Monday, January 24, 2011

The Lady from Shanghai

Wherever you go, the absolute number of crazy people I think remains pretty constant. It’s just that you’re unlikely to see much of them during the day. They’re diluted by all the normal stuff going on about them. They blend in well enough on a crowded streetcar or a busy street, but as the normal people disperse to their normal lives, so increases the proportion of crazy . . . riding the last subway home on a Monday night, sorting through the remainder bins on the third floor of Sam the Record Man, watching an Orson Welles double bill at the Nostalgic Theatre.
And sure, I might very well have taken her seat, but that’s where we’d been sitting all afternoon, through A Touch of Evil and now waiting for the start of The Lady from Shanghai. Even so, there were plenty of good seats left, but she was determined to sit next to me, right next to the perfect seat I’d taken from her, flicking angry bits of popcorn from her fingers all through the film, squirming and scheming, waiting for the final credits, waiting to grab her coat and dump her drink in my lap on her way out the door.

18 comments:

  1. Published to Sunday Scribblings #301—Normal.

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  2. Wow, i just realize that is Orson Wells and a movie name. I thought he was a person everyone was using as well a quote. sorry, i can be dumb.
    Thanks for the throwback.:)

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  3. your totally right about crazy people. just seems like there are more on the internet ;)

    prediction is hard especially about the future yogi berra

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  4. Let me help you brush those bits of popcorn off your shirt...

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    Replies
    1. Now that's a sort of crazy I wouldn't mind so much.

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  5. well now...you are in trouble...and the crazy people they do tend to blend in...until you get them alone...

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  6. We're a little crazy in our own way... mwahaha

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  7. There's often a whole lot of fun in being a bit crazy!

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  8. I think I’ve met people like that in the school staffroom! I enjoyed this.

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  9. Very nice scenario...I can smell the popcorn here (my daughter is actually eating one right now) Smiles ~

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  10. Similar to one of my pet peeves at theaters - the theater is empty so the person decides to sit immediately in front of me blocking the screen - and if it's a woman, reeking of perfume! lol

    Leslie
    abcw team

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  11. Tess has the right idea...
    ROG, ABC Wednesday team

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  12. Good post for L day. Carver, ABC Wed. Team

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  13. Speaking as a clinically identified crazy person (!), I can understand your dilemma! Having said that, just watched "Kane" for the umpeenth time... "Touch of Evil" has Welles presaging his later actual corpulence. And Rita Hayworth... Marguerita Cansino, is one of the screen's great (but ethnically hidden) Latinas! Great double bill.

    Now, about the lady with the noxious perfume who ruined "The King's Speech" for me... I swear, I'm a magnet for my own kind!! Amy

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