Monk

Twitter

2017-10-03T19:30:40Z

I was losing the Twitter high that I was enjoying since I was given 280 characters to play around with. Although I was getting a few 'likes' and a couple of little comments, including one from Jeet, I came to realize that I was never going to enjoy a pleasant conversational relationship with anybody.

I was going to go back to just using it to keep up on the news and politics, but then I decided that maybe I can play one of my 'quotation games' on it. I am going to use it for short phrases that I come across in my reading that really tickle me, just throw-away stuff, and very brief, not something I would bother to blog properly, but something to use to keep up a Twitter presence of some kind.

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thursday

2016-09-08T15:40:47Z

Coco went to the food plate this morning and looked harder at the food. I was practically praying that my baby would start eating. She even takes a kibble in her mouth, but, no, she just cannot eat. I had even crushed some food into crumbs, in case she might have a tooth problem and cannot bear the possibility of biting down, but that didn't work. I am already starting to cry like I have lost her. If we had money, we'd go and lay out a few hundred for the blood tests, as well as another thousand for perhaps some kidney work, if it would give her another lease on life, but that's not going to happen. I am not entirely without hope that she will still turn around on her own, that maybe she just has something foul in her system that will work itself out. The fact that she is drinking water means that she has more time to play with, but I'm already getting in the mindset of being on a deathwatch, waiting for that time when her suffering gets bad, at which point I trust Pop won't mind paying the fifty dollars to put her to sleep. ... ... Nicholas Kristof gives another review of Trump's dark life and concludes: "This is a narcissist who has no core. The lights are on, but no one’s home." Which is, I guess, an evocative way of saying that the man has no soul. [NYT] ... ... It looks like my baby is eating again. Maybe. It was only a few bites at best, but at least this is trending in the right direction, unless it's a fool's mirage, and she is only desperately hungry enough to at least get the kibble in her mouth before dropping it again. But I am hopeful. ... ... Pop had to pick up Kay, again. Her truck is still in a state of disrepair. They arrived at about 4:30 and went straight to his room, not coming out till about 7:30. As it was getting late, I figured that they would be eating out, because it seemed too late for them to start cooking, and I also didn't see any steaks or hams ready in the refrigerator. But, no, they are still here, in the kitchen, and I should have known that Pop does not like to go out at night without some compunction of necessity. So, it looks like I am going to have to make a couple of quick sandwiches in their mess and in the middle of their traffic, unless they surprise me and take over the big room after all. I'm not feeling stressed. Seeing Coco eat again is making me easier going. I am just grateful that my love is okay. I can tolerate a little more grief in the other aspect of my life.

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Monday

2016-07-25T16:34:35Z

I'm watering the patio strip this morning. I love the way the cats seem to be awed by the watery scenery, or are they just on the lookout for birds? I also want to water the trees, this evening or tomorrow morning. I am also flirting with the idea of seeking Pop's consent to give the front yard a couple of hours of watering. The lawn is orange hay, save for the few sprouts of crab grass. Going to the window to give it another look, I might content myself with getting a tacit consent from Pop - see if he says anything if I just start watering tonight ... ... There was a little action at PolitiCartoons. I'm not in the middle of it, but that is probably only for the better. Now, if only Jeff will stop ignoring Oslo, there could be some interesting music of the mind there. The big moral issue is whether it can be creditable to vote for an insignificant third party when the practical result is to up Trump's vote. It is a little surprising to me just how much aversion Hillary inspires. I get the point about Clinton corruption, and that Hillary is not the road to progressive revolution and egalitarianism, but Trump!! [PolitiCartoons] ... ... I admit to coming to a very slow part in Hobbes's dialogue on common law. I was hoping that it would be about nature and relation of law and justice, but I am now in the middle of a long section that goes on and on about the proper jurisdictional lines of England's 17th-century courts. It might have been a little moving for a 17th-century Englishman, but I cannot say that it is my cup of tea and crumpets in the 21st century. So, I am now reading in skim mode ... ... Roger Cohen is despairing over the election and the quite possible victory of Trump. He writes, "Goodbye to all that. This looks like the end of a brief interlude that began in 1945. The interlude was relatively peaceful by historical standards. It saw the construction of a rules-based world order undergirded by visceral knowledge of destruction and acute awareness of potential Armageddon. The postwar order involved new institutions, treaties, alliances, and even a union of the very European nations most given to repetitive bloodshed ... Brexit illustrated a thirst for disruption at any cost. It was the supporting act for a possible American leap in the dark that would place Trump’s portrait in United States embassies around the world. Perhaps that’s the least of it. Still. That face so displayed would signal the end of an era and imminent danger to the Republic and the world." [NYT] ... ... Michael "Air" Jordan, after a life of abstaining from politics, has come out on the issue of police shootings of blacks, albeit carefully balancing this with the incidences of policemen being shot in retaliation. He is donating a couple of million dollars, making it clear that he is not merely mouthing kindly words. Maybe it is the pressure of seeing other basketball stars and athletes getting a little involved. Maybe, in light of a republic that seems to be splintering a little, he wants to do what he can to keep the country from going completely insane, and take a stand and be counted. [Snopes] ... ... I am so hungry coming out of my nap. It's only four o'clock. I had a burger and fries for lunch. It's not that light, but I did eat a little early. I will try to hold out until five, before I break out the cake & coke ... ... Pop comes home a little early from his rounds, about four-thirty. He calls me over, wants to show me something. He says, "See what they give the old folks! It's a tablet." The best that we can make of it is that it is something like an e-reader. He says, "They want the old folks to be in communication." I'm kind of wondering if we can read Kindle books on it, and if I might end up using it, or maybe his Kindle 2. My old Kindle is marred: I have to read through a black smear - it's because of that "shield" he got for it, which only devalued the product ... ... I noticed that it is getting dark outside, and it's only six. Checking the forecast, I am happily surprised to see that we have a 50-50 chance for rain tonight. I guess I can hold off on anymore watering, but I still want to take care of something: to quickly mow down the few patches of crabgrass, both out front and in the back - a one-minute job. As it so happens, as I am rushing out, this is the time that Pop wants to get his tablet working. This is a chore in the best of times, but I want to knock out that mow, and I say, "Later." It's actually drizzling slightly as I mow, but that stops without a few minutes. And the sky looks like it is clearing up a little. I still want to get the cats in. I actually have Ash and Sammy in already. There is still Coco to go. A 50% chance is pretty strong, especially when you have some wishful thinking to go with it ... ... I do love the Internet Age. Thanks to YouTube, I can keep tabs on the Democratic National Convention as well as Trump event without putting on the TV ... Al Franken still has some of his "Saturday Night Live" comedic chops, on display as he speaks before the convention, urging people to get up and vote and get others to vote, noting that he won his senate seat only by 312 votes ... ... The sky is looking pretty clear at eight in the evening, but the weather maps show storms drifting south not far above us, so I am keeping the cats in. By the way, Coco as made it in. So, we are all safe and cozy now, come what may ... ... Sarah Silverman speaks, too, saying that she has been "feeling the Bern" this year, but she is not having any trouble getting behind Hillary's banner... ... "When they go low, we go high," Michelle Obama says. Always a class act ... ... The lightning is pretty bad. I was doubtful that it was really going to rain, so I had to run out to fix the patio for storm conditions, putting aside the little rugs, lifting up the cat bin, and taking up the water dish. I'm glad that I thought to bring a slice of cheese with me, as I got to spend some quality time with Neighbor Dog. He's not tied up, so he should be able to find some shelter under the patio roof. It's still dry, though, not even drizzling now, but it's looking promising. We need a good storm. A good two, three hours of storm would be heaven-sent ... ... Bernie Sanders is getting the tremendous, loving response from the crowd that one supposes he deserves. He made a lot of noise for a self-professed socialist, above the level of mere background static. It's been a kind of wild election cycle, going off the well-beaten mainstream ... ... I am not in the mood tonight to resume "At Rainbow's End". I'd rather stick to the Three Journal, as well as my chess game. I am a horny sonofabitch with a nasty mind, and I didn't cum today, but a pornish book just feels like an utterly unacceptable waste of time, as if one might just as well turn on the TV to watch children's cartoons for an hour or so. I might feel different if I were still 40 years old, when life still felt like it could go on forever, but 40 was a long time ago for me, and now at every turn, I freeze a little in the fear that I might see the grave. I need to confine the porn to my wankery, which already eats up more time than I care to keep track of ... ... I tell Pop, "It's been a long time since we've had the cats inside." He says, "Yeah, that's right!" And the cats obviously aren't happy about it ... ... So far, the rain that we have gotten is only about a shower's worth. It's nice, but, lord, I hope this is not the last of it! If this is it, I'm still going to need to water the trees. It is effectively nothing, a mocking tease.

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Deluge 2016

2016-06-05T00:18:37Z

More rain. It was a sunny morning and then a sunny afternoon. I thought that the 'drying out' might finally be beginning. But, no, not yet. The 2016 Deluge still has to empty itself out, clear out a little more congestion, like Mother Nature ate something that disagreed with her.

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Internet

2016-06-01T19:28:50Z

The New York Times announces that it will no longer capitalize the term ‘Internet’. They observe that it is has become increasingly common to forgo this capitalization, and they are going to go along with that flow. I doubt that I will follow suit myself. Even though the Internet has now come to be such a common and ubiquitous part of our world, as familiar as electricity and air, I am sure that I will never cease to feel the awe that I originally felt when I first clicked onto the Internet: it was not merely a new form of communication, but a whole new world.

[Source: The New York Times]

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Storms

2016-05-18T04:00:32Z

Thunder ... the cats are already frightened away from the window. It looks like the forecast was right. We are still in the middle of this rainy system. They got us down for heavy storms all the way through Thursday. I hope the cats can hold onto their sanity. What a Spring!

* * *

2330

That is a hard rain. The water from the last rains still had not sunk into the ground. I have a feeling we might be really lucky this time if we escape getting flooded in the house. I am genuinely nervous.

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Chess Life

2016-04-28T00:26:03Z

I got another chess book. It is thicker than our telephone book. It's I. A. Horowitz's "Chess Openings: Theory and Practice". It looked like the book I was hoping for. I have long thought that if I can get a firmer grasp on the opening game, I might be able rise to the intermediate level of play. But, looking at it now, I am doubtful that it will give me what I need. Perhaps I am not capable of the material and no book will do, and I am just hoping for magic. However, it gives me a lot more positions and games to play through. Seriously, I should hold off on buying anymore chess books for ... at least some months, like until the winter. Or, maybe I should make a point of actually going through a book before I buy another one. That might be a good regulative principle!

It is funny: the pull of chess on me. I feel as though I could easily turn my back on all other interests, possibly even pornography, so as to devote all my personal time and effort to the game, even as only a spectator. It seems as though such an exhaustive pursuit might even do a better job of blocking out the disappointment and emotional pain of my stunted life - as I just focus on my next move on the board, or on a grandmaster's legendary game. It is a rich enough game to lose yourself in. I suppose it can be like a religion, or a medium of art. On the other hand, as I read "The Birth of Tragedy", I enjoy a sort of fulfillment that I cannot get from chess. Literature feeds my soul in a seemingly more literal sense, in a more direct way, and probably is therefore more truly religious. It perhaps deals with the issues and hardships of life in an inoculative way.

I don't have to struggle, though, over the question of which best gets me through the day. I don't have to choose just one. I can pursue both and feel as though one life is not nearly enough. As it is, in truth, I am having a hard enough time trying to make more room in my life for chess, as literature and my journals have a more compelling pull on me. Ah, maybe this means I do have to make a choice: maybe my life is not big enough for these two masters. If this is right, then there is not really much of a debate: I would have to stick to literature. But I want my Kate and Edith, too!

Maybe I should follow through on the idea of giving my weekends to chess, to see if that might be more satisfying to me, instead of just fitting in chess in the odd ten minutes here and there, or maybe an hour in the late evening when my brain is mashed potatoes. maybe I can modify the idea and give only my Saturday and Sunday afternoons to chess, at first, just to feel how warm the water is. This way I might actually make it through my chess books and not just have them for decoration.

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Hugh Grant

2016-04-27T19:42:49Z

An old Hugh Grant? I know I should be over the harsh reality of seeing the celebrities of my youth as old people, but ... this one is a bit harder to bear. I have just watched a movie trailer featuring him with an elderly Meryl Streep for "Florence Foster Jenkins". I thought he was younger than I was, coming up in show business after I finished school. But, no, he just looked very young. At 55, he is actually five years older than me, not to mention being 80 million dollars richer. But he looks elderly old. Oh, I need to get over it: I'm old. I am old and I never did anything. I never met anyone, at least not anyone that wanted to stay 'met'.

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My Back

2016-03-22T15:18:37Z

No dreams last night, no prostitutes either, lovely or otherwise. A lot of pain, though. Usually when my back is bothering me, and bothering me badly, I have been able to lie down quite comfortably. It's the getting in bed, and especially the getting out of bed, that hurts me. This time it was a horror to be able to lie down on my side. Once I achieved that position, I was able to lie down free from the pain, but it was a trip through hell to get to that position and in going from one side to the other. It would have been great if I could fall asleep on my back, but I have never slept that way in my life. Interestingly, this morning, I am almost perfectly fine when I am walking, like nothing is wrong, but bend down to pick up something or take a seat and it's torture again. I cannot even hump my bedding today, so you know it is bad.

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Trump

2016-03-12T03:38:28Z

A little excitement on cable news tonight. Donald Trump's rallies are notorious for their raucousness, but in the windy city of broad shoulders, the house was rocking with violent tempers, and the event was called off. The news teams continued their coverage, agog over the new level of violence in mainstream American politics. It was more exciting than watching O. J. Simpson's white Bronco jeep leading a police chase twenty years ago. Of course, this might be taking the fracturing of the American republic a little too lightly, but fires are, by their nature, mesmerizing, watching things burn down.

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Apples

2015-12-23T04:08:52Z

Going to the kitchen to get some more tea for my dinner, I see that Pop is having trouble peeling off the little sticker from an apple. I do it for him. Then he grabs the salt shaker. I asked, "You put salt on your apple?" He said, "I sure do. If the apple is very sweet, I do." I doubt it is unique to him. I do not imagine him being that creative. Though, I might be willing to concede this innovation to him. I cannot imagine it working at all. How many people can like that? On the other hand, Pop really is much better with food than I am, so that it probably is my own lack of imagination that keeps me from appreciating the wonder of salted apples. Regardless, I am not tempted to experiment for myself. I would no more put salt on an apple that I would put ketchup on ice cream.

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Pop

2015-12-15T23:25:38Z

Pop says, "I can't believe I'm buying a calendar for another year. It feels like I did this just yesterday." It spooks me, too. Time. We really have had a lot of it, but I still don't want it to run out yet, and you know that everyone only gets so much of it. I haven't really done anything. So, this seems profoundly unfair to me. Of course, I do not expect to ever do anything especially significant, no matter how much time I have left, but there are so many books and films to enjoy, so many more thoughts to think and so many dreams to dream, and so much more unrequited love to be tossed back at my feet.

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Sunday Morning

2015-12-13T16:51:03Z

The rain came through. It fell harder than I thought. The cats will not be going out tonight.

Even before this rain, the lawn needed mowing, and we are now in the middle of December. I think it may be fair to say that the mowing season has lasted all year round this time, for the first time in my life. Climate change is real.

I didn't get up this morning until after 9:30. No breakfast and an other early lunch, again. I wasn't surprised. I started a movie on Netflix when it was already late, and since the rain and winds were loud, I decided to go ahead and stay up and watch the movie through to its conclusion, and didn't go to bed until nearly two.

"Last Hours in Suburbia" (2012). A teen movie, but pretty teens in tight clothes, and a pretty good story. A girl fresh out of high school is going to prison. The movie centers on her spending her last day of freedom. She spends it trying to figure out what happened on that night that left her best friend dead with her behind the wheel of the car. Better yet, she has her dead friend with her to help. Yup, it's another ghost story, or maybe a 'mental delusion' story - you can decide for yourself. I seem to have a bit of a fascination for these somewhat fantastical, ghostly stories. I guess I like the idea of imaginary friends. I wish mine could be more strongly conjured, could feel more real.

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Saturday Morning

2015-12-12T16:18:15Z

There were a few small dreams last night, which I could have kept if I cared enough about them to jot down a few notes at the time. However, there is one that stuck to my memory. The weather is looking iffy. I have the cats indoors, but Pop decides to step out back and he lets one of the cats go, one of the grey ones. I moan and waste my breath in lamentation, but Pop only smirks in self-satisfaction over my grief. When I walk back to the living room, I see what looks like the two grey cats, Ash and Sammy. How can that be? One of them surely just went outside. Upon closer inspection, I see that it is a different cat. It is kind of pretty, being predominantly white, though it has a few dark stripes running along each side of it. When I get down on the floor to look more closely at this zebra-ish cat, I cautiously move to pet it, and although I do not succeed, I get the distinct impression that this is a socialized cat.

Trying to discern some meaning, or the source, for this dream, the one thing that comes to mind is that I do suffer some anxiety at night when I let the cats in the house to get some food, because I often do not feel very confident, in the darkness, that the little animal that wants to come inside is one of my cats. Aside from possibly being a stray cat, for all I know, it could be a possum, or even a raccoon. I mainly put my trust in the idea that a wild animal would be too shy and risk-averse to come to the door and face me like that.

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Murray Christmas

2015-12-05T01:15:39Z

I'm watching bits and pieces of "A Very Murray Christmas". Bill Murray. A Netflix special. A very old Bill Murray. Miley Cyrus is the real draw, for me, the reason why I am slowly working my way through the show. I am surprised that he can carry a tune, a little ways. I wonder how much Miley got paid. Hell, how much did Bill get paid? Could it really be millions? We are well past the days of "Scrooged". Not to mention "Ghost Busters".

More personally, I have felt kind of surprised that Christmas is still coming. It felt to me like the holidays should have been over with Thanksgiving, instead of being just the beginning of the holiday season. I guess I no longer have the passion to hate the holidays. I am down to utter indifference. I scarcely notice them now. I yawn and scratch my balls.

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Thursday Morning

2015-12-03T16:41:05Z

Such a hard time falling asleep last night. I thought about how I was supposed to turn such times into a bonus reading session, but I felt too dead tired to even watch a TV show, much less to read. Yet, the hours kept tolling past. I think I need to force myself to get up, even if that paradoxically means splashing water on my face and waking myself up more thoroughly so that I can read. It's a lot worse to be tossing and turning in bed for hour after hour - such dead time, and me dying with it.

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The Best Offer

2015-12-02T21:51:59Z

Another movie hits the spot. Worth remembering, to see again, years down the road. "The Best Offer" (2012) starring Geoffrey Rush, of "Quills" fame. About art and the desperate love of an old man. An auctioneer with a shady side gets out-shaded in the end, and what better way into a lonely old man's heart than the affections of a young beautiful woman. The hook was that she is agoraphobic, never venturing out of her big mansion. It could explain his luck. Just one of those flukey things. A wondrous piece of good fortune that miraculously fell his way one day. Too good to be true, as it turned out. Thinking about it in the abstract, outside of the movie, the use of agoraphobia can seem far-fetched, but a general sense of the eccentricities of the rich makes it more palatable, I suppose. He got his night of love, though, with the beautiful woman, in his arms, inside of her: "There is always something authentic concealed in every forgery." He got taken in badly, but I would have thought it worth it. It's not like you can take your wealth with you anyway, and to be able to enjoy a dream of love in the flesh has got to be ... priceless.

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Thomas Mann

2015-11-25T17:08:58Z

Wow, not only was Thomas's brother Heinrich a writer, but so was at least one of his sons, Klaus, and it looks like his novel "Mephisto" is something I should read, as with Heinrich's "Blue Angel". I get pulled in deeper and deeper. Well, that is what I wanted: a meaningful obsession. I could spend the rest of my life on Mann and the history and people associated with him, and still be too short on time. However, I do expect to break away for other personages from time to time. The Mann universe is a rich one, but there are other worlds I want to live in for a spell.

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After Paris

2015-11-22T19:22:41Z

Watching the news shows. It's still all about the Paris attacks and what ought to be done. People apparently want Obama to change gears into Rambo mode. He has refused to do so.

A good line: "President Obama is commander-in-chief, but he is not very commanding."

A cool hand sounds good to me. Playing cowboy may always look and feel good at the beginning, but after the first few hundred casualties and the first few billion dollars, it becomes wearisome quick, to watch our country flailing again in another quagmire. Listening to our Republican candidates, if they had their way, it would be World War Three already. I cannot help wondering if Obama is hoping that the reinvigorated air of post-9/11 might simply die down of its own accord in a few weeks, provided that there are no major attacks to fuel that fear and rage.

We cannot afford to let the terrorists succeed in turning this into a full-scale clash of civilizations. We cannot fight a war against a non-country. That would be like fighting a ghost. You cannot win, but you might be able to lose.

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Jessica Jones

2015-11-21T00:53:33Z

I am giving "Jessica Jones" a shot. Superheroes generally don't work for me, but she is sort of an ex-superhero, who is working as a noir-ish private eye. I am almost done with the first episode, and I imagine I will try the next couple of episodes before I search my soul and see if we click. It has some significant sexual content, but we are not going to get any tits, nor even ass, even though this is not network television but a Netflix original. As I have said, I am easy these days when it comes to TV shows and movies, or at least easier. I badly want to be entertained. Still, a show does have to meet me halfway.

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The Paris Attacks

2015-11-20T00:40:46Z

Maybe I should try to say something about the fallout from the Paris attacks. In addition to carrying out bombing raids in Syria over ISIS targets, France's socialist government makes Dubya look like a carefree slacker when it comes to effecting a security state. Aside from the hundreds of door-crashing raids going after suspects, they have gone into a kind of lockdown mode, minimizing activity on the street, and the people are saying 'yes' to having their communications monitored by the authorities to uncover terrorist conspiracies.

As for America, the anti-immigrant anger, which was already raging through the Republican primaries, has only picked up steam and gone into hyper-drive. There is now a popular drive to keep Syrian refugees out. Meanwhile, it is interesting to see Obama trying to maintain a deliberate calmness, rather than playing to the hysteria. This goes not only to his call to continue accepting refugees, but also to his resistance to send in ground troops to clear out the ISIS nest in Syria, as if it were only a termite problem.

ISIS, for its part, is also trying to play off the hysteria, to whip it up more. They are promising more attacks, and I think they said that Washington D. C. is next, threatening to turn the White House black with fire. New York continues to be a live target as well. One suspects that this is bluff and bluster. However, if there should be a catastrophic attack on American soil, it may be that Obama will have little choice but to take the battle to the streets of Syria, and we will find ourselves becoming more of a police state. And the racism! And the post 9/11 atmosphere of the War on Terror becomes real again. Maybe we will even go back to color-coded charts to measure the levels of terror threats. To think that for some years such jihadic activity seemed fairly well-contained, so that most people could practically forget about it as they went about their daily lives, barely tuning in to the TV-news on the nastiness going on in the Middle East with the drones and bombing runs and the strife in the Mideast countries.

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Cats

2015-11-19T04:16:14Z

Coco wanted to go out. It's a little after ten, and I was reluctant to let her go, since Ash and Sammy are inside dozing contentedly, nice and cozy. But it's a nice night. No chance of rain. A little cool, but above the forties. I probably won't be going to bed until around midnight. Maybe she will be ready to settle inside by then.

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Ice Cream

2015-11-14T17:02:36Z

Picking up the newspaper, I see that Blue Bell Ice Cream is back in business, and their products will be hitting our shelves on December 14. After that salmonella outbreak. They were out of circulation so long that I have kind of lost my taste for those mini-ice cream sandwiches of theirs. But I don't know. Maybe it won't be difficult to fall back into that habit. That little ice cream cookie made for a nice appetizer.

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Thomas Mann

2015-11-12T16:14:05Z

Reading Hayman's biography on Mann, I come across another discussion on Mann's World War One essay "Reflections of a Nonpolitical Man", and learning that Mann wrote the essay as a means to lighten the burden on "Magic Mountain", so as to not overfill a novel that was already growing a little cumbersome, I felt a greater urgency to get the essay. The problem: when I looked at it earlier at Amazon, I thought the lowest price was sixty dollars. Nevertheless, I took another look this morning, and I see that there is a paperback copy for twenty-five dollars. It's very used, but they are 'promising' that the text is unmarked. I am going for it. I ordered it, and it is expected to arrive in two to three weeks, which is fine. I'm not in a hurry. I think I will be sticking with Mann for some time, at least another couple of months. For instance, I also feel an inclination to read his brother Heinrich's "Blue Angel", but this is still down the road.

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Movies

2015-11-12T04:46:34Z

Adam Sandler movies tend to be more miss than hit, but "The Cobbler" has an interesting plot device: walk in another's shoes and literally become that person. Besides, what a cast! How bad can a movie be when you have Dustin Hoffman, Steve Buscemi, and Ellen Barkin? True, they are not really in their prime any longer, but there must be something behind the project. I will not even try to guess how you make a sixty-year-old woman look like a bodacious sexy blonde. Moreover, I am more willing these days, with the convenience of video-streaming, to try out a movie for twenty minutes to see if it might take me some place interesting. I have wasted time in my life in worse ways.

So? How was the damn movie?

Oh, yeah ... well, you know that I am not much of a reviewer. It wasn't a miss, but I won't be watching it again. It's a sweet story and passable entertainment, worth a watch, but you are not really missing anything if you don't watch it. I kind of wonder what Dustin Hoffman is doing. Does he need the money? Or does he just need to experience movie-making?, wants to be part of the action? There aren't many serious movies these days, and I would think such fare as this would be beneath his notice, settling for a nice retirement instead. It is interesting to see him nevertheless - one of the big movie stars of my youth. Isn't that right, Mrs. Robinson?

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