Jack and I watched Citizen Kane last night. I first saw that movie when I was in college at Georgia Tech when they used to show movies in the Electrical Engineering auditorium. I really didn't know all that much about the movie other than the fact that it was a classic piece of film and so was worth watching. Therefore at the end when it is revealed what Rosebud is, it was as complete a surprise for me as it was for the original audiences. I always love it when a movie "works" for me the way the filmmaker intended. The Usual Suspects and The Sixth Sense were like that too for me, because in those I never got the "twist" until I was supposed to get it. To this day I'm grateful that no one had ever told me what Rosebud was before I saw the movie, because it truly made the whole movie that much more powerful for me.

Today I did a bit more christmas shopping, which included a trip to the bookstore. While there I picked up the latest Years Best Science Fiction since I'm getting back into the writing scene and all. I then went to Target, but as I pulled into the parking lot I looked back at Precious Babykins in her car seat and discovered that she was sound asleep. It was at this point that I experienced a moment of true genius. She was asleep, and I had a book in the car that I wanted to read. Therefore I parked, left the car running, and read while she slept. I managed to get about thirty minutes of extremely precious reading time in before she woke up. I've decided to keep some books in the car from now on, because available time to read has been pretty non-existent since she was born. In fact I think I might have finished one entire book in the past eight months.

And in a strange coincidence, the first story I read in the anthology was one about Orson Welles. What are the odds of that?

This day: 1998
This day: 2001