Wheels of Fortune
Headline from nypost.com: “‘Total insanity’: Ukraine regains hundreds of miles as Putin opens new Ferris wheel.” In the same vein, headline from newsmax.com: “Russian Nationalists Rage at Putin After Stunning Setback in Ukraine.” And this from foxnews.com: “Russian TV pundits openly questioning war in Ukraine following devastating counteroffensive.” Dare we get our hopes up?
This sounds like good news, headline from NYP: “Midtown ‘trophy’: Major landlord takes control of Park Ave. office tower from bankrupt China firm.”
Beginning of a quote in an NYP editorial: ““Anyone who still thinks climate change is a greater threat than climate policy…” Love it! And here’s an excerpt from an article at foxbusiness.com by Thomas Catenacci, edited by yours truly: “Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., agreed to support the Inflation Reduction Act in exchange for support of a deal that would make it easier to approve energy projects including fossil fuel pipelines… The Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP), a 304-mile West Virginia-to-Virginia natural gas link near completion, is facing setbacks from federal agencies and courts.” Environmental zealots have dubbed the concession betrayal. I see it as common sense.
Headline from newsmax.com: “Former MLB Pitcher Believes Sports Can Unify Politically Divided Country.” Even when franchises cave to wokeness?
Here’s a term I’d never heard prior to scanning an article at FB by Erica Lamberg: “Quiet Quitting” is defined as employees doing the bare minimum to get by.
Movies!, channel 5–2 on OTA in NYC, continues to be a great asset. Last night it ran a title with which I was completely unfamiliar, Violent Saturday (1955). I don’t recall it having ever been aired back in the day. Directed by Richard Fleischer from a novel by William L. Heath, adapted by Sydney Boehm, it’s the story of life in a small town whose bank is going to be robbed. It features a stellar cast: Victor Mature, Richard Egan, Stephen McNally, Tommy Noonan, Margaret Hayes, Lee Marvin, J. Carrol Naish, Sylvia Sidney, Brad Dexter, and Ernest Borgnine as an Amish farmer. Despite the restrictions of the era, it’s surprising hardcore, although there is no spewing of blood. It delves into adultery, petty theft, alcoholism and peeping-tomism, all in a running time of 90 minutes. 2500+ users at IMDb rate it 6.9, a bit high in my opinion. Still, it’s worthwhile, shot in cinemascope, color by Deluxe. Although it was broadcast as part of the station’s Sunday Night Noir series, I’d dub the flick mainstream, equal parts existential drama and crime thriller. Made on a budget of less than a million, it returned $1.25 million, which I assume made it at least a modest success by the era’s numbers. Fleisher, who honed his craft doing shorts, directed 62 films, including one of the best film noirs, The Narrow Margin (1952). He shared an Oscar with two others for a documentary, Design for Death (1947), about Japan during WWII. Boehm received an Oscar nomination for the cold war drama The Atomic City (1952). He has 33 writing credits at IMDb. Here are Marvin, Naish, Mature & McNally in character:
It looked like there would be below average return for the floating book shop on this humid day until a couple of shoppers came late and pushed it to above average. My thanks to the ladies who each bought a book in Russian; and to the woman who purchased Post Office by Charles Bukowski, Up from Orchard Street by Eleanor Widmer, and Man’s Search for Meaning by Victor Frankl, a concentration camp survivor; and to the gentleman I hadn’t seen in a while, who selected stuff for friends: a Russian-Hebrew prayer book; a book in Chinese, one on Western Culture, and two novels in French. I am blessed.
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