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Alex aka Muscato

@cafemuscato.bsky.social

Retired diplomat, but not particularly retiring; working on aging disgracefully. I split my time between deserts: Palm Springs and Cairo. Always up for champagne, good music, or gossip about the Lunts. Parlor pink; lapsed Presbyterian. He/Him.

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Alex aka Muscato@cafemuscato.bsky.social · 2d ago

This display of dominance might be more effective if, while they’re doing it, they didn’t walk so exactly like John Candy doing his Divine impression.

San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance @sandiegozoo.bsky.social · 2d ago

Feathered phenom 🐦 Kagus suddenly splay their head crests and wings to make themselves look larger, scaring away predators and defending their territory. Known as the "Ghost of the Forest" for their pale plumage and eerie calls, these flightless birds are actually quite gentle and docile.

Alex aka Muscato@cafemuscato.bsky.social · 3d ago

The Mister and I were at the pool at sunset today. A helicopter passed over, and we recalled the long summer six years ago when around the same time each day a parade of them left the hospital here to go to the larger one two towns over, where the ventilators were. Around the same time…

Alex aka Muscato@cafemuscato.bsky.social · last wk.

To honor the memory of birthday girl Theodosia Goodman, I’ll be spending the afternoon skulking in my boudoir, plotting evil, but glamourously. [In truth, alas, all I’m doing is having a service in to clean the sofa.]

Alex aka Muscato@cafemuscato.bsky.social · last wk.

This one’s a memory jogger, albeit not for the film so much as the book on which it was based. In 1976/7, The Serial (the original title includes the article) and its author, Cyra McFadden, were white hot and everywhere. I was 14, and if nothing else, the fact that the book was published…

Jeremy Dauber@jeremydauber.bsky.social · last wk.

And we're off with MOVIE NO. 28 in our chronological tour through the American movies of the 1980s, a comic tale that attempts to put the nail in the coffin of San Francisco counterculture...it's March 1980's SERIAL, starring Martin Mull and Tuesday Weld!

Alex aka Muscato@cafemuscato.bsky.social · 2w ago

The Mister has a work trip; I’m tagging along to escape the heat. We’re in that part of greater LA adjacent to MouseLand, and the hotel is full of stressed families miserably having their magical perfect vacation. Bedecked head to toe in rodentine merch, they all seem on the verge of collapse.

Alex aka Muscato@cafemuscato.bsky.social · 2w ago

This was not, however, his worst Christmas inspiration. That honor goes to the year he gave her a pair of (cloudy, chip-sized) diamond earrings—that she recognized as being a giveaway from her favorite jewelry store when you bought a (good) diamond necklace. One can only guess who got that.

Alex aka Muscato@cafemuscato.bsky.social · 2w ago

For Christmas circa 1971, on the advice of one of his secretaries,* my father’s present to my mother was a shocking-pink pair of palazzo pants. Even at seven, I recognized from her expression that this was a moment—and not the first one—when she realized that she really had married very poorly.

Alex aka Muscato@cafemuscato.bsky.social · 3w ago

For the record—without, alas, pictures, although a casserole is a casserole is a casserole—it was _majestic_. The platonic ideal of a chicken casserole, and worth every BTU of that extra aircon. And we get to have it two more times!

Alex aka Muscato@cafemuscato.bsky.social · 3w ago

The projected high today is 110º, but for reasons I can attribute only to my twisted WASP upbringing, I am currently assembling a chicken casserole for dinner. Thank heaven for sturdy HVAC.