something about "Just One More Thing" by Peter Falk

In Just One More Thing, Peter Falk tells a few dozen stories from his life, but this is not a birth-to-death autobiography. He shares some tales from his youth and pre-acting days, and a half dozen or so more stories from "Columbo," but the bulk come from his movie shoots and travels. (A couple are throwaways, just recaps of his favorite plot points and bits of dialog.)

Like the famous television detective he played, Peter Falk is an original. If there are any takeaways, it's that playing "Columbo" may have made him world famous, but Falk has an enviable film resume. Of all American comedy films, "The In-Laws," with Falk and Alan Arkin, ranks pretty high. He also did solid work with his longtime friend, John Cassavetes.

If you are fond of "Columbo" and Peter Falk (or Falk's turn in "Wings of Desire"), Just One More Thing is a worthy read.

about Ken Burns' film "The Roosevelts"

Ken Burns' most recent entry in the American encyclopedia is "The Roosevelts: An Intimate History." This film constructs a narrative of Theodore and Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt. Teddy, a Republican, served as 26th President of the United States, and Franklin, a Democrat, the 32nd. The documentary film begins with the birth of Theodore in 1858 and ends with the death of Eleanor in 1962. The production is superior, fueled with solid writing, crisp pacing, and sharp editing.

The film relies on loose eye-witness accounts from the Roosevelt's family and friends and the speculation and psychoanalysis of historical writers, such as Doris Kearns Goodwin and David McCullough, whose work sells because they dramatize history. The first episode inscribes an origin story for each future President. The narrative willingly indulges the Great Man theory, that idea that history is the result of the charisma, intelligence, and skill of the heroes and giants of the age. In the case of the Roosevelt Presidents as depicted in this documentary, both are born sickly and, merely by living, miraculously defy death. Describing baby Franklin in the arms of his mother, the narration quotes a family member who likens the pair to a Madonna with child. Rather than simply say that the family was proud of their kin, this testimony is treated as bearing some deeper insight and truth. In another segment, the narrative depicts Teddy's time in the badlands as a trial from which he emerged transformed, like Jesus returning from the desert.

(or posts) "Career Opportunities" by The Clash

Career Opportunities
 -by The Clash

The offered me the office, offered me the shop
They said I'd better take anything they'd got
Do you wanna make tea at the BBC?
Do you wanna be, do you really wanna be a cop?

Career opportunities are the ones that never knock
Every job they offer you is to keep you out the dock
Career opportunity, the ones that never knock

I hate the army and I hate the R.A.F.
I don't wanna go fighting in the tropical heat
I hate the civil service rules
And I won't open letter bombs for you

Career opportunities are the ones that never knock
Every job they offer you is to keep you out the dock
Career opportunity, the ones that never knock

Bus driver; ambulance man; ticket inspector

They're gonna have to introduce conscription
They're gonna have to take away my prescription
If they wanna get me making toys
If they wanna get me, well, I got no choice

Careers
Careers
Careers

Ain't never gonna knock

and

I'm up close so you can't see

about what to say sometimes

I've been using the phrase "horse trading" a lot lately. I'm thinking of switching to "wife swapping" because, to my mind, they are pretty much the same thing.