Al's comments (member since Apr 23, 2008)

Al's comments from the Constant Reader group.

That tribute sounds very moving. I just finished the play this morning and can only imagine how loud and powerful it is when Berenice plays the piano and sings in the final scene.

Thanks again for nominating this one.

I'm headed down to the basement now to move the turkey from the freezer into the fridge to start thawing. I'm always in a panic Thanksgiving morning that the turkey will still be frozen. We tried a heritage bird several years ago and the vast majority said they preferred the old Butterball. I've stopped eating poultry so makes no difference to me.

Twice baked potatoes - I used to love them, I seem to have forgotten all about them - it was a dish my late grandmother loved and she did teach her son, my dad, how to make them.

Ruth: I actually think the corn will go really well - I make a great corn, tomato, basil summer soup and this will be like that but with some seafood thrown in. I already have some of my delicious tomato sauce in the freezer that I can use and I think I will cook the corn cobs in some clam juice to impart the corn flavor. Or maybe I will skip the corn altogether - we are already having cornbread so I guess I have that covered!

Ruth:

that gives me a good idea for thanksgiving - I was looking for a vegetarian corn seafood chowder but i think I might just do zuppa di pesce with corn thrown in.

I know an Italian family that has lobster newburgh on Christmas Eve too - so there must be a tradition in there somewhere!

I could tell from reading that the music was a big deal, the songs being written out right in the text. I was trying to sing it as I was reading it, but clearly my tone-deaf voice acapella did not have the right effect! I had to laugh because earlier in the night I had read my nieces the three little pigs golden book which has "who's afraid of the big bad wolf" repeated throughout the text and they love singing along to that.

We have never gone out for the holidays, but I imagine in some ways it would be nice to get dressed up and relax and no one has to worry about doing the dishes!!

I've had a lot of chef friends and I'm always amazed how much they enjoy take out rather than cooking at home!

I'm still working my way through and enjoying the ride very much. I am very clearly picturing S. Epatha Merkerson in the role of Berenice - especially as she was 20 years ago.

Agreed - if those all had been sep. dishes, we might have had to fly out to CA for a cooking intervention!!

That's how I am leaning too - thanks for the support!

Someone gave us a copy of Season 4 and said start with that one and if you like that season, then you can choose to go forward or back - what do y'all think of that idea?

Also Beej - a lot of his stories take place in random and remote spots, so from that perspective I thought the police officer interaction could be true, or maybe how the boy remembers the encounter as an adult

I had been following the discussion and wanted to reread it online before I jumped in - sometimes when I read a short story collection it is hard to remember every story so well :)

I nominated this because it was the only Wells Tower story I could find online - it wasn't my favorite from the book, but I thought it would be good for folks to sample him.

The collection is filled with a lot of mean men and liars, so I guess the unreliable narrator theory is a possibility - that was not how I read it though. I saw it as a "jungle" story - at one point he refers to thinking of the land around his house as a jungle. "jungle" story in the sense that is about survival of the fittest, Darwin, etc. and the boy is trying to use everything he can think of to survive. The decision to lie down in the driveway scared me - i thought it was going to end very badly but he somehow manages to survive and the battle with his stepfather continues.

Thanks for posting Barbara - I am looking forward to reading lots more Munro in 2010 - it is one of my key reading resolutions for the new year!

Sherry:
She did translate it in the same post.

It sounds yummy! A few years ago i went to cooking school in France and Italy just before Thanksgiving, i wanted to do all kinds of different stuff for Thanksgiving, but the rest of the family wanted traditional - the only new thing I got the menu was an authentic italian minestrone soup. But instead, I made a huge Italian feast the night before Thanksgiving - I did that for a few years until I realized it was crazy to make 2 feasts 2 nights in a row!! Sometimes it is nice to be older and wiser :)

I'm with you guys too on the mussels and pommes frites! Sounds like a yummy dinner.

I made some homemade miso soup today that came out well.

I heard Bob's Xmas album is surprisingly great

I'm planning to watch the DVD after I finish reading it. I got a late start on this one, but I am really enjoying it so far. In my version, they list the cast of the original productions at the beginning and I can't believe I never saw this because I moved to NYC in the fall of 1990 and I'm sure it was still running and I am a huge fan of so many of the cast members!

Sherry: What a great line "he forged himself" - I love it and it is so true!

I'm headed to check out the YouTube clip and the links to the ruined paintings.

Like you, Sherry, my Dutch is not very good and it was not until I heard the audio clip of Jonathan on the Faith Middleton show that I realized how much I had been botching Van Meegeren's name in my head!

Suzanne - I think that is a key factor in all "swindlers" success