There are a few Vivien Leigh/Laurence Olivier films on the list. The highest ranked is Gone with the Wind, which came in at #31. Others include Rebecca (#318), and Spartacus (#77).

View the entire list

Empire is also releasing 100 different covers for this list, including Gone with the Wind, which would make a great addition to any Vivien Leigh/GWTW collection. You can purchase your copy (or any others) on the EMPIRE WEBSITE.

Miami used car salesman Arthur Agatstone said he stumbled onto the successful diet technique -- which he calls the "Pudding Fart" diet -- after consuming dessert one evening with friends.

"We were at a local restaurant waiting for our chocolate pudding to be served," Agatstone recalled. "One of my friends, Mike Baines, had some natural herb pills that were supposed to help make pulled muscles feel better. I had a sore leg muscle from jogging too much over the weekend, so I decided to take a few even though I didn't think they would help much. Then we ate dessert and I went home."

When he got up in the morning, Agatstone was surprised to find his leg pain completely gone. But he was even more surprised at what happened next.

"I went into the bathroom to make room for breakfast," Agatstone recounted. "That's when the pudding farts started."

Agatstone said that as he contracted his abdominal muscles, a long string of gaseous emissions propelled the previous evening's dinner into the toilet bowl. Surprisingly, all of the meal except the chocolate pudding had been digested.

"The pudding was completely intact," he said. "My body had not processed any of the calories in it. I put two and two together, and that's when I got the idea for the diet."

Agatstone ate nothing but chocolate pudding for the next two weeks, all the while taking the natural herb pills his friend Baines had let him try that evening at the restaurant. He would satisfy his hunger completely on chocolate pudding which, thanks to the herb pills, would exit his body without giving up any of its caloric content.

"I lost over 12 pounds in two weeks, without being hungry," Agatstone said. "It turns out that the herb in the pills I was taking prevented any chemical interaction between the chocolate pudding and my body's digestive system. No chemical interaction meant my body was not getting any calories, which resulted in quick weight loss. So I decided to make my Pudding Fart diet available to anyone through my website."

The best part of the Pudding Fart diet, Agatstone writes on the website, is the recycling of the chocolate pudding.

"Since there is no chemical interaction between the chocolate pudding and the human body, the pudding can be captured after exiting it and refrigerated before being eaten again," he states. "I don't like to cook, so that's a big plus for me."

(Photo by GeeJo, Wikipedia)

下班的時候，我總是讓自己離你以前在的辦公室遠一點。
然後我以為這樣思念就會少一點。
我是多麼渴望離開這裡，
因為如果離開這裡，我可以將我的思念，截斷得更乾淨一些。

十月一，天氣越來越涼。
去年此時，在這個活動結束後，我發著高燒。

吹了一下午的冷氣，現在的我也有點不舒服了。
可是一切都會OK的。

今年的冬天還是會很冷，我想。
可是對我來說，最寒冷的冬天，已經過去了...

--
我還是忍著，不去看關於你的一切。
"一切都和我沒有關係了..."，我對自己說。

什麼時候我才能離開這個城市...什麼時候...

場景應該是學校，可是這間學校卻像大學的校園那樣大。
甚至比我的大學母校還大的那種感覺。

然後你來了，走近我。
給了我兩張信紙，我的表情很冷漠，在夢裡我看得見自己。
可是我知道我的心情很激動，即使是在夢裡。

兩張信紙寫些什麼記不全了，在夢醒之後。
我只記得信紙上色彩繽紛，記得你寫了一些我們相處的什麼，但是沒有道歉，沒有提到，對我有什麼特別的感覺。

就記得我拿著你的信，看著你低頭離開的背影，我記得上課的鐘聲響了，然後我要趕著去上課。
可是漫長的路似乎怎麼走都走不到我的教室。

很想流淚的，可是夢中我沒有。

--
已經不敢去想像，也不想去想像，如果我們有一天再見面，會是什麼樣的場景。

因為那樣的場景也許永遠不會再出現。
在我們初初相逢的時候，我並不知道事情會演變到如今這副模樣。

我不知道是誰錯了，也不知道過程中我是否處理不好了什麼。

--
我還是想你，承認也沒什麼。

我在想是不是一直以來我們太少對話，我太少告訴你，我的心裡到底有些什麼感受。
你了解我嗎？你靠什麼來了解我？

或許你根本不想了解我，或許你根本不想。

不想再想了，今晚有些疲憊。
可以不要再夢見你嗎？儘管再想你，我已經不想在夢中，再見到你...

"Our entire economy is in danger."
                                                         President George W. Bush
                                                         September 2008    

"When was the last time you cared about something except yourself, hot rod?"
                                                          Doc Hudson (voice of Paul Newman)
                                                          Cars       

This is a look at two Hollywood icons. One fictitious, one real. One that’s alive and well and one that just died. 

But before we get to our heavyweight match-up let's look at why I've put them in the ring together.

"It's the economy, stupid" was a phrase made popular during Bill Clinton's first presidential bid. It's always about the economy. Well, usually. Understanding economics can help your screenwriting greatly.  

First let me clarify that if you're looking for "The Economics of Screenwriting" (how much you can get paid for screenwriting)  then check out Craig Mazin's article at The Artful Writer. 

Few things are as primal in our lives as the economy. Wall Street's recent shake-up joins a long list of economic upheaval throughout history. Just so we're on the same page, the word economy flows down from the Greek meaning "house-hold management." I mean it to include how people, businesses, villages, towns, cities and countries manage resources such as money, materials and natural resources. 

That is a wide path indeed. It's why college football coach Nick Saban is on the cover of the September 1, 2008 issue of Forbes magazine as they explain why he is worth $32 million dollars to the University of Alabama. Why is the economy center stage once again in the most recent presidential election? Because... it's always the economy, stupid.

Looking back you'll see economics at the core issue of not only Enron, Iraq, 911 and the great depression but world wars, famines, and even the Reformation. I'm not sure how much further we can look back than Adam and Eve, but that whole apple/fruit thing in the garden had huge economic (as well as theological) ramifications. (In fact, it's been said that there is more written in the Bible about money than about salvation.)    

There is no question that economics plays a key role in films as well -- in production as well as content. On some level it's almost always about the economy. This first dawned on me when I saw Chekhov's play "The Cherry Orchard" for the first time and I realized the thread of money in it. Then I read Ibsen's play  "An Enemy of the People" and noticed the economic theme there. They I started noticing it everywhere in plays, novels and movies.

From the mayor's perspective the real danger of Bruce the shark in Jaws is he threatens the whole economy of the island town. In The Perfect Storm, George Clooney takes the boat back out because money is tight. Dustin Hoffman auditions as a women in Tootsie because he can't get work as a male actor. Once you see this you see it everywhere in movies. 

Here is a quick random list where money, need to pay bills, lack of a job, greed and/or some form of economics play a key part in the story:

Chinatown
Scarface
Titanic
Sunset Blvd.
Tootsie
On the Waterfront
Wall St.
Cinderella 
Cinderella Man
Ragging Bull
Rocky 
Jaws
Jerry Maguire
It's a Wonderful Life
Field of Dreams
Big
Greed
Body Heat
Falling Down
The Godfather
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid 
The Jerk
Gone with the Wind
The Verdict 
Gone with the Wind 
The Grapes of Wrath
Risky Business
Do the Right Thing
Hoop Dreams 
Rain Man
The Treasure of the Sierra Madre
The Gold Rush
Home Alone
Babette's Feast
The Incredibles
Castway
Ocean's Eleven
The Perfect Storm
Pretty Women
Trading Places
Indecent Proposal 
The Firm
American Ganster 
Rollover 

And it's not limited to dramatic films. It's hard to watch Hoops Dreams, Ken Burns' The West, or any Michael Moore documentary and not connect it to economics.

So if you're struggling with a story or struggling what to write, open up that door that explores economics. You don't have to write The Wealth of Nations, but at least explore some aspect of it.  Join Tennessee Williams, John Steinbeck, Eugene O'Neill and other great writers who tackled that monster.

One thing living in the Midwest the past five years has done is help me understand how the world works economically. Because on a small level you see when John Deere is selling tractors locally, nationally and globally it helps the housing market here as the standard of living increases. The Midwest was the only place to to see homes appreciate last quarter. (Other parts of the country saw a 2 to 36% drop.)  But that wasn't always the case.

When the farming crisis hit in the mid-eighties and John Deere (Cedar Valley's largest employer) laid off 10,000 of it's 15,000 employees and people were walking away from their homes. A film that came out of that era was the 1984 Sam Shepard, Jessica Lange film Country filmed right here in Black Hawk County. (By the way John Deere the company celebrates today 90 years being in this area. If you've ever eaten food they've had some role in it along the way.)

Three years later Oliver Stone's film Wall St. came out the same year Black Monday occurred as stock markets around the world crashed. It was the largest one-day percentage decline in stock market history since the great depression. (It only ranks #5 now.)  So here we are 20 years later still trying to figure it all out as two of the top ten largest stock market drops have been in the last two weeks. (Sept 29 update: Make that three of the top ten stock market drops have occurred in the last two weeks.)

(I'm sure Stone felt good when Wall St. first came out, kinda of like "I told you so." But on the DVD commentary Michael Douglas said that he often told by stock brokers that they got into the business because of the Gekko character he played. Douglas said he doesn't understand because he was the bad guy. But how many of those guys now in positions of leadership in the financial crisis had Gekko as their hero? To quote writer/professor Bill Romanowski one more time, "Movies reflect the culture they help produce."

The news will tell us what happened, critics will tell us why it happened, and it's up to writers to tell us what it means. For years now I have noticed in many different states that more often than not when I go into a convenience store I see someone buying beer, cigarettes and lottery tickets and I ask myself, "What does this say about about the direction we are heading?"

Screenwriting is a place where we can pose those questions --and the playwright Ibsen said it was enough to ask the question.  So get busy asking questions. And if the economy gets worse remember this Carlos Stevens quote:

”Throughout most of the Depression, Americans went assiduously, devotedly, almost compulsively, to the movies.”

On the opposite end of Hollywood from Gordon Gekko is Paul Newman. If there ever was an example of a talented actor/director and giving businessman/ social entrepreneur it was Ohio-born and raised Newman who passed away last night. Newman's films Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, Cool Hand Luke, Absence of Malice and The Verdict will always be favorites of mine.

(Newman's Midwest roots extend to performing in summer stock theaters in Wisconsin and Illinois. And an Iowa connection is his last Academy Award nomination was for his role in The Road to Perdition which was based on the graphic novel by Iowa writer Max Allen Collins. And don't forget that the Newman's Own label was inspired by Cedar Rapids artist Grant Woods' American Gothic.

I find it interesting that the three largest legendary film actors coming up in the 50s were all from the Midwest; Marlon Brando (Nebraska), James Dean (Indiana) along with Newman.)

Gavin the lawyer Newman played in the David Mamet scripted The Verdict says words that are just as relevant today as when they we spoken a couple decades ago: "You know, so much of the time we're lost. We say, 'Please God, tell us what is right. Tell us what's true. There is no justice. The rich win, the poor are powerless...' We become tired of hearing people lie."

The world is upside down when we pay executives millions in golden parachutes when they drive a company into the ground. And that's after they lied about the about the companies financial record along with their hand picked spineless board of directors. And after they've cashed in their own inflated stocks while the stockholders and employees are shortchanged.

But how nice to see a company like Newman's Own whose entire profits from salad dressing and all natural food products are donated to charities. The company motto is "Shameless Exploitation in Pursuit of the Common Good." To date Newman and his company have generated more than $250 million to thousands of charities worldwide. 

"What could be better than to hold out your hand to people who are less fortunate than you are?
                                                                                                      Paul Newman

P.S. Robert Redford had hoped he and Newman would be able to make one last film together and had bought the rights to Des Moines, Iowa born and raised Bill Bryson's book A Walk in the Woods. 

"I got the rights to the movie four years ago, and we couldn't decide if we were too old to do it," said Redford. "The picture was written and everything. It breaks my heart."

Copyright 2008 Scott W. Smith

I have a synopsis and a great hook, but I just can't get into the story. I don't know who my characters are or why anyone, including me, should like them. I am bored by the minutiae of their ordinary lives and I want to jump right into the extraordinary times that are coming, but I need the preamble to set up the story. I suppose I could start with the last chapter as Margaret Mitchell did for Gone With the Wind, and work my way toward the beginning, but my linear mind would rebel. Or I could start with a violent scene to get my adrenaline going. Books that start with violence sell better than ones that begin more passively, anyway.

I tell myself that, good or bad, I should just get the story down on paper and worry about rewriting later. Then I remember that it's hard for me to find any words, so they need to be good.

Starting to write a novel is always difficult, even for professionals like Mary Higgins Clark who have been writing for decades. She admitted in an interview that it never gets easier. But still she writes.

Perhaps if I were writing for publication as she does, I would be motivated. There is nothing like the threat of having to return an advance to keep a writer churning out the words. I am not writing for publication yet, and I already have four unpublished novels packed away in the dusty reaches of my computer. Adding another seems pathetic.

So what's the alternative? Blogging. It satisfies my writing urge, the posts are short and don't require a big commitment of my time, and I don't need to create interesting characters.

Characters are the key to a good beginning. Once you know who they are and what they want, they can help drive the story. But the only way to learn who they are and what they want is to write them. It's a vicious circle.

For now, I'll stick to blogging.

一關一關，闖過了一關關的考驗，一切都會過去的，而我會不一樣。
我會更堅強，我會更勇敢，我會更能承擔一切。

我會跟你，更不一樣。

往不同的方向走去了，祝我一路順風。

You know, I know someone (it was me) who wrote a book (called the Belief Test) who asked the question - if you could change one thing what would it be. 

I've never had an answer more sure in my life then after spending a Monday at Carmel High School. I would change it so that high schoolers went to school one hour after the elementary school kids (9am) and a were let out 2 hours after elementary (4:30pm). The reason - I don't think teenagers are awake. I don't think with the serious amount of growing they are doing at that age can actually function on so little sleep. 

I saw a Dateline episode that talked about how researchers say that a teenager needs 10-14 hours of sleep to function at a average adult rate. I mean, how can they participate in a discussion if their brains are much like my email in-box "Checking messages." My case in point was my speaking gig as Carmel High School - Go Greyhounds!! - 2nd and 4th period film class. 

Second period - brilliant, gifted, students, there is no doubt. They also have the coolest teacher in Mr. Peterson. The guy played Hank in Saving Star Wars. Pretty cool for a high school teacher if you ask me. He's got that been-there-done-that street cred. But now second period which is 9:30am-11am - still pretty early for Ms. Kate's brain to be working, but I had an extra shot of espresso so I was ready to go. Still the most animated 2nd period got, was figuring out which movie was better The Prestige or The Illusionsist (they voted Prestige) 

Fouth Perioid was much more animated. Slight derailment of topics included Sugar Daddy's and Mescalin. Okay the Mescalin was my fault, I was at a loss on how to describe what it was like living in Savannah and no hands went up to say they saw Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil so I quoted the movie. In it John Cucask's character describes Savannah to the magazine he works for "This place is fantastic. It's like Gone With the Wind on Mescalin." 

You know part of me is glad they didn't ask me what Gone With the Wind was. 

Overall I left feeling invigorated that I got a chance to talk movies and hopefully help or inspire others, another part of me felt old. The movies I loved in high school (Clerks, Pulp Fiction, Reality Bites) these aren't classics, they aren't "really old" movies. They are just movies that ment something so special to me and seem to be skipping a generation. I wondered what the movies that are going to be special to this generation, so I asked. 

In talking with Mr. Peterson's classes the biggest impression I got was that Dark Knight made a strong impression on them. Which, to me is great because that movie is filled with great lines, a strong plot structure and mythology. Plus Christopher Nolan is an awesome director to know and study. 

I can't wait for another chance to talk movies to which whatever age it might be. I'm in talks to do some workshops at a book chain and also for more schools and non-profit organizations but I had an enlightening time at Carmel High School and I'm so glad they invited me into their class.

Much Love,

Kate Chaplin

我知道有一天一定會過去，可是此刻，就快要過不去。

一次又一次，太厭倦這樣的循環，可是居然無力改變。
所以到底要我怎麼樣呢？

好辛苦...

On the personal front, I have been having the time of my life, meeting friends, attending parties and getting gifts. Yes, I got two lovely surprises yesterday. From my athai (mother-in-law) I got a lovely sea shell mirror and some carved-shell hair-grips; From Shyla, the adorable daughter of my colleague, I got a miniature ceramic pug dog that closely resembles the Hutch or Vodafone puppy.

I also managed to read the Children's Classics - The Society of WouldbeGoods, Wind in the Willows & Mary Poppins. I managed to watch movies like - Pride and Prejudice (1995), Dance Like a Man, Cinema Paradiso, Malina, Life is Beautiful, Castaway, The Green Mile, Kung Fu Panda, Gone with the Wind, La Strada, Devil wears Prada & Notting Hill, within the space of one week. The movie marathon was a result of raiding the floors of Parson's Manor on Gemini Flyover. I'm planning to write reviews of all the movies. Though this is not the first time, I have watched the movies, this will be the first time I will be getting to blog my opinions on them.

She even gave me a copy for college graduation, and it sat fat and crisp on my bookshelf for years, enjoying the company but never uttering a word until three years ago when I decided it was finally time.  I fell in love with the first few chapters, surprised by Margaret Mitchell's voice after the Hollywood substitute I'd so gullibly swallowed, but then my children's puppy climbed the sofa, snatched the paperback from the high table, and ran off to chew it into delicious, pulpy bits.

So now I've moved to Georgia, and it seems only fitting that I try again.  I had my new library card even before I had my new driver's license.  When the book wasn't on the shelf, I assumed it was checked out and moved on to other diversions, briefly flipping through the German edition on the shelf to make sure it truly was what it seemed (it was), but determined to wait for the return of the English edition.

But it still wasn't on the shelf my next visit.  When I voiced my impatience to my mother, she decided to check at the Bremen branch.  No luck there either, but she was not to be dissuaded, so she did what I should have done at the beginning:  she asked the librarian.  Apparently, there isn't much demand for Gone With the Wind these days, and all the local copies had been archived as "obsolete" books.  But she could order it from the archives, she said, and have it sent to the Villa Rica branch closest to our house....

And so today it arrived, and I've been holding it over my own head as a reward for work well done all day.

And now it is finally time.

Even if you read his regular blog, you'll still unlikely to read everything he writes - he's a prolific journalist, and contributes to a host of different publications, including broadway.com, theatreVoice and the Sunday Express.

But the article that I want to draw your attention to is one that he posted last week on the Guardian's theatre blog. Whilst Mark only posts here sporadically, it's well worth subscribing to your RSS feeder, to avoiding missing a gem.

In his post, Desperately seeking new musicals, he opines about the problems with British theatre than mean that new work doesn't flourish. There's no point in me re-making the same arguement (you can see it for yourself here!), so I'll stick to quoting him instead:

"While most leading American theatres - both off-Broadway and regionally - take new musicals seriously enough to embrace them as a key part of their annual programming policies, we don't have a single producing theatre in the UK that does the same thing regularly here."

When there are so many musicals already on in London theatres, I can understand why the National Theatre feels able to steer clear. Unfortunately, quantity is not the same as quality, so I still think there's a role for the NT to play. Personally I'm not fixated on where the writers of the shows are from - I'd happily see more new musicals written by American writers - anything but more jukebox musicals would suit me just fine! 

I was trying to think of new musicals coming to London in the near future, and could only really think of 2 that have had any significant coverage - Imagine This at the New London theatre and Come Dancing at the Theatre Royal Stratford East. I'm not sure I feel massively confident about Imagine This, given that the last show to play at the New London was Gone With the Wind, one of the biggest flops in recent years.

Shenton goes on to write: 

"Instead, writers of new musicals are forced to mostly drift around the fringe, occasionally getting an outing at places like the King's Head, Finborough or Landor. Those destinations have also dictated content: writers have to think small instead of big. There's no nurturing of the process of writing, either, that allows them to think differently."

Given that, I thought I'd see what those theatres have to offer in the way of new musicals at the moment... the good news is that there's something in each of them.

• King's Head Theatre: As part of its 2008 season, it has already presented Betwixt!. and it has another 2 new musicals coming up in the coming months - Rue Magique and Godiva
• Finborough Theatre: The Finborough is currently advertising a new musical called Ordinary Days, written by an emerging American composer called Adam Gwon
• Landor Theatre: Another new musical, Alavaro's Balcony, starts previews this week and runs until mid-October

If there are other new musicals that I should be aware of, please let me know. I'm also looking for press releases for shows, so if you're producing a show and want me to cover it, do let me know.

On that note, it's back to work. Have a good day.

I remember a few years ago when Turner Classic Movies put on an exhibit at the Grove in Los Angeles.  I don't remember what the exhibit was called, but they had a lot of vintage film memorabilia on display--an original shooting script from The Wizard of Oz, one of Clark Gable's old costumes (he had shoulders like a linebacker!), a dress of Elizabeth Taylor's, etc.

Now in Santa Barbara, the Museum of Art has on display a large chunk of the Kobal Foundation photographs.  John Kobal, one of the world's leading photograph archivists and film historians (he's dead now, sadly, but his collection and legacy of restoration certainly lives on), amassed one of the largest studio photograph collections in the world.

Most of the photographs in "Made in Hollywood" are vintage silver gelatin prints, rich in their tonality and velvety in their blacks. There are also eight 16-by-20-inch new platinum prints and several giant wall murals made for the show from original 8-by-10 negatives.

The survey's chronological range covers Kobal's own interests, beginning with the rise of the studio system. As the studios worked to perfect their star machinery, still photographs were regularly used for advertising and sent out to magazines and newspapers. Individual pictures were also mailed by the thousands to fans.

Some of the famous faces you'll see at the exhibit include Greta Garbo, Orson Welles, Humphrey Bogart, etc.

"There are also some surprises. A close-up of Vivien Leigh, a publicity shot by Fred Parrish for "Gone With the Wind," depicts her disheveled and looking half-mad. Her face is lighted from the left, with the other side in darkness -- a moment excerpted from the famous "As God is my witness" scene when Scarlett O'Hara is reduced to digging in a field for sustenance. Farther along the wall, in stark contrast, is Leigh in a more familiar pose -- as the beautifully coiffed and controlled Southern belle, captured by Laszlo Willinger."

The exhibit is on display until October 5 so if you live in the greater LA area, it's probably definitely worth the drive up the coast!

More info at the LA TIMES

I also can't wait for the Vanity Fair Portraits exhibit coming soon!!

Para saber mais sobre Hattie, por favor visite esta página.

Até breve,

Not gone with the wind...

 After reading the original novel, Margaret Mitchell's Gone With The Wind, and I have been riveted by its heroine, Scarlett O'Hara.  I was destined to be hooked by the sheer existence of the sequel to Gone With the Wind, Scarlett: The Sequel to Margaret Mitchell's "Gone With the Wind".  To nobody's great suprise, I loved that novel and devoured it as soon as I received it.  Being a die-hard fan of the movie and prior written works, I admit that I may be biased in my opinion of Rhett Butler's People.  Needless to say, I loved it!

Donald McCain, author of Jacob's Ladder, I have not yet read, follows the true spirit of the original story as written by Margaret Mitchell.  In looking at Margaret's photographed portrait, I see the obvious resemblence of Vivien Leigh's Scarlett.  He kept this key elements and characters of this story in direct alignment with Margaret's memorable epic.  Which, personally, I think is great.  Those who may not be the "die-hard" that I am, may only have seen the movie and not read the novel.  In Gone With the Wind, you discover that Scarlett actually has more children than just Bonnie Blue, for example.  In McCain's novel, you follow the lives of these children and Rhett's relationship with them.  Another character development that I really enjoyed as the discovery of who Belle Whatling really was.  Understanding her roots and history gave me an entirely new perspective on her character completely.

Another aspect of the novel that I enjoyed so much was Rhett's viewpoint of what happened after the famous line, "Frankly, Scarlett, I don't give a damn."  McCain provides you with an ending that ties Gone With the Wind (GWTW) to Scarlett beautifully.  If I were to recommend an order of reading, definitely GWTW, Rhett Butler's People, and then Scarlett.  With that being said, if you are a true romantic and fan of the saga, this read is a must!  You get more fun with Mammy, Prissy and Big Sam.  McCain's description of both Ashley and Mellie give you an entirely different perspective on their strengths, and more importantly, their weaknesses.

According to my sources, McCain is not involved with a screenplay for this novel.  What my dream would be... combine Rhett with Scarlett and give us another 2-DVD masterpiece collection to savor tubs of popcorn over!  I'm in! 

My very best friend, from the days of high school, have made it "our movie" and watched it religiously on my birthday each year.  I am Scarlett, en carne, and Lori most definitely Mellie.  I have a gorgeous scarlett and ivory Christmas Tree decorated with the collector's edition ornaments in tribute to my favorite gal and favorite story.  I know, I know!

McCain does an excellent job in his character development, however give you stuff to keep guessing on.  All 498 pages I absorbed in less than two days, so I found it riveting enough to stay up late for.  McCain leaves us with a teaser that this may not "nearly be the end."  FINGERS ARE CROSSED!

Buy Books at Amazon.Com:

Gone With the Wind

Scarlett

Rhett Butler's People