Discoveries
Interesting headline from nypost.com: “Facebook demands LAPD stop making phony accounts to spy on suspects.” Is that any worse than campaigning for leftists or censoring the views of the right?
Here’s the last line from an NYP op-ed piece by Victor Davis Hanson: “For its own moral and practical survival, the DC-based FBI should be given one last chance at redemption by moving to the nation’s heartland, far away from the political and media tentacles that have so deeply squeezed and corrupted it.” Sound advice. Kudos, sir.
This may be the line of the day, from a headline at newsmax.com: “Trump Jr.: Rittenhouse Jury ‘Gave Biden His 2nd Colonoscopy of the Day’.”
I can’t properly evaluate this week’s movie fix, courtesy of Netflix, as it was one of those nights where I was constantly nodding off. How I hate that aspect of aging. The Vault (2021) is the story of a group of salvagers who plot to rob what was essentially stolen from them by the government of Spain. The treasure recovered from a sunken galleon is kept in a bank that seems impregnable. The captain finds a recent college graduate who has a genius for solving intricate problems. The main catch is pulling off the heist within 105 minutes. Although I was unfamiliar with the cast except for the ever welcome Famke Janssen, who bookends the narrative, the two main principals have impressive resumes. The older man is played by Ireland’s Liam Cunningham, whose 112 credits include 42 episodes of the wildly popular Game of Thrones. Freddie Highmore plays the egghead. He stars in 50 episodes of The Bates Motel. The production is lush. The main action takes place as Spain is playing for the World Cup. The running time is nearly two hours. I may not have been properly attentive, but it seemed to take too long to get to the heist. The film was directed by Jaume Balaguero, who has 19 titles as a director and 18 as a writer under his name. 19,000+ users at IMDb have rated The Vault, forging to a consensus of 6.4 on a scale of ten. It returned only three million plus at the box office on a budget of 15 million pounds. You do the math. There is no violence and I don’t recall any foul language. To its credit, it has a genuine feel of non-fiction. Here are the aforementioned actors and Spain’s Astrid Bergès-Frisbey:
I’ve completed the addition of my bungee jumping experience to the Curious Sicilian book file. I’m really happy with it, as it has the color of 1992 Coney Island, a bit before the area began its stunning revival. The file is now 122 pages, well short of the 200 I’ve targeted for a print version. I will begin work on another non-fiction piece shortly.
Yesterday an article informed that the remains of Jimmy Hoffa might be in a landfill. Today, according to an article at foxnews.com by Andrew Mark Miller (hey — he has three names just like serial killers!), a team that claims to have identified the Zodiac killer may have corroboration, as the guy, who died at 80, had given away firearms to neighbors.
Another riot in Portland, Oregon — how shocking! Maybe they should use it as a tourist lure.
The conflict is not unique to America, headline from FN: “Citizens all over Europe revolt against COVID restrictions, demand freedom.”
Not much action at the floating book shop on this crisp, beautiful autumn day. My thanks to Bill Brown, author of Words and Guitar: A History of Lou Reed’s Music and other fine books, who bought The Art of Worldly Wisdom by Baltasar Gracian, a Spaniard who lived in the 1600’s; and to the woman who purchased Stephen King’s Carrie; and to the young man who took home the animated Future Quest by Jeff Parker and Evan Shaner. Here’s a panel from the book:
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