MDS:No "Dark Victory"

I was neck-deep into watching Dark Victory before I realized:

bad choice.

Too tired, I thought, to do anything constructive, bummed because it was such a beautiful day that it should be enjoyed outdoors, I'd slumped in front of the TV to watch Tiger.

Until the first ad came on.

Out of habit, I clicked over to Turner Classic Movies (TCM). There was Bette Davis in her prime (1939). There was Humphrey Bogart playing a supporting role and trying (not too successfully) to speak with an Irish brogue. There was future president Ronald Regan playing a spoiled-rich-boy drunkard.

Cool.

Except, Dark Victory is about a woman with a terminal brain tumor (a "glioma," according to the script), with 10 months to live. But, it's "a rare case. She'll apparently be as well as any of us - that is until - well, her sight may fail her near the end."

Davis then spends an hour-plus marrying the brain surgeon and waiting to die.

Very melodramatic.

But, not a good idea for an MDS guy who sometimes wonders about his own longevity—even if it was highly amusing to see Bogart struggle with his accent (been there, done that), and Regan playing to drunken type (if we'd've only known!).

When Davis starts to go blind, I was squirming. When she lay down in bed to die alone (she's sent everyone away), I thought "Jeez, what the f--- are you doing? Better to do something than to sit around getting all maudlin over terminal illness—even if Bette Davis's is remarkable in this film." (Her eyes were unbelievable; people would kill for eyes like that. Or, perhaps, endure a terminal brain tumor.)

So, I took my sorry butt down to the treadmill and jogged a couple of miles while watching Tiger demonstrate how golf should be played.

And, can you believe it?, somehow that was a whole lot more satisfying than watching Bette Davis wait around to die.

Good thing Tiger's back on TV today. And Bette isn't.