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A low point in High Noon

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Here’s the dialog from the church scene in High Noon that I referenced in my last post. The set-up is that five years prior town marshal Will Kane sent Frank Miller away to prison where he was supposed to be executed. Miller and his gang had lead a reign of terror in Hadleyville and the vicinity marked by lawlessness and violence until Kane and his deputies brought law and order. When Miller was sent away he promised to return and kill Kane. Instead of being executed, certain politicians (for reasons unknown) arranged for Miller to be pardoned. Just minutes after Kane is married to Amy, a Quaker woman, and retires as marshal he receives the telegram that Miller is about to arrive on the noon train and he is told that three of Miller’s notorious gang are already waiting at the train station waiting for him. Kane realizes he must still defend the town and face Miller, but since the town has calmed down in recent years Kane is down to just one deputy, who has quit because Kane wouldn’t recommend him as the new marshal. With Miller expected within the hour, Kane interrupts the town’s church service looking to deputize men to protect their community.

Does this sound familiar to you?

Parson: (reading from scripture) “For behold, the day cometh that shall burn as an oven, and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedness shall be…”

Kane enters at the back of the sanctuary. The parson stops reading and remarks that he is surprised to see Kane, noting that he never visited there much before and “didn’t see fit” to have his wedding performed in the church.

Parson: “What could be so important to bring you here now?”

Kane: “I admit I’ve never been much of a church-going man, and I didn’t get married in this church because my wife is a Quaker. But it looks like Frank Miller’s comin’ back on the noon train and I’m looking for special deputies.

A number of men nervously step forward, but are interrupted.

Cooper: Before we go rushing out into something that ain’t gonna be so pleasant, let’s be sure we know what this is all about. What I want to know is this. Ain’t it true that Kane ain’t no longer Marshal? And ain’t it true there’s personal trouble between him and Miller?

General hub-bub as every tries to talk. Kane’s friend, Jonas Henderson, calls for order and clears the church of the children so that the congregation can voice their differences of opinion like adults.

Coy: Yes, we all know who Miller is, but we put him away once. And who saved him from hanging? The politicians up North. I say this is their mess. Let them take care of it.

Sawyer: We’ve been payin’ good money right along for a marshal and deputies. Now the first time there’s any trouble, we’re supposed to take care of it ourselves. Well, what have we been payin’ for all this time? I say we’re not peace officers. This ain’t our job!

Another man: I’ve been sayin’ all along, we ought to have more deputies. If we did, we wouldn’t be facin’ this thing now.

Ezra: I can’t believe I’ve heard some of the things that have been said here. You all ought to be ashamed of yourselves. Sure, we paid this man and he was the best marshal this town ever had. It ain’t his trouble, it’s ours. I tell ya, if we don’t do what’s right, we’re gonna have plenty more trouble. So there ain’t but one thing to do now, and you all know what that is.

Trumbull: This whole thing’s been handled wrong. Here’s those three killers walking the streets bold as brass. Why didn’t you arrest them, Marshal? Why didn’t you put them in jail where they ought to be? Then we’d only have Miller to worry about instead of the four of ‘em.

Kane: I haven’t anything to arrest them for, Mr. Trumbull. They haven’t done anything. There’s no law against them sittin’ on a bench at the depot.

Woman: What’s the matter with you people? Don’t you remember when a decent woman couldn’t walk down the street in broad daylight? Don’t you remember when this wasn’t a fit place to bring up a child? How can you sit here and talk and talk and talk like this?

Parson: The commandments say, ‘Thou shalt not kill,’ but we hire men to go out and do it for us. The right and the wrong seem pretty clear here. But if you’re asking me to tell my people to go out and kill and maybe get themselves killed, I’m sorry. I don’t know what to say. I’m sorry.

Henderson: What this town owes Will Kane here it can never pay with money – and don’t ever forget it. He’s the best marshal we ever had, maybe the best marshal we’ll ever have. So if Miller comes back here today, it’s our problem, not his. It’s our problem because this is our town. We made it with our own hands out of nothing. And we want to keep it decent, keep it growing. We’ve got to think mighty clear here today. And we’ve gotta have the courage to do what we think is right no matter how hard it is. There’s gonna be fighting when Kane and Miller meet and somebody’s gonna get hurt, that’s for sure. Now, people up North are thinking about this town – thinking mighty hard, thinking about sending money down here to put up stores and to build factories. It’ll mean a lot to this town, an awful lot. Well, if they’re gonna read about shooting and killing in the streets, what are they gonna think then? I’ll tell ya. They’re gonna think this is just another wide-open town and everything we worked for will be wiped out. In one day, this town will be set back five years. And I don’t think we can let that happen. Marshal Kane is a mighty brave man, and a good man, and that’s why I hope he’ll leave town now while there’s time. Because if he’s not here when Miller comes, my hunch is there won’t be any trouble, not one bit. Tomorrow, we’ll have a new Marshal and if we can all agree here to offer him our services, I think we can handle anything that comes along. And to me, that makes sense. To me, that’s the only way out of this. Will, I think you’d better go while there’s still time. It’s better for you and it’s better for us.

Dumbstruck, Kane offers a quickly-spoken “Thanks” and leaves empty-handed.

When High Noon was originally released in 1952 it was considered to be a commentary on the McCarthy hearings and the betrayals and “duck and cover” attitudes of many in Hollywood. There certainly seems to be a timeless quality, though, to our tendency to let fear and politics cloud the issue even at the point where something has to be done.

Your name in lights

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While trolling through the Google referrals to this blog I came across something that I have to admit is a pretty bright idea: “the night writer”, a do-it-yourself light-up graffiti tag consisting of light emitting diodes, lithium battery cells and magnets:

The night writer extends the functionality of LED throwies by allowing a writer to catch a tag in lights. It’s cheap, easy to make and writes 12-inch glowing letters 25-feet in the air on any iron or steel surface…if you stand on a turned over garbage can.

While this use is suggested for graffiti I think it could easily be used as a distinctive and temporary way to support a cause or candidate, promote an event, decorate your house for the holidays or turn your car or van into a part-time billboard. I’m sure you can think of many other uses as well (if so, leave a comment).

The details are provided by the web-site Graffiti Research Lab, which says it is “Dedicated to outfitting grafitti artists with open source technologies for urban communication.” Despite the logo for this blog (which was originally created in a cruder form for my freelance writing business in the early 90s) I don’t endorse defacing public or private property (unless it’s your own) with spray paint. This light-up form, however, is a very creative idea and ultimately removable since it’s affixed with magnets. The link above provides simple instructions for creating a “tag” or whatever word or message you might want to display. All you need are inexpensive items such as foamcore, packing tape and the afore-mentioned LEDS, magnets and batteries — and a ferromagnetic surface.

Depending on weather conditions and the size of the batteries your message is self-sustaining for two weeks or so.

Nice writers

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Somewhere in my business career I came across a quote that goes something like, “Writers don’t like to write. Writers like to have written.” I can’t remember who said it or where I saw it, or even if I’ve got the wording absolutely correct, but I certainly understand the sentiment. Sometimes I’ve gotten more of a charge from clicking the “Finish” button and posting something here than I did when I got the idea for that post in the first place. The reason wasn’t because the post was especially profound, but just because I was “done”.

One of the reasons I started blogging, however, was to reinvigorate my writing chops. While I certainly wanted to voice my opinions on politics, faith and other matters there was fundamentally a desire to get back to the fun of stringing words together in a way that was at least stimulating to me; to recall the feeling of having a line or paragraph well up from the keys under my fingers so that I asked myself, “Where did that come from?”

I also love it when I experience that same sensation while reading someone else’s writing in the blogosphere. I like to stay current on events but as much as I love a good snark or appreciate a well-crafted, sharp-edged political commentary or a vigorous fisking of some inanity, my “aha!” moments usually come when I read someone who’s just letting the words flow simply because he or she can.

That’s what’s happened with a couple of recent visitors and commenters who have caught my attention, and I’d like to direct your attention their way as well: Plain Simple English and Plein Air Sketches. You’ll find a comely assortment of witty observations and piquant insight but most of all I think you’ll find, as I did, simply a joy and delight in applying the craft. Do check them out.

Coming from NFL Films: March of the Poison Pill

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Cue the John Facenda music (Bwa-dup bwa bwa ba ba bwa-dup bwa bwa) and voiceover:

“There was no March wind to blow through the Board room like a blitzing linebacker, yet the woolen-clad warriers huddled behind their laptops and lattes, squinting with steely eyes at spreadsheets and rosters while their wingtips pawed restlessly at the thick carpet. Normally there is a kind of brotherhood between the personnel directors and caplogists even though they are men who wear their team colors in silk around their necks. Though the grunts and screams of the playing field are replaced for them by the clicking of calculators and the ringing of cellphones, they know what it is like to be bloodied, to see the red ink pooling at the bottom of a ledger and they share the mutual respect of all those who wield the long knives. But not this day as two teams that didn’t like each other squared off: the purple Norse raiders against the predatory birds with their hawklike eyes on the ledger. This time there would be no talk of pensions or pinot noir, but of poison pills and guaranteed money. This time it was personal as they fought in the trenches for the prime real estate known in the NFL as cap space.”

So the Vikings tricked up an unmatchable offer to get restricted free agent and prize left guard Steve Hutchinson from the Seattle Seahawks and then the Seahawks turn around and do the same to get Nate Burleson away from the Vikes, even going so far as to make the total dollars in their offer identical to what the Vikings paid Hutchinson. I guess that’s an accountant’s way of saying “in your face” and you can bet there’s some playful towel snapping going on in the ‘hawks corporate locker room tonight.

Net it out, though, and you essentially have a trade where the Vikings get Hutchinson and a third-round pick for Nate Burleson and you’d have to say the Vikes got the better end of that deal even though Burleson is a talent. What you also have is the Vikings with, unofficially, a first round pick, two seconds and two thirds in this year’s draft as a result of recent deals. They’ve also indicated they’re looking at packaging some picks in order to move up, ostensibly for a chance to draft one of the top three quarterbacks (or, in my opinion, linebacker A.J. Hawk). If they are thinking of making a trade for a QB, however, I’ve got a better and cheaper option for them than going after Leinert, Young or Cutler.

Trade a second and a third or whatever combo it takes to get Matt Schaub from the Falcons. Originally a 3rd round draft pick two years ago, the kid can flat out play and is probably a better quarterback for the Falcons system than Michael Vick. He’s big (6′-5″, 235 lbs.), runs well (he just looks slow compared to Vick) has a strong arm and best of all has shown poise even in his rookie year. He’s also played in nothing but the West Coast offense going back to his college days at Virginia. His salary this year is $385,000, and he already has NFL regular season experience (including 3 TDs and nearly 300 yards against the banged up Patriots last season). I’ve liked him for awhile but didn’t think the Falcons would even consider parting with him until I read this. It won’t be cheap to get him in a trade, but he’d still be a great value.

Any of the top three college QBs is going to cost $20 million and take at least a year to develop. Schaub could compete for the starting job this year and, based on what I’ve seen of him in two regular season and one pre-season game, “gets it” better than Mike McMahon, though they are similar players physically.

Granted, I don’t have the film resources of the Vikings brain trust, but it’s a lot more interesting to think about him playing for the Vikings than it is to read about board-room grudge matches.

Oops, we did it again

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The “Dazed and Confused” team of Barry from Water Cooler Wisdom and Dan from Northern Alliance Wannabe, the Mall Diva and myself staggered to an amazingly low-scoring 16 point tie for first place in Thursday night’s trivia contest at Keegan’s.

Booya! Free drink (or dessert, in MD’s case) tickets and entries into the drawing for the trip to Boston. Best of all, though, was sitting across the table from Ben, Kevin, Scott and Chris and rubbing it in (or, in MD’s case, wagging her finger).

Eye Opener

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I don’t remember exactly what links I originally followed last week to get there, but once I stumbled into the Wide Awake Cafe I knew it was a place I’d want to come back to often. Proprietor Laura Lee Donoho stands ready to help visitors wake up and smell the coffee, writing on any number of topics (warning: cat blogging), but with more than a little focus of late on military matters where she has some family history. In fact, she had the best post I read today about the Richard Belzer-Ileanna Ros-Lehtinen showdown on HBO’s Real Time with Bill Maher, using her personal experience to compare the education of “ignorant” soldiers and officers with that of junior college drop-out Belzer.

What uneducated soldier in Iraq? The lowliest private has been through training that is challenging both physically and mentally. Most NCOs in the military have graduated college. All high ranking officers are constantly educating themselves not only through the military but academia. A vast majority of the officer corps have completed at least one Masters Degree. The military services encourage and in fact require the members of the military to pursue higher education. It makes for a sharper edged military. For example, my husband, a United States Military Grad has not one but three Masters Degrees.

What really makes her blog a comfy place, however, are the great graphics. This is one of the most inviting and distinctive-looking blogs I’ve seen in more than a year of cruising the blogosphere. (This is a good opportunity to say that it is refreshing to see more and more creative designs showing up online. People, let’s put those tired Blogger templates back in the toy box and graduate to something more reflective of the personalities that make up this wild world.)

Anyway, stop by the Wide Awake Cafe and see what’s on the menu; I’m pleased to add her to my blogroll menu as well.

Update:

It looks like Hugh Hewitt has stopped in to the cafe for a cuppa as well. I sure hope there’s room for everybody.