Live on Sunset Strip

I had an old friend that tells the same story for every situation, the one involving some lab rats who got shocked every time they got food and the ones that only got shocked intermittently when they pulled the food lever. The ones who got shocked intermittently went crazy, of course. The first time I heard this story, I found myself nodding as if that explained some things. I found myself less entranced after I discovered she’d been sleeping with my then-boyfriend intermittently for a year. I asked her why and it was a rhetorical question, the kind of thing that you might ask God about, mad but not expecting a straight answer.

Because I wanted to, she said. We were watching Richard Pryor's Live On Sunset Strip, the scene where he becomes the crack pipe and his wife and Jim Brown are telling him he's got to give up the drugs, but the pipe is telling him no, not to listen to them. I've always loved this scene and like lots of good things, it's linked to a bad thing. I don't respond to her answer because what is there to say? The damage, as they say, is done. I thought about her rat parable and prayed to God that she wouldn't try to use it to demonstrate a point. There are some things that can't be forgiven and the rat parable is one of them. Onscreen, Richard has to blow himself up freebasing to find out how much everyone loves him. He gets choked up at the end, starts to tear up. He's burnt, but he's alive. He's hurting, but grateful to know what he does.


Michelle's Spell of the Day

"Everyone carries around his own monsters." Richard Pryor

The Damage

2 ounces of Stoli Coffee vodka
1 splash of Stoli Vanilla vodka

Benedictions and Maledictions

Happy Saturday!