant walking all the way around the tables and back again. They put me in a maid's outfit, with a little apron, black stockings and high heels. I looked like a pin up girl. Mary Meade was not that well known in Chicago, or anywhere else except Europe in the 1950's. She had been an actress in some "B" movies in Hollywood in the 40's, but for the most part, she was basically an unfamiliar face. She was quite beautiful, and she also had long blonde hair, just as I did at that time. We were both tall and blonde, and both pretty. So.......

The orchestra starts playing. I start walking around the back of the tables. The Master of Ceremonies introduces the star of stage and screen, the lovely Miss Mary Meade! And here she comes out of the same dressing room I came out of, only I reached the stage well before she did.
Just as they announced her, I stepped forward on the stage waiting dutifully for her to arrive with her black fox fur. The audience couldn't see her because she was on her way from the dressing room, making her way through the side tables. They took one look at me, and thought I looked similar to the picture on their table card, so they started applauding, loud and passionately, as good Chicago audiences were known to do. I smiled and grinned at the crowd which was staring at me, and then a somewhat irate Ms.Meade came strolling across the stage and handed me her fur with a cutting look I will never forget.

The musicians unfortunately started chuckling in the background, and the drummer made one of those stick on cymbal sounds they make at the punch line of a joke. I still had to walk all the way around the back tables. Ms. Meade started singing, but the audience continued smiling at me, as I walked fast to the dressing room. It was a story that went around town a bit, as the new girl who upstaged Mary Meade. She was quite unhappy about it, until they told her it was my very first night in show business, and I guess she decided to forgive me, as apparently it had been her idea to have a maid pick up her fur, and for some reason, somebody decided to have me do it. I'll never forget that night, as I didn't know whether to be elated at my sudden celebrity, or humiliated at my bold stance while I waited for her to appear. A charming memory now, but then, all the girls said, "nice going."


Jiva

(Copyright 2009)

KATE WINS !!

KATE WINSLET WON TWICE !!
MICKEY ROURKE SUPRISED ME WITH HIS BEST ACTOR WIN.
SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE STOLE THE SHOW...
IT WAS A LOT OF FUN... CHECK IT OUT.


Jiva

GOLDEN GLOBES TONIGHT AT 8PM EST !!!

THE 66TH ANNUAL GOLDEN GLOBES AIRS TONIGHT.
A PRINTABLE BALLOT IS ON THE HEADER LINK ABOVE. (title bar)
KEEP TRACK OF ALL THE WINNERS AND LOSERS!
I JUST LOVE HOLLYWOOD. I LOVE THE RED CARPET AND ALL THE FASHIONS.
50 STARS WILL BE PRESENTERS AT THE BEVERLY HILTON HOTEL
(where I just happened to be the first day the place opened in 1955)!
IT IS FOR YOUR VIEWING PLEASURE ON NBC LIVE AND IN COLOR :)

The Golden Globes is the only awards show today that combines the intimacy and spontaneity of a party. As the night continues on, the famous and not so famous usually become
innebriated, thereby doing and saying outrageous things that make us all laugh and giggle.
That's the BIG difference between the Golden Globes and the rest of the award shows.

In case you don't know, the Golden Globes is put on by the Hollywood Foreign
Press Association. My experience is that they usually have no hidden agendas.
They just call it like they see it. NO politics!

I'll be on the couch with my Martini, my snacks and my ballot.
I love to guess who might win, I always play my favorites.
And of course BRAD PITT AND CATE BLANCHETT are right at the top of my list!

Happy Viewing.

Jiva

TAKING A LOOK BACK AT BLOGGING

THIS IS A PICTURE OF BILL GATES WITH BLOGGERS. SINCE WE OWE BILL A DEBT OF
GRATITUDE FOR MAKING ALL THIS POSSIBLE, HE SEEMED THE IDEAL PERSON TO SIT WITH BLOGGERS.
HERE IS A LINK TO PAGES AND PAGES OF PHOTOS OF BLOGGERS. KNITTING BLOGGERS, QUAKER BLOGGERS, REUNION BLOGGERS, COMPASSION BLOGGERS, GORGEOUS BLOGGERS, SEX BLOGGERS, KUWAITI BLOGGERS, INTEL BLOGGERS, PERTH BLOGGERS, LONDON BLOGGERS.
THE WORLD BLOGS.

A little aside here... do you notice how no one in California ever wears a tie???
You have to love a place like that. I'm wondering why I typed this entry in CAPS.
3 in the morning, too much drinking at dinner, good grief. (Inserted post blog).

I WROTE MY FIRST BLOG ENTRY BACK IN AUGUST OF 2007, NOT SO LONG AGO REALLY, BUT I REMEMBER BEING VERY EXCITED AT HAVING STARTED. THOSE WERE THE DAYS WHEN I WENT AROUND ASKING "WHAT IS A BLOG ANYWAY?" I DIDN'T EVEN KNOW WHAT THE WORD MEANT! WEB LOG. BLOG.

TONIGHT I WAS HAVING DINNER WITH TWO GIRLFRIENDS, AND ONE ASKED WHAT THE PURPOSE OR POINT WAS TO WRITING A BLOG, AND WHY WOULD ANYONE READ THEM? I TRIED TO EXPLAIN. BLOGGING IS THIS WRITING OF WHAT AMOUNTS TO A KIND OF JOURNAL OF YOUR SOUL. WHEN I FIRST STARTED, I COMMENTED ON THE DAY'S EVENTS, ADDED PICTURES, VIDEOS, THINGS THAT I FOUND INTERESTING, HOPING THAT SOMEONE ELSE OUT THERE IN THE ETHERS MIGHT THINK IT AMUSING. WHATEVER.

AS TIME WENT ON, I FOUND OTHER PEOPLE'S BLOGS. I READ THEM, KEPT THEM, MADE THEM FAVORITES. DISCOVERED THE WORLD OF BLOGGING. NOT JUST MY BLOG, BUT MANY BLOGS OF NOTE WRITTEN BY TRULY INTERESTING FOLK. IT'S LIKE AN ENTIRE COMMUNITY DEDICATED TO REVEALING THEMSELVES. REVEALING THEIR HOPES, THEIR DREAMS, THEIR PAST, THEIR PRESENT.

LIKE PARKER SAYS, IT'S ORAL HISTORY. EVEN THOUGH THE WORDS ARE WRITTEN.
AND WHEN I LOOK AT OTHER PEOPLE'S BLOGS, I SEE THEIR LIVES.

IT REMINDS ME OF WHEN I WAS YOUNG, LIVING AT HOME, AND WE WOULD SIT AROUND THE TABLE
AFTER DINNER, TALKING ABOUT OUR DAY, ABOUT THE PEOPLE WE MET, EVENTS WE EXPERIENCED,
AND LAUGHING AT THE FOIBLES OF LIFE. THAT'S WHAT BLOGGING IS LIKE FOR ME.

I'M SITTING AROUND WITH BLOGGERS, TELLING IT LIKE IT IS, HEARING WHAT IT'S
LIKE FOR THEM. IT'S AN INTIMATE CONVERSATION WITH A FEW ZILLION FOLKS.

WITH LOVE, FROM JIVA THE BLOGGER
AND JUST FOR THE RECORD, JIVA MEANS "ESSENCE OF LIFE" IN SANSKRIT.
IT'S NOT MY REAL NAME, IT'S MY BLOGGIN' NAME!

DANCING DAYS SO LONG AGO...

REUNION OF THE MERRIEL ABBOTT DANCERS AT THE STAIRS UP TO THE EMPIRE ROOM OF THE PALMER HOUSE HOTEL IN CHICAGO SOMETIME AROUND 1970 OR 1971.
MERRIEL ABBOTT IS FRONT AND CENTER WITH A FLOWER LEI AROUND HER NECK, SMILING AT JUNE TAYLOR OF JACKIE GLEASON SHOW FAME, A FORMER MERRIEL ABBOTT GIRL HERSELF.

THE STORY OF MERRIEL ABBOTT AND HER DANCERS SPANS ALMOST 30 YEARS. SHE CHOREOGRAPHED SHOWS ON BROADWAY IN 1929 AND THE 1930'S. HER DANCERS WERE IN MANY FILMS WITH JACK BENNY: BUCK BENNY RIDES AGAIN, MAN ABOUT TOWN, AND LOVE THY NEIGHBOR IN THE LATE 1930'S AND EARLY 1940'S. OTHER FILMS INCLUDED SWING FEVER AND LOVE ON TAP.
THEY DID A LOT OF TOURING, DOING NIGHT CLUB PERFORMANCES BACK WHEN NIGHT CLUBS
AND SUPPER CLUBS WERE THE SOCIAL EVENING OUT ENTERTAINMENTS OF THAT TIME.
BUT EVEN THOUGH HER GIRLS TRAVELED THE WORLD, THEY WERE BEST KNOWN FOR THEIR NIGHTLY PERFORMANCES IN THE ELEGANT EMPIRE ROOM OF THE PALMER HOUSE HOTEL IN CHICAGO.


FOUR MERRIEL ABBOTT GIRLS IN HOLLYWOOD, 1940

DURING SUMMERS, THEY WOULD TRAVEL THE USA, WORKING IN LAS VEGAS, MIAMI BEACH, AND LOS ANGELES. THEY PERFORMED ON THE COLGATE VARIETY HOUR IN THE SUMMER OF 1955, WHICH COINCIDENTALLY OPENED THE BEVERLY HILTON HOTEL IN LOS ANGELES, WHERE MANY OF THE AWARDS BANQUETS AND DINNERS ARE HELD, NOTABLY THE GOLDEN GLOBES.

ONE OF THE REASONS THE GIRLS WERE SO FAMOUS WAS BECAUSE OF THEIR SKILL IN PERFORMING ALL THREE OF THE BASICS OF DANCE: TAP, BALLET AND ACROBATICS. THOSE GIRLS COULD DO FLIP FLOPS, AERIEL SUMMERSAULTS, AERIAL CARTWHEELS, SPOT WALKOVERS AND JUMP SPLITS. MOST DANCERS STICK TO DANCING WITHOUT THE ACROBATICS. IN FACT, BY THE TIME HER DANCERS WERE PERFORMING IN THE 1950'S, ACROBATICS HAD ALL BUT DISAPPEARED FROM THEIR PERFORMANCES, AS NONE OF THE GIRLS AUDITIONING HAD THE BACKGROUND, AND BY THEN MS.ABBOTT NO LONGER HAD HER FAMOUS SCHOOL WHERE THESE SKILLS WERE REQUIREMENTS. IF YOU EVER HAVE A CHANCE TO SEE ONE OF THE JACK BENNY FILMS THAT THE GIRLS ARE IN, YOU CAN SEE FOR YOURSELF. I KNOW THAT I, A FORMER MERRIEL ABBOTT GIRL MYSELF, ALMOST FELL OVER WHEN I SAW THE LEVEL OF WORK THEY DID IN THEIR FILMS.


MERRIEL ABBOTT GIRLS IN LONDON ON ONE OF THE VERY FIRST TV SHOWS FOR THE BBC 1937

THEY SPENT TIME IN LONDON, PARIS, AND SOUTH AMERICA. TO BE A MERRIEL ABBOTT DANCER WAS QUITE A FEAT BACK IN THOSE DAYS. THE LAST PERFORMANCE THE GIRLS MADE WAS IN 1957, A LONG WAY FROM 1929. AND EVEN AFTER THAT, MS.ABBOTT CONTINUED WORKING FOR CONRAD HILTON AS A BOOKING AGENT FOR ALL HIS HOTELS THE WORLD OVER UNTIL HER DEATH IN THE 1970'S. THERE WAS A REUNION HELD AT THE EMPIRE ROOM, AND I'M GLAD SHE WAS ABLE TO BE THERE BEFORE SHE DIED.


MERRIEL ABBOTT IN 1938 AT THE PEAK OF HER SUCCESS WHICH LASTED THROUGH THE 1950'S.

(Copyright 2009)
Jiva