Hallowe'en reading, viewing, listening, shivering

Probably the most famous ghost story is "The Turn of the Screw" by Henry James, and it would be a most appropriate choice for reading at Hallowe'en.  Of course, spookiness is subjective, rather like one's choice of ice cream flavors, and what could send one person running from the house in terror might merely induce yawns in another.

That said, here come our choices for Hallowe'en fright night:

Book:  Much as we admire the classic tales spun by Cambridge scholar Montague Rhodes James, and Shirley Jackson's "The Haunting of Hill House" (a favorite of Stephen King), the Pointless Digressions crew favors "The Green Man" by Kingsley Amis.  Brilliant. Funny. Scary.

Film:  "The Uninvited."  Wonderfully chilling, and a clever mystery, as well.  Theme music introduced Victor Young's lovely "Stella by Starlight."

Music:  Miklos Rozsa's Oscar-winning score for Hitchcock's "Spellbound," played by twenty-four violins and a very eerie theremin.

There.  Do enjoy a good scare.

Dressing Up

The Columbia Journalism Review (CJR) has invited toilers in the field to reveal what they will wear on Hallowe'en.  To lead the way for journalistic Trick or Treaters, CJR editor Mike Hoyt wrote "Maybe I'll wear some of the shirts and pants that pens have leaked on through the years and go as an ink-stained wretch."

Someone identifying herself only as Abbie said she plans to go as "Lois Lane--cliche, but it works."  Besides, she continued, "It's who I always wanted to be when I grew up." 

Viewing with concern the apparent takeover of news by online media, one reporter said he planned to dress as "the ghost of print press."  

Our favorite, posted by "Mark":  "I'm going as today's typical mid-career journalist: dressed in rags, with a begging bowl and a sign that says 'Will write for food'." 

Me too.

Political Notes from All Over

Prime Minister Stephen Harper is in Ukraine, where he is expected to take part in a pirogi eating contest, go troika racing, and entertain government leaders with a medley of songs made famous by Frankie Yankovic and the Yanks.  

In British Columbia, Premier Gordon Campbell is preparing to address the province via prime time television, a broadcast event expected to rival "All-Star Bowling" in the ratings.  Meanwhile, Mr. Nine Percent has shuffled his cabinet, a move bringing to mind the old line about rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic.  

Rumors that Randy Quaid has offered to lead either B.C. party remain unconfirmed.

And then, T.S. said to me...

October 23, a day for memorable quotations from writers.  On this date in 1804, William Blake wrote to William Hayley, "Dear Sir, excuse my enthusiasm or rather madness, for I am really drunk with intellectual vision whenever I take a pencil or engraver into my hand." 

This date in 1950, T.S. Eliot, then 62, told Time magazine, "The years between 50 and 70 are the hardest.  You are always being asked to do things and yet are not decrepit enough to turn them down." 

And, this date in 1978, "The Stories of John Cheever" was published. Cheever said, "A collection of short stories is generally thought to be a horrendous clinker, an enforced courtesy for the elderly writer who wants to display the trophies of his youth, along with the trout flies."

A good day to read Blake or Eliot or Cheever, or all three.

Moving Forward with the People's Radio Network

"Hi-ho, listeners!  Welcome to the People's Radio Network--All Promos, All the Time!  

"In line with our mission to celebrate Canadian culture, we are lunching a new Song-Quest, and we need--we beg, we crave--your participation.  Send us the name of your favorite pizzeria, and we will commission thirteen Canadian singer-songwriters to create a song for the chosen pizza joint in each province and territory!  Wow!  How's that, radio fans?  Heavy on the mozzarella,  we say!

"So, log on to the People's Radio Network website now, and tell us which pizzeria grabbed your heart and your digestive tract!  Lay on the pepperoni and the hot peppers! 

"And now, stay tuned.  Coming up after the news:  The Burger That Rocked your World!"

The Good Word from Bon Mot

This past week, the Bon Mot Book Club brought Sarah Palin to Vancouver to speak to an audience of persons prepared to pay $500 apiece to hear the politician/author ("Going Rogue") speak.

It is believed the Bon Mot Book Club is now negotiating with Ayn Rand.  

La Stupenda at the Space Needle

Joan Sutherland, dubbed "La Stupenda" by opera reviewers, departed this world a few days ago. An extraordinary singer, with, as Anthony Tommasini wrote in The New York Times, "an enormous range, from a low G to effortless flights above high C," she revived the style known as bel canto, opening a path for, among others, Cecilia Bartoli. 

Many stories of Dame Joan circled the globe this week, but not, to our knowledge, this one. Some years ago, James Barber, television's Urban Peasant, was lunching with Sutherland and Richard Bonynge, her conductor husband, at Seattle's Space Needle. It happened to be Barber's birthday, and when a chorus of waiters surrounded the table to sing "Happy Birthday to You," La Stupenda chimed in, her magisterial voice stunning the waiters and other diners and possibly giving a seismic shake to the Space Needle.

Barber told us later that one of the waiters, probably thinking Dame Joan was just a matronly lady feeling the effect of the wine (and perhaps piqued at being out-sung) went away muttering "Who the hell does she think she is--some grand diva?" 

Ig's Digs

BC Lions Coach Wally Buono claimed today that his team's inexplicable fourth quarter crumbling was the direct result of comments made by Michael ignatieff.

Asked which of the Liberal leader's comments had led to the Lions' defeat, Coach Buono said, "I can't point to anything specific, word-wise.  All I can say is that if this line works for Lawrence Cannon, it should work for us."

Meanwhile, pop music fans today celebrate the birthday of Paul Simon, born in Newark, New Jersey, in 1941.  Songsmith Simon wrote the song that has become the theme and guiding principle of Pointless Digressions:  "Still Crazy After All These Years."

It's Two and Out at the UN

Canada failed to secure a seat on the UN Security Council this week, despite gifts of maple syrup for delegates, appearances by red-clad RCMP officers, and Stephen Harper's rendition of Leonard Cohen's "First We Take Manhattan."  The two seats up for grabs went to Germany and that super power, Portugal.

Lawrence "Loose" Cannon, Canada's Minister of Foreign Affairs, was quick to pin the blame on Michael Ignatieff.  Fed lines by Conservative spin doctors, he also blamed Ignatieff for H1N1, flooding in British Columbia, and male pattern baldness. 

"I knew," said a Conservative insider, on grounds of anonymity, "we should have offered delegates the chance for a date with Celine Dion."

Pointless Digressions Narrowly Misses Nobel Prize

It is that week--the week when the word comes down from Oslo and throughout the world there are cries of jubilation matched by cries of outrage.  Apparently there is little enthusiasm in Beijing for the awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize to democracy activist Liu Xiaobo, currently resident in a Chinese prison. When the awards are presented in Stockholm, Liu may be given an extra cup of gruel.

There was also some huffing and puffing from certain church groups regarding the awarding of the Nobel Prize for Medicine to Robert Edwards, the British doctor who opened the path to in vitro fertilization and its many spin-off applications.  Not all church groups, we hasten to add, objected to this award, only those who, in the political arena, are termed wingnuts.

Finally, we turn to the Nobel Prize for Literature, awarded this year to Mario Vargas llosa of Peru.  He is the first South American writer to be so honored since Colombia's Gabriel Garcia Marquez got the nod in 1982.  And that's not the only link between these two authors.  In 1976, in Mexico City, Marquez appoached Llosa to embrace him and got a punch in the nose instead. 

This is carrying literary criticism to a new level.    

Do Not Practice Brain Surgery While Driving

A recent study has determined that more than eighty percent of motor vehicle accidents are the result of drivers being distracted--talking on cell phones, for example, or sending text messages.  This has led many jurisdictions to enact laws forbidding the use of these devices while driving.  Some of us would like the law extended to prevent the use of such devices also in restaurants, public transit, and bank lineups.

Meanwhile, here is a list of other activities considered dangerous distractions.  While driving, one should not:

* Barbecue a chicken

* Practice yoga--especially the lotus position, even if one is driving a     Lotus

* Dance the tango--slow fox trot still permitted

* Post an entry on one's blog.  Oops!  Sorry, fella.

Wuxtry! Wuxtry! Read All About It!

Those of us of a certain age may remember when this was the opening cry on "Big Town," a radio drama based on the glamor of the newspaper business, starring Edward G. Robinson as crusading editor Steve Wilson and somebody else as his star reporter and (one hopes) his main squeeze, Lorelei Kilbourne.

There was a time, indeed, when the newspaper life was considered high excitement, and this extended from the comic strip "Jane Arden" (a favorite of onetime Vancouver Sun fashion writer Kay Alsop) through a bowtied Bogart in "Deadline: USA" (with publisher Ethel Barrymore) to "All the President's Men," which sparked a rapid rush in applications to journalism schools. 

Now, newspapers are, if not passe, and not entirely moribund, certainly an endangered species, and many are making desperate and expensive attempts to connect with an audience.  The most recent example:  the re-design of the formerly austere Globe and Mail, which has moved to an explosion of color (warning:  do not attempt to read this paper during a hangover) and a coated stock that can be charitably described as repellent.

And the content?  We cannot report on this.  We were unable to pick up the paper.

Steve Wilson! Perry White! Ben Bradley! Bogey! Dammit, where are you? Fix this!

Ode to October

"There is no season when such pleasant and sunny spots may be lighted on, and produce so pleasant an effect on the feelings, as now in October."

  --Nathaniel Hawthorne