Hollywood Forever

There are a lot of homeless characters in Hollywood Forever written by Susan Goldstein. The lead character, Samantha, gives them names. There is Dancing Man, Button Lady, Plant Man and a panhandler with ends cut off of his sneakers so he can wiggle his toes. The panhandler asks passerby's if they can loan him $1.83. That reminded me of Tom explaining that he asked for exact amounts, such as $1.83, because most often, people would hand him a full amount, such as $2.00.

I think men write better mystery stories than women. Goldstein is an exception. Excellent novel, fast paced, interesting, little tidbits of wisdom sprinkled throughout. One of the characters ran scams conning people out of money which he than donated to the poor and homeless. Homeless men from a mission were paid to be movie extras. True to life. Or street life here in Long Beach.

Someone wrote in the margin of this newly acquired library book. "eeeH no such word"   The word was circled: irregardless. I wonder if the person who defaced the library book read the paragraph. Samantha wondered about her usage of irregardless and looked it up in the dictionary. If the defacer thought that was fiction maybe she (or he) needed to check their own dictionary. There is indeed such a word.

Weird coincidence: I had been thinking about the word irregardless while watering my morning glory plants a day or two before reading this story. Homeless friend, Bear, had fits if anyone said "irregardless". My mother used to say it, which is why I would use it rather than saying regardless.