Carl Deuker -- Books, Movies, TV

Yawn. QEII is a stick-in-the-mud. Philip is going through a midlife crisis which is painfully drawn out. Two episodes were good. 1) Mining disaster in Wales that kills 100's of children.  QE is remote, and then feels the sting of fully-justified criticism. Prince Charles goes to Wales for three months to learn a bit of Welsh so that he can speak in Welsh when he takes on the roll of Prince of Wales at 21.  He learns firsthand of the resentment the Welsh feel toward the English.  Gives a brave, sympathetic speech at the end, but is then dressed down by QEII because royals are not to have opinions, not in public.  They don't take sides. Acting is excellent; writing is weak.

Ah, that sad feeling at the end of a terrific read. What a great accomplishment by Harris. Cicero's life ends sadly, but what a life. If I could give this six stars, I would. I took Latin in high school and we "translated" Cicero and Caesar and Virgil. Amazingly, I managed to get through four years without realizing that Cicero and Caesar were alive at the same time . . . and were deathly (literally) enemies. No idea that Cicero was present at the death of Caesar. A few observations on teaching. Fairly early in my career, the idea of linking the study of history and literature came to the front. I thought, and think, it's a great idea. So when I taught sixth graders American History, we read historical fiction to go along with the history. Pretty obvious. Then, toward the end of my career, this became verboten. "Reading" texts turned into short, mainly non-fiction, booklets whose topics jumped all around. They were fine, but what a hodge-podge . I remembe...

Blake Edwards directed.  He, Jack Lemmon and Lee Remick were all alcoholics.  Movie held up very well. SF.  Nursery down in San Mateo.  Lee Remick unable to give up booze.  Realistic, bleak. Nominated for a bunch of Oscars but didn't win for any major awards. 1962

Pretty sad.  Dennis Quaid as water thief, along with his sister.  Billy Bob Thornton sues him after the death of a past lover. Sink hole.  BB discovers Quaid's sister is stealing water from Federal property.  Quaid dies of a heart attack.  Sister shoots Billy.  Sister crashes car and dies. Subplot:  Marisol from season 2 gets her comeuppance.  She's involved in the water theft, is discovered, and has to resign from her job as Mayor of LA. Patty, Billy's partner, is pregnant. Deanna, Billy's daughter, is becoming a lush, but she's involved in the downfall of Marisol (whom she hates) so things are looking up for her. Thornton is great, so is Patty.  It's the plot that was terrible