30 manhole covers have gone missing in NYC. Authorities assume they are being sold as scrap metal. Some weigh as much as 300 pounds, which would yield $30. Given what some potholes will do to a car, imagine what driving over an open manhole will do. This is not a good trend.
According to a report on the Mother Nature Network, vegetarians have a 39% greater risk of colorectal cancer than meat eaters. This falls into the category of "It's always something." The overall cancer rate of vegetarians is lower, however. The report suggests people become Flexitarians, that is, eat meat occasionally. I pretty much fall into this category. I don't eat a lot of fresh fruit and vegetables. I prefer soup, pasta and cereal. I have pizza, two slices, once a week, ditto hot dog buns from the Chinese bakery. I had a yen for a small cup of ice cream this morning at the supermarket - and passed. The last time I had trail mix, a month ago, my hemorrhoids were howling. Getting older is not fun.
Mother Nature cooperated with the floating bookshop today. An older gentleman got me off to an immediate good start, purchasing four DVDs, a great deal. Amongst them were an Errol Flynn set of five that included Objective Burma (1945), and Reunion in France, released on Christmas Day in 1942, starring John Wayne and Joan Crawford, a film I did not know, rated 6.1 out of ten at IMDb. Even the 84-year-old veteran, a big movie fan, was unfamiliar with it. I offered him his pick of the films to repay him for his many books donations, and he selected a double feature of Mario Lanza. I also sold thrillers by Richard North Patterson, Jeffrey Deaver, John Grisham and Vince Flynn, the latter to a young woman who may give birth any minute. And just before I left, a young home attendant with a beautiful smile purchased Pierre Boulle's Planet of the Apes (1963) for her ten-year-old son, who recently said: "Mommy, did you know we come from apes?" Every time I hear that title I hearken back to a get together at the house of a family friend. The movie was being aired on TV and Giulio, may he rest in peace, said in his thick accent to one of his three sons, who was leaving the room: "Don't you want to watch Planet of the Ape-ez." I almost bust a gut restraining laughter so as not to insult that dear man. My sister pronounces it the same way.
Thanks, folks.
Read Vic's stories, free: http://members.tripod.com/vic_fortezza/Literature/
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