Downton Abbey: A New Era (2022)

Rotten Tomatoes

Downton Abbey: A New Era (2022): If you're not a fan, you'll be lost in all the characters and subplots. If you are a fan, you'll laugh and cry. You'll love the sets and costumes. There are twists and turns and head fakes to keep you guessing. Is this the last Downton Abbey? B+

When is a Park Not a Park?

The City of Richardson is beginning a project to build a 5 million gallon ground storage tank. Where? Well, I can tell you nearby streets. I can even tell you approximate GPS coordinates. What I can't tell you is whether or not the tank is going to be in Point North Park. What I can tell you is that a city-owned playground will have to go. So will trees. Maybe they'll be moved. Maybe new trees will be planted. And after all is said and done, some of the land that many visitors to the park always considered to be part of the park will be sacrificed to a water storage tank.

POTD: Colossi of Memnon

From 2019 11 22 Valley of the Kings

Today's photo-of-the-day is from the Colossi of Memnon across the Nile River from Luxor, Egypt. According to Wikipedia, "The Colossi of Memnon are two massive stone statues of the Pharaoh Amenhotep III, which stand at the front of the ruined Mortuary Temple of Amenhotep III, the largest temple in the Theban Necropolis. They have stood since 1350 BCE, and were well known to ancient Greeks and Romans, as well as early modern travelers and Egyptologists."

Where does Memnon come into this? Memnon was a mythological Greek king. Blame the ancient Greeks for not knowing about even more ancient Egyptian history.

Review: The Idiot

From The Idiot by Elif Batuman

I didn’t have a religion, and I didn’t do team sports, and for a long time orchestra had been the only place where I felt like part of something bigger than I was, where I was able to strive and at the same time to forget myself. The loss of that feeling was extremely painful. It would have been bad enough to be someplace where there were no orchestras, but it was even worse to know that there was one, and lots of people were in it—just not me. I dreamed about it almost every night."

Amazon

Elif Batuman's debut novel is a first person account of her freshman year in college, followed by a summer teaching English in Hungary. She has a keen eye for detail. She shows wry humor throughout. You learn about love and linguistics along the way.

Slow Horses (TV 2022)

Rotten Tomatoes

Slow Horses (TV 2022): Slough House is where MI5 sends agents who screw up. No one wants them to do anything but this team of spies can't help getting involved in a terrorist kidnapping. Back story secrets and coverups at HQ add to the intrigues here. Gary Oldman is superb. B+

Ted Lasso - S01 (TV 2020)

Rotten Tomatoes

Ted Lasso - S01 (TV 2020): Workplace sitcom. American football coach is hired by English soccer team. He doesn't know the game. He cares more about being nice than winning. Occasionally funny. That it won Emmys is a sign viewers are tired of mean. Or that the sitcom is dead. B-

#VeryTardyReview

Dr. Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (2022)

Rotten Tomatoes

Dr. Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (2022): Dr. Strange is under attack in an alternate universe. Great CGI. No plot arc. Marvel squeezes as many characters into the movie as they can. Afterwards, I wished I lived in a universe where I hadn't spent 2 hours on this movie. D+