Sept. 16, 2015

 

Dear Hildie:

 

I had to go back to the dentist for another temp cap because the first one broke yesterday while I was eating tortilla chips. I told him to shop using the supplier who provided Chinese Drywall for his silly putty.

 

Boy, work is slow. I think the low gasoline prices are cutting down the number of projects. Low gas prices are a boon to most people but not to me.

 

I looked up GREEN FOR DANGER and it was given rave reviews. So I ordered it. I like Trevor Howard and Alistair Sim (“Scrooge”).

 

I just got a biography of Gen. Sherman. I feel like I ought to learn more about LSU’s first president, whom all the die-hard Rebels around here refuse to have a building named for. The latest reason was that he was an Indian hater. Well, gosh, does that make him unusual for his time and place? But that’s the sort of thing I want to read about to see how close to the truth it is.

 

Still feeling lethargic but coffee helps—so long as it isn’t a lot of coffee. More than a little and I become so anxious I feel like the Day of Doom is seconds away.

 

Take care. Have fun being walled up for the LSU-Auburn game Saturday afternoon. I think I’ll celebrate by taking a nap.

 

Love,

 

M

Sept. 15, 2015

 

Dear Hildie:

 

Well, yesterday was completely shot between the urologist and the dentist. Not much accomplished, but, then, not much happening, either.

 

Thanks for the offer of golly for Halloween. Sounds good!

 

I was listening to Ben Carson on TV. He sounds so reasonable and low key, and then I read where he’s a climate-denier and doesn’t accept evolution. Jesus.

 

Am sending you a few more chapters of CRIMES OF ARTEMUS KEEL to amuse yourself with. It’s one of those things I wrote because I wanted to, not because I thought it had commercial value. May be a total bust but I had fun doing it.

 

Take care.

Love,

 

M

 

Sept. 11, 2015

 

Dear Hildie:

 

Well, here we are at another anniversary. It’s one of those things you remember, like where you were when JFK was shot. For the latter I was in some training class at Ft. Gordon, Georgia, a hell hole equaled only by Ft. Polk.  I think we were at a fireman training session. In the perverse usage of the military (as in Farenheit 451), a fireman wasn’t somebody who puts out fires but somebody who keeps the fire going (in this case the old coal furnaces that heated the barracks). As for Sept. 11, I was at home and MM said, “A plane hit the World Trade Center.” I said, “Terrorism” and sat down to watch, shortly after which we saw the other plane hit. Ever since then, I’ve gone to the TV in the morning (which I never did that religiously before) because I’ve been waiting for the next atrocity. So I guess it’s a great blessing that all we have right now is the bloviation of politicians. What amused me this morning was Jindal’s looking at the camera straight on and saying, “I’m going to be the nominee.” Yeah, and Putin’s going to be the next pope.

Oh, and I never saw the Trevor Howard movie you mentioned but would probably enjoy it. As for watching GONE WITH THE WIND, that’s sort of like drowning in molasses.

 

Take care.

Love,

M

 

Sept. 10, 2015

 

Dear Hildie:

I saw TREASURE OF THE SIERRA MADRE again last night. What wonderful performances by Bogart and Walter Huston (the latter, of course, got an Oscar). What’s so great about Bogart is that he was so versatile, from playing a hero (CASABLANCA), to a weak alcoholic (AFRICAN QUEEN), to a paranoid  (TREASURE, CAINE MUTINY).

Just had a meeting with crew to address certain concerns. I hope too many feelings didn’t get hurt. As I stressed to them, all the mistakes they’ve made are ones I’ve made many times over.

I agree with James Gill in the ADVOCATE: John Kennedy is the one for governor, but he has too much sense to run. Nobody wants to hear about budget cuts and raised taxes.

On to P.O. to mail this and see if any client has paid.

Love,

 

M

 

Sept 9, 2015

 

Dear Hildie:

 

I don’t know what to say about your ex-  wanting to go (eventually) to Mexico to make the Great Transition. I know they have death certificates there, but they may just be issued by the cartels.

Now, I don’t, as you suggest, just watch movies where “I’m the hero.” Take TREASURE OF THE SIERRA MADRE. Nobody would identify with Bogart’s Fred Dobbs, the paranoid, and Tim Holt is a little too slight a character to identify with. Likewise CAINE MUTINY—Robert Francis is not so good a character that you’d identify with him; Queeg is the main character but he’s crazy. THE THIRD MAN? Well, Holly is naïve, almost silly, but who’d want to be Harry Lime (Orson Welles)? He’s a psychopath. THE SEARCHERS? No, I’m not Ethan Edwards (John Wayne), who’s an Indian hater. Jeff Hunter? Again, overshadowed by the larger than life Ethan. Rick in CASABLANCA? Sure, any day.

Ah, the saga of Kim Davis continues. I bet that woman runs for something else soon. Huckaby such a jackal to go there to get camera time supporting her—Looks like he even out-jackaled Cruz, who tried to show up at the rally and was shunted aside. These people have no shame.

On to the dentist today. My dentist says they have such a high suicide rate because nobody wants to come see them. What can I say?

 

Take care.

Love

M

Dear Hildie:

 

Well, all that sturm und drung about the big LSU opener and for nothing! How does it feel having been penned inside your house for a full day for nothing? First time in 98 years a game was called due to weather.

The other night I watched one of my favorite movies, the 1943 HEAVEN CAN WAIT, with Don Ameche and Gene Tierney. What a wonderful story—Poor Henry van Cleve dies and goes to hell but when he meets the devil and tells his story, mainly about his incurable weakness for women, the devil tells him he’s made so many people happy he doesn’t belong there and sends him upstairs. Of course, in today’s PC climate, it is probably seen as an excuse for male-dominance, etc, etc. But Ameche makes such a gentle, kindly character out of Henry that you have to love him—as did all the women he ever met.

See they’re trying to reopen the Melissa Montz case from 1985. That always seemed an odd business to me—and in the latest story they released information they hadn’t previously, about how she’d been tied to a log and raped and left in a ditch along Nicholson Drive. What’s odd is that someone planned it, because they brought a rope, but even at 6 a.m. in the dark, raping and killing a woman jogger in a ditch beside a major road seems pretty risky as well as uncomfortable for the killer. Of course, he may have ridden a bike. If they ever solve it, and I hope they do, I’ll be curious to know the truth.

Finally finished my rewrite. Thank God! Have to set it aside now and go back in a few weeks and see how it reads.

Enough for now.

 

Take care.

Love,

 

M

Dear Hildie:

I know the first LSU game Saturday has you excited—You won’t be able to go in or out all day. And we’re meeting such a powerhouse team—McNeese. I don’t even know what their mascot is. Probably a link of boudin.

I see the thrice married and divorced clerk of court in Kentucky is being ordered to jail. She’ll love that—Fanatics love nothing more than martyrdom. And she’ll get so much attention. I really don’t see what she has against gay marriage. I mean, after three failed marriages to men, seems like she might have more luck with the other sex.

 

Take care.

Love,

M

Dear Hildie:

Can’t wait until the three day weekend. But I’m trying to finish this rewrite. I get so upset when I have to take time out to do other things and can’t get to the writing—I end up feeling guilty.   Feel this urge to get it all down lest I drop dead (like Dickens with Edwin Drood) and nobody knows what happens. I know, I flatter myself.

Don’t sweat the formations off West Africa—I think the hurricane threat’s done for this year, to the extent it ever actually existed. It’s fast getting too cool in the waters for one to be sustained. I am reading KATRINA by G. Rivlin now. Boy, what an indictment of Bush and his cronies. His pet war sapped all the resources that would otherwise have been available if the implications of the Hurricane Pam simulation had been taken seriously.

 

 

Take care.

Love,

M

Sept. 2, 2015

Dear Hildie:

I lay awake last night going over in my mind, of all things, my own favorite movies, western and general. Isn’t that crazy? For westerns I came up with HIGH NOON, SHANE, THE SEARCHERS, THE MAN WHO SHOT LIBERTY VALANCE and TREASURE OF THE SIERRA MADRE (If you consider it a Western). No RED RIVER, because of the anachronistic weapons and the whole business about Cherry Vallance and meeting a wagon train in the middle of nowhere, which didn’t make a lot of sense. I’d give honorable mentions to TRUE GRIT and SHE WORE A YELLOW RIBBON. Of these, two are John Wayne’s, and with the honorable mentions, four. He was a much better actor than he was a person.

As for general films, well, I couldn’t limit it to five or six. There’s CASABLANCA, THE THIRD MAN, TWELVE O’CLOCK HIGH, THE QUIET MAN, ALL THE KING’S MEN (original version), INHERIT THE WIND, THE GRADUATE, PAPER CHASE, THE AFRICAN QUEEN, THE WOLF MAN (original version) and probably THE CAINE MUTINY, the latter only for Bogart’s superb performance as Queeg.  Of these three are Bogarts and one’s a John Wayne.

Shows what I think about in bed!

Take care.

Love,

M

Sept. 1, 2015

Dear Hildie:

I know what you mean about mixed metaphors. Recently there was a newspaper column by Chante Warren, who wrote that her mother always said, “Little pictures have big ears,” and she went on to wax eloquent about little pictures.  The sad fact is that around here the news reporting is abysmal. I watch mainly Channel 9 and none of those people can write a decent news story. They throw in “alleged” like an all-purpose adjective. And the other day one said, “The house that was set on fire twice is believed to be arson.” Well, Jeez, who else would have set it on fire but an arsonist? The news media in this town are strictly bush league.

I was listening to Dick Cheney on an interview at noon. My God, why does anybody care what that bum has to say? He has absolutely no shame It’s hard to imagine anybody that rotten. At least Huey Long, rotten as he was, had a sense of humor.

I have a book on the aftermath of Katrina, by Gary Rivlin. I look forward to seeing what he has to say about the re-building effort(s). I’m sure some of them worked but others were boondoggles. I was amazed that W went to the 10 year “ceremonies.” He should be so ashamed to show his head anywhere that Carlsbad Caverns wouldn’t be deep enough for him. Of course, we (and many others) profited from the aftermath, in terms of a raft of work. That’s about all played out now. I guess FEMA will refocus its inept efforts on the fires out west. I was watching Jindal on TV yesterday—He was claiming he reduced state expenditures by a third, reduced the size of government, etc. He never once said that when he came in there was a huge influx of federal money for hurricane relief and that the “reductions” he’s bragging about were the natural result of the money having all been spent and no longer being available from Washington.

Take care.

Love,

M