For Michael M.

It’s too bad I’m broke because it appears to be a good day for walking—crisp and sunny—I thought to stroll around Hyde Park, and maybe find a café to park in to read or write (or both) for a few hours. It’s harder to do those things at home, with the distraction of the television, the stereo, the family, the pet, the phone, and what have you. Some days it’s impossible. Most days it feels impossible.

One thing I guess I’ll be doing this afternoon is going back online to barackobama.com to continue my participation in the “Neighbor to Neighbor” volunteer effort I began yesterday afternoon. Bill M. sent me an email yesterday urging me to join—actually what it appears he sent was an “e-blast” and I’m on his listing—that’s how I got involved.

If you’re at all interested (What..? What do you mean “No, thank you”??) go to barackobama.com and you’ll see the “Neighbor to Neighbor” volunteer information where you can choose to donate money to the Obama-Biden campaign, or volunteer online to phone people in your state or a neighboring state (the system will generate names and phone numbers plus a script you can follow to make it easier to know what to say) or you can opt to canvass your area door to door—the software even provides flyers you can print up to take with you if you want to distribute them around.

I’m not comfortable with the idea of walking around this neighborhood knocking on strange doors, so I chose to work the phones. I called 50 people yesterday, Mike. I was a little nervous at first, worried about the reception I’d receive (“You’re WHO? Who is this REALLY? How you get my number? Why you callin’ here? Goddam it, don’t call this number again!!”), but it turned out not to be so difficult at all. The reason was because each of these individuals were already acknowledged Obama supporters, having either donated money or signed a petition or done something to indicate their interest in getting involved in some way. What I was phoning to learn was whether they were still interested in volunteering, and if yes what their availability and level of involvement would be. The script included five simple questions that the person could answer Yes, No or Maybe to, with me clicking on the appropriate radio button to record their responses. After that I thanked them for their time and clicked on the Save tab at the bottom of the page to transmit the information to Obama headquarters and move on to the next name on the list.

There were some awkward moments—a few people were wary at first but when they realized I just wanted to ask a few quick questions that they could respond to simply they relaxed, and some folks became downright chatty. (One very friendly lady asked me several questions I couldn’t knowledgably answer; I rescued myself by directing her to the Obama website for more information.) In cases where I encountered voice mails I left a message since the script included that option if you aren’t able to talk to an actual person. Other options were:

Wrong Number
Not Home
Refused To Talk To Me
Spoke A Foreign Language, and
Deceased.

You’re laughing now, aren’t you. I certainly did--I couldn't help chuckling as I was preparing to dial the first number, having a sudden image in my head of someone so determined to avoid talking to me that they resorted to each of the above options, including the last.

You could also make the selection “I Am Uncomfortable Calling This Person” (Stop laughing!) but you had to explain why. There was also a space for typing in any remarks you might want to add; I used this a few times.

The “Leave a Message” option created the expectation that I would be calling these folks again, either today or tomorrow (which is what I anticipated having to do), but I later discovered that whenever I selected “Leave a Message” the system automatically removed those names and numbers from my list making follow-up impossible. (Eventually I e-mailed the help desk suggesting this was a glitch that should be fixed; they replied by thanking me for the heads-up and assuring me that the deleted names are always handed off to another volunteer for follow-up)

Also, unexpectedly, several of the people I left messages to called me back—since I was calling from home, my name and phone number popped up on their caller IDs—and one person even interrupted my dinner! (“Uh, hi? Is this Lorraine? Is this a good time to talk..?”) Since at this point I had logged off the website and no longer had the script in front of me, I had to scramble trying to remember what to ask, jotting down their answers on a pad on my desk. (I later emailed the help desk again with the person’s information)

There were three—or was it four—instances where someone answered, a spouse, a baby-sitter, whoever, who asked me to call again; today I’ll go back into the website and do so to finish up. (Don’t know if I want another 50 names, however... oh, what the hell. It's for the cause.)

As I type this I’m watching the Fox movie channel’s letterbox edition broadcast of the 1966 spy thriller The Quiller Memorandum, a good movie that gets better each time I see it. Remember this film? It boasted a terrific international cast, including Alec Guinness, Max von Sydow, George Sanders, and, as The American Hero Who Saves The Day, a young George Segal in possibly his best wise-guy role as the beleaguered U.S. spy sent by Sanders and Guinness to root out Nazis in the “new” Germany. Beautiful Senta Berger (Whatever happened to her?) plays the love interest who may not be as innocent as she seems. And Guinness gives off a vibe here like he’s playing “A Homosexual.” Sort of queeny, sniffy. Coming on to Segal, subtly, and Segal knows it which makes it easy for him to dismiss Guinness. Since Alec Guinness was gay in real life and George Segal, so far as we know, is not, you watch this scene wondering how much of that dynamic was real. (The regal, arrogant Sanders, who was once married to Zsa Zsa Gabor, was also queer--not in this movie I don’t think but in real life.)

Segal, an actor who was good to look at but not distractingly pretty like, say, Redford (whom he worked with in 1972’s comic heist movie The Hot Rock) excelled in roles like this—resourceful, everyday, workaday guys who through a series of circumstances land in the shit and sometimes prevail, sometimes don't. There’s a movie he made around this time—perhaps in the same year?—with Eva Marie Saint, in which he played a philandering husband who tries to hang onto both his wife and his mistress, if I’m remembering it right. It’s never shown anymore and I don’t know if it’s available on VHS or DVD at all. I’d love to see it again. I think the name of it is Loving; must make a note to do an Amazon search for it.

Paul Newman could also have played Quiller, of course, and was probably offered the role first before it made its way to George Segal. As I say, I like Segal just fine in this movie, his work is solid, but part of me can't help but wish Newman had signed on for it. What did he release in '66, anyway? The Secret War of Harry Frigg? (Nope, that was '68.) He should have played Quiller.

But maybe Newman felt he'd played this world-weary wisecracking hero character before, or some variation of it, in Harper or Torn Curtain or even The Prize. How is it possible that Paul Newman--not just a wonderful actor and one of the great male beauties of the Silver Screen, but a humanitarian and philanthropist, a man with strong socio-political convictions--is gone?

The sun is gone, too and it’s starting to rain. Maybe it’s just as well I didn’t go out today. More later.