Saw A HAUNTING IN VENICE, which was about par for the Branaugh series. Not great but tolerable. I am still reading VELVET IS THE NIGHT at a snail's pace, I went to chair yoga and limber up. I had my physical (everything okay). I went to my writing group where I read four poems that mightily depressed them. I listened to the senior center jazz group practice. Josh and Julie came for lunch. Julie has a new job as the pro-bono coordinator for the law firm whose main office is in Ford Field, where the Detroit Lions play. Can she get us tkts was my question?
I am still enjoying BEAUTY QUEEN OF JERUSALEM although it's getting too close to what's going on in the world right now. (So too BAND OF BROTHERS) Finished up SEX EDUCATION, which should have ended last year. Watching GOLD on Paramount. Pretty exciting.
On TV, I watched DENIAL Tom Wilkinson really stole the show.(It's about a Holocaust denier)
That's about it here. What about you?
Do kids join Scouts anymore? (Circa 1958) We look pretty glum. I don't think this activity suited either of us.
33 comments:
I have a grandson who just graduated vhigh school who went through scouts all the way through. I was a cub scout for one year about 1958. My mother was the den mother. In high school I had one friend in scouts.
Read for about the third time The Zebra Striped Hearse by Ross MacDonald. I am about 100 pages into Holly by Stephen King. Holly is a character that started out in the Mr. Merceds trilogy.
Watched Reptile on Netflix. Mediocre. Had to quit watching CNN. The situation in Israel is really depressing.
Horrible weather the last three days. Rainy, cold very windy. Depressing. I hate being stuck in my apt all day. Have volunteered to drive the co-op's van once in awhile to benefit tenants who don't have regular transportation. This is mostly to grocery stores or Wal Mart.
Go Lions, Go Michigan.
I haven't seen Death in Venice, Patti, and I'm not sure I'm going to. I guess it's because I'm too much of a Christie purist. I know what you mean, too, about TV that comes too close to reality...
On the whole I think the Suchet Poirots are by far the best.
Yes, two good teams, Steve. Isn't there a senior center in Royal Oak? It really helps me a lot to have a place to go with various activities. 2000 seniors belong to the one in Birmingham. They have movies every Wednesday night and every kind of game to play, plus lectures on various topics. This month they are doing UK history with lecturers from WSU and Oakland. Joining was just $50 and a lot of the stuff is free. And there are more men than you'd expect. And they have a good library of books.
Yes, the news is very upsetting. And the 24 hour news cycle is determined to make the most of it.
Here it is, Steve. https://www.romi.gov/356/Senior-Community-Center You can look at their newsletter online.
I was a scout but I was never very trusty, loyal, helpful, friendly, courteous, kind, obedient, cheerful, thrifty, brave, clean , or reverent, but our scoutmaster's brother did have a nifty pile of PLAYBOYs in their basement. Our girls were not scouts. Mark wqs a cub scout briefly. And Cayley and Amy were both in Sea Scouts for several years.
Jolly, the nine-mpnth old golden, knocked over a box of Kitty's old medicaine, and ate a bottle, and vomited predigiously in four areas of the living room, where I found her lying somewhat listlessly. At the vet's office where Erin works, they gave her antivomiting medicine, several IVs, and all the charcoal in the world, and she recovered very nicely.
Jack had his stomach operation on Thursday and all went well. No need for stitches; they used steri-strips instead. Jack, because eleven-year-olds are inherently dumb, kept taking off the bandages to look at the wound, opening up the wound. Chritina and Walt reapplied the steri-strips and bound Jack's middle with an Ace bandage. This week has added several gray hairs to Christina's head.
Jessie and the girls flew to Maryland over the weekend to attend a Renaissance Fair (or is is Faire?). They had a good time, bought all sorts of nifty gimcracks, and ate at a Potbelly's sandwich shop.
Read a lot of story collections and anthologies. MARRIAGE AND FAMILY THROUGH SCIENCE FICTION is an early academic antho edited by Val Clear, Patricia Warrick, Martin Harry (he used his middle name back then), and Joseph D. Orlander. John Ball's COP CADE was the 1978 Mystery Writers of America anthology. Geroge Alec Effinger's MAUREEN BIRNBAUM, BARBARIAN SWORDSPERSON collected all the tales about Jewish-American high school princess Muffy Birnbaum as she traveled with her broadsword Betsy.to such diverse places as Barsoom, Pellucidar, Sherwood Forest, and H. P. Lovecraft's Cthulhu universe. Erle Stanley Gardner's THE CASE OF THE CRYING SWALLOW and THE CASE OF THE IRATE WITNESS were collections issued after the author's death, each containing a Perry Mason novella and other stories -- including some featuring other ESG characters such as Lester Leith and Sidney Zoom. John W. Campbell, Jr.'s THE MOON IS HELL! pffers wo novellas: the title story, a stark and realistic survival story, and "The Elder Gods" a fantasy story that Campbell rewrote from an unpublished tale by Arthur K. Barnes (published in Campbell's fantasy magazine UNKNOWN without crediting Barnes). I also read Campbell's FROZEN HELL, an earlier, longer, and somewhat different version of his classic story "Who Goes There?" (the source for the 1951 film THE THING FROMN ANOTHER WORLD. as well as John Carpenter's 1982 film THE THING); the manuscript had been found among Campbell's papers in 2018. Novels read include KIRKWOOD FIRES, a 1978 paperback GOTHIC by "Deborah Lewis" (Charles L. Grant). my FFB this week, STRANGEWOOD, a horror fantasy by Christopher Golden about an Oz-like fantasy world that has become real and is impinging on our world, and DANNY DUNN ON A DESERT ISLAND, a juvenile by Jay Williams and Raymond Abrashkin (I am addictd to the Danny Dunn stories). I also read THE SHELL Game, an e-Book offering from Janet Evanovich and Lee Goldberg, detailing the first time their characters FBI agent Kate O'Hare and con man extraordinaire Nicholas Fox met. Coming up, another Dave Robicheaux novel by James Lee Burke, an early Sf novel by A. Bertram Chandler, volume 6 in John Carnell's long-running NEW WRITINGS IN SF series, and more Danny Dunn.
We're getting closer to Halloween so stock up on lots of candy in case I ring your doorbell, Patti. Stay safe.
Reading Jerry's post reminds me of books I loved as a kid where the family was full of good cheer, liveliness and antics. You should write a book. And whoa the reading I am not getting even close to.
I'm recovering from the epidural injection in my back that I received Friday. The Pain Management physician injected the steroid into the space around my spinal nerves known as the epidural space. The pain has receded and I'm returning to my normal activities today. Hopefully this will help with my spinal stenosis.
Katie flew home this weekend for a friend's wedding. It was great to see her. Diane took Katie to Ted's Hotdogs for her favorite hotdog for Lunch. I bought Katie pizza and chicken fingers for her favorite local dinner. We're in the 40s today with plenty of wind gusts so Katie's flight back to Boston might be delayed because of the weather. We'll see.
How could the Mossad and the CIA be caught so flat-footed by the Hamas and the Palestinians? So much chaos in the world! Stay safe!
Stay safe is right. Two worrisome wars are too much for me! Hope the shot works, George!
I rather suspect the Likud and Worse coalition government was less caught off guard by the Hamas activity than finding it all too useful (to distract from their attempt to establish a dictatorship, or at least keep Netanyahu out of jail)...as neither political entity strikes me as all that concerned with the betterment of the people who have put them in place (much less those less enthusiastic but stuck with them), which can remind us of certain more local folks. Much as the domestic tragedies are at least echoed by the current post-earthquake mess in Afghanistan, where another benevolent gummint decided to Temporarily Rescind their ukase against women getting into cars (no joke, at least not mine) so that some, at least, might take shelter in such while awaiting whatever help might get to them to help them rebuild, or at least help them dig out the relatives and neighbors still caught in the rubble (as NPR noted repeatedly this morning, a whole lot of folks thought the noises and concussions were the results of bombing raids, and ran Into houses rather than away from them, as might've been the better course).
Glad for mostly good outcomes for your Jack, Jerry, and you, George (so far)...glad for the the good physical news, Patti.
Martin Harry was still signing himself as Greenberg after that in his early textbook-oriented anthologies...Patti, if you don't mind my asking, did you ever get the reprint fee for the story he apparently meant to include in his last annual with Ed Gorman, and managed to list on the cover, but not include in the book? I loved DANNY DUNN but Scholastic wasn't so very good at keeping them all in print in my 1970s school days...by which time, such '60s and '70s novels, including those I loved such as Ester Wier's THE LONER (Newbery Honor/runner-up which should've won in '64) and Jean George's JULIE OF THE WOLVES (winner in '73, I think it was) were not nearly as sunny in nature as the DUNN or similar items such as THE MAD SCIENTISTS' CLUB books or even the slightly more incisive (at least at times) Henry Reed and Midge Glass novels of Keith Robertson. A certainly gubernatorial clown in Florida (among others, such as the one in Virginia, and their supporters) wouldn't like either of the Newbery books (by women, after all, much like Esther Forbes's 1940s winner JOHNNY TREMAIN, all somewhat grim in segments and might make Someone Think, you can't trust these Woke Females)...I was a Webelos (the 10yos) year, our troop was shown a lot of industrial propaganda documentaries from one of the creep Scoutmaster's gig at the Connecticut Yankee nuclear power plant, and our Cub Scout troop was the only one in the Hazardville, CT area large enough to have two baseball teams, so I was on the team, the Bears (just before the first version of THE BAD NEWS BEARS was released) with the assumed less-athletic kids, including a brilliant athlete with horrible facial scarring named Stan, and me as third batter rather than cleanup, nor Stan, because we were Not Supposed to Win (our troop's other team, the Webs, did win the league that year)...but in part because I got more RBIs than anyone else in the league, and Stan's general excellence (I was and remain hopeless in the field), we came in in the upper middle rank. Really, the adults were jackasses. I tried doing the Boy Scouts briefly the next year in New Hampshire, but their "adults" were even worse, as were too many of the fellow Scouts as well. Soil and Water Conservation was the only merit badge I picked up, after getting all the Webelos equivalents the previous year (little pins rather than patches).
So long-winded this has to be 2 comments. What a surprise...
I'm still enjoying the revived QUANTUM LEAP on NBC and the just-concluded second season of PROFESSOR T imported by PBS, and can suggest that if the pilot is any indication (and I suspect it is), the Canadian import on the CW, SULLIVAN'S CROSSING, can be safely ignored (the second series CW has spun out for us this season that involves a woman fleeing problems in the Big City in the States, Boston in this one vs. NYC for MOONSHINE, by returning to visit her Canadian boondocks family, but this one is essentially humorless and vastly more predictable and soapy as it drags along. GILMORE GIRLS's Scott Patterson is one of the better actors in this one. The most brilliant thing I saw last week was the long-delayed Max Roach documentary, THE DRUM ALSO WALTZES, offered as a PBS AMERICAN MASTERS entry...sadly, the documentarian was held up by life, etc., shortly after the M'Boom band era of Roach's career, and thus the Double Quartet, one of his last sustained bands, is not quite mentioned (though daughter and member Maxine Roach is briefly interviewed), but it's utterly worth seeing, even for only casual jazz fans or those interested in civil rights activism (and how we can mess ourselves over in our personal lives even while doing brilliant work, in his case for more than half a century...and Roach managed to pull himself out of the drug/alchohol slump that killed or derailed too many of his colleagues, but other mostly self-indulged demons).
Happier times, everyone. Glad the senior center is doing good things for you and others, Patti, and I hope your local one or something else helps, Steve.
And, Jerry, your family as book-basis material (at least one memoir on the folkie days and one on the adventures of the kids' careers) do seem like likely sales to at least certain avid readers...
You don't look happy in that picture, I must admit. I was never really into scouting, though I did it for a short time. A couple of good friends of mine were molested by scoutmasters.
Jackie was sick last week so mostly we stayed home, though we did eat out a couple of times. She is almost back to normal except an intermittent but persistent cough. We will try and get the new Covid boosters tomorrow at Costco.
She finished THE WHEEL OF TIME. She is watching THE POWER on Amazon Prime, with Toni Collette. The story involves teenage girls around the world suddenly getting the power to electrocute people at will. We finished the well acted by often infuriating NEXT OF KIN last night, as well as the latest PROFESSOR T. and UNFORGOTTEN series. The new DCI grew in the role, but I don't care much for her (Sinead Keenan). But Nicola Walker will be back in series two of ANNIKA on PBS next weekend. On Saturday Brit Night we are watching THE GOOD LIFE and DINNERLADIES in between JONATHAN CREEK and MI-5 (SPOOKS in England). We watched the first (of 86, I believe) episodes of that (on Britbox, I believe). Very good show, though I didn't remember that the first episode dealt with bombers killing abortion providers in England. Lisa Eichhorn (who is from New York) used a heavy duty cornpone Southern accent as the chief terrorist. It's startling how much younger the actors look 21 years ago - particularly Keeley Hawes (who was about 25 then) and Jenny Agutter.
Speaking of Britbox, this might be for Patti - CRIME (or IVINE WELSH'S CRIME), set in Edinburgh, with Dougray Scott as a tough, alcoholic cop trying to hold it together while investigating a (yup, you guessed it) serial killer of young girls. At least, he is convinced it is the same serial killer, though his bosses don't necessarily agree. His boss is a hugely fat Ken Stott, far from his REBUS days and almost unrecognizable. It is dark but fairly gripping and well done.
On MHz Choice, we're watching another dark show, DON'T LEAVE ME. This young cop suddenly left Venice (and her then partner and boyfriend, apparently) 20 years ago, without explanation (at least, we haven't heard one yet). Now she works in Rome tracking stolen and trafficked kids, and a case brings her back to Venice, where she has to work with - surprise - her ex. He is in turn married to their third friend, now hugely pregnant with their third child. Also on MHz, but much lighter is sort of an office comedy, WALKING ON SUNSHINE, about a television weather show and the behind the scenes shenanigans. The woman running the show has her daughter working for her, but makes it clear she will NEVER put her on the air, at least in part because of the daughter's weight. Now she is forced to hire her former brother in law (they haven't told the connection yet, but I read it) as the new anchor, after he's been in alcohol rehab for four years. Fun so far. I believe THE NORDIC MURDERS *called that despite being set on the German-Polish border) is on MHz as well.
I believe MRS. SIDHU INVESTIGATES is on Acorn, and the last of four 90 minute episodes drops today. Think of her as the Jessica Fletcher of Indian caterers, although more pushy and nosy as she helps the unwelcoming DCI Burton (Craig Parkinson) unravel a series of murders, while keeping him and the suspects well fed. It's a fun if undemanding show. Star Meera Syal is married in real life to UNFORGOTTEN star Sanjeev Bhaskar.
I'm sure there are others we watch too.
Careers and pets and all the adventures around them. It's been a while since I've seen too many of these kinds of volumes popping up from the '30s through the '60s...
Yes, I'm thus very good at suggesting work for You. Or seconding a suggestion.
I forgot books. Read John Scalzi's STARTER VILLAIN which had a fun premise (substitute teacher inherits his uncle's villain business) and was enjoyable, though nothing exciting. Also read Scalzi's third Dispatcher book - THE DISPATCHER: TRAVEL BY BULLET, and the Ed Hoch collection I was reading. Currently reading THINGS GET UGLY, a new collection of Joe Lansdale's short stories, which, as always, is well worth reading.
I don't want to spoil UNFORGOTTEN but will the ambiguity of the ending be resolved in the next series or we expected to be okay with it? I guess I need to watch the first season of ANIKA.
Loved the original Quantum Leap, maybe I will try this one but hate the commercials on network TV.
Boy #1 went all the way through Scouts. Boy #2 went through Cub Scouts and was forced to one Scout summer camp after 5th grade. Boy #2 HATES camping and left Scouts.
I was a Scout Leader for about 13 years and am sure there are kids or parents who thought I was an ass or incompetent. They could very well be correct. But, hey, it's a volunteer organization and they need to volunteer if they think they could do better. Form my perspective we had dedicated parents and Leaders volunteering.
My old Scoutmaster was a creepy dude. Not something I really recognized when I was a kid - to me he was just another adult to be ignored. In 2019 he was investigated for abuse and evidence was found at his house. He was sentenced to 6.5 years in federal prison and died in a prison hospital in '22 or '23. His LinkedIn profile is still active.
I scrolled through the live/streaming channels on Roku on Sunday and watched Giancarlo Giannini's first film, LIBIDO. Not too bad but broadcast on one of the "pulp" channels.
After Megan Abbott posted the Top 100 book list I was reminded I had not yet read WINTER KILLS by Davis Deska Wanbli. I lucked into an audio copy and enjoyed the book. I'm in a rural county, but don't drive nearly as much as people in South Dakota do.
Listened to BURN PALACE by Stephen Dobyns and not so impressed. Heck, I cannot recall the plot.
Listened to Colin Bateman's ORPHEUS RISING and thought it was bleh. I like that Bateman stretched out from his regular niche but the romantic and supernatural elements are not for me. Bateman is great at fashioning infuriating protagonists. Guys with a quick wit and a desperate need to attend AA and weekly therapy.
My library was visited by a MKW radio station which recorded a video tour. Their audience has a lot of parents of young kids and they program accordingly. Is anyone happy with how they appear on camera? I recall a theory that everyone looks odd to themselves because we only see ourselves in mirrors and everything is opposite.
https://youtu.be/nGt4SKT3Uv0 - I cannot get this to link.
Not a bad look nor delivery, Gerard! Amusing.
Still haven't read a Scalzi noveL. Nor one of Hoch's relative few...
Patti--if it's not streaming in any way you have access to, can you DVR or otherwise record QL broacasts?
Maybe HULU will run it. I am sure I can no longer DVR anything but my library may buy the DVDs. Although that's becoming less likely.
My mother was the GS leader and so I was I for Megan's years. I did it until I was fourteen and earned a God and My COuntry badge to the delight of our minister and the scout leaders. Megan only did it until about age 10-although her troop was full of "mean girls."
My family attended the WorldCon in 2022 in Chicago. Scalzi was the DJ at an evening dance party. "Scalzi is DJ? Scalzi?! The place will be PACKED with book fans." Nope. We walked over and the place was half-empty.
Scalzi is speaking at the WI Book Festival events in October and my wife and son may to his talk.
Also appearing is Joshua Moehrling who is writing rural crime novels set in MN. I enjoyed his first novel and may go listen.
My senior center is geared mainly to things for women. A lot of cradts and chair exercises. They had a book club but it had no male members and spent most of their time reading Jodi Picoult and Fannie flagg. Since I live in a co-op we do have an activity room. I do use the Wii games . And we have a small exersize room which I use daily. Again since my co-op is 85% women most sctivities are inclined to bake sales and doing arts and crafts.
But thanks for the heads up.
Proving my point yet again... Just heard from my cousin. (They are a year younger that us.) They just got back from a European trip (they canceled a trip to Peru and the Amazon, but since they have a pathological need - IMHO - to be doing something at all times, switched it for Europe), both are (her word) "Exhausted" and she has Covid, again. She got it last year when they flew to California for a wedding, though that time he got it too, as did their son.
Do you wonder why I don't want to fly?
Yeah, it's worrisome. But I also don't want to stay home. I am running out of time to do things.
And since I don't drive....
We took Glen to get a blood test this morning. We did not have to go so early because now they have appointments. He has problems with getting blood drawn, but it went well this time. He had a very sympathetic phlebotomist. Then breakfast at the harbor where it was beautifully overcast and coolish after the high temps we had in the last few days.
This is the week of medical appointments. Wednesday Glen has a eye doctor appt, then Friday we get Covid vaccines.
Watching much of the same stuff as usual. We finished DEADLOCH and ONLY MURDERS IN THE BUILDING, and have watched season 1 of LONDON KILLS. We are liking POKER FACE; it is quite different. We watched MANK on Netflix, getting one step closer to dropping Netflix.
Reading: I finished GREENWOOD by Michael Christie, set in Canada and by a Canadian. Five hundred pages long, it is a multigenerational family saga with themes of nature, ecology and climate change. A great read. Now I have started GAMBIT by Rex Stout, which I am reading for the 1962 Club. This is one of the few books in the Nero Wolfe series that I have not reread a lot, because I know who the murderer is. All the others I can go at least through half the book, maybe more, before I remember. The other book I hope to read that was published in 1962 is SOMETHING WHOLESALE by Eric Newby, about his adventures in the family garment business.
After finishing SOLDIER, SAILOR, FROGMAN, SPY, AIRMAN, GANGSTER, KILL OR DIE: HOW THE ALLIES WON ON D-DAY by Giles Milton, Glen began reading THE THIN MAN by Dashiell Hammett this week. He is liking it so far, although he expected it to be more like the film.
Steve, I cannot believe you are reading The Zebra Striped Hearse for the third time. Have you read all of them? I haven't even read all of the Ross Macdonald Lew Archer books in the series (only about four of them). I have got to prioritize my reading better.
Hooray for Jack's operation going well, Jerry. I am sure everyone is relieved.
George, an epidural injection sounds scary all by itself. I hope everything is going well, or at least better.
I was never a girl scout (or a brownie). I was too shy and not a joiner even at that age.
I read all the Macdonald's fifty years ago and some of them again more recently. I just don't read enough to reread anymore. I remember thinking that with THE THIN MAN when I got around to reading it. A lot lighter on the screen.
They often have trouble getting blood from my arm and my mother's was even worse. And my hand is even worse.
I bet people half our age never mention doctor visits.
...the old (Koff) joke is that is the Organ Recital...(I have 3 coming up this month).
Jackie used to come home and talk about the older women teachers talking about hot flashes. Then discussed whether or not to take hormones. Younger women were talking about PMS. But you're right, they mostly talked about television shows, St. Elsewhere, Hill Street Blues, etc.
Meanwhile, I am older than all of tonight's JEOPARDY contestants...which was brought home in part by, of all things, that I was able to name Evander Holyfield, oddly enough the latest of the boxers in the category, but they all too young to have picked up his name even by osmosis, I essentially did (as I did with all the earlier champions they Could name).
My senior group ladies talk of medical stuff most of the time. I try to get them onto books or Tv and they are readers, but we drift back to doctors, plumbers, roofers etc.
I am terrible at jeopardy now. I used to much better. I wouldn't dare play Trivial Pursuit,
The memory goes soon, Todd. Be prepared.
Already in progress, alas, though mostly on the trivial annoying stuff, as in Where the Hell did I just put that...and, as noted on your FFB last week, names.
My mother is 80 and also talks a lot of med issues and house issues.
Latest news was her trouble getting in touch with ATT so they would send one monthly bill rather than two. Getting someone on the phone is always troublesome and she had to go to an ATT store.
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