soft, white hands

“The little waves, with their soft, white hands,
Efface the footprints in the sands. . . .”

—Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, from The Tide Rises, The Tide Falls.

a blue light lit

“Keep walkin’ ’til you see a blue light lit
Fall in there and we’ll see some sights. . . .

You’ll want to spend the rest of your nights
Down at the house, the house of blue lights.”

—House of Blue Lights, words and music by Freddie Slack and Don Raye, 1947.

a small unregarded yellow sun

“Far out in the uncharted backwaters of the unfashionable end of the Western Spiral Arm of the Galaxy lies a small unregarded yellow sun.”

—Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, 1979.

‘Has your eyes always been checked?’

“The optometrist says ‘Has your eyes always been checked?’

And I says, ‘Why no, they has always been blue. I gwarantee ya!’”

—Justin Wilson, concluding an episode of Justin Wilson Lookin’ Back, his cooking show. I caught it on RFDTV this morning, just after flying home via Heathrow and New York. (It’s good to be back home.)

nothing burns as easily or faster than film

“If you’ve gone to many picture shows, particularly back in the early days of the business, you’ve seen it happen once or twice. The film will hit the screen like a still. Then it looks like someone is punching a live cigar butt through it from the back.

That’s caused by not having the film rolling while the arcs are on. Because those arcs are just like a blast furnace, and nothing burns as easily or faster than film.”

—Jim Thompson, Nothing More than Murder, 1959. The burning still is used to great effect at the end of Two-Lane Blacktop, directed by Monte Hellman and starring James Taylor, 1971.

dark.

Not in operation; a dark house.

—Glossary of Exhibitor Terms, from Nothing More than Murder, by Jim Thompson, 1959.

paper.

Advertising matter.

—Glossary of Exhibitor Terms from Nothing More than Murder by Jim Thompson, 1959

product.

Pictures.

—Glossary of Exhibitor Terms, from Nothing More than Murder, by Jim Thompson, 1959.

mucklededung

“She had on an old mucklededung-colored coat—the way it was screaming Sears-Roebuck they should have paid her to wear it. . . .”

—Jim Thompson, Savage Night, 1953.

Tiny white things

“When I woke the last time it was nine-thirty, and sunlight was streaming into the room. It was shining right on my pillows, and my face felt hot and moist. I sat up quickly, hugging my stomach. The light, hitting into my eyes suddenly, had made me sick. I clenched my eyes against it, but the light wasn’t shut out. It seemed to be closed in, under the lids, and a thousand little images danced in its brilliance. Tiny white things, little figure-seven-shaped things: dancing and twisting and squirming.”

—Jim Thompson, Savage Night, 1953.