St. Patrick’s Day Eve

I’m hoping for the best for (and from) the soon-new governor of NYS – tomorrow’s not only St. Patrick’s Day, it’s also Governor-Designate David Paterson’s inauguration.

Yesterday was the Ides of March. I did think about Julius Caesar, ever so briefly, since he was the one who didn’t watch out on the Ides of March.

The NY Times on “Victorian Flatbush” – I have to say: there are beautiful houses in Brooklyn. I’d hate to see them overshadowed by the co-ops (which can’t possibly do that well when we’re about to be (already?) in a recession).

Changes in the neighborhood of the Gowanus – hmm, fears of gentrification in Brooklyn.

Interesting NY Times article on a black Jewish congregation in Chicago.

Getting excited about the HBO “John Adams” miniseries. Why network tv or PBS or the rest of cable tv didn’t get into this – well, not for me to say, but at least I’ve HBO temporarily, so I’ll check it out. Laura Linney as Abigail Adams (NY Times did an amusing little Q&A with Linney).

There’s also Time’s James Poniewozik’s review on the John Adam’s miniseries, discussing how some elements of American politics haven’t changed (hope vs. pragmatism – sound familiar?).

I never did quite finished reading David McCullough’s John Adams bio, on which the miniseries is based. I might still pull it off one of these days; the size of the book is quite something.

I’ve no article to link to an article about the NCAA Men’s Basketball tournament (a.k.a. “March Madness”), but let me say this: Cornell v. Stanford as a round 1 game? This isn’t looking too good for the Ivy League champ; but so that goes. Anyway, get your brackets ready, folks!

Happy St. Patrick’s Day!

Stuff

The men of “Lost” – umm, yeah, they’re hot and all that!

Speaking of “Lost” – I watched most of the episode from this Thursday night, as it focused on Sun and Jin, the Korean couple. Poignant episode (and strong attempt at letting Daniel Dae Kim use more English; I still think that it’s the height of irony when an Asian American has to play a character who’s far from – well – American, as it has been for James Kyson Lee and Masi Oka on “Heroes.”)

We got “Entertainment Weekly” renewed – so prefer reading the dead wood version.

NY Times’ Melissa Clark on pockets/savory pies — mmm! Seems yummy.

NY Times’ “J. Marion Tierney” (a.k.a. John Tierney) writes on the phenomenon of bad names for kids (i.e., the Boy Named Sue dilemma). Well, wasn’t John Wayne’s real name “Marion”? Why do we get fixated on the whole masculinity/femininity of names? Or, why would anyone name a kid “Oswald”? … hmm.

Hmm. So, WB is going to break up “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows” into two movies? If it works, why not? It’s going to try the patience of a lot of people though, considering the last movie won’t be released until 2010 (and I’m sure the kids of the cast will so want to move on with their lives by that point and praying that they won’t be typecasted).

A profile of Laura Joh Rowland, Asian American mystery writer.

Watched most of this week’s “Law & Order,” with Lara Flynn Boyle guest-starring as an irritating tv reporter who tried to be seductive with Exec. ADA Cutter (or at least explains to him how she’ll exploit sex and anything else to get the story). Hmm. Boyle didn’t exactly get the greatest lines, but she at least made her character a little interesting with the Rabid Reporter Aggressiveness. Oddly, her face was strangely bloated. I remembered how back in her “The Practice” days, she seemed too thin, but at least she had good acting; not quite sure what happened to her. Perhaps it’s because of illness (hope not) or poor plastic surgery (uh, well, that’s Hollywood for you; mature actresses just don’t get any breaks, do they?).

Anyway, plenty of good character moments – DA McCoy getting crusty and such; ADA Rubirosa teasing Cutter over the fatal attraction thing (although I think he was just stringing along Boyle’s reporter character); Cutter got quite sexy…; Detective Green teasing Detective Lupo for being the lonely bachelor who needs a dog; and yes, Lupo was sweet with his dog. Aww!

Plus the usual “what?” plots moments. “Law and Order” can be quite weird. I know that Dick Wolf and powers behind L&O don’t really want it to be about the characters, but I do prefer it that way – if your plots make no sense, all you got left are your characters anyway.

“American Idol” – doing the Beatles’ music this week. Some were good; others were so very much not good. In fact, I cringed. A lot. Last year, “American Idol” had the guest judges – the British ones in particular – who were helpful in coaching the competitors and guiding them to suitable songs. I know “American Idol” might be steering away from the guest judges this season, but the better guest judges would be good to make things better again (umm, okay, trying not to let “Hey Jude” get into my head now…). So, please, “American Idol,” I can’t cringe that much with the tv viewing.

Oh, who am I kidding? Of course “American Idol” is where one can cringe.

Last, but not least: what a moving article about Barack Obama’s mother, as her life abroad and her influence on him and others. Considering how I thought what a great read “Dreams from My Father” was, if Obama ever gets around to writing a book about his memories of his mother (or perhaps that may be too personal and too soon for him to do that, and the campaign and everything else in his life may not let him have time to do such a thing), I’d definitely want to read that book.

Not Good Stuff and Other Stuff

Day 1 – I was in shock and dismay regarding NYS politics, like everyone else, regarding the revelation of the political scandal of the year.

Day 2 – It’s not getting better either. People are talking about it everywhere.

It hadn’t been a great year for the Governor as it was, but this mess takes the cake. The sense of disappointment, and one word: hypocrisy.
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Okay, off the soap box.

Some okay stuff: NY Times puts up pieces of an interview its Albany bureau chief, Danny Hakim, had with Lt. Governor David Paterson on Jan. 29, 2008. Paterson, a lawyer, a (plus a fellow alumnus of undergrad Alma Mater), a Hofstra Law alumnus, is pretty inspirational stuff (even before he became lt. governor) as a person with a disability (and not just an African-American and a scion of a political family).

Speaking of Alma Mater – changes in financial aid have been announced. My question is that if you’re going to be so generous in giving grants, why bother raising tuition every year? Follow the money trail and wonder where’s the money going… money, money, money…