Brothers & Sisters
Interesting tidbit from an article on Daylight Savings Time at newsmax.com by Lynn Allison: “According to a study published in the British Medical Journal, hospitals report a 24% spike in heart attacks on the Monday after the switch.”
From Yahoo Sports, in my own words: Come on, Mom! Pro golfer Viktor Hovland got a call from his mom after he completed the first round of The Players Championship in F-L-A. She watched on TV in Norway, their homeland. She noticed that he did not place his ball in the exact spot where he had marked on the 15th green. He was not cheating. He simply erred. He had marked to eliminate a distraction for his playing partner’s putt. He reported it and received a two-shot penalty, placing him at even par. Had it been noticed by someone else, he would have been DQ’ed. Yesterday he was two-over and missed the cut by two.
No one should be surprised by this headline at foxnews.com: “Portland mayor looks to re-fund police with $2M request as homicides spike.”
Anyone considering a trip to America’s smallest state, beware. Headline from FN: “Loose cow is still on the run in Rhode Island, police say: ‘Stay clear of the steer.’”
This week’s Friday night movie fix was a good one, The Sisters Brothers (2018). The pair are hired killers working for a mysterious Commodore. The setting is the Pacific Northwest in 1851. The main plot has the protagonists tracking a man who has invented a new way of finding gold in rivers. Along the trail they encounter groups seeking revenge for the deaths of those close to them. Although there is a great deal of violence, much of it occurs off screen, or is shot from a distance or in darkness. This is a grim depiction of the old west and mankind. What sets it apart from most westerns is the dialogue, which has humorous as well as existential touches. “Life is an abomination,” says Jake Gyllenhaal’s character, who has befriended the prospector. He is outstanding, as are the other principals: John C. Reilly and Joaquin Phoenix as the brothers, and Riz Ahmed as their prey. Parisian Jacques Audiard directed and co-wrote the screenplay with Thomas Bidegain, adapting the novel by Patrick DeWitt. To my surprise, it was shot at various locations in Europe. Ignored by the Oscars, the film won several awards on the other side of the pond. 55,000+ users at IMDb have rated The Sisters Brothers, forging to a consensus of seven on a scale of ten, a bit low in my estimation. It did not fare well at the box office. Made on a budget of $38 million, it returned only $13+ million. I wouldn’t be surprised if that gap was or will be erased by DVD sales and rentals and streaming. I think most fans of westerns would enjoy it, although it is artier than most works of the genre, but not nearly as out there as the iconoclastic productions of ‘70’s. Here are Reilly and Phoenix in character:
My thanks to the kind folks who bought and swapped books on this brisk, beautiful day. Here’s what sold: seven books in Russian, Moby Dick by Herman Melville, Dragon by Clive Cussler, The Two Mrs. Grenvilles by Dominick Dunne, a Walter Mosely mystery, a Star Wars novel, a large tome on Chinese cooking, and The Plot to Seize the White House: The Shocking TRUE Story of the Conspiracy to Overthrow F.D.R. by Jules Archer. Special thanks to local realtor Sue, who took home two of my books: Inside Out and Class of ‘67.
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