Movie Tickets: “Men in Black III,” “Being There,” “Steve Jobs: The Lost Interview” Being There In the final years of his life, Peter Sellers engaged in a persistent campaign to gain the film rights to Jerry Kosinski’s 1971 novel about a simple-minded gardener named Chance, who makes an unlikely rise through the ranks of the most powerful people of DC after the death of his employer, who had shielded him from the world for most of his life. Sellers saw something profound in the material, and an opportunity to play a significant and subtly comic role that would serve him better as a legacy than the beloved, but hardly serious, Pink Panther films. He was eventually successful, and with one of the most idiosyncratic directors ... Continue reading →
I have a fondness for copy editing and copy editors. I learned more in my copy editing class than in any other course I took at Texas Christian University back in the 1970s (hat tip to my instructor, Jim Batts). I learned as much in my two years on the Des Moines Register’s copy desk, also in the ’70s, as I’ve learned any two years ever in my career. And I worked with an extraordinarily talented group there. I got to be a pretty good copy editor and self-editor (I’m the only editor of this blog, though I often read a post to Mimi and occasionally she will read a post before publication). But still, copy editors saved me from embarrassment many a time in ... Continue reading →
Presidential libraries and museums, such as the JFK library on the UMass—Boston campus, benefit some students. Late-show hosts greeted the opening of the William J. Clinton Presidential Library on the University of Arkansas—Little Rock campus in November 2004 with jokes and jeers. "It rained on Bill Clinton's parade yesterday, which is kind of a switch; usually Hillary does that," said Jay Leno. And David Letterman joked that President George W. Bush was excited to visit, "because he'd never been to a library before." Letterman's joke highlights part of the ambiguity surrounding presidential libraries, which essentially function more like museums and archives and less like lending libraries where card holders can check out books. The 13 presidential libraries administered by the National Archives and Records Administration ... Continue reading →
