Witchcraft and Sorcery

NEWS ITEM, WEDNESDAY DECEMBER 14, 2011: 

A Saudi woman was beheaded after being convicted of practicing "witchcraft and sorcery," according to the Saudi Interior Ministry, at least the second such execution for sorcery this year.
The woman, Amina bint Abdulhalim Nassar, was executed in the northern Saudi province of al-Jawf on Monday.
A source close to the Saudi religious police told Arab newspaper al Hayat that authorities who searched Nassar's home found a book about witchcraft, 35 veils and glass bottles full of "an unknown liquid used for sorcery" among her possessions. According to reports, authorities said Nassar claimed to be a healer and would sell a veil and three bottles for 1500 riyals, or about $400.

A story and script idea, Saturday December 17, 2011.


A young American couple breaks up.  The man is distraught, heartbroken, the woman, as usual, doesn't care.  He travels to Saudi Arabia, and practices there what the Saudis consider "witchcraft and sourcery".  He is arrested and tried, sentenced to death by beheading.  The case gets wide coverage all over the world. The American ambassador issues a formal protest, Amnesty International protests, the case drags on.  The young man, in Saudi prison is unreachable, by his own choice.  He wants to die, and does not respond to the pleas of his family or his former fiancee.   In the end, the international brouhaha, the posturing by politicians and celebrities, comes to naught,  he is executed.

Good

"I'd rather be lucky than good", said the legendary New York Yankees pitcher Lefty Gomez. So would anyone, come to think of it. Being good and unlucky can be a curse, can it not? Luck trumps goodness every time.  Luck trumps ungoodness as well.  Who's ever good and lucky at the same time?

Fatal Production

At the end of film Fatal Attraction, the character played by Glen Close commits suicide.  Well, no (I haven't seen the film), she actually gets shot.   She gets shot because the preview audiences felt that the character must be punished. So, the ending scene was reworked and re-shot.

And that change was suggested by a powerful man in Hollywood, who recently passed away, named Joseph Farrell.  There were many other films that have been altered following tests using preview audiences.

"Joe Farrell has ruined more films than anybody in Hollywood," writer-director John Milius told the Los Angeles Times in 2006.

New Olympic Sport

They are called 'Chuckits', after the company that manufactures them and probably holds a patent.  They are ball launchers for dogs. Made of flexible plastic they can throw a ball from what I have seen as far as 200 feet.  You hold it above your head, swing it, and the ball, usually a tennis ball, flies.  The dog runs after it to fetch it.  (Not my dog!)

How about a new Olympic sport?  Without the dog, needless to say.  The launcher and the ball would have to be standardized, some reasonable rules invented, and off we go. Sportsmen of all ages, I imagine, could participate.

HOT!

"What are you up to these hot days before Christmas, I'll ask incorrectly?" asked a friend lately.  Why 'incorrectly'?  Is it because I never ask him or anybody personal questions, until they voluntarily reveal themselves?  He knows about my personal matters more than anyone else, and we've known each other for ages.  I hate when people you meet on the street or in line at a store, suddenly ask a personal question, after a brief conversation about vegetables or cranes across the avenue.   I cut them off (and later regret it, but that's who I are.)

And why 'hot'?  It's not hot where I sit, and it's certainly not hot where he hangs his hat.  Hot politically? Hot, as in Iran? Or in the Euro zone?  Hot Republican presidential campaign? It brought to mind Yogi Berra, when New York mayor John Lindsay's wife congratulated him on his outfit saying "You look cool, Yogi!", to which he responded "You don't look too hot yourself!" (Mrs Lindsay's reaction was not recorded by historians.) Anyway, my friend didn't explain, and I didn't ask, as we were discussing much more weighty matters.

I replied, quoting some forgotten piece of film dialogue: "As little as possible."