It’s funny– well, not literally funny — how one thing can lead unexpectedly to another. I’m half-way through another biography….but, unlike the others I’ve been reading recently, this one has led to the sort of post I didn’t anticipate writing when I began reading it.
Its title is THE OTHER SIDE OF THE MOON (A BIOGRAPHY OF DAVID NIVEN) by Sheridan Morley. NIVEN (1910-83), as you may know, was an American actor who was born/raised in England and came to the U.S. in 1932. When WW II broke out in Europe, he returned to England to serve in the military. In 1941 he wrote a letter to a fellow British-born actor friend back in Hollywood, part of which I quote here from the book:
Thank God we have now got a real government and in Churchill a real leader at last, but there is going to be a little scalp-hunting when the smoke has cleared off the battlefields. I am unimportant, but besides cousins and relations, I have now lost practically all my old friends, and all in the past few weeks….they need never have been sacrificed if the people then at the top had been doing their jobs as well as they said they were doing them [emphasis mine].
Sound familiar? Today, with the corona virus, we have a different kind of world war, but the same (and even more lame) kind of sophistry, gas-baggery, and incompetence resulting in unnecessary casualties:
And so I ask you: How on earth does the most morally corrupt President in U.S. history not belong behind bars or in a mental institution rather than in the White House? How is it, after 3 1/2 years of reigning the swamp, that roughly 40% of the American people either cannot, or will not, see through this pathetic con man of a President — a President who thinks he is not only above the law, but thinks he IS the law, who tries to subvert the law to his own ends? Are his supporters deaf, dumb and blind….or simply incapable/too much in denial to look behind the curtain and see that the mighty Oz is the very hoax he labels all that exposes him?
Come November 3, we must turn from the dark side to the other side of the moon, or America will have surrendered all claim to being the “beacon of hope” for the world.
Hi. Many times on your blog I’ve slammed Trump. I once said this, and it remains true: Trump is an enemy of democracy. Ditto for anybody who supports him.
It is to the Senate Republicans’ shame that it took this pandemic — and thousands of lives — to bring Trump down (assuming he is defeated Nov. 3). If they had voted to impeach him when they had the chance, Pence would probably have become President and, as a former governor, would likely have been more inclined to listen to the states pleas for federal help. Or not.
Here’s the thing: Trump is evil. This was obvious to me way before he took office. If he wins in November, he will do far more damage in his second term than he already has.
I agree. It was obvious when he was just one of many Republicans running for the nomination that he was evil. More recently, it has become obvious that he is a mental case: a bad man and a mad man rolled into one. God (or fate) help us.
One thing I find mighty peculiar is that every post about Trump that I read on WordPress has much the same to say about this obnoxious, egotistical, narcissistic windbag, yet he clearly has many supporters. I guess that there are very few, if any, of his followers on this platform… but that would seem odd.
Trump certainly BELONGS behind bars but the system failed. I guess that the framers never saw it coming; a Senate that would, in a brazen act of partisan politics, essentially abdicate it’s responsibility when it came to an impeachment trial. As for the 25th amendment, the reverend Mike Pence would no more move to declare Trump incapable than he would covet his neighbor’s wife.
As it stands now, the system is too cumbersome and too dependent on politics and will never, ever be changed. I would be shocked to see a new amendment during my lifetime but there has to be some mechanism introduced that can address the crisis of an incompetent president.
As for the 40%, I’ve stopped trying to figure it out. In 2017 I read three books to try and gain some understanding as to why people voted for Trump and I suppose that I did gain some small insight. Why Trump still has any support beyond 10% (because we’ll never rid ourselves of the tinfoil hat faction) is completely beyond me. I guess I’ll never know because I’ve cut ties with anyone who supports Trump. That’s with the exception of some cousins and I simply don’t discuss it with them.
In any other occupation, Trump would be fired for failing to do his job and/or creating a hostile work environment.
Right now we are limping towards January and god knows what Trump will do between November and January as a lame brain (er duck) president.
I see that Trump’s approval rating is now down to 37% in one poll (Gallup, if I recall correctly). Some of that 40% is apparently starting to erode, but I’m not counting my trends before they’re matched (by other polls)..
As I see it, our minds are very malleable, making us easy prey for those who seek to manipulate and control our beliefs and behavior. We are all susceptible. We are all under mind control of some form or the other, for example, think of our consumption habits. Our 45th president has successfully managed to capture and hold a particular mindset among us.
I think that is true in one sense, Rosaliene, but only to the point (for many of us) where minds become made up and set in concrete for the rest of our lives (like Trump). Meaningful malleability requires an openness to (and weighing of) challenges to what we have been indoctrinated or conditioned to believe….which, I suppose, is just a fancy way of describing GROWTH or MATURITY. All I know is I’m not the same person I was in my 20s and 30s — but that’s another story for another day.
If British incompetency lost a few of Nivens family … we wont try to count the number of Aussies they slaughtered! Landing them in the wrong place eg Gallipoli, etc … we were sent in first sheep to the slaughter …
He says what they want to hear and fear renders them deaf dumb and blind …
When I was growing up, American (and I assume British) history books were written as if our political and military leaders were almost uniformly great and noble figures and our countries acted in good faith in almost all cases. Hopefully we’ve learned our lesson and Trump will go down in history as the worst of the worst.
Haven’t heard about the “Moon” book but read Niven’s Bring on the Empty Horses years ago. I respected him for going home to fight for his country, unlike John Wayne, who wriggled out of the war and later showed his disloyalty to his colleagues by promoting McCarthy. It’s one of those ironic instances when a coward and a gasbag was made into an American hero. A friend of mine made a movie with him and had his heart broken when he discovered the “true” Wayne.
On another note, I LOVE gasbaggery!
One of the reasons I like biographies and autobiographies is that that they often reveal another side of famous contemporaries the writer knew. Of course, it’s prudent to be aware that opinions of others are only as good as the character and judgment of the writer (who, for example, would believe anything Trump says, good or bad, about anyone?).
I appreciate that you love “gasbaggery.” That helps me feel better about the dreadful “moonshine still” that I pun-ished masercot with in my reply to his comment. 😉
“It is most important to attract neutral shipping to our shores, in the hopes especially of embroiling the United States with Germany.”
— Winston Churchill
Defence is more than justified, but attacks are considered war crimes. Don’t you think it’s time to accept that he was a war criminal and racist?
“The Aryan stock is bound to triumph.”
— Winston Churchill
I accept that I’m not a Churchill scholar or expert. Having never heard that quote before, it would seem, on the face of it, that he was indeed a racist (though perhaps no more so than most of our ancestors, which does not excuse him). As for being a war criminal, I don’t know your basis for that charge, but if you’re putting him in Hitler’s class (which I’m not saying you are), I’d wonder where you’re coming from (ideologically).
In any case, I’m American, not English, and we have our own history to contend with.
Each of the five days since my last post was the birthday of at least one iconic figure in music or film who left lasting memories for those who appreciate legacies in artistry. I could easily go overboard writing in depth about any of these mid-May arrivals, but maybe it’s best to lessen my losses by not overly testing readers’ patience (O me of little faith!):
May 11 — IRVING BERLIN (1888-1989). Perhaps the most prolific composer in American history, with an estimated 1,500 songs to his credit, including the scores for 19 Broadway shows and 18 Hollywood films (three of which were Astaire-Rogers musicals). Writing both words and music (relatively rare for his era), his hits include seasonal evergreens White Christmas and Easter Parade, as well as the red, white and blue God Bless America. His lyrics may lack the wit and sophistication of Cole Porter and Lorenz Hart, but there’s no denying the emotional appeal of such songs as….
May 12 — KATHERINE HEPBURN (1907-2003). In the Golden Era of Hollywood, was there ever a more successful, fiercely independent woman than Katherine Hepburn? Successful? It’s hard to argue against receiving a record four Academy Awards for Best Actress, and being named the greatest female star of Classic Hollywood Cinema by the American Film Institute. Independent? Her own words say it all:
“I have not lived as a woman. I have lived as a man. I’ve just done what I damn well wanted to, and I’ve made enough money to support myself, and ain’t afraid of being alone.” (Hard as it may be to imagine the Bryn Mawr-educated Hepburn uttering “ain’t,” I ain’t about to correct her quote.)
“We are taught you must …. never blame yourself. It’s never your fault. But it’s always your fault, because if you wanted to change, you’re the one who has got to change.”
“As one goes through life, one learns that if you don’t paddle your own canoe, you don’t move.”
“Life gets harder the smarter you get, the more you know.”
“Politicians remain professional because the voters remain amateur.”
May 13 — ARTHUR SULLIVAN (1842-1900). Can’t place the name? How about Arthur Sullivan of GILBERT AND SULLIVAN fame? Who doesn’t enjoy their great comic operas such as THE PIRATES OF PENZANCE, THE MIKADO and H.M.S. PINAFORE — the latter of which I have loved since When I was a Lad:
May 14 — SIDNEY BECHET (1897-1959). This is a name you almost certainly can’t place unless you’re a classic jazz fan….but if you are such a fan, you know him as a major figure in jazz annals since his recording debut in 1923. New Orleans born, he spent the last decade of his life in France, where he died on the same day — May 14 — that he was born. Here he is on soprano sax in a 1950s recording from the soundtrack of Woody Allen’s magical MIDNIGHT IN PARIS:
May 15 — JOSEPH COTTON (1905-1994). I have previously mentioned Joseph Cotton in regard to his co-starring role (with Orson Welles and Alida Valli) in one of my favorite films, THE THIRD MAN. He first met Welles in 1934, beginning a life-long friendship and on-and-off association with Welles in numerous plays, radio dramas and films, as well as co-starring with Katherine Hepburn in the 1939 Broadway play THE PHILADELPHIA STORY. But it is in his role as Holly Martens in THE THIRD MAN that he stands alone (literally so, in the end), and I can think of no more fitting way to end this post than with that indelible closing scene from the film (to the tune of Anton Karas’ Third Man Theme):
Irving Berlin was born Israel Isidore Baline in what is now Belarus. I always think of that when I think of such songs as Easter Parade and White Christmas since he was a good Jewish boy.
The word “genius” was whispered into my ear, the first thing I ever heard, while I was still mewing in my crib. So it never occurred to me that I wasn’t until middle age. –Orson Welles
“Come on, read my future for me.”
“You haven’t got any.”
“What do you mean?”
“Your future is all used up.”
–Orson Welles (drunken sheriff) & Marlene Dietrich (fortune teller), in TOUCH OF EVIL
Tomorrow marks the birthday of Orson Welles (May 6, 1915 — the same day Babe Ruth hit his first major league home run). Welles, as you may well know, was “the ultimate auteur” director, co-writer, and star (at age 25) of CITIZEN KANE, considered by many film critics to be one of the greatest movies ever made — and it isn’t even my favorite Welles’ picture (but I will tell of two that are favorites).
The life story of such a complex, larger-than-life legend is beyond the scope of this post, and could itself make as great a movie (CITIZEN WELLES?) as it made a great biography, aptly titled simply ORSON WELLES (another of my library book sale bargain buys) by Barbara Leaming….which leads me to this Welles quote from her book:
“I see The Third Man every two or three years — it’s the only movie of mine I ever watch on television because I like it so much.”
Great minds must indeed think alike, because he and I are of one mind regarding THE THIRD MAN — it is the one Welles’ movie I have watched many times over the years.
Turning from that “non-auteur” film in which Welles acted but didn’t direct, to films Welles both directed and starred in, my favorite is TOUCH OF EVIL (1958). During the 1940s, the mercurial Welles increasingly didn’t see eye-to-eye with movie moguls and had become persona non grata in Hollywood. Leaving for Europe, he starred in the 1948 Italian film BLACK MAGIC (he, by the way, was a wizard of an amateur magician and member of The International Brotherhood of Magicians and the Society of American Magicians), followed by THE THIRD MAN (1949) and several other British and Italian films and radio series into the 1950s. TOUCH OF EVIL was his third film following his return to Hollywood in 1956.
More Welles quotes:
Even if the good old days never existed, the fact that we can conceive such a world is, in fact, an affirmation of the human spirit.
Race hate isn’t human nature; race hate is the abandonment of human nature.
I don’t pray because I don’t want to bore God.
I started at the top and worked down.
Again great minds think alike —Â I started this post at the top and worked down….and now nothing remains but to go into my disappearing act.
“Rosebud.”
I always wondered if all the genius talk had to do with that first film because it had to do with a larger than life subject Randolph Hearst. Then again maybe it had to do with the fact that he wrote and directed and starred in it. But then Jerry Lewis used to do that too and play a half a dozen parts as well. Oh wait Jerry Lewis is a genius too. At least in France or so they say.
Irrespective of his artistic genius, Welles would have been well served to be a financial genius, as he was constantly short of cash to finance his dreams. In the biography ORSON WELLES, he is quoted as follows re taking the part of Harry Lime in THE THIRD MAN: “I was given a choice between $100,000 or 20% of the picture, and I took the $100,000. Picture grossed something unbelievable. In America it was only a success, but in the rest of the world it was an absolute bombshell. There wasn’t such a hit in 25 years as there was in Europe. I could’ve retired on that!”
I’ve tormented myself by watching “Citizen Kane” maybe twice, and was never led by that experience into any desire to view anything else the Wells made. I’m sure I’m missing something, but I am an insensitive bastard, at least according to the majority of my exes.
You might want to give THE THIRD MAN a shot, Ricardo. If you don’t like it, I guarantee you wouldn’t like anything else Wells made (especially since Welles didn’t make that one — he was just one of the stars).
More great quotes from that library mind of yours! I loved the clips, and am inspired to rejoin HULU only if I can watch these films again (no TV for decades now, so computer viewing on my oversized monitor is my only choice).
My love of black and white films might eclipse even Wells – what a dramatic format (and, also like Wells, even the IDEA of colorizing these masterpieces of cinematography makes me physically ill!)
Except for the war – lol – I think the 40’s would have been my era (tho’ the 30s appeal as well). You can have the 50s – and NOW, however – especially the politics and politicians. Interesting how cinema flounders when leadership is callow – middle-aged men without wisdom or humanity. (Public education goes belly up as well – duh!).
But Wells said it best, “Even if the good old days never existed, the fact that we can conceive such a world is, in fact, an affirmation of the human spirit.” Here’s to spirit – and thanks for another great post!
xx,
mgh
(Madelyn Griffith-Haynie – ADDandSoMuchMORE dot com)
ADD Coach Training Field founder; ADD Coaching co-founder
“It takes a village to transform a world!”
I too love the clips — especially the one in which Bogdanovich talks about The Third Man and Orson Welles. He articulates what makes black and white filmmaking (in the hands of a great director) so compelling: “It’s the lack of distraction” compared with Technicolor films, the focus on the dramatic as opposed to the color of things (though I disagree that there have been no great Technicolor movies).
Color is one more element to manage, and in a very different fashion, lighting-wise – but few color films can match the power and sheer cinematic drama of black and white, to my mind. I’m with you on disagreeing that there are no good color films, however.
Bogdanovich understands good directing, so I found the clip interesting as well – like attending a great lecture back in my college days (which I always adored *almost* as much as participating in the following discussion – lol).
xx,
mgh
Here’s another quote you may like from Welles, who became very obese in the 1950s:
“My doctor told me to stop having intimate dinners for four….unless there are three other people.”
A couple of weeks ago I was in need of inspiration, and I was thinking who else to ask, other than Mr Muse 🙂 If it’s not too much to ask – and maybe an idea of a new post – could you put a list together with your most favourite movies? I will let you add the numbers, and don’t be shy with recommendations 🙂 Thank you in advance!!
Christie, I’m not sure what you mean by “add the numbers,” and it would take too much time to elaborate on why I recommend each movie I list, but I’ll be happy to make a list. It will be in alphabetical order rather than in order of preference (I’d only consider doing preference by genres, and even then, it wouldn’t be easy). Finally, the list will consist almost entirely of 20th century films, as I have seen very few new movies since the 1990s.
I’m sure there’s a few more I’ve seen but can’t remember off the top of my head, as well as some I haven’t seen (such as the first two Godfather movies) that would probably be on the list if I saw them.
Thank you so much!!! You made my day🙂 I have enough “numbers” now to keep me busy for the next year or so. You didn’t miss anything not watching new movies. I get upset, sometimes (or most of the time), for wasting my time when try to see a new one.
Rubbing my hands now, I’m getting busy🙂 By for now, have a wonderful day!!
My pleasure. I just remembered one of those movies (“Bells Are Ringing” 1960) I couldn’t remember, and have added it to the list. Happy “busy getting”! 🙂
The film noir of the classic period (1941-59) is normally associated with the so-called Golden Age of Hollywood and its aftermath. In truth, the creative impetus for its most influential literary content dates back a full century.
In April 1841, Graham’s Magazine in Philadelphia published the first detective story, The Murders in the Rue Morgue by Edgar Allen Poe and thus, mystery fiction was born. –-Lawrence Bassoff, CRIME SCENES
In my 11/30/16 post titled BOOKS RIGHT DOWN MY ALLEY, I wrote of finding a large cache of old movie books at a local library’s used book sale. One of those books was CRIME SCENES (subtitled Movie Poster Art of the Film Noir), from which the above quote is taken. How could I resist buying such a book, given that Film Noir has long been one of my favorite film genres, which includes such classics as THE MALTESE FALCON (1941), MURDER MY SWEET (1943), DOUBLE INDEMNITY (1944), LAURA (1944), THE BIG SLEEP (1946), SUNSET BOULEVARD (1950), and STRANGERS ON A TRAIN (1951). The introduction states it “is the first genre retrospective collection of movie poster art on the topic ever published in book form.”
Bassoff writes that in the summer of 1946, ten American films whose French releases had been blocked by WW II (including the first five of the above) arrived in Paris theaters to be viewed by “new product-starved French filmgoers”….films based on American novels the French called “Serie Noire” by such authors as Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler. The term “film noir” (first attributed to Frenchman Nino Frank in 1946) literally means “black film” for the “often low key, black and white visual style of the films themselves.”
And what great films they are! Even after having seen some of these films more than once, I could return to the scene of the crime once again;  no doubt you could too — assuming you’re a film noir buff, which it would be a crime if you’re not. The test? Can you name at least half of the directors and stars of the above films? Answers (directors in CAPS):
THE MALTESE FALCON — JOHN HUSTON (making his directorial debut), Humphrey Bogart, Mary Astor, Peter Lorre, Sydney Greenstreet MURDER MY SWEETÂ — EDWARD DYMTRYK, Dick Powell DOUBLE INDEMNITY — BILLY WILDER, Fred MacMurray, Barbara Stanwyck, Edward G. Robinson LAURAÂ — OTTO PREMINGER, Gene Tierney, Dana Andrews, Clifton Webb, Vincent Price THE BIG SLEEP — HOWARD HAWKS, Humphrey Bogart, Lauren Bacall SUNSET BOULEVARD — BILLY WILDER, William Holden, Gloria Swanson STRANGERS ON A TRAINÂ — ALFRED HITCHCOCK, Farley Granger, Robert Walker
Moving on: if Basssoff’s book were not confined to Hollywood film noir, no such list would be complete without THE THIRD MAN (1949), a British-made classic directed by Carol Reed, starring Orson Wells and Joseph Cotton. And of course there are many other Hollywood tour de force classics worthy of being kept alive, including such killer-dillers as:
WHITE HEAT is considered by some to be in the gangster film realm rather than film noir, but there’s no law against crossover — in fact, WHITE HEAT is classified as film noir in CRIME SCENES and gangster film in CLASSIC GANGSTER FILMS (the latter being another used book sale find, which I may review in a future post). Meanwhile, I highly recommend the former — as Sam Spade (Humphrey Bogart) said of the bogus Maltese Falcon: It’s “the stuff dreams are made of.” And nightmares.
*HOLLYWOOD, DEAD LEFT ON VINE is a play on the famous intersection of Hollywood Boulevard and Vine Street. I heard on the grapevine that the site was a ranch, and then a lemon grove, until 1903.
Good fun–I will never forget the creepiness of seeing Fred MacMurray in “Double Indemnity,” after growing up with him in Disney movies like “Son of Flubber”!
Now that you mention it, I recall thinking the same thing the first time I saw “Double Indemnity.” And I can’t think of a better way to characterize these ‘bad’ movies than as “good fun” — seriously!
Living la vida noire out here on the Left Coast, Sr. Muse. Did you see that the head of the European Union was going to start advocating for US states to leave the Union in retaliation for Trump promoting the dissolution of the EU? Ohio was specifically mentioned. Hopefully, I won’t need a passport to visit you if I ever get the chance.
I hadn’t heard (or seen) that, Ricardo, but I think the best place to start would be to advocate for Trump to leave the union….better yet, leave the planet (though I can’t imagine that the inhabitants of any other world would be gullible enough to fall for Trump’s con job).
Prudence dictates keeping my posts to a reasonable length, or I’d have listed many more movies. Sometimes I wish Prudence would mind her own business! 😦
Great movies of course I’ve seen them all and more than once. They did a remake of Out Of The Past called Against All Odds with Jeff Bridges, Rachel Ward and James Woods. In a bit of smart casting they also had Jane Greer in there.
But White Heat is one of the all time any type of movie you want to call it and no mention of it would be complete without…
These movies had it all: great writing, atmosphere, directors, stars, supporting casts — the works. I’ve only watched WHITE HEAT once or twice, but I’ve seen MALTESE FALCON and THE THIRD MAN at least 5 or 6 times each, DOUBLE INDEMNITY and SUNSET BOULEVARD probably about 3 times.
Mercy me — I fear my very limited French fails me in getting the gist of the sentence before “SVP” (which I understand stands for “s’il vous plait”). If you please, please translate into English. Merci!
🙂
As long-time readers of my blog know, I’m a big fan of Groucho Marx/The Marx Brothers, so it should come as no surprise that one of the first books I read from my used book sale haul (see previous post) was Groucho’s autobiography, GROUCHO AND ME. And who, you ask, is the ME in that title? (Hint: it’s not me).  It’s none other (says the back cover) than “a comparatively unknown Marx named Julius, who, under the nom de plume of Groucho, enjoyed a sensational career on Broadway and in Hollywood with such comedy classics as Monkey Business, Horse Feathers, Duck Soup [and] A Night at the Opera.”
Julius Groucho Marx (1895-1977) wasn’t just a comedian — he was a wit who appreciated wit in others and “Gratefully Dedicated This Book To These Six Masters Without Whose Wise and Witty Words My Life Would Have Been Even Duller: Robert Benchley / George S. Kaufman / Ring Lardner / S. J. Perelman / James Thurber / E. B. White.”
“This opus started out as an autobiography, but before I was aware of it, I realized it would be nothing of the kind. It is almost impossible to write a truthful autobiography. Maybe Proust, Gide and a few others did it, but most autobiographies take good care to conceal the author from the public.”
Well, I’ll be a monkey’s uncle. This is a different kettle of soup. You pay coal hard cash for an autobiography, and what do you get? A bit of Cash back, another day older and deeper in debt.
Well, two can play that game. This opus began as a book review of GROUCHO AND ME, but Groucho’s bait-and-switch gives me no choice but to turn it into a GROUCHO AND me thing (sorry, readers, no refunds) by invoking the Sanity Clause in my contract….
As I started to say before me was so rudely interrupted, you will have to be satisfied with some suitable quotes from Groucho’s book, which left me in stitches:
My Pop was a tailor, and sometimes he made as much as $18 a week. But he was no ordinary tailor. His record as the most inept tailor that Yorkville ever produced has never been approached. This could even include parts of Brooklyn and the Bronx. The notion that Pop was a tailor was an opinion held only by him. To his customers he was known as “Misfit Sam.”
They say that every man has a book in him. This is about as accurate as most generalizations. Take, for example, “Early to bed, early to rise, makes a man you-know-what.” Most wealthy people I know like to sleep late, and will fire the help if they are disturbed before three in the afternoon. You don’t see Marilyn Monroe getting up at six in the morning. The truth is, I don’t see Marilyn getting up at any hour, more’s the pity.
Recognition didn’t come overnight in the old days. We bounced around for many years before we made it. We played towns I would refuse to be buried in today, even if the funeral were free and they tossed in a tombstone.
After we hit the big time on Broadway, naturally our lives changed. Each member of the family reacted differently. Chico stopped going to poolrooms and started to patronize the more prosperous race tracks. After he got through with them, they were even more prosperous. Zeppo bought a forty-foot cruiser and tore up Long Island Sound as though to the manner born. Harpo, a shy and silent fellow, was taken up by the Algonquin crowd, at that time probably the most famous and brilliant conversational group in America. The quips flew thick, fast and deadly, and God help you if you were a dullard!
I am not sure how I got to be a comedian or a comic. As a lad, I don’t remember knocking anyone over with my wit. I’m a pretty wary fellow, and have neither the desire nor the equipment to know what makes one man funny to another man. My guess is that there aren’t a hundred top-flight professional comedians, male and female, in the whole world. But because we are laughed at, I don’t think people really understand how essential we are to their sanity. If it weren’t for the brief respite we give the world with our foolishness, the world would see mass suicide in numbers that compare with the death rate of the lemmings.
And so ( just between Groucho and us) it seems that there is a Sanity Clause after all. 🙂
I did indeed enjoy the book. I think Groucho made his autobio-denial with tongue in cheek — as he does with most of the anecdotes in his book, which makes his autobio much different than most I’ve read. And what’s not to like about making (in many instances) serious points with insightful wit!
Don Frankel
10:44 am on December 13, 2016 Permalink
| Reply
Some people say this never happened and others say it was why he got kicked off TVr. But a little research showed he said it on the radio and they just cut it out before it was aired.
Sounds real to me. But either way he was a classic.
You said it! And so did the movies, in converting from silent to sound just as Groucho and his brothers came to Hollywood from Broadway in the late 1920s.
I’m surprised that Dorothy Parker wasn’t on his list, as Groucho seemed partial to members of the Algonquin Round Table (with which Harpo “was taken up by,” according to one of Groucho’s quotes) — she, Benchley, Kaufman and Lardner being ‘charter members.’ But Wodehouse spent much of his life in New York and Hollywood (as did the Marx Brothers), so I can only guess that P. G.’s humor was a bit too droll for Groucho’s taste.
Rivergirl 8:51 am on July 6, 2020 Permalink |
I have no answers. His appeal to the right, and their unwavering support of him is mystifying.
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equipsblog 9:00 am on July 6, 2020 Permalink |
Amen. I agree with what Rivergril said.
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BACK ROADS AND OTHER STORIES 10:12 am on July 6, 2020 Permalink |
It’s mind boggling how this can go on for so long. I hope November will bring change!
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Yeah, Another Blogger 11:51 am on July 6, 2020 Permalink |
Hi. Many times on your blog I’ve slammed Trump. I once said this, and it remains true: Trump is an enemy of democracy. Ditto for anybody who supports him.
Neil Scheinin
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mistermuse 5:18 pm on July 6, 2020 Permalink |
It is to the Senate Republicans’ shame that it took this pandemic — and thousands of lives — to bring Trump down (assuming he is defeated Nov. 3). If they had voted to impeach him when they had the chance, Pence would probably have become President and, as a former governor, would likely have been more inclined to listen to the states pleas for federal help. Or not.
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Yeah, Another Blogger 6:06 pm on July 6, 2020 Permalink
Here’s the thing: Trump is evil. This was obvious to me way before he took office. If he wins in November, he will do far more damage in his second term than he already has.
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mistermuse 10:53 pm on July 6, 2020 Permalink
I agree. It was obvious when he was just one of many Republicans running for the nomination that he was evil. More recently, it has become obvious that he is a mental case: a bad man and a mad man rolled into one. God (or fate) help us.
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pendantry 12:15 pm on July 6, 2020 Permalink |
One thing I find mighty peculiar is that every post about Trump that I read on WordPress has much the same to say about this obnoxious, egotistical, narcissistic windbag, yet he clearly has many supporters. I guess that there are very few, if any, of his followers on this platform… but that would seem odd.
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mistermuse 5:53 pm on July 6, 2020 Permalink |
Maybe Trump’s followers have too limited a vocabulary for WordPress. They’re more accustomed to the grade school bombast of Trump on Twitter.
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pendantry 5:59 pm on July 6, 2020 Permalink
… I nearly said something like that (but more acerbic)… but restrained myself.
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Paulie 1:25 pm on July 6, 2020 Permalink |
Trump certainly BELONGS behind bars but the system failed. I guess that the framers never saw it coming; a Senate that would, in a brazen act of partisan politics, essentially abdicate it’s responsibility when it came to an impeachment trial. As for the 25th amendment, the reverend Mike Pence would no more move to declare Trump incapable than he would covet his neighbor’s wife.
As it stands now, the system is too cumbersome and too dependent on politics and will never, ever be changed. I would be shocked to see a new amendment during my lifetime but there has to be some mechanism introduced that can address the crisis of an incompetent president.
As for the 40%, I’ve stopped trying to figure it out. In 2017 I read three books to try and gain some understanding as to why people voted for Trump and I suppose that I did gain some small insight. Why Trump still has any support beyond 10% (because we’ll never rid ourselves of the tinfoil hat faction) is completely beyond me. I guess I’ll never know because I’ve cut ties with anyone who supports Trump. That’s with the exception of some cousins and I simply don’t discuss it with them.
In any other occupation, Trump would be fired for failing to do his job and/or creating a hostile work environment.
Right now we are limping towards January and god knows what Trump will do between November and January as a lame brain (er duck) president.
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mistermuse 6:03 pm on July 6, 2020 Permalink |
I see that Trump’s approval rating is now down to 37% in one poll (Gallup, if I recall correctly). Some of that 40% is apparently starting to erode, but I’m not counting my trends before they’re matched (by other polls)..
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Rosaliene Bacchus 3:59 pm on July 6, 2020 Permalink |
As I see it, our minds are very malleable, making us easy prey for those who seek to manipulate and control our beliefs and behavior. We are all susceptible. We are all under mind control of some form or the other, for example, think of our consumption habits. Our 45th president has successfully managed to capture and hold a particular mindset among us.
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mistermuse 6:43 pm on July 6, 2020 Permalink |
I think that is true in one sense, Rosaliene, but only to the point (for many of us) where minds become made up and set in concrete for the rest of our lives (like Trump). Meaningful malleability requires an openness to (and weighing of) challenges to what we have been indoctrinated or conditioned to believe….which, I suppose, is just a fancy way of describing GROWTH or MATURITY. All I know is I’m not the same person I was in my 20s and 30s — but that’s another story for another day.
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obbverse 4:33 pm on July 6, 2020 Permalink |
His followers are deaf dumb and blind. Even worse, wilfully pig-headedly so.
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mistermuse 5:31 pm on July 6, 2020 Permalink |
I like your your word “pig-headedly” — between that and “gas-baggery” in my post, we may be starting a whole new lexicon-ery.
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Elizabeth 5:11 pm on July 6, 2020 Permalink |
Gov. Cuomo today appropriately called him out for enabling the pandemic. That sadly is too true.
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mistermuse 5:35 pm on July 6, 2020 Permalink |
Gov. Cuomo is almost as good at ‘telling it like it is’ as Trump is at telling it like it isn’t.
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Elizabeth 5:36 pm on July 6, 2020 Permalink
He just flat out said “Trump lies.” Very refreshing compared to the toadies around Trump.
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calmkate 6:53 pm on July 6, 2020 Permalink |
If British incompetency lost a few of Nivens family … we wont try to count the number of Aussies they slaughtered! Landing them in the wrong place eg Gallipoli, etc … we were sent in first sheep to the slaughter …
He says what they want to hear and fear renders them deaf dumb and blind …
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mistermuse 11:29 pm on July 6, 2020 Permalink |
When I was growing up, American (and I assume British) history books were written as if our political and military leaders were almost uniformly great and noble figures and our countries acted in good faith in almost all cases. Hopefully we’ve learned our lesson and Trump will go down in history as the worst of the worst.
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calmkate 3:41 am on July 7, 2020 Permalink
lol all our history books need rewriting, massive correction … let’s see how your election goes …
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masercot 12:43 pm on July 7, 2020 Permalink |
Niven wrote a book called “The Moon’s a Balloon”. What is it with him and the Moon and Balloons?
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mistermuse 7:03 pm on July 7, 2020 Permalink |
Niven’s 1971 memoir THE MOON’S A BALLOON was originally to be titled THREE SIDES OF A SQUARE, but was changed due to a title conflict….and the biography THE OTHER SIDE OF THE MOON was written after Niven’s death. The only other “moon” connection with Niven I’m aware of is his role in the 1953 film THE MOON IS BLUE, which was considered so risqué at the time that it was refused the seal of approval by the Motion Picture Production Code. I haven’t finished reading the biography, so perhaps there is more ‘moonshine still’ to be uncovered.
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mlrover 6:30 am on July 9, 2020 Permalink |
Haven’t heard about the “Moon” book but read Niven’s Bring on the Empty Horses years ago. I respected him for going home to fight for his country, unlike John Wayne, who wriggled out of the war and later showed his disloyalty to his colleagues by promoting McCarthy. It’s one of those ironic instances when a coward and a gasbag was made into an American hero. A friend of mine made a movie with him and had his heart broken when he discovered the “true” Wayne.
On another note, I LOVE gasbaggery!
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mistermuse 8:51 am on July 9, 2020 Permalink |
One of the reasons I like biographies and autobiographies is that that they often reveal another side of famous contemporaries the writer knew. Of course, it’s prudent to be aware that opinions of others are only as good as the character and judgment of the writer (who, for example, would believe anything Trump says, good or bad, about anyone?).
I appreciate that you love “gasbaggery.” That helps me feel better about the dreadful “moonshine still” that I pun-ished masercot with in my reply to his comment. 😉
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FOTOROTO 1:10 pm on October 19, 2020 Permalink |
“It is most important to attract neutral shipping to our shores, in the hopes especially of embroiling the United States with Germany.”
— Winston Churchill
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mistermuse 9:31 pm on October 19, 2020 Permalink |
Churchill was fighting for the very survival of his country. If that be a sin, “Let him who is without sin cast the first stone.” –Jesus Christ
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FOTOROTO 9:45 pm on October 19, 2020 Permalink
Defence is more than justified, but attacks are considered war crimes. Don’t you think it’s time to accept that he was a war criminal and racist?
“The Aryan stock is bound to triumph.”
— Winston Churchill
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mistermuse 10:34 pm on October 19, 2020 Permalink
I accept that I’m not a Churchill scholar or expert. Having never heard that quote before, it would seem, on the face of it, that he was indeed a racist (though perhaps no more so than most of our ancestors, which does not excuse him). As for being a war criminal, I don’t know your basis for that charge, but if you’re putting him in Hitler’s class (which I’m not saying you are), I’d wonder where you’re coming from (ideologically).
In any case, I’m American, not English, and we have our own history to contend with.
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