Patricia Abbott (pattinase): MONDAY, Monday

Monday, January 23, 2023

MONDAY, Monday

12 comments:

Steve Oerkfitz said...: Condolences to George. Buffalo Bills looked pretty bad Sunday.
We finally got some snow but not not enough to keep anyone home. Temps are in low 30's and high 20's for the next week.
Went to see Women Talking at the theater. Highly reviewed but I found it rather dull and slow.
Watched first episode of Last of Us. Not bad. Also got a copy of The Good Boss from the library. A good movie from Spain starring Javier Bardem.
Reading Opal Country by Chris Hammer. It's the fourth book of his I've red. All very good. He has a new one I haven't gotten yet. He is an Australian writer who doesn't have an American publisher, but his books are available online. Also read an early Michael Swanwick novel, In the Drift. A reread actually. Probably one of my favorite SF writers.; 12:32 AM
Jerry House said...: Another quiet week, capped off by cold, rainy weather. My back, though, is feeling better: I'm now walking completely verticle about 90% of the time.

Walt and Mark returnd from their Everglades trip but were unable to spot a single python. **sigh** They had a great time however and swa many fascinating critters. Walt got some amazing photos. They returned to find Mark's college diploma in the mail. So that happened. While they were gone we ate a lot of Thai food; I think Christina has become an addict.

WAtched JURASSIC PARK: DOMINION, which brought together Sam Neil, Laura Dern, and Jeff Goldblum from the original with Chris Pratt and Dalls Bryce Howard from the recent films. Lots of slam-bang action and CGI but it started to get tiring after about the 700th time one of then narrowly got bitten by a dinosaur. I'm also conttinuing my wath-rewatch of ENDEAVOR, having finished Season Six last night. I'm finding it even more entertaining this time around.

Finished reading Neil Gaiman's AMERICAN GODS, as well as the three-volume graphic novel version, at times wondering if it would replace HUCKLEBERRY FINN as the Great American Bovel. (It won't, but it says something that I even condsidered the possibility.) I also read Jules Feiffer's graphic novel COUSIN JOSEPH, a crime novel/social commentary set in old Hollywood. Powerful, as much of Feiffer's work often is. Reed Farrel Coleman's first Moe Prager mystery WALKING THE PERFECT SQUARE was my FFB this week. I haben't read anything by Coleman that I have not really liked. More Coleman in the not-so-distance future, methinks. I can highly recommend Martin Greenberg's anthology THE EDGAR AWARDS, gathering a numbert of Edgar-winning stories with a number of tales that were nominated but did not win -- a great collection. I'm currently dipping into a half dozen anthologies at random, mainly crime and mystery and wondering what novel I should read next. I'm thinking maybe CALEB WILLIAMS, the 1794 proto-detective novel by William Godwin, althoug I'm not sure if I've worked up enough courage to tackle that one.

Hope you are having a great time out in Cali. Sty safe and avoid the mudslides.; 5:51 AM
George said...: Steve, the Bills just didn't show up against the Bengals. A terrible game!

Winter returns this week as the weather-guessers predict snow every day.

I'm working on a number of projects involving books I've owned for years...but never got around to reading.

With the NFL season almost over, I can spend more time reading.

Hope you're having fun in California! Stay safe!; 9:34 AM
Jeff Meyerson said...: Bummer for the Bills, but the Bengals looked good and I will be rooting for them in KC. Just glad the hated Cowboys lost.

We've settled into our Florida lifestyle for the winter. Mostly nice weather in the upper 70s to low 80s, with occasional "cold" spells. It's a nice comfortable apartment. No movies (though we have several lined up on Netflix and Amazon Prime if we ever get tired of the many, many television series we're watching). We watched series 9 (only 5 episodes) of the Danish SEASIDE HOTEL (PBS Passport/Walter Presents). They have jumped ahead four years to 1945 and the end of WWII and all the characters are back. We really enjoy it. We finished the third and final series of the French Canadian THE WALL (also Passport), but didn't like it much. The first series was the best. It's set near the Quebec-US border and involves a murder from 26 years earlier.

On Netflix we're watching the Elena Ferrante THE LYING LIFE OF ADULTS but are finding it hard to enjoy. There are no characters to really care about, and I am so tired of angsty teenage girls, especially when they are rich and annoying. Also watching the Spanish INTIMACY, starring the woman who played cop turned robber Raquel in MONEY HEIST (a much, much better show). And last night, the fourth series of the Israeli-Palestinian FAUDA at least.

On the Prime Video channels (including MHz Choice, Acorn and Britbox and PBS Masterpiece), besides the shows we were already watching, we've added MAKARI (Sicily - man quits his Ministry job and returns to his hometown; beautiful setting), MONGEVILLE (France, Bordeaux perhaps; retired former examining judge teams up with woman cop to solve crimes). PETRA (also France - loner cop working in the archives is assigned to a rape case, gets a partner and starts to loosen up a little), ALL CREATURES GREAT AND SMALL (series 3; James and Helen get married), THE PROMISE (French yet again; serial child killer eludes cop who is sure it is him; 20 years later with the cop dead, his daughter is now a cop and finds an abducted child, and evidence that makes it clear that it was the same guy Dad targeted all those years ago). Also series HUNTER (series 2, which basically doesn't work because of the flashback scenes with Al Pacino; the Hunters go after Hitler, who didn't kill himself but escaped to Argentina after the war. Lena Olin is an evil Eva Braun.)

Today we're meeting my cousins for lunch. I haven't gotten a lot of reading done (other than short stories) so far, but I hope to do more as the weeks go on.; 10:34 AM
TracyK said...: We finally got back to doing some walks in parks but we are still not walking enough. But both of the latest walks were super because the parks are so much greener and Rocky Nook park had lots of water in Mission Creek. The water roaring through the creek was beautiful.

The only book I have finished lately was A MAN AND HIS CAT vol. 1, a graphic novel, a manga by Umi Sakurai. Very short and not much to it, but I have liked it enough to order volume 2.

I am reading THE SIX: THE LIVES OF THE MITFORD SISTERS by Laura Thompson and have only one section left. I did not know a lot about any of the Mitford sisters (or their brother) but I do now. Very interesting.

Just started reading THE COVER WIFE by Dan Fesperman. I expect to like this one a lot.

Watching: A lot of stuff on Paramount+. SO HELP ME TODD, EAST NEW YORK, STAR TREK DEEP SPACE NINE, CSI:VEGAS, NCIS, NCIS:HAWAII. The original CSI on HULU. LEVERAGE: REDEMPTION and PERRY MASON on FREEVEE. Also BROKENWOOD MYSTERIES and our third rewatch of MIDSOMER MURDERS (at season 9).

Also watched BULLET TRAIN with Brad Pitt. Over the top violence but we liked it. And plan to read the book.

Patti, I don't know how it is where you are, but it is pretty cold for California in Santa Barbara / Goleta. Especially at night.; 4:57 PM
Anonymous said...: Walking a lot and our feet and legs are aching. We did not bring enough warm clothes and next week looks colder yet. Watched two pretty bad eps of VERA so we are going to switch to something else tonight. So much great food here. Will the walking keep the pounds off? The sun is heavenly. Stay safe.; 7:58 PM
Todd Mason said...: Some inexpensive sweats? Somehow, your parting FFB THE CHILL seems prophetic...

Otherwise, glad things are going well. Rest the legs some, says the man who desperately needs to walk more, and stand less (while washing dishes while we await the new machine). Walking in the cold might well help pounds not pack.

Glad everyone seems to be on an uptick, except maybe with football and other tv viewing...I'm mostly lucking out, though the second episode of THE LAST OF US is kinda thin compared to the pipelaying in the first episode. Also I'm wondering about a fungus that needs to spread itself through motile expressions (like a complicated slime mold) rather than spores, which of course would've Gotten all the continuing cast ASAP. Since they are anti-maskers. Hoping against hope for a vax, however.

Will probably gather SSW again.; 4:16 AM
Todd Mason said...: One the small pleasures of watching US tv (Eastern Time) at 4am is THE CBS MORNING NEWS anchored by Anna-Marie Green; the mild joy of watching reportage of the somewhat mealy-written tribute being paid to Lorne Michaels by PEN, the writers/editors/publishers organization, a Service Award to be bestowed upon him for "uproarious and fearless political sketches that Changed TV Forever" with a presumably 3 or 4ish-AM-entered chiron reading "Honoring Michael Lorne"...is also shortly thereafter slapped down with the first report I've picked up about the San Mateo County (where my parents spent their last years and I worked remotely some years earlier with good folks at KCSM-TV, the tiny College of San Mateo PBS station martyred by the Shrub Bush FCC) mass-shooting of 8 people, 7 immediately fatally, rounding out the weekend of Cali wholesale human targeting.

You take care, too, Patti, and all your friends over there. And everywhere.; 5:26 AM
TM said...: Sorry, "political and social sketches" was the citation as read off by Green.

I suspect the chiron will be corrected for the 7AM CBS NEWS online version:
https://www.cbsnews.com/cbs-news-mornings/

...while that will have more details of the Oakland shootings (only one murder at this hour).; 5:33 AM
Anonymous said...: Certainly picked the state with the most mass shootings!; 12:57 AM
TM said...: Well, this week, anyway...; 7:14 AM
Kevin R. Tipple said...: Not happy that the Cowboys lost. Will be rooting for the AFC team in the SuperBowl and I hope that is the Bengals.

Hope you are having a great time, Patti.; 12:35 PM

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