A kid really likes to take apart things and put them back together. I remember his sister being mad because he took apart her hair dryer. Anyway, someone(Grandpa? Uncle?) let’s him take apart an old radio, which he immediately does. When he puts it back together, though, it broadcasts news from the next day.
I believe they consider listening to the lottery numbers so they can win, but I think they actually bet on sports(knowing the results, of course). Again, I am not positive on this point. They do bet or play the lottery and win money.
Eventually, they re-decorate their apartment or house and their Mom, who comes back from vacation, comes back and does not like the redecoration. She misses her plants that she always watered.
Anyway, I don’t remember too many more details, but I’m wondering if any of you know what movie this was? Thanks!
It’s kind of the reverse of “Jeffty is 5” by Harlan Ellison.
It’s about a kid who is not only stuck at 5 years old but also stuck in that time (while the world around him progresses). At one point he borrows a radio from some older kids so he can listen to a radioshow and when he gives it back its stuck “in the past” only playing old music and shows.
Frequency is what Google suggests, but this was well before Frequency and the plots are completely different except for having magic radios that do stuff.
It was in color, so that rules out the original. It was set in present day around 1990 I’d say. I would not rule out all possibilities of it being a show, but I think it was at least an hour.
I don’t get it. Does that book have a similar plot?
Yes, I have a copy of A Billion for Boris. In the book, someone fixes a TV and it picks up the next day’s news. It includes the plot about redecorating, which the mother doesn’t like.
I’ve had a long day, getting up at 0430, driving to Seattle, working on the computer all day, driving home… When I scanned the title I thought the kid fixed a dildo and now it tells the future. :eek:
Mary Rodgers died?! I don’t believe it! I loved Freaky Friday and A Billion for Boris (which is very likely the one you describe).
(Open spoilers for the book follow…)
I’ve always loved the book as much (if not a little bit more than) Freaky Friday. I liked the part at the end when, the TV set having been lost to them, Boris asks Annabel if she didn’t like knowing about the future. Annabel replies that she’d come to hate it…knowing people were going to suffer from things she couldn’t prevent had been taking its toll on her. Boris asks her about the things she could affect, like keeping people from going into danger when she knew when and where it would happen. Annabel tells him that if she had that responsibility, she’d have to spend her life deciding which people to save and which to let die…and she’s glad not to have that responsibility.
Years ago, conservative columnist/theater buff Mark Steyn wrote a lot about Richard Rodgers and his daughter Mary. In Steyn’s telling, Richard was pretty much an all-around asshole. Mary craved her father’s love and approval, and tried to earn them by following in his footsteps (she had her own Broadway hits, like Once Upon a Mattress), but he never cared, because she wasn’t the son he really wanted.
Richard Rodgers wasn’t just an adulterer, he was a crude, charmless adulterer. He was the type who’d approach chorus girls and ask straight out, “Hey honey, wanna f–k?”
Steyn interviewed both Mary Rodgers and the sons of Oscar Hammerstein numerous times. He said the difference was night and day. The Hammerstein boys were always reminiscing about great times they had with dear old Dad, while Mary was constantly haunted by Richard’s coldness and disapproval.
Steyn summed it up well: many of us embrace Richard Rodgers’ romantic music because it embodies the love and tenderness we feel but don’t know how to express. Meanwhile, Richard Rodgers knew exactly how to express love and tenderness musically, but couldn’t feel them in his own heart.
I love A Billion for Boris, it showed the kind of parent I wanted to be. I wanted a house where my child could be comfortable and didn’t have to worry about getting the “things” dirty.
Rip Mary Rodgers, you gave some of the best reading of my teenage years.
