When the past is sharper than the present

My godmother passed away last week. Unfortunately, I was unable to travel to Florida for her homegoing services, but her family seems to be taking the loss well. She was less than two months away from her 93rd birthday and had been in failing health, and as so often happens, she just slipped into the next world.

My godmother and my mother, who will be 92 later this year, have been friends for over 60 years, at a time when they were both young mothers living next door to each other in Elmsford, a hamlet in Westchester County, New York. My mother was somewhat numbed by her friend's passing. I've been thinking a lot about both of them the past few days, as well as my mother's sister, herself looking at turning 94, and the subtle changes about them that I've noticed.

The major change is in their memories, which have shifted from present to past. My godmother told me how vividly she remembered the day she first laid eyes on the man whom she would eventually marry, who was 17 to her 12 and quite handsome. She always referred to him as "My Gordon," which was probably as much as an endearment as it was to distinguish him from his best friend, my father, who was also named Gordon. When looking at a picture of her two oldest daughters as children, she recalled the ruffled dresses they were wearing and how difficult they were to iron (this was before cotton blends or the steam iron had been introduced). But sometimes she had difficulty remembering much more recent events.

Similarly, my aunt can rattle off happenings dating back to her childhood, but often cannot remember things that happened five years ago.

My mother cannot remember where she was or what she was doing when word came through that President Kennedy had been assassinated back in 1963, but she can remember exactly where she was when she heard that President Roosevelt (Franklin, not Teddy...she's not that old) had died in 1945, 18 years earlier. (For the record, she was waiting tables at a Chock Full'O'Nuts restaurant in New York City, and she said how everyone cried and the restaurant promptly closed for the day. She even remembers how the other waitresses were unfriendly toward her - I think they were jealous of Mom's good looks.)

The last time Mom was visiting she was watching a classic Bette Davis film, The Little Foxes, and she remarked, "I always loved Herbert Marshall." (He was an actor, largely forgotten today, who played important, if not necessarily leading man, roles in the Thirties and Forties.) I was amazed that Mom remembered his name...I had coached her several times when friends visiting from England came to dinner on their names, and when she asked the husband to pass the butter she trailed off, unable to remember the simple name of Paul.

The next day we driving somewhere and I had one of my home-burned CDs of standards playing (you know, the type of music my parents used to listen to while we were growing up). When a duet between an icon performer and a young performer on her way to becoming an icon began to play, Mom said, "Oh, that's Judy Garland. I'd know that voice anywhere." When I asked her about who Judy was singing with, a singer still active today, she struggled to remember, snapping her fingers and saying, "Oh. Oh. Oh." Finally she said, "She's got a big nose." Yeah, it was Barbra Streisand.

I wonder, if I live that long and am fortunate enough to still be lucid, if I will remember the past more accurately than the present. I don't remember the JFK assassination at all, although most of my friends do (I was 6 when it happened). Will it come back to me? I guess I'll have to wait and see.

Have any of you noticed this in the elders you know?

Enough Already

These Republicans are really getting on my nerves with all their whining and protesting to repeal health care. How's this? Let's vote them out of their jobs in November and see how they like paying $800 per month to pay for health insurance for themselves, $1200 if they have families.

I have health insurance...but I also have compassion for those who don't.

Publisher's Weekly reviews Trouble Down The Road

Trouble Down the Road, Bettye Griffin. Kensington/Dafina, $14 paper (352p) ISBN 978-0-7582-3162-8

The oh-so-complicated passions and power plays in a Jacksonville, Fla., suburb emerge in Griffin's sticky melodrama (after The People Next Door) about just how low some women might go to snag a rich man, even if he belongs to someone else. Middle-aged Suzanne Betancourt is married to her former boss, radiologist Bradley Betancourt, and, in a frustrating twist of fate, lives next door to Bradley's ex-wife, Lisa, and her second husband and children. If that's not bad enough, she suspects that Micheline Trent, the young wife of Bradley's golfing buddy, wants her man. Micheline's got crazy baggage of her own, as do the neighbors down the street, whose son gets quickie married to Suzanne's pregnant sister. Readers may have trouble keeping up with the large cast and all the twists that Griffin packs into this tart and torrid tempest, but those who crave their drama fast and furious will surely enjoy.

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Are you listening, drama lovers? Have you ordered your copy yet?

Counting Down

Just 7 weeks to go until the release of Trouble Down The Road. This novel addresses family loyalty, deceit, and secrets. To that end, do you feel that parents should encourage their children who've "made it" to assist their siblings who haven't? If so, to what degree?

Wrapping up Movie Trivia

Here's the answers to #5:

1) “It might not by any chance be Mr. Dallas who wishes to remarry, is it? Well, tell him to just keep the check coming to the same address each month, or else I might get a lawyer myself and bring in the name of that highfalutin’ widow!”

This came from Stella Dallas (1937). And yes, there was a clue to help, since this movie is largely forgotten today.

2) Man: “I love you. You... you complete me. And I just...”
Woman: “Shut up, just shut up. You had me at ‘hello.’”

This came from Jerry Maguire (1996).

3) Man #1: "I am not the enemy."
Man #2: "Then who are you?"

This came from Michael Clayton (2007).

4) “The wind’s blowing me in another direction, and there ain’t no use arguing with the wind.”

This one came from Carmen Jones (1954).

The link, of course, is that the movie is a character's full name.

Donna got her numbers mixed up and somehow missed #1, but she did have two correct answers and now has 90 points. We seem to have lost Patricia.

Keep reading for the final results....

1) "Don't be looking at me like I ain't got no drawers on." (2000s)

From Cadillac Records (2008)

2) "Oo-wah!" (1990s)

From Scent of a Woman (1992) Al Pacino uttered this when he got to the podium to accept his Best Actor Academy Award.

3) "Perhaps you'd like me to come in there and wash your dick for you, you little shit." (1980s)

From Arthur (1981)

4) "You're a nice girl...but I think you'd better stay away from that cake!" (1970s)

From Sparkle (1976)

5) "Hello, Gorgeous." (1960s)

From Funny Girl (1968) Barbra Streisand said this when she accepted her Best Actress Academy Award.

6) "In spite of everything, I still believe that people are really good at heart." (1950s)

From The Diary of Anne Frank (1959)

7) "The stuff that dreams are made of." (1940s)

From The Maltese Falcon (1941)

8) "Mother of Mercy! Is this the end of Rico?" (1930s)

From Little Caesar (1930)

Bonus question: (50 points)He is the only actor to have won an Oscar (supporting category) for playing a character named Oscar. He is the late Edmond O'Brien. The movie was The Barefoot Contessa (1954).

Donna, the only one who responded, is our 1st place winner. Patricia will take second place. For the record, Donna, a real movie buff, only missed #4 and earned 175 points. She finished with a whopping 265 points. Congratulations, ladies!!! And enjoy the Oscars!

Movie Trivia 2010 - Final Round...

...but not the answers to Round 5. Since no one has responded as of yet (yes, I know we're all busy), I'll extend the deadline and announce it all in the final results on Sunday, so if you haven't sent your answers to Tuesday's round, now's the time to do it!

Here's the good part: If the people who are leading don't come back to finish play, someone else can sneak in and win!

So let's get right to the trivia. No common threads this time, just quotes and trivia, one from each decade dating back 80 years.

25 points for each correct answer.

1) "Don't be looking at me like I ain't got no drawers on." (2000s)

2) "Oo-wah!" (1990s)
Hint: Not only was this a line from a movie, but it is also the first thing that came out of the mouth of the person who said it when accepting their Academy Award for that performance.

3) "Perhaps you'd like me to come in there and wash your dick for you, you little shit." (1980s)

4) "You're a nice girl...but I think you'd better stay away from that cake!" (1970s)
Hint: The late author E. Lynn Harris said this was his favorite movie.

5) "Hello, Gorgeous." (1960s)
Hint: Not only was this a line from a movie, but it is also the first thing the speaker said when accepting their Academy Award for that performance.

6) "In spite of everything, I still believe that people are really good at heart." (1950s)

7) "The stuff that dreams are made of." (1940s)

8) "Mother of Mercy! Is this the end of Rico?" (1930s)

Bonus question: (50 points)
He is the only actor to have won an Oscar (supporting category) for playing a character named Oscar. Name him.

Answers due by 3PM Sunday. Winners to be announced Sunday right around at Oscar time. First place ARC of Trouble Down The Road and other prizes to be mailed Monday!

Movie Trivia #5 and Answers to #4

First, the answers to Saturday's quotes:

1) "Hey, my name is Benny Blanco from the Bronx."

This line came from Carlito's Way (1993), a beautifully done film with Al Pacino.

2) "I was raised on a farm in Moooresville, Indiana. My mama ran out on us when I was three, my daddy beat the hell out of me cause he didn't know no better way to raise me. I like baseball, movies, good clothes, fast cars, whiskey, and you... what else you need to know?"

This line came from Public Enemies (2009), a John Dillinger biopic that I personally found disappointing for reasons I was never able to identify. I'm a big fan of Johnny Depp, but the movie didn't work for me.

3) "When people ask me if Michael Sullivan was a good man, or if there was just no good in him at all, I always give the same answer. I just tell them... he was my father."

This line came from Road To Perdition (2002), the last really good gangster movie I've seen. But an Oscar nomination for Paul Newman? I don't think so. Is it just me, or do all these actors start sounding the same once they get past 70? If I close my eyes when Paul Newman's on the screen, I'd swear it was Clint Eastwood talking.

Yes, the theme is that these were all gangster movies. Crime, criminals, etc., were all acceptable.

Donna and Patricia both got all answers, including the bonus, correct and both earned 20 points. Donna is leading with 80, and Patricia is close behind with 70. Monica and a couple of other people who emailed me are a little confused. I'll have to do a better job of explaining how the game works next time.

Now, for today's quotes, the last set before the final anything goes round on Friday. There are four of them today (a possible 25 points to be earned), because we're almost done and I got a little carried away.

1) “It might not by any chance be Mr. Dallas who wishes to remarry, is it? Well, tell him to just keep the check coming to the same address each month, or else I might get a lawyer myself and bring in the name of that highfalutin’ widow!”

2) Man: “I love you. You... you complete me. And I just...”

Woman: “Shut up, just shut up. You had me at ‘hello.’”

3) Man #1: "I am not the enemy."

Man #2: "Then who are you?"

4) “The wind’s blowing me in another direction, and there ain’t no use arguing with the wind.”

Five points for the correct name of each movie. Five bonus points if you can name the common thread (and, trust me, in this case if you can name the movies, you can name the thread).

I'll be back Friday with the final round.