Saturday Thoughts

The cause of the problem reverses field. Headline from nypost.com: “Nancy Pelosi, 83, pushes San Francisco crime crackdown in re-elect launch: ‘There will be arrests and that’s the way it is’.” Of course, one wonders if it is sincere and will continue post-election. I guess she and her husband haven’t milked enough from the system.

SMH, from NYP: “Migrant deaths crossing US-Mexico border hit 500, extra agents dispatched to help prevent them: ‘Some just don’t make it’.” For the umpteenth time — send migrants to Delaware!

Hemingway’s generation was dubbed “lost.” It may have competition. Excerpt from an NYP editorial: “Only one-third of college students say it’s never acceptable to shout down a controversial campus speaker. And one-quarter think using violence can be acceptable in at least some circumstances to stop someone from speaking on campus.” Of 55,000-plus students, 71% agreed that a college ‘definitely’ or ‘probably’ should not allow a speaker on campus who previously expressed the idea that Black Lives Matter is a hate group.”

From NYP on the growing debacle of green energy: “Within 25 years New York will find itself trying to manage the disposal of five million or more waste solar panels every year, reports the Empire Center’s James E. Hanley. Yet the state has no plan to manage it. Current methods: Export them and their numerous toxic metals to developing countries. Stateside, they can go to hazardous waste landfills, but often don’t.”

I don’t know that Quid Pro Joe would lose the 2024 election, given mail-in and early voting, but it seems he is the Dem most likely to blow it. The party hierarchy would be wise to blame the person and not the policies for the current state of the country. Many would likely buy it.

Having read the late Billie Letts’ Where the Heart Is, I was curious about the 2000 film adaptation, so I added it to my Netflix list. I immediately noticed that two characters were missing, one combined into another played by Ashley Judd, who is superb as a woman who makes horrendous choices in men. For some reason the unlucky number was changed to five from seven, which doesn’t make a difference. Natalie Portman, terrific actress, did not fit my mind’s eye view of the lead. She low-keys the role in an almost unflappable way. James Frain seems less odd than the young librarian of the book. Dylan Bruno fits to part of the guy who abandons the pregnant Novalee to a tee. Keith David’s role is not big enough. There were two aspects I really liked: at times the dialogue seemed lifted from the novel to a T, and the close is happy rather than open-ended. Stockard Channing and Joan Cusack bring their considerable talents to their supporting roles. Portman was 19 at the time, two years older than her character but looking younger. This was director Matt Williams’ second of three films. Born in Evansville, Indiana, he has been incredibly successful in TV, creating Roseanne and co-creating Home Improvement, and is a six-time Emmy nominee. There are 24 titles under his name at IMDb in the category of Producer and 14 of Writer. The screenplay for Where the Heart Is was co-written by Lowell Ganz & Babaloo Mandel. Born in NYC, Ganz has 47 writing credits, including Splash (1984) and Parenthood (1989). Mandel, also born in NYC, has been his frequent collaborator. They were nominated for an Oscar for Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen for Splash, shared with two others. Made on a budget estimated at $15 million, Where the Heart Is returned $40+ million worldwide. 36,000+ users at IMDb have rated it, forging to a consensus of 6.7 on a scale of ten. Not bad, but I think it would have been better as a two or three-part miniseries. Here’s the star in character:

There were only two customers today at the floating, but one bought in bulk. My thanks to the Latina who hauled away a huge textbook on neo-natal care, one on nursing, a large cookbook and a paperback on lowering cholesterol; and to the gentleman who purchased a book in Russian; and MTA Paul, who allowed me to cherry pick ten books from the stash he had in his car.

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