Streak Breaking Tell All

Yesterday did not start out promisingly.  The streets were an inch deep in ice and snow as I made my way into work.  There was some forecast rain but we all know how that has gone lately.  To top off this ominous beginning of the day I had one of my least favorite activities to look forward to first thing in the morning – the monthly board meeting.

This month’s meeting wasn’t as bad as some except that it droned on and on.  I wasn’t sure why so many of the mundane things were being highlighted for the board and causing the meeting to run almost two hours instead of the usual one.  That is until the last five minutes when it was revealed that the head politician’s annual evaluation and contract review was coming up.  He had used the meeting and pelted us with his (in reality our) accomplishments for the sole purpose of self-aggrandizement; and people wonder why I complain about politicians.  Testament to the length of the board meeting was the condition of the roads.  The warm up finally arrived.  It’s telling about how bad this winter has been when temperatures in the high 30’s qualify as a heat wave.  The road had all magically melted down to the pavement in the interminable time we spent being bombarded by his (in reality our) accomplishments.

Speaking of politicians, I’m heading into the last episode of House of Cards on Netflix with incomparable Kevin Spacey.  The last few episodes have been jaw dropping and reaching the point of wonder at how low his character will go.  I’m glad I’ll have a couple of Zorba’s beers under my belt tonight when I tackle the season finale – this show is definitely not for the squeamish.

Scary Dude

I may have a heightened sense of the squeamish because I’ve been bouncing around the strange and wonderful world of Chuck Palahniuk’s mind for the last week reading his book, Tell All.  This was a tougher read than most not because of a poor plot or lacking of his usual outrageous savagery; it had all that.  Instead he wrote the book as some kind of half assed screenplay which made the narrative flow almost impossible to follow at times.

The plot involves an aging actress in the 1950’s who’s kind of a cross between Katherine Hepburn and Elizabeth Taylor.  The narrator is her personal assistant who’s molded her into the star she’s become and protects her against the world and herself.  She spends most of the book protecting her from her latest (sixth or seventh) husband.  Palahniuk highlights all the names he drops from Hollywood’s golden age but he reserves an almost animalistic rage towards Lillian Hellman. 

I’d love to know the back story of why he has such a frenzied wrath towards Ms Hellman.  She’s pilloried from beginning to the end of the book.  I enjoyed the read but I think this is Palahniuk’s weakest effort.

So the consecutive days streak of snow blowing was broken yesterday.  I did round up some of the softened ice near the top of the driveway when I got home and technically could have used the snow blower but this was a streak I really wanted to end.  My wife is getting nervous as her return date approaches and we still have a blanket of snow to welcome her back.