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StepFord Files

1970’s literary departure. Robertson Davies’ Fifth Business. The first of his Deptford Trilogy. Pre-WW I through WW II, the evolution of small-town Canadians’ intertwined lives. Sullen narrative with prosaic nuggets.

MarchVanityFair. Rupert Murdoch’s ex-Wendi Deng story. Riveting. Scientology scion wife mystery. Intriguing. How does General Hospital get away with calling its resident nut house ‘Miscavige Hospital for the Criminally Insane’? Hilarious.

Downton finale. Already? SoapOpera digested. Mary has become insufferable as she commands her two suitors to spar for her hand. At least she didn’t spill the beans on Bates. An uneven season ends with royal romance, avenged violation, new baby on the landscape. The Levinson’s tour portends tremors to come. Hughes-Carson liaison doesn’t quite resonate. We wait for Barrow’s next move.

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So Long Sochi

Bye bye. Sochi Games. February. Putin. Russia-Ukraine alliance. Won’t miss ya. MauDowd’s brilliant NYTimes column on leadership. Thoughtful Inaction vs. Thoughtless Action. Obama vs. Bush doctrines. Christie as future king.

Is Spring around the corner? Happy and positive prospect. mAdBen captured the sentiment from his mAd office window. Can MadMen7 be far behind?

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Best In Snow

Wire-haired terrier won. Apologies to Pepper and Rascal, but for me the bloodhound ruled. No problem having dogs outshine handlers. Maybe next year outfits from Target instead of WalMart. Is that too much to ask?

Olympics. Bob Costas’ pink-eye leads that news. Half-pipe too slow. Oh no. Not the best show. American Idol resurgence. Great judges and talent this season.

As for snow. We are in the double-digit prediction purple glow on the map. Shovels, ho.

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Auld Year

photo-49What does the fox say? I was ring-ling
wa-pow hanging out in Candy’s backyard.

Fantasy football done. Time for gridiron grit. September predictions still in play. Joey3Sticks said Denver over Seattle 27-17. Could be the early pick of the year. I thought Seahawks over Pats, no score. Hoping for another wildcard sneak into SuperBowl. 49ers over Pats. That would be most fun. Let the hashmarks begin.

If we can see them. Blizzard alert.
Happy 2014?!

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2013

GOOD

FoxSports1- Reege Crowd Goes Wild
Game of Thrones– Red Wedding
Hotel Giraffe
Gramercy Tavern, Da Silvano
MadDad Photo Contest- Side Trek
Joey3Sticks- 50 Clambake
Book of Mormon, Motown
Fabritius’ Goldfinch at the Frick

BAD

Carnival (Ted) Cruz
Phippy wins British Open
Boston Marathon Djokers
Trayvon Martin jury
Carlos’ undangerous Weiner

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Kranky Kristmas 4

Delta Barcelona-JFK. Ceiling falls on lady’s head. Media screen broken. Wires dangling. 7-hour flight. Amtrak NY- Springfield. 40 minutes late. Nicked exciting end of Niners’ last game at the “stick”. They win. Yay.

Kristmas Eve lobster at JeanJean’s. Cuzins playing and singing. Priceless. IMG_0854

If you want to laugh out loud, read Delia Ephron’s A Christmas Manners Quiz. Happy Kristmas to all and to all a good night!

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Tales of Two Cities

In New York City, a homeless family’s life is chronicled in the Times. In Boston, an outcast Chechen family’s psychological unraveling is told in the Globe. Award-winning level of journalism. Better than any books I’ve read this year.

NY Times‘ series focuses on an 11-year old girl in Andrea Elliott’s exposé, “Invisible Child. Girl in the Shadows. Dasani’s Homeless Life”.  Named for the bottled water because it represented wealth, Dasani treads above the depths of an urban shelter. With many siblings and incompetent parents, Dasani at her young age keeps them all from drowning completely. She is miraculously smart and talented. It serves her well but also works against her as she feels responsible to keep her family afloat. Hard to predict whether her wits will be enough to escape the obstacles of their needs and her environment.

Boston Globe’s “The Fall of the House of Tsarnaev”, tells two stories of two brothers. I dubbed them at the time, Brothers KaramazOff, April 24, 2013. Boston Marathon bombers. A spiral of bad luck, degenerate genes, and failed dreams with a pinch of radical religion turn anger into terrorist violence.

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Tartt Tale

Dickens meets Nietzsche meets Dostoyevsky in Donna Tartt’s third novel. Fabritius’ The Goldfinch, is the masterpiece of this tale. It becomes young Theodore Decker’s only glimmer of light as his life is blown to smithereens one afternoon at the Metropolitan Museum post- 9/11. As fate fractures, the tethered finch on a shelf foretells shackles of guilt and self-loathing.

Full review on TrekBooks. Painting at The Frick Collection thru Jan 19. DutchMasters. No. Not the cigars.

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DecEmbers

Mandela center stage. Recall writing policy at Wells Fargo Bank in San Francisco 1980’s. Consulted with Laura Tyson at UC Berkeley to apply Sullivan Principles to multi-national clients. California was a leader in anti-apartheid sanctions. Seems forever ago.

Flipping over to live Sound of Music on NBC last night. Morbid curiosity. Stilted acting, cheesy sets, bad singing. If it wasn’t an SNL skit, it should be.

Sightings… Joan Rivers in white ermine at Twelfth Night on Broadway…mAdBen rave reviews for Mark Rylance as Olivia…CandyPants at Yankee Candle in Deerfield…what?…JeanJean dipping roast beef sandwich at Farm Table in Bernardston…holiday oddities. Bon Sinter Klaas weekend.