Hope Trope

We picked up a signal from Jeff McNeil on our old CB radio. He was just checking in to complain that we have been giving out "too many shopping tips," and that these tips have "put a taint on the 'blog.'" We remind Mr. McNeil that we have, in fact, offered only one shopping tip, though admittedly that tip was subsequently elaborated upon and later revised, which may be the source of the confusion. It does strike us as curious that Mr. McNeil has so much time to cast aspersions on the rest of the "blog" when the next edition of McNeil's Movie Korner is so dismally overdue. The best Mr. McNeil could muster, in our recent conversation via CB, was a sense of vague disappointment with the Bob Hope film ALIAS JESSE JAMES. He might at least have remarked on its use of the traditional Hope trope of mistaken identity/impersonation, used in such superior Hope vehicles as MONSIEUR BEAUCAIRE and THE ROAD TO UTOPIA (the latter of which I have had the pleasure of viewing with Ms. Sally Timms). But alas, Mr. McNeil was in a bitter and complaining mood that day, and offered no such constructive insights. We all have such days! But the "blog" should not suffer for it. (By the way, I'm not sure if I'm using the word "trope" appropriately. I picked it up from Theresa, who uses it with accuracy and aplomb, but I may be mishandling it. I apologize, too, for "namedropping" Sally Timms, but given the new and bewildering structure of the "blog," in which the things that fall off the bottom of the page are unlikely ever to be seen again without a great deal of effort, I am required to link to as many older "posts" as possible, for the convenience of you, the omnivorous "blog" reader. Finally I must apologize for the extreme length of this "post." With all the conveniences of the modern world at my disposal, I have still not mastered the princely art of "paragraph breaks.")