sweasel.com

Perhaps the French ringmaster knows more than just the rumor about Bruce and Robin.

Aside: Robin Leach has died as noted in the Dead Pool comments (no one picked him). Watch for “Deathstyles of the Rich and Famous”

The Circus! Stoaty, I have a circus story, too, if you don’t mine me sharing it. (No Buttman though).

This past spring, on my mother-in-law’s 87th birthday, she and I were talking about family and genealogy, because I have become a zealot. She had mentioned her Aunt Betty occasionally through the years, but this time she said, “We only got to see her once a year.”
“Oh, why is that?” I asked.
“That’s how often the circus came to town.”
“Aunt Betty was in the circus?” I asked, “What did she do?”
“Rode horses.”
“What kind of horses?”
“Pretty horses.”

My mother-in-law has dementia and aphasia which makes communication a problem on her best days. It took a while, but I finally pieced together that her father’s baby sister Aunt Betty was a bare-backed horse-riding acrobat. She wore mesh tights, a spangled leotard, and a sparkling head-dress with feathers in her hair, and danced on the backs of cantering, trickster horses—wearing their own spangles and feathers and sparkling bridles.

Imagine my astonishment, because apparently she’d never mentioned this to her kids before (or they didn’t remember, but how could you forget a thing like that), but something went Ding in her memory, and I asked the right questions. The circus was headquartered and wintered in Louisiana, and Aunt Betty performed during the late 1930s through the 40s. I know her genealogy, and her spouse, so now I’m on the trail for her circus.

Happily for me, others have spent countless hours documenting circuses in the U.S., so I am confident that I can eventually discover Aunt Betty’s circus. I know in my heart that there is a circus poster out there, with her photograph on it and I am determined to find it. I just hope that I can afford it 🙂

Why are you wearing a cape? Are you Butt Girl?

We’re orchestrating a different sort of circus. The husband’s father passed away today. Coincidentally, we found out the hubby is the executor of the estate. Life got …..tense…that’s the word…today. He has now spent over 8 hours on the phone, obtained a court order to shut down all accounts/spending, locked out his brother (power of attorney) from all accounts, paid for the estate attorney to explain to his brother why he is now locked out of all accounts, made appointments for the coming week for attorney, mortuary, cemetery, etc. I spent about 5 hours booking air travel, cars, residence, packing, etc this afternoon. My boss was upset I didn’t stay to work a whole day today after we got the news.
Happy weekend all!

I have a feeling someone can defeat the blur… oh well.

Oh Armybrat—what sad news. I’ll be thinking about you and your husband this next week.

The Shadow could cloud men’s minds.

The Weasel clouds men’s vision.

Deborah HH: I hope you succeed in your quest.

Last year, my mother mentioned that as a teenage girl, she was a circus performer, doing trapeze work and riding elephants. My sister and I sort of knew about the circus, but none of the details. We didn’t quiz her about it; she was already a bit vague about things.

It’s too late now; she’s had a stroke (and maybe additional events), and has passed into vascular dementia. Her siblings and in-laws are all dead; so are the older cousins (of our generation) who might have known something.

I doubt if we could ever find anything about her circus work; my impression is that it was for a few months. But if we could…

Tim Conway is very ill with dementia. Up to a few years ago he was doing guest spots. Not sure how he could go downhill so quickly. He’s 84. Anyway, fond memories. His kid does local talk radio. Sounds just like him.

Assuming someone had Sen. McCain in the pool…

RushBabe had him. Second pick in the Pool.

Ugh. Nothing grimmer than death duties, Armybrat. Nobody does enough of it to get the hang of it, which is both a good thing and a bad thing.

Armybrat – sorry to hear the news. We just had our wills done, the “executor” knows he’s the executor. No surprises and he knows why.
Best of luck to you and your hubby.

My best friend had been estranged from his parents for years before they both died. And then he discovered that he’d been named the executor of the will.

He’s still going through the process. He does not want anything from the estate, but he’s determined to ensure that it is shared out fairly among his siblings. Some of his siblings are contesting it because according to them, the father had decided that various of them would get nothing and the rest would be distributed in an inequitable manner (one of them expected to get the house entire). And further they claim that being estranged, the father didn’t really want the eldest to be the executor.

However he never changed the will. And all they have are claimed conversations. So it’s a bit… interesting to observe from a distance.

Well, let’s not all rush for the exits… Neil Simon competes for the McCain slobber:
Marvin Neil Simon (July 4, 1927 – August 26, 2018) credited as Neil Simon, was an American playwright, screenwriter and author.
Goodbye Guy and RIP.

I think the McCain announcement that he was discontinuing treatment was deliberately misleading. It was more likely they were taking him off life support. Dead for over a day, he’s still being a pain in the ass.

On a lighter note, I always imagined Stoaty as a petite woman with long wavy brown hair and not some blonde Amazon who runs around in a cape.

Actually, we know she’s ‘tiny’ based on her description of ‘butt-man’ as being a tiny Mongolian acrobat.

🙂

I think we’re talking alien here.

Wills are woefully inadequate, and can be essentially ignored by the courts of many states.

A living trust is ironclad.