Something/Someone Old

I've been re-reading Deadlock by Sara Paretsky.

Paretsky is one of the comparatively few female authors of detective fiction who do the hardboiled thing--guns, thugs, and financial skulduggery down at the Port of Chicago, in this particular book. She's also one of the minority of mystery authors who are on the left of the political spectrum. It's less true now than it used to be, but historically, there's been a right-wing tilt to mystery fiction and detective fiction. I guess the preference for law and order and liking stories about criminals getting caught tallies pretty well with being right-wing. But I've always liked those who buck that trend, like Rex Stout, one of the founding members of the ACLU, or Reginald Hill, who wrote top-notch mysteries until he died eight years ago (a sad thing for me, for purely selfish reasons--good mystery writers are hard to come by).

For those of you who'd like to try out a female, left-wing, slightly more optimistic version of Sam Spade, I heartily encourage you to give Paretsky's detective, V.I. Warshawski, a try. If you do try her out, Deadlock and Killing Orders are the best V.I. novels I've come across.

Something New

I'm starting to feel like I might want to pull back from Netflix one of these days, but that will require some preparation. I know I sound like I'm contemplating divorce proceedings, but I do rely on Netflix for about half of the "fun things I do to maintain my calm," so, as they say,

The reason Netflix and I are heading for the rocks? Susan Rice being on their board, or whatever it means when they shower her with money and stock options. That probably will eventually be a bridge too far for me one day, because, honestly, she kind of creeps me out, and I don't like feeling creeped out when I sit down for a movie or an episode of Star Trek. I should be able to forget that I know that she's deeply involved in that media company, but I can't. Bleah.

But anyway, while I'm still on Netflix, I thought I should share with you all a fun new fantasy series Kate found: The New Legends of Monkey.

This story has a complicated history. Apparently, it's a new version (and an homage to) a Japanese production called Saiyuki, or "Monkey," also known as "Monkey Magic." That was apparently a cult classic in the 70s, which was, (pretty amazingly) based on one of the four greatest novels of Chinese classical literature, called Journey to the West. Journey to the West dates from the Ming dynasty, and somehow got turned into a cult classic Japanese television show which is now resurrected as The New Legends of Monkey.

The premise of the story is that the gods once ruled the world, but then the gods fell, and demons took over. Demons have now been running the world for about 500 years. The Monkey King has been locked up inside a rock in a mountain for all that time, and, since he's a great warrior and only he knows where to find the sacred scrolls that will drive demons back out of the world, they need to wake him up.

Really, this is like watching a Dungeons and Dragons quest, complete with a travelling party of adventurers (so far, there's basically a wizard, two warriors, and a cleric). It's funny and light-hearted and reasonably well done. I recommend it for everyone who's feeling the blues.

This time, my "new" thing is from 2018, so at least it's less than five years old!

Something Borrowed

I never knew this, but Austrian strudel started as the Austrians' attempt to recreate baklava! If you're wondering how baklava, which I associate with Greece, made it to Austria, I was wondering too. It turns out it was via the Ottoman Empire!

Here's the link to that information, since the site where I found it won't allow me to cut and paste anything:

https://www.grapesandgrains.org/2017/06/strudel-baklava-uncovering-the-r...

It really brings home how big the Ottoman Empire was at its height.

Something Blue

I was looking for some new blues, and I ran across this woman, Jackie Venson. What do you all think?