Monday, March 10, 2025

Monday, Monday


 

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12 comments:

Todd Mason said...

Kept adding some new links to the SSW round-up over the last week, including from some blogs I hadn't visited in a while, and was glad to see again. Feeling well enough to start constructing the tables for Alice's new office, now that most of the New Carpet fumes have dissipated in the former third (or fifth) bedroom. Small progression.

12:44 AM
Jerry House said...

A quiet week of remembrance and reflection as we marked what would have been Kitty's 76th birthday. In honor of her memory, we celebrated with an English High Tea, something that she always enjoyed and looked forward to. Unfortunately, Amy's new boyfriend, whom I have yet to meet, was unable to make it (something to do with a Waffle House at 2 a.m. during a violent rainstorm that morning -- details were sketchy) so I was unable to give him my usual warning concerning my granddaughters ("She is our precious little flower and must be treated as such at all times. Or else.") -- next time, for sure. Anyway, we had an enjoyable time and laughed a lot.

Wonky cat is still hanging in there but is getting worse. We are not quite at the point where something has to be done, but the time is approaching fast and none of us are looking forward to it.

Erin and Trey have finalized their new apartment and will be moving in at the end of the month. Both are looking forward to starting this new adventure in adulting and have been doing a lot of shopping in preparation. Our house will be a lot quieter in April. )No, that' a lie. We still have Jack and NOTHING is quieter with Jack.)

Once again, reading has gone by the wayside this week. I read only one book, WANDERERS OF TIME, a collection of 1930s science fiction by John Wyndham; the title story was my Short Story Wednesday post. My FFB was an oldie that I had read several times: Mary Shelley's FRANKENSTEIN; I revisited this because I happened to come across a review of the book by Walter Scott, published just a couple of months after the book was first released.

On television, I streamed both seasons of CAMPION with Peter "Doctor Who" Davison, as well as both season of the Rowan Atkinson MAIGRET; I'll probably stream the two season of the Michael Gambon MAIGRET this week. Also this week, the late night comics and episode 4 of this season's HAVE I GOT NEWS FOR YOU, as well as the latest DEATH IN PARADISE and FATHER BROWN (Saint Marie is getting more interesting while Kembleford just keeps clunking along).

In the hope that your circadian rhythms were not too bollixed up by Springing Forward, I hope you have a fantastic week, Patti. Stay safe.

7:59 AM
Jeff Meyerson said...

I hope the trip has been fun, Patti, and you enjoy your last week. It has gotten warmer lately, though even on the hot days we've had a strong breeze that made it fairly comfortable. We have three more weeks down here.

I've been really enjoying Curtis Sittenfeld's second collection of short stories, SHOW DON'T TELL. Then I discovered (via a review) that the last story in the book brings back the main character from her first book, 2005's PREP, a seemingly "at least partly" autobiographical fiction. Like Sittenfeld herself, protagonist Lee is a 14 year old from the Midwest (sort of; Sittenfeld from Cincinnati; Lee from South Bend, Indiana), who gets admission and a scholarship to a top prep school in Massachusetts (Sittenfeld, Groton; Lee, "Ault"), where she mostly observes others. I'm enjoying the book quite a bit, though Lee herself is a difficult character. She narrates the book but still, she is very hard to like. I'm hold off on the story until I finish the novel.

We've added a few more television shows, as usual. KIRI (2018; Acorn) was a 4 part British miniseries starring Sarah Lancashire (who is everywhere lately) as a caring social worker, who allows 9 year old Kiri, who has been with a white foster family who want to adopt her since she was 4, an unsupervised visit with her paternal grandfather, with disastrous results. She is taken from the grandfather's house by her father, who is not allowed any contact with her. We've watched two of four episodes so far.

R.I.P. HENRY (PBS Masterpiece) is a Norwegian series (6 episodes) about your usual brilliant but extremely obnoxious surgeon. He's working in what he describes as the smallest hospital in Norway, but is about to transfer to his dream job in Bergen (Norway's second largest city) when he starts having symptoms, which (as I've read) means an inoperable brain tumor. Henry reminds me of the abrasive, deliberately confrontational Swedish cop Backstrom in that eponymous series. He tells a patient his symptoms are caused by him being too fat (not that he is thin himself). We've only seen the first episode so far, but apparently he is going to try and cure himself.

We finally got the second series of the Finnish cop show FREEZING EMBRACE, starring a guy who was the boyfriend in ARCTIC CIRCLE (and a cop in BORDERTOWN). Watching the French MISMATCH, and in the last episode we immediately guessed the killer using the "most well known guest star is the killer" trope. Stephane Blancafort was the co-star of TANDEM, as a French cop working under his ex-wife, who you know from day one wants to get back with her (though it takes 7 series to make it happen). He had an arc in CANDICE RENOIR and was in DEADLY TROPICS and CASSANDRE, so, clearly, he is the killer here.

We watched series 12 #3/4 of SILENT WITNESS Saturday, and there was Deb's old friend Neil (John Barnaby) Dudgeon, playing a very different kind of cop than he does on MIDSOMER MURDERS, one who sleeps with a witness. This was two or three years before he joined MIDSOMER.

The second Ken Stott REBUS, "Fleshmarket Close," was better than the first, following the book more closely and finding a way to fit a long novel into a 68 minute episode. Also, he seems to have it together a lot more than John Hannah's Rebus did, at least so far.

9:08 AM
Diane Kelley said...

Western NY finally emerged out of the Arctic cold and this week we might actually hit 60 degrees. Most of the icy and snow have melted, but we did have some deep puddles!

I've been busy sorting books. Diane is in Spring Cleaning Mode. We booked our flights to New York City for Mothers' Day. Patrick will arrange the hotel with his vast store of Reward Points.

Katie returned from her trip to Washington, D.C. Katie will book some plays for us to see in May.

Josh Allen concluded his MVP speech with "Be Good, Do Good, God Bless, Go Bills!" That immediately showed up on T-shirts and sweatshirts. Diane ordered a couple sweatshirts for us to wear during future Buffalo Bills games. Stay safe!

10:03 AM
Jeff Meyerson said...

George, quite a few people down here seem to have emigrated from Bills Country as I see a lot of Bills bumper stickers and some hats and T-shirts.

10:38 AM
Anonymous said...

We saw an opera-really great- and are attending a live pop music and then a jazz concert. Great weather. We participated in an anti-Musk rally-about 300 next to
Tesla dealership. Won’t again as long as they are bombing Tesla. Glad to hear of your activities. Struggling through MARTYR. No Tv my roommates are still watching OMITB.

12:19 PM
TracyK said...

Patti, I am glad you are having a good time in Florida, and nice weather too.

Our favorite show right now is NUMB3RS. We are midway through the 4th season and there are two more after that. We have given up on MATLOCK. Current shows we watched last night were THE IRRATIONAL, ELSBETH, and NCIS. We tried a show we had not watched before: A REMARKABLE PLACE TO DIE, set in New Zealand. BROKENWOOD is still a favorite and more fun to watch, but we will give this new one a chance.

Glen is reading THE TIME TRAVELLER'S GUIDE TO MEDIEVAL ENGLAND: A HANDBOOK FOR VISITORS TO THE FOURTEENTH CENTURY. He says that one is not an easy read, but he has found some interesting topics in the book.

I just finished WINTERLAND by Alan Glynn. It is a thriller, and I don't always like those, but this one worked for me. Very dark and a good bit of violence, but none of that bothered me. Two men named Noel Rafferty die in one day in Dublin. They are related. The younger one was part of a gang; the second one was his uncle, who was chief engineer for the development of a high rise building. Supposedly the second death was the result of a car accident, but Gina Rafferty (sister of the older Noel Rafferty) doesn't believe that. And she refuses to stop asking questions. I read the book for Reading Ireland Month, and because it had been on my shelves over ten years, and because Rob Kitchin at The View from the Blue House gave it very high praise (back in 2012).

2:40 PM
Diane Kelley said...

Jeff, after Josh Allen won the MVP Award, his closing comment--"Be Good, Do Good, God Bless, Go Bills!"--ignited a buying frenzy for shirts with those words on them. The Bills were only 3 minutes away from the Super Bowl. Hopefully, next season, the Bills can finally make it to Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara, California. Super Bowl LX.

2:49 PM
Jeff Meyerson said...

Tracy, we put A REMARKABLE PLACE TO DIE on our list, but haven't started it yet. We tried three other shows last week but quit all of them during the first episode, as we didn't like them and have too much else to watch. Someone recommended Steven Moffat's DOUGLAS IS CANCELLED - he did DOCTOR WHO and SHERLOCK for years - but it wasn't to our taste, though our British friends would have loved it, I'm sure. Hugh Bonneville and George's true love, Karen Gillan, are the stars. I think it's on Britbox. Bonneville plays a TV news anchor whose drunken joke at a family wedding has gone viral and threatens to destroy his career.

3:11 PM
Gerard Saylor said...

Every day has me thoroughly disgusted at every new instance of outright lies and deceptions at the fed level.
I started listening to BLINDNESS by Jose Saramago which came out in 1995. Also heard MR.KILL by Martin Limon.
On television I watched the latest season of RESIDENT ALIEN. I somehow started watching YouTube clips of JUSTIFIED and forgot that Alan Tudyk was in an episode. He did a fine job playing a scary villain.
Boy #1 is home on Spring Break. I was able to also see him last weekend when visiting my mother and Boy #1 had a track meet at Univ of Illinois.

5:40 PM
TracyK said...

Jeff, I looked into DOUGLAS IS CANCELLED, and it sounds worth a try, since I like Hugh Bonneville. Thanks for letting me know. I know what you mean about just having too much else you want to watch. In addition to more and more streaming shows, we have a lot of unwatched DVDs to get to.

6:00 PM
Todd Mason said...

There are, I've just learned, more Wawa stories in Florida than in any other state except my current SOR, New Jersey. Penna is now the third most Wawa-populated.

4:01 AM

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