The winter cold, staying inside makes me want to watch more movies. The death of an actor like Sidney Poitier always prompts me to watch their movies. I listened to some Meat Loaf the other day too, a little Bat Out of Hell to get the morning started. I have not watched the Golden Girls though, but I do enjoy the little bits that come up about Betty White on shows she did that Facebook keeps putting in my feed because I watched one and now as I get many. I always liked Mary Tyler Moore, so I may watch some of those if I run out of movies. I love that she was such an animal lover and supporter and that totally warms my heart. I am sure that animal rescues received so much needed support on her birthday. One more feed that I get and that usually makes me stop scrolling to watch is the Dodo. Everytime at the end of the video when the Dodo winks and and a little ding happens, makes me laugh.

So back to the movies, I have both Amazon Prime video and Netflix on my I pad, and they are my go-to for movies. I love it that it is just so portable, and I can sit anywhere and watch. My first Poitier movie was Lilies of the Field. A Black and White from 1963. Poitier is driving on his own, in the desert in his station wagon with his sparse worldly belongings in the back. He comes across a building and stops to get some water for his car. This building contains seven or maybe nine nuns in it. The head nun is older and can speak some English, but the younger ones cannot. The head nun spots an opportunity here, she is pushy and can change the subject quite quickly especially when it comes to money. Poitier finds himself fixing a roof, then building a chapel. It is apparent that there is no extra money and the meals are so meager it is painful. He was doing hard labor building this chapel, brick by brick and runs out of supplies. The nuns start writing letters to get donations, Poitier or Homer which is his character, finds a job on a construction site and gets paid and brings back food. Even though this benefits the nuns the head lady is always yelling at Homer. At the end of the three movies I have watched so far it always turns out good. People who are enemys begin to like each other and when people become helpers and there are painful racist things that are said or that happen. I read that Poitier always did movies that were on the edge and make definite points. I recommend this one.

The next one was In the Heat of the Night, I rented it as they had not made it free. The setting was Sparta, Mississippi in 1966. He played a detective from Philadelphia and had been visiting his mother. He was in the train station in the middle of the night waiting for the next train to come so he could get back to Philadelphia. A murder had happened, and he was picked up by the police because he was an unknown black man. He had a suit on, which he wore through the whole movie, and it was never ever wrinkled! He was well spoken and smart and the racial remarks that were made just made my skin crawl. People should watch this movie to see what it was like in the south for Black Americans. In Philadelphia he was a highly regarded homicide detective and they begrudgingly accepted his help in the solving of the murder. At the end as Mr. Tibbs was boarding the train to go back home it is apparent that the Sheriff realized what a good man he had with Poitier.

The third movie Defiant ones, a black and white from 1958. Poitier was in prison and was being transported back from somewhere with fellow prisoners. They were chained two by two and they were in a box truck. Well it was sideswiped and drove down an embankment and flipped on its side. They were the only two that escaped and ran away, his chained partner was a young Tony Curtis. They had to try to steal food and got caught but the townspeople did not rat them out or a women with her 8 year old son living in nowhere did not rat them out when the police questioned her. They almost hopped a train to get a way but didn’t make it. They were dreaming of a better place and life. In the end Poitier and Curtis became friends like happen in these movies. It was good also.

The last movie I watch recently was The Tender Bar directed by George Clooney. It was very good with an eclectic cast of characters. I recommend it also.

I follow Jessica Seinfeld on Instagram and how I found her is that she is friends with Beth Stern who runs a cat sanctuary. Jessica is married to Jerry Seinfeld and Beth Stern is married to Howard Stern. I started following her because I saw an article when she opened the cat sanctuary and Billy Joel and Rachel Ray helped with the funding of it. See how that goes? Jessica wrote this Vegan Recipe book and after watching for a while I decided to try it

Here is my loaf. I thought it was really smart of Jessica to tell us to use the parchment paper and have the sides to pull the bread out of the bread pan. Worked great! This is a very heavy and tasty bread. The thing I would do differently is to leave out the cinnamon. It takes away from the taste of the bananas to me.

That’s it for now, till next time.

Robin