"We are never so happy, nor so unhappy, as we suppose ourselves to be." (La Rochefoucauld)

Happy New Year! May we all get through this year with health and get back all the money we have lost (in various places, investments, activities, and lousy restaurants). And since January is named after Janus who was two faced, looking in different directions at the same time, just as January looks back at the previous and forward to the new year, and since Robert Burns wrote in "To a Mouse"--"...mousie, the present only toucheth thee, but backwards I cast my eye on prospects drear, and forward tho' I canna see I guess and fear." It's time to look back at all the movies I've seen and pick out what I think are the top ten. You already have had a look at the ten best poems I've ever read in a previous blog, but as for movies--here goes: 1) Casablanca 2) Gone With the Wind 3) The Razor's Edge 4) Four Feathers 5) The Godfather 6) From Here to Eternity 7) Hamlet 8) Spellbound 9) Treasure of the Sierra Madre 10) The Lost Horizon. And so there you have it--but not necessarily in like order. Sure there were other films that affected me spiritually, emotionally, and intellectually like "Henry V", "On the Waterfront", "The Gold Rush", and "The African Queen" and some that I can't remember so they are not included in my list because obviously they were not memorable. If you haven't' seen some of them, I'm sure you can find them on Google.

Last night, I had every intention of staying up until midnite to watch the ball fall in Times Square, but as I was watching a football game on TV, at about 10:30 my eyes started to close and I could not keep them open. Rhoda was next door having a drink and a chat with some single neighbor women so I decided that I really wanted to go to sleep--so I did. She came in at midnight though and woke me with a kiss. So much for that. I just went back to sleep and she followed. We have nothing special planned for today--just catching up on paying the bills that we failed to pay while cruising. I know it's New Year's Day and not Thanksgiving, but I'm really happy that Rhoda is cruising back to her own feisty self, and though I believe that happiness does not come from without, but only from within, she brings it on, and simply confirms my belief--if you get what I mean.