Monday Follies
Leftists favor handing out checks to anyone who applies for aid, no questions asked. Here’s a headline from nypost.com that demonstrates the folly of that practice: “Man spent $57K of COVID relief funds on Pokemon card.” Picachu to you too.
Has Fauci’s teflon finally worn away? NYP headline: “Legislators demand answers on alleged puppy experiment.” To many, animals have become sacred cows. Any abuse may cause an uproar.
Headline from newsmax.com: “Woman Sues Kellogg for $5M Over Lack of Strawberries in Pop-Tarts.” I wonder if she got the idea from Robert DeNiro’s character in Casino (1995), who complained to his baker that the muffins had different amounts of blueberries.
Reap what you sow. Headline from NM: “Gas Prices Spike to $4.65 per Gallon in California.” I won’t be surprised if they soon rise above four bucks in NYC.
Amusing headline from foxnews.com: “Anti-Biden rap song takes top spot on iTunes chart, ranking ahead of Adele.” It’s Let’s Go Brandon by Bryson Gray featuring Tyson James and Chandler Crump. I’d never heard of any of them. Are all three Trump supporters? I tried to watch the official video. It’s not for me, despite its message. I won’t post a link to it either. It’s easy to find.
Are these people Trump supporters too? Headline from FN: “NYC police union sues city over vaccine mandate.”
Last night Movies!, channel 5–2 on ota in NYC, ran The House on Telegraph Hill (1951), a solid sort of gothic thriller I’d seen fairly recently, directed by Robert Wise. Richard Basehart stars. I was miffed that I was unable to recall the names of the actresses who play the central female figures. Milan-born Valentina Cortese is the lead, a Polish immigrant, and Fay Baker lends able support as a nanny. The former had a vibrant career in Europe spanning 1941-’97, which includes a supporting actress Oscar nom for Day for Night (1973), Francois Truffaut’s ode to making movies, highlighted by a terrific scene where Cortese could not remember her lines and they were pasted everywhere in the room, which, if memory serves, was a kitchen. The winner that year was Ingrid Bergman for Murder on the Orient Express. In her acceptance speech, the screen legend graciously said Cortese should have won. Cortese also did a great turn as Herodias in far and away the best ever work on Christ, Franco Zeffirelli’s mini-series Jesus of Nazareth (1977). She passed away at 96 in 2019. Her only marriage was to her co-star, Richard Basehart. It lasted eleven years and produced a daughter.
Born in NYC, Fay Baker sort of flew under the radar. She began on Broadway, and then Hollywood called. There are 70 titles under her name at IMDb in a career spanning 1946-’65. She was comfortable on the big or small screen. As impressive, she was also a novelist. She wrote The Whipping Boy under a pseudonym, and My Darling, Darling Doctors under her own name. Her dad was a surgeon. She was a mom of two. She passed away at 70 in 1987.
I brought a jacket and a hoodie, just in case the weather turned while I was working. I used neither, as it was muggy. I knew Wolf would buy some of the Russian CDs that had come my way, but I didn’t expect him to take home ten, a DVD and The Matarese Circle by Robert Ludlum, the only item in English that sold today. My thanks, and also to the woman who bought two paperbacks, and the gentleman who purchased two hardcovers; and to my constant benefactress, who donated six classical CDs and two more books on the Kennedys; and to the woman who delivered about 30 books in Russian, amongst them seven translations of Sidney Sheldon novels. I am so blessed.
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