Well, dear readers, this week is flying by, like a gazelle doing an oral history of bath salts. Does anyone still use bath salts? And what are bath salts anyway? And if there are bath salts are there also bath peppers and bath paprika? Well, yes, they still make bath salts for baths. But did you know that bath salts are now a disguise for mood-altering drugs? Why yes, the morons have used bath salts as a disguise for drugs, bath salts being a euphemism. Note to morons: Please, throw yourselves in front of the nearest bus. What’s next, drugs disguised as Ding Dongs? Why I oughta. Something as innocent as bath salts has been subverted for the drug culture. The stupidity of stupid people never ceases to amaze me and my amazement never ceases. As Molly says in Welcome to My World when talking about idiot kids doing drugs at a party, “Goodbye stoners, get a life.” I gotta tell you. But, I would never have known this if I hadn’t heard the gazelle doing an oral history of bath salts.
Yesterday, I guess I got about eight hours of sleep overall. I had yet another of my longest recurring dream – about my favorite neighborhood movie theater the Stadium. I think the dream came back because I have finally figured out when the Stadium actually closed – the year I’ve read was 1960, but I knew that wasn’t right, and I finally did the research and it had to be the end of 1961. How do I know this? Because two movies I definitely remember seeing there, The Naked Edge (Gary Cooper’s last film) and The Devil at 4 O’Clock played in June and October respectively in 1961. And the temple it became didn’t arrive until 1964. And I also have a newspaper from the very end of 1961 and the Stadium isn’t listed. I wrote about the dream in the third Kritzer book – I’ve had it since the temple took over the Stadium. It has outlasted all my other recurring dreams.
Once up, I did some work on the computer, and then I went and had a patty melt and no fries or onion rings. Then I came home, worked at the piano for a bit, and did more work on the computer. And then the phone kept ringing with an “unregistered” number. I didn’t pick it up, of course, and I certainly didn’t listen to voice mail to see who it was. No, I have a new thing I do – I immediately Google the phone number and instantly you can find out if it’s a scam. This particular number is purportedly from Bank of America and they’ve been making these calls since at least 2010. Now, on the site I check, there are lots of people commenting but it can be very confusing. For example, on this BofA number, most everyone said it was a phishing phone call, saying you’re in overdraft and trying to get your information. But there are also people who say it’s legitimate and really BofA. So, how can it be both fake and legitimate? Well, I kind of trust the folks who actually called BofA and were told it was fake. The others seem to be trolls or people who work for the fake number. The one thing I know is if you are in overdraft BofA doesn’t call you, they return the checks and debit your account a return fee. It’s pretty simple. That’s how all banks work. And BofA would never call and ask for personal information. So, they called a fourth time and this time I answered. Of course it’s a machine – a robo call – and they had the Kritzerland name – how that’s possible I don’t even want to imagine. They ask you to confirm, which I didn’t – I just kept not responding and waiting for someone to come on the line so I could get nasty. But no one ever came on the line. Then I called back the number and got another recording saying to call back with a personal ID number. So, I called the number they gave, input the personal ID and got yet another voice saying it was BofA about an important matter. Uh huh. I hung up and that was that. Then I looked up that second number and it was the same deal – most comments saying it was a scam. These people should also place themselves in front of a moving bus.
But there is an interesting thing I also found out via Google. Robo calls can be subject to a fine – up to $1,500 a call. I’m checking into that with an attorney, because if it’s true, I’m going to start logging the calls, not that the FBI or whoever is ever going to be able to find these cretins. After all that, I sat on my couch like so much fish.
Last night, I watched a motion picture on the Flix of Net entitled Man from Reno, something described as a neo-noir from an independent filmmaker. I gave it a shot and it actually was pretty good – simply shot without any of the “modern” things I hate – well acted, and it looked good. Unfortunately, it just runs out of steam, and then it just gets weird and unfortunately the lousy last fifteen minutes kind of ruin everything that came before.
Then I did a jog, then I watched a motion picture from 2004 entitled The Punisher, starring Thomas Jane as The Punisher and John Travolta as the bad guy. It’s amazing to me that I’d never figured out he wore a wig in all these films, but once you know it’s just so obvious and bad. It’s one of these Marvel films based on a comic book, this one somewhat dark. It’s mindless but I was in a mindless mood and I was kind of going along with it until about seventy minutes, at which point there is a fight scene that is so unrelentingly stupid and bad, AND it’s trying to be funny and they just completely ruin the film at that point. Nothing that happens post that scene works because you’ve just been watching a Mack Sennett movie rather than a movie in which you’re being asked to take characters seriously. I don’t mind comic relief, but this kind of scene is so poor and so not what the film is, that the movie simply cannot recover.
After that, I just relaxed, did more work on the computer and that was that.
Today, I’ll do a jog, I’ll eat, I’ll work at the piano, I’ll hopefully pick up some packages, but there’s nothing major happening.
Tomorrow, I’m seeing the opening of Damn Yankees, which at least will take my mind off not attending Welcome to My World for the first time in four weeks. I’m going with Barry Pearl and we’ll go to the opening night do afterwards.
The weekend is light, which is good because the following week is crazy busy. Sunday, we’re having our post mortem dinner somewhere fun.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, do a jog, eat, hopefully pick up packages, do some work, and relax. Today’s topic of discussion: What were your ten favorite films of the year 1961? Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, trying to forget I ever heard the oral history of bath salts.