Sunday Sundries, 206

1. HBsOTW: Plural this week--Human BeingS of the Week--all of the people who work at the Open Door Coffee Co. here in Hudson, Ohio; they are not only manifestly good at what they do (more than "good," really--primo!), but they treat me with such kindness and concern that when I think about it (which is often), I find myself staggering. The Oxford English Dictionary does not contain enough words to thank them--to tell them what they all mean to me.

2. Last night, Joyce and I drove over to the Kent Cinemas to see The Girl in the Spider's Web, the latest adventure about Lisbeth Salander and Mikel Blomkvist, characters created by the late Stieg Larsson (1954-2004) in his trilogy of adventures (beginning with The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, 2005) about the unlikely pair--a supreme computer hacker (with some "issues") and an investigative journalist (with some issues). In Sweden.

Notice the dates: He had written the first three novels before he died; all were published after he died. He never got to enjoy a second of the celebrity (wealth!) that he had earned.

Anyway, we weren't all that sure about going because the New York Times had given it a very mediocre review (link to review).

But--though our motive for going had sent "popcorn" above "see a good film" in our list--we both liked it--a lot. I recognized none of the cast members (save Stephen Merchant)--but that can be (and was) a good thing. Sure, the film and the characters are not precisely like the earlier ones (Larsson did not write this story), and, sure, it had a little bit of 007 about it, and, sure, the role of the journalist was somewhat diminished, but it was beautifully photographed (Sweden and Germany were the principal filming locations), and I was surprised now and then--something I really like in films.

So ... not much like the earlier ones--still, for us, enough to send "popcorn" down to motive #2 for seeing it.

Oh--the story's about a computer program that gives access to the entire world's nuclear arsenal ...

Link to film trailer.


3. I know I did not post last Sunday (shame, shame ... the question is: F or Inc?), but I have read a couple of books during the brief hiatus ...

     - The first was a recent one by Nathaniel Philbrick--Valiant Ambition: George Washington, Benedict Arnold, and the Fate of the American Revolution, 2016--part of his great series about the Revolution. I read several Philbrick titles the past few weeks because he was scheduled to speak at the Hudson Library and Historical Society on Nov. 7, and I wanted to be as current as I could be (he's hard to keep up with!). Anyway, we did see him at the Library--got to meet him (got him to sign a bunch of books!).

The book is kind of a dual portrait (as the subtitle announces): Washington and Arnold--the former a great American hero, the latter a great American hero--and then traitor when he very nearly managed to help the British acquire West Point.

Of special interest to me: Philbrick deals a lot with Major John André (a British spy in the West Point affair), captured and hanged by the Americans. He lives on, André does, in a few mentions in "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow."

I visited the André sites in and around Tappan, New York, some years ago (when I was teaching "Sleepy Hollow")--so ... a few pix ...

Enjoyed the book a lot--as I have enjoyed all of Philbrick's books over the years.

     - The second I finished was about an actual criminal case involving Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, creator, of course, of the world's most famous detective, S. Holmes. Conan Doyle for the Defense: The True Story of a Sensational British Murder, a Quest for Justice, and the World's Most Famous Detective Writer, 2018, by Margalit Fox.

It involves an actual Glasgow murder in 1908, about the quick conviction of an innocent man (corrupt cops, I fear), and Doyle's long effort to get the guy (Oscar Slater) released from prison, an act he eventually accomplished (with some help from others) in November 1927 (!!!).

A great research effort by Fox, and a gripping story that astonishes in its many twists and turns, not unlike a story about, well, you know!


4. Watching--via Netflix--the BBC miniseries The Bodyguard, which is so tense at times that I have to switch to something more ... immature. Going to take me a year to watch the half-dozen episodes! Link to trailer.

5. Last Word--A word I liked recently from one of my online word-of-the-day providers ...

     - from wordsmith.org--I had no IDEA this word is as old as it is--13th century!

huckster (HUHK-stuhr)

MEANING: noun: One who sells things of questionable value in an aggressive or dishonest manner.

verb tr.: To sell something of questionable value aggressively or dishonestly.

verb intr.: To haggle.

ETYMOLOGY: From Middle Dutch word hokester (peddler), from hoeken (to peddle). Earliest documented use: 1200s.

USAGE: “Mostly they’re just plain, old-fashioned carnival hucksters, picking the pockets of gullible people they play for rubes.”

Jeff Hester; ‘Miracle’ Work; Astronomy (Milwaukee, Wisconsin); Nov 2018.