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

5

7 has always been my favorite number.  I was born on August 7.  

My father was born on September 7.  My mother was born in 1907.  My sister was born (and died) on November 7.  My daughter Rachel was born on December 7.

My brother Paul was born on May 17.  My brother Ted was born on October 17.

Perhaps 5 is also a lucky number for me.  I was born in a year ending in 5 (1945).  My sister-in-law Janet was born the same year.  

My daughter was also born in a year ending in 5 (1975).  My son Bret was born (August 15) in a year ending in 5 (1985) as was his wife Pam.

My wife Cristina was born on November 25.

I should also consider the number 9.  My grandson Nate was born on March 9.  My grandson Leo was born September 29.

Shawshank Redemption

 Shawshank Redemption is a 1994 prison drama film starring Tim Robbins and Morgan Freeman.  The latter was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role, but lost to Tom Hanks in Forest Gump.

The film tells the story of banker Andy Dufresne (Robbins), who is sentenced to life in Shawshank State Penitentiary for the murders of his wife and her lover, despite his innocence. Over the following two decades, he befriends a fellow prisoner, contraband smuggler Ellis "Red" Redding (Freeman), and becomes instrumental in a money laundering operation led by the prison warden.  Andy eventually escapes the prison with the help of Rita Hayworth and Raquel Welch.

After the escape, the film shows a scene I found very interesting.  Red (in prison for murder) goes up in front of a Parole Hearing Board.

• Parole Hearings Man: Ellis Boyd Redding (Red), your files say you've served 40 years of a life sentence. Do you feel you've been rehabilitated?
• 
  
• Red: Rehabilitated? Well, now let me see. You know, I don't have any idea what that means.
• 
  
• Parole Hearings Man: Well, it means that you're ready to rejoin society...
• 
  
• Red: I know what you think it means, sonny. To me, it's just a made up word. A politician's word, so young fellas like yourself can wear a suit and a tie, and have a job. What do you really want to know? Am I sorry for what I did?
• 
  
• Parole Hearings Man: Well, are you?
• 
  
• Red: There's not a day goes by I don't feel regret. Not because I'm in here, because you think I should. I look back on the way I was then: a young, stupid kid who committed that terrible crime. I want to talk to him. I want to try to talk some sense to him, tell him the way things are. But I can't. That kid's long gone, and this old man is all that's left. I got to live with that. Rehabilitated? It's just a bullshit word. So you go on and stamp your form, sonny, and stop wasting my time. Because to tell you the truth, I don't give a shit.

His parole was approved.

I sometimes wish I could talk some sense to myself when I was a young person.  I didn't commit a crime, but I made some stupid decisions that I thought at the time were correct.  As Red said, that version of me is long gone and this older version is all that's left.