Continued Confessions

while trying to stay positive

So the first thing I thought of this morning were the words Civil War. Not exactly an uplifting start to the day, but awaking naturally at 4:30 a.m. I had paying work to do and that’s what occupied much of my early morning. I am finding it increasingly difficult to handle the reporting of my results technologically, which at 79 isn’t surprising with my eye issues as well as advanced age.

But a bit more of my time later this morning fed into the Civil War theme because I became aware of the “Flagrant” supposedly comic podcast where the also old candidate for president held forth with the help of some enablers. One of them actually asked whether the guest would in the future tone down his rhetoric because of its impact worldwide; but everyone was having such a good time “weaving” that the ultimate message was that the candidate is a fun guy. I knew it wasn’t my kind of place when one of the hosts joked that “my wife can’t even parallel park” and the candidate managed to not answer specific questions even when repeated. Anyway, that’s enough negativity so let me get to what I have been wanting to share.

When Maggie Smith died recently, one of my favorite Substackers, Kareem Abdul Jabbar, gave a tribute to her which included a reference to her famous movie “The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie” which led me to begin watching it on my phone. As the credits started I saw that it was based on a story by Muriel Spark, and the name rang a bell for some reason. Later in the week, guess what book fell out of my pile as I was searching for a bedtime read? A hefty paperback entitled “All The Stories of Muriel Spark” still with the Goodwill sticker on its spine. This is a 2001 New Directions Paperback and the cover notes that it contains “every single one of her forty-one stories” but I didn’t see Miss Brodie in the contents. I then researched further and discovered that this particular story was a full-length novel although it was first published in The New Yorker magazine (perhaps serialized?). It was printed as a book of 170 pages in 1961. My 398-page paperback of stories also lists a number of other titles that are available from New Directions and I asume these are book length as well.

The end result of going down this particular rabbit hole of publishing history has served its purpose. I have avoided politics for the past hour or so. Thank you all for taking my mind away to a happier place today, after a rather fraught morning of trying to see well enough to prepare my reports. I am definitely living ODAT which for those not in the know, stands for One Day At A Time.

TTFN