I read this in 1988 along with many other 87th Precinct stories. I liked the way different cops were highlight along with Steve Carella. In this one, many of the men involved in the femme fatale's past are being poisoned. One of the detectives falls for her.
We get most of the early part of the story through the eyes of a three-year old who is traveling with her scary father. Oates does a great job on making him threatening in a way that seems real.
He tells her to get out of the elevator on the 8th floor. But he doesn't follow him and that's the last time she ever sees him. She stands there for an hour and them is rescued and eventually ends up with an aunt. Her mother has apparently died.
She never learns much about the circumstance of the death or where her father went. She carries this burden for the rest of her life.
Saw the movie THE WORK IN PROGRESS, which puts millennials and baby boomers together and tries to get them to exchange ideas. I think the real trouble is more about class than age though. Also rewatched ALL THE JAZZ. What a delight. I also enjoyed MY Brilliant Career.
Watching NO EXIT on Apple. LANTERNS on HBO. LAST MEAL on Tubi. TED LASSO on Apples.
I went to a lecture on American women from the Revolution on. Our senior center has a lecture every Thursday night by college professor and other ones in the daytime. And many other activities including bus trips, exercise, art classes, music, book groups. discussion groups, card groups, etc. All this for $60 a year. I also went to hear folk music one night.
I am going to PT for my balance issues. I think it is at least partly related to the drug I am taking for AFIB.
What about you?
SIDESWIPE, Charles Willeford
Following MIAMI BLUES and NEW HOPE FOR THE DEAD, Miami homicide detective Hoke Moseley abandons his pregnant partner and housemate, Ellita Sanchez, and his two daughters to manage his father's apartment complex in Riviera Beach, Florida.
When the book begins he cannot even get himself out of bed.
A man, looking for something to sketch, finds a man in a courtroom on trial for murder who is grossly overweight and sketches him. Later he runs across the same man making a headstone. The headstone has the artist's name on it and today's date. The two men go inside to try and avoid both of their fates. A very short and subtle story about fate
Detroit has always celebrated Labor Day probably more than most of the country because of the auto industry and the associated workers unions. There are marches and bridge crossings and a lot of people standing around with petitions of some sort. Here are some of these year's activities.
Top Labor Day Events
(from the archives-reviewed by Bill Crider)
A mother of six thinks about all of the mistake she made with her first child. And also the poverty that necessitated her placement in various places so the mother could work. And the bad advice that was given in child rearing at the time (1930s), how she let her cry so she wouldn't be spoiled. How she didn't know how to stop the jealousy between her and her younger, prettier sister.
Tillie Olson was highly thought of forty years ago. I wonder if anyone remembers her now.
I am not all that familiar with the work of Anna Magnani. She never stopped talking in this film (BELLISSIMA). Nor did the other characters. I took out my hearing aids. The ultimate stage mother although Mama Rosa was worse.
Also watched Volver with Penelope Cruz.
On TV, Furious, Adults, A Brilliant Career, Ted Lasso, Trying.
Still reading JOHN OF JOHN, which I loved.
Started PT but so far I still feel unbalanced.
Saw a terrific singer at my Senior Center.
And you?
From wikipedia.
Somebody is killing the vampires of London. Against the wishes of his fellow undead, Simon Ysidro, oldest of the London vampires, seeks the assistance of Oxford professor James Asher, former spy for the British government. Ysidro gains Asher's cooperation by threatening the life of his beautiful young wife, Lydia.
Unbeknownst to Ysidro, Asher enlists the help of his wife, a physician with a keenly analytical mind. Asher prowls the streets and crypts of London with Ysidro, entering the dark underworld of the undead, as Lydia combs property records and medical journals for clues as to who might have the means and the motive to carry out the slaughter.
Asher's theory is that the killer must be a vampire himself, one able to remain awake and active in the daytime. Lydia develops a theory as to how such a vampire might come to be. Together Asher and Ysidro travel to Paris to seek out the mythical eldest of all vampires, Brother Anthony, who might be either the killer himself, or the key to the killer's undoing.
What they discover is a threat to the living as well as the undead. A scientist seeking to artificially endow British agents with the powers of vampires is behind the killings. The scientist's son has been transformed into a hybrid vampiric monster who can walk in the daylight, but craves the blood of other vampires to arrest the degeneration of his body. Asher and Ysidro, aided by Brother Anthony, destroy the hybrid vampire and end the threat. Ysidro leaves Asher and Lydia in peace and vanishes from their lives.
Almost a novella, this is quite different from the Hitchcock movie. The story concerns the reaction of a young family to the attack from the birds. The father immediately senses danger and begins boarding up windows. They hear reports on the radio that this is a country-wide phenomena. The birds seem to come and go with the tides so there is time between attacks although they are just as savage as in the movie. There is no romance in this version. It is about the father trying to save his family. It ends ambiguously. I don't remember if the movie did too.
George Kelley
Jerry House
FOR SOME REASON, I CANNOT PICK UP LINKS.
I enjoyed having Megan here and watching Josh and her have time to spend together. We went to three good restaurants and took Megan around Detroit. It seems like an ode to sports with four stadiums with a few miles of each other. Julie and Kevin were able to join us for dinner. Kevin got a job at Wisconsin referring intramural soccer games.
We went to two great used bookstores and I bought two Jim Thompson novels. Also hit an antique store or we were too tired by then to take purchasing seriously.
I am really enjoying JOHN ON JOHN. Douglas Stuart can really paint a picture of Scotland.
TV: MY BRILLIANT CAREER. LANTERN, THE HEART GUY.
How are you?
August, 1978: Ocean City, NJ
I saw THE ODYSSEY again. This time on an IMAX screen and enjoyed it even more. The night before I attended a lecture on the film, which made certain things stand out. Also saw THE END OF OAK STREET, which didn't do much for me. Hard to understand why Anne Hathaway chose this one.
Finished WHISTLER by Ann Patchett, which was likable it not as good as TOM LAKE or DUTCH HOUSE. Reading JOHN OF JOHN (Stuart) which seems very good.
The Dream Cruise took place this Saturday. The 30th year and a bigger crowd than ever lining Woodward Avenue. Over a million people attended to see the classic cars race up and down a sixteen mile stretch that spans nine communities.
TV-not too much. Hoping LANTERN on HBO will be good. Starting MY BRILLIANT CAREER on Netflix.
How about you?
