Beautiful Friday
The mainstream media has finally gotten around to the Hunter Biden story. Is there anything more transparent than its bias? Then again, it’s really the Joe Biden story. His spoiled brat 50-year-old son was just the bag man.
Here’s a headline from newsmax.com that will have only environmental zealots applauding: “World Carbon Dioxide Emissions Drop 7 Percent in Pandemic-Hit 2020.”
Here’s an odd tidbit from an article at NM that I expect will be debunked in time: “In the 30 days after surgery, death rates were 6.9% among patients whose procedures were performed on their surgeons’ birthdays and 5.6% among other patients, a difference of about 23%.” It’s not attributed to drinking.
From an article at foxnews.com, edited by yours truly, about a website I hadn’t heard of before today : “Cameo, created in 2016, allows stars to craft personalized video messages to fans for a fee. There are over 30,000 celebrities involved — actors, musicians, athletes, comedians, reality TV stars and YouTube channel personalities.” Larry Thomas, who played the Soup Nazi on Seinfeld, brought home six figures last year. Kevin Malone of The Office earned in the neighborhood of a million. Gilbert Gottfried was the site’s highest earner. The internet never ceases to fascinate.
Last night Movies!, channel 5–2 on ota’s in NYC, ran another flick I’d never seen, Flamingo Road (1949), starring Joan Crawford and Zachary Scott, directed by Michael Curtiz, who helmed Casablanca (1942) and 176 other titles. A romance/political drama, it’s a bit slow but picks up speed late. Sidney Greenstreet is as good as he was in The Maltese Falcon (1940) as a master manipulator. It’s based on a play by Robert Wilder & Sally Wilder, adapted to the screen by Robert himself with an assist from Edmund H. North. Curtiz had a long, prolific, diverse career that spanned 1912-’67. He was nominated for four Oscars, winning, of course, for Casablanca. Born Manó Kaminer in Budapest, he began making films in Hungary in 1912. He fought for his country in WWI, then continued his career in Austria and Germany into the mid 1920’s. He emigrated to America in 1926 and immediately went to work. Here are several movies he directed: The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938), one of twelve he did starring Errol Flynn, despite the fact they hated each other (eight with Humphrey Bogart); Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942), starring James Cagney; Mildred Pierce (1945), also starring Crawford and Scott; Jim Thorpe — All-American (1951), starring Burt Lancaster; White Christmas (1954), starring Bing Crosby; Elvis vehicle King Creole (1958); The Comancheros (1961), starring John Wayne. Wow. All this despite the fact that, according to his IMDb profile, people had trouble understanding him because of his thick accent. Here’s a fun quote attributed to him: “Randy (Randolph) Scott is a complete anachronism. He’s a gentleman. And so far he’s the only one I’ve met in this business full of self-promoting sons-of-bitches.” Curtiz passed away at 75 in 1962. Here he is with Elvis and, I believe, Dolores Hart:
People were raving about the mild weather, which was perfect for selling books curbside. My thanks to the Quiet Man, who bought all 20 or so Murder, She Wrote novels I had on display. A year ago he’d gobbled up all the DVDs I had of it. My thanks also to Shelley, who purchased City of Bones by Michael Connelly; and to little Shelley, who took home four more kids books; and to Alice, who selected Roses Are Red by James Patterson; and to the gentleman who chose Lord of the Dead by Tom Holland; and to the one who found two hardcovers in Russian to his liking.
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