Attending a series of lectures on the continent of Africa, also hearing the music, the food, seeing artwork from Africa. So lucky to have the senior center we have.
Watching All Creatures (PBS), High Potential (Hulu), Severance (Apple), Asura (Netflix), Mo. Would like to watch The Pitt on Max because everyone is raving about it, but I can't do hospital shows. Why do I feel more uneasy around medical procedures on hospital shows than around people getting shot on cop shows.
THE BRUTALIST was a great movie but I missed a lot of it. It needed closed captions.
Reading OUR EVENINGS by Alan Hollinghurst. It reads like a novel from sixty years ago and that's a good thing right now. Reminds me a bit of BRIDESHEAD REVISITED.
How are you holding up in Great America?
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21 comments:
Glen and I going in for jury duty on Monday morning and we have to get up obscenely early, so I am posting my comment early. If we get done early enough, I will come back here and check other comments and tell how it went.
Watching: We finished Season 4 of SLOW HORSES and I liked it a lot. As usual, we found it confusing but fun. And we like all the characters. We are also moving quickly through NUMB3RS, now in the middle of Season 3. And we watched an episode of BROKENWOOD MYSTERIES, and MURDER SHE WROTE, and CSI. And more.
I read THREE ASSASSINS by Kōtarō Isaka. Back in 2023, I read BULLET TRAIN (after we watched the movie), but I did not realize it was the 2nd in a series. THREE ASSASSINS was published later but is the first in the series. Other than the fact that most of the characters in both books are assassins and / or criminals, I did not find a connection. I may reread BULLET TRAIN soonish. I liked THREE ASSASSINS, in some ways it is cartoonish and the story is told in a humorous way. The chapters rotate between two of the assassins and Suzuki, who is looking for revenge for the death of his wife. A third assassin comes into the story a bit later.
Glen finished reading WESTSIDE by W.M. Akers and liked it OK. Now he is reading HOME: AMERICAN WRITERS REMEMBER ROOMS OF THEIR OWN, an anthology of essays by Sharon Fiffer. He has just read a bit of that one, but he is liking it very much already.
Lesa, I have never had sushi, but it would be interesting to try it. And it would be nice to have easy access to a senior center nearby with lectures and activities like you describe.
I hope everyone had a nice week.
On the one hand, personally we're doing fine. But mentally, not so much. It is impossible to avoid the stories coming out of Washington, no matter how hard you try. Even when you don't read them, you'll be watching TV at night and a BULLETIN pops up on the Google feed telling the latest outrage.
Maybe those "Luddite" teens in the NYT article have it right, but on the other hand, like it or not we live in this world and can't ignore it forever. It reminds me of an old MAD magazine article 60 years ago, how Harriet Nelson kept all news of the world away from Ozzie, and how much happier he was about it. The only downside was (I believe this was around 1965), he was planning a vacation in the Dominican Republic.
But, anyway... We just had two warmer, more humid days of 81 here, but I hope it will be a little more moderate this week. We had a great day Thursday with my cousins, also here (though for four months, as they own an apartment) for the winter. Sadly, they told us another cousin who just had her 72nd birthday had just had a double mastectomy, just after she retired. We had lunch at a favorite seafood place (conch chowder and paella for me), then drove up to a beautiful spot along the beach in Jupiter, then brought them back here for dessert.
Continuing our fight against the coming tariffs, we bought new smartphones yesterday, which will arrive Friday, the first day of the new Verizon promotion upgrade. Jackie has been complaining about out cheap phones for a year, so she was always planning to upgrade, and we are going from a Galaxy 7 to an S25 Plus. I don't understand how you can buy an $800 or $1000 dollar phone and get back an $800 rebate, especially when our old phones were cheap and cost us less than $300 originally. (We went for the $1000 phones, which are not only bigger with a bigger screen, but have twice the storage space.)
More after breakfast...
Alice and I have sushi on a fairly regular basis...the local Wegman's supermarket has a sushi/buffet kitchen for their hot food/packaged food bars, and we're partial to the mushroom/tofu and the various avocado sushi varieties. (Sushi avocado slivers probably won't go Too much more expensive thanks to Drumpf the Blatherer's tariff fantasies, but we'll see.) Balance issues are not in any way helped by icy conditions, no.
Tracy, I used to conduct the TV GUIDE blog for NUMB3RS back when it (and TVG) were a going concern...was impressed that the Scott Bros. and Co. managed to make an even better series afterward with THE GOOD WIFE. Good luck with jury duty.
Perhaps people getting shot in police drama feels relatively distant/unlikely, vs. the kind of all-too-likely need for medical procedures in our futures? I just looked at the 911: LONE STAR probable finale this morning with my breakfast (Alice is sleeping in, as this is her longest workday, albeit it officially begins at noon, but the cats need their 6-7am breakfast, thank you very much.)...wrapping a series with a meteor strike is amusingly OTT.
I'm having a hard time finding a book I want to read. Have you noticed a trend recently of books about older - 55 and up, say - retired women (mostly) who worked for the CIA and are now retired, often against their will, who are called back because they have skills that are needed? (Jackie calls this the Robert F. Coleman Effect, after a company where she worked one summer in college. She left after they wouldn't give her a raise, then they realized they needed her and called, begging her to come back. She told them, shove it.) I read one by Cindy Dees and now have one by Tess Gerritsen.
We finished the British PROTECTION, which I'd say Jackie liked more than I did (yes, there will be a second series), as well as the latest series of ASTRID (series 4; 5 has already run in France) and DARBY AND JOAN (series 2). We're halfway (6 of 12 watched) through series 4 of BABYLON BERLIN. The Irish-New Zealand joint venture THE GONE is a little too "Gabby Pettito" for us, but luckily we have subtitles to get through the accents. ALL CREATURES is charming. Jackie wants to try ASURA next.
Jackie says thanks to Jerry for discussing REBUS last Monday. I would have bet we watched the first series, the one with John Hannah, but I put on the first show - "Black and Blue" - and I had no memory of it at all. Of course, that doesn't prove anything, but my best guess is, we saw one of the 4 Hannah episodes - perhaps in England - and that was it. We added it to our Saturday Night Brit Night, though I don't think we have the 2022 series yet. This one ran from 200 to 2007, with Ken Stott starring in series 2-4. It is pretty dark and nasty (though I love Edinburgh and always like seeing it), and SILENT WITNESS (our second Saturday watch) has been pretty dark too, now in series 11. On our third time through MI-5 (SPOOKS0, Jackie marvels each week at how prescient the storylines are, how most of the scripts could be written today, not 20 years ago as they were. You need to remember though, that despite the Russians, Iranians, etc. the main villain running though the 10 series is mostly the US, the CIA in particular. Which, of course, is quite reasonable. (And no, most of the actors playing Americans in the series were NOT American. Genevieve O'Reilly, playing the CIA woman in series 8, is an Irish-born Australian, who we know from her role as the doctor in GLITCH, and from TIN STAR.
I must admit, I never think about restaurant prices in that context, but then, we rarely go to expensive places on that level. Yes, I like sushi, but Jackie doesn't eat it. I get it at Japanese buffets, mostly.
Tracy, you BOTH got jury duty at the same time? That never happened to us.
Yeah, Todd, it was like, OK, the series is ending, come up with the most out there finale you can. It is sort of a ripoff of some of the stuff that the original 9-1-1 (a much better show IMHO) has done over the years.
I am holding up in Great America very nicely, thank you, if you consider very nicely to be much wailing and gnashing of teeth. Because I believe strongly in justice and in America, I am secure in the knowledge that Trump, Musk, and their ilk and sycophants will get their well-deserved comeupance. right? Right?
The kids and grandkids are big sushi fans but I could never understand the attraction. Also, as an old curmudgeon, my heart goes into palpitations whenever I look at restaurant prices. Imagine how much worse it will get if somebody orders something that requires an egg in its preparation.
It's been warm here although that will soon change. I understand there will be a tariff on sunshine. **sigh**
It's been a week of birthdays. Most importantly, today is Erin's birthday...and why is that not a national holiday? Perhaps I can pin the blame for that on on president Cheeto. Anyway, we've 23 year of happiness and joy with Erin and are looking forward to many, many more. Yesterday was the birthday of Erin's hedgehog Potato, as well as the fifth birthday of Amy's sweet little neurotic puppy, Chicken Nugget. It was also the birthday of Christina's sorely missed Chesapeake Bay Retriever, Acorn, who passed away two years ago. (Yes, we still keep track of animal birthdays. Doesn't everyone?)
Not much reading this week because I fell down a streaming rabbit hole, watching both seasons of SHERWOOD, and all six seasons of THE INSPECTOR LINDLEY MYSTERES, as well as the first two episodes of this season's FATHER BROWN (which, to my mind, is seriously jumping the shark). The only books I finished were Christopher Morley's PARNASSUS ON WHEELS (my FFB) and the Murray Leinster collection of the Hines-Preston super-science disaster stories from 95 year ago, MASTERS OF DARKNESS. Perhaps I'll read enough this week to make up for it.
Enjoy your week, Patti, and stay clear of the ice.
When I try to reply individually, it keeps giving me my previous replies so back to all at the bottom. I would watch ALL CREATURES every night if I could. I know it is too sweet, but blimey I need that right now.
Loved the Inspector Lindley Mysteries-I might have to watch them again.
I doubt he will ever get his comeuppance because those who might provide it have been fired.
I tried Rebus last night too but it is awfully dark. I may have to return to Midsommer Mysteries and Call the Midwife.
Saw Crossing Delancy-as a play yesterday and it was awful. The acting was okay it was the script itself, which was loaded with cliches. The movie added so much local color and more characters.
THE GOOD WIFE and THE GOOD FIGHT were terrific, weren't they?
Would love to read about writers' rooms. Mine is very dull. Earlier versions were better.
Should probably upgrade my phone too. It is six years old.
The Stock Market is crashing with Trump's idiotic tariffs. Those who voted for Trump thinking he wasn't going to do the awful things he said he would...realize their mistake after two weeks of chaos.
Patrick is in Columbia. Katie plans to visit NYC when Patrick returns. We're dealing with yo-yo weather--frigid temps one day, mild temps the next.
I have an angiogram scheduled for Friday. I had one 25 years ago so I suspect the procedure is completely different now. Stay safe!
I may take enough out to pay bills for six months should we begin to see bank failures.
Try BROKENWOOD MYSTERIES if you can get it (can't remember Acorn or Britbox), a sort of funnier New Zealand MIDSOMER, with gorgeous scenery. It's filmed on the North Island, not too far from Auckland.
Starting on Tuesday on my next trip to the grocery store, I will start paying attention to products to see if they were produced in the USA and make every attempt not to purchase any. Here in Manitoba, the government is removing all American liquor from the government--operated liquor stores as a response to the Trump tariffs that go into effect Tuesday.
Be glad you are a step or a half-continent removed from him.
Turns out that Drumpf and his cronies seem to have set up the the Tariff scare to crash the stock market for a day, and then said Backsies and made a serious amount of money of buying depressed stock and selling it, if they did, when it peaked again. Nobility.
https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2025/feb/04/buffy-the-vampire-slayer-reboot-sarah-michelle-gellar-returning-hulu I'm most amused and heartened that Dolly Parton rather than Joss Whedon is slated to be executive producer.
Jeff, we sort of maneuvered the jury summons to put us on the same day. Glen got summons in December and delayed it to Feb 03. Then I got a summons in January, and I delayed to Feb 03 also. We did not know if it would work but it did.
Back to my late comments.
Stock market manipulation on a grand scale is certainly plausible by those people.
I listened to Karl Marlantes's WHAT IT IS LIKE TO GO TO WAR and was very impressed. I don't agree with everything he says about modern society and growing up. His arguments make sense and he is sincere and rarely absolutist. Marlantes himself seems to have a heck of a personal history. He covers parts of his biography as he discusses how the war altered him. That includes going to Yale, Rhodes Scholarship, Marine officer, international business dude career, and a period of a PTSD induced job jumping of lasting less than a year per job.
On TV it's been RESIDENT EVIL on Netflix. Mindless but entertaining and had Lance Reddick in the cast.
Meanwhile, I'm considering going to a performance at U of WI tonight. They have a tuba player in town and a touring tuba soloist is a rare event. Boy #2 was already planning on going to the performance. Maybe he will deign to sit by me.
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