As a follow up of the last time (I think, anyway) I posted on the rovers on Mars: NASA has to cut back on the rovers’ work, due to budget problems; looks like Spirit might have to be turned off for a few weeks of hibernation and Opportunity would have less work to do.
An interesting interview of actor John Cho, on his playing the Sulu role in the upcoming Star Trek movie and the situation for Asian American actors.
Monday tv:
“How I Met Your Mother” – guest starring Sarah Chalke as the Dr. Stella, the dermatologist who removed Ted’s tattoo, and Britney Spears as the dermotologist’s receptionist. Some thoughts:
I didn’t hate or care for Britney Spears’ appearance.
Chalke, who plays Dr. Elliot Reid on “Scrubs,” felt like she channeled Elliot; otherwise, she was charming.
Hell, Ted was charming, as he wooed Dr. Stella, who (in a previous episode, but not seen on screen) resisted Ted because she didn’t date patients. Once their doctor-patient relationship ended, Stella still won’t date Ted (despite being obviously attracted to him) because she’s a single mom and really has no time to date or be in a romantic relationship. Ted was still interested in her, and pursued an amusing course of action, which is sooo romantic: he gave Stella the sweetest two-minute date ever! (with the help from the waitress from the HIMYM bar and the taxicab driver from the series premiere of HIMYM – continuity!).
Even Time’s James Poniewozik agrees about the two-minute date: he says “[it] made me go all gooey. Just as it’s hard to write a joke in a comedy that the script requires a character to laugh at–as opposed to the home audience laughing at it–so too is it rare to find a scene in which a character charms a date that doesn’t seem self-consciously precious from your living room. But Ted’s perfectly choreographed speed date was so adorable that I was willing to overlook the fact that a New York City cab would have gotten stuck in traffic going around the block all those times.”
(I agree with Poniewozik – Ted’s cabbie guy would never have made the timely drive around the block within the time frame in Real Life; plus, man, how much is Ted making as an architect to pay the cabbie to help him? Is his friend Marshall, the Big Law Firm Lawyer, helping him with that? Or is the cabbie now such a good friend that he’s willing to do it for free? Nice man, really).
The only question is: is Stella the mother of Future Ted’s kids? Hmm…
Tried to watch “New Amsterdam.” The series is only particularly interesting when John Amsterdam, the 400+ year old detective who doesn’t look like he’s passed 40, is trying to grapple with his messy past and he has such an interesting relationship with his son, Omar, the bar owner – who’s in his 60’s and looks like he’s in his 60’s (hence, neither John nor Omar can go around town telling people they’re father and son without being sent to Bellevue).
Anyway, the cases John works on aren’t that interesting and neither is his love interest, the doctor who doesn’t seem to realize why John’s a little on the weird side (well, wouldn’t you be weird too, if you were 400+ years old?).
Frontline’s “Bush’s War” is a chilling and fascinating watch, as noted in this AP review, and I tried to watch most of the documentary. (I’ll have to catch it on the weekend rebroadcast, or online, if there’s time to pull that off). I still believe in PBS and the (good) stuff it presents, despite the silly stuff (“American Ballroom Challenge”? Okay, no, what’s really silly – the Lawrence Welk reruns? Plus, I can only tolerate “Antiques Roadshow,” which has a redeeming value of trying to apply history – but “History Detectives” does that soo much better).
Good Eating from stuff one buys at a 99 cent store? According to the NY Times article linked, it is doable.
NY Times’ Mark “The Minimalist” Bittman with a recipe on stir-fried shrimp and black (soy) beans. Bittman’s accompanying video has the thrills one may find in the usual stir fry effort. I’m not exactly the biggest fan of black soy beans (too salty for me sometimes – and I usually like salty food) but it does make pork tasty, and not to mention make dried fish more palatable, and it is an Asian staple.
The passing of Al Copeland, the founder of the Popeye’s Chicken (which was actually named after Gene Hackman’s character from “The French Connection,” and not the spinach-eating cartoon character; I had no idea, seriously!).
