What One Writer's Wrought

I took a few minutes yesterday to clean up the inside of my truck. I returned to the house with a few items, including a Gideon’s bible, which for tens of thousands of miles had ridden between the rear passenger-side headrest and the rear window. As I walked back inside, I had two thoughts. Wow, it’s been a really long time since I’ve opened a bible. And, D uring these days of pandemic and upheaval, I wonder what kind of a message might be glimpsed (or divulged) in a randomly selected passage. And so verily did I open the good book, alighting mine eyes upon the page, whereupon did I readeth: And Abimelech fought against the city all that day. He captured the city and killed the people who were in it, and he razed the city and sowed it with salt. When all the leaders of the Tower of Shechem heard of it, they entered the stronghold of the house of El-berith. Abimelech was told that all the leaders of the Tower of Schechem were gathered together. And Abimelech wen...

In 2009, the Criterion Collection released on DVD That Hamilton Woman - the 1941 classic starring Vivien Leigh and Laurence Olivier, directed by Alexander Korda, which I have just watched for the first time, twice, in the past three days. The film was great, but the catalyst for this review is really a most enjoyable bonus feature on the disk. Michael Korda – the director's nephew, and son of the film's Art Director (Vincent), contributed a lively half-hour interview, which I also ended up watching twice. His Wiki page reports that he is, at the age of 86, still with us, thank God. He ’ s a gifted impressionist and raconteur. He worked for more than four decades as a senior editor at Simon and Schuster in New York, and is responsible for having published scads of books by "high-profile" types, including two former presidents . Before getting on to the film, a little background. Two years before That Hamilton Woman was released, Leigh had made it...