“Someday a real rain will come and wash all this scum off the streets.”

The Movie: Taxi Driver, 1976 (Paul Schrader, screenwriter; Martin Scorsese, dir.)
Who says it: Robert DeNiro as taxi driver Travis Bickle
The context: Travis is driving around New York City, watching the rain come down.
How to use it: To comment – ironically, please – on urban decay.

I used to say this all the time when it rained in L.A. I wonder if I'll ever be able to live in a city again.

This morning Dizzy and I met another of our neighbors, Will, who lives around the corner with his wife and their four-year-old and their Alaskan Husky, Silver. Dizzy loves snow dogs.

Anyway, Will is a police officer for the city of Portland, and he and his family moved here from Memphis two years ago. We were talking about how different it is up here, how peaceful. In Memphis, he said, he might respond to three shootings a night; up here, even knife fights are rare.

Dizzy slept until 11:00 this morning, a new record for him and one that I appreciated very much. Too much frolicking at Anna and Tarren's yesterday, I guess. I bought him a new squeaky duck, which entertained Anna's dad, Jerry, as much as it pleased Dizzy.

My aunt Kit reminded me that of course Dizzy had seen a Christmas tree before -- at my cousins Kathleen and Mark's, last year and the year before.