As some of you have figured out by now, Ross and I will leap at any excuse, no matter how flimsy, to dress up in costume. Ross is teaching about WWII and the rise of superheroes in class? Time to dress up like Captain America! I’m going to a vaguely 1920s-themed gathering? Bust out the flapper dress!
In the last month, we’ve had two such occasions, the first being a gathering of friends for high tea at the Sugar Magnolia Cafe tea room for my birthday in January.
If you own a top hat, why *wouldn’t* you wear it?
The cameo pin I’m wearing belonged to my grandmother.
One of our friends had the foresight to bring along fake mustaches as well.
I received one of the funniest and direly needed birthday gifts: writer’s block soap, which “smells like regurgitated ideas and probably a vampire.” Goodness knows I could do with soap to wash away writer’s block, although I’ll take a pass on the vampire.
Our second costumed adventure was a 1930s-themed date night. We checked out Rockin’ Rolls Sushi first (not 1930s, but delicious, and any place that’s all-you-can-eat is a cost-effective option when dining with Ross), then drove up to Durham to see a special screening of 1933’s King Kong.
Doing my best Fay Wray impression.
Fun fact, Ross wore this outfit to a Casablanca party he and I attended together before we were officially dating, and he looked just as smashing then.
The movie, which I had never seen before, was surprisingly good, and of course groundbreaking for its special effects at the time. No real research would be done on the great apes until the 1960s, so Kong wasn’t accurately based on any particular species; the filmmakers gave him human-looking eyes because no one had any idea what a gorilla’s eyes looked like. The movie was also surprisingly gory and a little risque since it was pre-movie code, they made extravagant use of the chocolate syrup for blood. (Poetic lines aside, the airplane machine guns had a lot to do with Kong’s demise.)
I was also surprised to discover that Peter Jackson’s King Kong in 2005 (which I *had* seen!) was almost a shot-for-shot remake in a lot of ways. Clearly Jackson was a big fan of the original movie.
If any of you have been up to any costumed hijinks lately, let me know in the comments! I love comparing costume notes and sharing ideas.
Quoth the Girl 
5 comments
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February 23, 2019 at 9:58 am
Sarah Pennington
I love that you actually find reasons to go out in costume. Life goals, right there. And you and your husband look awesome in your costumes! Have you done a post at some point on how you go about putting those together, or would you consider doing such a post if you have time?
Also . . . is that Ms. Stengl and her husband in the first picture? And did Ms. Stengl at some point dye her hair blue? Because she looks fabulous.
February 23, 2019 at 11:24 am
Quoth the Girl
Thank you, Sarah! I love your blog post idea and don’t know why I never thought of that before. I will put it in the queue! Hmm, might even be more than one post, now that I think about it…
You have eagle eyes! Yes, that is Ms. Stengl and her husband, and I agree, she looks fantastic!
February 23, 2019 at 12:08 pm
Sarah Pennington
Awesome! I look forward to reading them!
February 25, 2019 at 7:21 pm
Kira Thomas
Ahh, I love seeing all your costumes. I’m putting together a costume for the Realm Makers Conference – Lady Steampunk Green Lantern. I’m pretty excited about it. xD
You must explain your title for me… I understand most of them, but. What is this one from?
February 25, 2019 at 7:39 pm
Quoth the Girl
What a cool costume idea! That sounds fantastic.
Oops, the subject line is the last line from King Kong (both the 1933 and the 2005 film, come to think of it). I should’ve made that a bit clearer!