Brilliant

"The silliest woman can manage a clever man, but it needs a very clever woman to manage a fool."  How perfect.  This was coined by Rudyard Kipling, the brilliant Bombay-born writer, 1865 to 1936.  Wondering what other splendid bon mots he uttered, I googled his witticisms.  Here are a few more:

"God could not be everywhere and therefore he made mothers.

 

"A woman's guess is much more accurate than a man's certainty.

 

"A woman is only a woman, but a good cigar is a smoke.

 

"An ounce of mother is worth a pound of clergy.

 

"I have struck a city -- a real city -- and they call it Chicago....I urgently desire never to see it again.  It is inhabited by savages.

 

"Asia is not going to be civilized by the methods of the West.  There is too much Asia and she is too old.

 

"It is clever, but is it Art?

 

"Words are, of course, the most powerful drug used by man."

 

 

They just don't make 'em like that anymore.

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Note:  Writing about writing, here's an expression that has gone viral and which I hate:  "going forward".  What does that mean?  For example, "Those are a few of the measures we'll be implementing to improve service........going forward."  You don't need the "going forward" part.  Just put a period after "service".  Start listening, you'll hear it everywhere.  Drives me crazy -- almost as much as "is-is" and "was-is".      

Takes a lot of you-know-whats

They steal planes from under the noses of owners who have not met their financial obligations.  These guys are absolutely, totally and completely cool.  'Airplane Repo' is the show and I am hooked.  The suspense is unbelievable, as these guys case an airport, find the hangar and grab the plane -- all the while being chased by security, owners and police. 

Up, up and away.  They're off to collect paycheques anywhere from $15,000 to $200,000, depending on the value of the bounty.  And sexy.  These guys ooze it simply because of the nerve they have.  No one is particularly good-looking, but that is never what sex appeal is about.  It's all about courage and nerve -- oh yeah, and brains. 

Love this show.  Here are the coolest guys around:

    

So annoying

If I have to look at one more grimace from Tom Selleck on 'Blue Bloods' I'm gonna scream.  Never having watched it in the past, I now occasionally do and am growing increasingly annoyed with Selleck's facial expressions -- or should I say "expression" because he has only the one. 

The guy never cracks a real smile, just sort emits a teeth-clenching grimace in reaction to all the weighty and serious issues he confronts in an hour as NYC police commissioner.  Then he stares meaningfully into space for a while, pondering the gravity of what just took place -- be it a turkey dinner or a murderous rampage -- as the scene fades to commercial. 

All so annoying.  The other thing that has always bugged me are Selleck's suits.  What police commissioner is that precious that he wears $2,000-dollar three-piece suits you might oogle in GQ?  These guys are usually tough as nails and wear garments that reflect it. 

Moving on to other stuff, the casting of Len Cariou as the father is completely ludicrous.  Not only is he a terrible actor (yes, he's Canadian, unfortunately), he's not credible in other ways -- such as his age.  I always thought there was something wrong with him as Selleck's father.  Turns out there is.  He's only six years older than the guy who plays his son.  Man, talk about child marriages!

I guess I watch to see what other annoying quirks will emerge.  One thing's for sure:  no one's as in love with his wife in real life as Wahlberg is with his on the show.  Just does not ring true.  Detectives under that kind of pressure usually behave like Harvey Keitel in 'Bad Lieutenant'.  Really, really badly.    

  

Man, were we stupid

With only a three-foot guardrail between us and the racing cars, we'd pitch a tent and proceed to crack open the beer.  This was in Mossport, where Formula One, Two and Three zoomed and screamed. 

It all came back to me this evening as I enjoyed 'Rush', the movie about James Hunt and Niki Lauda, directed by Ron Howard.  What a great movie -- especially if you had actually been there in the pits, smelling the gas and oil and thrilling to the high and delicious snarl of those engines as they screeched and took off.  What were we thinking?  Camping right beside the track, vulnerable to.....whatever?!  But we were invincible.  That's what your twenties do for you.   

It was either Mossport or St. Jovite, those were the Canadian racetracks that featured the biggest and fastest drivers and cars in the world.  Back in the early '70s, safety was....who cares?  It was speed, speed and speed.  Those weekends were crazy.  And peeling out on Sunday afternoon?  Every guy thought he was Jackie Stewart, turning the 401 into a ridiculous death ride.  Seriously. 

But I survived.  James Hunt died at 45 of a heart attack.  Lived fast, died young.  Niki Lauda is still going strong and fathering children.  But Hunt had the most fun, if the movie does him credit, which I believe it does.  Wine, wine, wine, women, women, women and song, song, song. 

Why else would you risk your life?         

More on booze, slut-dressing and rape

"Don't get drunk.  Don't binge-drink to the point where you pass out -- especially if you're with a bunch of men who are drinking too."  That's the always-sage -- but not politically-correct -- advice of Globe and Mail columnist, Margaret Wente. 

T'was ever thus.  Get drunk, lose the inhibitions and have sex.  University frollicking back in the sixties, when I was there, was full of incidents like this -- not that they necessarily happened to me, but they happened.  All the time.  To lots of girls.  We knew which parties and which guys to avoid because we knew what might befall us.  If we wanted that sort of evening, we went; if we didn't, we didn't  But don't ever tell a feminist the girl played any part in her sexual "assault".

"These people are so invested in the victim narrative they don't believe young women have a legitimate responsibility for what happens because they fail to protect themselves."  Wente adds.  Such women also ignore the obvious, that alcohol disinhibits both men and women.  "It impairs their judgment, sometimes ruinously, and makes it harder for people to get out of situations they'd rather not be in."

Couldn't agree more.  She points out that rape culture never blames sexual assault on booze culture; it's always the man's fault.  But obviously blotto boozing and sexual impropriety go hand-in-hand for both men and women.  Always have. 

Which brings me back to "slut-dressing".  There's a reason Amish, Mennonite and Muslim women cover themselves.  It's sexual.  North American women expose themselves -- often excessively -- and then wonder why men hit on them?  As my readers know, I heartily disagree with undue covering because it demeans and degrades women.  But I also don't agree with letting breasts fall out and derrieres flash.  That too is demeaning and degrading.

It's all about behaving reasonably, protecting and respecting yourself. 

         

She looked so damn good

I was in grade 10 when I saw the movie.  'Lover Come Back' was one of a series of romantic comedies starring Rock and Doris -- Obviously, we don't need last names. 

It was 1961 and Doris was 37, Rock 36.  Both absolutely gorgeous.  She looks as if she were in her early thirties, but that's probably because she insisted in all her movies that the camera be smeared lightly with Vaseline to hide her wrinkles.  Did you know that?  Brilliant.  What a body.  Stunning.  The hair?  Not so much, it was blonde/white and sprayed to death into a concrete helmut.  Rock died at 59 of AIDS, but good old Doris is still hanging in there at 91. 

Speaking of movies, watched a classic last evening, 'Separate Tables', starring David Niven, Deborah Kerr, Burt Lancaster, Rita Hayworth, Rod Taylor and Wendy Hiller.  What a cast and what a great movie, although very dated today, given the sympathy the David Niven character is accorded for sexually assaulting a teenaged girl in a movie theater.

Rita was 40 when she made the film and was considered "over-the-hill".  G-d, what does that make me?!  Way over, down the road and out of sight.  Nevermind, Rita was still absolutely gorgeous.   

Forget the Sisterhood

"It's dead," writes Margaret Wente in the Globe and Mail today.  Yes folks, the Sisterhood is definitely dead.  Why?  Because it didn't do anything for women except make them envious of men.  And, by the way, none of the "sisters" morphed into men.  They simply created a pathetic ghetto and stayed in it.

Wente was writing about the "alpha woman", elite, highly-educated, independent and closing in on the heels of -- or passing -- the most successful men anywhere.  In fact, this class of woman has pretty much surpassed your average guy and has definitely pulled ahead of any "sister" you'd care to mention.  In this class are women such as Hillary Clinton and Beverley McLachlin -- and many other less-famous characters in all walks of life.  "Alpha females make up 15 - 20 percent of women in the developed world, enough to exert a lot of clout.  Every field is open to them.  But the world hasn't evolved as feminists foresaw.  These woman have far more in common with alpha men that they do with the other 80 or 85 percent of the female population," says Wente. 

She's right, of course.  I have never bought into the "sisterhood".  I have always competed with men.  I often won.  But was I any less a wife and mother?  Absolutely not.  I take great pride in both those roles.  Apparently, alpha women are dedicated women who...."do everything to make sure their children have the same opportunities they've had".  They are also intensive, super-conscientious parents who invest huge time and resources in their children.  Yes we do. 

"People wonder why alpha women don't choose to marry househusbands.  The answer is simple:  Women don't like to marry down.  Successful women want men who are as high(ly)-achieving as they, especially as fathers of their children.  The truth is that no matter how open-minded we think we are, most of us secretly regard men without paid work as slackers."

I have news for Wente, alpha women also regard women without paid work as slackers.

"Less-educated women are still more likely to drop out of work when they have their kids and after that, they'd rather work part time.  They're far more likely to have children out-of-wedlock and be divorced.  Alpha women stay in school longer, marry later, postpone kids until they're over 30 and don't stop working when they become mothers.  Even so, they spend more time with their kids than less-educated mothers."

Hear, hear.  Hurrah for the alpha woman.