From the Front…

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Good morning!

Higham’s been showing up a lot, seemingly at my every turn, of late.  A short description of recent encounters, from the past two weeks:

1)      My new co-worker came into my office gushing about an “absolutely lovely costume drama” she had recently seen.  As she continued to describe the movie (she had missed the opening credits), I realized she had seen Captain Blood.  She wanted to know who the “gorgeous star” was, and when I told her that it was Errol Flynn, she turned the cutest shade of pink.  She then spluttered “But wasn’t he a Nazi and a rapist?”  I tried to set her straight, and she is now happily enjoying both MWWW and the first volume of the boxed set.  We have a new convert.  Hooray!

2)      I dropped in at a new Goodwill store in the local area last Friday night to kill time while waiting to meet some friends for a night out on the town.  While browsing the 3 for $1.00 book racks, I discovered Higham’s The Duchess of Windsor, marked down even further to half-off.  Part of me was tempted to purchase it, simply so I could immediately go and destroy it.  That being said, I’m not a big fan of destroying books, so I hemmed and hawed.  While I was debating with myself, an elderly woman came up, noticed I was looking at the book, saw the author, asked me if I was seriously going to buy the book, and then proceeded to explain to me how Higham was “scurrilous.”  As we chatted further, I learned that she too was a Flynn fan! 

3)      The strangest encounter, however, has been in a film class I’m taking this semester.  One of the essays included in our textbook is written by Higham and Greenberg.  I realize that he has been quite active in academia, but it was just a bit startling to see his name listed there. 

I hope everyone has been doing well.  I recently (FINALLY!) purchased the second boxed set and also finally sat down and watched the brilliant additional materials DVD from the first set.  It was wonderful to see so many familiar names.  These groups are filled with some truly kind and amazing people. 

I must confess that I’m still confused as to why Dive Bomber made it into the collections.  I think it’s the weakest entry so far.  I hope a third set is released soon! 

— Becky