Good, Bad, Question Mark
Let’s start with a positive headline from nypost.com: “Entire school cheers for janitor who obtained US citizenship.” It happened at a suburban Chicago elementary. Here’s a pic:
More good news, NYP headline: “Cancer patients ‘cured’ after doctors turbocharge blood’s immune cells.”
And more from NYP: “Meet 12-year-old Benyamin Ahmed who made $1 million creating NFTs.” The young Londoner designs web avatars. Here are examples to make the rest of us feel stupid:
Great line in an NYP op-ed piece by Glenn H. Reynolds: “… if the Canadian government’s positions had substantial support, the truckers would have faced significant numbers of counterprotesters. But they did not. The government itself is the fringe minority, with its only support coming from the loyal sycophants of the media.” Kudos.
Which is it? The government reports a gain of 450,000 jobs in January, ADP a loss of 300,000. Automatic Data Processing Inc. handles payroll for about a fifth of U.S. private employment.
Remember when attorney Michael Avenatti was the champion of the mainstream media for his anti-Trump remarks? He has been found guilty of bilking former porn star Stormy Daniels out of $300,000 in book royalties and faces a possible long prison stretch. Karma Kramer?
Unsurprising headline from foxnews.com: “CNN, MSNBC, NYT, WaPo completely avoid Johns Hopkins study finding COVID lockdowns ineffective.” Doesn’t fit the narrative. Nobody’s surprised.
Last night Movies!, channel 5–2 on OTA in NYC, ran yet another film noir title I’d never seen, Red Light (1949), starring George Raft and Virginia Mayo. It’s the story of a businessman seeking revenge for the murder of his brother, a priest. It’s notable for several reasons. I wonder if it’s the only time a George Raft character wept openly. The story has elements of spiritual conflict and it just occurred to me the title may refer to stopping short of bad behavior. And, as is so often the case in these movies, the supporting cast is a cinephile’s dream. Raymond Burr, the ultimate good guy in 271 episodes of Perry Mason and 195 of Ironside, plays yet another villain. I do not recall him in a single good guy role on the big screen. Harry Morgan, the beloved Colonel in 180 episodes of M*A*S*H and the sidekick in 98 of Dragnet, plays a killer. Barton MacLane plays a cop, Arthur Franz the priest. William Frawley, 179 episodes of I Love Lucy, 165 of My Three Sons, plays a hotel desk clerk. Stanley Clements, who had a brief run in the Bowery Boys series and amassed 131 credits until his untimely death at 55, plays a bellhop. Phillip Pine, an ubiquitous presence on prime time TV, 178 credits not counting multiple guest appearances on popular series, plays a blind veteran. Roy Del Ruth directed. His career spanned 1916-’60, 121 titles, many of them shorts, of which he wrote nine. The screenplay was adapted from a story, This Guy Gideon, by the legendary Donald “Red” Barry, star of the 1940 serial Adventures of Red Ryder. There are 257 other titles under his name at IMDb, including three in writing and one in directing. George Callahan wrote the screenplay. Among his 33 credits is The Babe Ruth Story (1948). Charles Grayson provided additional dialogue, one of his 41 credits, the most notable his last — The Barbarian and the Geisha (1958), starring John Wayne. Here are Hollywood icons Raft and Mayo in character:
Another rainout for the floating book shop. Really looking forward to tomorrow’s session, despite the projected cold.
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