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This is what I see when I walk downtown along the Hudson River. The World Trade Center used to be in there somewhere, but for the life of me, I cannot remember just where the towers stood. If you look at the tallest building on the left, the next tallest building immediately to the right of that is the first new building on the site, so somewhere near there.

I shot this today, while walking downtown to see Catch and Release, which was so sweet. I recommend it for a nice escape. Except I wanted Kevin Smith to get the girl. He’s so cute and charming. Who can not love Kevin Smith, I ask you?? Only someone really messed up, I say.

I was going to stay and also see Children of Men, but the movie times listed online were wrong, and I didn’t want to wait an hour. So, I’m back home, and maybe I will now work. Except, Howard has my next chapter and he said such great things about it I’m on cloud 9.

Maybe I will wallow on cloud 9 for a while.

I was just talking in December about the fact that Gian-Carlo Menotti was still alive, and sadly, he died today. Sigh.

I’ve got an opera of his on my wish list on Amazon. It’s called The Medium. From the Times, today: “The Medium, written in 1946, ran for 211 performances on Broadway the next year with another Menotti piece, The Telephone. The Medium was a compendium of the Menotti style — delicate orchestration, lyric writing and often a melodramatic theatricality.

Menotti was 95. I quoted Upton Sinclair’s wife in my book yesterday. It was something she said at the end of her life. “I look out across the world and it is peopled with strangers!” I was thinking, I wonder if Menotti had thoughts like this. But maybe not. He knew so many people. And he loved children. Maybe his world wasn’t filled with strangers at the end, but lots of friends.

Raise your hand if Barbaro broke you heart. Why is that?? I’m not even a horse person. I took one riding lesson and said, “Not for me.” I just really didn’t want Barbaro to die. And he did. Damnit to hell.

Well, Finney and Buddy are healthy. Here is Finn, making it impossible for me to work. I had to move the computer off the desk and onto my lap because he kept trying to snap off keys. Note the tail action.

This is normal.

This is with “vivid” turned on. Great word, vivid. Vivid, vivid, vivid. I have to put it in my book somewhere. I honestly don’t see using this effect a lot either. Maybe when I take a picture of a Christmas tree. You know what — now I’m not sure which one was the one with vivid turned on.

I found this letter written to J. B. Rhine, the director of the Parapsychology Laboratory, and it was a rundown of the mediums in New York at the time. I want to track each of them down, not for the book I don’t think. I’m just curious. I didn’t have a lot of luck yesterday, but I’ve just started. They are:

Beulah Brown. Fact I turned up: she was a reverend for a Spiritualist church called Little Cedar.
Mrs. Tellier. Fact I turned up: her husband was a professional golfer who HUNG HIMSELF while away at a tournament.
Miss Barit. Turned up nothing.
Eddie Mackay. Turned up nothing.
Thorne. I think he was famous, but the letter doesn’t list his first name so my first google pass didn’t turn up anything. The woman writing said he was totally a fake.

This is kinda pretty, isn’t it? I don’t see using this a lot, but still. Nice.

Movie update! The Departed. Completely engrossing. I had to go to the bathroom at one point, and I was so mad, but I ran there and back, and didn’t miss much. Leonardo Dicaprio — I always think of him as someone I’m not wild about except when I see him in a film, he’s always riveting. And I remember I always think that. I like him in everything I’ve seen him in.

I had a little problem suspending my disbelief. I didn’t research this kind of operation, maybe it’s more plausible than I know (I don’t really believe that) but part of me couldn’t help thinking the whole time that the whole thing never would have gone down like that. People are stupider, generally. Except at times I remember thinking they are not that stupid. Ha! Apparently I just disagree about how people are stupid. Doesn’t matter. This was great.

I can’t decide what to see today. It’s between, Children of Men, Pan’s Labyrinth and Catch and Release.