The Week in Entertainment

DVD: A few episodes from an old British sit-com called It Ain't Half Hot Mum, which is pretty funny, though dated. (I could do without the laugh track, but that's always true.)

TV: Modern Family Phil lives his life in a sort of low-grade terror all the time, doesn't he? It's funny to watch, but I feel sorry for him. And with The Middle also giving us a leap-year birthday, it was kind of interesting to watch the different takes. At least Sue wasn't in the "I'm only four!" mode Cam was in... Grimm - here's a thought for you, Nick. Instead of taking the cursed coins and putting them in a box behind another box in your trailer, why don't you ... I don't know ... melt them down? Seriously. Why doesn't anybody ever destroy the evil artifact instead of trying to guard it for generations? I finally caught Hugo on demand ... I'm not sure if I wish I'd seen it in a theater in 3-D or not, because frankly I found it pretty boring and predictable. Sasha Baron Cohen's proved to be the most interesting character in the whole thing, which was not at all what I'd expected from his first sustained moments. In a theater, with all the bells and whistles, I might have been more impressed - or more annoyed, I don't know. Also saw The Gay Divorcee again. Edward Everett Horton, Eric Blore, and the vastly underrated Erik Rhodes really kick this movie way up in the Astaire/Rogers oeuvre, in my opinion. The cameo by Betty Grable is cute - though seriously, even back then you were supposed to get a giggle out of Horton's costume, surely??? I'm telling you, it took some nerve to dance in that.

Read: Awakening by SJ Bolton - a fast, entertaining read. Washington's Crossing, not fast but definitely entertaining. I'm caught by the image of 17,000 British and Hessian infantry crossing Long Island on a hot August night, making their way along country roads and lanes undetected. I can't begin to imagine how long it would have taken them to pass a given point...