What We're Watching

DEBORAH CROMBIE: Happy Memorial Day, everyone, and I hope you are all grilling, picnicking, or a combination thereof. We are really splashing out and having hotdogs, which happens maybe once a year, so is an occasion!

Tell us what you put on yours.

Or maybe you are not cooking out, and are stretched out in a hammock with one of the books we suggested yesterday? I can't think of a better way to spend the beginning of summer. 

Our Memorial Day forecast here in north Texas is for sun and 88 degrees, but if inclement weather will keep you indoors, I thought we'd chat about what we're watching these days.

If I was embarrassed to admit I'd never read Tana French, I am really embarrassed to admit that we had never watched ELEMENTARY–especially as it is my daughter's favorite series ever. Well, we are in the process of remedying that, having just finished the first season. Jonny Lee Miller and Lucy Liu were amazing, so incredibly talented, and the plots were so clever. I'd like to have access to the writers' idea bank! I love the brownstone set and the whole New York feel of the series. It is utterly charming and just what I need at the moment.

We watched the first season and part of the second of THE CAPTURE, starring Holliday Grainger as a London cop who uncovers a plot to fake videos in real time. I'm a big fan of Grainger (Robin Ellacott in the Cormoran Strike series) but THE CAPTURE is a bit creepy and unsettling and a little too close to reality for fun watching for me. We've also watched the first episode of LEGENDS, about UK Customs officers going undercover to stop drug smuggling in the early 90s. This is based on a true story and stars Tom Burke (who also plays Cormoran Strike.)

Oh, and on a totally delightful note, we've started the new series of TUCCI IN ITALY.  I adore Stanley Tucci and the series is now produced by NatGeo, so it is gorgeous and so interesting. 

Oh, and we had to pay for a month of BBC Select in order to get it, but I'm watching THE ROYAL CHELSEA FLOWER SHOW, which I find absolutely fascinating. (Rick does not agree...)

How about it, darling REDS, what are you watching?

JENN McKINLAY: We are currently watching the latest season of HACKS (love Jean Smart!), YOUR FRIENDS AND NEIGHBORS (I’ve loved John Hamm since Madmen), and my latest K-Drama WHEN THE PHONE RINGS (a good suspense story). Nothing groundbreaking but all entertaining.

LUCY BURDETTE: Talk about oldies but goodies, we are watching THE WEST WING. People told us about this for years, and they were right–it’s so good! The President, played by Martin Sheen, is everything we yearn for–someone smart and funny and quirky but never destructive or vindictive. We also plan to watch REMARKABLY BRIGHT CREATURES. Maybe this long weekend?

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: Oh, I love  these lists! We are enjoying YOUR FRIENDS AND NEIGHBORS–I loved Jon Hamm in Mad Men too, but not so much in anything he did after that. Until this! And we are on the same wave length, Debs, watching LEGENDS, too. Also–we are having a controversy (as controversial as it gets in our house, which is not too) about WIDOWS BAY. I absolutely love it, horror–ish as it is, it is also so funny. Kinda Jaws meets Stephen King. Jonathan is not a fan, though. If you missed PARADISE, please go back and watch it! As I have said here in the past, I have loved it from moment one, and the first episode, an instant classic, just won the Edgar for Best TV episode. (I feel so vindicated.)

What am I forgetting?

HALLIE EPHRON: I really enjoyed REMARKABLY BRIGHT CREATURES (on Amazon). Sally FIelds is wonderful, and the octopus (more talking animals!) is divine. The plot twist will seem a bit contrived to seasoned mystery readers, but it’s not the main reason to watch it.

And I loved LOVE SARAH streaming on Netflix. It’s about a group of women who start a bakery, fulfilling one of their mother’s dreams.

Also enjoyed THE LIFE OF BIRDS on public television, a documentary narrated by David Attenborough. Who knew bird song could be so complex and fascinating?!

DEBS: Hallie, I'd been wondering if I wanted to watch REMARKABLY BRIGHT CREATURES, so thanks for the rec.

RHYS BOWEN: I haven’t had much time for watching but I’m trying not to binge THE OTHER BENNETT SISTER. Sooo delicious and Caroline Bingley is so easy to hate. 

JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: As I mentioned briefly when we shared what we’re reading, I’ve been working my way through the Poirot series - I can’t believe I’ve never seen any of them before. I always thought of the character as annoyingly fussy, but David Suchet plays him with SO much depth.

Just finished the Kdrama TRAIN (2020, if you’re looking for it) a crime fiction/time travel mash up. I almost gave it up halfway through episode 3, but then the pace picked up and I was completely hooked. Before that was THE GLORY, a revenge thriller. The romance subplot was blah, but seeing how the abused-in-high-school heroine gets back at her tormentors is delicious.

Other than that, nothing, so I’m looking forward to seeing what everyone else recommends!

DEBS: Julia, I'm envying you watching Poirot for the first time. They were brilliant.

How about it, dear Readers? What are you watching when you can drag yourselves away from a book?

And what's on your hot dog? I'm a mustard, dill relish, sauerkraut person myself

A Very Important Question

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN:  The Fourth of July/Canada Day week seems like the perfect time for this discussion.

A question of high moment and importance.

What condiments does one put on hot dogs?

My otherwise brilliant and also constantly adorable grandson puts ketchup on his.

Ketchup. Just ketchup

This I cannot condone. (Everything else he does is perfect.)

In my opinion, hot dogs are for mustard. And hot dogs are for pickle relish.

And in a different kind of concoction, with cheese and wrapped in bacon, but that's not really a hot dog.

Some people add onions, okay, I can see that.  I don't want to have them on mine, but it's an acceptable condiment.

Sauerkraut, too. Not for me, but chacun à son goût.

Buns toasted.  (Or not, it's fine, I like 'em toasted.)

Grilled. There is no other way. Boiling is disgusting, and smells awful, too. Just saying.

And a hot dog IS a sandwich. (But with ketchup, it's a mistake.)

What do YOU think, Reds and Readers?

Take you Out---or Take you Home?

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN:  Are you a take-me-out-to-the ballgame? Or a take-me-home?

 Got to say, I  love baseball, sitting in the ball park ,with all the hilariously happy (sometimes) people, rooting for your team to win. And that moment, when it's one guy, the pitcher, against one guy, that batter, and everyone focused on the moment when everything could change. And how it's a team sport, and an individual sport, and ah. I love it.

Not so much the spitting (what is there to spit? I have NEVER spit.) Or the rowdy beer-throwing and whatever. And the hitching of pants. I have never hitched my pants.

But I love the families in the bleachers, and the cheering for success, and the sunny days and crackerjacks and hotdogs. Delicious hot dogs. And I don't even generally like beer, but you've gotta have at least a sip at the ball game.

And yes, the Red Sox often break our hearts. But there' s always next year. But this year..it could happen!

So how about you? Take you out to the ballgame? Or take you away it?  And if you were playing, would you want to be the batter when it's the last up of the last inning in a tie game and you could win it all?  I always think the world is divided into the "put-me-in" people and the "no way" people.

And who's your team?

RHYS BOWEN: Giants fan here, Hank. Love my Giants although they have started this season with the worst record since 1980 something. We usually go to spring training in Scottsdale which I find more fun than the real games in a cold and drafty stadium in San Francisco. A friend has season tickets and I snap up the ones she can't use. And they are in the friends and family section so we get to sit with players' families. You can tell the wives by the enormous rocks on their left hands!

Your question about whether I'd want to be that last batter... I know what I'd hate and that would be to be closing pitcher, last game of world series, being handed a one run lead in the ninth. I know, it happened to the Giants once and he blew it.

HALLIE EPHRON: We are blessed here in Boston with Fenway Park and the reliably unreliable Red Sox. I go to about one ball game a season (we're going in a few weeks to see them play the Minnesota Twins) and I love almost everything about it, especially when we win. My husband listens to all the games at home.

I was a terrible baseball player. Afraid of the ball. It's very hard, you know. And I never learned how to use a glove. But in my dreams I'm on second base, bases loaded, two outs in the final inning, Red Sox behind by one, and Big Papi hits a base-clearing homerun.

The worst thing about baseball is when your favorite players retire or go to different teams.

INGRID THOFT: I wouldn’t characterize myself as a baseball fan, but as Hank and Hallie know, when you live in Boston (or it’s your hometown,) you are a Red Sox  fan.  For life.  I’ve been to a handful of games over the years, and what I’ve enjoyed most is the atmosphere at Fenway Park.  A warm night, some snacks, the Green Monster, the traffic rushing by on the Mass Pike, all make for an iconic baseball experience.  Every New Englander should go at least once, if only to soak up the scene.

 I never played baseball or softball growing up, but I lean towards the “put me in, coach!” frame of mind, so I would rather be the last batter up than riding the bench. 

DEBORAH CROMBIE:  I didn't grow up watching baseball or going to games. Which is weird because my dad coached a corporate women's softball team before I was born, but somehow that didn't translate to professional baseball. But my daughter played softball all through elementary school, and we became big Texas Rangers fans. I loved going to the games and following the team. I still watch the games when I have a chance, and I was really rooting for the Rangers to make it to the World Series last year.

I haven't been to a game in years, though, because Rick doesn't like baseball, or any kind of organized sport.

JENN MCKINLAY: I grew up in Newyorkachusetts (i.e. Connecticut) in which baseball is pretty much divided by the Connecticut River. On one side it's all Yankees fans and on the other it's the Red Sox. I spent my middle school and teen years on the Red Sox side and am a member of Red Sox Nation in honor of my grandmother who was one of their most ardent fans. That being said, when the Diamondbacks came to AZ, I was all in. Hub and I had just started dating and his father had season tickets so much of our first year together was spent watching the Diamondbacks, which was a pretty awesome courtship but that could be because of the hotdogs, peanuts, Red Vines, beer, and gourmet popcorn.

Yes, I love the game but my favorite part of baseball is the food. Shocker, I know. "'Cause it's one, two, three strikes you're out at the old ball game!"

LUCY BURDETTE: We spent a couple years living outside Detroit when I was a kid, so we all became mad for the Tigers. When I lived in Gainesville Fl, the closest team was the Braves, but I never did get very attached to them. Now when we're in Connecticut, it's exactly as Jenn described--and we live right on the dividing line for Yankees versus Red Sox fans. I only get interested in baseball when the playoffs and World Series come around. Though I think I could become a Red Sox fan!

Ask me about UCONN women's basketball, however, and I can tell you anything and everything about the players, the coach, the competition...I love watching those girls play!

JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: I married into New England, and so became a Red Sox fan, as one is required to do. (Ross and I have a good friend who grew up outside NYC and is an adamant Yankees fan, despite living in Portland for close to thirty years. It takes real guts to be a Yankees fan in Maine.)

For me, however, the best of baseball is our local AA team, the Portland Sea Dogs. They play in Hadlock Field, a perfect gem where there's not a bad seat to be found (and general seating is less than the price of a movie ticket!) In all the years we've been going, I've never seen or heard any altercation, beer-throwing or loud profanities. Instead, it always seems a festival gathering of Mainers grateful to be out under the blue sky, eating hot dogs and drinking local microbrews from the Shipyard Brew Pen. We've seen some amazing talent play there: Mookie Betts, Clay Buchholz, Dustin Pedroia and Hanley Ramirez all came up from the Sea Dogs. They have fireworks after the game on the 4th of July, and promotions like Dog of the Day (featuring adoptable dogs,) Superhero Day (come in costume,) and Pride Night (to coincide with Portland's Pride Day festivities.)

You can't beat it, which is why we have tickets for a double header this coming Friday!

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HANK: Whoo hoo! How about you, Reds readers? Baseball—yes, no? And who’s your team? 

photo credits and thank you to: C. Penier. Yobro,  Onyschenko, David Lee

Food Confessions

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: I used to love toasted sesame bagels with strawberry jam. I mean—I Loved them. I used to wake up in the early morning, and think—“is it time for my toasted sesame bagel with strawberry jam yet?” I could just taste those toasty nutty seeds, and the crunchy bread and the delicious yummy jam, and oh, it was fabulous. I had one every day for about a year.

Then suddenly, without warning!  It was—impossible. Yuck.  I couldn’t even think about eating one. I still can’t.

Same thing happened with baked potatoes with broccoli and sour cream. Oh, I yearned for it, couldn’t wait to get home from work to have that for that one-potato dinner...the fabulous steamy potato, all hot, and the skin crispy, the way the broccoli and the sour cream merged, and no matter what kind of a bite you got, it was the best.

Then, suddenly, yuck. AH, no, thank you.

I binged. I binged, and then somehow, like in Clockwork Orange, I could not face it again. Is there a binge thing in our brains?

Right now it’s cool and hip to “binge-watch” a TV show. We sure did it with House of Cards last season.  We watched until we were bleary.

And good think there were only 13 episodes, because maybe I would have gone all sesame bagel after 14.  Who knows. (We’re starting Season 2 now--and wow. But we won’t discuss it.)

Do you—binge? On anything? Did you binge yourself out of liking it? (Maybe it's more--a habit, than a binge.) (Roberta/Lucy, is this a psychological “thing”?)

HALLIE EPHRON: I'm not a binger. Though at the moment, I've watched episodes of Poirot that I missed for five nights running. Does that count? And yes, I am sick of them. It's amazing how often Agatha Christie recycled plot devices.

When it comes to food, I quickly tire of whatever I've recently eaten. And I firmly believe that at any moment, something I've always assumed was perfectly safe will be shown to cause some terrible disease. So I might eat a hot dog for lunch for a week, but then I won't touch one again for months.

HANK: Because then it's out of your system? Or what?

LUCY BURDETTE: Of course Hank there is a serious psychological disorder called Binge Eating Disorder, but that's not what you're talking about here! This is more like too much of a good thing, right?

HANK: Yeah. Exactly. I only had ONE bagel.  EVERY DAY. FOR A YEAR. Sheesh. Scary. Yeah, it's more of a Habit than a binge.

LUCY: I'm like Hallie, anything I eat too much of can turn on me. Even Christmas cookies. I still have two rolls of cookie dough in the freezer and can't bring myself to bake them. Or spanakopita, which I dearly love. If I make a whole 13 by 9 inch pan of it for only John and me, it definitely becomes a slog at the end...

DEBORAH CROMBIE: I'm not a binge-er. Although I do seem to go in cycles on breakfast. For years I ate a soft-boiled egg and a slice of whole wheat toast. Mostly these days, it's granola and yogurt, but it's more time thing. I still love the soft-boiled eggs. Left-overs, now, that's a whole different thing.  I can eat something twice, maybe, and after that, yuck.

HANK: Yeah, it's hard to throw away leftovers. The key is to wait til the THIRD day. Then, no problem to toss because they are surely deadly.

I always say--let's put it in the fridge now, and we'll throw it away later.

RHYS BOWEN: I've always had a small appetite. I really enjoy good food and I do like to have good cheeses after dinner every night. But in my school days I do remember having tomatoes on toast every day for a few months, having Marmite and pickle on rye crisp until I tired of it.

HANK: Rhys, only you… Marmite and pickle on rye crisp?

RHYS: In fact I think I've been the opposite of a binger all my life--I get bored easily. I like to be surprised and try new things. When I lived in a country club the other wives wanted me to play tennis with them every morning. I couldn't do that. And these days I have friends who play bridge every day. I think I like my life as a smorgasbord, sampling a little treat here, a little treat there.

HANK: So how about some food confessions from you all--do you ever get a craving something,..and then have it every day until it loses its joy?

CHANGING THE SUBJECT HERE: One thing that will never lose its luster--is a new book  by wonderful favorite author...and right here in my little hot hand is JOHN LESCROART'S brand new THE KEEPER.  It's an ARC, and it's a Dismas Hardy, and  selfishly, I'm not giving mine up. :-)  But, because John is the coolest of all guys, he sent me two! And one is for a lucky commenter.