Random Words

These pictures are random selections, and what I'm writing about today could be considered bizarre. Throughout the week, I collect various news clippings that attract my eye. Sometimes words or pictures trigger a full paragraph. Other times, a line will amuse me. Consider this statement from the WSJ on Sat/Sun 5/15 &5/16 - "Long-term portfolios are going to have short-term volatility." That covers all bases. At this juncture, I plan on setting my portfolio on fire.

Unless you are living in a cave (like Carlsbad Caverns, above), you are aware that President Obama has selected Elena Kagan as his choice for the Supreme Court to replace Justice Stevenson. Now we get to read the daily blah blah, but this sentence in a column by Peggy Noonan (excellent writer) caught my eye, "Kagan seems to get along with everyone and not to be insane." I laughed out loud. She continues, " This is actually a major plus in all nominees now, as is collegiality." 'Nuff said.

Finally, David Mamet has a new book published called Theater, and it is a collection of essays on that subject. As a revered artist himself, his top ten list of great 20th century American plays is thought-provoking. He writes, "These plays treat American issues and are written in an American idiom closer to real poetry than to prose."

Here you go:

1. Our Town/ Thornton Wilder

2. The Front Page/ Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur

3. Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?/ Edward Albee

4. A Streetcar Named Desire/ Tennessee William

5. All My Sons/ Arthur Miller

6. Doubt/ John Patrick Shanley

7. The Time of Your Life/ William Saroyan

8. The Boys in the Band/ Mart Crowley

9. The Best Man/ Gore Vidal

10. The Women/ Clare Boothe Luce

Live theater - the intensity of the moment. Movie versions (I've seen #2, 3, 4, 5, 6, and 10) don't do the plays justice.

What's on your list?

Now, off to gather more clippings, and wipe off my hands - smeary newsprint. Ah, nothing like it.