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small blue square Status - Health: Cold - just some residual congestion; although I have a headache now, I don't think it's related. Feet - hurts when I walk, but I can walk at my normal pace for short distances. Still can't run, and it seems like the pain was less a few days ago. Taxes: finished today. California makes them a pain; their instructions seem even more complex and less helpful than Virginia's. Surprisingly, I should get refunds from all three this year (unless I've made a mistake, and T doubts that they give my returns more than a cursory glance).

small purple square Up in the City again yesterday - was compelled to call the Outer Banks from a phone booth between Golden Gate Park and Twin Peaks, had a sudden urge to speak with my goddaughter V. As ever she sounds great, and fortunately didn't injure herself during their recent skiing holiday in Colorado, unlike her older sister (broken wrist, after just three hours on the slopes) and her dad L (busted elbow). Spoke at length with both her mother P and L; this trip was their return to Steamboat Springs (where they met) after a 17 year hiatus. Naturally much has changed. Despite his pain (which L described as being "exquisite") he sounded in fine spirits. And mine are pretty good too.

small yellow square One of the newsgroups I'm following of late is comp.software.year-2000 - it contains many postings debating gloom & doom Y2K scenarios. A term bandied about there is "Pollyanna", which I was unfamiliar with until now. Seems it's defined as 'a person regarded as being foolishly or blindly optimistic' <1>. Further Internet probing revealed that this was a movie, Hayley Mills' first for Disney. She's someone I hadn't thought about for many years, but after studying the inevitable web site, I realized she was as much a component of the early 60's "British Invasion" as James Bond, Mary Poppins and Petula Clark. Here are her movies from that period, her zenith (I know I saw at least three of them):
  1961: The Parent Trap
  1962: In Search of the Castaways
  1963: Summer Magic
  1964: The Moon-Spinners
  1965: That Darn Cat!
The oddest factoid I discovered is that she married a man 33 years her senior; and they had a son named Crispian (or "Dodge" to his friends) who is the lead singer for Kula Shaker!

"Govinda Jaya Jaya, Gopala Jaya Jaya"
And where is she today? Touring with the road show of "The King And I", playing Anna, naturally.

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<1>from the novel by Eleanor Hodgman Porter Back