When my children were little I had a very active imagination and exquisite timing. I could gauge exactly when an overactive child in a stroller was toppling and snap a protective hand in time to catch a falling head. I turned the handles of hot pots inward on the stove so that a stretching hand would not spill boiling liquid over a delicate head. I learned, too, by experience. My third child, first boy, was indomitable, thank goodness,

CRASHED AGAIN - Safari, not me. Just when I thought we were all better.

I was remembering accidents I prevented my children from having when they were little because of my over-active imagination and my exquisite sense of timing. Now, I am applying that same prescient care to myself, still preventing accidents that are about to happen.

It led me to memories that have been wiped away by Safari. It's okay. I still remember.

You be careful.

It's not laziness exactly. It's just that I succumb to other pleasures and distractions when I ought to be paying attention to my work. Remember what Oscar Wilde said: "I can resist anything but temptation." Right on. So I sat like a lump half-dozing half-gazing at the TV screen (a big one; I don't have to hold a tablet). TCM is a great temptation. Last night I saw, again, The Little Shop Around the Corner, with James Stuart and Margaret Sullavan. Ferenc Molnar, wasn't it, who wrote the original play?

NO. Correction: "The screenplay was written by Samson Raphaelson based on the 1937 Hungarian play Parfumerie by Miklós László." You can see it at Soulpepper this year. I've seen it twice in other seasons.

I think The Good Old Summertime with Judy Garland was a reprise of it, and then, of course, Nora Ephron's spin on it, "You've Got Mail". Who can resist all that? Not me.

YES " The film spawned a musical remake, In the Good Old Summertime (1949), which stars Judy Garland and Van Johnson.

"The 1963 Broadway musical She Loves Me was also inspired by the play and the film.

"The film You've Got Mail (1998) with Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan evolves around two people who dislike each other while developing an anonymous romance by email correspondence. The film uses plot elements and dialogue lines similar to the 1940 film, especially during the first date. Screen credit of You've Got Mail is given to Miklós László for Parfumerie (i.e. the play, on which the 1940 film is based), but in a nod to the earlier film, one of the protagonists of You've Got Mail owns a bookstore named "The Shop Around The Corner."

That's all from Wikipedia. (I donated again this year.)

But while I'm gazing and dozing, suddenly I reach for paper - where? - found a grocery list with a clean back, and I scribbled out some scenes that are in my head and not yet written, reminding myself of them and putting them in roughly the right order; I'll see when I get to them. - today?

So this morning I know what I have to do for the next few hours, and I will concentrate and put aside thoughts of cooking dinner (for guests) until later. In both cases I know what I'm doing. For a while.