Yes! Ben Bowder, aka John Crichton from Farscape, will appear in A Town Called Mercy, the 3rd episode of the this season of Doctor Who!

2 Quarry Novels by Max Allan Collins

I finished reading both 'The First Quarry' and "Quarry' by Max Allan Collins. They're both hard boiled novels featuring a contract killer. As usual, Collins delivers. Grade for each: B+ 62 and 63

Wisest Words I Ever Thunk

There's waaayyyyy more to fear than just fear itself

Life rewards action

My Day

A good day at work, followed by a nice dinner with the kids, then played catch with LuLu in the alley before winding down for the night.

The Olympics

Every four years I claim not to be interested in the Olympics, and what do I do? I  wind up watching hours of it a night. It's always the old standbys for me: gymnastics, swimming, volleyball. :)

Gore Vidal

RIP writer Gore Vidal

Or - why not both?

".....do not prepare the road for your children. Prepare your children for the road."

Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse

Today I finished reading "Siddhartha: An Indian Poem" by Hermann Hesse [translation by Susan Bernofsky, The Modern Library]. I think if you were going to read one "finding yourself" narrative from the first half of the last century, I'd skip this and read The Razor's Edge by W. Somerset Maugham. (great book, great Tyrone Power movie).With that being said, I thought this short novel was engaging and, at times, enlightening. Grade: B #61

“Siddhartha began to understand that it was not happiness and peace that had come to him with his son but, rather, sorrow and worry. But he loved him and preferred the sorrow and worry of love to the happiness and peace he had known without the boy.” - "Siddhartha: An Indian Poem" by Hermann Hesse

"[rejecting the philosophical concept that all is meaningless and illusory] Blue was blue, river was river, and even if the One, the Divine, lay hidden in the blue and the river . . .it was still the nature and the intention of the Divine to be yellow here, blue here, sky over there, forest here, and here Siddhartha. Meaning and being did not lie somewhere behind things; they lay within them, within everything . . . When a person reads something and wishes to grasp its meaning, he does not scorn the characters and letters and call them illusory, random, and worthless husks; he reads them, studies them, and loves them, letter for letter. But I - I who set out to read the book of the world and the book of my own being - I scorned the characters and letters in deference to a meaning I assumed in advance." - "Siddhartha: An Indian Poem" by Hermann Hesse

“To see through the world, to explain it, to scorn it - this may be the business of great thinkers. But what interests me is being able to love the world, not scorn it, not to hate it and hate myself but to look at it and myself and all beings with love and admiration and reverence.” - Siddhartha, Herman Hesse

The Case of the Caretaker's Cat by Erle Stanley Gardner

I just finished reading a Perry Mason novel by  Erle Stanley Gardner called  "The Case of the Caretaker's Cat". I've read Gardner before and enjoyed him, but this one, eh, not so much. The first third moved well, but the theatrics and the extended 'reveal' at the end were too much for my taste. I'd grade this a C #60

Congrats to Yankee Ichiro Suzuki on his 100th career home run.

Maeve Binchy

RIP author Maeve Binchy , aged 72.

My Day

Did jack-diddley-do-diddley on this, my only day off of the week. Well, I did go school shopping w/ Lisa. And I did backup the hard drive from our old computer. And I did go to Lisa's work to visit over her lunch break. And I walked the kids to and from school, which was a genuine treat for me. But mostly, it was sit on my bum and do nada.

Yes, please.

That'll Do it

With the firing of the Brewers bullpen coach, Lee Tunnell is now pressed into service. I'm sure a big, bad, fearsome looking guy like him will whip them back into shape.

Incredible

The MPD dropped off a flyer on my door today, stating that with the large number of foreclosures and abruptly vacated houses in the neighborhood, we should report any suspicious behavior we see, esp. scrap dealers. I've been up and about for 38 years now, and I never thought I'd see the day when financial disaster was so common place it would leech into every aspect of our lives. 

Redcoat by Bernard Cornwell

In the kitchen of our upstairs flat was a two door, white metal storage cabinet that was used for odds and ends and assorted storage. I remember borrowing this book, Redcoat by Bernard Cornwell, from my Dad's stash in that cabinet. From the contextual clues, that puts it at or before 1985, so I was no older than 11. 

I loved the book, which was full of action and history (I will always remember the description of the powdered hair of the soldiers.). While I always remembered the book, I long forgot the name of its author. 

Decades later, Bernard Cornwell would become one of my favorite authors, a name on the cover that guaranteed I'd read the book. Imagine my suprise when I found Redcoat on his resume, and learned that I'd been a fan for far longer than I thought!

Still, if it gets you to read, then read it anyway

My Day

Going to work soon. Spent the late morning cutting my lawn for the first time since Father's Day (thank you extended record setting drought!). All well and good, but my yard is in full sun and an 80 degree temp for you means a 90+ degree ordeal for the guy pushing the mower. and I am drained. (mayhaps last night's alcohol played some small role in the dehydration as well.)

Return of the Thin Man by Dashiell Hammett

Yesterday I finished an electronic ARC for "Return of the Thin Man" a collection of previously UNPUBLISHED Dashiell Hammett 'Thin Man' stories. He wrote these as treatments for MGM back in the '30's. Hammett's prose still packs a punch, even in this truncated format, but his genius shines in the dialogue; some of it is so sharp I was worried I'd need bandages. Individually, I'd grade "After the Thin Man" an A+, "Another Thin Man" a B+ and the oddly angry "Sequel to the Thin Man" a C. As a whole I'd grade this slice of history a B+/A- 

#59

A Night Without Kids

Lisa and I had a rare - dinosaur loose in the park rare - night without kids (GC camping; OJ Grandma's; LK and PD at an Aunt's). We went down to the pier at Sheridan Park, browsed through a thrift store, went out to dinner and *didn't have to rush home afterwards to meet some deadline imposed by a damn sitter*, window shopped some more, bought some drinks and hung out at Nancy Lynne Clothier's house, then returned home to watch "48 hours Mystery" and "Psych" before heading to bed. Except for a drunken booboo in the shower (which still provided entertainment galore) it was a postcard perfect night.

60 Wins

And the Yankees become the first team in 2012 to reach 60 Wins. Booyah.

Niceville by Carten Stroud

"she cherished her privacy and her memories, many sweet, some bitter; and all far enough in the past to have lost either their savor or their sting," - from Niceville 

Today I finished reading "Niceville" by Carsten Stroud. It's an eclectic mix of supernatural ghost story, thriller and crime drama that moves at rocket speed. I saw a negative review from Kirkus but I vehemently disagree, as I thought the book was excellent and a joy to read. In summation: Stroud can WRITE. Grade: A. #58

Lunch :)

How The Hunger Games Movie Saved Our Lives

If you are alive at this moment and over the age of 5 you've heard of The Hunger Games, the bestselling trilogy by author Suzanne Collins. YaYa read the books, loved them, and like most pre-teen girls in 2012, became their Biggest Fan. I even took her to a Hunger Games day at a local bookstore.

I'm not knocking her interest in the series. On her recommendation I read them, and I liked them a lot (especially the first in the series), so of course we promised her she'd see the movie when it hit theaters. What we *didn't* tell her is that we'd surprise her by taking her to see the movie at midnight on the day it came out (March 22nd)!

She was ecstatic, but, oh, of course - come every argument between then and now it's "you never do anything for me!" :)

Alas, while she and Lisa had a blast, their return was fraught with danger. Read on, Dear Reader.


Last night Lisa woke up YaYa @ 11:15 and surprised her with the news that we'd bought tickets for the midnight premiere of the Hunger Games! They went together and had a blast, and even sat next to another kid [from their school] they saw there. When they got home and woke me up it was a preview of 'Catching Fire' - YaYa saw smoke coming from Lulu and Ginger's room. Sure enough, Ginger had fallen asleep with her head sandwiching the desk lamp between the pillow and mattress. Smoke was coming out, the pillow (Big Fat Kitty) was scorched and melted in bits, and Lauren - she was oblivious. How my smoke detectors scream at a slightly overdone pizza but missed this is beyond me, but I'm very glad the ladies changed their minds and skipped a 3am ice cream run on the way home from the show.




I was asleep downstairs on the couch, waiting for them to return. If they'd stayed out longer, or if we'd gone to bed as normal, we'd have slept through the incident until it someone got hurt or worse.

This is the damage it caused to the lamp

While it's harder to make out, here's the scorched and melted wounds to Big Fat Kitty

So thank you Katniss, Suzanne Collins, and the grand publicity department at the studio, for saving my little girl from harm. 

A few days later I saw the movie too. 

Here's my verdict, as written on Facebook:

I just got back from seeing "The Hunger Games". Wow. Seriously - wow. They could have raked in a fortune just by slapping something together on screen that loosely resembled the books. They could have, but they didn't. In every shot, in every scene, in every subtle adaptation from print to script, there is a respect for the source material. The best compliment? Absent the existence of the books, I still think this would rank as a damn fine movie. Well done. Grade: a solid, easy A.

You haven't read the books? You haven't seen the movie? Shame on you. Correct that error as soon as you can.