Harping
Interesting headline from nypost.com: “‘I’m just grateful, fool’: Murder convict vows to get ‘woke’ LA County DA’s name tattooed on face.” Sounds entirely appropriate. The official must be so proud.
Is it the drinking water? Headline from NYP: “American men’s penises are only the 59th biggest in the world.” For those who believe size matters, move to Ecuador.
They’re not extinct! Headline from foxnews.com: “Lost child uses local Minnesota man’s vintage payphone to call for help.” The guy had always wanted to install one in front of his house. The kid dialed 911.
Last night Movies!, channel 5–2 on OTA in NYC, ran the highly entertaining Harper (1966), starring Paul Newman as a snarky PI on a missing persons case. The cast is as good as it gets: Lauren Bacall, Julie Harris, Arthur Hill, Janet Leigh, Pamela Tiffin, Robert Wagner, Robert Webber, Shelley Winters, Harold Gould, Strother Martin and Roy Jenson. Directed by Jack Smight, screenplay by William Goldman, it was adapted from the Ross Macdonald novel The Moving Target. I recalled a nifty bit of trivia about the film and searched for verification at IMDb. Here it is, edited by yours truly: “The character Lew Harper is based on novelist Ross Macdonald’s character Lew Archer. The name was changed for the film supposedly because Paul Newman had recently enjoyed success with Hud (1963) and The Hustler (1961), two of his successful films beginning with the letter H. A later one was Hombre (1967)). The producers wanted the title to begin with H. Also, the Macdonald estate did not want the name Archer used. There may have been fear of legal complications because Macdonald got the name from Miles Archer, Sam Spade’s partner, killed early on in the adaptation of Dashiell Hammett’s The Maltese Falcon (1941).” Here are screen legends Newman & Winters in character:
The floating book shop was back at its usual nook today. Given the cold wind blowing along Avenue Z, I knew it would be a tough session. I bundled up as if it were winter, and sat in the car a few times to take the chill off. Fortunately it paid off. My thanks to the woman who donated three paperbacks, and to Wolf, who bought a bunch of Russian DVDs; and to the woman who purchased a hardcover in that language; and to the young man who took home Pygmalion by George Bernard Shaw and The Army of the Potomac: Mr. Lincoln’s Army, Vol. 1 by Bruce Catton; and to the young woman who selected a Radiology textbook and two works by Maya Angelou: The Heart of a Woman and Rainbow in the Cloud: The Wisdom and Spirit of Maya Angelou.
My Amazon Author page: https://www.amazon.com/Vic-Fortezza/e/B002M4NLJE
FB: https://www.facebook.com/Vic-Fortezza-Author-118397641564801/?fref=ts
Read Vic’s Stories, free: http://fictionaut.com/users/vic-fortezza
