From the first time I watched it, Alfred Hitchcock’s 1946 seductive spy thriller/love story Notorious has been the first thing that comes to mind when that adjective is applied to anything. Ingrid Bergman at the height of her beauty coupled with Cary Grant at the height of his would be enough to make any movie memorable. She plays a spy […]
Picture it. Shreveport, Louisiana, 1977. I was half way through college and still wondering why boys at coeducational schools weren’t called coeds. That summer, a nerdy hot boyfriend had taken me to see Star Wars, although I would have preferred to see Annie Hall. (Nerdy hot boyfriends may have greater earnings potential later in life, but they are not likely […]
As Robert Burns once wrote, “The best-laid plans of mice and men often go awry.” Well, his being Scottish, it was actually “The best laid schemes o’ Mice an’ Men, Gang aft agley,” but I digress. After the revelations last week about Trump’s disparaging remarks about American military service members, both living and dead, it seemed reasonable to think the […]
Growing up, there were a few, a very few, times that Daddy actually cooked. I’m not talking about when he’d grill steaks outside in the oil barrel that had been rigged up for that purpose and had, for some inexplicable reason, been painted silver. I mean he’d actually get in the kitchen and cook. These rare occasions usually were on […]
Another 9,000 Americans—too many to name—have died from COVID-19 in the last week. Another unarmed Black man—his name is Jacob Blake–has been shot in the back multiple times by a white police officer. Another natural disaster—this one named Laura—has hit Louisiana and Texas, joining the California wildfires and the Iowa derecho in numbering up the plagues for those who are […]
Some of my favorite movies are stories about the relationships between women in groups. Steel Magnolias, The First Wives Club, and A Letter to Three Wives fit into this genre, as well as the more simply named The Group and The Women. The nexus for these associations may be rooted in college friendships or living in the same town. Or […]
Leaning on the everlasting arms may make one safe and secure from all alarms, but sometimes we need an infusion of something just a bit higher up on Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. As the weeks have turned into months, I find myself employing an old pattern of seeking to get from the movies what is missing from real life. What […]
Even after 38 years, Karl sometimes surprises me. Not like sending me flowers or bringing me candy surprises, but the occasional surprise choice. Last weekend, we were retiring to the den to eat dinner and watch a movie. I had recently recorded two movies I wanted to see again, one that I hadn’t seen in a very long time that […]
Since someone let the cat out of the bag about the blessing of hearts in the South not having a thing in the world to do with blessing anything, it may be time to articulate some other Southern code employed by many folks down here that means something a little different than what it sounds like on the surface. It […]
Donald Trump isn’t doing very well with the polls. Not to be confused with the Poles, which I generally skip over in favor of “Polish.” Not to be confused with “polish,” of which both my nails and my furniture have desperate need. Rather I’m talking about those polls, released these days with much fanfare and “Breaking News” banners, that […]
