Together in Heaven

There was no accounting for my friend Hank's great love, Erin, a woman who by most accounts would be described as short and a little dumpy, by all accounts as a lesbian, and by test scores as a genius. Hank, like most men I know, had a bit of the beauty facist going, but this didn't matter when it came to Erin. He clung to her despite their rocky friendship (that never really did morph into romance), the unfortunate pairing of their names -- Hank Erin (obviously a phonetic joke nightmare), and his and her relationships with other women. Hank referred to Erin as "the bitch," as if she were a platonic ideal rather than a person. I liked Erin despite her sometimes prickly personality and her overanalytic ways, but my loyalty was to Hank whom I had known almost since birth. Erin came in and out of focus for many years, through many schools, but eventually she cut off all contact. We tried to bring her back through letters and phone calls, but alas, sometimes someone's wish to be free of you is stronger than all the magic you can use to conjure her back.

I've made many toasts with many people over the years, the first one I can remember at Erin's high school/college graduation (she did concurrent enrollment -- I meant it when I said genius). After we toasted to good fortune and many years of knowing one another, we each received a plastic ice-cube after the toasts that had rolled around in the cheap champagne and made a wish on it. I forget what mine was -- probably that Hank and Erin would live happily ever after and nobody would make fun of their names. I didn't have anything on the burner then and could afford to be generous with my plastic pink ice-cube. But wishes don't often come true, and I suppose that is a good thing. I still love to make toasts, though, and my favorite is one that comes from the great movie, Days of Wine and Roses. Although I never say it out loud, I think of it often -- Together in Heaven. Now that I think about it, it's a wish, but like all wishes, you have to keep it to yourself if you are to have any chance of it coming true.

Michelle's Spell of the Day

"She's hanging with a bad crowd. She's lying and cheating and next thing you know, she's Patty Hearst with a gun to our heads. " Freaks and Geeks

Cocktail Hour

Drinking DVD set suggestion: My friend Shawn turned me onto the television show Freaks and Geeks, and I spent one very happy weekend watching all that I could at his wonderful house. This show only lasted a season, but it's a very funny brilliant take on high school in the late 70s/early 80s, set in Detroit.

Benedictions and Maledictions

More Halloween movie suggestions: Children of the Corn (high camp value), Hatchet for the Honeymoon (also incredibly high camp value)