Notes at Random

[aadler]

Just trivia and observations from here and there.

• Susan and I went shopping on Black Friday, but not for holiday stuff. We picked up various small items that we happened to need; the main thing, actually, was .22 ammunition.
• We got the ammunition because I took Susan to a shooting range. She had expressed interest, and this was a time when we could do it. It didn’t appear to me that she had a very good time, but she made a favorable Facebook entry afterward, so I guess it worked out.
• Susan is wearing pajamas these days. (To bed, or for relaxation.) She’s never done that before. But then, she hasn’t weighed this little in almost 25 years.
• Yesterday I finished a mystery by Charlaine Harris, one of her earlier works (copyrighted 30 years ago, in fact). It made me think of how many things I’ve read by her. I like pretty much all of them … except her best known — and best-selling — series, the Sookie Stackhouse books that formed the basis for the True Blood TV series. I don’t begrudge her the success; in fact, I wish I could duplicate it. But how ironic, and annoying, is it that she should score biggest with the one thing I don’t like?
• As a counterpoint to that, I saw part of the Firm on television today. (I was actually living in Memphis when Tom Cruise filmed there. One of my co-workers saw him when she went out for lunch. She said he was a shrimp.) I’m usually not a fan of movies made from books, since filmmakers always take the attitude that they can improve someone else’s work, which is almost never so. With the Firm, though, we have the happy exception. The movie was vastly better than the book, and it’s a pleasure to see good work done well.
• Some years ago, I gave my daughter a vest for Christmas. She loved it, still wears it. (It’s handy.) While I was on the Alaska cruise with Susan, I bought a vest for myself. Now Susan has a vest, among a collection of stuff a friend gave her to recognize her weight loss. Susan and I wore ours yesterday; if Roni should happen to wear hers anytime soon, we might all three have vests on at the same time. Thrills!

Grammar/language peeve of the day: I saw something in the news today about “Nato forces” doing something in Pakistan. Sorry, there’s no such word as “Nato”. NATO (the North Atlantic Treaty Organization) is an acronym. That would be like me claiming to be a Cia agent.

And, that should do it for now.