Twenty-four years ago this week, I arrived in Texas with my parents in a Ford Aerostar van containing everything I wanted to bring with me from Canada. I started work for a company then called MSC and I’m still working for them today, though the company’s name has changed a couple of times and the top management has come and gone a few times, too. Nearly half my life working at the same place, but I still have over 20 years to go to catch up with my father, who worked at the same job for 45 years.
Nearly 10 years ago, I heard that Bob Minzesheimer, the book editor for USA Today, was going to interview Stephen King about Faithful, the book he and Stewart O’Nan wrote about the Red Sox. I was audacious. I e-mailed him out of the blue and volunteered to assist him with background, if he so desired. He did. We had a good conversation about King’s affinity for baseball and the way it shows up in different books. He used some of my material, quoted me and gave me a nice sidebar about The Road to the Dark Tower, which was just out.
Several days ago, I had another email from Minzesheimer. He was going to interview King again, this time about Doctor Sleep, and could I provide him with any thoughts and/or background. I did, and I happened to mention that the second edition of The Stephen King Illustrated Companion would be out soon. The interview appeared in today’s USA Today, and in the online version, my quotes appear, along with mention of the book. So that was my little bit of fun for today.
Speaking of Doctor Sleep and The Shining, The Lilja and Lou Podcast in which I discuss those books with Lilja, Lou and Karen Lindsay is now available for your listening pleasure.
I was especially interested to watch this week’s episode of Covert Affairs because a large part of it was set in Frankfurt, a place I’ll be visiting in a little over a month. Most of my week in Germany will be in another city, but I have at least one full day to kick around Frankfurt on my way back, unless I decide to take a day-trip somewhere else. I haven’t been to Germany in roughly 20 years, so I look forward to the adventure.
I was pleasantly surprised that the US version of The Bridge maintained the outcome of Marcos’s son. From the way they’d pulled back a few times already, I was sure they were going to blink. There were a few changes after the confrontation with the killer on the bridge, the biggest of which is that he’s still alive. No, actually, the biggest change is that there are two more episodes. The Swedish/Danish version ended with the face-off on the bridge, but the US version still has some business to handle, apparently. I guess some of it will have to do with the tunnel people. It’s been a long time since a TV show made me jump, but when the guy dragging the body finds those corpses, picks up a gun and then unexpectedly encounters a living person who shoots at him, I jumped.
Ninety minutes of Sons of Anarchy is a little too much. I honestly don’t care very much what happens any longer. I’ll probably still watch, but I’m not nearly as engaged as I was in the first couple of seasons.
Now Survivor was interesting. Unlike Jeff Strand, I didn’t read up very much about the new format, and what I did read, I forgot, so I was able to appreciate the surprises of the first fifteen or twenty minutes. It’s a diabolical format: returning members on one tribe and their family members on the other. So, if they win a challenge, a family member will be sent to Redemption Island, and vice versa. Also, the fact that they immediately turned a couple of players into outcasts was a good surprise. And Rupert’s choice even stunned Probst. The family team seems quite strong physically compared to the returning team. They performed quite well in the physical part of the first challenge, but faded fast when it came to the puzzle. They have a lot to learn still, but they did okay for a bunch of newbies. I hope Colton goes, and soon. Not a nice person.
