“He's a Complicated Man, and No One Understands Him, but His Woman: Biff. Loman. They Say This Cat Biff Is a Bad Mother. . .”

I didn't remember that the mob “got Shaft … up to here.” When this movie first came out, what I remember from the AM radio ads was, “This movie is rated R, so if you're under 17 and you want to see ‘Shaft,’ you got to ask yo’ momma.”

That poor woman, she didn't get a day's rest that summer until her little boy got to see Shaft take it to The Man, one more time.

Then, I started begging her for a black, leather jacket and a white woman (although I can't blame Shaft completely for that last one). She got me neither.

Anyway, Shaft is on the big screen again, playing this weekend at the Central Cinema. So I'm going to see that “black, private dick who's a sex machine for all the chicks.”

I think I'll call my mother on my cell phone from the ticket window, and ask her to tell the cashier I have her permission to go in.