Two for Tuesday: Weird!

Two ducks in Los Angeles (my photo)

I read a couple of strange books recently, and I will share my reviews today. Hopefully, they will be of some interest to my fellow fiction fans.

1. Yesteryear by Caro Claire Burke. This book was not what I expected, which is a good thing! I love to be thrown off balance by a novel. Is Natalie insane, did she get shoved back in time, or is she the victim of an elaborate hoax? The main characters have shifting layers and motivations, which all add to the surreal atmosphere. I enjoyed reading the extreme political/ social POVs personified rather than straight up mocked by the author. It made the wacko ideas somewhat more relatable. Somewhat! Ultimately, the ideas were all skewered, which I loved (both sides, hey). This wasn’t a five-star book for me (I wouldn’t read it again), but it was definitely enjoyable. Four stars.

PS: I waited forever for Yesteryear to become available at my local library ~ the reason I was so determined to read it is because there’s a movie coming out starring Anne Hathaway, and I love her. (I didn’t want to buy the book because it was expensive.) It was worth the wait. The following review is via a library book also.

2. Too Old for This by Samantha Downing. This is a thriller, but it has a catch: the first-person murderer slash protagonist is 75-year-old woman. That's pretty much it, with the "old lady" gimmick featuring on every page with issues such as arthritis making it more difficult to scrub up the blood after a killing. The older you get, the harder it is to stuff a dead body into a freezer. Sometimes you forget and take your phone with you when you shouldn't, and then all that danged info is in the cloud somewhere. Who even knows what happens there? It's a fun and fast read, but totally preposterous from beginning to end. I gave it 3 stars plus an additional .25 for the original concept. (If it's been done before, I haven't read it.)

OK then. Have a great Tuesday, everyone!

Another Perspective

Colorful music notes from Pixabay

For today’s Song Lyric Sunday, Jim asks for songs about civil rights, oppression, protest, revolution, or social change. Lots of bloggers are posting appropriate songs, but I decided to go a bit slant on the prompt today. Before I get to that though, I want to address a different topic, which is Jim's statement that he is giving up Thursday Inspiration (started by me way back when) and Friday Faithfuls, both due to lack of participation. I totally get it, and it's really frustrating to pour your heart into a piece of writing that is mostly ignored. That's how I feel about my Kindle books self-published on Amazon, each of which has at best a dozen sales. No one cares. No one is interested unless I give them away for free, and even then they won't actually be read and rated/ reviewed. They'll just get stuck in virtual libraries until the end of time. I know this because I had plenty of giveaways when I wrote romances as Anna. It's just the way of things now. By some magical alchemy, certain works, whether good, bad, or mediocre, go "viral" and get read and commented on by hundreds or thousands of folks, while other similar writing gets overlooked entirely. 

While many of us swear we "write for ourselves," we still want to be read. We aren't stuffing our bits of poetry into our sock drawers hoping no one finds it because we're scared of fame. We put our writing out here in public for a reason: we want to be seen. My first blog had loads of real views and comments ~ and I know they were real because this was before bots were scouring the internet to steal everything ~ and I liked it, even though when I reread what I wrote back then it makes me cringe. Things slowly changed however, and when I had my WordPress blog, most of the views and likes were fake. I would get a hundred likes on a post and two comments. I began posting more and more, but nothing helped; it just became more of the same. I ended up dumping that blog out of frustration, both with myself for getting so OCD about it and with other WP bloggers. Not to mention WP itself being full of glitches even when you paid for it, which I did. Blogger is full of glitches too, but it's free, and it has no stupid "like" button to fool you into thinking your writing is more interesting than it actually is. I deliberately kept this blog off Google to avoid dealing with spam and drop-ins who aren't actually interested in my words. It's worked ~ I get zero spam comments and very few marketing type comments.

Regarding Jim's posts, I have always enjoyed his writing, but often I have nothing to comment in reply, so I don't say anything. This is true for a lot of bloggers I follow, and I am not generally inclined to post a banal "good post" or suchlike when I really have no thoughts about it. Why am I jabbering on about this? I don't know. I was going to talk about a song, but I got tired of staring at my phone, so I opened my laptop, and here's this entire screen just begging to be filled up with my nonsensical words. How can I resist that? NaNoWriMo is coming up, which is the perfect opportunity to fill screen after screen with meaningless words, but I will probably pass on that as I have done the last several years. Though who knows... I do like to go on and on.

OK, so the musical Hair is a good choice to mine for songs on the SLS topic for today. One of the songs however is actually a criticism of the war protestors/ draft-card burners, and that's the one that came to mind. The main characters include Hud (Dorsey Wright) who lives in Central Park after giving up his former life when he received a draft notice. In the 1979 movie version, Hud's fiancée (Cheryl Barnes) shows up with their son, referring to Hud by his real name Lafayette and asking why he's abandoned them. Hud dismisses her, as he's now more loyal to the "cause" and the ragtag protest group that Berger (Treat Williams) formed in response to the Vietnam War (though they really are protesting the idea of going over to fight and die more than the war itself). His fiancée (not given a name) continues to beg Hud to come home and launches into "Easy to Be Hard" written by Gerome Ragni / James Rado / Galt Mac Dermot for the 1967 musical Hair and covered by Three Dog Night in 1969 to great success.

How can people be so heartless?

How can people be so cruel?

Easy to be hard

Easy to be cold

Oh, how can people have no feelings?

How can they ignore their friends?

Easy to be proud

Easy to say no

Oh, especially people who care about strangers

Who care about evil and social injustice

Do you only care about the bleeding crowd?

How about a needing friend?

I need a friend [...]

Have you known people like this? I have. 

Listen to the whole song here.

Que Será, Será

Inky with my birthday sunflowers (my photo)

Today I'm trying a new prompt called Saturday: 9, basically because I can't think of anything to write for the GMT challenge. I might deal with that later; ideas are percolating. Anyway, Saturday: 9 is a series of questions, sometimes themed and sometimes not, hosted by Annie at Cottage by the Sea. This week, the theme is based on "Don't Take Your Love from Me," which Doris Day sang in 1956. Being super clever and all, I used a different Doris Day song for the title of this post. 

1) In this song, Doris Day sings about what happens when you take a petal from a rose. When did you last get or give flowers as a gift?

I received three gorgeous bouquets of flowers for my birthday at the end of April. Unfortunately, so many blooms in the same room gave me an allergy attack, and I had to put them outside the front door.

2) This song is about a woman who fears losing her love. What's the most recent thing you lost? (Hopefully it's not as consequential as a great love. It could be as small or unimportant as the back of one of your pierced earrings.) 

Funny you should mention earrings. I don't lose things often, but I did lose a tiny silver otter earring from a pair that I received as a gift from a friend. This was some months ago, and I felt certain it would turn up, but it didn't, so just this week I found them on Amazon and bought a new pair. Maybe the lost otter will turn up now!

3) Doris was known as The All-American Girl Next Door. Who lives next door to you?

On one side there's a woman named Mary with a son, a cute doggie, and a black cat. On the otter side there's some sort of mix of people, possibly a grandpa and a couple with a baby, but I'm not sure about anything except the baby. That unit constantly changes residents, and I can't keep track of them.

4) As a young girl, Doris Day was passionate about dance. She recalled that concentrating on her lessons helped distract her from the pain and embarrassment of her parents' divorce. When you want to escape from what's troubling you, what do you do?

Work on a new jigsaw puzzle, dive into a thriller novel, watch an old favorite movie, etc. 

5) The maître d' at one of Doris' favorite restaurants wanted to ask her out. Knowing how she loved her dogs, he impressed her by handing her a bag of meat scraps and bones to take home. They began dating and, in 1976, he became her last husband. What's the best way to your heart? 

I'm no longer interested in romance, but as far as friendship, a good sense of humor goes a long way with me, and I'm not talking about nasty, sarcastic humor aimed at others' misfortunes a la you know who, which is why I emphasize "good." The ability to laugh at yourself is a huge plus. 

6) Over her long career, Doris received Golden Globe and Grammy Awards and the Presidential Medal of Freedom. She was also inducted into the Ohio Women's Hall of Fame, honored for being one of the most celebrated women to have been born there. Name a famous person born in your home state.

Though I was born in New York and spent almost 10 years in Illinois, I consider California to be my home state now. I've lived in SoCal since 1983. Loads of famous people were born here, one nearby in Fullerton: Gwen Stefani.

7) She was frank about her financial difficulties, yet some people are uncomfortable discussing money. Are you one of those people?

It depends. I don't mind discussing the prices of things and commiserating with others about the cost of gas and groceries, but I'm not going to discuss my personal financial matters with anyone other than the closest of friends and family. I think I mentioned here and/ or on my defunct WordPress blog the couple times I've been the victim of a financial crime or an attempt thereof, but that's different.

8) In 1956, when Doris released this song, The Wizard of Oz was shown on network TV for the first time. What movie have you seen multiple times?

Many! Of course, as I have said repeatedly, I often rewatch both Mamma Mia movies (and I wish they'd hurry up with that hypothetical third one before all the main characters are in a nursing home, though that might be fun actually), plus I frequently rewatch other musical favorites such as Chicago, Sound of Music, Fiddler on the Roof, etc., and non-musicals such as You've Got Mail, When Harry Met Sally, 27 Dresses, The Hating Game, Young Frankenstein, etc. Getting back to the Doris Day motif, I have seen Pillow Talk at least twice.

9) Random question: Would you rather have a chef or a chauffeur?

Chauffeur, absolutely. I would love to be picked up anytime to be taken anywhere I need to go without having to worry about car maintenance, getting gas, driving, parking, insurance, or any of that crap ever again. 

Thanks for this fun batch of questions, Annie!

Pumpkin Spice Hodgepodge

Pumpkin craft I did at Michael's in 2023

I'm participating in Joyce's Hodgepodge again this week, and I thank her for the tasty autumn questions.

1. Fall arrives this week in the northern hemisphere. Does it look/feel like fall where you live? What's something you love to do this time of year that makes you feel its officially fall? 

*If you're answering today from the southern hemisphere feel free to sub spring for the word fall. 

Although the heat wave broke last week, it's still hot during the day and doesn't feel like fall at all, but it never does in September here in SoCal. What does make me aware of the change of season however is the earlier sunset, which seems sudden and dramatic, but it's the same as every year. As we head into October, I am all about everything pumpkin scented and flavored. On Friday, I went to Trader Joe's and bought pumpkin soup, pumpkin butter, and pumpkin bread mix, and this is just the beginning. I love pumpkin muffins, pumpkin pie, and pumpkin spice latte (yes, I am aware that there's no pumpkin in the latte). I'm also good with the rest of the fall flavors: apple, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, cranberry, etc.

2. What's a small daily task or chore that always seems to fall through the cracks when your schedule gets busy?

I usually get everything done that I need to do. I might forget to wear earrings if I'm rushing around to leave the house in the morning, which will annoy me immensely once I notice.

3. What's something you're falling for lately? 

I don't know. I'm watching The Slipper and the Rose from 1976 while writing this and really enjoying it, so maybe old musical movies or just old movies.

4.  Pumpkin is a popular flavor this time of year.  Are you a fan? What's your favorite pumpkin flavored food or beverage?  

Yup, totally. See above. Hard to pick a favorite though... maybe pumpkin cake with streusel topping.

5. What's something you wish would never change? Explain. 

I can't answer this question as my nature compels me to go down all the rabbit holes and find reasons why whatever I might choose would be a bad thing ultimately. I don't particularly like most change, but it's inevitable.

6. Insert your own random thought here. 

I don't know if anyone remembers when we were talking about gelato. I would like to report that I have tried it now, and it's delicious!

Where the Story Ends

Colorful music notes from Pixabay

For Jim's Song Lyric Sunday today, he asks for songs about leaving, departing, exiting, etc., and of course I thought of a scene from Mamma Mia Here We Go Again. Donna and Sam are spending an idyllic week together falling in love on a paradisical Greek island before Sam has to return to his "short-hair life" as a respectable architect. Then Donna finds a photo of Sam with his fiancée (obvious because they're in the classic engagement pose with her left hand displaying a ring). Donna freaks, runs out of Sam's rented "shack," and returns to the farmhouse she'd been staying in when they met.

No more carefree laughter

Silence ever after

Walking through an empty house

Tears in my eyes

Here is where the story ends

This is goodbye

Sam chases Donna back to the farmhouse where he begs her to talk to him. She asks him if the woman in the photo is his fiancée, and he admits she is. Then Donna asks if he told her about being engaged, and he says no. That's a little unfair because Sam tried to tell her the night they met, but Donna interrupted him to talk to the band leader. He also probably would have said something when they were canoeing to a picnic, but she went on about how they should commit to live forever on the island (after spending only one night together!), and he had to deal with that conversation instead. Of course, he probably had other chances off-screen to tell her and didn't.

Knowing me, knowing you (Ah-haa)

There is nothing we can do

Knowing me, knowing you (Ah-haa)

We just have to face it

This time we're through

(This time we're through, we're really through)

These ABBA lyrics don't fit the scene perfectly because the song is really about people who have been together a long time and have had other breakups, but it mostly works for the situation between Sam and Donna. As we know, Sam leaves the island, and Donna is heartbroken, but when he comes back for her a few weeks later, she has gone off with Bill on his boat. Donna and Sam don’t see each other again until Sophie invites him to her wedding 21 years later. (Remember that Donna slept with Harry right before she met Sam, which is why there are three possible fathers.)

Breaking up is never easy, I know

But I have to go (This time, I know)

Knowing me, knowing you

It's the best I can do

Watch the scene and hear the whole song here.

Lyrics source is Musixmatch. Songwriting credits go to Benny Goran Bror Andersson / Bjoern K. Ulvaeus / Stig Erik Leopold Anderson. The original song is from the 1977 Arrival album by ABBA.

Two for Tuesday: Money Honey

Two ducks in Los Angeles (my photo)

Today would have been my parents' 69th wedding anniversary, so it's only appropriate that I post about two love stories I watched over the weekend. Of course, the movies are fictional, and my parents' love was real, though you might not have known that if you witnessed their constant arguing. For decades, up until my mom's death in 2008, I wondered why they stayed together when they were so different, but I finally understood that they simply loved each other despite all the bickering, cold silences, and threats to leave. I vowed that my life wouldn't be that way, and it wasn't... until it was. Unlike my parents, I did get a divorce (two of them, in fact), and I never ended up with a great love like they had.

One of my parents' ongoing conflicts had to do with money, which I've read is a very common conflict, though neither of my marriages ended because of that. Both of the movies I'm reviewing have financial security as a central theme, which wasn't planned at all, but it makes this post more cohesive. 

1. Cocktail (1988) stars Tom Cruise, Elisabeth Shue, and Bryan Brown. It was written by Heywood Gould and directed by Roger Donaldson. Tom plays Brian Flanagan, who is straight out of the military and now thinks he should be able to land a high-paying job on Wall Street and make a million bucks without any experience or education. After being turned down repeatedly and told he needs a degree, Brian enrolls in college and takes a job as a bartender to pay the bills. Bryan plays Doug Coughlin, a philosophical poet of a bartender, who tries to impart his life's wisdom to "Young Flanagan" on the topics of (a) shorting drinks in a theatrical way so customers won't notice; (b) reciting poems on the spot to entertain the patrons; and (c) focusing on getting a "rich chick" to finance his future. Doug does get his rich chick, but he screws that up with bad investments, and Brian gets his eventually too ~ Jordan Mooney played by Elisabeth Shue ~ though her father vows not to help them because he doesn't like Brian (understandable from his POV). In order to get the girl, however, Brian first has to have his epiphany that money doesn't buy love or happiness. 

Critics hated this movie, but it was a smashing success with audiences and generated a huge payday. I liked it a lot (though I agree that some of the dialogue was clunky), and I particularly enjoyed the showmanship and banter between Brian and Doug. Critics complain that much of the story was "unrealistic." Yes, it's fiction, not a documentary of bartending. Critics also moan that the ending was predictable. Yes, it's a romance, and romances end happily, else they wouldn't fit the genre. This is my third or fourth rewatch.

2. Materialists (2025) stars Dakota Johnson, Chris Evans, and Pedro Pascal. It was written and directed by Celine Song. Dakota and Chris are exes Lucy and John who clearly still have feelings for each other and are both struggling financially to make it in NYC (the movie doesn't explicitly say that Lucy has money issues, but imo it's implied, and she does admit to making $80K, which isn't much in New York), and Pedro plays Harry, a super rich guy. Lucy works for a matchmaking agency, and she's perfect for the job: warm, nurturing, encouraging, etc., while brutally honest about "the math." In dating, the math means coming up with a formula consisting of age, income, background, politics, physical attraction, etc., before setting up a date. It's fun to listen to the ridiculous things people want and expect from a potential life partner while bringing quite less to the table. Reminds me of my good old days of dating and how traumatic it was to be considered and rejected, though I can laugh about it now. Lucy wants the math to work for herself too, which is why she begins a relationship with Harry, and like Brian above, she has to arrive at her epiphany moment before she ends up with the true love she craves.

Critics were much kinder toward Materialists than to Cocktail, but there really isn't much difference in my view. Both had unrealistic aspects and predictable endings. In Materialists, there's a surgery that the uber wealthy men can get for $200K that increases their height (breaking their legs and making them longer with extensions), but I don't see anyone panning that in my brief foray into reviews as they did the crazy bartending stunts. I enjoyed the film and wouldn't mind seeing it again in a few years. Dakota Johnson is one of my favorite actors, along with fellow nepo baby Kate Hudson. Hey, if they're good, I don't care who their parents are. 

I watched both movies on HBO. 

Random Meanderings...

Pic of Crystal Cove for no reason

Blogger comments don't seem to be working. I can't comment on my own blog or on anyone else's ~ and I’m sorry if my repeated tries show up as multiple comments when Blogger starts up again. I asked AI and followed the directions for all the things, but nothing worked. I haven't received a new comment in over 18 hours, nor do I see new comments on other Blogspot blogs, so I don't think it's just me. Or is it just me? I usually blame myself first whenever anything goes wrong. 

It may not be related to the commenting glitch, but I noticed that Blogger's dashboard was a bit off this week with the "B" disappearing randomly, which required a refresh to see the menu. Now all the WordPress peeps can chime in to tell me WP is better, but I know it isn't ~ I WAS THERE! For years, I dealt with all of WP's stupid glitches as a paying customer until I gave up and left. Technically, I pay for Blogger too, via Google's extra storage, but it's a small amount compared to WP and gives me storage all across Google. 

But it's a good day! I took off from work, so I now have a four (4!) day weekend, which is awesome. It's not that I hate working, but I rarely take vacations. Welp, it's been ages since I went anywhere on a "real vacation," though I have been in the habit of taking random long weekends just to use up the days. I've always been a person who needed a lot of down time just to stare at the wall. Not to mention, I have social events all four days. How did this happen? LOL

This is the time of year when I have an almost constant migraine, and yep it is happening now too. Even though my head has been somewhat better, I knew this was coming. We've had other super hot days (and it isn't even super hot right now), but there's something about the start of September that triggers me. Maybe it's psychological. I don't know. I've been trying to be gentle with myself and do all the self-care things, which help a little bit. I haven't stopped working out, but I do it less vigorously while I'm in migraine mode. Basically I just have to get through it.

I'm in a reading slump. I did read 11 books in August, which may seem like a lot for people who never read a book (sadly, this includes some of my best friends), but it's not for me. I started and abandoned a whole bunch of books because they bored me to tears. Some of them I noted on Goodreads as "DNF," but others I didn't bother recording. As I've said, I'm over romance novels (this is usually temporary, but who knows?), but I am also over thrillers. They're just so samey-same. I have Wildflower by Drew Barrymore, a memoir told in a series of vignettes, which is an NYT bestseller, so I am hoping that will be interesting.

This is embarrassing to admit, but I don't enjoy Jane Austen's writing. I made it through P&P, and I liked the movie version a lot, but Austen's writing style is so unappealing to me. I loved Persuasion with Dakota Johnson, and I have the book in my Kindle library, but I haven't read it. Same goes for Emma with Gwyneth Paltrow. (It's marked read on my Kindle, but I don't think I actually finished it. You have to mark books as read or delete them completely to get them out of your unread pile.) I saw the preview for Sense and Sensibility last Friday, which looked good, so I downloaded the book, and UGH! I simply cannot read it. I guess back then "show not tell" wasn't a thing because the whole book is tell tell tell. And while I know people spoke differently in the 1800s, I can't believe they truly engaged in such stilted dialogue. Here's a girl trying to convince her sister that the object of her affections really isn't a complete dud:

"Of his sense and his goodness," continued Elinor, "no one can, I think, be in doubt, who has seen him often enough to engage him in unreserved conversation. The excellence of his understanding and his principles can be concealed only by that shyness which too often keeps him silent. You know enough of him to do justice to his solid worth. But of his minuter propensities, as you call them you have from peculiar circumstances been kept more ignorant than myself. [...]"

It goes on and on AND ON like this, page after page. Gah. I also have Northanger Abbey, but I can't bear to open it.

I began rewatching The Sopranos on HBO, and at first I loved it. I was picking up subtle nuances that I had either forgotten on my past watches or never noticed at all, plus I was following some Facebook discussions on the same. Last night, I was about halfway through S3, when I thought eff this it's way too boring. I began scrolling on my phone, then fell asleep, and now I have zero interest in continuing this rewatch. Boo! I was having so much fun with it. What happened? I think the constant arguing (yelling) and tension among the various characters was making me feel drained. It reminded me of my parents, although they never whacked anyone, far as I know.

I guess I'm just in an "everything sucks" phase. I did enjoy the two movies I saw recently, as I posted here.

Two for Tuesday: Movies

Two ducks in Los Angeles 

Last Friday my friend and I saw Coyote vs Acme at the Bella Terra theater in Huntington Beach. (Dinner first at the Cheesecake Factory, which is always delicious, even if you don’t have dessert.) We really liked it! Just good nostalgic fun with no profound messages, except maybe a reinforcement of the thrill of the chase being superior to the catch. (Sometimes.) If you aren’t that familiar with the old cartoons however, you might not find the movie super enjoyable. Apparently, the film was inspired by a 1990 article in the NYT, which you aren’t even allowed to read as a gift article if you don’t have a subscription. Whatever. They suck.

Saturday I went up to Los Angeles in a carpool to see Project Hail Mary with other friends. These peeps have a super big TV screen, so we had the pleasure of that along with the comfort of being in a private home. I’m glad I read Andy Weir’s book first because otherwise I might have been confused at some points, especially during the backstory scenes. I really enjoyed seeing how the alien was depicted onscreen after imagining him via Andy’s words on the page. It was an excellent movie, and we all loved it. I highly recommend the book and the film. 

Unfortunately, my alien-themed cupcakes, while cute, tasted awful. Pillsbury is usually great, but the pistachio cake mix, along with the frosting, was just plain yuck. I don’t understand how they messed up so dramatically, but I had a bad feeling as soon as I opened the box and took a sniff. Since sometimes my sense of smell is off, I made them anyway (baked late Friday night and frosted Saturday morning). I definitely do not recommend this product.

I also saw The Phantom of the Opera musical at the Segerstrom Center in Costa Mesa on Sunday (told you I’ve been busy, not to mention working some OT for month-end). The tickets were a birthday gift from my daughter and son-in-law. We were all unfamiliar with the story, but the singing and costumes were gorgeous, so it was a lot of fun even if we didn’t follow 100% of what was going on. One of my close friends was at the same showing, but her seat was nowhere near us, so we couldn’t chat.

A musical version of The Great Gatsby is scheduled for next May at Segerstrom, and I hope to see that too. I am familiar with this story! I only read the book like five times and watched two versions of the movie. 

Down in the Sand

Colorful music notes from Pixabay

Sorry I've been a bit absent this week ~ it's month end at work, plus I have been a busy social butterfly. I will get to your comments on previous posts in a bit. Today for Jim's Song Lyric Sunday he asks for songs about the beach to celebrate National Beach Day. I have always lived close to a coast: New York, New Jersey, Southern California, and even in Chicago I was right on the shore of Lake Michigan, which counts too. That said, I don't spend much time at the beach, though it's nice to know it's there. 

Grease (1978) is one of my favorite musical movies, and one of the songs I love is "Summer Nights," which is told in a he said/ she said style about how Danny and Sandy met at the beach. Their friends join in to ask questions about the relationship. It begins in a sweet way and then heats up, just like a summer's day.

Summer loving had me a blast

Summer loving happened so fast

I met a girl crazy for me

Met a boy cute as can be

[...]

She swam by me, she got a cramp

He ran by me, got my suit damp

I saved her life, she nearly drowned

He showed off, splashing around

Summer sun, something's begun

But ah! Oh, the summer nights

Well-a, well-a, well-a, huh

[...]

He got friendly, holding my hand

Well, she got friendly down in the sand

He was sweet, just turned eighteen

Well, she was good, you know what I mean

[...]

Sandy was supposedly moving away at the end of the summer, so they said goodbye and exchanged their "true love vows," though apparently not phone numbers. Sandy didn't end up moving and instead showed up at Danny's high school. When their classmates asked about their summer, they told the story song "Summer Nights," giving details of their romance. Of course, they both had different viewpoints. Whose do you believe? I tend to go with Sandy's version. After the song ends, they realize they're at the same school and shenanigans ensue. Nothing like this would happen today because Danny and Sandy would be madly texting each other all along.

Enjoy the full song here.

Lyrics from Musixmatch. Songwriting credits to Jim Jacobs / Warren Casey.

Fictional Meanderings

AI dragon with jellybeans

[I wrote this earlier in my Some Thoughts on Fiction post, but then I realized it should be its own thing.]

Novels are created from a writer's imagination, as least partly, but the key for me is that they could be true, either in this world or in a fantasy world. There are all types of fiction, but for me to immerse my mind in a story, I have to find the characters and the situations believable. But what about House of the Dragon? I have mentioned my love for that show. Sure, there can be dragons (or gods, ghosts, genies, vampires, shifters, etc.), but they have to follow the rules and conform to the boundaries the writer built for the fantasy universe. Anything that is “magical” needs to follow a set of rules, preferably presented in advance, so that plot twists and resolutions avoid the dreaded deux ex machina. Non-magical events should conform to boundaries we already understand from this world, and no rules should be fudged to resolve a conflict. 

Skip this paragraph if you are familiar with the deux ex machina plot device. This is when in the stage plays of old a literal “god” (the deux) would come down from the ceiling to solve the problem. A crane-like machine would lower the actor to the stage. When we use the term now, we generally mean that the writer failed to create a resolution using the rules s/he already established in the story's universe and instead had something new swoop in to save the day. Let's consider James Bond in Live and Let Die escaping certain death via crocodiles by nimbly leaping across their backs to safety (in a suit and dress shoes!). That’s perfectly in line with the 007 character. But if the writers had decided instead to have the crocs all suddenly expire from multiple lightning strikes, that would count as a deux ex machina device and be horribly unsatisfying for the audience. Good writing always avoids this! 

Back to dragons. In the imaginary world that George R.R. Martin created for Game of Thrones, there are established rules, such as dragons don’t burn and neither will the special humans with dragon DNA, so it’s fitting that Daenerys survives infernos, but her cruel brother Viserys, who is always faking his dragon status, gets burned to death by molten gold. What isn’t believable in the story, however, is when people without antibiotics survived messy, painful, and terribly unhygienic amputations. The dragons are fine in my mind; Jaime surviving his hand getting lopped off is not.

The problem I have with most shifter romances is matter of logistics. What happens to the human clothing when a man shifts into his tiger or bear or wolf or whatever? And doesn’t he get all smelly and gross and full of parasites during his animal phase? What happens with all that when he shifts back to human form? Yes, I know that even in the spiciest novels no one talks about using the bathroom (unless that's part of the spice), but I can’t stop thinking about these “practical” issues while I’m reading, so it kind of wrecks the whole shifter story for me. 

Non-magical stories do not escape my fussy criticism either. In romance novels and romcoms, I have a huge problem with too many coincidences; often, more than one is too many. The fact that the hero and heroine meet at all is an amazing coincidence, so why pile more on top of that to make the story wobble from unbelievability? I'm a fan of Collen Hoover’s popular novel Verity (soon to be released in movie form with Anne Hathaway, Dakota Johnson, and some man), but there’s no reason for the protagonists to “pre-meet” before they actually meet at the job interview. In the novel I’m currently reading, Heartbeat at My Feet by Kristin Judd, the protags will meet when Josie travels to Sorrento, Italy with Cicero (the adorable doggie), so why did Judd create an awkward encounter between Josie and Giorgio at a gelato shop before that? It makes no sense!

In thrillers, my biggest problem is usually the protagonist acting contrary to her given character or any person really simply to further the plot. If you introduce a smart, sensible businesswoman who inherited her kooky old great-aunt's mansion, you can’t have her fall apart the minute she steps into the house and begin to make the stupidest decisions. Honestly, the only intelligent thing to do when you get bad vibes from a creepy old house is to GTFO and check into a motel (not the Bates one though), not spend the night there in your filmy nightgown and explore the basement at 3AM because you heard a weird noise. FOR PETE’S SAKE!

No, I do love fiction. Good fiction. And there’s plenty of it. You just have to sift through the dreck, which I’m generally willing to do. I finish most books that semi-annoy me because I forgive imperfect writing, but they have to contain at least one redeeming quality, like a cute dog. And gelato, whatever that is ~ apparently not ice cream, as I had previously assumed, according to AI. I don't think I've ever had gelato, but now I want some.

Watch everyone comment about the gelato and not my profound observations about fiction.

Lunchtime Share

My sweet little Inky

Before I jump into Di’s Share Your World questions, I want to acknowledge that it’s Black Cat Appreciation Day. I love my little Inkerbelle! 

1. What was your favorite TV show as a kid?

When very young, I loved Pink Panther, Speed Racer, Roadrunner, Rocky & Bullwinkle, and Let’s Make a Deal. Later on, all the game shows became favorites, especially Match Game and Hollywood Squares. As a teenager, my sitcom faves were I Dream of Jeannie, Bewitched, One Day at a Time, the Brady Bunch, and Eight is Enough. I also enjoyed detective shows like Columbo, Hart to Hart, and McMillan & Wife. I’m sure there are lots more that I am forgetting!

2. Do you have a favorite “tipple” (alcoholic drink or something when you are out for a meal, etc.)?

I love alcoholic drinks, but they don’t love me, and the older I get the worse it is. Fancy cocktails are so much fun. I used to love margaritas, mojitos, mai tais, pina coladas, Irish Coffee with tons of whipped cream, etc. ~ all those sugary, girly drinks, particularly if they came with tiny umbrellas. I went through a Bailey’s Irish Cream phase (that lasted 40 years), an amaretto phase, and a cinnamon whiskey phase. Yum! Now all of that makes me barf. 

Nowadays, I can have a glass (or two) of red wine or champagne, which may or may not give me a migraine, though since I get migraines frequently regardless, I occasionally decide that it’s worth the extra risk. If I remember to drink water afterwards, it often helps me to avoid a headache. That’s it though. No more mixed drinks or sweet liquor for me. Wah.

The vast majority of time, I order iced tea or Diet Coke.

3. Is there a movie you can watch again and again and still enjoy?

Yes, indeed. In fact, this weekend I rewatched both Mamma Mia movies while I worked on my puzzle (ironically, a pic of fancy cocktails ~ see my IG), and I enjoyed them immensely. Somewhat less frequently, I rewatch Walking on Sunshine, Chicago, Fiddler on the Roof, Saturday Night Fever, and other musicals, and romcoms such as You’ve Got Mail, When Harry Met Sally, 27 Dresses, The Hating Game, etc. And of course Young Frankenstein! I generally do not rewatch serious movies. 

4. Did you have a favorite toy as a child? Or perhaps one you wanted and never got?

I loved my Barbies, but this was back when you had a few dolls and bought outfits and accessories for them. Nowadays, you buy a whole new doll in a themed pack instead of changing their clothes. While I appreciate themes, it was a lot of fun to mix and match outfits and browse the Barbie catalog for new ones. I also loved my Super Spirograph set and spent many hours creating cool designs ~ and redoing them obsessively until they were perfect. I don’t remember if there was anything I wanted and didn’t get, except a sister.

Gratitude: I am grateful that FedEx delivered all my stuff and that I managed to connect the new Spectrum equipment without any glitches (except for my Roku being slower). My daughter asked if you only had to plug it in. WELL YES, but I am extremely talented at messing up the simplest things. She should know that!

Plane Podge

AI guy in a tux hanging onto a chopper

I'm participating in From Across the Pond's Hodgepodge 667. Thanks go out to Joyce for coming up with a bunch of interesting themed questions every week!

1. August 19th is National Aviation Day...do you like to fly? Last time you were on an airplane? The date is chosen in honor of the history and development of aviation, and celebrated on the birthday of Orville Wright. Have you ever been to the Kitty Hawk area of North Carolina? The city of Dayton in Ohio (their birthplace)?

I hate flying. I know it's safer than driving, but even so I am thrilled that both my daughters now live within reasonable driving distance. For a while, I was regularly flying up to the Bay Area to visit them because the drive took 7 hours. It wasn't the actual flight I disliked as much as the whole rigmarole of getting to the airport two hours before boarding time (drive and pay for parking or get an Uber?), navigating the massive annoying crowd at the airport, dealing with flinging my carryon in an overhead bin without hurting my back, being squashed into a tiny seat next to PEOPLE, and getting a headache on the descent. Yuck!

The last time I was on an airplane was in 2021 coming back from Oakland after visiting my daughter. She and her hubs moved to SoCal shortly afterward. I have never been to North Carolina, but I have been to Ohio (the Newark area, not Dayton) ~ my mother was born in Granville, and we occasionally visited her peeps when we lived back East. 

2. In what area of your life do you tend to 'wing it'? Is this an area you should be winging? 

I'm a planner, not a winger, but I am trying to be casual about blogging now, which I suppose is a form of winging it. When I was on WordPress, I stressed myself out by replying to multiple prompts per day, hosting prompts, replying to every comment, feeling the need to comment on everyone else's blog, etc., until it sucked up all my free time. These days, I only reply to a prompt when I have something I want to say, which means that I skip most prompts, including my own that I made special images for, such as Two for Tuesday and Thursday 13. While I do have a post scheduled for this Tuesday, it will probably be a while before I come up with another thirteen related statements. Yes, when I do it, the statements must be related to a theme!

Should I be winging my blogging? Yes, absolutely. I have a lot more free time now, which means that I read many more books and watch many more movies. Ironically, that gives me more blogging material.

3. A favorite book, song, or movie that relates to flight in some way?   

I just read Final Descent by Audrey J. Cole, which I liked a lot ~ it was about a pilot who was being gaslit by her ex-husband, culminating in a cockpit fight with a creep he had hired to ruin her life. (Nice illustration of how both dating and flying are terrifying and should be avoided.) A year or so ago, I read her full-length novel Missing in Flight about a baby who was kidnapped aboard a plane while his mom went to the bathroom. It was really good, and I recommend it!

Should I confess that I kinda enjoyed the ridiculous movie Snakes on a Plane? LOL

For music, how about the beautiful and sad song "Early Morning Rain" by Gordon Lightfoot? 

Hear the mighty engines roar

See the silver wing on high

She's away and westward bound

Far above the clouds she'll fly

Where the morning rain don't fall

And the sun always shines

She'll be flying o'er my home

In about three hours time

4. Soft serve, gelato, sherbet, frozen yogurt, or good old fashioned ice cream...what's your pleasure? Your favorite flavor? How often do you indulge? 

Wait, what? How does this relate to flight? Maybe like they do with booze, we can set up a froyo flight of vanilla, strawberry, coconut, and mango samplers. Don't forget the toppings! My favorite is one of those bases with strawberries, mango, and coconut on top. I used to like vanilla with peanut butter cup pieces smashed in, but lately I find that just too sweet and blech. I'm not sure if I've ever had gelato. I don’t have frozen treats that often. Way back when, I used to be "addicted" to Ben & Jerry's vanilla with cookie dough, but I don't buy their products now because REASONS.

5. I never get tired of______________________. 

Mamma Mia movies. Relating them to the theme, you do have to take a flight to Athens and then a ferry to get to the island of Kalokairi, where the fictional Hotel Bella Donna (formerly the Villa Donna) is located. Or if you are wealthy, like Sophie's grandmother, you can charter a helicopter to take you from Athens to the island. Oh, I see from Google that the island is also fictional. Huh. Learn something new every day!

6. Insert your own random thought here. 

I sometimes think that I'm obsessive, but then I run into true obsessives and realize that I'm not even anywhere close to their level. Being competitive by nature, I will sometimes experience a sudden urge to out-obsess the obsessives, but that impulse is generally squelched quickly because I'm also lazy.

Two for Tuesday: Nonfiction

Two ducks in Los Angeles (my photo)

As I mentioned earlier, I’m trying to get out of my reading rut of thrillers and romances by choosing other genres and even nonfiction when the mood moves me. Here are two reviews of nonfiction books I read in July.

1. When the Earth Had Two Moons by Erik Asphaug. As a layperson, I enjoyed this book very much. Some of the science (ok, most of it) was over my head, but I still managed to learn a lot from the way the author tried to make it more easily digestible with metaphors and such. Sometimes the language became quite poetic! It definitely heightened my curiosity to read further on the topic and also made me more aware of the crucial need to fund space exploration. Four stars.

2. Marley & Me by John Grogan. I didn’t expect to cry at the end of this book because honestly Marley seemed like such an annoyance to put up with. I could not have handled having this giant destructive dog in my home, even with a man around to do most of the wrassling. The descriptions of the constant drool were enough in themselves for me to nope out. Kudos to Grogan for making most of the misadventures sound funny and ultimately heartwarming. When Marley’s decline began, I did get the feels, especially because it all reminded me of the loss of my own pets, one of which was relatively recent (RIP Gatsby). Overall, this was a very enjoyable read, including the teary parts. Four stars. 

PS: Marley & Me was made into a movie in 2008 starring Owen Wilson and Jennifer Aniston. It was good, but the book was better.

A Pearly 'Podge

With my pink pearls in Queens, NY (1988)

I'm participating in Joyce's Hodgepodge again this week by responding to the following questions.

1. What's something on your August calendar you're looking forward to? Or dreading if that's easier to answer. 

My daughter and son-in-law are treating me to a production of The Phantom of the Opera at the end of August, and I am very much looking forward to that, as I have never seen it live, only a bit of it on TV. I'm also seeing Project Hail Mary at a friends' house, and I plan to make alien-themed cupcakes to bring for the potluck. I finally ordered a proper cupcake carrier so my treats don't get all smushed in transit.

2. August 5th is National Oyster Day...do you partake? How do you feel about pearls? 

When I was a kid on the East Coast we ate raw oysters all the time, and they were delicious! Nowadays, it's really dangerous to eat raw shellfish, so I never do. I'm even wary of sashimi (got very sick from it in 2016 around the time I met the ghost guy) and usually order cooked fish with the very occasional exception of tuna or salmon (the crabmeat or fake crabmeat in California roll sushi is always cooked). My mom made oyster stuffing a few times, and I absolutely loved it, though generally there aren't that many opportunities to order cooked oysters. I'm not a fan of oyster soup, which for some strange reason my parents always had on New Year's Eve. 

As far as pearls, they're okay. I have some pretty pink pearls that I received as an engagement gift, but I don't wear them often (see the photo above). I enjoy the scene in Mamma Mia Here We Go Again when Donna and Bill go diving and find an oyster with a pearl in it.

3. Tell us about a time when you felt like 'the world was your oyster'. 

Uh, I don't know. I guess the good life was mine when my girls were little and my ex's business was successful. I didn't have to work. We had a nice house, and I didn't worry about money. My parents were still around and healthy. Etc. That lasted from around 1992 to 1998.

4. Trip Advisor lists seven islands in the US that require no passport (for US citizens). If you're answering today from outside the US you'll still need to produce yours. An-y-way, have you been to any of the seven? Let's pretend you get an all expense paid trip to one this month...which one do you choose and why? 

Catalina Island California~Martha's Vineyard Massachusetts~Mackinac Island Michigan~Key West Florida~South Padre Island Texas~or Kauai Hawaii

I have been to Catalina and Kauai, both of which are gorgeous. Since I am not a fan of plane travel, I would choose an all expense paid trip to Catalina again (from where I live, you take a ferry over).

5. Sylvia Plath is credited with the following- 

"August rain: the best of the summer gone, and the new fall not yet born. The odd uneven time."

Agree or disagree? In other words, how do you feel about this month? 

I don't feel the best of summer has gone, at least not this year. As I said at first, I have at least two fun events coming up in August and possibly more. While I used to look forward to September, I don't now because of the beastly hot weather and horrible winds here in coastal Southern California. September is migraine central, basically (although mine have improved a bit, so we'll see). I do enjoy October, when it cools off a bit and we start talking about Halloween.

6. Insert your own random thought here. 

I didn't get a great night's sleep last night, so I am enjoying a slow, lazy day of not doing much, while trying to work up the energy for aerobics. Later, I will watch S3 episode 7 of House of the Dragon.

Tiger Striped Hodgepodge

Meta AI created image of "tiger fudge"

Happy last week of July! I am participating in Joyce's Hodgepodge again this week by answering the following questions.

1. What was the last thing you celebrated? 

We celebrated a friend's birthday with a Friday dinner at BJ's and seeing The Odyssey. I enjoyed the film but it was very loud, very long, and very violent. I wore earplugs the whole time, which someone told me to do, and I definitely appreciated that advice. Saturday the party continued at the Orange County Fair where we attended the fabulous (and glittery) combo cover band concert of Kenny Metcalf as Elton John and ABBA LA. Very fun! I wandered around the fair for a couple hours, mostly staying indoors to see the exhibits because I enjoy them and also because the weather has been extremely hot and humid here. Sunday (today) my family got together for a pool party and to celebrate (a bit belatedly) my grandson's birthday. He seemed happy with the FIFA themed foosball tabletop game I gave to him.

2 July 29th is International Day of the Tiger. Besides the wild animal itself, when you hear the word tiger what's the first  person-place-thing-whatever that comes to mind? 

Tiger fudge. This ridiculously delicious treat is made with melted milk chocolate chips, melted white chocolate chips, and heated peanut butter. You pour each layer in a pan separately and then swirl a knife through the whole thing to make it stripey. Refrigerate it until completely cold and then cut it into little squares. Meta AI didn't know what tiger fudge was, but after I described it, I ended up with the above pic, which I think is adorable.

3. The expression 'eye of the tiger' describes someone with intense focus, determination, and the drive to succeed. What area of your life are you currently bringing that kind of energy to?  

I don't have this level of focus and determination any longer. I prefer to do things at a moderate pace, probably because when I was focused and determined, it didn't lead to the success I wanted, so why not enjoy life a bit more? For example, I no longer force myself to get up at 4AM and write for three hours before work. That didn't lead to publishing success, so I might as well get more sleep.

4. What was the last meal you cooked? 

Hahaha. I don't cook for one person (myself), except for the simplest things like an occasional omelet. It's too hot to cook now anyway, and I prefer salads and fruit bowls with yogurt or cottage cheese.

5. Describe your July using exactly five words. 

Hot, humid, exercising, reading, blogging.

6. Insert your own random thought here. 

I had over 3000 views on this blog yesterday, which is disturbing, since I know they're almost all bots. What do they want from me? I think the massive view numbers began when I did April A2Z this past April, and they've been rising steadily. Before that, I hardly had any visitors, so the bots must scrape blog addresses from public lists, such as A2Z.

Honey, Honey

The cast of MM2

I’m participating in Jim’s Song Lyric Sunday again this week, and today he asks for songs about candy, honey, sugar, or sweet. Naturally, I have to feature “Honey, Honey” from ABBA, except I am not using the original 1974 version but the one sung by Amanda Seyfried in the 2008 Mamma Mia movie instead, which I think is better, more emotional, and not as smoothly cool. 

When the movie begins, Sophie greets her friends Ali and Lisa who have arrived at the fictional Greek island of Kalokairi for Sophie's wedding, which is the next day. Sophie tells them she has a big announcement, so of course they immediately think she's pregnant, but that's not it. What happened is that Sophie has found her mother's diary from the summer when Donna was pregnant with Sophie. 

All these years, Donna has maintained the lie that Sophie's dad was a nameless one-night stand who disappeared before Donna knew she was pregnant. But the diary reveals a different story. From the diary, Sophie and her friends learn that Donna had three relationships in a very short span of time, and one of those men is Sophie's father. Not only that, but full names are included in Donna's diary. We hear about Sam Carmichael first...

Honey honey, how you thrill me, a-ha, honey honey

Honey honey, nearly kill me, a-ha, honey honey

I'd heard about you before

I wanted to know some more

And now I know what they mean, you're a love machine

Oh, you make me dizzy

Sophie reads from the diary the heartbreaking account of how Sam left Donna and returned home to the girl he'd been engaged to the whole time, which of course makes Ali and Lisa feel terrible for Donna. But not to worry! Bill Anderson shows up, and though Donna is still depressed about Sam, she goes with Bill for a sail around the islands, and dot dot dot ~ "that's what they did in the olden days!" 

Honey honey, let me feel it, a-ha, honey honey

Honey honey, don't conceal it, a-ha, honey honey

The way that you kiss goodnight

(The way that you kiss me goodnight)

The way that you hold me tight

(The way that you're holding me tight)

I feel like I wanna sing when you do your thing

Finally, we learn about the third man, Harry Bright, Donna's friend from Paris who shows up "out of the blue" after Donna has slept with Sam and Bill, and dot dot dot...

Honey honey, touch me, baby, a-ha, honey honey

Honey honey, hold me, baby, a-ha, honey honey

You look like a movie star (look like a movie star)

But I know just who you are (I know just who you are)

And honey, to say the least, you're a doggone beast

Note that the 2018 prequel sequel shows these events a bit differently. In MM2, Donna meets Harry in Paris and spends a night with him. The next day she travels to Greece, where she meets Bill, who offers her a ride on his boat when she misses her ferry ~ Donna and Bill do not sleep together at this point because they are interrupted by an SOS from Alexio. After helping Alexio, Bill goes off to his boat race, Donna meets Sam on Kalokairi, and Donna and Sam become lovers. When Sam leaves to return to his fiancée, Bill shows up again, and then he and Donna sleep together on his boat. Harry does not return to Kalokairi in MM2, and so Donna goes through her pregnancy and childbirth sans the baby daddy (whoever he is) with help from Sofia, a local woman, who may or may not be related to Bill. 

Some of you may think that I know a little too much about these Mamma Mia movies, and to that I say pffft. Anyway, after the girls are done with Donna's diary, Sophie stands alone at her window and the song subtly switches from being about the three men as Donna's lovers to Sophie needing to find out which one is her father in order to feel complete. Spoiler: she has invited all three men to her wedding and believes she will know which one is her dad at first sight. Ha ha ha. I'm so excited because there are rumors of an MM3, in which we will learn the true identity of Sophie's bio-dad (to date, she's fine with having "three dads").

Listen (and watch) the MM1 song and movie clip here. Songwriting credits go to Benny Goran Bror Andersson / Bjoern K. Ulvaeus / Stig Erik Leopold Anderson. I copied the lyrics from LyricFind.

Two for Tuesday: Dramas

Two ducks in Los Angeles (my photo)

I enjoyed a couple dramas on HBO recently, so I will share them with you now.

1. Knox Goes Away (2024) stars Michael Keaton, who also directed, Al Pacino (always great), and James Marsden (love him from 27 Dresses, Enchanted, etc.). This film asks the question: what if a hitman got dementia? If Knox hadn't been a hitman, he would have made a tragically romantic hero whose mind is dissolving with disease. But he is, in fact, a murderer, so that complicates things. Knox and his friend Xavier (Pacino) come up with a system to deal with the dementia while at the same time helping Knox's son Miles (Marsden) beat a murder charge himself. Suzy Nakamura plays a police detective who has to deal with coworker sexism while trying to solve the case. The movie held my interest throughout.

2. Juror #2 (2024) stars Nicholas Hoult and is directed by Clint Eastwood. Juror Justin (Hoult) realizes he may have accidentally committed the crime that’s being tried, and he has to decide what to do. We watch him wrestle with his conscience throughout the film. Toni Collette plays the prosecutor, and I have to revise my opinion of her. I’ve avoided her for years because of that absolutely awful movie Hereditary, but I didn’t notice that she was in this movie at first. She was great! All the acting was top-notch, and the story was twisty and unpredictable, in the best of ways. If Juror #2 were a book, I would be tempted to give it 5 stars.

Two for Tuesday: Movies Again

 

Two ducks in Los Angeles (my photo)

1. Two if By Sea (1996). This romcom stars Sandra Bullock (Roz), one of my favorite actors, and Denis Leary (Frank). Yaphet Kotto (RIP) plays a detective (O'Malley), and you might remember him in the dual roles of Dr. Kanaga and Mr. Big from Live and Let Die, as well as many other roles over the years, Bill Bennett directs. Frank is a small-time Boston thief who steals a $4M painting he plans to hand over to "Phill the Shill," a big-time criminal who is presumed dead by most in law enforcement, except for O'Malley (who has a personal vendetta against Phill). Roz is a bookstore clerk and Frank's long-suffering girlfriend, who wants Frank to give up his criminal ways and become a legit citizen/ husband/ father, but in the meantime she helps him because she's a lot smarter than he is.

Frank decides to make a long weekend out of the art thievery escapade, so he and Roz end up crashing at an unoccupied house in a ritzy area, where Roz meets a wealthy, handsome neighbor who falls in love with her, and she considers dumping Frank. There are some funny side characters, including Michael Badalucco, who has been in a zillion movies. I wouldn't say this is great romcom, but there are some laughs, and Sandra is always enjoyable. I watched this on Netflix over the July 4th weekend.

2. Ladies First (2026). This movie would have been hilarious on July 4, 1986, but it felt dated as a new movie. It stars Sasha Baron Cohen and Rosamund Pike, and it's directed by Thea Sharrock. Charles Dance costars, and you may remember him as Tywin Lannister in Game of Thrones. I certainly do! The acting is top notch, but the premise that a misogynistic bully male boss hits his head and is magically transported to a parallel world where women are in charge feels a bit "been there done that" to me. There are many funny moments at first, but they soon grow repetitive and stale. We get it, OK: everyone wants to be respected, yada yada. The idea that a man would feel bad about being treated like a sex object by women doesn't really work because I don't think most men would feel bad! The movie should have focused more on gender-based pay disparities, which isn't dated because it's still happening, but I guess that's not as funny as penile implants. 

Usually, I don't bother reviewing movies I don't like, but I did watch Ladies First to the end and figured it deserved a bit of a write-up since it's new and being hyped on Netflix.

Two for Tuesday: Movies

 

Two ducks in Los Angeles (my photo)

I watched a few movies over the holiday weekend and will present two reviews here. I don’t generally review movies I dislike or don’t watch until the end, so these are ones I enjoyed, at least somewhat. 

1. Fatale (2020), a psychological thriller directed by Deon Taylor, starring Michael Ealy and Hilary Swank. This movie received mixed reviews with many on the negative side, and maybe if I had seen it in a theater I would have been disappointed, but I didn’t, so I wasn’t. The basic premise is similar to Fatal Attraction, where a married man tries to have a no strings attached one-night stand, but… complications ensue. In Derrick’s case, his hookup in Vegas didn’t stay in Vegas, but instead turned out to be the detective who is assigned to his home invasion. Whoops. Oh, and it turns out she’s an unhinged lunatic who tries to frame him for murder. Some of the twists are predictable, but others are fun, and overall it kept my attention. (Netflix.)

2. Speaking of Michael Douglas (Fatal Attraction), by amazing coincidence he starred in the second movie I watched on Netflix: And So It Goes. This 2014 romcom was directed by the late, great Rob Reiner and also starred Diane Keaton. It’s not your typical romantic comedy since the protagonists are in their 60s, but it contains the usual elements of a grumpy real estate guy, a sad but sweet heroine, a precocious child who charms everyone, and a bunch of semi-wacky side characters, including RR himself. The excellent acting made up for the cliched storyline, and I enjoyed it.

Happy Tuesday!

Blueberry Hodgepodge

Fruit salad image from Pixabay

I'm participating in Joyce's Hodgepodge (from this side of the pond) again this week, where she asks a series of interesting questions.

1. What's something you enjoy now that your younger self would never have appreciated? 

I appreciate a weekend with absolutely no social plans so I can read, exercise, watch TV, putter around on my blog, work on a puzzle, and basically do whatever I please with zero obligation to anyone else. When I was younger, I would feel anxious and lonely if I had no social plans. 

2. What was peaceful about today? 

See above! This is my third day of me-time with no social plans, and I'm enjoying every moment. I've exercised a lot, read a lot, and watched a bunch of silly movies, including Mamma Mia for the zillionth time. Now that the fireworks are over, it's quiet and lovely... I'm taking the opportunity to create more blog pages and posts to schedule for later.

3. It's National Blueberry Day (July 8). Will you celebrate?  You can have one of the following right now-a slice of blueberry pie, a warm blueberry muffin, or a stack of blueberry pancakes...which do you choose?

I celebrate blueberries every week! They're super nutritious and delicious. I usually have them plain, but for a decadent treat I mix them with a rice pudding cup. Any of the choices presented would be fine. If I had to choose, I'd probably go with the pie as it's the most blueberryish.

This or that-blueberries or raspberries? blueberries or strawberries? 

Blueberries always, thank you. I do enjoy them mixed with strawberries, banana slices, and grapes. The peaches in the image look delicious, but I find peaches, nectarines, and mangoes from the grocery store to be very hit-or-miss as far as texture/ taste. Coconut is a welcome addition to any fruit medley for me.

4. Do you need a break? From what? 

I am on a "break" until the next month-end at work, which is always super stressful lately. Until the 20th or so, everything is fine.

5. What has surprised you most about getting older? 

My complete loss of interest in dating. For several years after my divorce, I was obsessed with the idea of meeting someone new and having the "once in a lifetime" fabulous romance that I missed when younger. It didn't happen, and around 8 years ago, the desire vanished. This occurred after a totally disastrous (short) relationship that spun me into a depression for quite some time, and when the black dog slunk away, so did any longing for love (of the romantic variety). It continues to surprise and delight me that I have no interest, especially when I see people, even my age, angsting over how awful it all is. It is awful! No offense to anyone who has found their person, but searching for one when you're older is a nightmare.

6. Insert your own random thought here. 

The two kitties who live here (my Inky and my housemate's Autumn) had no reaction whatsoever to all the noisy fireworks last night. The booming began before sundown (seems like a waste to me, but what do I know?) and continued on for hours and hours. I went to bed around midnight, and it was still super loud outside. The cats though? Business as usual.