Northern Hemisphere - First Day of Spring, 2021

"The spring has come again to the hills and valleys of our home. The day awakes, a breeze moves strongly through the forest, as if its task were to carry away the lingering night; the birds begin to twitter, and here and there an early lark utters his note. Among the pine-trees, with their fresh green needles, a whispering and rustling is heard. The sun has risen above the mountaintop, and shines upon the valley; the fields and meadows are glittering with dew. From the cherry-trees comes a stream of fragrance, and the hawthorn hedges that blossomed in the night are rejoicing in the first sunbeams, which penetrate to the very heart of each floweret."

- Berthold Auerbach
Excerpt, "Landolin" (translated from German)
1878

On This Fateful Day

"Beware the ides of March."

  - Soothsayer, Julius Caesar, 1.2

The McGuffin of the 1942 Movie 'Casablanca'

A McGuffin is "an object, event, or character in a story that lacks intrinsic importance but serves to set and keep the plot in motion."

Here is question: What is the McGuffin in the movie?

Many have seen the 1942 movie, "Casablanca" one time or more. But how many viewers have actually seen the two 'letters of transiit' (i.e. the McGuffin.) These no question asked 'letters of transit' metioned many times in the movie, but never seen. The war resistance couple Victor Laszlo (Henreid) and Ilsa Lund (Bergman) acquired them from Rick Blaine (Bogart)to escape French-Morocco from the clutches of the Nazi.

What is this McGuffin looks like?   Here it is.

So long. We'll always have Paris.