Stop Frame

HBO Films is about to show Recount , a behind the scenes dramatization of the 2000 US presidential election, specifically the Florida state recount(s). The usual left-leaning suspects are in hand, meaning this will about as even-handed as a Michael Moore "documntary". But in general I like HBO Films. Since I don't subscribe to HBO, though, I'll be waiting for the DVD. Part of my problem with the film is summed up in an MSNBC article that describes one side in the recount acting fairly while the other isn't. The film portrays the efforts of both camps to tilt the scales, one seemingly fairly and one not, in order to give their candidate the greatest chance of winning. Gee, wonder which is which? The larger issue is that I'm fairly certain that this docu-drama will miss a few pertinent points. The first, of course, is that except for a college-concocted recount scheme that no one, at the time, thought of, let alone endorsed, Bush won all the recounts. Second is...

I have often thought that my parents had a careful division of labor. My dad taught me craft, my mom taught me art. My dad taught me ethics, my mom taught me morals. In one regard things weren't equal though, and that was in regarding to reading and writing. Dad had no time for fiction, mom had little time for non-fiction. I followed after my mom, at least until recently. Mom forgave me the fact that I never liked, and still don't like, Steinbeck. I prefer Heinlein and Clark and Asimov and Bradbury and Ellison. She was my first reader and most honest critic. When she read Derelict 's first draft in a day I knew I had something that could sell. One of my best memories revolves around her birthday in 1975. My birthday treat to mom was to take her to a movie and buy her Bon-Bons. 1975 was the year of Jaws , so that's where I took her. We were both fans of Peter Benchley's novel and I told her going in, since I'd already seen the film a few times, that I thought...