Break my heart!

There was a cat just sitting on the front porch, as though she was waiting for me to return home from work. She saw me and she dashed into the thick bushes beside the porch. I called out to her a couple times, thinking that if I got close to her I could see how healthy she was, how clean, if she let me handle her maybe I could spirit her upstairs and close her in my den until I could get her to my vet or the local animal shelter.

Alas, she stayed out of sight, deep in the bushes. I didn't pursue her because we're surrounded by a busy street and a driveway and I didn't want her to race out and risk getting hit.

It's going to be colder and colder each evening this week. I worry about that cat. I pointed out to my cats that they are lucky to be warm and dry and fed.

Movie Monday

This week's movie topic is all about Mobsters...

I hate to be so damn predictable, but I must go with the Corleones. I saw The Godfather for the first time at a highly impressionable age and my primary takeaway was that you could have sex standing against a door. Who knew?

Repeated viewings, however, convinced me that I and II are among the best movies ever made. The lush soundtrack, the meticulous attention to detail, the performances (no one in this movie has been better elsewhere -- except Keaton, she kinda sucks as Kay) and, oh, the dialog:

"Leave the gun. Take the cannoli."
"I made him an offer he couldn't refuse."
"Read the papers! That's your husband! That's your husband!"
"Today I settled all family business."
"I don't want my brother coming out of the john with his dick in hands."
"I don't need to wipe out everybody. Just my enemies."
"I know it was you. Fredo, you broke my heart!"

The dark side to these masterpieces is, of course, how quickly we are seduced into abandoning our own moral compasses and cheering for the bad guys. Make no mistake about it -- everyone in these movies is a bad guy. Even the ones, like Sonny and the Don, that we come to feel affection for.

To play along, click here.