Nora Ephron 1941-2012

If you've read this blog for long you know I'm a big fan of Nora Ephron.

What we didn't have in common:

• She had lots of men in her life.  I've had two. 
• She enjoyed cooking and was fantastic at it  Me, not so much. 
• She was world famous and wildly successful, with three Academy Award nominations. 

But, what we did have in common:

• A tramautic childhood.
• A sense of humor.
• A passion for reading and writing.
• A need to be real and transparent. 
• Our ages.                                                  

Nora died this week.  The New York Times said in response to this news:  "Among the injustices about the death of Nora Ephron is that she isn't around to tell about it."

If she had been, maybe she would have been as upset as me that the TV kept running the fake organism scene from "When Harry Met Sally" all day long as if it was the only example of her work.

If you want an example, rent that movie.  She wrote the whole thing, you know. It's has some the best relationship dialogue ever.  But Nora was a successful and prolific writer, director, producer and blogger.  Much of it profound.  Most of it funny.

Here are some of my favorite Nora Ephron quotes:

Above all, be the heroine in your life, not the victim. 


I have made a lot of mistakes falling in love and regretted most of them, but never the potatoes that went with them. 


So much of what I see reminds me of something I read in a book, when shouldn't it be the other way around?


I don't think any day is worth living without thinking about what  you're going to eat at all times. 


Reading makes me feel like I've accomplished something, learned something, become a better person...


I look as young as a person can look given how old I am. 


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Tate Modern

As you know, Dave and I are museum guys.  Sort of.  Him more than me.  Last Sunday we were in London and got ourselves over to the Tate Modern.  They were featuring a Damien Hirst exhibit.  Hirst was and is the most famous of the 1990s "Young British Artists."

And a little controversial.

For instance we saw his most famous and expensive work, the Skull.  He's titled it "For the Love of God."  And that's what some folks say about it when they first see it, including me.

Oh, for the love of God!


It's a human skull covered with 8,60l diamonds.  I didn't want to think about how many twelve year old kids had to dig around in some diamond mines in Africa to facilitate this piece of art work.  But that's exactly what I did think about.

By the way, Hirst will sell it to you for 100 million dollars. It's the most expensive new work of art ever made.

Anyway, we saw some other cool stuff at the Tate Modern, then stopped for lunch in a little pub right on the Thames, overlooking the Millennium Bridge and St. Paul's Cathedral.  Dave had the traditional British meal, steak and kidney pie and mash.  I had the traditional American meal, burger and fries.

Who says the British don't have great food?

Afterwards we took the bus to Piccadilly Circus but then couldn't find the bus stop to get to our hotel in Russell Square.  So we walked the whole way.  It was fun.

All in all, a good way to spend a Sunday afternoon.


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Trouble Making Nuns

In our recent European travels it was sad to see many churches closed or being used for museums or whatnot.  When I asked around about the reason for church closings the answers were usually that folks no longer believe or that younger people have no interest in church.

The sad thing to me is that the Church doesn't seem to want to accept much responsibility for the decline.  I think that, until we do, the situation here will be more and more like Europe.

Have you been reading about this trouble making American nun, Sister Simone Campbell?  Sister Campbell has spent most of her life working with the poor.  Campbell, a registered lobbyist and political strategist and holds a law degree, spent 18 years representing poor people at a community law center in Oakland, California.

And now, Sister Campbell is in big trouble with the Vatican.  The largest association of U.S. nuns - the Leadership Conference of Women Religious - were charged with allowing "radical feminist themes" to permeate its meetings.

Sister Campbell has responded by making an appearance on The Colbert Report and launching a "Nuns on the Bus" tour.

The nuns have said repeatedly that they are doing what they're called to do.  (By the way, this is what Jesus calls all of us to do - Take Care of the Poor.)

I see trouble making folks like Sister Campbell and others around the world as the great hope for breathing life back into the church.

Campbell, who's been a faithful woman religious for over 40 years, says about the Pope getting after her:  Some guy who's never talked to me says we're a problem? Ooh, that hurts.


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We're Back!

Just returned from our three week trip to the Baltic - starting and ending in London. We left a cool and rainy London yesterday morning knowing we'd dry out today in sunny Florida.  But guess what?  We were greeted at the Orlando Airport by tropical storm Debby.  Felt bad for all those Brits on the plane heading for their Disney vacation of a lifetime.

And that's what we just had, a vacation of a lifetime.

I was with my Power Rangers a couple of days before we left.  One of them, Julia, (one of my favorite writers)  had just returned from her cabin in North Carolina.  She'd written while she was there that she had a bad case of poison ivy so when I saw her I said,

Did it take an ocean of Calamine Lotion?

Julia didn't know the song, "Poison Ivy" so didn't have much of a response.  But just before we left for our trip she sent the following e-mail:

I hope your trip is wonderful.  To continue your little poem about about oceans of poison ivy lotions on Wed.  I'll just say I hope that there is not too much motion in the ocean and you cuddle in a notion of devotion and partake of every country's wine of love potion. 

And we did.

If you want to read more of Julia's writing, look up my blog posting for 5/18/09 titled "Florida Crackers."  She gives the best definition.  She knows because she is one.

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Honey, They Shrunk the Newspaper (Again)

I think we'll be the last people around to subscribe to the local newspaper.  Each time it arrives it's smaller than the day before.  When I put the ads in the recycle bin prior to coming into the house, there's barely anything left.

The annual bill came recently and we serious considered making some changes but we're big newspaper fans so we'll stick it out for a while.

It'll be fun to start reading some of the European papers in a couple of days. I hope they haven't shrunk like ours.

In the meantime I read our AARP Bulletin today.  It tells me that a bunch of other stuff that's been around my whole life, and I really like,  is going away.  Such as:

• The U.S. mail (or snail mail)
• Home phones
• Analog clocks (This is my school clock I've had on the wall for 40 years.  You can see the pendulum was swingjng when I took this photo ten minutes ago.)
• Toilet paper (Toilet paper?)
• Cursive writing

And they say the following are already gone.

• Answering machines (We have one.)
• Phone books (We have several.) 
• Bank deposit slips (I used one today)
• Printed dictionaries and encyclopedias (Dave just looked up something in his today.)

We're moving kicking and screaming into the future.  But we are moving. Thanks for being patient with us.


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No Such Thing as Bad Press

Most celebrities love publicity.  Some though, just do their jobs and stay under the radar.  I read this morning that a New York Post poll found that Casey Anthony is still the most hated person in America, even a year after her trial.  Don't know how Casey feels about that.  But, to my surprise, a close second for most hated is Kim Kardashian.  My guess is that she's fine with it.  She works hard to create an image that keeps people talking.

We could name scores of celebs who've done crazy things to stay in the limelight.  Madonna was tops for several decades.  But we have only to look at the magazines at the supermarket checkout to see the same misbehaving folks over and over.

Stephen Colbert announced the other night that he'd been chosen one of Maxim's 100 Hottest Women - that's right, hottest, most beautiful women.  He ranked #69.  No, I don't know how that works.  But Colbert works hard to keep his silly, self possessed persona in the spotlight.

Maxim is noted for identifying "a definitive list of the world's most beautiful women."  But how can you do that when you look only at the most famous or infamous or silly.  There are lots of truly beautiful people around - inside and out - who don't have any desire to get on the list, but belong up near the top.

I liked this cartoon from The New Yorker.

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Being Transparent

Just prior to Lent my minister told us folks in the pew that he would be sending a devotion out via e-mail to anybody who wanted to read it, each week, until Easter.  I thought he said each week but it turned out to be...every day!

Wait, this gets worse.  He's still sending it...every day!

At first I'd look at it and think, "I don't have time for this.  I know this stuff.  Knock it off already."  But now I read it daily, without fail.  I look forward to it.  He's doing the book of Luke.  So the first half is pure scripture.

It's amazing how actually reading (as Johnny Cash would say) "the words that Jesus said,"  every day can affect your world view.

It's not about how I need get to all the folks in my life shaped up, especially those who seriously get on my nerves.  In fact, yesterday the scripture was on "Judging."  We're not supposed to do it. Darn.

Today it's about transparency.  It's about who we are and what we say being in sinc.  I want to be a transparent person.  I think many of you around the country and the world who read this blog know who I am, even though I protect the privacy of my family and friends.  I think you'd be very surprised and angry if you learned that I'm a 30 year old obese, father of two with several x-wives, who refuses to pay alimony.    Don't worry.

Jesus says in Luke 6:45 ...for it is out of the abundance of the heart that the mouth speaks.

Dr Bob elaborates, Jesus wants us to think about what we say, the words we choose, our tones of voice.  It's out of our hearts that all that comes. 


I think this is excellent advice for every person on earth.  Especially me.


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Indianapolis 500 - Fun in the Infield

My son asked me a question yesterday about the Indianapolis 500 that I could not answer because, even though I grew up in Indy, the race never meant much to me.

But it got me thinking.  When I was a teenager I went to the race many times.  Why?  Well, it wasn't to see the race.  At that time, in the 50s, the gates opened very early in the morning.  Families, singles, teens, kids; just about every group you could think of, piled into the infield.  It was huge.  People came in their campers, flatbed trucks, cars, on bicycles and walked.

Many of them brought with them boards and plywood and everything they needed to make makeshift scaffolding.  They spent hours prior to the race picking their spots and building their platforms.  There were no rules.

Folks, of course, also brought picnic supplies and party beverages.  The entire day was spent celebrating.  There was some beer drinking but I don't remember seeing any bad behavior.  Back then it was a family setting. (I understand all that's changed.)

I went with my friends.  Usually girlfriends.  We moved around from group to group, visiting and flirting.  Sometimes getting invited to sit on some guy's cool scaffolding for a while.  It was a fun day.  I remember it being an innocent time.

As I said, I saw very little of the race itself.  But we had our favorite drivers.  They were like rock stars at that time.  My favorite was A. J. Foyt.  While my kids would later tease me about something steamy happening between A. J. and me, nothing ever did.  He was nice to me and my friends a couple of times.

Everything changed in 1960 when some of the homemade infield scaffolding folded and crashed, leaving 2 dead and 40 injured.

After that, all infield scaffolding was banned.  The infield was never the same again.








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