Sunday – saw Pirates of the Carribbean: At World’s End. If you saw the first and second Pirates movie, you might as well see the third. I’m now convinced that trilogies exist solely to make you feel sad – the journey, not the end; yet the end… well, it’s something. Big Tip: Stay for what comes after the credits. Oh, and I so appreciate Cobble Hill Cinemas for being the stalwart of the decently priced matinee left in this boro!

Recently read: Joyce Carol Oates’ “The Faith of a Writer: Life, Craft, Art.” Currently reading: “Espionage’s Most Wanted: Top Ten Book of Malicious Moles, Blown Covers, and Intelligence Oddities” by Tom Mahl – which I got as a bargain book from Barnes and Noble.

“Judge Tries Suing Pants Off Dry Cleaners.” I saw the story on “Nightline” the Tuesday night (can’t seem to find a link to the Nightline video), and I had read about it somewhere (ABA e-Journal maybe?) some weeks ago – but now that this thing is on trial, well, the drama gets crazier. Forget that this judge is suing for $54 million for his originally lost pants (which is in the office of the dry cleaners’ lawyer, ready to be given back), the judge got all teary-eyed while representing himself, and we know that saying about the lawyer who represents himself…

The New York Times’ Mark “The Minimalist” Bittman on making a pea and crab salad. Watch the accompanying video – he creates it in real time – 3 minutes – and it looks quite tasty too (and I’m not big on peas).

As I don’t have HBO, I didn’t watch “The Sopranos” series finale – and, I’m not exactly sure I would have either if I did have HBO – but from the writer’s perspective, one wonders… I could sympathize ending a show with just a blank screen, not even a fade out, so to let the audience come to their own ending or to send the message that it’s not about an ending but about the journey itself. But, I’d be real frustrated if every series were to take this route, and as the NY Times’ Bill Carter article noted, tv writers were taking note of how “The Sopranos” ended:

Damon Lindelof, one of the creators of the ABC hit show “Lost,” another series whose viewers have high expectations about quality, said: “I’ve seen every episode of the series. I thought the ending was letter-perfect.”

Like millions of other viewers, Mr. Lindelof said he was initially taken aback by the quick cut to a blank screen and thought his cable had gone out at that crucial moment. He even checked his TiVo machine and saw that it was still running several minutes beyond the end. When he checked the scene again, he said, he noted “the scene cut off right as Meadow is coming through the door and right at the word ‘stop’ in the Journey song.”

He said: “My heart started beating. It had been racing throughout the last scene. Afterward I went to bed and lay next to my wife, awake, thinking about it for the next two hours. And I just thought it was great. It did everything well that ‘Godfather III’ did not do well.”

In an e-mail message sent right after the final scene, Doug Ellin, the creator of another HBO hit series, “Entourage,” said: “The show just ended, and I’m speechless. I’m sure there is going to be a lot of heated discussion, but that’s David Chase’s genius. It’s what made ‘The Sopranos’ different from anything that’s ever been on TV. It invented a whole new approach to storytelling that isn’t afraid to leave things open-ended, and now the biggest open story line in the history of television.”

For David Shore, creator of the Fox hit “House,” one of the best touches was Mr. Chase’s own refusal to discuss the ending. Mr. Shore said: “Obviously he wants us to speculate on what it all means. Obviously that’s what we’re all doing.”

David Milch, who has created highly regarded dramas like “NYPD Blue” and “Deadwood,” said: “It was a question of loyalty to viewer expectations, as against loyalty to the internal coherence of the materials. Mr. Chase’s position was loyalty to the internal dynamics of the materials and the characters.”

Comedy writers also said they were impressed with Mr. Chase’s choices. Chuck Lorre, who created and leads the CBS hit comedy “Two and a Half Men,” emerged from screening the final episode and said with a laugh, “This is what you get when you let a writer do whatever he wants.”

But he added that he was saying that with admiration. “People just finished watching that show and immediately talked about it for a half-hour,” Mr. Lorre said. “That’s just wonderful. What more could you want as a writer?”

If any shows feel special pressure from the attention “The Sopranos” finale is receiving, it is current series looking down the road at their expected finales, even if long in the future.

Tim Kring, the creator of this year’s NBC hit “Heroes,” said, “I have to admit that as soon as it ended, I immediately went there. I don’t have an ending for the series yet. I put myself years in the future thinking about what you do when you have viewers with these sorts of expectations. And I think you just have to be true to what you were originally trying to say.”

Mr. Kring said he had only come back to “The Sopranos” this season, anticipating the buildup to the ending, and he said he found “the storytelling in the finale a bit disjointed, so that you lost the cause and effect of some scenes.” But he said he admired the choices Mr. Chase had made to be true to the nature of his series. “This was a show that always did everything its own way,” Mr. Kring said.

For the producers of “Lost,” who have declared an official finale in three more seasons, the conclusion of “The Sopranos” carried special weight. “There was immediate blowback for me,” said Carlton Cuse, Mr. Lindelof’s creative partner on the show. “A sense of fear ran through my veins, thinking that we are going to be in this position,” he said, adding, “we know the end is coming in 48 short episodes.”

He had admitted to some initial frustration with the ending of “The Sopranos.” “But it settled well with me,” Mr. Cuse said. “In that blank screen, there was a certain kind of purity in the choice Chase made to make it the fulcrum of the ending.”

Mr. Lindelof said that as daunting as it is to think of the expectations of ending a popular piece of entertainment, there was also a bit of benefit. “If you feel that everybody is going to hate it anyway, no matter what you do,” he said, “there’s a certain liberation in writing it.”

Is it really liberation to write nothing? To let people come to their own conclusion? Are you really true to yourself? As a writer who has enough trouble as it is trying to come to endings to my weird fiction, I kind of feel weird that tv can get away with that. Then again, in life, are there really such things are endings? Do we really get closure, whatever that may be?

“Nancy Drew” the movie – NY Times’ A.O. Scott reviews it, and couldn’t seem to muster enthusiasm. I doubt that I’m the age target for it, but I grew up on Nancy Drew, and I’d be impressed if anyone could actually give Nancy’s boyfriend Ned a personality. Heck, I was the sucker who actually liked the tv movie that was aired a few years back (Nancy Drew in college; having an actual fight with her dad, who’s trying to protect her – since, it turns out that she’s not a complete goody-two-shoes and she’s too nosy; and I recall there was an aspect to the storyline where she develops a crush on a rookie police detective, leaving poor boyfriend Ned on the lurch). Actually, I also preferred the Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys crossover series (she and Frank Hardy had chemistry; uh, don’t flame me for thinking that – it’s just an opinion) – Nancy in elements than her usual friends was always a little bit more interesting to me. Oh well; we’ll see how the box office goes with that.

YouTube, you are amazing; I found it – “Flying Car; I Was Promised Flying Cars!” said Avery Brooks:

I love this commercial. Avery Brooks, a.k.a. Captain Sisko of “Star Trek: Deep Space Nine,” has such a wonderful voice. Just his voice makes this ad.

Slate’s Explainer on “How a dirty word gets that way.” I tend not to realize that there really is a history – a whole etomology – behind, say, the f- word. So, really, this article was fascinating.

This other Explainer explains the Pope’s Swiss Guard. I suspected they might be undercover (or could be more like our Secret Service) – they couldn’t possibly always be wearing those plumed helmets.

And, speaking of words and language and voice: apparently this trio from the West Coast are on an illuminating path with their play about racial slurs (and literally entitled three most unpleasant slurs):

Oddly, the play originated in the more subtle racism of the entertainment world. When [Rafael] Agustín was a graduate student at U.C.L.A.’s School of Theater, Film and Television in 2003, he became frustrated when he was rejected repeatedly for leading parts in plays by Shakespeare and Tennessee Williams, directed by other students.

“One director said: ‘You’re fantastic. There’s this Latino play, you should audition for that,’ ” recalled Mr. Agustín, whose father was a doctor in Ecuador who ended up working at Kmart after moving to this country for economic reasons.

Mr. Agustín complained to the faculty — which, he says, reported back that the directors said they envisioned Brad Pitt-Jude Law types in the leading roles. He realized he would have to write something himself to showcase his talent.

He reached out for help from a mentor and former debate coach at Mount San Antonio College, the community college in tiny Walnut, Calif., where Mr. Agustín was a champion debater. The coach, Liesel Reinhart, and her boyfriend, Steven T. Seagle, helped shape the piece and suggested bringing in his former debate teammates, [Allan] Axibal and [Miles] Gregley.

At the time Mr. Gregley was doing stand-up comedy in his spare time, while Mr. Axibal was doing slam poetry in his. “The three of us sat down together one day and had a simple conversation about how we felt about the state of things,” Mr. Agustín recalled.

Mr. Axibal said: “We started telling each other the things we went through. Even as close friends, these were things that we never knew about each other. We’d all had experiences with these words.”

Over two years of performance in 24 states, “N*W*C” has shifted and evolved with practice and experience. They have added a Michael Richards joke. They have closely watched the immigration debate. They have had a white supremacist tell them their play changed his point of view.

They hope one day to bring the show to Broadway or parts nearby, and to spin it into a television show. Their attempt to write their way into a career has been a success, but it has also become a mission of sorts.

“People say to us: ‘You can’t stop doing this. You have to keep going,’ ” Mr. Gregley said.

Mr. Agustín chimed in: “We think, ‘The N.A.A.C.P. and the neo-Nazis are ticked off at us? We sure are bringing people together.’ ”

I think it’s interesting that creativity can come out of the prejudices of the art world. Imagine – if the dramatic arts weren’t so hesitant about casting a person of color to Shakespeare (or weren’t so fixated on the Brad Pitts/Jude Laws), the motivation to go out and make your own play wouldn’t have that extra societal kick to it.

And, it’s that time of year for Skakespeare Outdoors.

I am trying not to pay any attention to the Paris Hilton debacle (really, so not worth it) – but it does illuminate the oddities of the law and society – are celebrities (particularly people who are famous just for being famous) really getting better treatment in the criminal justice system? Is the law going too far over a minor matter because the celebrity is embarrassing them? I mean, yeah, the jails are overcrowded, and people on minor charges get out early, but even here, the potential for social outcry should have made anyone try to avoid it (like, do your time for more than a week and don’t make a scene; don’t make a judge mad; etc.). NY Times’ Sharon Waxman highlights:

It was a rare moment in this star-filled city, where badly behaving celebrities can seemingly get away with anything — or at least D.U.I. But Ms. Hilton, for all her money and celebrity, seems to have been caught between battling arms of the justice system here, with prosecutors and Judge Sauer determined to make a point by incarcerating her, only to have the sheriff’s office let her go.

“She’s a pawn in a turf fight right now,” said Laurie Levenson, a law professor at Loyola Law School Los Angeles. “It backfired against her because she’s a celebrity. She got a harsher sentence because she was a celebrity. And then when her lawyer found a way out of jail, there was too much public attention for it to sit well with the court.”

The struggle between the judge and the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department, which runs the jail, incited indignation far beyond the attention normally paid to a minor criminal matter.

Judicial and police officials here said they were inundated with calls from outraged residents and curious news media outlets from around the country and beyond. The Rev. Al Sharpton, the civil rights activist, decried Ms. Hilton’s release as an example of “double standards,” saying consideration was given to a pampered rich girl that would never have been accorded an average inmate.

I just think it’s kind of sad that there are real issues – war, famine, disease, etc. – and the media circus can only find one redeeming issue in the Hilton case – that the criminal justice system has problems.

Was giving tech support over Skype the other day, and I was asked about a database search that seemed really complicated, but after simplifying, it turned out to be an Inner Join (check out Wikipedia if you want to get the official definition). Suffice to say, it means to pick out the stuff that matches without duplicating, and discard what doesn’t.

Went to 2 reunions – my 10 year from law school, and my 15 year from college.  It was good to go – not because there would be a lot of people going from my year (there weren’t) — but for my inner feeling of belonging. For the ones that showed up, it was enough for me.

Had to do evaluations for the staff that I supervise; the fact is that all of my words have been distilled into one number. It’s very hard for me because I think that people are much more complex than just a number, but this is what we all have to work with.

I’ve finally caved in, and I’m going to get a Blackberry from work. In one way, I don’t want to deal with the ball and chain, but on the other hand, it will give me a lot more ability to be mobile and/or omnipresent, and I’m going to need more of it.

Food for this past week: Wednesday at Chelsea Piers’ Lighthouse (very good appetizers as SSW noted, but the bite-sized desserts were killer). Park Slope Chipshop (smaller selection of brews, but they have a choice of lamb curry or cranberry turkey stew – both awesome). I actually had the haddock and chips – wonderful flakiness. They also carry a full line of British groceries – Walker’s crisps were on sale – Marmite flavour is my favorite.