Saturday, August 22, 2026

At the Farmers’ Market

“A Man Lay Dead” — Another Golden Age Classic

Ngaio Marsh (1895-1982)

Ngaio Marsh is known, according to Wikipedia, "as one of the 'Queens of Crime,' along with Agatha Christie, Dorothy L. Sayers, and Margery Allingham." Her novel A Man Lay Dead (1934) remains an amusing detective story. Although I’ve read everything by Agatha Christie, and several by Dorothy Sayers, I’m new to the other two “queens.” I’m just starting to read the Marsh series of murder mysteries featuring her famous detective Chief Inspector Roderick Alleyn.

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)

All in all, the focus of the book is always on the mysterious murder, with the country house and the inspector providing the structure. Here are two paragraphs illustrating how the author sets up the situation at the country house when the guests and hosts are about to play the murder game, secretly selecting a murderer and a victim who will be the object of the search by the others. It’s supposed to be pretend…

“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!

Thursday, August 20, 2026

Recent Photos

Pizza Dinner

Corn Chowder

Bacon and eggs for breakfast

Cereal with peaches IN SEASON

Another Swan

Monday, August 17, 2026

The Odyssey: Latest Version

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.

Was this the face that launch'd a thousand ships,

And burnt the topless towers of Ilium?

Academy Award winner Lupita Nyong'o plays the dual roles of Helen of Troy and her sister Clytemnestra. Her acting was definitely up to the part as written in the script. Though the dialog was not very poetic. It doesn’t compare to the famous poetry about the most beautiful woman in the world!

Helen, thy beauty is to me

Like those Nicéan barks of yore,
That gently, o'er a perfumed sea,
The weary, way-worn wanderer bore
To his own native shore.

Saturday, August 15, 2026

Golden Age Classic Detective Novel

A classic mystery from 1929: The Duke of York’s Steps by author Henry Wade, real name: Sir Henry Aubrey-Fletcher, 6th Baronet,(1887–1969).

A bit of the plot: A gentleman walking in London falls down a steep stone staircase. His legacy, as distributed by his will, narrowly rescues his step-son from financial ruin, as he bequeaths a large sum of money to the apparently desperate young man. However, something is suspicious: Inspector Poole, a young policeman investigates persistently until the truth comes out, which of course I won’t tell you.

The novel includes many characters of interest, including a Jewish banker — friend of the victim; his two step-children who will inherit his fortune, a sales woman in a perfume shop — a perfumed handkerchief is a big clue; and some interesting members of the police force.

The plot is very involved, The details of the characters’ lives are very 1920s! A few satisfying quotes about what the upper classes drank:

“‘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)

Wednesday, August 12, 2026

Local History

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.

Monday, August 10, 2026

The Sentient Vacuum Cleaner

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:

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 center of The Infinite Sadness of Small Appliances is a small automated vacuum cleaner who has chosen the name Scout because it was fascinated by the character named Scout in To Kill a Mockingbird. Along with Scout the vacuum, the house is equipped with a grandfather clock called Clock and a refrigerator called Fridge who both worry about Harold. The appliances also are concerned because the house, the humans, the car which lives in the garage, and the appliances themselves are all under constant supervision by “The Grid,” an omniscient and somewhat hostile overlord to all humans and non-humans in the house, in the neighborhood, and everywhere:

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”

Sunday, August 09, 2026

Sunday Thought

The Frog Pond Haiku by Matsuo Bashō
Old pond — frogs jumped in — sound of water. — Translated by Lafcadio Hearn

I’m wearing my Bashō-frog shirt today.

Saturday, August 08, 2026

Dinner and a Memory

On the table: charcoal-grilled lamb chops and rice/mushroom salad.

Dessert: vanilla pudding with fresh peaches.

Memory: wind surfers

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!

Friday, August 07, 2026

The Intrigue by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

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.

Thursday, August 06, 2026

I haven’t seen the movie yet

I hope to see it soon.

Thinking of the famous poem:

Was this the face that launched a thousand ships,
And burnt the topless towers of Ilium?
Sweet Helen, make me immortal with a kiss.
Here will I dwell, for heaven is in those lips,
And all is dross that is not Helena.
I will be Paris, and for love of thee
Instead of Troy shall Wittenberg be sacked,
And I will combat with weak Menelaus,
And wear thy colors on my plumed crest.
Yea, I will wound Achilles in the heel,
And then return to Helen for a kiss.
— Christopher Marlow, “Dr. Faustus”

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.

Tuesday, August 04, 2026

Sheep

Crazy Netflick

We watched the recently-released film “The Sheep Detectives” which is actually about talking sheep, but not surreal like Murakami’s wild sheep chase. And not TOO corny like Disney’s Bambi. Also not as lovable as Remi the Rat in “Ratatouille” or Jimminy Cricket in “Pinocchio.” But there are similarities.

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.”

It reminds me of other animal stories

A comic film from the creator of Wallace and Grommet.

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.

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)

Sunday, August 02, 2026

Murals and Street Art

From Miriam In Seattle

Ann Arbor

On First Street

In the University Art Museum coffee shop

Students’ shoes decorating the electric wires. An art form?

Friday, July 31, 2026

In My Kitchen, July 2026

New Things in My Kitchen

New octopus-shaped jar which Evelyn made for me.

Dragon coffee bowl, also by Evelyn.

New grill pan which marks the food with grill marks.

Magnets

New magnets on the refrigerator.

A Little Magnet History

My magnet collection, which contains quite a few of them, hasn’t changed much lately, but Evelyn visited Arches National Park in June, and brought me the Arches magnet. The second new magnet — which I bought at a local shop — depicts the “Big Tire,” which is a famous Detroit landmark on Highway 94 between Ann Arbor and Detroit.

The photo from a car window, taken a couple of years ago, shows the actual Big Tire as we were driving past it. The structure inside the “tire” was originally a ferris wheel built for the New York World’s Fair in 1964. The tire company purchased the ferris wheel in 1966 at the end of the fair. They moved it to its current location beside the freeway where it was repurposed as a record-setting outdoor advertisement.

It makes a good magnet!