Caspar Milquetoast

To start out the 2010 book list, I just finished Webster Unabridged, a compendium of comic panes and strips by H.T. Webster, published in 1945. The humor is SO outdated, which is humorous in itself. It's so America 1940s. I checked this book out of the library, however, because of Caspar Milquetoast. 

Some of you long-time readers of this blog, if you exist, may remember the blog subtitle: "It always comes back to David Niven." I had to take that down because it hadn't been coming back to him in a while (Although the title and url both stem from Niven film Around the World in 80 Days (1954)). Well, now it has! I first heard the word milquetoast when I professed my love of David Niven to my mother. She responded: "That milquetoast?!" His foppish top hat and umbrella cane probably irked my mother, while these accessories are probably what I liked best about him. Consequently, I began to associate the term with formal, serious people. 

In case you don't know, it actually means timid or bland. And it is purely an American word, appearing in American English dictionaries but not British English ones. So, it turns out my mother's description of Niven, the ultimate Brit, was not quite ironic, but whatever is the appropriate term here, coincidentally incorrect? The word comes from the aforementioned character in H.T. Webster's series of The Timid Soul single-pane comics. In turn, he got the name from milk toast, a food often eaten at the time by people with ill or sensitive stomachs, a calming, mild food. Caspar is always afraid, worried, and meek (Check out the page I scanned in for you). Exactly what David Niven isn't. 

A more appropriate character would be Mr. Limpet of the children's classic, The Incredible Mr. Limpet. Don Knotts! Such a great movie. (Edit: I was spot on. I just checked Netflix and they even describe him as "a bespectacled, milquetoast bookkeeper.")

Anyways, the book linked in the list is not this book, because Amazon doesn't carry it, but a similar looking collection and one that is only 50 cents! You should definitely get it or find one at your library.

Notes taken out of context.

In the process of cleaning my room (the room I spent more than half of my childhood in, the room I just moved back into after not living in for four years a.k.a. there was a lot of stuff just stashed in random places room), I have discovered lots of little pieces of papers, post-its, business cards, what-have-yous with notes on them, either that I noted to myself or received. Sometimes I remember what they mean or what they come from, frequently I don't. I am going to share a few. Feel free to claim you're the one who said any of them. This may become a new series (if I ever resume regular posting), semi-inspired by Erica's affinity for my (is "to" actually the correct word here?) letter series.

"Looks like a 502, he's really weaving." "Give him a ball of yarn; he could make us both a sweater."

"Call him on it, be like, 'that dog just ain't gonna hunt.' Yeah, maybe the idiom is too much, but my point remains." (okay, honestly, I now remember exactly who said this and what/who it was about, but I didn't when I found it and it's kinda too much to get into for a blog post but makes me chuckle and thus I deem it post-worthy).

Perhaps a good way to remember the order of the streets downtown: "Wouldn't it be grand to hope to pick flowers on Figueroa?"

"1848 was charming only through an excess of the ridiculous"

"It is not theft to steal from thieves; it is merely irony."

OK, this last one I wrote down sometime during 2006. I know this because other stuff on the paper happened that year. I also know gkla told/IMed/somethinged this to me, but I have no idea what it is referencing: "Laura, you may now proudly say of yourself, "Today I was riding dirty." So fantastically dated, right?!

nonpareil

So, it is always sad when I can't rate movies on Netflix. One movie that I watched in 2006 comes to mind, in particular. Raffles, with the nonpareil David Niven. It is so great. You should watch it today. That is the end of this post.

-fin-

Husky men of war.

L-R, T-B:
1)Various Artists: Gigi
2)Various Artists: The Gospel at Colonus
3)Various Artists: The Guns of Navarone
4)Various Artists: Hogan's Heroes
5)Various Artists: Honky Tonk Rag Pickers
6)Original Soundtrack Recording: Lawrence of Arabia

Ok, so it's 4:38 AM when I have class at 11. I obviously fail at being sensible today. I also have some heartburn right now. Records are currently stacked on my desk backwards, so I'm going to work my way from #6 to #1.

6) Many things of note with this album. A: ORANGE. B: Classic classic movie. C: way cool painting of the main face. D: Winston Churchill quote (yes!).

5) I have to say, most of the best lookin' albums in my collection have at least something to do with honky tonk. I mean, seriously, so cool. This one's from Rhino.

4) This record is actually very aptly titled, as it includes only Hogan's Heroes, not Hogan himself. This is where Erica would chime in with "Hogggan!" Anyways, they "Sing the Best of World War II." Come on, the best of World War II has to be great. And it is. There's, perhaps not surprisingly, a lot of Hogan's Heroes representin' going on in my collection as it is my favorite classic TV show. The title of this post comes from the words of the "Hogan's Heroes March" which are not sung in the show but are on this record. The record also includes such greats as Irving Berlin's "This is the Army Mister Jones." I got this record as a gift! From Matt Cohen in high school. Really good gift. Kudos. Update: TV Land is now playing Hogan's Heroes again! Hallelujah. Weird, though, that they don't play the end credits with the theme song and end title sequence.

3) Unfortunately, I haven't seen this movie. Disgraceful, I know, but it is in my queue. I do love Gregory Peck and David Niven; I am not sure if I could even choose a favorite amongst those two. Dimitri Tiomkin is a fab film scorer. On a side note, I highly recommend the Maritime song "Guns of Navarone." OH, I finally 'got back' to David Niven. It's been a while, eh?

2) This movie I have seen--several times, starting in 10th grade is Ms. St. Clair's English class. What a silly class. The Gospel at Colonus is Sophocles' Oedipus trilogy in gospel Black Pentecostal Church form. And it is INSANE. With the Soul Stirrers! The Blind Boys of Alabama! Morgan Freeman! Robert Earl Jones! This one was 49 cents at Rhino.

1) This record symbolizes three things. One, whenever I travel, I like to go to record shops. This record was purchased at Angelo's in Denver, Colorado. Two, I like to buy people records as gifts. I bought this record for my mom 'cause she loves the movie. Three, my mom never listens to records I buy her because she never listens to music outside of her car. Hence, this record is now in my collection. This record is also an example of the fact that I frequently forget that I own some records that I rarely listen to. I have another version of this record that doesn't have the singers from the movie. And, really, I love Maurice Chevalier, so I am not gonna listen to no "TV stars including Michael Stewart, The Gay Blades, something Winter (white text on white background isn't really smart folks), Jack Brown, ..." Perhaps the next time the radio station has a record swap, I'll be able to get something for the non-Chevalier version. This past swap I didn't have any records I didn't want. Really, I am glad I don't have more than one record I don't actually want to have. That would be foolish.

Gets me going.

What do you think about when you hear Rufus Wainwright's "Oh What a World?" I, for one, think of David Niven and the classic 1956 movie Around the World in 80 Days. Not just plain old handsome and sophisticated David Niven, however. The David Niven I think of when I hear this song is the Niven on an elephant being suave and racing to get back to London even though the train tracks haven't been completed as scheduled so his train cannot make it to the next destination. (phweh. that run-on sentence just had to get out of me). This is the Niven charming the Indian princess Aouda, asking her "Will you join me on the verandah? I understand they serve an outstanding lemon squash."


So much of Rufus' catalogue feels like classic movies to me. The end of his "Old Whore's Diet," wow! What do I see? Camels moving languidly up sand dunes, so slowly, so up-and-down that one only sees the humps of the camel every few seconds or so and in such a hot environment that everything is blurred like the world is melting away. You know what I am talking about? When it is just that hot that things look all curvy, all vague. The camels are slowly ascending the dunes towards a sea where an armada is arriving. Some galleons, too. Perhaps Lawrence of Arabia fits in there somewhere. But one thing is for sure, Rufus is riding one of those camels, slowly bumping up the sand, and, as the sweat drips of his brow, his voice becoming louder, stronger, more urgent. It's the end of the movie, he reaches the top of the mountain of sand, and end. That's it.

Rufus may be some people's Gay Messiah, but he will forever be my David Niven in a hot air balloon landing in India, taking an elephant to the camel, where he will travel until the end of the movie when he reaches the water. This is what "gets me going in the morning."

1956

Will you join me on the verandah? I understand they serve an outstanding lemon squash.