There’s an old Polish proverb that says…

I finished my Banacek marathon yesterday. It’s a shame there weren’t more episodes, but Peppard reportedly turned down a third season to avoid having to give his ex-wife a large cut of his proceeds from the show. The premise is an interesting riff on the “locked room” mystery. Especially good are the ones where the caper takes place in front of numerous witnesses, like the one where the rocket engine disappears during a five-second blackout or the one where $1 million in cash vanishes from a locked display case on a crowded casino floor. It must have given the writers fits to have to come up with such devious plots on a regular basis, though.

For a change of pace, I watched two recent Doctor Who episodes last night, the second part of the Sontaran series and the one that follows that. Here’s a mild casting spoiler for the latter. The role of Jenny is played by Georgia Moffett, the real-life daughter of Peter Davison, Doctor #5. Apparently she tried out for the part of Rose. She’s a real cutie, with tremendous screen presence. She would have made a delightful Rose..

I’m still reading The Reapers by John Connolly. There seems to be an awful lot of setup to this novel. I’m through three chapters and still don’t get the feeling that the book has started. Chapter three is a dozen pages building up to the first glimpse of Charlie Parker. Excellent writing, but I’m a bit dubious on the plotting strategy.

I returned to the novel this morning, after a two-week hiatus to get a short story written. I still have another story to write in the coming weeks, but I’m still cogitating on that one. I’ve done a fair amount of research and I can visualize the opening scene, but I’m not sure where it will go after that yet.

There is an old Polish proverb that says, “Though the hippopotamus has no stinger on his tail, the wise man would rather be sat on by a bee.”