“Sew, old woman! Sew like the wind!”

The Movie: ¡Three Amigos!, 1986 (Steve Martin, Lorne Michaels, and Randy Newman, screenwriters; John Landis, dir.)
Who says it: Martin Short as Ned Nederlander, an out-of-work actor who must save a small Mexican village
The context: Ned rallies a villager to the struggle against the evil El Guapo (Alfonso Arau)
How to use it: To inspire enthusiasm for a tedious job.

Today's quotation is for Tom Ehrenfeld, because he loves this line, and because it's his birthday. He no longer remembers how old he is, and therefore, neither do I. Happy birthday, Tom.

I may have mentioned before that my dog, genetically programmed to stalk birds and small mammals, wakes up at sunrise. This was convenient in Los Angeles, since I more or less worked East Coast hours, and it was no big deal throughout the winter here, or during the endless rainy spring.

Now, however, the sun is back, and the sun rose today at 4:57 a.m. Dizzy thought I might not realize this, so he let me know, with a nose to the face.

"It's not morning, Dizzy," I said -- but the nose would not go away, because it was obviously morning, and why would anyone want to waste it?

So we got up and walked down to the river, where several people were already fishing. MacDonald's Bakery opens at 5:30 a.m., so I was able to get a cup of coffee, and Dizzy pointed me to a cardinal, a robin, a woodpecker, and a large sea bird whose name I don't know. I need one of those field guides.

Now Dizzy is taking the first of his morning naps, and I'm getting ready to go paint sets in Hallowell. I'm not as good at painting as I am at hammering. Infer what you like from that.