Morgan Fairchild was Faye Dunaway's Stand-In!

I love Bonnie & Clyde. I have seen it a gazillion times and the ending always hits me like a baseball bat to the gut. I believe it's the best, and certainly the most influential, American movie of my lifetime.*

But tonight, I'm not watching my new Bonnie and Clyde DVD. I'm watching the second, extras disc and I'm enjoying it enormously. Deleted scenes, Beatty's wardrobe tests, a documentary on the real -- and nowhere near as gorgeous -- Clyde Barrow and Bonnie Parker. Before today, I didn't know Morgan Fairchild had been Faye Dunaway's stand in! God, I love the extras when they're about a movie I love!

* Think of The Godfather and Sonny Corleone's last moments at the tollbooth. Consider the chasm it explores between money/power on one hand and respectability on the other. The visuals and the themes in The Godfather owe so very much to Bonnie & Clyde. And that's just the most obvious movie that springs to mind.

It happened again

My mother's short-term memory isn't for shit anymore. During yesterday's less-than-an-hour-long conversation, she gave me two more very clear examples:

1) I helped her out by picking up a picture frame for her to give as a gift. I mentioned how remarkably odd the photo that came in the frame was. Black and white, it was two musicians with greased-back hair, horns of some sort, posing in a 1940s bandstand setting. I mean, this was very retro, very WWII. I asked my mom if she recognized the musicians. Dorsey Brothers, perhaps? She said, no, they looked to her like "Frankie Valli and the Jersey Boys." She was serious. I reminded her that The Four Seasons were from the 1960s, not the 1940s. She certainly knows this -- she lived through it! She said nothing and just seemed confused.

2) Changing the subject to something merrier, I told her how beautiful the wedding invitation I just received was. I explained how my friend's initial was intertwined with his intended. My mom said, "What's her name again?" I told her -- no big deal. It's an unusual name, after all. The bride was born in Lithuania. My mom said, "That's a funny name. Where is she from?" Now, my mother and I have discussed the bride-to-be's family countless times over the last three years because I am so ambivalent about her. She helped her parents and some aunts and uncles come over from Europe and they speak NO English, which has put restrictions on where my friend, the groom-to-be, can live and work. (If it's a city that doesn't have a big Lithuanian community, his beloved vetoes it because her parents and aunts and uncles couldn't live comfortably there. And she can't be too far away from her family because, due to the language issue, they are so dependent on her.) MY MOM KNOWS THIS! We have been talking about it for years!

My mother is going to the doctor in a few weeks. She simply has to discuss this with him! I must be careful not to condescend or sound like I'm scolding her. She acts like she doesn't realize how much she forgets, but I'm not sure it's not scaring and embarrassing her. But her doctor has to be aware of this problem. My mom is on antibiotics and inhalers and blood thinners … this could simply be drug interaction and easily remedied.

Manic Monday #12

What do you do when you are feeling very sad or depressed? I heal with alone time, soaking in the tub and then vegging in front of the TV with a dependable movie or that old standby, Law & Order.

Who was your first crush? Paul McCartney. Sigh. Still not over him.

If given a chance to skip work for a day (without repercussions), how would you spend the entire day? Weather permitting, I'd love to go for a loooong walk with my headphones for company (Cubs baseball in the spring, summer and hopefully fall, iPod if there's no game).

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