Miscellaneous
Life on the ‘Prairie’
Actress embraces her inner Nellie; slated for weekend PFLAG appearance
Alison Arngrim (Photo by Gor Magaera)
There was a time, actress Alison Arngrim recalls, when her character Nellie Oleson — nemesis of the wholesome Ingalls girls on the hit ’70s show “Little House on the Prairie” — got a little too mean.
Arngrim mostly relished the juicy part. She found the screaming, howling and throwing things a great release. But there was one time she thought the writers took it a bit too far.
“There was one episode that was almost too mean,” Arngrim says during a lengthy phone interview from her house in Los Angeles’ Tujunga neighborhood. “It’s the one where I’m tormenting this poor girl who stuttered. I was kind of cringing when we were filming it thinking, ‘Oh man, I would never do this.’ I had to go to speech class as a child too, so it hit a nerve with me and I know how traumatic it can be. So I’m thinking, ‘OK, I’d pretty much slit my wrists before I’d torment somebody like this.’ This poor girl was sobbing and I’m making her say, ‘Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers,’ again and again. ‘I can’t hear you!’ It was pretty sick. I even felt a little sick while we were doing it.”
Arngrim’s “Little House” memories are mostly fond, though. She’s been touring her one-woman show “Confessions of a Prairie Bitch” for years. Last year she adapted it into an autobiography that’s drawn raves.
Her former co-star Melissa Gilbert (Laura), whom Arngrim calls her best friend, says she “devoured” “Confessions” in two days and, “after reading it I admire her more than ever.”
Arngrim is in Washington this weekend for “Stand United,” PFLAG D.C.’s gala and silent auction slated for 6 p.m. Saturday at the Washington Plaza Hotel in Thomas Circle. And she says she couldn’t come to town without stopping by Nellie’s Sports Bar, the gay pub across from Town on U Street, N.W. Owner Doug Schantz met Arngrim last summer in Provincetown, Mass., and told her to stop by if ever she was in D.C. She’ll sign copies of her book there tonight (Thursday) at 6 p.m.
Even though the bar wasn’t named after her character, Arngrim thinks the connection is funny.
“He sent me all the T-shirts, hats and everything with the Nellie’s logo,” Arngrim says. “I’m like, ‘Oh my god, this is awesome!’ I wear nothing but Nellie’s Sports Bar clothes.”
Arngrim, now 49 and a nearly life-long AIDS, LGBT rights and child abuse advocate, started working at age 6. When “Little House” was casting, she read for both the Mary and Laura parts, but landed Nellie instead. She credits “the Michael Landon academy” as her acting school and says “it came weirdly naturally.”
The uppity Oleson clan — wealthier and snobbier than the Ingalls — provided the show with its comic relief. Her “Little House” parents, Katherine MacGregor (Harriet) and Richard Bull (Nels) — both 86 — are doing well. She keeps in touch and remembers them fondly.
“They adored each other but they would have these hysterical arguments,” Arngrim says. “This was back in the ’70s when Prop 13, which slashed property taxes and in a way kind of ruined the state, was big. It was this bizarre political thing in California at the time and was very controversial. Katherine and Richard were sitting on the set debating this thing and you would have sworn it was Mr. and Mrs. Oleson. It was so good, you could have filmed it. They were just like an old married couple.”
Arngrim says Bull is still working, “which is crazy.” MacGregor, she says, was “one of the funniest” people on the set.
“She was like Mrs. Oleson in some ways — not mean but just completely bananas.”
Alison Arngrim as Nellie Oleson. (Photo courtesy of the archives of Alison Arngrim)
The adult actors were gracious to the many child actors on the show, she says. They addressed them by their first names but included “sir” and “ma’am,” as they did with the crew.
The show filmed at Paramount then later at MGM on Stage 15 where “The Wizard of Oz” was also filmed. Arngrim claims she and Gilbert found pieces of the yellow brick road on the set. The outdoor scenes where facades of the famous Oleson’s Mercantile and Nellie’s Restaurant were built, were filmed at L.A.’s famous Big Sky Ranch.
“It’s so funny, they shoot everything there,” Arngrim says. “All these truck commercials that show how these big trucks can go through all this terrain. They’re totally driving through Walnut Grove. It’s hilarious. You see it on shows and commercials all the time.”
One thing she doesn’t miss is the famous Nellie wig, which she says was “practically nailed to my head.” It’s her own hair in the first few episodes but hers wouldn’t “hold the curl” so for the rest of the run it was a wig. She remembers the “Little House” stylists Ziggy Geike and Larry Germain pinning it on her each day with “about 8 million pins — it was excruciatingly painful.”
Several long-time cast members left after the seventh season, including Arngrim. Her contract was up and she says she didn’t see her character, who’d grown up, gotten married, had twins and become nice, going anywhere interesting.
“I thought, ‘OK, I’m done.’ It’s time to get out the door and do something else. Even Michael (Landon) hadn’t realized it would go on this long and become this monster. … This was pre-‘Friends’ so we didn’t have the big salaries and they weren’t offering any great incentive to re-sign. If I’d known it was only going to go on another two years, I might have stayed but my family was reminding me I didn’t want to end up like Miss Kitty on ‘Gunsmoke.'”
Arngrim laughs when she recalls how producers simply “cloned” several of the characters who left. A new, equally wholesome family moved in the Ingalls old house when Landon and Karen Grassle left. And the Olesons adopted holy terror Nancy.
“I was kind of this royal, imperious bitch, but she was more psychotic,” Arngrim says. “She was more ‘Bad Seed’ crazy, than Nellie. But it didn’t really work and it only went a couple more years.”
Arngrim’s activism sprang from her “Little House” work. Actor Steve Tracy, who played her husband Percival, was gay and died of AIDS in 1986.
“It was extremely traumatic for all of us,” Arngrim says. “He’d left this cryptic message on my answering machine and said he had cancer, kind of. I said, ‘What is cancer kind of?’ I knew something horrible was happening. This was in ’86 and there was just nothing then. Life expectancies were about nine months. And he was very ill.”
Even though PFLAG is a little different from the AIDS organizations for which Arngrim has long volunteered and worked — she was a full-time employee of Tuesday’s Child from 1989-1993 — she says it’s an important group she’s long admired.
“These families who treat their gay children like they’re from outer space, I’ve just never understood it. It’s like, ‘Jesus, what’s wrong with you?’ So this group that had the audacity to actually not reject their gay children — what a freaking thought — it’s a great thing. Nobody’s free till we’re all free.”
Go here for Arngrim’s appearances, book information and more.
Miscellaneous
Stephen Miller’s legal group sues Fairfax County schools
Lawsuit challenges policies for transgender, nonbinary students
Former Trump administration official Stephen Miller’s legal group on Tuesday filed a lawsuit against the Fairfax County School District over its policies for transgender and nonbinary students.
America First Legal in a press release notes it filed the lawsuit against the school district on behalf of a female, “practicing Roman Catholic” student “for allowing teenage boys to use the female restrooms and for forcing a radical, government-sponsored gender indoctrination and approved-speech scheme that discriminates against students on the basis of sex and religion and violates their free speech rights under the Virginia Constitution.”
The lawsuit was filed in Fairfax County Circuit Court.
The Virginia Department of Education last July announced new guidelines for trans and nonbinary students for which Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin asked. Equality Virginia and other advocacy groups claim they, among other things, would forcibly out trans and nonbinary students.
Fairfax County schools are among the school districts that have refused to implement the guidelines.
“Fairfax County Public Schools appears to believe that its policies and regulations can override the Virginia Constitution’s protections for religious beliefs, speech and from government discrimination on the basis of sex and religious beliefs,” said America First legal Senior Advisor Ian Prior in a press release. “It is well past time for FCPS to stop sacrificing the constitutional rights of its students so that it can implement a state-sanctioned ideology that demands compliance in speech, beliefs and conduct.”
FCPS Pride, a group that represents the Fairfax County School District’s LGBTQ employees, described the lawsuit as “abhorrent.”
“We are confident that the school board and the superintendent will strongly and firmly oppose this specious suit and continue to support all students, including transgender and gender expansive students,” said the group in a press list.
Miscellaneous
More than a dozen LGBTQ candidates on the ballot in Va.
Control of the state Senate hangs in the balance
More than a dozen openly LGBTQ candidates are on the ballot in Virginia on Nov. 7.
State Del. Danica Roem (D-Manassas) is running against Republican Bill Woolf in the newly redistricted Senate District 30 that includes western Prince William County and the cities of Manassas and Manassas Park.
Roem in 2018 became the first openly transgender person seated in a state legislature in the U.S. after she defeated then-state Del. Bob Marshall, a prominent LGBTQ rights opponent who co-wrote Virginia’s constitutional amendment defining marriage as between a man and a woman. Roem would become Virginia’s first out trans state senator if she defeats Woolf.
Woolf supports a bill that would require school personnel to out trans students to their parents. The Republican Party of Virginia has highlighted this position in ads in support of Woolf.
“Thank you for reminding me why I won three elections in this district in Prince William County, which is the most diverse county in all of Virginia and the 10th most nationally where we welcome everyone because of who they are, not despite it, no matter what you look like, where you come from, how you worship, if you do, or who you love because you should be able to thrive here because of who you are, never despite it,” said Roem on Sept. 28 in response to a woman who heckled her during a debate with Woolf that took place at Metz Middle School in Manassas.
Gay state Sen. Adam Ebbin (D-Alexandria) is running for re-election in Senate District 39. State Del. Mark Sickles (D-Fairfax County), who is also gay, is running for re-election in House District 43.
Former state Del. Joshua Cole, who identifies as bisexual, is running against Republican Lee Peters in House District 65. State Del. Kelly Convirs-Fowler (D-Virginia Beach), who came out as bisexual last year at Hampton Roads Pride, will face Republican Mike Karslake and independent Nicholas Olenik.
State Del. Marcia “Cia” Price (D-Newport News), a Black woman who identifies as pansexual, is running for re-election in House District 85.
Adele McClure, a queer Democrat, is running to represent House District 2 that includes portions of Arlington County. Laura Jane Cohen, a bisexual woman who is a member of the Fairfax County School Board, is a House of Delegates candidate in House District 15.
Rozia Henson, a gay federal contractor who works for the Department of Homeland Security, is running in House District 19. Zach Coltrain, a gay Gen Zer, is running against state Del. Barry Knight (R-Virginia Beach) in House District 98.
LPAC has endorsed Jade Harris, a Rockbridge County Democrat who is running to represent Senate District 3. Harris’ website notes trans rights are part of their platform.
“Protecting trans rights, repealing right to work, strengthening unions and supporting our farmers are just a few of my legislative priorities,” reads the website. “I am dedicated to addressing the revitalization of our state’s infrastructure, fostering a favorable environment for job creation, and supporting our public education system.”
Republicans currently control the House by a 51-46 margin, while Democrats have a 21-19 majority in the state Senate.
Senate Democrats have successfully blocked anti-LGBTQ bills that Republicans have introduced since Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin took office in January 2022.
The Virginia Department of Education in July released new guidelines for trans and nonbinary students that activists and their supporters have sharply criticized. They fear that Republicans will curtail LGBTQ rights in the state if they regain control of both houses of the General Assembly on Nov. 7.
“Time and time again, anti-equality lawmakers and the Youngkin administration have made it clear that they will continue to disrespect and disregard the lives and lived experience of LGBTQ+ people within Virginia,” said Equality Virginia PAC Executive Director Narissa Rahaman in August when her organization and the Human Rights Campaign endorsed Roem, Ebbin and other “pro-equality champions.”
“We must elect pro-equality champions who will secure and strengthen our freedoms,” added Rahaman. “We have that chance as the eyes of the nation are on us this November.”
The LGBTQ+ Victory Fund has endorsed Fairfax County School Board Vice Chair Karl Frisch and Fairfax County School Board candidates Robyn Lady and Kyle McDaniel, who identify as lesbian and bisexual respectively.
Michael Pruitt would become the first openly bisexual man elected to the Albemarle County Board of Supervisors if he were to win on Nov. 7. Blacksburg Town Councilman Michael Sutphin and Big Stone Gay Town Councilman Tyler Hughes, who are both gay, are running for re-election.
“Tyler will be a critical voice for equality as the only out LGBTQ+ person on the Big Stone Gap Town Council,” says the Victory Fund on its website.
Cal Benn contributed to this article.
Miscellaneous
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Five easy tips to help you avoid common risks
Your home is more than just a place to eat and sleep; it’s your safe haven. As much as you might cherish your home, you should probably also recognize the potential hazards within its familiar walls. Accidents can happen in an instant, yet with a little foresight and some simple adjustments, you can transform your house into a safer haven.
Accidents can happen anywhere, and with a few simple tweaks, you can lower risks in your space. Below you’ll find five tips for each room in your home to help prevent injuries, falls, and other mishaps. In short, home safety.
This article was inspired by a shower in a rental we managed that began leaking through the kitchen ceiling below. If only the landlord had installed grab bars, right!? Below, we’ll guide you through the steps to fortify your bathroom, making it a place of relaxation without the fear of slips and falls. Then, we’ll venture into the room where the magic happens, where proper planning can ensure great nights and peaceful mornings. We’ll show you how to prevent accidents while you experiment becoming the next Gordon Ramsey. And we’ll include a few surprising solutions for those other rooms that hold their own unique hazards, offering solutions to safeguard against unexpected mishaps.
Bathroom Safety
Install Grab Bars: Adding grab bars near the shower and toilet can provide essential support for family members of all ages. Not only can they help with getting in and out, but they can help provide stability when washing. Make sure they are securely anchored to the wall.
Non-Slip Mats: Place non-slip mats inside the shower and bathtub to prevent slips. They’re a small investment that can save you from falls and head injuries.
Adjust Water Temperature: Ensure your hot water is set to a safe temperature to avoid scalding. The hot water heater should be set to around 120°F (49°C)l, the middle setting on many water heater settings.
Medicine Cabinet Locks: If you have young children, use childproof locks on your medicine cabinet to keep harmful substances out of reach.
Proper Lighting: Ensure there’s adequate lighting in the bathroom to avoid trips and falls during nighttime visits. Nightlights can be a simple and effective solution.
Bedroom Safety
Clear Pathways: Keep pathways in the bedroom clutter free to prevent tripping. Ensure there’s enough space to move around comfortably, particularly getting around the bed. Be aware where all furniture is when walking around to avoid stubbed toes, particularly at night.
Secure Rugs: If you have throw rugs, use rug grippers or double-sided tape to keep them from slipping. Loose rugs are a common trip hazard.
Bed Rails: For anyone at risk of falling out of bed, consider installing bed rails to provide extra support and prevent falls.
Nightstands with Drawers: Opt for nightstands with drawers to keep essential items. This reduces the need to get out of bed at night, minimizing the risk of falls, as you race to grab what you need and not lose a moment’s rest.
Fire Safety: Install battery-operated smoke detectors in the bedrooms if there are none. Make sure to install them 36 inches away from an air vent or the edge of a ceiling fan. Also six inches away from the joint between the wall and ceiling. And test smoke detectors regularly.
Kitchen Safety
Non-Slip Flooring: Choose slip-resistant rugs in the kitchen, especially in areas where spills are common. Mats near the sink and stove can also help and you can often buy them fairly cheaply at Costco.
Childproof Cabinets: If you have little ones, use childproof latches on cabinets and drawers to prevent them from accessing potentially hazardous items.
Anti-tip brackets: Install an anti-tip bracket behind the range. These are often used when children are in the home. Although they are less likely to open the oven door and use it as a step stool to get to the stove-top, adults can also benefit from installing these.
Adequate Lighting: Proper lighting is crucial in the kitchen to avoid accidents. Under-cabinet lighting can illuminate work areas effectively.
Secure Heavy Items: Ensure heavy pots and pans are stored at waist level to prevent straining or dropping them from high shelves.
Sharp Object Storage: Keep knives and other sharp objects in a secure drawer or block. And handle all sharp items with extreme care, even when washing and drying. These steps reduce the risk of accidental cuts.
Other Safety Tips
Furniture Anchors: Secure heavy furniture, like bookshelves and dressers, to the wall to prevent tip-overs, especially if you have young children.
Adequate Outlets: Check for damaged outlets and replace them promptly. Avoid overloading circuits with too many devices. Install placeholder plugs in outlets to prevent young curious fingers (or tongues?) from going inside an electrical outlet.
Stair Gates: If your home has stairs, install safety gates at the top and bottom to prevent falls, especially if you have toddlers or pets to keep them off of the stairs when you cannot monitor them.
Emergency Escape Plan: Develop and practice an emergency escape plan with your family, including a designated meeting place outside.
Carbon Monoxide Detector: If your home burns any fossil fuels for heating or appliances, install carbon monoxide detectors in common areas of your home to detect this odorless gas. The D.C. building codes require this if you use a fireplace or if you have an attached garage. In essence, if there is any potential source of carbon monoxide in the home, be sure to install these detectors.
Remember, a safer home not only prevents accidents but also provides peace of mind for you and your family. Implement these simple tips to create a secure environment in every room of your house.
With these practical tips and a few adjustments, you can significantly reduce the risk of injuries and falls in your home. Enjoy peace of mind in your now much safer haven.
Scott Bloom is owner and senior property manager of Columbia Property Management.
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