i mean, if you're trying to decide.
So this is all a ruse?
Time Marches On Dept.: Darin and I went to breakfast this morning at the Marmalade Cafe, and as we walked in I recognized a guy standing near the door from my USC class. I stopped and said hi, filled him in on what was going on--same two things I tell everyone: I'm pregnant and I'm a Nicholl semifinalist--and he mentioned how things were going for him. Then I went inside.
I was glad Darin hadn't waited for me outside, in case I had had to introduce them, because I couldn't remember my fellow student's name. (It came to me after we sat down.) Mind you, we only graduated a year ago.
Well, it's not as though we were ever close friends.
A couple of years ago I had an idea for a screenplay that I thought about and eventually put aside. But recently it came to me again and I thought, It's still a pretty good idea. In fact, it's such a good idea that I'm quite sure it's already in development somewhere and I'd rather not waste my time writing something only to be told, "Three variations of this are being made, Diane."
I called my manager Friday and gave him the logline. He laughed and said, "That's funny." (Not a bad reaction from just the logline, huh?) He hadn't heard of anything like that in development, but he said he'd ask around and call me on Monday.
If this isn't in development, I want to get it written quickly. I'm going to miss the spec window for this year--the town boards up the doors from Thanksgiving until post-Sundance, which is mid-January--but I should have a script that I think is pretty decent for February.
Which is great timing, because I'll be out of writing commission for a while in March.
I bought a package of Jelly Bellies. Blazoned on the package is "A Fat Free Food! 4 Calories Per Bean."
Does anyone eat these things for dietary reasons?
I love the implication that fat-free is better than having some fat. Who cares? If you are trying to lose weight, eating fat-free foods will not help you. What you have to do is count calories. There's no way around it. Fat-free is not magic. If you eat a lot of Snackwell's cookies, you will gain weight.
One of the amusing things about snack foods that trumpet that they're fat-free or reduced-fat is that very often they have the same calories as the full-fat version...or even more, because they improve the taste (remember, fat tastes good) by putting a ton of sugar in. If you don't believe me, check out the calorie counts for a regular Oreo versus a reduced-fat Oreo. I'll take the regular version.
Actually, I'll take Hydrox, but you know what I mean.
The answer to Thursday's question: All three major stock exchanges were down this week, rather noticeably.
Columbine talks about feeling glee at the idea of the market crashing around so many people's feet. Well, you might not want to feel that gleeful--there's a very real correlation between the state of the stock market and the state of the economy, if for no other reason than mental perception (and there are several real-world, economic reasons for this correlation).
There's a direct line between the stock market crash of 1987 and the recession of 1990-1992, and if you don't remember that recession, count yourself lucky. Because that recession was better defined as, according to accepted definitions among economists (yes, there are such things), as a depression. That recession hit California very hard--the military industry and Silicon Valley were very ill--and California is a major player in the US economy. And frankly, I don't want to go there again.
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Copyright 1999 Diane Patterson
Send comments and questions to diane@spies.com