Red Dragon

I loved the Hanibal Lecter movies.  I remember being awed by the powerful story and acting in The Silence of the Lambs.  I've seen it several more times over the years and it is equally good every time.   I didn't think anything would be able to match in intensity, horror, and fright that The Silence of the Lambs.   Then, m 2002, Red Dragon was released.

Ray Fines and Anthony Hopkins's performances were spot on.   It wasn't a sequel or a prequel per se, It was close enough and yet different enough to be judged on its own merits.   I loved it just as much as the first Hanibal Lecter movie, I think.

One of the main characters was completely blind.   She had lost her sight when she was quite young.   I've thought about a line she says in the movie so many times since my daughter lost her sight.   She says she saw a cougar when she was young before she lost her sight and that she's always tried to hold on to what that cougar looked like, although by now it's probably more like a donkey.

I wonder what my daughter will remember when it comes to the things she saw before she lost her vision.  Today, that same scene came back to me from Red Dragon as I did something I saw there, over a quarter-century ago that I thought would help my daughter today.

Reba has offered to serve some pie.   She gets a toothpick and places it in the center of the pie.   Then she uses the knife to cut slices, based on the toothpick as a reference point.   I thought it was a clever adaptation when I saw it but I had no need to ever try it until this morning when my daughter wanted to cut up the banana bread she and Shane had made in a round cake pan.

It worked perfectly.

The Big Boy Update:  My son worked very hard today to write a beautifully penned letter and envelope to his Spanish teacher.   In one of those stories no one wants to have happen, Phillippe found out he has lung cancer in an advanced state.   He has been receiving aggressive treatments for several months and my son's prior Spanish teacher has stepped back in to teach the students.   My son wrote his entire letter in Spanish, including telling Phillippe that he has a wart on his foot we cut out today (we did).

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter's first-grade teacher joined their class call today as a surprise.   Their first-grade teacher was universally beloved by the students.  Their class was special to her, because it was her last year of teaching before moving into the corporate sector to teach there.  It was very sweet to hear how excited the students were to see and catch up with their teacher from last year.