bette davis was 52, as was martha, and james mason had always been 46, you know, so... [laughter] so it was--it was good. and so i said okay, knowing at the time that when you sell the rights of a play to be made into a movie, you lose absolute control over it-- understanding that. if you write a play, you have absolute control over what is done to your play onstage. they can't change a word without your permission. but you take a chance when you sell a movie. but that whole combination struck me as being pretty good. but then there's a thing called movie magic, and bette davis and james mason turned into elizabeth taylor and richard burton. and oddly enough, mike nichols stayed mike nichols, and...but i sort of trusted mike. i didn't think he was going to allow them to really screw it up. and what happened, finally, by some great fortune: there was no screenplay. i mean, there's this guy, ernest lehman, who is credited with the screenplay. but then again, he produced the movie too. but i think he changed two sentences of my entire script and maybe cut about five minute

bette davis once said that old age is not for sissies. she is right about so many things, and she was right about that. when you look at the status of family violence in san francisco, it is startling. 18,000 people who feel victimized enough to call someone. that is the city agencies, aps hot line, and that is startling. but the most startling part of that is the part that has to do with elder abuse. and why is that? well, if we compare child abuse and elder abuse, taking domestic violence off the table for a moment, 14% of san francisco is comprised of children. 14% is comprised of people over the age of 65. cal protective services receivers -- adult protective services received 5758 cases. basically, pretty cool. the child abuse police unit has 10 officers. there is no elder abuse police unit. there are elder abuse specialists assigned to domestic violence units and to the financial crimes unit, and it is about 2.5 fte's. there are over 500 child protective workers in san francisco. 45 adult protective -- protective workers in san fran