Laughs & Sorrows

I’m reading a novel, The Hanging Doll by Robert Rubenstein, an acquaintance. It was inspired by the suicide of his closest friend. At one point he reminisces how the guy’s love for a horse-faced woman inspired him to try to become a veterinarian. Glorious madness — kudos, sir.

The scariest thing about the Corona virus is China’s tendency to hide anything that puts the country in a bad light. Time is of the essence in these matters. There should be full, immediate disclosure so brainiacs can get to work on it.

A lot of what politicians say is laughable. AOC’s claim that Democrats are a center-right party is a howler. The only conservatives in congress are the Freedom Caucus, a whole 36 members, all Republicans. The other 400+ range from far left to just right of center, and the bias is left, as the $23 trillion dollar debt attests.

RIP Terry Jones, 77, founding member of Monty Python’s Flying Circus. Born in Wales, he graduated from Oxford, where he met and wrote with Michael Palin. He directed three of the troupe’s full length films: The Holy Grail, Life of Brian and The Meaning of Life. IMDb also lists many other directorial credits outside the Python sphere under his name, the same with his writing. He also wrote poetry, novels, kids’ books, history and political commentary. His books span five pages at Amazon. He was dubbed a Renaissance Man. Here’s a quote attributed to him: “The one thing we all agreed on, our chief aim, was to be totally unpredictable and never to repeat ourselves. We wanted to be unquantifiable. That ‘pythonesque’ is now an adjective in the O.E.D. means we failed utterly.” I think not. Thanks for the laughs, sir. Here he is as the crime-busting The Bishop:

I like to believe my personal conduct has evolved to a commendable level. Yesterday evening I took a step backward. Hoping one of the two prime parking spots in terms of the floating book shop would be open, I drove the ol’ Hyundai up East 13th. A car was double-parked about 70 yards from the corner, possibly waiting for someone to pull out. As I crawled toward the intersection, the lights of an SUV parked in the ideal space flashed briefly and a couple approached the doors. What luck! The vehicle that was waiting pulled behind mine and flashed his lights. I ignored it, even though the person may have been waiting a long time. I recalled having called out a young man for doing the same to me. I won that argument. My hypocrisy stung. I felt like a rat, and it bothered me all night. Fortunately, the person didn’t vandalize my car. If he’d approached me while I was doing business, I would have apologized and offered him free books. It didn’t come to that. I wonder if I would have ceded the second spot had it been the one to become available. I’m not sure. I didn’t want to return to my alternate spot for a fifth straight session. Lame excuse, I know.

My thanks to Frank, who chose Dan Brown’s Angels and Demons, and to the woman who bought a thick tome on Asian cuisine; and to Ira, who got a three-for-one deal on dated Hollywood bios of Streisand, Liz Taylor and Eddie Fisher; and to the young woman who purchased Stephen King’s Duma Key and Jeff Lindsay’s Double Dexter; and to the gentleman who donated about 20 books, half in Russian; and to my buddy, actor/singer JVS, who went home with a copy of Rising Star.

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