Treasure

It was surreal last night, the scope of the television menu, jumping from the 40th anniversary party of "Saturday Night Live" and the superb Attenborough nature documentary "Life Story", which were competing at 8, to the delights of "Downton" at 9, and then at 10 back to SNL which went on till nearly 11.30. The best TV can offer - an extraordinary documentary with close-ups of mammals, insects, fish and birds at various dramatic phases of their lives, to the best of British drama featuring Maggie Smith as vulnerable and beautiful as she has ever been, and then to what the Americans do best - celebrate themselves and throw a big extravagant party. A parade of stars, many Canucks - there was my old friend Dan Ackroyd, there were Jim Carrey, Martin Short, Mike Myers and others, and of course the whole thing produced for 40 years by Lorne Michaels. And mourning for departed greats like Gilda Radner.

Macca was much in evidence along with a lot of other famous comedians, actors and musicians who used to be young and are no more; he played and sang and didn't sound great, I know. But he looked wonderful and there he was. Paul Simon who's even older also sang and didn't sound great but we were just as glad to see him. "Nobody retires in America," said Richard who was watching with us. Incidentally, someone who did sound great was Miley Cyrus, who was actually wearing clothes and did a gorgeous cover of "Fifty ways to leave your lover."

Today there's an article in the NYT about an intimate concert the tireless Macca gave the same day, extolling his sweet musicality. So true.
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/16/arts/music/paul-mccartney-offers-guileless-romance-at-irving-plaza.html?ref=arts&_r=0

It was a relief to spend the evening in front of the TV because the day was hectic. It was unbelievably cold - so cold that on my brief sortie outside, my eyeballs burned. I do not remember Toronto ever being so brutally, viciously cold. The real pleasure of yesterday was welcoming my housebound daughter and her son for a day of frolic at Glamma's. We read, we drew, we played hide and seek, which consisted of sitting on the sofa with a blanket over our heads while Mamma roared around - "Where could they be? Are they under the piano? No!" - while Eli giggled and squirmed and then, after she'd flung off our  blanket and he'd screamed with joy, saying, "Again!" And we put the blanket back over our heads and hid again.

But the best was going on safari. I found him a small pair of binoculars and another pair for myself, and he asked if I'd get on the Plasma car behind him and we'd go find treasure with our "noc-lears." So I did. We found some chocolate left over from Christmas - treasure indeed.

Happy Family Day to one and all.