Weekend Links 4-10-20

Unfortunately this week's links are not as bountiful as previous weeks. I blame the pandemic dominating the news. Hope you enjoy this brief selection of links.

This is probably the most intriguing headline of the week: Do We Want to Go Back to Normal? Lots of interesting things to think about here and whether we want things to go back to the way they were before the pandemic started. I don't think there is any doubt that things will change dramatically in the coming months. Exactly what will change and to what extent remains to be seen.

Audible is making a number of audiobooks available for free right now.

Strange, but true: Ludwig Bemelmans, beloved author of Madeline, once shot a man. 

In 1995, Major League Baseball was recovering from a work stoppage that caused the cancellation of the World Series the previous year. Fortunately they had Cal Ripken, Jr. who helped saved the sport.

The Washington Nationals won their first World Series last year. They came a long way from that inaugural season in the nation's capital.

Leave it Dave Barry to give us something to laugh about during these trying times.

Finally, this made me chuckle especially since I am spending a lot of my free time playing Animal Crossing:

Well now. I've started this thing called #AnimalCrossing – I'm very much taken by the voices of hosts Timmy & Tommy, but am so far somewhat perplexed by the POINT of it all. Is it, in this sense, a metaphor for life itself? I hope not, for I may have pitched my tent ill-advisedly

— Stephen Fry (@stephenfry) April 4, 2020

DVD Review: The Complete Jeeves and Wooster

If you were to take a poll of the funniest British televsion comedies of all time, Jeeves and Wooster would likely receive a fair share of votes. In my mind, this is probably the funniest comedy I've ever seen. Not only that, but the series remains funny no matter how many times I watch it.

Based on the characters created by legendary British humorist P. G. Wodehouse, the series follows the adventures of Bertie Wooster (Hugh Laurie), a rich young playboy living in 1920's London who has too much time on his hands and an affinity for getting caught up in various sorts of relational predicaments involving friends and family.

In the opening episode, Bertie has had a wild night on the town and ends up hauled off to court to face charges of stealing a policeman's helmet. After paying the fine (and still rather hung over), he returns home only to be rudely awakened by Jeeves (Stephen Fry) who is the new valet sent by the agency to attend to Bertie's needs. Jeeves revives Bertie with a secret recipe hangover cure and is immediately hired. It turns out to be a fortunate decision as Bertie immediately manages to get himself tangled up in an engagement that he doesn't want any part of. Fortunately Jeeves manages to come up with a scheme to extricate Bertie just in the nick of time. Future episodes involve similar precarious circumstances and it will be Jeeves that will come to Bertie's rescue.

Hugh Laurie and Stephen Fry are the perfect choice to play their respective roles. They are great friends and have a very natural chemistry which is absolutely necessary to make the stories work. The scripts are adapted mostly from Wodehouse's numerous short stories and are, for the most part, faithful to the original material. The only major deviation from the source material is to give Bertie Wooster the ability to sing and play the piano which allows Hugh Laurie to show off his musical talents through numerous performances of several comic tunes.
There is also a host of wonderful supporting characters to round out the cast. Unfortunately, the same actors were not always used for the same roles as the series develops causing a little confusion.

But it's all wonderful escapism, a portrait of an England (and America) that never really quite existed except in our imaginations. It's the kind of show you can never get tired of watching. You just wish by the time you reached the end of the series that there was more to come. Unfortunately, there's only 23 episodes. We can hold out hope, can't we?

The Complete Jeeves and Wooster is available from the A&E Store.

Why I Don't Play More Golf

It's because my golf game is a lot like Bertie Wooster's (Hugh Laurie in the clip below):




You can buy Jeeves and Wooster at the A&E shop.

Hugh Laurie Sings.....Again!

I've previously written on Hugh Laurie's amazing muscial talents. In fact, he's part of a band along with several other actors called Band From TV. But one of my favorite performances is this one from Jeeves and Wooster.

Jeeves (Stephen Fry) is preparing dinner for Bertie Wooster's (Hugh Laurie) prospective in-laws. Meanwhile, Bertie is trying his hand at Cab Calloway's "Minnie the Moocher" and the resulting conversation is quite hilarious.




You can buy Jeeves and Wooster at the A&E Store.