Category: Books

The Local Scene: Comedy, Food, & Letters

JWF Leave a comment

COMEDY MID MARITAL DISCORD

Grand Horizons

Bill & Nancy struggling to communicate (heraldtribune.com)

The Asolo Theatre seldom fails to present wonderfully designed sets and compelling productions.  Grand Horizons, a comedy from Broadway, showcases Nancy and Bill, a long-married couple.  They have just moved to a retirement community when Nancy announces she wants a divorce.  Initially, her statement gets almost no response from her husband. But when she gets in motion with her plans, their two sons become overly involved in trying to make things whole. The family members argue and fight over past and present slights. Later, Carla, Bill’s punkish “so-called girlfriend” shows up.  

It’s a funny play, but not a perfect one.  I thought some of it was overdone and that Nancy’s character was dated in terms of things she had never done or had, like her own bank account.  Nevertheless, it’s good entertainment and it was well worth returning in person to the theater!   The play runs through April 1.

PRE-THEATER DINING

Ringling Grillroom

Formerly known as Muse, this restaurant in the visitor’s pavilion at the Ringling Museum of Art, has new owners, a new menu, and a lighter brighter interior.  We dined here before seeing Grand Horizons, and the food was very good, a notch or two above what we’d experienced under the old regime.  

We shared the Sicilian calamari appetizer, lightly battered and very tasty. The Chief Penguin enjoyed a Caesar salad along with the ahi tuna poke appetizer.  I sampled the bamboo steamed trigger fish which came on a bed of basmati rice with spinach and artichokes.  The fish was delicate and lovely.  And, because I just couldn’t resist, we ordered a slice of key lime pie to end the meal.  Overall, we were pleased and satisfied.  That means more meals here in the future!

BOOK OF THE WEEK

Chickens, Gin, and a Maine Friendship:  The Correspondence of E. B. White and Edmund Ware Smith

E. B. White & Edmund W. Smith (downeast.com)

I don’t often read books of letters, but my friend Jill, who also spends time in Maine, gave me this book.  It’s a delightful exchange of views between two writers from 1956 to 1967.  Neither E. B. White nor Edmund Ware Smith was a native Mainer; they both moved there in middle age.  Both loved the outdoors and were natural storytellers.  

Their letters share the details of daily life in the country and dealing with publishers and editors, along with their personal aches and pains.  After a few missives, they graduated from the formal, “Dear Mr.   “, to addressing each other as Whitey and Smitty.  The volume also includes a pair of essays by each of them; one by E.B. White is “The Hen:  An Appreciation,” while “The Outermost Henhouse” is by Edmund Smith.  

My Maine friends will find it noteworthy that this trove of letters was only recently unearthed from a bank vault in Damariscotta.  In 1980, E. B. White gave the letters to the Skidompha Public Library there after the death of Smith’s widow.  Smith and his wife had made their home in Damariscotta.  The library stored the correspondence at the bank for safe keeping, but it was subsequently forgotten.  

When we visit Maine each summer, we are in and out of Damariscotta and always drive or walk by this library.  I’ve long been intrigued by its unusual name, and this year I will go inside.

Note: Header photo is the dining space at the Ringling Grillroom (heraldtribune.com).

Tidy Tidbits: 2/27/22

JWF 1 Comment

COZY CRIME SERIES 

Hope Street (BritBox)

Finn & Leila (gizmostory.com)

Hope Street is set in a small town on the coast of Northern Ireland where everyone seems to know everyone else and their business.  Finn O’Hare heads up the Port Devine police department with his colleagues, Marlene and Callum.  When Detective Constable Leila Hussain arrives as the first Muslim officer, she causes a stir and initially meets with mistrust and suspicion.  

There are crimes to be solved, even the occasional murder, but this series is as much about the family affairs (wives and kids) and quarrels that consume the townsfolk.  Finn’s mother, Concepta, is a busybody who wants to know all, while Barry Pettigrew, taxi driver and retired police officer keeps his hand in too.  There are open secrets and real secrets.  Season 1 has 10 episodes, but it is not known if there will be a Season 2.   For me, it’s great treadmill fare—engaging enough to hold my interest and keep me moving!

BOOK OF THE WEEK

Lady Bird Johnson:  Hiding in Plain Sight by Julia Sweig

Lady Bird Johnson (paintboxgarden.com)

I thought Hiding in Plain Sight might be a biography of Lady Bird’s entire life, but actually, it’s focused on her years as First Lady during the Johnson presidency.  During that tumultuous time, she recorded her thoughts daily. The result is a comprehensive source document covering her feelings and activities, LBJ’s concerns and moods, and the stresses of the Vietnam War and the battle for civil rights.  

Swieg masterfully details hows how carefully and skillfully Lady Bird crafted her image.  Following the elegant and popular Jackie Kennedy was initially challenging.  Lady Bird was a talented businesswoman before coming to the White House, yet this was a time when women were expected to be deferential and on the margins of serious dealings.  

Lady Bird made beautification her cause, but within it she worked tirelessly to raise broader awareness about the environment, urban blight, and poverty.  Always appearing feminine, she was a powerful voice in her husband’s ear on a wide range of issues.  She also traveled the U. S. solo giving speeches and campaigning for him and for her causes. Lady Bird Johnson was the most active First Lady since Eleanor Roosevelt.

This is fascinating reading (am about halfway into it), and I’ve come to appreciate the much greater role she played than many of us realized.  I lived through this period on the cusp of adulthood so, it’s informative to see events from a deeper perspective.   Highly recommended! (~JWFarrington)

Note: Header photo ©JWFarrington (some rights reserved).

Tidy Tidbits: Inside Diversions

JWF Leave a comment

WATCHING—COMEDY, ADVENTURE, CRIME

Don’t Look Up (Netflix)

DiCaprio stocking up for a special dinner. (thewrap.com)

Don’t Look Up is both a funny film and a sobering one.  When a comet is on the horizon that will destroy the earth, the hapless president dithers and does little.  The scientists who have plotted its course are ignored and ridiculed.  The film is both a spoof and a satire targeting politicians, egocentric celebrities, and huckster entrepreneurs hawking worthless devices.  But despite its comic moments, it is a doomsday story.  

There’s an all-star cast with Leonardo DiCaprio as the lead scientist, Meryl Streep marvelously inept as the U.S. president, and Mark Rylance almost unbelievable as the tech giant, along with Jennifer Lawrence and Cate Blanchett.  It’s definitely a change of pace from some other recent film offerings.

Around the World in 80 Days (PBS Masterpiece)

Phileas Fogg and his companions (hollywoodreporter.com)

I saw the original film of Jules Verne’s adventure tale when I was about 8 years old.  It was one of the first movies I saw in the theater and going to see it was special.  

This new version of Around the World in 80 Days has a more diverse cast with a young woman, Miss Fix, as the accompanying reporter, and a Black man playing Passepartout, Phileas Fogg’s so-called valet.  They are an oddly mismatched lot with diverging aims, but they end up depending on one another for their wellbeing as they encounter riots, marauders, and collapsed bridges.

We are about halfway through the series and enjoying it.  David Tennant with his serious mien and upright, almost stiff bearing, makes the perfect Phileas.  There are 8 episodes in all.

The Commander (Amazon Prime)

Commander Clare Blake (hollywoodsoapbox.com)

This British crime drama is older (set in early 2000’s) and the technical quality is not that great, but it is diverting and suspenseful entertainment.  The series was developed by Lynda La Plante, author of crime novels and creator of Prime Suspect. Each case unfolds over two episodes and there are four seasons in all.

Amanda Burton plays Clare Blake, a high-ranking female commander in London overseeing a group of detectives.  The cases, usually involving murder, are gruesome and challenging. As a woman, Clare faces disrespect and outright hostility from some of the male officers on her team.  She makes some foolish errors of judgement in the early cases but learns from them and becomes smarter. 

Fans of Downton Abbey will be surprised to see a younger Hugh Bonneville as James Lampton, convicted for murder, and just released from prison.  

READING—WOMEN’S RIGHTS

Leaving Coy’s Hill by Katherine A. Sherbrooke

Lucy Stone (bostonathenaeum.org)

When the first history of the 19th century women’s rights movement was written by some of the principals, Lucy Stone got short shrift.  Consequently, for some time her contributions were overlooked.  Thirty years after her death, her daughter wrote a biography and recently, several others have been published.

Katherine Sherbrooke’s novel, Leaving Coy’s Hill, employs the device of Stone looking back over her life and telling her story to a much younger colleague.  Lucy Stone grew up on a farm in Massachusetts, the daughter of a staunch abolitionist father.  Early on, she vowed never to wed and to devote herself to the anti-slavery cause.  Working as a teacher, she saved enough money to go to college at Oberlin, one of the few institutions open to women.  After college, she began traveling around the states giving speeches against slavery.  It was hard life of little pay, spare accommodations, and no companions.  But Stone was a gifted orator and driven to succeed.  

Fortuitously, she became friends with Elizabeth Stanton and Susan B. Anthony. Although their approaches differed, the three championed women’s rights—the right to vote and changes to the laws governing marriage and property.  Stanton was already married with many children when she became active, Anthony never married, and ultimately, Lucy Stone did.  

Sherbrooke’s novel details Stone’s career successes and imagines the conflicts and challenges she faced in her marriage to Henry Blackwell, brother of doctors Elizabeth and Emily.  

Lucy attempts to balance love and a child with demanding career objectives, still an issue today.  I thoroughly enjoyed this historical novel, and it fleshed out for me additional aspects of the women’s rights movement.  Recommended!  (~JWFarrington)

Tidy Tidbits: Motherhood on Page & Screen

JWF 1 Comment

READING

Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell

O’Farrell (irishtimes.com)

In Hamnet, O’Farrell has created the world of William Shakespeare’s son, Hamnet, at the time of the bubonic plague.  While 11-year-old Hamnet is present in the early chapters, he haunts the remainder of the novel after his death.  In many ways, the novel is a story of motherhood, marriage, and grief with a focus on the mother.  Agnes, Hamnet’s mother, is a creature of the woods, a skilled herbalist, yet unconventional and socially inept.  She chafes under her mother-in-law’s strictures, misses her husband whom she sent to London to get him away from his abusive father, and mightily grieves for her son, seeking and seeing him everywhere.  

The descriptions of the environs are so graphic one can easily picture town life in Stratford and life on the farm where Agnes grew up.  O’Farrell lists, annotates, categorizes, and catalogs the implements of home life and the branches, leaves and blossoms in the wood; at times, the writing is staccato-like.  It’s a beautifully written book about a horrible pandemic—timely and richly deserving of its several literary awards.  Highly recommended! (~JWFarrington)

WATCHING

The Lost Daughter (Netflix)

Colman as Leda (polygon.com)

I am not familiar with the novel by Elena Ferrante that inspired The Lost Daughter, but I’m a big admirer of Oliva Colman and would see her in almost anything.  Here, she is a comparative literature professor on a beach vacation in Greece.  Leda is alone and prepared to work, but she becomes fixated on watching a young mother, Nina, and Elena, her little girl, romp and play on the shore.  Leda exchanges brief pleasantries with Nina and her aunt and interacts with Lyle, the apartment caretaker, and Will, an engaging college student.  In flashbacks, she begins reflecting on her own experiences decades ago as an ambitious academic with two young daughters and a busy husband.  As she said to Nina earlier, “motherhood is a crushing responsibility.”

When Nina’s daughter goes missing, the extended family and friends fan out to search for her.  Leda finds Elena with her doll.  What happens afterward is puzzling and strange with an even stranger, more mystifying ending.  I wondered whether Leda was truly unbalanced and what state we find her in in the last scene.  

It’s a slowly paced film with sparse dialogue, yet the camera lingers on the physical:  limbs, breasts, and bodies. Colman is superb as 48-year old Leda while Jessie Buckley is marvelous as Leda, the young mother. The depiction of motherhood is both joyous and wrenching with greater emphasis on the demands of being a mother.  Painful to watch at points, this may be film fare for a more selective audience. (~JWFarrington)

DINING 

Whitney’s

Located on the northern end of Longboat Key, Whitney’s is a former gas station turned into a casual restaurant.  Seating includes tables on the gravel outside as well as booths and tables inside.  Open for lunch and dinner on a first come, first-served basis, it’s a welcome addition to the LBK dining options. 

A friend and I ate at a small round table outside.  Our waitress was friendly in the nicest way, and we enjoyed shrimp Louie and the mixed greens salad with tiny cubes of manchego and a choice of dressing and protein.  I opted for the salad with champagne vinaigrette and grilled shrimp.  Both dishes were excellent.  Whitney’s also serves burgers, fish tacos, crab cakes, tuna tartare, and other fish entrees.  Wine and beer are also available.  Several days a week there is live music, so you might want to plan accordingly.  

Note: Header drawing of a harried mother is from Time Magazine (time.com).