October 2025 Five Questions

First, I am sorry for my confusion with questions. I get distracted easily, and had been looking at several sources for questions, and liked some better than my first choices.

On October 5 I prepared 'Apple Trifle Cups'[1] for my son's birthday. We enjoyed
our Apple Trifle Cups, and I'm eager to prepare this dessert again, so maybe this is
my favourite October dish. I use Walker's Shortbread Cookies, and vanilla extract with powdered sugar instead of vanilla sugar.

My brother was fond of "Stripes" and "Repo Man" and would ask me to rent the videos, as I
was of age to rent movies with classification as "Repo Man" had - I know I watched "Stripes" about twelve times, and "Repo Man" sixteen times. My son when he was five was very fond of "The Rink", a 1916 Charlie Chaplin silent comedy short. He asked over thirty-two times for it to be screened, and I worried that I might get bored and stop liking the film, and that would be a shame because it's an excellent short. 

I haven't yet meditated. I keep meaning to. My brain needs it, and resists it. Although
people tell me what I'm doing really is meditating, keeping the mind clear, focusing on
the breath, and observing the thoughts that come, and letting them go. Only the thoughts coming and going are like race cars in a Formula One competition. 

4. I have an 'Eisner 1972 Austin Prod.' 13.5 inch Charlie Chaplin sculpture [2]. Not worth much as one arm is broken and taped up, and my brother, the one who liked "Stripes" and "Repo Man", carved his initials into the base. I remember receiving it: my mom told me to visit the hi-fi (I am an old person, if renting the VHS tapes didn't reveal that already), I lifted the lid and was so excited to see that statuette, that it was MINE, that Chaplin memorabilia existed. It stood on our television set and I would stare at it to see if I could make it move. I can tell you I do not have the gift of telekinesis. Everyone in my family except for my son is dead, but I still have Charlie.

5. In times of profound sadness, I'll watch a comedy, not "Stripes" or "Repo Man," I'm well done with those, but "Trouble in Paradise," or "The Thin Man", or yeah, a Chaplin film. Or I'll have a very warm bubble bath soak so my muscles will. If I'm mourning, I will go out with a close associate to a bar, and talk out our grief and loss. If I'm in a funk, or just feeling a general malaise and somberness, reading comic books (Evan Dorkin, MAD Magazine, Pizzazz Magazine [3], Drew Friedman, Krazy Kat) or comic strips or poetry books for kiddies (Naomi Shihab Nye, Jack Prelutsky, Robert Louis Stevenson), or 1930s teen detective books, not necessarily Nancy Drew. I'm enjoying
Judy Bolton books, by Margaret Sutton.


[1] https://www.canadianliving.com/food/baking-and-desserts/recipe/apple-trifle-cups
[2] https://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/1972-austin-prod-inc-statue-sculpture_1_7a7a1bdd6f360c310abc18ad05a1fbe0.jpg
[3] https://pota.goatley.com/magazines/Pizzazz/#k-10