Life’s Color

A Norwegian fisherman caught these sea creatures. The latter looks like a character out of Sesame Street:

Headline from nypost.com: “Legal experts call for Biden to release corporate tax returns detailing $13M in income.” It would be interesting to see if those returns withstand the scrutiny Trump’s have.

Politics is the ultimate hardball, as this NYP headline manifests: “Texas governor to send buses of migrants to DC ahead of expected surge.” Preferably they’ll be dumped on the White House lawn.

Why did Vlad go to war? Perhaps this snippet from an NYP editorial explains it: “… If Putin keeps the territory he’s grabbed, he’ll control all of Ukraine’s offshore oil…”

More PC insanity, excerpt from NYP editorial, edited by yours truly: “Last December Princeton U. was slated to host an exhibition of 19th-century Jewish American art… school officials objected to ‘the inclusion of work by two 19th-century Jewish Americans who had served as soldiers in the Confederate army during the Civil War,’ and the sponsor pulled out.” Aren’t liberals supposed to be forgiving? The War Between the States ended more than 150 years ago.

It’s interesting how, despite their missteps, Tiger Woods is still viewed as golf’s messiah, and Phil Mickelson is suddenly a pariah.

Last night Movies!, channel 5–2 on OTA in NYC, ran another flick I’d never seen: The Guns of Fort Petticoat (1957). Audie Murphy plays a cavalry officer who deserts after witnessing the Sand Creek Massacre in late 1864. He heads home to warn people Indians will retaliate. The men are either fighting in the Civil War or have passed away. Murphy organizes the women into a competent fighting force. It’s solid entertainment. I’ll focus on two elements, the first my surprise that the massacre of Indians had been mentioned pre the late ‘60’s-early ‘70’s, when such knowledge became a cause celebre. Kudos to NYC’s Walter Doniger, who wrote the screenplay based on a story by C. William Harrison. The second aspect is director George Marshall, who has 188 titles beneath his name at IMDb in a career that spanned 1916-’72. He did shorts through 1919, then advanced to feature films, then returned to shorts including a series with golf legend Bobby Jones. The last eight years of his glorious run were spent largely in TV, where he did multiple episodes of popular prime time fare such as Here’s Lucy and Daniel Boone. His most notable full length features are You Can’t Cheat an Honest Man (1939), starring W.C. Fields; the classic Destry Rides Again (1939), starring Jimmy Stewart and Marlene Dietrich; Houdini (1953), starring Tony Curtis and Janet Leigh; and the fantastic railroad segment of How the West Was Won (1961). He directed Laurel & Hardy and Martin and Lewis. What a career. He passed away at 83 in 1975.

Here are the always fun Hope Emerson, six-two, and WWII’s most decorated soldier Audie Murphy, five-five:

The only thing I could do today regarding the book shop was get the car in position for tomorrow, and hope it doesn’t rain again. At least I learned something while I was waiting for the alternate side regulation to expire. Steve, a retired businessman recovering from bypass, stopped to chat. He has a wealth of knowledge. I didn’t know that there are lightbulbs that screw in the opposite direction from those common to homes. They are used by entities such as the subway system, which would otherwise be subject to theft and constant replacement. Thank you, sir.

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