Gratuitous Llama This N' That Posting

No full-sized posts seem to be welling up in Robbo's brain today, so I'll toss you a handful of postettes instead:

** I am currently well into the second volume of Anthony Powell's A Dance To The Music of Time. This is my first reading and I must say that I am thoroughly enjoying it. I never used to read much fiction - can't tell if I like ADTTMOT because of Powell's terrific writing style or because I'm just getting more interested in the genre as a whole. Perhaps it's a bit of both.

** A couple months back my father-in-law mentioned a book about the Battle of Antietam that he was going to send me. It arrived recently:The Ghosts of Antietam by John Grissmer (who also autographed it for me). From what I gather just from flipping through the jacket copy, it's actually an alt-history exercise, something I don't believe I've ever tried before. It also appears to take a sympathetic view of George McClellan. Considering what a first class battlefield boob and political weasel he was, that'll take some tall fiction, indeed.

**

Heat Miser has definitely unleashed one of his Dee Cee Summah Specials, although it's only supposed to last for the next day or two before we get some relief.

In order to fight off the heat-exhaustion to which I seem to be increasingly susceptible, I've gone to full "bidness casual" dress - no tie, and I'm leaving my blazer hung up in the office overnight. I may be a bit cooler, but I also feel like a slacker. (See why it was so easy for me to become RC? I've got this guilt thing nailed down cold.)

** Speaking of RC's, yesterday afternoon the eldest Llama-ette presented me a crucifix - complete with "INRI" sign - she had made out of a Barbie doll, a couple of pencils and some red nail-polish. She had tagged along with me to Mass last week and said while she was playing she had suddenly remembered the crucifix that hangs over the alter at my church and wanted to reproduce it for me. I had absolutely no idea how to take this. The Missus' comment was, "Dammit, Rob, you're turning the girl into a freak!" I laughed heartily, but there may be something to this.

** The only problem with eating a gyro by hand is that once you pick it up you cannot put it down and ever expect to pick it up again.

** Last evening I tried to watch The Loved One from Netflix. Made in 1965, the movie is very loosely based on the novel of the same name by Evelyn Waugh in which he skewers Hollywood cultchah. As it happens, this is the novel of Waugh's I know the least, so I felt that I could for once watch the movie on its own terms without hyperventilating about its faithlessness to the original. (I believe Waugh himself hated it, but at the same time did not mind the dosh he received from it.)

Anyhoo, apart from John Gielgud's early appearance, I just couldn't get through the thing. Like a lot of other mid-60's films that pass themselves off as dark satires, it struck me as ham-fisted and clunky, and yet self-satisfied at the same time. Also, I've never been able to stick Jonathan Winters, who plays two roles. (Don't know why, but there it is.) The intensity with which a number of commenters raved about TLO at both Netflix and IMDB was what originally provoked my interest, but I honestly don't see what they saw.