I'm taking a page from Frasier Crane's book. When he goes away—-or, more usually, when he is indisposed—-Roz tells him "Go, go, I'll put on the best of Crane." My producer is telling me the same. I'll be away for a few weeks, and Steed is off visiting one of his Aunties, so I'm pulling out some of my favorite posts that you might have missed.I also heartily suggest you pop over to newcritics for...
Monday, June 25, 2007
Wednesday, June 20, 2007
Welcoming the Long, Hot, Summer
The peerless Ada Louise Huxtable captures my feeling about summer:Summer is the time when one sheds one's tensions with one's clothes, and the right kind of day is jeweled balm for the battered spirit. A few of those days and you can become drunk with the belief that all's right with the world.Summer...
Monday, June 18, 2007
Saturday, June 16, 2007
Travels with Cadfael: A Christmas Tale Begins
Bloomsday—-when Joyce fans the world over celebrate the novel set on June 16, 1904, the first date of the artist as a young man and Nora Barnacle, a personal encounter between man and woman that would change the shape of world literature—-is the day to start to spin the tale of Cadfael’s and my trip to Ireland.
The Christmas tale begins in December 2003. Cadfael had called with the usual “I will...
Friday, June 15, 2007
QQF File: Norma Jean's Spoonbread
Sometimes you need to take a fresh look at your own neighborhood to see some of the amazing stories and people who are your neighbors. For me, I have recently learned about the talents of Norma Jean Darden, an ex Wilhemina model who owns Spoonbread Too, a restaurant of Southern cooking on the Upper Upper West Side. The story goes that a Vogue editor suggested she write a cookbook of recipes from...
Tuesday, June 12, 2007
Sopranos Watch: This Thing of Ours
"You and my dad, you two ran North Jersey." "Hmph. That’s nice."Gandolfini is at his hulking, ominous best in the penultimate scene of the series finale, when Tony goes to see Junior in the state facility. He’s trying to see to things—to make sure Junior’s stash goes where it “should,” to Bobby’s...
Sunday, June 10, 2007
Sopranos Watch: "Everybody's Out on the Run Tonight But There's No Place Left to Hide"
The endings of some tv shows are clear. Rachel and Ross just had to end up together, so did Carrie and Mr. Big. Magnum returning to the Navy felt just right, as did Crockett and Tubbs headed toward the Keys for “a career in Southern law enforcement,” together. The Buffy team driving out of town on a Mrs. Frizzle school bus left me cold, but Angel and his team heading out to do a final battle was...
Thursday, June 7, 2007
Time Out, TONY
The only magazines I subscribe to are the New Yorker and the Atlantic monthly, so the thick Time Out New York that showed up in my mailbox was easy to spot.It was also a surprise because I didn't order it. I called the subscription line, and they said I was not in their system. And yet, I insisted, I have a copy with a traditional label on the cover. And they insisted I wasn't in their system, I didn't...
Tuesday, June 5, 2007
Sopranos Watch: Tony, Meet Danny Ocean
The television has recently been awash with the Ocean’s series, from the network premiere of Ocean’s 12 on CBS, to the 1960 Ocean’s 11 on AMC, and the 2001 on TBS, all leading up to June 8’s release of Ocean’s 13, which happens to be right between the last two Sopranos episodes. This recent ubiquity of the Ocean crew on the plasma offers an interesting contrast to the end of our serialized Mob drama....
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