Boy Movies #3

The dead dad issue, feat. The Princess Bride

Oh goodness, would you look at this? You thought you subscribed to a lighthearted newsletter about movies and now you’re stuck reading about my dead dad.

I spent most of October 15th battling a cold as I trudged through the overheated streets of New Orleans, and I spent the last few hours of October 15th on a plane back to New York¹. My cold (not COVID) reared its head on day two of my trip and quickly spread to the other members of my three-person group, leaving us bone-tired and delirious by Saturday night. We planned this trip giddily and clumsily, deciding to go on a whim during the miserable dregs of July. We kept saying things like, “Why not? Fuck it! Why not?” The significance of the dates, or of one particular date, our last day, didn’t occur to me until later, though it rarely does.

I’ve forgotten the importance of that day — the anniversary of my dad’s death — more often than I haven’t in the twelve years since it became that day. In 2019, I made not forgetting such a priority …