Robespierre and also de Brencourt

I had an extraordinary dream in which my *mother* was engaged to Robespierre (who was pretending to be blind) under orders from the British Government, who were holding him in captivity. He apparently decided that this was a fate worse than death and that he would prefer to be executed, at which she was understandably both dismayed and relieved. My subconscious then reminded me that he was very short-sighted, which would serve as an excuse for the feigned blindness, and I woke up. This is the sort of thing that happens after you stumble across the existence of Robespierre fangirls while attempting to check historical details on the Internet...

( Robespierre fangirls )

My face-claim for the Comte de Brencourt: Raymond Massey in "A Matter of Life and Death"

But F. Murray Abrahams as Salieri is something in the same line, as well.

Plum duff

It is suet pudding weather; I made a plum duff, or "hunter's pudding", from the National Trust book of traditional puddings -- this has a relatively low proportion of flour and suet to dried fruit and goes into the bowl quite runny. Mine was a little more of a 'plum' duff than the recipe book intended, as I had to revert to the roots of the recipe and used chopped prunes (dried plums) and some chopped almonds to make up the weight of fruit, in lieu of the raisins you were expected to have in your kitchen!

I was going to make a Pear & Walnut Hat, but apparently I used up all my walnuts :-p