Ellipsis Movie Of The Week... A Simple Favor

 

"Five days ago, Emily went missing."

~Stephanie Smothers (Anna Kendrick)

A Simple Favor

The title of the movie tells the whole story. This is a fun, elegant, twisty little mystery with Anna Kendrick as a pretty, cool YouTube mom, who has her own successful vlog, and carries a deep secret! And Blake Lively is a cold brash career woman, who not only brings just the right bitchiness to her character of Emily that you find yourself applauding her strength, but you she carries her own secret, and let me tell you, it's a whopper! This film has a sequel, a Prime original, Another Simple Favor, and let me tell you, it might be an even wilder ride then the first one!

 Watch them together if you can.

 The first movie will leave you wondering what came next!

Another Simple Favor 

Ellipsis Movie Of The Week... To Die For

 

"You're not anybody in America unless you're on TV! On TV is where we learn about who we really are. Because what's the point of doing anything worthwhile, if nobody's watching? And if people are watching, it makes you a better person."

~Suzanne Stone (Nicole Kidman)

To Die For

Suzanne Stone always wanted to be famous. One day she achieved that goal, but it didn't come without the pain of others. I love this movie for it's dark humor, but I always remember that it was inspired by true events, the murder of Gregory Smart, carried out by a student in her class. Just in case you haven't heard the details of what took place, it happened in the early 90's, I am hesitant to give too many details away. I am saying just jump into it, so you can take in the full shocking twists and turns of events. The movie is available right now on Netflix. Watch it, and then tell me what you think about it. 

By the way, there is another film about Pamela Smart, Murder in New Hampshire: The Pamela Smart Story, which is available on YouTube. It stars Helen Hunt as Pamela, and while it was great, in fact I highly recommend it, I am a little sad that there wasn't more about Gregory in either film. But Pamela does finally find the fame she was looking for, but as you know, fame fades, and her case, what she will be remembered for the most, is her conviction for conspiracy to commit murder.

Pamela Smart Speaks Out 

(Oprah.com)

Fame

 By David Bowie

The Dead Lights

Tyler, watching the lights from the emergency service vehicles

April 17th, 2026

This post has been updated. See the article below.

"One gun has more power to take a life, than a hundred surgeons have to preserve it."

~Abhijit Naskar 

The Centurion Sermon: Mental Por El Mundo

Friday night in Stockton, California.

Yes, that beautiful glow that my cat, Tyler, is looking at, is indeed a whole neighborhood of police, fire and who knows what else, dealing with yet another shooting, at the same corner that it happened two times previously. Basically, those lights are right under my window. The first time was on September 9th, 2025, when a young man was shot dead, by police, while fleeing from them. He had several illegal weapons in the car with him, and he ran, and two officers opened fire on him. He was 19. Here is the bodycam footage, released by the Stockton Police Department, in October of 2025.   

WARNING: IT'S DISTURBING TO WATCH!

The next incident happened Thanksgiving weekend, when, several persons were killed, 2 under 21, and 2 under 10 years old, plus it left 13 others injured. It was a child's birthday party. All the children there, are now victims of gun violence. They were either injured, or they witnessed a murder. It was more than a tragedy. It was vile, and monstrous and deeply sad. It left me depressed for weeks. Later that evening, five suspects were arrested in the same place, as tonight's drama, and the night Rocco Robinson was shot, and, like I said, basically under my bedroom window. Recently, on April 2nd, there was an update about the birthday party murders, but I haven't heard anything about it since.

And then there was last night. I don't know anything about tonight's events. I will update when I can. Or maybe I won't. Honestly, I am a little depressed. We hear all kinds of sirens in this neighborhood, but just about a week ago, one night in the middle of the night we heard several shots, and it seemed they were nearby. The next night we heard loud machine gun fire, and it was definitely nearby. I was scared to death. I had just got my nerves under control, and now there are nine police cars, crime scene tape, and I expect the coroner will be here soon. 

Honestly, I am so tired. The most comforting feeling in the world is my cats sleeping on the bed with us. Morning kisses are the best. But not if doing so might put them in harms way! One day, someone is going to shoot a gun, and the bullet is going to hit something unintended. I hope it won't be us!

Read The CBS Article Here.

  

My prayers are with the family and friends of this young man.

Ellipsis Movie Of The Week... Sea Of Love

"I live alone inside myself, like a hut within the woods;

 I keep my heart high upon a shelf, barren of other goods;

 I need another's arms to reach for it and place it where it belongs

 I need another's touch and smile to fill my hut with song."

Poem written by Frank Sr.'s wife, when she was in high school.

Sea Of Love

This is a pretty great mystery, although a bit predictable in places. It's a cool watch if you're looking for an old school mystery. You know, from the 1980's. Slightly noir, but mostly a great use of the amazing Al Pacino, and Ellen Barkin. Watch it. Tell me what you think. It's currently available for streaming on Peacock Premium. And listen to the Honey Drippers cover of, Sea Of Love. It's my favorite version, and one of my top 10 favorites! Of course that list probably changes daily. I love movies and music, what can I say?

Sea Of Love

The Honey Drippers 

 

Ellipsis Movie Of The Week... Arlington Road

 

You can't ask government to be infallible, but you can ask it to be accountable."

~Michael Faraday (Jeff Bridges)

Arlington Road

1999

How much do you know about your neighbors? Do you ever wonder if you know a genuine domestic terrorist? Is there one live among them? Do you think it's possible for you to know a domestic terrorist when you see one? Honestly, I do scan my own neighborhood, but not so much for what my neighbors are up to, I do it because of the biggest, and scariest domestic terrorists of all... our own country! This movie was made in 1999, and more than likely was inspired by the likes of Timothy McVeigh and the Unabomber, and the movie definitely parallels life in the late 90's but strays only in who the big bad is, back when we still counted on government to keep us safe. In today's life, I feel like I am on my own, and if I ever see ICE or some other government agency harming my neighbor, I will be there as soon as possible, filming every single moment of it! After the murders of Renee Good, and Alex Pretti, and the character assassination doled out by Kristi Noem, characterizing them as Domestic Terrorists, I say count me in! If that makes me one as well, so be it, and now, I guess, if you are reading this post, congratulations, you now know a domestic terrorist!

Watch The Movie.

It's a top notch thriller! It's available right now on Prime.

Listen To Jimmy

 

"When the rabbit screams, the FOX comes runnin' but not to help."

~Thomas Harris

The Silence Of The Lambs

I'm exhausted, and really, what more could I possibly add?

Say His Name... Alex Jeffrey Pretti

One Headline... Two Different Days

 I don't have a witty quotes for today. I am tired, brokenhearted and really sad. And I admit I found it surreal that the New York Times had the same headline for, Saturday, and Sunday. Forgive me if this is a less than perfect post. History will remember this time, and will not look kindly on these assholes. Say his name, Alex Jeffrey Pretti. He was an ICU nurse at the V.A. hospital, in Minnesota. He was a son. And he was so much more, including a hero, for trying to save a woman who had been shoved to the ground by ICE agents.

 He was the same age as Renee, Nicole Good... 37.

Renee Nicole Good

Murdered by ICE

 January 7th, 2025

Alex Jeffrey Pretti

Murdered By ICE

January 24th, 2026

How many more will have to die, at the hands of the Trump Administration?

The stupidity speaks for itself. Don't let yourself be Gaslighted.

RIP

 Alex Jeffrey Pretti

Perfidy

"Godlessness ends great nations.

 The one thing we can all do is get down on our knees and pray."

~Pete Hegseth

Did Pete Hegseth commit a war crime through the act of Perfidy?

I hope not, but it appears that he may have done just that! This is the year that the midterms decides our long term future, and I know that as we move closer to next November things will become more and more crazy, but honestly, America is so far into the dark right now, that I am not sure we will find our way home. This year marks America's 250th anniversary, now what?

Read the New York Times article here.

Heartbroken

 

No quotes fit this post.

Rest In Peace 

Rob Reiner and Michele Singer Reiner

The Autumn Of Murder?

 

"Oh no. It costs a lot more than your life. To murder innocent people?"

 Peeta says, "It costs everything you are."

~Suzanne Collins

Mockingjay

Most of the time, autumn is a season of magic for me. The light of the beautiful sun, especially in October, the keen mixture of the weather, the first night that an extra blanket on the bed is required. Horror movies, holidays, spooky shadows, and little monsters, witches, princesses and super heroes on October 31st. We just put up our holiday tree yesterday. Christmas is mostly an autumn holiday. Christmas eve is only a few days into winter, but the shopping, the cookie making, the planning all takes place in autumn. Good stuff... right? So why is the grim reaper making such an overwhelming ass of himself? There has been so much death all around me. My favorite neighborhood duck, Kenny was run over by a careless driver, devastating the neighborhood. That young man killed on Pixie, for making horrific decisions. The murders last Saturday, at a child's birthday party, and now this... a father murders his 11 year old son, while the child's mother watches all of it on her home surveillance cameras. 

You can read the full story here... KCRA

Sigh.

I have done my best to ignore, to push away the feelings happening inside me, but sometimes those feelings pound me with depression. There are several units of law enforcement in the area right now, and if you can believe it, they still haven't caught the shooter from Saturday night! So that guy is still who knows where? Another child is in the morgue, and his 6 year old sister who watched her dad murder her brother, will feel that pain forever! How much more can happen? I miss my duck. I miss looking for him and his wife, Jenny, every time we come home through the park along the canal. I miss feeling like I can take a photo in the open, without wondering if I will get shot by a paranoid criminal. Autumn is a kind and gentle season full of spirit and magic, but winter has the most painful bites. Why is autumn allowing winter to insinuate itself into autumn's life, and bring with it, such cruelty? 

Freudian Reporting?

 

Hmmm... curious. What could have possibly caused the reporter for the Los Angeles Times to make a mistake such as this? It's quite a mystery, right? Or could it be that everyone knows that what O. J. Simpson, and Donald Trump had in common, in fact the only thing the had in common, was... wait for it... their obvious mutual criminality? Hell, I am just surprised that Trump didn't find a way to involve him in any way in any of his crimes. Strange.

 

Well done, Los Angeles Times! 

 

 

Note: The original L. A. Times story has been corrected.

Note: The circle typo at the top of this post is by way of

 Countdown With Keith Olbermann.

 

 

Guns And Roses

 

"Hot Cocoa"rose from my garden.

Autumn 2012

 

“Your photography is a record of your living,

 for anyone who really sees.”

~Paul Strand

 

 

 

It's true, sometimes I take a photograph of a landscape or a beautiful bird, but it's more about how I feel while I use my camera. I always have an emotional connection to my subjects. Some of the photos that I have done, that I have received the most positive feedback on, have been when I have been in the depths of depression, and sometimes it's about fear. Please don't think that has been the emotions behind all of my photography, I am a happy and content person most of the time. I am getting older, and that means a symphony of physical pain, and limitations, but I do my best to accept it and move on. However, sometimes life just throws you in the middle of the, frankly, SHIT, and doesn't give you a choice on how you take it. My niece died in a traffic accident that was not her fault. To make it worse, it was a hit and run. Fuck! A short time later my nephew committed suicide.

 

 FUUUUUUUUCK!

 

Glock

 

And if that wasn't enough to fuck me up, yesterday I thought I was going to die. We were out doing errands for a while, and when we returned home a car was parked in the middle of the alleyway where we park our Mini Cooper. We couldn't get around him without driving over the grass and around to sewage equipment. Suddenly a man got out of his car with a gun, and fired about 4 shots toward his girlfriend's apartment. She was yelling back at him in anger, for shooting his gun towards the apartment where her young children were! Oh Shit! Was he going to shoot us for being witnesses? Were we going to be the latest statistic of rampant gun violence? Was the young woman he was shooting toward be a victim of domestic violence? I was terrified! I decided that if he was going to shoot me, I hoped he would shoot to kill, because I didn't want to be in pain and still be alive. That would be a hell of a FUCK YOU from fate, wouldn't it? Just get it over with! You think about a lot of things when you think your death is imminent. 

 

Who will take care of my cats?

 Will it hurt?

 Or will I just be gone?

Did I put on clean underwear?

Guns don't sound the same as they do on TV and in movies!

 

The my brain turned to...

White car, sedan 4 doors, Honda 

4 shots... I think

Young black man

mid 30's

White clothing

We drove around him as best we could, parked, and went into our condo. I called the police. I gave them all the information I could. I was embarrassed by how much I had forgot between the car and when I went inside. I guess I am not the best witness, but FUUUUUUUUUK he had a gun! It looked like a Glock22 semi-automatic but I don't know anything about guns, it's a guess based on the limited research I have done in the last 24 hours. Isn't it strange that something so scary is so exotic. I think I am going to do more research on the instrument of death to both make me feel less frightened next time and better educated. I need to do better next time, and believe me, I know there will be a next time.  I should have began this paragraph with telling you that I am okay, but a little fucked up this weekend. I was diagnosed with PTSD a few months ago, just after my family died. I have lots of incidents in my past that have caught up to me in my old age. I am getting treatment, but it's a long road, and who knows, I may not ever recover. But I am trying. 

 

Now, what's up with the roses? Well, the errand I was on yesterday was to buy some new roses for my garden. I found a lovely "Peace" rose and to my, absolute delight, I found a "Hot Cocoa" rose! I LOVE that rose! I had one when I lived in the Bay Area, and it was an absolute delight! It was the favorite of all my roses, and I had to leave it behind when I moved. Once we settled in Stockton, I looked and looked at every garden center I could, with absolutely no luck at all, so I gave up. But yesterday, there it was! What a happy turn of events! I will have that beautiful rose growing in my garden once again. Something to help me heal, and then that gun incident had to happen, because everybody has a gun. Will my mind attach that incident to my roses? Will I think of it every time I see a new rose grow on the stem? That remains to be seen, but right now it's hard to think about. The human brain manifests fear strangely... and sometimes it's just lets the negativity go, and it gets filed away. And, of course, that's for the best.

So, it was a guns and roses kind of day. Like the name of the band. Funny thing, I can't remember a single song by them, but I did a little looking around on YouTube and found this song, which I kinda like. I wasn't into Heavy Metal rock, so I passed it all by, but now I think I will have to listen to more of their stuff. Discovering new things, making new memories helps erase the stuff you don't want to think about. Like suicide. Like murder. It should be more music, less murder. More roses, less guns. More healing, less scars. Even if life has other plans. I am trying, I really am.

 

 Anyway, this is a nice song, and I hope you enjoy it.

"November"

By Guns And Roses

I witnessed gun violence yesterday.

 Next time I will try to capture the turn of fate with my camera.

 I guess it was my new experience for March. On to April.

Sticks And Stones

 

“I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones.”

 
~Albert Einstein 

 

Hundreds Killed. President Biden will arrive in Israel in a couple hours, to meet with Benjamin Netanyahu and to, I assume, try to lessen tensions. But with this event having taken place, I am not sure it will happen. Nothing is inevitable, but it seems like we are closer to catastrophe, than understanding and resolve.

 I pray for the president's safety.

 I pray that he can help make this stop.

 

 My faith is in him.

 

From The Truly Ridiculous To The Truly Macabre

"On a creep scale from

 Hello Kitty to Cthulhu, I award it a Freddy Krueger"

~Granuaile MacTiernan

The last few days have been sufficiently, macabre. I haven't bothered to write about current events in ages, mostly because current events no longer take place in the quaint old fashioned way of bits, bites, and booms that tended to randomly occur over days, weeks, or months. Instead, we now have hourly events of bytes booms and bangs, thanks in no small part to Twitter, and the charmingly loose senile orange toddler with nuclear devices as his only friends... no not the biscuit or football... but rather his damn mouth and Twitter fingers, Donald John Trump. 

That's right. The woman who bitched. Pissed. Moaned. Groaned. Spit, and generally lost her shit about every move made by George W. Bush, finally gave up. Trump broke me. I decided to let history keep track of life in the political world, because I simply couldn't keep up with whatever shocking misstep, intellectual fart, or social fuck-up he produced, let alone follow the endless line of cabinet miscreant slam dancing, he demanded be choreographed in the White House, and sometimes near the White House, at any given moment, on any given day. Enough! I had some depression to nurture! It's not like Bush made me any younger. And as for Obama... he made me lazy. Life was reasonably boring, quiet and non-eventful with him as president.

But enough of the reminiscing, and onto the macabre event that sent me back to blogging, if only for this post. History will remember the name, Jeffrey Epstein, like it has remembered the names of so many other notorious evil spirits of the past. History will unite him forever with other convicted pedophiles, and for what he was most recently charged with, human trafficking of under-aged girls. History will remember that he apparently provided many powerful men with these girls, which will forever unite those men with him. You are the company you keep! 

Prime Ministers. Kings. Presidents. Governors. And Donald Trump kept close company with Epstein. Many men visited Epstein's private island and flew in his airplane and private helicopter. He owned an apartment in Trump Tower, and partied often with Donald Trump. Does that act alone prove guilt of pedophilia? Does it mean any man on the list engaged in anything illegal? No, but I assume absolute proof, one way or the other, will be provided beyond a doubt one day. As the women come forward, and point directly at these men, it will all be laid bare, for all to see, but when it does, it will have to be without Jeffrey Epstein, because he was found unresponsive in his cell last Saturday morning, and later declared dead.

At the moment it's being called an apparent suicide. But there are folks on both sides of the political aisle, who want it to be murder so bad they can taste the dead body in their mouths. Conspiracy theories abound! Hillary must have done it! COUNT THE CLINTON MURDER VICTIMS! A.G. BARR DID IT TO SAVE TRUMP! "Jeffrey was scared, so he killed himself." "The guards hated pedophiles, so they did it." Twitter, was all atwitter, Sunday night, with the possibilities. Not much consideration given to his victims and what comes next for them, however, just one macabre theory after another about a dead man, with pictures of his lifeless, slightly cyanotic body lying on a gurney in a hospital in Manhattan, to provide proof that something happened on the second Saturday in August, In The Year Of Our Lord, 2019.

I'll keep you posted, unless history gets to it first!

~Mood: Quiet
~Me

Late On A February Night... The Mystery Of Tammy Meyers

Grant Ranch Park, Mt Hamilton Road

San Jose, California 

"It is better to risk saving a guilty person

 than to condemn an innocent one."

~Voltaire

   Zadig

A couple weeks ago, on February 12th, a tragedy occurred. A wife, mother, friend, neighbor, was shot dead, in her own driveway, after what was first reported as a case of road rage. The country, no the world, was shocked and sickened by the thought of someone losing control so thoroughly as that driver must have been, to pull out a gun, and shoot a stranger, in their own driveway. It was, however, an easy scenario to believe. Road rage is a scary thing, and it goes on all around us, in every American community, in small towns and in large metropolitan areas. Anger is on the rise, and the ability to deal with that anger in an appropriate manner is declining. It seems our coping mechanisms have seemingly dwindled. Too much bad information, a rise in terrorism, joblessness, acts of violence against unarmed children by the very people who should be protecting them... you name it, stress is not hard to come by. So road rage seems to be the result of the snapping of our last nerve. The incredible stress we all live under is the reason, but there is NO excuse for the dangerous behavior of road rage, and this case of road rage it was especially terrifying! An angry driver followed a woman home, and killed her, in the driveway of her own home! But it seems that there was a lot more to the story, and things aren't always what they seem to be.

A Basic Example Of Early Reports

Timeline Of Events

Feb 12th, 2015

*Tammy Meyer's takes her daughter out for a session of driver's training. It was late in the evening, and the daughter had NO learner's permit. The lesson is said to have taken place on private property at a nearby school.

*When they finished, Tammy got into the driver's seat and her daughter moved to the passenger side.

As they pulled out into traffic, a speeding car pulled up very close on their bumper, and then pulled alongside their car. That's when the daughter reached over and honked the horn at the car.

*At that point the driver of the aggressive car managed to close the Meyer's car off and a verbal altercation began when the driver of the other car got out and yelled something to the effect of... "I'll get you and your daughter."

*The Meyers daughter says that the man who got out of the car was 6 feet tall, 180lbs, mid 20's, with spiky blond hair. And that he threatened them saying, "I'm going to get you and your daughter." She says he knew she was Mrs. Meyers daughter, because she kept repeating "Mommy, Mommy."

*Meyers and daughter turned their car around, and drove home directly, where she told her daughter to go into the house, and send out her son, who was in legal possession of a handgun..

*At this point, the other car finds them, at their home, and someone in the car opens fire on Mrs. Meyers and her son, hitting the mother in the head. The son returns fire, as the car flees the scene.

*On February 14th, Tammy Meyers is taken off life support by her husband Robert Meyers.

*February 15th. A GoFundMe account is set up for the Meyers family to help with funeral expenses.

*February 16th. Mr. Meyers offers his fully restored Camero as a reward to anyone who can help find the killers of his wife.

*February 17th. Police release a statement that paints a different story then was initially told.

*February 17th. The GoFundMe account is taken down, due to overwhelming backlash over the changing account of events.

5 days after the initial altercation there is an updated account of the Events...

On February 20th Channel 8 News, 

in Las Vegas, 

 prepared an interactive timeline of events.

And the story has changed again since that timeline was prepared.

Updated Timeline Of Events

February 24th 2014

Examiner Online

I haven't checked today, to see if there is still another change in the story, I can't imagine what more could be changed at this point, but somehow it wouldn't surprise me too much to find out something else has changed. Here is what I do know. Tammy Meyers died a senseless death. A young man is in jail and the district attorney is pushing for the maximum charges, and all that the punishment carries. It's possible this young man could be given the death penalty if convicted of what he is being charged with. Tammy Meyers isn't alive to defend herself, and her family is doing her no favors by being caught in lie after lie. I don't remember a case where the victim's family has been caught in as many lies and half-truths as the Meyers family!

I haven't believed one word that Mr. Meyers has said from day one. So what really happened? Why, if Tammy Meyers was an innocent victim, did her son and daughter lie? I can't figure out why they would lie? As for Mr. Meyers, he says his wife knew her assailant, if so, why not just call the police? All the time she supposedly mentored him, did Mr. Meyers also try to help that kid? Or did he just sit by while his wife met with the young man in a seedy neighborhood park, gave him money, and supposedly tried to encourage him. What kind of husband does that? I know Alan wouldn't let me do something like that alone. It doesn't make sense.

If Mr. Meyers is willing to lie about any detail of this case,

 what else is he willing to lie about?

Right now, I believe Erich Nowsch should be found

 NOT GUILTY if this case goes to trial,

 but frankly, he should be released from custody long before that.

Any way you see it, this is just one more American tragedy.

Mood: Quiet

~Me