Running in the Graveyard / She's Still Got It

Sunday night

Dream 1: Running in the Graveyard

I was running along through a large abandoned park, or field, which included some straightaways and some terraces. The hills had built-in steps made from old grave markers, or tombs, made of slate, or stone. Some of the graves were so decrepit that the lids had shifted, so that they were partially opened, which was pretty creepy. I had just run down one such stairway when I noticed another large tomb, off to my left. The marker was quite long, and laid flat, flush with the grass. It was made of gray slate, but it was the fantastic artistry of the carving that had caught my eye. It featured an amazingly stylized rendering of a life-size skeleton, squatting in the bottom left-hand corner. Its features were somewhat more oblong than rounded, but other than that, it was quite realistic. The inscription read: "Here Lies a Woman Who Lived to be 100, Unprepared to Die. She Was Buried in a Gown Signed by Miss Jane Cook."

Dream 2: She's Still Got It

I had been interviewing singer and actress Julie Andrews about her new memoir. During our conversation she mentioned that she doesn't sing publicly anymore, due to complications from surgery that she'd undergone several years ago. Once our interview was over, I was walking out of the building when I heard a familiar sound. I strolled back down the hallway and peered into a classroom through a window pane in a wooden door. Ms. Andrews was singing a Christmas carol to a small group. I decided not to disturb them. As I walked away I thought, "Considering her age, and what she's been through, she doesn't sound bad at all."

*****

Dream 1: Running in the Graveyard

From time to time I'll research photographs of late 18th- and early 19th-century slate tombstones from New England on the Web. Some of them are quite interesting and scary. I try to copy at least one each year to add to the graveyard that springs up in our front yard each Halloween.

That inscription was pretty interesting. I got the impression that the deceased was unknown, but the name of her seamstress might leave a clue to her identity, so it was included on the marker.

Dream 2: She's Still Got It

Julie Andrews has been promoting her new book, "Home," about her life up until "The Sound of Music." I've read some pretty good notices in Newsweek and The NYT Book Review.