On the whole, The Tudors is an amalgamation of brilliantly authentic and well-acted historical recreations with the most banal and absurd distortions. The salaciousness of Season 3 carried over into Season 4 only to die off with Katherine Howard. I appreciated Tamzin Merchant's portrayal of the doomed Katherine much more in Season 4 than in Season 3, for she acquires some personality beyond that of a giggling teenager. It is enchanting to see her dancing at court with complete joie de vivre, as she and Henry VIII enjoy their idyll which will soon end so tragically.
and adds this factoid:
I wish they had showed how she sent food and blankets to the imprisoned Carthusian martyrs as well as to Blessed Margaret Pole, who was beheaded while Katherine was Queen. Perhaps it would have lent more depth to her character.No, I haven't seen it: it's either not on our cable stations or is on late at night when we don't watch it, and I don't know if it's worth the time and bandwidth to try to download it from a torrent site.
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DaveBarry is visiting London to report on the Olympics. Today he informs us of the ease in which he can get around London.
. The East End is part of London in much the same way that Pittsburgh is part of New York City; it is a lonnngggg way from the city center. Somehow we wound up wandering around out there, completely lost, lugging heavy backpacks and wearing media credentials the size of doormats.
We kept asking passers-by how to get to central London, and they were unfailingly nice, every single person stopping and patiently giving us directions. That was the good news. The bad news was, we could not understand these directions. This was partly because jet lag had reduced our IQs to crustacean level. But it was also because of the London street system, under which no street ever goes in the same direction or keeps the same name for more than 35 yards. At that point it veers off in a new direction under a new name, assuming a whole new identity under the London Street Witness Protection Program.
Heh. Sounds like Boston.
The trick in Boston is to hire a cab. Truckdrivers from out of state are known to hire a cab to follow when making deliveries in that city.
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The Bad news: Greenland's ice field is melting...
The good news: it's right on schedule:
Even Greenland's coldest and highest place, Summit station, showed melting. Ice core records show that last happened in 1889 and occurs about once every 150 years.
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And this happy note: The new North Korean leader got married to his sweetie.
Yes, just ignore those starving natives and those gulags...The couple attended a July 6 concert that featured Mickey Mouse and other Disney characters. They later visited a kindergarten together, and paid respects at the Kumsusan mausoleum where Mr. Kim’s father, Kim Jong-il, and his grandfather Kim Il-sung, the North Korean founding president, lie in state.
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Gloria is out on P1 million bail.. (about 25 thousand dollars)
everyone is taking bets on how long til she manages to high tail it to another country.
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Austin Bay on Syria's WMD...Syria's threatening to use them against foreigners, meaning Turkey or Israel...but the real worry is an accidental war with Turkey...who is a member of NATO (an attack on one member is an attack on all members)
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First they ganged up on Pacman, and Now it's a chicken restaurant kerfuffle.
Free speech for me but not for thee...
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The Tolkien professor's Fantasy literature course this week discusses Peter Beagle's The Last Unicorn LINK
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