I was thinking the other day of some the best lines from stories that I know. Sometimes the lines were in less-than-great books and film and some times they were embedded in stellar narratives, but there was always something in that moment that illuminated character and exploded plot and just stopped me and made me pay a split-second tribute to a writer who came up with a line I couldn’t have dreamt of. You know what makes me happy? Good writers writing good stories that have real moments of brilliance.
For example:
“If you bother her again, I will break every individual bone in your hand and arm. It will take about an hour.” *
“You’re wearing my shirt, Gordon.” **
“I want it on my desk warm from the laminator at 5:00 P.M., and if it is one minute late, I will go to the animal shelter and get you a kitty cat. I will let you fall in love with that kitty cat. And then, on some dark, cold night I will steal away into your home and punch you in the face.”***
“I know.”****
***** “Reality is just a collective hunch.”
(This is not the quote I wanted, so I have ordered the book from eBay (it’s OOP) and I will fix this part when it gets here. It’s something about reality being too clingy, it needed her to be there for it all the time, so she just had to let it go.)
Honorable Mention: “Dolphins are just gay sharks.”
Or the quote for today:
“I urge you to notice when you are happy, and exclaim or murmur or think at some point, ‘If this isn’t nice, I don’t know what is.” (That’s Kurt Vonnegut. Also us every Sunday.)
(Also, it’s August. How time flies when you’re broiling in your own skin.)
So how did you notice you were happy this week?
Quote cheat sheet:
* Martha Wells.
** Aaron Sorkin
*** Ryan Murphy
**** ad lib by Harrison Ford
***** Lily Tomlin
I just got back from a 4 day retreat, which made me very happy. Great people, a lot of fun, and some very deep conversations.
Being back hasn’t made me so happy, especially because I just squashed a flea that seems to have tagged along. But the weekend was worth it (said through slightly gritted teeth; I hate fleas).
From the Barefoot Contessa film
Drunken blonde: [of Maria Vargas] She hasn’t even got what I’ve got.
Jerry: What she’s got you couldn’t spell – and what you’ve got, you used to have.
I just like it, because Jerry is Marie Vargas’s best friend’s wife, she doesn’t even have a big part in the story, she’s just a nice newly married lady, but Marie is an incredibly vulnerable person alone in Hollywood and the only person who watches over her is her best friend
Andie MacDowell to William Hurt in MICHAEL:
“It’s you. I remember you. I thought you were gone.”
It’s near the end of the movie. Hurt’s character has, temporarily at least, reverted to the closed-off, cynical, unaccepting person he was before interacting with Michael and this is the scene where MacDowell’s character realizes that. She says those three lines slowly, staring at him, as the realization sinks in that he hasn’t changed after all (or at least, it looks that way). I’ve forgotten most of the movie, but those three sentences have always stayed with me, because those three lines seemed to express her feelings so perfectly (and I related to those feelings).
I love Agnes’s rant at Brenda when Agnes breaks free from her psychiatrist’s inner voice and puts into words what she has previously expressed through a frying pan.
I am in Paris with my mother. All the Parisians are gone apart from my best friend (we have known each other for 40 years so I call her my best friend as though we were still in primary school).
If that’s not happiness, I don’t know what is.
One of my favourite book quotes:
He wanted to know what I saw in you. I told him…” he paused again, and then continued almost shyly, “that you poured out honor like a fountain, all around you.”
“That’s weird. I don’t feel full of honor, or anything else, except maybe confusion.”
“Naturally not. Fountains keep nothing for themselves.
Lois McMaster Bujold, Shards of Honour
Yesterday we drove up to West Liberty, home of Ohio Caverns and of a little dive called Uncle Beth’s Barbecue.
They have okay barbecue and these incredible side dishes of the type you generally only find a backyard barbecues and holiday gatherings–broccoli salad and sweet potato casserole and jalapeno corn pudding.
And as we were jaunting along the dips and curves of green and gold Ohio farmland, past field after field of sky-bound tasseled corn and squat bushy soybeans and crewcut wheat, I reveled in being retired-but-still-healthy, a condition I recognize as being as ephemeral as the crops on either side of me.
Life is good right now.
Jalapeno-corn pudding sounds…like something I will have to google. Thanks for that! 🙂
A book that I had pre-ordered quite some time ago arrived in the mail yesterday. Fairies of the Fault lines by Iris Compiet. I haven’t read any of the words yet, but it’s absolutely beautiful and worth every penny.
So that is making me happy.
We celebrated my BILs 85th birthday last night. It was wonderful to see the extended family, including my 7 greats (nieces and nephews).
This wasn’t a quote from a movie, but a meme a read. It stated “My new roommates and I are sitting down to watch the Sound of Music. How far into it should we get before I reveal I can reenact every scene word for word?” I can so identify with that one!
I’m with you, my mother loved the Sound of Music, so I used to be able to sing the songs, unfortunately due to over exposure I have been avoiding it this decade. Maybe next decade …
Can I please vote for standing up to belt out the goatherd song word perfect
I’m not adept at remembering quotes from books or movies but I have a twine container that says: Gardens are a friend you can visit everyday. My garden continues to bring me joy every day – this week, I have blooming gladiolus, squash, a habenaro pepper, cherry tomatoes and beans.
Lovely visit with my SIL and her parents for DS’s birthday – we had pizza and cake on our newly built back deck.
Last week at my coop. I weeded the dahlia bed on my last day and left small Inushuk-style stone sculptures on the side of the beds. I received a beautiful bouquet of flowers that contains flowers I seeded, planted or harvested. It’s a lovely reminder of a wonderful 3 months.
Turns out there was a great big party down the road from us, which I didn’t know about until yesterday morning. But it was an amazing party with a tent, lobsters, clams, etc., then people brought all kinds of salads and side dishes and desserts.
They have beautiful big yard by the sea, so that in itself was fabulous.
AND, they had a really good live band. I love to dance, but I feel self-conscious because I’m overweight. Then I remembered my friend Beth, who last time this year was worried about how she would be making a living, and died on New Year’s Day from a brain tumor and Covid. And I thought, just dance, Sweetie. So I did. Of course all eyes were on me. Oh wait, they weren’t. So my joy was dancing, even though I was crying a little bit there for a while. Also being outside on the perfect summer day, by the sea, with a bunch of neighbors, and a bull dog that waddled around trying to scarf lobster shells from the shell buckets.
This sounds wonderful. “Just dance, baby” is going to be something I’ll try to tell myself too. Even when it’s not about dancing. Brave decision you made there. That’s topclass taking care of one’s own happiness, that is.
When I was 19, I was self conscious because I couldn’t dance. I went to a bar with a guy I knew and when the band began to play, he asked me to dance. I was too uptight about my lack of ability, so I declined. Then Richard got up and danced by himself, totally unfazed by his lack of partner. He looked like a dork, but that wasn’t enough to prevent him from enjoying himself. Eventually, I got up and joined him and had much more fun the rest of the evening. I keep having to relearn that lesson periodically .
I think I will make “Just Dance, Sweetie” my motto from here on.
“Some things can never be explained…” Going My Way
“Some things must be endured, if we are ever to be free.” The Longest Hundred Miles
“I always get the shakes before a drop.” Starship Troopers
“I can work with that.” Friends With Benefits
“We keep you alive to serve this ship. Row well, and live.” Ben Hur
More great lines:
“___ had all the brains and personality of a heat shield generator” from Exit Strategy. Makes me laugh every time.
“The prayers of all good people are good.” From I think from My Antonia, about which I remember nothing but that line which has stayed with me to remind me to take love and support when it flows my way.
Oh there is a really great one from either The Glass Castle or Half-broke Horses. Both terrific books. Can’t remember it but I’ll get back to you on that one. It’s painful and very funny at the same time, about how different their dysfunctional family was from all the families around them. Hmm, must have been The Glass Castle. Half-broke Horses is more upbeat. It contains the story of how the author’s grandmother at age 16, rode a horse 500 miles (cheerfully, apparently), through rough territory all by herself to go to a teaching job. (!) Jeanette Walls is a deft writer. If you have a half way decent life, I’ll bet these two books will make you profoundly grateful for all you have.
I was happy to realize reading cookbooks made me happy again. That’s a huge step forward.
Turns out I really like rawfood balls. It took some convincing of my brain, but they keep growing on me and I keep looking for more varieties to make. I have previously made chocolate ones, and Friday afternoon I made apple cake balls. It made me happy to want to sort-of-bake something again. Pluspoints for them being quick, easy and responsible treats that are sweet without any added sugar whatsoever. Drawback is that it’s far too easy to “just have another one” when you know you can…….. Next I might try strawberry cashew or just switch out the apples in the applecake balls for cherries (only I ate most of the cherries already…). If anybody is interested in either chocolate balls or applecake balls or both, give a shout and I’ll share the recipes.
I realized that it’d be good to have a really good blender and/or food processor and/or hand mixer (the kind with knives on one end, not sure if hand mixer is the right word for those) for all things baking and cooking. My €20 blender and probably even cheaper mixer aren’t really good enough for…well… anything, I discovered while making the rawfood balls. I hope I can invest in some better kitchen tools in the nearby future. That’d make me happy.
I wish I could find all the parts to my grandmother’s food grinder, which we had when I was a child. (I should be able to, eventually, since everything that was in my parents’ basement is now in mine, unless I myself have gotten rid of it.) The meat grinding blade was missing or broken, but my mother used to grind up raisins and dried apricots and roll the mixture in graham cracker crumbs. I loved those. Blenders do. not. work. for this.
I love this. Am trying to re-teach myself to eat mindfully, even date and cocoa balls. With no phone, no audio book, no YouTube video, and no TV.
Breathe slowly and taste the food. I find I’m less inclined to over eat or snack.
What is a rawfood ball? I never heard of them.
I know them as these. I’m too busy to make, so I just get the store’s prepacked ones.
https://www.woolworths.co.za/content/recipe/kids-favourites/date-oat-cocoa-balls/_/A-cmp205798
Please do share the recipes if you can. Thanks!
Just click on the link — it does contain a recipe! And they sound yummy. 🙂
I’ll share the Applecake Balls and the chocolate balls I make the coming Happiness Sunday…which makes tomorrow (my time, think it might still be Friday Argh-time)!
From Leverage: Redemption (and it’s not a spoiler without the context): “Redemption is a process.” It’s part of a longer speech that’s fabulous. In the first episode. You can always tell when John Rogers wrote an episode, and this little speech is classic John Rogers.
So, my happies that were embargoed last week that I can share now:
1. Already mentioned it on Wednesday, but a patient-written (by me and a few others) submission for doing a poster at a major academic/medical conference in the field that works on my rare disorder was accepted, and one of my co-authors (who’s both a patient and a med student) will be presenting it.
2. I got the most adorable book cover ever for my post-apocalyptic cozy mystery, ONE CAT FOR THE ROAD, and you can see it at Dru’s Book Musing: https://drusbookmusing.com/2021/08/01/cover-reveal-one-cat-for-the-road/ Shout out to the artist, Kim Killion, who does amazing work. She’s probably best known for her romance covers, but this shows she can do other genres too! I’ve got the artwork for the second and third books in the series too, and they’re equally adorable.
Kim Killion does great covers, and I love this one.
That is a charmer.
“You have a waistline”…. “That’s because you’re not paying attention… look at yourself…. Look at the beautiful curve of you, how full you are”. All the whole Cal is standing behind Min, looking at Min in the mirror.
You wrote that, Jenny. Great lines and the scene…needless to say you wrote what every woman who has body issues wants to hear and wants to believe. Media and fashion have a lot of bad karma to atone for. Even at the old size 10, remember that sizing before fashion screwed everyone with the new sizing starting at zero. Anyway, you have written a lot of great lines.
Audrey Hepburn to Cary Grant in Charade; “You know what’s wrong with you, nothing.”
There is an English series which had a great line, of which I will mangle it. Something like this “ a shiver ran along the bench waiting to run up the back of …” I wrote it down. When I find it again, I will post.
Great lines, Argh peeps.
And, I bought a pair of black and pewter wedge shoes yesterday, half price. Bought the summer version in soft gold sort of colour last year. Very, very comfortable and fab too. Made me happy. Haven’t indulged in many months.
Looked up the quote which I am sure was from an English series. I had recorded an episode about a British politician who had a daughter whom he didn’t know of, the politics etc of it getting out, etc.
According to the internet the quote is from Paul Keating, former treasurer and Prime Minster of Australia. In 1966, speaking of John Henson, an opposition politician, he said, “This little flower, this delicate little beauty, this cream puff, is supposed to be beyond personal criticism…He is simply a shiver looking for a spine to run up.”
There are also variations on the theme theme such as “along the bench looking for a spine to run up.” Some attributed to British politicians.
So there you have it, been bugging me all afternoon.
That is a great quote.
Keating did have a good turn of phrase on occasion. He compared the leader of the opposition on one occasion to “It was like being flogged with a warm lettuce”.
David Lange (NZ prime minister ) was quite good with a pithy quote
https://www.azquotes.com/author/28818-David_Lange
” Will the United States pull the rug on New Zealand? The answer is no. They might polish the lino a bit harder and hope that I execute a rather unseemly glide across it.”
” They couldn’t, in the National Party, run a bath and if either the deputy leader or the leader tried to, Sir Robert would run away with the plug.”
Ah….are #3 and #4 correct in the order? I’m pretty sure I know which is the ad-lib and it doesn’t sound like something that person cited would say….
I sadly don’t have any happiness to add this week, because delta variant has ruined it all for me. But I got some new books and my hair looks good and I got my picture taken. So that’s the week.
You’re right, fixed now, thank you!
I attended a prayer for a young friend’s birthday. A thanksgiving for another year. His plan was to do it alone as he usually does. But today I got to observe. And it was special.
Some of my one liners come from TV ads. So they are very South African unless the advert was adapted from an international one for the same brand or was international to begin with.
“If someone tries to kill you, you kill ’em right back!”
“When you can’t run anymore, you crawl… and when you can’t do that –You find someone to carry you.” Both from Firefly.
Firefly has many great lines!
My favorite-“Define interesting.”
I’m with Jeanne — retired and still healthy is a blessing for which I thank the universe every day. Especially on the sunny, not-too-humid-here-in-Illinois days on which I get to play in the garden.
Okay, I may have shared this here before…?
1958’s Indiscreet. Cary and Ingrid.
At one point, her sister says to her, “Go put on a girdle. You’ll feel better.”
Is it the old Mouli one or the one that’s a table mounted meat grinder?
I’m just interested. I love the old appliances that lasted forever.
Planned obsolescence blows dead bears.
Argh. This was in reply to Mary Anne on Kentucky.
It was table mounted, which is why it was in the basement for so many years after we moved to a new house when I was seven that didn’t have enough counter top overhang to mount it on. I will find it someday if I live long enough.
St Anthony vibes for you to find it.
I would also like to find–at the same time–all the parts to the electric ice cream freezer. During various moves I have SEEN them all, in different locations, but never managed to collect them all together. This time, two years ago, the former owner left 350 pounds of rock salt in the basement. Surely I should use some of it to make ice cream!
“You’re wearing my shirt, Gordon.” I still remember watching that episode of Sports Night for the first time, and sitting straight up in my seat when Casey uttered that line, struck with the most visceral moment of writer’s envy.
My happiness this week is that my bff and her husband have committed to an apartment that I viewed for them, approximately 3 kilometers from our home.
And happiness/hope all mixed up that our container will be delivered this week.
I’ll never forget that. It wasn’t just the impact on the story, which was huge, it was the most complete moment of writer’s envy I’ve ever had.
One of the lines I found most romantic ever was on The Gilmore Girls, when Luke said to Lorelai, “I just want you to know I’m in. I am all in.”
If only I’d ever found someone to say that to me, I wouldn’t be living with four cats… (Well, okay, I’d probably still have four cats, but I’d have someone else to help clean the litter boxes.)
Cats are never optional, when my friend broke up with someone, she was more upset about the fact she had to give up the cat
I had one guy who was all in, but there were so many problems that well, I’m glad he broke up with me.
But yeah, seems like almost all of them are …. not.
In the same vein:
“You alone have brought me to Bath. For you alone, I think and plan.”
– Persuasion
Film night with Pam (The Lady Vanishes). Exploring walk in the hills. And a day in Powis Castle Garden with my macro lens, a picnic, and a favourite Loretta Chase.
Be the kind of woman that when your feet hit the floor each morning,the devil says, “Oh crap, she’s up.” Jenny Crusie
Pixie, my foster is settling in. She likes walks but pulls. She has the softest mouth when taking treats. And she’s close to 50 lbs (big for a Sheltie). Perfectly house broken. Such a good girl!
Ack, I didn’t say that. I would love to have said that, but it wasn’t me.
Happiness is knowing I have no appointments this week after a week of appointments every day. Stay home!
“If you can’t be a good example, you’ll just have to be a horrible warning.” Gwen Goodnight
The quote that has stayed with me for the longest time is from Legend in Green Velvet by Elizabeth Peters.
“She’s a true Scot, a bonnie lassie…”A sudden thought seemed to strike him. “Bye the bye,” he said. “What is your name, my dear? MacDougal? Fraser? MacDonald?”
Susan drew herself up to her full five feet two inches.
“My name,” she said proudly, is Jesovnik.”
My biggest happiness this week was when I decided to take myself off the diet I was testing for my new GI doctor. I can see taking one or two categories of foods out of my diet, but this one called for removing several categories at once and didn’t really help. The trouble is that I had to wait so long to get an appointment that by the time I saw the doctor, I wasn’t having symptoms anymore. So how could I tell if the diet was working? This was made worse by the fact that the only fiber pills it allowed were psyllium, which my internist said I should avoid because it causes the most gas. Isn’t that one of the symptoms I wanted to avoid? I therefore stopped taking all fiber supplements which did not make my body happy. I never thought I would say this, but I can’t wait to go back to my unnaturally orange pills.
Another source of happiness is that my brother in France is feeling enough better to start emailing me again. He had a stent inserted last week and was ordered to rest for a week and it is good to see that he is regaining his strength before his children and grandchildren come to visit this month.
I also picked up 3 books I had ordered from the library and they look tempting. Thanks to the Olympics, I’m not doing much reading lately, but I hope this will tempt me back into it.
Legend in Green Velvet. :^)) It must be the only romantic suspense from that era (1976) still on my shelves. Even though it is, by its premise, necessarily dated.
Heck, it was dated as of July 29, 1981.
My favorite quote is from Shakespear’s Much Ado about Nothing:
Duke: my Lady, I see the gentleman is not in your books.
Beatrice: No and if he were, I’d burn my study.
We are, unfortunately, awash in funerals and trying to figure out how to take care of my parents while we attend funerals.
I have given up on my veggie garden. Between the deer, beaver, and rabbits there isn’t much left and it isn’t a good time to restart. I will probably put in some stuff when it hits cooler at the end of September.
Phred, “Awash in funerals”? That is very sad. My sympathy to you in such difficult times.
I suggest that you consider the veggie garden as your gift to wildlife. Certainly, the deer, beaver, and rabbits have appreciated your hard work!
I can forgive them the garden, but my husband is not forgiving the beaver for taking out his plum tree. The beaver is on limited time.
I hear beavers are GOOD for the environment; they help prevent wildfires.
But I’m sorry for the loss of the plum tree. 😔
My happy this week was re-reading a book I hadn’t opened since I finished my marathon Vorkosigan Saga read — A Civil Campaign — the one that LM Bujold said she modeled somewhat on a Georgette Heyer novel. A great antidote to the five blahs that took up my last week.
I particularly reveled in the three or four short conversations that various characters had with Lady Cordelia, who just shines like a searchlight of insight and calm. Since the first book, she’s been a central (but not always main) character in several, but she’s also spectacular when she’s a bit player. Her appearance raised the book above the comedies of manners and political shenanigans that otherwise took up the main stage. Loved the re-read.
“I know you. For you, she’s interchangeable with the next ten women you chance to meet. Well, she’s not interchangeable for me. I propose a treaty. You can have all the rest of the women in the universe. I just want this one. I think that’s fair.” Miles Vorkosigan, A CIVIL CAMPAIGN
I like Ivan’s response, better.
So many great lines, but I’ve just rewatched the classic “The front fell off’ clip by Clarke and Dawe and
“They’ve towed it beyond the environment” is one of those lines that lives on.
https://youtu.be/GgrX7uOZqHI
Clarke is amazing
Thank you for this – it sent me down a multi-day Clarke and Dawe rabbit hole to this one: https://youtu.be/LTMqCK0YB14
“I am similarly gripped.”
The 7:56 report was brilliant.
Matty:
You’re not too smart, are you? I like that in a man.
Ned:
What else do you like? Lazy? Ugly? Horny? I’ve got ’em all.
Matty: You don’t look lazy.
From the movie, Body Heat
“I do not claim to be an authority, Peabody, but it seems to me that prayer should take the form of a humble request, not a direct order.”
IMHO, the romance had probably gone out of the relationship if she’s considering sacrificing him to hell. It’s not a good sign. – Abigail
And for Bujold fans, this one doesn’t include everything, but does have a lot of good lines:
http://www.dendarii.com/cgi-bin/showquotes.pl
Can we bribe somebody to make a quote generator for Murderbot?
There’s a bot account on twitter. @murderbotbot
Some of my favourite lines include:
Is being an idiot like being high all the time? – Marcie, The Matchmaker
Give us the swords, we have bucklers of our own. – Margaret, Much Ado About Nothing
Because a raindrop fell in the ocean ten thousand years ago, and a butterfly farted in India, you and I are sitting right here right now enjoying a cup of coffee that tastes like goat piss. – Max, Dark Angel
Did it see you? – Mr Neck, Cold Comfort Farm
Well, if I want to marry a fortune hunter I’ll go to Europe and marry a professional one! – Melsa Manton, The Mad Miss Manton
And thinking about all of those made me happy. Barbara Stanwyck was magnificent.
Also making me happy, I saw the dentist again and they agree now that the tooth is dying and a root canal is scheduled for Wednesday. Not thrilled about the actual procedure, but at least it will stop the ache going up into my ear.
So many great lines, great quotes. This thread was like a TV Tropes binge dive, but into “Famous Quotations” pages instead. Movies, authors, politicians, humorists. Wouldn’t you know, I’m late in Chapter 18 of Faking It which is rife with movie quotes. And earlier, I spent twenty minutes each with Will Rogers, Shakespeare, Dorothy Parker, Winston Churchill, Samuel Johnson, Abraham Lincoln, Robert Heinlein, Lois Bujold, and neither last nor least, Terry Pratchett. Television like the Gilmore Girls or Buffy the Vampire Slayer, stuffed with quotes and lines. (“Did you see the get-a-roominess of them?”) The Josie Wales happening upon Union Soldiers coming out of a general store, being recognized, asking, “You gonna draw those guns or whistle Dixie?” (Gunfight ensues.)
Reading Shakespeare quotes reminded me of Shakespeare in Love, a favorite, and some of the bits. “Strangely enough, all turns out well.” “How does it?” “I don’t know – it’s a mystery.”
Speaking of Binge Diving, I went looking for an HBO TV show that used clips of appropriate TV dialog or action to illustrate the MC’s thoughts. I had a mistaken impression that David Duchovny might have played the lead, but no. I’d still be searching, but I remembered a scantily dressed Gates McFadden on several episodes, which led to Dream On – “The show centered on Martin Tupper’s (Brian Benben) life in an apartment in New York City with his young son, and relating to his ex-wife, while trying to date other women and succeed as an editor for a small book publisher [romance, I believe] with Toby, his brassy secretary. Judith, his ex-wife, went on to marry Dr. Richard Stone – the never-seen (until the end of the series), most impossibly successful man on the planet (astronaut, brain surgeon, the fifth Beatle and consultant to the Pope); despite Martin’s undying love for Judith, he could never compete with the legendary Dr. Stone.”
Karate camp made me happy. 4 days of training, 3 2-hour sessions a day mostly outdoors and with great people. We tested 5 of our students for their black belts, and they all passed! They gave it their all and had great karate heart!
We went camping which made me happy.
We cancelled another camping trip due to a funeral. But we got a full refund on the cabin and we hadn’t rented a pontoon boat yet so that’s ok. Procastination for the win!
I’ve started the comics selloff. Now we get to see if my grading skills are adequate for the comics I started by selling. I don’t have a big or valuable collection but it’s making me happy to do something with them.
“She’s only been arrested 25 times in the last few months”
“What do you expect no woman is perfect”
from Every Day’s a Holiday
I don’t have any great lines pinging ye brain at the moment, but my Kindle clippings file is full of them. 🙂
“I wouldn’t have been the best man if it was you marrying Motoki.” “You really hate me that much, huh?” “Yeah, that must be it.” (Reader, that wasn’t it).
I’m happy my vaccine is soon(14 days). Austraila was slow so even after I qualified I waited as not only am I not in essential work, I don’t go out much in the best of times. I figured to let people that really needed it go first. Then there were those blot clots from what was then the only available version, I would rather stay in for ever than do anything that might mean time in hospital and worse health, so maybe I’ll wait a little longer
Finally qualified for Pizfer, spent weeks of daily attemts online to make an appointment. Finally got one a couple of months out, pleased! Now delta is here, Sydney is in Lockdown. Government has canceled appointments in other states so as to divert the doses to where they are more needed and is now talking about how much important it is to vaccinate young adults than anyone else as they are more like to spread it. Me, I note some YA once vaccinated would be even less careful and more likely spread it.
I am counting the days with an eye on the politics of it but I am happy I have the possibility.
And I’m happy someone else is cooking the roast in our oven.
Douglas Adams had a slew of quotable moments. One of my favorites goes something like this: “I love deadlines. I love the whooshing sound they make as they fly by.”
“Osgood, you don’t understand. I’m a man”
“Well, nobody’s perfect”
Some like it Hot
I’m a little slow this week but I came here to post “Nobody’s perfect.” from Some Like it Hot but Mary Cannings beat me to it.
Now I get to tell you a story about the power of a good line.
Picture this: It’s 1990 and I have just gotten a job at the independent book store in the mall of the town where I’ve moved with my high school best friend. It’s my first day and there is another young woman working there (hereby known as Hair Poof Girl). I do not think Hair Poof Girl and I have anything in common. Anything. Despite us both working in a book store (me, judgy bitch).
It’s getting to be close to lunch time and my day is not going to hot. I’ve been wandering the shelves “dusting” and “facing” aka familiarizing myself with the stock and when I was working on one of the bottom shelves the 3rd shelf up collapsed and I was hit on the head by a very large, heavy, concussion-inducing book that was a workbook for survivors of incest. I am not a victim of incest. I was, however, embarrassed. First day and I’m wrecking the place. Also, my shoes were uncomfortable and my feet hurt.
The manager decides to send Hair Poof Girl and I off to lunch together so we can get to know one another and be good co-workers because she knows, but we don’t, that she’s quitting in a month and it will be just us in the store.
One of us asks the proverbial, totally expected question: What’s your favourite book?
Please bear in mind that HPG is 18 and I am 20.
The other one says something to the effect of “You’ve probably never heard of it, it’s a spy novel called The Eagle Has Landed.”
The first one says “That’s my favourite book too.”
In unison we both say “Liam’s letter.”
“Molly my own true love. As a great man once said, I have suffered a sea change and nothing will ever be the same again. I came to Norfolk to do a job, not to fall in love for the first and last time in my life with an ugly little peasant girl that should have known better. By now you’ll know the worst of me but try not to think it. Leaving you is punishment enough. Let it end there. As they say in Ireland, we knew the two days. Liam.”
So yeah, we’ve been forever friends since and I call her Sheryl now, not Hair Poof Girl.
I can put my hands on easily over a dozen copies of the book, all different editions, and she’s probably something close to that but she lives in a small condo with her husband and their cat and less space for books.
“If microgravity caused rapid fat loss instead of muscle loss, humans would have had a vastly overfunded space program and been an interplanetary species by the 1970’s.” – Freefall
There are so many great lines from one of my all time faves, All About Eve, and I know this crew is likely to be familiar with a Bumpy Night…but I like…
“I’ll admit I may have seen better days, but I’m still not to be had for the price of a cocktail, like a salted peanut.”
“The only thing – what I go after, I want to go after. I don’t want it to come after me”
“Why do they always look like unhappy rabbits?”
And so many more….
Oh, the late lamented John Clarke! I have been rewatching ‘The Games’ from 1998, and it’s just as perfect over 20 years later. One of my favourite movie quotes is from ‘Cold Comfort Farm’, also: “Seth, drain the well. There’s a neighbour missing.”