Short Story Wednesday: "Face- Time" Lorrie Moore from THE NEW YORKER, Sept. 2020

 https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2020/09/28/face-time

 

You can tell by the date above, what was going on then. And this story, well-written and sad can stand in for a million stories like it. The protagonist's father is in the hospital. A surgery is followed by Covid. His daughters can only visit on Face- time as was so much the case then. It is hard to read this and be taken back to that hopeless time when we didn't know how long a vaccine might be in coming. But it wasn't that long because we believed in science and labs and the scientists working in them. And now we don't. Or at least our government doesn't.  

Todd Mason 

Neer 

George Kelley 

TracyK 

Monday, Monday

 I didn't expect to like THE PHOENICIAN SCHEME but I sort of did. I think it was because of Michael Cera's casting. I watched it as a series of skits rather than a whole, which was less frustrating. Going to see DON'T LETS GO DOWN TO THE DOGS TONIGHT today. I read it a long time ago. (Great movie-about a family caught up in the end of white Rhodesia). 

Liked the BLACK MIRROR episode with Paul Giamatti. Still watching the series on the Mitfords (OUTRAGEOUS) on BRIT BOX. Always difficult to find much sympathy for the rich and this one makes it even harder as they fawn over Adolph Hitler. Still reading MINA'S MATCHBOX, which is so unusual. Although it goes well with the Anderson movie. Also reading essays by Lorrie Moore. THE WSJ picked their favorite crime books from the 2000s. Megan's THE TURNOUT was on there. I thought it was a very good list but anyone craving action probably won't. 

The weather is strange or maybe it's the Canadian fires but it's dark a lot. 

I wake up full of dread anyway and that sure doesn't help.  

What about your world?  

FFB THE SOUTHPAW, Donal Hamilton Haines

 (From the distant past)

Kent Morgan writes (or wrote) a sports column for a paper in Winnipeg, Manitoba, but spends most of his time puzzling over what to do with all the books piled on his furniture and floor and stored in his garage. More bookcases are not the answer as he has no room for them.

The Southpaw - Donal Hamilton Haines

I came across a copy of this juvenile novel at a recent charity book sale and quickly grabbed it for my baseball fiction collection. I didn't remember much about the story, but knew I had owned and read it in my youth. First published by Rinehart in 1931, Comet Books started reprinting it in 1949 and that's the edition I found. The book includes illustrations by Harold Minton and several panels on the back cover along with brief text provided the potential reader with an idea about the storyline.

"All Hillton Academy hated baseball, and every other sport except for hazing freshmen. For games bored Greg Elliott, a senior who had the whole school under his thumb. Then Bob Griswold arrived, like a one-man revolution. Bob loved baseball and refused to be bossed. That got him into a knock-down fight with Butch, Elliott's bully. And into much worse trouble with Elliott himself. Finally this undercover battle for leadership blazed into a revolt that shook Hillton Academy to its foundation."

The Southpaw with a cover price of .35 was #16 in a series of 20 mystery, sports, career and adventure tales published by Comet. Among the titles are The Green Turtle Mystery by Ellery Queen Jr., The Spanish Cave by Geoffrey Household and Sue Barton, Student Nurse by Helen Dore Boylston. The series also includes two other baseball books, Batter Up by Jackson Scholz and Bat Boy of the Giants by Garth Garreau, that I also read in my youth. My copies could be hiding from me in boxes in my garage.

Short Story Wednesday, "Premium Harmony" Stephen King

 from THE NEW YORKER.

 A couple, who fight over meaningless things, (his smoking, her weight) stop at a roadside store to pick up a ball for her niece. The husband and their dog wait in the car. It's a very hot day and after too long of a wait for her small errand, a woman comes out to tell him his wife has collapsed. He goes inside and waits until EMS arrives and confirms her death. She is only 35. He returns to the car where the dog has also died from the heat. I am not sure I would identify this as a King story if not for the references to Castle Rock. It was written in 2009. 

George Kelley

Jerry House 

Todd Mason 

Monday, Monday

 

BLUE, SUN PALACE, showing at the Detroit Film Theater was very slow but interesting. A first film, set in Queens, Baltimore and somewhere in Asia.

I seem to be surrounded by Asian fare lately. Also rewatched IN THE MOOD FOR LOVE, which is such a gorgeous film. And reading MINA'S MATCHBOXES by Yoko Ogawa who also wrote THE MEMORY POLICE and THE HOUSEKEEPER AND THE PROFESSOR. 

Enjoying BALLARD (Prime), MURDERBOT (Apple). Not sure about the Lena Dunham show (Netflix), which has a hard-to-remember title Also liked PERNILLE (Netflix)

My hearing problem turned out to be wax, which Urgent Care removed,somewhat painfully. I can certainly hear much better. 

Weather been hot. I hate when I am tired of summer by mid-July because winter is so dreadful.

How about you?  

FFB: THE GREAT SANTINI, Pat Conroy

 

 

 

 You've probably seen the movie with Robert Duvall, but the book is terrific too. Conroy is a great writer and I've read most of his books THE PRINCE OF TIDES may be my favorite but this has the most memorable character in his work. This is a semi-autobiographical story of an ex-marine who runs his family like it's boot camp.Especially affected is Ben who fears, hates, and is anxious to feel his father's love and respect. "THE GREAT SANTINI HAS SPOKEN" is Bull's catch phrase and I can still picture Robert Duvall shouting that.  

Short Story Wednesday: "Something is Out There" Richard Bausch

 

Originally in MURDERLAND, this ended up the title story in his collection. 

A family returns home from the hospital where the father is spending some time after falling off the roof after being shot. They are having a rare snowstorm, and the boys begin to shovel the driveway and walk. The women try to piece together what has happened. The man who shot the father has been captured and was a former business partner. They are also waiting for the return of another family member away at college. They are worried about him out on the icy roads.

The dread in this story is palpable: the storm, the fate of the college student, knocks on the door, is the father involved in some crime? And then the power goes out. 

Bausch takes his time to make you feel what they are feeling. In fact, when a knock came at my own door (something very rare nowadays) I almost fell out of the chair. (It was the mailman). 

Bausch understands that the threat of violence can be more frightening than actual violence. He gives you enough information to understand, sort of, what might be going on. The story ends with the woman, standing at an upstairs window, with a loaded gun. The kids wait downstairs baseball bats and knives at the ready. The other woman waits too.

 Superb. There are probably pdf's online if you care to read it

George Kelley 

Jerry House 

TracyK 

Steve Lewis 

Kevin Tipple 

Todd Mason 

Monday, Monday

Going out tonight (Sunday) to celebrate Kevin's passing the IB (International Baccalaureate)  exams. These are the equivalent in his school of AP exams.  Yay, Kevin!

Enjoyed FILM GEEK (Max) which so encapsulates the years when my kids were growing up in terms of movies.  Finished THE BEAR, which never quite recaptured the magic of the first two years but still is better than most anything else right now.  POKER FACE is fine but they are too wedded to their concept. Much like COLUMBO, I guess. 

Very much enjoying THE INVISIBLE LIFE OF ADDIE LARUE-which is a fantasy-romance novel. Or maybe add historical fiction too. Beautiful writing. 

Went down to Michigan Central (Detroit's one-time train station) again-this time on a tour. Ford has made a gorgeous building out of what was a complete wreck a few years ago. Now they charge $20 a head for the tour so they will probably come out ahead over time because they have many tours every day.  Unlike Grand Central, Union Station and Penn Station no trains will ever come through it again. There are trains that head to Chicago but not via this route. 

Heard a rumor that both Detroit newpapers are soon going to online only. Yikes! 

How about you? 

FFB: BORN ON THE FOURTH OF JULY, Ron Kovics

 

BORN details Kovic's experiences as a soldier in two tours of duty in Vietnam, his involvement in war atrocities, his injuries, his paralysis, his treatment at various VA facilities and his road to activism. A very hard book to read and it was a terrific movie with Tom Cruise. 

Will this be the last fourth where the country we have forged is considered a democracy?  

Short Story Wednesday: "Button, Button" Richard Matheson

"Button, Button", Richard Matheson 

A package arrives at Norma and Arthur Steward's house with a gadget inside with a button on it. Shortly after a man arrives and announces to the couple that if they push the button they will kill someone in the world, and receive $50, 000 in exchange. Norma is intrigued by this, insisting that they are part of an experiment, and nothing will happen if they push the button. Except maybe they would get paid and could do the many things she was longing for. Arthur is repulsed by the idea and by his wife. This is a very well -written story although you will probably guess the ending. This was, of course, on the Twilight Zone. You can watch it on you tube. It was also the plot of the 2009 movie THE BOX.

Steve Lewis 

George Kelley 

Martin Edwards 

Jerry House 

Kevin Tipple