Nobody 694

Sunday, April 22, 2007
Nobody # 694

Nobody Asked Me But:

“There was an obvious magic to a college campus. There is no entity
more protected, more shielded…It was a place to feel safe when you are
young.” - Harlan Coben from his new novel, “The Woods.”

Monday I wept

I wept Monday
For thirty-two who live no more
For the natural order turned upside down as
Parents choose gravesites for their children
For violence made common
As the greedy sell guns
And the mad make bombs
And life grows ever cheaper,
Diminished, a stepping stone
On the path to cause or notoriety.

Monday night I stopped weeping
And watched the Dodgers win again
By Tuesday it was time for ice cream.

Maybe I should have wept a little longer.<<<

A CNN poll taken the next day:

Do you believe gun-control laws are an effective way to curb violence?
Yes - 44% - 35569 votes
No - 56% - 44864 votes

I was one of the 44,864, but that placed me in the company of both those who want stricter gun control laws and the crazies who want to arm every body in America (over the age of 3, I presume) and allow them to carry at all times.

Personally, unless we could get a Supreme Court interpretation of the Second Amendment limiting the right to bear arms to militias, I would repeal the whole damn thing. Have gun clubs for hunters and leave the rest of us unarmed.<<<

My friend Jim has just finished his latest novel, “The Courage Of Others.” His earlier ones were good enough to be published, but in a world where, for a first novelist, luck, more than ability is the coin of the realm, he came up short in the four-leaf clover area. This new one is his best, and it will be another sad commentary on the publishing world if no one buys it.

The story takes place in a small town in Northern Texas immediately after World War I. Davy, the narrator, is looking back to tell the story, which happened when he was 16. Here is a passage that reminded me that I may be different from many people.

“It may well be that memory holds no more truth than a moving picture, that we see the past more in terms of the way we wish it had happened rather than the way it did. In memory we make the situations far more dramatic, our own parts far more noble.”

For some strange reason I am very objective about my past. For one thing, I spend very little time reliving it. In those brief moments that I do, I neither glamorize it nor, except for my mistakes in parenting, damn it. If I had to summarize my past, it would be very general. I was a good and decent person who made a few bad choices. I still am that person – hopefully without most of the bad choices.<<<

Current movies: Did you know: that the Scottish film, “Red Road,” is subtitled in English?

And here’s another classic brief review to add to your collection. “Perfect Stranger,” staring Bruce Willis and Halle Barry is a sexy, psychological thriller minus the sex, psychology and thrills.<<<

Before we leave films let me give you another example of the way the book, Bracketology, is flawed – BUT STILL GREAT FUN. All of the opening rounds of 32 should be seeded. Then you wouldn’t have match-ups like the one below where a choice must be made that way too early that eliminates a possible finalist.

This competition is to choose the Best Comedy. When you see the names Abbot and Costello in the title of one of the two films you may ask - great movie? Yes, this one is certainly one of half-dozen top comedies of all time and arguably belongs among the top 3 or 4. But so does “Young Frankenstein,” which means that one of the best must go down to defeat in the first round

Young Frankenstein
vs.
Abbot and Costello Meet Frankenstein

In an extremely close match, my winner is………”Young Frankenstein.”<<<

Remember the song, “Big Spender”? Have we ever had a president who spent his country’s prestige faster than our current Bush?

Here’s a headline from Le Monde - 9/12/01 - We Are All Americans Now. Go today to almost any place in Europe and you find a very different sentiment. It will go something like this: We are all distrustful of America now.

Thanks George! Thanks Big Dick!<<<

And the sad thing is that George and his cronies don’t even care. As Maureen Dowd so aptly summarized it in a recent column:

Bush “is dangerous precisely because he’s so persuaded of his own virtue.”

One more item and we will put politics to bed for this Nobody:

Senator Chuck Hagel, (Republican, Nebraska) one of the most conservative Republicans, an infantryman in Vietnam and a long-shot candidate for his party’s presidential nomination recently suggested that, in reference to Iraq, Bush should be impeached for defying the will of the American people.

Note: He may have said could rather than should. I erased my notes too quickly.<<<

Cormac McCarthy, whose novel "The Road" was recently chosen by Oprah Winfrey for her book club, has added another honor: "The Road" won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction Monday.

I finished the book last week. This journey of a man and his son, both unnamed, through an apocryphal America is terrible and bleak and yet somehow brushed with beauty. It is a stunning read.<<<

WHAT SHOULD HANSEN HAVE DONE?

Tucson sports columnist, Greg Hansen, was matched up with three strangers in a round of golf. He describes the following occurrence, as he asks of himself the question that most of us face in some fashion more than once in our lifetime:

Last week, matched with three winter visitors, the conversation turned to Pac-10 basketball, specifically to USC's incoming super recruit, O.J. Mayo.

One of the men said he had read much about Mayo's troubled upbringing.
"He's a (n word)," the man said.

I was dumbstruck, caught so completely off guard that I wasn't sure how to react. Should I walk away and quit in mid-round? It had been so long since hearing that inexcusably insulting word that I did nothing.

I regretted my inaction the rest of the day. It still burns at me.<<<

1 – He should have protested and walked away.
2 – He should have said nothing but walked away.
3 – Since he is not going to change them, he should have finished the round as he did and then made sure never to be matched with them again.<<<