KEY WEST LOU / OPPENHEIMER OUTSTANDING

The movie Oppenheimer absolutely outstanding! See it if you can.

I went to the movies yesterday afternoon for the first time since pre-COVID. Steve, Cindy, Ellen and Louis. At the Tropic Cinema. There were 5 of us watching the movie. Our four and one other. Made me wonder how the theater made money.

Oppenheimer is a bit long. The movie’s only negative. It kept me on the edge of my seat throughout. A low grade tension. One of the factors that made the film good.

The movie is the story of the making of the atomic bomb which was dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The background things one does not necessarily know. The personalities, political pulling, professional pressures, etc. Loved it!

Oppenheimer is an Academy Award winner. Best film! Its star Cillian Murphy deserves Best Actor. Matt Damon plays General Groves. A different role for him. Best Supporting Actor without question.

My age a factor in enjoying the film a bit more perhaps than others. I am 88. I was 10 years old when the bomb was dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. A few weeks short of entering the fifth grade. I recalled those days distinctly and shared them with my friends afterwards at dinner.

There was no TV back in 1945. It was the radio and newspapers. Magazines sometime. What I knew immediately at the time was from the newspapers, radio and listening to the adults around me talking.

My friends were knowledgeable also. Basil McHarris and Guy Cristallo. It has been years since I’ve seen or talked with them. Don’t know if they are still alive. I have a distinct recollection of sitting on Basil’s porch and my grandfather’s also talking with them about the bomb. Our conversations were knowledgeable. One hundred thousand dead, nothing would grow for hundred years, etc. These were the facts publicized at the time.

Since I am older than everyone it seems these days, when I shared the recollection/information with my friends afterwards at dinner they were surprised.

It was an early dinner at The Grand. August a good deal. Half price all day for locals on everything. Booze and food.

I had a good time…..the movie followed by good friends over a good meal.

The cornerstone of the First National Bank building at the corner of Duval and Front Streets was laid this day in 1905. The building retains all its natural glory even today. A beautiful edifice!

Japan annexed Korea in 1910. Korea remained under Japanese control till the conclusion of World War II. Japan maltreated the Koreans during all those years. Such is why it took till last week and their “let’s be friends” meeting at Camp David where Presidnet Biden brought Japan and South Korea together.

“Dog Day Afternoon” is a terrific movie starring Dustin Hoffman. The 1975 film was inspired by an actual 1972 attempted bank robbery in which 2 men took 7 employees hostage at a Chase Manhattan branch in Brooklyn. The robbery a botched job. The movie a comedic representation of the robbery.

Amazing how abortion backfired on Republicans. They finally won on the issue with the Supreme Court’s decision last year which was adverse to Roe v. Wade.

Republican joy followed. Not for long, however. Women and young of America joined in opposition to the decision.

The Republicans blew it! As they seem to be blowing most things these days.

I disagree with the title of the editorial in today’s Key Citizen: Middle Ground Is Where To Look For Climate Solution. Some things are beyond compromise. More than a “political” solution is required. All out war to correct and resolve climate issues is needed.

The problem is world wide. The U.S. alone correcting its policies is not enough if China continues as it has, for example.

One even more disastrous outcome is inevitable. One no one speaks of. Maui hurting today. South California and adjoining states, also. How long can the federal government keep helping? How long can insurance companies continue paying claims?

Money does not grow on trees!

A lack of money will be the final “disastrous” outcome of climate change if nations do not take the bull by the horns and do something about it.

Book banning is beyond me. Those who support and promote it manifest a basic ignorance. Literature still remains the basic instrument for children to learn. If they uncover a dirty word or two, or a sex act, or whatever, so what? All part of life. They are going to pick up on it at some point no matter how hard the suppression is to “protect” them.

These banning nuts forget their children have cell phones and TV available to them. There is more than one way for them to be exposed to that which a parent might wish to protect them.

Then there are those parents, perhaps a better than thou mother, who brings the boy friend to her bed at night when she thinks her children are asleep. They can hear her moans and groans through the walls.

I became addicted to reading at an early age. Did not necessarily understand all I read. Nevertheless, struggled through many books.

My parents purchased a new home in 1941. Over the course of the first year, they also bought a new living room and dining room. The dining room set came with a china. We were not affluent. We had no “china.” My parents instead filled the china with odd glass pieces and books. Many books.

One a set of John Steinbeck novels.

I began reading them in 1943. I was all of 7-8 years old. I used to sit in a large easy chair in the living room. The Steinbeck novel in my hands. Next to me in the chair, a 3 inch thick red Webster’s dictionary. I had to look up many words as I read along. It was a whole new world to me!

I recall getting through several Steinbeck novels during those early years. The Grapes of Wrath and Of Mice and Men among them. The dictionary pages became soiled from constant use.

Not only were many words strange to me, things were also. Early on, sex was still not in my focus.

My love for reading continues to this day. I continue learning. Not all words are familiar to me. Several times a day, I find myself going on the internet to see what a word means.

My “reading life” has been a joy. The “bad things” I might have read did not hurt me. All part of the learning process. Again I must state how I cannot understand this desire to ban. Simply stated, books are good and healthy. A touch of trash here and there is not going to hurt a young one’s mind or character in the long run.

Enjoy your day!

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