Miss Misc

I had a mostly written post for tonight about event-organizing, and then I realized I should maybe see if the big event I helped organize for two days from now falls into the sea before I go around making pronouncements, so that leaves me with a very well-prepared Thursday post and nothing much for today. But…I guess I can catch you up on a few miscellaneous things her in Rose-coloured land…

1. I read my first Agatha Christie novel and did not like it. I was so excited when I finally read The Hobbit earlier this summer and found it a lovely little wonderland, if a bit slow in spots. But my streak of catching up on literary phenomena from the past 100 years does not continue: I found Then There Were None by AC very dull and dark. I’m really trying not to yuck anyone’s yum, and I know this is either just a personal preference or I am just wrong, as AC is the best-selling author of fiction of all time, but gosh, not for me. I guess one cannot like everything.

2. On the other hand, I have been enjoying the Netflix show Long Story Short immensely. Mark likes cartoons for grownups and I like sitcoms, and this is a nice blend of those genres. It is also just deeply well written and funny, if occasionally a little silly. If a thing (or a person) is going to have a flaw, I mind silly much less than most other flaws. Long Story Short is a ten-episode series about a Jewish family, rocketing over a thirty year period from when the kids were small in the 1990s to nowish, when they are grown and have kids of their own. It shows, more or less, how they became the adults they became, or taken in reverse, how all that childhood stuff worked out. It takes the ramifications of childhood psychological stuff seriously but not, you know, too seriously. It is, as i say, a pretty silly show. It also takes Jewish cultural stuff in a way that I almost, but not quite, get. I almost never fully vibe with “Jewish” shows and books (as opposed to shows and books with Jewish characters—I think we all know the difference but it’s hard to explain). After hating Nobody Wants This and The Marvelous Mrs Maisel and only watching This Is Where I Leave You with a degree of embarrassment (Jean-Ralphio plays a rabbi) it’s nice to see something that does Jewishness in a way that seems smart and funny to me.

3. You should know that we had this conversation at lunch today, regarding planning Mark’s birthday celebrations. It refers back to an earlier, untranscribed discussion of celebration snacks, which Mark had also had concerns about.
   RR: Have you reconsidered on the crown?
   MS: I don’t want to wear a crown.
   RR: Ok, it’s your birthday, you can do what you want.
   MS: Good.
   RR: No crown… I have party hats in the cupboard. Is that ok?
   MS: Well, I don’t know…
   RR: Fine, fine, no hat. It’s your birthday! If you want to be naked, you can be naked.
   MS: I won’t be naked! I will be wearing clothes!
   RR: Clothes, but no hat. Your head will be naked.
   MS: I’ll wear a party hat if you want me to.
   RR: No, I want you to do what you want for your birthday. I cannot bully you into things on your birthday. Those are the rules. If you want to be naked all day and only eat cocktail onions, that is your right.
   MS: Hey, hey, this isn’t a Friday night when you’re out of town, this is my 50th birthday! I’ll wear clothes!

4. Well, maybe three items is enough for this type of post. I’ll be back on Thursday with a better thought-out post about literary events, or a diatribe about how I am bad at things. One of those, I guess…