Waitin' for the Weekend

Flannel Boards and How to Use Them (1958)

Oh my, does this bring back memories of my early school days, and Sunday School, too.  Your Head Trucker has often wondered in the long years since then just how the little paper figurines stayed there on the flannel.  Do you know?  All is revealed in this charmingly straightforward demonstration film from 1958.

Sunday Drive: Les Huguenots

Embed from Getty Images

The Queen's Official Birthday was observed in London yesterday with the brilliant pageantry of Trooping the Colour, which this year also marks Her Majesty's 65 years on the Throne - and long may she reign. The march from Meyerbeer's opera Les Huguenots is said to be a particular favorite of the Queen's; here is a clip of it from the 2014 ceremony - watch to see Her Majesty tapping her foot in time with the music:



And for those who may wish to watch, here is the BBC telecast of yesterday's events, including the RAF fly-past after the Royal Family appeared on the balcony at Buckingham Palace:




The Queen also issued this statement yesterday regarding the recent tragedies that have afflicted the United Kingdom:

Click to enlarge.

Embed from Getty Images

Waitin' for the Weekend

Sunday Drive: On the Sunny Side of the Street

As performed by Count Basie and Ella Fitzgerald:

Waitin' for the Weekend

Secrets of the Royal Kitchen

Her Majesty gives a state banquet for the Obamas in 2011.
Seems like a lifetime ago, doesn't it?

Your Head Trucker wonders how many of his readers agree with him that the putrid mess in Washington is simply too frightful to keep up with.  How refreshing, then, to turn one's attention elsewhere and reflect upon the virtues of a constitutional monarchy that stays above the thrust and parry of sordid politics.

(We might have been a bit hasty with all that 1776 business, you know.  I mean, would it really have been so awful if we'd stayed in the club and ended up as, say, Greater Canada, after all?  Just look how it's all turned out!  They have Justin up north, and we have -- oh, never mind.)

The Queen's Official Birthday will be observed in Britain on the 17th - and in anticipation here are two very pleasant videos, one short and one long, that may take your mind off Russo-American skulduggery and numbskullery for a while.

First, a lovely glimpse of the back forty at BP:




And second, a fascinating, often mouthwatering insight into royal cookery by Graham Newbould, a former chef on HMY Britannia:

Sunday Drive: Schubert, Serenade

Waitin' for the Weekend

Sunday Drive: I Believe

Embed from Getty Images

For the victims of the Manchester bombing, and for all the dead of all the wars and tumults, and for all who weep and are alone -- I know these pretty words don't change anything, but it's all I have to offer -- a musical bouquet, if nothing else -- a pious hope -- a fervent wish.

Waitin' for the Weekend

(Photo #4 removed at the request of the subject - 6/22/17.)