Chef ****
I was skeptical about this film before we saw it, but it was much more enjoyable than I expected.
Two Very Different Films
30 Monday Jun 2014
Posted in Escapes and Pleasures
Monthly Archives: June 2014
Summer Read(s)
27 Friday Jun 2014
Posted in Escapes and Pleasures
Tags
" J.K. Rowling, "Casual Vacancy", "Cuckoo's Calling", "The Silkworm", Harry Potter, Robert Gailbraith, Whodunits
If you’re looking for a book or two to add to your summer book bag and travels, and if you enjoy thrillers/mysteries/crime/detective/whodunit stories, Robert Galbraith, who is actually J.K. Rowling, has a new one just out.
Yes. That J.K. Rowling, the Harry Potter lady.
If you missed it, Rowling has turned her pen (computer?) to detective stories, and The Silkworm is the second in a series (reported to number seven). I reviewed her first one, Cuckoo’s Calling, earlier on MillersTime and wrote:
It’s good.
Maybe not as good as an Agatha Christy mystery, but if you’re looking for something along the line of a Steig Larsson book, you’ll probably like it, tho it’s not quite as good as Larsson’s first one, The Girl with the Dragon Tatoo.
The Silkworm is perhaps a bit better than Cuckoo’s Nest, but then when one races through one of these page turners, I’m not sure it’s about good literature, but more about entertainment.
GrandPapa Wants to Know
16 Monday Jun 2014
Posted in Family and Friends
1. Grandson Eli starts the Memory game with me. (He likes to go first. And to make up the rules too.)
2. Eli, legitimately, crushes me in the first game.
3. In game two, Eli (barely) loses. Has minor ‘meltdown’ (formerly referred to as a ‘tantrum’).
(OK. The pictures aren’t as good as Ellen takes. But you get the point.)
My question is about winning and losing.
“The Case Against 8”
15 Sunday Jun 2014
Posted in Escapes and Pleasures
Tags
"The Case Against 8", Ben Cotney, David Blakenhorn, David Boies, Jeff Zarillo, Kris Perry, Paul Katami, Proposition 8, Ryan White, Same-Sex Marriage, Sandy Stier, Ted Olsen
The Case Against 8 ****1/2
We didn’t know much about this documentary when we went to see it last night. We were just looking for a film that we’d enjoy.
When we left the theater, we felt as if we had hit the jackpot.
Not only were we totally absorbed by the almost two hour film, we happened to attend the night the two directors, Ben Cotner and Ryan White, and two of the four plaintiffs, Kris Perry and Sandy Stier, were present and answered audience questions about the film and about themselves.
First, the film.
What the Hell Is Going on in Washington?
13 Friday Jun 2014
Posted in Articles & Books of Interest, The Outer Loop
The title of this section of MillersTime is The Outer Loop, referring to the outer loop of the Washington Beltway.
It’s meant to be a forum I use to comment, on occasion, about what is happening in our nation’s capital as well as beyond it. It is also a place where I can link to articles, ideas, and thoughts about issues other than baseball, family and friends, or escapes and pleasures.
Friends often ask Ellen or myself to explain what’s happening in Washington, as if our living inside the Beltway might give us some understanding of just what’s going on here or what is going to happen.
When you’re deeply lost in the trees, it’s certainly hard to know what the forest really looks like.
Note the surprise this week by virtually everyone within the Beltway of the upset of Majority Leader Eric Cantor by a college professor in the VA 7th District primary.
A Special ‘Voice’ Writes a ‘Memoir’
10 Tuesday Jun 2014
Posted in Escapes and Pleasures
Tags
"Another Roadside Attraction", "Even Cowgirls Get the Blues", "Still Life with Woodpecker", "Tibetan Peach Pie", Skinny Legs and All", Tom Robbins
What bothers most critics about my work is the goofiness. One reviewer said I need to make up my mind if I want to be funny or serious. My response is that I will make up my mind when God does, because life is a commingling of the sacred and the profane, good and evil. To try and separate them is a fallacy.
-Tom Robbins
I suspect that not many readers of MillersTime are Tom Robbins’ fans (author of Another Roadside Attraction, 1971, Even Cowgirls Get the Blues, 1976, Still Life with Woodpecker, 1980, Jitterbug Perfume, 1984, Skinny Legs and All, 1990, B is for Beer, 2009 and a collection of essays, reviews and short stories, Wild Ducks Flying Backwards, 2005).
And to be truthful, I can’t say as I can recall which of those I read and which ones I read about or never actually read. (My memory, never one of my strengths, is beginning to falter a bit.)
But what I always loved about Robbins’ writing was his voice, a voice so distinctive and so different from most writers that I have trouble naming writers so gifted. Two that do come to mind are Dylan Thomas and Junot Diaz (Brief Wonderful Life of Oscar Wao, 2007 and, particularly, This Is How You Lose Her, 2012).
“I Am ONE !”
09 Monday Jun 2014
Posted in Family and Friends
Tags
Our family tends to celebrate birthdays, anniversaries, weddings (one of those coming up soon) and other good occasions for about a week for each one. And so Saturday started the week of celebration for Ryan Orgad’s first birthday. The actual day is Thursday, but we always get these things started early.
Mostly, I’ll let Ellen’s pictures below tell Sunday’s story, but there is one piece I want to add:
Before Annie was born, Ellen and I were talking about what our hopes were for our first born. I remember saying, “I hope he/she has a wonderful smile.” If you’ve followed Annie these three plus decades, you know that indeed happened.
But so did something else. Annie married Edan Orgad who has his own wonderful smile. And then they had three kids in five years, each of them came with a wonderful smile too.
Enjoy the photos:
Traitor or Patriot?
02 Monday Jun 2014
Posted in Articles & Books of Interest, The Outer Loop
In a previous post, No Place to Hide, I wrote about my reaction to listening to a talk by Glenn Greenwald and reading his recently released book on Edward Snowden, on the revelations from the disclosures of NSA documents and on Greenwald’s assessment of what has occurred.
In comments and emails, some of you immediately praised Greenwald and Snowden, some of you said the MillersTime post gave you pause for thinking and/or reevaluating, and some questioned the damage that they felt both Snowden and Greenwald had done to our country.
Hopefully, some of you in all three groups will have time to read Greenwald’s book for yourselves. (If you do, please add a Comment on MillersTime or send me your thoughts by email.)
Today’s post is a link to a lengthy interview done by NBC’s Brian Williams with Snowden. It gives you a chance to see, hear and perhaps evaluate this 29-year-old for yourself.