Jeane Kirkpatrick, Cook

The Washington Post ran a delightful remembrance of the late U.N. Ambassador today, centering on her love of cooking.

(Hat tip: The Corner.)

Tonight's Movie: The Glass Key (1942)

THE GLASS KEY is a noirish tale of political corruption and murder, starring Brian Donlevy as a political boss, Alan Ladd as his partner, and Veronica Lake as the woman they both love.

While not quite as well-scripted as Ladd and Lake's THE BLUE DAHLIA, reviewed here last May, THE GLASS KEY is a very entertaining and stylish film. Trenchcoats and fedoras, slinky Edith Head gowns, rainy cemeteries...they're all in this one, shot in beautiful black and white. The plot is a bit muddled in places, but at those moments the film's highly polished execution carries the day. An extended sequence with William Bendix roughing up Ladd (and then some) was tiresome, but otherwise it was terrific viewing.

The movie is based on a book by Dashiell Hammett and was previously filmed in 1935 with George Raft. According to Leonard Maltin, THE GLASS KEY provided the inspiration for both Akira Kurosawa's YOJIMBO and Sergio Leone's A FISTFUL OF DOLLARS with Clint Eastwood.

The supporting cast includes Frances Gifford and Bonita Granville, two actresses with connections to my area. Gifford, who was born in nearby Long Beach, California, and attended that city's Wilson High School, appeared most notably in a string of MGM movies in the mid-'40s, before her career was cut short by an auto accident. One-time child actress Granville married producer Jack Wrather, who also owned the Disneyland Hotel. The hotel's Granville's Steakhouse (which was recently renamed Steakhouse 55) and Bonita Tower were both named for Granville. Wrather also at one time operated Long Beach's Queen Mary and Spruce Goose attractions.

THE GLASS KEY runs 85 minutes. It was directed by Stuart Heisler.

The film is available on VHS.

December 2012 Update: THE GLASS KEY is now available on DVD from the TCM Vault Collection.

January 2013 Update: A more detailed review of THE GLASS KEY has now been posted.

May 2019 Update: I was fortunate to see THE GLASS KEY on a big screen at the Arthur Lyons Film Noir Festival.

That Amazing Fiesta Bowl Game

If you're one of the last people around not to have seen the amazing finish to the Fiesta Bowl game between Boise and Oklahoma on New Year's Day, the Irish Trojan (linked above) has video links galore.

Statue of Liberty! Hook and ladder! And for an added bonus, marriage proposal!

Meanwhile, in other college football news, USC fans can relax a bit, inasmuch as Head Coach Pete Carroll says he's returning to USC next year. Rumors have been rumbling that Carroll might be tempted to take over the Arizona Cardinals and reunite with QB Matt Leinart.

Hopes are high that USC will start the next season ranked No. 1.

Middle Schools: Time to Shut Them Down

As I posted here in 2005, I've thought middle school was a terrible idea since the time I was old enough to attend one. I wondered at that time why it was supposed to be a good idea to move kids who were going through major developmental changes into a completely new, bigger environment with multiple teachers (including, at my school, mean P.E. jock teachers) and twice as many students. I don't think it's overdramatizing to say that 7th grade was the worst year of my life, though my grades were fine. I very badly wanted to be back at the elementary school where I'd been quite happy.

As I've talked to friends over the years, I've discovered most of them have the same bad memories of junior high school or middle school. Middle school is simply Not a Good Thing.

My oldest daughter attended my own old junior high school, and if anything, the experience had gotten worse by the time she was there. Our second-oldest child is avoiding the junior high experience entirely, schooling at home. Junior high is a concept that needs to be done away with.

Maggie Gallagher has more on this topic in her new column, including the pervasive junior high or middle school problem of "peer-generated torture" -- something our daughter experienced.

Fortunately there seems to be a growing trend in education away from junior high or middle school, toward K-8 schools. Keeping children who are going through big changes in other areas of their lives in a familiar environment, with a single teacher, seems to eradicate many of the problems students experience at middle schools. I'll be most interested to follow changes in this area of education.

The Declining State of Public Libraries

The New York Times and Washington Post start off the year with a pair of disturbing stories on the current state of public libraries.

The Times (linked above) has an article on libraries which are either closing in the afternoon hours or banning solo children in order to crack down on libraries being used as "daycare centers." So much for students being able to get studying and research done after school...that's a disturbing situation all the way around, without easy answers, but shutting down completely seems to be an excessive response.

The Washington Post has a story on local libraries which have a policy of discarding books not checked out in 2 years.

That's fine if it's a onetime bestseller or an unused gardening book or cookbook, but this is also leading to classics being thrown out. It's pretty sad if libraries are throwing out writers like Hemingway...there are some authors or books that one simply expects libraries to have, even if they sit idle for periods of time.

One librarian in this article seems to have the right idea, with a program to promote and encourage reader interest in "forgotten classics."

Wednesday Update: Opinion Journal has more on the library system discarding the classics. (Hat tip: Joanne Jacobs.)

Tonight's Movie: Four's a Crowd (1938)

1938 saw the release of one of the great movies of the Golden Era, THE ADVENTURES OF ROBIN HOOD. Later that same year, ROBIN HOOD stars Errol Flynn, Olivia DeHavilland, and Patric Knowles reunited with director Michael Curtiz to make FOUR'S A CROWD.

FOUR'S A CROWD is a confusing mishmash regarding a public relations man (Flynn), a giggly heiress (DeHavilland), a newspaper owner (Knowles), and a reporter (Rosalind Russell). DeHavilland's rich grandfather, who is preoccupied with model trains, is played by Walter Connolly, with ROBIN HOOD's Melville Cooper as his butler.

The film is an attempt at screwball comedy which is unfortunately a little more screwball than comedy, despite the excellent cast. The plot is initially rather difficult to follow, and it doesn't get much easier as it goes on, with the four leads constantly changing their minds about who each of them loves. The confusion kept up right till the ending, which didn't turn out exactly the way I expected a Flynn-DeHavilland romantic comedy would end.

I love the actors and the genre, but this wasn't one of the better efforts of anyone in the cast.

Cast trivia: Carole Landis has a bit part as Flynn's secretary; she would later appear in some wonderful movies at 20th Century-Fox, such as MOON OVER MIAMI and ORCHESTRA WIVES, both reviewed here in July 2006.

Lana Turner is also listed as having a bit part, but I didn't pick her out.

FOUR'S A CROWD is part of the Turner Classic Movies library. It doesn't appear to be available on either video or DVD. The film runs 91 or 92 minutes, depending on the reference source, and was filmed in black and white. (Update: This film is now available on DVD from the Warner Archive.)

The Clock's Ticking for Mike Nifong

The North Carolina State Bar will be meeting again January 18th and at that point is expected to address District Attorney Mike Nifong's suppression of exculpatory evidence.

Time Magazine reports that speculation is growing as to "when and under what circumstances will Nifong leave office." It is possible that North Carolina Governor Mike Easley could ask Nifong to step down.

I don't think 2007 will be a very good year for Mike Nifong. Nor should it be. He needs to publicly acknowledge the unethical steps he has taken in an attempt to railroad innocent men -- and assure his own election.

USC law professor Susan Estrich: "Maybe all Mike Nifong ever cared about was getting elected, no matter how many victims he created."

Update: I note that Time says that the governor's office appointed Nifong. Wasn't Nifong elected D.A.?

Wednesday Update: An email correspondent kindly cleared up that while Nifong was elected and just sworn in as D.A. Tuesday, he was originally appointed to be D.A. There was a vacancy when his predecessor became a judge.

Remembering President Ford

President Ford's family returned to the Capitol Rotunda today, where some of his children greeted those who had waited in line to pay their respects. They also handed out cards of appreciation to some of those in line.

The Ford family's classy gesture in handing out the cards called to mind a memory of President Ford: When I attained the rank of First Class Cadette in Girl Scouts, I received a printed card of congratulations from President Ford. The card was framed and hung in my bedroom for years. I very much appreciated President Ford's support of Scouting. Links about President Ford and Scouting can be found at Free Republic.

During the tribute to President Ford preceding the Rose Bowl game, I suddenly remembered that the one and only time I went to see the Rose Parade in person, President Ford was the Grand Marshal. I have photos somewhere...

Our homeschool year resumes tomorrow, but we will be taking time out to watch President Ford's funeral service which will be held in Washington's National Cathedral. I am so glad we have the option to put aside lessons and watch "history in the making."

USC Rose Bowl Champions!

Congratulations to the University of Southern California, the 2007 Rose Bowl Champions! USC beat Michigan 32-18.

If you're a USC fan, click over to Brendan Loy's Irish Trojan site (subject link) and you can celebrate by playing the Conquest march. :)

The L.A. Times has posted a photo gallery.

Congratulations to the University of Redlands

My alma mater, the University of Redlands, is celebrating its centennial.

The school has a beautiful float in the Rose Parade this morning, depicting the campus chapel and the university's bulldog mascot.

The UofR is a special place and the float was lovely to see.

As for today's Rose Bowl, Fight On, USC Trojans!!

Frank Mickadeit Interviews Stephanie Edwards

With the Rose Parade having started, everyone wants to know where Stephanie Edwards is today, if the traffic for my Friday post about Stephanie is any indication.

Stephanie told the Orange County Register's Frank Mickadeit "Nothing is permanent in television and I have gotten over the shock" of being let go by KTLA Ch. 5 after over a quarter century.

Mickadeit suggests that if there is any justice in the world, Stephanie will be next year's Rose Parade Grand Marshal.

I think much of the country would be mystified by that selection, but as a Californian who has watched Stephanie on New Year's Day for years, I heartily second the motion. :)

The column provides contact info for both KTLA and Stephanie, if you'd like to drop either the station or Stephanie a line.

As for our family, we're not watching KTLA's Rose Parade coverage for the first time in memory. We are instead tuning in to HGTV today.

Happy New Year, Stephanie!

Update: John Mark Reynolds of Biola University weighs in: "Stephanie Edwards is Disneyland...Michaela [Pereira] is Magic Mountain trying to be California Adventure.

"The new host-ette combined a dollop of condescension at being forced into the whole ridiculous thing with a dullard’s sparkling rejoinders giving the watcher the weird feeling that he was being laughed at by his inferior...in short she managed to rain on our parade.

"KTLA should bring back Stephanie Edwards and lose the idea of a hip Rose Parade. Michaela is not cool, doesn’t like parades, and is hard to endure for hours."

Happy New Year!!

Best wishes to all for a happy, healthy 2007.

Tonight's Movie: Twister (1996)

We spent New Year's Eve watching a fairly mindless thrill ride of a movie, TWISTER, starring Helen Hunt and Bill Paxton as "tornado chasers."

The movie consists of Hunt and Paxton madly driving from one tornado to the next, as they attempt to deploy a new tornado measuring machine into the center of a tornado. The viewer thus careens from one exciting tornado set piece to another, all in the space of a single day. Before the movie is done our hero and heroine have close encounters with everything from flying cows to flying tanker trucks, as the viewer repeatedly exclaims "Are they nuts?!"

Hunt and Paxton's characters are on the brink of a divorce, and Paxton improbably drags his fiancee (Jami Gertz) along for a couple of close encounters with the tornados, until she's had her fill of near-death experiences. (She might have been the only sane character in the movie...) Mick Martin and Marsha Porter suggest in their DVD & VIDEO GUIDE that TWISTER is a reworking of HIS GIRL FRIDAY, which upon reflection is a fairly apt comparison.

The film is shallow in terms of characters and relationships, but entertaining enough -- thanks to the tornado sequences -- to sustain viewer interest.

TWISTER is 113 minutes long and is available on DVD.

NC DA's Call on Nifong to Step Down from Case

The North Carolina Conference of District Attorneys has called on District Attorney Mike Nifong to recuse himself from the Duke lacrosse case.

Meanwhile the Washington Post today called on Nifong to drop all charges.

This has been too long in coming, given the state of the "evidence" in the case, but Nifong colluding with the lab to suppress exculpatory DNA evidence may have been the straw which broke the camel's back. Hopefully Nifong will be off the case -- and even better, out of a job -- before too much more time has passed.

As Ed Morrissey wrote yesterday: "...we only know about this one case, and that's because of the high profile of the defendants. Think about what Nifong may have done that flew under the national or even regional media's radar."

Indeed.

For more, see Durham-in-Wonderland's summary of recent developments.

Tonight's Movie: The Christmas Card (2006)

THE CHRISTMAS CARD is a cozy, feel-good original TV movie production by the Hallmark Channel.

Soldier Cody Cullen (John Newton) receives a Christmas card "to any soldier" while serving in Afghanistan, and when he has leave he visits Nevada City, California, the home of the woman, Faith (Alice Evans), who sent the card. Cody soon finds himself drawing close to Faith and her family and takes a job working in their family lumber business. Only Faith's father (Ed Asner) knows that the card brought Cody to their town.

Cody falls in love with Faith, but she's about to become engaged to another man. The other man is obviously completely wrong for Faith, and Cody is completely right. Will true love win? One guess. :)

It's a simple and somewhat predictable story, charmingly told. Faith's family and the town of Nevada City are warm and welcoming. It's a film that the entire family can enjoy together.

This article has an interview with leading man John Newton and interesting info about the locations in Nevada City. Another article on Nevada City can be read here.

According to The Union, it's the highest-rated Hallmark Channel original movie ever aired.

Update: THE CHRISTMAS CARD is available on DVD.

Tonight's Movie: Superman (1978)

My family thoroughly enjoyed watching SUPERMAN together this evening. It was the first viewing for all but one of my children. My eight-year-old son has recently developed a fascination with Superman, thanks to some books containing the old comic strips, so he watched it wide-eyed.

Viewing the movie caused me to do some thinking back to the film's original release. It's hard to convey to my children here in 2006 just how exciting SUPERMAN was. Growing up in the late '60s and '70s, there were few new films appropriate for the entire family. In that Vietnam-Watergate era the popular movies were titles like THE GODFATHER and THE EXORCIST. Entertainment choices in general were far fewer in that era -- no cable, no video, just cut-up old movies on TV, riddled with commercials.

Things started to turn around in 1976 with the release of the positive, optimistic ROCKY. The next year, of course, marked the beginning of the STAR WARS franchise, followed by SUPERMAN in 1978. I remember exiting the theater dazzled by the new actor, Christopher Reeve. :) After that, it seems there was a great movie nearly every summer, including THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK, RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK, E.T., and RETURN OF THE JEDI.

It was so exciting to have good movies we could go see. And my friends and I certainly did see them...again and again and again. And the great music! 1977 and 1978 saw the start of my extensive collection of John Williams soundtracks -- LP's purchased at the late, lamented Tower Records.

Enough of memory lane, and back to SUPERMAN. It holds up quite well. It's always been a bit overlong, weighed down on the front end by Superman's backstory and on the closing end by the unpleasant earthquake sequence. And the special effects are occasionally somewhat clunky by today's standards. But on the whole, it's engrossing filmmaking with every actor, especially Reeve, playing his cartoon role with conviction. That scene where Clark almost tells Lois the truth, after their flight together, is magical.

I've seen the movie a half-dozen times or so over the last 28 years, yet as I watched the DVD a couple scenes here and there were jarringingly unfamiliar, such as Martha Kent uncovering a bird cage the morning teenaged Clark tells her he has to leave and go "north." Thanks to Leonard Maltin I realized that while the original movie ran 143 minutes, our 2001 DVD release has a running time listed of 154 minutes. (IMDb lists it as 151 minutes.)

The 2001 edition is a two-sided disc with a number of extras, including screen tests, which were fascinating. A skinny Christopher Reeve is seen reading two scenes with Holly Palance playing the role of Lois. Then Reeve (looking bulked-up in a couple of the later tests) reads opposite several actresses testing for Lois, including Anne Archer, Lesley Ann Warren, and Stockard Channing. Margot Kidder overcame a dreadful hairstyle and '70s granny dress in one of her tests to ultimately, of course, win the part.

SUPERMAN was reissued last month in a 2006 4-Disc Special Edition.

As I wrote last month, two different versions of SUPERMAN II have also been released on DVD. I hope to watch those in the near future.

Finally, back to those great movies of the late '70s and early '80s for a moment. Who would have thought, when RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK was released in 1981, that a fourth film in the series would be scheduled to film in 2007?!

May 2018 Update: Meeting Jack O'Halloran, who played the villain Non.

Alert: No Mail Service Tuesday

There will be no mail service next week on Monday or Tuesday.

Monday, of course, is the New Year's Day holiday.

Federal agencies, including the post office, will also be closed next Tuesday to honor former President Gerald Ford, whose funeral service will be held Tuesday morning in Washington's National Cathedral.

Anyone who has bills due next week may want to recalculate mailing dates to be sure payments arrive on time.

Stephanie Edwards Sitting Out Rose Parade

Last year my comments on a local news story, the demotion of KTLA's longtime Rose Parade co-anchor Stephanie Edwards, brought some of this blog's biggest-ever traffic. Stephanie must have a lot of fans out there, as those posts have continued to draw regular hits over the course of 2006.

As reported by the L.A. Times (subject link), Frank Mickadeit of the Orange County Register, and L.A. Observed, this year Stephanie won't be "singin' in the rain" or anywhere else in Pasadena on New Year's Day.

As Stephanie half-jestingly told the Times, this year "I'll watch the parade with my family, in my jammies, weeping softly into my hot cocoa."

We'll miss you, Stephanie. I think I may give up my longtime loyalty to commercial-free KTLA and opt for the coverage on HGTV instead.

New Year's Day Update: This has been a record-setting traffic day here at Laura's Miscellaneous Musings, and I welcome all new readers stopping by for news of Stephanie Edwards. Be sure to check out today's post linking to an interview with Stephanie published in today's Orange County Register.

Please visit again! Best Wishes and Happy New Year to all. :)

January 1, 2008 Update: Welcome to new readers seeking information on Stephanie Edwards. My January 1, 2008 post on Stephanie is here.

On the Duke Case and the Value of Bloggers

The North Carolina State Bar today filed ethics charges against District Attorney Mike Nifong, who has been conducting what can only be called a sham prosecution against three Duke lacrosse players.

The ethics charges are welcome news indeed. As Power Line notes, the Bar's complaint concerned some of Nifong's less egregious actions. They haven't yet addressed his suppression of exculpatory DNA evidence which cleared the players. More charges against Nifong may be coming.

Stewart Taylor and KC Johnson (see subject link) concisely lay out the case against Nifong, as well as his "enablers," which include the media and many professors at Duke University.

Johnson's site, Durham-in-Wonderland, is the "go to" site for the latest news and analysis on the Duke case. (Also recommended: John in Carolina and Betsy's Page.) Johnson is a history professor. He and Taylor are co-writing a book on the Duke case.

Johnson's work on the case, tenaciously digging into what many in the mainstream media ignored for far too long, ties in well with another story currently circulating in the blogosphere. Joe Rago of Opinion Journal recently wrote an unfortunate harangue against bloggers, claiming blogs are "written by fools to be read by imbeciles."

Dean Barnett dissects Rago's piece, noting:

"With the creation of the blogosphere, the entry barriers to being a writer came down. Anyone who wanted to be a commentator or even practice a little freelance journalism was free to do so. Some of the people who chose to adopt this avocation met with huge success. The Powerline guys, for example, are probably read by more than any op-ed columnist in the country...

"It has to be frustrating for journalists that hordes of bankers, lawyers, professors and other anonymous shlubs can so easily crash their gate."

Johnson, who took it upon himself to "practice a little freelance journalism," is a fine example of a blogger who has "crashed the gate" and made a difference.

"Journalists" such as Rago disdain Johnson and bloggers at their own peril.

John Kerry: Snubbed in Iraq

John Kerry is in Iraq this week, and it appears he was not made particularly welcome by the troops who are, in Kerry's words, "stuck in Iraq." And is it any wonder?

Check out the photo of Kerry eating surrounded by empty chairs, posted by Michelle Malkin (above) and at Power Line.

These sites also contain anecdotal reports of the troops' lack of interest in Mr. Kerry.

Bryan Preston of Hot Air: "I've never seen a snubbing so richly deserved."

Friday Update: More on the photo from Power Line and Michelle Malkin. Some on the left have challenged the authenticity of the photo. Between them, Power Line and Malkin conclusively make the case for the picture being the real deal.