We have this bit on Saturday mornings, the Principessa Ann Marie and I ... I sleep late (5:00 a.m.) and go down to the computer and start in on whatever project I went to sleep thinking about the night before. This morning there were two short stories for my MFA class I wanted to work on; one a rewrite, the other something new. I’m down there a couple of extra hours because the wife stays up in bed with the dog to give me some extra alone time. Then I go up to do my business and she escapes downstairs with Rigoletto to feed him and put on the television.
Usually she puts on Law & Order and we watch a few reruns together before we head off to breakfast at the local diner a few blocks away, but this morning, when I return from the Casa Stella library (kindle in hand with a big smile--having just read some of Ed Gorman’s latest Sam McCain novel, Bad Moon Rising--review next week), what do I see but John Ford’s The Grapes of Wrath on the television.
Steinbeck’s classic is one of my favorite of all time, especially the structure of the book, the descriptive narrative starts to chapters that embodied what was to come, but it is this passage that most epitomizes the theme.
This is the beginning—from “I” to “we”. If you who own the things people must have could understand this, you might preserve yourself. If you could separate causes from results, if you could know that Paine, Marx, Jefferson, Lenin were results, not causes, you might survive. But that you cannot know. For the quality of owning freezes you forever into “I”, and cuts you off forever from the “we”.
Anyway, without getting preachy about this great work of American literature, it also reminded me of a duet by Bruce Springsteen and Tom Morello singing The Ghost of Tom Joad ...
Crime Factory: The First Shift ... Get this book, Amici ... some very fine writing in this here collection. The review on the link has this to say: I've read Tafoya's, Smith's, and Stella's contributions so far. Tafoya and Smith are established Detectives Beyond Borders favorites, and Stella became a new one with his story "The Decider," an act of workplace wish fulfillment that management might want to keep out of workers' hands.
Charles (not Charlie) Stella has returned from Italia with his bride ... and they visited the home town where momma Stella was born ... here are some of the pictures, including the church where she was baptized 82 years ago!
That's Charles (not Charlie) outside Momma Stella's home town.
Che Bella!
The house ...
The church ...
The square ...
Mangia ...
Leslie!
Lovers ... that's what I'm talking about ...
He can't help himself ...
The kids also went to Venice, Rome and Florence (and swore next time they'd actually visit the REAL ITALIA (Sicilia) rather than hang around with all those Swiss and French types up north ... more pictures coming from Venezia and Florence down the TK road.
Bills-Yets (Moonachie Green) ... Forgetaboutit ... we’ll rock Fatso and his Yets ...
Bills 35, Moonachie Green 17
—Knucks
One of Momma Stella’s favorites ... (Bad Woman) ...
