In dark and cold midwinter when all around seems so discouraging and bleak for many of us mortal beings, I hope the curious and quite exuberant view through Samantha's unique eyes reveals sunlight and warmth and encouragement instead. I don't think you need a Message in a Bottle for this wintertime, Sam, nor that you ever did throughout your many travels, but should you want to open up its contents wherever you might be, here it is for you, unrolled from its virtual bottle (the choice of color lies in your imagination).

It has been cold here, and very quiet, Sam. We have not had the crushing snows of your northeast, or the ice and misery of the midwest, but it's still not a winter I'd care to see again all the same, while watching the economy and our pocketbooks collapsing further every month is frankly even nastier. (Steelers fans are happy tonight at least but I was neutral in that one.) These things should all improve - I surely hope - but it's also times like these that make us want to travel in our minds at least, even if we cannot do so in reality. Exotic places, exciting places, quiet places, nostalgic places, maybe different choices we each would make, but places without doubt where there is happiness, and hope. I'll be able to get up to see some things in Washington this week, in fact - DC is within my reach at least - but London, Paris, Rome... well, that could be a ways from now in my itinerary.

But luckily, on the Travel Channel (now known as the Food Wannabe Except It Isn't Any Good At That Channel) there are at least some fleeting returns to Samantha in Europe, and whenever I'm there to see them, they always bring to us a warming refresher course of where we'd like to be some day. True, there is a 'Groundhog Day' quality about them now, as we mutter to ourselves, "Wasn't I watching this last year, and the year before?" But sometimes that's all right. There are passages in favorite books and movies that I never tire of experiencing again, and Samantha Through the Looking Glass I'm always happy to reprise; places worth seeing more than once, a host and guide worth travelling with in perpetuity. They can warm a nasty winter day quite surprisingly for some, but I'm not surprised at all.

I've had the pleasure as a viewer for a few years now of this rare and generous and charming virtual accompaniment. In fact I still remember well, around this time of year in bitter midwinter, a pleasant conversation going on in the Europe section of this forum (still there if you dig back far enough) where unexpectedly we were briefly joined by Sam. She was in Salzburg at the time, filming her Passport that I now feel is a magical episode. It certainly looked cold enough for her there. It was also one of her warmest presentations, a classic now. It reminds me every time it's shown, and as I think of it tonight, that we should not take her Passports and all the efforts involved in them for granted. Let's not forget that. One Groundhog Day we'll all wake up, and they won't be there for us anymore. Technically, I guess it's Groundhog Day right now (and I should wrap up this Bottle Message too), and I surely do not want six more weeks of this particular winter, but I do want for Sam a rapidly appearing springtime, and everything prosperous and good that such a welcome season brings. And always keep your spirits up, Ms. Brown.

Capt. Tuttle

Capt., you are still the most eloquent of posters here on this forum. I always enjoy your entries. Happy Groundhog Day to all. The movie of that same name with Bill Murry is one of my favorites. Getting to relive your days over again is something we all wish for. Being able to correct our mistakes we've made is what life is all about here on earth. Only we don't get to erase them as in the movie. It has been a rough winter, but spring is on the way. And Samantha, we hope to see or hear from you soon.

Thanks Capt., for helping us to relive those golden days when the shows were better, the economy was better, and Samantha actually participated in this forum.

Beautifully worded by all....as usual! At least during the looooong periods in between Sam visits we have great posts like this to read.

Well wishes to you all.

Well, Groundhog Day did not provide the results I personally desired, and today was positively Arctic. I was up in Washington, as it happened, one of the coldest days I believe I've ever experienced anywhere. The Metro ride in from the hinterlands only made me nostalgic for London's tube (which actually got snowed in this week, I hear), but the cultural riches of DC are still of such value. The new visitors' center for the Capitol building which just opened last month is pretty nice, and the Library of Congress is as always a magnificent jewel. Jefferson's books which still survive through the years are well displayed in there now.

And word has it that Ben's Chili Bowl now proclaims there are two people who can forever eat for free there with our new sheriff in town, and that lines have spread as far as five blocks down the street since Pres. Obama checked it out before the inauguration (also stayed at Sam's Hay-Adams Hotel before moving even more up-market in town).

I'd certainly like my portfolio back from where it was ten years ago, David, and we'd most of us want the whole ten years back, too. Lots I could and probably should have done with them. But I also feel I'm somewhat wiser now, with some experiences I would not wish to give back. In the past year or two I'm sure Samantha's life has become so much more different and more pressed by affairs than she formerly knew, the more glaring light of celebrity further restricting her abilities to act and say what she may feel inside. The carefree posts she delivered before may not have met with the layers of difficulty that perhaps face her these days. Our expectations of her likely should change with her too. I like to think Sam does yet read her board, though, and I certainly post here as if she still did.

(And I see the box for responding here has moved to Left of center of the page in the last few months. That's interesting.)

As Grounghog Day gives way to Valentine Day and Presidents' Day, the weather still is cold and unforgiving. But cheer up, spring is coming...eventually. I know this is true because the price of gasoline is inching up ever so steadily. By summer, look out! Samantha's other forums and blogs are equally dead. Hopefully, soon things will come to life. To Samantha and all her fans, take care and Happy Valentine Day and Presidents' Day! (left of center or not)

I love reading your notes, Capt. Thanks for making these threads where all the old gang can come together and chat. I'm sad to say that I'm way behind as far as Sam's shows go: I've only seen a few Great Weekends and I haven't even seen China (perhaps due to the fact that a) I'm not sure if I even have TC at school and b) I'm still mourning the loss of Pine Ridge as the production company).

But a happy belated Valentine's day to everyone, and happy President's day for tomorrow! Which I'd normally be excited for but I actually have classes (darn private college).

I miss Sam too and I hope she comes back.

Back from London with very little to report. I missed the nastiest of the weather, it preceded my arrival, but a side trip to Oxford (west and a touch north of London) to renew my library card left me about mid-shoe level deep in snow. It turns out that an inch of snow is sufficient to shut down the whole of England. White Doom was predicted everyday I was in the UK, but mostly it just rained. And rained. And rained.

Such being the case, I didn’t get much done but work-related stuff. But I made it to the Prince Regent on Gloucester Street and got in a walk in Hyde Park between the downpours – just one walk, to let you know how bad it was – but otherwise failed to get in much exploring. The Kensington Rooftop Gardens are closed for renovation until March, but I did locate them off the High Street. Nevertheless, I stopped by Wagamama’s, nearly filled up my card at Nero’s Café for a free hot chocolate and, as always, met some very nice people.

Capttuttle, I perused Blackwell’s as you recommended sometime back, but found it to have all the charm of a Barnes & Noble. Not much old Oxford there and frankly I walked in then out again. The Kings Arms on Broad saw my shadow and as long as they continue to serve chili and garlic bread (!), I’ll be there again. I’m still hoping to get to Magdalene College (right?) in the northeast part of the city, but am holding out for better weather, i.e., dryer weather.

Midweek I moved from Kensington to Central London and stayed at the Jolly Hotel, an improbably named place about 5 blocks from Parliament, Big Ben and Westminster Abbey, where I stayed as guest of the conference at which I spoke. Slightly upscale, and the suite I enjoyed was actually spacious – if not a bit dirty. One evening for dinner I tried the Asparagus Risotto (not bad, but not as good as you’d think), preceded by a Shrimp Cocktail. We in the US envision this dish as a half dozen jumbo shrimp (enjoy the oxymoron, Nunesy), with a red cocktail sauce suitable for dunking. My Czech Republic chef (believe me, I asked) had something else in mind: Shrimp cocktail in Central Europe apparently means an ice cream scoop of tiny, mini-shrimp, slathered in Thousand Island dressing, and then covered in – chocolate. OK, being a good sport I tried it. As your good friend I’ll let you know in advance of your next stay at the Jolly that it was simply awful. OK, if it was a lot better, it would be awful. Hideous might be a better word.

Just like SB took one for the team trying a curry hot dog in Berlin, I tried the Shrimp Cocktail at the Jolly. Same result.

Oh sure, the conference was great, thanks for asking. Got a few invitations to return and speak there and elsewhere too. And with that I will continue to search airports for our girl and shall report my findings. Hope all had a pleasant Valentine’s Day --

Best,

Intl Doc

PS Welcome back, Kelsey!

Intldoc, you lucky bum, you. You're always out and about. I'd love to hear one of your presentations sometime.(Or maybe I wouldn't, depending on the topic) The food sounded terrible, chocolate shrimp??? Anyway, I wondered why you turned up missing.(My favorite oxymoron) We hadn't heard from you in a while. Good to have you back. I wonder if Samantha will ever return to the forum here? She probably has a full life now. But one can always hope, can't one?

Mmmm.... shrimp and chocolate together.... But then I have never understood why anyone would want to put pineapple on pizza, either.

I hope you had a very scholastic Valentine's Day, Kelsey (and I've come to miss PineRidge more than I realized too). A very warm and balmy weekend here, but this coming week and weekend it's back to winter in the mid-Atlantic, and in fact it was pretty cold on the little mountain today, but no snow or anything like that.

Sounds like IntlDoc got the snow, and I have never seen Oxford or Cambridge in that state. Would be pretty to see the Cambridge brick and Oxford's golden stone spires draped in white. But those gargoyles are there to handle gushing rainy days, after all. And yes, it is Madgalen College, Oxford, but Magdalene, Cambridge. I do not know why, very likely just perversity on one side or the other. Joseph Addison had his Walk along the quiet little river in Oxford, Samuel Pepys left his vast library to the one along the River Cam, both Madgalen(e) men but different colleges and universities. I only know them from summer afternoons, though. And I miss them.

And Blackwell's is indeed practically another Barnes & Noble now, which is very saddening. I was there a few years back where some business-type "suits" were in the Classics area murmuring about getting rid of it and putting in a coffee bar. I was appalled (bookstores are for browsing and buying books - deal with coffee somewhere else), but sure enough, the next year the Classics were gone to who knows where else and this vile coffee place (deserted of course) stood in its spot. And there are two pubs within yards of the place - why have a coffee bar at all?

But what a temple of books Blackwells used to be. The first time I set foot in there, Samantha was I bet around ten and I was in grad school, it really was like stepping through the looking glass. Just a white painted small-pane windowed door to close civilly behind, up a few steps, and then you wandered through bigger and grander rooms, and even up staircases... finally found British History, and I suddenly realized with a thrill that I had fallen that day into the Mother Lode of history books. There was no place in the world that would have more. A wall just of Roman and Anglo-Saxon, another of Medieval, then Hanoverian and Georgian, then Victorian, and "Modern" (actually anything after 1485, the end of the Wars of the Roses, is considered technically "modern" there, and Shakespeare wrote about them). Not to mention Social, Economic, Colonial (and a few American). But the pound was also like $2.40 then so it just about killed me to see so many unaffordable tomes I yearned to own sitting there in that fabulous place (eventually I got a lot of them, don't worry). Yet on the other hand, you couldn't then go on-line right here in this chair and see what Blackwell's sells today. Such is change. But musty old bookshops with faded bindings lining walls higher than Samantha could ever stretch to read them, and with little sound besides an ancient clock ticking and some old tweedy guy behind a counter intent on reading something in his lap, those days are gone.

I'm glad InlDoc is safely back. Kelsey's first college spring break is very near. I trust Samantha had a very Valentinian weekend.

By the way Kelsey, although this isn't the proper location for it, a friend of mine happens to be in Edinburgh and Glasgow this very week (pretty bleak and dark up there now too) but will be back soon with stories. She e-mailed me from the Flying Scot train heading up from King's Cross station a few days back, which I thought was pretty neat (and I love that ride myself). But she's an architect and is there (besides seeing friends and sampling pubs) to see Charles Rennie Mackintosh buildings (I think the tea room Samantha saw in Glasgow if possible) and do some drawing of her own. But if she has some broader advice on her return I'll surely pass it along to you.

And it's actually today, not last weekend, that is George Washington's birthday, the 22nd. I was just up in Washington very recently and slipped into the National Portrait Gallery there that afternoon, it's right by the Verizon Center and the Convention Center where so many of the Obama Inauguration balls took place last month, and recently re-opened. There's plenty of Washington there, and Jefferson (including a portrait I know well as its ownership is shared with TJ's own house) and some other striking works.

Samantha has had several brushes with George Washington in her career, meeting a vacation home owner who had something of a Washington fetish, staying at the Hotel George in DC, and probably has crossed the GW Bridge in NYC a few times as well. He was 6 ft. 3 or 4, a big guy. Samantha is 5 ft. 3, I believe, without heels. Her stature is still pretty tall in my opinion, for all the work she's done and entertainment and knowledge provided for us. I hope she knows that.

Thanks, Capt! What a coincidence. It would be great if you could pass on any info, and then I'll do the same. I'm not sure exactly when she is going, but it's not for a few weeks.

Speaking of Glasgow - pronounced glaz-go, by the way - I did a little work at the university there setting up a new discipline within a department a few years back (hence, my rather protracted absence herein). The place is rather hilly, so bring some comfortable shoes. I usually was found wearing what is commonly called the "east coast professor's uniform," meaning tweed, a sweater, jeans and tennis shoes. It seemed to fit just about any occasion, in any case. [I bet Father O is wearing this now, even as I write.] Anyhow, leave the formal gear behind. I seem to recall SB said the place is blue collar in relation to Edinburgh, and that's pretty much the case; but I prefer the term "eclectic" as its descriptor. You'll find new Ferraris parked next to ancient Fiats just about anywhere and the city is becoming quite international.

Most importantly, for me anyhow, fish & chips are quite different in Scotland than in the London area. The big difference is that they use haddock, not cod, for the fish. It's very fishy, if you'll pardon the expression. My favorite dining place was the Orin Mor, a converted church, and now a decent pub and restaurant. Try the Shepherd's Pie, it is very much like a Beef Wellington there. The local brew is rather potent, incidentally, so go slowly.

Nearly forgot, I spoke with a good friend who travels to the Netherlands quite a bit, and he says that they serve Shrimp Cocktail the same way in Amsterdam as I described above and likely it is this way throughout much of Europe. Be forewarned!

That's all for now --

Bon voyage!

Intl Doc

PS Sorry, Capttuttle, for missing your favorite St James Park a few weeks ago. I was literally around the corner from it, but the weather was so bleak I rarely ventured outside. Next time, I hope.

Well, a little bit warmer here today although the last two up on the little mountain have been quite cold and scarf-wrapped. But we're working our way out of this midwinter, warmed at least inside. I never even caught a cold this winter (so far anyway... and some things are definitely worth catching colds for, I believe... but I draw the line at stomach flu or maybe dysentery). Let's hope none of us have colds right now.

Kelsey, as your college career goes rocketting by as it absolutely will - except during exam weeks - I have no Scottish word yet for you. I've never been to Glasgow yet and only once to Edinburgh, a magnificent place with wonderful views from atop Calton Hill with the city and water stretching off below, but that was long ago.

For IntlDoc, however, he knows well that no London park is worth being bashed about by rains and wind and chasing inside-out umbrellas around the Metropolis. I've had such good luck with my English weather, but then I've generally been there in late summertime. Yes, St. James's Park is quite nice. Green Park is sort of...eh... Hyde Park is pretty massive, especially as it sort of blends right into Kensington Park to the west until you've hit another palace altogether. But Regent's Park futher north is quite wonderful with some huge open spaces (Americans play baseball there), a fine fragrant rose garden, and an open air theater for Shakespeare on summer evenings (that don't always feel like summer evenings) when people bring bottles of wine and frequently champagne to help the prose and poetry pass over them. I like it there.

But perhaps my very favorite London park, although I've not actually been there very often, is up on Hampstead Heath. Take the northern line tube to Hampstead, a thoroughly charming and very posh near-village up above central London, and wander along Flask Walk and Well Walk from the steep High Street (I don't think there's a Bottle Walk but I wish there were) and suddenly you cross a street and you're in groves and pastures and the pressures of central London pass away.

I do love certain cities, but I'm simply not a city guy long-term, and after a few days in one I need trees, and solitude, and natural quiet. I could not survive the life of Samantha Brown (conveniently I've never been asked to) and I appreciate all that she does to maintain a sane and rewarding existence as she has with such success. But I blossom in the views of London from Parliament Hill on Hampstead Heath. Kenwood House, also up there, now contains a fine art museum as well. And it's all free.

But Sir John Soane's so curiously crammed house is free as well right there in central London in Lincoln's Inn Fields, where on summer afternoons the young legal clerks and secretaries all slip outside to sun themselves in that little park. London is of course actually full of squares that make it such a civil city on summer days when you need the space and light. St. James's Square I love, very close to that Red Lion pub Samantha once filmed in, and she showed us posh and leafy Berkeley Square in Mayfair herself. The Staple Inn right by the City has two tiny but glorious little courtyards with a fountain and valued trees that Nathaniel Hawthorne appreciated for its quiet even in the early 1800s and is all still there today. You can always revive yourself in a London space not far away from where you stand, although I don't recommend climbing their railings at night to get into them, as Hugh Grant and Julia Roberts do in "Notting Hill" (although on second thought it does work out for him...).

And speaking of movies, I do hope Samantha's choices did well in the past weekend's Academy Awards. I suspect she worked pretty hard right up to that night and I know she deserved some private time at home with Kevin, away from shooting and reshooting, the flashing cameras of the public and demanding people, well-meaning, I'm sure, but still... So I hope Sam was curled up happily for her Oscars Sunday night. But we've known all along that she's a prize in and of herself.

Glasgow and Edinburgh:

Kelsey, I've heard from my architectural friend now, she's momentarily back in London, and had a terrific week up in Edinburgh and Glasgow. Her time in Glasgow was of a more specialized kind, but she did most of the standard things you simply must do In Edinburgh, from the top of the Castle to the vaults underneath (I knew someone once who when in college for a year there actually was one of those guides to underground Edinburgh and she had a lot of fun telling ghost stories for pay). She also did "a fair amount" of pub sampling with a good friend in both Old and New Towns of Edinburgh (the city is not that big physically, certainly by Chicago standards, but it's certainly a bit steeper too). I think for any first visitor, the things you read in the tour guide books and that Samantha deftly showed you, very lass-like if I recall, really are the best to enjoy before branching out to other things. Glasgow I suspect is not so vital for a first-time visitor and, weather permitting, my personal suggestion would be to head northwards to at least gain a peek of the highlands, which I have never done myself (even with a last name that starts with "Mc"), and like Samantha did, pick a good home base and just explore from there... again, weather permitting.

Weather:

Speaking of which, I was going to wrap up this rather quiet and somewhat bedraggled midwinter bottle this weekend with some comments about the month of March at least promising better things ahead. And eventually, of course, it will. Not tonight here on the east coast, however. At dusk this afternoon I noted in the back yard of Tuttle Manor, where daffodil leaves were emerging, now a couple of robins frantically hopping around for food in the falling snowflakes. I'm sure they were thinking, "Man, I better do this while I can still see the grass." We haven't had a real snow all winter down where I am, so the decent sized one descending right now I'm quite enjoying until I have to dig out in the morning. But we'll be warmed up again by the end of the week down here, and I know those weary New Englanders near Portsmouth and beyond cannot be pleased about this latest nor'easter bearing down hard upon them in this very long winter they've endured. I'm supposed to be up on the little mountain tomorrow (and for photography hope that I can be) but I have definite doubts at this hour.

Bottles:

But it is March, it is no longer midwinter, all appearances to the contrary, and I think it's also time to put this bottle away now (except for Kelsey if she wishes). We've had fuller ones for you, Sam, in the past, but the content of this one, as has been for them all, wished always for you our very best hopes in your work, and your play, in the springtime that is sure to come, and the snow which I fear is even surer to arrive if you're home now. And if you're far away, though, and I'm guessing it might be very far away next time, then travel safely, and happily, and with such deserved success that we know awaits the charmed life of Ms. Brown.

Thanks so much, Capt! I'm sure all that info you gave me will be helpful. You can safely tuck this bottle away now.

On my TV stations, Champion Windows commercials have returned but without Samantha! There is some other dorky guy talking about them. What are they thinking?

Kelsey,
I'm not actually all that adept at handling bottles, to be honest, but then it's amazing I've stumbled along this far in life as it is. It was years ago that I had my one brush with Edinburgh. I could have stayed in Oxford and done just a bit more research, or gone to a depressing town named Ipswich to do some... or used my last couple of days of my Britrail pass to get one look at Edinburgh. Shows what kind of scholar I was as I went to Edinburgh. But this was long ago.

I remember almost instantly after crossing into Scotland seeing through the train window a) some old guy in tweeds walking his collies and b) another old duffer trying to whack his golf ball out of a sand trap, and I knew I had made it. Then at some little junction of Carstairs the train halted to divide into two, half went west to Glasgow and my half veered right to Edinburgh. It was all in swirling heavy mists and fog with a vague awareness of fir trees all around enfolding us as we sat there, and there was a deep sense of mystery and romance I still can recall. This was the Scotland I had always envisaged even though I could barely see it. But I could feel it.

And this is what I remember of my one night in Edinburgh: first of all, I use the word "night" advisedly. It was around the 21st of June and I don't think it ever truly got dark that night. Stayed in a really grotty B&B and hardly slept at all, but the breakfast was fabulous, including and entire half loaf of wonderful fresh bread. I recall taking photos up on Calton hill around 9 or 10 o'clock the night before.

Central Edinburgh, meaning both Old and New Towns, is not that massive, eminently walkable, and everything is dark grey stone, ancient in Old Town, very classically 18th century in the New. Views from Calton Hill and the Castle are memorable, with the busses going along Princes Street far down below the Castle.

I still remember the tattered remains of regimental flags hanging high above in St. Giles' Cathedral on the Royal Mile, although I never did make it all the way down to Holyrood Palace. Story goes that the bloodstain on the floor in there from the murder of David Rizzio, Mary Queen of Scot's' (ex-)lover, has to be repainted every year since tourists continually surreptitiously scrape bits of it off. So they say... I remember a spectacular statue, on a bridge, to Scots who died in the American Civil War, with all these arms of fallen men reaching up to Abraham Lincoln - very effective. I remember hearing bagpipes too, very stirring. I remember a little boy who was lost and an exceptionally kind policeman who was gently trying to get him reattached with his home. And I remember a fabulous tour guide at the entrance to the Castle who had several Scots boy scouts huddled around him (all redheads, of course). He was telling a story from long ago of a famous Scotsman who was sneaking his way into the Castle. I was like three feet taller than the kids but somehow tried to weasel my way closer to hear the guide say in a voice that got down to a whisper "...and he pulled out his sword..." and suddenly he shouted "...AND CUT OFF HIS HEAD!!!!" as all the scouts jumped back about three feet. Great stuff which I still remember. (There's also a cemetery in the Castle for the regiment's beloved pet dogs. I'm sure Samantha saw it, but perhaps it got cut out of the final version).

So that's what I still remember from an Edinburgh of years ago. (Check out wonderful Maggie Smith in the movie "The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie" if you want to see a much older Edinburgh - but try to ignore the dreadful Rod McEwen music). Like you know from your trip to Spain last year, Kelsey, every trip is memorable in some way, and teaches you about the world, and you always learn a little more about yourself as well. So I'm sure your friend will have a great time in Scotland.

But getting back to tucking bottles away, I'll leave this one for Samantha now, and any further Scottish comments I'll try to put back on your original thread on the subject in the Europe section where it properly belonged before I dragged it over here. And, you know this is not really Tuttle's bottle anyway - it's for Samantha's entertainment and as a show of appreciation for her. I think I'm running out of variations for saying these things, but the intentions behind them have always been sincere. And Kelsey, you should be due for Spring Break.

I know this sounds completely improbable and Mother O thinks no one will believe me, but I'm off to Scotland tomorrow. I'll be in Edinburgh, Glasgow, and most importantly, Lockerbie. Suddenly, Scotland is hot! Everyone seems headed there. I don't know Glasgow at all. I've only been there once and that was only to change trains in a very tight connection. I never got out of the station. But I do know beautiful Edinburgh pretty well, and I know Lockerbie extremely well. Both are lovely and I'm very happy to be headed there again. IntlDoc will be happy to know I've packed my jeans and sneakers, but no tweed jacket for this academic.

I don't have time now to get into all the things to see and do in Edinburgh, but I can give a report when I get back. I will say that I'm very eager to get to Sandy Bells, the traditional music pub Samantha visited in Passport to Europe - Edinburgh.

I know the good Captain has tried to cap this bottle and I apologize for being late to the game. Preparing for the trip has been a time killer and I don't really have time to be writing now. But I couldn't let the bottle be capped without sending a few words of appreciation to Samantha.

This has been a particularly bleak winter in Syracuse. At over 12 feet, we are way above our average snowfall, and our average makes us the snowiest city with over 100,000 people in the country. We're also way below our normal temperature average this winter. It has been fierce, nasty and LONG. And it shows no sign of departing soon. I don't need to tell you that the economy has everyone on edge. With all this, I think the Travel Channel has missed a bet. We need escapism at a time like this. Like so many others, I enjoy escaping through Samantha's eyes and travels. Wouldn't it be nice to have a replay of the "Girl Meets Hawaii" series at this time of year? I've never seen the elusive Haunted Hawaii episode and I can think of no better time to show it.

I'm sure the boss at the Travel Channel would tell me, "Hold on. We've got the new Bridget's Beautiful Beaches coming soon," or whatever it is going to be called. But honestly, I'd much rather have the lovely Samantha Brown transport us to those beaches with her grace and intelligence rather than what I expect this show will be.

So both here and in Scotland, I'll lift a glass to you, Sam. Perhaps a wee dram of Glenmorangie in Sandy Bells. And with it, I'll send you thanks for all your travels and for being the best there is at taking us along with you. We need you. The Travel Channel needs you. We hope you'll be at it for a good long time to come. Now let's roll out those new shows, while not forgetting that your old shows, all of them, are classics that are worth seeing time and again.

Father O

Mother O is right. No one will believe you.

Just kidding! What a coincidence! I hope you have a good time there. And I haven't seen you around the forums much lately! But then, I haven't been here so much either.

Father O,
It's a great pleasure to read your parting post sent just hours before a likely harried departure with your Passport to co-incidental Edinburgh, Glasgow, and I know meaningful and bittersweet Lockerbie. And I had one of my tweed jackets on today, I'll have you know, as I did my little presentations that take me back a couple hundred years. I quite like wearing them, but it's a role I play.

A bottle at any level of reality, and they come in more than one I like to think, some you can almost ping with a fingernail, would not be worth corking, or decanting, without some Essence of Orange contained within it. This bottle is far richer for its being left open longer, and no, I can't close it if Sam can receive more like this. Tuttle couldn't say anything finer than Father O just did for and about Samantha. I hope she reads it, more than once. But clearly I'm out of things to say to her, so it's time for me to retire again, although Sam knows I'm not really very good at these things. But I hope Father O and Samantha both have wonderful travels and adventures as the seasons change for the better (and by the end of the month a very happy birthday, too). Better things will happen soon again for all of us, I do believe (I kind of have to), and have a rich and splendid month of March, Ms. Brown.

Hello to all! Thank you for all the interesting posts.I do think it would be a great idea to bring back "Girl Meets Hawaii". Mary

And hello Mary. I'm glad you dropped by. I like the idea of keeping Samantha's messages in bottles going but I must confess I've all but expended my material for her here and fear I'm beginning to fail and lose my way. It may be time for someone else to carry on in this role as even I think Tuttle has said more than enough.

But Kelsey, two things while I'm unofficially out here yet again - firstly, recently I finally discovered a movie shot a couple years ago in Chicago which I absolutely love, called 'Stranger Than Fiction", a wonderfully thoughtful, witty, poignant and ultimately very warm film. I wish I could have written a screenplay as good. You, or Dejardins or even KelDVM might recognize some of the filming locations.

Secondly and more appropriately to the thread, I saw my returned traveller from the UK today (pound is now under a buck forty... that is, for any of us who might actually have any money to spend anymore which is a fairly salient point) and she reported ridiculously good weather in Scotland when she was there and loved her Edinburgh days and nights. She only made a daytrip to Glasgow and saw the Charles Rennie Mackintosh sites, the Tea Room that still exists, and the breathtaking library in the Glasgow School of Art. But she does not recommend wandering off from any of the few main shopping streets (where Edinburgh residents travel for their major purchases) even in the daytime and certainly not at night. Things can get pretty sketchy very fast there, like within a block or two. Father O may have more authoritative comments down the line, but Glasgow is still a tough town, much as it has been spiffed up from the past.

Ah, the past... Right now I've consigned this winter to the past as we've had 4 straight days in the upper 70s here and crocuses and daffodils are suddenly breaking out into flower, such a sensational time of year and I frankly don't want to travel in springtime as I'd rather be right here. But it will be colder again by the weekend, and more patience and understanding called for. I no longer call this midwinter, though.

Well, retirement calls again. Have a wonderful week if in your travels, or in your own valued time, Sam. They both should bring you happiness. (But see? I've said all this before, and likely better.) So like a Shakespearean character at the end of a play, let me disappear.

"Stranger Than Fiction" was indeed a very good movie... How did I miss that it was filmed in Chicago? I'll have to watch it again. Whenever I watch The Dark Knight I get excited because I've seen many of the places shown.

I'm jealous of your warm weather. We had one fabulous day like that and then about 48 straight hours of rain. Enjoy it while you can!

Greetings, everyone.

I see that things have been spiffed up around this website, with the new Travel Bug campaign and all. I have boldly jacked up my speakers and taken the Travel Bug Quiz. I emerged unscathed, with the revelation that I am a “companion type” who is “accepting of nearly anything other than immoral things and mimes,” and “extremely loyal.” Which explains why I am still here, I guess, after all these years. However, I once paid good money to see Marcel Marceau perform on stage, so this quiz is most definitely flawed.

I also see that we finally have the official Travel Channel Announcement that there will be some new shows in May. That’s better than last year’s late June, but April would be even better. But as we now know, I am “accepting of nearly anything.”
It’s also good to see the report here that Samantha was spotted on a Carnival cruise spending quality time with her very own friends and family, as well as a crew, which means we will eventually get to go along too! Thanks, Samantha. The sooner the better. It’s still midwinter here. I never put my shovels away until May.

What is NOT good is that something has gone missing again from the sidebar. SAMANTHA’S JOURNALS! My first thought was that someone has been messing with her stuff while she is away again. I went searching for them, and was relieved to find them by going to Sam’s Blogs and using the sidebar there. Whew. Out of sight, but not gone forever. Much like Samantha herself. I hope you have those journals saved someplace safe, Samantha. You never know what might happen with spring cleaning at the Travel Channel.

Captain Tuttle. Thanks for coming out of retirement to keep this up. It’s good to see old friends popping in here to say hello, when they feel so inclined. Your “Essence of Orange” sounds like a key ingredient in dishwashing liquid, or “washing up liquid,” as they say in Scotland. Father O. made it to Edinburgh in good shape, by the way, but his luggage hit a snag in Manchester, which prompts the following advice that Father O. has always chosen to ignore.

Mother Orange’s Midwinter Travel Tip.
Take along a complete change of clothes in your carry-on bag for those times when your checked luggage doesn’t make it on to your connecting flight. Also good to have if you spill stuff all over yourself in transit, as I often do.

So what’s up next for Samantha? Is it Asia or Timbuktu?

As always,
Mother O.

Thank you, Mother O,
I'll slip out of ill-deserved retirement for just a few seconds here. It is no longer mid-winter where I am, and I have no further Winter's Tales to tell. We have daffodils in bloom, and perriwinkle and crocuses, and kids showing up on their spring breaks, even from Hawaii, where you wouldn't think they needed one, but they need their education too. And although I still cannot tell IntlDoc that I have been to France, I did see the French Ambassador day before yesterday (not very Gallic looking, I'm afraid) so maybe I'm just a bit closer to getting there.

Mother Orange has been such a welcome campanion on this forum, loyally answering questions and adding humor and good sense. And mimes cannot do any good in a medium that's reduced to words such as this, so who needs mimes? I vote for using words, every time. They float better in a bottle, too.

Manchester is not a very good place to be losing luggage (or for doing much of anything else). I'm still looking for a sock lost doing laundry right in Tuttle Manor weeks ago. There is no possible place it could be but here - but it has vanished, perhaps appearing out of the blue in Manchester. It's dark blue. Maybe it will wash up on a distant shore somewhere, like a lost bottle.

But I'm glad Samantha's journals have only been misplaced for a while and can now be found again. Their freshness and insightfulness deserves their own longevity, although all of this must be swept away at some point.

And as for Timbuktu or Asia, I would bet on being Asia as her next stop, where night is day and day is night as far as we can tell back here. But I hope Sam's in a wonderland right now in whatever hemisphere she may be nibbling on, suitably coiffed and pampered, naturally. And I hope it's spring for her, too. (I'm retiring again.)