books, entertainment, magazines, movies

Veronica & Jane

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I just met a woman from Ireland named Veronica.  She was standing in the town square in Basingstoke, UK near a statue of Jane Austen.  How’s that?

I video called my sister via WhatsApp.  When she answers, she was talking to a friend of hers on the street and introduced me.  I showed Veronica the snowy landscape in Lethbridge, just outside my windows.  It just so happened that we’ve had about a foot (30cm) of snow.  She was quite amazed.  Aizlynn showed the town square, a quaint, picturesque place.  There is a statue of the writer, Jane Austen, nearby.  We read some plaques on the ground showing bits of into.

Aizlynn & Caleb were on their way out to supper, so off they went.

completed puzzle – Busy Trains

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Floyd, and to a lesser extent I, finally completed the Busy Trains puzzle.

This was an unusual puzzle in that each of the puzzle pieces’ shapes were so extremely close to similarly coloured pieces.  Yes, I know, that’s what puzzle makers do.  But the extent to which this was done was maddening, making it necessary to remove and replace several dozen pieces.  Maddening, I tell you!

The Orville

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I just finished watching The Orville, a spin-off of Star Trek (that isn’t really actually Star Trek).  They made three seasons.  I hope they eventually resurrect it and create more.

I got the impression from reading about it that it would be a goofy spoof, full of slap-stick and fart jokes.  Not so.  Sure, it has a bit of that, but mixed in was suspense, plot twists, intrigue, humanism, social commentary, and drama, along with great acting.  Hell, even Dolly Parton made a cameo!

Then again, I think they made a mistake by cancelling Enterprise, so what do I know?

Alex Trebek

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Today Alex Trebek has been gone for one year.  It seems less than that, like a few months ago.  Mom & Floyd would watch Jeopardy together, one of the few TV shows of late they watched together.  The producers have cycled through a few ‘guest hosts’ since his death, but no one has replaced him.

lost all right

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Floyd is watching Jurassic World this evening – people and dinosaurs running around eating each other.  I was just remembering a show I apparently watched way back as a kid called Land of the Lost.  Talk about lost.  I must have lost my mind to have watched this.   Have a watch and see if you can get past the first 15 minutes.

a little lonesome bluegrass (times three)

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Three different versions from different artists of Lonesome and Dry As a Bone.

Dave Leatherman (excellent artist; unfortunately, the song is cut at the end)
Ricky Skaggs & Kentucky Thunder (a well-done version, very polished, with an excellent band)
Joe Diffie (getting back to his roots with a down-home rendition)

Any favourites?  Notice they’re all in the same key?  What do you mean you don’t like bluegrass?

NGM Bible hunters

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I got an email today from National Geographic.  They have a series called Bible Hunters.  Some investigative journalism on the history of the Bible, I guess, which is all well and good.  It’s a pretty well-known set of texts (if not accurately known).

But I was also watching a YouTube video produced by National Geographic called The Bible’s Buried Secrets National Geographic Documentary HD.  I very rarely see such bias ‘journalism’ from reputable names like yours.  My comments:

This video begins interesting but not too much later gives a poor impression. At 12:00, the video loses ground (no pun intended). Genesis chapter 8 states the rains lasted 40 days & nights. It says the water subsided, not the rains, after 150 days. These are two different concepts. One sentence states it rain, and one states the waters started receding. As well, it clearly states that first a raven was sent out and then, later, a dove. Why is this contradictory? It seems to me that it isn’t. I thought this documentary would rely on ‘documents’ (“documentary”?), but so far it doesn’t hold water (again, no pun intended). It’s like someone saying, “I ate eggs for breakfast and pasta for lunch,” and someone else saying, “Well which is it – which did you eat – eggs or pasta?”

So forgive me, NGM; although I have thoroughly enjoyed your magazines, have a collection of them in paper and electronic form, and have a library of your videos, your journalism shows your true colours.

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