1. In the last several days, Copper, for the first time since he came into my life in February, 2021, wants to be physically in contact with me, especially when I'm lying down on the bed. Ever since Sunday night, my sleep has been slightly out of whack and today when I lay down to nap, Copper got close to me, purred as I put my hand on him. A day or two ago, I napped with my arm around Copper, holding him close to my side. I don't know what's changed, but now, if the three of us are in bed together, both Copper and Luna want to be very close to me and it gives us a new challenge to work out.
2. At 7:00 tonight, I tuned into Bill Davie's Poetry Break. Bill started the night by reading from his ongoing project, "Old Manhood" poems and then moved to the mailbag and read selections from A.A. Milne, Ray Bradbury, Ursula Le Guin and others, all contributions from listeners to the program. Bill turned his attention to Tony Hoagland and James Welch and suddenly his face disappeared from my computer screen.
The power went out.
We'd had a thunderstorm and some rain a bit earlier. I don't know if that had anything to do with losing our power for about forty minutes, but I do know I didn't get to see the last 15-20 minutes of Bill's show.
3. It had been a funny day today with power and the internet.
This afternoon, I was over at criterion.com reading essays about movies and looking at several people's listings of their Top 10 Criterion movies -- I checked out Bill Hader, Alec Baldwin, Ken Jennings, and others by people I'd never heard of.
Then, suddenly, Criterion's website went down.
I soon discovered on Twitter that Criterion was down everywhere.
Criterion's site got restored later and once our power was back, and having earlier read some articles at criterion.com about Alec Guinness's lengthy and varied acting career, I decided to watch another of the light and thoroughly entertaining comedies he made in the early 1950s.
Over the years I'd watched The Lavender Hill Mob, Kind Hearts and Coronets, Last Holiday, and The Man in the White Suit, all light comedies featuring Guinness' genius for creating distinct and enjoyable characters and for his light-footed physical comedy. I also watched his slightly darker comedy from 1958, The Horse's Mouth.
Tonight, I watched The Card (1952), another feathery and fun comedy. Guinness plays a young man, a card, who is determined by wit and some guile, to work his way out of his humble life as the son of a washerwoman and not only elevate his social status, but accrue wealth as well. It's a light-handed satire, but never pushes its viewers to think too seriously either about upward mobility or the British class system. It's also a love story, and I enjoyed seeing Petula Clark play a sweet supporting role in this movie.
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