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Downton Dish, Season 3, Episode 4 recap: "The sweetest spirit under this roof...
What can I say? I cried buckets. Telling myself that these were made-up people in a classy soap opera did not help. Everyone loved Sybil (even the maleficent Thomas was crying). And how apropos that...
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Witty writing on words, à la Roy Blount, Jr.
Whether your vocabulary cravings tend toward the mot juste or the just plain juicy, you'll enjoy Roy Blount, Jr.'s Alphabet Juice.I have relished his ready wit on NPR's Wait Wait, Don't Tell Me, but...
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Musical "likes" of 1926
In 1926, Gramophone magazine's Compton Mackenzie asked a number of worthies of the day—including Noël Coward, GK Chesterton, Ivor Novello, George Bernard Shaw, and DH Lawrence—to name their favorite...
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Noel Coward: "A talent to amuse"
If images like Elsie swinging upside down from a chandelier and Freddie doing “half the Big Apple” strike a chord, then you, Sir or Madam, are an initiate into the trippy world of Noel Coward (pictured...
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A pause for humor ... and caption creativity
Art thou a "quakebuttock" when it comes to weird vocabulary? If not, then hie thee to this list of "Unusual, Obscure, and Preposterous Words"! Also tipped off to us today by the book blog Shelf...
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Downton Dish (Season 3, Episode 5): From burnt kidney souffle to a plum of a...
Your vote for best line in the episode? Mine would have to be Violet's “It would be a pity to miss such a good pudding.” That's said when Lord G barges into the “girls' lunch” at Mrs Crawley's and...
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Silver spoons and zingy satire: Nancy Mitford's 'Love in a Cold Climate'
Nancy Mitford, 1929, by Cecil BeatonI have just finished reading—and loving—Nancy Mitford's Love in a Cold Climate, which Mitford biographer and man of letters Harold Acton called her best novel. A...
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"Long Live the King"! Richard III's bones come to light
From the merest possibility to "beyond reasonable doubt," it all began with part of a stone frieze, which looked to have been from a choir stall from the medieval Greyfriars Church, being discovered...
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"The Buccaneers is a delight.”
The lissome lasses of BBC's The Buccaneers.“Don't expect him to be entertaining” the American heiresses are forewarned as they approach the ancestral castle of their British host, “a man's dullness is...
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Humoresque: "The Oatmeal," Postmodern Fairy Tales, & Quip Art challenge
I am a recent initiate to The Oatmeal blog, a collection from which (How to Tell If Your Cat Is Plotting to Kill You) is currently the No. 1 seller of ALL the books on the Daedalus website!! This saga...
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The Downton Dish (Downton Abbey Season 3, Episode 6 recap): "Stay in bed!...
Fair is foul and foul is fair!A double episode: yoiks! Let's get down to all of the sticky wickets.Bates is sprung! (Somewhat anticlimactically.) But he has a spring in his step as he and Anna walk...
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Mysterious doings
I loved Kate Atkinson's Case Histories but lost track of her somewhat until picking up Started Early, Took My Dog. The brilliantly interwoven characters, psychological depth, and handling of the...
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Old New York
It's rare that I feel a visceral thrill when reading a passage of prose, but this one made my synapses spin. It's by longtime New Yorker writer Joseph Mitchell, who was famed for his portrayals of New...
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Pixilated: filmmaker Linda Thornburg on Grant Munro—actor, choreographer,...
Grant MunroI hadn't thought about Norman McLaren or Grant Munro since film school, but there was Munro sliding in Chaplinesque style across the screen in my living room. "OMG!" I cried. "That's Norman...
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Vintage Soviet posters: galvanizing and gorgeous
In addition to making its own indigenous contributions, Russian poster art in the 20th century mirrored Western movements, from art nouveau through psychedelia. Here are some beautiful examples, in...
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Maggie Smith, a Dowager with attitude
Smith reckons she'll stay on as a Downton cast member for the duration, even if they have to ferry her around in a wheelchair because of her advanced age (in the series that is!).Did y'all watch Maggie...
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Downton Abbey Season 3 Finale highlights: “Diamond stars and one tiara”
Location, location, locationThe Season 3 closer was one of the most visually splendid episodes, as the family travelled to the fictional Duneagle Castle to visit cousins in the Scottish Highlands. (In...
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Murder will out!
"When I told my agent a few years ago that I was going to write a detective story, he recovered as quickly as could be expected, but made it clear to me (as a succession of editors and publishers made...
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The real Downton Abbey
Diehard Downton Abbey devotees know that the series is shot in the breathtaking historical environs of Highclere Castle, longtime residence of the uber aristocracy. The two charming and all-too-brief...
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Oscar windup; early Kodachrome films
Wouldn't you like to be a fly on the wall of this space when it's filled with the crème de la crème of filmdom? Designed by Madeline Stuart and inspired by art director Cedric Gibbons, it's the...
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