I watched the movie “The Black Swan” a couple nights ago and what a rip-off. It was about a ballet artist and not about swans at all!

The mother of the ballerina was played by Barbara Hershey. Eons ago in real life, not the movie, she lived with actor/wing nut David Carradine. Carradine was a vegetarian at the time and said he wouldn’t eat any carrot that had been and I quote “cruelly wrenched from the ground.”

Against this backdrop of rock-solid sanity Barbara changed her last name from Hershey to Seagull. Here’s the reason why according to Wikipedia: “During the filming of Last Summer, a seagull was killed. “In one scene”, Hershey explained, “I had to throw the bird in the air to make her fly. We had to reshoot the scene over and over again. I could tell the bird was tired. Finally when the scene was finished the director, Frank Perry, told me the bird had broken her neck on the last throw.”

Hershey felt responsible for the bird’s death and changed her stage name to “Seagull”, as a tribute to the creature. “I felt her spirit enter me”, she later explained, ‘It was the only moral thing to do.”

Thank God for Barbara’s career the dead bird was a seagull and not a turkey vulture. Here’s my thinking – if you’re a movie star named Barbara Seagull you might still put asses in the seats whereas Barbara Turkey Vulture is only going to put carcasses in the seats.  I think about these things so you don’t have to.  Don’t try to thank me.

Well, there’s your standard opening for a monthly blurb about antique Indian blankets and I apologize for my predictability.

I have been making a political comment or two every month and as of three minutes ago it became official – every adult woman in America has now claimed she either had an affair or was sexually harassed by Presidential hopeful Herman Cain. He’s a pizza tycoon and Herman likes to brag he personally hand tosses every woman and don’t even get him started on extra meat.

That pithy witticism marks the end of this month’s little comedic journey and now we’re pulling into the Blanket Of The Month junction. This selection is from the Allison Bellows collection and is a Racine Woolen Mills shawl c. 1900. Racine used star motifs more often than any other company and to my knowledge nobody there ever changed their last name to Seagull. I only have one picture of the blanket, but take my word for it that the colors reverse on the other side.

Have a charming Christmas, a happy Hanukkah and a kwality Kwanzaa. I think you’re nice.