The Gorge (2025)

Rotten Tomatoes

The Gorge (2025): Two sharpshooters in watchtowers face each other across an isolated gorge. Sci-fi, Cold War, post-apocalyptic thriller zombie movie? Also it's a romance, released on Valentine's Day. WTF? Contrived and incoherent. Bad, but not so bad to be unwatchable. C+

AppleTV+

Book Review: Linguaphile: A Life of Language Love

From Linguaphile: A Life of Language Love", by Julie Sedivy:

Amazon

"At that time, Italian was to me a bewitching confusion, boiling and streaming in all directions. Its connection to the actual world was tenuous and constantly shifting. It was only now and then that I caught a word with my mind; words were like fish, solid things making sudden, unexpected appearances, flashes of substance and meaning in the liquidity of language flowing all around me. You had to be quick to snatch them before they were lost in the fast-moving stream."

Say Nothing (TV 2024)

Rotten Tomatoes

Say Nothing (TV 2024): Dramatized history of IRA terrorism in Northern Ireland. Focuses on the involvement (or not) of a young Irish woman in the disappearance of an innocent (or not) young mother. This TV series changed my mind about the IRA and the violence used as a political weapon to unify Ireland. A-

Hulu

Mayor Dubey Explains Taxes

Tax Bites with Poonam.

On November 19, 2024, Mayor Bob Dubey was interviewed by Poonam Sandhu, CPA, on her podcast "Tax Bites with Poonam." In the introduction, Mayor Dubey said, "I really don't consider myself a politician. I'd like to say I'm a statesman." A politician calling himself a statesman is like a used car salesman calling himself a "Transportation Solutions Consultant." But Poonam politely let Mayor Dubey's self-aggrandizement slide. Luckily for him, she wasn't in a fact-checking mood. I guess she left that to the listeners. I listened.

POTD: The Chapel of Frederiksborg Castle

"Vaulted ceiling rises
Above stained glass saints and kings.
Crown and cross entwined."
— h/t ChatGPT

From 2024 07 01 Copenhagen

Today's photo-of-the-day was taken in Denmark's Frederiksborg Palace in Hillerød, Denmark. "It was built as a royal residence for King Christian IV of Denmark-Norway in the early 17th century...Frederiksborg Castle was the first Danish castle to be built inland. All previous castles had been on the coast or close to ports as the sea had traditionally been the principal means of travel. It was also the first to be built for purely recreational purposes rather than for defence."