This and That for Sunday June 25

Some say this movie was better than the original. Possibly so, for it provided a lot of action, an imposible mission, and an over-the-top look at sort of real navial aviation. While it didn’t make me miss my days aboard an aircraft carrier, I’ll give it five stars and call it a “hoot,” and kudos to Tom Cruise for his acting. The movie was filmed on the U.S.S. Abraham Lincoln and the navy earned a pack of doughfor sequences involving F/A-18 fighters. Without providing a real spoiler, I can mention there was an F-14 in the movie; the one used was in a museum since the navy doesn’t have any and borrowing from Iran seemed like a catastrophee waiting to happen. I like the series of Cross novels by James Patterson, but took a detour to read the novel he co-authored with Dolly Parton, Run Rose Run. The book reads well and is a special treat for those who want to know how a potential country singer breaks into the business, especially one with bad guys chasing her.For those of you keeping score, I have chili simering in the Dutch over for tonight’s supper. Here’s an interesting article from Literary Hub: “Against the Cynicism Cycle: Why TV Could Do with Less Moral Grayness.” Noah Ciubotaru writes, “We’ve celebrated moral grayness, deemed it to be indicative of clever writing, a sign of art’s ability to twist and stump our moral intuitions. But maybe our praise has been misplaced; maybe grayness has become an empty affectation, doing nothing for us, and asking nothing of us but to drift through unfeeling stories.” I tend to agree with him.I think I mentioned a couple of weeks ago that my GP said my symptons indicated a prospective bleeding ulcer and that he was referring me to a specialist. So far, no word from a specialist. I remember the old days whe one’s GP treated the whole shebang rather than sending you off to somebody with higher fees.I read the Velveteen Rabbit years ago. So I was drawn to this story:  “More Than A Children’s Story: The Velveteen Rabbit At 100.”   No, I did not read it on the day it came out. I’m not that old. Lisa Rowe Fraustino writes, “Margery Williams was born in London on July 22, 1881, and died September 4, 1944, in New York City. Though she published twenty-seven books, including five translations of works from French and Norwegian, and though she won the John Newbery Honor Medal for her novel Winterbound (1936) in 1937, she is primarily known today as the author of The Velveteen Rabbit.”

–Malcolm