AuntiePam

Hold Autumn in Your Hand by George Sessions Perry. 1942, National Book Award. The movie The Southerner was based on it. East Texas sharecropper with a cantankerous grandma, a wife and two kids -- one of those books that makes me feel lazy and useless, for lack of survival skills. I liked it a lot. English Passengers by Matthew Kneale, a re-read. 1857, a misguided English Vicar decides the Garden of Eden was in Tasmania and by gum he's going to find it. It's brilliant, told in several voices, violent and funny.

The show is like a comfy old sock -- hard to resist, and the repeats are on at a perfect time -- right after the news, while supper's getting ready. So we watch almost every day, but there are a few story lines we're heartily sick of: Any episode with Chelsea -- she started as a blank slate and stayed that way. Evelyn and Teddy Brooke Shields' episode Alan and Lindsey Alan and Naomi Alan and Melissa Charlie and Denise Richards Favorite is the one where Charlie gets mixed up with a coven. They don't show that one very often.

Is Jenna's research the same stuff she was working on in S1? I lol'd at the size of those calipers -- my gosh, how big was that guy's scrotum?

Didn't think I'd take to e-books until one of my kids gave me a Kindle for Christmas -- an early one, with the keyboard at the bottom, no back light. At the time, I didn't have wi-fi in the house, so I still didn't take to e-books -- downloading was a hassle. Then another kid gave me a Fire, so it was worth getting wi-fi so I could use the video feature. How is it that I figured out how to install wi-fi on my own but couldn't download to a reader? Lord only knows. Now I read in bed on the first Kindle -- it's so lightweight. I use the other Kindle for games and video. I still buy paper books, because most of my reading is older books, and they're cheap. I won't pay $10 for an e-book, or even $5. I read freebie classics on the Kindle, and occasionally I'll buy an e-book if I know the paper book will be too heavy to hold comfortably. I have e-book and paper book versions of the Song of Ice and Fire books, for example.

I didn't believe they'd go through with it. Wow. It'd be watchable if Alan would stop behaving as if it were a real marriage, but that wouldn't be Alan and it wouldn't be funny. Adding a child to a dying series never works.

This episode wasn't terrible. At least the writers didn't have Alan in another excruciatingly embarrassing situation -- except for Walden nodding his head at Alan's crotch there at the end. The show should have ended years ago. The only reason I'm still watching is to see if the writers allow Alan a shred of dignity.

Another new King out -- Revival -- anyone see any reviews yet? The two at Amazon are positive, but one is full of spoilers -- it basically gives the entire plot, so be careful.

I'm learning a lot from the slave stories too, but would like it more if they were spread out a bit. Pointing out the contrast in the experience between immigrants who came to the US for freedom and people brought as property is very effective.

But lying down is correct, isn't it? I was taught that lay requires an object -- you lay something down -- but if you're talking about yourself, a body, then you lie down, or are lying down.

Ancestry that can be traced to 2700 B.C.? Excellent.

Not a grammar mistake, but it bugs me when sports announcers talking about a two-game winning "streak", or when they say "two in a row". Two of anything is nothing special, even when they're "in a row". 509 is, however, very special. [smile]

I wish I'd never learned the difference between "less" and "fewer". Was listening to a very entertaining podcast today and the guy kept saying less when he should have said fewer. It's "less" when referring to something that can't be counted -- less traffic, less daylight - and "fewer" when referring to something that can be counted, fewer people, fewer apples, fewer cars.

I raised eyebrows at Khandi Alexander's cousins saying that the rosin plant explosion and fire wasn't an accident. It was explained that this was an extremely dangerous job. How could such an accident be staged? And wouldn't it endanger more than just one man? The whole place could have been destroyed and everyone could have lost their jobs, or their lives. It was sad enough that he died so horribly, not necessary to make more out of it. Maybe it's just because I don't like Khandi Alexander. To me she seems artificial, not natural or spontaneous, overly dramatic, studied in her reactions, one of those people who are always "on". Or maybe it's because I didn't like her character in Treme.

I'm new to the show and I don't know if Tony says this at the end of every episode or if it was just once, but when he encourages us to "get out there and move around", I want to say "Sure, if someone else will pay for it and if I can have someone to carry my bags, arrange transportation, and line up knowledgeable people to show me around." What a lucky bastard that guy is. :-)

I'm re-reading a favorite, Eifelheim by Michael Flynn. It's about aliens whose ship crashes near a Bavarian village in 1348. Without giving too much away, the charm of the story is the religious aspect. Rather than view the aliens as monsters or demons, they're accepted as God's creatures -- just a little different. (They look like giant grasshoppers.) It's a combination of historical and alien contact fiction -- two of my favorite genres. I read it whenever I'm in a slump, or when I despair of humanity.

One problem I had with the writing this week was that Abbie was thoughtless and insensitive, in the scene in the woods with Sarah and her mother. Sarah didn't know what was happening -- she didn't know that her mom was taking her to the Piper -- until Abbie explained it. The poor kid knows that her mother was going to sacrifice her in order to save the other children. Abbie and Ichy should have just taken her home, and then told mom that they were going to take care of the Piper. And while I'm complaining, why don't our heroes explain to people how they're going to save them? Instead of saying "Trust us" -- tell them the freakin' plan already!

It looked like an ad for a videogame, didn't it? The premise was shaky. Mom knew about the curse, knew that the tenth birthday was THE day, yet she took no extra precautions?

Oh yes. I was only interested in Stephen King but ended up fascinated by the other two stories -- Reuben and Vance. It's weird, isn't it, how our ancestors affect us. We feel pride or shame over something we have absolutely no control over.

mystery, glad to hear you liked Replay. And thank heaven for the internet and forums where readers can learn about good books. The best seller list isn't always the best place to look. Neither is the library, or a bookstore. They'll stock what's popular, and what's new. Nothing wrong with that, but it leaves so many good books unread, unknown.

It's good that I like the new iPhone ad where the guy is "breaking up" with his old phone -- "Just the two of us" -- because it's on all the time. He's cute and his delivery is perfect. Also liking another ubiquitous ad -- the car ad where the kid sees a tree come to life, a flaming pirate ship, and a bear. The effects are good and it takes me back to when I was afraid to look under my bed.

So many similarities already to Mr. Selfridge and now we have another sophisticated woman charming the love interest of the shop girl. I'm not good with accents. Is Clemence's accent really bad or is it just me? Or is she an Englishwoman putting on French airs?

Gah! One of the sportscasters on last night's Bengals-Patriots game said of a pass into coverage: "Brady literally threaded the needle!" If I had a twitter account, I would have tweeted the twit.

My husband can't believe this show is in danger of cancellation. I told him I thought it was because of the first season, that cockamamie David Tate plot. We had no guarantee the writers wouldn't get silly again. They almost did -- I still can't make sense of the banking crisis as the impetus for involvement with the cartel. I feel bad for the actor who played Eleanor's father. Its one thing for Walter White or Alan Harper to be shown in their underwear -- they get the big bucks.

Thank you! I love this character. Loved him on Hill Street Blues, where he played a bad cop and was recast later as a good cop. It's interesting now, knowing how it all turned out, watching him with the D.A. whom he later married. Not often that the pudgy bald dude gets the gal.

Iowa Public Radio had a segment last week about Iowa authors and Phil Stong was mentioned. He wrote State Fair, which was a forgettable Pat Boone vehicle back in the early 60's. He also wrote Marta of Muscovy, a biography of Catherine I of Russia. Not that Catherine, the first Catherine deserved to be called Great the title went to the later one. It's really quite good, published in 1945, and surprisingly witty and snarky. Not much is known about Catherine's early years but instead of making stuff up, Stong extrapolates her childhood from what she was like as an adult. I like that.