fauxklore

Books: I read 8 books this quarter.

1. Colm Toibin, Long Island. An Irish woman, married to an Italian-American man and living in close proximity to most of his family, learns that her husband has gotten another woman pregnant and that woman’s husband plans to leave the baby on their doorstep. The Italian family plan to have her husband’s mother raise the child. She goes off to Ireland for her mother’s 80th birthday and rekindles an old flame. But she doesn’t count on what his current lover plans to do. Overall, this was readable if you suspend a lot of disbelief about human behavior, but it lacks a satisfying resolution. My book club concluded that Toibin was setting things up to write a sequel.
   
   
2. James A. Michener, Tales of the South Pacific. I read this for my travel book club and, frankly, found it a total slog for the most part. The best stories are the ones that were used for the musical South Pacific but I had to read through plenty of racism and sexism (which, alas, was realistic, though unpleasant to read) and far more detail about how tedious waiting for battle was to get to the good stuff.
   
   
3. Alison Espach, The Wedding People. I didn’t expect to like this book, which I also read for my long-standing book club. The premise is that a woman who has failed both in her academic career and her attempts to have a baby goes to a fancy hotel in Newport, Rhode Island to kill herself and fails at that too. Everyone else at the hotel is there for a wedding. She gets involved in the bride’s wedding plans and a lot of absurd things happen. Despite this ridiculous idea, I actually enjoyed it. The tone was light and the events were just plausible enough to keep me from wanting to throw the book into the river.
   
   
4. Felicia Day, You’re Never Weird on the Internet (almost). If you’re not familiar with Felicia Day, she reached a level of nerd fame via The Guild, a web series about a group of gamers. She also played Penny in Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog. This wasn’t a bad read, but I had expected it to be brilliant. Alas, it didn’t go into enough detail about the weirder aspects of her life, to be completely satisfying. However, I do recommend her chapter on GamerGate and being doxxed if you want to understand how scary being a highly visible woman on-line can be.
   
   
5. Richard Osman, The Thursday Murder Club. I was probably about 2/3 of the way through this book before I realized that the author is the same Richard Osman who has appeared on many British quiz shows. (It turns out that he also created Whose Line Is It anyway? and Deal or No Deal, as well as Pointless, which is one of my favorite British quiz shows. None of which really ties into this book directly.) Anyway, the premise of this book (and several follow-ups. which I haven’t read yet) is that a group of elderly people at a retirement community meets weekly to discuss the cold cases of a one-time detective, who is now suffering from dementia. Then a murder happens. And another one. And the discovery of an older one. They enjoy solving all of those. I mostly enjoyed this but I didn’t like that there were characters with similar names, e.g. Stephen and Steve and John and “Turkish Johnny.” You know, they sell books of baby names for a reason. That won’t stop me from reading more of the series.
   
   
6. Andrés Reséndez, A Land So Strange: The Epic Journey of Cabeza de Vaca. I read this for my travel book club. The story involves a group of men who set out to colonize Florida in 1527. Due to a hurricane and navigational errors, only 4 of them survived - three Spaniards and a Moroccan slave. It took them almost 10 years to cross from Florida through what is now the American Southwest (e.g. Texas, New Mexico and parts of Mexico), including six years of enslavement by various native tribes. They learned to pass as medicine men and gain favor with some of the groups they encountered. This was a very interesting book and I appreciated learning about a part of the history of exploration that I had been entirely unfamiliar with.
   
   
7. Mary Janice Davidson, Fish Out of Water. Yes, I sometimes read paranormal romance. This is the third book in a series about Fred, a half-human, half-mermaid who is torn between a human man and the prince of the Black Sea. In the meantime, her father shows up and is trying to overthrow the royal family of the sea people. Overall, this is an amusingly silly book and a nicely diverting quick read.
   
   
8. Lisa See, Peony in Love. This complex historical novel follows the life of a teenage girl in 17th century China. Her family puts on a production of an opera called The Peony Pavilion and the female members of the household are permitted to watch from behind a curtain. Peony is overwhelmed by her emotions and leaves for a while, meeting a young man who enthralls her, even though neither of them knows that he’s the man who her family intends her to marry. This leads her to die of “lovesickness,” i.e. anorexia. Her ghost wanders the area and things get more complex when the man marries another woman, who Peony then induces to add to a commentary that she was writing about the opera. After she dies, Peony arranges a third bride, who also adds to the commentary. The commentary of the three wives becomes the first book written and published by women. I found this book a fascinating insight into traditional Chinese belief and culture, based on real events.
   
   

Movies: I saw three movies in theaters this quarter. I only had two flights that were long enough to watch movies on, but I think I was too absorbed in what was reading to bother.I

1. Don’t Let’s Go to the Dogs Tonight: I’d loved Alexandra Fuller’s memoir of her childhood on a farm in (then) Rhodesia, which is now Zimbabwe. So I had to see the film version, which I thought was pretty true to the book. Lexi Venter, who played the 8-year-old Bobo, gave an impressive performance. You do have to be able to tolerate a fair amount of violence and racism, however.
   
   
2. Cat Video Fest 2025: This is an annual event, which consists of a curated collection of cat videos. In addition to live videos, it has memes and animations. The whole thing is less than an hour and a half, so not particularly good value. My basic conclusion is that, yes, the cats are cute and often funny, but it’s not really satisfying as a movie. However, part of the proceeds (admittedly only a little over 10%) do go to cat-focused charities, so you can feel like it wasn’t a waste of time.
   
   
3. Guns and Moses: Sal Litwak, known as the Accidental Talmudist and famous for his videos of old Jewish jokes, wrote, directed, and produced this movie, which tells the story of a small town rabbi who sets out to solve the murder of one of his congregants. The police are insisting it was the act of a neo-Nazi, but Rabbi Mo thinks otherwise. He investigates some shady goings on and learns to use a gun himself when he becomes a target. It was entertaining, though rather more violent than something I would normally watch. I also want to give the writers kudos for using the song “Kol Ha’olam Kulo,” which is a personal favorite, in its soundtrack.
   
   

Goals:

I made a lot of progress on my plans for a westward circumnavigation of the world. I still have a couple of hotel bookings to make, but I’m pretty close to having a complete itinerary.

I made it to two minor league baseball games. I was just too busy with other things to get more games in.

I’m not quite as far along on my Tunisian crochet afghan as I thought I was. I am, however, making a serious attempt to get that done this month. I’ve also got a couple of smaller projects in the works.

As of the end of September, I was only at 25 books. But I’ve already read three this month, and I expect to have a lot of quality reading time on my round the world trip in November.

Updating my life list should only take me an afternoon, but I’m the sort of person who starts my weekly to-do list with “write to do list” so decision making tends to move slowly.

I can sound out a certain amount of Hangul, but there are some letters that continue to confuse me. At least I now understand the “r” vs. “l” confusion that is common in many Asian languages. As for Korean more generally, at least I’ve finally figured out that the verb always goes at the end of the sentence, but I still find the syntax very non-intuitive.

I did nothing on going through my parents photographs and slides. Nor did I make any progress on organizing genealogy files. Nor did I make it to any national parks.

I had good intentions re: going through cassette tapes, but discovered that the little cassette player I found in the closet in my study doesn’t work. I need to try to remember how to work the tape deck on my stereo system.

Sorry for the long delay in writing. I’ve been distracted by trying, not very successfully, to get caught up on stuff at home. I’ve also been getting ready for an upcoming storytelling show (live only and sold out, so I’ll spare you the shameless self promotion this time).


Celebrity Death Watch: Edwin Wilson was a theatre critic, primarily for the Wall Street Journal. Denny Laine co0founded both the Moody Blues and Wings. David Ellenson was a Reform rabbi, who headed Hebrew Union College for several years. Jacqueline Mesmaeker was a Belgian artist who worked in plastic, which is, indeed, a messy medium. Richard Kerr was a songwriter whose work was performed by singers such as Dionne Warwick and Barry Manilow (e.g. “Mandy.) Mort Engelbert was the advance man for Walter Mondale’s 1984 presidential campaign and Bill Clinton’s 1992 presidential campaign. Andre Braugher was a television actor, best known for appearing in Homicide: Life on the Streets ad Brooklyn Nine-Nine. William G. Connolly co-authored The New York Times Manual of Style and Usage. Lee Redmond held the world record for longest fingernails on both hands (roughly 30 inches). Bob Johnson was a member of Steeleye Span. Colin Burgess was the original drummer for AC/DC. Amp Fiddler was a member of Parliament/Funkadelic. Irwin Cohen was the real estate developer responsible for Chelsea Market in New York. Ryan Minor played baseball for the Baltimore Orioles and started in place of Cal Ripken, Jr., breaking Ripken’s 2632 game streak. Ruth Seymour managed KCRW, a PBS station in Santa Monica, California and was responsible for, among other things, a lot of Jewish programming. Richard Bowes was a science fiction writer. Herbert Kohl was a co-founder of Kohl’s Department stores and owned the Milwaukee Bucks basketball team. Herman Raucher wrote Summer of ’42. Maurice Hines was an actor, dancer, and choreographer. Cindy Morgan was an actress, best known for appearing in Tron and Caddyshack. Tom Wilkinson was an actor, best known for appearing in The Full Monty and Michael Clayton. Shecky Greene was a comedian, who performed in Las Vegas for many years. Cale Yarborough was a stock car driver. Tall Ross played rhythm guitar for Funkadelic. Bridget Dobson was a soap opera writer.

Frank Ryan was a football player for several teams, including the Redskins, and also earned a Ph.D. in mathematics and became an assistant professor at Case Western Reserve University during his playing career. Jack O’Connell wrote noir crime fiction. Avi Zamir headed the Mossad from 1968 through 1974. Joseph Lelyveld was a Pulitzer Prize winning journalist, who was the executive editor of the New York Times from 1994 to 2001. Sarah Rice was an actress who originated the role of Johanna in Sweeney Todd. Joan Acocella was a dance critic for The New Yorker. Edward Jay Epstein was an investigative journalist and political science professor who wrote about conspiracy theories. Terry Bisson and Howard Waldrop were science fiction writers. Bill Hayes sang “The Ballad of Davy Crockett” and became a soap opera actor. Jo-El Sonnier performed Cajun music. Tom Shales wrote about television for the Washington Post. Joyce Randolph played Trixie on The Honeymooners. Laurie Johnson wrote television and film music. Mary Weiss was the lead singer for the Shangri-Las, most famous for the song “Leader of the Pack.” Norman Jewison directed numerous movies, including In the Heat of the Night, Fiddler on the Roof. and Moonstruck. Frank Farian was behind Milli Vanilli and Boney M. Carl Andre was a minimalist sculptor.

Norman Lear was a television producer. All in the Family was revolutionary for its treatment of controversial topics and Lear followed it with other important TV shows such as Maude and The Jeffersons.

Ryan O’Neal was an actor, who starred in such movies as Love Story, Barry Lyndon, and Paper Moon.

Dan Greenberg was a humor writer, best known for How to Be a Jewish Mother, a book my mother thought was very funny. He was also Nora Ephron’s first husband.

Robert Solow was an economist who won the Nobel Prize in 1987, He scored me 21 ghoul pool points.

Tom Smothers was a comedian and musician, who performed with his brother, Dick. My family had all of their records and we watched their TV show regularly. He also performed as Yo-yo Man.

Niklaus Wirth was a computer scientist who won the Turing Award in 1984 and, among other things, created the Pascal computer language. There’s a funny story about him involving how people pronounced his name. He was Swiss and his compatriots pronounced his name “Nik-lous Virt” while Americans tended to say “Nickles Worth.” As he said, the Swiss called him by name and the Americans called him by value.

Glynis Johns was an actress whose roles included the mother in Mary Poppins and Desiree Armfeldt in A Little Night Music, winning a Tony for the latter. Stephen Sondheim wrote the song “A Little Night Music” specifically to accommodate her limited vocal range.

David Soul was an actor, probably best known for playing Hutch in Starsky & Hutch. But I remember him better from Here Come the Brides which we always use to run home to watch because of Bobby Sherman. Ah, the crushes of a 10 year old girl!

Bud Harrelson was a shortstop for the Mets for the Mets from 1965 through 1977. He was my mother’s favorite baseball player. He later became a coach and manager and part owner of the Long Island Ducks. He was my first ghoul pool score of 2024, earning me 18 points.

Peter Schickele was best known to most people as the “discoverer” of P. D. Q. Bach, though he did write serious compositions under his own name. He brought a lot of people to classical music with his humor and I have fond memories of listening to such pieces as “Eine Kleine Nichtmusic” and “The 1712 Overture.”

Charles Osgood was a television news anchor and radio commentator. He also wrote a couple of books of light verse on news subjects and I have fond memories of both Nothing Could Be Finer Than a Crisis That is Minor in the Morning and There’s Nothing That I Wouldn’t Do If You Would Be My POSSLQ. He was also known for his tag line, “See you on the radio.”

Melanie was a singer, known for such songs as “Brand New Key” and “Lay Down (Candles in the Rain.”

Jimy Williams managed the Boston Red Sox from 1997 through 2001.

Non-celebrity Death Watch: Mark Baird was a former colleague. We worked closely together for a couple of years and had a running inside joke regarding his desire to go to Belize and mine to go to Mozambique. He was a nice guy, very devoted to his daughters, and a pleasure to be around. He died suddenly of a blood clot, possibly related to recent hip replacement surgery. (I’m also biased because he once called me a national asset.)

Linda Goodman was a storyteller. I got to know her fairly well when we were both on the board of the Virginia Storytelling Alliance at the same time. Her death was no surprise, as she’d been dealing with Parkinson’s disease and dementia for a while, but it is still sad.

Non-human Death Watch: The Jewish Center of Island Park (now the South Shore Jewish Center) was the synagogue I grew up in. My father was active in the Men’s Club, headed the building committee when they added an extension / social hall / ballroom, and edited the newsletter for several years. My grandfather was the cantor for High Holiday services for many years. The shul has been dying for several years, largely due to demographic shifts and exacerbated by Hurricane Sandy. So they’re now seeking to sell the building. I’m buying the memorial plaques for my grandparents and my father.

I know I’m supposed to view all synagogues in the Diaspora as temporary, but it’s still sad. I have a lot of memories from there. Sigh.


Obit Poems: I never got around to writing these up to enter them in the Invitational, largely because I decided they weren’t good enough to be worth entering. But I can inflict them on you.

Tom Terrific was not a reliever
The ’69 Mets left it to Seaver

Al Jaffee always drew the Fold-In
Now, alas, he’s just a moldin’

Normal Busy Life: I went to a Chavurah brunch on New Year’s Day. I’ve had meetings for several of my usual activities, e.g. a couple of genealogy related things, a Grimm Keepers discussion of “The Little Red Hen” (a particularly weird story), planning for some storytelling events, crafts groups, book clubs (which I’m now up to three of), playing board games on-line, a Travelers’ Century Club meeting, etc.

No wonder I keep falling behind!

Important Local News: Oakton High School, which is just up the street from my house, won Metallica’s Marching Band Competition. There are various groups from the school who put on fund raising car washes and I would definitely stop if they were doing one.

Weather: We got about 4 inches of snow on January 15th and another 5 on January 19. There were also several insanely cold days. And then we had a couple of days in the 60’s and it even got up to 72 on Friday. Fortunately,it looks like normal weather for the near future. That is, lows in the low 30’s and high in the mid-40’s.

National Gallery of Art: I leveraged off having an event to go to in the city last Monday night to go to see a couple of museum exhibits during the day on Monday. My friend, Jane, met me for lunch at Teaism and part of the museumage. Because we were running early, we had time to check out the 19th century French art first, which included pieces by several impressionists and post-impressionists, including Degas, Monet, Van Gogh, and Gauguin.



We managed to kill enough time there to rush through some coffee before going on the docent tour of their current exhibit of photos by Dorothea Lange. The docent talked some about Lange’s life and then talked in depth about some of the photos. Because she had time to discuss only a few of them, I think I need to go back and spend three or so hours looking at all of them.

This one, of a stenographer, struck me for the repairs to the woman’s stockings.



The most heartbreaking photo, in my opinion, was this one of a store that had been owned by Japanese-Americans. Note that I’d once had a boss who spent part of his childhood at one of the relocation camps that are such a shameful part of American history.



Jane was museumed out at that point, so she left, while I went over to the East Building to see the Mark Rothko on Paper exhibit. I’d gained a much greater appreciation for Rothko when I went to the museum dedicated to him in Daugavpils, Latvia nearly five years ago. I do, however, prefer his earlier works, such as “Undersea Cabaret.”



I always think the more familiar style of his paintings would make great designs for rugs.



Since I was there, I also looked at some of the rest of the modern art in the East Building. That included this wonderful case of pies by Claes Oldenburg.



“The Flag is Bleeding” is part of Faith Ringgold’s The American People Series. She remains one of my favorite artists.



No Accident: The primary reason I’d gone into the city was to go to a screening of a documentary titled “No Accident,” about the lawsuit against the August 2017 Charlottesville rioters. It was in the Congressional auditorium at the Capitol.



There were three senators who introduced the film - Mark Warner, Tim Kaine, and Cory Booker. I thought that Senator Kaine spoke particularly well.



As for the documentary, I found it very interesting. Roberta “Robbie” Kaplan and Karen Dunn led a team that successfully proved that the white supremacist violence in Charlottesville was planned. It was chilling - and, of course, the most frightening part is that most of the groups involved are still out there. By the way, Kaplan also represented E, Jean Carroll in her defamation lawsuits against Donald Trump.

Other Stuff: I still have to write about - a theatre outing and a Loser Party, (including a good recipe) - but I want to get this posted now because I have to leave the house early in the morning.