Words to live by...

It is easy for little monkeys to forget...

NPR innumeracy

I really don't mean to pick on Rachel Martin in particular... she's not the most egregious of the insufferable NPR talking heads. But is it possible that she doesn't get the idea of percentage change? If you listen to the interview, yes, it is... (italics added)...

MARTIN: So we are of course talking because it has been a rollercoaster over the past couple of days. Yesterday was the single largest point drop in stock market history. What's going on? How are you reading this? 

RITHOLTZ: So let's put all of this in a little bit of broader context. Yes, yesterday was the largest single point drop. But you have to recognize this in percentage terms because when the markets fell, the most they ever fell, in 1987, in one day, 22 percent, it was about 600 points. So this turned out to be the 108th worst single day. That's bad, but it really isn't terrible compared to what it could be. If yesterday looked like 1987, we would've been down closer to 6,000 or 7,000 or points, not a thousand points. 

MARTIN: Right. There's so much more trading that happens. It's so much larger. 

RITHOLTZ: And everything is worth so much more...

Step Right Up

"It turns a sandwich into a banquet....
Gets rid of blackheads, the heartbreak of psoriasis,
Christ, you don't know the meaning of heartbreak, buddy..."

Featuring Jim Hughart on bass, Shelly Manne on drums, Lew Tabackin on sax...

Klute

This 1971 Alan Pakula thriller holds up amazingly well. Like many other great popular films of its era, it is gritty and dark, and it takes its time. Which is not to say that it drags. The tension steadily mounts, with a bare minimum of explicit violence, but a climactic scene of genuine terror, delivered to the audience from a reel-to-reel recording, in the spirit of such other paranoid masterpieces as The Conversation and Blow Out.

Jane Fonda is given the role of a lifetime, and she nails it, as Bree Daniels, a prostitute who revels in her power and autonomy, even as she comes to realize her vulnerability to both masculine violence and emotional surrender– i.e., falling in love. She occupies a very large percentage of the screen time, and holds our attention every single moment. She confesses all to her analyst, and we get to listen in. But Bree/Fonda demonstrates time and again that just as the whore is actor, so the actor is whore. Are we, the audience, just another john? The movie ends with Donald Sutherland, and the audience, hoping that we have earned her true love, not just her services rendered. But we can hardly complain if the relationship has been purely transactional... we definitely got our money's worth.

Hidden Villa

What can I say? I love everything about the place, from visiting the farm animals to the fantastic trails to the historic Duveneck house. This time of year the lichens and fungi attract attention... mine, at least...

Bill's best picture picks

Rather amazingly, I have seen five of the nominees. The Shape of Water and Ladybird were middling entertainments. Between Get Out and Call Me By Your Name, I would give the nod to Get Out, which is something new at the movies. And then there's Dunkirk... No plot, no characters, no dialogue to speak of. Pure, relentless sound and visuals. An art film masquerading as an action movie. That just might be the one.

Marcella's tomato sauce

This is the best and simplest recipe in the world. Period. Do not skimp on the quality of the canned tomatoes, or the butter (quantity or quality). Do not add anything, except possibly a sprinkling of reggiano after serving. Assuming you serve it with pasta, keep the ratio of sauce to pasta very high. It will make you very happy.

Call Me By Your Name

It's a lovely film shot in a lovely place, with a very fine performance by Timothée Chalamet. The love story works ten times better than the over-rated The Shape of Water. For one thing, the boyfriend in the latter movie is ugly and scaly, and has no personality... realistically, who could fall in love with that? Armie Hammer is another matter entirely... Indeed, everyone in CMBYN falls in love with him.

In these very sensitive times, a movie portraying the seduction of an "under-age" youth by a rather older, more experienced male might raise a concerned eyebrow. But their relationship is natural, consensual, and tender. Not to mention: Who seduced whom?

For me, the most important question raised by the film was: How do I get a gig like Elio's professor dad? I suppose the first thing is for Laura to discover that she has inherited a villa in Lombardy from an obscure Italian relation...