Going out tonight (Sunday) to celebrate Kevin's passing the IB (International Baccalaureate) exams. These are the equivalent in his school of AP exams. Yay, Kevin!
Enjoyed FILM GEEK (Max) which so encapsulates the years when my kids were growing up in terms of movies. Finished THE BEAR, which never quite recaptured the magic of the first two years but still is better than most anything else right now. POKER FACE is fine but they are too wedded to their concept. Much like COLUMBO, I guess.
Went down to Michigan Central (Detroit's one-time train station) again-this time on a tour. Ford has made a gorgeous building out of what was a complete wreck a few years ago. Now they charge $20 a head for the tour so they will probably come out ahead over time because they have many tours every day. Unlike Grand Central, Union Station and Penn Station no trains will ever come through it again. There are trains that head to Chicago but not via this route.
How about you?
13 comments:
Congrats to Kevin the Smart!
It's been a contemplative week her. Tuesday was my late sister's birthday. Linda was ind, generous, funny, and had the greatest laugh in the world. Although she has been gone for over twenty years, I still think of her often. Shortly before cancer took her, ny borther and his daughter Julie went to Florida to visit her. At the time Julie had just broken up with her ex-boyfriend, and the three of them were trying to come up with inventive ways to describe the s.o.b. Mu family is great but many of them just don't have a talent for vindictiveness, so they decided to call in an expert and telephoned me, who was thousand miles aways. I told them that Julie's ex was lower than the pus in a pimple on the penis of a protozoa in Patagonia. Linda's laughter came ringing through the phone. She died a few weeks later, but I am glad that my last memory of her was her laughter. The older I get, the more I realize how lucky I am to have come from such a wonderful family.
The Fourth was also a contemplative time for me. I grew up in a small New England town that was steeped with legend and lore. The man who claimed to have fored the first shot at Bunker Hill was from my home town, although I strongly suspect that alcohol was involved in bothe the claim and the shot. We were two towns over from Lexington and concord and in 1776, fourteen-year-old Benjamin Pierce, who lived in the east side of town, farthest from Lexington and Concord, supposed told his mother, "Mother, I hear the shots," and grabbed his rifle and went off into the fray. Piercce would become the father of future president Franklin Pierce. Sometimes it's hard to separate myth from reality, but at its core, we have a people who simply wanted a good life for their families coming together despite their many differences to forge a country -- imperfect, but always improving -- that became a shining model for the world. The challenges today are far greater than those then, but I have faith in the people and that, having seen 249, we will see 250 next year.
Also putting my in a comptemplative mood are the dreadful Texas floods. It is too soon to draw any conclusions, but the fact that the Administration has gutted NOAA may have had an effect on what happened. FEMA, of course, may not he able to respond as effectively now. I suspect there will be plenty of blame to be spread aroun. But Trump is sending Kristi Noem to Tezas. so we can at least expect some dogs will be shot. Ptah!
I statred Season Two of THE GOOD SHIP MURDER, an abyssmally bad show that seems to exist merely as an ego-boost for its star, X-FACTOR winner Shayne Ward, who plays an ex-policeman turned lounge singer on a cruise ship. The acting is terrible, the plots are simplistic, and I rrally don't like Ward's singing, so why am I warching this? Also started watching IRONHEART, the new Marvel television series; it seems more promising than the first episode led me to believe.
Reading. I read two early novels by James Lee Burke -- TO THE BRIGHT AND SHINGING SUN (my FFB) and HALF OF PARADISE. This completes my reading of all of his books except the latest Holland Family novel released last month. I also read David Dodge's THE LAST MATCH, the story of a rogue and coin man and his ongoing relationship with the rich, beautifulk and imperious Hon. Regina Forbes-Jones. JOHN CONSTANTINE, HELLBLAZER: DEAD IN AMERICA was an eleven-issue limited series by Simon Spurrier and Adam Campbell. The graphic novel has a dead John Constantine tasked by Neil Gaiman's Dream (Morpheus) ro retreive a stolen bag of Dream Du; constnative is aided in the quest by Swamp Thing. An ambitious outing fstally marred by confusing writing, poor artwork, and dismal coloring -- a book that should have taken me few hours to read took almost three days.
Have a great week, Patti!
No matter how hard I try, typos seem to appear almost magically. I'm going to be like Denny Crane and blame it on mad cow, rather than senility.
Congratulations to Kevin! That is wonderful! I'm glad you've enjoyed the TV you've been watching, for the most part. And your trip to the museum sounds like a good experience.
Congratulations, Kevin. Excellent job.
We're leaving around lunchtime for Connecticut, for our annual week with my cousin Nancy and her husband (still practicing medicine at 80!). We'll be at Mystic and go around the area (including stops at Mohegan Sun and Foxwoods, no doubt, for the women to gamble and shop) and eat too much. We'll be home on Saturday. Looks like a rainy, but cooler, week.
A book for our times? Definitely! I've read at least three of Jess Walter's earlier novels, including the Edgar-winning CITIZEN VINCE, plus his two short story collections. He's from Spokane, Washington and most of his books are set in that area. His new one, SO FAR GONE, has been compared to Charles Portis (in particular TRUE GRIT), and I can definitely see the resemblance (also to his NORWOOD and THE DOG OF THE SOUTH and GRINGOS). Rhys Kinnick is a former investigative reporter who went off the grid 7 years earlier after punching out his MAGA-son in law at Thanksgiving dinner. He retreated to an isolated cabin in the woods and threw away his cell phone. Now a woman drops off his two grandchildren (13 and 9) and tells him his daughter took off from the cultish militia camp in Idaho where they were living. Can Rhys pull himself together and save his family, with the help of a former girlfriend (also a reporter), his best friend (who is mad at him), and a retired, bipolar cop (also a former flame of the ex-girlfriend)? This is great stuff and three quarters of the way through it, highly recommended.
We finished the Australian THE SURVIVORS (Netflix) last night, and it seemed pretty faithful to Jane Harper's book, as far as I could remember. Watching the French THE BUREAU (Paramount +), which "inspired" THE ANGENCY. It's worth checking out the lower key original. I read LONG BRIGHT RIVER by Liz Moore last year, and we're watching the Paramount + series now. Also, POKER FACE and WOLF LIKE ME, also on Paramount +.
We finished the last episode of this rewatch of SPOOKS (MI-5), and, like the whole of series 10, it was a downer. DEATH VALLEY (Britbox) is still fun, and ART DETECTIVES (Acorn) is well done. One episode of each left to see. LE CODE (MHz Choice) is another French legal drama.
Jerry, to answer your question ("why am I watching this?"), I'd say, 1. the scenery. The cities the Love Boat, I mean Good Ship Murder, visits are picturesque. 2. the ship itself is impressive. Otherwise, I agree, it's bad, but Jackie likes this kind of crap. The murderers are stunningly obvious, for the most part. We haven't started series two as yet.
I read Beautiful Ruins by Jess Walter and liked that one. I think POKER FACE Is Peacock. I liked THE SURVIVORS but mainly for the characters, setting, acting. The story seemed drawn out. I almost got claustrophobic from those water caves. Harper is a good writer and I like the settings.
Jerry-I wonder if the celebration even in New England is as joyous or festive as it was then. It seemed pretty subdued around here.
Western NY is cooking under Summer heat and humidity. Diane and her Book Club are reading Kristen Hannah's SUMMER ISLAND...a beach read. I'm busy reading a stack of Library books that suddenly showed up.
Congratulations to Kevin. He's off to a good start in Higher Education!
Today Diane and I are driving to Rochester to visit a friend who is dying of glioblastoma--an aggressive form of brain cancer. His wife is struggling to provide care as his condition deteriorates. She wants to talk to Diane about hospice. Diane arranged for her mother to get hospice services the last year of her life when her health rapidly declined. It's going to be a sad day....
Stay safe!
I have a friend with a 48 year old daughter with that. So many surgeries, hospitalizations, experimental treatments. Very sad indeed.
Yes, POKER FACE and WOLF LIKE ME and LONG BRIGHT RIVER are all Peacock. Sorry about that.
Agree about the caves. I don't have any problem with heights, but I do have a problem with confined spaces. If you have to crawl through a tunnel, I'm out.
I am most comfortable enlarging the fonts. I was born (the wrong kind of) farsighted, and rolling through the 61st postpartum year hasn't improved that any, though I haven't yet been fitted again for glasses (which I gave up in my teens).
Excellent for Kevin...I think taking the AP exams excused me from somewhere in the neighborhood of 30-35 credits-worth of introductory courses at my unis. Hence, even then in the time of sane-ish tuitions, a money- as well as time-saver. (I took the English AP as a junior with no special prep, but the US History, Spanish and Biology AP classes in my senior year were among the more interesting I took in HS.)
Condolences to those with the cancers and those who love and will miss them. Thank goodness our current national admin is doing everything it can to make things worse, including impeding research as well as care.
Some of us have problems with open heights And enclosed spaces. Suspect the flooding of Fairbanks, AK in '67 (when I was not yet 3yo) had a lot to do with the open heights, wonder about the other.
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