by Richard Subber | Jul 26, 2026 | Theater and play reviews
running in the sea breeze…
Movie review:
Albert Nobbs
It’s an obvious story line, and you can sorta guess how Albert Nobbs (2011, rated R, 113 minutes) will end.
Glenn Close rather convincingly plays a woman who passes for a man (“Albert Nobbs”) in a posh hotel in late 19th century Ireland where appearances matter. She makes a life.
She meets Janet McTeer who, as “Hubert Page,” treads a similar path and who, like “Albert,” tries to fool herself about her prospects for happiness.
There are caricature secondary characters, an exaggerated unlikable hotel owner, and an ill-fated two-dimensional love affair.
There is a brief rapturous scene at the seashore where “Albert” and “Hubert” let their woman selves run in the breezes.
The best moments make Albert Nobbs watchable.
Disconnect (I’m avoiding a spoiler alert): the ending is not about “Albert Nobbs.” It’s sweet. It’s Nobbsian. It’s other.
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Movie review. Copyright © Richard Carl Subber 2026 All rights reserved.
The “dime novels” in the Civil War
Think “blood-and-thunder”…
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As with another eye: Poems of exactitude with 55 free verse and haiku poems,
and the rest of my poetry books are for sale on Amazon (paperback and Kindle)
and free in Kindle Unlimited, search Amazon for “Richard Carl Subber”
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by Richard Subber | Jul 21, 2026 | Tidbits
Yeah, sure, M*A*S*H, okay…
The average American today wasn’t alive
when Saturday Night Live did the first live broadcast
in October 1975.
If you’re like me, you cherish your memories of The Good Ones who made SNL a hit: I’m talking Chevy, John, Dan, Gilda, Garrett, Jane, and Laraine, you know who I’m talking about.
Pick your favorite, right? C’mon, nobody can pick one favorite out of that lineup.
For starters, Roseanne Roseannadanna. Love ya, Gilda. Priceless. Non pareil.
And then there was the “Point/Counterpoint” commentary with Dan and Jane, that ignorant slut.
I could go on.
Of course it’s true that SNL today isn’t what it used to be.
I think all the diamonds were polished in the 1970s.
OK, OK, M*A*S*H was a contender, I figured you’d bring that up.
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Copyright © Richard Carl Subber 2026 All rights reserved.
Book review: American Colonies
So many and so much
came before the Pilgrims
by Alan Taylor
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Seeing far: Selected poems with 47 free verse and haiku poems,
and the rest of my poetry books are for sale on Amazon (paperback and Kindle)
and free in Kindle Unlimited, search Amazon for “Richard Carl Subber”
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by Richard Subber | Jul 16, 2026 | Book reviews, Books, Human Nature, Reflections
it’s not the last obscenity…
Book review:
Aging: An Apprenticeship
Nan Narboe, ed.
Portland, OR: Red Notebook Press, 2018
286 pages
Narboe created a handy and wide-ranging collection of reflections on the art, science, and humanity of the aging process. More than 50 authors tell it like they think it is, for folks nearing the increasingly ordinary age of 50, and for folks in their 50s, 60s, 70s , 80s, and 90s and beyond. If you’re not in one of those groups, you will be sooner than you think.
Of course, the explicit premise of most of the authors in Aging: An Apprenticeship is that life can be good (or not), aging happens to everyone, and dying is the end game.
Gloria Steinem’s contribution is on point, completely tolerable, and instructive. She says:
“After all, we are communal creatures
who must mirror each other to know who we are.
Every living thing ages and dies,
yet humans seem to be the only species
that thinks about aging and thinks about dying.
Surely, we are meant to use this ability,
especially in a country
that suffers so much from concealing aging and dying
as if they were the last obscenities.”
For Aging: An Apprenticeship, Narboe has collected essays that range from whimsical to doggone serious. Each author offers a very personal argument that aging and dying are 100% natural.
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Book review. Copyright © Richard Carl Subber 2026 All rights reserved.
A quote from General Custer
Hint: something to do with Indians…
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In other words: Poems for your eyes and ears with 64 free verse and haiku poems,
and the rest of my poetry books are for sale on Amazon (paperback and Kindle)
and free in Kindle Unlimited, search Amazon for “Richard Carl Subber”
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by Richard Subber | Jul 14, 2026 | Human Nature, My poetry, Poetry, Reflections, Tidbits
it’s the dancing…
mantra
Let your hands pray,
let your eyes dance,
let your self embrace
the beginning
of the rest
of your life.
April 13, 2026
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My poetry. Copyright © Richard Carl Subber 2026 All rights reserved.
Book review: A Cold Welcome
The culprit was global cooling,
500 years ago…
by Sam White
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many waters: more poems with 53 free verse poems,
and the rest of my poetry books are for sale on Amazon (paperback and Kindle)
and free in Kindle Unlimited, search Amazon for “Richard Carl Subber”
Your comments are welcome—tell me what you’re thinking.
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by Richard Subber | Jul 12, 2026 | Human Nature, Reflections, Tidbits
pass it forward…
The Roman Stoic Marcus Aurelius (121-180) said
“…be satisfied with
even the smallest step forward…”
He saw so clearly that it’s a process: achieve that small step, and start working on the next step immediately.
Pass it forward.
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Copyright © Richard Carl Subber 2026 All rights reserved.
The Bridges of Madison County
book/movie review
If you’re looking for highly stoked eroticism,
look elsewhere.
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As with another eye: Poems of exactitude with 55 free verse and haiku poems,
and the rest of my poetry books are for sale on Amazon (paperback and Kindle)
and free in Kindle Unlimited, search Amazon for “Richard Carl Subber”
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by Richard Subber | Jun 30, 2026 | Language, Tidbits
“…Go and tell the guy what you want.”
The wisdom of David Mackenzie Ogilvy (1911-1999)
This is trenchant advice on how to write well—still relevant almost 45 years after it was written by David Ogilvy, who was renowned in the late 20th century as “The Father of Modern Advertising.”
Now, to be sure, Ogilvy’s legendary sway in the ad biz was recognized in pre-internet, pre-wired, pre-Twitter days when ad copy was deemed more salient and more powerful than ad buzz.
Indeed, Ogilvy’s famous memo “How To Write” was circulated far beyond the Mad Men-world of his agency, Ogilvy & Mather, after he wrote it on September 7, 1982.
Here it is:
- Read the Roman-Raphaelson book on writing. Read it three times.
- Write the way you talk. Naturally.
- Use short words, short sentences and short paragraphs.
- Never use jargon words like reconceptualize, demassification, attitudinally, judgmentally. They are hallmarks of a pretentious ass.
- Never write more than two pages on any subject.
- Check your quotations.
- Never send a letter or a memo on the day you write it. Read it aloud the next morning—and then edit it.
- If it is something important, get a colleague to improve it.
- Before you send your letter or your memo, make sure it is crystal clear what you want the recipient to do.
- If you want ACTION, don’t write. Go and tell the guy what you want.
At this point, I know I shouldn’t embarrass myself by trying to reconceptualize or translate Ogilvy’s observations for you…
OK, I can’t resist this one: I think Item 10 is the best. In today’s wired world this can be translated to “If you want to reach an agreement or have an argument, don’t send a text or email when you can call the other party or talk face-to-face.”
Note: the reference in Item 1 is to a now-standard work by Kenneth Roman and Joel Raphaelson, Writing That Works: How to Communicate Effectively in Business. A 3rd edition was issued in 2000.
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Copyright © Richard Carl Subber 2026 All rights reserved.
Book review: Shantung Compound
They didn’t care much
about each other…
by Langdon Gilkey
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My first name was rain: A dreamery of poems with 52 free verse and haiku poems,
and the rest of my poetry books are for sale on Amazon (paperback and Kindle)
and free in Kindle Unlimited, search Amazon for “Richard Carl Subber”
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