32 Comments

I've been busy lately, Terry, but I just wanted to stop in and remind you you're an exceptional human.

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oh, thanks so much, that's very kind of you, Jody

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Diitto!

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Me three.... 🙃

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It's interesting that, as an introvert, we can be comfortable on stage playing a part. Thanks for sharing all the ins and outs of your acting career. No wonder the baristas near you know you are famous😀

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I think it may be more common than one would imagine, Donna. I personally, in my career, teach and entertain groups of teachers - often more than 200 at a time. I am never nervous. Yet, sit me down in a group of six and I am mostly too shy to enter the conversation! I am sure there is an explanation for it, but I don't know it.

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I think I'm simply allergic to people... 👀🤣

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me too!

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I would never have guessed it... but I like the metaphor of an allergy to people. A writer on substack recently compared instagrams (etc) that people send you as "lice". I thought that was apt.

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how can people send you an instagram? I don't understand

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I don't know anything about Instagram, Terry, and I may have misspoken. BUT here is the hilarious article I was referring to - The crude language might be offensive to you, but I don't think so. Shalom Auslander is a very clever writer. https://shalomauslander.substack.com/p/may-result-in-reduced-misanthropy

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'Lice'??!!!!! Oh, Sharron!!! 🤣 I think perhaps 'allergy' is a little less blunt than that! 😉

I might just stick 'lice' up my sleeve for future use, though. You never know...

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I’m the same Sharron, I’d rather be at the front of the room than at a table with a few. The acting piece is an interesting one I hadn’t considered but it would be the same (not that it’s the right hat for me, I’d be more of a stagehand).

Your job sounds awesome!

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it does, doesn't it!

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ditto.

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😂😂

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Such a a wonderful tale this time, Terry! Personal and full of charm. The film clips you chose were a real bonus. I would love to hear more memoir from you.

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Thanks, Sharron! i didn't think anyone would be interested tbh!

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'I didn't think anyone would be interested...'??????? 🙄

Know your audience, Terry! We actually rather like your writing!

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Thanks! But memoir? Who am I to write about such a great personage? (Channeling O. Wilde: when someone suggested an amendment to one of his plays he replied "Who am I, Sir, to tamper with a masterpiece?"😂

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🤣

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This post is up my alley having been an actor for many years. It was a fun read. Thx for the classic clip of Terry (ah, your namesake) and Chah-lie.

Hands-- the bane of an actor's existence. What to do with your hands. On stage if you leaned on furniture you were using a crutch- it was big no-no. On film you want to Touch the Money-- stand close to the lead so you won't be cut from the scene. Chewing gum or eating is also a crutch. Brad Pitt does this a lot. Yes, there are no small parts, only small actors.

Hubby and I were both actors when we met. Lots of crazy stories from the stage.

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thanks. i was rather nervous about having a real actor read it, so i'm pleased you found it a fun read. yes, hands: i think a good director is worth having! i hadn't heard the expression 'touch the money' 😁

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An absolutely cracking post! 🙌

I once played Mary in the school nativity play, and any cast member with a speaking part got to skip lessons for rehearsals. I couldn't believe my luck - especially as I only had a single line. 'Why, Joseph?' got me out of afternoon lessons for several weeks! 🤣

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This was very entertaining. I'm going to hazard a guess that Aunt Betty is looking down favorably on her posthumous transformation.

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🤣🤣🤣 Thanks, Reno, glad you enjoyed it!

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Thanks for such a lovely intro, Tom😀

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I read the word "tenterhooks" as if I've never read it before. I always thought (when I was very young) that the word was "tenderhooks", which seemed like an oxymoron to me, and imagined cuts of beef hanging from the butcher's rafters on slender hooks that wouldn't bruise the beef.

I looked up the origin of tenterhooks on vocabulary.com:

"Tenters and tenterhooks were commonly used from the fourteenth century, both as an important part of the process of weaving woolen fabric. Starting sometime in the eighteenth century, the phrase "on tenterhooks" came to mean "in suspense," the way a piece of cloth is suspended from tenterhooks on a tenter."

Another great post, and I almost sort of interested enough in maybe seeing if there might be an amdram in Austin . . . I would totally be sticking my neck out! Thanks for the indirect encouragement!

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