All Purls. No Swine.
409 years ago this month, we observe the anniversary of the death of Miguel de Cervantes, on April 22, 1616. Cervantes' greatest creation, Don Quixote, a lower-class (dare I say deplorable?) fellow who was driven to fantasies of heroism due to his mid-life immersion in, and obsession with, works of knightly valor, remains the most… Continue reading A Missed Opportunity: W.H. Auden and the Lyrics of Man of La Mancha
I occasionally listen to Ben Shapiro's podcast, which I find--in about equal parts--annoying as hell, very much on-point, and generally literate. (The final point distinguishes him from Dave Rubin, whose heart might be in the right place, but who regularly exposes himself as largely unserious and quite ignorant. The last time I noticed that was… Continue reading Ben Shapiro, Movie Critic?
Mitzi Gaynor, star of stage and screen for over seventy years, died today at the age of 93. She's an inextricable part of my childhood, and the female lead in the first movie I ever saw. Here's a reflection from a couple of years ago: I saw my first movie, ever, in the UK, when… Continue reading “Get a Load of Honeybun Tonight!” Rest in Peace, Mitzi Gaynor.
Apologies to A.A. Milne: But now I’m six, I'm as clever as clever. So I think I'll be six now, forever and ever! I guess this was really just the sixty-fourth anniversary of my turning six. (For God's sake, check the math; it was never my strong point). And I'm deliriously happy with the result. … Continue reading Now I Am Seventy
Answer: People mostly concerned about money and/or (increasingly) politics is my guess. Case in point, the casting of Tom Cruise as Lee Child's anti-hero in the two "Jack Reacher" movies released a few years ago. I was a fan of the books, and read them as fast as Child churned them out (pretty fast; the… Continue reading Who Makes Those Casting Decisions, Anyway?
Here's a minor reworking of a post originally from five years ago on Ricochet. I've updated and edited a couple of things, but--in the main--it stands: "Diamonds are a girl's best friend:" I can’t be sure that’s true, because I’ve never owned a single one. But certainly, if I were to try and come up… Continue reading “Diamonds Are A Girl’s Best Friend”
A few years ago, I wrote a post on "The Great American Novel." What follows, on this, just the eighty-eighth anniversary of the publication of Margaret Mitchell's Gone With The Wind (what a very young country is this United States), is a lightly edited version of that post, and a few remarks on why we… Continue reading From Gone With the Wind to China Beach, The “N-Word” in Popular Culture
I saw my first movie ever in the UK, when I was five years old. it was 1959, and Dad was on leave from Nigeria. We were living in the family home in Droitwich, and Granny, Mum, and I went to Birmingham's West End Cinema to see a much-celebrated American import. Those were the days… Continue reading There is Nothing Like a Dame: 75 Years Later
Forty-one years ago today, on February 28, 1983, the final episode of the television series M*A*S*H aired. It had almost 110 million viewers, in a world where such numericals were hithertofore unknown, making it one of the most-watched episodes ever. That last episode, "Goodbye, Farewell and Amen," was memorialized here. It took ten years for… Continue reading Mash Up? Tell Me More
Cannot believe it's here already. Where has January gone? And February almost half-over! (That it isn't quite, in about 23 hours--in my time zone--can only be attributed to the fact that this is a leap year.) Ubi sunt? (The Latinistas among us (the one or two that I know of) will understand this.) It's a… Continue reading Pancake Tuesday, 2024