By Alfred Lord Tennyson
I thought of Thee, my partner and my guide,
As being past away. -Vain sympathies!
For backward, Duddon! as I cast my eyes,
I see what was, and is, and will abide;
Still glides the Stream, and shall not cease to glide;
The Form remains, the Function never dies;
While we, the brave, the mighty, and the wise,
We Men, who in our morn of youth defied
The elements, must vanish; -be it so!
Enough, if something from our hands have power
To live, and act, and serve the future hour;
And if, as toward the silent tomb we go,
Through love, through hope, and faith's transcendent dower,
We feel that we are greater than we know.
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I have spent a very nice Sunday in Ellicott City with Paul, our kids and Paul's parents, including a visit to the B&O Railroad Museum, a few antique stores, and dinner at a nearby restaurant. Daniel went back to Pennsylvania for a couple of days with his grandparents; the rest of us came home so Adam could study for finals, which he has all week, and Paul and I watched the Golden Globes. First spoilers, then photos from my day:
I don't have a lot invested this year in any particular film, though I must confess I gloated a little when Les Miz won Comedy or Musical and Hugh Jackman as well as Anne Hathaway won (and huzzah to Hugh for giving Tom Hooper his due and thanking Russell Crowe, nont to mention that wonderful tribute to his own wife). I'm sure what everyone will be talking about tomorrow is Bill Clinton's appearance to introduce Lincoln, which I hope does not backfire and cause Oscars backlash, but what I loved most about that was Amy Poehler and Tina Fey shrieking that they met Hillary's husband, Bill Rodham Clinton!
In general it was a great night for female power -- I am ambivalent about Zero Dark Thirty for many reasons, but I adored the overt feminism of Jessica Chastain's victory speech, the fact that she was so happy to play so strong and complex a female character. I also adored Anne Hathaway's tribute to Sally Field moments after beating her for the award (and I snickered when wonderful Jennifer Lawrence looked at her trophy and said, "What does it say? 'I beat Meryl!'"). It made up for the fact that Jodie Foster -- whom I have always found overrated in every way as an actress and a director/producer -- got up there sounding drunk and looking like the botox/plastic surgery she obviously had to make her look younger merely made her look like the plastic women she used to complain about.
Okay, I am not impressed by Girls so I snorted about how much money HBO must have spent wooing the Hollywood Foreign Press Association to get her those tropies, but I am delighted they put such effort into getting Game Change and Julianne Moore recognized. For the most part I enjoyed Poehler and Fey's banter, I was glad to see Leno laughing at himself with Fallon, and though I don't always like Bennifer II and the way they parade out their family for media attention, I found Affleck extremely gracious after being snubbed by the Oscars. I'm also really glad that Daniel Day Lewis won -- I don't care how many he's won before, he deserves it.
So close to Baltimore, Ellicott City is very excited for the Ravens to meet the Patriots next weekend.
The Tiber River was fairly low despite the fog and faint drizzle that persisted all afternoon.
We made our annual visit to the B&O Railroad Museum's holiday exhibits, which include a massive Lego train display and a refurbished station master's home.
We also visited several of the antique shops for which Ellicott City is renowned.
This is Tea on the Tiber, a restaurant that actually overhangs the river.
Here is a Big Ben lamp in one of the many shops that rebuild and repurpose furniture.
You can find fortune-telling...
...and chocolate covered bacon.
And we had dinner at Dimitri's, introduced to us by
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