Posted on 01/01/2012 8:10:22 AM PST by Gen.Blather
I met some illegal Mexicans last night at a party. Several years ago I stayed with a couple of wonderful Mexican families in the Baja below California. These were well-off people. The homes, on average were beautifully tiled and some of them had mahogany inlaid walls, bookshelves and cabinetry that would cost a hundred-thousand dollars here. So, I’m guessing if they aren’t rich they’re very comfortable. The elderly not as well-off grandfather, while living in Mexico was receiving Social Security from the United States and owned a rent-free apartment in California which he used as his address to receive several forms of assistance checks from Californian agencies. He visited the apartment once a week to re-arrange things and make it looked lived in. He had a car, a Toyota Corolla that looked quite nice and had working air-conditioning. I gathered it was supplied as some form of assistance and he generally left it in California at the apartment. The apartment was about 1100 square feet and very livable. The grandfather told me most of entire complex, easily a 1000 units, were like him, on Californian assistance, but actually living in Mexico.
At the party were a couple of teenage boys from this family. Very nice kids. I’d be proud to have them as my own; diligent, hard working, trouble-free and much more adult than you’d expect from that age. They told me that they’d decided to go to high school in California instead of Mexico. They said that the (California) government gave them an apartment and they travel back to Mexico on the weekends. (I don’t know if they’re staying alone or if a family member is staying with them, but if I had to guess, they came alone.)
When I posted information on this family last time, Freepers angrily asked why I hadn’t reported them. Firstly, I was a well-treated guest. Secondly, this must be obvious to the casual observer. Even if I knew who to report it to in California, which I don’t, it is obvious that this is how it’s done. These people are only taking advantage of “benefits” put there for them. Not to avail themselves of these benefits would be like deciding not to take candy freely offered to you.
And raggedy clothing.
KRYTEN, CAMILLE, and LISTER enter.
KRYTEN: Mister Lister, sir, would you be so kind as to take Camille's bag on board?
LISTER: (Taking the bag) Certainly, Kryten. Anything you say.
LISTER exits.
CAMILLE: Why MY bag, Kryten?
KRYTEN: Because you're getting on that craft with Hector, where you belong.
CAMILLE: No, Kryten.
KRYTEN: Now you've got to listen to me. Do you have any idea what you've got to look forward to if you stay here?
CAMILLE: You're saying this only to make me go.
KRYTEN: We both know you belong to Hector -- you're part of his work; you're what keeps him going. If you're not on that craft when it leaves the hangar, you'll regret it -- maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow -- but soon, for the rest of your life.
CAMILLE: What about us?
KRYTEN: We'll always have Parrot's.
CAMILLE: Oh, Kryten.
KRYTEN: I'm no good at being noble, kid, but it's pretty obvious the problems of two blobs and a droid don't amount to a hill of beans in this crazy cosmos.
We had to make our clothing from leather and bits of tree bark.
And by the time we got to school, it was time to turn around and go home. All we had to do was follow the bread cr........
"Where Were You When I Needed You." The Grass Roots. 1966. It peaked at #28 on the Billboard Top 40 and was the group's first Top 40 hit.
I'm not ignoring anyone. I'm 'taking a meeting' with the Fardeaux triplets. I'm pitching a new project. One of their short films about K'Amelia a/k/a Katherine. We'll run it up the flagpole and see who salutes.
And sometimes the drag marks from beating our lunch to death were our only clues as to which direction ome layin.
I think it’s the:
Thou Shalt Not Speak Ill of Newt Festival
It’s getting wild.
Except when the sun rose. Then we followed it.
I have a replica of The Stuff That Dreams Are Made Of in my home office. Sort of have a thing for Bogie.
Sometimes we had to navigate by the stars and moonlight.
And we ended up having to bring home dinner.
I love Casablanca! Must remind myself to see if I can download it on my IPad for my upcoming trip to Egypt. I need SOMETHING to keep my busy on the plane for eleven hours.
The pod has been opened. Piles and piles of mail are lying around. The arm of a skutter takes one from the John Wayne fan club addressed to "The Skutters, Red Dwarf, Deep Space, RE1 3DW" and disappears.
RIMMER: There's everything here, all the mail, entertainment cassettes, a new batch of movies.
LISTER: Oh! The new Friday the 13th movie -- Friday the 13th part one thousand six hundred and forty nine.
RIMMER: Look, Casablanca! They've re-made Casablanca!
LISTER: Philistines. I mean how can you re-make Casablanca? The one starring Myra Dinglebat and Peter Beardsley was definitive.
HOLLY: I saw that one -- knockout! "Of all the space bars on all the worlds you had to re-materialize in mine."
If we could find dinner. Life was not kind.
akittle edivy two wooden ewe...
Usually dinner found us.
By the smell.
I need to lie down. See you in a bit.
They tried, with David Soul of Starsky and Hutch. 1983.
Although that wasn't as bad as the two 'punishment' movies Bogart made for Jack Warner. When actors were 'under contract' and were stars, most contracts allowed them to turn down two scripts a year. However, if you turned down the second script, then the third script you were given was a punishment script and a real dog. That's why you'll see a film with a prominent actor or actress from MGM and say "why in the world was his or her talent ever wasted in that trash?"
Bogart's best, or worst, punishment movie was Swing Your Partner.
It was made during the Little Abner craze and after the Gold Dust Trio (Ed Lewis, Billy Sandow, and Toots Mondt) had popularized professional wrestling.
Its . . . a hillbilly professional wrestling musical. The best of its genre. Because it's the only hillbilly professional wrestling musical ever made.
Bogie's a wrestling promoter driving across country with an incredibly dumb, super strong wrestler and his wise-cracking female assistant when his car breaks down in Appalachia, in a town where a super-strong hillbilly woman lives.
And the rest is Hollywood gold. Dancing. Singing. Wrestling. Brand-new overalls with jagged, freshly cut hems and bright patches sewn on with huge stitches. General store signs that say "You-uns leave yer shootin' irons on the porch."
And Bogart.
*Shiver.*
His other punishment film was The Return of Dr. X - a sci-fi where Bogie has a white skunk-streak in his hair.
Does that explain...
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