Recently in the Lion's Mouth Bookstore in Green Bay, the only bookstore in that old paper pulp town at the mouth of the Fox River. And I found a copy of "Samantha in Europe", from 1895. Written by Marietta Holley, who did a whole "Samantha" series of books in dialect. Holley was Mark Twain's contemporary, and equally popular at the time. Fascinating. Completely imagined; Holley never travelled.
The 1939 "Stagecoach", what a movie!
The speech from banker Gatewood, who's absconding with $50,000 of payroll money:
"I don't know what
the government is coming to.
Instead of protecting businessmen,
it pokes its nose into business.
Why they're even talking now
about having bank examiners.
As if we bankers don't know
how to run our own banks!
At home I actually have a letter
from a popinjay official...
...saying they were going
to inspect my books!"
1/
Google has announced a foldable phone:
https://www.tomsguide.com/reviews/google-pixel-fold
Combined with the rise of LLM chat applications, this could make the Apple Knowledge Navigator close to reality!
Reading some Kage Baker this morning. Baker was a California historian/writer/actress who wrote a brilliant historical fantasy series starting with “In the Garden of Iden”.
But her standalone stories, set in that milieu, are killer. The 1934 Hollywood Bowl staging of “A Midsummer Night's Dream”, a house party at San Simeon with Hearst and Marion Davies, the 1906 San Francisco earthquake -- amazing!
#writing #CaliforniaWriting #KageBaker
A good collection: https://www.amazon.com/Best-Kage-Baker/dp/1596064420
One of the few movies that actually take us all the way to Christmas day is the 1983 "A Christmas Story". Melinda Dillon, who plays "Mother" (her character doesn't get a name!) is the emotional center of the story, and ties it all together.
This shaggy dog story was the brainchild of Jean Shepherd, who told stories for 21 years on WOR radio in New York.
