Tough Night

I figured it would be a tough night, and Sammy did not disappoint. I also see that Pop was right about the weather turning cold again.

Marilyn Monroe

"Oh yes,there is something there. She is a beautiful child. I don't mean that in the obvious way—the perhaps too obvious way. I don't think she's an actress at all, not in any traditional sense. What she has—this presence, this luminosity, this flickering intelligence—could never surface on the stage. It's so fragile and subtle, it can only be caught by the camera. It's like a hummingbird in flight: only a camera can freeze the poetry of it. But anyone who thinks this girl is simply another Harlow or harlot or whatever is mad. Speaking of mad, that's what we've been working on together: Ophelia. I suppose people would chuckle at the notion, but really, she could be the most exquisite Ophelia."

-- Constance Collier

It is difficult to imagine Marilyn being able to work her sweet, all-American mouth around Shakespeare's poetic cadences, but I do agree that she has the lovely, fragile spirit of Ophelia. Marilyn Monroe was a student of the English actress, Miss Collier. At Collier's funeral in 1955, Truman Capote met Marilyn, and he interviewed her and wrote a piece about his meeting.

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Feels Like Missouri

When Pop returns home from his rounds, he says, “It’s cold. It feels like Missouri. Or like Denver.”

Monk says, “No snow.”

Pop likes that and laughs.

Monk adds, “And no clearing ice from your windshields.”

Pop nods. He says, “I’m glad I don’t have to shovel that snow.”

I wonder why Pop did not mention South Dakota, which was our last and therefore most recent posting. The first thought is that that place was sooo cold and snowy that it is beyond comparison, but I wonder if it is because that place was also more heartbreaking for us, and we prefer to forget that those years ever happened.

Beard and Mustache

I see that I am letting my beard and mustache go, and so soon after getting my haircut. It kind of makes sense to let it grow in the winter than in the hot, sweaty summer, instead of the other way around, as I would usually do it on account of my library trips in the winter. I miss my library seasons, though. My library trips felt like more of a connection to the social world, my only one, not counting my Internet connection. Of course, there is no necessary reason why I cannot go, but I am busy working through more books than I can handle as it is. There is no real incentive for me to go.

Celebrities and Stuff

Was there a secret meeting between Marilyn and Jackie that was also filmed?

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