Just printed out the two new chapters and can't wait to read them!  Something to look forward to for my lunch break.  Thanks for sharing this wonderful tale.  

Gothick

Dear Midnite, Mysterioso Darling and Dom,

All 3 of you deserve some kind of special award for keeping this space loony-tunes free!

Your forever admirer,

Gothick

I love it btw that Connie came with an exquisite image for Collinwood at Xmas that happened to be just like how I described my ideal Yuletree DS theme ornament!  I guess great minds work alike ...

Hey Connie!  I'm just printing out your story to read over my lunch break, but it looks fab!

Please do continue!  If I have any more specific feedback, I guess I'll send you a private message about it.  Love the dialogue, though!  

Steve

Congratulations, dear lady!  I am so proud for you.  Perhaps some day I shall consider following in your estimable footsteps and have a chance at freeing myself from Library Assistant hell.

Best of luck with the job search!

And in case I don't get to say it ... Happy Holidays!

xo  Gothick

It's funny you should mention that now, Julia.  Lying awake at 3 a.m. with a light fever last night, I found myself running an outline for a brand new article:  "The Eroticism of Grayson Hall."

A lot of fans might be surprised to learn just how much material there is on that topic.  From the actress every college boy dreamed of getting stuck on a desert island with in 1951, to a very urbane and sophisticated courtesan in a 1955 production of "La Ronde,"  to a wildcat "beatnik poetess" in an "off Broadway movie" in 1957,  to Stacey Keach's playmate in those X-rated scenes of End of the Road in 1968, to Warda the Queen of the Whores in 1971's The Screens.  And all of that is just the tip of the iceberg.

Then there's the semi-orgasmic moment on DS during the Parallel Time 1970 storyline when button-down prim and proper Hoffman flings open the drawing room doors, sees what she thinks is her long lost love Angelique Collins, and all but melts into an incandescent puddle.   It's a really shocking scene.  Must be why I always feel compelled to rewind and replay it so many times every time I watch that tape.

Gothick

Dear Fans,

At home with a touch of flu yesterday, I was watching that phenomenally silly show Gomer Pyle on TV Land (I checked Sci Fi, thinking DS should be back on by now, and they're STILL running back to back X Files episodes sans David Duchovny--what IS the point???).  

Anyhow, it was a 1967 episode where Gomer and Sergeant travel to Washington DC so GP can perform in some military talent show (now there's a scary concept).  The Sergeant's ulterior motive is to reunite with his old flame Rose Pilchek, played by none other than still stunning B movie heroine Allison Hayes.  I was stunned, delighted and thrilled to spot Miss Hayes wearing what I think must have been either the wig used a year later for Cassandra Blair on DS, or the sister to that wig!  It was even "styled" (I use the word loosely) in a manner similar to Cassandra's.  

I checked on IMDB and it appears that these episodes (there was a second part) was Ms. Hayes' last documented appearance on film.  Perhaps the ordeal of having to wear "The Wig" was the last straw in her waning show biz adventure.

Ms. Hayes is best known to some of us as the star of such classics of B cinema as The Unearthly, The Undead, The Hypnotic Eye, Zombies of Mora Tau, and her best known role.  Attack of the Fifty Foot Woman!

Gothick

I wound up choosing "Meet Magda and Sandor," just because it set the tone for all that was to come, and Grayson and Thayer did such a brilliant job that day playing people so utterly different from any of their preceding roles on the series.

It's interesting to note that of these ten "favorite moments," Barnabas was only featured in 3.  It's nice to see fans acknowledging that the greatness of Dark Shadows extends above and beyond the appeal of Barnabas, wonderful though Jonathan Frid's performance has been throughout the 1897 storyline.

Gothick