What Am I going to Wear?

 RHYS BOWEN:  While I am celebrating the release of a Royal Spyness novel (FROM CRADLE TO GRAVE) I am also in the middle of writing the next one. This one is going to be centered on the coronation of King George VI in 1937, a coronation that should have been that of his brother.  Lady Georgie has received an invitation to the ceremony at the Abbey. 

As the book opens and she realizes she’ll be going to London for the big occasion can you guess what is her biggest worry? What to wear! I bet you guessed, didn’t you.  You see she won’t be going as a peeress any more because she is now married to the Hon Darcy O’Mara who is the son of a peer, but not a peer himself. Therefore she won’t be wearing the traditional peeresses robes and coronet. She’ll be wearing smart, ordinary clothes. The big problem is that she doesn’t own any smart clothes, at least not smart enough for a coronation with the eyes of the world on her (and the first television outside broadcast in the world)

Her only dressmaker has a sick child and she doesn’t dare buy off the peg in case other women are wearing the same thing. She certainly can’t afford a designer outfit like her mother.  What will she do?  You’ll have to read the book next year to find out…

However…

Her dilemma echoes my own. When any event is approaching I agonize about what to wear. I lie in bed staring at my wardrobe. I try on ten outfits, all not quite right. When I have finally decided on an outfit I have last minute doubts. It’s too warm, not warm enough. Is it too fancy? Too casual? I know it’s silly to worry about such a casual thing, but it haunts me.

And too often it’s never quite right. I look at the weather forecasts and go on a trip to England (as I did last month) It was supposed to be cold. I took sweaters. It was mild. I wore the only blouse three times.  In Cassis last year it was supposed to be summery in September. It turned cold and daughter Jane and I had to find sweaters in the market (actuallyt the shopping was great and really fun.)

Before every book event I agonize especially. My big dread is when a fan comes to greet me and says “I took a pic of us together last time you were here” and i’M WEARING THE SAME JACKET. Mortification!

I know it shouldn’t matter. But it does.

So how about you, Reds?

Do you obsess about what to wear? Do you have any horror stories?

LUCY BURDETTE: I know that feeling so well Rhys! (Although I don’t think Hayley Snow worries much about clothes.) John says all the time that I look in my closet and wail that I have nothing to wear. How can that be when my closet is STUFFED with clothing. Traveling makes it even harder. I’ve gotten pretty good at figuring out layers. They may not be fashionable but I can titrate the temperature!

JENN McKINLAY: I’m not much of an agonizer. Like Lucy, I’ve become really good at layering. Somehow my personal thermostat has been wonky ever since I hit the mid-fifties and I’m always hot or cold but never just right. Mostly, I try to wear clothes that make me happy whether it’s a pair of boots or a funky jacket. If I focus on the one piece that makes me smile, I don’t care about the rest.

HALLIE EPHRON: Isn’t that one of the delicious things about having a new book out with events at which to strut your stuff? It’s always been my cue to SHOP. But since Covid there are so few places to actually shop… in person. And IMHOP you can’t get something *special* that you haven’t tried on. My go-to boutique in Cambridge has shut down, and the mall is full of fast food. Lord & Taylor and Filene’s caput. :-(

RHYS: Hallie, I totally agree. It's impossible to buy things on line without trying them on. And my local Macy's has closed, so has Talbots, J Jill... all my old standbys. The nearest Chicos is twenty miles away. We do still have a Nordstrom but that's about it.

HANK PHILLIPI RYAN: Guilty, here. It’s really part of me, I have come to admit, and maybe from 40 years on TV and having to be camera-ready at any second. I am pretty good at knowing what will fit in on-line purchases, but of course, free shipping on returns.

And yes, the scourge of social media. I can pack for a two-week book tour with one carryon bag and no checked bags–yay me. But whoa, “Hank in the green jacket” is on repeat on social media, and there’s nothing to do about it. I’d  rather repeat clothes than have a suitcase go lost, though.

DEBORAH CROMBIE: Hank, you are our packing heroine! Like Rhys, when I've done big book tours I have agonized over choices AND spent a lot of money on new things. From a photo I can tell which book it was immediately by the outfit. Now I think I will just wear black, which is already my wardrobe basic, and not worry about it. 

JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: I just did the agonizing-over-what-to-bring thing for my (ongoing) book tour. I had to go from Maine (high of 40) to Arizona (65) to Houston (85) and then to NY’s North Country (high of 40, chance of snow.) I need my outfits to be professional, hopefully flattering, and NOT the same as ones I’ve been photographed in at previous events!

For in-person special events, I tend to spend an hour or more going through my closet, trying on this and that, and wondering why I own so many useless clothes. I try to come up with a new mix and match based on what I already have, because, like the rest of you, my things fill up my bedroom closet and overflow into a now-empty child’s closet. And that’s not counting the off-season items in the attic!

RHYS: Sometimes we do coordinate!

So now it's confession time, Reddies.  Do you find yourself agonizing over what to wear?

First and...WHAT? Football Follies

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: I will start with a confession. When I was in junior high, which I think they now call middle school, I was a cheerleader. (No photographs of this exist.)

I was a terrible terrible terrible cheerleader. Good in my imagination and good in my yearning desire to be accepted, but pitiful, I’m sure, in real life. Tragically ungraceful, and extremely unathletic.

I was also completely clueless about the games I was cheering for. In football season, I would just wait, to see if anyone would start the “first and 10 let’s do it again” chant, because I had no idea what that meant. So I could not start it myself.

In fact, I did not know it was “first AND 10” until I was in my 20s at least. I thought it was “first IN 10.”  Which back then, I never knew.

Anyway, that said. I live in Boston, and that means sports is on the radar, and my darling husband is a big football fan. Not in general, but of the New England Patriots. So, in support of the common weal, I sometimes watch football with him, and it is much more fun if you know the rules. First and ten, now, I get it! I am still iffy on why sometimes it’s offsides and sometimes it is false start, but that is another blog.

But let me just ask you all. It’s football season now, with Thanksgiving being football central. And then the Super Bowl. Do you care? Do you have a team?

LUCY BURDETTE: Cheerleading is a tragic topic Hank! At our high school, the mascot was the Highlanders (we lived in New Jersey, not Scotland!). The cheerleaders wore the cutest short plaid skirts and stylish hats and I think knee socks, and I desperately wanted to be one. I was not chosen, so I ended up performing as a highlander sword dancer. (Longer skirts=not as cool, that’s all you need to know.)

That said, football is not my thing. I kind of like having it on in the background while John watches, and I’ll wander in and ask who’s winning. (He’s a Steelers fan.) For the Super Bowl, I definitely go for the food!

HALLIE EPHRON: I loved going to high school football games and sort of learned the rules by osmosis. I was on the drill team which, in retrospect, is pretty dumb. Our outfits were orange and white, in a thick felt fabric that retained… odor. White boots with tassels – that was the best part.

I like watching the Super Bowl but that’s about it. Once a year. Not rooting for any teams. Just annoyed when a game preempts Wheel of Fortune. Pathetic, I know.

JENN MCKINLAY: I’m a diehard Pats fan married to a Cowboys loyalist. Things get tetchy around here during football season, although we both root for the AZ Cardinals. I was in marching band (percussion) in high school so everything I know I learned at Friday night football games. That being said, if football disappeared tomorrow, I don’t know that I’d miss it over much as I’m not much of a watcher other than to check in from my office when I hear yelling.

DEBORAH CROMBIE: I’m a little envious of those of you who have husbands who are fans. I kind of like the sound of Sunday football in the background, and the whole snacks/social aspect of it, but Rick does not like football at all. I have to twist his arm to get him to watch the Superbowl. Even though he professes not to like the game, he knows all the rules and that makes it more fun for me. I am not a Cowboys fan, which is heresy in this part of the world. Maybe I’m just contrary. My team of choice is the Chiefs (even pre-Taylor!) but I couldn’t tell you what their standing is so far this year.

As for cheerleading, a big no. I was a hippie chick, and uncoordinated to boot!

RHYS BOWEN: Big 49rs fan here. We watch every week I’d enjoy the games more if I were not sitting with someone who lets out loud exclamations every time a player drops the ball or the quarterback is sacked. Strange to say for an Englishwoman but I am a student of the game. Maybe that came from living in Houston for three years!

Actually I’m a big fan of most sports and can be found glued to the TV for any tennis match, soccer game etc. Not so much baseball until the World Series.

And since I went to an all girls school there were no cheerleaders and I played netball and tennis.

JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: Ross and Spencer enjoyed the Pats, since that seems to be a requirement for living in New England, but the big family football passion has always been college ball, specifically the SEC. My father was a grad of the University of Alabama, and my grandparents lived in Tuscaloosa, so I was taken to games when I was just a tiny tot. Roll Tide!

Sadly, I find it’s just not that much fun watching games by myself. Without others to get excited or groan with, it looses a lot of its appeal. Plus, I’m not making nachos and chile and guacamole for one.

Some of my favorite games were the Bonny Eagle High School football team’s home appearances when Spencer was the percussion leader for the pep band. Go, Scots! The cheerleaders wore cute but sensible leggings and jackets, because it gets COLD in Maine during high school football season.

HANK: How about you, Reds and Readers? Were you a cheerleader? And how about football--do you have a TEAM?

(And...thank you again for checking in on Friday! It was so wonderful to see you all.  But! Blogger will STILL not let me respond to you. SO silly. But I read every single comment, and each one filled me with joy.)

Whatcha Watching?

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: What are you watching? It seems like there was a big dearth of good stuff on TV for a while, but now, suddenly, so many fun things!

Pluribus, for one, from the same people who brought you Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul, two iconic shows, a wonderful thought-provoking speculative fiction which I think is about AI. In a way. But mostly about the necessity for individual thought, and would you trade your individuality if you could 1.Know everything and 2. Be happy. It stars Rhea Seahorn as a writer, and in episode one, writer alert, there is a scene at a Barnes & Noble signing that will live in infamy. I love love love the show.

Also, another writer show, The Beast in Me. With Clare Danes as a writer who is looking for a good topic, and Matthew Rhys as…the possible topic. It is, I think, about the unrelenting urge for a best selling novel, and how far you would go to get one. How much of your moral compass do you give up to write something that would be a blockbuster? And does that desire warp your objectivity?

And did you see The House of Dynamite? I absolutely adored it, kind of a doomsday thriller, but many people did not. We cannot discuss it here, because the way it ends is so incredibly controversial. If you have just seen it, tell me, and we can talk off stage.


We’re also watching Invasion, which is surprisingly great. And beginning to watch the Ken Burns documentary on the American Revolution. And even The Rainmaker, which I fear is so dumb, but I love lawyer shows, so we are watching. And I cannot wait for the Lincoln Lawyer to come back!


I know there’s something I’m missing – – maybe you will let me know! (We generally only watch one episode of something a night, so it takes us a while!)


HALLIE EPHRON: I’m watching “The Diplomat” on Netflix and enjoying it quite a bit. And of course, just finished the latest Great British Baking Show… The winner this time so fabulous and every one of the bakers is awe inspiring.

I missed The Lincoln Lawyer (loved the books) so far so I’ll have to catch up on that. I’m watching Ballard on Amazon Prime (also by Connolly) and Keri Russell is superb but intense. I need to take it in bite sized chunks.

DEBORAH CROMBIE: We just finished THE DIPLOMAT a couple of nights ago. I loved Aidan Turner as a new addition to the cast, but don’t dare say anything more! And we finished THE GREAT BRITISH BAKING SHOW as well. I am so sad that it’s over and we no longer have it to look forward to on Friday nights. Such a great season and all the finalists were terrific.

We’ve been watching Graham Norton on Acorn, such fun. Acorn has the full episodes, not just the “best bits” that they show on Netflix. I also don’t know that Netflix is showing any of those from the new season.

We’re hunting for a new series, but I think I’d really like to catch up on some movies. Suggestions welcome!

RHYS BOWEN: like Hallie I am missing Great British Baking show. We’ve been watching the new Maigret. But prefer Rowan Atkinson in the role a few years ago.

Waiting for the next Luther!

LUCY BURDETTE: I’m so lame lame lame on this topic. Still plugging through NYPD Blue, and watching the PBS newshour as much as I can stand! John is pleased about the new season of Blue Lights, and he’s also started the Ken Burns Documentary. We may dabble in Pluribus, Hank…

JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: I’ll join Lucy in being the non-watcher this time around. Not so much because there’s a dearth of good stuff streaming, but because we’re in the season where I keep the rest of the house cold and snuggle close to the wood stove in the kitchen. (When the outdoor temps get seriously cold, the furnace goes ON and my TV room is toasty again.)

That being said, I started The American Revolution documentary while on the road for book tour and am finding it absolutely fascinating. It reminds me that I’ve missed several Ken Burns documentaries from recent years, and now I want to catch up!

JENN MCKINLAY: Hub and I just finished The Diplomat - loved it. We’re now watching Nobody Wants This - hilarious! Like Hank and Jonathan, we watch one episode a night so it takes us awhile, too. On my own, I just finished the K-Drama The Potato Lab - Adorbs!

HANK: Yes, yes, The Diplomat. Brilliant! And it felt to me that the writers had a plan, you know? That they knew exactly where they were going. Although I had NO idea, and was in awe.

And earlier this week, Catriona mentioned the Great British Sewing Bee. I looked it up, and it is on the BBC. Cannot wait to see it!

How about you, Reds and Readers? What’s on YOUR screen?  

ALSO! So wonderful to see so many of you yesterday! It was actually..inspirational. Truly! And at one point, the blogging software stopped me from responding to any more of your comments, and even stopped my from entering my own! I guess it thought I was a bot.

But since I am NOT a bot, I will try again today!

And you can be sure, even if I was not "allowed" to respond, I read every single one of your wonderful comments..and I am still floating!