Over

It's over.  I've been eating brown rice for years because it's healthier.

I've never liked it and I'm fed up with making myself eat something I don't like.

So it's back to lovely white rice.

Netflix: Rebecca

Oh dear.  They tried, really really hard.  But.

It just doesn't work.  Everyone tries but Lily James and Armie Hammer, although good actors generally, here just leave you not caring.(Lily James is also way too old and adult for the role, she can't pass for a "young girl".)  At times it's overwrought - the fault of the writing/directing, not the actors. Kirsten Scott Thomas on the other hand is the only one who seems to know what to do with her role.  Also, what's with the wardrobe for Lily James in the Monte Carlo scenes, how did she afford all those outfits?

The 1997 version with Emilia Fox, Charles Dance and Diana Rigg was better although not really great.

The 1979 version with Joanna David (Emilia Fox's mother), Jeremy Brett and Anna Massey was a worthy production and well worth watching.  

But 1940 version by Alfred Hitchcock with Joan Fontaine, Laurence Olivier and Judith Anderson is just so well done that you wonder why anyone bothers to even try to do a remake.  Maybe because the 1979 version did work so well.  

TV: The Sinner, Season 3

I liked this and largely not because of the storyline, but that was fine.

Bill Pullman gave a solid performance, as always, but Matt Bomer was a standout.

What I really liked were the ideas about philosophy, education, how people influence others, religion,  how we perceive death - and how dangerous all these things can be in some circumstances.

Movie: Hold the Dark (2018)

Sometimes I like "unusual" movies but I like them to be fathomable.  This one wasn't, even after doing a search and reading some reviews.

The scenery was beautiful at times and a sequence later in the film involving an airplane was just beautiful, almost worth watching the whole film to see it.

The cast was just ok, with the exception of James Badge Dale who gave an outstanding subtle performance.

Dog Genetics

I heard a report this morning on the genetics of playfulness in dogs.  It seems most of the types of dogs we have were bred in the lasts few hundred years.  The most playful dogs are working dogs that interact with people.  The least playful are the small toy dogs that were bred as fashion accessories.  

Too bad they hadn't bred the nasty little things to shut up.

I am old.  I find myself reacting like "old" people did when I was young in the 1960's, disapproving of fashion.   The latest is when I see women wearing leotards on the street and my immediate response is along the lines of, "Oh my god, she forgot to put a skirt on before she came outdoors."

TV: Agatha Raisin Season Three

The stories are fun, the cast is fine but unfortunately they have turned the Agatha character from a somewhat irascible self-centered but still charming eccentric into a full blown unlikable shrill harridan.

I can remember vividly the feeling, many years ago when I was a student and living on a tight budget, watching a full jar of Cheese Whiz fall and shatter on the floor and realizing that I had just dropped the basis of "cheese" sandwiches for lunch for the next two weeks.

What would possess anyone to think that putting cayenne pepper in a lovely delicate thing like cheddar cheese shortbread is a good idea?