Last night, I watched The
Last night, I watched The Manchurian Candidate on TCM (which has become my favorite movie channel). I have of late been remiss and reluctant to sit down and blog. The sense of inertia has been great. But I just got done googling the movie title, wondering, and not being sure, when it was made. If it was made in 1964, that would be one. If it was made before 1963, that would be quite another. 1962. The book was published in 1959.
I had never seen the whole movie. I knew it was difficult. Dorothea had agreed to watch it with me. She made it to the first shooting, and left. The children, including a school friend of Madeline's and now neighbor, were downstairs watching DVDs of episodes of the The OC. So I brought the old, portable TV up, plugged it in to the cable extension that usually lays coiled up under the couch, and set it on a chair. The movie was from 1962, the couch from 2000, the TV from 1989, the chair from 1936.
The parallel that I draw is between the movie's line, delivered by the Angela Lansbury character, something to the effect that the security state that will come into being will make that would make "martial law seem like anarchy." The Wikipedia article on the book refers to the Second Red Scare --McCarthyism. I suppose that the first Red Scare is that after the First World War.
And I cannot help but juxtapose this with The New York Times editorial on the current inaccurate use of the term Commander-in-Chief for President Bush. Bush is not my Commander-in-Chief, because I am not in the military. But it is the creep of sloppy language that gives him, and the government, more authority, or the appearance of more authority, then they have or deserve. So, while the The Manchurian Candidate has spooky parallels to the Kennedy assassination, it continues, 45 years later, to have spooky connotations.
I realized yesterday that I missed the memorial service for a Friend's mother. And I skipped the Adult Education about Vocal Ministry today. I did get greeted in the hall after Meeting by Sandy, who had emailed me earlier, after I got an email from Anne who was (happily, for me) indignate that I hadn't had a welcoming ceremony. There was a welcoming for Bob last week. He'd transferred his membership from Minneapolis. They had cake and ice cream for him. I told Sandy, in response to her query as to what I would like, that I "am a middle-aged, over-weight, pre-diabetic" man who doesn't really need any cake or ice cream. What I would like is singing. So, maybe on February 18th, the next third First Day, we can have a singing at the Meetinghouse.