conversations.from: human
conversations.value: Do you know a plot for a book about Suzanne, Doris, Jack entitled Postcards from the Edge?
conversations.from: assistant
conversations.value: Postcards from the Edge (film): Actress Suzanne Vale (Meryl Streep) is a recovering drug addict trying to pick up the pieces of her acting career and get on with her life after being discharged from a rehab center to kick a cocaine-Percodan habit; after overdosing while on a date, her mother admitted her to the rehab center from the emergency room.\nWhen she is ready to return to work her agent advises her the studio\'s insurance policy will cover her only if she lives with a "responsible" individual such as her mother Doris Mann (Shirley MacLaine).\nSuzanne is very reluctant to return to the woman she struggled to escape from for years after growing up in her shadow.\nThe situation is not helped by the fact that Doris is loud, competitive, manipulative, self-absorbed and given to offering her daughter unsolicited advice with insinuating value judgments while treating her like a child.\nProducer Jack Faulkner (Dennis Quaid) runs into Suzanne on the set and reveals that he is the one who drove her to the hospital during her last overdose, and the two kiss.\nSuzanne then agrees to go out with him.\nDuring the course of a passionate first date, he professes intense and eternal love for her and she believes every word is true.\nSuzanne\'s euphoria is short-lived, however; she subsequently learns from Evelyn Ames (Annette Bening), a bit player in her latest film, that Jack is sleeping with Evelyn as well.\nStill dressed in the costume she wears as a uniformed cop in the schlock movie, Suzanne drives to Jack\'s house and confronts him.\nAs their argument escalates, Jack implies that Suzanne was much more interesting when she was trying to function while under the influence.\nAt home, Suzanne learns from Doris that Suzanne\'s sleazy business manager Marty Wiener has absconded with all her money.\nThis leads to a verbal brawl between the two women, and Suzanne storms out to go to a looping session.\nThere the paternalistic director Lowell Kolchek (Gene Hackman) tells her he has more work for her as long as she remains clean and sober.\nSuzanne arrives home and discovers that Doris has crashed her car into a tree after drinking too much wine (and Stolichnaya smoothies).\nSuzanne rushes to her hospital bedside where the two have a heart-to-heart talk while Suzanne fixes her mother\'s makeup and arranges a scarf on her head to conceal the fact she bloodied her wig in the accident.\nLooking and feeling better, Doris musters her courage and faces the media waiting for her.\nSuzanne runs into dr Frankenthal (Richard Dreyfuss), who had pumped her stomach after her last overdose, and he invites her to see a movie with him.\nShe declines, telling him she\'s not ready to date yet.\ndr Frankenthal tells her he\'s willing to wait until she is.\nIn the film\'s closing moments Suzanne performs "I\'m Checkin\' Out", a foot-stomping Country Western number, for a scene in Lowell Kolchek\'s new film.
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: Reverse the sentences.
conversations.from: assistant
conversations.value: \nIn the film\'s closing moments Suzanne performs "I\'m Checkin\' Out", a foot-stomping Country Western number, for a scene in Lowell Kolchek\'s new film..\ndr Frankenthal tells her he\'s willing to wait until she is.\nShe declines, telling him she\'s not ready to date yet.\nSuzanne runs into dr Frankenthal (Richard Dreyfuss), who had pumped her stomach after her last overdose, and he invites her to see a movie with him.\nLooking and feeling better, Doris musters her courage and faces the media waiting for her.\nSuzanne rushes to her hospital bedside where the two have a heart-to-heart talk while Suzanne fixes her mother\'s makeup and arranges a scarf on her head to conceal the fact she bloodied her wig in the accident.\nSuzanne arrives home and discovers that Doris has crashed her car into a tree after drinking too much wine (and Stolichnaya smoothies).\nThere the paternalistic director Lowell Kolchek (Gene Hackman) tells her he has more work for her as long as she remains clean and sober.\nThis leads to a verbal brawl between the two women, and Suzanne storms out to go to a looping session.\nAt home, Suzanne learns from Doris that Suzanne\'s sleazy business manager Marty Wiener has absconded with all her money.\nAs their argument escalates, Jack implies that Suzanne was much more interesting when she was trying to function while under the influence.\nStill dressed in the costume she wears as a uniformed cop in the schlock movie, Suzanne drives to Jack\'s house and confronts him.\nSuzanne\'s euphoria is short-lived, however; she subsequently learns from Evelyn Ames (Annette Bening), a bit player in her latest film, that Jack is sleeping with Evelyn as well.\nDuring the course of a passionate first date, he professes intense and eternal love for her and she believes every word is true.\nSuzanne then agrees to go out with him.\nProducer Jack Faulkner (Dennis Quaid) runs into Suzanne on the set and reveals that he is the one who drove her to the hospital during her last overdose, and the two kiss.\nThe situation is not helped by the fact that Doris is loud, competitive, manipulative, self-absorbed and given to offering her daughter unsolicited advice with insinuating value judgments while treating her like a child.\nSuzanne is very reluctant to return to the woman she struggled to escape from for years after growing up in her shadow.\nWhen she is ready to return to work her agent advises her the studio\'s insurance policy will cover her only if she lives with a "responsible" individual such as her mother Doris Mann (Shirley MacLaine).Postcards from the Edge (film): Actress Suzanne Vale (Meryl Streep) is a recovering drug addict trying to pick up the pieces of her acting career and get on with her life after being discharged from a rehab center to kick a cocaine-Percodan habit; after overdosing while on a date, her mother admitted her to the rehab center from the emergency room
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: Do you know a plot for a book about Suzanne, Suzanne\'s, Jack entitled Postcards from the Edge?
conversations.from: assistant
conversations.value: Postcards from the Edge: The novel revolves around movie actress Suzanne Vale as she tries to put her life together after a drug overdose.\nThe book is divided into five main sections: The prologue is in epistolary form, with postcards written by Suzanne to her brother, friend, and grandmother.\nThe novel continues the epistolary form, consisting of first-person narrative excerpts from a journal Suzanne kept while coming to terms with her drug addiction and rehab experiences.\n("Maybe I shouldn\'t have given the guy who pumped my stomach my phone number, but who cares.\nMy life is over anyway".\n) In time Suzanne\'s entries begin to alternate with the experiences of Alex, another addict in the same clinic.\nThis section ends with Suzanne being discharged after successfully completing treatment.\nThe second section opens with dialogue between Suzanne and movie producer Jack Burroughs on their first date.\nIt then changes to alternating monologues from Suzanne (addressed to her therapist) and Jack (addressed to his lawyer, who serves much the same purpose as Suzanne\'s therapist).\nTheir relationship continues in this vein – all dialogue/monologue.\nThe last three sections are traditional third-person narrative.\nThe third section describes the initial days of the first movie Suzanne made after her treatment.\nFor convenience, Suzanne stays with her grandparents while the movie is made.\nShe is chided for not relaxing herself on-screen, and notes that if she could relax she wouldn\'t be in therapy.\nThis becomes a running gag among the actors and crew.\nThe section ends with the crew mooning her on her birthday, and Suzanne asserts that "there isn\'t enough therapy" to help her with that experience.\nThe fourth section shows a week of Suzanne\'s "normal" life: working out, business meetings, an industry party, and going with a friend to a television studio for a talk show.\nShe meets an author in the green room and gives him her phone number.\nThe fifth section encapsulates her relationship with the author, bringing the story to the anniversary of her overdose.\nThe epilogue consists of a letter from Suzanne to the doctor who pumped her stomach, who had recently contacted her.\nShe notes that she is still off drugs and doing well.\nShe is flattered that he inquires as to whether she is "available for dating", but she is seeing someone.\nThe book ends on a bittersweet note: she knows she has a good life, but doesn\'t trust it.\nUnlike the movie, most of the conflict in the book is internal, as Suzanne is learning to handle her life without the prop of drugs.\nSuzanne\'s mother appears in very few scenes, while Suzanne is in rehab: Later Suzanne talks with her on the phone, but it is not stressful.
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: Do you know the first three paragraphs for this book? Start with the sentence 'Postcards from the Edge
  Quite a nice sepia card showing much the same as the previous card, except that this one is looking east because (a slightly exaggerated) Smeaton's stump is to the right of the present tower'.
conversations.from: assistant
conversations.value: Postcards from the Edge
  Quite a nice sepia card showing much the same as the previous card, except that this one is looking east because (a slightly exaggerated) Smeaton's stump is to the right of the present tower. But the birds are still looking for a safe roost and a tall ship battles its way through the storm in the background. Strangely, the artist has drawn the lighthouse as if it were expecting a relief – a flag is flying from the lantern and the handrails around the set-off have been rigged – but we can obviously see that such a thing would be impossible in these conditions.
  This is something that shouldn't really happen! A tramp steamer, the Blue Jacket, is stuck fast on the Longships reef – directly below the lighthouse that was flashing its warning about the very reef the ship ploughed on to. It happened in December 1898 when the Blue Jacket was steaming from Plymouth to Cardiff. The captain went below to his cabin at 9.30pm but was woken at midnight as his vessel shuddered to a stop on the Longships. On a now listing deck he found the whole shambolic scene being brilliantly illuminated by the lighthouse. Quite how the mate on watch managed to wedge the ship in this position with over two miles of visibility has never been explained. The Blue Jacket remained in this embarrassing position for over a year!
  Some of the lighthouses will have appeared in preceding chapters, but there are some that are new to these pages. Most of the cards represent what we would call social history – nostalgic scenes from the past showing how things used to be.
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: Do you know four more paragraphs? End with the sentence ' Sundial adjustment became unnecessary when BBC radio time signals – the pips – started.'.
conversations.from: assistant
conversations.value: One particular accolade awarded to this light, which I haven't mentioned so far, is that it's often described as the ugliest lighthouse in the world, and looking at it in this card you might agree. In its defence I should say that it's had a bit of a facelift since this picture was taken, and the bare concrete has been painted brilliant white with a broad black band around its midriff.
  Lighthouse sundials north of the border were commonplace items and almost every lighthouse had one. They were all of a standard design – a bollard-like cast-iron plinth with a fluted shaft mounted on a square stone base.
  They were a vital piece of lighthouse equipment because it was an NLB requirement that at regular intervals, and at least once per week, the Principal Keeper should check the lighthouse timepiece against the sundial. If the sundial had been correctly positioned the lighthouse clock could be relied upon to be accurate when keeping the records of weather conditions, passing shipping and even shipwrecks.
  The instructions for 'calibrating' the sundial with the clock said that when the sun is shining the lighthouse keeper should wait for the shadow to coincide with an hour or half hour mark, then set the lighthouse clock to match. Subsequently, the keeper was to make a further adjustment of any minutes required for the time of year, from an equation engraved on the dial. Sundial adjustment became unnecessary when BBC radio time signals – the pips – started.
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: Do you know the last five paragraphs?
conversations.from: assistant
conversations.value: This 1905 card shows a paddle steamer heading west towards the Irish Sea, and in the distance the smoke from another vessel obscures the miles upon miles of Liverpool docks. It was still operational at this time and so the fog bell hanging from the gallery was frequently used.
  When the tide goes out you get a different perspective of Perch Rock! It's close enough to the shore to walk to, as hundreds of people did at every opportunity. This card must surely hold some kind of record for the number of people in the same card. Try and count them – it's impossible! But they all seem to be having an enjoyable time, either examining the rock pools or just taking the sea air.
  The lighthouse details are even clearer. Notice how at the top of the tower the masonry forms a cornice to deflect waves away from the lantern. The gallery railings have an interesting bellied style that mirrors the masonry below them, and we can see that there are in fact two fog bells hanging from the gallery. Inside the lantern, the curtains are drawn to prevent sun damage, and to the left of the entrance ladder is the conduit that could be carrying the electric cable from the mainland. Altogether a very interesting card full of history, fashion and architecture from a century ago. Today, the tower has been painted white and is topped by a red lantern, but it's also floodlit at night.
  I've mentioned on a couple of occasions how lighthouse keepers used postcards of their lighthouses to send to other keepers or their friends and families in order to keep in touch before the era of the telephone.
  Book came safely to hand on 1st. inst. Many thanks for the same. Will acknowledge to Miss L— Am happy to learn you are all well & pleased to say we are all well here. W. Caird goes from here to Rattray Hd. & one McKenzie from Lismore succeeds him. I expect there will be other shifts but have not heard them. Accept kind regards from Yours truly.
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: Reverse the sentences.
conversations.from: assistant
conversations.value: Accept kind regards from Yours truly.. I expect there will be other shifts but have not heard them. & one McKenzie from Lismore succeeds him. Caird goes from here to Rattray Hd. W. Will acknowledge to Miss L— Am happy to learn you are all well & pleased to say we are all well here. Many thanks for the same. inst.
  Book came safely to hand on 1st.
  I've mentioned on a couple of occasions how lighthouse keepers used postcards of their lighthouses to send to other keepers or their friends and families in order to keep in touch before the era of the telephone. Today, the tower has been painted white and is topped by a red lantern, but it's also floodlit at night. Altogether a very interesting card full of history, fashion and architecture from a century ago. Inside the lantern, the curtains are drawn to prevent sun damage, and to the left of the entrance ladder is the conduit that could be carrying the electric cable from the mainland. The gallery railings have an interesting bellied style that mirrors the masonry below them, and we can see that there are in fact two fog bells hanging from the gallery. Notice how at the top of the tower the masonry forms a cornice to deflect waves away from the lantern.
  The lighthouse details are even clearer. Try and count them – it's impossible! But they all seem to be having an enjoyable time, either examining the rock pools or just taking the sea air. This card must surely hold some kind of record for the number of people in the same card.
  When the tide goes out you get a different perspective of Perch Rock! It's close enough to the shore to walk to, as hundreds of people did at every opportunity. It was still operational at this time and so the fog bell hanging from the gallery was frequently used.This 1905 card shows a paddle steamer heading west towards the Irish Sea, and in the distance the smoke from another vessel obscures the miles upon miles of Liverpool docks
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: Do you know the first five paragraphs for this book?
conversations.from: assistant
conversations.value: Postcards from the Edge
  They walked out of the building and got into the limo. "What's his name?" asked Lucy, settling into her seat, and Suzanne talked about Jesse all the way back to Hollywood, thinking the whole time, "He'll never call me.
  They had been living together for almost a year—though he'd kept his apartment—and she was still always a little surprised to find him there in the morning. She liked to study him when he was asleep—he seemed unarmed somehow without his glasses on—but she could only engage in this activity on weekends. During the week Jesse got up at seven to write. "Look at him," she thought. "He looks like somebody you could go up to at an airport and say, 'Could you watch my bag?' "
  He remained curious to her. She knew she cared about him—her latest analogy to Norma was that he was a wounded Confederate soldier and she was this sweet Yankee woman who'd found him on her lawn—but she wondered why. It was as though she doubted her own judgment, which in fact she did. For years her judgment had told her to take drugs. Why should she think her logic had improved that much in just two years?
  After their fifth date, he hadn't called her for six days. Suzanne was stunned. She forgot what he looked like. "Smoke in a room, that's what he is," she told Lucy. "Smoke in a room." She started thinking about him as the guy she liked who never called her again.
  She had forgotten, but because of this mistake he had become more vivid to her, more real. They'd had a crisis in common—though, to be sure, in Suzanne's mind more than anywhere else—and they'd come through it. They had survived the dating accident together, and on their sixth date they had total endless nightmare sex. "Big Kabuki Sex," Suzanne called it.
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: Do you know three more paragraphs?
conversations.from: assistant
conversations.value: Suzanne and Jesse drove out of the cemetery behind Carl's car, which had a bumper sticker that said EX-HEADS GIVE BETTER HEAD. Suzanne looked back and saw Alex in the parking lot talking excitedly to Carol's husband Rob, who, Suzanne knew, had just signed a production deal with Lowell Stephenson. "He's probably pitching an idea about a model who ODs in Hollywood," she said.
  When they'd first started seeing each other, she'd been unable to remember anything he said. She'd wondered if and when his words would stick, and what the sentence would be. Then, in the space of a week, she'd recalled three sentences of his. Random ones, but it was a beginning. First there was "I talked to my friend Roy on Friday—I told you about Roy, didn't I?" Then, "I run five miles a day." And there was something else about chili dogs, but she couldn't remember the exact phrase. She was also making strides toward remembering what he looked like. She'd have a sudden image of his face while waiting for the light to change, or sitting in the bath.
  She wasn't sure exactly when he'd started calling her Gail, but it was pretty soon after he'd moved in. She called him lots of things, ranging from Joseph to Sir. It was their understanding that she called him so many names because he was so many things to her.
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: Do you know the last five paragraphs?
conversations.from: assistant
conversations.value: Thanks again for the dolphin and your letter. I hope this finds you well and still on the right side of that hose. I have to sign off or I'll be late for my shrink. I'm expecting a breakthrough any decade now.
  P.S. That night in the emergency room, do you recall if I threw up something I needed? Some small but trivial thing that belonged inside? I distinctly feel as though I'm missing something.
  There are no words to express adequately my gratitude to my friend and editor Paul Slansky, but if there were words, they'd have to be multisyllabic and shrieked from high atop a roller coaster in appreciation and glee.
  Gloria Crayton, Mary Douglas French, Ilene (she knows why) Waterstone, Buck Henry, Melissa Mathison, Mike Nichols, Maxene and Ray Reynolds, Constance Freiberg, May Quigley, Richard Dreyfuss, Beverly D'Angelo, Bill Reynolds, Beatriz Foster, Amy Edmondson, Charles Wessler, Blair Sabol, Chana Ben-Dov, Arnold Klein, Cindy Lee Zucker, Al Lowman, Patricia Soliman, Richard Hamlett, Brian Frielino, John Burnham, Jim Wade, Edwin Jack, Donald Roller Wilson, Bill Wilson, and Harper, Sean, Linda, J.D., Simpson, Albert, Roger, Begley, Grip, Lennie, Arlo, Harrison, Henry, Lester, Mo, Evelyn, Maggie, Penny, Ted, Moses, Carolyn, Evi, Thom, Nikki, Shimkus, M.G., Reigo, Bleeaz, Mira, LaVallee, Henley, Erika, Renee, Hyjean, David, Howard, Tom, Lynne, Drew, Toni, Carol, Leon, Kipper, Philip, the alumni of the Century City New Beginnings Rehabilitation Program, and Joan Hackett.
  Join our mailing list to get updates on new releases, deals, recommended reads, and more from Simon & Schuster.
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: Delete the last sentence.
conversations.from: assistant
conversations.value: Thanks again for the dolphin and your letter. I hope this finds you well and still on the right side of that hose. I have to sign off or I'll be late for my shrink. I'm expecting a breakthrough any decade now.
  P.S. That night in the emergency room, do you recall if I threw up something I needed? Some small but trivial thing that belonged inside? I distinctly feel as though I'm missing something.
  There are no words to express adequately my gratitude to my friend and editor Paul Slansky, but if there were words, they'd have to be multisyllabic and shrieked from high atop a roller coaster in appreciation and glee.
  Gloria Crayton, Mary Douglas French, Ilene (she knows why) Waterstone, Buck Henry, Melissa Mathison, Mike Nichols, Maxene and Ray Reynolds, Constance Freiberg, May Quigley, Richard Dreyfuss, Beverly D'Angelo, Bill Reynolds, Beatriz Foster, Amy Edmondson, Charles Wessler, Blair Sabol, Chana Ben-Dov, Arnold Klein, Cindy Lee Zucker, Al Lowman, Patricia Soliman, Richard Hamlett, Brian Frielino, John Burnham, Jim Wade, Edwin Jack, Donald Roller Wilson, Bill Wilson, and Harper, Sean, Linda, J.D., Simpson, Albert, Roger, Begley, Grip, Lennie, Arlo, Harrison, Henry, Lester, Mo, Evelyn, Maggie, Penny, Ted, Moses, Carolyn, Evi, Thom, Nikki, Shimkus, M.G., Reigo, Bleeaz, Mira, LaVallee, Henley, Erika, Renee, Hyjean, David, Howard, Tom, Lynne, Drew, Toni, Carol, Leon, Kipper, Philip, the alumni of the Century City New Beginnings Rehabilitation Program, and Joan Hackett.