Readers!
I was going to write about a predictable situation happening at the Washington Post, where some tech “geniuses” rolled out AI-powered podcast creator that produced — shocking enough — a product riddled with errors; and why their AI-at-all-costs stance, plus the whole Bezos of it all, is why I don’t pitch them anymore. But I’ve ranted about the lying plagiarism machine recently, so you can guess how I feel. And I think I got my point across in that one sentence.
I’m also on a deadline crush to finish many stories by Friday (my “hey do you want me to write anything before the end of the year?” outreach to clients was fruitful!) so I’m going to jump right into the recommendations. I have a lot!
One before I get into the usual recs: Focus Friend, an app created by Hank Green. The friend is a bean (yes a bean) who knits. You set a timer for however long you don’t want to mess with your phone, and for that span of time, the bean knits socks. You then use the knitted socks to “buy” items to decorate a house. I don’t use it so much for work but to get me to stop doom scrolling at night. I’m now onto decorating my third room, a kitchen.
What I’m Reading
- Brooklyn by Colm Tóibín. This is a quiet book about a young woman who leaves Ireland in the 1950s to work as a shop girl in Brooklyn. I say quiet because she doesn’t get caught up in some historic action, but is more an observer of changes happening in the U.S. after World War II — one story about one woman and what it meant to leave her country for a better opportunity at a time. It was a very warm read on a cold, snowy weekend. I know the author recently published Long Island, which is a sequel, so I’ll read that eventually (and will probably have a different experience reading them close together than those who read Brooklyn when it first came out in 2009).
What I’m Watching
- The Mask. So many people dressed up as the titular character for Halloween that I figured I should watch it again. My younger brother watched this just about every day for an entire summer, so I found myself repeating many of the lines. Still good! Very funny! Great dog! For you younger readers, if you’re wondering why were all swing dancing in the late 1990s, it’s because it was fun as hell! Also, Peter Greene, who plays the villain, died this week. Even at 13/14 years old, I got that he was supposed to look like a cool guy, but was dangerous. Not easy to do!
- Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale. This was a silly bit of fan service, but I would have been disappointed if it was anything else. I also doubt the Downton Abbey universe is closing up shop. You don’t leave Paul Giamatti with a “well I could do this” future unless you want to leave that door open, and there’s been hints that a young Cora will show up in The Gilded Age. I also can’t see creator Julian Fellows giving up the opportunity to do a World War II movie, not when so many grand estates were turned into hospitals. You don’t need to bring everyone back but if Michelle Dockery, who plays Lady Mary, is willing to come back and put on the tiara in 10 years, why not? I have maybe spent too much time thinking about this, but I also watched this while running on the treadmill so what else was I going to do.
- Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery aka Catholic Knives Out. It’s as good as everyone has said, and so completely different than the first two. And while yes it’s a Daniel Craig movie, this is really about Josh O’Connor’s Father Jud, and the battle between different factions of the Catholic Church (which hey timely) as told through a murder with an atheist detective. Also, if you start this and wonder why they brought in Glenn Close for what could have been a stereotypical over-pious church lady, it becomes obvious. What a dame.
- Death in Paradise, season 10. I know I’m jumping around seasons, but does it really matter in a murder of the week type show? Older plot lines pop up, but it’s not a big deal that I don’t know them. I am deeming this a treadmill show because it’s engaging enough that I want to see what’s next, and I can zone out if I need to. They’re always going to catch the bad guy in the end. Oh and one note: I watch these on Kanopy, which is a free streaming service I get through my library. The one drawback is that it doesn’t have the Death in Paradise Christmas episodes (it’s common for British TV shows to do a bonus episode for the holidays). HOWEVER, Hoopla, another library streaming service, does have the Christmas episodes for this show. So now I can go back and see what I missed (I prefer Kanopy over Hoopla for shows because you pay credits to checkout the entire season where with Hoopla it’s per episode).
Nail Polish of the Week
Mosaic On Down by Essie. This isn’t a sparkly gold. more like the gold of an Olympic gold medal. I like it! Doesn’t really show chips either.
Until next time!
Jen A. Miller (she/her)
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