The Writer's Life 7/8 - By the Numbers

Here are interesting facts that were posted on the Facebook feed of an old St. Mary's classmate of mine: "Since 1968, six out of seven Supreme Court nominees that failed were nominated by Republican presidents. The one Democrat was never voted on. Of the current members since 1968, the average vote tally for successful nomination show that Democratic nominees passed on average 78 to 20, while successful Republican candidates were confirmed by an average of 54 to 45." The numbers are not surprising. Although Republicans are not remotely faultless, at least an overwhelming majority have accepted that the naming of justices is the president's prerogative. Bi-partisanship has always tilted way left, and this issue manifests it. Thanks, John.

Last night PBS in NYC ran Alfred Hitchcock's kooky, fun ride - North by Northwest (1959) on its Cinema Thirteen program. Despite having seen it  many times, it'd never occurred to me to research one of its many quirks. Jessie Royce Landis plays Cary Grant's mom. According to the bios of each at IMDb, she was born in 1896, Grant in 1886. That's the magic of movies. A native of Chicago, Landis is more famous for her work on the stage, especially in London. She has only 41 titles listed under her name at IMDb. She played Grace Kelly's mom in another Hitchcock film, To Catch a Thief (1955), which also starred Grant. As for NbNW, I don't recall if I'd ever caught Hitchcock's appearance in it. He pops up just after the end of the opening credits, shot from the side as the doors of a bus are slammed in his face. He must have been dieting at the time. Here's a pic of mom & son from the flick:

It was a second straight gorgeous day in Brooklyn. I basked in the shade of a tree and the cool breeze blowing along Bay Parkway. My thanks to the gentleman who purchased two Woody Allen books, Without Feathers and Side Effects, and to the two elderly women who each bought a Debbie Macomber romance; and to the middle age woman who selected a book in Russian and laughed as she failed to come up with a translation of the title that made sense; and to Mr. Conspiracy, who donated a hardcover on politics. A young woman looked through one of the books in Russian and, upon seeing it was published in 1980, remarked: "It's so old." Vanity wouldn't allow me to tell her I was born 30 years before it first went to press.

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