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Showing posts from May, 2007

Widow's Peak (1994)

This is entertaining and enjoyable, but not overly important. It’s about a bunch of upper-class Irish widows and a young, English widow who moves into the neighborhood, bringing rumors of scandal and such. Except she’s actually American, but because her husband was English, they call her English. Just a bit of trivia.

Ella Enchanted (2004)

I found this enjoyable. Enjoyed the erstwhile Wesley of The Princess Bride as the evil king, who looked and acted just like Prince John in Disney’s Robin Hood , complete with a slithering snake side-kick. Thought the singing was a little over the top, but apparently Anne Hathaway did her own singing, so her voice really is that high.

Supposition Error by Alan Manning

One of Jon’s linguistics professors at BYU wrote this book. It was pretty good, though the end dragged a bit. I don't know of any other books that include time-travel, parallel universes, a Star Trek-like TV show, and futuristic scenarios that include the Mormons escaping to unknown reaches of space with all of their food storage, which I quite enjoyed.

Straight Man by Richard Russo

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I loved Straight Man . This might be partly (or largely) because its irreverent and sometimes hilarious portrayal of insecure, feuding university professors put to rest my long-held romantic visions of academia. We used to live next-door to a BYU English professor in Provo. He and his wife had a beautiful brick house; we lived in a nondescript two-bedroom apartment. From our kitchen window, we looked out on their perfectly landscaped backyard, and sometimes I saw him or his wife relaxing on the back porch with a book. My oldest children were very young at the time, and as I washed dishes, gazing at their flowers and lawn and trees, I pretended that the professor’s backyard was my own, imagined myself sitting peacefully on the back porch, sipping herbal tea, reading, thinking intelligent thoughts. Sure, sometimes I saw Herr Professor or his wife out there flinging dog crap over the fence, but mostly their lives looked ideal—quiet, thoughtful, mentally stimulating, ordered. At a time

The Office, Seasons 1 and 2 (U.S.)

Oh, I love The Office . It seems ridiculously exaggerated at first, but it’s actually pretty realistic. I knew a guy just like Michael when I was in college. And I think it’s brilliant that even the most normal characters, Jim and Pam, are frustrating as well as a relief. I’m looking forward to the third season—I know it’s already over, and there are ways I could see it now, but I want to wait for the DVDs. (No spoiler comments, please!)