Ding! Ding! Ding! That’s the phrase of the day. If we had been playing a Hurricane Gustav drinking game we would have been obliterated. Everyone was saying it—it was even in the newspapers.
I worked on my longish essay this weekend, paring it back from 8000 words down to about 6500, which is probably where it will stay, more or less. A couple of more buffing passes and I think it will be ready to show to the journal editor. I also received my critique from Ellen Datlow, the one I won through the KGB raffle. On the whole she seemed to like the story, but gave me some very pointed and helpful direction on how to strengthen it, and even guidance on how to go about it: lengthen first to expand the main character and then trim later to up the pace.
When we were bored of watching Gustav and Palin news, we found a few old movies to entertain us over the weekend. Adam’s Rib was a happy discovery. I’ve never seen any of the Hepburn/Tracy movies until now. They’re relationship as a married couple in this one is a delight. They act like they’ve known each other for years (which, of course, they had), cutting each other off, finishing each other’s thoughts, bickering playfully. The courtroom scenes where they flirt under the table are cute. The movie alienated me a little when they were in the midst of their worst full-out fights, but other than that it was charming. The script (co-written by Ruth Gordon!) felt like it was ad-libbed, though it likely wasn’t.
Yesterday we watched 1973’s The Paper Chase, with an Academy Award performance from John Houseman and leading roles by Timothy Bottoms and Lindsey Wagner. It avoids the trite plot where the distinguished professor sees the potential in the diffident student. If Kingsfield recognizes Hart’s potential, he keeps that to himself. Whether he really doesn’t recognize his students by name when he meets them outside class is real or pretext is never clarified. It’s also not clear if Kingsfield knows Hart is involved with his daughter. The best scene is when Hart and Ford find Kingsfield’s old class notes and he realizes that his idol was once as young and unsure as he is.
An interesting turn of events on Big Brother. The one person whose HoH win would upset the makeup of the final four won: Jerry. It was only a matter of time until the putative final four started turning on each other anyway, but this ups the ante earlier than they expected.
There’s a contest going on for Favorite Writing Blog. If you feel inspired to lend Storytellers Unplugged your support, post a comment at the bottom of the linked page.
