Bette Davis Eyes

It's Friday and Pizza Night and Salad at our house. Pizza always makes the week make sense.

The World Cup Games were astonishing today and I didn't even take one nap.

Serbia beat Germany who had trampled the Aussies, the Socceroos, in a 4-0 debacle. Well, Serbia beat them 1-0.

England was a bore with a tie but Algeria really kept the place rolling and played really well. The English fans showed their class by booing their team off the field.

The shocker, however, was the U.S. game that ended in a tie but they really deserved to win although they were dead in the first half. It seems the referee from Mali invalidated the U.S. third goal and everyone watching said that from every camera angle, no one could see a foul.

I couldn't see one either. In Italian, we call that sort of referee, "Arbitro Venduto" (Sold Out Referee - it sounds much better in Italian).

Again, FIFA, one of the most corrupt organizations in the world, has a rule that a referee can make any decision and not have to explain it or give any particular reason for his stupidity.

Going back to some good things about being unemployed, I look better and I look younger with the stress of working gone from my face. Thinking about money brings a little stress back but I'll deal with it.

The best thing about being unemployed and watching the World Cup is that unemployment has also given me time to read again. I've got stacks of books just awaiting me and each one is a new adventure.

I finished Shutter Island and thought the movie was better although Scorsese followed the book hook, line and sinker.

Today I finished The Girl Who Walked Home Alone by Charlotte Chandler. It's a bio of Bette Davis in her own words.

Kate Hepburn and Bette Davis were the two greatest actresses Hollywood of the Golden Era ever produced. Both were New Englanders and true to themselves and their own personalities.

She took instant dislikes to fellow actors, like Errol Flynn and Lillian Gish, but could be quite gracious to newcomers.

And, yes, it was Bette Davis who uttered the immortal phrase "What A Dump!" in one of her movies which was used in "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" She even said "What A Dump!" as her opening line in NYC when she was honored at Lincoln Center.

The book was filled with lots of quotes and lots of one-liners but, like Hepburn, she danced to her own tune although it meant broken marriages and even estrangement from her daughter.

Beneath the sarcasm, her life was one of sadness which she never allowed to defeat her. All her life, she took care of her mother, her sister and a mentally challenged child with no complaints or pity pot seeking.

She fought for her artistic integrity and was suspended by Warner Brothers when they gave her stupid roles to play. A two time Academy Award Winner, she lived to act. Although she didn't save her money and had to resort to some ghastly roles, in the end, she acted to live.

And like her arch rival, Joan Crawford, she never let her fans down.

I still recall when the then President Reagan honored her as one of the Kennedy Center Artists, she kept interrupting him as he spoke going on and on about "Little Ronnie Reagan and the fact that he was now the president". (He had appeared in one of her most famous films "Dark Victory". )

Reagan, in his finest role as president, didn't miss a beat when he responded, "Bette, if I had been given your roles, I would have stayed in Hollywood". (Or something to that effect - I'm paraphrasing).

What's it like to devote yourself to one ideal, although it destroys everything else that could bring you happiness?

What's it like to keep on going although each role isn't a success?

What's it like to be deliberately unaware of those around you as long as you achieve the one thing that you believe in?

I guess, it's your life force. Davis called it her aura. It could also been her own particular brand of courage, with all caution thrown to the winds.

My favorite Davis quote is the last one she gave to Ms. Chandler:

"Happiness should never be postponed. Life is the past, the present, and the perhaps..."

I believe we all have our own forms of "perhaps", the forks in the roads that tell us we have no other choice at that particular moment in time.

Sleep well and on to Saturday's games.