Paladin, Chapter 6

INT. GENERAL STORE - DAY

POLLYANNA and another woman, GRACE, plain-looking and 40ish, are yelling at each other.  Charles intervenes.

CHARLES: GRACE, be quiet.  You, too, POLLYANNA.  

They are both silenced.

CHARLES: PALADIN, my wife, GRACE.  

PALADIN: Pleasure, ma'am.

PALADIN grabs POLLYANNA's arm and escorts her out of the store.

EXT. IN FRONT OF GENERAL STORE - DAY

PALADIN: You've got some explaining to do, lady.  

POLLYANNA: Don't know what you're talking about.

PALADIN: Glad I made you pay in advance.  I'm about to get on my horse and head back to San Francisco right now if you don't start telling me the truth.

POLLYANNA: Go fuck yourself.  And you owe me a $1,000.  

PALADIN: First, I don't give refunds.  Second, I'll figure some way to give you something in value for the $1,000 you paid me.  In the mean time, you'll have to excuse me.

PALADIN leaves POLLYANNA in the street, takes his horse and walks across the street to the hotel and enters.  

Love means...

Ryan O'Neal the actor was born in Los Angeles on April 20, 1941 (84 years ago today).  In 1964, he landed the role of Rodney Harrington on the ABC nighttime soap opera Peyton Place.  It was an instant hit and boosted O'Neal's career. 

He later found success in films, most notably in the romantic drama Love Story (1970), for which he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor and the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Drama; Peter Bogdanovich's What's Up, Doc? (1972); and Paper Moon (1973), which earned him a nomination for the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy.

O'Neal died in Santa Monica, California, on December 8, 2023, at the age of 82.  His cause of death was congestive heart failure.

I remember a scene from Love Story filmed in front of an entrance to Mount Sinai Hospital in Manhattan where I had my first surgery five years later.  Ryan O'Neal is leaving the hospital followed by his father, played by Ray Milland.

Ray:  Oliver, why didn't you tell me?  I made a couple of calls and as soon as I found out I jumped right in the car.  Oliver, I want to help.

Ryan:  Jenny's dead.

Ray:  I'm sorry.

Ryan:  Love means never having to say you're sorry.

The line has been criticized and mocked for suggesting that apologies are unnecessary in a loving relationship. Another character played by O'Neal disparages the line in the 1972 screwball comedy What's Up, Doc?

In that film's final scene which is on an airplane, Barbra Streisand's character, responding to his apology, says "Love means never having to say you're sorry," and bats her eyelashes.

O'Neal's character then responds in a flat deadpan voice, "That's the dumbest thing I ever heard."

I agree.  I believe it's very important in a loving relationship to apologize when appropriate.  I have done that many times.  

Basketball

When I was fourteen years old (1959-1960), in the ninth grade (the equivalent of a freshman in high school) at Kingsford Park School, I tried out for the baseball team, my favorite sport.  I remember a couple of moments.

Once I singled, but was thrown out trying to steal second base.  Another time I hit a fly ball that was caught by the centerfielder.  My playing career was over.

Basketball was not nearly as popular as baseball in those days.  I didn't play the game.  It was rarely on TV.  Occasionally, my family went to see the Syracuse Nats play in person.

I tried out for the Kingsford Park basketball team (only for boys - no girl's team) only because many of my friends did as well.  By some miracle, at the practice before the first game, all of my shots went in.

In the locker room, before the first game, the coach announced that I was in the starting lineup.  I was scared to death.  All I wanted was a seat on the bench.  It didn't take long before the coach realized that was where I belonged.

Forty years later, my son Bret was a freshman at Cardozo High School.  He made the Junior Varsity boys basketball team.  A few games into the season, Bret became the starting point guard and stayed there through his sophomore year.  

I was very happy that I was able to be at some of his games in person.  

Understanding the advantage of being ambidextrous, Bret learned how to dribble with his left hand.

Bret loved and understood the game of basketball.  I remember one time we were at the Palestra for a Penn game.  With less than a minute to go, he understood that the game was essentially over.  I was still nervously in doubt.  Bret was right, I was wrong.

Twenty-five years later, my grandson Leo is a freshman at the Bronx High School of Science.  He was one of only four freshman to make the boy's Junior Varsity basketball team.

Like his Uncle Bret, Leo loves and understands the game of basketball.  Through the miracle of modern technology, I was able to watch several of his games on my computer.  I was impressed with what I saw of Leo.

I look forward to bigger and better things in his sophomore season at Bronx Science.

I'm Still Here

 I'm Still Here (Ainda Estou Aqui in  Portuguese) is a 2024 political biographical drama film directed by Walter Salles based on Marcelo Rubens Paiva's 2015 memoir of the same name. It stars Fernanda Torres as Eunice Paiva, a mother and activist coping with the forced disappearance of her husband, the dissident politician Rubens Paiva (Selton Mello), during the military dictatorship in Brazil.

At the 82nd Golden Globe Awards, Torres won the Best Actress in a Motion Picture – Drama category.  At the 97th Academy Awards, the film was nominated for Best Actress (Torres), Best Picture and won Best International Feature Film, becoming the first-ever Brazilian produced film to win an Academy Award.

In the film, in December 1970, Rubens Paiva lives in an idyllic house near Leblon beach in Rio de Janeiro with his wife Eunice and their five children. He continues to support political expatriates without discussing his activities with his family.

A military raid takes place in Paiva's house, resulting in his arrest and disappearance in January 1971. 

Eunice's public inquiries on Rubens' whereabouts result in her arrest and torture for 12 days. She is questioned about whether her husband is involved with pro-democracy movements, which she denies.

A journalist and family friend informs Eunice that Rubens was killed, but the military authorities refuse to confirm it officially. Left to care for her children alone, Eunice sells their home and moves to São Paulo, anticipating a new start close to her maternal family.

Twenty-six years ago, Torres's mother, Fernanda Montenegro, was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress (Central Station).  She didn't win.  All of Brazil was hoping Torres would win this time.  But, she didn't.  Que pena!