In The News (and otherwise)

In the news...

• Jack the Ripper is still provoking controversy, with two new books speculating on his identity.
• There's a new TV network coming for gays & lesbians, called Logo. Considering how hard the rightwingnuttery is working to banish them from the public eye, a dedicated channel is a nice idea.
• Got hooked on a couple of good new television programs and one that hasn't even been broadcast - The Closer, The Inside and Global Frequency. The Closer is a police procedural (high profile homicide unit in LA) on TNT on Monday evenings and is remarkably good. The Inside focuses on a special profiling unit of the FBI, and is utterly twisted and creepy - in a good way. In both cases, my first thought was "do we really need another police procedural?"... but I was wrong. The characters, especially the lead, in The Closer really snap, and I am dying to watch the relationships develop. The Inside (already slated for cancellation by terminally stupid Fox) isn't afraid to deal with really edgy topics (like the S&M top suspected of murdering his subs) and the characters are so sharp (and twisted into knots) that you could injure yourself on them.
  
  The standout, though, is Global Frequency, a thriller with a sci-fi edge based on a series of graphic novels by the ever-perverse but unspeakably talented Warren Ellis. Some brilliant individual leaked the un-aired pilot to the Internet, and I have to say, it's an amazing show. The characters are all topic experts (there are a thousand and one people on the Global Frequency) who drop everything at a moment's notice to try to keep the world safe for the rest of us. I think there is hope that with enough fan support, the series might actually get made. I'm doing my part to spread the word...
  
  

In my news

• Plumbing, it seems, should be left to the experts. I attempted to clear out a clog in my 30-yr-old bathroom pipes and instead succeeded in jamming the plumber's snake right through the U shaped pipe. A real plumber, of course, would have had a bucket under there to catch the black, nasty stuff that poured out and proceded to soak 10 year's worth of stuff under the sink. Of course, since I hadn't so much as looked at most of it in that long, having to throw it all away was mostly just a smelly inconvenience. Now I'm a bit poorer, but have all new pipes in the bathroom sink upstairs and a toilet that no longer runs downstairs.
• In the realm of TMI about plumbing, I've had all my lady-parts checked, prodded, squished and examined (including new bifocals for $400) and the verdict is -- not bad for a diabetic fat chick over 50. On the one hand I regret spending all but my last $4.65, but on the other hand, it's good to know things are okay. And if there had been something wrong, well, I might know in time to head it off. And new glasses - I'll be able to read without taking my glasses off and pressing my nose to the book! Yay! I am going to have to find me a doc to see on a regular basis to help keep my diabetes under control, though, because my sugars are slowly but steadily creeping upward, even when I'm pretty darned good.