Happy Mother's Day...

Happy Mother's Day to all of you who are mothers, and who have mothers, or have ever had mothers.

As a Mother's day Tribute I was going to list my ten favourite fictional mothers. So I did that. I had some trouble thinking of ten fictional mothers at all. Most protagonists are not mothers. Most protagonists do not have mothers, or if they do, they're like Stephanie Plum's mother - hardly central to the action. Granma Mazure is more fun, but she's in a grandmother role. Grandmother's get to be cool and funny. Mothers, when funny, tend to be irritating.

IMDB did a list of "beloved TV moms", and of the list, I have only seen one of them, and I have mixed feelings about her: Joyce Summer on Buffy. She has some great moments, but also too many bad ones. (I haven't forgiven her for trying to break up Buffy and Angel at the end of season 3.)

So if you want to hear my initial list of mothers:

• Sarah Connor - Trained her kid to be an outlaw and machine-killer, but in a good cause. Great action hero.
  
• Sybilla Crawford - Some Dunnett readers think Sybilla is the worst mother of all time, warping and abusing her child, and never telling him the truth that might have saved him. Personally, I think Sybilla is great, especially in The Game of Kings.
  
• Eleanor of Aquitaine - Mother of the most dysfunctional brood of Plantagenets! "What family doesn't have its ups and downs?" Her fictionality is arguable, but I'm thinking of fictional depictions.
  
• Lady Macduff - a small role, but delightfully maternal.
  
• Martha Kent - I loved her in season one of Smallville. Not so much in later seasons.
  
• Mystique - she tried to kill Kurt in infancy, but was good to Rogue, in an evil-supervillain-mother sort of way.
  
• Cordelia Naismith - maybe the best mother ever, especially in Barrayar, in which she fights a war to save her damaged unborn child.
  
• Kate Somerville - One of my favourite characters ever, on any scale. A Dunnett character in her own right, as well as being Philippa's mother.
  
• Sue Richards - of the Fantastic Four. A character who has suffered from many bad writers, but who has had good moments, too. She has never quite overcome the problem of being the token female in the group, but I've always had a soft spot for her.
  
• Jackie Tyler - Rose Tyler's mum. I love her for so many reasons, not least because she once slapped the Doctor's face for Rose's sake. I maybe love her best in "Love and Monsters".
  

Only two of these women are the protagonists in their own story - Sarah Connor and Cordelia Naismith - and they both cede way to their sons as protagonists in a longer series. Most are minor character in a larger picture.

Thinking harder, I came up with a few more names. Jane Eyre? I wasn't too crazy over her attitude to Adèle, but she was a conscientious caretaker - this hardly puts her into a 'favourite mother' status.

Amanda from Star Trek. What a wonderful mother.

Jessica Jones, mother of Luke Cage's kid. The Wikipedia article on her here seems a little out of date.

Aunt May from Spider-Man.

Maria Von Trapp in The Sound of Music, and Donna Sheridan in Mamma Mia!.

And on a spoiler note, isn't it wonderful that ( we are going to see... )

Christopher Plummer...

Only a few days ago I listed Christopher Plummer as a teenage crush. That was because of
The Sound of Music, but as time went by there were any number of other great things to add to my list of things which I'd loved, which he was in. The latest of them was Caesar and Cleopatra by George Bernard Shaw at Stratford last summer. And remember General Chang?

Today I got to see him again, and to get his autograph. He recently wrote his autobiography, In Spite of Myself, and came to Chapters in Ottawa to sign it.

I'd been wanting to buy it. What better opportunity.

So I got my book, and stood in line (a line as long behind me as ahead of me), and got an autograph. I noticed he had a delightful smile and a word for each person. I said, "I loved seeing you as Julius Caesar last year," and he said, "In Caesar and Cleopatra? Thank you so much."

( Christopher Plummer signing an autograph. )

( Christopher Plummer signing another autograph. )

( This is the one he signed for me. )

I was impressed by the charm with which he smiled at each person as if he were truly pleased to see them, truly happy to have pleased them with his work.

And I love the way his book begins:

I was brought up by an Airedale. I won't deny it, 'tis the truth and nothing bug, Your Honour--a bumbling, over-sized shaggy great Airedale. The earliest memory I have of anything resembling a pater familiar, bouncer, male-nurse or God is that dear slobbering old Airedale....

Supernatural - season 1 misc

Watched three episodes of Supernatural this evening with maaseru and explodedteabag. These were:

• 1x17 - "Hell House" - A silly plot, but I liked the ongoing pranks the brothers played.
  
• 1x18 - "Something Wicked" - Brilliant, especially the flashbacks to young Dean and Sammy. And we saw John - always a high point for me. Loved the spooky fingers of the striga.
  
• 1x19 - "Provenance" - Interesting plot; I liked the way it kept twisting. There's so much emphasis on Sam in season 1, and Dean is shown as less attractive than he later became - and I don't mean his looks, but his manner, his dialogue, his attitude.
  

I like to imagine Castiel watching the Winchester boys through these early episodes....

Saw still more trailers for Thursday's show, which explodedteabag had unearthed. Can hardly wait till Thursday!