My passport (well, actually, that used to expire in March but thanks to my oversight, it is now May), my car registration, my car inspection sticker…it’s got me looking at other things that might expire. My driver’s license — nope, that’s good for a few more years. Ditto my green card.
One thought I had in the middle of Angels and Demons yesterday. After Robert Langdon is splattered with blood, he goes back to the Vatican to change his shirt, which sets up a joke about how good he looks in a priest’s outfit. However, what bothered me at the time was this: a priest is scheduled to die in about half an hour. The entire city is scheduled to be annihilated in a little over two hours. You stop to change your shirt? I also thought the apparent denouement was overlong, but that was the way the novel worked, too.
I caught up on some season finales over the long weekend. Criminal Minds borrowed heavily from the Robert Picton case in British Columbia, while riffing on Hannibal at the same time. The Harris novel and this episode both featured a disabled man named Mason who feeds people to pigs. Coincidence? I think not. The episode had a few gaping plot holes. We were supposed to believe that Lucas was capable of driving across the border time and time again to round up the latest victim when he a young woman was able to outwit him by faking compassion. Also, I couldn’t figure out why it was necessary to go to Detroit with Windsor on the same side of the border offering a similar selection of potential victims without the risk of discovery crossing through customs. Except, of course, it was necessary in order to get the BAU involved.
I’m an episode behind on Breaking Bad. Yesterday I watched the one where Jesse escalates his drug use and Walt gets an offer on their 38 lbs of crystal meth at the same moment his wife goes into labor. Walt’s no longer a very sympathetic character. He’s hardened, mean, cavalier and neglectful. And yet it’s still interesting to see what happens to him. One step forward and two steps back, every time, as he said in this episode. Given the magnitude of the step he’s about to take forward, it’s hard to imagine how devastating the ultimate setback would have to be.
I got a couple of more stories into submission this morning, for a long weekend total of 14. The first rejection appeared this morning, too, an astonishingly fast bounce from Fantasy magazine that encouraged me to submit again, and often!
