Director Marina Zenovich has made a documentary film that takes a look back at the sensational Roman Polanski trial for having sex with a then 13-year-old girl. The film, produced by Steven Soderbergh, among others, is amazing in that it gets most of the principals to comment, although, in some cases, the commentary is not to Zenovich, directly, but through other interviews Polanski has given since fleeing the country and taking up residence in France. The title refers to the fact that Polanski is idolized and desired in his adopted homeland of France, while, in the United States, he is still, technically, a fugitive from justice who is “wanted.”

HBO, ThinkFilm, a film by Graceful Presents, the BBC and Antidote Films all receive a credit, and the actual alleged rape victim (who publicly forgave Polanski in 1997), Samantha, Gailey (Geimer) is interviewed onscreen at several points.

Polanski’s main defense attorney, the Lincoln-esque Douglas Dalton, is quoted (today) saying, “What actually happened to the system of justice. I remain flabbergasted after all these years.” Roger Gunson, who, at the time, was the 37-year-old Mormon prosecution attorney, also seems to feel that the chief judge in the case, one Lawrence J. Rittenband, the Senior Judge in Santa Monica, mishandled the case because he wanted to “choreograph” the outcome to enhance his own love of the limelight. Judge Rittenband would constantly send the two opposition attorneys into the courtroom and tell them to play out a little drama according to a script he provided them that would enhance his (the Judge’s) reputation, in return for certain concessions towards one side or the other.

Of course, the fact that Polanski did admit to having had sex with a then-13-year-old girl is brushed over lightly. The fact that he did not view it as a “crime” is, indirectly, laid at the doorstep of his checkered past and his upbringing in Europe, a country which has a far less Puritanical view of sex than the United States. Nevertheless, Polanski’s admssion to intercourse with the then-13-year-old school girl, Samantha Gailey, whom he had been hired to photograph as part of a series on beautiful young girls from around the world, by Vanity Fair seems to be regarded as a “crime” only by a minority of district attorneys and a couple of police officers, who speak of it as likely to draw years in prison for the ordinary citizen

Mia Farrow, speaking of Polanski’s childhood in Poland, when Nazis killed his mother in the gas chamber and when he also lost his father, a childhood he drew upon in making the Academy Award-winning film “The Piano,” says, onscreen, “He didn’t have the blueprint for life that others had.” She remembers Polanski as “Completely infectious” and points out that, after a rough childhood, he thought he had finally found stability in his marriage to actress Sharon Tate, only to have the Manson Clan murder the pregnant actress, her companions and their unborn son, who would have been thirty, today.

(*It is interesting to learn that Polanski, now 74, has been married for 18 years and has 2 children, and that the then-13-year-old victim has also been married for 18 years and has 3 children.)

Both attorneys, the defense and the prosecution, agree that Polanski’s flight from the country was not surprising, given the Judge’s flamboyant behavior. At one point, the comment is made that it was “very unfortunate to have a judge who misused justice” and Polanski, himself, in an interview, says that the Judge toyed with him, like a cat with a mouse, for over a year. There is even a short film illustrating this capricious behavior, with Polanski made to dance while a look-alike for the Judge bangs a drum and shouts orders for him to do this or do that.

The prosecuting attorney, whom the filmmakers compared to a young Robert Redford look-alike, says that he noticed, when researching Polanski through his films at the New Art Theater Polanski Film Festival, which happened to be showing in the area at the time, that all his films involved “corruption-meets-innocence-over-water” and that the nude shots of the young Samantha in the Jacuzzi at Jack Nicholson’s home (Nicholson was out of town, at the time; the use of his home next to Marlon Brando’s house for the tryst supposedly contributed to the break-up of Nicholson’s relationship with his then live-in, Angelica Huston, who was not amused) fit this profile. Prosecuting attorney Roger Gunson thought he could make a case out of that, alone, and, when the young girl’s semen-stained panties surfaced, and were divided between prosecution and defense teams (actual description here of 7 men cutting the panties in half), plea bargains were discussed by the defense team that had previously been disinterested in same.

Polanski’s attitude throughout seemed to be, “Yes, I had sex with a 13-year-old. So what?” It seems to have been established that Samantha was not a virgin and that both individuals had consumed champagne and shared a Quaalude before what Polanski called consensual sex, but which the prosecution termed rape and sodomy. Other charges involving giving a minor illegal substances were dropped, in exchange for Polanski’s plea to the main charge of having sex with a female, not his wife, whom he knew to be 13 years old at the time.

From that point on, things began to go south for Polanski and his case. For one thing, the murder of his wife Sharon Tate was constantly brought up, and the film “Rosemary’s Baby,” in which a young wife is raped by the devil after being tied down, seemed to make a case for Polanski’s willingness to force sex upon an unwilling partner.

When Polanski was allowed to travel out of the country on 90 day “passes” to complete a film he was directing, a friend somehow talked him in to attending Oktoberfest in Munich. A snapshot taken of him seated between two young girls seems to have enraged the judge and caused the judge to decide to welch on deals made, informally, that would have allowed Polanski to serve only probation and the 42 days he was sentenced to Chino for psychiatric observation, where the state’s shrink pronounced him “congenial, but reserved” and said he was not a Mentally Disturbed Sex Offender.

Polanski, himself, admits, early on, “I like young women.” He goes on to say that he thinks most men do. He also comments, at one point, in the face of criticism of his actions following Sharon Tate’s brutal murder by the Manson Family members that, “My real problems started with the murder of Sharon Tate,” and that “Different people have different ways of dealing with life and grief.  Some go to monasteries. Some start visiting whorehouses.” Even his friends admitted that Polanski was a genial host who “liked to be the center of it all.” His romance with Nastassia Kinski when she was only 15, whom he also photographed, was well documented before the charges made against him in California.

Some questioned why Susie Gailey, the young girl’s mother, would allow her under-age daughter to go off, alone, with Polanski, saying, “This was a guy that had a pretty wild reputation.”  The victim, herself, said, “I had to worry about surviving the next day (at school). You can’t stop it, once it starts.” She seems to wish that her mother had not brought the charges against Polanski and that none of the ensuing publicity had ever occurred. Polanski, himself, rails against the press in interviews, at one point saying, “In general, I despise the press because of their inaccuracy and their deliberate cruelty.” References were made to articles printed after Sharon Tate’s brutal murder that accused Polanski, himself, of having flown back to the United States, committed the murders, and then left again. This, of course, was tantamount to punishing the victim and somehow blaming the victims for the crimes committed against them. Those close to the director spoke of his dark, sad, veiled side, his strong vision of death and sadness, his brushes with life and death, but his ability to prevail, despite much grief.

Polanski, himself, in dining with an interviewer in Europe, asks him, near the end of the interview to tell him this, “You think there’s something more to my life than my relationship with young women?” Obviously, the French do, as they made him a member of the Academie Francaise, and the President of the Academie Francaise, Arnand d’Hailtervilla, “He is one of us…”

Polanski faced anywhere from 6 months to 50 years in prison in the U.S., after the Judge became piqued at the photo of Polanski frolicking in Germany, and a year in the county jail was also a possibility, along with deportation. Polanski, who was, at the time, remaking “The Hurricane” for Dino De Laurent is Productions out of the country, chose to flee rather than endure more of the “toying” with him that he maintained the judge was doing. Before his troubles began, he was much sought after in the fast track of Hollywood society, and loved California, saying, “Everything is easy here (in Los Angeles). Everything is accessible in this town.” Everything except underage girls, apparently.

A distraught Polanski, speaking to the press after Sharon Tate’s massacre, called their time together, “The only time of true happiness in my life” and appeared about to break down in tears. A friend who was with him when he received the news of the killings on the phone from his agent Bill Tennent, reports, “I saw someone just disintegrate in front of my eyes. He was devastated.”

The documentary is definitely sympathetic to Polanski’s side. The question of whether the average male in America (of any ethnicity) would simply walk away with “probation” after giving drugs to an underage 13-year-old and having sex with her, if he weren’t rich and able to pay for the very best attorneys, is not addressed. The “double standard” between the European view of sex and America’s Puritanical view of sex is addressed peripherally. The verdict on whether a penalty greater than 42 days of being “evaluated” by a psychiatrist at Chino (California) is appropriate for the charges levied is still out.

Polanski’s friends from the swinging sixties before the murder of his wife appear to still be his friends, and his work such as “The Piano” produced after he fled the United States speaks to his continuing undiminished talent as a director

When the judge assigned to the case displays scrapbooks of his high-profile celebrity cases (the Presley divorce, Cary Grant), the public is right to wonder if this was the most famous judge fiasco since Judge Ito and the O.J. trial, decades later. However, the question still remains as to whether celebrities receive a special “pass” in court, when compared to the rank-and-file of Americans charged with the same crime.

Party Unity the Word for Democrats Today

I saw part of a speech given by Barack Obama from New Hampshire today, with Hillary Clinton standing there lending moral support. It was the usual outstanding speechifying from the electrifying Obama, and Hillary did her pant suited best to look enthusiastic. (It is said that Bill could only manage a written “endorsement” of the party nominee, but I saw a picture of the two of them, together, looking cozy, somewhere.)

Now begins the character assassination and the jockeying for power and all the rest of it.

I was called to attend a “meeting of interest” to be held at someone’s office. When I asked what the “order of business” was to be, the person calling me (who had been quite insistent that I call her back, even though I had to call long distance, at the time) said that she was trying to organize a “demonstration” that would highlight John McCain’s ties to Big Oil. This would involve being out in the streets with placards, as I understood it.

I don’t go out in the street with placards until I know the entire fact(s) of a situation. I have protested in the streets at least three times, but I need to know the facts of what I am protesting and be pretty honked off about it before I carry paper and wood into battle. I had just done a big piece on the Second Coming of John McCain, for www.jollyjo.com. Admittedly, I was not looking for ties to Big Oil, but, to me, far more dangerous for us are McCain’s ties to war and warlike behavior.

Anyone who had the childhood nickname “McNasty” because he loved to pick fights, who once had a fight on the Senate floor with Strom Thurmond (of all people), whose great ancestors fought on the Confederate side during the Civil War (from Mississippi) and whose grandfather and father commanded the Pacific fleets during two different wars (WWII and Vietnam) has far bigger things to protest there than whether he took money from Big Oil. It is my guess that EVERY BODY took some money from Big Oil.

After careful consideration, I did not attend said meeting, I’m in the Quad Cities about half of the time, and I don’t want to spend it carrying a sign that may (or may not) be true around in the street, protesting something that may (or may not) be true.

When “W” was getting ready to launch all-out war against Iraq and everybody thought that was a hunky-dory idea, THEN I protested. When we needed to get out of Vietnam (1965) THEN I protested (on 2 college campuses). Is it necessary for me to carry a sign linking John McCain to Big Oil on a busy street at this time in history? Methinks not. I will do far better writing about it…if it is true…on this blog, which I promise you will happen, sooner or later.

The stock market plunged a great deal today. It recouped slightly by the end of the day, but it is scary to think of all the controls that have been lifted that would (possibly) prevent another “crash” of the stock market, such as occurred during my father and mother’s lifetime. My father (a banker) predicted a Depression would occur for years and, Dad, if you’re looking down from heaven, you may just be right. If this isn’t a full-out Depression, it sure is beginning to feel like something close.

Barack Obama seems to have (finally) clinched the Democratic nomination for President. The path to this Holy Grail has been long and arduous, no less on him than on the public! I think that most of the Democrats, Republicans, Independents, Green Party and all other fractions of parties are happy to see the campaign end before the campaign begins. I know I am. It’s been like the Bataan Death March, and I’m sure the candidates couldn’t agree more.

Now, the question has been posed: “Why did Hillary lose?’ There are many pundits weighing in on this weighty question, and I keep wanting to tell them to read the “Rolling Stone” article that brilliantly described Obama’s “bottom-up” campaign strategy, versus Hillary Clinton’s old-style “Top down” campaign strategy. Indeed, that article even went so far as to say that, if the Clinton’s much-vaunted political machine could lose to that upstart Obama, this will be the last time you will even see the “Top Down” model used in a national campaign.

I don’t want to bore readers with all the details of how Obama’s people got the cell phone numbers of transient populations like college students and turned them into votes, or how the voter registration drives have cranked up record number of eligible voters for the fall general election, or any of the nuts-and-bolts in that “Rolling Stone” article, but let’s just say, as someone invited to become an Obama Organizer and attend a two-day training session to learn all the above, the man’s organizational know-how was and is amazing.

And, while we’re at it, let’s look at some of the other factors being cited in the loss of one of the most well-known, (if not well-oiled), political machines that still exists, that of Billary (Bill and Hillary Clinton).

The reasons I have seen cited most prominently for Hillary’s loss of the nomination to Barack Obama are as follows:

1) She represents the “Old” school (and certainly this goes double for McCain). Obama represented “change.”

2) They were basically the same on the main issues.

3) Hillary Clinton (aka ‘Miss Frigidaire’) never had the likeability factor going for her, while Obama did, in a phenomenal way.

4) Did race trump gender as a reason to vote? Obama, after all, is the candidate who best represents how the world will look by 2050: multi-racial, polyglot, a white mother and a black father producing a child who grew up in many areas of the world and has ties to them and is intellectually aware.

5) Everyman versus Ms. Entitlement. Need I say more?

6) Bill. Need I say more?

7) Obama the phenomenon. (See Point 3 above)

8) Tactical Errors: (See my opening remarks and read up on those tactical errors in the Clinton campaign in the much longer and much more complete “Rolling Stone” issue.) I would add that there are those that feel Hillary thought she’d have it all wrapped up by Super Tuesday, and the campaign had not been too well thought out past that date. Thus, they were playing catch-up from the beginning, when things did not play out quite the way the Clinton people thought they would.

9) The 8 Years Under Bush, the Younger. Hillary voted for the war. Obama was against the war. Hillary, much more than Obama, is tied to the failed policies of George “W” Bush, even though she was of the opposition party while a Senator from New York. Is there anyone in this country at this time who wants 8 more years of Bush’s incompetence, corruption and mismanagement? If so, raise your hand, and we’ll send you somewhere to read a book on it.

You might start with “In Defense of Liberty” (Richard Clarke, former White House Security Chief under both Clinton and “W”), or you might move on to Clarke’s newest one, “Your Government Failed You.” I recommend Paul O’Neill’s (Former Secretary of the Treasury) “Against All Enemies” and, failing that, try Scott McClellan’s (former White House Press Secretary under “W”) “What Happened” now hitting the bookstores. There are just so many books out there that give you chapter and verse on an amazingly bad run of Republican government under George W. Bush that, hopefully, will soon give way to something better. (See point #1).

Even staunch conservative Republican (and former Presidential candidate) Pat Buchanan said, in his column yesterday, that Bush, the Younger, while a better campaigner than his father, was not qualified to carry the old man’s loafers, in terms of governing. There are too many facts to support that statement, and some have even wondered if, in an amazing display of hubris, the younger Bush simply wanted to whale away at everything his father had stood for, as the CIA took hits under “W’, the “I’ll finish the war in Iraq, which you should have done” factor (Desert Storm vs. Operation Shock and Awe and Awesome Horribleness), and all the rest of those Bush 2 vs. Bush 1 comparisons. Books have been written about how George W. Bush viewed Reagan as his hero, and brushed aside his father’s accomplishments, because dear old dad was just playing second fiddle to the former film star. The result was “W’s” Churchillian attempt to make bold strokes, even if the bold strokes were all wrong. Don’t blame me for that analysis. Read the books.

Now, all we have to do is sit back and wait to see if Hillary Clinton is successful in lobbying for a spot on the ticket as the Vice President. If she gets that, and Obama is elected, she’d be “next in line” for the Presidency after he serves out his one or two terms, assuming election. That could be 16 to24 years of Clintons in or around the Oval Office, if Hillary is granted her wish. [You are either rejoicing or groaning as I write that.]

I am assuming election of Barack Obama. I have to. Otherwise, I have to give up all hope that we will get our troops out of Iraq safely and in a way that will both guarantee national security and save (national) face. It is impossible to occupy a country, long-term; the British proved that in India. We must leave. We must leave in a well-thought-out manner (which means that we don’t want Bush, Jr., organizing the withdrawal).

We must use the money being wasted on a senseless, useless war (Vietnam, anyone?) to build up our country here at home, and the new national leader of our country must turn his attention to “fixing” the many things that George W. Bush broke, both here and abroad. For openers, that individual needs to turn his or her attention to Al Gore’s pet issue, the environment and alternative energy sources, and, beyond that, it would be nice to have the tons of money wasted on this useless war to shore up our nation’s infrastructure, fix New Orleans, help make our schools better, get gas costs down or find a better solution to using gasoline to run our country, and a host of other worthy projects.

Lots of work to do. Let’s get cracking!

There are so many things that need fixing now that we almost need a new Department of What “W” Broke to figure out how to prioritize all the many mistakes. But it goes without saying that any “project” of George W. Bush’s that is costing thousands of American lives, snuffing out the lifeblood of our American youth (and our country’s future) and sending them home to inadequate V.A. facilities with horrific injuries from which they will (probably) never recover, is Number One on my list. And I suspect it is Number One on Obama’s list, as well.

    An article entitled “Mismanagement 101″ by Daniel Gross in the March 24, 2008 issue of Newsweek magazine (p. 22) agrees with dire predictions regarding the United States economy that come from almost all knowledgeable economic experts.

     In a recent CBS News New York Times poll (AOL main page, Friday, April 4^th, 2008), 81% of respondents say our nation is heading in the wrong direction. The poll has existed since 1990 and this is the highest number ever of respondents saying that the ship of state is floundering,— due to mismanagement, according to Daniel Gross’ article.

     Gross points out, “The greenback last week hit new lows against foreign currencies. The dollar is so sad, we should consider renaming it the dolor.” (p. 22 of “Mismanagement 101″). He goes on to say that the dollar’s declining value reflects poorly on us, as a nation.

     Other countries think we are incapable of managing what was once viewed as the World’s Super Power. “At some level, the dollar’s woes reflect the world’s collective verdict on the ability of the United States—businesses, individuals, the government, the Federal Reserve—to manage the global financial system and the world’s largest economy. Lately, the verdict has been two thumbs down.”

    With thanks to Gross for pointing out the obvious, what did we think would happen when we elected a rather dim-minded sort whose crowning achievement in life had been fortunate parentage and cheerleading for Yale and Andover? George W. Bush was a failure even in the eyes of Ronald Reagan, who wrote scathingly in his diary of young “W’s” visit to meet him, shepherded there by his father, the Vice President. Reagan was right on the money in viewing “W’ as a ne’er-do-well who had “never held a real job” (Ronald Reagan’s Presidential Diary). In those fields that he attempted (oil, the Texas Rangers), young George had failed at every turn or been bailed out by “friends of the family.” Drug use. Draft-dodging. Sudden embrace of religion (much like convicted criminals).  All good credentials for having a beer with the guy, perhaps, but not-so-good credentials for running a complex economy, or, more accurately,  letting his stooges (Cheney, Rumfseld, Wolfowitz, Libby, et al)  run the country and the economy into the ground.

   So, today, as Gross says, “Thanks to widespread incompetence, American management is on its way to becoming an international laughingstock.” (p. 22 of Gross article) On its way? Methinks Daniel Gross doth under-estimate the journey. We are not “on our way” to becoming an international laughingstock. We are there! That ship has sailed!  And George W. Bush was the captain of the Bad Ship Lollypop who has (more-or-less) guided us on this ill-fated experiment in electing a not-very-bright-or-hardworking guy to be the leader of the Free World.

    A few countries had the great good sense to stay out of President Bush’s unfortunate, ill-timed, ill-conceived, expensive, immoral and mismanaged Iraq War  (the much maligned France, for one), but the Coalition of the Willing followed like sheep to the slaughter. I’m pretty sure that, today, Tony Blair regrets standing by his man.

    Where to begin in listing the nation’s woes? The sub-prime mess? Food costs rising? Pollution aplenty? The housing crisis? $4 a gallon gasoline? OPEC President Chakib Khelil responded recently that the price of gas “had nothing to do with the reluctance of the Persian Gulf nations to pump oil, and everything to do with the ‘mismanagement of the U.S. economy.’” (Gross article, p. 22) Paul O’Neill, former Secretary of the Treasury and, prior to that, the CEO of Alcoa, wrote an entire book about Bush’s incompetent bungling and desire to hear only what he wanted to hear. It’s now running on PBS as “Bush’s War.” Watch it and you’ll soon understand why we’re in this mess. Or try Richard Clarke and “In Defense of Liberty.” Richard Clarke was the man “on call” when 9/11 occurred and he has some scathing criticism for this President—-one of many he served. The one thing you don’t want to do in this Administration is “speak truth to power.” Do so and your career is  over.

    How about our aviation system?

     I’m writing this on Friday, April 4^th, and the airline—ATA— that was to carry me to Cancun tomorrow just went under, taking with it the jobs of 2,200 employees and my ticket to ride. When I reach Cancun and snake through the security line at the airport, I will be asked to sing this refrain along with the security people there: “Please. Do not. Remove. Your shoes.” American management has come down to stupid rules made by stupid men with stupid consequences. Removing my shoes when I board the airliner (the result of the French “shoe-bomber” incident) has made all my fellow passengers feel much, much safer as they sit on the tarmac hoping that this airline, too, won’t go belly-up before we get to our destination. Or, worse yet, fail and go bust after depositing us all on the shores of some country where we don’t speak the language and will have to cope with the fall-out, trying to make our return flights in a foreign tongue (since so many of us are unwilling or unable to learn a second language, unlike Europeans.) In my own case, my $500 ticket is now a $1700 ticket on American Airlines—and I was lucky to get it! I’ve been going to Cancun in the spring for fifteen years and the highest-priced ticket was $800. This year’s will set a new record, and something tells me I’m in for more of the same, largely due to the PTB.

     On a “Sixty Minutes” segment  recently (CBS’s “Sixty Minutes”), Carl Icahn, the 1980s corporate raider who has reinvented himself as a comedian and activist investor told Lesley Stahl, regarding American incompetence in management, “I see our country going off a cliff, and I feel bad about it.”

     The bail-out that the U.S. government just provided to Baer Sterns was provided, I have read, because Baer-Sterns was the lynchpin of a house of cards that, if not supported, would come tumbling down with horrific ramifications, nationwide and system-wide. I think we’ve all heard Michael Moore’s assertions, made in his Oscar-nominated film “Fahrenheit/911″ about what would happen if all the banks we owe money to called in the debt on the same day. China has largely funded our misguided war efforts, and the Saudis certainly have their finger in our national pie.

     The same government that bailed out a firm that was floundering,   is not rushing to bail out all the homeowners losing their houses. Forget the Ninth Ward in New Orleans. Good luck with that, Brad (Pitt). The government can’t be bothered.

    The “ARMS” that people without enough money took out to purchase housing they should have known they couldn’t afford, (interest on said loans  now rising faster than the Iraq War debt), have come home to roost. The financial “safeguards” in banking and finance, put in place years ago after the Depression-era crash, were tampered with or removed, and we are now reaping as we have sown. [My father, a long-time banker, predicted another Great Depression for years, and---even though he is long dead---I fear he is about to get his wish.]

    The Administration “experts” say it is just a “recession” that will “self-correct” and that we are just teetering on the edge of it, but those of us filling our tanks and paying more at the grocery store see things a little bit differently than George W. Bush in the White House. And your pension?: You may as well  kiss it good-bye, if we don’t elect a smart candidate to be our next President who understands how to pull our economy out of the mess it’s in ( which pretty much excludes the Republican nominee, who has publicly said that he “doesn’t understand” the economy  much; that makes him  fit in nicely with the current crop of White House Republicans. But bombing a country back to the Stone Age? McCain’s your man for that!)

     As Daniel Gross put it, “But those of us who aren’t billionaire corporate raiders—which is to say pretty much all of us—must manage through this management crisis on our own.” (Newsweek, March 24, 2008, “Mismanagement 101″, Daniel Gross in “The Money Culture”, p. 22).

    Amen, and please say a prayer for the United States of America. If you’re an atheist, simply observe a moment of silence. No matter what your religious persuasion(s) (or lack of same), it seems pretty clear that we need to NOT vote for more of the same.

 The Titanic, despite its myth of invincibility, did sink (a lesson in mismanagement) and so can we.

    You may notice an unfortunate lack of accompanying pictures for my upcoming three-day trip to Las Vegas (March 29 – April 1). I am boarding a plane (from Chicago) at the crack of dawn on Saturday and winging my way west to the city that never sleeps. (Or is that New York City?)

     As I sit here in Chicago, there is a nasty combination of snow/rain and something resembling sleet being dumped upon the city. I am watching it obscure all view of Lake Michigan, and I’ll just bet that the workers across the street working in the Central Station developments of the South Loop are really happy to be working in a semi-blizzard (she said, facetiously).

    I have plans (or perhaps I should say “had”) to walk to the Field Museum tonight for “Members Night.” If this keeps up, there will be no walking…only driving.

     In just a few moments I have to leave the safe, comfy confines of my condo to go feed my son’s cat. Usually, I do this in the evening, but the aforementioned “Members’ Night” at the Field Museum will make it impossible to feed the cat in the evening. <sigh>

     I an addition to anticipating the warmer climate and great good fun of Las Vegas (I have tickets for Spamalot and Tom Jones), I am looking forward to getting out of this unpredictable and not-that-pleasant weather. My college-age daughter in Nashville (Tennessee) tells me it is seventy degrees there and she is going canoeing. There will be no canoeing anywhere near Chicago on this blustery, wintery-looking day!

     I spent parts of the past week producing Horror Flash Fiction for a contest (under 500 words). All were rejected, but I remain happy in the knowledge that, soon, I will be going to a WARM place.

      Since I am not taking my computer with me to Las Vegas, I will not be posting until April 1st (not a long time…only 3 days without me, and others will carry on in my absence), so I am going to post my horrifying 500-word Flash Fiction piece entitled, “Konerak: New Age Zombie.” It’s pretty horrifying, if I do say so myself.

     I would say, “Enjoy,” but that seems like the wrong term for a zombie Flash Fiction piece.

     More on Vegas later; happy reading!