by Peter Cates

Killing Them Softly

I recently viewed a 2012 movie, Killing Them Softly, starring Brad Pitt as a gangland enforcer, James Gandolfini as a Mafia hitman and Ray Liotta as the host for a mob protected high stakes polka game, with a very good supporting cast.

The plot features a businessman in need of extra funds who hires two inept hoods to rob the polka game. They initially get away but then one of them brags about the heist to the wrong individual and the repercussions rear their ugly head.

Despite the constant foul mouthed dialog and jokes, and the super hideous violence (maybe because of it), the movie was a box office success, which doesn’t reflect well on cinematic tastes. Ever since the emergence of such directors as Martin Scorcese, Quentin Tarantino etc., audiences relish the stylized combos of bloodshed and comedy displayed in Goodfellas, Pulp Fiction, the Sopranos series etc., while the craft of the old Hollywood classics such as Citizen Kane, The Best Years of Our Lives, Vertigo and In the Heat of the Night – to name a few examples – is tossed aside.

To their credit, Pitt, Gandolfini and Liotta delivered superb performances but the movie still left a bad taste.

CSI

A certain amount of graphic realism was seen in the CSI series, which ran from 2000 to 2015 and, after a six-year hiatus, came back as CSI: Vegas. The difference lies in the episodes being more edifying on the gathering and analysis of evidence found at crime scene and less of violence and foul language for its own sake.

I am more than halfway through the first season and particularly enjoy the acting of William Petersen, Jorja Fox, Marg Helgensberger and Paul Guilfoyle as the investigative team.

Especially interesting is the use of facial reconstruction as part of the forensics. One episode that stood out involves a woman’s skull found inside the crawl space underneath the basement of a house by the plumber repairing a leaky pipe and the reconstruction of her face using computer graphics, the recognition of the missing woman and the resulting arrest of her murderer.

Christmas Carols

A mid-’50s lp, Epic LC 3074, and entitled simply Christmas Carols, features very expressive a capella performances of a mixture of well-known and rarely heard season selections by the Royal Male Choir of Holland, a group that was founded in 1883 and numbers 170 men.

Bing Crosby

On June 22, 1950, Bing Crosby recorded a ten-inch Decca 78 featuring renditions of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer and The Teddy Bear’s Picnic that were captivatingly arranged, as was so consistently typical of Crosby’s sessions for Decca. In terms of quantity and quality, this singer with his over 4,000 recordings achieved a rare standard and sold more records than Sinatra, Presley and the Beatles combined.

Also Sinatra, Presley and the Beatles were among Crosby’s most loyal fans.

Jimmy Carter

by Peter Cates

Jimmy Carter

The 39th President Jimmy Carter has achieved a few longevity records .

First, he is the oldest living one at 99.

Secondly, he has lived the longest of any President.

Thirdly, since his defeat for re-election in 1980 by Reagan, he has been out of office the longest.

Finally, he and his wife Rosalynn were married the longest of any presidential couple, lasting from 1946 to her death just a few hours ago (I am writing this Sunday evening, November 19, 2023), and surpassing by a few years that of George and Barbara Bush.

Novelist/journalist Norman Mailer wrote a fascinating New York Times magazine profile of Carter during his 1976 campaign and expressed awe at the candidate’s phenomenally encyclopedic memory, his grasp of the complexities of domestic and foreign problems and his above average, very focused interest in them (Mailer cited German novelist Thomas Mann’s statement- “Only the exhaustive is truly interesting.”).

Mailer also mentioned Carter’s younger brother Billy (1937-1988), a “good old boy” with a pleasant personality but not somebody to cross.

A photo of the newly-elected president in November 1976, that sticks in the memory is one of the two brothers and a few friends having beers at Billy’s gas station in their hometown of Plains, Georgia, and dressed in work shirts and blue jeans – one didn’t see the armies of secret service personnel surrounding the village.

For me, the most distinguished achievement of Jimmy Carter’s presidency was as a host and mediator at Camp David when former Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin negotiated a peace between the two countries, that pretty well ended in 1981 when Sadat was assassinated.

A setback in his administration was the Middle Eastern oil crisis in which gas prices went up, supplies became limited and long lines of cars resulted at gas pumps across the country.

With respect to our Pine Tree State, Carter appointed former Governor Kenneth Curtis as Ambassador to Canada and former Senator Edmund Muskie as Secretary of State, both men unfortunately serving terms of brief duration. He also came to Bangor for one of his town meetings and invited one of the questioners, an elementary school teacher, to bring her class to the White House for a visit with him and ten-year-old daughter Amy.

Information on Carter’s years in the White House abounds in libraries and on the Internet.

Prior to 1976, Jimmy Carter was a successful peanut farmer in Plains and was elected Governor of Georgia in 1971 for one term.

His post-presidential years have been distinguished by him with a nail apron and level building houses for Habitat for Humanity .

All three of his siblings died from pancreatic cancer in their 50s.

by Debbie Walker

So, I did go to the audition. Before the night was over, I decided I didn’t come close to the other actors with their college degrees in theater. They also needed an assistant to the stage manager, with the plan being once trained they would become The stage manager. Well, I am now the assistant to the stage manager, at least I am going to try it.

The play is called Mistletoe Ridge, and it is quite the little comedy. I know we have laughed enough at the auditions and the first practice. I can’t wait for the next meeting, that will be Tuesday! I will keep you to date and maybe even get a picture with everyone of the cast in their costumes.

My bedroom project is pretty much finished. I have the black and white material as blinds, and I made two shams with left over fabric. The black fabric I bought I used for a King bed skirt, but I cheated and bought two pillowcases (yes, they are black). Now that it is done, I am quite pleased with the room.

Poor Dave, the first couple of days he was not pleased with all the black, said it reminded him of a funeral home. Since he has now appreciated how much better he has been sleeping he’s quite pleased. Some things just take time.

It’s gotten to the time of year when I think of gingerbread. Gingerbread with whipped cream on top. Yummy! Did you know it has historical roots? Some of us now make gingerbread house and cookies. But long ago it landed in Europe with an Armenian monk who brought home a honey and spice cake to other monks in France, and it quickly became “food from Heaven”. Typical medieval recipes for gingerbread include no ginger. It once was a treat only for the elite.

I read something in Woman’s World magazine from October. I learned you can spray a wreath with hairspray to help it last. It also mentioned putting petroleum jelly to boost the life of your jack’o lantern. I’m sorry it’s not much help this year but you’ll have it for next year’s pumpkin.

Do you have a single glove or mitten? Don’t throw them. You can use them to hold potpourri’ in. The article I read was recommending you fill the glove half with dry rice, then fill it with dried herbs. In the article I read it said to tie the glove closed with a ribbon. I might do the ribbon, but it will be sewed shut first. I don’t trust just a ribbon. One use is in your drawers for sachet. I will use lavender in mine and put it in my pillowcase to help sleep.

I like this one. How much do you “waste” on bathroom smellies? Maybe instead try an empty toilet paper tube. Paint it or decorate it to suit you. Put cotton balls in it. Then put some of your favorite smelly stuff on the cotton balls.

I’m just curious what new projects you have started. Contact me at DebbieWalker@townline.org. with questions or comments. Have a great week.

Gerald Ford

by Peter Cates

Gerald Ford

The 38th President Gerald Ford (1913-2006) always struck me as the most personally likable of our 46 chief executives. His geniality helped immensely in generating good will on both sides of the aisle during his 25 years in the House of Representatives before President Richard Nixon appointed him as vice president on December 8, 1973, after Spiro T. Agnew was forced to resign.

However, at the same time, when Ford became vice president, I confess to knowing very little about him, except for the name, and, despite having more interest in our nation’s leaders 50 years ago than nowadays, I had very little interest in knowing more about Ford (Congressmen L. Mendel Rivers and H. Edward Hebert interested me more.). But I do remember Ford serving on the Warren Commission investigating JFK’s assassination.

Eight months later on August 9, 1974, President Richard Milhous Nixon resigned and Gerald Ford became president and would appoint Nelson Rockefeller as vice president (it was a choice between Rockefeller and George H. W. Bush.). Ford also kept Henry Kissinger on the job as Secretary of State and William E. Simon as Treasury Secretary.

Certain memories of the Ford Presidency stick out:

A photograph in Time magazine shows Ronald Reagan shaking hands with D.C. Federal Judge John J. Sirica, who became best known during the Watergate investigation for demanding that Nixon turn over the White House tapes; Ford is standing between the two men with a look of panic on his face.

First Lady Betty Ford did a cameo appearance on the Mary Tyler Moore Show.

During September 1975, two assassination attempts were made on President Ford’s life 17 days apart – the first by a Charles Manson follower named Squeaky Frome and the second by Sara Jane Moore. Both women served prison terms for more than 30 years before finally being paroled.

Ford’s decision to pardon former President Nixon may have been the most controversial one of his two years in office and is still being debated by scholars.

Ford’s televised debates with Democratic candidate Jimmy Carter were marked by what struck me as lots of warmth and cordiality – the amount of time the two spent shaking hands seemed at times forever.

A few memories after Ford left office:

In the late ‘70s, Ford was a guest on the Dick Cavett Show and had the most ingratiating smiles and laughs at Cavett’s witticisms.

At the 1980 Republican Convention, it was reported that Reagan offered Ford the chance to be his running mate before selecting Bush.

During the late 1990s, a cable channel televised a program at the Ford Presidential Library in which the former president introduced historian David McCullough who gave a speech about his just published biography of Harry Truman.

On December 26, 2006, President Ford died from coronary disease at his home, in Rancho Mirage, California; he was 93.

Jon Hamm

by Peter Cates

Mad Men

The seven seasons of Mad Men, which ran on AMC from 2007 to 2015,was an interesting viewing experience throughout the last three to four months via Amazon Prime but, now that all 97 episodes have been watched, I feel tremendous relief that it’s over.

It depicts the world of Madison Avenue advertising agencies and their executives and other employees from 1960 to ’70 and does good work in recreating lifestyles, clothing and, most importantly, attitudes against the backdrop of American history during that decade – JFK, Vietnam, rock music, social media, the rising crime in Manhattan, the quiet desperation resulting from prosperity and the good life. And every episode would end with a song appropriate to that episode.

My gripe with the series was how tiresome most of the characters eventually became; the main character Don Draper, as portrayed by Jon Hamm, is insufferable in his selfishness, disloyalty and arrogance as he becomes a golden boy for creating successful ad campaigns; I was rooting for him to fail miserably, which he does by the end of the series when he has a rude awakening permeated with insincere repentance and accountability.

Only two performances really stood out – the late Robert Morse as the founder/CEO of the agency where Draper is a partner; and the extraordinary actress Elizabeth Ann Reaser who appears in a couple of episodes in season seven as the waitress Diane.

Reaser conveyed the depths of torment in her characterization of somebody who is apparently a loose cannon but who still evokes tremendous sympathy as a human being.

The actress graduated with honors as a theater major from Juilliard and, after struggling for a few years with bit parts, landed a role on daytime TV’s The Guiding Light. She gave an interview with the following comment about her upbringing:

“My father raised me from the time I was 12 years old. And it never occurred to me that I wouldn’t be strong – I wasn’t raised like that. ”

The Death of Stalin

Robert Morse

Elizabeth Ann Reaser

A 2017 film, The Death of Stalin, has three outstanding performances – Simon Russell Beale as Stalin’s KGB police chief Lavrenty Beria, Olga Kurylenko as Stalin’s favorite classical pianist Maria Yudina who sends a personal note to the Dictator telling him how much she loathes him, and Jason Isaacs as the Soviet military hero Marshal Zhukov who participates with other Central Committee members in the kidnapping and execution of Beria ten months after Stalin’s March 1953 death.

Otherwise this film, promoted as a satirical black comedy, is, as I commented to a friend, quite vile.

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