Wombat

The Wild & Scenic Environmental Film Festival screened last night at the Vets Memorial Theater. Wombat was the best—unlike many environmental "message" films, this one is short, clever, and utterly hip. Oh, and it's spot on with the message, too

One down

Yesterday's Los Angeles Times carried the obituary of Barry Tunick, who, along with Sylvia Bursztyn, had been writing the Times' Sunday crossword puzzles since the '80s. I've been working crossword puzzles for nearly ever, and those puzzles have always been my favorites for their clever clues, the wit and the puns, for how smart they are. Turns out Tunick was the one who wrote those clues, the one who loved the puns.

I never knew anything about either one of them before yesterday, only that I enjoy their creations immensely. Working one of their puzzles is one of the small yet completely satisfying occupations of my life. And now one half of that partnership is gone. Coincidentally, just yesterday I began Puzzle No. 50 in Vol. 22 of their collected puzzles. I hope when I finish it, I'll find Vol. 23 at the bookstore.

Thanks, Barry. I'll miss you.

Wild things

The cedar waxwings are back, making themselves fat (and probably tipsy) on the grapes still present in great quantities on the vines that climb into the almond tree and onto the railing of my deck—elegantly dressed bandits in their black masks and grey morning coats traveling in big gangs.

The other returning visitors are the leaf-footed bugs that for reasons known only to them have found the inside of the metal reinforceing plate on my screen door to be an ideal home. They don't bother anything (leastways, not me), but I suppose they could be gathering their strength in preparation for an onslaught on some plant or other. I get an up-close-and-personal look at them, as they're usually clinging to the screen, making it easy to view both topside and underside.

I have images of both these critters, but there seems to be a glitch at blogspot HQ, and I haven't been able to add them to this post; thus the links. Maybe later . . . maybe tomorrow . . . maybe never. It's a virtual world thing.

Rocktober

The Colorado Rockies have swept the Arizona D'backs, four games to zip, and are headed to the World Series—first time for the franchise. I like both those teams but am happy for the Rockies and especially for Yorvit Torrealba, who once upon a time played for the Giants. Liked him then; like him now. Matt Herges, one of the Rocks' relief pitchers, was also once a Giant. My best memory of him is something he once said about how he focuses when he's on the mound: "I look for a pebble, and I concentrate on it before I begin my windup." When he began faltering and losing games, some of us considered sending him a handful of pebbles to help out.

Meanwhile, east of the Mississippi, the Boston Red Sox are down two games to one against the Cleveland Indians, and I'm rooting for the Tribe, mostly because they haven't won a Series since 1948 or so. Plus, they have Kenny Lofton, also a former Giant, who knocked in the winning run back in '02 (or some such year—I'm not very good at remembering that kind of stuff) to send the Giants to the Series.

What I'm enjoying most about watching these games is how nice it is not to care so bloody much about who wins. When the Giants are playing a game, every pitch is fraught with anxiety. Nevertheless, despite my more-detached attitude, it's my nature (and maybe human nature) to come down on the side of one or the other (which may explain world politics). Anyway, just having baseball for a few more days is happiness . . . soaking it up to try to make it last until spring.

Lovely Rita

Today is my sister's birthday. She's now 62 years old. I find this incomprehensible. I'm not bothered being 63—to my mind, getting older is much preferable to the alternative—but having a younger sister who is working her way into her 60s just doesn't compute for me. She's my little sister, fercryinoutloud! So stop kidding around—surely she's scarcely into her 30s!

Happy, happy birthday, dearest Reet! I'm very glad you were born.