I read this many years ago, but all I remembered of it was the first and last paragraphs. “It was the best of times; it was the worst of times … It is a far, far better thing I do than I have ever done before. It is a far, far better rest I go to than I have ever known.”

An interesting sidenote: these are among the most famous sentences in English yet note that they are written using passive verb forms. Just an observation.

I found this book took longer to finish than the other - and longer - books I have read by Dickens. I can’t say why. It was just harder to read, perhaps because it was more horrifying or perhaps because it was more tedious. I don’t know. But the book is a good argument for:

1) Doing unto others as you would have them do unto you, and
2) Learning how to forgive and not hang onto grudges.

Not that the French aristocracy didn’t deserve a lot of what they got in the French revolution, but this book shows how many people got swept up in the purge that didn’t contribute to the ills of the lower classes at all.

Next time I am going to have to take a photo of this before I eat it. Mmmm.

What a sad loss to a talented individual. And what a strange and messed-up man he truly was.

I love this yogurt; it is my favorite.

Fortunately, this book is about much more than warehousing the old. If anything, this book is about a man, who though warehoused, insists on being so much more than a forgettable person and insists on breaking out of the warehouse back into the life he craves.

I really enjoyed this book. It is sad and funny and the characters - even the disturbing and venal ones - are wonderfully crafted and individual. Great texture of the 1930s and life in the circus.

I keep gravitating to books set in old-folks homes: first Choke and now this one. And I watched The Trouble With Angels the other night where, after a bittersweet evening entertaining in an old-folks home, Hayley Mills tells her Mother Superior she hopes she dies young and very rich. I’m sure this book is about more than warehousing the elderly, just as Choke was about more, but at the moment, I feel a little haunted. I think it is too late for me to follow the “Die young” advice, but maybe I can find a way still to be rich before I get carted off to one of these places. Otherwise, if these two books are any indication, life quickly spirals into misery after that.

There is a lot that sets this movie apart as an original - the all-female cast in an industry where 70 percent of the roles available are for males and Rosalind Russell’s dazzling debut as a comedic genius to name two. But it is a quirky little part in the middle - barely five minutes long—that really stood out for me. In the middle of this 1939 black and white film, they shot an entire fashion show in technicolor and it breaks out on the screen like a scarlet hibiscus bursting forth out of concrete. Since I was watching the movie on the Turner Classic Movie channel, I thought it was simply another of Ted’s attempts to monkey around with a movie classic, but I later found out that was an original feature of the film. It is exactly the kind of nonsensical whimsy you just gotta love in a George Cukor film.

Not my favorite play, either by Shakespeare or anyone else. If this were a modern-day piece, half the characters would be dismissed as obsessive or neurotic, at least two have character disorders, and one is a genuine sociopath. Just your average, everyday mix of the dysfunctional and socially inept. Some of the play is scintillating, but it is also very tedious in places and overall very unpleasant.

These berries grow in the Brazilian rain forest, on the same trees from which they get hearts of palm. Because they are fragile, they are not available fresh outside of the Amazon Basin, but can be bought frozen, in juice, or incorporated into other foods such as sorbets. They are excellent in smoothies and are considered one of the world’s superfoods because they are rich in antioxidants, omega-6, nutrients, and healing properties.

Ellen Burstyn is reason enough to watch this movie. Very well done and very, very disturbing.