Lee Remick

Lee Remick, the actress, was born December 14 1935 in Quincy, Massachusetts.  She made her Broadway debut at age 18.

Remick made her film debut in Elia Kazan's A Face in the Crowd (1957).  She portrayed Betty Lou, a teenage baton twirler, who marries the protagonist, played by Andy Griffith.

Remick came to prominence portraying a rape victim whose husband is tried for killing her attacker in Otto Preminger's Anatomy of a Murder (1959).  I consider this to be the best courtroom drama.

When her husband goes to bed early one evening after work, Laura (Remick), feeling bored and lonely, goes to a local bar to drink and play pinball.  Leaving, she is offered a ride by the proprietor who had previously befriended her and her husband.  On their way, he rapes and assaults her.

After arriving home, Laura tells her husband what happened.  He then goes to the bar and kills the rapist.  

Laura has several key scenes both before the trial and during it.  She flirts with her husband's attorney, Paul Biegler (James Stewart), and is intimidated by the prosecutor, Claude Dancer (George C. Scott).

In 1962, Lee Remick stars opposite Jack Lemmon in the romantic drama film Days of Wine and Roses.  They portray a couple who become alcoholics.  

There is a line in the movie that alcoholics often demonstrate obsessive behavior, pointing out that Kirsten's (Remick) previous passion for chocolate may have been the first sign of an addictive personality.  That doesn't apply to me.

Remick was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress for the above film, but it was won by Anne Bancroft for The Miracle Worker.  

Remick died of kidney cancer in 1991 at the age of 52.  Que pena!    

 

Behold a Pale Horse

Behold a Pale Horse is a 1964 American drama film directed by Fred Zinnemann and starring Gregory Peck, Omar Sharif and Anthony Quinn.  The story relates to the period in Spain and France twenty years after the Spanish Civil War.

Artiguez (Peck), a member of the defeated Republican forces, lives in exile in France and formerly conducted raids against the Franco government in Spain.  Vinolas (Quinn), a Spanish police officer, desperately wants to capture or kill Artiguez.  

A message is sent to Artiguez to come visit his dying mother in Spain.  It is a trap.  A priest (Sharif) is sent by the mother to tell her son not to come.  Artiguez comes any way.

On Saturday night, September 26, 1964, my brother Paul and I attended a screening of Behold a Pale Horse at a movie theater in Center City Philadelphia.  Just before the movie began, four large men sat down in the row directly in front of us.

Directly in front of me was Dick Modzelewski, a member of the Cleveland Browns football team that would play the hometown Eagles the next day.  Even though I only saw him from the back, I recognized him from his brush hair cut.  I was familiar with Modzelewski from his time with the New York football Giants, my favorite team.

The Browns beat the Eagles that Sunday.  I was in attendance at Franklin Field and saw Modzelewski a second time.  The Browns went on to win the NFL championship that year, 1964, the last time they did so.

I did not know that Modzelewski and I shared the name Blair, my first, his middle.  I also didn't know that he went to the University of Maryland, class of 1953, where my son Bret went, class of 2007.

Modzelewski died in 2018 at the age of 87.

I was reminded of all this when I saw Behold a Pale Horse recently on YouTube for the first time in more than 60 years.   

Paladin, Chapter 13

 INT. HOTEL LOBBY - NIGHT

PALADIN walks across lobby, climbs stairs to door of his room.  Enters his hotel room.  

INT. HOTEL ROOM - NIGHT

As soon as he enters his dark hotel room, he realizes there is another intruder.  He coils up and draws his revolver.  Then he sees it's POLLYANNA sitting on the chair by the window.  She's dressed in attractive clothes.

PALADIN: First your husband, now you sneak into my room.  Didn't anybody teach either of you manners?

POLLYANNA: How come you told my husband we didn't sleep together in San Francisco?

PALADIN: I told him we didn't fuck.  That's such a crude word.  I never do that.  

POLLYANNA: Then, what the hell did we do back there?

PALADIN: That is for you and me to bury in our memories forever...never to discuss again.

POLLYANNA: Oh, yeah?

POLLYANNA starts to undress, first removing her dress, showing her undergarments.

POLLYANNA: You know, my husband is very boring in bed.  He doesn't give a shit whether I'm enjoying myself or not.  As you are aware, some men pride themselves in trying to please their women.

POLLYANNA is now topless, exposing her breasts.

PALADIN: I think you've gone far enough.  It wouldn't look so good if BIG DAN were to show up right now.  Do you know where he is?

POLLYANNA: I don't give a damn where he is.  I want you...now.

PALADIN: Well, you can't have me...now...or ever again.  I don't make love to people who lie.

POLLYANNA: Consider the $1,000 as a payment for such horizontal services.

PALADIN: Not gonna happen.

PALADIN grabs POLLYANNA forcefully and throws her out of his room along with her clothes.  

PALADIN: And don't come back.

POLLYANNA screams.

PALADIN locks door and window to prevent anymore unwelcome visitors.

POLLYANNA: Fuck you, you son of a bitch.

She quickly covers up as a couple of hotel guests arrive on the floor. 

JFK again

Early in September 1960, I was with my family in a Boston hotel lobby when U.S. Senator John F. Kennedy, the Democratic Candidate for President of the United States, walked through it on his way out.  

On October 30, 1963, I was in the upper level of Convention Hall in Philadelphia to hear a speech given by President John F. Kennedy to a group of local members of the Democratic Party at a fund raising dinner.  I remember all the invited guests on the lower level of the Hall wore tuxedos.  The public sat up above and had to provide their own food and drink.

A little before 2 PM on Friday, November 22, 1963 (sixty-two years ago yesterday), I walked into my freshman English class in College Hall at the University of Pennsylvania.  Before the professor arrived to begin the class, one of my fellow students walked in with a transistor radio which was broadcasting the news.  He proclaimed that Kennedy had been shot in Dallas.  I remember my crazy first reaction was “What was he doing in Dallas?”  

We all, now including the professor, sat glued to our seats until we heard the official notification from the radio announcer that the President was dead.  The professor then cancelled class and left.  I returned to my freshman dorm and a weekend all Americans alive at the time will never forget.

The thing I remember most about JFK, besides the Cuban Missle Crisis, was his sense of humor, which was excellent.  He was the first president to have live regularly scheduled news conferences which I occasionally got to watch on TV.  There were 64 of them during his presidency which lasted 1,037 days, an average of one every 16 days.  JFK was glib and, whenever he could, he would elicit some laughter from the assembled journalists, usually of the self-deprecating kind.

As I did not have easy access to a TV, most of my recollections from those tragic days in November of 1963 were from radio and newspapers.  I didn’t see Lee Harvey Oswald, the arrested and accused assassin, shot to death by Jack Ruby in the Dallas police station, live on television.  

We Americans, after having been punched in the stomach, were all in a sort of trance, sleepwalking from moment to moment, incredulous of what had happened to us as a nation.  How would we get past this?  Many of my colleagues didn’t know much about who was the new president (Lyndon Baines Johnson) and few had any confidence in him. 

The thing that sticks most in my mind from that weekend was going to Franklin Field on my college campus to watch the home town Eagles play a football game against the Washington NFL franchise, the two worst teams in its Eastern Conference.  Unlike every other sporting event that weekend, the NFL decided not to cancel its games that Sunday, two days after President Kennedy had been assassinated.  

It was an extremely controversial decision.  As I had previously purchased a ticket and did not want to lose my investment, I along with 60,670 others entered the stadium to witness a meaningless game.  In a gesture to attempt to satisfy their critics, the NFL decided not to telecast any of its games as was normally the case.  Besides, most Americans were too busy watching the continuous news coverage of the assassination.

While I was waiting for the game to begin, I heard some of my fellow football fans in the stadium talk about the assassination of Oswald.  Years later, I would be able to watch a vídeo of this second killing for myself.  Before the game started, someone sang the Star Spangled Banner and virtually the entire assembled mass joined in.  It was a very moving experience.  Oh, by the way, the Eagles lost the game.  

Burgess Meredith

Burgess Meredith was born November 16, 1907 (118 years ago today) in Cleveland, Ohio.  It was the same year as John Wayne and my mother.

Burgess Meredith's stage performances on Broadway in New York City attracted the attention of several Hollywood film producers. Unlike most other movie actors, Meredith never signed a long-term contract with a single studio, preferring to work on individual film projects.

In 1939, Meredith portrayed George in the film Of Mice and Men.  To save his friend Lennie from a lynch mob, George kills him.

In 1941, Meredith is Harry in the Ginger Rogers romantic comedy, Tom, Dick and Harry.  With a last minute kiss, he wins the girl. 

In 1945, Meredith acted as Ernie Pyle, a real life journalist, in the drama, The Story of G.I. Joe.  Pyle is allowed to accompany C Company, 18th Infantry of the US Army all the way to the front lines against Germany during World War II.

In 1966, Meredith portrayed the villainous Penguin in that year's film version of Batman.

In 1976, Meredith won the part of Mickey, Rocky Balboa's trainer, in the box office hit, Rocky.  He had some great lines, such as "you're gonna eat lightnin' and you're gonna crap thunder" plus "women weaken legs."  

Before he became famous, Rocky worked as a collector for a loan shark.  But it is not until Mickey calls him out for it that he truly sees he needs to change.

Mickey dismisses Rocky as someone with talent who became a "leg breaker" instead. When Rocky insists it is a way to make a living, Mickey spits back "It's a waste of life."  That is one of my favorite movie lines.

Meredith's last film role was Grandpa, near the end of his life, in Grumpier Old Men (1995), as Jack Lemmon's father.  "You realize that pretty soon you'll be gone and that all you'll have is the experiences...that's all there is."

Burgess Meredith died September 9, 1997.        

    

  

Phillies Karen

I love baseball.  And I love going to baseball games...at any level, Little League, high school, college and professional, both Major and Minor League.

The ultimate baseball game souvenir is a baseball batted into the stands.  Of course, a home run ball is preferable to a foul ball.  In all the times I went to a baseball game, I never caught a ball, neither a home run nor a foul.

In early this September, a Philadelphia Phillies fan, who now lives in south Florida, attended a Phillies-Miami Marlins baseball game at LoanDepot Park in Miami with his family.  

In the fourth inning, a Phillie hit a home run into the left field stands near where the fan was sitting.  He went to where the ball landed and grabbed it and returned to where his family was sitting and gave the ball to his young son.  

Soon, a woman, wearing a Phillies jersey, approached the fan and berated him for entering her space and "stealing" the souvenir that was rightfully hers.  She demanded the ball.  Normally, in such situations, possession is what counts.

The media named her Phillies Karen (a pejorative slang term used to describe a middle-class, often middle-aged, white woman who is perceived as entitled, demanding, and who uses her privilege to get her way, often at the expense of others).

"She just screamed in my ear, ‘That’s my ball,’ like, super loud,”  said the fan. “I jumped out of my skin and I was like, you know, like ‘Why are you here?’ You know, ‘Go away.’”  

After a brief, tense exchange, the fan took the ball from his son’s mitt and gave it to her, and she walked away.  “I had a fork in the road: either do something I was probably going to regret or be a dad and show my son how to deescalate the situation.”

This reminded me of a similar event when my son Bret was young and playing basketball for MQ-FM.  I was asked to be one of two coaches at the annual all-star game.

I had 11 players on my team, including my son.  11 is an awkward number for a sport in which 5 players can be on the court at a time.

I was given no advice nor information as to how to substitute my players.  The other coach was substituting his players rapidly, almost every minute.  I had devised a different system which I thought was fair.  

Because the two teams were substituting differently, some spectators became frustrated.  One of the league directors approached me shouting angrily.  He demanded I start substituting like the other coach or he would replace me.  I tried to explain my alternative strategy, but he wouldn't listen.  

My immediate idea was to tell him to go f__k himself, but then I looked at my son sitting on the floor.  I didn't want to do anything to embarrass him or me.  I did what the director wanted me to do.  I de-escalated the situation.  And that was the last time I volunteered to help MQ-FM. 

The Parent Trap

The Parent Trap is a 1961 American romantic comedy film.  It stars Hayley Mills in a dual role as a pair of teenage identical twins who switch places with each other in order to reunite their divorced parents, played by Maureen O'Hara and Brian Keith.

Teenagers Sharon McKendrick (Mills) and Susan Evers (Mills) meet at a girls summer camp. Their identical appearance causes jealousy, resentment, and a rivalry in which they continually get each other into trouble and disrupt camp activities. As punishment, they must spend the remainder of the camp season rooming and dining together in isolation. 

Sharon and Susan overcome their mutual dislike when they realize they are identical twin sisters, whom their parents, Mitch (Keith) and Maggie (O'Hara), separated upon divorcing shortly after their birth. Eager to meet the parents from whom they were separated, they decide to cut their hair identically, coach each other on their lives, and switch places.

Hayley Mills was born April 18, 1946 (8 months after me) in London, England.  Both of her parents were actors. In 1959, she was cast in a film (Tiger Bay) in which her father (Sir John Mills) co-starred.

Mills was given the lead role in Pollyanna (1960).  The role of the orphaned "glad girl" who moves in with her aunt catapulted her to stardom in the United States and earned her a special Academy Award of Juvenile Oscar, the last person to win the accolade. 

In the summer of 1961, The Parent Trap was featured at the Oswego Theater.  I must have seen it at least a half a dozen times.  Why?

I developed a crush on Hayley Mills.  I even fantasized about how I would go to Hollywood where we would meet and become boyfriend/girlfriend.  It never happened.

Strangely, I never saw her in any of her other movies.  It was as if I fell in love with her characters in The Parent Trap and didn't want to mess up my mind with her being something different.

Occasionally, I hear in the media about Hayley Mills and am glad she is alive and well.  I am then reminded about that wonderful summer of 1961.

Paladin, Chapter 12

 INT. HOTEL DINING ROOM - NIGHT

PALADIN and SHERIFF ROGERS are sitting at table eating dinner of steak and potatoes and drinking beer.

PALADIN: Well, SHERIFF, I've decided to accept your offer to be deputy sheriff while you're gone.  

SHERIFF ROGERS: Great news.  You were my last hope.  I dunno what I'da done if'n you said no.

PALADIN: And you don't have to pay me.  I'm taking the position that, as a citizen of Windfall, POLLYANNA has already compensated me...$1,000...to do this service for her community.

SHERIFF ROGERS: More great news.  You saved the town $50.  Meet me at my office tomorrow morning at 9 and I'll swear you in.

PALADIN: So, exactly what do you want me to do?

SHERIFF ROGERS: Look, this is ordinarily a peaceful town.  You can sit on your ass in my office or you can wander the streets.  You might want to check the saloons a bit where trouble usually starts...if'n there's trouble.  

PALADIN: Are there any troublemakers I should look out for?

SHERIFF ROGERS: The only one comes to mind is an overgrown kid name of BILLY MORTON, a cowboy who works for BIG DAN.  Killed a guy in the saloon with his gun about six months ago.  Witnesses said it was self-defense.  Maybe they was scared.  BILLY likes to think he's tough.

PALADIN: Good to know.  I'll be there at 9.  Want more beer?

SHERIFF ROGERS: Sure, as long as you're payin.

EXT. PORCH IN FRONT OF HOTEL - NIGHT

PALADIN and SHERIFF ROGERS sit on porch in front of hotel smoking cigars.  SHERIFF ROGERS gets up to leave.

SHERIFF ROGERS: Gotta go.  Early day tomorrow.  Thanks for the smoke.  Night.

PALADIN: Good night, SHERIFF.  See you tomorrow.

PALADIN finishes cigar and re-enters hotel.

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)?

Paladin, Chapter 10

EXT. STREET - DAY

PALADIN walks across the street and enters the hotel.

INT. HOTEL - DAY

PALADIN walks up to reception desk.

PALADIN: I'll take my room now.  

Unseen by PALADIN, GRACE had been waiting for him to come back to the hotel.  She approaches him from behind.

GRACE: Mr. PALADIN?

PALADIN: You can call me PALADIN.  How can I be of service to you, GRACE?

GRACE: May we talk in private?

PALADIN: Of course.

In the corner of the lobby is a sofa.

PALADIN: How about over there?

GRACE: Okay.

The two walk over and sit on the sofa.

GRACE: I know POLLYANNA hired you to come here.  She's plotting something to try to steal away my husband and I can't let her do that.  Are you going to help her?

PALADIN: POLLYANNA hired me under false pretenses.  She claimed that CHARLES was her boyfriend.  Is he?

GRACE: (silence)

PALADIN: Madam, he could be both your husband and her boyfriend.  Is he her boyfriend?  Do they have some kind of illicit relationship?

GRACE: To my knowledge, no.  Not yet, anyway.  My marriage isn't perfect, but I believe CHARLES has been faithful to me.  POLLYANNA is an unprincipled hussy, a woman who's capable of doing anything to get any man she wants.  And she wants CHARLES.  If necessary, I will fight her for him, but I need to know what you will do for her.

PALADIN: I'm not here to break up your marriage, or hers.  What's with her and BIG DAN?

GRACE: I don't know.  Maybe she's bored with the brawny type and is more attracted to a more cerebral man.  I don't care.  I want to keep my man.  I love him.  I love CHARLES.

PALADIN: I believe you, but does CHARLES love you?

GRACE: (hesitating) I think so.  We don't say those words out loud...at least not very often.   But, I think he does.

PALADIN: I accepted $1,000 from POLLYANNA and I don't give refunds.  But, I don't believe I should get involved in all this marital business.  I owe her something, but I'm not sure what.  Let me make one thing clear, GRACE, I am not your enemy.

GRACE: Thank you for saying that.  I had better be returning to the store.  CHARLES doesn't know I went to talk to you.  Please don't tell him.

PALADIN: I won't.  It was a pleasure talking to you, GRACE.

GRACE nods to PALADIN and leaves hotel.  PALADIN walks up stairs to his room.

The Bird

Mark Fydrich was born August 14, 1954 in Worcester, Massachusetts.  He played baseball for Algonquin Regional High School in nearby Northborough.  

In 1974, Fydrich was drafted by the Detroit Tigers.  In the minor leagues, one of his coaches dubbed the lanky 6-foot-3 right-handed pitcher "The Bird" because of his resemblance to the "Big Bird" character on the popular Sesame Street television program.

Fidrych joined the Tigers spring training camp in 1976 and made the major league roster.  On May 15, Fidrych made his first start. He held the Cleveland Indians hitless through six innings and ended up with a two-hit, 2–1 complete game victory, with one walk and five strikeouts.

In addition to his pitching, Fidrych attracted attention in his debut for talking to the ball while on the pitcher's mound, strutting in a circle around the mound after every out, patting down the mound, and refusing to allow groundskeepers to fix the mound in the sixth inning.

  

On June 28, 1976, Fidrych pitched before 47,855 fans at Tiger Stadium and a national television audience in the millions, as the Tigers hosted the New York Yankees on ABC's Monday Night Baseball with Bob Prince, Warner Wolf, and Bob Uecker in the broadcast booth. Fidrych earned a 5–1 complete-game victory which took only an hour and 51 minutes. 

Fans would not leave the stadium until The Bird emerged from the dugout for a curtain call.   After the broadcast, which was filled with plenty of "Bird" antics, Fidrych became a national celebrity.

I was there that night at Tiger Stadium quietly rooting for the Yankees.  I remember one key moment when Fidrych struck out Yankee catcher Thurman Munson to end a New York rally.

Fidrych led the major leagues with a 2.34 ERA in 1976, won the American League (AL) Rookie of the Year award, and finished with a 19–9 record. Shortly thereafter, however, injuries derailed his career, which ended after just five seasons in the major leagues.

Cornell

Tomorrow, August 18, 2025, my grandson, Nate Gerstein, will move into his dorm room to begin his career as a matriculated undergraduate student at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York.  Best wishes, Nate!

Cornell University was named after its co-founder, Ezra Cornell, who was born in New York City in 1807.  In his early life, he travelled New York State as a professional carpenter.

Upon first setting eyes on Cayuga Lake (one of the Finger Lakes) and nearby Ithaca in 1828, Ezra decided that Ithaca would be his future home.

Cornell made his fortune in the telegraph business as an associate of Samuel Morse. Cornell constructed and strung the poles for the Baltimore–Washington telegraph line, the first telegraph line of substance in the U.S. 

To address the problem of telegraph lines shorting out, Cornell invented using glass insulators at the point where telegraph lines are connected to supporting poles. 

A lifelong enthusiast of science and agriculture, Cornell saw great opportunity in the 1862 Morrill Land-Grant Acts to found a university that would teach practical subjects on an equal basis with the classics favored by more traditional institutions. Andrew Dickson White helped secure the new institution's status as New York's land-grant university, and Cornell University was founded and granted a charter through their efforts in 1865.

On Thanksgiving 1958 I had my first contact with Cornell University as a spectator at the annual Cornell-Penn football game at Franklin Field in Philadelphia.  Cornell won 19-7.

One of my teachers at Oswego High School was a graduate of Cornell University:  Jessie Fleischman (English).

In 1964 and 1966, as a Penn student, I travelled to Cornell University to attend the Cornell-Penn football game.  Penn lost both times.

The last time I was on the Cornell campus was in the early 1990s to acquaint my daughter Rachel with the University.

C O R N E double L,

Win the game and then ring the bell,

What's the big intrigue,

We're the best in the Ivy League,

Score the point that puts us ahead,

Knock 'em dead, Big Red

1, 2, 3, 4, who are we for,

Can't you tell, old Cornell