The Writer's Life 3/5 - Passing of a Legend

RIP Roger Bannister, 88, who in 1954 did what many believed couldn't be done - crack the four-minute mark in the mile run. He did it in 3:59:04. At the time he was a medical student at Oxford. He went on to a career in neurology. Well done, sir. Since then, the record time has fallen to a point no one would ever have dreamed of in Bannister's heyday. Hicham El Guerrouj, a Moroccan, is the current men's record holder with a time of 3:43:13, set in 1999. Svetlana Masterkova of Russia holds the women's record of 4:12:56, accomplished in 1996. Since 1976 the mile has been the only non-metric distance recognized by the IAAF for record purposes. Will anyone break those marks? I wouldn't bet against it, especially the women's. Here's the iconic photo of Bannister crossing the finish line:

Last night Movies!, 113 on Cablevision in NYC, ran Peter Bogdanovich's Paper Moon (1993), which starred Ryan O'Neill as a con man and his then nine-year-old daughter Tatum as an orphan who comes under his care. I always sniffed at O'Neill's talent, a sentiment probably aroused by envy of his good looks and jealousy of his success. The repartee between father and daughter in the film is impressive, even astounding. Another interesting aspect of the flick is the appearance of P.J. Johnson, who plays a 15-year-old sold by her impoverished mom to be the valet of a loose white woman, played by the late, great Madeline Kahn. She has only three credits listed at IMDb, in another Bogdanovich film and in one episode of the Paper Moon TV series starring Christopher Connelly and Jodie Foster, which was canceled after 13 episodes. I googled her name and found nothing more than what has already been stated here. What the heck has happened to her? Here's a picture of how she appeared in the movie:

Although I'm not an avid photographer, I'm enjoying taking pictures with the camera one of my nieces gave me for Christmas. Three years ago a friend helped me put together a shot of what at the time was my six books. Since there are now nine, I decided a new pic was in order. If it looks good, I'll use it at my Facebook author page:

I took the show to Bay Parkway today, hoping to see two regular customers for whom I have books I thought would interest them. One showed and bought two hardcover thrillers by Vince Flynn. My thanks, and also to the young man who wanted something easy that would help him improve his English. I suggested Eye Candy by R.L. Stine, and he bit. Special thanks to the woman who bought eight books in Russian, seven hardcovers that had similar coloring and a paperback of what I had correctly assumed was by Vladimir Nabokov.

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