Amanda wuz robbed

In my opinion, at least (re Survivor). I couldn’t believe the outcome of the voting, especially after seeing that Erik voted for Amanda, his diatribe notwithstanding. I wonder what would have happened in the event of a tie? Would they have had to try to start a fire in front of a live audience? I always enjoy the live reunion show, because Probst shows far more of his personality than when he’s officiating the challenges. I was very happy for James, and intrigued by the way Probst handled Johnny Fairplay, being very dismissive of his participation in the series and issuing a sort of backhanded compliment about his role in fathering a child. I’m not sure I would have recognized either Amanda or Parvati out of context. They both changed their appearances a lot in the interim from the end of the series to now.

I’m reading Hollywood Crows by Joseph Wambaugh. It uses the same characters and style as Hollywood Station, depicting the lives of a bunch of cops who work the Hollywood beat. The “crows” of the title are Community Relations Officers (CROs), cops who handle quality of life issues. Though there are a couple of ongoing threads in the book, too much of it seems like anecdotes Wambaugh heard and decided to stitch together into a novel, which aversely affects the book’s cohesiveness, in my opinion. And he totally fails with the Flotsam and Jetsam characters, two surfer dudes who also happen to be cops. He was a master of the cop novel during his heyday, but I think he’s passed his prime, based on the past two novels, and I won’t be picking up a third if there happens to be one.

We watched P.S. I Love You, a romantic comedy starring Hillary Swank that also features Lisa Kudrow (Phoebe from Friends, Kathy Bates, Harry Connick Junior, Gina Gershon and the guy who played the ill-fated Denny on Grey’s Anatomy). It’s a cute movie, a bit of a tear-jerker, but we both enjoyed it and it has a couple of light surprises.

I’m almost to the end of the short story in progress. I think I’ve worked out the ending, though that didn’t come to me until after I’d shut down the document for the morning. It’s going to require a little bit of tweaking of the plot to guide things more subtly in the direction I want to go, but not too much. I hope to finish it off in first draft tomorrow.

I loved all the inside jokes on C.S.I. last week. The jibes at writers, poking fun at other programs, the Poirot-like reveal scene at the end delivered by the killer. Looks like we’re back to more serious affairs for the season finale this week.