The Week in Review

Yesterday was the first day of NaNoWriMo. I'm not even participating this year, but I had a heck of a writing day regardless. Could it be that I'm psychologically associating November with mad periods of writing? I don't know, but I'm going to make the most of it. Hopefully the magic will stay with me for a bit.

This is my favorite weekend of the year . . . we get back that hour we gave up last spring. Don't forget to turn those clocks back one hour tomorrow night before you go to bed.

I hope those of you in the drought areas of the Southeast pick up some rain from Hurricane Noel (but not so much where there's flooding).

A few observations about this week: I saw an interview of the young man who escaped that awful beach house fire in North Carolina by jumping from a third-story window. I found him oddly unemotional as he talked about his friends (since grammar school) who died in the fire, as well as his girlfriend, just 24 hours after the tragedy. My evil twin (the suspicious one) thought there might be an announcement coming later in the week (I won't say what I thought it would be, but you can figure it out). Fortunately, my twin was wrong (and she's ashamed of herself.) Maybe the kid was just in shock.

Ugly Betty is a silly show.

Geico has the best ad agency in the business. Their ads, whether with the gekko, the cavemen, or people questioning where Fred Flintstone's and Jed Clampett's money came from, are wonderfully innovative and out of the box (although I'm glad they retired the cavemen). I'd like my writing to be like that.

The weirdest thing I saw this week was a cute white kid dressed in his Halloween costume at the big party my job sponsored for employee's kids (they usually make all the lists of the Best Places to Work). This 3-year-old was Mac Daddy. Black pants, black shirt, black jacket with a big leopard print collar, black fedora, and gold chains. I still don't know what to make of that. As a co-worker said to me, "What were those parents thinking?"

There's a couple of movie classics being aired Saturday morning on TCM (that's Turner Classic Movies to you non-old-movie lovers), starting at 10AM (9AM for those of us in the Central Time Zone). Narrow Margin is a fine example of tight writing. The story is over in less than an hour and fifteen minutes. It was re-made in the 1990s, but the original is usually the best, and this is no different. Check it out for both a fine story and a blueprint of how to tell a story with no fat. Narrow Margin stars tough guy Charles McGraw, who met a messy end years later as an elderly man falling through a glass shower door.

Immediately following Narrow Margin is Detour, one of the finest examples of film noir. Its budget was just as low as the other film, and that leading lady is one of the ugliest I've seen on film, but its a great story, fast-moving and engrossing. Its star, Tom Neal, eventually became better known for his off-screen exploits, such as punching out another actor in a dispute over a woman and serving 10 years in prison for murdering his wife (he was convicted of involuntary manslaughter) before an early death from heart failure.

I love a good movie; it spurs me to write. I plan to alternate writing with exercise; I stuffed plain M&Ms and other candies into my mouth last week like chocolate was about to be outlawed. Who says the holiday eating season begins at Thanksgiving???

However you spend it, have a wonderful weekend!