Monday, August 10, 2020

Still Here

 From the 1918 flu. I like the WEAR A MASK or GO TO JAIL sign.  And now in Lake St. Clair, 20 minutes away.

Megan's latest news.  https://deadline.com/2020/08/eone-ballet-novel-the-turnout-dare-me-megan-abbott

Rewatching movies: BEING JOHN MALCOVICH-which held up wonderfully for the first hour and then descended into chaos. At least for me. Also watched THE HOLIDAY, which is the kind of romantic movie I usually stay away from but it was so relaxing. Nothing much at stake in a movie like this. 

Reading THE CASE OF THE VELVET CLAWS (Erle Stanley Gardner). And still muddling through the Pandemic book and THE STARMAKER. 

Getting hot here this week. 

What about you?

22 comments:

Margot Kinberg said...

I hope you're enjoying The Case of the Velvet Claws, Patti. And that mask 'photo is such a good reminder of what we need to do to get through this pandemic...

Jerry House said...

It's hot here also. Except for a few hours at the beach before the crowds arrive and occasional trips grocery shopping we still confine yourself at home.

It had been a while since we saw dolphins at the beach but yesterday made up for it. A small group of dolphins evidently teaching a calf the ropes decided to regale us for half an hour with their play. Dolphins, like llamas, are God's gift to happiness. COVID has restricted the number of tourists here and thus the amount of people at the beach. Combined with the excessive heat, most of the people cut short their beaching time. Even with our short beaching time of an hour to two hours, tops, we see a lot of people come, then go when the sun is too much for them.

Between my two siblings and Kitty's three, we have amassed six beautiful nieces (and no ugly ones) and we love each one more than the other. So when my favorite second daughter of y brother texted us yesterday of her engagement, we were thrilled. She's a very, very special person and we wish her all the happiness in the world.

Damncat has started puking again but not when I feed her because I give her just a little food at a time. Kitty, on the other hand, gives her about three times at much food at time and the cat pukes. I wonder if there is a correlation? The cat has been very needy with her "Ignore the fact that I just vomited into your shoe and give me all the affection I deserve, puny human" pleading face.

Currently watching Season Five of LUTHER. Very good. Finally watched JUMANJI: THE NEXT LEVEL and laughed a lot. Fun flick. Noticed that most of the women in the Scandinavian mystery shows we watch have wild, flyaway hair. Wonder why? Reading a lot of cheap paperback books: pulp, TV tie-ins, adult westerns, and so on. #pandemiccomfortfood.

Despite the Administration still throwing, monkey-like, their feces at America, I remain positive that we will muddle through this. In the meantime, my tribe is happy, healthy, and still able to laugh.

Also wishing you happiness, laughter, and health, Patti.

Jerry House said...

"Confine ourselves" Sheez, my brain doesn't work well early in the morning.

Jeff Meyerson said...

I've seen that mask and love it too. In fact, I love that picture in general.

Same old, same old this week, which, of course, is not all bad. I feel like I've been finally doing more reading the last couple of weeks. Whether it is me or just finding better (to me) books, who can say? I had read the first three DCI Karen Pirie books (she is the head of Scotland's cold case squad, which consists of two people, but still) some time ago, but hadn't kept up (#6 is coming out soon). In general, I prefer her non-series books (like the great PLACE OF EXECUTION) to her series books (I gave up on Tony Hill long ago), but I really enjoyed this one (sorry, the title is OUT OF BOUNDS) and will be reading #5 Real Soon Now. In this one, an idiotic 17 year old steals a car, goes joyriding, crashes and kills his three friends, and ends up in a coma. They automatically do a DNA test there (apparently), and discover a "familial" connection to a male relative who raped and murdered a young woman 20 years earlier. Of course, he was adopted and the parents do not know the real father. There is also a second case, this one with ties to a modern death. Recommended.

For those who don't want to watch the Netflix documentary hospital series, LENOX HILL, you might want to check out the final, added on episode ("Pandemic"), where the filmmakers went back six months after filming finished to document how they were dealing with being at Ground Zero of the covid-19 thing in March. I am looking forward to it.

Besides reading, we have finished (or are one episode away from finishing) a bunch of series, mostly on Netflix - LENOX HILL, QUEEN SONO (South Africa), NOBEL (Norway), SHETLAND (series 4), VERA (series 9), LEWIS (final series; last episode was disappointing), NCIA (series 9), OUTLANDER (series 1), SWEET MAGNOLIAS, several others. We started the first series of THE UMBRELLA ACADEMY and will undoubtedly be adding other series. We're also watching WYCLIFFE (mid-90s Cornwall; it's OK but nothing special - on Britbox), JONATHAN CREEK (they are showing the edited American episodes so we will go back and watch the original, uncut British DVDs), ALL CREATURES GREAT AND SMALL, etc.

Jeff Meyerson said...

Oh, finished PERRY MASON last night. Looks like they set it up for series 2.

pattinase (abbott) said...

Yeah, that was his first case. Which I am frustrated with already. Many pages given to Perry's attempt to keep a news item out of the scandal sheets. Way too much ducking around corners. Maybe it's me.
Jerry-It's hot here and we have no ocean to cool off it. Of course, there are lots of lakes but no swimming near me. Not that I would.
Thanks for the list, Jeff. I am about out. Don't think I like HIDDEN. So tired of "taken" people.

George said...

Western NY is heating up again. We'll be in the 90s again today. I yearn for snow!

I'm looking forward to LOVECRAFT COUNTRY on HBO on August 16. I read the novel back in 2016 and loved it.

Some of our friends are trying to decide whether to go back to the classroom in September...or retire. Diane and I are glad we don't have to face that decision.

Stay safe!

Rick Robinson said...

Hot here too, but then, it’s August. With no glasses for about a week, I did what reading I could with ebooks on the iPad. I got sidetracked with a series of YA books I downloaded a few years back and read two and a half, will finish third today and then back to printed books, currently IN AT THE DEATH from 1953.

I had a mild Summer cold, but these days anything with sniffles and coughing is upsetting. I’m over it now. Barbara watches her usual three hours of news each night (5:00-5:30 local, 5:30-6:00 National on NBC, then 6:00-6:30 local, 6:30-7:00 national on CBS, then PBS Newshour 7:00-8:00). I drop in for the weather, then go read or something. She fills me in on the current idiocy or disasters.

The garden is mostly happy with the heat, though we’re having to run the sprinklers every other day, so the water bill will be high. Thanks for the latest on Megan, did she like the bookends you got her?

pattinase (abbott) said...

She loved them, Rick. Thanks again for the great idea.

pattinase (abbott) said...

I imagine a lot of teachers will retire. Only online classes are safe for them.

Steve Oerkfitz said...

It cooled off down to warm now back up to hot. But I prefer this to winter snow.
Not much regular programming on. Bill Maher is back and Perry Mason has just ended. Can't seem to get interested in much else of tv other than the Tigers baseball games. Rewatched a lot of movies. Kurosawa's Drunken Angel and Stray Dog. Gladiator. Bring Me the Head od Alfredo Garcia. For the first time I watched Richard Jewell. Not a very well done movie.
Read Eight Perfect Murders by Peter Swanson. Not as good as his A Kind Worth Killing but enjoyable. Also read the new Loren Estleman, Indigo. Okay but pretty thin on plot.
Now reading The Revelators, the newest from Ace Atkins.

Gerard Saylor said...

My wife and I were on vacation last week and did a lot of nothing. I did get some work done on our asphalt driveway and trimmed back a tree. The trimming is easy. Cleaning up the trimmings is a drag.

I am still listening to more audiobooks than reading books. I started another older Archer Mayor book over the weekend.

Boy #1 and I camped in northern Wisconsin over the weekend to go mountain biking. High temps were in the low 80s with humidity at 75% or higher. I was sweating all the entire time with no showers available. My helmet liner and riding gloves were still wet on Sunday morning after Saturday's afternoon's ride.

There are a number of local teachers who may resign or retire rather than return to school. They have their own health issues or have relatives with health issues. At this point our children are scheduled to attend in-person classes and I am not happy about it.

pattinase (abbott) said...

I haven't heard of any school system in MI that is going in person but I am sure in the UP there are some.

Cullen Gallagher said...

I haven't seen Being John Malkovich in close to 20 years, I remember thinking it was clever but don't remember much else about it. I'm currently between books but I have a big pile of vintage Gold Medals to catch up on. I recently finished Charlotte Carter's Rhode Island Red as well as Gary Phillips's Matthew Henson and the Ice Temple of Harlem, both of which I loved. Spending lots of time indoors here in Brooklyn, trying to figure out my fall semester schedule since I'm back in school as a student.

Kevin R. Tipple said...

Still here and hanging in. Scott has an appointment with the neurologist Friday so my echocardigram has been pushed back to late September.

We are flirting with 100 everyday and there are warnings about the potential of wildfires as the ongoing drought is doing its thing.

I am actively limiting my news watching and my time of social media. The idiots stress me too much.

Todd Mason said...

Heatwave might be dissipated in Philly area by rain for a while...

Yesterday busy. Been watching the late-night series (they're all back in production, at least those I try to not miss), and catching NEWSRADIO repeats. The Antenna TV network just ran out of the episodes from before Phil Hartman's murder last night/this morning. THE DAILY SHOW had a rather good episode last night, as I liked both interviews. Recorded SHAMPOO and $ (DOLLARS) off TCM. Goldie Hawn has had a long career of discreet shots of her rump, challenged perhaps only by Mel Gibson.

Reading old fanzines online, mostly.

With I was more wnthusiastic about the Democratic ticket, but even the unfortunate LawnnOrder flavor (and no lack of duplicity and hypocrisy going with it) doesn't make them as insanely bad as the incumbents. New Jersey will go Dem, I will go Green, Trump will continue to try to steal the election however he can. "Why aren't I more popular?" Puling infant of a malignant narcissist. And his Differently? misogynist sidekick. Somehow, perhaps I'm happy Kanye West and his evangelist running mate have failed to make the New Jersey presidential ballot Thus, Everyone on he ballot, probably even including the Constitution Party candidates, are both less vile and less ill-fitted for incumbency than the incumbents.

Yours for a better world, and no children crowded together just to make varied parents feel better temporarily.

Todd Mason said...

I thought I typed Harried Parents. Ah, well.

pattinase (abbott) said...

Never watch any late night shows. Jokes about Trump are too easy and depressing and bringing on guests to promote their work is too dull. I know most people enjoy them.

Todd Mason said...

It's more full-fledged critiques of Trumps and our other fools these days, at least on THE DAILY SHOW (hosted by Trevor Noah, Comedy Central), THE LATE SHOW (Stephen Colbert, CBS), and LATE NIGHT (Seth Meyers, NBC)...supplemented by LAST WEEK TONIGHT, FULL FRONTAL, CONAN and occasional DESUS AND MERO and JIMMY KIMMEL episodes...the interviews are often dull, but the good ones are by definition worth catching, and the "fronts" of the hours definitely are helping me cope with the current vicious nonsense. THE TONIGHT SHOW, despite the excellent band, and THE LATE, LATE SHOW remain utterly dispensable...I make no effort to catch them.

pattinase (abbott) said...

I am trying to stay as far away from Trump talk as possible. I had a lifetime of an enhanced political environment married to a political theorist. Now I just need to try and keep sane, hard to do living in this country. I read the Times first page to last (except sports) and then stay away from the news, which is no longer news, it is just US politics. Believe me when I say I just can't hear this stuff anymore. Seeing a therapist twice a week already. I live in a world of books, movies, tv, podcasts, friends. That's all I can take.

Rick Robinson said...

I agree, Patti, though we are happier with the Dem. ticket and will likely watch the convention broadcasts. As for the GOP convention, I wouldn’t watch that disgusting ego fest for anything.

It just hit 100.4 here, which, though it sounds like a radio station call number is the temperature. Je suis tres unhappy.

Kevin R. Tipple said...

We got to 108 here today at Casa Tipple and Home eatery Library here in NE Dallas.