John Lithgow

John Lithgow was born October 19, 1945 in Rochester, New York...73 days later and 86 miles from...Happy Birthday, John

He spent his childhood years in Yellow Springs, Ohio.  Coretta Scott King was his babysitter.  

John Lithgow spent his teenage years in Akron and Lakewood, Ohio followed by Princeton, New Jersey.  He graduated from Harvard University in 1967.

John Lithgow was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performances in The World According to Garp (1982) and Terms of Endearment (1983).  He won in neither year.

I pictured John Lithgow as my protagonist in my screenplay Best of Intensions, which I wrote some years ago.  It is a love story between an American and a Mexican woman (I thought of Salma Hayek) which takes place in the early years of WWII when the USA invaded Mexico, an axis partner(?).

My prophecy happened in 2017 when John (Doug) and Salma (Beatriz) appeared together in the film Beatriz at Dinner.  The two portray guests at a dinner party.  Interactions between Doug and Beatriz get off to a bad start with Doug mistaking her for one of the house staff members.  

Later, in the living room, tensions come to a head when Doug brags about his hunting of animals while on safari in South Africa and passes around his phone that has a photo of a dead rhinoceros he hunted.

When Beatriz sees the photo, she calls the act "disgusting" and hurls the mobile at Doug.  This is not the love story I imagined.  In fact, Beatriz imagines killing Doug.

rap sheet

A rap sheet is an informal term for a criminal record, which is a detailed list of a person's arrests, charges, and convictions maintained by law enforcement agencies. These records include details on various offenses, penalties, and judicial decisions related to a person's involvement with the criminal justice system.

The term rap sheet is a combination of the slang word "rap," meaning a criminal charge or accusation, and the word "sheet," referring to a document or list. It became a common phrase around the 1940s.

Access to a person's rap sheet is legally restricted to law enforcement, criminal justice professionals, and authorized state and federal agencies for legitimate purposes like employment or licensing.  Public access is highly restricted, as rap sheets are not public records and cannot be obtained through Freedom of Information requests.

About forty plus years ago, I was driving along Delancey Street in lower Manhattan, having come across the Williamsburg Bridge on the way to my family's favorite Chinese restaurant, Say Eng Look, which is unfortunately gone. 

At a red light, a scruffy young man approached the car and engaged my first wife, Bonita, in conversation.  It basically consisted of asking for money.

She obliged, but asked him why he was not looking for gainful employment.  He responded as it was difficult to find because of his rap sheet.

The light turned green and we departed, but not before Bonita wished him well.  A few seconds later, my young daughter Rachel asked unforgettably, "What's a rap sheet?"

Robert Redford

Robert Redford was born August 18, 1936 in Santa Monica, California.  He became a respected actor, director and producer.

Robert Redford attended Van Nuys High School, where he was a classmate of baseball pitcher Don Drysdale.  Another student at the school was the actress Natalie Wood.  He hit tennis balls with Pancho Gonzalez at the Los Angeles Tennis Club to help Gonzalez warm up for matches.

Robert Redford's acting career began in New York City, where he worked both on stage and in television. His Broadway debut was in a small role in Tall Story (1959).  

His biggest success on Broadway was as the stuffy newlywed husband of Elizabeth Ashley in the original 1963 cast of Neil Simon's Barefoot in the Park.  One night, I was in the audience at the Biltmore Theatre watching the young Robert Redford perform.

In the play, a newly wed couple live on the top floor (no elevator) of a brownstone in Manhattan.  When people arrive in their apartment, they are out of breath.  It reminds me of the apartment my brother Paul once lived in west of Central Park.

I saw many of Robert Redford's movies such as: Barefoot in the Park, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, Tell Them Willie Boy is Here, Downhill Racer, The Candidate, The Sting, The Way We Were, All The President's Men, The Natural, Out of Africa, Indecent Proposal and All is Lost.

Robert Redford won his only Academy Award as Best Director for the film Ordinary People.

Sadly, he died at his home in Sundance, Utah on September 16th this year.    

  

Paladin, Chapter 11

 INT. HOTEL ROOM - DAY

When PALADIN opens door to his hotel room, he is confronted by BIG DAN, large and  heavy-set, who is sitting in a chair at the far end of the room next to a picture window.  

PALADIN: Who are you and what are you doing in my room?

BIG DAN: I'm BIG DAN and what are you doin' in my town...with my woman?

PALADIN: Your wife hired me in San Francisco.  I suggest you discuss her reasons with her.  Now, I also suggest you get out of my room.

BIG DAN: You fuck her in San Francisco?

PALADIN: My relationship with POLLYANNA is purely professional.  As I said, I suggest you talk to her about why she hired me.  

PALADIN gives BIG DAN his card, who then reads it.

Paladin pivots to be ready to draw his gun.  BIG DAN rises from his chair.

BIG DAN: Well...did you fuck my wife?

PALADIN: That is a very crude remark.  I do not fuck women.  I make love to them, and I do it very well.  To answer your question, I did not fuck your wife.  Now, for the last time, get out of my room.

BIG DAN: If you're trying to scare me, I don't scare.  I'm the one who's scary. 

PALADIN: I don't think you're scary, just big, an accident of birth.

BIG DAN: Alright.  But I better get the same answer from POLLYANNA.  I'll be seein' you again...PALADIN.  

BIG DAN slowly leaves the room.  PALADIN takes a deep breath.  

Sandra Day O'Connor

 Sandra Day was born on March 26, 1930, in El Paso, Texas.  She grew up on a 198,000-acre family cattle ranch near Duncan, Arizona and in El Paso.

Accepted by Stanford University at age 16, Day earned a B.A. in economics in 1950, graduating magna cum laude.   She pursued a law degree at Stanford Law School, graduating near the top of her class in 1952.

While in her final year at Stanford Law School, Day began dating John Jay O'Connor III, who was one class year behind her.  On December 20, 1952, six months after her graduation, O'Connor and Day married at her family's ranch.

Sandra Day O'Connor served as assistant Attorney General of Arizona from 1965 to 1969.  In 1969, the governor of Arizona appointed O'Connor to fill a vacancy in the Arizona Senate.  

O'Connor ran for and won the election for the seat the following year.  By 1973, she became the first woman to serve as Arizona's or any state's majority leader.  

O'Connor developed a reputation as a skilled negotiator and a moderate. After serving two full terms, she decided to leave the Senate.

In 1974, O'Connor was appointed to the Maricopa County Superior Court, serving from 1975 to 1979 when she was elevated to the Arizona Court of Appeals.

On July 7, 1981, President Ronald Reagan – who had pledged during his 1980 presidential campaign to appoint the first woman to the Court – announced he would nominate O'Connor as an associate justice of the U. S. Supreme Court to replace the retiring Potter Stewart.  Reagan formally nominated O'Connor on August 19, 1981.

On September 21, 1981 (44 years ago) O'Connor was confirmed by the U.S. Senate with a vote of 99–0.  She served on the Supreme Court until her retirement in 2006.

Yogurt

When I was growing up in Oswego, New York in the 1950s, my father was the manager of a local dairy.  It specialized in milk, cottage cheese and ice cream.

When I went to college in 1963, I discovered another dairy product I had never heard of: yogurt.

Yogurt is a fermented dairy product created when bacteria convert the sugars in milk into lactic acid, which causes the milk to thicken and develop its characteristic tangy flavor.  Yogurt comes in a vast range of flavors like strawberry, blueberry, peach, and raspberry being very popular, alongside vanilla and plain.

I discovered yogurt during my college days, but I never ate it until sometime afterwards.  I will explain.

In my junior year in college, I took a course in Russian literature.  We read such books as Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky, A Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, Notes of a Madman by Nikolai Gogol and Doctor Zhivago by Boris Pasternak.

Everyday in class I sat at a desk in the center of the room near the front.  Everyday a cute redhaired girl sat to my right.  Everyday she brought a yogurt to eat before the class began.  It was usually strawberry flavor.

I never talked to the cute redhaired girl.  Neither in class, nor when all the students went to a special theater showing of the film version of Doctor Zhivago.  Why?  Lack of courage.

I wanted to talk to her, but I couldn't.  What a pity.  And I didn't try yogurt either, even though it looked delicious.

Since college I've eaten yogurt.  It is delicious.  

 

Summertime

Summertime is a 1955 romantic comedy drama film directed by David Lean, and starring Katharine Hepburn (as Jane) and Rossano Brazzi (as Renato). It follows a lonely middle-aged American secretary (Jane) during her experiences touring Venice alone, for the first time, looking for love.

The movie was filmed on location in Venice and the city was like a significant character along with Jane and Renato (an Italian shopkeeper).  The scenery was mesmerizing.

David Lean (Best Director) and Katharine Hepburn (Best Actress) were nominated for Academy Awards, but neither won.  

Summertime reminded me of another 1955 movie, Marty, about a lonely man in New York City.  Both Jane and Marty are looking for love, but are afraid of the effort (possibility of rejection) required to find it.  As Marty said, "I don't want to get hurt no more."

In the first scene in which we see both Jane and Renato, he is staring at her at an outdoor cafe.  When she makes eye contact with him, she turns away and quickly leaves.  She should have smiled back at him.

Here is some of the outstanding dialogue written by David Lean and H. E. Bates.

Jane: I was coming to Europe to find something...I was looking for...a wonderful mystical magical (experience)...to find what I've been missing all my life 

a friend: those miracles, they can happen some times, but you must give a little push to help

___

Renato: I came to see you...for you, it is no trouble

Jane: why did you come to see me?

Renato:  it is only natural...why must you understand (why I am here)?...the most beautiful things in life are those we do not understand...because you attract me...we saw each other, we liked each other...this is so nice, how can it be wrong

____

Jane:  Why did you do that (kiss me)?  I don't think I want to see you again.  (after another kiss) I love you.  Tomorrow?

Renato:  Eight.

____

A friend:  Everybody loves you.  

Jane:  I don't want everybody.  I can't handle a crowd.  Two.  That's the loveliest number in the world.

____  

Renato:  You dream of meeting someone you want: young, rich, witty, brilliant and unmarried.  But me, I am a shopkeeper.  Not young, not rich, not witty, not brilliant and married (but separated).  But, I am a man and you are a woman.  You are like a hungry child who is given ravioli to eat.  No, you say, I want beef steak.  My dear girl, you are hungry, eat ravioli.  

Jane:  I'm not that hungry.

Renato:  There is a noise in your head.   Be quiet.  Let it happen.  

Jane:  I want it to happen.  It just isn't the way I thought it would be.  I come from such a different world and I'm not going to be here long.

Renato:  So, it is better to take home only Venetian glass (she purchased)?