Edward VIII; "The Scream"; "X-Men: The Last Stand"; Depression; Blinds

An assortment of items I've encountered of late.

Somehow of late, I became interested in the Duke and Duchess of Windsor. One of the best articles I found was Edward VIII of the United Kingdom.

An eye-opening article it was.

"Edward caused unease in government circles with actions that were interpreted as interference in political matters. His visit to the depressed coal mining villages in South Wales saw Edward call for "something to be done" for the unemployed and deprived coal miners. On the other hand, government ministers were also reluctant to send confidential documents and state papers to Fort Belvedere because it was clear that Edward was paying little attention to them and because of the perceived danger that Mrs. Simpson might see them. The Prime Minister also sent detectives from Scotland Yard to follow both the King and Mrs. Simpson and report on their whereabouts."

"Some historians have suggested that the Duke (and especially the Duchess) sympathised with Fascism before and during World War II, and had to remain in the Bahamas to minimise their opportunities to act on those feelings. These revised assessments of his career hinge on some wartime information released in 1996, and on further secret files released by the U.K. government in 2003. The files had remained closed for decades, as Whitehall judged that they would cause the Queen Mother substantial distress if released during her lifetime. U.S. naval intelligence revealed a confidential report of a conference of German foreign officials in October 1941, that judged the Duke "no enemy to Germany" and the only English representative with whom Hitler would negotiate any peace terms, "the logical director of England's destiny after the war". President Roosevelt had ordered covert surveillance of the Duke and Duchess when they visited Palm Beach, Florida, in April 1941. The former Duke of Wurttemberg (then a monk in an American monastery) convinced the FBI that the Duchess had been sleeping with the German ambassador in London, Joachim von Ribbentrop, had remained in constant contact with him, and continued to leak secrets. This evidence supports a theory held by many of the top officers in the British Army, as well as more than a few members of the civilian population, that Edward had passed details of the movements of the British Expeditionary Force in France, leading to the disaster at Dunkirk."

From the May issue of "ART News" about Edvard Munch's "The Intrepretations of Screams."

There were four versions of "The Scream" - all painted on cardboard.

One version of two was stolen, and still unrecovered, two years ago from the Munch Museum in Oslo.

A version was also stolen ten years, but recovered after threee months, from the National Gallery in Oslo.

The fourth version is owned by an unknown private collector

Monday, I trotted off to see "X-Men." I went to the new theatre in Madison since I'd read that it was using digital images. There's a "forward" that looks like a mini TV program that I think might be digital. But the movie was obviously film.

By the way: digitial indicates the images are fed by satellite and saved onto a computer.

An interesting tidbit from the "forward" was that "Bonnie and Clyde" (1967) was the first movie to receive an "R" rating.

Curiously a few later (1969) "Midnight Cowboy" was the only "X-rated" film to ever to win a Best Picture Oscar. Of course, the rating system has been revised. And can be very difficult to decipher. "Billy Elliot" was "R," but "Mission: Impossible III" is "PG-13."

An interesting premise: What if someone found an antibody that neutralized a person's mutant powers. In this case the source is a mutant named Leech. His mere presence can cause a reversal of mutant's powers. Should or would a mutant use it? (I did wonder a couple of days later if he was injected would the serum neutralize his power, this allowing other mutants to retain theirs. But what about the mutants who have already been injected?)

(A TV movie was done on the subject of parents knowing that their unborn son might be gay several years ago - see "The Twilight of the Gods".)

Alas, movies may have become so bombastic that there is so much going on that you really don't.

After the movie, I went next door to the WalMart and was immediately hit with a sense of severe depression. I think it must have been because this was the store I used for many months, and this was my first vist since mother had died.

The only thing I could think to do was to finish as quickly as possible and take a xanax as soon as I got home. Which actually seemed to work.

Very nasty! I'll have to try to avoid such situations. Or at least be more aware of them.

Although I've throughly enjoyed the uncovered front windows, since the glass is not thermal, the heat is very noticeable.

Before mother returned, I'd some three white wooden shades, but I never got around to putting them up. And since fall soon arrived, there was no problem. But summer is leaf of a different color.

Yesterday, I zipped by WalMart. But I didn't see exactly what I wanted. My next stop was Lowe's. Where is wound up sitting on the floor pulling out blinds. There were some really neat dark brown shades at around $50 a piece. Yikes. I never could find one that would cover the entire three windows - a distance of 9 feet. I finally decided on three matchstick "green tea colored" blinds of about three feet each that were very inexpensive - around $7.

They proved very easy to install and give the room a slight visual flair. Now if I can keep the cats from chewing on the cords. Hermes has already figured out he an do that. During the day, I can see out, but you can not see in. A nice feature. Of course, at night the reverse is true. So I'll have to watch those Bel Ami movies at twilight.

The house is on the backside of a t-shaped corner. So any living room action can be seen from a block away.

PAX!