feeding the octopus leaves

[sam]

A couple of popular ads from yesterday's Superbowl (except they keep disappearing on me):

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"Imported from Detroit", a great line, was the cherry on top of an overbaked American pie.

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Oh great, another one gone.



Ahem.

[sam]

Lovefilm finally came through with Treme.



I've been a fan of David Simon's work since his book Homicide, which was so quirkily adapted to the small screen. Later came The Wire and presidential favor [link advisory: you may experience a gag reflex made even more wretched with hindsight. And see this].

Treme is practically a musical; if you like jazz you'll be in heaven. I don't, particularly, so the constant name dropping of jazz legends falls on deaf heathen ears.

The cast is excellent. Here Homicide alumnus Melissa Leo shares some quality time with Thoreau quoting husband John Goodman.



It could get pretty boring alone in the cabin

[sam]

Here's a man who knows what he wants. From The Hand That Rocks the Cradle:

[sam]

Hal on Being Human appears at first glance to be tidying his set of The National Encyclopedia, books I think it would be in character for him to have. But on closer inspection the spines don't seem to match. My disappointment doesn't stop me from transcribing the following, which I was surprised to find in this serious work of Victorian scholarship:

VAMPIRE (German, Vampyr).  According to Dom Calmet's 'dissertation sur les Vampires,' the vampire is a dead man, who returns in body and soul from the other world, and wanders about the earth, doing all kinds of mischief to the living. Generally he sucks the blood of persons asleep, and thus causes their death. Those who are destroyed in this way themselves become vampires. The only manner of getting rid of such unwelcome visitors is, according to this author, to disinter their bodies, to pierce them with a stake cut from a green tree, to cut off their heads, and to burn their hearts.

The superstition about the vampires is chiefly prevalent in some parts of eastern Europe; and it was during the five years from 1730 to 1735 that it reached its height. The chief periodicals of that time contain accounts of cases in Hungary; and mayo of them were the subject of judicial proceedings. In this strange belief originated the popular name of the Vampire-bat, Vespertilio spectrum [Cheiroptera.]

He probably wouldn't subscribe to the following: