Embracing Comic Tragedy

Mary Astor’s biggest role was Brigid O’Shaughnessy.  Brigid was the love interest of Sam Spade played by Humphrey Bogart in the film, the Maltese Falcon.  But Mary Astor is most famous for what happened off screen and was recorded in her diary.   Caricaturist Edward Sorel brings her story to life in the book he wrote and illustrated, Mary Astor’s Purple Diary:  The Great American Sex Scandal of 1936.

I also speak with a young minister, who at the age of 37 was diagnosed with a form of cancer usually reserved for men in their 60s and 70s.  Jason Micheli tells his story in his book, Cancer is Funny:  Keeping Faith In Stage Serious Chemo.