Today's Reading and Viewing

To Be or Not To Be. Directed by Ernst Lubitsch.

I think I have seen this picture four times by now, and I love it. A comedy about Hitler's invasion of Poland, released in 1941 -- shortly after the Americans entered the war in Europe. Mel Brooks remade the movie in the 80s and Quentin Tarantino borrowed part of the plot for his WWII movie, but the original is still great. Now streaming on both Criterion and Max.

Virtue (story) by W. Somerset Maugham. (kindle and Audible audiobook).

A noteworthy line:

I rang off before she could say anything more. In heaven when the blessed use the telephone they will say what they have to say and not a word beside.

The Thistle (story) by James Tate. (hardcover).

Working on longer postcard project with this story.

Gone To the Woods: Surviving a lost childhood by Gary Paulsen. (kindle).

Paulsen is probably best known for his wilderness survival story Hatchet. In this memoir I thought he had some vivid descriptions; in one section he describes the terror of gutting his first fish and then the joy of eating that same fish immediately after he roasted in his campfire.