one of them days

That's the movie I had hoped to see today.

Nope!

When I hopped into my car, the battery went: uh uh, uh, uh uh, uh.

Drats.

Fortunately, when I called Smitty, he was in the area and rode to my rescue!

Fortunately, I had the jumper cables, too, as he did not.

He must have left them in his other vehicle... LOL!

My brother even followed me down to what was once Western Auto Parts.

Yes, you can tell a Savannah native from a transplant by the references to businesses that are long gone, but still remembered.

It's now Advance Auto Parts and the young man there tried to steer me to another store that had the same batteries at lower prices, but I demurred.

The price differential at this store included their removal of the old battery and the installation of the new one, with no separate labor fee.

Definitely worth the lesser degree of hassle!

Thanks, Myron, for your help and your efficiency.

On my way again, about $150 poorer than planned for this day, I did so with no music.

Drats.

That loss of battery power for that brief time of exchange between old and new had wiped out all my radio presets, as well as the clock. 

I remembered two of them - WRHQ and I-95 - but the rest shall be found another day.

A check of my phone for time let me know that I'd missed not only the intended movie, but also the backup plan movie.

Drats.

I took the long way to the Publix on Largo, wanting to give the new battery plenty of time to fully charge.

I had a specific goal in mind at that store: paczki.

Tomorrow is Mardi Gras, Shrove Tuesday, whatever one wants to call it, and that is the day to eat those fancy Polish doughnuts.

I was sure this Publix would have them!

Nope.

The clerk in the bakery called the store at Twelve Oaks, and they did have some.

Meanwhile, I spotted some smaller, raspberry-filled treats.

Maybe they would serve as mini-paczki? 

I checked when I arrived home and verified that they would.

Good.

Although the weather was fairly nice today, I didn't want to spend the day bouncing from one grocery store to another.

I had an unexpected visit with the bfe while I was at the Largo store and that had delayed me from returning home.

Why the rush?

I'd planned to have popcorn for lunch with my movie.

The battery adventure had taken more than two hours, meaning it was nearer to dinner time now than to lunch, and I was quite hungry.

Fortunately, I'd spotted Chicken Tikka Masala in the grab-and-go area in the deli while I was chatting with the physicist.

That was very satisfying for my late slunch!

The Indian dish also reminded me of Barbara, as she was always a big fan of that cuisine.

Sandy texted me that a couple from New Jersey bought it, furniture, decor, and all.

That's good; Barbara had spent a lot of time, and money, in the last few years on the new living room couches and her new bed.

I'm glad her efforts, and her taste, will be appreciated by the new owners.

they had me at 'shakespeare'

Today was my first outing for this year's Savannah Jewish Cultural Arts Festival, as well as my first venture out with others since my norovirus onslaught.

I had waited until after the event was to begin, to allow folks to find their seats.

I wanted to be sure to sit away from others, just in case I might pass on the calamity.

I needn't have been concerned.

Whether it was the new wave of colder temperatures or the subject, few attended.

They certainly missed out.

As good as the documentary had been, the question-and-answer session was stellar.

In fact, that discussion gave me a new appreciation of the film and its construction.

The title of the 2016 documentary, "A Gathering Of Strangers: The Making Of A Merchant In Venice", led me to expect a bit of the Bard, with the performances actually taking place in the Jewish ghetto of Venice.

I did get that, too, but with a twist: the actors were all modern time in mindset, though clad in the garb of the sixteenth century. 

That wasn't troublesome to me in the least, however, as I'd been to the Savannah Shakes productions, all of which featured time-traveled settings for the works.

What had been irksome, however, were the frequent overlays of news headlines from fall of 2015 to the spring of 2016, headlines detailing hate crimes around the world.

My thought had been that those headlines were there to titillate a Jewish audience and perchance gain entry of the documentary to those secular film festivals.

Thanks to the Q&A, I know that was not the intent at all.

 

The director, Ted Hardin, even referred to those headlines as the "montage of horror" that served as the behind the scenes topics discussed by the actors.

That's him, talking with his hands in action, while his wife, the producer Elizabeth Coffman, sits calmly across from him.

Both are college professors in Chicago, home of Long Distance Productions, their company.

He's an interesting character, starting out on a degree in chemistry at Florida State University, then dropping it - with only a quarter left in his studies - to pursue cinematography.

His story of how this documentary came to be was interesting, too.

The couple were in Italy and heard tell that "The Merchant Of Venice" was to be performed in the Venetian Ghetto to mark the 500th anniversary of the institution of that area in Venice by government decree on 29 March 1516.

The couple started off with low-key interviews of the play's director and the troupe (Karin Coonrod and Campagnia de Colombari), with the husband doing a bit of casual filming to supplement the talks.

Next thing you know, they're making a movie about the staging of the play, with a lot of back story on why Jews were forced to live in that area, why 'Shylock' came to be the face of the loan shark out for his 'pound of flesh' as payment, and how well Shakespeare represented the sentiment of the late 1590's for a place he never visited.

Hearing their talk afterward truly made all the difference in the world to my take on the film.

Perhaps I'll have a chance to see it again someday.