My Current Interest

               At the moment I’m on a bit of a Hercule Poirot kick.   For the last two or three months I have been working my way through the entire Agatha Christie’s Poirot series starring David Suchet.   Despite the theme song driving me crazy, I’m doing pretty well with the series and have seen quite a bit of it.   This is probably why I became intrigued when I saw an entirely new Hercule Poirot story in an old Bas Bleu catalog.   It’s not written by Agatha Christie, but by the author Sophie Hannah.   With this novel, Ms. Hannah has created an entirely new mystery involving this famous detective and I was curious to see how it turned out.                          Three people have been found murdered at a fancy hotel.   All three were killed at roughly the same ti...

                It’s only been a few weeks since Jon Stewart finished his position at The Daily Show , but I already miss him.   The funny thing is, I didn’t even watch his show all that often.   Mostly I tuned in when there was a news item I wanted to know more about.   I always knew that Mr. Stewart and his team would dig into the issue further than anybody else.   Yes, it was wrapped up in humor, but the heart of the matter would be there as well.                 I was first introduced to Jon Stewart and The Daily Stewart years ago by a Republican friend of mine.   Yes, I said Republican.   The reason I emphasize this is because while many want to paint Mr. Stewart as only leaning towards the liberal side of things, he was someone everyone could turn to.   It did not matter which aisle someone w...

                   When I started this film, the first thing that came to mind was, “We’re very quickly going back to these times.”   I don’t feel I’m exaggerating either.   In recent years there has been a lot of talk about lifting voting protections and creating rules that make it more difficult for people to show up at the polls and vote.   It’s as though we’re sending ourselves backwards to a time where people had to fight in order to exercise their voting rights.   We’re sending ourselves back to Selma.                                 In the 1960s African Americans had the right to vote, but a great many were not able to do so.   Many counties and states refused to acknowledge African Americans their voting rights ...

               For the past several years some of the best new films have been animated.   On the surface these films appear to be only for children, but they certainly aren’t.   Most have clever lines that both adults and kids will find humorous.   They may have different meanings to the two age groups, but both will be laughing.   Then there are the storylines.   They are youthful enough for kids to enjoy but have plenty of serious aspects that keep adults entertained.   Add in music and everyone ends up happy, which is exactly how I felt when I watched Strange Magic .                 It’s pretty bad that even fairies have to worry about getting cheated on.   Marianne (Evan Rachel Wood), the fairy princess, is flying around on her wedding day, singing a love song, when she comes upon her fiancé, Roland...