Update on NOTEFLIX’s production of “Troubles in the Garden”: After a hard day of filming, our hero, The Multicolored Bluebird of Happiness, and his true love Mamzelle Pinkie, settle down for a night of watching an old movie. What’s the harm? Here, they have selected movie they think they have not seen before. If it’s good and they’ve already seen it, they will enjoy themselves. If it’s no good, they will watch it anyway. What’s the harm? At least they do not have any snacks on the table which could result in a bad sleep later on.
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- OLD MOVIES REVISITED: This past week I saw “In The Heat Of The Night” (1967) and “Mississippi Burning” (1988) – both for the second time. I remember thinking back when I first saw them: “Thank God those racist days are over.” Today, to my disappointment, I realize these movies not only told stories of our past, but were predictive of the future. (Which is now our present day.) You could have labeled their genre as “Fu-Fi” (Future Fiction). For more on this, see the first quote in last section of this posting.
- BAD GUYS: When I was watching movies as a child, I came away with the idea that the BAD GUYS were robbing banks. That’s what the BAD GUYS did. Really smart, good looking BAD GUYS, planning how to crack a safe with a really good BAD GUY driver (the ‘Wheel-man’) waiting outside and a small crew of pals…Sometimes they even had a pretty female BAD GUY with them. In our real world, today’s BAD GUYS put the old villains to shame. They could care less about a safe in the bank… they steal by sucking money out of all kinds of accounts, by the millions and billions, through the internet and through the non-understandable Bitcoins. (Last year, it is estimated, thieves stole over $14 billion in Bitcoins in the U.S. alone) They pay politicians for protection; who they had put in office in the first place. They sell automatic weapons, opioids, and …and it gets worse…and the banks only come in to the picture as a place to put all the corrupted booty. Come back “Shane” (1953) and bring back Jack Palance too! That’s when the BAD GUYS were really entertainment.
- FYI: A million dollars in $100 bills weighs about 22 pounds and fits in a large briefcase. (In case you needed to know.) If you wanted to transport a Billion Dollars, (a Dead Weight tonne) it would be too heavy to carry by yourself – that’s one advantage to today’s being able to move stolen money to a place of your choice through the Bitcoin process. A billion dollars weighs nothing when it moves through the Virtual World.
- FLOATING HOMES: Speaking of FU-FI being in our present day, I read ‘They’ have invented floating homes to cope with the rising waters. Apparently, studies of Pufferfish, have born fruit and have resulted in this problem solving technique. I have no idea how one pays for the real-estate (waters) under the puffed up floating homes. More will be revealed before the waters rise too much, I suppose. Good times ahead!
- THIS JUST CAME IN: The Chinese trade Surplus for the year is almost as big as our Military budget. Who do these people think they are? That’s no way to compete. Is it?
And now a bit from MATHUZALA, our Resident Rodent Columnist:
MATHUZALA SPEAKS:
- “We do not have any BAD GUYS in our communities. All of us are having a good time together, scavenging, skittering about, playing in the pipes, sewers and subways, indoors and out, warm and cozy, and up on top of the heaps. When your scientists studied us, they should have studied ‘Our Ways’ instead of what effects cigarettes and other man- made products had on us.”
If you want to know how to live the “Good Life” by becoming one of MATHUZALA’S “Chumpers”, go to Amazon or Barnes & Noble and buy “THE RAT PAPERS”
Notes From Tuscany:
Look at the pictures below:
1)
2)
3)
OK…Picture #1 is of our Piazza – about 70 years ago…notice the stone pavement – lower right corner of photo. That is what we are going to talk about. Picture #2 shows a close-up of the type of stone blocks seen in the previous photo. These stones are called “Pietra Serena” and were the stones which covered the Piazza in Greve for hundreds of years. Picture #3 is a photo of the type of stones (“Sampietrini”) which cover the Piazza today. These little square cobbles are Roman; not Tuscan and the ‘Grevegiani are not in favor of them. They prefer the “Pietra Serena”which were replaced over 60 years ago. The conversation/argument rages on. What type of pavement do you have in your neighborhood?
A quote:
- “What is past is prologue.” -W. Shakespeare, “The Tempest”
That’s all there is for now…and a ‘Hello’ to Cowboy Richard…you know where you are…
