Muirmaiden's Corner

Lana Wood's telling last statement at the end of her interview on "Piers Morgan", despite her insisting that she believes that Robert Wagner didn't mean to hurt her sister Natalie, is very compelling .  Although she clearly chose her words carefully as to avoid compromising the investigation and possibly to avoid more negative reaction from her former-brother-in-law, Lana is and has been an important part of bringing the case to national and international attention once again. Lana still has a lot of pain and it shows.  I'm sure their older sister, Olga, still has that feeling of grief and loss as well.  It never should have happened, Natalie should still be here, enjoying her golden years, having watching her daughters grow up, get married and perhaps have children of their own. Lana stated in her book that in many ways Natalie was like a surrogate parent to her as well as a big sister, whom she always loved, even when they didn't see eye to eye.  Lana s...

I think I was about thirteen when I first saw Natalie Wood in a film - back when channels like A&E and Bravo! actually aired older films and television shows before the former, especially, lapsed into the CSI fictional type programming and reality shows. Something about her touched me deeply, and has continued to do so since.   Not long after having seen "Splendor In The Grass" (1961), "Rebel Without A Cause" (1955), "West Side Story" (1961) and "Inside Daisy Clover" (1965),  her E! True Hollywood Story aired, and it compelled me to learn as much about Natalie as I could. At the time, there was very little biographical information available, so I started with her sister Lana's book, "Natalie: A Memoir By Her Sister", and later followed it up with Suzanne Finstad's "Natasha: The Biography Of Natalie Wood", followed by "Natalie Wood: A Life" by the late Gavin Lambert and finally "Goodbye Natalie, Good...

 Continuing on my Thomas Hardy kick, his 1878 novel The Return Of The Native , while not considered his best by many, is a very interesting commentary on the role of fate in life, choices that lead individuals down questionable paths, and ultimately, how a person's refusal to live by the standards of society find themselves outcasts and the subjects of gossip and superstition.  Debated among readers, the native of the title is Clym Yeobright, certainly one of the dullest central characters to be featured so prominently in a novel, his idealism seemingly the forefront trait of his colorless personality. But it is that very idealism that draws in Eustacia Vye, the beautiful, willful and unconventional young woman who had come to Egdon Heath (another part of Hardy's fictional Wessex) to live with her former seafaring grandfather. Eustacia is looked down on by the townspeople, referred to as a witch because of the young men of the community being smitten with her - one such man ...