Snow accident at Bookman's

2010_1_23 Snow accident at Bookman’s
First, the latest news: Doni called us this afternoon to tell us that the roof of the Bookman’s store in Flagstaff caved in Thursday night due to a heavy load of snow. We saw on the local news tonight a picture of the store with a lot of metal beams on the floor. KVOA reported that were plans to repair the roof and to reopen. Nothing was said about all the books and other things in the store. I suppose the inventory is a lesser concern. They could borrow a lot of books from the warehouse and the other stores.
David Silger also sent us 8 pictures of the snow on their property, which is snowed in; they had to dig a path through 4 feet high snow to get to the outer buildings. More snow is expected tonight.
Robert Parker, 77, died this week. He was one of the better mystery writers in the field, consistently good and reliable to deliver a smart and witty story. I read a few of the Spencer novels but I listened to many more on tape while I was working at the church. Most of them had Bert Reynolds doing the reading and he was a perfect fit for Parker’s voice and style. But actually I preferred the stories about Jesse Stone, the ex-cop from L.A. who was transplanted to a small town in Massachusetts called Paradise where he became sheriff, one with a drinking problem. I only read two of the books but I have seen most of the movies with Tom Selleck, who makes a great Jesse Stone. It is Stone’s vulnerability and sardonic attitude which appeals to me.
“That Hamilton Woman” was made in 1941. If I am not mistaken it is the film in which Lawrence Olivier and Vivien Leigh first met; they later married and but the marriage didn’t last. Leigh has never looked prettier than she does in this movie. She plays Emma Hart Hamilton who is married to the English Ambassador to Naples; she is basically regarded by the Ambassador as an “ornament” in his life. But she is a social creature who is quite charming and she becomes well thought of by the King and Queen of Naples. As far as I could tell the marriage was never consummated but was friendly and affectionate. When Lord Nelson comes round she helps him out with some details that need the king and queen’s signature. They eventually fall in love, which was accepted and tolerated by the ambassador. However, in England it is another matter. Things are not the same; the English are much more puritanical and morality-driven. Lady Hamilton was scorned by polite society. Lord Nelson’s wife hates Lady Hamilton and she is gossiped about in public as “that Hamilton woman.” Meanwhile Nelson is beefing up his reputation as an exceptional seaman and battle tactician, especially at the Trafalgar where 22 English ships defeated 33 Franco-Spanish ships that by the end of fighting only 11 were left. But Nelson is mortally wounded by gunfire from a close-by French vessel. He manages to stay alert and alive until he is told the French have surrendered; at that point he feels free to die. Emma is crushed by his death. Afterwards she falls into drunken obscurity. The movie uses the device of telling the story in retrospect, as Lady Hamilton pours it out as a tragic love story to a cellmate in jail after being arrested for stealing some liquor.
(Sunday) I picked up the 5th Season of “Weeds” too, last Friday after the CT Scan, and we have seen 7 episodes already, mostly because they are much shorter this time, some barely a half hour long. They call Nancy the “Hemptress” which is clever and in the 7th episode she had the baby. I noticed that the brother-in-law has most of the best lines and Sue thinks there is more anger in this season than before.
Late Friday night, after Sue had gone to bed, I watched a violent farce called “Give ‘em Hell Malone.” It stared Thomas Jane, he of “Punisher” fame, and Ving Rhames. I suspect it was once a comic book, and if it wasn’t it copied the style of one. Malone is close to invincible and unkillable, and if he is shot (three times) he runs to his alcoholic mother who magically heals him. The opening sequence is an outrageous gun battle between Malone and the chief bad guy’s gang, about a dozen hoods. He kills them all with one pistol, a la Clint Eastwood in the spaghetti Westerns. Ving beats the hell out of him and tosses him around, he gets clubbed with baseball bat but it barely fazes him, and he survives assaults from the two other bizarre characters in the movie, Matchstick, played by Doug Hutchison who was one of the prison cops in “The Green Mile,” and a tiny tot Chinese killer, a petite woman who is theatrical and quite vicious. If she had a name I didn’t catch it. Matchstick is called that because he was severely burned in a fire and as a consequence he is fond of immolating his victims. Malone has a lethal duel with both of them and—surprise, surprise—comes out on top. Naturally, there is a gorgeous doll/whore involved with Malone, who is sent by the slick, handsome boss to track what he is up to. The actress who plays her is Elsa Pataky who I have never seen before. Her reward from the Boss is a bullet in the forehead. Malone dispatches the Boss after his clubbing by the bat, helped out by Ving who decides he no longer wants to work for the Boss. The movie ends with a mysterious phone call and “To be continued.” I can’t wait. The Director’s name was Russell Mulcahy.
As one of my old friends, a retired High School English teacher, would say “Malone” has no redeeming social value, none at all. And yet, I got a kick out of some of the characters and their comic book exaggeration. Plus I like Jane for some reason. He’s sort of a poor man’s Bruce Willis.
There was an article in our local paper about the “stealth operation” behind Scott Brown’s win in Massachusetts. It was engineered by Texas Senator John Cornyn who is Chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee whose participation was quiet and flew under the radar of the Democrats. When they discovered what was going on it was too late; Brown was safely ahead by then. At two points during Brown’s campaign Cornyn pumped in big bucks, a million dollars the first time and $500,000 the second. But that wasn’t all he sent. He sent political operatives from D.C. to help out in any way they could. After the debate between the two candidates, during which Brown scored some points, the Republican started to surge ahead but the team did not ballyhoo their success. Meanwhile in the New York Times three op-ed writers lamented the poor performance of the Democratic Party, in Massachusetts and generally in the past year. They all wondered, and so do I, what went wrong with the Democrats? Why can’t they grasp the desperation of millions of Americans and why did they take good care of the Banks and Wall Street rather than the struggling masses on Main Street? And now the Bankers are handing out outrageous bonuses to their people while unemployment is still above 10% and really more than that. The Republicans, aware of the void created by Democratic inaction among their base and independents, jumped in with both feet in the elections in Virginia, New Jersey and Massachusetts and are already targeting Illinois, North Dakota, Colorado and other states where they see a crack in a Democratic stronghold. George Will wrote the other day that the Democrats are headed toward “their Kamikaze flight to incineration” and that” conservatism is rising on the stepping stones of liberal excesses.” Obama, trying to correct that wayward flight, has called back his campaign manager and plans to go back to that mode of action.