Tag: entertainment

How Everything (except me, maybe) Works


I found this book a while back and grabbed it because it wasn’t expensive and it does provide a surprising amount of information on a variety of subjects that a person lacking scientific, engineering, and mechanical know-how (i.e., me) can learn from.

For example, here is interesting information I found about ants. The picture of the Australian Red Fox is just a bonus because of the beauty and was photographed about to walk in front of an urban wall with a fox painted on it (not shown in the photo).

The pages don’t have numbers, so a bit of searching has to be done despite a table of contents, but it’s a fun book to browse. I always believe things like this will find their way into my fiction some way or another. I hope random research counts as “work,” because my work-in-progress is not…progressing. That’s okay.

Still summer: movies and smoothies.

I’ve watched all six movies in this collection, although only Pillow Talk (1959), Lover Come Back (1961), and Send Me No Flowers (1964), all with Rock Hudson as the love interest, and The Thrill of It All (1963), with James Garner playing her opposite, count as romantic comedies. One of the two suspense movies, Midnight Lace (1960), with Rex Harrison playing the husband, is one I’d never seen, and it is indeed a thriller (though probably tame by today’s version of that genre, which I don’t watch, suspense and violence being too hard on my nervous system). I’d seen clips from the Alfred Hitchcock-directed The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956), with Jimmy Stewart as the husband. It was good to watch the film in its entirety and know how it got to the scenes I’d already seen.

What are you doing when you’re not working?

Sweet dreams, Troubadour

I was already asleep last night when Jim texted the news that J.D. Souther has died. His text was the first thing I read this morning. I’ve tipped my hat to Souther before on this site. The songs he wrote, the songs he sang, his collaborations with other artists including Linda Ronstadt, the Eagles, Jackson Browne, James Taylor, Bonnie Raitt… All part of the poetry that gave a soundtrack to the hopes, dreams, fears, and heartbreaks of my formative years. He had a tour scheduled with Karla Bonoff beginning later this month.


I’m sharing this photo by Henry Diltz and the following story, both taken from the Instagram feed lostcanyonsla.

J.D. Souther and Linda Ronstadt were inarguably one of the hottest and most talented couples in the LA canyon scene of the early 1970s. In the documentary on Ronstadt’s life, “The Sound of My Voice,” Souther tells a cute story of how their relationship began after meeting at the Troubadour. “I said, I think you should cook me dinner,” Souther recalls. “She said, okay and gave me her phone number. I went over and she made me a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and I fell in love with her. The next day I said ‘Listen, let’s go get your stuff, you’re going to live with me.’”

It’s the kind of story I’d write* for the Neverending Saga, but it’s real. The romantic relationship didn’t last, but their friendship endured. And J.D. Souther’s music will endure.

*I DID write a PB&J sandwich story into a romantic encounter years before I read this real-life one. Timothy keeps reminding me that nothing is new and that’s okay.

Tiny Tuesday!


When I pulled the Alex and Emma DVD off the shelf the other day, I thought it was a film about a musician and a lyricist instead of a writer and a stenographer. Yesterday, I realized how I made the mistake. I was probably thinking of 2007’s Music and Lyrics, in which Hugh Grant plays a musician named ALEX Fletcher, a former superstar whose band broke up several years before.

Now Alex plays nostalgia gigs, county fairs, and amusement parks. He’s given a shot at relevancy with the chance to compose a song for a reigning pop star with a passionately devoted audience (think Britney/ Christina/ Miley/ Taylor). The problem is, he’s had a songwriting block for years and needs a lyricist. Enter Sophie, played by Drew Barrymore, who’s subbing for the woman who usually comes to his apartment to take care of his plants. Sophie once studied writing and has a gift with words, but a bad relationship zapped her confidence. Can these two be the answer to each other’s creative challenges? It’s a RomCom, we know the answer, but it’s fun getting there. The supporting cast adds to the fun : Haley Bennett as the pop singer Cora Colman; Kristen Johnson as Rhonda, Sophie’s older sister; and more characters played by Brad Garrett, Matthew Morrison, Billy Griffith, and Jason Antoon. I didn’t remember seeing the movie before, but Tim thinks I watched it with him, and he’s probably right. =)

I still have romantic comedy DVDs on the shelf, but I’m not sure how many more I’ll watch (though we’re having another bout of summer heat). I mentioned that I’d be rewatching one of my favorite movies with Al Pacino. The DVD came, but somehow I missed that it’s only playable on Region 2 devices, and alas, the U.S. is a Region 1 country. I’m thwarted; any Region 1 DVD of the film I can find is priced prohibitively. Maybe one day.

Today, I went back to the source of wee Becky’s love for romantic comedies: Miss Doris Day. I wasn’t born or was too young for her early career, but I had a mother who liked to watch old movies with me on the weekends. Though I came to her late, Doris Day movies became favorites. I think I found this collection last year-ish in Target or somewhere similar. Naturally, I grabbed it. Not all of the six films are romantic comedies, but they all have Miss Day and her great leading men.

The fashion in 1959’s Pillow Talk adds to my enjoyment of this movie. I REALLY love Doris Day and Rock Hudson (playing composer Brad Allen and his alter-ego “Rex Stetson”) together, and wardrobe did right by them. I’ve never opened my Pillow Talk doll set by Mattel because I want to keep everything pristine. This certainly wasn’t the way I started out with dolls after Neighbor Nancy gave me her Barbie collection when I was around nine. I played with every outfit that came from Nancy, and my mother added to the Barbie couture as she could, whether she sewed doll clothes, bought off-brand doll fashion, or sprung for Mattel outfits.

As I watched Pillow Talk today, I thought of how the movie could have been a direct inspiration for some of my vintage doll fashions. Here’s interior decorator Jan Morrow fresh out of bed in an early scene.

My doll Cassidy models a mid-1960s blue and white lace pegnoir set (not a Mattel label) that my mother bought for my dolls’ wardrobe.

Doris in the boudoir screen caps: pretty in pink, looking happy.


Looking worried.


Cassidy modeling Mattel’s 1960s Barbie Nighty Negligee Set No. 965. This is two pieces–the gown and the robe–and I believe it’s from Lynne’s collection.

Tiny dolls, big nostalgia, and a film full of entertaining scenes enhanced by Thelma Ritter, Tony Randall, and singer Perry Blackwell, who makes the absolute most of her lounge singer scene.

Sunday Sundries

Reference materials from my decades as a student, writer, and author.

I wonder about other writers. With all the resources at our fingertips 24/7/365 thanks to the Internet, do writers of a certain age hold on to the books that came to them through writing classes and workshops and at the advice of teachers, editors, and other writers? Do writers who got their start in this century know the pleasure of turning the pages of a thesaurus, reference books, manuals of one type or another, and writing guides and exercises? Do they ever use pen and pencil or red pen on paper or only their keyboards or phone notes to catch, record, and alter their words?

I read an article recently about implied (country name redacted: who needs their bots or supporters landing here) threats to the cables that cross our ocean floors and the satellites hovering over us in space. It touched on the catastrophe to shipping, transportation, communications, and financial markets that a hostile nation could wreak on the rest of the world. Imagine your phone, your access to the Internet, your credit card or ATM card, online banking, retailers, airlines, grocers, all rendered useless or severely inefficient at once.

If this is what science fiction and dystopian writers try to capture, what means would they use to compose and edit their work, find a publishing/distribution system, and market and sell to an audience? I mean, Elon Musk will be fine, but what about the rest of us?

My Sunday rewatches made today Kate Hudson Day, and both films I saw were about writers. In 2003’s How To Lose A Guy In 10 Days, Hudson plays a magazine columnist, Andie Anderson, who writes a “How To” feature in each issue. Inspired by the way a friend messes up potential romantic relationships, she pitches a column to her editor. She’ll start a romance with a stranger, repeat her friend’s dating mistakes, and cause him to break up with her in ten days or less. If the editor, played wonderfully by Bebe Neuwirth, likes the column, she’ll start giving Andie weightier topics than cute “how to guides” for future columns.

A couple of ad executives, at Andie’s magazine to pitch an idea for an ad campaign, learn about Andie’s story idea. When they go back to their agency, a rival agent, Ben Barry, played by Matthew McConaughey, competes with them to take back the ad campaign for a diamond jewelry account on which he’d done all the preliminary work. They disparage his ability to understand how to sell diamonds to women because he doesn’t know how to get or keep a romantic relationship. Ben bets their boss that he can make any woman fall in love with him in ten days. His boss agrees that if Ben is successful, the diamond account will be his.

The rival agents secretly contrive to hook Ben up with Andie at a restaurant/bar, knowing the two will be at cross purposes. When Andie agrees to go out with Ben, she does everything she can to make him break up with her. He tolerates it all and does everything he can to make her fall in love with him. It’s a RomCom–we know how it’ll end. Meanwhile, there are entertaining incidents at Knicks games, a movie date to Sleepless In Seattle, a dog who isn’t house-trained, Ben’s fun family on Staten Island, and Andie’s self-sabotaging friend posing as a couples therapist.

Also released in 2003 (Kate had a good year!), in Alex & Emma, Luke Wilson plays Alex Sheldon, a genius novelist with writer’s block. He borrowed a large sum of money from loan sharks to keep himself afloat, and now he can’t pay them back. The “Cuban Mafia” gives him thirty more days, and he appeals to his publisher, Wirschafter, played by the film’s director Rob Reiner. Wirschafter is good for the money (because this is fiction, and Alex must have had some really successful previous novels!), payable only when Alex gives him the completed novel in thirty days. Alex hires a stenographer (with a promise to pay her in thirty days), Emma Dinsmore, played by Kate Hudson, to make the writing process go faster.

Emma not only takes dictation all day and transcribes the manuscript at night (without pay! And with one terrible incident in which she falls into a puddle of water while catching a bus, losing almost twenty pages in her flooded bag; LOSING PAGES is a common and horrible ordeal most writers experience at one time or another, including ME, but at least I didn’t owe money to the Cuban Mafia).

While taking dictation, Emma’s reactions to what Alex narrates help him make improvements to his novel. Unbeknownst to Emma, as the two of them begin to fall in love, it isn’t only the manuscript’s loan sharks who mirror Alex’s life. The love story in the novel is based on his real-life relationship with a former lover who returns just as the thirty days ends.

Rob Reiner also directed When Harry Met Sally, and he includes a nod to that movie in this film. Emma says she never buys a book without reading the end first. If she doesn’t like the ending, she returns the book to the shelf. Billy Crystal’s character Harry also reads book endings first, because as he says, if he dies before finishing a book, he’ll at least know how it ended.

Alex & Emma didn’t make back its production costs and was not a favorite of the critics. However, as a writer, I’ve enjoyed it both times I watched it. I only wonder where I can find a publisher who’ll front me the money to hire a stenographer or at least a researcher, because research is the most labor-intensive thing I do, whether it’s via my shelf of reference books or online.

Saturday No. 2

I’m not sure that 2009’s New In Town with Renée Zellweger and Harry Connick Jr. is a rewatch because I don’t remember seeing it before. When we were at The Compound, all of the DVDs lived in the Doll House with Timothy. This made it easier, whenever one of our writing partners visited, for someone to sit on the floor and read out titles to the rest of us until we all agreed on something to watch. But when we moved to Houndstooth Hall, we had more room over in the house, so the DVDs are shelved here, including ones Timothy added. He remembers watching this one, so it’s probably one he grabbed from the used bin at Blockbuster. I enjoyed it, not only the leads, but the supporting cast.

About A Boy, from 2002, isn’t really a RomCom so much as comedy/drama. I’m pretty sure I read Nick Hornby’s novel (same title), and it felt like something I wanted to see today. Directed by brothers Chris and Paul Weitz, it features a solid cast that includes Hugh Grant, Toni Collette, Rachel Weisz, and Nicholas Hoult.

I also finished the seventh and final novel in the series I’ve been rereading. It was quite strange, because there were passages that seemed different to me, and I didn’t think that could be possible. I’ve read these novels so many times. One of the passages was so jarring that I took my iPad to Debby’s to read to her, asked if she remembered it as having been written the way that was unfamiliar to me, and she did. That’s when we discovered that her physical book versions of at least one of the novels and the versions I downloaded on my iPad match, but are different from the physical books I’ve been reading since I was an adolescent that were published by a bookclub. The editor in me has what I think is a good grasp of why the bookclub made the edits it did (and I prefer the bookclub versions). I’d like to know how the author felt about the changes. (She’s been dead since 1984, and these are not books that would have gotten literary analysis/criticism that I could research.) Another problem with my ebook versions of all seven novels is that they contained many copy errors (e.g., misspelled words, missing words, wrong character names). If I ever read the series again, I’ll stick to my print copies.

Saturday No. 1

I got a working DVD of 1998’s You’ve Got Mail with Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan sometime last week. You may remember that I was watching my previous DVD version and it got to a halfway-ish point in the movie and stopped working. I think it was because there was some kind of tie-in between AOL, Microsoft, and the DVD, and it would play only on a computer with a certain version of Microsoft Windows that was released in 1997. Which is kind of funny, because 1997 is when I got my first Windows-based PC (before that, I’d only had Apple/Mac products). If I still had that computer, I probably could have watched the DVD.

The reason we got that computer was because I was reeling from several years’ losses of friends to AIDS, and my friend Lisa Y had, on a whim one day on a contract job we had, showed me how to access chat rooms. Tom said AOL was known for its chat rooms, so if we got a PC and loaded AOL on it, maybe I could find an AOL chat room with supportive people who’d experienced some of the things I’d been going through since 1989.

“Meeting” someone through communication via AOL email and Instant Messaging who turns out to be meaningful is basically the plot line of You’ve Got Mail. Among the people I met in the chatroom I landed in were Timothy, Jim, and Timmy, who became my friends and my writing partners, plus a stranger-then-friend who turned out to be a distant cousin from my father’s side of the family (what were the chances?).

That whole AOL experience is so LAST century, right? Yet in a viewer reaction to the movie, someone mentioned how outdated the technology is but NO ONE CARES because it’s still a good movie. I think it is, too. Like Sleepless In Seattle, there’s something so quietly sweet in the chemistry between Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan. I say that despite how the plot line has his character (Joe Fox) opening a big box bookstore that unapologetically aims to put her character (Kathleen Kelly)’s charming independent bookstore, inherited from her mother, out of business. By the time that movie came out, I’d been a bookseller in a chain, but I shopped at local booksellers, too, and I regretted every one lost. Ironically, ultimately, Amazon not only ate the independents, it continues the process of putting bookstore chains out of business.

Until last night’s conclusion of You’ve Got Mail, I hadn’t rewatched movies this week. I got in the mood to reread a book series that I first became acquainted with in junior high school. That’s a story for another time, but it’s provided a much-needed diversion from an anxiety-filled week.

Sunday Sundries

Back when I was still working and going to transport two to three times a week, one of the things I did to make arriving to work between 6 and 6:30 AM more bearable was to wear a lot of bracelets. In those days (not really THAT long ago), stacking bracelets was called an “arm party.” I looked up the term; it’s still used, and people still do it, although bracelet styles have been added.

None of my bracelets was expensive, which was part of the appeal for me (I often made my own; plus if a dog was going to jump on me in a friendly way and a bracelet broke, it wouldn’t be a big loss). Almost all of my bracelets hang on a stand on my dresser, and some of them were gifts.


I never wore this bracelet, however, because the string seemed fragile. I’m not absolutely certain of its origin. It either came from Tom after he went on a barefoot cruise with his family in 1992, or it could have come from someone in his family after a trip to Hawaii.


A heap o’bracelets.

Here’s a photo of a couple of my favorites, a guitar set in a leather strap (in honor of the Neverending Saga’s musician), and one of wraparound beads, both of which I purchased as a treat to myself in 2020, when no one was going shopping, and so many stores were closed. I think both of them were advertised on my Instagram feed.

Then, OOPS! As I returned the wraparound bracelet to the stand, the elastic band broke. Beads were bouncing around on my laptop keyboard and all over the tile floor in the sanctuary. It took Tom and me using the mini-vacuum, a broom and dustpan, and a phone flashlight to find them all (hopefully). Maybe I’ll build another bracelet or a necklace with the loose beads. Who knows.


Meanwhile, I proceeded with the remaining two of my Bridget Jones movie rewatches, 2004’s Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason, and 2016’s Bridget Jones’s Baby. I like all the movies, but The Edge of Reason is my least favorite because I often want to scream at Bridget for the way her insecurities cause her to make dumb choices. I understand it; after all, there could have been no second film if the hopefully-ever-after of the first movie hadn’t gone south for some reason in the intervening years.

I remember after Timothy James Beck’s first novel, It Had To Be You, which tells the story of Daniel and Blaine, came out, so many readers wrote to ask us for a continuation of their story. They even wanted the same story but from Blaine’s point of view. Those are things best left to readers’ imaginations. It’s not much fun for a writer to retell a story just because it’s from a different point of view. If multiple POVs are necessary to tell the same story, it’s best to use an omniscient narrator in a single novel. Our second TJB novel introduced an entirely new character and narrator. When we continued to get requests for more Daniel and Blaine, I said to my writing partners, “Be careful what you wish for!” We then proceeded to break up the characters for the third novel–but at least it was told from Blaine’s perspective!

Back to Bridget: I like the third movie and the baby storyline much better, mostly because by now, Bridget has learned to be more independent, to forge a more successful career for herself, and to work hard to get herself healthier. She still sometimes tends to react to things that look suspect without simply confronting other characters and demanding explanations. This trait does add conflict and push the plot along, but it makes me doubt that she’s maturing.

The last surprise at the end of the movie adds to the fun. Now that I know there’s a fourth movie planned, I look forward to seeing how the various characters are juggled in Bridget’s future. Bonuses: Bridget’s group of friends are still around and still fun, even if their lives are changing. And her parents, played by Gemma Jones and Jim Broadbent, always make me laugh (her mother) or happy (her father).

Is it fall yet (no)

This year, the autumnal equinox in the Northern Hemisphere lands on Sunday, September 22, at 7:44 AM central time (the zone I’m in). This has little to do with Houston’s weather. These are the seasons as I’ve observed them at Houndstooth Hall:
•hot, wet, and mosquito-filled
•hot, dry, and the palmetto bugs want to come indoors
•OMG, was that…a breeze?
•call the plumber, your pipes froze and split in the middle of the night

Hurricane season is a myth, as it can put in an appearance during any of those first three seasons.

The other day, while outside with the dogs, I spotted this on the ground and thought, “Fall!”

Then I decided it probably was brought here by a migrating bird who came from a place of real seasons bearing a symbol of hope. Thanks, bird!

It has been cooler here this week, but my mind hasn’t been at ease. For two years now, we’ve been on the receiving end of advice, suggestions, harassment, warnings!!!!, that we need a generator to alleviate the impact of power outages. If you’ve read here during the worst of our winter storms and the extended power outages of this year in particular, you know it’s a sound idea. If only the people who sound off wanted to contribute to the Houndstooth Hall Generator Fund. I’ve spent the last few days since we got our quote figuring out how to budget the cost with other steep and unexpected expenses this year. Whatever. We’ll figure it out. It can’t be done before “hurricane season” ends, but it will happen.

In the meantime, we’re still in OMG, was that a breeze? season, which means summer continues, as does RomCom Summer. Here are my most recent rewatches from the past few days when I’m not nervously crunching numbers (and Nacho Doritos).

An argument can be made that 1990’s Pretty Woman is the definitive film in the RomCom genre. The original screenplay was much darker, and one version even included the demise of Vivian. Not on Héctor Elizondo’s watch! The chemistry between Vivian and Edward, as played by Julia Roberts and Richard Gere, is off the charts. There are so many quotable moments and memorable scenes in this film: Rodeo Drive, the polo field, the boardrooms, and the restaurants. Each viewing, I remember I adore Elinor Donahue as Bridget and Patrick Richwood as Dennis the elevator operator (he and Héctor Elizondo team up again in The Princess Diaries, which deserves a rewatch, too).

Others might argue that the RomCom trend near the end of the previous century was kicked off by 1989’s When Harry Met Sally. Maybe, but rewatching this one wasn’t as fun for me. The humor’s there, the snappy dialogue’s there, but ultimately, I think I like Meg Ryan’s Sally and Billy Crystal’s Harry better as friends. I’d totally forgotten Harley Jane Kozak played Harry’s ex, Helen. As always, Carrie Fisher, who plays Sally’s friend Marie, is outstanding. (This probably means I’m going to need to rewatch Postcards from the Edge because of her excellent writing–as well as the cast’s performances.) This also got me in the mood to watch Meg Ryan in You’ve Got Mail. Unfortunately, a DVD issue brought that to a screeching halt after the first forty minutes, so my viewing has been postponed.

Instead, I watched 1982’s Tootsie, and just giving that date stuns me. FORTY-TWO years! I do thoroughly enjoy the entire cast that supports Dustin Hoffman as Michael and Jessica Lange as Julie. Rewatching this sent me on a deep dive of the other movies Sydney Pollack directed (he was also sometimes a producer, writer, and actor–in fact, he plays Michael’s agent in this film). These are some of my favorites from among them: This Property Is Condemned, Jeremiah Johnson, The Way We Were, The Electric Horseman, Absence of Malice, Out of Africa, and the remake of Sabrina. Kudos to the late Mr. Pollack, and I was reminded of an incident from my deep past. I was at McFarland Mall in Tuscaloosa one day, and on a whim, I went solo to a matinee at the mall’s theater. This would have been 1977, and I know this not because of the movie I saw, which I don’t remember, but because after that movie, a poster on another wall compelled me forward.


All my brain could process was Michael Corleone!! (1972’s The Godfather, 1974’s The Godfather II, as well as the title character of 1973’s Serpico). Unfortunately, those were my days as a poor student, so I couldn’t spring for another movie, even if it was directed by Sydney Pollack. I never saw Bobby Deerfield. Maybe one day. I do own both those Godfathers and Serpico, though. =) Spoiler: There’ll be another favorite RomCom rewatch with Al Pacino soon.

My rewatch to wind down last night was 2001’s Bridget Jones’s Diary. Again, great supporting cast and side stories, and Renee Zellweger as Bridget, along with the ultimate RomCom face-off between Hugh Grant as Daniel and Colin Firth as Mark, are all brilliant casting. It was announced in April that there’s to be a fourth movie in the Bridget Jones franchise. =)

Stay tuned…

The Héctor Elizondo Effect

I found an article, “Your Cynicism Isn’t Helping Anybody,” completely by accident, and finally, I have a succinct, orderly explanation for why I often call myself a skeptic and why, for many years including right here on this website, I have denounced cynicism. (I think my earliest mention was on Christmas Eve 2007, when I quoted Carol Burnett’s interview on “Inside The Actors Studio,” wherein she said her least favorite word is “cynicism.” INDEED.)

The article I found is from Time, and I know people very often don’t click on links, but you can read it in five or fewer minutes here. I don’t dare post it in its entirety, because I don’t want to violate copyright. In the article, Zaki rebuts and questions the following MYTHS: that cynicism is clever, safe, or moral. In fact, he says, cynicism is a trap that makes us underestimate and distrust others.

Damn near everyone I know, and believe me, that group covers a range of beliefs and attitudes related to the “forbidden” topics: sex, money, politics, and religion, keeps bringing up in our conversations, and on their social media, the same questions these days: why is everyone so mean now, why is everyone so divided and disconnected, and why does no one trust anybody? I agree with the take in this article, that “cynicism,” and the way cynicism is used against us, is at the root of these problems. I’m not a cynic, but possibly I’ll end up getting Zaki’s book, Hope for Cynics: The Surprising Science of Human Goodness, because that’s how much this article resonated with me.

The many forms of art and creativity can offer us several things. Art can confront us with what’s wrong and destructive in the world and challenge us to make things better in large and small ways. Art can remind us of our common connections and give us hope. Art can elicit our humanity by giving us the opportunity to laugh, weep, and wonder. I’m grateful that during a challenging few months, I’ve had movies to remind me of all of this. My most recent rewatches have been:


1991’s Frankie & Johnny, 1997’s My Best Friend’s Wedding, 1999’s Runaway Bride

Along with their humor, all three of these movies illustrate what a difference believing in oneself and others, or NOT believing in oneself and others, can make in their characters’ lives. Relationships that endure make room for apologies, forgiveness, and changes. Once again, the lead actors inhabit the lives of their characters skillfully, and Héctor Elizondo is in two of the three films, along with others I’ve already watched. If he ever plays a bad guy, I don’t want to see it. =)