(no subject)

[quislibet]

On Saturday afternoon, I wandered down to the Salem Maritime festival. I spent about 20 minutes there, ten longer than I might have if I hadn't run into a neighbor who was one of the organizers. I did get to see a Coast Guard search-and-rescue helicopter demonstrating the searching phase of a typical rescue, but you can really only watch that sort of thing for so long. Had it been coming to rescue *me* I would have paid more attention, but as they were searching for a guy who had just jumped into the water from the Coast Guard ship not long before and the guy was only about 10 yards from the ship or from shore the helicopter seemed kind of redundant.

Apparently the demonstration took place about 45 minutes after it was supposed to since the chopper had to fly out to Gloucester to pick up some kids who were stranded on a rock after high tide. Had this not occurred, the demonstration would have been long over by the time I arrived, and there would have been step-dancing.

Much of the rest of Saturday and Sunday was spent reading about the portrayal of women in the letters of Pliny the Younger, with TV breaks to watch "Sixteen Candles" and some documentary about the peace process in Northern Ireland, which ended up sucking me in for no good reason. I was surprised this weekend to keep seeing John Kapelos as I flipped channels. J. and I have been dorkily watching occasional episodes of "Forever Knight" recently and I didn't really recognize the actor who played Schanke from anything else. But suddenly, there he was, a mobster in "The Shadow" as I switched past, and, younger and slimmer, the "oily bohunk" in "Sixteen Candles." What do you know.

J. brought me a t-shirt that had been tossed into the stands at the Keene Swamp Bats game where she was in attendance with her parents Saturday night (Keene's baseball team has the Best Mascot Ever). Perhaps I will make wearing the shirt somehow integral to my forthcoming southern-New-Hampshire Changeling character concept.

Comments

[subatomicsatan.livejournal.com]

Had this not occurred, the demonstration would have been long over by the time I arrived, and there would have been step-dancing.

while i'm glad you did not have to endure step-dancing, i would certainly have enjoyed reading your description of it...though, i am curious: were you disappointed that you did not witness the step-dancing?

and some documentary about the peace process in Northern Ireland, which ended up sucking me in for no good reason

your brain saw two choices: pliny the younger and a documentary about the peace process in northern ireland. there's your good reason.

i seem to recall hearing a joke about pliny the elder, but i forget where...it must have been monty python.

I love PBS

[shelbyg.livejournal.com]

I assume that the documentary was the same one that I caught. It was really, really well done, and I got sucked into it even though I already knew the ending. : )

At one point, so the day would not be a total wash I went into my room, picked up the remote and tried to turn the repossessed TV on.

Doah! It will take a little time to get used to not having that anymore.

Sigh.

[quislibet.livejournal.com]

The women in the letters of Pliny include the famous Arria, who planned to join her husband Caecina Paetus in his (forced) suicide. Fearing her family would intervene, she demonstrated that they could not stop her by leaping out of her chair and smashing her head against a wall. When revived, she told them the best they could accomplish if they tried to stop her would be to make her death messier. When at the last her husband had to Do the Deed, seeing his hesitation, she grabbed the knife and plunged it into her chest, saying "It doesn't hurt, Paetus."

But yeah, stuff blowing up in Ireland is pretty cool too.

I can't imagine anyone *except* Monty Python doing Pliny the Elder jokes. (But you'd think anyone who wrote all about Natural History would know to avoid a volcano. Jeez.)

Re: I love PBS

[quislibet.livejournal.com]

"Endgame in Ireland" was the name of the show.

It was rather well done, I agree.