Hats, Grapes, Wine

Day 195 of the "What are you reading, and why?" project, and today a woman found both Erma Bombeck and Alice Munro on the half-price cart. I cannot find the lovely floral edition of the Munro selected stories to show you, so it seems to be something early in her career but mass produced enough not to be rare, or it wouldn't have been on the half-price cart.

Meanwhile, a friend recently sent me a "purple hat" email, a list of things Bombeck would have done if she'd known she was going to die early from cancer. And this made me think of the Red Hat Society, and fun things women do when they get to the stage of wearing red hats.

And tonight, for their 57th wedding anniversary, I took my parents to see Mid-August Lunch, a sweet Italian film about a man, his 93-year-old mother, and some other sweet old ladies who come his way. Here is a New York Times review that offers you a color still and a clip.

Mid-August Lunch, or Ferragosto, is a harvest holiday on August 15. It used to last a month, and it apparently combines the harvest celebration and a celebration of Diana, the hunt, the moon, etc., leaning toward the Roman myth and agriculture, and the Feast of the Assumption, the later Christian celebration.

This harvest holiday reminded me of "Grape Harvest," by Colette, in The Garden of Reading, edited by Michelle Slung. Which reminds me of purple grapes and red wine. In the movie, also known as Pranzo di Ferragosto, there's actually a lot of white wine.

Which makes me sleepy. Good night!