This is not a history lesson. Honestly, think about it (don’t ya hate that expression, it’s like saying “romantically, kiss me”, honestly, think about it) what’s worse than a history lesson, dentistry on ice? I remember somthinc like in the sixth grade we learned all about South America, and it seemed like we just were endlessly talkin’ ‘bout Peru. The next semester, or whatever they were called, I started this whole weird, juvenile (we were actually juveniles) but funny class catch-phrase (you know what catch-phrase I wanna start, it’s “catch-phrase,” so please start sayin’ it to your friends for no reasons whatsoever, jus’ say, “hey, catch-phrase!” -- gawd is that stoopid) which went somethinc like this:

“What does this have to do with Peru?” (but yell it out annoyingly like kids would)

So history yeah, blah. It repeats itself, like beans. But sometimes you can find in its indeterminable snack spread of unidentifiable sameness, a blip on the EKG, a life-line severed and calling attention to itself by its spurting blood, yes virgins, originality! (Originality is the only word that really deserves an exclamation point. Oh, um ... !) Maybe, this is a history lesson. Ugh. Honestly, think about it.

But what does this have to do with Peru?

Pauline Kael is what it is has to do with, and nobody knows what I’m talking ‘about and who cares. Okay I care a little. This is not a description or an introduction or synopsis, of her or her work, why bother, when there’s wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww...iki’s, so what is this. Basically, she said something in an interview that I read recently in a book of, uh, interviews, with her, and I just like it, and I just want to quote it, but jus’ quoting it is not ‘nuff tho, I mean it is ‘nuff, it’s jus’ well, I need more words than that, to uh get one of these, you know I have to ...

Well before I give the quote, I do have to explain. Pauline Kael was a movie critic. One history lesson, that has become kindof well history, is that the American movies of the 70’s were um, kinda good. Pauline Kael, what she wrote, is really the reason. Really? Yes. Really. What she wrote, not the movies people made, that’s the reason. Yes. People made the movies she made because of what she wrote. O.k. here’s the quote.

“When I was a kid I thought there were a lot of brilliant people who wrote dull stuff because they were corrupt, and it took me a long time to realize that most of them just couldn’t write much better.”