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)?