I picked up Hold That Tiger, Mabel Stark's official circus autobiography, courtesy of a library not very far away through interlibrary loan. I'm glad there was a copy readily available in a Kentucky library--there should be. Anyway, propaganda though it may be, filled with lies and half-truths and fairly well useless on anything except the technique of tiger training, it is a beautiful book. It was worth looking over a copy for the photos alone. Just to give you an idea of how bright Mabel Stark the real lady who tamed tigers burned: There's a photo of her, Sammy (a very 'tame' tiger), and Mae West. It's hard to say who's more luminous and holds the camera's eye more, Mabel or Mae. The tiger doesn't even register until about thirty seconds later.

I'm glad I've got it. Also got The Dante Club by Matthew Pearl and a couple of audio books for a lengthy drive I have to make tomorrow, two longish short stories by Peter Straub and Every Tongue Got to Confess(which I figure may be one of those rarities--a book that should be listened to before it's read).

The script. Well, it's not done yet. I've at least given another pass to everything up to page 80, which in this particular script means 30 left. Which is not bad. It's the ending, and it needs some work, but I think I may understand it. I haven't gotten to work on it much since Monday, but I've noodled and I've thought lots. And I've tried dreaming solutions, which usually works, but hasn't so far. But, even if there's no light, there is a tunnel, with an end, and perhaps I will reach it. Whether I will have to go back and look for all the things I dropped along the way is another matter entirely.

I have good readers. If only file formats weren't such a bitch in screenwriting. They are; trust me. Mac/Windows compatibability couldn't be better, compared to trying to switch scripts with somebody with a different program than you. Thank god for Adobe, I guess, though you can't use those handy notes that way.

Now this is boring.

Instead picture a lady, and a tiger. Or maybe, if you'd rather, a little tramp.