Failure clings to your life history, like a black hole. . .

Seeing  Nora Ephron's   last play  Lucky Guy   was  a wonderful  theatrical  experience.   It was  tinged with sadness that    Ephron  no longer is no loger with us.
(my review: www.curtainup.com/luckyguy.html)

 But  we're lucky  in that  Ephron    left  a   rich legacy that includes  her last  collection  of witty  essays,  I Can't Remember Anything.    
 
While  I read most of  the pieces  before, re-visiting   them  less than  a year  after  her  death,   clearly   reveals  her  awareness   not just  of  old  age  but  the likelihood  that  she would not   live to  be really old  (she  was 71  years  young when she died). 

In  a  piece  called  "Flops"   Ephron   reflects  on   failure  and  how   her films  that flopped    will   stubbornly  remain part  of  her  history   along  with  hits  like  When  Sally Meets Harry  and  Sleepless in Seattle  (in which Tom Hanks the  star of  Lucky Guy also starred).

She capsulizes  this with -- what else--   a  simile. ..

But that flop sits there, in the history of your life, like a black hole with a wildly powerful magnetic field