a stitch in time . . .

As I am going to La Jolla next weekend for my 50th high school reunion, I decided the least I could do for my classmates was to have a facial. While there, Stella asked me, "What's that little thread on your cheek?" What she was referring to was a stitch ~ possibly two ~ that was not removed by the plastic surgeon who took out the sebaceous cyst. Good grief! She tried to pull it out; it's been healed over. Now it appears I will have to have the scar opened up and the rogue stitches pulled out. I thought that particular problem was over, but I guess not. Thus I will be forced to appear before my peers with black strings trailing down my cheek. Well, it's not quite that bad, but I like to go for the dramatic.

Movie report: Barry Lyndon is a secret little masterpiece. Marisa Berensen, who plays Lady Lyndon, has about 6 lines in the entire movie. Instead of speaking she heaves her insubstantial bosom and gazes into the middle distance with her large eyes. Ryan O'Neal is the consummate roué. Stanley Kubrik made a sadly unheralded gem.

I read Trollope's delicious 6-volume epic, The Pallisers, before I left for Italy last fall and am only now getting through the Masterpiece Theater presentation. I am about to start disc 13 of 24 and am loving every minute of it.