Monday, May 3, 2010

Deja vu & a Review - I'd Tell You I Love You, But Then I'd Have To Kill You

Last week Richard and I watched the first 13 three episodes of Knott's Landing. It was goofy and funny but also interesting in a social historian kind of way. (I have never denied being a nerd.)

I missed KL the first time around. The '70s occurred before I reached double-digits in age, but I do remember bits and pieces vaguely. (That's probably how most adults remember it...)

While watching, I commented to JRM how crazy it is that the late-2000s so closely mirror the late-1970s. Check it out:
  • Gas was at an all-time high, and Carter was encouraging everyone to carpool.
  • Inflation was out of control and a lot of people were out of work.
  • Consumers were trading big cars for the smaller, compact cars coming out of Japan. (Toyota, Honda)
  • There was a massive oil spill in Santa Barbara, Calif., in 1969... (which led to the first Earth Day on April 22, 1970) Read about it here.
  • Tylenol recalled all their capsules after some maniac put cyanide in eight bottles (That has also become a PR case study of how NOT to respond to a crisis. Seems the BP CEO took note.)
And have you seen the way teenage boys are wearing their hair these days? I'm just saying. The Twilight Zone music should be playing right about now.

An (inadvertant) recurring theme in my blog has become the cyclical nature of social events. I'm not sure how it started, but I'll go with it. If you notice anything, please leave a comment/shoot me a msg (at any time)!

I'm an observer at heart, but it takes me a while to formulate conclusions that satisfy me. So I don't know what all these repeating events mean. But I'd love to hear what you guys think.

I read somewhere that America's undergoing a series of mini-terrorist attacks. I'm not a conspiracy theorist, however, (sometimes) their wild theories are fun to consider. Kind of like reading a suspense novel... what's that bumper sticker? "You're not paranoid if they're really after you"?

In book news, I finished I'd Tell You I Love You, but Then I'd Have to Kill You, by Ally Carter.



I liked it! It took me a while to get into it, but only because Carter tends to write like I did pre-journalism school--she uses a lot of words at times when she doesn't really need to.

But the story's lots of fun, and I really liked the parent dynamic she set up leading into the next book. Have to admit, I had major plot-envy the whole time I was reading.

When we were elementary age, Dara and I played secret-agents nonstop after church on Sundays--she was 99, I was 86. Seriously! We'd climb on the walls in the parking lot, and once we lost our SS activities when the car we'd put them on drove off with them.

LTM to JRM: Why didn't I think of writing a teenage spy academy story???

It's a super book, though. I very much recommend it. It's very clean, Moms, and it's part of a series, so bonus!

Starting Robin Palmer's Cindy Ella next. I love her books, and it's her debut novel. So more on that soon.
 
In the meantime, prayers for the fish and the families. No oil's made landfall in south Baldwin yet...

4 comments:

JRichard said...

1. We only watched three episodes of KL. I'm sorry it seemed like 13 to you. Bad news: I think there are ten more coming on Netflix.

2. The US is not undergoing a series of terrorist attacks, we are just dealing with the unsustainability of the belief everything is somehow supposed to just be OK. I was thinking today about how EVERYone has faith, the question is just, faith in what. I mean, the only people who don't believe in the capacity of someone else to help take care of them are cats like Hitler and Manson, who just take care of themselves. The question is whether you acknowledge where you are putting your faith, and whether you have mediated and deliberated doing so, or whether it "just feels right."

3. You're not dead yet. Teenage spy story coming up next.

Ex-pat Odessa said...

O.K., I'm bit of conspiracy theorist, but some of these coming up now are a bit outlandish, but then again, with the current administration, and previous one, not much would surprise me!

I remember KL, Bobie watched it EVERY week, and I watched with her. Shoot I could tell you what happened day to day on ATWT, Y&R, B&B, Dynasty, KL, and FC - all at age 5!!!!

Yes, hair on guys these days is weird, it's even weirder over here, esp. since the women look as weird as the guys. Crazy!!! I think they've watched too much Kat Von D.

Yes, it is all cyclical, just like the earth's climate/temperature....some one should explain that inconvenient truth to Al Gore.

LTM said...

@JRM: LOL!!! It was a typo... yeah, a typo. I in no way felt like you forced me to watch 13 episodes. My love is stronger than that. ;o)
2-interesting. that's making me think of a separate blog post.
3-it's percolating... I have an idea; will discuss later~

LTM said...

@OBT: yes, you are a bit of a crazy conspiracy theorist, aren't you? ;o) But but nice turn of phrase in reply to Sr. Gore. Haven't seen that film... I'm afraid it would make me give up entirely~

P.S.
I think Euro Trash might be smiliar to North American Scum