Selling My Books on the Streets of Brooklyn 4/1 - Good News

We had our Easter gathering at the house of my youngest niece, Sandra, in South Jersey. Of course, I ate too much. I had too many of the tomato and mozzarella appetizers, but I was still able to scoff down turkey, lamb and all the fixings, not to mention dessert -- slivers of apple pie and chocolate cake, a cupcake and a scoop of vanilla ice cream. And there was good news on the family front. My oldest niece, Isabella, has not smoked since February 16th, although she was dying for a butt after dinner yesterday. Sandra is the only smoker left in the immediate family. My great-nephew Ronnie has received his probationary driver’s license and drives himself and his sister Danielle to school each day. I couldn’t resist warning him not to text while driving. He’s doing well in school, getting straight A’s. He has eschewed baseball for golf and is a member of his high school’s team. He shot 51 in its latest match, which covers nine holes. He played a gig last month with his dad’s blue grass band and earned a hundred bucks. Danielle is chillin’ now that basketball season is done. Everything was great until the ride home. It was pouring and traffic was not kind, especially on the Staten Island pseudo-Expressway. My hip was howling by the time I dropped the crew off and got home. Fortunately the pain was almost entirely gone this morning, even though I’d refrained from Ibuprofen.

The other night Antenna-TV, channel 114 on Cablevision in NYC, ran a Matt Helm festival, showing all four films of the series. Although based on a serious literary figure created by Donald Hamilton, Hollywood translated it into breezy diversion without an iota of believability, capitalizing on the James Bond craze. Dean Martin was perfectly cast amid the bevy of beauties in the supporting roles. I watched the first, The Silencers (1966), which I hadn’t seen in decades. I actually remembered two of its best lines, one spoken by Israeli beauty Daliah Lavi, who, as Deano opens a gun closet, asks if the house was designed by Smith & Wesson. The late Victor Buono, made to look Chinese, plays the villain. As things are going bad and an underling fouls up, he says, in a foppish tone: “You stupid man!” My buddy Dom and I said this to each other many times for months after catching the flick at the Loew's Oriental. The film also features Stella Stevens, dancer Cyd Charisse and Nancy Kovack. Lavi and Kovack have interesting histories. Lavi has only 33 credits at IMDb. She quit acting to serve in the Israeli military. In the 70’s she became a singing star in Germany. Kovack graduated from the University of Michigan at 19! She has 52 credits listed. Trekkies no doubt remember her appearance on the original Star Trek. She is married to world renowned maestro Zubin Mehta. Here are pictures of these amazing women:

My thanks to three of my regulars: Lev, Susan and Mrs. Eclectic, who all bought books today. Business has been so good the last week that I'm running low on the most commercial of my wares.
Vic's Third Novel (Print or Kindle): http://tinyurl.com/7e9jty3
Vic's Website: http://members.tripod.com/vic_fortezza/Literature/
Vic's Short Story Collection (Print or Kindle): http://www.tiny.cc/Oycgb
Vic's 2nd Novel: http://tinyurl.com/6b86st6
Vic's 1st Novel: http://tiny.cc/94t5h
Vic's Screenplay on Kindle: http://tinyurl.com/cyckn3