Frogs and Dame Maggie Smith

I think I'm overdue for some photo-blogging. Here are some pictures from our trip to see the frog exhibit at the National Geographic museum. Yeah, it was back in February. But I was, uh, saving it for you. Cause February was so jam packed. I knew I'd need a little blog excitement come May.

The weather is a bit on the annoyingly cold side today. But that is only because it had been so nice the past few days. Summer is close. I can't wait! The flowers outside are going crazy, which is great. We've never planted flowers before, I have no idea how long they will last.

Last night we Netflixed "The Prime Of Miss Jean Brodie". We knew nothing about it, except it won Maggie Smith an Oscar in 1969. Now I've told the story a hundred times, but I was very excited when Maggie Smith came to see Boheme, and before anyone else could molest her backstage I ran over and was all, "Thank you for coming, we think you are awesome! Could I get a photo with you, my little brother is a huge Harry Potter fan!" And then she smiled wanely and sighed, in that proper British accent that conveys disdain so well, "Ah, yes, the Harry Potter." And then I was like, crap, I know I've seen her in a million things but of course I was on the spot and could only think of her play "Lettice and Lovage" that she won renown for but I didn't see it because I was like ten at the time, but somehow I was smart enough not to say that. Anyway, so I wanted to see a movie of hers so that, you know, the next time I run into her, I can say, Oh, can I get a picture with you, you were so AMAZING in The Prime Of Miss Jean Brodie!

Except, the movie is, sort of, well, disturbing. It starts out a typical story about the teacher that is misunderstood by the administration but who loves her students and through her unorthodox methods gets amazing results. "Stand And Deliver" set in an all girls school in 1913 Edinburough. Except she is having affairs with not one but two other teachers. And when she breaks it off with one of them, she encourages him TO GO AFTER ONE OF HER STUDENTS. AND HE DOES. I mean, I know it was a different era and whatever, but I'm amazed at how blithely it depicts, you know, a 45 year old teacher having an affair with a high-schooler. Creepy! The one of the other girls get jealous (or something) that she wasn't the one "chosen" to have the affair with him, so she goes after him on her own. In the end Miss Brodie gets fired for being pro-Mussolini and Franco. At one point I turned to David and was like, is our "heroine" going to turn out to be a Nazi? VERY weird. She was amazing of course. But wow. A movie like that (which was based on a play) would certainly never be made today.