I'll Call It Like I See It

by sheila morris

For any who want more, complete list of all posts by month since 2011

  • Oh Look – It’s Boo Radley!


    Friday night Teresa and I went to Trustus which is a small local theater known for its emphasis on productions that are entertaining, yet relatively avant- garde.   The play was Collected Stories by Donald Margulies and directed by Milena Herring.  We aren’t reliable patrons for the arts in Columbia, South Carolina, but we both enjoy the Trustus experience with its comfy chairs and intimate surroundings.  Adult beverages are available, and I bought a Corona Light at the bar simply because the woman in line ahead of me bought one.  I’m also an unreliable beer drinker.  When we found our seats, I was delighted to find the free popcorn baskets were still conveniently placed for our happy consumption, and I sat back with popcorn and beer to enjoy the play.

    Not so fast my friend, as Lee Corso of Espn says.  As Teresa and I took turns munching on the popcorn, an attractive woman walked over to us and said, “Oh Look!  It’s Boo Radley!”  I must have looked surprised when she and Teresa laughed together at the remark.  The woman looked familiar, but I didn’t know who she was.

    Teresa spoke up at that moment and said, “This is Melina Herring who’s directing the play tonight.”  I made an appropriate response to that news flash and told her how much we were looking forward to the play.  “Why Boo Radley?”  I asked.

    She was still laughing at her own joke.  “Because whenever we go out with Teresa, she always says she has a partner who’s in Texas on family business.  The invisible partner.  Boo Radley.   As a matter of fact, I think I remember someone asking Teresa if she’d considered the possibility you’d left her?”

    Normally I would be flattered by a comparison to a character in my favorite novel To Kill a Mockingbird, but maybe Boo Radley wouldn’t be my first choice.  I picture myself as a Scout-Atticus combo on my better days and now had to reconsider my self perception versus the perceptions of others regarding self.  I added a twinge of guilt to this observation and felt like I did when I was caught eating Christmas candy before Christmas.  Strangely unsettling.  I’d been too long gone.

    Other than that, Mrs. Lincoln – how was the play?

    I am giving it a two thumbs up.  The dynamics between the two actresses playing the older author and her successful protegé were excellent, writing fabulous, and of course, directed beautifully by the woman who called me Boo Radley.

  • The Name of the Game


    Hello. My name is Sheila and I’m a Name-a-holic.  That’s right.  For years I’ve been convinced the only reason I can’t write fiction is my inability to think of interesting names for my characters.  So I collect names like some people collect stamps or coins or antiques.  If I think about my favorite novels or short stories, I always remember the names of the characters.  For example, my favorite short story of all time, How I Came to Live at the P.O. by Eudora Welty, is chock full of great names.  PapaDaddy. Uncle Rondo. Stella Rondo. Mama.  I could’ve written that story if I’d had those names to work with.

    Mark Twain’s Huckleberry Finn.  Harper Lee’s Boo Radley and Scout.  Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes.  Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women: Meg, Jo, Beth and Amy March.  Laurie the boy next door.  Papa.  Mama.  Or, lest you fear I haven’t read a book in the last twenty years, Amir and his friend Hassan in Khaled Hosseini’s The Kite Runner.  Then of course, the Texas names Sheriff Ed Tom Bell and Llewellyn Moss and the evil Anton Chigurh in No Country for Old Men by Cormac McCarthy are equally terrific.

    Well, somebody slap me….I see the problem.  In order to think up great character names you have to be an author with a fabulous name yourself.   Eudora Welty.  Mark Twain.  Arthur Conan Doyle.  Louisa May Alcott.  Khaled Hosseini.  Cormac McCarthy.  Harper Lee.  Sheila Rae Morris.  Aha, that explains it!  My name is so blah my imagination follows suit.  My only hope is Margaret Mitchell.

    Oh well.  If I ever do get my fiction in gear, here are a few of the names you can look for in my novel:   Colt Cantrell.  Chance Cantrell.  Charlie Cantrell.  (Three Texas brothers for sure.)

    My Twins Collection so far:  Leon and Lon Lane.  Madell and Adell Tolliver.  Winnie and Minnie McCune.

    If the novel includes horses, the mare’s name will be Nacho and her foals will be Frito and Dorito.

    Possible heroine names: Sequoia Potter.  Ethel Lorraine Wilson.  Maurice Sawyer.  Carolyn Briggs.  Willie Joe Boaz.

    Possible hero names:  Cotton Lyles.  Harvey Wilson.  Forest J. Hutchinson.  Lester “Gene” Archer.  Vannoy Stewart.

    As for plot to go along with this potpourri of  names, I plan to start with the fact that Whitney Houston’s mother Cissy Houston was once one of Elvis Presley’s backup singers.   Now, that’s a story just waiting to be told.

    I’ll get right on it.  I predict Mama will be one of the principal characters.