When you tell people you’re going out of town to see some theater, they inevitably say “Have fun!” Even though it’s pretty much impossible to have fun at a production of “King Lear,” which is what we saw. It was Colm Feore’s Lear at Stratford, and it only underlined what I’ve thought since I saw him in only his third Stratford role in 1986: This Canadian is one of the finest Shakespearean actors in the world.
Some friends and I began making an annual Stratford pilgrimage when we all lived in Fort Wayne, and have gone back periodically since — first annually, but there was a long gap after Kate came into the world, but over the years we’ve seen Feore play Hamlet, Iago, Richard III, Cassius — all the bigs, not to mention the Pirate King in “Pirates of Penzance,” Cyrano de Bergerac, and so on. This review from the Toronto Star gets the production right, by my lights. It really was a good one.
But a little fun was had on a cool and blustery weekend. The fall colors were at their peak for the drive, and when we arrived at dinner, found ourselves seated next to this guy, another company standout. That’s the fun of a repertory company in a small town — you see Macbeth walking to work on a hot day in shorts and a T-shirt.
Tickets are pricey, though, so we only stayed one night. That’s the fun of living so close to the repertory — you can just pop in and out. Although this is the end of the season. But we’ll be back next year.
I had a Caesar at brunch Saturday, a Caesar being a Canadian Bloody Mary; it’s made with clamato juice. Just like so many things with U.S. and Canadian equivalents. Similar, but different.
I’ve been so done with the church of my upbringing for years, but I am SO so done now:
Vatican City — Catholic bishops scrapped their landmark welcome to gays Saturday, showing deep divisions at the end of a two-week meeting sought by Pope Francis to chart a more merciful approach to ministering to Catholic families.
The bishops failed to approve even a watered-down section on ministering to homosexuals that stripped away the welcoming tone of acceptance contained in a draft document earlier in the week.
Rather than considering gays as individuals who had gifts to offer the church, the revised paragraph referred to homosexuality as one of the problems Catholic families have to confront. It said “people with homosexual tendencies must be welcomed with respect and delicacy,” but repeated church teaching that marriage is only between man and woman. The paragraph failed to reach the two-thirds majority needed to pass.
Ohh-kay.
This story about my current home has so much wrong in it, it’s hard to find the right. Good thing it appeared in that obscure rag, the L.A. Times. It’s hard to say what’s the wrongest part; let’s choose a section at random:
In the last year or two, there have been complaints at the suburb’s premier park, which resembles a country club, with yachts listing quietly in the lake, bubbling fountains and an Olympic-sized swimming pool.
“I do sense it from some of the residents. If there’s an African American picnic there, and people are hopping in the pool, I sense a bit of, ‘What are you doing in my park?'” said Paul Wargo, who mans the gates at the park.
“Yachts” list before they capsize; there’s no source for the “complaints,” which I don’t believe are happening, as there’s a well-established African-American population in Grosse Pointe Park; the pool is not Olympic-size; and if you’re going to quote a guardhouse employee saying he “senses” something, it’s reasonable to follow up with “how do you know all this, working in the guardhouse?
But don’t mind me.
I think I’m going to make some chicken salad. Enjoy the week, OK?
beb said on October 20, 2014 at 8:04 am
It’s a good thing you can’t impeach a Pope because Francis would be out of there by now.
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Basset said on October 20, 2014 at 8:18 am
Shakespeare ain’t how we roll but mrs. B an I did get out this weekend, fancy pizza and a stroll up in a newly redeveloped urbanist part of town, crepe and a three-dollar coffee in a little hipster place with kids on laptops all around, then down to the historic War Memorial Auditorium for some bluegrass – Del McCoury, Hot Rize and their alter-ego band Red Knuckles & the Trailblazers, and Sierra Hull, who’s not bluegrass but an awesomely talented singer, writer, and mandolinist, go see any of the above if you get half a chance.
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Suzanne said on October 20, 2014 at 8:24 am
I do wonder how the Catholic Church will handle this Pope. If you truly believe that the Pope is appointed by God and His spokesman, how can you be against what he says? Because, I mean, he is supposed to be speaking for God. I know there are levels of speaking for God, and what he said about gays, and unmarried couples, etc. wasn’t “official”, but still. Very interesting to watch.
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adrianne said on October 20, 2014 at 8:27 am
I’m glad to see Colm is still doing Shakespeare, since I’ve only seen him in comic-book action flicks since we stopped going to Stratford. Amazing that you’ve seen him evolve from the melancholy Dane to the crazy King Lear. I miss our Canadian Shakespeare trips! (although we have seen some great productions at the Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival – including a hilarious ‘Complete Works of William Shakespeare – Abridged’).
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brian stouder said on October 20, 2014 at 9:55 am
What a weekend! As Dexter indicated at the end of the last thread, northeastern Indiana (specifically Fort Wayne) seems to be approaching max-color right now, and it’s just beautiful. I was on weenie-slingin’ detail for Wayne High School’s football game against Snider Friday evening, and the drive down Winchester Road was absolutely sublime. Then, as the just-past weekend unfolded, Chloe (our 10 year-old) and I canvassed the neighborhood handing out Anne Duff-for-School-Board information (she’s running for an at-large seat, which is being given up by the incumbent), which was surprisingly pleasant. I’m not a door-knocker; we leave the leaflets on the step (tucked under welcome mats, or with a rock to hold it) and say hello to folks out working in their yards.
Chloe has been a trooper, as we invested about 5 hours (over two days) walking and walking, and talking and talking, and marking off the list of registered voters as we went along. (We decided to have a few leaflets handy when we go trick or treating in a fortnight)
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Jeff Borden said on October 20, 2014 at 10:09 am
Leave it to the damned bishops to ruin the vibes of the first cool pope since John XXIII. I fear Pope Francis won’t live long enough to turn the enormous bureaucracy of the church toward relevance. Such a shame, but the bishops are a lot like our right-wingers. . .purity is more important than practicality.
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Bitter Scribe said on October 20, 2014 at 10:16 am
It seems like every decade or so, there’s a spasm of excitement over the RCC looking like it’s willing to treat this, that or the other group decently, and it promptly gets slapped down. I barely even notice anymore.
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Judybusy said on October 20, 2014 at 10:20 am
While disappointed with the synod’s ultimate outcome, I am encouraged that the issues are even being discussed at such a high level. I would think it gives hope and encouragement to those Catholics who are working to change the church. I’m also encouraged that many Republicans are being vewy, vewy quiet on gay marriage. Gasp! Some have even acknowledged that providing birth control is good thing, as it cuts down on unwanted pregnancy!
I thought of Nancy’s interest in Russia as I listened to this story on NPR today, an author interview about his travels on the Trans-Siberian railway.
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brian stouder said on October 20, 2014 at 11:22 am
JudyBusy, I’ll have to hit the audio-link tonight, but the short text version was quite interesting.
This passage struck me:
[You] go back to Soviet times and, in communal apartments, people in Russia, they learned to live on top of each other. It was both great because families got to know each other and it was awful because there were times when families would basically spy on each other for the government. So it was both extremes. But they learned to be on top of each other, to share space.
The reference to people learning to ‘live on top of each other’ struck me as exactly the metaphor for our new digital age, wherein a couple breaking up – or a malicious hacker – can lead to releases of (private!) photos and so on (on Facebook, et al)
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alex said on October 20, 2014 at 11:29 am
Note that it’s primarily the American bishops with burrs up their butts. I suspect it’s something unique to American Catholic culture. Of all of the gay people I know who aren’t out to their families, there are very few and they are Roman Catholic. I’m talking about people in late middle age who have co-habited with same-sex partners for decades. You’d think surely their families know, but they insist that their families do not and are mortified at the very idea their families would ever find out. Magical thinkers, neurotic as all get out.
Judy, the birth control thing I’ve been hearing from Republican politicians strikes me as insincere. Over the counter? Really? I read medical records in my work and I can tell you one thing about contraceptives: They’re powerful drugs and can have all kinds of side effects and interactions with other meds and typically it takes multiple trials under the supervision of a doctor before an individual finds the right one. The pols who keep hyping easy birth control don’t know the first thing about it and are just putting up a smoke screen to disguise the fact that the pro-life movement is just as much an anti-contraceptive movement as it is an anti-abortion movement and that the GOP has a hand in preventing women’s access to both.
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Deborah said on October 20, 2014 at 11:42 am
Many years ago when I took birth control pills I had a reaction that caused me to have fainting spells. I spent 3 days in the hospital while they were trying to figure out the cause. So I’m not really for over the counter birth control pills. On the other hand it was more than 30 years ago that I had my reaction so they have probably improved since then.
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brian stouder said on October 20, 2014 at 11:55 am
Presumably OTC means that Hobby Lobby’s (et al) prescription coverage is saved from having to include it.
And, I would never have made a good theologian. How can an intellectually honest church hold that, first, we’re all equally in need of (and welcome to) a Forgiving Savior, and then second
– Except for you and him and that woman over there and everyone who lives like this, etc etc?
Anyway, if their Good Housekeeping seal of approval is worth anything, I suppose Hell will burn just as hotly for me as for anyone who has a loving, lifelong relationship with a person of the same gender, since I’m a non-church going person in the first place!
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Judybusy said on October 20, 2014 at 11:59 am
Good points about the BC issue, Alex and Deborah. I also thought it wouldn’t be wise to have birth control OTC, for reasons already noted. So, in the middle of my busy-ness of getting ready for the day it did occur to me to think briefly “What? What kind of BC are they talking about” and then we were onto to another story.
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Jolene said on October 20, 2014 at 12:05 pm
Also, the best kind of birth control for the people least prepared to deal with an unwanted pregnancy or an unplanned child is not birth control pills, but an IUD or hormonal implant–a long-acting device that must be inserted by a doctor (or, possibly, another healthcare provider).
A study in Colorado reported this past summer showed that providing these devices to teens on Medicaid led to a 40% drop in unintended pregnancies and a saving of $5.68 for every dollar spent on the program. Abortion rates also dropped.
Of course, there is a quote in the article from a right-to-life person denying the evidence presented in the previous paragraph. Some people!
http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_26085784/colorado-teen-birth-rates-drop-state-hands-out
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brian stouder said on October 20, 2014 at 12:26 pm
Doncha know that providin’ that stuff for FREE is just ‘giving permission’ for promiscuity?
If they wanna buy it with their own money, do so! But it is immoral, pretty much obscene, and un-American to ask ME to pay for folks to have sex, dammit!
We should only spend money on things that don’t violate our moral beliefs, like drones armed with Hell-Fire missiles, or subsidies for (literally) filthy-rich oil companies, or more prisons…
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Melissa said on October 20, 2014 at 12:35 pm
Nancy,
Have you seen Slings and Arrows? It’s the Canadian mini series (3 seasons of 6 episodes each) based on Stratford. Of course Colm Feore, Gerainst Wynn Davies, & many other Stratford folk are in it. Very funny and good intro to Shakespeare for those who are imitated.
You can buy it through Amazon. See it if you haven’t. If you have, do a post about it. It deserves a wider audience.
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nancy said on October 20, 2014 at 12:39 pm
I have seen it. In fact, we stayed in one New Year’s Eve and watched nearly the whole thing. I think we saw the second season first — the “Hamlet” production. It is/was fabulous.
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MichaelG said on October 20, 2014 at 1:48 pm
Deborah (from yesterday), I don’t speak Portuguese but, married for many years to a Lass from Lisbon, I certainly have a familiarity with it.
It’s interesting that 90% of the ebola fright in this country has been caused by a single hospital in Dallas. It’s easy to talk about their incompetence and easy to say that one wouldn’t even go there for a flu shot.
Yet, I suspect that the health care people there are no better and no worse than those at your average large metropolitan medical center. And I suspect that management in other, equivalent hospitals is quite similar in their disdain for health care standards in their single minded pursuit of the almighty profit. I mean, why spend perfectly good treasure to purchase the appropriate equipment, to develop protocols to treat victims, to provide training for staff and to develop further protocols for dealing with staff who have been exposed to victims when it’s highly unlikely that one of those horrible Africans will ever show up on our doorstep here in deepest Dallas. Leave that stuff to hospitals in those dirty coastal places like New York, Los Angeles or Miami. It’s fun to note that, while these management types can’t find the money to do things right, they can always find the money to hire flacks as Texas Health has done. If things go sideways they can always blame any problems on CDC or the Obama administration.
Now that the 21 day “quarantine” period is up fear seems to be ebbing. Not that there appears to have been much of a quarantine except for certain select folks. Wonder what NBC’s going to do with Nancy Snyderman.
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MichaelG said on October 20, 2014 at 1:52 pm
Mary, I just realized that the above might sound insulting to you. If so, I’m sorry. What is your take on your hospital’s state of readiness now and several weeks ago at the time when Duncan first showed up. I wouldn’t be at all surprised to hear that you were miles ahead of Texas Health.
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adrianne said on October 20, 2014 at 2:03 pm
Nance, Colm Feore does a fantastic turn as Sanjay, the uber-groovy head of the ad agency Froghammer, as he attempts to “rebrand” the New Burbage Festival in the second season of “Slings and Arrows.” BTW, “Slings and Arrows” kindled Son No. 2’s interest in Shakespeare, and theater in general.
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alex said on October 20, 2014 at 2:48 pm
MichaelG, I just noticed the hubbub regarding Nancy Snyderman. Hate to think she could be the next ebola hysteria casualty.
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Sherri said on October 20, 2014 at 2:49 pm
Slings and Arrows is indeed wonderful. The Hamlet production was the first season, Macbeth was second, and King Lear the third season. We’ve watched the whole series at least twice.
This is a pretty good explainer of the state of infection control in the US, including ebola: http://www.wired.com/2014/10/ebola-ic-research/
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Connie said on October 20, 2014 at 3:21 pm
Craig Johnson, author of the Longmire mysteries, was a great speaker today at the Metro Detroit book and author luncheon. And the only guy in the thousand person plus crowd wearing a cowboy hat.
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Deborah said on October 20, 2014 at 3:32 pm
We are just back from Albuqurque, Little Bird got her stitches out a week and a half earlier than expected. She’s doing great. She says it feels a lot better now that they’re out. Pathology report was a-ok thank God and they gave dimensions of what they took out 5 1/2 cm wide 8 cm long and 5 cm deep.
Connie, I’m jealous that you got to hear the Longmire author. If he came to Santa Fe he wouldn’t be the only person in the room wearing a cowboy hat.
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Jolene said on October 20, 2014 at 3:35 pm
Another in today’s batch of “Whither Detroit?” stories. This one is by Ron Fournier, a Detroit expat, who writes about politics for National Journal. Here, he reports on a conference meant to attract investment from former Detroiters and muses about whether he will return.
I’d be happy if he went, as it might mean that he would stop writing pieces complaining that the world would be better if only President Obama would show more leadership, which, of course, he never defines.
http://www.nationaljournal.com/next-america/economic-empowerment/homesick-for-detroit-20141019
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brian stouder said on October 20, 2014 at 3:43 pm
as it might mean that he would stop writing pieces complaining that the world would be better if only President Obama would show more leadership, which, of course, he never defines.
Jolene – today I heard Oxy-Rush seamlessly (and thoughtlessly) transition directly from a complaint that President Obama won’t govern/won’t run things/won’t take charge, to a general indictment of the “DemoCRAT Party” and “the liberals” in general misplaced belief in government solutions!! SO on the one hand, he doesn’t believe government can do anything, nor should government do anything (other than fight wars, presumably); while on the other hand, denigrating President Obama’s (alleged) reluctance to use his powers and DO something!!
If Rush has any serious listeners, the question should arise – which thing to believe?
What a maroon!
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Dave said on October 20, 2014 at 4:03 pm
Brian, some show I heard yesterday while driving (Inside the Beltway, Outside the Beltway, not sure) had a caller call in and ask them why they thought the government should take a role when it was obvious that the radio host and guest didn’t support health care. They cited the constitution in their defense, taking a lead in fighting ebola is part of “Preserve and Protect”.
Rush has plenty of serious listeners, I’m sure. As does the man on local radio, who I can’t hardly listen to.
Connie, you got to see and hear Craig Johnson, I’m jealous. Wondering if he mentioned any possibility that the TV version of his stories is going to be picked up by any of the other cable networks.
My uncle, who has lived in Arizona about 44 years now, always wears a cowboy hat and usually is the only one in the room with one on during his nearly annual Ohio visits.
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Dave said on October 20, 2014 at 4:05 pm
Ah, serious as in seriously delusional, I should have, at least, italicized it, but I probably don’t know how to do that.
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brian stouder said on October 20, 2014 at 4:12 pm
Dave, that’s the one trick I know how to do (most days!)
Put one of these
so that they bracket the letter I
before whatever you wanna italicize.
Then, do the same thing at the end of what you want to italicize, only with a / before the second I
(In the old days, if you forgot to shut off the italics, then all the posts following yours got italicized. I got myself thrown out of the bar for that, some years ago!)
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brian stouder said on October 20, 2014 at 4:13 pm
Hah – the little carat didn’t show up in the post! On my keyboard, it’s the bracket above the comma for the beginning, and the bracket above the period, for the end…
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Connie said on October 20, 2014 at 4:48 pm
Sorry, no word on the future of the show. Also present were Kathy Reichs of “Bones” fame, Gary Shteyngart, Hampton Sides and Lisa Jackson.
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Deborah said on October 20, 2014 at 4:52 pm
I’ve given up trying to italicize, I don’t try to do it often enough and I always forget how.
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Dave said on October 20, 2014 at 4:54 pm
italicize/ Simply an experiment, I know, I should experiment on my on space and not use the space of our hostess but here I am.
Brian, I got into it with someone who complained about all capital letters. The post was on a little known forum about local railroad history and the poster, who is old but has a lot of knowledge, only types in capitals. Someone called him out on it and he got mad and left. I defended him, because he does have a lot of knowledge and, my father would only type in capitals, if I got anything from him, it was always capitals, I didn’t think of it as shouting, I thought of it as the only way he’d communicate, as I thought of what the poster had written. It got rather ugly and I think less of the main complainer today. OTOH, if you left on the italics, well, maybe they should have thrown you out into the street. 😉
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Dave said on October 20, 2014 at 4:55 pm
OK, I thought I took action to turn it off but / or /. My apologies, excuse my inept keyboard behavior.
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Dave said on October 20, 2014 at 4:56 pm
Oh, this is silly.
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Jolene said on October 20, 2014 at 5:08 pm
Here’s an example of the coding for italicizes text. Many sources for info on HTML codes online. Google “HTML codes” to find a source in a format you like. At the link below, click on the Home button to see everything it has to offer.
http://www.htmlcodetutorial.com/_I.html
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Jolene said on October 20, 2014 at 5:10 pm
coding that italicizes, not for. Damn.
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Jolene said on October 20, 2014 at 5:47 pm
Lots of woman-murdering in the news today. The body of a missing University of Virginia was found over the weekend, and the man charged with her killing is believed to be linked to a previous murder in the region and several sexual assaults. And, I just saw an article on the WaPo website reporting the arrest in Northern Indiana of a man who has, it seems, confessed to killing seven women in the area, and the police suspect there may be others.
Such a lovely world.
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Jolene said on October 20, 2014 at 6:03 pm
On a less grisly topic, is anyone else receiving the NYT cooking newsletter? A couple times/week, you get an email featuring half a dozen recipes–things to make on the weekend, weeknight dinners, favorite soups, whatever. The recipes are drawn from their archives, so they’re available elsewhere. And there’s certainly no shortage of recipes online, not to mention in the books on my shelves. Still, it’s a small pleasure to click open that email and scan the images of delicious stuff.
Right now, I’m wishing someone would stop by with this savory potato tart. That, an omelet, a salad, and a glass of wine would make a lovely dinner. Sigh. Well, at least I can have a glass of wine.
http://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1016882-savory-potato-tart?em_pos=medium&emc=edit_ck_20141020&nl=cooking&nlid=29218405
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MichaelG said on October 20, 2014 at 6:37 pm
Thanks, Jolene. Just signed up. That potato tart sounds good. I’d try it with a puff pastry.
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adrianne said on October 20, 2014 at 6:40 pm
Jolene, now I’m hungering for the potato tart! We had veal stew with egg noodles and Italian broccoli – but of course I have dinner envy once someone mentions something delish.
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Deborah said on October 20, 2014 at 6:48 pm
I see a potato tart in my future. Potatoes are some of my favorite foods, I like them just about every way there is to fix them.
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Dave said on October 20, 2014 at 8:18 pm
Just come by to see if Brian, or anybody else, had tossed me out of the bar yet. Oh, and thank you, Jolene.
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Sherri said on October 20, 2014 at 8:37 pm
I had an unsettling experience in the gym this morning. I had just finished my workout and was walking over to get my stuff when suddenly there were calls for help from the room where a cardio class was going on. A woman had collapsed, though it had taken a moment for people to notice, because she had gone over to the side of the room to take a break. Fortunately, an off-duty firefighter had just come into the gym for his workout, and he went running in there and started CPR (she wasn’t breathing and had no pulse), and the gym is only a couple of blocks away from the fire station. By the time the paramedics took her off, she had a pulse and was moaning. (I’m sure her ribs hurt from the CPR.)
The off duty firefighter (who is a regular in the gym) got a round of applause and much appreciation from everybody in the gym.
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Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on October 20, 2014 at 10:49 pm
A bunch of you who are also Facebook friends will know that I’ve been asking, in general terms, about the dilemma of how juveniles in counseling can be handled when they refuse to speak.
In my juvenile court mediator guise, I’ve gotten quite a few referrals lately where the profile is generally like this: the kid had issues at home and/or with parents, an unruly filing was made or the police were called (usually a 9-1-1 call during a family dispute), a counseling program was begun, and the juvenile (as I’m told, usually all secondhand) refused to speak to the counselor/therapist. At all. So after a few appointments and (I’m told) no communication at all, the relationship is ended by the counseling center/program/therapist, saying “S/he won’t talk to me, so there’s no point in continuing.” Sometimes that’s to save parent outlays, but even more often it’s a kid on insurance or Medicaid, but I’ve been asking out loud “how does that work, anyhow?” Because those youths usually end up offending again or become the subject of another 9-1-1 call, and then they get referred to me for a “Family Conferencing,” which is usually a meeting set up as a diversion step to keep a filing from becoming full charges and a court date, and whose outcome is generally to set up and mandate family support of the juvenile getting counseling.
But if the kid already has had a counselor, and refused to speak, how am I going to make something new happen in 60-75 minutes? And why do I run into so many of these: are too many counselors going too long just waiting, silently, with kids whose primary skill set is endurance? Is there a professional protocol I don’t know about that calls for no more than two or three “silent sessions”? And how do some counselors work to get teens to talk to them, or is it all passive?
Having asked this question out loud, I learned that one of the staff counselors in our office had a young woman like this not long ago. She was heavily invested in not looking at the counselor, or responding in any way. But the meetings were court ordered, and the juvenile didn’t fight Mom, she just came, sat on the sofa, and refused to speak or respond in any way. The counselor, like most of us in our office, wasn’t just going to do a Rogerian wait-em-out approach, because we’re all about getting results. So she decided her approach would be “You won’t talk to me? Fine, I’ll read to you.”
The counselor just read out loud to her, the last few minutes of the appointment’s 50-minute hour, all of the second appointment, and then with a new book, the first half of their third appointment . . . until the girl suddenly looked up, and barked “Fine, stop reading. Just stop, I’ll talk to you, okay?”
The book the counselor had started out on in the third appointment?
“Tuesdays With Morrie.”
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Dexter said on October 21, 2014 at 1:01 am
Oscar de la Renta, presente! I know he’s a big name but you guys can fill in the blanks for me…any of you folks have any of his designs? http://pagesix.com/2014/10/20/fashion-designer-oscar-de-la-renta-dies-at-82/
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Dexter said on October 21, 2014 at 3:43 am
Chris Hadfield shares his photographs…extra cool.
http://blog.sfgate.com/bookmarks/2014/10/20/gallery-astronaut-chris-hadfields-photos-from-space/#photo-540596
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David C. said on October 21, 2014 at 6:29 am
Jeff (tmmo) isn’t that torture under the Geneva Conventions?
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brian stouder said on October 21, 2014 at 7:36 am
As Dave says – Good God! She committed an Albomination on the girl? There’s a deeply dark novel in this, I believe
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nancy said on October 21, 2014 at 8:13 am
I’m declaring Jeff the winner of this threads, and the next five threads. Well-played.
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brian stouder said on October 21, 2014 at 8:22 am
It’s A New…Track…Record!!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Carnegie
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Dorothy said on October 21, 2014 at 9:42 am
Loved that story, Jeff!!!
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jcburns said on October 21, 2014 at 9:46 am
I think even Carl Rogers would cave under the sheer weight of Albomic prose.
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Basset said on October 21, 2014 at 11:37 am
Waiting for Mitch’s sequel… “The Five People You Meet In Juvie”
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Sue said on October 21, 2014 at 11:41 am
Good one, Basset.
I wonder how he would: 1) warm and fuzzy-up Juvie, and 2) make it all about himself?
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brian stouder said on October 21, 2014 at 12:11 pm
He could write a trilogy (or quintology?) revolving around each of the kiddos subject to..errr.. drenched by…errr.. reached by his glistening prose.
Have a Little Patience…or The First Five People I’m Gonna Kill
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LAMary said on October 21, 2014 at 12:20 pm
A good reason to keep the Albom canon on hand.
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Jolene said on October 21, 2014 at 12:28 pm
Did you all see the clip of Obama voting in Chicago yesterday? Kind of a cute moment.
http://youtu.be/1U0GHiMRbEI
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beb said on October 21, 2014 at 12:45 pm
<i>
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beb said on October 21, 2014 at 12:51 pm
Dave: Italics, bold, underlines and so on must both be started and halted. It’s hard to write about html coding on-line because the commands are all surrounded by the greater than > and less than < arrows. So when you type them into the comments the browser thinks you’re giving it a command. Thanks to Jolene’s line to the HTML help page I found the way that you code for those two symbols.
You start italics with <i> and end it with </i>
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beb said on October 21, 2014 at 12:54 pm
thread win to Jeff @44
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beb said on October 21, 2014 at 12:57 pm
OK,I’m playing catch, did see Nancy declaring Jeff the winner of the next 5 threads. I’ll be quiet now.
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Basset said on October 21, 2014 at 1:44 pm
Sue, all this puts me in mind of that annual bad Hemingway contest, I think some college or other runs it… samples of bad Mitch would work right here.
Meanwhile, this:
http://fwx.foodandwine.com/drink/7-wines-pair-your-favorite-halloween-candy?xid=TTIPS102114WinesToPair
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Bob (not Greene) said on October 21, 2014 at 1:55 pm
News peeps and Chicago folks, get a load of this: http://www.robertfeder.com/2014/10/21/stop-the-presses-tribune-buying-sun-times-suburban-newspapers/
For those outside of Chicago, Bob Feder is a longtime media critic/reporter. His column is part of the Trib now. Used to be with Sun-Times for decades. I’m guessing this story is completely solid. And the first line of the Sun-Times’ obituary.
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Deborah said on October 21, 2014 at 2:06 pm
I’ve been binge watching We the Economy, it started today. It’s ok, not as good as I was hoping. I knew a lot of what they cover already, but some of the short films are cute, some are silly, some make me angry. I think it’s fairly even but it would be interesting to know who financed the series. Each of the 20 films is about 5 to 6 minutes.
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ninja3000 said on October 21, 2014 at 2:24 pm
Nancy: Rent, borrow, or steal “32 Short Films About Glenn Gould” (1993), in which Colm Feore plays fellow Canadian Gould. Absolutely stunning performance. As a former film reviewer who’s screened almost 9,000 full-length movies, I can say it’s still one of my Top 10 faves.
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beb said on October 21, 2014 at 3:00 pm
For you Downton Abbey fans – a Halloween costume based on the show (It’s not the obvious)
http://boingboing.net/2014/10/21/downton-abbey-costume.html
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Sue said on October 21, 2014 at 3:16 pm
Basset, I couldn’t find a website for the Hemingway contest, but you did remind me that I haven’t checked this year’s Bulwer-Lytton:
http://www.bulwer-lytton.com/2014win.html
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Sue said on October 21, 2014 at 4:14 pm
Good heavens.
http://gawker.com/here-are-some-pictures-of-renee-zellweger-1648827025
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alex said on October 21, 2014 at 4:42 pm
So where’s Cooz these days? He’s been conspicuously quiet for better than a week now.
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Jolene said on October 21, 2014 at 5:12 pm
The Zellweger transformation is, indeed, quite something. As someone on Gawker said, “She doesn’t look bad. She just doesn’t look like Renee Zellweger.” I wonder what she’d have looked like without the surgery.
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Deborah said on October 21, 2014 at 5:55 pm
I was thinking the same thing recently about the absence of Coozledad here. Maybe he’s spending a lot of time campaigning for Democrats in NC.
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Suzanne said on October 21, 2014 at 6:54 pm
Renee Zellweger. What happened to her eyes? They don’t look the same at all!!
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Deborah said on October 21, 2014 at 7:25 pm
Charles Pierce at his best again http://www.esquire.com/_mobile/blogs/politics/Moral_Hazard_Returns_With_A_Tale
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Charlotte said on October 21, 2014 at 8:56 pm
Ben Bradlee has died at 93. Apparently, it was Alzheimers (although I wonder about post-polio syndrome too…). Here’s David Remnick: http://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/postscript-benjamin-c-bradlee
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Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on October 21, 2014 at 9:41 pm
I would love to give Mitch a hitch in the isolation cell at Multi-County Juvenile Detention. Great experience for “The First Five People You Meet in Juvie.”
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