Swithin

I forgot to mention The Trail of the Lonesome Pine (1936). First outdoor technicolor film, great cast, and one of Beulah Bondi's best performances.

We were so isolated, for centuries, and that bred fear and insularity. And suddenly, we weren't so isolated anymore, and that bred more fear. That's why I think it's a terrible thing to home school a child.

The Light that Failed (1939) The Egyptian (1954) The Creeper (1948) ...plus everything that Prince Saliano requested.

You make a good point, Slaytonf, but the discussion certainly turned to a discussion of gun control in the very town where the tragedy took place. There was indeed a moment of silence, and like all moments of silence, the silence ends and the discussion begins. And not all these topics are totally unrelated -- gun control, climate change, etc. There is a streak in our collective psyche that seems to fear these concepts. I'm reminded of my favorite Sherlock Holmes film -- The Scarlet Claw -- with Miles Mander sitting inside his house, clutching his gun, in terror.

Remember Galileo, Pasteur, and so many other scientists who were ridiculed, or even threatened as heretical. Are the people who won't accept global warming today akin to those who thought Pasteur was crazy because of his theory of germs? If it hadn't been for Pasteur, the belief and understanding of microbes would have taken years, and then still have been criticized by sceptics. And Paul Muni may never have won an Oscar!

This just in from The New York Times: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/24/science/earth/west-antarctica-warming-faster-than-thought-study-finds.html?_r=0 I don't understand why some people are so dead set against the concept and possibility of the threat of global warming. And they seem to be the same people who are terrified of alot of science, e.g. evolution, etc.

Just noticed Fitzwilly has a little black space above and below the image, so I assume that's correct for its ratio. Looks great! Btw, someone at TCM is on their toes: the current scene takes place two nights before Christmas.

I have a pretty new big screen. Only HD channels fill my screen, although of course certain aspect ratios will be letterboxed to various degrees. No SD channels fill the screen horizontally, unless I choose one of the alternate options on the TV remote: Wide Zoom, Full (which is the default), H Stretch, Zoom. Apart from Full, the others do distort the image, though Zoom does so the least. I was watching a DVD of The Horseman on the Roof last night with guests, and they preferred the Zoom option. But to answer your question, SD channels leave black space on boths sides.

Yes, Mr6666. I was about to add a hint, saying, You and I aren't Green Goddess, or something like that! Your thread.

Well, it fills my whole screen, which regular TCM doesn't. And it seems to do it without messing around with the aspect ratio. So that's something.

I was down in the gym, in the basement of my apartment building, watching "Law & Order" on USA Network from the treadmill. There was a commercial for TCM -- the Essentials with Drew Barrymore. Then, the magic words flashed across the screen from RCN, my cable company: *"TCM in HD on Channel 592!"* The gym cable is only basic and didn't have it, but when I got upstairs, sure enough, it's there, and practically the first HD scene I saw was from Fitzwilly, set in my favorite old NYC department store: B Altman's, which I sorely miss. Don't know how long I've had TCM in HD! But thanks to RCN and TCM!

There has always been a paranoic strain in our tradition. I think it comes partly from our one-time isolation, and the loss of that isolation. I think it still resides in smaller, more rural communities, rather than in large cities where there is more interaction -- a generalization, I know, but I think there is truth in it. Think of how such simple improvements as water flouridation were met with suspician. Think of how there are still mothers who are terrified of having their children vaccinated. Think of the terror some feel of the United Nations, God forbid they may appropriate some of our sovereignty! These things feed into the minds of certain individuals. Anything that is new or different is threatening. A little slight can be seen as a cosmic threat to our society. I think we are developing a better sense of America as part of the wider world, but in some corners of our country, particularly, suspician lurks. An issue that I don't believe has been discussed much related to last week's tragedy is the fact that Lanza was home schooled for a while. There may have been extenuating circumstances, but I do not believe that is a good way to integrate children into society.

You and I aren't vinaigrette.

Thanks, Lavender, And Happy Holidays to you and yours, as well! Back with a clue when I'm more fully awake!

Breathless

Or as the narrator (Michael MacLiammoir) recites at the end of *Tom Jones* : "Happy the man, and happy he alone; He who can call today his own. He who secure within can say... Tomorrow do thy worst, for I have lived today!"

One of my favorite comments made by Vincent Sherman in his interview on the DVD (I think it's the interview, not the audio track), is when he talks about need a lab-like setting. You know, like in all those horror films, those elaborate interconnected tubes, bubbling liquids, wires, etc., that look like they were so seriously thought out by the director for the mad scientist. Sherman was asked by the interviewer if he researched how to construct that lab; he responded by saying something like: "No, I just called up the prop man and said, bring me a bunch of stuff, I have to bring a rabbit back to life!"

You point up what I should have known with my own analogies -- that there are no perfect analogies! Problems have to be addressed in a variety of ways. But FYI is a temple in India where rats are worshipped:

Maybe the way to look at this is in the context of illness. We can minimize lung cancer if we don't smoke; we can minimize heart issues with good diet and exercise. But those good things we can do are not "solutions," they can just decrease our risk. Alot of other issues are at play. I think it's the same with social ills, like murder, etc. There are no "solutions," but there are measures that can be taken to decrease the volume of incidents.

I agree with you you, Sepia, that there's no easy solution. But there is an illogical way of arguing these days that says, if a proposed solution to a problem doesn't fix the problem 100%, don't do it. That of course is ridiculous. That's the argument of the people who don't want any further controls. By entending their faulty logic, one might say, don't have any laws that prohibit murder, or robbery, because those things will still take place, even with laws and controls against them.

That's it, Mr6666. Your thread.

Sorry, no, Gipper, but you got the first part of the clue! (I guess you need to know where I live to get the second part).

Please don't knock *The Return of Dr. X*, and Bogey's performance in it. It's a pretty good film. And Bogart's entrance -- with that white rabbit -- is one of the great entrances in any movie, ever! The DVD has an interesting interview with the film's director, Vincent Sherman.

Fred or Ginger's character atop a stream two blocks from my apartment.

I don't consider myself a particularly optimistic person, but as I listened and watched the debate over the past few days -- and especially late today on television -- I began to feel that something big, something important was happening, and that there will be some change for the better. And to those (and there are always those) who think that nothing can be done, and there will be not one whit of improvement, the following words from my youth crept into my mind: