Tropical Storm Emily.

Tropical Storm Emily, downgraded from a hurricane, has hit St. Martin with full and beautiful fury. The rain is incessant. The wind is gusting so loudly it drowns out the volume of the rough cuts I am trying to view. Nature is trying to tell me not to work so hard--especially on vacation.

There's something magical about a storm that is not too bad. It's bad enough to keep you indoors--an enforced relaxation period. But not so bad that people lose their lives or their homes.

Whenever I'm in the middle of a tropical storm, I think of the great Bogart/Bacall, Edward G. Robinson movie "Key Largo," where Robinson holds a group of people hostage in a Florida hotel. They did storms right in the 1940s. And sultry Bacall and a drunken Claire Trevor make the whole thing watchable, as do, of course, Bogart, Robinson, Lionel Barrymore and the missing Osceola brothers.

If you need a tropical storm in your life, if you need a few moments to batten down your psychic hatches and close yourself off from the elements and vicissitudes of life, find a copy and view "Key Largo."

It's way better than viewing rough cuts.