2001

One of our Christmas visitors was making me crazy yesterday, because he wouldn’t shut the fuck up about wanting a throwing star. (Yeah, I really think a 13 year old with poor impulse control (but I repeat myself) needs a sharp and possibly lethal weapon.) So I tried to remember times when I probably drove my parents nuts by whining and begging for something.

The first time I can think of occurred when I was about 6 or 7 years old. Back then we lived “way out in the country” and we went to the movies on family birthdays and that’s about it. So we saw 4 movies a year. And that year I desparately wanted to see “2001, A Space Odyssey”. (Yeah, the space geek die was cast pretty early.) But my brother’s birthday came 3 months before mine. I begged my parents incessantly to let us go to 2001, but they didn’t want to. I probably made a real pest of myself. Instead, we went to “A Lion In Winter”. I’m pretty sure that wasn’t David’s choice either. All I remember about this movie is a scene where somebody runs through the castle kicking people who are lying down yelling “Nobody sleeps when the King is awake!”

Three months later, we finally got to see 2001. And it’s still one of the best movies I’ve ever seen.