Fading a bit

Here I am with Sammy, the best dog in the world, showing off, for Nick, my new haircut, which the inimitable Paul shaped for me last Thursday. This was my first haircut since last July, just days before my fall and long hospitalization, which left me with a bald head and a hole that took a few months to heal. None of this shows.


Dear Friends and Family,

I have to admit to some setbacks. Last night, after we went to see Midnight in Paris by Woody Allen, our free Tuesday movie courtesy of our 3-way Optimum card, Merwin left me, at my urging, to see if MP Taverna could seat us. It was about 7 p.m. I slowly using my cane got outside of the Roslyn Movie Theater OK, but as I tried walking outside, I stumbled a bit, feeling wavery. A woman standing on line to enter for the next showing of one of the three films there caught me and asked if I needed help. I did indeed. I asked her to help me to the next free sign post, where I clung till Merwin returned. MP Taverna was chock full of diners, he reported, with every table occupied, so no go. Merwin had to walk me to a bench, while he got the car, and I had a nice chat with a woman in her eighties whose daughter had led her to the bench. She showed me the depressions in her head, very much like mine, except her surgeon placed one just below her hairline. My two depressions are well hidden now by my hair. When Merwin pulled up, I could not reach him without help. He had to park and come for me. Oh my.

It could be because of my very low blood levels. To reduce the spleen I was taking 6 HU a day. Now I am down to 2 starting today until after my next blood draw report, next Wednesday.

How did I like the movie? It is an educated snob's delight, I might say. If you know who all the many people the Allen character meets, you get a great kick out of it. But but but. Merwin liked it a lot, and I certainly enjoyed it. But the hero is engaged to a dreadful woman. Why doesn't he see that? Of course, not seeing the dreadfulness of someone you love is not unusual, but Allen really laid it on, dissing her badly. And her parents! Greedy mom and Republican dad.

Merwin is reading (and not enjoying) A Hundred Years of Solitude, which is an early, perhaps the first great example of Magical Realism, and Woody Allen's film is a late instance of magical realism. OK, fun, but forgettable. Weigh in, please. Most people I know LOVED the film.

Today, I didn't go for a walk. I stayed home and tried to work on the review I am to write about an edition. I have lots of opinions about it, but I will be sure to write something useful for them. The hurtful part is that in this heavily annotated edition of Hamlet, there is not one mention of my work or the work of our hamletworks.org team. I gathered together from my CV only those items on Hamlet I have worked on since converting to Shakespeare in 1976: 4 closely packed pages. I will submit those pages with my report. I will get my chance, though, to suggest elements from hamletworks.org that they should know about. I have several more days to work on it, including the weekend.

I also heard from Mimi at SQ for clarification of two items, and I saw I had made a mistake, which I corrected, thanks to her queries. Will this long complicated essay be flawless? Hardly, but the central thesis is strong, I believe. Let's see.

Being nervous makes me want to eat constantly, which I did all day. For supper, I finished up the last of the matzo by making gefrúste (freshened) matzo. Delicious, and I ate a good amount, as did Merwin.He was happy; he's easy to please.

Now off to see a TCM movie.

Love to all,
Bernice