Patricia Abbott (pattinase): MONDAY, MONDAY

Monday, January 30, 2023

MONDAY, MONDAY

9 comments:

Steve Oerkfitz said...: Ben glad you are in California. Some snow and a lot of cold temps here. Tuesday is to be a high of 18. Although beter than to the west of Michigan with their below freezing temps.
Saw Women Talking and Living at the theaters. Found the first kind of dull although it is a serious subject. Liked living much better with a great performance from Bill Nighy. On cable been watching Poker Face which is fun and a Spanish show called the Snow Child which is pretty good so far. Watching a lot of old X Files which hold up pretty well.
Read some novellas by Jack Vance-Last Castle, The Miracle Workers and The Dragon Masters. Now reading Picture In the Sand by Peter Blauner.; 12:44 AM
Jerry House said...: Christina, Walt, and Jack traveled to Mississippi on saturday to pick up the latest addition to the family, a seven-week-old soft ball of fluff that will eventually grow into a stately golden retreiver. Her name is Jolly and she is sweet and curious. The first ni9ght she barked and yipped the whole night through because how dare we expect her to sleep at night; last night was better. We're told she will stop the nighttime barking within a few days. Meanwhile, she very seriously promised not to pee or poop on my bed. Small blessings.

Jessie has two weeks left on her job running the County payroll department. As a going away gift, they've been giving her dumpster fire after dumpster fire to put out. She will still have dumpster fires to put out in her new job, but she will not be expected to do it alone. Most of the official County people are begging her to stay, but she wants a job that is a challenge and not a hassle.

CEili (who now wants to spell her name Caylee) and Amy are both very happy with their jobs. Mark had a working interview with the local zoo and should hear later this week. Fingers crossed -- the zoo could do much worse, but I doubt if they could do any better. Erin looks to have to go a summer semester to get the necessary credits to graduate. She, Christina, Jessie, and Amy will be heading to Scotland in August as a graduation present. After nine years on a feeding tube, Jack is beginning to gain weight, a major step; he's now on a thre-month trail without using the tube. Fingers crossed. He loves his new puppy.

We've begun planning a memorial service for Kitty to take place in Massachusetts. Tentative date is July 15. We had to work around school and work schedules, as well as my neice's first pregnancy. Many tears as we entered the planning stage.

WAtched (or rewatched) a number of comic book movies: the 2019 David Harbour HELLBOY, BLACK ADAM, the James Gunn remake of SUICIDE SQUAD, and the eight-episode series of THE PEACEMAKER. I'm also caught up on ENDEAVOR, just in time for Season Nine next month.

Much of my reading this week is working my way through William Godwin's 1794 THE ADVENTURES OF CALEB WILLIAMS and Rex Stout's 1929 novel HOW LIKE A GOD. Both are slow, but surprisingly readable novels. The Stout is basically a psychological profile told in the second person, a far cry from his Nero Wolfe novels. I also read graphic novels from Will Eisner, Jules Feiffer, and James Tynion IV. Bedside reading has been C. L. Lewis's NARNIA CHRONICLES -- finished THE MAGICIAN'S NEPHEW and THE HORSE AND HIS BOY; next up. PRINCE CASPIAN.

Cold morning here but warmer days are coming -- if the tornadoes don't get us first. Christina is not very happy that first grade PE is usually outside in 40 degree weather first thing in the morning. Doesn't bother me. I go back to bed with an electric blanket.

Have a great week. Stay safe and enjoy the California vibes.; 6:15 AM
Todd Mason said...: Yikes, Jerry, things don't ever slow down for your family, but glad to read the news is mostly very good. I was a payroll manager for thirty to sixty employees for two years, using a bear of a software package called Ceridian Orchestrator, that was more a Cacophonizer, so all sympathies there.

Hard to go too wrong with Vance, Steve.

Enjoying THE LAST OF US on HBO, and have finally been catching up with DEEP STATE on Epix, which is now renaming itself MGM Plus. One thing about cable, those who wish for an almost 24 hour linear feed LAW AND ORDER and THE OFFICE are in luck. That Sundance Channel, once the home of indy movies, now runs GILLIGAN'S ISLAND marathons (and censors L&O for content that was on broadcast in the '90s), is somewhat harder to accept.

Muddling through here, never getting enough done. Patti, hope the weather and enjoyment are holding for you and your roomies...; 7:47 AM
George said...: Western NY has a frigid week ahead. The High Temperature tomorrow will be 20 degrees. The high on Friday will be 10. I'm hunkered down and busy reading.

I had no favorite in yesterday's NFL games so the future confrontation of the Philadelphia Eagles vs. Kansas City Chiefs in the Super Bowl is just fine with me.

My New Year's resolution to reduce my collections is still in effect. I took a couple hundred books to a used bookstore in Niagara Falls to the delight of the owner. I've sent packages of books and other stuff to various friends. It's hard for me to part with some of the books I've owned for decades...but I don't want to leave thousands of books for Diane, Patrick, and Katie to deal with. I built the Kelley Collection, I'll find Good Homes for the books.

Stay safe!; 9:07 AM
Jeff Meyerson said...: We had a cool-for-Florida week with mostly overcast, windy and chilly conditions, but this week we are back in Spring mode with low to mid-80s predicted all week. We did watch one movie on Netflix, the very overrated (in my mind) GLASS ONION. I liked KNIVES OUT at the time though I have zero memory of it other than Daniel Craig's crazy accent. This one had me nodding off in the middle. First of all, these people are supposed to be long-time friends, right? Does anyone believe they would have ver been friends, let alone all these years later? Because I didn't. Yes, it was clever and watchable, I guess, but other than Craig I didn't care for it at all.

Mostly watching European series on Prime/MHz/Acorn/Britbox, plus Netflix. The highlight is Netflix's fourth series of the Israeli-Palestinian FAUDA, of course. There seems to be a lot of French series now - besides CANDICE RENOIR and CHERIF (which is just about jumping the shark in series 5), we've added THE PROMISE and MONGEVILLE. Also MAKARI (Sicily), PETRA (Italy - Genoa) and the odd THE PARADISE, which is set in a Finnish retirement area on the Costa del Sol in Spain. Struggling to get through the last episodes of Elena Ferrante's THE LYING LIFE OF ADULTS, filled with unlikable characters. Al Pacino's presence continues to be unnecessary in HUNTERS series two, since he was exposed and killed in series one. (His are flashback episodes this time.)

I mentioned the French Canadian series THE WALL, with the first (of 3) series set in a real place on the Quebec-Labrador border. It is a mining town where everyone lives in one huge building, and everything is in tunnels or otherwise indoors, so they can survive the winters. Well, apparently a very similar living situation exists in Whittier, Alaska. Iris Yamashita has turned this into a mystery novel, calling the town Point Mettier, CITTY UNDER ONE ROOF, and it was pretty good. Also reading short stories by Agatha Christie (new collection, mostly previously read) and Edith Pearlman, who I only discovered after her recent death at 86.; 10:30 AM
Jeff Meyerson said...: For those interested in a comparison, you can Google Fermont, Quebec and Whittier, Alaska.; 11:23 AM
Anonymous said...: I will respond more fully when I get home Saturday. Lots of music. Saw Women Talking,Argentina 1985 and rewatched River on Britbox. Best series ever. Rain today but we should finish up with four decent days. Dreading return to MI yet I am also ready. Doubt I will come here again. Maybe Sarasota. next year. Too many memories if Phil.; 3:57 PM
TracyK said...: Today it has been raining (light rain) in Santa Barbara / Goleta. There was rain off and on during the night and some unexpected sprinkles when we were walking at Stow House / Lake Los Carneros. And colder than usual too.

I finished reading a biography of the Mitford sisters, THE SIX by Laura Thompson. Almost immediately I started a second biography on the same subject from Mary S. Lovell, THE SISTERS. It is about 200 pages longer, at 550 pages (not counting notes, bibliography, and such). Thus it seems to have more detail about their lives, although I am still in their youth, so it is hard to tell.

I finished THE SIGN OF FOUR by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Now reading BULLET TRAIN by Kotaro Isaka and THE COVER WIFE by Dan Fesperman.

The only thing new that we are watching is WILL TRENT. We plan to watch EVERYTHING EVERYWHERE ALL AT ONCE tonight.; 4:39 PM
Todd Mason said...: SSW for the past two weeks:

Frank Babics: "The Little Black Bag" by C. M. Kornbluth, Astounding Science Fiction July 1950, edited by John W. Campbell, Jr. (and widely reprinted/adapted for television by Night Gallery)

Joachim Boaz: "Lot" by Ward Moore, The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, May 1953, edited by Anthony Boucher and J. Francis McComas; "I Remember, Anita..." by Langdon Jones, New Worlds SF, September-October 1964, edited by Michael Moorcock

Brian Busby: Destination: Universe by A. E. van Vogt

Tim DeForest: "Hok Visits the Land of Legends" by Manly Wade Wellman (Fantastic Adventures, April 1942, edited by Raymond A. Palmer)

Barry Ergang: Thriller 2 edited by Clive Cussler

Paul Fraser: "Evil Robot Monkey" by Mary Robinette Kowal (The Solaris Book of New Science Fiction, Volume 2, edited by George Mann); "A Feast of Butterflies" by Amanda Hollander (The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, March-April 2020, edited by Charles Coleman Finlay); "What We Call Service, They Call Treason" by Dominica Phetteplace (Asimov's Science Fiction, January-February 2023, edited by Sheila Williams); "Toy Planes" by Tobias Bucknell (Nature, 13 October 2005, edited by Philip Cambell); "Algy" by L. Sprague de Camp (Fantastic, August 1976, edited by Ted White)
Aubrey Hamilton: Snake-Bite and Other Mystery Tales of the Sahara by Robert S. Hichens

Rich Horton: Sometime, Never: Three Tales of Imagination by William Golding, John Wyndham, and Mervyn Peake

Jerry House: "Henry Horn's Super-Solvent" by Dwight V. Swain (Fantastic Adventures, November 1941, edited by Raymond A. Palmer); "A Ghoul and His Money" by C. M. Kornbluth (Dime Detective, September 1946, edited by Loring Dowst? John Bender?); "An Illusion in Red and White" by Stephen Crane (first published posthumously in the UK edition of The Monster and Other Stories by Crane); "Moozeby" by James F. Sullivan (The Strand Magazine, February 1892, edited by Herbert Greenhough Smith)
George Kelley: Verdict of 13: A Detection Club Anthology edited by the (new) Detection Club; Sir Hereward and Mister Fitz: Three Adventures by Garth Nix

Joe Kenney: The Coming of the Terrans by Leigh Brackett

Richard Krauss/Larque Press: The Best of Manhunt 4: The Jack Ritchie Stories by Jack Ritchie, edited by Jeff Vorzimmer

B.V. Lawson: A Thief in the Night: The Further Adventures of Raffles by E. W. Hornung

Steve Lewis: "The Defenders" by Philip K. Dick, Galaxy Science Fiction, January 1953, edited by H. L. Gold

James McGlothlin: The Year's Best Horror Stories, Series XI edited by Karl Edward Wagner

Neeru: The Puffin Book of Funny Stories illustrated by Amit Vachharajani (Penguin India 2005; no editor credited)

John O'Neill: In a Lonely Place by Karl Edward Wagner; Isaac Asimov's Wonderful Worlds of Science Fiction: Invasions edited by Asimov, Martin H. Greenberg and Charles G. Waugh; January-February 2023 roundup of issues of The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction edited by Sheree Renee Thomas, Asimov's Science Fiction edited by Sheila Williams, and Analog Science Fiction & Fact edited by Trevor Quachri; High Noon on Proxima B edited by David Boop

James Reasoner: Texas Rangers, April 1954 (editor uncredited); G-Men Detective, April 1946; further pulp citations

Jack Seabrook: "Terror Town" by "Ellery Queen" (Argosy, August 1956) as adapted by Leigh Brackett for Alfred Hitchcock Presents:

John Stickney: Shooting Creek and Other Stories by Scott Loring Sanders

"TomCat": Short impossible crime and locked room mystery stories

Mark Yon: New Worlds, February 1968, edited by Michael Moorcock

Patricia Abbott will be gathering the weekly links again this coming Wednesday...

https://socialistjazz.blogspot.com/2023/02/short-story-wednesday-links-to-reviews.html; 10:18 PM

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