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| Alice made scones and poppy-seed cake. |
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| Pastry at Kerrytown yesterday morning. (OK, the baked goods are not fabulous any more at Sweetwaters) |
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| The coffee is ok. But we probably won’t choose to go there as much as we once did. |
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| This morning: Local peaches with pancakes: always a favorite in August. |
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| Ngaio Marsh (1895-1982) |
A Man Lay Dead — introducing Alleyn — fits one of the classic types of mystery: it takes place at a country house belonging to a rich host, who has invited several guests to stay for a weekend or perhaps longer. Each one has a beautiful room with a bathroom (or maybe a shared bath) and a variety of connecting doors so that once the inevitable murder takes place, there’s a need for a lot of checking to see where each person says they were, and whose stories are believable.
Sorry to say, other than mentioning that breakfast, luncheon, or dinner was served, there’s not really any detail about the food, which also doesn’t much seem to matter to the guests who eat it. The nearest mention is “NOBODY GOT UP very early at Frantock on Sunday mornings. Nigel, wandering down to breakfast at half-past nine, found himself alone with the sausages. He had scarcely turned his attention to the Sunday Times when he was told that a long-distance call had come through for him from London.” (p. 21)
“Last night Vassily gave the scarlet plaque to whichever one of us he selected as murderer. I remind you that the ‘murderer’ is to turn out the lights and sound the gong, that you are not by word or look to suggest that you have been discarded or selected by Vassily as actor for the part of assassin. The ‘murderer’ has had a day in which to formulate his plans. There—that’s all.” (p. 24)
And then…
“‘The victim’s name,’ began Doctor Young in a business-like voice, ‘was Rankin. He was one of a party of five guests spending the week-end with Sir Hubert Handesley and his niece. They had been playing one of these new-fangled games, one called’—he paused for a second—‘called ‘Murders.’ You may have heard of it.’” (p. 34)
OOPS… it’s not all pretend. One of the players is found actually dead, and clearly, one of the others is actually a murderer. Obviously, they call the police. The carefully crafted search by Inspector Alleyn examines the Big Three: method, motive, and opportunity, as he questions both the guests and the servants to establish how the victim was stabbed, who would profit from his death, and how they might have managed to kill him. And at the end: the classic reveal —
"THE HOUSE-PARTY was assembled for the last time in the hall at Frantock." (p. 165)
Marsh condensed a lot of personalities, class-consciousness, conniving, and detecting into a rather short book!
Review © 2026 mae sander
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| Pizza Dinner |
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| Corn Chowder |
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| Bacon and eggs for breakfast |
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| Cereal with peaches IN SEASON |
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| Another Swan |
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| We went to the afternoon showing of this recently released movie. It was just ok, IMHO. Lots of battle scenes. Molly Ivins might have said “buckets of blood” — though usually she sad it about politics. |
“‘My dear fellow, I’m so sorry—inexcusable of me! Have a glass of port …—no?—a cigar, anyhow—Corona Corona, handpicked by myself, every one of ’em.’” (p. 30)
“‘Take a chair, Inspector,’ said the lawyer, pointing to the least worn of the two. ‘You’ve come just in time for a glass of sherry.’ He opened an oak corner cupboard and brought out a cut-glass decanter, two tulip sherry-glasses, and a tin of biscuits. ‘Amontillado,’ he said. ‘Sound stuff. Not to be found everywhere in these days.’” (p.72)
The detective, whose food and drink are less upper-class, uses his mealtime for reviewing cases:
“Without revealing his professional identity, he made a point of getting into conversation with the proprietors and waiters, and sometimes with the habitués of these places, with the result that he had picked up a good deal of valuable knowledge about London life, and had made a number of potentially useful friends. On this occasion, he made his way to the ‘Grand Couronne’ in Greek Street, Soho, and after ordering himself a special risotto and a large glass of Münchener—which had to be fetched from ‘over the way,’ the restaurant possessing no licence—set himself to review the progress he had made.” (p. 79)
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| Webster Church is around 20 miles from Ann Arbor on a rural road called Webster Church Road. The church dates to a few years after Ann Arbor was founded. |
“In 1834 construction began on Webster Church, the oldest church building in continuous use in Washtenaw County. Built on land donated by Hannah Williams Kingsley, it was completed in 1835 after Moses Kingsley secured donations from Daniel Webster and others in the East. The church had been founded in 1833 under the leadership of the Rev. Charles G. Clark, a New York missionary to the Michigan frontier. Clark was pastor until 1858.”
Reading a little about the orator and politician Daniel Webster, I couldn’t figure out why he would have contributed to a church in an obscure location on the frontier. The location of the church is also a bit puzzling as there are only a few farmhouses in the immediate area.
First it was a sentient dog in The Art of Racing in the Rain. We won’t mention Jimminy Cricket — a most memorable sentient insect from the 1940 Disney movie Pinocchio, and later from the Disney TV show. This year, there were self-aware sheep in the film “The Sheep Detectives” which depicted a flock of self-aware and articulate sheep. I wrote about these recently: see my post titled Sheep.
Now this:
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The Infinite Sadness of Small Appliances is about a bereaved household where the wife has died, leaving her husband Harold depressed and unmoored from what he had loved. Their daughter Kate comes to help her father adapt, but her plans and his are not the same. |
THE GRID MONITORED EVERY one of the millions of cars on the road—every car in the world, in fact—tracking exactly where they were and how fast they were traveling and what their present mission entailed, whether it was taking a Human to an appointment or something as simple as accepting the delivery of new clothes. (p. 67)
On Harold’s wrist is a watch, which is another part of the power of the Grid:
“Watch,” said Clock, “is interested only in cataloging the contents of the House. I do not blame him. It is his duty to evaluate the worth of things. There are accounts to be balanced. There are meticulous and fine details to be attended to.” (p. 81)
Harold’s late wife was a piano teacher, and Adrian, one of her young students, comes to the house to continue practicing on the piano. Harold, a former English teacher, along with Kate also introduce Adrian to books like The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe:
HAROLD COULD HEAR KATE reading to Adrian upstairs. He sat in his armchair and listened to the cadence of her voice. He couldn’t quite make out the words, but he knew the story so well it didn’t matter. For now, he was thinking of the boy, thinking of how it would be to hear this book for the first time, the magic of it, the kids going through the wardrobe to find themselves in another world. (p. 181)
Can we ordinary people defy the system that controls our physical and mental surroundings? Or are we hopelessly manipulated by them? Do we own our “things” or do they own us? We are left with these questions. I am also left with the question of just how I might connect the story and characters in To Kill a Mockingbird with this story and these characters.
AI summarizes the novel thus: “The Infinite Sadness of Small Appliances is a 2026 speculative novel by Glenn Dixon published by Atria Books. Set in a near-future smart house, it is told from the perspective of a sentient Roomba named Scout who tries to protect her elderly owners from an omnipresent technological system”
The Frog Pond Haiku by Matsuo BashōOld pond — frogs jumped in — sound of water. — Translated by Lafcadio Hearn
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| I’m wearing my Bashō-frog shirt today. |
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| On the table: charcoal-grilled lamb chops and rice/mushroom salad. |
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| Dessert: vanilla pudding with fresh peaches. |
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| The sea near the Turkish coast, south of the location of the ancient city of Troy. Thinking of Odysseus, who began his voyage as the Trojan War ended. And his new movie! |
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| The Intrigue: Published July 4, 2026 |
Magical realism is one of my favorite genres in fiction — and Silvia Moreno-Garcia’s earlier books are mainly masterpieces of the genre. Unfortunately, her recently published novel, The Intrigue, is not at all magical, it’s a realistic novel that takes place in two historic eras: the 1920s and the early 1940s. Further, I find the characters unsympathetic, selifish, narrow, and ultimately annoying. I may or may not finish reading it.
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| I hope to see it soon. |
Imagining the destruction |
| Classical painters loved the story of Troy, which I guess we all still do. In this example (one of many) the burning city predominates and the famous horse just sits there. I assume that you know the whole story even if you haven’t read the book recently. It’s kind of amazing that a poem written 3,000 years ago is still so compelling. |
AI summary: “A shepherd named George reads murder mysteries to his sheep every night. When George is murdered, the smart flock uses what they learned to investigate the human suspect.”
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| A comic film from the creator of Wallace and Grommet. |
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| A very tragic story narrated by a dog, who is the only witness. The animal narrator is basically the only similarity with the sheep film. |
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| A totally surreal tale as only Murakami could write. Made me fall in love with his writing. The only similarity is the focus on sheep. (See: https://maefood.blogspot.com/2016/07/why-i-like-haruki-murakami.html) |
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| On First Street |
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| In the University Art Museum coffee shop |
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| Students’ shoes decorating the electric wires. An art form? |
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| New octopus-shaped jar which Evelyn made for me. |
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| Dragon coffee bowl, also by Evelyn. |
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| New grill pan which marks the food with grill marks. |
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| New magnets on the refrigerator. |
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| Ripe local peaches. The stone-fruit season is just starting. |
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| Lots of vegetables: here, tomatoes, green beans, potatoes. |
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| Fresh corn |
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| Meatballs |
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| Berries |
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| Len's Bread |
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| Salmon from Seattle, a gift from Miriam |
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| Salmon that Alice cooked for us in her kitchen |
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| Blintzes in a fairly recently purchased skillet. |
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| Pasta with cheese and pepper (cacio e pepe) — an Ottolenghi recipe |
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| Cherry tomatoes, sweet potatoes, and grilled chicken |
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| More Berries |
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| Cookbook from the library: most of the recipes call for too much chili pepper. |
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| In July we can cook outdoors all the time, and often do so. |
