The Tall T

The Tall T is a 1957 American Western film directed by Budd Boetticher and starring Randolph Scott, Richard Boone, and Maureen O'Sullivan.  It was adapted from the 1955 short story "The Captives" by Elmore Leonard, which I recently read.

Brennan (Scott), without a horse, manages to get a lift from a stagecoach driver, who has been hired specially to transport the newlyweds Willard and Doretta Mims (O'Sullivan). Doretta is a plain woman, but the daughter of a rich copper mine owner. 

When they stop at the way-station, they are mistaken for the regular stage by three outlaws, led by Frank Usher (Boone), who have already killed the station manager and his son. 

Terrified of sharing the same fate, Willard suggests to the outlaws that ransoming his wife would be far more profitable than robbing the stage. Frank likes the idea. He also immediately recognizes, and is disgusted by, the groom's clear lack of devotion to his bride.

While waiting for the ransom to arrive, Brennan and Doretta plot to stay alive while confronting their three kidnappers.

I remember as a 12 year-old feeling some sympathy for Usher (a likable villain?), despite him being sinister (put murdered victims in a well).  He some how made a connection with me.  I hoped for his survival.

While the film was being made, negotiations were ongoing for the creation of a new TV series called Have Gun Will Travel.  Scott was the first choice to portray Paladin, but he was too old (59 years-old) and too rich to commit to the project.  Instead, he recommended Boone (40 years-old).  The rest, as they say, is history. 

Paladin, Chapter 18

 INT. SALOON - NIGHT

Saloon is crowded and noisy with customers.  PALADIN enters and approaches the bar.  Bartender awaits his order.

PALADIN: Beer, please.

Bartender retrieves and delivers to PALADIN.

PALADIN: Thanks.

PALADIN starts drinking his beer.  BIG DAN and BILLY MORTON enter the saloon, noticing PALADIN at bar.  They have a short, private chat. 

BILLY MORTON then proceeds to walk to bar and deliberately bumps into PALADIN causing PALADIN to slightly spill his beer.  

BILLY MORTON (to bartender): Two beers.

PALADIN (to BILLY MORTON): Are you looking for an introduction?

BILLY MORTON (to PALADIN) : Are you talkin' to me?

PALADIN: I believe I am.

BILLY MORTON: Why don't you go fuck yourself.

The saloon becomes quiet as danger looms.  The patrons at the bar scatter.

PALADIN: Are you deliberately trying to provoke me?

BILLY MORTON: What?  You speakin English?

PALADIN: I believe I am.

PALADIN notices BIG DAN in the saloon.

PALADIN: Is that your boss over there?  Did he ask you to do this?

BILLY MORTON: Nobody tells me what to do.  I'm my own boss.

PALADIN: Glad to know.

BILLY MORTON: So, why don't you shut up and get outta my sight.

PALADIN: Not as long as I'm drinking my beer.

BILLY MORTON reaches for PALADIN's beer and spills it on the bar.

BILLY MORTON: I guess you're done with your beer.

PALADIN: That was rude.

BILLY MORTON takes a step away from the bar and stands facing PALADIN in a threatening posture, ready to draw his gun.

BILLY MORTON: You think I'm rude.  Well, do something about it, Deputy.

PALADIN: You're making a big mistake.  You be BILLY MORTON?

BILLY MORTON: What's that to ya?

PALADIN: SHERIFF warned me about you.  

BILLY MORTON: Yeah!

PALADIN: Too bad he didn't warn you about me.

BILLY MORTON: I know about you...fancy gunfighter from San Francisco.  Well, I don't give a shit.

PALADIN: If I were you, I would think long and hard about what I am about to do.  Your life hangs in the balance.  Don't throw it away.  It's too precious.

BILLY MORTON: Well, you aint me.

PALADIN: Don't...

BILLY MORTON draws his gun, but not as fast as PALADIN who shoots him dead.  PALADIN kneels down to examine the body.  

PALADIN: Somebody get the undertaker.

Nobody moves.

PALADIN (shouting): Now!

A couple of witnesses leave the saloon.  BIG DAN approaches PALADIN who is now standing mournfully.  

BIG DAN: Too bad!  He was foolish.

PALADIN: Did you have anything to do with this?

BIG DAN: What?  

PALADIN: The two of you came in together.  He worked for you.  He seemed to be itching for a fight.  Why?

BIG DAN: Beats me.  Can I buy you a drink?

PALADIN: You can't buy me a drink, but if you want to talk, we can.  What's on your mind?

BIG DAN: Let's sit down.

They sit at a nearby table.

BIG DAN: I hear you're a man for hire.

PALADIN: Depends on what I'm being hired for and by whom.

BIG DAN: I was very impressed tonight.  What is your fee?

PALADIN: To do what?

BIG DAN: To remove a rival of mine.  

PALADIN: And who would that be?

BIG DAN: Normally, I take care of my own business.  Nothing stands in my way.  But, what I'm talkin about is different.  When I married POLLYANNA, I thought I could control her, just like everything else.  But, she's not like anything else.

PALADIN: I'm beginning to understand your problem with POLLYANNA.

BIG DAN: When CHARLES first came to Windfall, I hardly gave him a second thought.  Not a real man, if you know what I mean.  But, for some unknown reason, POLLYANNA was attracted to him.  I don't understand.  Do you?

PALADIN: Women are not like men, BIG DAN.  They think differently.  We judge women in a different way than women judge men.  Don't try to understand them.  Just accept it.  And how am I supposed to help you...with your rival?

BIG DAN: Goad him into a fight and then kill him...just like tonight.  It should be easy.

PALADIN: Is that what you did with BILLY MORTON,  goad him into pulling his gun on me?

BIG DAN: And why would I do that?

PALADIN: As a test?

BIG DAN: Not at all.  He was one of my best men on the ranch.  He'll be missed.

PALADIN: I'm sure he will.

BIG DAN: Well, I'll pay twice your usual fee.

PALADIN: I will not do what you ask, but I will try to help you win back your wife's affections, if you choose that way.

BIG DAN: Three times your usual fee.  

The undertaker arrives.  

PALADIN: I have work to do.  Let me know if you're interested in my offer.  Good night.

Eliot Ness

Eliot Ness was an American federal agent known for his efforts to bring down the gangster Al Capone while enforcing Prohibition in Chicago in the 1930s. He was leader of a team of law enforcement agents nicknamed The Untouchables, handpicked for their incorruptibility.

Eliot Ness was born on April 19, 1903 (123 years ago), in the Roseland neighborhood of Chicago, Illinois. His parents, both Norwegian immigrants, operated a bakery. 

Ness attended Christian Fenger High School in Chicago. He was educated at the University of Chicago, graduating in 1925 with a degree in political science and business administration.

Ness began his career as an investigator for the Retail Credit Company of Atlanta assigned to the Chicago territory, where he conducted background investigations for the purpose of credit information. 

In March 1930, attorney Frank J. Loesch of the Chicago Crime Commission asked President Herbert Hoover to take down Al Capone. Agents of the Bureau of Internal Revenue, working under Elmer Irey and Special Agent Frank J. Wilson of the Intelligence Unit, were already investigating Capone and his associates for income tax evasion.

In late 1930, Attorney General William D. Mitchell, seeking a faster end to the case, implemented a plan devised by President Hoover for sending a small team of Prohibition agents to target the illegal breweries and supply routes of Capone while gathering evidence of conspiracy to violate the National Prohibition Act. 

U.S. attorney George E.Q. Johnson, the Chicago prosecutor directly in charge of both the Prohibition and income tax investigations of Capone, chose the 27-year-old Ness (now assigned to the Justice Department) to lead this small squad.

With corruption of Chicago's law enforcement agents endemic, Ness went through the records of all Prohibition agents to create a reliable team (initially of six, eventually growing to about ten) later known as "The Untouchables." 

Raids against illegal stills and breweries began in March 1931. Within six months, Ness' agents had destroyed bootlegging operations worth an estimated $500,000 (almost $9.9 million in 2022) and representing an additional $2 million ($39.5 million in 2022) in lost income for Capone.

Failed attempts by members of the Chicago Outfit to bribe or intimidate Ness and his agents inspired Charles Schwarz of the Chicago Daily News to begin calling them "untouchables". George Johnson adopted the nickname and promoted it to the press, establishing it as the squad's unofficial title.

^{On October 17, 1931, Capone was convicted on three counts of income tax evasion.  He was sentenced to eleven years in prison (where he died) and began his sentence in 1932.} 

^{Beginning in 1959 there was a TV series called The Untouchables, which starred Robert Stack as Ness and was narrated by Walter Winchell.  In 1987 there was a film called The Untouchables, directed by Brian De Palma, which starred Kevin Costner as Ness, Sean Connery, and Robert De Niro as Al Capone.  As a result, Eliot Ness has become an American folk hero.}

Ness died of a heart attack at his home in Coudersport, Pennsylvania, on May 16, 1957. He was 54 years of age.

Murder on the Orient Express

Murder on the Orient Express is a 1974 British mystery film directed by Sidney Lumet and based on the 1934 novel of the same name by Agatha Christie.

It has an all-star cast including Lauren Bacall, Martin Balsam, Ingrid Bergman, Jacqueline Bisset, Sean Connery, Albert Finney, John Gielgud, Wendy Hiller, Anthony Perkins, Vanessa Redgrave, Richard Widmark and Michael York.

The film received six Academy Award nominations.  Bergman won for Best Supporting Actress.

On a budget of $1.4 million, the film grossed $37.7 million at the box office.  

On Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 89% based on 46 reviews. The website's critics consensus reads, "Murder, intrigue, and a star-studded cast make this stylish production of Murder on the Orient Express one of the best Agatha Christie adaptations to see the silver screen."

In December 1935, Hercule Poirot travels from Istanbul to London on the Orient Express. His old friend, Signor Bianchi, a director of the company that owns the rail line, arranges Poirot's accommodation after all the first-class compartments are uncharacteristically sold out during the off-season. 

Other passengers include American socialite Harriet Belinda Hubbard; English governess Mary Debenham; Swedish missionary Greta Ohlsson; American businessman Samuel Ratchett, with his secretary/translator Hector McQueen and English valet Edward Beddoes; Italian-American car salesman Antonio "Gino" Foscarelli; elderly Russian Princess Natalia Dragomiroff and her German maid Hildegarde Schmidt; Hungarian Count Rudolf Andrenyi and his wife Elena; British Army Colonel John Arbuthnott; and American theatrical agent Cyrus B. Hardman.

The day after the train's departure, Ratchett requests to hire Poirot as a bodyguard as he has received death threats, but Poirot declines despite a very generous fee. During the night, a snowdrift in Yugoslavia strands the train.  

Poirot is awakened by a moan from Ratchett's compartment. Conductor Pierre Michel is told through the door that it was just a nightmare. Ratchett is dead the next morning; drugged and stabbed twelve times.

Who done it?

 

Macy

Macy Bea Lasky was born in Jacksonville, Florida on Saturday, January 17, 2026.  She is my first granddaughter.  And Macy is MARVELOUS.  

On Saturday, March 21, 2026, Cristina and I flew to Jacksonville (via Miami) to meet Macy face to face.  What a joy to hold her in my arms, whether she was sleeping or she was awake and moving her arms and legs.

As I have said, the key to happiness is choosing your parents well.  And Macy's parents, my son Bret and Pam, are doing a great job.  I was very impressed.

In addition to the above three, my daughter Rachel, son-in-law Mike, and grandsons Nate and Leo flew from New York to complete the family get together.  I had opportunities to have heart to heart conversations with each.

I enjoyed watching Bret, Rachel, Mike, Nate, Leo and Pam play pickleball at a nearby court. The first pickleball game was played 50 years ago, on Banbridge Island, Washington. Three fathers decided to use a badminton court, paddle tennis rackets, and a plastic wiffle ball. 

By coincidence, my friend Joe was driving to St. Augustine on the very same day as Cristina and I were as well.  We were able to meet that evening.

When I travel, I enjoy eating different food, especially food in the USA unavailable in Brazil.  Top of my list were the pancakes Bret made for me served with real maple syrup.  

I should also mention shrimp and grits at the St. Augustine Fish Camp, a hamburger at Harry's Seafood and Grill, chocolate ice cream at Kilwin's on St. George's Street, a waffle at Waffle House, soup and sandwich at Panera Bread, a chocolate chocolate doughnut at Parlor Doughnuts and Cold Stone Creamery ice cream.

We also enjoyed going up and down every aisle at Publix Supermarket in St. Augustine, buying a few things like Jello pudding, Paul Newman's salad dressing and an apple pie.

Cristina and I have said where ever you go, you always find a Brazilian.  Four times in St. Augustine, we had the same Uber driver, Paulo, originally from Brazil.

This time, flying Sao Paulo to and from Miami, we chose American Airlines Premium Economy.  It was worth the extra price with more space and amenities including a total of three small bottles of Bailey's The Original Irish Cream.  We also took advantage of wheelchair service (once without a driver) in Miami and Sao Paulo airports.

When will be our next trip to visit my family in the USA?  Or when will they visit me in Brazil? 

Paladin, Chapter 17

EXT - DAY. RANCH

POLLYANNA arrives at the ranch on horseback riding fast.  Her husband is waiting for her.  She dismounts.

BIG DAN: Where you been?

POLLYANNA: In town.

BIG DAN: Doin' what?

POLLYANNA: None of your business.

BIG DAN grabs her.

BIG DAN: Tell me the truth.

POLLYANNA: Let go of me, you big ape.

BIG DAN slaps her face.

POLLYANNA:  You'll pay for that.

BIG DAN: I'm waiting for answers.

POLLYANNA: My business is my business.  You'll get nothing from me.  Why don't you hit me again?  Does that make you feel like a big man?

BIG DAN: I am a big man.  I don't need you for that.

BIG DAN throws her down on the ground in frustration and heads into the ranch house.  POLLYANNA dusts her self off, gets up and sits on the porch.  In her anger, she recalls an event from her past.

EXT. UNKNOWN LOCATION - DAY

POLLYANNA is alone in isolated location with only some targets in the distance.  A revolver is strapped to her waist.  Every few seconds she rapidly draws her revolver and quickly fires it, successfully hitting the target.  After emptying her gun, she reloads and continues practicing rapidly drawing, firing and hitting the target.

__________

I will be on vacation next week.  Next blog post will be April 5th.    

Ides of March

Today is March 15th.  In ancient Roman culture it would be the Ides of March.  

The Ides were a monthly reference point falling on the 15th day of March, May, July, and October, and on the 13th day of all other months. Derived from the Latin for "to divide," the Ides originally marked the full moon. 

I learned about the Ides thanks to my Oswego High School Latin teacher, Ruth Young.

In modern times, the Ides of March is best known as the date on which Julius Caesar was assassinated in 44 BC. Caesar was stabbed to death at a meeting of the Senate.

Julius Caesar was assassinated because a group of Roman senators feared his immense, unprecedented power would destroy the Roman Republic and restore a monarchy.  

As many as 60 conspirators, led by Brutus and Cassius, were involved. According to Plutarch, a seer had warned that harm would come to Caesar on the Ides of March. 

On his way to the Theatre of Pompey, where he would be assassinated, Caesar passed the seer and joked, "Well, the Ides of March are come", implying that the prophecy had not been fulfilled, to which the seer replied, "Aye, they are come, but they are not gone."

This meeting is famously dramatized in William Shakespeare's play Julius Caesar, when Caesar is warned by the soothsayer to "beware the Ides of March."

Barbra

Barbara Joan (Barbra) Streisand was born April 24, 1942 in Brooklyn, New York City, to Diana Ida (née Rosaen; 1908–2002) and Emanuel Streisand (1908–1943). Her mother had been a soprano in her youth and considered a career in music, but later became a school secretary.  Her father was a high school teacher at the same school, where they first met.  Streisand's family is Jewish.

In August 1943, a few months after Streisand's first birthday, her father died at age 34 from complications from an epileptic seizure, possibly the result of a head injury years earlier.  The family fell into near poverty, with her mother working as a low-paid bookkeeper. 

As an adult, Streisand remembered those early years as always feeling like an "outcast", explaining, "Everybody else's father came home from work at the end of the day. Mine didn't."  

Her mother tried to pay their bills but could not give her daughter the attention she craved: "When I wanted love from my mother, she gave me food," Streisand says.

In September 1960 Streisand auditioned as a singer at the Bon Soir nightclub in Manhattan, after which she was signed up at $125 ($1,368 today) a week. It became her first professional engagement, where she was the opening act for comedian Phyllis Diller. 

She recalls it was the first time she had been in that kind of upscale environment: "I'd never been in a nightclub until I sang in one."

Streisand opened on Broadway on March 26, 1964 with an acclaimed performance as entertainer Fanny Brice in Funny Girl at the Winter Garden Theatre. The show introduced two of her signature songs, "People" and "Don't Rain on My Parade".

Eight months later I almost had a chance to see Barbra at the Winter Garden, but didn't.  If I had played my cards right, I think I would have.

I was dating, off and on, another Jewish girl from Brooklyn.  I called for a date, but she couldn't because she was going home that weekend (from Penn).  

I hatched a plan.  I would go to New York as well, but to see the Penn-Columbia football game.  I would call her after the game to say hello.  I did and she invited me to have dinner with her and her parents at Barbetta's.  She said if she knew I would be in New York I could have joined them at the Winter Garden to see Barbra.  

When I called for the date, I should have invited her to the football game.  Even if she couldn't go, she would have known I would be in New York and I would have had my evening with Barbra.  I'm smarter today than I was in 1964 at age 19.  

Suddenly

Suddenly is a 1954 black and white American noir crime film.  The drama stars Frank Sinatra and Sterling Hayden.

The story concerns a small California town (by the name of Suddenly) whose tranquility is shattered when the train of the president of the United States is scheduled to make a stop there.  A hired assassin takes over a home that provides a perfect vantage point from which to assassinate the president.

This is Sinatra's first film after his Academy Award winning performance as Angelo Maggio in From Here to Eternity in 1953.  In Suddenly, he portrays a hired assassin, John Baron.

Baron boasts about the Silver Star he won in WWII for killing a large number of the enemy. He explains that he has nothing against the president but is being paid $500,000 (over $6,000,000 today) to kill him and money is his only motive.

It is worth noting that the president's name is never mentioned.

Sterling Hayden is the local sheriff of Suddenly.  He is also romantically involved with the widow who lives in the house Baron takes over.

Hayden's memorable films include The Asphalt Jungle (1950), The Killing (1956), Dr. Strangelove (1964) and The Godfather (1972).  

Paladin, Chapter 16

INT. GENERAL STORE - LATER IN THE DAY

CHARLES walks in.  GRACE is busy with a customer.  CHARLES retreats to his office.  Shortly, GRACE enters his office.

GRACE: Where were you?

CHARLES: I went for a walk.  To clear my head.  That's all right, isn't it?

GRACE: Were you alone?

CHARLES: What's that supposed to mean?

GRACE: Were you alone?

CHARLES: What if I was, what if I wasn't?

GRACE: Were you with POLLYANNA?

CHARLES: Why are you so obsessed with her?

GRACE: Why don't you answer my questions?

CHARLES: Why should I?  My business is my business.  Forget about POLLYANNA.

GRACE: I can't.  I'm jealous of her.  She's stealing my husband.

CHARLES: You're being ridiculous.

GRACE: Do you love me, CHARLES?

CHARLES: What a silly question.

GRACE: Well, do you?

CHARLES: Of course.

GRACE: Of course what?

CHARLES: (without emotion) Of course, I love you.

GRACE: Do you wish you were married to POLLYANNA?

CHARLES: (laughs) Don't be ridiculous.  

They hear customers enter the store.

CHARLES: Why don't you take care of the customers, GRACE.

GRACE: This discussion isn't over.

GRACE leaves office to deal with customers.

GRACE: (talking to customers) How can I help you?

Carnaval

It is Carnaval season in Brazil.

Carnaval in Brazil is an annual festival held the Friday afternoon before Ash Wednesday at noon, which marks the beginning of Lent, the forty-day period before Easter.  Carnaval is the most popular holiday in Brazil and has become an event of huge proportions. 

The country unifies completely for almost a week and festivities are intense, day and night, mainly in coastal cities.  

Rio de Janeiro's carnaval alone drew 6 million people in 2018, with 1.5 million being travelers from inside and outside Brazil.  Rio's world according to Guinness World carnival is the largest single carnaval parade in the Records.  

Meanwhile, the carnaval of São Paulo is the largest street carnaval celebration by number of participants.

In the southeastern cities of Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo, and Vitória, huge organized parades are led by samba schools. Those official parades are meant to be watched by the public, while minor parades (blocos) allowing public participation can be found in those as well as other cities, like Belo Horizonte, also in the southeastern region.

These parades are contests between the samba schools and are taken as seriously as any football (soccer) game in Brazil.

We are in Guaruja and not Sao Paulo where crowds (blocos) are marching through our neighborhood of Pinheiros. 

Barbetta

 On Saturday, November 14, 1964, Joan Freedman, a college friend, invited me to join her and her parents for dinner at the Barbetta restaurant at 321 West 46th Street in Manhattan.  

Many years later I returned to Barbetta with my ex-wife Bonita.

More recently I again, this time with my wife Cristina, had dinner at Barbetta before attending a Broadway show.

During all three of my trips to this restaurant, I was impressed by the image a woman who acted as a forceful manager.  It turned out to be Laura Maioglio, the owner of a restaurant that was opened by her father in 1906.

Laura, the second-generation New York City restaurateur whose Barbetta became a theater district mainstay and, with its European-style grand décor and rich Piedmont-region cuisine, one of the city’s first upscale Italian restaurants, died on January 17th at her home in Manhattan. She was 93 years old.

The restaurant is expected to remain open to the public only through February 27th.  Laura had no children to continue her family's legacy.

After the death of her father in 1962, Laura took over Barbetta and directed its chiefly male staff.  Few female restaurateurs have remained so intimately involved for as long as she did.

“She was as strong as a nail, the toughest woman I ever met in my life,” Leopold Frokic, a former sommelier at Barbetta, said of Ms. Maioglio. “Imagine a woman managing 50 men, immigrants from countries where the woman doesn’t tell them what to do. None of those men could take her for a ride.”

Laura was born and raised in New York. She attended the Brearley School and graduated from Bryn Mawr College magna cum laude with a degree in Art History.

Throughout her life, Laura continued to frequent her family home in Piemonte, spending extended periods in Europe and Italy, including a year studying at the University of Florence. Her long sojourns in Italy, particularly in Piemonte, have provided her with first-hand knowledge of Italian food and wine, especially that of her native region, Piemonte.

He Ran All the Way

He Ran All the Way is a 1951 American crime drama and film noir starring John Garfield and Shelley Winters.  It was Garfield's final film before his death in 1952 at the age of 39.

Petty thief Nick Robey (Garfield) botches a robbery, shooting and killing a policeman. He escapes with over $10,000 and, deliberately loses himself in a crowd.

Arriving at a local swimming pool, Nick meets bakery worker Peg Dobbs (Winters) and accompanies her to her family's apartment. Peg's mother, father and young brother leave to see a movie. When they return, Robey takes the family hostage until he can escape from the police search for him.  Peg's initial attraction to him is replaced by fear.

As a manhunt for Nick intensifies outside, he becomes increasingly paranoid. 

To save her family Peg agrees to go away with Nick.  He gives her $1,500 to buy a new car.

Influenced by Peg's father that Peg will not buy the car, Nick refuses to believe Peg.  However she insists that the car will be delivered to the front door after the dealer has the headlights repaired.  

The following day, Nick violently takes Peg down the stairs toward the exit, terrifying her.  When Nick's gun drops beyond his reach and he orders Peg to hand it to him, she shoots him instead. Nick, mortally wounded, crawls outside to the curb in time to see his new car arrive as Peg said it would.

As life imitates art, John Garfield died in May of the next year.  The cause of death was a heart attack.  He Ran All the Way was his last film.  

Paladin, Chapter 15

 EXT. STREET - DAY

PALADIN walks down street until he reaches saloon and enters.

INT. SALOON - DAY

PALADIN enters saloon.  He walks to bar where lone bartender is cleaning glasses.  In the far corner of saloon he notices CHARLES and POLLYANNA sitting at a table engaged in conversation he couldn't hear.

PALADIN: (to bartender) Good morning.

Bartender looks up while continuing his work, but says nothing.

PALADIN: My name's PALADIN.  SHERIFF ROGERS appointed me as his deputy while he is out of town for a couple of days.  He took a prisoner to Reno to stand trial for murder.  

Bartender continues to be mute.

PALADIN: Nice talking to you.

PALADIN heads to table to talk to CHARLES and POLLYANNA.  He pulls up a chair and sits down to join the two.

PALADIN: Morning.  Mind if I join your conversation.  The bartender isn't a very good conversationalist.

CHARLES and POLLYANNA don't seem happy about the intrusion to their private talk.

POLLYANNA: What's that badge on your chest?  A joke?

PALADIN: No joke.  The sheriff appointed me his deputy while he's gone to Reno for a couple of days.  Thought I'd let you two know.

POLLYANNA: Okay.  We know.  Now, if you'll excuse us...

PALADIN: CHARLES, I was just talking to GRACE at the store and she was wondering where you were.  

CHARLES: Thank you for the information.  Have a good day, Deputy Sheriff.

PALADIN: You know, I'm sure I don't have to tell you, your wife is a very attractive woman.

CHARLES: What did you say?

PALADIN: Now I really must be going.  A deputy sheriff has many places to visit in town.  

CHARLES attempts to grab PALADIN's arm as he rises.  PALADIN avoids the attempt.

PALADIN: Is there something more you'd like to say, CHARLES?

He shakes his head in the negative and PALADIN leaves the saloon.

CHARLES: (to POLLYANNA) What was that all about...him talking about GRACE like that?

POLLYANNA: You're a fool, CHARLES.  He's trying to make you jealous...so's you'll leave me here and rush back to your mousy wife.

CHARLES: Yeah, you're probably right.  GRACE...very attractive?  Not is...never was.

POLLYANNA: Forget about her.  Look at me.  What do you see?

CHARLES: I see a beautiful woman.  A woman I want.  Not the woman I'm stuck with.  If it wasn't for my business losses years ago, I never would have married her.

POLLYANNA: And now that you're in a better situation and have found a better woman, you need to do something about Grace.  

CHARLES: You mean get a divorce?  It would cost me plenty.  Her father left everything in GRACE's name.  I'm only her husband.  If I weren't I'd have nothing.

POLLYANNA: But, you would inherit everything upon her death.

CHARLES: Death?  What are you suggesting?

POLLYANNA: I'm not suggesting nothing.  I'm just stating facts...facts that you should think about.  Enough of GRACE.  Will I see you tonight?

CHARLES: Of course.

Tetanus

In the late 1950s, when I was an eighth or nineth grade student at Kingsford Park School in Oswego, New York, I suffered an accident.  My gym class was rushing to go outside on a beautiful spring afternoon.  

From the doorway of the building, there was a declining pathway that led to the large grassy field.  Next to the pathway was a short wall.

I decided to save time by jumping over the wall.  I didn't make it.  I fell forward and landed hands first onto a gravel area.

When I got to my feet, I noticed blood coming from one of my hands.  I headed to the school nurse's office hoping for a Band-Aid.  

However, the nurse advised me this wasn't a scrape, but a puncture wound.  I would therefore need a Tetanus shot.  I went home and my mother took me to a local pediatrician to administer the shot.

To the best of my knowledge, that was the last time I got a tetanus shot...until Friday, January 9, 2026.  On that day, I got the dtap vaccine (Diphtheria, Tetanus and whooping cough).  Why?

At the end of March, we will be travelling to Florida to meet my new granddaughter, Macy Bea Lasky, who was born yesterday, January 17, 2026.  In order to insure we didn't jeopardize her health, we were advised to have the dtap vaccine...and we did.

Welcome Macy!

Designated Hitter

Baseball is a game which is basically a confrontation between a pitcher who throws a round ball and a batter who tries to hit the round ball with a round bat.

During baseball's evolutionary period, it became apparent that an increased emphasis on improving the specialized skill required of the pitcher contributed to a decline in his success as a batter.

There were suggestions calling for the elimination of the pitcher from the batting order.  Pitchers rejected such a call.  The great Babe Ruth said, "the pitcher who can't get in there in the pinch and win his own game with a healthy wallop, isn't more than half earning his salary."

On January 11, 1973 (53 years ago), the American League voted 8-4 to adopt the designated hitter (DH) rule.  A designated hitter was substituted for the pitcher in the batting order.  The National League did not adopt the designated hitter rule.  Their pitchers continued to bat.

As expected, the American League posted a higher batting average than the National League in 1973.  This trend continued year after year after year.

In 2022, the National League finally adopted the designated hitter rule.

Older players who are weak fielders or have a history of injuries have been able to extend their careers by becoming designated hitters, as the position is less physically demanding than those that involve playing the field while their team is on defense.

In 1997, at a time when the DH was only used in the American League, Tony Gwynn, then 37, said that "for a guy in my position, at my age, if they do put it in the National League, boy, would that be huge." 

However, opponents of the designated hitter have argued that it has allowed subpar and aging players to take up space on rosters longer than would otherwise be acceptable.

I like the DH.  What do you think?