For whatever embarassing reason the Raymond Chandler-invented expression “tall glass of water” never crossed my path until last Saturday when Mel Gibson used it to describe Kathryn Bigelow and I said “good one…is that yours?” and he said “hell, man…you don’t know your Chandler” and proceeded to shpiel on it. It means not just tall, of course, but a person of considerable character, history and overall content who, if you really want to know her, requires a fair amount of slow sipping, tasting, contemplating and so on.
