Catherine Bannister
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cbannister.bsky.social
Catherine Bannister
@cbannister.bsky.social
1.9K followers 1.3K following 5K posts
Contumacious and curious, an avid follower of useless information.

To learn more about the Smithsonian Campaign for Our Shared Future, go here: oa.si.edu

To help #EndALZ please visit alz.org

To protect our beautiful National Parks, npca.org
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cbannister.bsky.social
#AlphabetChallenge #WeekTForTelevision
The Rehearsal (Season 2)
A United plane attached to a jetbridge with a yellow 47 sign atop on the tarmac at LaGuardia airport on a cloudy morning. Other jets with other airlines’ logos are in the background and in the distance another jet is taxiing on a runway.
November 15, 2025 at 2:28 PM
cbannister.bsky.social
#AlphabetChallenge #WeekTForTelevision
The Bob Newhart Show
A view looking “west” on the Chicago River (I.e., away from the lake) through the cavern of skyscrapers on either side. The State Street bridge over the water is down and a few pedestrians can be seen crossing it. Just to the right of the bridge, rising up like two giant corn cobs, are Marina Towers - which were prominent in the opening credits of The Bob Newhart Show and were supposedly where he and his wife (played by Suzanne Pleshette on this show and the famous finale of Newhart, his other huge hit) lived.
November 14, 2025 at 2:37 PM
cbannister.bsky.social
#AlphabetChallenge #WeekTForTelevision
The Flintstones
An ancient stone structure that looks like a giant child constructed it out of rocks: vertical slabs topped with a flat slab for the roof. On Corsica.
November 13, 2025 at 12:45 PM
cbannister.bsky.social
Last show of this visit and it was lovely. A cute rom-com that is exactly about what its title says. Loads of laughs, creative staging and sets, and an original story and music. 👍
Pl
The Playbill for Longacre Theatre, “Two Strangers (Carry a Cake across New York)”
November 13, 2025 at 4:11 AM
cbannister.bsky.social
Also today: every trip’s “something new” (to me). There have been several this trip! Today I visited the Tenement Museum (so so interesting- I will definitely be back) and the Museum of Broadway (so so *much* - I don’t need to revisit)
The reconstructed bedroom of the Moore family, Irish immigrants in the mid 19th c, in the Tenement Museum. A small (slightly larger than twin) bed with a plaid dress laid atop and a small trundle beneath. A stack of steamer trunks against the back wall The iron cook stove in the tenement museum. The units didn’t come with the stoves so individuals would have to bring them - this apartment was on the 4th floor! They did come apart but each piece weighed about 100 lbs The Hello Dolly! red sequined costume worn by Bette Midler in the 2017 revival. I was in Dolly in HS - and I actually saw this production (or half of it as I discovered the hard/gross way that evening that I have an allergy to caviar!) The Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS quilt with a square from many of the shows that have supported the group over the years. I’m a donor and have held the Red Bucket many times (but had no time this trip)
November 12, 2025 at 10:18 PM
cbannister.bsky.social
Matinee today. Its excellence made up for last night’s ick. James Corden was especially wonderful.
Playbill for “Art”
November 12, 2025 at 10:08 PM
cbannister.bsky.social
#AlphabetChallenge #WeekTForTelevision
30 Rock
When in Rome, right? 30 Rockefeller Plaza, New York, NY as seen from across 5th Avenue. Two low beige Art Deco (I think) buildings with a high office tower rising behind and in between. At the far end of the plaza, beneath the tower, a large teal sign with a white image of a Christmas tree hides the installation and decoration of the real tree to be unveiled later this month.
November 12, 2025 at 3:33 PM
cbannister.bsky.social
Fun in Manhattan today!
The skating rink in Central Park dotted with skaters and surrounded by Fall colored trees and gleaming skyscrapers Why doesn’t every city have Pizza Box Recycling containers specifically designed for these shapes?? Brilliant (if maybe underused?)! The Museum of the City of New York - a red brick building with four white columns and triangular edifice A orange Cosmopolitan in a coupe, a votive candle and a Manhattan in a short glass with a big ice cube on a table at The Campbell - a restored Gilded Age space in Grand Central Station - with people congregated at an underlit bar in the background in front of a large multi-paned window
November 12, 2025 at 5:15 AM
cbannister.bsky.social
Here goes nothin’ 😊
The playbill for The Queen of Versailles starring Kristen Chenoweth. It’s gotten very mixed reviews so we shall see!
November 11, 2025 at 11:38 PM
cbannister.bsky.social
#AlphabetChallenge #WeekTForTelevision
Parks and Recreation
The green classic Wrigley Field scoreboard watches over the park filled with brightly colored carnival rides and games for the Winter Wonderland. A metal fence in front has a blue sign that says “DO NOT ENTER” between two long holiday wreaths with blue, silver and gold ornaments.
November 11, 2025 at 2:03 PM
cbannister.bsky.social
#AlphabetChallenge #WeekTForTelevision
Ted Lasso
Sorry for the layup today - rushing to get snow shoveled before airport! This is the sidewalk/plaza in front of the pub in Richmond, England, where Ted Lasso was filmed. There are two red phone boxes next to a bench on a wide stone walkway, angled next to the street with metal waist-high poles every six feet or so
November 10, 2025 at 1:37 PM
cbannister.bsky.social
Today would’ve been my dad’s 89th birthday. Feels like we lost him 2x: when the Alzheimer’s took the Dad we knew, well before Covid took the sweet man he’d become.

Today, and more than ever these days, please support those who are striving to #EndALZ @alzassociation.bsky.social
A smiling man with white hair, mustache and beard and wearing an open collared dress shirt under a brown sport coat.
November 9, 2025 at 2:58 PM
cbannister.bsky.social
#AlphabetChallenge #WeekSForShadows
The beams of a patio pergola in southern France cast linear shadows across a tablescape set for lunch. The closest place setting is a white plate holding a greenish yellow pool of brothy sauce under an artistically arranged stack of green and red sautéed vegetables under a golden brown square of flaky white fish. Stemware is above the plate, a stemmed glass with an inch of red wine and a water class with the same amount of clear liquid. Further to the back right of the table is a brown basket with a white cloth and dinner rolls.
November 9, 2025 at 2:32 PM
cbannister.bsky.social
Can confirm. Got alert from WGN (“DHS says”)
BREAKING NEWS 1h ago WGN 9 NEWS Shots fired at Border Patrol agents during immigration enforcement operations in Little Village, DHS says
November 8, 2025 at 9:28 PM
cbannister.bsky.social
#AlphabetChallenge #WeekSForShadows
Three iron brackets, shaped like curly number “3”s, cast inverse shadows on the wood of an aged port wine barrel. The brackets are on a wood board mounted perpendicularly to the vertical weathered boards of the barrel which are beige with tinges of pinks. The curved edge of the barrel is layered with greying wood and peeling red painted boards. This is at a private family quinta in the Douro valley.
November 8, 2025 at 3:12 PM
cbannister.bsky.social
#AlphabetChallenge #WeekSForShadows
While a furry cream and white pup, Zeus, a truffle hunter, stands on his hind legs toward his person (here just denim-clad legs, the bottom of a red and blue plaid shirt and a pointing index finger close to Zeus’ cute nose), his little brown and black hound friend wants in on the action and a human shadow appears to reach down to pat his head.
November 7, 2025 at 2:41 PM
cbannister.bsky.social
Here’s to mediocrities everywhere - tonight’s offering @steppenwolfthtr.bsky.social

Alas, F Murray raised the Salieri bar to high for anyone to compare
Program for Steppenwolf Theatre’s production of Amadeus
November 7, 2025 at 4:38 AM
cbannister.bsky.social
#AlphabetChallenge #WeekSForShadows
Last night the Super Moon was perfectly positioned for a few minutes directly over one of my skylights which allowed for these playful shadow poses of my head and arm raised in an L shape with my fingers splayed Another Super Moon shadow shot, my head tilted in a big bump over the V of my arm and more pointy fingers
November 6, 2025 at 2:02 PM
cbannister.bsky.social
Needing to keep the good vibes flowing, today was baked apple cider doughnut day! 🍎 🍩 🍂
2 trays of baked apple cider donuts, fresh from the oven 2 apple cider donuts on a fruit-edged plate - the bottom one was dipped in melted butter before rolling in spiced sugar, the top just the sugar. (The bottom one was better, ftr)
November 5, 2025 at 5:42 PM
cbannister.bsky.social
#AlphabetChallenge #WeekSForShadows
#SmithsonianCampaign
Two soft sculptures in terracotta pots, by Margarita Cabrera, made from the green khaki fabric of US Border Patrol agent uniforms in shapes that resemble desert plants near the US and Mexico border cast shadows on the walls and platform of their exhibit space (the Smithsonian American Art museum). From the display card: As part of the ongoing series Space in Between, begun in 2010, Margarita Cabrera invites immigrants who have crossed the border to gather with one another and collaborate with her on a sculpture that tells their story. Their stories highlight how race is central to the policing of national borders. Each work is embroidered with symbols and words chosen by the maker to commemorate their often perilous and traumatic experience.
November 5, 2025 at 1:56 PM
cbannister.bsky.social
My maple tree is brilliant this year.
A tall maple tree with vivid red leaves on a residential Chicago stret
November 4, 2025 at 11:29 PM
cbannister.bsky.social
#AlphabetChallenge #WeekSForShadows 😜
2 record albums on a table, both by Andy Gibb and with a picture of him on the front, the one in the back is “Shadow Dancing”
November 4, 2025 at 2:18 PM
cbannister.bsky.social
#AlphabetChallenge #WeekSForShadow
The sun behind me casts an elongated shadow onto a stone stairway leading down into a deep ancient cave in Mycenae, Greece
November 3, 2025 at 1:57 PM
cbannister.bsky.social
#AlphabetChallenge #WeekRForRock
Since I’ve been thinking of him this weekend, here’s me and my dad (circa 1977, given my version of the Dorothy Hamill haircut) next to the meteorite in the woods on the peninsula that borders Lake Kabetogama, MN. I’m looking far more tomboy than I ever was, with my short hair, long-sleeved red plaid flannel shirt and wide legged jeans. My dad is behind me, one sneakered foot up on the big rock, wearing a long-sleeved chambray shirt and jeans and smiling down at me from above (like this weekend!). Sorry for the graininess- it’s obviously a scan of an old print photo.
November 2, 2025 at 1:47 PM
cbannister.bsky.social
#AlphabetChallenge #WeekRForRock
Landscape of The Rock, aka Newfoundland is dramatic steep cliffs straight up from the pale blue Atlantic and enormous dark mounds of rock rising up from the waters across from the crags
November 1, 2025 at 2:34 PM