Margaret's Nearly Monthly News - October 2024
Happy Halloween! Also, one of my short stories got a nice review, plus brief thoughts about twelve angry cardinals.
Happy Halloween to all who celebrate!
As someone with an early November birthday, election season has been on my radar since I was old enough to realize I might miss out of voting the year I turned 18. (I didn't, but I was also voting in Texas at the time, and so the satisfaction of seeing my will translated into legislation would remain elusive for a few years yet.)
Now, of course, the entire planet is all too aware of the date of the next U.S. Presidential election.
(Insert a pause here as I wonder: "Why is election day the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November anyway?" Pause again as I open a new tab to ask DuckDuckGo that very question, and then lose all momentum as I fall down a rabbit hole of 19th century farming calendars, defunct electoral college schedules, and did you know that all states didn’t vote on the same day during national elections until 1845?)
But regardless, my fellow Americans, election day is almost here! Have voted yet? California has universal mail-in voting, but if you run into shenanigans at your polling place, call or text the Election Protection Hotline at 1-866-687-8683. Hang in there, cast your vote. We can do this.
In the meantime, on to the news.
From My Desk
I've been reviewed! More than that, I'm honored that Paula Guran named "All Belknaps Go Under the Mountain" one of her recommended stories for October in Locus Magazine. Check out the full list here, where the Belknaps find themselves in very flattering company.
Things I'm Reading and Watching
This month, my book group is reading In a Lonely Place by Dorothy B. Hughes. Even through the lens of a killer, I'm enjoying the window it provides into post-war Los Angeles, although I’m jealous about how much less onerous the drive out a Malibu seems to have been in those days.
My quest to revive in-theater movie-going/destroy exhibiter business models continues, which is exciting because we’re getting into Awards season, and while I haven't seen Megalopolis yet, I did enjoy Twelve Angry Cardinals— I mean, Conclave.
Maybe it was just the screening I went to, but I did not expect a theater of people to giggle so much in a film about a papal election. While it’s hard to say that we were laughing with a film in which no one is laughing, the editor isn’t afraid to linger on a choice reaction shot. As Isabella Rossellini told Tom Power, her character, Sister Agnes, doesn’t have a lot of lines, “but I think you always know what she is thinking.” And so we laughed, because she couldn’t, and we were thinking it too.
Rossellini isn’t alone. Conclave is a film of many Significant Looks™ by very talented actors. And how can the audience not react when Stanley Tucci turns to Ralph Fiennes with a look that says: “Is this guy for real?”
From the Cutting Room Floor of the Duolingo Dystopia
Sometimes, people ask me what the impetus behind creating this newsletter was.
Lily and I appreciate you taking the time to listen.
And That's the Nearly Monthly News!
Anything on your mind? Drop me a line! In the meantime, hang in there. I'll see you next month.