240. Wednesday’s Addams Family, The Hunger Games, Luca Cottini’s Italy, Grace Chloe Moretz’s Periphereal, Walter Mitty’s Journey, And The WIN…ter Words Puzzle!

     

         

A. Here Are Let’s Talk Philadelphia’s Monthly Quick Notes!
Our Family Wishes You And Your Family The Happiest Of Holidays!

      

Our non-political and non-religious column hoped Ramadan, Kwanzaa, Christmas, and Hanukkah fell in December this year like it did a few years ago. Our holiday wishes would, then, ring out to 4/7 of the religious universe. Nonetheless, Let’s Talk Philadelphia’s 240th WordPress issue wishes everyone a joyous, safe, and healthy December and New Year with an amazing array of new finds and adventures to come.

    

B. Let’s Talk Philadelphia Loved Wednesday (6-0 Office Vote)!
Netflix And Tim Burton Won The Giant Slalom With This One!
8 Enchanted 46 Minute Episodes Of  This Addams’ Family Remake!

   

Wednesday will soon become the most watched Netflix series of all time. That is really some feat for a movie that is an update of the Addams Family that few 10-25 year-olds have seen! Although seemingly geared to the under 25 audience, the movie zoomed to upper age (our office and more) embracing.

    

Wednesday, a half comedy, half mystical journey, half horror story (Oops, two many halves) stars Jenna Ortega in the Wednesday Addams role played by Christine Ricci in the original series and now Jenna’s school advisor in this eight part series.

Wednesday, a rye, antisocial misfit was thrown out of her previous school for putting piranha in the swimming pool during a men’s water polo team practice. The team locked her brother, Pugsley, in his school hallway locker. The piranha, in her mind, were payback.

    

Wednesday’s parents, Catherine Zeta Jones (Mortica) and Luis Guizman (Gomez) immediately whisk her off to Jericho, Vermont and Nevermore Academy their high school Alma Mater. Nevermore Academy is the haven for all sorts of monster children trying to hone their abilities and return to the mainstream…

   

Wednesday’s unsociable behavior, put-offishness, and defiant nature puts her at odds with everyone at Nevermore, especially the principal. Wednesday is, definitely not a joiner. Her negative speech puts everyone at a distance. Even her roommate Gwendoline Christie takes a long while of many day-old back and forth confrontations to understand her…somewhat!

     

Four of Wednesday’s episodes are directed by Tim Burton. The writing of the cast’s interplay and back and forth interactions by Alfred Gough and Miles Millar is extraordinary! We all thought I women had written Wednesday’s part, banter and all…sexist as that may seem. You will see and agree with us on your first impressions of the writing!

Wednesday is to learn that she has psychic abilities just like her mother’s. She will need these abilities to solve a murder and stop the Unspeakable for destroying Nevermore and all its students.

Each issue of Let’s Talk Philadelphia features our best watching and listening recommendation. Neflix’s Wednesday is our suggestion with no rivals by far for this weekend.

     

C. Let’s Talk Philadelphia Has Been To The Peripheral!
Our Best Of The Under Twenty-fives Year Old Actresses Has Three Winners!
Grace Chloe Moretz Sparkles In This Puzzling, Going Ahead In Time Journey!
You Will Not Put Video Goggles Or Headsets On After Seeing This One!

    

This week’s office seek and find in lieu of our normal Friday afternoon lunch and a movie was: What female actor under the age of twenty-five will be the next Julia Roberts, Viola Davis, Jennifer Aniston, or Whitney Houston. Our Christmas Friday jaunt was destroyed by bad weather and a let’s get on the road for Christmas cry!

   

The criteria for our new actress nominations had to be talent, versatility, and an extensive, diverse, body of work across many acting categories. Our three finalists were Zendaya, Ellie Fanning, and Grace Chloe Moretz. Ranker, a great resource, has every list imaginable from Actresses to Zebras (maybe not zebras) did not even have Grace Chloe Moretz in their top 25.
She won out in our research, because, it was a tie until we viewed her twenty, Yes! Twenty, magazine covers and her new series Peripheral.

   

     

If you were poor and in a backwoods Appalachian town, what would you do for excitement? Chloe and her brother watch and test video games for a local game creator on all types of headsets. At the start of this eight part series, her brother hands her his latest game to try and hear her thoughts on the game. She is automatically transported to forty years in the future. In the future, she learns about money, medicine for her blind mother, romance, deception, and how to make her dreams come true.

 

The can’t put down game soon starts to effect the present. For fun, you should try to consider what you would do in and with the new danger that menaces everything that confronts her. If you have ever played a video game, this series is meant for you. If you have worn a headset while playing, look out!

D. Let’s Talk Philadelphia…30 Years And Counting!
At One Time We Were Just A One Page Newsletter Handed Out At The Corner Of Broad And Walnut And University Of the Arts Classrooms In Philadelphia!
Wow! 30 Years Is Three Decades Of Writing!
What Kind Of Business, Educational, Or Fashion Ideas Can You Contribute?

     

Let’s Talk Philadelphia needs your help for our thirtieth year to be successful. Let your friends and Email list know about our work. Send us a Quick Note for our Quick Note section or send us six pictures and two paragraphs on a topic of your choice that would interest 50,096 worldwide readers, as well as, 29,056 LinkedIn followers. Everything is FREE!

This column, past columns, and Luca Cottini’s ideas will give you ideas of the varied topics shared by readers. Make your creations/contributions similar or completely different! Reading past columns is a great way to catch up on a wide variety of subjects, too. Send your work to Tom Palumbo at tjpalumbo@aol.com!
Looking forward to featuring your ideas…Thank You For The Help!

   

E. The Hunger Games Is Celebrating Its Tenth Anniversary!

The four movies series starring Jennifer Lawrence, Donald Sutherland, Liam Hemsworth, Elizabeth Banks, Stanley Tucci, Woody Harrelson, Julianne Moore, and Josh Hutcherson has surpassed three billion dollars. The Suzanne Collins four book series generating the movie series has over 150 million copies in print.

     

The movie’s civil war staunching Hunger Games, a battle to the death between contestants from thirteen states is devised by Panem, the capital, to remind the states of their obedience to the brutal Donald Sutherland lead Panem. Jennifer Lawrence (10 billion dollars in movies in which she has appeared), Katniss Everdeen, is one of the contestants and will lead the battle against Panem’s totalitarian rule. The movie does have kissing and killing in a myriad of new ways while stressing family and independence.

     

Netflix, Amazon Prime and other streaming services have paid into The Hunger Games’ coffers to host the complete four part series binge watch in this weekend’s cold. You can, also, see this series On Demand and through a number of additional free movie sites.

F. Let’s Talk Philadelphia Is Ready To Tour Italy In Person Or On One Of Luca Cottini’s Podcasts And More!
You Will, Surely, Sign Up For One Of Luca’s College Classes After Reviewing His Suggestions, Lessons, And Tours!
Luca’s Share Follows!

    

Hi Tom,

Luca Cottini here. As you suggested on LinkedIn, here is a brief text on Italian Innovators. You can find in the attached files related images (of me or about the show) and the links to playlists and social media accounts.

 

     

Let me know if you need anything else, and thanks for hosting these contents.

Hope you enjoy the channel!

Luca

   

Italian Innovators is an academic project and YouTube channel created by Luca Cottini, associate professor of Italian Studies at Villanova University and author of The Art of Objects: The Birth of Italian Industrial Culture, 1878-1928 (University of Toronto Press, 2018).Italian Innovators aims to present Italy’s contributions to the modern world and to explore its success model, which Cottini traces in its deliberate fusion of arts and industry, beauty and technology, craft and production—an Italy that is not a repository of past marvels, but rather an incredibly lively piazza of creativity and innovation.

   

The show brings together academia and storytelling, literary imagination, cultural history, visual arts and industrial entrepreneurship while investigating the Italian approach to innovation in fashion, design, music, food, and technology. In an effort to make the Italian model accessible to a diversified audience, the content is organized in various formats: presentations of innovative figures, interviews with key players in contemporary Italian culture, lessons on Italian cultural history, and public lectures on the channel’s themes.

Luca Cottini
Host/Creator of Italian Innovators

   

Website: www.italianinnovators.com                                                              YouTube: https://bit.ly/italianinnovators                                           LinkedIn: luca-cottini-4201515                                                                         Instagram @italianinnovators

     

Let’s Go Philadelphia 76ers!

       

G. Let’s Talk Philadelphia Salutes Kate Scott!
You Will Enjoy Listening To Her Play By Play Announcing!

    

Go To NBA Scores On Your Computer And Click On The Latest 76er’s Game.
You Will See 15 Minutes Of The Game’s Highlights Narrated By Kate!

H. Let’s Talk Philadelphia Again Embraces The Secret Life Of Walter Mitty!
A Great Holiday See Or Read!
After Seeing The Movie Or Reading The Books, You’ll Fly To Your First Or Next Awesome Adventure?

You Tube, Internet Movie Database (IMDB), Crackle, and Tubi (amongst ten others) are streaming thousands of free movies to your computer and, then, to your television. Take a look at The Secret Life Of Walter Mitty on You Tube to sample free offerings of great, quality present day movie selections.

    

Ben Stiller stars in and directs The Secret Life Of Walter Mitty. It is very different remake from the 1947 version with the bumbling Danny Kaye and beautiful Virginia Mayo. The 1947 version isnow showing on your local On Demand channels as a nice precursor to the newer movie in: free movies You Tube.

Everyone in our office, young and old, alone in their living room or bedroom, said they spontaneously applauded at the conclusion of the movie. The Secret Life Of Walter Mitty is a feel good movie filled with silly antics leading to a great, easy to imitate journey. It is perfect for the up-coming   holidays or any time of the year.

    

Walter Mitty, like most of us, is a dreamer. Instead of confronting difficult or possibly enjoyable situations in his life, he skips to fantastic adventures in his mind. His body freezes in this daydream state whenever this happens. Those around him are not charmed by these advents, especially his new boss. His sister, Odessa (Kathryn Hahn), and his mother (Shirley MacLaine), understand these freezes, but few others do!

Kristen Wiig, Cheryl, is a workmate that has Mr. Mitty smitten. He cannot connect with her at work or on a national dating site. Walter has done nothing. Therefore, nothing is in his profile to attract anyone’s attention. A botched assignment at work and the encouragement of Kristen put Walter on a road to discovery. As he pursues the mystery of the assignment (a missing slide) and undertakes a global journey to find it, his successes and failures make him stronger. His online profile becomes more interesting, also.

 

An underlying feature surrounding this story is the publication of the last issue of Life Magazine. Walter is responsible for the last cover…hence his amazing quest. Life’s classic covers are featured on office walls and hallways throughout the movie. They offer many great past visions of history, people, and art.

You will definitely leave your computer screen thinking that if Walter can do it, why can’t I be next! Pick a small journey and start it after watching this classic. Finish your chocolate chip cookies and home cooked popcorn first, please.

    

H. Let’s Talk Philadelphia Sees The Ghost of James Thurbur In Its Hallways! James Thurber Is Aptly Named…The Prince Of The Short Story!

The Secret Life Of Walter Mitty is a short story by James Thurber. Don’t expect to find it at your major bookstore. Our stops to three big time book emporiums were pointless. Everyone should have a Book Exchange Store in their neighborhood. It is like a trip back in book time if you have one near you. Past stories and writers come alive with ten selections of everything they have written! New books are half price! Half Price??? Find Your Next Favorite Destination!

 

David Baldacci’s The Hit (2013) joined Carnival in the take home bag.

James Thurber’s The Thurber Carnival jumped off the Book Exchange’s shelf.
Hope you have an old time bookstore near you?
The Secret Life Of Walter Mitty, thirty short stories, and thirty cartoons drawn by Thurber graced the book’s landscape. Thurber’s words in simple fashion tell stories of the famous and not so famous. His characters are memorable and discussion provoking. Thurber was and is Americanna. If you only read one story after Mitty try The Secret Life Of James Thurber. It tells how Salvadore Dali’s life and paintings influenced Thurber’s ideas, drawings, and writings.

I. Let’s Talk Philadelphia’s Monthly Puzzle!
WIN…ter Words Salutes The New Snowy In Some Places’ Season!
Two Minutes And You Should Be Finished…Or Not!

   

My Adelina winter outfit is our lead-in to Tom Palumbo’s new two minute puzzle WIN…TER Words. Clues that follow will help you find WIN in exact order in the beginning, middle, or end of these words. After finishing, read the clues to a friend to solve over the phone.

   

What WIN is:
Example 1…An eye movement/Wink
Example 2…A grimace/Wince

1. A Stanley Cup holder
2. The Jets Of hockey
3. Famous cathedral
4. A double
5. A garage find
6. A lifesaver

   

7. A bicycle
8. A farm denizen
9. VCR must have
10. Attractive
11. A pane location
12. Merlot

   

13. Complain baby style
14. Maverick’s passenger
15. A heavy drinker
16. A type of shoe
17. German general Rommel
18. Puking

   

19. A prime minister
20. Playground must have
21. Snow time
22. A rattlesnake
23. Pale indigo color

    

 

239. Julia Roberts, Viola Davis, George Clooney, Celine Dion and Freddy Mercury, The Devil In Ohio, And Dr. Pankaj Mehrotra

   

    

Go Phillies! Go 7-0 Eagles!

   

Let’s Talk Philadelphia welcomes its 50,004 readers and 28,302 LinkedIn followers to issue 259’s unique topics and a great fall filled with amazing things to do in Philadelphia and its surrounding areas.

   

1. Let’s Talk Philadelphia’s Friday Office’s Movie/Lunch Trip!
Ticket To Paradise Is A Gem! People, Places, Laughter!

We Wish We Were In Bali With Julia Roberts, George Clooney, And Kaitlyn Devers! The Cold And Snow Is Fast Approaching! Bummer!
New York To Bali Is Only $486 Dollars! 10,000 Miles Is A Breeze!

  

Your daughter (Kaitlyn Devers) just went to Bali with her best female friend (Billie Lourde) for a vacation. 40 days later she calls you and says she is getting married to an Islander (Maxine Bouttier)…and seaweed farmer (they would find that out later).

What would you do?
   

 

The daughter’s divorced and super contentious parents George Clooney and Julia Roberts say no way, of course. Not to her, of course. They both rush to Bali and end up sitting next to each other on the same plane flight. Only in the movies! Robert’s new boyfriend is the pilot. Only in the movies!

There are number of additional enjoyable bumping into’s in the movie, too.

 

    

The humor with Clooney and Roberts finally agreeing to work together to sabotage the wedding is surprisingly good.

 

Maxine, the groom’s, gigantic family have organized a lavish island celebration with all the island traditions, food, and dress. The wedding is a three day event. It gives Clooney and Roberts time for ring stealing, island curse enacting, and negative heart to heart talks. Nothing works until…?

 

   

Bali is in Indonesia. The island is situated between Thailand and Australia. The scenic settings in the movie will double Bali’s tourism next year.

The however is that Ticket To Paradise wasn’t filmed in Bali. It was filmed in Queensland, Australia. Movie goers won’t realize that, even though, it says Bali in the credits.

            

Kaitlyn Devers, also, starred in the movie Dear Evan Hansen. The Broadway play and its actors won numerous awards. Devers sings one of the theme songs Only Us with Carrie Underwood doing the song with Sam + Shay in the background. It is really worth a look. Here is a great link!

(google.com/search?client=firefox-b-1-d&q=carrie+underwood+only+us)

 

    

2. Let’s Talk Philadelphia Salutes Viola Davis Three Times!
The Woman King, Her New Movie, Should Be The Fourth Salute!

    

The Triple Crown of Acting is considered to be The Academy Award, The Tony Award, and The Emmy Award. Viola Davis is the only American actress to win all three.

   

Viola Davis has two Emmy Awards and the new movie The Woman King should bring a second Academy Award to her trophy case.

       

In The Woman King, Davis plays a general who is the fierce African warrior Nanisca. She is the head of the Agojie, an all women contingent of young and experienced warriors. Dahomey is the kingdom that these warriors are meticulously groomed and formed to protect. This is a true story. Dahomey was one of the strongest states in 1800 and 1900 Africa.

   

English and American slave traders are ready to attack their kingdom. The slave traders want their yearly tribute to be increased in slaves and gold. The kingdom no longer wants to take this give in to a foreigner’s demand. Naturally war ensues. The battle scenes and training sessions are visually stunning and close-up epics.

      

     

Gina Prince-Bythewood directs The Woman King and brings to life Marie Bellows story of caring, intrigue, defiance, and street smarts if street smarts was a phrase used in 1800 Africa. Protect the king, save the country, and leave no women behind are some of the mantras of The Woman King’s story as it depicts the everyday life, training, and the punishing battles these women must fight.

 

   

Bythewood’s last movie, The Old Guard, found on Netflix, features Charlize Theron and five compatriots that cannot die. With a time period running back to the Egyptians, the five are now trying to continue to do good things while eluding a group of miscreants that wants to cut them up for scientific study. In both movies Bythewood makes the small things, close-ups, and friendships just as important as the big battles and shoot-outs.

      

3. Let’s Talk Philadelphia And Satanic Cults! No Way!!!
Emily Deschanel From Bones Stars!
Devil In Ohio! Netflix Newest Series!

          

Emily Deschanel (Suzanne Mathis in this one) from television series Bones plays a psychiatrist at a local hospital who is asked for her assistance with a mysterious 16 year old girl (Mae, Madeleine Arthur). The girl just shows up out of a cornfield with a giant upside down pentagram cut in her back and is delivered to Suzanne’s hospital. Mae is unresponsive as Suzanne definitely wants to help and to solve this girl’s mystery.

    

Suzanne thinks that if she takes her home to her three daughters while awaiting a foster care hook up maybe she/they can solve the pentagram driven enigma revolving around this poor girl. The four housemates vie with each other, attend school together, fight over boyfriends while a ton of subplots swirl around them.

We find out (not Suzanne) that Mae comes from Amonville a nearby mysterious town. The town is one gigantic cult  that needs investigating as local authorities join in try to figure out Mae’s story. Her family wants to burn her on a fiery platform to appease the devil and to stay in the devil’s inner circle. She escapes to the hospital and Suzanne’s home where the story continues with everyone after her for the must appease burning. Series one leaves you wanting more answers.
This heart pounding series should have a year two. Go Emily Deschanel!

    

You can see all 12 years, 246 episodes of Bones on FreeVee, an Amazon Prime spin off. In Bones, Deschanel plays Temperance Bones Brennan a forensic anthropologist. She teams up with FBI agent Seeley Booth (David Boreanaz) who brings her twelve years of human remains to decipher. Eerie! Yet, they do bring laughter and complicated and easy to understand relationships to the series. Devil in Ohio is not based on fact. However, Bones is based on Kathy Reichs life and novels as a forensic anthropologist. Kathy, also produce twelve years of the Bones‘ series.

       

4. Let’s Talk Philadelphia’s Monthly Music Suggestions!

Freddy Mercury, Celine Dion, Michael Jackson And More!

Send In Your Top Picks To Be Featured In Our Next Column!

tjpalumbo@aol.com!

   

You can easily play this month’s picks with the You Tube links we have included! You will enjoy researching Golden Duets the format many singers are now using as they sing with deceased singers shown on giant screens to the audience. Our favorite, as highlighted in a previous column by a five to one office vote, is still Elvis Presley and Helene Fischer singing Just Pretend during her stage show.

   

A close second is Celine Dion and Freddie Mercury singing The Show Must Go On. (http://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-1-d&q=celine+dion+and+freddy+mercury). Celine Dion looks great in this musical collaboration performed before her health decline.

    

There Must Be More To Love Than This with Michael Jackson and Freddie Mercury is a great really, really great listen! (www.youtube.com/watch?v=dkcdSj4qBWU). We are still trying to find out who features and puts these singers and performances in the Golden Duets frames. …More to come in future columns!

   

5. Let’s Talk Philadelphia’s Meet And Greet Feature!
Dr. Pankaj Mehrotra’s Background Will Amaze You!
Hoping You Can Make A Connection!

      

Dr. Pankaj Mehrotra is a must meet person with an amazing biography. We included his whole biography instead of the usual two paragraphs to help him make a myriad of connections.

Dr Pankaj Mehrotra completed his Bachelor of Science (Honors) in Applied Zoology from University of Delhi, India with a Gold Medal for securing first rank in University at Annual Examination. He further worked on molecular cloning undergraduate research projects funded by Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, India and International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology, New Delhi, India. He further pursued Master of Science in Integrative Genomics from Black Hills State University, South Dakota, United States of America funded by South Dakota Biomedical Research Infratrusture. He worked on genomics, transcriptomics and proteomics research project at Centre for Conservation of Biological Resources as part of his master degree program and was also worked as a teaching and research assistant for undergraduate studies and also was involved in a science education teaching workshop as an teaching assistant organized by Center for the Advancement of Math & Science Education.

  

His research findings were presented at regional and national conferences and secured second best poster prize at Branch Meeting of American Society for Microbiology, Colorado. He earned his Doctor of Philosophy in Medical Sciences from Institute of Medical Sciences from University of Aberdeen, Scotland, United Kingdom funded by European Marie Curie Research Commission working on immunological properties of Candida albicans, Candida aureus and Candida haemunolii affected by differential expression of signal transduction genes.  This early stage fellowship also involved visit to collaborative fungal research laboratories in Spain, Germany and Denmark. His research finding has been presented at various international conferences. At Centre for Science and Mathematics Education at The University of Southern Mississippi, Mississippi, United States of America he was introduced with science education and worked as Lecturer for undergraduate course. He has published his research finding on Scientific and Science Education research in international journals. He has also published a textbook on Biology – Fundamentals of Biology with a North American Publisher Top Hat which has received an ISBN number. He is a member of Marie Curie Research Fellow Association, US Department of State (International Exchange), Centre for Open Science, Virginia, United States of America.

   

In the past he has worked as a Middle Year and Diploma Program Biology Teacher for International Baccalaureate Organization (IBO), University of Cambridge (IGCSE program) as a Biology Teacher, Lecturer of Biology at St Theresa International College, Thailand, Biology & Chemistry College Professor for Bard Early College in China ( received Teaching Award Certificate).
Currently working as a Biology & Health Science Instructor ( Asynchronous) of University of the People, Pasadena, California, Advanced Placement Teacher (Synchronous) – teaching Biology Chemistry, Physics and Environmental Science , Medical Terminology, Biotechnology, Microbiology for Aquinas International Academia, Garden Grove, California-Florida, IBDP Teacher (in-person) for American Embassy School, New Delhi, India and Teacher ( Synchronous) for Virtual Career Institute International, Florida and also a BioRiskReduction Instructor and Infectious Disease Professional( Synchronous) for BioRiskReduction, Wyoming.
He is also Member as a Biology Board Reviewer for MERLOT, California, United States of America – received PEER Reviewer Extraordinary Award in Biology PRESS RELEASE. He also received a STEM Fellowship from BIOQUEST consortium in 2022. He has received training from HMMI-Biointeractive, CUREnet and BASIL consortium recently. He is also working group member of SABER National Board, Citizen Science Project and BIOME Group Building groups funded by National Science Foundation.

6. Let’s Talk Philadelphia Will Puzzle You Once Again!
The Oh, Oh Challenge!
Adelina Will Explain! Good Luck!
The Timer Begins Now!

Hi there from Adelina, once more! Don’t my eyes look like two O’s.
Tom Palumbo’s newest two minute puzzle (Oh, Oh) starts with words
that have two O’s together in them and end with a new word when you
take one of the O’s away. Here are the clues to help you in your answer quest. Read the clues to a friend over the phone to see if they can solve them in two minutes.

Sample…Think of an owl/Think of summer…Hoot/Hot
Sample…A Ghost word/Miss Derek…Boo/Bo

1. Better than fair/Zeus…

2. Evidence/College mainstay…

3. Chicken term/Constable…

4. Basketball need/Type of Scotch…

5. Miss Shields/Really poor…

6. Sag/Oops…

7. Bugs Bunny/Milk container…

8. British Bathroom/Behold lead-in…

9. House front/Halt…

10. In the near future/Family member…

11. Cowboy footwear/Mechanical being…

12. Rope figurine/To cut off…

13. Car sounds/Little kids…

14. Sticky stuff/Take off…

15. Stolen money/Car place…

16. Hair place/Drinking place…

17. Pick/Picked…

18. Ill fitting/Misplace…

19. Diaper find/Soda…
20. Dumb person/Type of sled

How many words can you add to the list?

 

    

7. Let’s Talk Philadelphia Asks You To Be A Column Contributor!

     

It’s great to connect with you monthly! And…Do you have something that would interest readers worldwide? Please, take a look at past column contributors.  We am looking for designers, authors, artists, photographers, scientists, teachers, musicians, business/financial experts and newsworthy people and ideas to feature each month.

    

Please send six pictures, contact links, and a two paragraph write-up and we will feature you for FREE in our Let’s Talk Philadelphia column…50,004 readers, 28,302 LinkedIn followers, 28 years of writing…to: tjpalumbo@aol.com

PS…If you are an educator, parent, or teacher, the index bar of this column has some great FREE ideas in children’s literature, poetry, and mathematics from our ten children’s books.?

238. Oprah, Princess Diana, Olivia Newton John, Vampires, Chaz Austin, And The Monthly Puzzle!

         

  

1. Let’s Talk Philadelphia Is Not Talking About These Things In This Month’s Column!

A. Oprah Winfrey And The Keto Controversy!
Forbes just reported that Oprah Winfrey’s net worth is 2.3 billion dollars. C’mon! She ranks 23rd in women billionaires who are making a difference.

Does she really need the money that she is getting from pushing a Keto diet supplement that will help you lose a thousand pounds with one pill in just one night?

     

She is offering a free bottle of her Keto Gummies to all her supporters. However, to get her free bottle you have to buy two other bottles for $49. C’mon Oprah! All the articles and expose videos about whether she is real on this diet breakthrough make for some good reading and viewing…

     

B. The 25th Anniversary Of Princess Diana’s Death.

   

Today is the 25th Anniversary of Princess Diana’s tragic death. Her iconic stature is evident in every picture you see of her and every article you read about her as she was thrust into the British, European, and world spotlight.

    

Kristen Stewart played Princess Diana in last year’s movie Spencer. Stewart was nominated for a Critics Choice Movie Award, an Academy Award, and a Golden Globe Award for her acting. Stewart did win a Satellite Best Actress Award for her performance in Spencer. We are looking for a viewing venue for our Friday afternoon office lunch and a movie. Spencer, only, briefly appeared in Philadelphia thanks to the pandemic shortage of open theaters.

   

C. Olivia Newton John Dying After Struggling With And Then Dying Of Breast Cancer At Age 73.

   

We researched and found out that Olivia Newton John appeared on 12 covers of People Magazine but we couldn’t find any statistics of how many covers she appeared on across the magazine world. Our favorite cover of all we looked at appears below.

    

Olivia made 16 movies (Go Grease, You Are The One). She had twenty records in Billboard Magazine’s top twenty. Five of those records reached number one. Physical is her best seller by a mile. Here comes the office however…Hopelessly Devoted To You and I Honestly Love You took all the office accolades.

    

D. Day Shift With Jamie Fox, Dave Franco, Snoop Dog, Meagan Good And Natasha Bordizzo!

After seeing the three Twilight movies (Vampires having babies with humans) and the three Blade movies (Vampire dogs) we thought we had seen everything vampire…ish in the movie world. Then, along comes the 2022 vampire movie Day Shift. Day Shift incorporates everything you have seen in past vampire movies and adds two new wrinkles. In Day Shift you meet the Origin Vampire who can walk in the daylight with no adverse side effects (burn-less). You, also, meet the group that resurrected him. They have perfected a skin cream that blocks the sun and prevents any sun damage. Clinique is trying to work a deal to get their formula if any vampires survive after Jamie Fox and Snoop Dog crush the opposition. Snoop Dog is good in this movie!

    

E. David Baldacci’s The Fallen!

        

The winner of the Office Readathon of books about Pennsylvania goes to David Baldacci’s The Fallen (c…2018). Philadelphia and Baronville are featured as multiple book hero Amos Decker tries to solve eight murders in a town the size of your pinky.

   

Decker’s attempt, with the help of local police, state police, and the FBI, keeps you reading for more as he is shot, poisoned, gassed, blown up, and misled by everyone throughout the story. Through it all he, also, has time to search for a lost treasure. Wow! Murder hunting and treasure hunting in the same book! This is a must read!

2. Let’s Talk Philadelphia’s Monthly Call Out For Submissions!

Let’s Talk Philadelphia now has 50,000 and 2 readers. After WordPress, our host, complimented us last month on reaching 50,000 readers, we picked up a new reader from Malaysia and one from England. This is a great audience to reach with your ideas, art, or photography like Dawn Santoriello and Chaz Austin have in this issue. Please send six pictures, your contact links, and a two paragraph write-up to: tjpalumbo@aol.com. Emails with help and clarification questions are welcome, too.

   

3. Let’s Talk Philadelphia’s Financial Wizard Is Dawn Santoriello!
Here Is Her Weekly Share! Business, Home, Car Finances, Investments, Savings, And More!
Dawn’s Weekly Newsletter (This Week Featured Below) Is A Free Sign-up And Enjoy!
Item 4. That Follows Features Another Great Information Connection In Chaz Austin!

Hi Tom!
I’m onto the third benefit of working with a financial professional. I think it’s one of the most important ones. Let me know if you agree. Have you seen those cartoons where the heart is on one side and the brain is on the other as they argue about something? The heart is all feeling, the brain is all thinking, and the two just can’t come together. I see that so often when it comes to financial matters.

   

• An adult child should learn to be independent but mom and dad just can’t stop giving handouts — even when it hurts them financially.
• A stock is tanking in value and all the data supports selling it but the investor can’t let it go because they “just feel that it’s going to come back up.”
• A “hot” stock has been soaring for months. The price-to-earnings ratio is off the charts and it’s definitely not the right time to buy. Yet, the investor buys it anyway, because their golf buddy was bragging about it.

    

These are just a few examples of how emotion can cloud logic when it comes to financial matters. It’s when you encounter scenarios like this that help from a financial professional can be so valuable.
Having a partner who isn’t emotionally involved in the situation can help cooler heads prevail.
Do you have a financial matter that you’d like an objective third party to weigh in on? I’d love to chat with you. Give me a call at (215) 660-0288 or click here to request a free, no-obligation Personal Q&A Session.
Talk soon,
Dawn Santoriello, CFP®
DS Financial Strategies…Founder & CEO
(215) 660-0288 office (570) 499-4821 cell

    
Dawn@dsfinancialstrategies.com
http://www.dsfinancialstrategies.com
Helping you reach your financial goals with peace of mind and economic confidence.
To Schedule a Meeting Click Here…To buy my book, The Spiritual Path To Prosperity…The Truth About Money Revealed, Click Here

    

4. Let’s Talk Philadelphia Has 26,765 Followers On LinkedIn!
We Have Met And Shared Information With Some Amazing People Through The LinkedIn Site!
Chaz Austin Is Another Great Knowledgeable LinkedIn Find!
Dr. Chaz’s Links Below Are Filled With Ready To Use Information!

Tom,

Thanks for the opportunity!
As requested, six photos are attached.
My bio follows . . .
For the past 20 years, Dr. Charles Michael Austin, Ed.D. (“Doctor Chaz”) has worked with clients all over the world, advising leaders and managers on how to be more effective, and how to use social media to reach their target audiences. He, also, trains workers how to market themselves in The Gig Economy. 

   

His TEDx Talk can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b3gf1kK3iLc. His recent work includes: How to Lead and Manage People: https://bit.ly/3Cf5GzY and My Perspective on Leadership: https://bit.ly/3KpTltK. He has authored two books on self-marketing, treating yourself like a business and behaving like an entrepreneur: https://amzn.to/2XAoIsH and https://amzn.to/2XuDn8I. He wrote and teaches a series for LinkedIn Learning: CREATING A CAREER PLAN http://goo.gl/IFMDCj and SUCCEEDING IN A NEW JOB https://goo.gl/lYxRSH and TRANSITIONING OUT OF YOUR JOB http://goo.gl/YtWBkr

    

Dr. Chaz Austin, Ed.D.
Career Packaging and Marketing
https://www.linkedin.com/in/chazaustin/
http://chazaustin.com/#ted

“Creating a Career Plan” http://goo.gl/IFMDCj
“Succeeding in a New Job” https://goo.gl/lYxRSH
“Transitioning Out of Your Job” http://goo.gl/YtWBkr

     

5. Let’s Talk Philadelphia’s Monthly Two Minute Puzzle!
Are You An E-expert?!

   

How many words do you know that when you add an E to their end will create a new word. The twenty clues below have a two minute time limit. The clues will be for the first word and then for the second as you will see in the two examples. Luck be a lady!

Examples:

a. A head cover/A wrap…cap/cape
b. A head cover/Fierce dislike…hat/hate

    

1. Take your clothes off/Highway feature
2. Facial discoloration/Frighten
3. A victory/A drink
4. A figure/Pennsylvania
5. A weight/A sound
6. Deadly/A Femme
7. A Strategy/A Bomber
8. Earl Greys/Pick on
9. Washing place/Wash
10. A football feature/Out of date

    
11. Double/String
12. A protective place/What you are good at
13. Prohibit/Annoyance
14. All of us/Kind
15. Proper/ 2, 3, 5, 7, 11
16. A Kaline/A drink
17. Cooking utensil/Got up
18. Sidewalk annoyance/Done to offend
19. Twirl/Body part
20. Diet goal/Religious yours

Can you and a friend find five words that meet the puzzles criteria?

6. Let’s Talk Philadelphia’s Two Minute Puzzle Answers!
Middle Muddle From Our Last Issue!
Read The Clues To A friend And See How Many Answers They Can Get In Two Minutes!

     

Middle Muddle Directions…
See if you can change the middle of these words to form a new word. The answer to the first clue must contain an EA somewhere together in a word. The answer to the second clue changes the EA to an EE to form a new word. After reviewing the examples, look at the two clues that follow and see if you can solve the remaining pieces to the puzzle in two minutes time.

 

Example: Letter starter/Forest creature     Dear/Deer
Example: Basketball players/Swarm           Team/Teem

 

1. Pound a drum/Red vegetable…BEAT/BEET
2. Sandwich’s first need/Raise…BREAD/BREED
3. A body part/Listen to…HEAD/HEED
4. A fruit/Someone just like you…PEAR/PEER
5. Really good/To say hello…GREAT/GREET

   

6. Mountain top/A quick look…PEEK/PEAK
7. Not fake/Fishing rod part…REAL/REEL
8. An accomplishment/Walking tools…FEAT/FEET
9. A Lima/Often follows have…BEAN/BEEN
10. Dog pest/To run from…FLEA/FLEE

   

11. Main book activity/Plant growth…READ/REED
12. To rob/Strong metal…STEAL/STEEL
13. Not living/Part of a will…DEAD/DEED
14. Pants part/Appear to be…SEAM/SEEM
15. There are seven of these in the world/Eye function…SEAS/SEES

What words can you add to this list?

237. Stranger Things, The Gray Man, Lil Nas X, And Where The Crawdads Sing!

   

    

  

A. Philadelphia Is Preparing For Your Real And Virtual Summer Visit!
We Are A Must See, Feel, And Experience From Our Food To Our History!

             

B. A Let’s Talk Philadelphia Column Quick Note!
Move Over Phillies, Flyers, Eagles, And 76ers!
There Is A New Attendance Leader In The House!

           

WordPress, our column’s publishing host, has just informed Let’s Talk Philadelphia that we have passed 50,000 readers. That is 2,500 readers a post. That is not monumental, but it is not bad either. Thank you WordPress for sharing this news and seeing our publication as noteworthy and meaningful!

   

C. Do not forget to read past columns of Let’s Talk Philadelphia if you enjoy history, fashion, television, music, books, movies, sports, fishing, bingo, chocolate, the arts, and creative articles and points of view from people throughout the world!

Check out past columns’ contributors in your reading. Then, send your publishable ideas (two paragraphs, your contact links, and six pictures) to our editor (Tom Palumbo) at tjpalumbo@aol.com. Your column space is waiting!

   

1. Let’s Talk Philadelphia Does Not Frighten Easily! Unless!
Stranger Things Is A Monster Netflix Hit Both Literally And Figuratively!
Season Four Is Mesmerizing With A Last Season (Five) Now Being Readied!

    
The amazing numbers set by Netflix’s Stranger Things in season 4 has saved Netflix from losing billions of revenue dollars. Their recent rate hike was predicted to drive 2,000,000 customers away. Instead Netflix only lost 800,000 customers do to fans refusing to let go of Stranger Things until season five is completed.

Here are nine things you should know about Stranger Things and hopefully they will encourage you to tune in at your house or a friend’s house. Researching the actors, directors, and Netflix is, also, encouraged.

   

1. Hawkins, Indiana, the story’s starting locale, is a quiet country town. However, any thing you have ever seen and more in a monster movie will overwhelm the town and its inhabitants, especially, the children. The research facility just outside town run by Matthew Modine is doing horrible programming on young children and the monsters their labs have created. The facility opened holes in the past to allow town destroyers and monsters that feed on people into the present. Supernatural forces are everywhere.

2. Each episode has three themes. The children, adults, police force, child programmers, and creatures will take you in all directions and, then, creatively connect the themes.

3. The Duffer Brothers (Matt and Ross) are identical twins born in 1984. The brothers created and are directing Stranger Things.

4. The latest season (four) of Stranger Things had over 1,000,000,000 (1 billion) hours of viewing. The viewing overload shut Netflix down for fifteen minutes worldwide in the 75 countries that placed the show in their top ten.

   

5. Netflix spent 30 million dollars an episode for season four.

6. Millie Bobby Brown (Eleven) is the highest paid actor on the show at 300 thousand dollars an episode.

7. Winona Ryder, the distraught and caring mother, and David Harbour, the police chief and monster battler along with all the kids, are the adult focus points for the show. Adults that watch the show can relate to all the everyday and extra trauma they go through in Hawkins fighting evil, keeping their families together, and trying to have a love life.

     

8. Eleven has superpowers. She escaped from the research facility as a young child with no verbal skills. Mike finds Eleven wandering the woods and takes her into his home without his mother, Winona Ryder, knowing. As Eleven quickly grows mentally and physically, she will bond with Mike’s nerdy game’s club friends. Seven friends and Eleven will battle beasts and organisms in the organism’s world, as well as, in Hawkins, throughout the first four years of the show.

9. After completing the 34 episodes of Stranger Things (2016-2022), you will quickly run to your computer’s research mode to find out about season five…why, where, when…and how will it take you to the series’ conclusion.

    

2. Let’s Talk Philadelphia Travels To The North Carolina Swamps!
Where The Crawdads Sing Should Be Your Next Theater Visit!
What Is A Crawdad And Do They Actually Sing?! Yes!

    

Where The Crawdads Sing is a book that was written by Delia Owens in 2018. By July of this year and before the film was released, the book had sold over 15 million copies, making it one of the best sellers of all time.

    

The story takes place in North Carolina’s Barkley Cove, a fictional small town, and in the distant swamps of that area. The phrase Where the Crawdads Sing is said to denote a far off place. Between the ages of 5 and 7 Kya’s (Daisy Edgar-Jones’) family leaves here because of her father’s drunkenness and brutality, and, then, too, the father finally leaves her alone to battle the swamps. The only thing she owns at age seven is a beat up cabin, a boat, a fishing road, a bag of shells, a knapsack of feathers, and her mother’s paints which she begins to handle well.

   

Luckily, this illiterate waif is befriended by a black man Jumpin (Sterling Macer, Jr.) and his wife Mabel ( Michaell Hyatt) who she trades fish and mussels to for food, gasoline, and church donated clothing at their gas station. As a six year old child, Kya faced abuse and prejudice from the school children (she spent one day there) and townsfolk who called her swamp girl and continually laughed at her.

Many years later, Kya meets Tate Walker (Taylor John Smith) fishing in the swamp. He teaches her to read, write, and consume the knowledge in books. Tate encourages her to sell her paintings that any naturalist would love by putting them in book form and sending them to a list of publishers he gives her. They fall in love and, then, as Tate leaves for college he makes all kinds of promises he can not keep.

Two years later, the again abandoned Kya Catherine Clark, meets Chase Andrews ( Harrison Dickson) the town’s wealthy, star quarterback. A romance blossoms and he promises her marriage after sleeping with her at an out of town motel. Kya finds out he has a girlfriend in town and breaks off their relationship.

Soon after that, Andrews is found dead at the foot of a marsh tower he and Kya often frequented. Naturally, Kya is the number one suspect and heads to a trial with little evidence supporting her guilt. She has Tom Milton (David Strathairn) as her lawyer and stands before a jury of haters as her judges. Then…

     

Taylor Swift wrote the ending song Carolina for Where The Crawdads Sing. She said this on Instagram about her writing adventure before the movie even started rehearsals:

    

     

Where The Crawdads Sing is a book I got absolutely lost in when I read it years ago, she wrote. As soon as I heard there was a film in the works starring the incredible @daisyedgarjones and produced by the brilliant @reesewitherspoon, I knew I wanted to be a part of it from the musical side. I wanted to create something haunting and ethereal to match this mesmerizing story.

See this movie!
You will be mesmerized by the movie as much as Taylor Swift was mesmerized by the book.

      

3. Let’s Talk Philadelphia Has An Office Of Ryan Gosling Fans Even Without Emma Stone, Kissing, And Dancing!
The CIA Flick The Gray Man Would Have Been Even More Interesting With Emma Stone In It, Though!
Nonetheless, 85 Countries This Week Have Made The Gray Man Number 1 In Viewing…43 Million Viewers Strong!

   

The Gray Man was written by Mark Greaney in 2009 and bounced around movie producer’s offices until 2020 when Netflix and the Russo  brothers (Anthony and Joseph) decided to spend 200 million dollars to make the movie for television and theater release at the same time. Brad Pitt and Charlize Theron were, even, supposed to star in the story and bring the book to theaters in 2016. This never came to fruition.

   

A Gray Man is someone that can blend in to everything without being noticed. Gosling fit this role perfectly in the movie. So…Gosling, soon to be known as Sierra 6 of the 12 CIA Sierras, was plucked from prison by Billie Bob Thornton in 2003. Gosling was in prison for killing his father who was about to kill Gosling’s younger brother. Out of prison with Thornton and moving ahead 18 years, we see Gosling, after training, is the CIA’s number 1 assassin…quietly killing, of course, only people that deserved killing. He is a master at death by natural causes except for the case that drives the movie.

   

On the other hand co-star, Chris Evans is a demented agent whose job is to terminate Gosling after Sierra 6 and Ana de Armas botch an assignment, but come upon sensitive information the CIA does not want to be leaked. The venues (cities, lakes, clubs, casinos, estates) are as scenic as the body count is high as Evans and his pack of assassins chase Gosling throughout the United States, Europe and Asia.

    

Rotten Tomatoes and MetaCritic gave the movie terrible scores. They called the movie a James Bond knockoff. Movie goer ratings were just the opposite as theater patrons loved the settings, acting, and action, especially the action. Advance to your television screen or local theater and see which group you will join.

   

4. Let’s Talk Philadelphia’s Monthly Music Guest!
Move Over Drake, Lil Nas X Is In The House!
If You Are Gay, Country, Rap, Or Rock Lil Nas X Is Your Listening Pleasure!

    

This month’s music selection and staff recommendation came down to Elvis Presley’s new album that is number one in 15 countries or Lil Nas X who has been number 1 everywhere (Time Magazine cover, Forbes magazine’s 30 under 30, BillBoard top tens, television music award shows, and late night shows on every channel). Lil Nas X won out on Tuesday when he appeared in the office’s USA Today newspaper in the crossword puzzle. It is really hard to run Lil Nas X downward and connect his name with eight other clues. The office considered the crossword puzzle as a write about him omen.

    

Montero (meaning Garden of Eden) Lamar Hill is the name his mother gave him. We know him as the 23 year old Lil Nas X. He has only been on the music and everywhere scene for four years. His first single in the rap and country category, Old Town Road, spent 5 months at the top of Billboard’s Top Ten chart. No song since Billboard’s 1958 beginning has every done that.

While Old Town Road was number one, Nas came out as gay. Four gigantic audiences gay, country, rock and roll, and rap would now follow his exploits, every lyric, love life, and cat fights with Drake. This is the video for Old Town Road (www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-1-d&q=old+town+road+video). Paste it into your search bar. It is a hoot as Roy Rogers, Dale Evans, and Billy Ray Cyrus would say. Billy Ray appears in one of the remixes of the song.

   

Lil Nas’s Internet presence is monsterous as he followed OTR with 7 and its chart busting songs Panini and Rodeo. His first major album Montero (2021) included three chart top tens with Montero (Call Me By Your Name), Industry Baby, and That’s What I Want. We, also, included the links to these songs below:

Montero (CMBYN): http://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-1-d&q=Montero+(CMBYN)+video

Industry Baby (nudity alert): http://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-1-d&q=industry+baby+video

That’s What I Want: http://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-1-d&q=that’s+what+I+want+video

   

LNX’s awards would take up half this column as he has been honored by Time Magazine, Forbes Magazine, The Grammy’s, MTV, American Music Association, and The Country Music Association. Take a listen, please. You will be surprised by Lil Nas X’s musical and acting diversity.

   

5. Let’s Talk Philadelphia’s Monthly Two Minute Puzzle!
The Middle Muddle!
Get Your Stop Watches And Pencils Handy!
Or Just Call Out The Answers To No One In Particular!
Ready! Begin!

   

See if you can change the middle of these words to form a new word. The answer to the first clue must contain an EA somewhere together in a word. The answer to the second clue changes the EA to an EE to form a new word. After reviewing the examples, look at the two clues that follow and see if you can solve the remaining pieces to the puzzle in two minutes time.

   

Example: Letter starter/Forest creature     Dear/Deer
Example: Basketball players/Swarm           Team/Teem

1. Pound a drum/Red vegetable
2. Sandwich’s first need/Raise
3. A body part/Listen to
4. A fruit/Someone just like you
5. Really good/To say hello

    

6. Mountain top/A quick look
7. Not fake/Fishing rod part
8. An accomplishment/Walking tools
9. A Lima/Often follows have
10. Dog pest/To run from

    

11. Main book activity/Plant growth
12. To rob/Strong metal
13. Not living/Part of a will
14. Pants part/Appear to be
15. There are seven of these in the world/Eye function

See if you can find three word pairs that could be added to this puzzle?

      

236. Adelina, The Lincoln Lawyer, Sunrise Inspiration, Downton Abbey, And Dreamer!

      

    

1. Let’s Talk Philadelphia And A Thank You!
Adelina Reaches Out To Last Month’s Article Reviewers!
The Search For Eligible Young Men Continues!

    

Adelina, the newest addition to the Let’s Talk Philadelphia family was featured in last month’s column. She would like to thank all those readers who sent in kudos, well wishes, cards, and text notes. She is happy, but still cannot find any younger men to hang out with her in her community. Dozens of readers tried to help, but no luck so far.

     

2. Let’s Talk Philadelphia’s School Is Finally Out Advice!
Our Warm Up For Graduations Throughout Your Area!

   

A Graduation Quote Reminder That Should Be On Every Diploma And Classroom Doorway:

  

If you’re not willing to learn, no one can help you.
If you’re determined to learn, no one can stop you.
_______ Zig Ziglar

            

3. Let’s Talk Philadelphia And Your Next Television Binge!
Michael Connelly, The Lincoln Lawyer, Netflix, And Bosch, Amazon!
The Penultimate Summer Binge Is The Lincoln Lawyer (Netflix New)!
A Ten Part Series Leaving You Wanting A Season Two…!

   

If you are looking for an author to add to your summer reading and television watching list, Philadelphia’s Michael Connelly (born here in Philadelphia in 1956) has twenty five books, two movies, and a number of television series in his impressive professional portfolio. Connelly’s works offer the best in bedtime, sand dune, mountain retreat, or backyard reading, as well as, television watching.

The new Lincoln Lawyer series features Manual Garcia-Rulfo as Mickey Haller. Haller is a criminal defense lawyer and recovering addict from medications and harder drugs. He abused these drugs after a surfing accident and depression from a botched defense case that sent a client to life in prison.

   

Haller is called The Lincoln Lawyer because he works out of the back of his driver (Izzy-Jazz Raycole) navigated Lincoln. He hasn’t worked in two years until a lawyer he hardly knows is murdered. Unknown to Haller, ten days before his office parking lot murder, the lawyer gives Haller his law business and out standing cases. Six of these out standing cases immediately need Haller’s attention. The biggest case being a double murder (wife and lover) bringing Christopher Gorman, playing the gaming inventor Trevor Elliott into the scene. The other cases pale in comparison to this one.

The 10 part Netflix Haller series is non-stop action featuring:

Neve Campbell, mother of Haller’s daughter, a criminal prosecutor and first wife,
Becky Newton is Lorna Crane. She is Haller’s second wife, legal advisor, and office manager. It is, now, an actual office, though Haller still thinks better in his car.

   

Jazz Raycole is Izzy Letts. She was Haller’s first new case victory and is now his personal driver. She was hired in the courthouse hallway by Haller after her case was dismissed. Haller’s intuition was not destroyed by his drug use.
Angus Sampson as Cisco rounds out the office staff. He is Haller’s good friend and his ace investigator. Cisco and Haller’s second wife are in love and planning their wedding.

Combining a book with a movie is a good introduction to an author like Connelly. Blood Work starring and directed by Clint Eastwood was the first book (#10) of Connelly’s that was made into a movie. Reading his books, then getting his listening CD’s out of the library, then seeing his new series, will energize your summer brain cells.

Connelly’s books feature and shape everyone in law enforcement and crime fighting. Every day it is a new judge, lawyer, police detective, doctor, and forensic specialist that Haller has to use, combat, or join.

    

Matthew McConaughey played Michael Connelly’s Mickey Haller in The Lincoln Lawyer movie. The Mickey Haller law series has five books in it. Haller is a renegade lawyer that works with everyone big and small. Haller is best, though, with the small and their problems.

Bosch is, likewise, a ten part television series based on Connelly’s novels. Harry Bosch is a half brother of Mickey Haller in the cross book series’ relationships designed by Connelly. The Bosch series was produced by Amazon for television and is being shown on Amazon Prime and two other On Demand channels. Bosch is a private detective and all events troubleshooter. Bosch, too, undertakes everything from murder to fraud to political intrigue to missing persons. Ten more shows are being readied for your next crime solving binge.

Detective Story Aside I…The album Dark Sacred Night, The Music Of Harry Bosch features the jazz from the ten part television series. Jazz buffs will enjoy Bosch’s listening choices.

    

Detective Story Aside II…Nathan Filion (Castle), Michael Connelly, James Patterson, Stephen Cannell, and Denise Lehane are poker buddies, They should sell two seats at their table to movie buffs who would love to spend an interesting evening playing cards and talking books, television, and movies with them. A charity would greatly benefit from the money spent to join these five luminaries of entertainment.

   

Detective Story Aside III…Michael Connelly has won 15 different writing awards from the Edgar Mystery Award to the Spanish RBA International Prize For Crime Fighting. This Spanish prize organization awarded Connelly $150,000 for his body of work. See you on the beach or lake with your Connelly book (or two) in hand!

 

   

4. Let’s Talk Philadelphia And An Office Excursion To Downton Abbey!
The Film Is A Start The Summer Must See!
Even The Guys Applauded At The End Of The Movie!

    

The last Friday of every month is our office’s very early lunch and usually empty afternoon movie…both completed before rush hour traps the staff in the city. We recommend this Friday favorite as great bonding for all offices. This month’s 5 (women) to 4 (men) vote took us to Downton Abbey: A New Era. It is the second Downton Abbey movie. You would have thought that one of the women would have crossed over and voted for Top Gun: Maverick.

     

The Crawley family’s story scans sixty years from 1870 to now entering the 1930’s. The New Era story covers recent births, deaths, weddings, family difficulties, inheritances, missing husbands, and every day life in the abbey and more. The fifteen member servant staff (the downstairs people) are going through some amazing changes, also as their part in the manor unfolds.

Violet Crawley, the ageless Maggie Smith, has just been told that she has inherited a French estate from a Frenchmen she had a brief non-affair with sixty years ago. The affair is to be determined. Half the family heads to the south of France lead by the Robert (Hugh Bonham), the head of Grantham, and Cora (Elizabeth McGovern) his wife as this part of the story develops. The contrast in life in France and life in England for the upper class is very revealing.

   

The second half of the family lead by eldest daughter Mary stay home to host a silent movie, filming crew who want to use the Abbey for their latest movie, The Gambler.
The film’s story of how movies are changing from silent to talkies was an interesting sidelight to manor issues..though a significant sum of money has been given to the Granthams (roof repair and much more) for the use of the manor. The film’s cast has as many issues as the Downton family as each member is highlighted.

    

5. Let’s Talk Philadelphia’s Start Of Summer Inspiration!
Bobby Hudson’s Sunrise Photos Are A Perfect Backdrop!

   

I do not know what I may appear to the world; but to myself I seem to have been only like a boy playing on the seashore, and diverting myself in now and then finding a smoother pebble or a prettier shell than ordinary, whilst the great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before me.

    

Brewster’s Memoirs Of Newton (1855)

   

   

6. Let’s Talk Philadelphia’s Staff’s Saturday Trip To The Racetrack!
Dreamer A 2004 Movie With Kurt Russell And Dakota Fanning Is A Nice Way To Welcome In The Triple Crown And Breeder’s Cup This Year!

     

The American Triple Crown is a three race (Kentucky Derby, Preakness Stakes, Belmont Stakes) series that determines the world best three year old horse. There have been 13 Triple Crown winners in the last 103 years…Sir Barton (1919), Gallant Fox (1930), Omaha (1935), War Admiral (1937), Whirlaway (1941), Count Fleet (1943), Assault (1946), Citation (1948), Secretariat (1973), Seattle Slew (1977), Affirmed (1978), American Pharoah (2015) and Justify (2018).

    

There will be no Triple Crown winner this year, because the winning trainers decided running horses in all the races in a six week span would be too grueling on their horses.

The feel good movie Dreamer starring Dakota Fanning, Kris Kristofferson, and Kurt Russell centers around another series of races called The Breeder’s Cup. The Breeder’s Cup consists of 82 races held throughout the world. The winners of these races then come, this year, to Keeneland Racetrack in Kentucky to compete in two days (November 4th and 5th) of spectacular racing in every horse racing competitive class from two year olds to older horses.

    

Little Dakota Fanning saves a severely injured, never to be able to race again, horse that her father trained for a ruthless horsemen. Just getting the horse to walk would be a major accomplishment. However, with love and determination Dakota brought the horse back to walk, then run, then race again with her whispers of :

You are a great champion.
When you ran, the ground shook, the sky opened and mere mortals parted.
Parted the way to victory, where you’ll meet me in the winners circle,
where I’ll put a blanket of flowers on your back.

      

Before watching The Belmont Stakes this weekend watch Dreamer. Dreamer puts horse racing and love of horses in perspective. If not for these reasons, just see the movie and enjoy how Dakota’s horse, Sanador, follows here around picking up and holding her schoolbag for her. See you at the movies and On Demand

235. Adelina, Blake Lively, The Wheel of Time, Putin As Hitler, Jack Reacher, And Beth Wrobel’s New Book

                       

A. Let’s Talk Philadelphia Readies For Spring!

           

Philadelphia Is The It City For History, Music, Museums, Nightlife, Sports, And The Creative Arts. 

    

Plus…We Are An Hour From North America’s Most Beautiful Beaches And Everything They Offer!
     

Plus…We Are An Hour From Picturesque Mountains And Everything They Offer!

     

Plus…We Are Fifteen Minutes Away From The Areas Best Basketball, Baseball, Hockey, Football, and Soccer. Join Us This Spring Or Summer!

       

1. Let’s Talk Philadelphia Welcomes, Adelina, Blake Lively, And The Age Of Adeline!

    

Adelina (bold/kind) is the newest edition to the Let’s Talk Philadelphia column’s family. She was scheduled to join us on 2.22.22 which really would have been memorable, but she decided an earlier arrival better suited her.

Adelina likes quiet walks on the beach, piano music with a little percussion behind, older men (there are no younger men in her neighborhood), a meaningful hug, and milk.

Everyone that comes into our office (three so far) and sees Adelina’s picture and her name below it asks if she was named after the Blake Lively movie. This gives us a chance to say NO and to feature the Blake Lively movie The Age Of Adeline.

The Age Of Adaline…A Story Of A Very Long Life And Great Loves!

            

Blake Lively is Adaline Bowman. Adaline Bowman is twenty-nine years old. She has been twenty-nine years old for eighty-six years due to an mysterious quirk in the space time continuum. Initially at age twenty nine she was married, had a daughter, and lost her architect husband to a Golden Gate Bridge construction accident.

    

It is now 2014 and we see eighty years of Adaline’s life through flashbacks. She has been on the run with her daughter from groups that want to make her a research guinea pig and from those that see she is not aging. Her daughter, played by Ellen Burstyn, is now eighty. Ten years is the most Adaline has stayed in any location. With minor changes Lively beautifully plays Adaline through all these decades of major and minor turmoil.

    

As a San Francisco librarian in 2014, she is recognized by people from her distant past. Adaline is ready to flee again. She meets her best friend of twenty years at their traditional New Year’s Eve party get-together. Her friend, Lynda Boyd, is singing at the New Year’s Eve celebration. Lynda is blind. She doesn’t realize Adaline hasn’t aged as she has. Adaline, also, meets Michiel Huisman at the party, falls in love with him, and has to decide whether to flee or watch him grow old as she stays the same age. This fact and her unavoidable predicament of fate is greatly disturbing to Adaline and has caused her to flee past loves. She keeps a notebook of the lives she has lead so far…dogs included.

         

Harrison Ford, Kathy Baker, and Amanda Crew join the perplexing problem the movie presents as Michiel’s (Ellis Jones) parents and sister. Ford, at first, thinks Adaline is after his son’s money. Ford’s advice will bring further uncertainty into Adaline’s life. Love story devotees will surely like this one! Blake Lively will lead ‘many a more’ films after this one! Her ‘second place in a movie’ days are over! This is an easy to find and enjoyable film on a number of On Demand channels.

    

2. Let’s Talk Philadelphia Knows A Thing Or Two About Time!
The Wheel Of Time (Amazon Prime) Is A Great Gothic Fantasy Journey!
Women Rule Four Tribes That Are Trying To Save The World!

   

The Wheel of Time, Amazon’s newest gigantic dollar adventure, is for you, if:

A. You like gorgeous Spanish, Croatian, Slovenian, and Czech Republic scenery for the story’s journeys and battles…
B. Exploring the mindset of four tribes of multi-powered women trying to prevent, through countless struggles, the end of the world interests you…The men in these kingdoms do not have any powers.

    

C. You believe Ogre and Troll warriors running wild will rule the kingdoms by series end…
D. You enjoyed previous Rosamond Pike movies and would like to see if she can pull off the very different role of warrior and huntress, as she searches for and battles for the secret person who can restore her brittle, plague and monster overtaken world…

    

E. You don’t mind battle scenes where good people are burned at the stake or killed as their internal and external body parts are skewered and eaten…
F. You like love scenes and kissing in the woods, fields, inns, and tents…

Amazon has paid over 250 million dollars to bring this 12 of 15 book series to television. 10 million dollars an episode were for the book rights. The first 12 books were written by Robert Jordan (James Oliver Rigney, Jr.) starting in 1990. Jordan died in 2007 at age 58 of cardiac amyloidosis, a blood disease. Jordan/Rigney completed 12 books in the series. The last three books were finished by his wife, Harriet Mc Dougal and author Brandon Sanderson. Jordan’s notes helped them with their three book effort.

    

Amazon built amazing studios in Prague and paid Rosamond Pike 10 million dollars to star in this 16 part series. We thought this was an outrageous amount of money until we researched and found out that Jennifer Aniston and Reese Withersoon are being paid 20 million dollars each for Disney’s, The Morning Show.

    

The production’s main hub of operations is Jordan Studios, a massive complex that Amazon built for the show in the Czech Republic city of Prague. Series watchers and book readers can’t wait for the second part of the series to premier in May. When the series was first released in November 2021, you watched one episode a week. The first 8 episodes can, now, be binge watched before the one at a time May release.

   

    

3. Let’s Talk Philadelphia Quickly Explores The Ukranian/Russian War!
Putin Looks Like Hitler’s Brother!
His Actions Show That He Is The New Hitler!
The Picture Should Go Viral With Your Help!
When Is A War Crime A War Crime!

Here are our three quick takes on the war in the Ukraine where staff member’s parents and grandparents emigrated.

1. 30 percent of Americans think we should send troops over there. That is a scary thought!
2. Putin’s army is killing thousands of innocent civilians each week, but that is not a war crime! C’mon! We have to send investigators over to see if war crimes were committed. C’mon, open your eyes!
3. The Russian fleet in the Black Sea is 200 miles from Odessa. The fleet is firing at civilian locations every hour, killing thousands and laying waste to cities and towns. We should give the Ukrainians weapons to destroy this fleet.

    

    

Let’s Talk Philadelphia Highlights The Ukrainian Artist Maria Prymachenko!

                  

   

4. Let’s Talk Philadelphia And How To Enjoy The Return Of Jack Reacher!
Tom Cruise vs Alan Ritchson As Jack Reacher!
It Is An Ongoing Debate!
Officer Willa Fitzgerald Steals The New Television Show Series!
She Is Not In Book Two, The Next Episodes, But She Should Be!

   

The British author, Lee Child, has written 26 Jack Reacher books with the 27th coming out in the fall of this year. The last few books were written with his brother.         

Jack Reacher was an army major busted down to captain and then back to major. As a major he ran a number of military police offices and operations. At age 36, Reacher retired from the army, because, he said, there was so much for him to see in the form of towns, streams, valleys, mountains, music, art, and more. He took off to see them starting in book one. His traveling companions in this search are his credit card, passport, toothbrush, and thumb.

        

In Killing Floor the first Child book, Reacher’s thumb and a bus ride take him to Margrave, Georgia. He is looking for information concerning Blind Blake, an old blues singer…We found out later that Blake was buried in Milwaukee and not anywhere in the South, though one of Margrave’s townfolk sang with him when he was there.

     Reacher finds things everywhere he goes. Most of the things he finds start with the letters T.R.O.U.B.L.E. as he tries to help everyone. There are a lot of those letters in Child’s 26 books.

    

On the way into Margrave, Reacher passes a murder scene. Naturally, he gets arrested for the murder as soon as he reaches the town diner. He is freed after someone confesses to the murder. Still under suspicion, he teams Willa Fitzgerald (Roscoe Conklin) and Malcomb Goodwin (police captain Oscar Finlay) and later and old army friend, Marie Sten (Frances Neagley) to find the murderer. More murders and missing people hamper the investigation. Everyone in town is more crooked than the Yellow Brick Road. We think you will enjoy Ritchson’s Reacher as much a Tom Cruise’s Reacher.

      

Main Cast And Characters…as shown on wikipedia…

• Alan Ritchson as Jack Reacher, a decorated former major in the U.S. Army military police and drifter. Maxwell Jenkins plays the young Reacher.
• Malcolm Goodwin as Oscar Finlay, a police captain and Margrave’s chief detective, formerly a detective in Boston

   

• Willa Fitzgerald as Roscoe Conklin, a police officer in Margrave who joins Reacher and Finlay in their investigation
• Chris Webster as KJ, Kliner Sr.’s only son
• Bruce McGill as Grover Teale, Margrave’s corrupt mayor and interim police chief
• Maria Sten as Frances Neagley, a private detective and former army investigator who was a member of Reacher’s military police squad

    

5. Let’s Talk Philadelphia Salutes Beth Wrobel And Her New Book!
The World Is Yer Oystah!
How Does One Prepare For An Audition Or The Start Of A Play?!
Beth’s New Book Has The Answers And Thespian Magic!

       

The University of the Arts, where this column originated, supports theater, music, and the arts. Let’s Talk Philadelphia is always looking for authors, artists, photographers, and businesses we can feature. Beth Wrobel is well known teacher and creative program presenter throughout the Pennsylvania and New Jersey area. Beth’s work in theater and statewide presentations to parents, teachers and students on theater and English Language Arts is a must see and participate.

         

There is a Thespian in everyone. You can celebrate your Thespian with Beth Wrobel’s relatable and signable, gift ready, new book. The book is the perfect gift token for a post performance at your local school, community center, theater, or even before an appearance on Broadway.

         

Performance flowers are great, but lasting keepsakes like this book are better. Much better! The book is filled with quotes, quirkies, and sometimes humorous, unsolicited advice. All these and more will keep the calmness backstage and the frights away during shows and auditions. The Show Will Definitely Go On Through The World Is Yer Ostah’s Shared Spirit.

Here is the link for purchasing Beth’s book: https://www.amazon.com/World-Yer-Oystah-Beth-Tuchay/dp/B09XMMQ8WC/ref=mp_s_a_1_fkmr3_1?keywords=the+world+is+yer+ostah+beth+tuchay&qid=1650362277&sr=8-1-fkmr3#immersive-view_1650362353189

     

Enjoy The Spring And The Summer In Philadelphia!

6. Let’s Talk’s Monthly Call-out For Contributors!
Your Ideas Will Attract A Large Audience!

Every column encourages readers to contribute their photography, art, movie reviews, book talks, fashion news, and local business news to the Let’s Talk Philadelphia column at tjpalumbo@aol.com. Everything is FREE and the column is a great connector for a contributor’s two paragraphs and six pictures. If you can’t come up with a column idea of your own, suggest an interesting topic for our staff to review and write up for our column. Look at the write-ups in past columns of contributors like Beth Wrobel’s in this column.

        

 

234. The 355, Jessica Chastain, The Kingsmen III, Laura Wheeler Waring, And The Two Minute Puzzle!

                      

A. Year Thirty Of Let’s Talk Philadelphia Rolls On!

   

1. Let’s Talk Philadelphia Features The Spy Movie The 355!
Jessica Chastain’s Spy Team Numbers Five!
The Search For World Destroying Technology Begins!

   

Before starting this movie review, it is important to know the origins of the 355 and the women/woman involved as Revolutionary War patriots and spies. Anna Smith Strong was the original 355. Strong was the only female member of George Washington’s Culper Spy Ring. Washington recruited Benjamin Tallmadge of Setauket Long Island to head this spy ring. Tallmadge in return enlisted Strong and other members of his Setauket community, as well as, friends throughout Long Island to join him on secret missions. This is a nice research and report school project.

   

Jessica Chastain, the star of the new 355 movie, proposed the idea for the film and the 355 update while working with director Simon Kinberg in the year 2018. Mr. & Mrs. Smith, the X-Men film franchise, and Sherlock Holmes are six of Kinberg’s many successful directing credits. Chastain and Kinberg met on the film Dark Phoenix.

     

If you are with the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and have seen, at least, some of Chastain’s Oscar nominated performances, wouldn’t you want her to head one of the most important world saving spy missions of the decade?

A piece of electronic wizardry has been created that will read, disable, and re-image any piece of electronics on the Internet, on a computer, or any system that involves technology. We can’t think of any system that doesn’t use technology! World-wide trouble as a prelude to World War III is about to commence.

   

The weapon’s creator is killed and the weapon in the shape of a large IPhone 12 is about to travel the world in a number of mercenaries’ hands. Chastain is going to need a team of world wide agents to secure this phone-like device. Like any team former, Jessica recruits a martial arts specialist, a computer specialist, a mission planner, an electronics expert designer, and a chocolate chip cookie maker. These recruits are all women! These roles are filled by a who is who team of movie stars: Penelope Cruz, Diane Kruger, Fan Bingbing, and Lupita Nyong’o. Jason Flemying (bad), Sebastian Stan (bad), and Édgar Ramírez (good) are some of the supporting male cast members.

   

After fascinating chases and individual battles galore that would make Daniel Craig’s James Bond proud, the world destroying device is put up for auction in a casino in Morocco. Every evil deed planner and monster world wide is invited. The casino admit tickets are forged and the team of women in gorgeous electronic jewelry and designer clothes get to show their stuff and grab the device to save the world. But!

This is a great movie to rent a theater for as a Valentine’s Day gift to your friends. Most theaters including AMC have this program. Contact your local theater for their rates and show time arrangements. This is a nice Valentine surprise for family and friends!

   

   

2. Let’s Talk Philadelphia Goes Back To World War I!
The Origin Of The Kingsmen Will Be Revealed!
The King’s Man Wheels And Deals In This One.
Stay In The Theater Until The Final Credits Are Over For
There Is The Next Movie In The Series Reveal!

     

The new Kings Man movie is the third in the Kingsmen series, but completely different from its predecessors. Kings Man is a story surrounding World War I that previous Kingsmen watchers and history buffs will really enjoy. It is, also, the origin of how the Kingsmen agency was created in 1918.

     

World War I causes are still being debated a hundred years later. We know the war started in 1914 after Archduke Francis Ferdinand of Austria-Hungary and his wife were assassinated. We know the war ended four and a half years later with Germany’s surrender in November of 1918.

    

The war left 17 million soldiers and civilians dead and another 25 million wounded. It ravaged most of Europe with a book-load of firsts that include:
Women enlistings
Aerial warfare
Aircraft carriers
Chemical warfare
Gas masks
Blood banks
Guide dogs

   
Wireless communication
Flamethrowers
Massive artillery
Tanks
Movie propaganda
Steel helmets
Medical firsts like x-rays

In the movie, Ralph Fiennes plays The Duke Of Oxford (Orlando). Fiennes leads a loosely knit group of English spies whose mission is to stop the world’s worst rulers, maniacs, and devious masterminds from beginning World War I. It is a well done movie that places Fiennes at the site of all the major events leading up to the war and while the war is progressing. He is even in the carriage when the Arch Duke and his wife are killed.

    

Our favorite Fiennes’ segment is that in 1918 The Duke Of Oxford is credited in the movie for killing Grigori Rasputin (Rhys Ifans) the Russian monk and mystic healer that is encouraging the Czar to withdraw from the war and leave the rest of Europe vulnerable since the Germans would no longer have to fight on two fronts. Polly (Gemma Arterton) and Shola (Djimon Hounsou) as members of Oxford’s spy team and time and again play important parts throughout the movie.

    

Germany invaded Belgium on August 4, 1914 to begin the war. Their siege of the city of Liege lasted 11 days and was the beginning test for Germany’s powerful new weapons and massive cannons. They proceeded to level everything and kill everyone in their path on their way to Paris. The Germans left death and destruction never seen before in their wake as they advanced through Belgium toward France. The first Battle of the Marne, Verdun, and the Battle of the Somme stopped the German advance 30 miles from Paris as the war raged with 1 and a half million deaths from these battles alone.

   

Fiennes’ under age son Conrad Oxford (Harris Dickson) wants to join the war. Fiennes will do everything in his power to stop this from happening. But!

         

   

3. Let’s Talk Philadelphia Salutes Painter Laura Wheeler Waring!
She Certainly Made Philadelphia And Nearby Cheyney University Proud!
A World Renowned Artist And A College Teacher!

      

The Barnes Museum in Philadelphia is a must see for every visitor and art lover vacationing in or passing through Philadelphia. The Barnes’ audio virtual tour  will amaze you to no end as you sit in front of your computer before and after your visit or if you can’t make it to Philadelphia. Mary Cassett introduced Albert C. Barnes to the spurned, fledgling post impressionist and impressionist art movement in Europe as he bought up everything (now valued at 2 billion dollars) he could find from Monet to Renoir to Degas.

        

As you move on from the Barnes to research Mary Cassett and other Philadelphia painters, the name Laura Wheeler Waring (1887-1948) pops up first on every list. Waring was a prominent Afro-American artist in the United States and Europe. Her scenic paintings and portraits brought the Harlem Renaissance to life and many black leaders like Webb Du Bois to the artistic forefront. Waring’s awards and accolades are numerous including the Connecticut Hall of Fame and the Laura Wheeler Waring School 1801 Green St, Philadelphia, PA 19130 being named after her.

      

Much of Waring’s training took place at Philadelphia’s Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (six years) and in France where she gathered a European following.

     

Waring died in Philadelphia in 1948, but before that she spent 30 years at Cheyney University and Teachers College chairing the music and art departments. Thousands of students studied with her at Cheyney as she was continually designing new programs for both the music and art departments. She, too, is a great research subject.

       

   

4. Let’s Talk Philadelphia’s Monthly Puzzle!
We Hope Ants Don’t Make You Squirmy!
These Little Creatures Are Quite An Interesting Topic!

    

Three Ant Books from National Geographic at our local doctor’s office made for some fascinating reading and the impetus for this months two-minute puzzle challenge. We only read one magazine, because we couldn’t pull the other two out of child patient’s hands sitting next to us. Five quick facts to share before starting our monthly puzzle are:

        

A. There are 10,000 variety of ants…
B. There are over 20 billion ants world-wide
C. Ants can swim…
D. Ants have two stomachs…
E. Fire ants are used in Venezuela Ganache hot sauce

      

To salute these crawly creatures we challenge Let’s Talk Philadelphia’s readers with our best Ant Clue’s Puzzle. The clues below will generate a word that has ANT in its beginning, middle, or end. The ANT is in exact order wherever it appears. The two-minute time allotment makes the puzzle especially difficult.

   

Answers appear at the end of this column.

What ANT is:
Example. A piece of clothing…Pants

        

1. A school skipper
2. A New York Yankee baseball hero
3. A deer’s pride
4. An American President
5. A garden shop find
6. Something 100 years old
7. Against
8. A won’t do
9. A bridge
10. Big

       

11. Very, very big
12. A scary spider
13. One if by land, two if by sea must
14. A poker must
15. A fireplace display top
16. A patriotic song
17. A must have
18. Empty, like a lot
19. Raves partner
20. A small shack

   

5. Let’s Talk Philadelphia Invites World-Wide Contributors To Help
Start Year 30 Off With Some Great, New Content!
Everything is FREE. We Do Not Make Any Money On WordPress Ads!
27,000 Followers On LinkedIn Receive Our Column Notice Each Month!
Let Friends Know About Our Column, So We Can Expand Our Readership!

   

In 1994 Joan Rivers had a part of her concert where she asked the audience…Can We Talk? We, at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia, thought Can We Talk Philadelphia would be the good name of an international themed entertainment and business column until we found Can We Talk was copyrighted for Rivers’ T-shirts.

     

The Let’s Talk Philadelphia column then emerged and went from classroom discussions, to a one page newsletter handed out on the corner of Broad and Walnut Streets, to a column now sometimes read by 30,000 plus readers across five continents. Every column encourages readers to contribute their photography, art, movie reviews, book talks, fashion news, and local business news to the Let’s Talk Philadelphia column at tjpalumbo@aol.com. Everything is FREE and the column is a great connector for a contributor’s two paragraphs and six pictures. If you can’t come up with a column idea of your own, suggest an interesting topic for our staff to review and write up for our column.

   

6. Let’s Talk Philadelphia’s Two Minute Puzzle Answers!
Go Back And Try To Solve The Clues You Didn’t Get Before Looking Below!

   

What ANT is:
Example. A piece of clothing…Pants

   

1. A school skipper…Truant
2. A New York Yankee baseball hero…Mantle
3. A deer’s pride…Antlers
4. An American President…Grant
5. A garden shop find…Plant
6. Something 100 years old…Antique
7. Against…Anti
8. A won’t do…Can’t
9. A bridge…Cantilever
10. Big…Giant

          

11. Very, very big…Gigantic
12. A scary spider…Tarantula
13. One if by land, two if by sea must…Lantern
14. A poker must…Ante
15. A fireplace display top…Mantel
16. A patriotic song…Anthem
17. A must have…Want
18. Empty, like a lot…Vacant
19. Raves partner…Rant
20. A small shack…Shanty

 

233. Wayne Thiebaud, Detroit Music, Annika Bengtzon, And Sarah Weddington!

         

1. Let’s Talk Philadelphia’s Thirty Year Call-Out!
What Kind Of Business, Educational, Or Fashion Ideas Can You Contribute?!
You Will Reach A Giant Audience! Everything Is FREE!

We are zooming into our thirtieth year, so Let’s Talk Philadelphia needs your help for our thirtieth year to be successful. Let your friends and Email list know about our work. Send us a Quick Note for our Quick Note section or send us six pictures and two paragraphs on a topic of your choice that would interest 27,000 sometimes worldwide readers. This column and past columns will give you ideas of the varied topics shared by readers. Make your creations/contributions similar of completely different! Reading past columns is a great way to catch up on a wide variety of subjects.

2. Let’s Talk Philadelphia Salutes Morton Wayne Thiebaud!
November, 15, 1920-December 25, 2021!
He Was Still Painting At 101 Years Old!
Thiebaud Died Last Week On Christmas Day!

        
Wayne Thiebaud was a California painter known for his unique depictions of common place things like paint cans, ice cream, cakes, pies, and candy. It was very strange to see these type of themed paintings embraced by such a large audience.


    
As you can see from our selected painting inserts, we, however, at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia enjoyed his self portraits, general portraits, cityscapes, and landscapes as much as his ice
cream cones.

    cream
If you are out California way, collections of Thiebaud’s art can be found at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and the Whitney Museum. The National Medal of Art (1994) is one of his many awards. Virtual tours of these museums are a nice precursor to any trip to the West Coast.


                    
3. Let’s Talk Philadelphia Embraces Swedish Television!
Annika Bengtzon: Crime Reporter Is Good Start For A Swedish Neophyte!
Liza Marklund’s Books Should Be Added To Your Reading List!

If you subscribe to Netflix, Amazon Prime, a similar service, or do an Internet search look for Annika Bengtzon: Crime Reporter. This hour and a half program from Swedish television is an enjoyable change from American programming. The production values, filming locations, and stories
are outstanding.

    
Malin Crepin plays the foot soldier of a Swedish newsroom. She would rather be in the field chasing stories than behind a desk. Motherhood and relationships problems complicate her work. Malin makes this series fly, even though, the viewer would, also, like the inner stories of those working around her to be told, as well. The stories are very different from the normal American fare.

         
Liza Marklund is the author of Annika Bengtzon: Crime Reporter. The television series is partially based on the eleven books that feature/depict Annika. Starting in 1995, the books, probably, should be read in order. Marklund wrote a 12th book, The Postcard Killers with James Patterson and a 13th book, The Black Pearl Farm apart from the Bengtzon series.

    
Marklund’s books are translated into 40 different languages and have sold over 24 million copies. She continues to be a crime journalist in Sweden and is the co-owner of Sweden’s third largest publishing
house Piratförlaget.

     

4. Let’s Talk Philadelphia’s Second Salute Goes To Sarah Weddington!
At Age 26 She Won The Roe v Wade Supreme Court Case!
More Astonishing Is The Fact That It Was Her First Case!

      
Sarah Ragle Weddington is a name few would know before reading this article. No one in our office knew of her before this week. Her death at age 76 on December 26th probably would have been overlooked by us if it weren’t for Roe v Wade being back in the news to be reheard again.

    

Sarah Ragle Weddington is best known for representing Jane Roe in the Roe v Wade case before The Supreme Court in 1972. One of Sarah’s best quotes was that one day she was asked to do a little research and the next day she was before The US Supreme Court. She wouldn’t have looked up her assignment, if she knew this was going to happen.

   
In addition to being a successful attorney, she was an assistant to President Jimmy Carter an accomplished author (A Question Of Choice), law professor, and a member of the Texas House of Representatives. A Texas native, her work in Washington D.C., lead to her becoming the first female General Counsel of the United States Department of Agriculture.

      Above (s), Sarah is standing and smiling in front of her grave marker. The grave marker lists 8 of her accomplishments. Her arguments in front of the Supreme Court can be heard on C-Span as well as a large number of her talks and interviews. We searched everywhere to find out how many copies, going into its Third Edition, A Question of Choice sold, but could not come up with any statistics. Signed copies of her A Question Of Choice can be purchased at Internet book stores from $15 to $125. 


        
5. Let’s Talk Philadelphia Investigates The Detroit Music Scene!
We Love Featuring Artists’ Submissions!
Tony Muggs And His Band Dude I

Here is what Tony shared with us on our way to Detroit to see a Lions, Red Wings, and Pistons game:


           
I started my band Dude out of my absolute love of late 1960’s and early 1970’s psychedelic pop, power pop, soft rock and rock. Bands like The Pretty Things, Badfinger, Big Star and Todd Rundgren are
a few groups who inspired my work.

         

I recorded the 1st Dude album entitled, Kid Gloves as a solo album (with a who’s who of Detroit musicians learning my songs) in 2012. I’ve been The Muggs (Detroit blues rock band) : bassist for 20 years now, but always wanted to write my own songs. I remained a member of The Muggs, but branched off on my own. In fact, I’m in 4 bands! I assembled the live Dude band in November 2015 and by November 2016 Dude toured the country of Spain and was playing festivals and venues in the
Midwest and Metro Detroit!

   

I am currently putting the finishing touches on the first of two autobiographical books and getting ready to release Dude’s 2nd full length album. Both the book and the Dude 2nd album will be titled Autobiograffitti, and released as a package deal. We have released 3 singles off Autobiograffitti on
Spotify and Bandcamp to tease our fans.

     
This upcoming album is very dense. It is filled with lots of harmonies, guitar-monies, and fun panning. The songs tell a tale (8 rockers selections, 2 ballads, and an alternate country western song. The album has it all. Join us and the Detroit scene by using the links below.

Bandcamp: https://iamdude.bandcamp.com/music

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/1PWmnJmYtq3gtoGjskGgza?si=G8PFhLc2SgeqSpJUvRDXjQFB

: https://www.facebook.com/dude.detroit/

    

232. Litwa Art, Suicide Prevention, Blue Jeans, Quick Notes, And The Two Minute Puzzle!

    

                  

1. Let’s Talk’s Best Holiday And December Warm Wishes!
Our December, New Year, And Holiday Greeting!
     

Our non-religious column hoped Ramadan, Kwanzaa, Christmas, and Hanukkah fell in December this year like it did a few years ago. Our holiday wishes would, then, ring out to 4/7 of the religious universe. Nonetheless, Let’s Talk Philadelphia’s 232nd WordPress issue wishes everyone a joyous, safe, and healthy December and New Year.

1A. Let’s Talk Philadelphia…29 Years And Counting!
At One Time We Were Just A One Page Newsletter Handed Out At The Corner Of Broad And Walnut And University Of the Arts Classrooms In Philadelphia!
Wow! 29 Years Is Almost Three Decades Of Writing!

     

Let’s Talk Philadelphia needs your help for our thirtieth year to be successful. Let your friends and Email list know about our work. Send us a Quick Note for our Quick Note section or send us six pictures and two paragraphs on a topic of your choice that would interest 27,000 sometimes worldwide readers. Lauren Litwa’s art piece and Terri Erbacher’s suicide prevention submissions in this column will give you some idea on how to structure your thoughts. Everything is FREE!

Send your work to Tom Palumbo at tjpalumbo@aol.com!
Looking forward to featuring your ideas…Thank You For The Help!

          

2. Let’s Talk Philadelphia…This Month’s Three Most Important Topics!
Suicide Prevention, Mental Health and Children…And School Safety!
Dr. Terri Erbacher Has Suicide Prevention, Health, and Safety, And More In Her Books, Website, And Internet Shares!
They Are Must Reads And Must Visits!

    

Terri A. Erbacher, Ph.D. is an author, distinguished speaker, consultant, and guest expert in the media, including NPR. She is in her 23^rd year practicing as a School Psychologist and she founded her private practice, Erbacher Consulting Associates, PLLC, in 2014 (found at erbacherconsulting.com). Terri’s practice focuses on training, coaching and consultation, and procedure development. She has presented widely on the topics of school crisis response, suicide prevention, assessment and intervention, as well as threat assessment. Her work, also, focuses on trauma. She conducts trauma evaluations both privately and through the juvenile court system.

    

Dr. Erbacher served as a Clinical Associate Professor of School Psychology at Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine for over 13 years where her coursework and research focused on school-based crisis intervention and suicide risk. Dr. Erbacher has written extensively on the topics of suicide and crisis response in book chapters, journal articles, and newsletters. She is the lead author of the text Suicide in schools: A practitioner’s guide to multi-level prevention, assessment, intervention and postvention released in 2015. Dr. Erbacher is a co-author on a text that was just published entitled Developing Comprehensive School Safety and Mental Health Programs: An Integrated Approach.

    

Dr. Erbacher currently serves as the Crisis Committee Chairperson for the Association of School Psychologists of Pennsylvania, is past President of the Philadelphia Chapter of the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, past Chair of the Delaware County Suicide Prevention Task Force, served as clinical advisor to Survivors of Suicide, Inc., and served on the executive committee of the Pennsylvania Youth Suicide Prevention Initiative. Dr. Erbacher has been active in the enactment of Pennsylvania legislation and is currently serving on the Pennsylvania Commission for Crime and Delinquency’s School Safety and Security Committee Workgroup and is a subject matter expert for developing Pennsylvania’s Act 18’s model policy and training, which includes the assessment and management of both suicide risk and threat risk. Dr. Erbacher’s passion for helping children in crisis and training schools and mental health professionals has led to her receiving multiple awards for her service to the community including those from the Survivors of Suicide, the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, and she has been named Pennsylvania’s School Psychologist of the Year.

    

Don’t forget to visit erbacherconsulting.com. Dr. Erbacher’s and her writing partner Jeffrey Roth’s ideas and resources are life changing and life saving.

     

3. Let’s Talk Philadelphia Features Lauren Litwa’s Art For The Holidays!
Multiple Award Winning Painter Lauren Litwa Puts The A In Artist!
Thank You Again Lauren For Brightening Another LTP Column!

Lauren shares: Below is Eternal November Bonfire II which is newly completed. I am working on a new painting influenced by a visit to the Grand Canyon with a white flower called Sacred Datura. It is interesting that this perennial is sometimes used as a hallucinogen due to its psychoactive alkaloids. It will be fun to see how this one ends up. Each painting is a journey.

    

    

Hello Tom

My Painting Eternal November Bonfire 1 was accepted into the annual Pennsylvania Academy Of The Fine Arts Virtual Exhibition. This is a wonderful selection of paintings and sculptures and I am thrilled to be included in this year’s show. This year the juror was Rebecca Segall of Gross McCleaf Gallery in Philadelphia.

        

                                                                             Tuscany Dream 30 by 30 Oil/Linen

We made it to the Vista in upstate Pennsylvania on a beautiful fall day. Nature always keeps me grounded and inspired, especially, in these crazy times. Thank you for keeping in touch with me about my paintings. Studio visits are available. Hope you have a Happy Thanksgiving. Best wishes, Lauren.

Additional paintings and prints can be found on Lauren’s website: https://laurenlitwa.com/

Lauren’s mailing address is and should be added to you address book:
Lauren Litwa
5131 Russett Road
Rockville, Maryland 20853

    

4. Let’s Talk Philadelphia’s Monthly Quick Notes!

    

A. A Holiday Gift…Bose Alto Frames!
Bluetooth Audio Sunglasses Are Calling You!
Forget The Ear Plugs And Giant Speaker Headsets!
The Sound Is Amazing!
Definition Of Cool! The Look Is Great, Too!

The product reviews are excellent and there are a great many reasons you should get these musical Bluetooth activated (phone/computer) sunglasses featured on every product review site. Here is our favorite reason why:

    

You are sitting at a meeting or lecture with my sunglasses on listening to Elvis Presley’s Just Pretend (an office favorite by him). Everyone’s asking you why you have sunglasses on. You tell them you just got your eyes checked and the eye drops in your eyes are killing you. What a way great way to spend a business meeting or lecture. A boring business meeting or lecture! Music up Bose sunglasses fans!

B. Business Help For Wrangler And Levis Jeans!
Baby’s Got Her Blue Jeans On!
Sing It Mel McDaniels!
You Wore Them Well Jessica Simpson Here And In The Video!

        

If you haven’t heard Mel McDaniel’s song of an unassuming lady walking down the street in her blue jeans, then you should listen to the four versions on You Tube. Our local country and western bar (with dancing) features a contest, the song, and five ladies in jeans from the dance floor to do their best shaking to the tune in a thirty second time slot. Crowd applause and whistles determine the winner. It is less sloppier than a wet T-shirt contest! There are prizes!

     

Wrangler Blue Jeans or Levis Blue Jeans should take this contest nationally. The contests would shake hundreds of thousands of dollars ($) of sales into their pockets as the contest videos go viral. It will, also, give a nice modeling stage for their other clothes lines that winners would receive.

           

Wrangler/Levis should approach Mel McDaniel and see if a tour bus of the jean company’s best dancers can come along and dance at his concerts. There, too, new lines of clothing would be displayed and handed out to the crowd. You heard it first here Levis/Wrangler. Contact us. We have a jean’s pocket filled with groundbreaking money makers.

C. This May Not Be Your First Rodeo!
What Kind Of Crazy Brainstorming Things Do You Do At Your Meetings?!