John, Bud, Emily & More
Sunset Tel Aviv, Reuters photo by Kai Pfaffenbach:
Unfortunately, I sense terrorist attacks will continue in the USA. I wish I had advice to keep you safe. Blessings.
Heroes & Icons, channel 9–4 on OTA in NYC, ran a New Year’s marathon of The Twilight Zone. I wondered which actor has the most appearances on the classic show. I guessed Burgess Meredith. If the standard is famous actors, he and Jack Klugman rule with four each, but, according to a Google search, Robert “Bud” McCord tops everyone — 67, although IMDb lists 32, most of them uncredited. There are only 18 titles overall under his name. He was in 13 episodes of Yancy Derringer and four of The Wild Wild West. A father of one, he passed away at 65 in 1980. Photo from Google Images:
RIP actor John Capodice, 83. Born in Chicago on Christmas Day, he began acting in off-Broadway plays in the late ‘70’s. His screen career spans 1978 to the present, two works to be released posthumously. There are 159 titles under his name at IMDb. He was a master at portraying working stiffs and mobsters. He was comfortable on the big and small screen. Here are films in which he appeared: Wall Street (1987), Blue Steel (1990), Q & A (1990), Jacob’s Ladder (1990), The Doors (1991), Honeymoon in Vegas (1992), Point of No Return (1993), Ace Ventura: Pet Detective (1994), Naked Gun 33 1/3: The Final Insult (1994), Speed (1994), Independence Day (1996). He did numerous guest shots on popular primetime fare, including one as the owner in the Seinfeld episode set in part at a laundromat. Married from 1995 until his passing, he was a father of two. Well done, Goombah. Photo from GI:
Born in Princeton in 1976, Emily Raboteau is a graduate of Yale and earned an MFA at NYU. She teaches creative writing at CCNY. Her work has appeared in publications of note and she has received several literary awards. She has written two books, the creative non-fiction Searching for Zion: The Quest for Home in the African Diaspora (2013), and The Professor’s Daughter (2005), a novel. The latter recently came my way. I don’t like the theme of race relations, so I may have read it to overcome my bias. It was a tough slog, its misery meter high. Its tag is: “My father is black and my mother is white and my brother is a vegetable.” If it mirrors her life, I don’t envy her mindset. By now everyone is aware of the despicable treatment Blacks experienced back in the day. The narrative offers nothing new in that regard. I thought the bi-racial aspect would be more interesting. I found it almost empty beyond the obvious. There is nothing implausible along the way, even how the brother, a talented saxophonist, becomes an invalid. The father is aloof, determined to succeed (“If he couldn’t be like them, he would be better than them. He would be untouchable.”) The mother is devoted to him and her children but comes off as pathetic. Her sister, a recovering alcoholic loved by the kids, hated by her brother in law, is an opinionated flake. All have serious issues from the past. The protagonist cannot find herself. The only exemplary character in the book is an elderly religious woman who raises abandoned children. The prose and dialog are okay. Fortunately, the length is only 276 pages. I almost abandoned it a couple of times. Maybe I stayed with it out of a sense of white guilt. Those who have rated it at Amazon view the book differently, forging to a consensus of 4.4 on a scale of five. I’ll go with one. The Professor’s Daughter is one of the most unenjoyable books I’ve ever read. Photo from GI:
I had to battle not only the cold wind but a negative frame of mind today at the Anti-Inflation Book Shop. My thanks to my Constant Benefactress, who insisted on paying for Your Second Act: Inspiring Stories of Reinvention by Patricia Heaton despite having donated three marketable titles. One day closer to spring.
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