To clarify, when I said “bullet holes” I meant from the Revolution. In the cathedral in Nantes you can still see the destruction wrought at that time also. And curiously, next to the cathedral there is a wall from Roman times. To think of the centuries of history it’s seen.

Who was the Republican senator who was going on about the Democrats being like the Jacobins?

Technically, you are correct. However, when I was a child World War II was so present in our culture that I felt that I remembered it even though I was born five years after its end. In the French town where I stayed there were still bullet holes in the church. I saw “Les Guerres de la Vendee pour les Nuls” (The Wars…

A couple of years ago I visited the Vendee region of France, around Nantes, where in 1793 there was a counter-revolution (initiated by people who opposed the post-Revolutionary prohibition on cemetery crosses). A quarter of a million people died, and the locals still remember it the way some Southerners remember the…

Jess joyously embraced the girls in a previous episode, indicating that they were her daughters. i don’t know who the older girl is played by, but she sure looks and talks like Katherine Waterson.

If you are unemployed, have little money of your own, and your spouse dies it’s nice to get $20,000 to tide you over until you can get a job.

I got life insurance at 25, at my mother’s behest or I wouldn’t have thought of it. That was over 40 years ago and it would pay out less than $10,000. Insurance is a must if you have debts or dependents, as the author advises; my stepfather’s opinion was that most people have too much and “you only need enough to put…

I did my John Lennon duty and watched a PBS “American Masters” on his years in NYC and LA. Very sobering, as it would have been his 80th birthday.

Sounds like fun, though...

To preserve the wonderful suspense of this story I have only been reading the books after each season is over (finishing the book if the season didn’t get all the way to the end). I really appreciate how honorable other book readers have been about preserving the suspense of the coming seasons.

My friend Tom’s foolproof method, from the stoned Seventies:

He really was a national treasure. Fun fact: one of the co-stars of “The Masque of the Red Death” was Paul McCartney’s then-girlfriend, Jane Asher.

65! So young... actually, we were about the same age. I was a bit old for the hair-metal scene, but I appreciated his energy and the magic with which he constructed those songs. I had no idea about the part he played in “Beat It”, and watching the video just reminds me of how young and beautiful and talented everyone…

For those who have not yet watched the episode, watch until the end, and then turn it off. Don’t watch the trailer for next week’s episode. Too much information!

We should not be surprised that either the producers and/or the book author don’t seem to know that it’s “jell”, not “gell”, unless you’re putting it on your hair, in which case it’s “gel”.

Promising beginning, devolving into superfluous disclosure of every single thing that occurs in this mystery. Grade: C+.

Not from my experience!

I don’t care, if Diego Luna is going to be Cassian Andor I’ll watch it. He’s adorable. And yes, I enjoyed Rogue One more than most of the Star Wars films.

50 years... Well, I guess I AM getting old. At any rate, even as a freshman in 1970 I never believed any human has ever uttered “Acid is groovy”. And yet... I’ve read accounts pro, and I’ve read accounts con, and each time I was swayed from one side to the other. While I usually avoid true crime as entertainment, I…

Could be... I was getting a “Blair Witch Project” vibe, too.