My favorite Jolie story.

Lauren Ridloff is deaf. She was having problems with her cues in ‘The Eternals.’ Jolie told the director to use a laser pointer and then clean it up in post-production.

Also, they had to use her own kid in Maleficent because she was scaring all the other children.

Don’t compare your blooper reel with other people’s highlights.

Also, Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie split up about twenty years ago and that relationship is still creating drama

Thanks for helping me prove my point.

I wish I knew.

Someone made an interesting point.

If a stranger asked the average citizen for $5.00 in most cases they’d refuse the request.

If a stranger fell into a lake many people would dive in and try to save them, even if it was dangerous.

I live on Staten Island. Used to be that I’d hear chatter on the ferry every day. I would have a nice chat almost daily, and a serious conversation a couple of times a month. These days it’s mostly silent and those who do talk came on the boat together. Otherwise, everyone is staring at the phone.

The thing is, it’s not the fear of injury or death, it’s the fact that people have forgotten the idea of public engagement.

There was a story a while back about a Georgia family who got in real legal trouble for letting a 10 year old wander about in their own neighborhood.

I used to ride my bike all over town and I’d see gangs of kids doing the same. I was in Jersey City, NJ a while back and was surprised by the sight of elementary school age kids out alone.

When was the last time you brought/did something without checking an online review? Got into a conversation with a complete stranger? Left the house without a phone?

I think that’s the kind of risk they are talking about.

As long as sex work is illegal, it will be easy for people to find ways to abuse sex workers.

imho the best single volume book to understand American racism is ‘The Autobiography of Malcolm X.’

Obviously there are books with more historical facts and deeper analysis. But I think the way he depicts his own feelings and observations gives the reader a visceral understanding.

Agin, my opinion.

Belize. Tiny country next to Mexico and Guatemala. I was there in August for scuba diving. Population under 200,000.

It’s British Commonwealth so everyone speaks English; has Mayan ruins and extensive caves; it’s next to the second largest reef system in the world and has fantastic scuba diving.

Old time comic W. C. Fields was once asked how to become successful.

He said a man should castrate himself, burn out his taste buds, make himself as blind and deaf as possible, and then the only thing he could enjoy was money.

[off topic]

A while back I gave my friend $50 for his birthday. I got fifty ‘gold’ dollars at the bank and gave them in a drawstring purse [the kind Robin Hood or Conan the Barbarian would carry]

He really enjoyed it.

Yeah, a factory worker would get $5 and pay back $6 the next week. That was a terrible crime. Then Reagan deregulated the banks and it became business as usual.

Sounds like ‘pay day loans’ in the US.

Back in the day, a loan shark was a criminal who charged an outrageous 20% interest for money. Working class folks were at the mercy of these “six-for-fivers.”

Ronald Reagan became President and now established banks could charge 35% or more.

I have a 5 liter pot. I’ll make a big batch of chili/stew/soup and freeze it in pint size containers. Right now I have portions of lentil soup and chili sitting in the freezer. It takes me five minutes to microwave.

Try this one.

“Altered States.”

A Harvard neuroscientist is experimenting with sensory deprivation and other hallucinogens.

I just noped out of a book called “Exquisite Corpse” by Poppy Z. Brite. It’s torture porn with necrophilia and sadism by the ton. It’s actually well written, but I just got sick of it.

First school book I ever noped out of.

I saw it as a play, and it was amazing. Never understood why English teachers have students read plays. The whole point of a play is to have it performed. It’s like trying to teach swimming in an empty pool.