Mostly Fun Stuff
An artist came under fire for her mural of basketball legend Larry Bird, in which he is covered in tattoos. He has none, and threatened to sue. A compromise was reached. All but one will be removed — “Indiana.” Here’s Jules Muck’s creation:
From the nypost.com: “A mortally wounded gangbanger hated cops so much, he defiantly refused to identify his killer — instead telling officers, “F–k you, son!” with one of his last breaths.” In that same hardcore vein, here’s another headline: “Defendant sucker-punches his attorney in Arizona courtroom.” He was on trial for allegedly attacking a corrections officer. And this headline at foxnews.com: “San Francisco board rebrands ‘convicted felon’ as ‘justice-involved person,’ sanitizes other crime lingo.” And another from FN: “2020 Dems spent big on car service even on day of boycott they backed.” Why the heck am I writing fiction? The human comedy rules.
Also from the Post: “The number of breathing illnesses linked to vaping is on the rise — with health officials investigating over 150 cases in 16 states.” This is discouraging news for those who want an alternative to tobacco, and ammunition for anti-smoking zealots. I wonder how many of the latter are pro-pot.
This is just about meaningless, but it’s a neat fact from Yahoo Sports: The last nine starting quarterbacks at Lake Travis H. S. in Austin, Texas, have earned a Division I scholarship. One is Baker Mayfield of the Browns.
For the third straight night Movies!, channel 5–2 on over the air antennas in NYC, ran a Nick and Nora Charles mystery — Another Thin Man (1939), more lively fun. One aspect would brighten the hearts of any movie and TV fan. Early on, Horace McMahon and Harry Belaver share screen time, although I don’t believe they exchanged dialogue. Almost two decades later, 1958, they formed two-thirds of the detective squad of ABC’s Naked City, Paul Burke the third cog. The cast list of ATM is long, as one scene is in a night club. At least ten of the actors have 316–412 titles listed at IMDb. With 20 or so more to check, I chose to stop when I reached Harold Miller, who has a whopping 678. He moves into second place on my unofficial roster. At the top is Bess Flowers, 913. I’d be very surprised if I ever come across someone with more. In third place, Frank O’Connor, 650, followed by Jack Mower, 620, and Stanley Blystone, 544. These are actors who often were in the background of shots, their participation usually uncredited. Here are, left to right, Belaver, Burke and McMahon in character on location in NYC, followed by the ubiquitous Miller, whose career spanned 1919–1964:
My thanks to the two women who each bought a book in Russian, and to the young one who paid for The Arctic Incident (Artemis Fowl, Book 2) by Eoin Colfer with a silver dollar; and to the middle age Latina, who asked for Spanish fare and bought part one of Cervantes’ Don Quixote. I had to brush the cobwebs off what I’d learned in college. I’m sure I made a fool of myself. Perdoname, Senora.
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