People I Can't Tell Apart

It's not that they look alike.
Kate Winslet looks only like herself. But.....
I always think she is also Cate Blanchett. There is no reason for me to think this except that I always do. Yikes!! They are really different. One always plays Queen Elizabeth, I think, and makes herself look really old and unattractive--she will step in for Vanessa Redgrave one day--the other one plays sort of crumply messed-up modern girls. Is that it?

Now these two do look alike and the first thing I always do when I have one of their books--the first thing I do when I read any book--is scrutinize the author photo. I am deadly at this. I take note of everything, right down to the linoleum. In fact, author Tom Robbins at one time had the same kitchen tile as I do. Yup, the very same. I say at one time because probably he isn't like me and gets around to upgrading his kitchen more than I do. Mine is still here if he wants to see it.
Wait. This is getting away from me.
Anyway, I certainly know who Stephen King is. I don't read horror books as a rule, but I've read a couple of his and they are good. He is a wonderful essayist and I assign one of his very good ones in my class. I like to think I am contributing to his income in a small way. Steve! Dude! Plug my book! Take me out for dinner! We can split the brownie sundae!
I adore Garrison Keillor and nobody understands love better than he does, which may sound odd, but I am reading his book Liberty about a 60-year-old guy who falls in love with a 28-year-old girl and contemplates throwing his life up in the air and going off with this girl to points unknown. I can already tell he's going to stay with the wife. Fine.
Anyway.
I always marvel to myself how alike the two are. Big square skulls, TV screen foreheads, slump shoulders, floppy old-style hair, and long long long sentences with a flair for specific details. SK obviously is given totally free rein by his publisher. I can't imagine what his first drafts must look like. They must be carted around by wheelbarrow. His computer must weigh several tons.

I don't want to go on too long myself. Maybe next time we can discuss whether Gordon Brown is the same person as Dudley Moore, except Moore is dead. This won't stop my confusion, though.
A bientot
love,
becky