small potatoes

I stand corrected.

I see your point, but the character's name is Shy and Fats Domino was known for his shyness. It's mentioned in the first paragraph of his Wiki profile. Also, there was some banter between Midge and Susie along the lines of I thought he was supposed to be fat. On second thought, though, Fats Domino would have been playing piano, and Shy Baldwin was straight up crooning like Johnny Mathis.

Shy Baldwin was based on Fats Domino. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ardeW1HPhH0 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fats_Domino

When Joel and Midge are riding on the carousel talking about divorce, the background music is The Carousel Waltz, the theme song from the musical by Rodgers and Hammerstein. (I'm more familiar with it as part of the intro to Tunnel of Love by Dire Straits). Carousel is about an abusive husband and a wife who makes apologies for him. I wondered if that was ASP's way of foreshadowing that Joel might actually turn into a wife beater. Watching him beat up on the heckler at the end of the episode reinforced the idea. http://www.vulture.com/2018/04/rodgers-and-hammersteins-carousel-after-metoo.html

I read Dare Me recently, and I found it very frustrating. There weren't any details about the sports they were supposed to be cheering for. Did the football team win? Were they any good? What was the score? Was it cold outside in their skimpy cheerleading outfits? Those were bigger mysteries than the murder.

Great post. I'm intrigued by your last paragraph. Aside from Roger liking acid, what were some of the adaptations that surprised you?

Nice catch!

I agree. It would have made a great finale.

Yes on both counts. That's exactly what I was thinking.

I love the scene in The Color of Money when Eddie gets hustled by the character played by Forest Whitaker in a very early role for him. As one of the reviewers on IMDB put it, you can see "a history of the man's failures" written on Newman's face. As mentioned, the Tom Cruise character isn't in the book, which is a slow-paced mainstream novel. One of the chapters has Eddie settling down with a University professor and helping her open an antique store. He combs the Kentucky hills searching for antique quilts to resell. Walter Tevis also wrote The Man Who Fell to Earth, which was made into the movie starring David Bowie.

Random Harvest is one of my all-time favorites.

I agree about Peyton List, and it's too bad because I really like the story line.

Well, the whole situation was a demeaning job, except that I would call it a position, and I'm not sure how demeaning it was. Better yet, I would call the marriage a business partnership, one in which Don ultimately felt Megan deserved her share of the profits in addition to the many benefits she had already received.

I like your use of "performative" in this context, and your description of the marriage.

Yeah. I think it's important to acknowledge this. It's not like Don robbed her of her youth and innocence. I disagree. I don't think he rewarded her for pouting, or simply out of guilt. I think he straight up paid for her services, with a generous bonus. It was Severance pay.