All Good Things

It’s hard to believe that sweet Ryan Gosling (who grew up to be James Garner in The Notebook) could be devious and mean. Actually, after that movie proved to be a breakout role for this very talented actor, he has played some very edgy characters.

All Good Things came out in 2010 but I only recently put it in my Netflix queue after it was recommended as a Movie for Grownups. MFG are movies with serious plots and excellent acting but have very few four letter words to assault the ears or sex scenes that makes one feel like a voyeur.

David Marks (Gosling) and Katie (Kirsten Dunst) meet, fall in love, marry and move to Vermont to run a health food store. But David is pressured by his father (Frank Langella) to go into the family business. The Family Business is ostensibly real estate, with a side interest in buying politicians.

The script is taken from news stories about a high profile unsolved murder in New York, the Robert Durst case. Newly discovered facts, court records and of course speculation is used to tell the story of the young wife who disappeared and whose body has never been found, the strange behavior of the young husband, and the prosecutors who could find no probable cause to bring charges until 18 years later when the cold case was reopened.

I am interested in creative non-fiction and cold case investigations, so this was a movie that held my interest to the very end.

You can read more about this case here.

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Musings from my nest

Jennifer AnnistonI have a ‘nest’ in my house where I read, write, knit and watch TV. When I read or hear something funny or noteworthy, I jot it down in a small notebook — for use later.

Just this week, I read on Yahoo News: “Jennifer Aniston speaks candidly about pressures to marry and have babies on the Today Show.”

Well, I should think Jen would be reluctant to marry on the Today Show, never mind having a baby!

I know what the writer meant. But that’s not what was said.

People often make humorous malapropisms out of old familiar sayings (thus providing me with fodder for posts like this).

“That scared me out of my living daylights.”

“If I knew now what I knew then.”

“I’d stay away from that with a 10-foot pole.”

And of course, Casey Stengel gave us many good lines/laughs. “They tell me it can’t be done but sometimes it doesn’t always work.”

When I pointed out a movie goof to my #2 son, Phillip, he said, “Now you’re pulling hairs.” (Perhaps he meant splitting?)

Okay, that’s it for now. As Jane Lynch says at the end of Hollywood Game Night:

“If you had half as much fun as I did, then I had twice as much fun as you.”

P.S. New look on the blog today. Thanks to my editor, blog host, #1 son, Steve May.  AldersonPress.com

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Writers Who Don’t Read

One of the things writers are admonished to do is to read. Especially in the genre they are currently writing. They should read a variety of writers, both current and classics.  Most successful writers I know do this.  But this is not what I’m talking about today.

I am almost at the end of my yearly gig as Contest Chair for the White County Creative Writers Conference. I don’t know how many years I have done this … four or five … and each time I am amazed at the writers who don’t read — the instructions.  We get essays sent to poetry contests, multiple entries to a single contest (only one allowed), no title on the title page, no title page at all, contests mailed to the reservation address and reservations sent to the contest chair.

If all this seems petty and tacky, I write in jest, not intending to offend. I am guilty of non-reading myself.  The first contest I ever entered (14 years ago) I couldn’t decide which essay to send, so I sent both. A kind contest chair called me and let me straighten out my mistake. I have never forgotten that and continue to pay it forward to other writers. Perhaps, as I was, they are new at putting their work out there. Certainly they are guilty, as I was, of not reading the instructions carefully.

As I write, the judges have read all the entries (198 of them), the winners have been chosen and will be announced at WCCW 19th annual Writers’ Conference, August 30.

Keep your fingers crossed. It’s hard to type that way, but it’s only a few more days.

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It Takes Longer with Auto-Correct

Have you ever sent a text that said, “I love Y2K”? Well, I almost did. And if you have, then you probably have auto-correct on your phone.

I bought a new cell phone. I didn’t really need one except that my old flip phone was 10 years old, had lots of dead zones, and to text I had to punch 2 three times for C, once for A, and twice for B, etc. So, since my children are always urging me to move into the 21st Century, I purchased an inexpensive ‘smart’ phone.

My daughter, Kathy, set it up for me and on the wedding weekend we had short tutorials about usage.  I have really enjoyed being able to shoot questions or short messages via text.

What I have not enjoyed is auto-correct. FYI, this is a device in the ‘smart’ phone that thinks it knows what you want to say. It will finish your words for you without being asked and if you make a typo it will automatically correct it.  On the surface this sounds like a good thing but in reality ‘after’ might become ‘Afghanistan’ or ‘you’ become ‘Y2K’.

Now, I will hold my spelling skills up against the smartest a.c. But I will admit I make typos on my phone because the letter keys are smaller than the tips of my fingers and it’s hard to hit just one.

I needed to text my son the address where the wedding guests were housed. It was on Meline Street. I typed it carefully, slowly, accurately. Auto-correct changed it to Melinda. I tried again — malady — malign — melody.  Phillip needed the correct address to put in his GPS.  Just before being thrown in the toilet, the a.c. accepted ‘Meline’. What an exercise in frustration!

Recently, I saw a blurb on facebook: “Get rid of auto-correct. We’re tired of this shirt.”  Now that’s funny.

Yesterday a good friend at work asked if I would like a stylus, even though I do not have an iPad. I said sure, maybe it would work on my phone. OMIGOSH! This little stick makes all the difference in my texting skills. My peeps will receive no more bizarre messages.

Life is serene again.

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Grandmother of the Bride

Bride and GroomThis time last week I sat with my daughter, in the first pew of First Christian Church, watching the wedding of my beautiful granddaughter, Amy.  As tears of happiness started behind my eyelids, I was barely aware of the calla lily corsage pinned to the strap of my bra, the run in my hose that began at my waist and fortunately did not travel to the hem of my dress before we finished pictures, nor the new shoes I had searched long and hard for that now promised to pinch the middle toe right off my foot. I was looking at the natural-blond-all-her-life gorgeous woman walking down the aisle on the arm of her father.

If environment has as much to do with how a child turns out as we think it does, then Linda and Jim did a wonderful job. Amy is strong mentally, physically and spiritually and her choice (she would say God’s choice) for husband seems to be a perfect match.

I wasn’t fortunate enough to be a nearby grandma; many years we lived 12 hours apart. Our relationship was long distance. I wasn’t there when she was born, but shortly thereafter. I didn’t attend every dance recital and swim meet, so the ones I did see were very special.

Everything Amy does seems to show her poise and sweet spirit. She is the least “Bridezilla” you will ever see, telling her attendants, “Just wear a short black dress,” and at one point telling her mother, “Don’t put anything else on the list!”

Oh, I could entertain you for pages with details of the wedding which honored God in every way. But I won’t. I’ll just say I am blessed to be Grandmother of this Bride.

Thanks to Sundance Photography for the picture. The wedding pictures are fabulous!

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