Peony Moss: December 2004 Archives

Steven has such an endearing request: He is asking us readers of the Aubrey-Maturin series why we like the books.

I'll be coming back to this question myself over the next few weeks. Meanwhile, I'm going to cross-post a review I did of the recent film that touches on some of the things I like about the books.

This was originally posted at Popcorn Critics on February 27, 2004

It's a rare occasion that I get to see a movie in the theater, and a really rare occasion that I get to go with my husband (this was the first movie we've seen together in an actual theater since January 2001!) My husband and I both like historical movies; I am also on my first reading through the Patrick O'Brian series that inspired the books (and am completely enthralled.) So I was pleased that we were able to get out and see this on the big screen.

I liked it okay, but I was disappointed. I wanted to like it more.

As far as spectacle and entertainment value, if you like sea spray and dramatic helicopter shots and storms and meticulous attention to costumes and period detail and lots and lots of battle, then this is the movie for you. The movie is a cracking good adventure. It does an amazing job of evoking what life must have been like on a crowded, dangerous ship, and showing us the bravery and resourcefulness of the men who sailed those ships.

But in the O'Brian books, the adventure is only the beginning. Their special appeal is in wit, their humor, their depiction of the human drama, and it's here that the movie almost completely fails. It's a shame, because the casting of the secondary characters -- Pullings, Bonden, Killick, Padeen, each with their own vivid little quirks -- is spot-on. I was laughing out loud at some of the little jokes and perfections. But the heart of the books, the friendship between Captain Jack Aubrey and Dr Stephen Maturin, is completely lost.

A big part of the problem is the inappropriate casting of the two leads. Russell Crowe's Aubrey is 100% action hero, with none of Jack's Aubrey's goofy charm. He might have come closer, though, with a different Maturin. Paul Bettany is physically wrong for the part -- tall, fair, youthful and handsome instead of short, dark, and mysterious. Maturin's Irish accent seems to have gotten lost somewhere too, as well as his gift for languages.

The affection between the two characters is nowhere to be seen. They are seen together at their music, but we are shown none of the funny little exchanges between the two, so that when we are treated to a favorite line from the books, such as one of Aubrey's mangled proverbs, the humor is lost and it makes no sense. Many of their scenes together end up instead as cheesy little debates that strongly reminded me of a different captain and a different doctor: Dammit, Jim! You can't keep cracking on like this! Hang Starfleet, Bones -- I know what I'm doing!

Part of the problem is that the movie is a sort of careless puree of at least four books chosen from the first two-thirds of the series, combined with some schmaltzy Hollywoodish additions, which means that many of the characters' words and actions make no sense. Jack comes up with tactics that we are asked to believe are totally new ideas, but in fact have been part of his bag of tricks from the very first book. Stephen, in particular, comes out with some howlers -- questions that make sense when he asked them in the third book but not in the eighth, and speeches that make him seem like an amnesia victim who has forgotten that he is on a ship of the Royal Navy. And yet we are asked to believe that he knows his way around this ship and is an experienced ship's doctor. Instead of coming off as a lovable absent-minded professor type ("What a fellow you are, Stephen") he seems arrogant and obtusely self-centered.

Another reason it's hard to like these characters is that it's hard to catch their names. The movie is action, action, action from the first scene, and introductions to the characters is not a priority, yet we've got about ten people in the gunroom we're supposed to keep straight. You thought keeping your LOTR characters in order was difficult? At the end of the movie I was still unclear as to who was a lieutenant and who was a mid, and what some of their names were -- and I've read the books!

Dialogue can be hard to catch, as well, in part because of the thick English accents and in part because of all the stuff going on. Subtitles on the DVD (which is supposed to come out next month) might be helpful for some.

The pretentious Hollywoodisms got annoying quickly. The swelling sad music when the captain must make a dreadful decision, the affecting farewell between two friends when you Just Know one of them's not going to make it back (just like the red-shirted ensign on that other captain's ship).... For all this movie's loving attention to grimy detail, someone forgot that it's unlikely that a cello left propped on a chair, balanced on a peg, is going to stay that way through three days on a sailing ship. And as for the cheesy music at the ending, it's a good think I didn't buy a soda, because I'd have been sorely tempted to heave it at the screen.

I hear Russell Crowe wants to do a sequel. I'm not holding my breath; at this writing the movie is still $30 million in the red. If there is a sequel, I hope they recast Stephen and get a little more organized. I wonder if it's even possible to capture these books in a single feature film. Maybe A&E could take a crack at a miniseries someday.

So, overall, a good movie, but one that should have been better. If you enjoy this movie and are inspired to try the books, it's all to the good.

If you want to give the books a try, please allow me to suggest starting with Master and Commander and following quickly with Post Captain.

Lakeland, FL, Dec. 30 (UPI) -- A Florida appeals court has ruled the parents of a Tampa, Fla., woman should not get a trial in their effort to keep her alive.

The decision by the 2nd Court of Appeal in Lakeland, Fla., could leave the U.S. Supreme Court as the only recourse for the parents of Terri Schiavo, The Tampa Tribune said Thursday.

Harry Potter Personality Quiz by Pirate Monkeys Inc.

Via Steven "Dumbledore" Riddle

"Live mindful of death, time is fleeing."

A nephew!

My sister (who was due on January 8) gave birth to a nine-pound, 21-inch baby boy on Christmas morning! This is the second grandchild in the family. So we are all excited and happy here.

We had an excellent flight in; the only difficult part was trying to keep Hambet occupied during all the waiting part. O'Hare airport has a marvelous children's museum where the kids can run around and pretend to run an airline, and that was extremely helpful. It's cold here but not too snowy. My mother went completely out of control baking cookies. Hambet got a crane for Christmas and is having a blast.

Merry Christmas!

Today is suitcase day. My things to do list:

• Change the bed linens
• Put the clean laundry away
• Pack the clothes
• Pack the Hambet entertainment bag. I was going to wrap the little books and wee toy airplane, but it occurs to me that TSA wouldn't like that.
• Prepare Hambet's car sear for airline use
• If time permits, knock out a few Christmas cards

We leave at the crack of dawn tomorrow and should be in Fargo in time for lunch.

Any tips on flying, especially flying with little people, would be most appreciated -- last time I was in an airplane was summer of 2000.

My husband never reads my blog, so this is not directed at him. (Plus, I know he's done with his Christmas shopping.)

BUT if you are casting about for last-minute ideas, some suggestions...

-- I was in Staples last week and they had a great deal on Brother label makers. I am totally serious! This is a great gift idea, especially for women who are fond of gadgets. I love mine, and when one of my clients saw it you should have heard the squeal of delight she emitted. (I think she got one for herself that very week.) I got one for my sister a couple of years ago and she was the envy of her workmates. Get the second most expensive one -- it's a little bit larger and will take laminated label tapes. You can even use it to make iron-on labels.

-- The Container Store stocks the same model of label maker. It's a bit more expensive than at Staples, but it comes with a cunning little case that holds an AC adapter and extra batteries. (I wish mine had a cunning little case like that.)

-- The Apologia shop is full of unique items designed by yours truly. The newest item is the "uhhh" mug; my favorite is the mousepad. Proceeds go to... well, smock and I haven't decided yet. But it will be some terribly worthy cause, I assure you, even if it's just our bandwidth fund. Oh, the shirts have printing on the back.

-- Speaking of dear Mr Luse, he has dropped a hint that there are extra-good reasons to subscribe to Touchstone this year. He is also endorsing TSO's Little Book.

-- For an album-maker, perhaps a subscription to the new Creative Memories magazine, Lasting Moments? I don't have a link at present; I'll post one if it comes back up. Otherwise please drop me an email and I can help you get it set up.

-- Williams-Sonoma has cookie cutters in the shape of dinosaurs! When we get back I am going to try my hand at rolled dino-cookies.

-- For the little train-heads in your life: the gift shop at the Western Pennsylvania Model Railroad Museum has all kinds of fun train things: train hats, train whistles, train plates and cups, train models, train toys, train puzzles, train cookie cutters.... I stocked up for Christmas AND birthday when I was there. Go visit if you're around Pittsburgh and have the chance -- they have an amazing layout showing scenes on the line all the way from downtown Pittsburgh to Cumberland, Maryland. It is the coolest thing! There's one vignette set near Yough Lake -- if you look closely you can see a tiny model of Fallingwater in the background.

OK, less blogging more packing. This trip is going to be a haul, but I'm so glad that we can go. My mom says that everyone's really excited that there's going to be a little kid around for Christmas this year. Maybe they'll be glad to see Posco and me too!

I really hate it when websites do STUPID things like NOT LINKING to what you need.

For example, you're looking for the claim form on your health insurance website. Of course they don't have a link to it on the fricking FRONT PAGE, and provide no clues, so you click to the FAQ page and find something helpfullly titled, "Where do I get a claim form?"

So you click, and there's no link to the claim form -- it just says, "In the Benefits section!"

So you click to the Benefits section and THERE IS STILL NO LINK TO THE CLAIM FORM.

Thanks goodness for the site map -- it was the only way to find the stupid claim form. But to get there, you click the link on the side bar that says "Site Map" and what pops up? Another link that says "Site Map!" (At least when you click that link you finally get to the Site Map.) And someone got paid for this?

Should I beg for an autograph? swoon?

Oh, this was a good one today:

...is it possible that some people in the overculture lack an elemental understanding of what this holiday means to some? I know, I know. Madness. Bear with me.

I don’t think people in the Evil Coastal Godless Baal-Loving Media hate Christianity. I’m sure some hold it in disinterested contempt, the way they view NASCAR and Simplicity dress patterns and those giant salad forks some people inexplicably used as kitchen-wall decorations. But for many – yes, the dreaded inexact “many” – religious ideas don’t register at all, so they don’t know how their actions might seem to those who take the whole God thing seriously....

And the last paragraphs -- mwah! I wuv you, Mister Lilek's!

I've taken kind of a shine to the new Fox show House (it's on tonight.) It's a pretty formulaic medical show (with some real howlers in the fact-checking department); the twist is that the main character, who is supposed to be a physician with an uncanny talent for diagnosing obscure illnesses, is also a rude, cynical misanthrope. Hugh Laurie plays the misanthrope, and is just amazing. Come for his performance, stay for the allusions to two great literary detectives, ignore the rest as you please.

So I've been watching this show, and I know Victor's been tuning in too. Unfortunately neither of us got around to blogging last week's surprisingly good episode. So allow me to refer you to S.T. Karnick's article in NRO today: Must-Believe TV: Christianity gets a fair shake:

...the [nuns] are portrayed as far more complex and intelligent than one might have expected. Both their ideas and their personal histories are quite sophisticated, and in the case of the one stricken by illness, the revelations of her many past sins show not hypocrisy but the redemptive power of religious faith. The nuns argue quite evenly with Dr. House, and though he usually wins through the sheer force of his great intellect and even greater will, the emptiness in his soul becomes increasingly clear. His doubts in his own abilities suggest that for this man, science is not enough.

Throughout all of this, Christmas is prominent in the background. It is Advent, and the hospital staff members are reacting in various ways appropriate to their characters. Dr. House, in particular, increasingly reveals a loneliness and personal despair that has been strongly hinted at in previous episodes. The context, however, points the viewer inexorably toward a spiritual explanation of his problem: Dr. House is a lost soul who desperately needs to find some transcendent meaning to his life. Though he claims to be a strict materialist, his frequent references to Dante's Circles of Hell suggest what is really troubling him.

(The episode also has a neat reference to the Seven Deadly Sins.)

I do have a couple of quibbles; for example, Karnick writes, "though [House] usually wins through the sheer force of his great intellect and even greater will"; but the way I saw it, House actually doesn't do too well against the nuns. They have his number, and he doesn't even know it. In one argument, when the nun is getting a little too close to the truth, he only "wins" by rudely breaking off the conversation; later, in another, he is stunned into silence. But all in all, I thought it was not only fair (which is rare enough) but showed the nuns as being intelligent and good (!) without being sentimental.

We've evolved! We are Marauding Marsupials today!

From today's Washington Post (registration required): Many New or Expectant Mothers Die Violent Deaths:

Eight months pregnant, Thomas, 18, was walking home from a grocery store when her ex-boyfriend shot her in the head execution-style because, prosecutors said, he believed fatherhood would get in the way of his music career. "This was a big, major inconvenience for him," prosecutor Mark Curry said....

[In another case, the father of the child] at first denied it was his child, then pressed for an abortion, then plotted murder.

"It seems to me that these guys hope against hope for a miscarriage or an abortion, but when everything else fails, they take the life of the woman to avoid having the baby," said Jack Levin of Northeastern University.

...a man who grows accustomed to the use of contraceptive methods may forget the reverence due to a woman, and, disregarding her physical and emotional equilibrium, reduce her to being a mere instrument for the satisfaction of his own desires, no longer considering her as his partner whom he should surround with care and affection. --Pope Paul VI, Humanae Vitae (17)

I come to you today in my role as intercessor. Hambet has misplaced two toy trains. We've looked in all the usual places, to no avail. Please help!

Your devoted client,
Peony Moss

UPDATE, 12/19: One of the trains has been found (happily, the special favorite that gets taken to bed every night.) The other one is still missing. Hambet seems unperturbed. I'm not sure whether this is healthy detachment or a sign he has too many trains. Perhaps both.

UPDATE, 12/21: The other train has been found -- by Hambet! Yay! And my cell phone did not stay missing for long either -- hubby knew right where it was when I called him, so it turned up before I could post my petition.

yada, yada, yada: The Eugenics Archive: American Eugenics Movement

found in How to Construct a Commonplace Book

If language is not correct, then what is said is not what is meant; if what is said is not what is meant, then what must be done remains undone; if this remains undone, morals and art will deteriorate; if justice goes astray, the people will stand about in helpless confusion.

--Confucius

I would love to staple this onto the forehead of just about every media pundit, judge, and politician out there.
Hence there must be no arbitrariness in what is said. This matters above
everything.

Commonplace books and how to make them

I have scrapped a very worthy and edifying activity today in favor of just staying home and doing some laundry and tidying up some of the piles of "get to it later" things. (And blogging.)

It's been a busy fall. I enrolled Hambet in a preschool program, two hours long once a week; he had a hard time getting into the routine for a while and was getting kicked out halfway through the session. I think he's finally settling down, though he still isn't totally compliant.

I'm also doing an informal co-op playgroup/ preschool thing with some of the other moms I know. There are six kids in the group, and each week we moms take turns planning a weekly two-hour session -- songs, games, a craft, a snack, stuff like that. Another mom serves as "backup" and minds a couple of toddlers so that the other moms are free to stay and chat or run errands. We also carpool, so that also helps. The kids love it and so do the moms.

So Hambet is learning the days of the week and even asks me what "day" it is: Sunday is Church day, Monday is preschool day, Tuesday is errand day, Wednesday is playgroup day, Thursday is often "go see kids" day (when I am doing to a recollection or something and he plays with the other kids) and Friday is usually Trader Joes-and-library day.

It's so fun watching Hambet and watching the little gears turn in his mind and seeing and how fascinated he is in learning about the world and how things work, and how satified he is when he understands something. He is fascinated by numbers and loves counting; when I mentioned a math problem ("five plus two is seven") he was murmuring it to himself long afterwards ("five plus two... five plus two..."). He's also learning to recognize letters and is starting to spell out words and signs.

Hambet is also trying to learn to tell time, and it is so funny, because he will insist on all kinds of things in an effort to get what he wants (like insisting that it's five o'clock when he's just rolled out of bed in the morning). I've started telling him things like, "we're going to leave when the big hand is on the 6 and the little hand is on the 8" and he's very interested.

This all got started when Hambet went on a chocolate milk jag and started asking for chocolate milk the minute he hopped out of bed. So I told him that he could have a cup at 3 o'clock (knowing that six days out of seven, he would forget all about it by then.) So that led to teaching him to recognize the big hand on the 12 and the little hand on the three, and so on. He's also enjoying mastering "night" and "day," and will bounce down the stairs in the morning and announce, "It's DAY time!" or inform me that pajamas are for NIGHT time, NOT for DAY time. It's also helping with bedtime, in that I think he's beginning to like submitting to the rhythm of the day or recognizes what the clock looks like or something -- anyway, bedtime is much less of a fight than it used to me.

I am thinking about making a little chart showing the tasks of the day with clock faces next to them. But I will have to laminate it because I know he will carry it around all over the place so he can gaze at it. Shhhh... I found a learn to tell time book that has clock faces and trains. I'm trying to decide whether to give it for Christmas or hold it back for birthday.

Maybe I'll hold it for next week. I don't know if I mentioned that we are indeed travelling to North Dakota for Christmas -- I did find a decent deal on tickets, though not as cheap as I would have liked. We are leaving at the crack of dawn on Christmas Eve. This will be Hambet's first time on an airplane, so I'm a little worried. I plan to have some gum and some things with high novelty and entertainment value at the ready.

We're listed on BlogShares!

What does this mean? Thanks to those who felt that TSM stock was worth enough to bring to market.

Take the Polygeek Quiz at Thudfactor.com

And this after spending the whole afternoon setting up a computer? (I do all the electronica at our house) I even tried throwing some questions. Oh well. Thanks to full-blown geek Alicia.

Come to think of it, I guess I was doing geek translation (medjargon into English) when I was doing bedside nursing.

...it's not Frida or Botero.

You have the Vermeer girl look. A Vermeer girl
appealed mostly to the old masters of the Dutch
school, who painted pictures of everyday life
as they knew it. With her fine, fair skin, she
suited a light, natural, dewy make-up. The
Vermeer Girl loved homely things, such as
homemade soaps and candles. The following
artists would have liked to paint you; Pieter
de Hooch and Jan Vermeer.


'Pretty As A Picture' - Which Artist Would Paint You?
brought to you by Quizilla

Thanks to Vermeer Girl Alicia for this quiz.

Library book. Staples (the store.) Called the store, told nobody's turned it in. Went there, personally checked every shopping cart I could find, didn't see it.

St Anthony, help!

UPDATE: Found! by the nice manager at Staples. Picked it up -- and went straight to the library to return it!

At the rate we're going, St Anthony may need his own category pretty soon.

I read someplace (well, to be specific, the Sunday Post; marketing questions) that those little rubber bracelets (made popular by Lance Armstrong) have become a little fashion craze among the tweens.

Well, Dawn Eden has good news for the pro-life tween in your life: blue "pro-life" bracelets.

A son tells the story of his "Mom's Cancer"

Thanks to Barbara for this link.

here: advice to husbands and wives.

1. Egg nog - yum or yuck? YUM

2. Stay up until midnight on New Years? Nope.

3. Prefer white or colored lights? White.

4. Favorite holiday song. Hark the Herald Angels Sing, with Once in Royal David's City becoming a new favorite.

5. What is your tackiest holiday decoration? A music box shaped like a skating pond. When you wind it up and put the two penguins with magnets on their feet on the mirrored top, they whirl and skate to the music.

6. Do your kids have too much and you wonder just WHY you are getting more?? lol Yes!

7. If you celebrate Christmas, when does your tree go up and come down? We are not putting up a tree this year because we are traveling, but we usually get it right before the fourth Sunday of Advent and leave it up until at least Epiphany.

8. Christmas again - open presents on Christmas eve, morning, or other? I am trying to establish opening presents in the afternoon, after dinner.

9. Favorite holiday tradition? Pizza and Irish Coffee on Christmas Eve.

10. What do YOU want for Christmas? Something there is no chance of my getting.

Thanks to Zelie.

to Miss Bernadette Luse, card-carrying member of the 2005 LPGA tour!

St Nicholas Center: stories, ideas, coloring pages, kids' artwork, and a place to buy cookie cutters!!!

Hat tip: Coucoumelle.

Happy birthday to you,
Happy birthday to you!
Happy birthday, dear Pansy,
Happy birthday to you!

My baking soda just vanishes now and then. I don't understand it, especially because the baking cupboard is pretty tidy and that orange box is hard to miss. So where does it go?

It turned up missing at the most inconvenient time today -- when I was in the middle of mixing the cookies. Hambet was asleep and I really didn't want to wake him up and drag him to the store in his PJ's. But if I waited I was going to lose a lot of time, especially because I was expecting a little playmate for him later in the morning.

I ended up (I can't believe I did this) pulling the box of baking soda out of the back of the fridge and scooping my 1 1/2 tsp out of that. Don't worry, it was pretty new and I don't have a lot of smelly stuff in my fridge. So I got the cookies done (mixed, chilled, rolled, and baked) before the little playmate arrived. And they taste fine.

But why does my baking soda keep disappearing?

Tomorrow I'm having an Open House for my business -- so far I think three actual customers are going to be coming, as well as Iris, who is coming out of loyalty and love of cookies.

I'm making fudge and snickerdoodles, and will probably make another kind of bar cookie (trying to decide between raspberry and chocolate revel.) I found myself calling my mother for her recommendations, and she rattled off a dizzying list of cookies and bars on her standard bake list.

Of course, my mom always has a could of hundred people around during the Christmas season, and she's been doing this for a bit longer than I have. But it made me realize that I don't have much on my Must Bake for Christmas List.

I always make snickerdoodles and fudge, and I will probably add peppermint bark, chocolate chip cookies made with red and green M&Ms, and those peanut blossom cookies with the chocolate star in the middle. When Hambet is older I will probably add rolled and decorated sugar cookies.

So how about you? What's on your yearly to-bake list?