Credit: Getty Alexander Skarsgard has been spotted in flip flops not once, but TWICE this week. His first offence was photographed above while he attended the Sundance film festival in chilly Utah. It appears he didn't suffer from frostbite on his little piggies, so the 49-year old decided to grace us with his bare toes again this Friday for the SNL promo video he shot with Cardi B and Chloe Fineman: Credit: NBC How do you feel about these looks, Peckers? Would you like to see more Hollywood men sporting flip flops?

Dancer Maria Catharina Wilk (1853-1928)

 

Well if you do then you're in luck, because in 1961,  "Spartacus" was still riding high in theaters. John Gavin in a towel in a sauna? BRING IT! Plus there were lots of great shows on TV, including "Perry Mason," "The Rifleman," "Dennis the Menace" and "Lassie," and if you flipped on the radio while you were driving around in your new Starliner, you undoubtedly heard this song a LOT: I know it's supposed to be a sad song about a guy being done wrong by a girl, but it's so much FUN, and Dion clearly feels the same. And whether you've been done wrong or you've been done right, feel free to tell us all about it. After all, it's Open Post, darlings! Photo Credit: AK

Have you ever seen a pair of Crocs and wondered, "how can I make these uglier?" Well Lego has answered your prayers by announcing a multi-year global partnership with the shoe brand. For $200, you can now buy Lego-brand Crocs. The company website says it's "fun footwear that inspires you to build, rebuild and reinvent what makes you you." But could you ever rebuild your dignity after buying a pair? Remains to be seen.  Source: Lego

Greetings Manor hors, and welcome to another edition of Manor Music Monday! Did you know? Today is National Bubble Wrap Day, so if you have some, by all means enjoy popping those air-filled plastic nubbins. Pop-pop-pop! Such fun. Also fun, a lively jazz and Broadway songstress who was brought to new heights in 1949 after being spotted performing at Greenwich Village's The Cinderella Club  (where Billie Holiday and Thelonious Monk frequently gigged) by none other than Mae West, who promptly cast her in her Broadway revival of "Diamond Lil." That's quite a gal to give your career a boost. And tonight, at the Manor's exclusive "Canyon Yodeling" club and taco joint, DJ Li'l Scratch will be spinning her irresistible tunes. How irresistible? Let's just say that Frank Sinatra himself called her "the world's greatest saloon singer."  Yes, it's Sylvia Syms (not to be confused with the British actor with a similar name), who was born in ...

High in the cold, clouded forests of Virunga National Park, where the air thins and the trees feel ancient, a miracle happened. On January 3rd, community trackers in the Democratic Republic of the Congo spotted something rarely seen: twin baby boy mountain gorillas, both miraculously alive, both clinging to their mother in the high-altitude forest. Their mother is twenty-two year old Mafuko. She is strong, experienced, and a tenacious survivor. This is the 8th time she has given birth, so she knows what it will take, but her task will not be easy. Her family, the Bageni, is the largest gorilla group in Africa’s oldest national park, a living lineage of sixty-nine bonded lives with memories and instincts moving together through the mountains. What makes this so special is that less than one percent of recorded gorilla births will result in twins, and their survival is never guaranteed. The first four weeks are everything for these fragile babies. It determines if they have a chance. It ...

Here's Cristin Milioti attending the Buddy premiere at the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, UT yesterday. She wore head-to-peeptoe Saint Laurent for the occasion.  The top half of this outfit looks very appropriate for the chilly Utah weather. But the whole look takes an unexpected (read: horrifying) turn when she wore lacy lingerie shorts with sheer tights tucked into pink peep toe shoes. The contrast is jarring, and the colour scheme is confusing.  What are your thoughts on this look, Peckers? 

 

Saw this sweetheart today while driving to #GenericSuperstore, and it just reinforced what a weird town I live in. It was not all restored and sleek and shined up (in fact, even the license plate was rusty). Yet there she was at the stoplight, totally oblivious of everyone's interest in her. In 1952, QEII became the reigning monarch of the British Isles following the death of her father King George VI, Evita Peron went to her eternal rest, Joan Crawford had a massive hit with the suspense thriller "Sudden Fear," the first  hydrogen bomb was detonated by a bunch of men with tiny little dicks , and Patti Page had a #1 song with "I Went To Your Wedding." Her biggest hit was "The Tennessee Waltz," but she had many others, including this one: And here's another Ford Customline at the top of its game: Oh, if you do see a doggie in the window, take her or him home with you, because you'll change two lives for the better, theirs and yours. Happy Open...

Credit: AP/Kirsty Wigglesworth Presented without comment: here are Prince Harry and his lawyer arriving at the London high court on Monday as the trial for his lawsuit against Associated Newspapers Limited kicks off.

Happy Martin Luther King Day, music sloots, and welcome to another kicky edition of Manor Music Monday. Today, we'll be chatting about a winning jazz songstress whom time has unjustly forgotten, though in her day, she delighted top jazz musicians and composers who scrambled to work with her. You can hear her tonight at "Sportin' a Semi!" the Manor's 24-hour club and creperie where DJ L'il Scratch will be laying down her irresistible tunes.  Yes, it's Patricia "Pat" Thomas. Just look at her: coquettish beauty and adorableness incarnate. Born in The City Of Big Shoulders - that's Chicago to you pesky rubes - she was an in-demand performer by nearly every jazz band in the late 1950s and early 60s, and hit the big-time, if briefly, with her 1963 LP, "Desafinado," the title track being a Bossa Nova-flavored triumph which rocketed up the charts.  It was her rich, caramel-toned voice which made her stand out, even in her early days. Her fi...

Leonhard Seppala and Togo.  Togo was born in 1913 in Alaska and seemed, from the start, like he wasn't destined for a career as a useful sled dog, or even a beloved pet. He was undersized, sickly, sharp-tempered, and relentlessly defiant. As a puppy, he chewed through harnesses, constantly bullied other dogs, routinely escaped confinement, and refused even basic obedience commands. Togo seemed like a lost cause. He exhibited none of the behaviors or traits that the best sled dogs normally possess.   Leonhard Seppala, one of the most respected sled dog trainers of his time, deemed him untrainable and gave him away. Togo responded by doing what he would do repeatedly as a youngster: he escaped and found his way back home to Seppala and his wife. The dog was nothing short of a juvenile delinquent with a host of ongoing problem behaviors. And he wasn't anything special in the looks department either; some even said he looked perpetually dirty. As Togo matured, his "flaws"...

Credit: Ottawa Tourism Since Peckerwood Manor is a multi-faceted community, wintertime looks very different for many of us. Some of us never get snow, some of us get way too much, and others fall somewhere happily in the middle. While the winter season is usually a time of hunkering down, there are plenty of ways to enjoy the beautiful season: skating, skiing, après-skiing, cooking and enjoying hearty foods, etc. Do you have a favourite winter activity, Peckers? Or did you get to enjoy a special moment during the wintertime that warms your memories? Share below!

Reception, 1910 Faragó Géza

    

"Tired of lying in the sunshine, staying home to watch the rain You are young and life is long and there is time to kill today And then one day you find ten years have got behind you No one told you when to run, you missed the starting gun... "And you run, and you run to catch up with the sun, but it's sinking Racing around to come up behind you again... "Every year is getting shorter, never seem to find the time Plans that either come to naught or half a page of scribbled lines..." Oh dear, I hope this doesn't seem like a bummer OP, I just love this time of year and that's one of my favorite Pink Floyd songs. Even if it sounds somber, it's a good somber. I hate that it's still getting darker earlier, but I love feeling and smelling the freshness outdoors, and the crunching when you're walking on fallen leaves or snow. And I love Pink Floyd. Whether you're happily somber today, or just plain happy, tell us all about it, and happy Open Po...

Podcast recommendations are often the best ones, and we Peckers always have excellent taste. Comfort listens, deep dives on certain topics, or even just background noise: what's in your podcast rotation right now? Photo Credit: David Fisher/Shutterstock

Welcome, music sloots to another edition of Manor Music Monday, today by way of a San Francisco gal with incredible talent and understated class, a combo we don't see much in performers these days of any ilk, if at all. Better still, she's still truckin' at age 86. And though it's wintertime, her music will bring back summer. Just listen and you'll feel the heat, the light humidity, a chill band and her freshly reviving voice. Also, San Francisco must have something in the water, because so many terrific jazz vocalists seem to hail from there. It can't be a coincidence. Case in point, Mary Stallings, born in 1939 in the city, the middle child of 11 siblings. Get this: she's also the niece of saxophonist Orlando Stallings, who introduced her to jazz when she was just a wee one after overhearing her scatting to Dizzy Gillespie's "Oop-Bop-Sh'bam." She performed briefly with Uncle Orlando's band and with her church, and while she was still...