Wednesday, January 24, 2018

Long Day's Journey Into Work

Today was my 8-hour work shift. It was more boring than anything else. It's a good thing the bathrooms weren't really that bad this morning when I looked at them. They're working on repairing the leaking spigots for the mop buckets in the back storage area, which means no one up front can mop anything. I did do the carts early in the morning, but there was no need after the late morning and early afternoon baggers arrived. Otherwise, I gathered inside trash and baskets, bagged, did returns, and cleaned up that leak over by the chips display twice. (Finally told two managers about that leak. Hopefully, someone will do something about it very soon.)

Headed home as soon as I got out. Turned the last of my leftover black bean dip into Black Bean Wraps with green beans. Ran two episodes of Good Eats on winter vegetables while I ate. Brussels sprouts are a bit more common now than they were when "A Cabbage Sprouts in Brussels" debuted. People have since figured out how to use their savory bite in everything from slaw to grilled skewers. "Celeryman" shows how versatile the common rib is, with celery tonics made from its seeds and mashed celery root. I've tried the braised celery before in the winter when I didn't have too many other vegetable options, and it was delicious.

Had time to begin my next story after dinner. Since I did three Sequel Trilogy-based stories in a row, I opted to return to the Original Trilogy with Thumbe-Leia. Bail and Breha Organa long for a child more than anything else in the world, but Breha is barren. One night, a mysterious old man turns up, cold and tired. Breha offers him a cup of tea. In return, he gives them a seed that will make their fondest wish come true. Indeed, when the seed sprouts and the flower opens, it reveals a tiny young woman, no bigger than their thumbs. They name her Leia and take her into their home as their daughter.

Ended the night with Golden Boy. William Holden made his film debut as Joe Bonaparte, who gives up a promising career as a violinist to become a boxer. As in the musical, he falls in with a bad crowd and falls in love with his manager's girl Lorna (Barbara Stanwyck). Lorna originally stood by his decision, but once she realizes that Joe's no longer the man she fell in love with, she begs him to return to music. He's overwhelmed by the money and fame pouring in and ignores her, especially since she's engaged to Tom (Adolphe Menjou).His father (Lee J. Cobb) tries as well. It takes a tragedy in the ring and damage to his hands to make Joe rethink his life and what he wants to do with it.

Like Love Story, this is pure, unabashed melodrama. Unfortunately, it cut the tragic ending, which leaves things a bit ambiguous. I also think Joe switched way too quickly from "I'm devoted to music and wouldn't touch boxing" to "I'm devoted to boxing and can't go back to music." Almost every Italian in this movie but Joe is either a New York stereotype or an Italian immigrant stereotype (Cobb's rather bad accent) or both, which dates it rather badly.

Fans of boxing or romantic drama will probably get a lot more out of this than I did. Not horrible, but not something I'm going to return to, either. (Bit surprised to see this was directed by Rouben Mamoulien - I didn't catch a lot of his signature style.)

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