RSS
Amidst this journey of recovery, the author draws inspiration from Fred Reed’s harrowing account of his multiple eye surgeries after injuries sustained in Vietnam. Reed’s narrative is one of resilience, as he describes the gruesome reality of watching the surgeries unfold, yet he portrays it with a calmness and dark humor that highlights the absurdity of his situation. This reflection serves as a catalyst for the author’s own perspective on their illness, prompting them to realize that their struggles are relatively minor compared to Reed’s extensive suffering. The author’s contemplation of Reed’s experience reveals a profound understanding of endurance and the human capacity to cope with pain and adversity.
In a satirical turn, the author addresses President Biden, mocking the government’s handling of the COVID-19 crisis. They propose a ludicrous solution involving the mandatory use of butt plugs, arguing that this would prevent the spread of the virus and restore normalcy. The absurdity of this suggestion serves to illuminate the frustration and disillusionment with the political response to the pandemic. The author’s comedic approach to a serious topic reflects a deeper critique of societal norms, leadership, and the often irrational nature of political discourse. By framing the conversation in this outrageous manner, the author emphasizes the need for innovative and pragmatic solutions rather than ineffectual measures.
The narrative transitions into a discussion of art and film, specifically the works of John Cassavetes, which the author revisits during their recovery. Cassavetes’ films are characterized by their raw exploration of human emotions and relationships, often depicting uncomfortable truths about life. The author highlights the intensity of “Woman Under the Influence,” where Gena Rowlands delivers a powerful performance that evokes genuine emotional responses. The author appreciates how great art has the ability to revive emotions and provoke self-reflection, contrasting it with the current cultural landscape that often stifles creativity and authentic expression. This commentary on art serves as a broader critique of contemporary society, suggesting that in an era of censorship and regression, the willingness to confront uncomfortable emotions and truths is essential for maintaining one’s sanity and artistic integrity.
## I. Personal Health Journey
A. Current state of health
1. Residual symptoms include coughing and difficulty sleeping.
2. Engaging in daily walks to promote recovery and improve mood.
B. The therapeutic effect of socializing
1. Interactions with people uplift spirits.
2. Availability of benches and green spaces in Tirana enhances outdoor experiences.
## II. Observations of Tirana's Culture
A. Lack of ornate architecture
1. Tirana does not showcase the lavish buildings typical of Europe.
B. Southern European lifestyle
1. Preference for outdoor gatherings in cafes and restaurants.
2. Example of old men playing dominoes and card games in public spaces.
## III. Reflection on Personal Pain and Grief
A. The nature of physical pain
1. Pain as a private experience despite collective grief in society.
B. Personal experience during illness
1. Feelings of isolation and dread in confined spaces.
2. The challenge of simple tasks, such as moving to the bathroom.
## IV. Connection to Fred Reed's Narrative
A. Reed’s harrowing account of medical struggles
1. Details of Reed’s eye injuries from Vietnam and the subsequent surgeries.
2. Vivid descriptions of operations, blending horror with dark humor.
B. Perspective gained from Reed's experiences
1. Comparison of Reed's suffering to personal health struggles.
2. Acknowledgment of the resilience required to endure pain.
## V. Satirical Commentary on COVID-19 Solutions
A. Call to action directed at President Joe Biden
1. Critique of the administration’s handling of the pandemic.
2. Suggestion of unconventional remedies, including the use of butt plugs.
B. Humorous depiction of a presidential address
1. Imaginary scenario of Biden and Kamala Harris endorsing butt plugs as a public health measure.
2. Emphasis on absurdity and the need for leadership in addressing the pandemic.
## VI. Artistic Engagement as Therapy
A. Reconnecting with past art
1. Listening to music and watching films as a means to revive emotional health.
B. Analysis of John Cassavetes’ films
1. Themes of discomfort and human connection in “Minnie and Moskowitz” and “Woman Under the Influence.”
2. Cassavetes’ exploration of personal struggles through extended scenes and dialogue.
C. Emotional impact of the films
1. The cathartic experience of watching characters endure and confront their pain.
2. Recognition of personal emotions through the lens of art.
## VII. Cultural Commentary on Modern Society
A. Reflection on the evolution of American cinema
1. Cassavetes' commitment to artistic integrity over commercial success.
2. The contrasting cultural atmosphere of past and present.
B. The importance of authentic expression
1. Critique of self-censorship in contemporary society.
2. Call for maintaining sanity through honest artistic expression.
## VIII. Conclusion
A. The duality of suffering and healing
1. Personal journey of overcoming illness while reflecting on broader societal issues.
2. The role of art and humor as essential tools for coping with life’s challenges.
B. Final thoughts on resilience and self-expression
1. Encouragement to embrace discomfort and find solace in creativity.
2. Acknowledgment of the ongoing struggles faced by individuals, both personally and collectively.
### Author Information
- Linh Dinh's latest work is titled *Postcards from the End of America*, and he maintains a photo blog that provides further insights into his perspectives and observations.
My illness is mostly over, I think. There’s still residual coughing, weak, tremulous breathing and difficulty sleeping, but I’ve been able to walk for miles each day, a restorative act that gets my blood flowing, and, of course, seeing people lifts my spirits. Here in Tirana, there are enough benches and green spaces to rest, and a strong sun has been out.
Although Tirana has almost no ornate buildings commonly associated with Europe, no fancy friezes, wrought iron balconies, fluted columns or caryatids, etc., Tiranians maintain southern European habits. Weather permitting, they prefer to be outside among their kind. Cafes and restaurants spill onto sidewalks. Yesterday, I walked by four old men playing domino, with a small crowd watching them. At another concrete table, there was a card game.
While there’s certainly collective grief, physical pain is always private, and once you’re afflicted with anything, all you can think about is escaping that condition. During the worst days of my illness, my small room suddenly appeared huge, simply because everything in it was so inaccessible. The distance from my bed to the bathroom door became a much dreaded challenge, often to be postponed for hours.
Though it was hard to think about anything, I thought of Fred Reed’s 2019 article about having 14 operations on his eyes, after they were injured in Vietnam. I was too much of a mess to reread it, however, but this morning, I finally revisited this unspeakably painful account, and the incredibly tough man who could endure such ordeals, though, typically, Reed downplays this aspect.
A 12.7mm round had gone through Reed’s windshield, “So I got choppered to the Naval Support Activity hospital in Danang with the insides of my eyes filled with blood, which I didn’t know because my eyelids were convulsively latched shut. An eye surgeon there did emergency iridectomies—removing a slice of the iris—so that my eyes wouldn’t explode. He also determined that powdered glass had gone through my corneas, through the anterior chamber, through the lens, and parked itself in the vitreous, which is the marmalade that fills the back of the eye. It had not reached the retina, though they couldn’t tell at the time, which meant that I wasn’t necessarily going to be blind. Yet.”
With calmness or even a weird sense of humor, Reed recounts one horrific operation after another, “The thing is, the patient can see all of this going on inside his eye. Really. It’s like watching shadow puppets. The microvit is clearly visible like a little rotorooter and you can see the snipping action of the cutter-part. Ms. Pacman, I tell you. I remember watching it go after a piece of black crud of some sort, snipsnipsnip, and eat it. It is a tribute to the efficacy of federal dope that the patient doesn’t leap up and run screaming from the room. You just don’t care. The whole business is dreamy, a sort of warm glowing Buddhist light show.”
Thinking about Reed’s enduring hell puts everything into perspective, all right, so whatever I have is no more than a minor bout of hiccups, and it’s almost over. Having cured myself, though, I can safely declare myself, with no immodesty, as a medical doctor, physical therapist and shrink. Fortified with this body of knowledge, I must send an urgent message to Joe Biden.
Listen up, Joe. What’s the point of having six million Jewish geniuses in your administration, if none of them can point out the obvious solution to this Covid crisis? Why hasn’t Rachel Levine, for example, whispered in your ears, “Mr. President, you must sign an executive order immediately, mandating butt plugs for all Americans.” Levine is already an expert at rearranging everything downstairs, even with the nastiest scalpels, so this is nothing but the gentlest of remedies.
There you have it. Why bother wearing three or four masks and keeping your social distance if the other end of your plumbing is exactly like a howling tunnel in the middle of a hurricane? Farting away, all the Covid-infected are gassing up America with a massive apocalyptic miasma of toxic viruses, so all you’re breathing in, night and day, is this evil exhalation.
You must lead by example, Joe. To reassure your anxious citizenry, you, and Kamala, too, must show everyone how it’s done.
Biden, “Good evening, my fellow Americans. Tonight, I have great news for everyone. After more than a year of collective suffering and collective sacrifice, not to mention collective loss of living, we’ve reached the end of the tunnel, and I mean this literally, as you shall soon see. Tonight, I’m signing an executive order mandating butt plugs for all Americans, even the newborn, and you must never take it off. With this easy, affordable and painless solution, Covid will finally be defeated.
“Many of you may not even know what a butt plug is. You may think, Doesn’t it sound rather pornographic? Not at all, my fellow Americans. It’s just a piece of rubber that you shove up your anus, like this,” and here Biden pulls down his pants, with admirable dignity, to show a snugly fitted and even stylish purple butt plug up his ass. “Kamala, will you show them yours?”
She readily complies. Her crimson butt plug is so huge, however, several journalists can’t help but gasp. They pull their pants up.
Biden, “They come in all sizes and colors, my fellow Americans, and many are quite cute, I must say. Even wholesome. X-ray scanners will be installed in all public buildings, including supermarkets, restaurants and bars, to ensure compliance. With this simple solution, our lives can return to normal, immediately!”
At the nadir of my sickness, I had basically one emotion, dread, so to warm up my soul again, I listened to Glenn Gould and watched John Cassavetes’ Minnie and Moskowitz and Woman Under the Influence, movies I hadn’t seen in more than 30 years.
Cassavetes’ films are characterized by long takes of people making each other uncomfortable, although this is almost never their intention. Many of them are just too self-absorbed, thus lost. Tension abounds, screaming erupts, and too often, there’s even physical violence. Almost never entertaining, his flicks are excruciating investigations into the hidden pains of being humans, especially American ones. You go along, endure these torturous scenes, because you recognize yourself, or should, in all these characters.
Minnie (Gena Rowlands) has a lunch date with Zelmo (Val Avery), an Armenian who oddly declares himself an Arab.
“You are?”
“No… I mean, I don’t look like an Arab. I don’t wear blankets like that and I don’t have any camel. How tall are you?”
Even with the “How tall are you?” there’s already an awkwardness between them, but Cassavetes’ characters blunder routinely, just like we do in real life.
At the restaurant, Zelmo tries to get Minnie to talk about herself, a basic tactic, but when she’s unresponsive, he has no choice but to go on about himself. Too vehemently, he snarls, growls or shouts, “I hate business, Minnie. It’s funny, ‘cause I’m a fairly rich man, but I hate making money. I don’t know what to do with it. I get up in the morning, I ask myself, Zelmo, what am I gonna do with my money? I give it to charity, I give it to friends. I buy a big house, take a vacation—from what, I don’t know? I’m not married anymore. I was married to a woman that was… a very nice woman, we had no children… it didn’t last… not very long… I made a mistake on our wedding night… personal stuff, you know. You’re very easy to talk to, Minnie. You look like you care about me. That’s a terrific quality to have—a rare quality. I think those people that can listen endlessly are much more fascinating that the people that talk.”
Digging deeper, he tells her, “Minnie, I got to tell you… my problem is that I have hair down my back, and on my chest, and down my arms… but not on my legs—my legs are very smooth. I don’t know why I’m telling you this…”
“That’s all right. I have the veal piccata.” With Zelmo talking so much, they haven’t even ordered.
“You look at a man like me, Minnie, and what do you see?”
“I see a very nice man who’s taking me to lunch.”
“I can’t seem to make you feel what I’m feeling. It’s very hard.”
“Very hard.”
More of the same, and these takes are usually very long, and Minnie has finally enough, “Zelmo, I have absolutely no interest in you personally. All I wanted to do was to go to lunch.”
“Not one dirty thing did I say. Not one off-center thing did I say.”
“Zelmo, I want to go. I’m terribly sorry.” They have eaten nothing.
“Always with blondes. They got some kind of Swedish suicide impulse in them. Took a girl out to lunch once—the next thing you know she wants me to kick her. I said—me kick you—for what? What’s that supposed to be… something?”
Finally, Minnie runs outside, with Zelmo chasing after and shouting. The sunny parking lot is a relief after the claustrophobic restaurant scene, yet even here, Zelmo can’t shut up, “I took you out, I was sorry for you. Bleach blonde hair, $90 a week worker… I wanted to take you out. Give you a little education. Let you understand there’s some kindness in the world.”
Seeing Minnie abused, the parking lot attendant, Moskowitz, has to intervene, thus begins their unlikely relationship.
If anything, Woman Under the Influence (1974) is even more painful to watch, for it involves Gena Rowlands going mad for nearly two hours, and I found myself howling at points, with tears streaming down my face, but hey, all of my emotions, even those I didn’t know I had, were revived. Great art does that.
For Woman Under the Influence, Cassavetes got an Academy Award nomination for best director, and Rowlands got one for best actress. Even the lowbrow New York Daily News gave it a glowing review, but America was a much different country then It was much more serious place, with people who could still think.
The movie’s simple yet very poignant and elegant soundtrack was done by Bo Harwood. To celebrate their Academy Award nominations, Cassavetes and Harwood went onto a fire escape to drink some cognac.
Harwood, “He brought two shot glasses, and he poured one for me, and one for himself, and he looked at me with that wonderful smile of his, and he lifted his glass over the city, and he looked at me and he said, ‘Fuck them!’”
I interpret that to mean Cassavetes made movies to follow, most ruthlessly, his own vision, and nothing else. Of the major studios, Cassavetes laughingly said, “They help us destroy them […] If we make a good film, they will only suffer.”
Awards would be nice, but you must never pander, “You have to fight every day to keep your sanity, and stop from censoring yourself.” To censor yourself, then, is to lose your sanity, but that’s all we do now. Cowering, we’ve long lost our minds.
In the safest space online, we can still flaunt our belligerence, glibness and stupidity, but that’s just more proof of our cultural, intellectual and emotional regression.
Linh Dinh’s latest book is Postcards from the End of America. He maintains a regularly updated photo blog.
English
Arabic
Chinese (Simplified)
Dutch
French
German
Hebrew
Hindi
Italian
Japanese
Korean
Persian
Polish
Portuguese
Russian
Spanish
Swedish
Turkish
Vietnamese
A stream of tender light…
This sounds so wonderful, that I am speechless. However Amazon is already selling it
Linh, thanks for writing about John Cassavetes. That brings to mind two films I loved as a young man: the fright classic “Rosemary’s Baby” directed by Polanski, and his own film “Husbands.” As three married men in middle age crisis, he, along with Peter Falk and Ben Gazzara, had great chemistry. No doubt most married men can identify with their angst. I’d love to see it again if I can find it. I’ve never seen the two other films you wrote about, nor, after checking Wikipedia, any other films he directed. Cassavetes was a long-term alcoholic who died at 59 of cirrhosis (I thought he died younger).
As for your lingering illness, Linh, did you ever get tested for Covid? Will you take the shot?
Ah Linh, always a pleasure. You have of course hit it once again – “You have to fight every day to keep your sanity, and stop from censoring yourself.” To censor yourself, then, is to lose your sanity, but that’s all we do now. Cowering, we’ve long lost our minds.
Keep on. Courage.
Hi follyofwar,
Woman Under the Influence can be rented on Amazon for $3.90, and Minnie and Moskowitz can be seen for free on YouTube.
I saw Husbands around 1984 at a theater in Philadelphia, and it did make a huge impression on me.
I haven’t been tested for Covid here, and won’t, since I’ve more or less recovered, and don’t want to deal with hospitals. Today, I was constantly tired while walking around, so had to sit on a bench at least a dozen times. My body is telling me to slow down.
Linh
Good on you, Linh!
You have survived an Influenza infection.
That’s what human bodies do; they heat up, cause purging and get rid of the contagion.
No Gene Therapy, no neo-religious genuflection and you move on.
The SARS_CoV-2 has not been isolated anywhere in the world.
Oh, by the way: Eat more veggies!
Glad you’re feeling better Linh.
Not being able to sleep must’ve been the worst.
Hope it wasn’t from them guys you shared the bottle with.
Early to mid 70’s was a great time for movies….somehow I missed “Women under the Influence” so I’ll have to check it out.
Always liked Cassavetes.
Lee Marvin: “What’s your name son ?”
Cassavetes: “Number eleven”
You have to understand that Cassavetes was a dark Greek with the usual immigrant inferiority complex vis-a-vis “American” blondes like Rowlands.
Farts are only killers, well, potential killers, up close and personal. Distant farts pose no danger to other pedestrians.
Butt plugs would poison us to death…..but maybe that’s The Plan.
“He brought two shot glasses, and he poured one for me, and one for himself, and he looked at me with that wonderful smile of his, and he lifted his glass over the city, and he looked at me and he said, ‘Fuck them!’”
I interpret that to mean Cassavetes made movies to follow, most ruthlessly, his own vision, and nothing else.”
He actually may have made movies to follow his own ruthless alcoholism. The guy was a serious drunk & eventually it killed him prematurely at age 59. Cassavetes’ movies have all the markings of long term dissipation. ‘Woman Under the Influence’ especially was one of those dreary 70’s era feminist film tracts which was probably more typical of a Hollywood liberal view of American working class culture than anything else. The ‘deplorables’ at home long before Trump came on the political scene to lift them up. Minnie and Moskowitz was just plain bizarre, a Yiddish film by a goy. Cassavetes may have been lucky at least in so far as he got to follow his own star so to speak, but in the end the cirrhosis cut him short; pity.
Ye gods, that butt-plug joke was funny! The howling tunnels of pestilential emanations! You’d make an excellent surgeon general, Linh! ;D
One thing, though: Despite all the madness of the world, I am seeing signs that look like the beginnings of a beautiful intellectual renaissance – and an article such as this only contributes to that feeling.
With wishes of a speedy and full recovery.
In Hangin’ With Dr. Z (funny fake talk show with Dr. Zaius), there was a fake commercial for a school for pudding-tenders, with John Cassavettes saying “Pudding ain’t just for finks and losers no more.” I saw Woman Under the Influence” years ago. Falk is good in those movies. And man, what agreat shot of a young Gena. Hachi machi.
Feel better, Linh. I want to go to an Albanian beach. Sarande, Dhermi or Ksamil. Seems like a cheaper alternative to Dubrovnik, etc.
I think it would be helpful if Pedo Joe and Kamaltoe each purchased a pair and inserted them at both ends of the gastro-intestinal tract.
Cassavetes’ wife is a ringer for January Jones, Don Draper’s (Jon Hamm) wife in the series Mad Men, which depicted the same period, the late 50s and 60s. Women were godammed beautiful back then. Now look at them.
Fred reed let the VA fuck with his eyes. He had his 100% disability from VA plus SSDI anyway, but kept going back to the VA. I wouldn’t let the VA do a toenail trimming let alone eye care. The VA is the Frank Burns of medical care and every vet knows it. Why not Fred?
A butt plug must be used as an oral pacifier for any public official or presstitute suffering from COVID related verbal diarrhea.
There are only 2 films I have seen in my life that were so stunning, I did not leave the theater and sat through twice.
The 2nd one was Chinatown. I saw it at a defunct duplex in the Manchester Shopping Center in Fresno, California.
The first was Faces directed by John Cassavetes with Gena Rowlands, which I saw at the long-gone Larkin Theater on Larkin Street in San Francisco. I did not know who the actors were, but the film was stunning. It showed real people in a reality that transformed me and made me feel even more human and glad to be.
It was an experience I will never forget. It transformed me.
Nowadays, I recommend to some (like my adult daughter) John’s son, Nick’s, directorial debut Unhook the Stars (1996) starring his mother, Gena, and the always exquisite Marisa Tomei. With this, his first film, Nick captured much of his father’s knack for pulling the human from the artifice of the motion picture art.
Another life-affirming piece of art. Enjoy.
Seymour Cassel from Minnie & Moskowitz etc, was great as Max’s dad in Rushmore. Very poignant role, a widowed barber who Max tells everyone is a brain surgeon.
He was also in Warren Beatty’s Dick Tracy.
John Marley, who played Woltz, the guy who wakes up with the horse’s head in Godfather, was also quite good (with Cassel) in Cassavette’s Faces.
Ben Gazzara is great in Killing of a Chinese Bookie. Cassavettes had a touch for great actors who went on to do amazing work. Like Gazzara in Roadhouse and Big Lebowski.
I wonder if you can cure yourself of a heart attack.
What would you do? Walk around? Have a bratwurst and a Bud? Maintain a good attitude?
Please elucidate.
Welcome back. You came down with sledgehammer flu right after your angry Juden essay, yes?
Was that simply coincidence, or perchance did you get misted ala Operation Zyphr?
My advice would be: relax and have faith.
I lost a good friend to a heart attack some years ago – an old captain, salty as the sea, and with a tongue like a fiery lash, curses and obscenities ran from his mouth like milk from a dogs teats. He had a strong character and a good heart, though, and I liked him very much.
We had just been talking, at work, when he had his heart attack. He went into the kitchen, and, the cook related, feel down with a scream. He woke up shortly when the ambulance picked him up, and made a sign to the cook (he couldn’t talk), “phone me”, hand to the head, with courage in his eyes. They replaced some things in his heart, but he didn’t wake up again.
But he never gave up! Ah – that was not a bad way to go.
Women “were” goddamned beautiful back then. You nailed that one.
Speaking of cringeworthy purple and crimson ‘buttplugs’, here’s one of America’s most obnoxiously prominent and 100% phony “green buttplugs” getting caught in the hyper-hypocritical act:
https://sputniknews.com/viral/202104031082530789-buttigieg-mocked-after-video-emerges-of-his-bike-being-unloaded-from-suv-ahead-of-ride/
Very glad you are feeling better, Linh. Your articles are always of great interest.
I discovered a celluloid cure that works wonders for illnesses, recoveries and really bad hangovers. Watch as many Clint Eastwood spaghetti westerns and Bud Spencer and Terrence Hill movies that you can get your hands on. Your afflictions eventually run up the white flag and then you are good to go.
More masculine laughter and less feminine thinking is the secret ingredient.
Cheers-
I have never used the VA, only military hospitals.
Life imitates art …
Video Link
Reynolds, one helluva director.
Video Link
This one was certainly more cheerful than the last one. Glad you’re feeling better.
Cassavetes was a good actor too, he’s great in Rosemary’s Baby (I don’t know if he acted in many other big Hollywood movies). I first thought the surname Cassavetes was French, but he’s fully Greek.
Linh, I was laid out with a flu in Japan once. Remember looking at the water bottle and thinking, “if only i had the energy to reach for that…”. Had a flu about 4 years ago that left a lingering fatigue for several months.
Please don’t go near the covid kill shot. Get on the tonic water and keep walking. These folks have info on real treatments and what the fuck is going on – https://www.americasfrontlinedoctors.com/treatments/
Hope you’ve seen ex-Pfizer exec Yeadon on the danger of the kill shot. There’s also Sucharit Bhakdi, Geert Vanden Bossche and Sherry Tenpenny who’ve covered the extreme folly of these mRNA “vaccines.”
https://fyi.com/news/unreported/ex-pfizer-chief-science-officer-warns-experimental-mrna-vaccines-could-be-used-as-global-crimes-against-humanity-massive-scale-depopulation/
Military hospitals are a world away from VA, agree.
An emergency situation that put me into Portsmouth Naval Hospital gave me a look at the most professional medicos America has produced, but then I was on active duty at the time.
A friend going to a nearby VA facility in ’18 did mention to me that the Trump administration was trying to upgrade and improve veterans facilities. He said they were getting better, at least the one he was going to. If so, under Joe/Kamal I’m sure any progress will all be erased. But I have no firsthand knowledge if Trump was cracking the whip or not.
(wink).
Very glad to read you’re getting better! Interesting story, as usual.
I’ll wear my ruby red buttplug with dignity only if the Kamal would permanently wear something in that trap to stop the endless cackling.
My most memorable John Cassavettes movie moment was at the end of the flick, “The Fury”:
In the words of John Candy and Joe Flaherty doing “Farm Film Report” at SCTV: “He done blowed up real good!”; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R4FfNYjw6qU
Video Link
(I must admit that in my darkest moments, I wish I had that Amy Irving-like power to make some of the evil elites explode like penguins on tellies……… )
Sick while traveling is the worst. In the early eighties I was traveling across Australia and caught a bug. I vomited and didn’t eat four about four days straight – that condition absolutely warrants a trip to the hospital since dehydration can kill in short order, but being in a foreign land, and not knowing my way around, and being shy and young I just stuck it out. It did almost kill me.
Oh, yes. My memories are from the 1970s. I remember a bout of dysentery: passing out in a Mexican motel room trying to step over my friends on the way to the toilet. The next day I went on the road again. I also remember not being able to defecate for a week as hepatitis locked up my gut, in Peshawar. That time I thought I was going to die.
I had Covid last year and that was one of the symptoms. Even at my advanced years got over it ok. All the best to you and a quick recovery Linh.
Linh
Just watched “Woman under the Influence”
Brilliant movie…Rowlands & Falk are superb.
It brought back a flood of memories.
The earliest being being stripped naked by mother and then whipped with a belt w/o mercy.
I was maybe 4 or 5 years old.
I was always stripped naked for maximum shaming.
The last time she beat me, I was in 7th or 8th grade.
She broke a ruler over my back…not a yardstick, but a 12 inch ruler…you know what kind of force that takes ?
Anyways, I remember thinking “that didn’t hurt that much” and I turned and faced her.
For the 1st time I saw fear come over her face….she never beat me again.
To say I had problems with women when I grew up would be a massive understatement.
My mother now lives in Sun City, NW of Phoenix. She is 19 years older than me.
I saw her 4 or 5 years ago but almost killed her, so I haven’t been back since.
Mabel had problems, but loved her children, who were never beaten once throughout the movie.
She had nothing on my mom.
Thanks for the Therapy Session, Linh.
Looking forward to your next article.
Sorry Fred, I thought the guy that pulled sutures off your cornea wrecking it for life was a VA doc. Did they at least throw ya the 100 percent?
Oh, that’s not fair Big Buddy. You’re asking Kam to do something she is unfamiliar with.
“You’re asking Kam to do something she is unfamiliar with.”
Maybe like our brain dead Dear Leader putting Kam in charge of our Southern border?
Great recovery from the flu or whatever……..
Hippocrates — “Walking is the best medicine.”
Start your day with a one hour (or more) fast walk. Then eat. You could have a cup of black coffee before walking.
I don’t see why you shouldn’t, sometime (soon) in the rest of your life, have yourself tested for the (COVID) antibody. If you have it (the antibody), you probably had IT. If not, then not.
Why not explore your own medical history? And tell the rest of us? It should be interesting, even if not altogether informative.
Can you please link so we can all buy your books.To everyone who reads his articles..please show your support.Buy his books!Send him money!He needs to buy medicines and live in a cleaner and safer hotel.Eat well.He is Asian and is too proud to ask more often like Mr.Sailer.If he charged a dollar for every article he wrote that I read-I already owe him $900.00(conservative estimate)Now is the time we show our gratitude.He is not like Mr.Unz who has millions.Everyone here who has been moved by his articles or regularly comments send what you can.
Glad you are listening to your body Mr.Lihn.You like to listen to everyone but yourself.
That’s a good point…..inserting instruments for pleasure or pain depending on your particular kink….not Kamala’s thing. Now inserting things for money, better employment, or political advancement…. Old Girl is all over that shit.
Linh!
* Throwing virtual arms around you… * I am relieved and happy you’re recovering!
For a man whose existence is an ongoing, active exploration of the world and its inhabitants, I can’t imagine being trapped in bed for weeks any less torturous for you than Reed’s hellish surgeries were for him. Just not as enduring. Jesus, both suck.
In any case, I’m glad you’re back to doing “standard” Linh Dinh things (which is anything BUT “standard” things)!
Your synopsis of the goings-on in Minnie and Moskowitz was helpful, Linh, because I immediately found and watched the film after hearing it was one of the things that kept you going while you were so sick. Up until watching it, the only Cassavetes movie I had seen was Rosemary’s Baby…
I swear to God, Linh, at the end of Minnie and Moskowitz, I sat there, staring at my computer screen with my mouth hanging open. I was, like, “WTF did I just watch…?” and started to write back to you, but seriously had NO idea how to discuss the film AT ALL. I thought I missed some profound point, or deeper meaning…
But bearings have returned with this post of yours…! It *is* a weird movie, with weird (incredibly human) characters, who lurch ungracefully from one awkward situation to another. I’ll say this about the movie, Linh: it was refreshing to watch a raw 70’s film; one completely unburdened with all of today’s pretentious “woke,” PC, and propagandistic bullshit!
Now that I’m less afraid to–LOL–I’m going to go find out who Pound, Eliot, Wilbur, Lowell and Plath are. And Glenn Gould, too. Sheesh Linh, you didn’t know you’d be expanding deprived U.S. minds half a world away, from what (for a minute there) might have been your death bed…
(Thank you!!) As ol’ Bageant used to say:
In art and labor,
Cindy
Hi Cindy,
Now that you’ve had a taste of Cassavetes-directed film, do move on to A Woman Under the Influence, Husbands and Shadows, etc. As I’ve just written on another comment thread, Cassavetes’ films “depict a psychologically hidden America. Compared to the America of other Hollywood films, Cassavetes’ is much more lonely, desperate and angry even, but not in a cool way. Even the diners and bars in Cassavetes’ films are shown with a realism unmatched by anyone else. He knew his locations well.”
In the beginning of Minie and Moskowitz, Moskowitz (Seymour Cassel) goes to a movie by himself, then visits a diner, where he sits with a stranger, Morgan (Timothy Carey). Through his awkward exchange with Moskowitz, we learn that Morgan is jobless, broke and barely hanging on to his sanity. As Moskowitz opened a newspaper, Morgan says to him, “My name is Morgan. You want to hear a song?”
“Yeah, yeah.”
“I can dance. I give speeches. What’s your name?”
“Seymour. Moskowitz.”
Having someone to talk to cheers Morgan up. Smiling, he takes his jacket off, “Ah! I used to do this pretty easy at one time. My elbows got fat over the years!”
Suddenly, Morgan has this faraway look, “Everyday people, that’s what’s wrong with this world. We oughta to get rid of them. That’s what’s wrong with the world. Listen to me! Don’t be frightened. You’re just a kid. What do you know?!”
But suddenly Morgan’s mood shifts, “My wife died. I’m lonely. I live in the same building for 28 years. Walk up. Cold […] I’m 48-years-old. I get naked. I look at my big belly. My legs are getting skinny, and my chest is getting big, like a woman. Life is going on. I’m getting nowhere. I don’t care. What the hell!” His eyes lit up, Morgan looks demented. “Skinny, broad, wide, I’m not a fashion model.” He punches his paunch several times, “Look at that labanza, ha! Took a lot of shit to build that up!”
Again, Morgan’s focus shifts aruptly, “Say Morgan, you want a million dollar? No siree! Not with taxes the way they are.” This, from a man who can’t afford a hotdog.
Revealing more sadness, weirdness and sheer desperation, Morgan goes on talking, so even with a minor character in a minor scene, we get a very complex and memorable portrait, and it should be pointed out that quite a bit of Morgan’s monologue is not in the published screenplay. Cassavetes allowed his actors to improvise, so each character is informed and invigorated by the actor’s own creativity and knowledge of life. What you get in a Cassavetes film, then, is acting that’s consistently intense yet subtle, with even the smallest psychological tic or shift masterfully conveyed.
Linh
Good luck and Godspeed sir.
Right on, Doctor. Observation suggests that nowadays, a young man is lucky just to find a woman who weighs less than he does. These poor guys.
Just listened to an interview with Linh Dinh on Kevin Barrett’s podcast. Nice finally to hear the voice of one of my favourite columnists…
I flew through this easily! I was surprised and perplexed for a second until I realized that Linh Dinh can really ‘write a bunch’, say much easily, flowingly, interestingly.
the Kamla butt plug was ‘high-layrious’ though there was a tinge of racist reaction on my part. Kamla is a Black woman after all. then I realized that my ‘laff’ would have been ‘up-roar-riously unrestrained!’ were she white – Kamla!
Racism? me too!
and that was easy! its catching, rubbing off – saying things simply! maybe reading more Linh Dinh then! interesting!
get well man! walking long is great prescription! fruit too! lots of those chock full of VitC, along with the walking. and did I ‘hear’ someone say veggies? those too! and carbs? lite, little to none of those: they don’t help much! harmful mostly!
all the best
Out here in Ghent Belgium we have all that and more, the Belgians are also eager to preserve all that, and to be proud of it, but it is a city of stupefied consumerist-mask-wearing-dumbphone-zombie-worker-slave automatons.
After reading this, Linh, I wondered if you realised just how close you were to the big sleep, that from which there is no awakening. I hope to Christ that the virus you were suffering from wasn’t man-flu, because it’s shown to be not just lethal, but also highly debilitating. Strangely though it doesn’t seem to affect women, or so my darling wife says. But I still have my doubts.
Surely nothing this dramatic can only be suffered by men I’m certain. I find that after the illness passes recovery is a slow process in leaps and bounds, often one step forward and two steps back, becoming a macabre type of dance. It’s usually with regret and a heavy heart that I have to inform my worried spouse that the jobs building up will just have to wait. “No, leave them for me,” I meekly call out from my sick-bed.
So in that sense you are lucky that you’re alone and you don’t have to suffer the burden of disappointing a loved one as well. Look after yourself, and always be wary of the man-flu.
Mr Dinh needs to get a life if he thinks listening to an old fart crapping on in a movie is interesting.
Actually he wasn’t that dark. I don’t know about the inferiority complex but they had three kids together.
It is spring Mr. Dinh are you sure it wasn’t a bad case of allergies? I have been traveling about the country this past year searching for the elusive coronavirus and have yet to either find it or catch it. I thought last April I had it but then it turned out to be allergies–aw. Now I have those same allergies again, must be this new region we moved to.
I’ve been through the yearly onslaught of the “crud” that afflicts west texans during the windy season. With all of the dust, and God knows what else flying in the air, it’s inevitable. Flu like upper respiratory symptoms, lots of coughing for a couple of weeks, and then it goes away until next year. Like clockwork. Nothing quite like Dinhs battle it seems. Glad to see he’s pulled through.
A lot of people at UR who haven’t travelled seem to think that all Sicilians, Greeks, Spaniard, etc are dark-skinned or olive-skinned, when this is not the case at all. A few, but certainly not all. There’s a lot of variation.
Also this idea that they have some kind of inferiority complex vis a vis the Nordics seems to be more wishful thinking than anything else.
Why should he have an inferiority complex? Gena Rowlands was quite beautiful, and he made a lot of movies when most independent directors struggle to make even one.
Too bad he was a drunk.
“You have to understand that Cassavetes was a dark Greek with the usual immigrant inferiority complex vis-a-vis “American” blondes like Rowlands.”
One doubts very much “dark” Johnny was feeling inferior to “light” Gena when he was the one who was the dominating partner… if anything, knowing Greeks the way I do, he, most likely, had the immigrant superiority complex towards the blonde bimbo.
… and Gena Rowlands, besides being beautiful was part Mediterranean also. Her father was Welsh. (Grin)
I strongly advise Mr Linh to abstain from coffee, nuts and alcohol. These do not improve your immune system – quite the opposite. Take 1000mg L Lysine tablets daily. What works for herpes works for all viruses.
What foods are high in lysine and low in arginine
To clear your throat, buy some hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) – 3%. Dilute it with water so that it is around 1%. It is very cheap in Albania. Gargle with it. Use it as a mouthwash/toothpaste. It will clean your tongue and throat. Do not rinse your mouth with water. Allow a small amount to trickle down your throat. It will spread into your nasal cavity and sinuses and get rid of all the gunge. Your breathing will improve. Your breath will smell better. Your tongue will become pink and your teeth will gradually whiten. Your stools will become normal and your farts will smell better. What more can you wish for? 🙂
“Rosemary’s Baby” was a foreshadowing of Polanski’s life. The movie and his life involved the ritualistic sacrificing of a pregnant woman to evil which happened to Polanski’s wife months after the movie. There are other parallels in the movie. There are many instances of Satanic signaling in Hollywood movies, an industry filled with many perversions and nefarious executives (like Weinstein, Bob Hope and his partner Kissinger). An MK-Ultra base was near Hollywood where they conducted mind control experiments with LSD and other drugs. This is associated with the see eye aye, but M0ssad controls the spook agencies of the West. Charles Manson and David Berkowitz are examples of their experiments gone wrong. Manson – Son of Man. Berkowitz – Son of Sam – Samson Option – nuke cities. The problem with Hollywood (holly wood is used to make magic wands) being corrupted with evil is that it has spread to the whole country which has come to light in recent developments. Joseph McCarthy’s nightmare is coming true.
Most Med people recognises some of the technical achievements of the North but almost always feel cultural superior that is why they score very highly on ethnocentric measures. A blonde bimbo will never get the respect of a Greek man’s mother – that is all you need to know.
I thought it was a misspelling of Cervantes! Biden on a donkey tilting at oil wells would have been more apt. Biden with a butt plug is more likely how it actually is already, and would explain much of Biden’s ineptitude and his liking for Harris. It could be they have this fetish already which they share at quiet moments in the Oval Office, or is it Oval Orifice?
I think I have seen every Cassavetes films, and I old enough to have seen them when they debuted and seem some of them multiple times since then.
But, my fascination with his films is not because he is a brilliant film maker. Rather, it is the acting genius of Gena Rowlands. There are scenes in which I judge her acting to be unparalleled in the history of American film.
Gene Rowlands was an acting genius.
Cassavetes was a brillent film maker; no doubt. But I wonder how successful he would have been without Rowlands?
He made her learn Greek – which was the right thing to do. Not sure he lacked any confidence.
Except Greek and south Euro inferiority complex is already well known**, and he was a doormat. It was the typical short dark male / tall, mentally ill, fake blonde female relationship of the modern media.
**The inferiority compex has grown since then due to austerity, persisting financial crises in Southern Europe, etc.
Video Link
In that photo Gena Rowlands totally looks like a MKUltra beta sex kitten with leopard suit.
Jayne Mansfield
6 Main Signs of MK-Ultra Mind Control
Leopard Skin Dress:
https://www.galerieprints.com/product/leopard-skin-dress/
Katy Perry:
https://www.nicholson1968.com/nicholson1968s-post/sex-kitten-programming-occult-symbolism-katy-perry
Hollywoods newest beta kittens:
https://themonarchfiles.wordpress.com/2015/05/16/megan-trainer-and-charli-xcx-hollywoods-newest-beta-kittens/
Probably because Mr. Dinh understands that the antibody “test” was developed simultaneously to the development of the “virus”. Making people THINK they’re going to die is a crucially important aspect of any PLANNED-demic. The panic alone can and will kill many.
I was in a grocery store the other day when a woman had an hysterical and obviously self-inflicted case of Shlomovirus hysteria. She was sitting in a chair near the Starbucks checkout counter, shaking, crying and saying out loud, “It’s corona – I just know it…..!” The other customers and the store manager were looking at her in bewilderment, scratching their heads – ambulance was outside – it really was like a scene from a movie (maybe you film buffs can tell me which one!) and just plain surreal, if not maddening and sad beyond words.
I live in a small town in a rural state and Shlomovirus “fatalities” are near zero anyway, which made the whole thing even crazier.
I didn’t hang around to see the aftermath, so maybe she did have some kind of flu. But her symptoms looked more to me like someone with a nervous breakdown than an immune-system breakdown. The fact that she was in a public place, had walked though the door moments earlier (presumably to get a cup of coffee!) and was now, moments later, SOBBING hysterically (not coughing, vomiting etc.) convinces me her “symptoms” were entirely psychosomatic.
The “cause” of her “illness” was undoubtedly propaganda on the Crooked Nose Network.
Anyway, thanks again Linh. I fully agree with your decision not to give a nanometer to this scam and the diabolical scumbags who created it.
And welcome back, too!
They were all Kerouac’s children. That whole Beat stance, that Beat attitude toward life. Clearly it was one of the aftermath effects of WW II. And it was genuine….for a while. But very quickly it became very hackneyed. Cassavetes was permanently warped by the Beat pose. You had to be “underground” to be genuine. What crap.
Your exquisitely funny prescription is generating some humorous responses on this thread. But all joking aside, what you describe may well be the missing link in the corona virus transmission sequence. I’ve been suggesting it here on UR now for perhaps the past two or three months. When and if it ever becomes accepted theory we can both put our names to it and share the accolades.
It’s clear that all the currently accepted transmission hypotheses are not leading to effective methods of interrupting transmission. Masks don’t work. Lockdowns don’t work. By analogy look at the history of malaria, which was long thought to be a disease of bad air, of miasma. That was close but once mosquitoes were fingered as the transmission vector, real progress was made.
The Chinese are moving from nasal swabs to anal swabs. They would not have done this without establishing that the virus was to be found consistently in that area of the body. We also know that the intestines are rich in ACE2 receptors, that diarrhea is a very common symptom of the disease and that it spreads like wildfire in nursing homes, which are rife with incontinence.
Butt plugs as the solution? Perhaps for quick visits to a grocery store and the like. Diapers that filter the air more effectively and can be sealed to the waists and legs is another. Or how about a tube stuck up the anus that treats your intestinal wind with UVA as it exits? Thank you, Mr. Trump.
Thanks as ever. Glad to hear you are improving.
As someone who has lived in both Southern and Northern Europe I disagree. The inferiority complex, if any, is misplaced and is only related to the economy, and to a better social organization in the North. Not to the way of living, culture, the coldness of the people, or anything else really.
Northern and Southern Europe are like yin and yang. They complement each other. The weaknesses of one are the strengths of the other.
(I can’t say anything about Eastern Europe or the Balkans as I have little knowledge of the region).
To make assumptions about Mr. Cassavettes personal life is foolish. No one knows what goes on between two people. She gave him three children and stayed with him until his death. It seems to me a much better relationship than any I’ve heard of in Hollywood.
And speaking of Hollywood, I wonder if Cassavettes was dragged down by the bad energy of that place and in particular by his acting in that movie, Rosemary’s Baby.
Accolades my ass. We won’t settle for anything less than the Nobel Prize!
I wonder if Cassavettes was dragged down by the bad energy of working in Hollywood and in particular by his acting in that movie, Rosemary’s Baby.
It is extremely common for Hollywood actors to be alcoholic or drug addicts or sex perverts or commit suicide, which is strange when you think of the luxurious life that many of them lead.
Also Mia Farrow seems to have been badly affected by her role in that movie, or maybe that was just the relationship with Woody Allen…
Rosemary’s Baby is a good movie but clearly too close to the truth of Hollywood for comfort… Also Chinatown is a very depressive movie about Los Angeles… Polanski mostly made only satanic (satanist?) movies, I think… I don’t remember any director who dabbled so much with evil… Both in his movies, and in his personal life.
As much as I ‘despise’ Polanski and his ilk Chinatown is one of my favorites, Film Noir in color and Jack Nicholson was great in it.
Women are always beautiful.
We got uglier.
Rowlands doens’t look to me like real blonde.
I’d guess they were both bottle-dependent.
Real blondes are not “bimbos,” BTW. But there are very few of them in H’wood.
Indeed, I ‘d love to see a list of all of the female H’wood stars or even would-be stars who were real blondes.
As for the men, Alan Ladd was probably the only one, and even that is not 100%. He may also have hit the bleach bottle.
In Dune, Baron Harkonnen mandated ‘Heart Plugs” for all his slave boys on Geidi Prime. He would unplug his victims and let them bleed out and die while playing out a weird demented sex ritual.
A Rachel Levine ‘ButtPlug’ is what happens when a illegitimate regime is so full of it, they “ManDate” a “ButtPlug” for everyone to reduce global warming while wondering why humanity is dying from constipation.
Brilliant piece. The notion of butt plugs for covid is as good as any other idea.
We’ll have to get Trevor Lynch to give us the low-down on the Heart Plugs!
Linh keep up the good work. And go to Prague if you can.
Wtf? Not even close. Kirk Douglas was a natural blond and was way blonder than that dude. Paul Newman, Robert Redford, James Dean, etc.
I’m glad to hear you’re much better.
Having been crippled by an ankle injury for over two weeks that refuses to get any better despite multiple treatments, to the extent that walking to my kitchen and bathroom is an expedition (whereas I used to jog kilometres every morning until just 16 days ago), you give me hope that it’ll get better for me too.
A department of government has to be created to ensure that they are not Evil Russian Regime Manufactured Butt Plugs.
Corona in Tirana. Sounds like a B martial arts movie. I am glad you are on your way to recovery, Linh.
The sun.
The masculine source.
The spirit.
It protects us from Covid.
These gay times are lit from below by screen light, by screen lies.
The sun changes climate.
It determines it, it is the determiner.
It is nothing to fear.
It is the antidote to fear.
Our world is built on sunlight.
Energy saved and energy spent.
Energy that makes empires and that which pays the rent,
For money is stored energy.
Matter is but energy condensed.
Breathe in the sunlight, the courage, the White Light,
(and remember : white is all the colours combined and the rainbow but a refraction).
Breathe while you can,
for “I can’t breathe” fast become the words of our times.
George doped himself and was sat upon,
Just like most of us.
What killed George ?
I would suggest that it was the cult of the black orb,
the cult of the black cube,
of Saturn.
They want to black out the sun,
so breathe in the courage.
Yesterday, in one of those synchronicity events that seem to happen more often than they should, a girl nearby in Kiev sent me this photo. 🙂
You’re not going to tell us that she’s your house -cleaner?
“A blonde bimbo will never get the respect of a Greek man’s mother – that is all you need to know.”
But does the Greek mother secretly wish to be that blonde? I guess we’ll never know!
My introduction to John Cassavetes was in the late ’50s TV melodrama “Johnny Staccato,” which was too violent, too Jazzy, and too “Beat” to get much airtime in my conservative Catholic household, where the adults usually had the set tuned to “The Real McCoys” on Thursday evenings in that time slot.
But I was on the go already from the time I was 11 when scouting and Biddy basketball and other activities gave me ample opportunity to watch some of the forbidden fare while visiting friends, especially a very good pal in the neighborhood whose engineer dad had finished their basement into a den with a 2nd TV – a real “kid cave,” if you will – and I often went over there to watch Rocky and Bullwinkle, baseball games, and other stuff I didn’t always get to watch at home, like JS, where Cassavates’ attempts to be cool just made us laugh.
Well, the photograph of Cassavetes and Rowlands appears to be a publicity still taken from an episode of JS titled “Fly Baby Fly.” She has a pretty face, but thick fingers and rather beefy-looking hands. He was slightly disfigured by acne scars, and I never thought he was a likable dude at all, especially when compared to the other noir TV private dick of the
daynight – suave, handsome, and relaxed Craig Stephens from Liberty, Missouri starring as “Peter Gunn.”Thanks to the miracle of this Internet Thingy, I will now usher you into my pal’s basement with the portable 17″ boob tube of days gone by, where you may choose to sit through the entire episode of “Fly Baby Fly,” or you may decide to “cut” after just a few minutes of monologue from the very cool cat John Staccato, who in the episodes’s opening segment shows off his awesome acting ability by muttering these memorable lines with a fag hanging out of the side of his mouth while fingering the 88s at Waldos,
Sometimes he chews gum with a fag hanging out of the side of his mouth even while donning his jacket and stuffing a revolver into his waistband…I mean, acting, making believe, and/or pretending like that is hard, and yeah, you’d have to be at least half-drunk to even mouth those cheesy lines in the script, but don’t take my word for it:
Video Link
And she was lucky for it… I wish I had been taught Greek so that all the classical authors I read could have been read in Greek rather than in English in as much as I enjoyed reading them.
Lucky you 🙂
Do you live in Ukraine? Or Hungary, Romania or Poland?
She looks like a Ukrainian whore.
I wrote: “Beta Sex Kitten alters have to do with dressing like wildcat, often tiger, leopard, or lion.”
When Kagan and McCain were passing out cookies at Maidan in 2014, I believe they were laced with mind control agents. I believe all if Ukraine, likely all of Europe and the US are under mind control. If my thesis is true, them your “nearby” friend may well be a beta sex kitten, or as they are often referred to as, a Ukrainian whore.
She looks like a Ukrainian whore.
How do you know that? Is she similar to your mother?
Lucky you 🙂
Thank you. But it is a bit premature. I have yet to meet her. All the obvious meeting places – cafés and restaurants – are closed at present. The metro is only for “necessary” workers. Today, my cleaning lady came by taxi.
It is a sad reality that collapsed economies offer good pickings.
I remember when Iranian families were demanding massive dowries for their daughters (1978). But when they lost 500,000 young men in the Iraq-Iran war a bit later, this market collapsed. With the ongoing collapse in the USA and the West, pretty girls will become desperate. There will be few eligible young men.
I just checked, peace in Iran has pushed up the price once more. 🙂
In Iran, grooms to escape jail over dowry debts (2015)
Thanks for that! What a great period piece, even smoking on the airplane.
It looks to me like Rowlands could well have been a beta sex kitten, and that Cassavetes could have been her handler. Even today, all these sex kittens like Spears, Gaga and Cyrus have a handler hovering nearby. Even Greta has a lesbo handler who is always right by her side…
Come on, you know he’s right. To me, it looks as a scam. Like one of those fake profiles in Ukrainian mail-bride sites. It’s probably a fake picture. And if it isn’t, she’s a gold-digger guaranteed. Be careful.
I just watched that episode…not half bad! And Miss Rowlands — ooh la la!!!
And if it isn’t, she’s a gold-digger guaranteed. Be careful.
Thank you Dumbo for your concern. 🙂
I think that old men are also entitled to make foolish mistakes. That is what makes life more interesting and fun.
I may have given the wrong impression. There are more than 6 girls on my current short-list. The one in the photo happened to have sent me the leopard top photo that morning. When I saw the photo of Gena Rowlands, an association was triggered. I thought it was quite a coincidence. That is all.
During the Yeltsin era, I lost a fortune in the Norwegian legal system while trying to get access to my son. The case went to their Supreme Court. I was accused of kidnapping him. A serious business. That put me off women from the West for good. I placed an advert in a Russian marriage magazine. I met the girl who became my wife in Moscow. She is a good-looking GP in Australia at present. We were together for 18 years – not a bad innings IMHO.
The “market” is fickle. I think that in a few years there will be flood of guys like me moving to Russia. The West has gone tyrannical. At the same time, the pretty Slavic girls will find out that Hollywood misled them.
Below is another girl on the list. She sent me the photo last weekend. She won the Green Card Lottery. She has been in Boston for around a year. Working in real estate. She is thinking of returning to Russia – hence her interest in me. She has difficulty connecting emotionally with American guys. She can see that the USA is in a mess.
Yeah he was soooooooooo “dark”:
I didn’t know Fred Reed had such horrible eye injuries in Vietnam or was able to relate his operations in such detail.. Geez. Horrible. I see him in a new light, no pun intended.
Even if you believe the vaccines are benign and basically effective, you should under no circumstance take a vaccine if you have already had the virus.
Dear “Dimples,”
Speaking of “lives” and “getting one”…
Have you considered that anyone with the time to cultivate a spitefulness deep enough to…I don’t know…lurk in a column’s comment section for the sole purpose of criticizing the author on such a banal point might–maybe–be the PERFECT candidate to take the advice you’re giving?
In other words: Dicks. You’re a bag of them. 😀
Have a nice day!
You’re welcome.
Cindy