(a recommended CD of the quirky, interesting novelist Graham Greene)
still are:
Agatha Christie
Joseph Conrad
Charles Dickens
Graham Greene
Thomas Hardy
George Orwell
George Bernard Shaw
Virginia Woolf
Each has significant bodies of work with variety. The greatest still, and one of the greatest of all time remains William Shakespeare, of course.
There have been predictions of favorites to win before on the famous Westminster dog show, but this year’s winner was a little too hyped and forecast long before the final. Early in the lousy Fox coverage, with a surfeit of ditzy Fox females talking about themselves, which inexplicably cut off on National Geographic without explanation or apology in the middle of the final, it was opined, more than once, that Rumor the German shepherd “should have won last year”. Coincidentally(?) Rumor won his breed category and then somehow was ‘amazingly’ picked as the obvious winner in the final. Two independent objective choices for a dog predicted to win? Highly unlikely methinks. Rumor’s victory was telegraphed all the way, like NHL referees looking for any negligible move to call a very questionable penalty.
There were innumerable worthy contenders again this year. In the past, Westminster has surprised with the boldness and uniqueness of its choices, though this year it was interesting to see how many times certain breeds had won previous shows way more than m/any others. Finally, the victory of Rumor suggests, too, that there may be prejudice, bias and possible ‘fixing’, which unreasonably and ‘magically’ ensured that the early predictions would come true like divine destiny. The Fox pundits picked the winner and ‘the story’. So, uh, like what’s the point in watching the now-7 hr.-event (which Fox ‘overkilled’ on from the previous 6 hr. totals of the past) in which the viewer is telegraphed and basically told who the winner will be well in advance? Where’s the suspense, fairness, and level playing-field?
I figure some great dogs simply got ‘stiffed’ by a prediction for ‘a story’. My last Westminster show for sure and I wonder for how many other dog-lovers and viewers.
Despite the many various nets we thrown over Life, it and most people we’ve known remain elusive and slip through the openings–never to be known, understood, let alone appreciated.
–RD, Feb. 14, 2017
(If you’re looking for a classic movie that exemplifies the above quotation, try Robert Redford’s A River Runs Through It.)
My rare signed Silent Spring flatsigned by Rachel Carson showed up. She is one of three 20th century women who has really impressed me forever. In case you don’t know, she is the little lady who brought the U.S. government of JFK, Union Carbide and all the major chemical companies of the early ’60s to their knees with her masterpiece–this book. It is an honour and a privilege to be able to hold, touch, and own a copy of her opus signed by Carson herself. Owning this book and my signed Virginia Woolf from 2016 are huge dreams come true. Two of The truly Great Women of the past century. It does not get any better for this serious book collector. Spiritual experiences and connections of the highest order. Absolutely sublime! I am truly gobsmacked.
Scamp (name inspired by Lady and the Tramp), an adopted mongrel, grew up with me from 1956-1962. He was significant company and a playmate, ‘always home’ when the latchkey kid arrived back from school.
(my Marlon Brando year, complete with red handkerchief ‘prop’, loosely based on Mr. Christian in Mutiny on the Bounty?)
“Now jurymen, hear my advice…”
(Speed living. One year married, a U of A B.A. grad, English major, one year away from a first year of teaching job in Grand Centre/Cold Lake area, age 21.)
(and Nature, too)
freedom
possibilities
imagination
poetry
music
sensibility
Ultimate selfie a la van Gogh. Portrait of the Artist.
