Lists

I'm awash in lists.

I'm getting ready for my trip to Eng--Eng--I can barely believe it's true--ENGLAND.

I got WalMart lists, Hannaford's lists, mall lists, you name it.

But my rhododendrons are in bloom again.

This reminds me of the old Katharine Hepburn imitation wherein "Calla lillies" are substituted for rhodies. You have to nod your head just so and go for the throaty tone.

IMITATIONS I DO PRETTY WELL:

1) Katherine Hepburn [see above]

2) John Wayne

3) Donald Duck

4) Annette Funicello

5) Buffy St. Marie

6) Margaret Hamilton as Wicked Witch of the West and Cora of Maxwell House coffee ["good to the last drop!]

7) Marlon Brando as Don Corleone

8) Rod Serling

9) Marlene Dietrich

REASONS TO BE HAPPY

1) I don't have polio

2) I haven't been in a car accident.

3) Still more than six months till holidays

4) Finally got Christmas needles vacuumed up

5) Get to Live the Dream all summer

REASONS TO BE UNHAPPY

1) Grass

2) Leaves

3) Dust

4) Still no relationship with Johnny Depp

My new book is reminding me of a snowball. It keeps getting bigger and bigger and harder to maneuver and full of sticks and twigs and debris. Soon it will be time to start slashing and burning.

BOOKS RECENTLY READ

1) Pentimento by Lillian Hellmann--fab fab fab. How is it possible that every single sentence is powerful? Even though I realized as I read, that I'd read it before, it was still great.

2) Underworld by Don DeLillo--masterful and again a deja vu for me. Oh shit, I've already read this. It was still good, though I confess I bailed midway through.

3) Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden. Fascinating. Geisha are nothing like prostitutes, or hardly like anyway. The structure of the lifestyle is formal and dignified and high status, the highest being if one is selected to be the mistress of a rich (married) man. There is even a ceremony for it....nothing demeaning or secondary about it.

Soon I will be off to the Old World, dear reader. Until then, maybe I should make a list.

A bientot

love,

becky