I Ain't Afraid of No Daleks

This one's about books and film

1. What was the best book you HAD to read in school?

I really remember liking "Johnny Tremain," as I recall.

2. What was the worst fiction book you HAD to read in school?

That would be Failsafe..gave me nightmares for a few days.

3. What was the first 'classic' book you were required to read?

Believe it or not, in 14 years of schooling, I was never required to read a classic book--ever...in fact, we read very few fiction books as part of our schooling, when I was growing up, though we had stories read to us (The Secret Garden, The Pit and the Pendulum), and watched films based on classics (Dracula, Romeo and Juliet). Don't ever tell me that the "dumbing down of America" isn't real.

4. What's the first classic book(s) you remember reading on your own as a child?

Lassie Come Home, Black Beauty, My Friend Flicka, The Red Pony, National Velvet...getting the popular theme here? I also remember reading King Arthur and His Knights and Aseop's Fables, though.

5. What books did your mum or dad try to get you to read, that you didn't particularly like?

Mum was a HUGE "Little Women" fan, and also liked a series called "The Bobsey Twins," and I just for the life of me, couldn't get into them. I did like--eventually--Wuthering Heights, though, and "A Christmas Carol," and "Riki-tiki-Tavi" (Mum was also a fan of Kipling).

6. What classic books have your read since leaving school?

I assume she means elementary/high school, and not college. Post-age 18 reading...so many! These are only the one's I can recall off the top of my head, and I'm including classic short stories, "modern" classics and plays in this list, as well.

Cannery Row, Ivanhoe, Three Musketeers, Hamlet, Richard II, Merchant of Venice, Cymbeline, Comedy of Errors, Frankenstien, King Solomon's Mines, Treasure Island, A Day in the Life of Ivan Deninovich, Epic of Gilgamesh, Rebecca, Tales of the Arabian Knights, The honour of the Name, The Mystery of Edwin Drood, Last of the Mohicans, The Pilot, The Prince and the Pauper, A Horse'sTale, Lavender and Old Lace, An American Tragedy, Little Lord Fauntleroy, Spoon River Anthology, The Princess and the Goblin, The Emperor Jones, Mourning Becomes Electra, No Exit, Pygmailion, Glinda of Oz, She Stoops to Conquer, The Maltese Falcon, The Lady in the Lake, Robinson Caruso, Gulliver's Travels, A Night's Work, Ben Hur, The Adventures of Robin Hood, Men of Iron, Rob Roy, Green Mansions, Damaged Goods, most of the Sherlock Holmes stories, the Time Machine, The Awakening, Fall of the House of Usher, Eugne Grandet, Yankee in the Trenches, Sidhartha, Young Goodman Brown, His Fight is Ours, Sabrel, The Revolt of Mother (and other stories), The House of Pommegranites, The Haunted Bookshop, Saphira and the Slave Girl, The Luck of Roaring Camp, The Mysterious Affair at Styles, An Occurance at Owl Creek Bridge, Club of Queer Trades, Smoke Bellew....there's more, just can't remember.

7. First cinema films you remember?

The Snow Queen, old Dick Tracy serials (that were shown for kids at a local Italian-American restaurant on Saturdays back in the early 60's), The Horse in the Gray Flannel Suit.

8. Last cinema film you watched?

Passenger 57

9. Favourite series of films (Indiana Jones, Star Wars, Bond...)?

I loved the original Star Wars, but I HAVE to say Bond, hands down.

10. Favourite silent film star(s)?

Movie cowboy William S. Hart (who was actually probably closer to a real thing, than most later cinema cowboys), Charlie Chaplin, of course. Oh, and Laurel and Hardy--yes, they started out as silent film actors, and also, John Barrymore, Harold Lloyd, Buster Keaton, Lon Chaney, Tom Mix, Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks Jr., Ronald Coleman.

11. Favourite Film Noir? (Not sure if all of these qualify as "noir" 'cos I'm not a film expert).

Vertigo, Rebecca, Lady in the Lake, Strangers on a Train, They Drive by Night, Laura, Call Northside 777, Walk Softly Stranger, Casablanca, The Maltese Falcon, The Public Enemy, To Have and Have Not, The Thin Man, Each Dawn I Die, Suspicion, The Long Night, Sorry, Wrong Number, This Gun for Hire, Night of the Hunter, Sunset Boulevard, North by Northwest, Criss Cross, The Dark Mirror, Beware My Lovely, Bad Seed, Dial M for Murder, Shoot to Kill, Kiss Me Deadly, Angels with Dirty Faces, Double Indemnity, Farewell My Lovely, The Strange Love of Martha Ivers, Rear Window, A Kiss Before Dying, Key Largo, Witness to Murder, Bad Day at Black Rock, The Big Sleep, The Spiral Staircase, Dark Passage, The Two Mrs. Carolls, A Kiss Before Dying.

12. Favourite cinema food?

Hot buttered popcorn natch! Sometimes a box of goobers (chocolate covered peanuts), and at one drive-in they used to serve "pizza rolls," which were Chinese style egg rolls filled with pizza sauce and mozzerella cheese--yummy!!! If I were rolling in cash and hungry, I might get a hot dog or a burger from the drive-in's snack bar, if I didn't bother bringing any food with me.)

If going to a drive in though, to save money, I usually would bring in a pizza (cos cinema snack bars are overpriced), or some Chinese takeaway, or KFC or something like that, and cold Cokes in a cooler chest. I might also pop my own popcorn at home and bring it, as well.

13. First time you saw...Star Wars (the orignial film)

With my mum, it was the first feature at the Latham Drive-in...it was pissing down rain, through much of the film, so I didn't like Star Wars the first time, 'cos it's hard to watch a film through windscreen wipers. I saw it again, when it was being re-shown at a local cinema, just before the release of The Empire Strikes Back, and THAT'S actually when I became hooked on the film...so much so that I paid to go back and see it, 5 times in two weeks, which is the only time I've ever done that.

14....The Godfather

Probably on television, I don't think my mum allow my dad to take us to see it.

15. A John Wayne film

The first one I personally remember seeing at the cinema was The War Wagon, when I was around 6 or 7 years old.

...something you wrote that you really don't remember writing?

I was sorting through some of mum's genealogy papers, and found a script I'd written for a short play...it's dated Nov. 2001....I VAGUELY remember starting A play, back then, for a class project, but honestly don't remember writing this..though it does have my name on it...and it's written in my "voice" and personal style, AND, mum kept it, so it's definitely one of mine...but damned if I remember it.

Isn't that odd? Of course, My last three years of college, I had so many writing intensive courses, that I'm sure I've forgotten half of what I've written. I was sometimes, literally writing three or four separate papers every day, from essays, to research papers to presentations to plays and broadcasting news scripts, poetry, etc. so...it's a given that I'm not going to remember everything, I suppose.

This was a HUGE surprise to me though, as I've not exactly written loads of plays in my lifetime. It's only a couple of pages of lines, so I must have begun it, and either the professor changed her mind and gave us a different project to do--which happened sometimes--or, I ran into writer's block, or decided I didn't like the play, or something of that nature.

Kind of cool, looking at something you wrote, but forgot about, I must say. Apparently, this was meant to be a comedy, I think. The title is "Meeting the Family."

Huh.

This is what the Secretary of the Treasury, a Wall-Street Millionaire, whom has been making the rounds on television talk shows today, has to say about the multi-billion dollar bail out for failing corporations: Paulson said that "it pains me tremendously to have the American taxpayer put in this position but it is better than the alternative."

While the republicans and Bush, are harassing Congress to push through this bill, the democrats are saying, "Now, wait, I say, wait just a minute here, boys....what about bailouts for the American taxpayer, homeowners facing foreclosure, amid tighter laws (ie: new Bush-backed laws that favour the lender and make it harder the average citizen to file for bankruptcy), what about the average American, old son's, what are THEY supposed to do?"

Sen. Richard Shelby of Alabama, the top Republican on the Senate Banking Committee, said that what Congress was being asked to approve was the "mother of all bailouts" which Shelby said would end up costing more like $1 trillion rather than $700 billion when the costs of the government taking over mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and insurance giant American International Group Inc. were added.

Paulson and President Bush have argued that the alternative would be credit markets that remain frozen, meaning that businesses will fail because they can't get the loans they need to operate and the economy will grind to a halt because consumers, who account for two-thirds of economic activity, won't be able to get the credit they need to keep spending.

MORE...

Many of the same economists and opinion-makers who'd provided a bipartisan sheen of consensus to Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson's previous moves have quickly begun casting doubts on the wisdom of a policy that would allow Treasury to purchase without oversight hundreds of billions of dollars of difficult-to-price assets from financial institutions.

Under the proposal, Paulson would not have to report to Congress until December, and the only safeguard for taxpayers was a provision that the “Secretary shall take into consideration means for — (1) providing stability or preventing disruption to the financial markets or banking system; and (2) protecting the taxpayer.”

(This post inspired by a comment I just wrote)

You wonder how many things we say, that our parents said to us, that our grandparents said to our parents...and so forth.

For instance, when we stuck out tongues out at each other: "You'll face will freeze that way."

"Put your sweater (jumper) on, or you'll catch double pneumonia!"

"Just wait 'till your father gets home." Or, conversely, "I dread when your father gets home."

(when I wouldn't eat something) "There's children starving in China." (what I usually thought, but never said: "And...???")

When I couldn't finish a hot fudge sundae at Woolworths, or a bag of popcorn or something: "Your eyes were bigger than your stomach!"

(when I didn't listen to mum and did something wrong) "You knew I told you not to do that, from the word get-go!" (To this day, I've no idea what the word "get-go," is supposed to mean!")

Again, if being a very baaad girl: "If you don't stop that, I'll get the hairbrush out and give you something to cry about1" (THIS was the ultimate threat from mum--spanking on the behind with a hairbrush. Didn't cause any physical or emotional damage, but dang--it smarted.)

Oh, and the old adage about allowing my sister to talk me into doing something bad..."and if someone told you to jump off a cliff, would you do it?"

"Don't pick your scabs, you'll get a scar."

"I don't care who did it, you're both going to clean it up, or else!"

Messy room: "Do you want people to think you live in a barn?" (which was kinda' a dumb thing to say to an animal loving, horse-crazy kid, 'cos, yeah, I'd have LOVED to live in a horse or cow barn, I have thought it was really cool.)

Oh, and the old addressing me by my entire name (first-middle-last)--that's when I knew I was REALLY in for it!

To my sister (quite frequently, as I recall), "If you think I'm letting you out of the house, wearing that, you've got another thing/think coming!"

About sis wearing the same pair of her favourite jeans five days in a row--"If don't wash those soon, they're going to start being able to stand up by themselves!"

When I asked for something expensive: "What? Do you think money grows on trees?" Or the old, "Do I look like I'm made of money?" Or, "Who do you think I am, Rockefeller?" (millionaire John D. Rockefeller)

When sis and I wouldn't settle down to sleep at night, the door would come open ajar and mum would whisper sternly, "I don't want to hear one more peep out of you two. Go to bed!"

When we dolled ourselves up in mum's old poofy 50's party dresses: "You look like Zsa Zsa Gabour!"

"If you chew with your mouth open, it's gonna' stay that way!"

Okay, this was kind of a gross threat (said in light-hearted jest, to be fair), "Use your kleenix (tissue) to wipe your nose, our I'll make you eat your boogers for dinner."

"You'd better study. Do you want to wind up working your whole life at McDonald's?" (Which was odd, coming from a mum who actually did for about a year, work at McDonald's.)

"Whatever (hobby, career, etc) you want to do, is Okay with me, as long as you enjoy it and stick with it."

Mum on me being constantly picked on and teased at school: "Just ignore them and they'll go away." (No, actually, they didn't and they usually don't.)

"You've got two left feet!"

"You'll break your neck if you don't tie your shoes!"

When I lost something: "Well, it didn't just get up and walk away by itself!" (Oh yeah, mum? Well, it could'a done....)

"Red sun at night, sailor's delight, red sun in morning, sailor's take warning." (all I could figure is that mum's family once owned an Erie canal barge in the mid-late 1800's. Also, even further back, one of her more distant ancestors served on a whaler.)

On something she didn't like, "it's just not my cup of tea."

Mum and my dog, Shamrock in our drive, August 1979--click to enlarge.

About once a month, I go in and check the stats on my playwriting blog. Usually most visitors are just in and out, but this time, some student at Yale University, in ten minutes time, visited my blog some FIFTEEN times.

What was that all about?

Curiosity, borrowing ideas, copying my work (which I find highly unlikely), looking at the few pictures on there?

I've a half a mind to contact the drama department at Yale, but then I probably am just being stupid and paranoid, I know.

I mean, it's nice that someone is reading my stuff, but it's...just trash...just stuff I wrote to give myself something to do, the same as my Doctor Who fiction, blogging, my David Tennant captions...it's a hobby, nothing more, nothing less. Still, I do resent, quite strongly, anyone "borrowing" one of my original ideas.

This is, to me, someone copying my work, is almost like being...well, it's a strong word, but this is a strong feeling, it's almost like someone raping my heart and soul.

I mean, the crap on the playwriting page is just that...crap. I know it, anyone who reads it will know it. Still, it's MY crap, and rubbish or no, I still worked very hard at crafting these few short pieces, and take extreme umbrage at anyone calling something I crafted, theirs.

Ah well, nothing really, I can do about people stealing my ideas and words...and heart and soul, is there? Humans can be quite feckless, these days, in regards to respecting the lives and the rights of others.