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[Hello Goodbye]

I just read Love of Seven Dolls, a short novel by Paul Gallico (1954)...





In postwar Paris, Mouche, a young, recently orphaned woman who has lost her job with a carnival, is persuaded not to commit suicide by the cheerful puppets of Captain Coq, a gruff puppeteer


It's beautifully written and the author tells a tale of innocent love, pain and enchantment.  Paul Gallico dedicated the book to Burr Tillstrom and Fran Allison who were the creators of a TV show I remember watching as a child...

<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pS8peVvnXSI" target="_blank" class="aeva_link bbc_link new_win">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pS8peVvnXSI</a>

Kukla, Fran and Ollie   Puppeteer: Burr Tillstrom


Paul Gallico's short story The Man Who Hated People served as the basis of the 1953 motion picture Lili.  Paul Gallico rewrote his short story into this short novel after the success of the motion picture.  This scene from Lili depicts a critical moment in the novel...

<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uFr-TxP-ATs&amp;t=34s" target="_blank" class="aeva_link bbc_link new_win">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uFr-TxP-ATs&amp;t=34s</a>

<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LisZfBEOX5Y&amp;t=39s" target="_blank" class="aeva_link bbc_link new_win">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LisZfBEOX5Y&amp;t=39s</a>

[Normandie]

Paul Gallico, as I'm sure you already know, Barry, also wrote The Poseidon Adventure.

[Hello Goodbye]

I didn't know that, Kathy.  As I mentioned in this thread:

Last movies you saw & what you thought of them

I recently found out that Paul Gallico's short story was adapted for the movie Lili.  Although I've had the movie in VHS format for years (I now have the DVD), I never paid much attention to the credits until a few weeks ago.  I've learned my lesson.   

I just had to read the novel so I treated myself to an autographed first edition...





I really enjoyed reading this novella.  His writing style evoked many emotions.  He was a gifted writer and storyteller.  I can't believe he once described himself as a "rotten novelist."

[Normandie]

I really enjoyed reading this novella.  His writing style evoked many emotions.  He was a gifted writer and storyteller.  I can't believe he once described himself as a "rotten novelist."

I'll have to look that one up, Barry. I agree, Gallico was very gifted.

Your post prompted me to share my first Lusitania book, by Eric Sauder, of course.    He's so sweet; not only did he autograph it, but he got his brother Bill (Titanic expert) and ocean liner artist Ken Marschall to sign it, too. 

[Hello Goodbye]

An autographed book always makes a special keepsake, Kathy.  Yours is very special with both the author's and artist's signatures.

A transcript of The Man Who Hate People with illustrations as it appeared in The Saturday Evening Post appears here:  The Man Who Hated People

[Normandie]

More winter reading while the temps plummet:

[nimrod]

If there are any medical people here  .........or in fact anyone at all..

I recommend this hilarious book, the diaries of a junior doctor in the UK. (all apparently true).

https://www.booktopia.com.au/this-is-going-to-hurt-secret-diaries-of-a-junior-doctor-adam-kay/book/9781529062335.html?msclkid=3e1c42526f521c79b01121cc21b9b9c7&utm_source=bing&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=Booktopia%20-%20AU%20-%20Shopping&utm_term=4585169650599087&utm_content=All%20Custom%20Label

They have also made a tv series out of the book, streaming on Binge.

[Dmitry]

Looks like it is an interesting book.

I once read `The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat' by neurologist Oliver Sacks and was very impressed.

[Hello Goodbye]

I'll look for it, Kev.  I enjoy those kind of books.

When I started my residency at The Mount Sinai Medical Center, I read The House of God...





The author, whose real name is Stephen Bergman, was a resident at nearby Beth Israel Medical Center at the time.

[Normandie]

I believe I may have mentioned this before, but—voilà!—a book on the Titanic from the iceberg's point of view. 

This is another precious acquisition (real author: Senan Molony. He's brilliant, IMO) that I've had hidden away from spilled juice, crumbs, and inquisitive little ones.

Now it's time to read!

[Hello Goodbye]

^

I've learned that the iceberg and the Titanic started life at about the same time...

<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rnb75tuyy4c" target="_blank" class="aeva_link bbc_link new_win">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rnb75tuyy4c</a>

7:18 - 9:05

[Normandie]

I've learned that the iceberg and the Titanic started life at about the same time...

That's the same shot that the  1953 (Webb/Stanwyck) film (i.e., with the iceberg shearing off) starts with!

That clip you flagged was interesting. I'll have to watch the complete version.

[Hello Goodbye]

Right, Kathy...

<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQ7MAigAhas" target="_blank" class="aeva_link bbc_link new_win">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQ7MAigAhas</a>

Now watch the footage just before the 7:18 mark where Dismay...I mean Ismay decided that the bulkheads be lowered and that the deck of the Titanic shouldn't be cluttered with 48 lifeboats .

It's a good documentary which deserves your viewing.  It shows that the sinking of the Titanic was a "tragedy of errors" starting with those two decisions made by Ismay during the ship's planning.

It looks like the author of Confessions of an Iceberg has a good sense of humor.  The iceberg is exclaiming "Bloody Hell!" because it caught a glimpse of Ismay on board.  (You know I like ragging on that guy.    )





Light the last four boilers.  Let's get into New York on Tuesday night and surprise them all, eh EJ?

[Hello Goodbye]

<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RqN0fboW_es&amp;t=193s" target="_blank" class="aeva_link bbc_link new_win">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RqN0fboW_es&amp;t=193s</a>

3:00

I think I know what that woman was muttering when she caught sight of Ismay. 

[Normandie]

It's a good documentary which deserves your viewing.  It shows that the sinking of the Titanic was a "tragedy of errors" starting with those two decisions made by Ismay during the ship's planning.

I beg to differ.    At the time she sailed, Titanic was fully compliant with Board of Trade regulations regarding lifeboats; as a matter of fact, she had MORE than the number required at the time. So you can't pin that on Ismay. And, like all captains, Capt. Smith had the final say on any decisions made regarding the ship (e.g., speed).

[Hello Goodbye]

I know the Titanic was compliant with Board of Trade regulations at the time but Chief Designer Alexander Carlisle (I just learned about him just today) wanted 48 lifeboats during construction planning.  He mentioned to Ismay that it would put the Titanic in compliance should there be a future regulation change.  Ismay answered that passengers pay to see a ship, not lifeboats.  Furthermore at the British hearing when Ismay was asked if he had given any consideration to more lifeboats, he gave a real stupid answer that the position taken was that the Titanic was looked upon as being practically unsinkable and she was looked upon as a lifeboat herself.  At that hearing, Carlisle stated that he wanted 48 lifeboats on board.  Watch the video.  I never read testimony records but I'm sure Carlisle and Ismay's testimony was quoted accurately.

As I said, the documentary showed that the tragedy of errors started with two bad decisions made by Ismay and progressed to last minute change in crew and binoculars locked up in a storage compartment.  They could have broken the door to get them but they didn't.  And finally there were the rivets.  The builders used crappy rivets in the ship's construction.  There were other mistakes in between like Murdoch not maneuvering in a way to either miss the iceberg (a ship turns faster at speed, not slowing down with propellers going in reverse ) or to minimize collision damage.  But the rivets; that's something new I learned.  The metallurgists showed how the inferior alloy used contributed to the damage the ship sustained.

As far as Captain Smith is concerned, he ordered his ship ahead through an iceberg field while captains of other ships in the area decided not to proceed until daylight.  Ol' EJ didn't do the right thing either.

I know what it's like to be Pilot-in-Command and responsible for all souls on board.  I decided to postpone flight plans several times when conditions were not conducive to safe flight.


It's too bad that Walt Disney cartoons didn't come along until later.  Captain Smith could have taken a lesson from Jiminy Cricket...


I'm No Fool

<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A4-fCr5h_CM" target="_blank" class="aeva_link bbc_link new_win">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A4-fCr5h_CM</a>

 

[Normandie]

Barry, let's just agree to disagree. 

[Hello Goodbye]

Well, Kathy, I guess you believe in destiny and fate.  I believe just the opposite; man is master of his own destiny and makes his life what he wants it to be.

Here's someone who disagrees with me...





 

[Normandie]

Well, Kathy, I guess you believe in destiny and fate. 

I do indeed. I once edited an article about conducting therapy with Protestants, Catholics, and Jews. The consensus was that Catholics are the most difficult to work with because of their strong sense of fatalism.

There are several (unsubstantiated) reports that a crew member told a passenger "God Himself could not sink this ship"—a line uttered by Billy Zane's character at the outset of Cameron's film. I personally believe that, if true, that sealed the ship's fate right there.

[Kaleidoscope_Eyes]

Well, Kathy, I guess you believe in destiny and fate.  I believe just the opposite; man is master of his own destiny and makes his life what he wants it to be.

Oh Barry! That just made me think of a quote from one of my favourite books The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov.

Two characters strike up a conversation with (unbeknown to thrm) the devil (!) and one of them says that fate doesnt exist, and man creates and rules his own course of life. To which the devil replies:

Devil: But here is a question that is troubling me: if there is no God, then, one may ask, who governs human life and, in general, the whole order of things on earth?

Ivan: man governs it himself!

Devil: Pardon me, but in order to govern, one needs, after all, to have a precise plan for a certain, at least somewhat decent, length of time. Allow me to ask you, then, how can man govern, if he is not only deprived of the opportunity of making a plan for at least some ridiculously short period, well, say, a thousand years , but cannot even vouch for his own tomorrow? And in fact, imagine that you, for instance, start governing, giving orders to others and yourself, generally, so to speak, acquire a taste for it, and suddenly you get ...hem ... hem ... lung cancer ... and so your governing is over! You are no longer interested in anyone’s fate but your own. Your family starts lying to you. Feeling that something is wrong, you rush to learned doctors, then to quacks, and sometimes to fortune-tellers as well. Like the first, so the second and third are completely senseless, as you understand. And it all ends tragically: a man who still recently thought he was governing something, suddenly winds up lying motionless in a wooden box, and the people around him, seeing that the man lying there is no longer good for anything, burn him in an oven. And sometimes it’s worse still: the man has just decided to go to Kislovodsk – a trifling matter, it seems, but even this he cannot accomplish, because suddenly, no one knows why, he slips and falls under a tram-car! Are you going to say it was he who governed himself that way? Would it not be more correct to think that he was governed by someone else entirely?