A Passing Comet

There are so many doors to be opened, and I'm not afraid to look behind them.

Elizabeth Taylor
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Hollywood lost one of it's greatest stars Elizabeth Taylor was a consummate actor. But she was one of those for whom people had a mixed up impression. People could not tell the difference between her public life and her private life.

She had many husbands and led a flamboyant life. She was considered a sexy womanm even a sex symbol. And yet she said she never slept with a man she wasn't married to and asked how many women could make that claim.

Whenever she made a film, particularly in her later career, there was always a lot of publicity about her. That was her public life.

I almost met her once. We were working in the same community. I was doing a play and she was filming "Who's Afraid Of Virginia Wolf." I remember an incident in a local store. There was a front page picture of her on a magazine as Martha in Virginia Wolf, a dissipated drunken older woman. There were two ladies standing and looking at the picture, remarking how terrible she looked and saying it was because of the libertine life she led, having all those husbands. The face in the picture wasn't Elizabeth Taylor it was Martha in the film. And that's a big problem for actors.

Her private life was as an actor and that's where she really lived. That part of her life never made the magazines, of course. The only way one could know about it was to see her films, and you rarely caught her acting, or seeming to act, because she was such a professional that she did her job extremely well in her private life, behind the doors.

DB - Vagabond Journeys
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The Ball Game
a story in 7 parts

Part 5

So Jimmy went off to play for the White Plains Aces for a few years. While there he improved his fielding skills and, of course, his batting. He became a valuable player.

Then one day the Brooklyn Hawks traded their short stop for a pitcher, moved the third base player into short stop and brought up Jimmy to cover third. He was so proud when he put on the Brooklyn Hawks uniform that he immediately had a picture taken so he could show his mother.

Jimmy did well at the plate, occasionally hitting a homer. And he did well fielding ground balls and catching infield flies.

A few years went by and he didn't see his father. Then one day during a tense game with the Wheeling Jets an amazing incident occurred. It was the fifth inning there were no outs. There was a man on first and one on third. There was a one and one count on the batter. At the next pitch the bat connected with a loud smack.

"Jimmy" he heard the voice and looked over to his right. His father was standing next to the third base coach. Then he looked at the ball and saw it gently, gracefully floating toward him like a bubble on the breeze. It was a sure hit, about to land short of the outfield, just past him. He stepped over and when it was right in front of him he grabbed it putting out the batter, flung it straight into the catcher's mitt putting out the runner from third and then stepped onto the third base bag, received the ball back from the catcher and tagged out the runner who had rounded second and was heading straight for him. A triple play.

Next day in the paper there was a picture of him and the catcher. They were called the heroes of the day. But Jimmy's heroics didn't end on the ball field.

(Part 6 tomorrow)

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SPRING QUESTION

NASA has planned to send a two man mission on an 18 month trip to the planet Mars. It would take 6 months for the astronauts to get there and after 6 months of exploration another 6 months to return.

Should they do it and why, and if not, why not?

dbdacoba@aol.com

1 answer so far

I eagerly await your answer.

DB
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