News of the Week

Sandi is the winner of the complete set of E.J. Copperman's Haunted Guesthouse series! Sandi, please contact E.J. with your info.

Banana Joe. Dog, or Ewok? You be the judge.

JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING:  We don't tend to comment on current events much here (unless they're related to Downton Abbey!) but after a week like this last, how can we resist? Last Saturday, those of us on the East Coast were buried under The Snowstorm Of The Century (TM). In the seven days since then:

1. The President gave the State of the Union address
2. Benedict announced he would be the first pope in 600 years to resign
3. An Affenpinscher was named Best in Show at Westminster
4. North Korea exploded something nuclear
5. "Blade Runner"/Olympian Oscar Pistorius was arrested for murder
6. Lady Gaga cancelled her 29-city North American tour after 13 stops
7. The Illinois State Senate passed a bill allowing same-sex marriage in the Land of Lincoln.

"Missed it by THAT much, chief."

Whew! What do you think about the interesting times we live in, Reds?

 HALLIE EPHRON: Interesting, isn't it, how what passes for today's "news" ranges from the sublime to the ridiculous. You didn't mention them, but I'm riveted by the stinky cruise ship limping into port and impending asteroids. Which makes me wonder if "news" isn't a ploy to keep us from paying attention to the really scary stuff (like global warming and untreated mental illness) that we tell ourselves we can't do anything about.

 

Most inappropriate head shot EVER.

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: I read the newspapers, three of them every weekday, the Times, The Globe and the Herald, in the car on the way to work. Often I read the articles out loud, so Jonathan isn't only the chauffeur. (Weekends, we read at the breakfast table.) Some days I say: How am I supposed to KNOW all this knowledge?Like--oh, Timbuktu is in Mali? The what, the sequester?

How do I know what really MATTERS? (That's what haunts me about the news.It's all NEW things. Some of it will be history, but what?)

And Julia, how about the rogue cop on the run in the shootout in California?  And the desperate drink of water by Marco Rubio? MIchelle Obama's bangs? And what the heck is the Harlem Shake?

Sometimes I make up stuff when I am reading out loud to Jonathan just to see if he'll notice. He rarely does. 

Am I the only one who hears the Love Boat theme?

JULIA: I can't believe I forgot the Poop Boat.



LUCY BURDETTE: Yes, I too am obsessed with the cruise ship, both because we see a lot of them in Key West. And I've been on cruises. And cannot imagine how AWFUL that experience must be! Decks awash with poop? Nothing to eat? People getting sick left and right? No amount of sanitary hand cleanser could save me...

And the rogue cop--absolutely terrifying. All those families worrying they are next in his sights...the scariest kind of thriller, but REAL!

and ps, I did not care for Michelle's bangs...

The Pope shows the expiration date in his zucchetto.

ROSEMARY HARRIS: I'm still getting over the shock of Lady Sybil dying - oh wait, you meant real news.

I think the Pope's resignation has been the big recent news for me. I'm officially Catholic (not that anyone, including my Jewish husband would notice) but it is something of a big deal. And I coincidentally watched a terrific HBO special called Mea Maxima Culpa about scandals in the church and how Benedict, before he was Pope, was charged with handling (finessing?) many of them.

I've stayed away from the rogue cop, poop decks,and anything to do with Lady Gaga. That said, LOVED Michele's bangs. Hated Scalia's hat.

DEBORAH CROMBIE: How can we not talk about the asteroid fly-by! The 150 foot Asteroid 2012 DA14 whizzed by a mere 17,150 miles from earth, the closest known approach of an object that size.  This was a near-miss in astronomical terms, and an impact would have been the stuff of science fiction. And at the same, but merely coincidentally according to scientists, a meteor slammed into the Ural Mountains in Russia, injuring a reported 1,100 people.  The meteor, estimated to be about 10 tons and 49 feet wide, entered the Earth's atmosphere at a hypersonic speed of at least 33,000 mph and shattered into pieces about 18-32 miles above the ground.  This was fireworks, folks.  Real fireworks, real news.

And on a slightly lesser scale,  I'm fine with Michelle's bangs. Why shouldn't she have bangs?

Real ad. You can't make this stuff up.

JULIA: Ambivalent about the bangs. I'd really love it if she went natural.

For me the most shocking news was the famous "Blade Runner." I mean, what is up with athletes these day? One has a fake dead girlfriend, and another (allegedly) kills his real live girlfriend? The Smithie, who ran throughout high school and who still avidly follows the world track stars, texted me, 
NO! OSCAR PISTORIUS! NO!  followed by THERE GOES MY LAST SHRED OF FAITH IN MEN. 

I can't help but think that somewhere, there's a smart scriptwriter working on a draft of POSEIDON 2013: a group of cruisers, including a rogue cop, a troubled double-amputee, a lovable Affenpinscher and Lady Gaga, are on their way to see the pope's final mass when their ship breaks down. Can they escape before they get radiation poisoning from the North Korean nuclear bomb launched to stop the killer asteroid on a collision course with earth?

How about you, dear readers? What's your take on the news of the week? And what do you think of Michelle O's bangs?