The Week in Entertainment

DVD: Some of season 5 of Psych - can't wait for that to return! - and some more of Pie in the Sky. I'm glad to see that Henderson isn't quite the clown it looked like he was being turned into, and the whole "Public Police" notion - rich people getting to pay for extra attention - is scarily likely to happen here!

TV: The Middle had two cute episodes. Modern Family, also a good start to the season. Actual physical affection between Mitch and Cam (gasp!), and Clare's wonderful line when accused of always having to be right: "Honey, I'd love to be wrong but I just don't live with the right people for that." The Mentalist, a good episode; I love Cho, and Jane's acceptance of the consequences of his actions was well played. And another terrific Doctor Who episode - it was great to see Craig again, and the Doctor's heading toward his death has been coming all season, that dark undercurrent in him played so well by Matt Smith. The collision between him and River has also been coming for quite a while ... Caught the Peter Ustinov version of Appointment with Death - far superior (as an adaptation) to the David Suchet one (though that one wasn't awful considered as an original production, which it basically was, unlike the truly terrible Orient Express...). This one moved the locale from Petra to somewhere in Palestine - Petra doubtless too hard to film at - and lost the French doctor altogether, but did a very nice job. Great cast, too - Debbie Reynolds as the monstrous Mrs. Boynton and Lauren Bacall as Lady Edgeholme, Carrie Fisher as Nadine and Hayley Mills as Miss Quinton the company, and David Soul (who was making a lot of movies back then) as Jefferson Cope - not to mention John Gielgud as the colonel and Peter Ustinov.

Read: A couple of books by PW Cantanese - The Thief and the Beanstalk and The Brave Apprentice, both very engaging. The Emerald Atlas by John Stephens, first in a trilogy and very good. Dick Francis's Gamble by his son Felix, better than some of the later Francis novels though not as good as old man's best. Sarah's Key, not nearly as good as the movie. The husband is an almost unredeemable caricature and the narrator never really convinced me of her obsession ... plus, her attitude toward her pregnancy is very plot-convenient but neither consistent nor convincing. The Real Macaw, the latest in the always entertaining Meg Lanslow cozies.