Mr. Bean

Maybe I should quit reading at night.

I'm currently reading (out loud) two books -- the original Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum and Bill Spiedel's Sons of the Profits.

It leads to some really weird dreams.

If you have only seen the Oz movie, you are missing something. If nothing else, you'll have a new appreciation for the flick that we've all seen probably 20 times, or more. It was a huge event when I was a kid; I associate it with Halloween (it was the witch, right). The terror of Margaret Hamilton's cackle. Watching her years later as a guest on the Mike Douglas Show, and of course, they made her cackle there too -- 30 years later that's what she was known for. In real life she was a single parent, newly divorced when she took the role that would make her famous. Like many, she was simply in a struggle to survive. Wonder what she thought when she was offered the role. You probably didn't know she was burned so badly in the scene where she is melted, that she was home for six weeks, and refused to work with fire for the rest of filming.



And you should not be allowed to live in Seattle without reading something by Bill Spiedel. He's the guy that launched the Underground Tour. Nothing really has changed in 140 years. Seattle is about creating wealth for the ruthless. Henry Yesler, case in point. It is said when he died, the nicest thing the reporters could get people to say about him was "No comment." Quite the legacy.

But things haven't changed, have they? The poor move to the woods, just like the old days.