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It's the same actor playing Big Bird and Oscar, which I'm sure has saved him thousands of dollars in therapy. --Sonia Manzano (Maria) |
Saturday, January 22, 2000 Timeless Prose Someday, perhaps, I'll understand why I sometimes watch Sabado Gigante, even though I don't know any Spanish. I'm hoping there's a better reason than "it's better than anything else on the air really late on Saturday nights," but I suspect that's probably it. Then again, Spanish just sounds cool. Not quite as nice as Italian, perhaps, but still very mellifluous.
I've gotta get to sleep, but briefly, I've made my first foray into the wonderful world of tie-dyeing my own shirts. Tomorrow night, I get to unwrap the first two attempts and see how they look. Not much to report, otherwise. I read Lords and Ladies by Terry Pratchett. It's one of the witch books, which is my least favorite series within the overall Discworld series, but that's a relative assessment. And this one contained some really, really bad puns. And, yes, that's a good thing. I still have to find Witches Abroad, though. I'm pretty sure I missed that one, despite having read the books preceding and following it.
Oh, and speaking of books read recently... I am now back up to date on Beverly Cleary's books, having taken out and read Ramona's World. Not her best work, but not bad. Along the way, it occurred to me to wonder just when the book was supposed to be taking place. This came to mind when Beezus referred to having "a man teacher" for one of her classes, and the phrasing struck me as being perhaps a bit out of place for the '90s. But then... this was supposed to be taking place immediately after the last book in the series, from the late '80s... which in turn followed installments from the '70s... and this is the point where my head began spinning. Putting aside for the moment the question of how Cleary dealt with this, it's an interesting challenge. How does one go about continuing a series set in the here and now, when the here and now has moved on a couple of decades since the series got started? The more I think about it, the more I realize how tough it must be. Cleary, for the record, responded in this instance by avoiding any references that would establish this book as being set at any particular point in time. The "man teacher" line above is the only one that sounded dated to my ear, and I'm not entirely sure I'm right about that. Other than that, a few references to television remote controls are the only things that put this book in a more modern setting than the earlier books... but, on the other hand, there's nothing that would establish it as not taking place today, either. The earlier books, to the best of my recollection, didn't have to be that separated from the outside world, and I think they were stronger for it. But it's been awhile since I've read them, so I may be wrong.
Oh, and, finally, I read Sesame Street Unpaved, a fun look behind the scenes of the TV show in question. It includes lots of interesting trivia and lyrics and so on, including the quote in the sidebar. Bed beckons. G'night, all.
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