Lucille Ball

"I don’t know anything about luck. I’ve never banked on it, and I’m afraid of people who do. Luck to me is something else: hard work and realizing what is opportunity and what isn’t."

-- Lucille Ball (photographed for Lover Come Back, 1946)

Finished “Girl Next Door”

Finished “Girl Next Door” last night. A little disappointed. The movie was very faithful to the book, and I had hoped that the novel would be much more sensationalistic, more pornish, but no. How do you have only one rape with a captive hot teenage girl?? Amazon reviewers sure can be hysterical; they got my hopes up with all their self-righteous bellyaching about this being all about porn and rape.

In any case, I am now left with a bigger problem. What to read next?

I was seriously thinking about giving “Rabbit Run” another go. I don’t have the money for more shopping expeditions. There is Casanova, but I didn’t really want to settle for that. I also felt a bit glutted on schoolgirl-in-distress stories.

“So, what are you going to do?”

I thought I might reread something. And you won’t believe what I settled on.

“Oh, I’m sure I can believe, but I won’t even try to guess.”

Ron Chernow’s “Alexander Hamilton”.

“A history book? *laughing* I’m glad I didn’t bother guessing. Is that really going to make you want to rifle through the pages?”

Well, it is not much drier than “Rabbit Now”. I am thinking that “Hamilton” is intimately personal enough to be somewhat compelling, in the same way that Casanova’s memoirs are. The writing is beautiful, fluid. And I have been saying that I would like to beef up the old reading life, get more out of it.

“Yeah, but will you be eager pick it up late at night and dig into some of that venerable colonial history?”

We’ll find out.

pics

Sacred Nature

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Mideast-Israel Update

“We need to flatten entire neighborhoods in Gaza. Flatten all of Gaza. The Americans didn’t stop with Hiroshima — the Japanese weren’t surrendering fast enough, so they hit Nagasaki, too. There should be no electricity in Gaza, no gasoline or moving vehicles, nothing. Then they’d really call for a cease-fire.”

-- Gilad Sharon, the son of Ariel Sharon

Israel, I learn from my colleague Ethan Bronner, has a preferred metaphor for its repetitive security operations: “Cutting the grass,” as in “a task that must be performed regularly and has no end.” But of course bombing Gaza is potent fertilizer to the grasses of hatred.

--Roger Cohen at The New York Times

The Internation community, including Israel's friends, are drawing the line against a ground invasion into Gaza, and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is going to the region in person to try to cease the violence.

a casino, I think

Coming out of my nap, I see the skies have cloudied up a little. Good! It was a little summery today. The temperatures barely spilled over the 80-mark, but it is enough to put me back in shorts and shirtlessness and reminiscing about the air-conditioning.

And I'm afraid I was right about the new window blinds. By getting white ones, they really don't keep the sunlight out as well as the dark red ones. It takes away from some of the comfort and pleasure of watching a movie with the picture battling with the sun's glare. It's not so bad that I feel moved to make an issue out of it with Pop, but I suspect he may notice the problem on his own the next time the Cowboys play an afternoon game on a sunny day.

"Where is the old guy by the way? He left very early this morning, didn't he?"

One of those senior tours. This time to a casino, I think. Eagle Pass? An Indian place. I'm sure he is loving that. It will be something macho to share with Vic and Jack. I just hope this is not the start of another bad habit, a very expensive one. And let's hope he can keep from hurting himself and ending up at the hospital this time.