Today is Thursday, September 5, 2024. I was away from this venue for only a day and I missed another ghastly school shooting, this time in Winder, Georgia, where four people were killed by a 14-year-old shooter. My God, what would possess such a sapling to take the lives of four innocent individuals? How sad and how terrible! Today the father of that 14-year-old shooter was arrested for “knowingly allowing” his son to have a weapon, according to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation. An online CNN article covers this development in which a parent has now been held responsible for the actions of their violent children and it’s entitled “Father of Georgia high school shooting suspect” by Lauren Mascarenhas, Elise Hammond, Adrienne Vogt, Tori B. Powell, Nouran Salahieh, and Dall Faheid.

After such a tragedy as this, I must ask the unanswerable question, what kind of parent would willingly buy his mentally fragile 14-year-old a gun? This parent should have been arrested and he was. The father, Colin Gray, is charged with four counts of involuntary manslaughter, two counts of second-degree murder, and eight counts of cruelty to children.

The irresponsible father of the young shooter at the Apalachee High School told investigators he purchased the firearm used in the killing of two teachers and two students as a – gasp! – holiday present for his son [thus he was only 13 at the time] in December 2023. His son told investigators “I did it” while being questioned, the Barrow County Sheriff told CNN.

During a search of the suspect’s home, authorities also found documents they believe were written by the teen and referenced past school shootings, a law enforcement source told CNN.

In addition to the four dead, nine other individuals were injured in the tragic gunfire. They were all taken to a local hospital, but Barrow County Sheriff Jud Smith said they are all expected to “make a full recovery.” Several of those injured are still hospitalized, while others have been discharged, the sheriff said.

So this tragic story occurred while I was out spending the day with my friend “Jake” out on Central Islip, which easily evolved into a 12-hour-plus day. It began with my having breakfast at the Austin House Diner and not having time to schmooze with anyone, and then taking the E train to Sutphin Boulevard. I found an earlier train leaving Jamaica, Queens, at 10:50 a.m. instead of at 11:24, so I called Jake and asked if I could take that earlier train and could he meet me earlier if possible. Jake mentioned that I woke him up. Oops, what was I supposed to do? I certainly didn’t want to wait another 30 minutes or so when I could board an earlier train. I had to call my friend and inform him of the situation.

Anyway, I did board the earlier train to Ronkonkoma and found a seat facing the direction of where the train was headed. I’m one of those people who can’t sit in the opposite direction without getting a little queasy.

I got to Central Islip around 12 and was greeted by my friend in his 2002 Cadillac de Ville. We hugged vigorously and then my 50-year-old friend drove me to Dunkin’ Donuts [a tradition ever since I’ve come out to Long Island to spend the day with him] where I ordered a coffee and a pumpkin glazed donut.

We sat at a round table and we chatted about all of the news he’s missed in the last few months. Basically, he expressed strong interest in my Australian adventure and I delivered a lengthy dissertation on the whole 15-day excursion. He was overwhelmed by Elliot and my globetrotting.

After sitting for close to a half hour or so, we got up and Jake drove me to a local library where we took in a free movie: 1999’s Message in a Bottle starring Robin Wright and Kevin Costner, who’s now 69, can you believe that? I thought the entire film sappy, but Jake claimed to have enjoyed it. This film, produced by Costner himself, tells the story of Chicago Tribune researcher Theresa Osborne who literally finds a message in a bottle while out jogging by the shore in Chicago.

Theresa is a single mother who is facing divorce from her cheating husband. What she reads after taking the message out of the bottle is a romantic letter written from “G” to “Catherine,” so rich and passionate in its description of the author’s feeling of love and loss and wish that all heaven and earth would rearrange themselves to bring Catherine back to him. Of course, Theresa becomes obsessed with the message in that bottle and decides to find the author of that message to see if he is still alive since the writing and type indicate that the writing was only two years old, not 100 years old, which is what I would have expected, but there would have been no movie if that were true.

This film was adapted by a tear-jerker written by Nicholas Sparks, who I have never read and never will. Anyway, Theresa’s pushy editor, Charlie Toschi (Robbie Coltrane) decides to publish the text of the letter on the front page of the paper, which culminates in a deluge of mail replying to the unknown author and his romantic entanglement with his beloved Catherine. A second letter appears fished out of a second bottle addressed to Catherine and it is at this point Theresa is egged on to pursue the author, who is now believed to live in North Carolina, by her swoony coworker Lina (Illeana Douglas).

Eventually, Theresa finds her poetic letter writer in the form of Kevin Costner as Garret Blake, a repairer of old ships who mourns his dead wife by leaving out all of her painting accessories and paintings in his house. Oh, I forgot to mention Blake’s father is played by Paul Newman who has distinguished himself by this time by playing ordinary flawed men who have not too much to do other than be grumpy to townspeople and his own son.

The main goal of the day was to play with Jake at his weekly trivia night group at an Irish-American restaurant called Shandon Court, located on East Main Street, in East Islip. Before playing trivia, Jake and I had enough time to dine inside. Before long, just two players on Jake’s team sauntered in and I shook their hands and was welcomed as a member of the team. We started the game at 8 and ended around 10 or so. I am proud to say that I volunteered quite a number of correct answers to various questions, but I was useless with questions regarding 80s music and Grand Slam winners. Other sports questions I yielded to Jake’s vast store of information and to another player, “Paul.” Even questions concerning geography I practically remained silent on. I know my limitations. Anyway, our team, “Spys Like Us,” won the night! We got to divvy up $92 among the four of us. So I received $23 for my participation in the game. Jake was thrilled that we won.

Now it was time to get driven to the train station, since I wanted to board the 10:57 train out of Central Islip. Jake was not too worried that we would miss that train, but I was. If I missed that train, I would have to wait another hour and board it at 11:57. I certainly didn’t want to wait an extra hour. Luckily, I didn’t have to because we did get to the station a few minutes before the appointed boarding time.

On the train, I called Elliot to say I was coming home. I then settled into my seat and almost fell asleep since I was out for such a long time. I spoke to a ticket agent on board who said I could actually take a second train to Forest Hills by changing trains at the Jamaica station. Oh, I had mentioned that I thought no trains were stopping at Forest Hills earlier in the morning, but the tall, bald agent said I could have taken trains to Baldwin and somewhere else I can’t remember.

So I got off the train at Jamaica around 11:50 and I learned that the train going to Kew Gardens and Forest Hills was coming in at Track 2 at 12:07. This time I decided to wait the 15 minutes since it wasn’t such a long time. In the past, I’ve had to wait much longer, so I chose to take the E train to Forest Hills instead of waiting for another LIRR train.

I believe I got in around 12:30 a.m. Elliot was already in bed and I was too wound up, so I put on Top Hat, that classic song-and-dance film from 1935 starring Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers. I’ve never seen it. From what I saw, no wonder it’s a classic. It was actually funnier than I expected and the dancing of the two stars was extraordinary. I think I went to bed at 2:30 a.m.

Tomorrow Elliot and I will be laughing at Hedda Lettuce’s mockery of Jacqueline Susann’s film adaptation of her blockbuster hit, Valley of the Dolls, made in 1967; the film itself was a total bomb and I almost didn’t want to see it again since it’s so dreadful. But tomorrow is Lettuce’s last appearance at the Village East Cinema for the season, so I decided just today to pay the exorbitant price of $27 to see the film that got a 33 percent Rotten Tomatoes rating. However, there is one great scene in this horrible film: Patty Duke taking off Susan Haywood’s wig and flushing it down the toilet. I always love to see that scene and I can’t wait to hear what Hedda says about it.

I will see you on Saturday then.

Stay safe and be well.