The Excellent Wife (TEW) has a habit of streaming movies and whatnot as she prepares to go to work in the morning, and this morning she's been streaming Harvey, a 1950 film based on a 1944 play of the same name by Mary Chase. I overheard two lines close to one another in the play, and each is worth remembering.
Elwood P Dowd, the main character, has a friend who's a puca, a creature with the shape of an animal (in this case, a human-sized rabbit), who's invisible to most people. After Dowd is brought to the psychiatrist Dr Chumley, Chumley gets to see Harvey as well, and exclaims at one point, "Fly specks, fly specks! I've been spending my life among fly specks while miracles have been leaning on lampposts at 18th and Fairfax!"
A little later, Dowd is talking to someone (I don't remember who; I was overhearing, not watching), and says, "Years ago, my mother used to say to me — she’d say, [...] ‘In this world, Elwood, you must be oh so smart, or oh so pleasant.’ Well, for years I was smart. I recommend pleasant."
I'm spending a little time musing on these this morning.
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