Newly Minted Soldiers Reconsider their Former Lives as Farmers in a Once Productive Land...

Ukraine says it has lost $1.5 billion in grain exports.

This was featured in live coverage.

 

Love Lives.

 

Room for Columbus Too in 21st Century America.

 Chicago Tribune:

Good morning, Chicago.

Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s long-delayed review of Chicago monuments still isn’t completed, but the mayor has restated her pledge to return a Christopher Columbus statue to its prominent pedestal in Grant Park — the site of a bloody clash between police and demonstrators nearly two years ago. Acknowledging the security issues that could arise with a return of the statue, the mayor said: “I’m not going to do anything that puts our officers in harm’s way.”

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Good. Other people's traditions matter in America too.  Don't destroy what you cannot rebuild...

She kept the necklace!

A former law school professor, originally from Poland, is springbreaking with a granddaughter in Italy this Spring (lower rates: pandemic and war), and teaches her latest little one how to collect a glass-blown necklace crafted by an Armenian artisan who was taken to task for a bit of misplaced teasing with the mistress and child...

And then a boat (arranged by Martina) takes us home.

It was a very, very full day. I am intensely happy that I chose a dinner place that is extremely close to us -- Al Gobbo di Rialto. (Martina had an interesting observation on Rialto. Perhaps because of the market here, she sees it as touristy, yes, but also very Venetian with much of daily life playing out there as well. San Marco, on the other hand, is all handed over to tourism.)

The Restaurant is the best kind of ending you could have here. It's all  about being in Italy with kids. The expectations are that kids are a different species and you should treat them accordingly. Plain spaghetti with parmiggiano? Of course. You want to play with your toy? Well, can I play too? No dessert tonight? Then how about a cookie or two, on the house? And on and on and on. And I know it's not thought of as cool (back home) to keep calling your grandchild principessa, but still, it happens often here and it is so filled with affection for the demographic rather than anything else, that here at least, it is forgivable in the extreme.

[As a funny side story, when we were in the glass factory, I asked the guy who was explaining the master craftsmen's work to us if there were any women who did the Murano glass works. He made some joke about women being 100% kept out of that skill set beecause glass blowing requires blowing and you can't both talk as women do, and blow glass. I was instantly in the Academy Awards moment: do I laugh? Do I slap his face? Okay, I did not punch him out. I frowned. Martina took note. She threw him a glance. He recoiled and said something that was even worse -- we know that life is all about women and god. They rule... there's nothing else. At this point, an eye roll was the best strategy. He came up later, gifted me a necklace piece and apologized. He said he caught himself right away and thought -- oh shit, I said the wrong thing. I said -- listen, I have two women as kids and three grand girls. I care about how they view their future. He apologized again. Later, Martina said -- well, you got a slice of Italian life. The thing is, he is a really good guy. I know him well. Those were just your typical Italian jokes. And I know she is right. The line drawing here is different than it is back home. I don't live here so I can't really tell how women fare in the world of men in daily life. It's too easy to draw conclusions from quick visits, but I wont do it. All I can say is that he did apologize and admitted to not even being Italian from birth, but rather -- Armenian and well, you know about the genocide there! See what I mean? You rarely know the full story in a brief exchange.]

(dinner, with principessa herself)

Clearly, you learn different lessons vacationing with a wily grandmother than your own family, with a father along also.  Men and mixed company add something;  we have to learn to tolerate the goodwill of other cultures, including well-meaning adult teasing, here at home, and teach children no harm was meant. She could learn to blow glass too!  He was just not practiced teaching down and encouraging girls, which is more a parental role, not for a grandmother to insist the world be sanitized down to a child's level... or you earn a necklace for your troubles and feigned offense.

What message was taught there, what do you think the child absorbed?  One of privilege and a special place for complaining girls who offend easily as girls? You don't win many friends or change the world that way, much.  You won't integrate your way in to places like that. Or chart an independent career path by taking offense at the well meaning words of men who work as well.

And who would want to work, or live, in a company, a world, a subdivision or a building, where there's no working men because the women and feminized men have teamed up and driven them out of the workplace where civilized masculinity, which includes the rules they have been taught to play by -- leave your fists at  home, gentlemen -- is no longer welcome, and the women only need a token male or two for "protection" amongst them?

Not me.  I like the company of most men.  I like mixed company even more, and places small enough to respect individuals, not have to divvy us up by sex, race, religion or region, the best.  That's still America, right?  In the localities...

Short-term Solutions.

Biden Considers Releasing a Million Barrels of Oil a Day From Reserve

A release of up to 180 million barrels in all is aimed at helping ease gas prices. President Biden could announce the plan as soon as Thursday.

War in Ukraine that America is officially not a party to would be a necessitating reason to release from the national oil reserve? Really? Isn't that jusrt an artificial way to drop prices before midterms? Strategically wise?  What if... another real emergency hits before the reserve is restocked?

Essential workers got to get there, we have learned in our nation of late...

Wouldn't a better way to drop oil prices naturally be to end the war and work to rebuild, already, the supplies being contracted from various regions now? To plan AHEAD and get fracking again while building a practical system of renewable resources to meet a minority of our country's growing energy needs?

Short-term thinking out of SlowJoe and you always have to ask now: who is pulling the levers back there?  What price are we going to pay, in time, for a summer of tinkering with gas prices to keep them artificially low so we can temporarily avoid the consequences of prolonging the defensive war in Ukraine?  What does victory for America look like at this time, a month and a half into the fighting, and will we accept the war's end if President Putin remains in power?  The press won't ask that, but thinking people will...

Biden Considers Releasing a Million Barrels of Oil a Day From Reserve

A release of up to 180 million barrels in all is aimed at helping ease gas prices. President Biden could announce the plan as soon as Thursday.

You know the story about Chris Rock and the brick, right?

Allegedly, he was a smaller boy and verbally and physically bullied. One day, he came back with a brick in a bag and swing on the bully...  Did some damage.  Didn't fight much after that. Allegedly.

He's not talking much now about what happened to him Sunday night.

BOSTON — Chris Rock wasn’t defiant, but he was clear: If you came to his first gig since the Oscars looking for him to riff about the slap seen around the world, you might want to ask for your money back.

“Let me do a show, y’all,” Rock mock-pleaded after being greeted by a long standing ovation. “Don’t get all misty and s---.”

And after a slight pause, Rock looked out into the sold out Wilbur Theatre and asked: “How was your weekend?”

...

Rock, dressed all in white onstage, chose not to even mention Will Smith, whose angry attack during the Academy Awards broadcast has become the main topic in the world of entertainment and culture.

“I had like a whole show I wrote before the weekend,” he said. “And I’m still kind of processing what happened. At some point, I’ll talk about that s---.”

A man in the balcony yelled, “Sue him, Chris; sue him, Chris,” in reference to the “King Richard” star.

Rock, 57, didn’t even pause before launching into his routine.

“You know what the problem with covid is? Not deadly enough.”

The War and the First Son's Sleazy Business Dealings...

 The American press are finally covering the contents of the laptop.  Can't tell me that what's in there is not affecting our country's current policy toward Ukraine and need to keep up the fight until the country is emptied and obliterated from above.

Please, just don't let America absorb the civilians-turned-soldiers in the final days there, bringing those with guerrilla fighting skills into the streets of our own country.

Keep Fighting in Ukraine Already...

 For some reason, the Biden's and America have an interest in seeing this war continue, it appears...

The Lead CNN

@TheLeadCNN

·

25m

WH: Biden tells Zelensky the U.S. will provide Ukraine with $500 million in "direct budgetary aid"

@kaitlancollins

reports

America doubles down on the war then, as the Russians and Ukrainians begin to blindly grasp their way toward a way out, a future survival of the country.  Why is America committed to not letting that happen, and how long will Europe be willing to let the destruction and mass exodus (and absorption) continue?

Here on the Third Floor...

 you can hear the roof vent spinning on the windiest days, and you can hear the rain hitting the roof, and slapping against the windows, depending which direction the wind is coming from...

Yesterday:  windy, then wet.  A rainy early morning and now

Snow.  Beautiful, heavy, thick, glorious springtime showers.  Heavy, heavy, heavy!  The green branches of the old pine outside the window are already starting to sag, and while I haven't yet been to the window to see it close up, I know the flag is wet and hanging close to the pole...

It's just coming down thick, heavy and white, with no sign of letup.  The branches are large and long, and the ones furthest out are drooping by the minute.

Still, when you are up inside a warm brick building, just watching it fall, there is nothing more beautiful in nature... 

... except God's next miraculous gift!

Make it a great... Wednesday.  Personal prayers up for prayers answered.  Stay safe out in the snow, but enjoy it while it lasts, if you are able and local.  This window throughout the year in a changing climate is better than a large-screen tv really.  Very relaxing... when inside and warm.  Thanks be.  #GratefulHeart

------------

Added:  No pictures, no videos. Some things I've learned to keep for me, and some things cannot be captured properly on film.  A springtime snowstorm is one of them... ok off here, making excuses to gather up trash and take out the garbage, maybe sweep off the outside HHR, so it is less heavy later...

Also, I like what the wet natural moisture does for my sometime dryish indoors hair... (vain, yet. Nature in bits and pieces:  a 21st century luxury, really...)  Make it a good one.  Take control of your day.  Only person who can do that is you. (note to self)

(stock photo)

More:  ah, not fast enough... 

I can tell by the sounds above, now it's turned to rain...

Chris Rock: Bring the Pain (1996)

He's gotta be sore in the face still right about now.  Read it in your head in his voice, and yes, laugh along.  The BigPeople with the thin skins too.  Keepin' it real...

"AAHHH! NO! NOT A BOOK! NO! NOOOO!"

Niggas vs. Black People Lyrics

Now we've got a lot of things, a lot of racism in the world right now, Who's more racist? Black people or white people? Black people, you know why? Because we hate Black people too! Everything white people don't like about Black people, Black people REALLY don't like about Black people.

There's some shit going on with Black people right now. There's a civil war going on with Black people, and there's two sides: there's Black people and there's niggas. The niggas have got to go. Every time Black people wanna have a good time, ignorant-ass niggas fuck it up. Can't do shit! Can't do shit without some ignorant-ass nigga fucking it up. Can't do nothing. Can't keep a disco open more than 3 weeks! Grand opening, grand closing! Can't go to a movie the first week it comes out! Why? 'Cause niggas are shooting at the screen. What kind of ignorant shit is that? "Hey, this is a good movie, this is so good I gotta bust a cap in here!"

Hey, I love black people, but I hate niggas, boy. Boy, I hate niggas. Boy, I wish they'd let me join the Klu Klux Klan! Shit, I'd do a drive-by from here to Brooklyn. I'm tired of niggas, man! You can't have shit when you around niggas. You can't have shit when you around niggas. You can't have shit! You can't have no big screen TV! You can have it, but you better move it in at 3 in the morning, paint it white, hope niggas think it's a bassinet. Can't have shit in your house! Why?! Because niggas will break into your house. Niggas that live next door to you break into your house, come over the next day and go, "I heard you got robbed." Nigga, you know you robbed me. You ain't hear shit 'cause you was doing shit!

You know the worst thing about niggas? Niggas always want some credit for some shit they supposed to do. A nigga will brag about some shit a normal man just does. A nigga will say some shit like, "I take care of my kids." You're supposed to, you dumb motherfucker! What are you talking about?" What kind of ignorant shit is that? "I ain't never been to jail!" What do you want, a cookie?! You're not supposed to go to jail, you low-expectation-having motherfucker!

Fuck man! I'm tired of this shit! You know what the worst thing about niggas? Niggas love to NOT know. Nothing make a nigga happier than not knowin the answer to your question.
Just ask a nigga a question. Any nigga! "Hey, nigga, what's the capitol of Zaire?" "I don't know that shit! Keepin' it real!" Niggas love to keep it real... Real dumb! Niggas hate knowledge. Shit. Niggas break into your house; you want to save your money? Put it in your books. 'Cause niggas don't read. Just put the money in the books. Shit, books are like Kryptonite to a nigga. "Here's a book!" "AAHHH! NO! NOT A BOOK! NO! NOOOO!"

Tired of this shit, man! Your kids can't fuckin' play nowhere. Every year the space gets smaller! Okay, you can go from that corner to that corner. Oh, you can go from that gate to that gate. By the time that fucker's 10 he's just hoppin' in a circle like...

Tired of this shit, man! Tired. Tired. Tired. Fe, fi, fo, figga, boy, I hate a nigga! Boy. Tired of this shit, man! TIRED, man! Niggas just ignant. Love being... singing 'bout ignorance. I heard some song the other day, "It's the first of the month." Niggas are singing welfare carols! "On the first day of welfare my true love gave to me... I wish you a Merry Welfare and a Happy Food Stamp!"

The fuck is going on?! What the fuck is going on? Now they got some shit. They tryna get rid of welfare. Every time you see welfare in the news, they always show Black people. Black people don't give a fuck about welfare. Niggas are shakin' in they boots. "Boy, they gonna take our shit!"

Shit, a Black man that got two jobs, going to work everyday, hates a nigga on welfare. Like, "Nigga, get a job! I got two! You can't get one?! I would give your lazy ass one of mine, but you'd get fucked up and get laid off! They wouldn't hire another nigga for 10 years!"

Shit, a black woman that got two kids, going to work everyday, bustin' her ass, HATES a bitch with nine kids gittin' a welfare check. Like, bitch stop fuckin'! Stop fucking! Stop it! Put the dick down! Put it down! Get a job! Yes, you can get a job! Get a job holdin' dicks! Whatever you do, get paid to do it!

Tired of this shit, man! I'm tired! Tired. Tired. It ain't all Black people on welfare! Shit! White people on welfare too! We can't give a fuck about them! But we just gotta do our own thing.
Can't go, "Oh, they fucked up, we can be fucked up!" That's ignant! White people don't care! First of all, they try to make it look like... There ain't even that many Black people in the country. okay? Black people are ten percent of the fuckin' population. Black people are in New York, D.C., L.A., Chicago, Atlanta... Like 10 places. Okay? Ain't no Black people in Minnesota! The only black people in Minnesota is Prince and Kirby Puckett. Shit... The whole rest of the country, the other forty states, is filled up with broke-ass white people. Broke-ass, livin' in the trailer home, eatin' mayonnaise sandwiches, fuckin' they sister, listening to John Cougar Mellencamp records! Shit. Get the fuck outta here, man! And they need ya help? Naw, man!

And I see some black people lookin' at me! "Man, why you gotta say that? It ain't us, it's the media. The media has distorted our image to make us look bad! Why must you come down on us like that, brother? It ain't us, it's the media." Please cut the fuckin' shit, okay?! Okay?! Okay?! When I go to the money machine tonight, alright, I ain't lookin' over my back for the media! I'm lookin' for niggas! Shit! Ted Koppel ain't never took shit from me! Niggas have! So, you think I got three guns in my house 'cause the media outside? Oh, shit, Mike Wallace! Run!" Get the fuck outta here, man! Tired of this shit. Tired. Tired. Tired of this shit!

Blurter.

Joe Biden blurts. It's who he is.

Remember when? he used his blurting powers for good, informing the press that, of course, the Obama administration supported equal rights for gay people, in terms of equitable marital recognition from which so many of our family-based government and business-based tax, insurance and benefit plans were based?  (Not to mention the obstacles to privately contracting for all situations that family law assumed a heterosexual default.)

Well Joe Biden just blurted again.

Not for good this time.  Like will smith, he just couldn't control himself.  He sank to the temptation and made an already bad situation worse.

If you think you are dealing with a crazy man -- one paranoid, in a country with a raw background of late -- why would you provoke?  Do he still have that much faith in American military muscle to back up his mouth?

Joe blurted.  People heard him.  Zelensky is starting to understand the boundaries the American Congress and President Biden have set -- moral support, limited financial support, limited refugee help, no active military presence or sales of weaponry, etc.

Zelensky, I think, is starting to come down off his actors' high, and realize the fight he is in.  

That's for the best, in my humble opinion.  Would make crafting a workable resolution for the future possible.  Joe and his people are not going to successfully assassinate Vladmir Putin or catch him hiding in a hole in the ground.  Contrast with Hillary Clinton who will be remembered for her highest political role:  Secretary of State, nothing further, just like Madeline Albright was recently given the flags-at-half-mast treatment in many places nationally, but will be remembered in history as the Sec. of State whose term in office immediately preceded the 2001 successful attack on New York and Washington DC in which America had ample warnings in "trial run" terrorist attacks but was caught off guard and defenseless that day.

Nice leave.

Right now, Albright is remembered as a cultural curiosity:  the first woman in the role, the first important Democratic woman, besides his wife, to speak out publicly in defending Bill Clinton when his scandal made headlines, in the years before the 2001 attack on America.

But the work stands.  The foreign policy showboating that means a lot of meetings, and photo ops, and phone calls and... showboating, but with international decisions still seemingly being made at the point of a gun, or drop of a bomb.

Somebody misread the room, and mislead Ukraine, when they thought America could be sold so soon again on sacrificing for poor policy choices to destabilize foreign governments in our own evangelical business and foreign policy efforts. 

I've always said you can see trouble ahead when you task military men with missionary work under a chivalrous banner of protecting another nations' women and government.  Let it be.  

Take care of your business at home.

White People Overcome Too.

• Conrad "Con" Jarrett : It's not fair. You just do one wrong thing, and...

  Dr. Berger : And what was the one wrong thing you did? 

  Conrad "Con" Jarrett : I hung on. I stayed with the boat.

  Dr. Berger : Exactly.

Ordinary People (1980) Review

David Boles:

In 1980, I was reviewing movies on television, writing movies and novels, and finishing up high school. “Ordinary People” was big news back then because it was the directorial film debut of Robert Redford. Anticipation was high, and Redford did not disappoint!

I am loathe to say in 1980 that I “loved” the movie, and that I thought it was “fantastic” — because I did, and it was, and “Ordinary People” deserves all that and more, but the topic of the movie is still serious, and gruesome, and lonely, and today, the elder me is more recalcitrant in my effusive analysis, and so I’ll now just amend my youthful effervescence with an “compulsively effective” evaluation as my final totem of appreciation.

“Ordinary People” is a simple story told with a hidden, sharp, edge. The movie takes its time unwinding the drama. We meet a family. Their life appears to be perfect and uncomplicated.

Then, the reality of a shared history begins to bubble up in uncomfortable places, creating an overflow of blood, and grief, that cannot be managed alone. We watch the slow dissolution of a family torn apart by the drowning of one son, only to have the surviving son attempt suicide-by-guilt-of-conscience.“Ordinary People” isn’t a telling of redemption or anger — it is the sad, but lovelorn, tale of responsibility and ownership. There is no escape from the harbinger of merely living a human life. There is no navigable path forward from pitch of night to crispy dawn.

In the early 1990’s, the fine actor Tony Randall once told me on a New York City street corner, “When every single actor in a production is outstanding, that’s not the mark of good acting, it’s the imprint of an excellent director.” Redford made his “Ordinary People” casting work right. He reformed the image of Mary Tyler Moore from beloved pixie charmer to destructive mother monster.

Redford also gave Donald Sutherland a regular role that required a repression of his quirkiness. Oh, and if you want an authentic taste of Sutherland’s unique acting style, take a curled eyeful of “Don’t Look Back” — a 1973 Nicholas Roeg madhouse of a horror movie — it will boink your goink!

Back to Redford’s casting marvel. He gave Tim Hutton a big break. Redford hired Judd Hirsch to show his achievable brilliance beyond the television “Taxi” residual. Redford also helped us discover Elizabeth McGovern, on the silver screen, for the first time.

Robert Redford also created an amazing supporting cast. M. Emmet Walsh, Dinah Manoff, James B. Sikking, Basil Hoffman, and Adam Baldwin are just the start of the excellence in performance. Every single actor in “Ordinary People” is remarkable, and that doesn’t happen by chance or circumstance, it happens only when a director takes complete and total control over the vision of a movie. Marvin Hamlisch wrote the soundtrack.

“Ordinary People” won four Academy awards, including Best Picture.

Supporting Actor: Timothy Hutton

Director: Robert Redford

Screenplay Adaptation: Alvin Sargent

The competition for Best Picture in 1981 was tight: “Coal Miner’s Daughter” and “The Elephant Man” and “Raging Bull” and “Tess” were all nominated. Redford’s directorial debut vanquished a lot of other memorable movies that have also stood up well over time.

Tim Hutton’s Oscar win was absolutely deserved — but I sometimes have a hard time understanding how the Academy decides the nominations. Tim Hutton won for Best Supporting Actor? How could that be so when Tim carried the entire movie? “Ordinary People” is all about the stunning work from Tim Hutton!

 The fact that Donald Sutherland was snubbed by the Academy speaks volumes about the Oscars and nothing about great talent.

Donald Sutherland’s performance in “Ordinary People” is one of his absolute best, and he’s been working as an actor since 1962. In fact, Donald Sutherland is the stoic soft center of “Ordinary People.” His resigned terror in the roadmap vivisection of his perfect family is the tension that bends the entire dramatic arc of the film toward injustice.

“Ordinary People” has held up well over the last 40 years, but I was disappointed in the quality of the streaming movie. I expected a higher quality transfer for such an important movie in the careers of so many talented people.

As well, I realized in my subsequent viewing four decades later that I still must negotiate that uneasy, sinking, feeling watching Mary Tyler Moore unravel on screen.

I recall 40 years ago saying to myself in the darkened theatre, “Nobody is that good an actor” as the horror of realizing Mary’s coldness and cruelty on screen had to be a real part of her somewhere; and today, looking back at the me I was then in my first viewing of “Ordinary People” — and who I am today in my second re-viewing of “Ordinary People” — I have come to accept, and understand, that some people are just broken in many hidden, and not-so-obvious ways, and that sometimes their last chance at living is an escape from the falsity of their every, preening, breath.

My Bodyguard (1980) Review

Christopher Lloyd:

It’s always amazing what movies stick with you and why. I watched “My Bodyguard” when I was 10 years old and I don’t think I saw it again in the ensuing 30 years, until now. And yet this film has stayed with me and I’ve thought about it often.

It might not surprise you to learn that I was bullied when I was in school. (What? A geeky film critic bullied?) I’m not proud to say that I stopped taking the bus and began riding my bike to junior high school to avoid a particularly nasty cretin who liked to sit behind people and flick earlobes with a force that seemed not possible for 14-year-old fingers.

Of course, one good smack in the nose would’ve silenced him, but it is the nature of the bullied to have blinders to obvious solutions. One lives in a constant state of fear, and the consequences of standing up seem much more dire than quietly taking the abuse and hoping the bully will grow bored and shift his attention to a juicier target.

Fear is the coin of the realm for bullies, one they know how to leverage well.

In virtually all contemporary iterations of cinematic bullies, they are simply victims who themselves have been pushed around and pass on the cycle of abuse to others. I think this is usually poppycock in comparison to real life. Bullies bully because they like doing it. They enjoy the power and being the center of attention.

Perhaps my bias is why I’ve always liked “My Bodyguard,” since the bully is never granted a redemptive moment. He’s simply a jerk and will continue being one until someone puts a stop to it.

The bully, Melvin Moody, was memorably played by Matt Dillon in his very first screen role. Adam Baldwin, playing the title character, also made his film debut. Ditto for Joan Cusack, who has a small but memorable role as a geeky girl with a crush on Moody, and Jennifer Beals, who had an uncredited bit part as one of Moody’s hangers-on.

Chris Makepeace was the veteran of the group, having appeared in “Meatballs” a year earlier. “My Bodyguard” more or less marked the height of his career. With his curly mop of hair and big, wet eyes, Makepeace prompted me to make (derisive) comparisons to Shia LaBeouf early in his career, and I think the resemblance, both physically and the range of roles LaBeouf has pulled off, still holds.

One thing about “My Bodyguard” that sets it apart from most movies starring teenagers that followed: They’re actually played by teen actors. Dillon and Makepeace would both turn 16 the year the film came out; Beals was 17; Cusack, 18. Even Baldwin, playing scary troubled high school sophomore Ricky Linderman, who looms over his classmates like a surly giant, was 18.

Nowadays, filmmakers prefer actors comfortably past their pimples-and-awkwardness years.

The film was directed by Tony Bill, in his first outing, from an original screenplay by Alan Ormsby. It’s set in Chicago and was shot there. Despite my fondness for the notion of bullies getting their comeuppance, that’s not the part of the movie that lingered for me.

The Moody plot is disposed within a little over a half-hour, with the bully refusing to take on Linderman after Clifford Peache (Makepeace), the put-upon newcomer, convinces the hulking outcast to be his bodyguard. Moody returns for the final act, with an older tough brought on as his bodyguard to run off Linderman, which succeeds for awhile until the final fisticuffs — first between Linderman and the thug, and then (improbably but satisfyingly) between Clifford and Moody.

No, the middle third is where this movie’s heart lies. It’s the slowly growing bond between these two lonely boys, both pushed into rebel roles they never sought. Linderman was content to stand outside the school’s social structure, and the last thing Clifford wanted was to become the symbol of an uprising against Moody, who’d been extorting protection money from half the school.

Although he lives in comfort and gets picked up and dropped off by a limousine, Clifford is not rich: Just the son of the manager of a swanky hotel manger, played by Martin Mull. His grandmother is played by Ruth Gordon, and she’s a troublemaking sexpot who likes to pick up older gentlemen in the hotel lounge. It’s the sort of horny grandma role that would inevitably be played by Betty White if the film was made today.

But there’s some soul and depth to the old gal. While she’s reading Linderman’s palm, Clifford notices some scars on his wrist; it wasn’t until years later I realized these were the result of an implied attempted suicide. Linderman, his shell of impervious indifference pierced, pulls back his hand. Gordon sternly holds on: “You’re among friends here, you’re among friends.”

This is when we realize Linderman is not the tough guy he’s been made out to be. He’s shattered by the accidental shooting of his kid brother a year earlier, and his mask of belligerence hides a frightened youngster who hates himself.

In this light, it’s not surprising that Linderman backs down from Moody’s hired thug later on — even allowing him to smash up the motorcycle he spent years restoring, with a little help from Clifford. It may well be that Linderman had never been in a fight before. He’d relied on his reputation and his size to keep the likes of Moody at bay, but he, too, reacts to a bully with freezing fear.

The bodyguard who’s never thrown a punch: What an audacious concept. I think that’s why I keep mentally coming back to “My Bodyguard: It continually reveals new layers of truth about what it’s really like to be a teenager, whether an outcast, a bully or the bullied.