9/14
Let’s start with a positive. Lindt has opened a chocolate museum in Zurich, Switzerland. Here’s its showpiece, a fountain that uses real melted chocolate:
Here’s the Windy City boxscore, headline from foxnews.com: “53 people shot, 10 fatalities during weekend Chicago shootings.”
I wonder if protests will ever reach our neighborhood, Sheepshead Bay. Walking its streets, one would never guess at the disorder in many areas not only in the Big Apple but the entire country. Unfortunately — no fortunately — the ugly truth is a staple of the web. There’s no sense in repressing it. One of the latest point of contention is whether some of the west coast wildfires have been set deliberately. Would anyone be surprised if it were true? What will the climate be like if the President wins re-election? I’d expect more violence from the left and continued attacks from the mainstream media. If Biden wins, I’d expect most of the physical and verbal assaults to stop, but I would be very pessimistic about the future of America.
So far I’ve resisted the temptation to watch NFL highlights.
Last night Movies!, channel 5–2 on over the air antennas in NYC, ran yet another flick I’d never seen in its Sunday Night Noir series: Murder Is My Beat (1955), starring Paul Langton as a detective who falls under the spell of a beauty accused of murder, played by Barbara Payton. Langton had a solid career on the big and small screen, nothing splashy until he hit the jackpot in 219 episodes of Peyton Place. Payton, on the other hand, was a Hollywood wild child who logged only 14 credits, apparently preferring real life drama to scripted. She eloped with her high school sweetheart, a marriage her parents had annulled. That didn’t stop her. She had a six-month affair with Bob Hope in 1949, who dumped her when she demanded more money for living expenses. Through the years she was linked romantically to Howard Hughes, John Ireland, gangster Mickey Cohen, George Raft, Gregory Peck, Tom Conway, Woody Strode, Guy Madison, Gary Cooper and Steve Cochran. She wed four more times, including a seven month stint with Franchot Tone. Before the marriage she was involved with Tinseltown bad boy Tom Neal, and the two men had a legendary brawl that left Tone hospitalized. Payton married him, then left him for Neal, whom she did not marry. Her life tumbled into a downward spiral that included passing bad checks, public drunkenness and prostitution. She slept outdoors on benches. Her autobiography, I Am Not Ashamed, was actually ghostwritten by Leo Guild. She wanted payment in red wine because there were claims on her cash. She made a last effort to get clean, moving in with parents. It was too late. She died of heart and liver failure at 39 in 1967. Her only child was serving in Vietnam at the time. Some people’s demons are especially vicious. (Facts from IMDb)
Here’s a pic of some of the cast of Peyton Place. Langton is in the rear. There are 155 titles listed under his name. He appeared on popular TV series such as Gunsmoke, Perry Mason, The Untouchables and The Twilight Zone. He passed away at 66 in 1980.
Second straight day of paltry results for the floating book shop. My thanks to the woman who bought The 13-Minute Murder by James Patterson, and to the one who purchased a kids book on the planets; and to the gentleman who selected a book in Russian; and to the other who did a multi-book swap of works in that language.
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