Anodyne

So I spent most of yesterday stomping around in a really bad mood. Didn't accomplish a damned useful thing; trying to pull out an inconvenient fence rail, the rope broke and dumped me on my ass. Freekin' improvised wifi got all wimpy on me. Ruined the bread through sheer stoopid inattention. Yelled at the boys - who could give my ex lessons on guilt-tripping.

Come evening, I just wanted some comfort food for the brain. So naturally I reached for...



Now, lest you think me a complete girly-man, there's a perfectly plausible I mean, reasonable explanation here. Many years ago one of the pleasures I used to share with my wife, when she was my wife and when we used to share pleasures, was to read aloud to her. And one of her favorite books for this activity was William Goldman's The Princess Bride. Often I'd just read scenes, like the duel on the Cliffs of Insanity or the battle of wits. She got to pick. When the movie came out, in '85 as I recall, of course we had to go see it and to my shock the movie is every bit as good as the book. For reasons that probably don't need to be explained I'm not a huge Rob Reiner fan, but give credit where it's due; he really nailed this movie. There's not a false moment in it.

When my daughter was reaching toddlerhood my days of reading to the lady in bed next to me were coming to an end, but that was sort of all right because my days of reading to my child were just beginning. Next to Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, daughter's very favorite book was...The Princess Bride. When she discovered the video, she damned near drove me to distraction with it but it never quite paled. So the book, and the movie, hold a lot of pleasant memories.

See? So it's not because I like romances or anything. Besides, how many movies leave themselves open to jokes like this: