Liars and Saints

The new Madeleine McCann documentary makes a striking observation. A scholar of abductions is speaking. "There's something about certain disappearances. A disappearance can GO VIRAL. That's when people everywhere can't stop talking about the disappearance. And I think the distinguishing factor is: a part of the disappearance that feels universal. A part that makes the reader say, That could happen to me." In other words, disappearances happen all the time. We don't talk obsessively about every single disappearance. There's sometimes an insinuation that the McCann story gets so much attention simply because the kid in question was reasonably wealthy and white. (In other words, if McCann had been black, we wouldn't be talking about her.) I'm not sure the story is that easy. I think a main reason people respond so forcefully to the McCann details is that a part of us can imagine being as negligent as Dr. and Dr. McCann. Famously, crazily, the two Mc

Stories I'm Obsessed with Right Now: (1) We suddenly know what the big revelation about Adnan will be tomorrow night. His DNA wasn't found on or near the body. Fine. But maybe he used gloves. Also, it would be so much more satisfying if the DNA that *was* found did actually match another human being. And it sounds like we're not going to get that kind of wrap-up. Why no more information about Don? What was he doing on the day Hae went missing? (Not that I actually think Don is the killer. I think it's Adnan.) (2) There's speculation about Lupita Nyong'o possibly getting an Oscar nomination out of "Us." That would be unusual because (1) the movie was released so early in the year, (2) it's rare to get an acting nomination out of a horror movie, and (3) it's rare to get a nomination for playing two roles in one movie. (Scenario III is rare, yes, but not unheard of. Someone got a nomination for the same thing--and actually won--for an early Ja

Here's the title story from Amy Hempel's new book, "Sing to It," a book causing waves: At the end, he said, No metaphors! Nothing is like anything else. Except he said to me before he said that, Make your hands a hammock for me. So there was one. He said, Not even the rain--he quoted the poet--not even the rain has such small hands. So there was another. At the end, I wanted to comfort him. But what I said was, Sing to it. The Arab proverb: When danger approaches, sing to it. Except I said to him before that, No metaphors! No one is like anyone else. And he said, Please. So--at the end, I made my hands a hammock for him. My arms the trees. That's the story in its entirety. James Wood compares Amy Hempel to Grace Paley; Paley was another writer of fiction who sometimes blurred the line between fiction and poetry. Paley has a famous story, "Wants," in which a marriage has ended, and the separated partners meet on the steps of a library. That&

In its third and fourth seasons, "Younger" seems to borrow heavily from "Sex and the City." That's as it should be. Darren Starr created both shows. Remember, mid-way through SATC, Carrie has her "anti-heroine" story. She becomes someone we emphatically *can't* root for. Can't--really. She is with the John Corbett character, and he's mainly a good guy, but she's lying and sleeping with Mr. Big in secret. And Mr. Big is married. And there's really nothing wrong with his wife. This is a bit shocking--we expect better from Carrie--but, also, Carrie has that New York chic thing going on, and she's always smoking sexy cigarettes, so it's not a big leap to imagine her in a sophisticated and dramatic affair. By contrast, Sutton Foster has a golden-haze-on-the-meadow image. Yes, she became famous in New York, but there's something strongly midwestern about her. She's the girl next door. You might expect her to play Maria

This Sunday night, we'll see the fourth and final episode of "The Case Against Adnan Syed." I'm not really impressed so far. The show seems so interested in proving Adnan is not guilty, it sacrifices some credibility. There's a sense of bias. If the show were more serious about the anti-Adnan arguments, then, oddly enough, I might be more willing to adopt a pro-Adnan stance. Some thoughts after the third episode: -There is still a cell-phone tower discrepancy. Why doesn't the show address the prosecution's on-going argument that, in fact, the cell-phone info *was* reliable? This is maddening, because it's not as if we're talking about a deep philosophical issue here. One side must clearly be right, and one side must be wrong. -The "Jay" phone call irritated me. At one point, we see Jay's ex calling him to try to get the inside scoop on what happened with Adnan. (There's a strong effort to discredit Jay throughout. He's a l

Sondheim is in the news--now and always. The big revelation is that Off-Broadway will host a major revival of "Assassins" next year. And Andrew Rannells observes, in his new memoir, that he has not yet attained all his goals. He'd very much like to have "a weekly brunch with Stephen Sondheim." He says it's good to have big, unrealized wishes at all times. I keep thinking about Sondheim's song "Loveland," from "Follies." Many writers before Sondheim (many writers even today) focus on the will-they-or-won't-they part of a love story. They write about the build-up to some kind of commitment. (Think of Darcy and Lizzie, or Mr. Big and Carrie Bradshaw.) Sondheim, by contrast, tends to focus on what happens *after* love is declared: the struggling marriages in "Company," the decaying couples in "Follies," the warm but bickering Baker and Baker's Wife in "Into the Woods." Still, Sondheim appreciates

Reporters love murders. In a pinch, what the lawyers call "wrongful death" will do, particularly if it's sudden. Even a fatal accident for which no one is to blame has some appeal. On a daily newspaper, in fact, an accident is one of the few news events whose importance can be precisely measured by the editors who decide how much space and prominence each story is worth. In general, the space it is assigned varies directly with how many people were killed. Sufficient loss of life can elevate an accident story into a category of news that is almost automatically front-page--a disaster. I love this opening from Calvin Trillin's book of essays, "Killings." It reminds me of the work of Janet Malcolm, another writer who is gleeful and blunt in her assessment of a journalist's opportunism. "Reporters love murders": A simple, shocking sentence. The joke continues. Reporters are like vampires, sucking the tragedy out of others, living off that traged

A novel succeeds--or fails--because of its characters. Hats off to Harlan Coben, an occasional favorite of Janet Maslin's, for inventing some memorable characters in his new bestseller, "Run Away": -Simon, a dad who has lost his daughter, apparently to a cult. Simon is smart but he makes mistakes--so it's easy enough to identify with him. In the first scene, we watch him scoping out the homeless drug dealer who seems to have brainwashed his now-missing daughter. Unwisely, Simon punches this man. (We all can relate.) The scene is caught on YouTube, and it becomes something it really isn't, for millions of viewers: a story of a smug rich min assaulting a harmless poor kid. And so Simon's fate is sealed; he is doomed to a difficult future, or at least a difficult span of three hundred pages. -Simon's high-powered lawyer. She understands precisely how minds work, and how often there's a gap between perception and reality. She offers Simon an over-price

Some parts of this podcast are exasperating. As others have noted, the main journalist seems to have an ethics issue. She will steal your property if she feels the DNA results may be interesting. She will listen sympathetically as you insist you do not want to be recorded, then she will secretly record you as you continue talking. Beyond that, there's a serious storytelling problem here. Someone once said to Anne Lamott, "You have made the mistake of believing that every single thing that has ever happened to you is interesting." The same thing applies to Connie Walker, the journalist responsible for "Missing and Murdered." Her repetitive, tiresome musings, her insistence on making us listen to static, to dead-end queries, to inane chatter....All of this is infuriating. "Finding Cleo" should be around four hours, maximum, and instead it clocks in at ten. Ten! All that said, there's a compelling story here. A Native American family believes that

Some Other Anita Brookner Facts: (1) There is sometimes a "meta" quality to her writing. Her first book was called "The Debut." (Sometimes, it's called "A Start in Life.") Brookner seems to be winking at the reader when she observes that a protagonist "ruined her own life by reading too much fiction." (Of course, the reader of Brookner's fiction might also be ruining *her* own life!) There's also loud contrarian thinking on display, on every page. Isn't reading supposed to be an inherently good thing? Something virtuous, something we can brag about? Well, why should that be the case? (2) One of Brookner's main themes was "the triumph of the dumb and strong over the intelligent and weak," according to Tessa Hadley. Brookner did not feel the need to supply happy endings. She did not feel that careful introspection would lead to conquering-the-world--because when is that actually true, in life? I imagine she would h

Toward the start of Brookner's "Lewis Percy," a young man returns from Paris to London to take care of his ailing mother: On his return to London Lewis was briefly amazed by the quality of the light, which seemed to him poor, as if the day could not work up enough energy to throw off the darkness of dawn. Used as he was to the fine grayish mist that cloaked Paris on the worst days of bad weather, he had frequently to rub his eyes in this land of what seemed to him ruminative half-shadow. He supposed that he needed glasses. Gradually, imperceptibly, he became accustomed to London's muted tones, and to the wistful noise of a car passing along a street sunk in the slumber of mid-afternoon. For a few weeks he wandered about his neighborhood, registering new facts or facts which he had forgotten. He was struck by the modest cheerfulness of the people, whose main efforts seemed to go into keeping the business of life ticking over. "Mustn't grumble," they sai

The best piece I've read about "The Inventor" is from "The New Yorker." Its author is Rachel Syme. Her main point is that neither "Bad Blood" nor "Inventor" gets "in Holmes's head." In other words, because Holmes has been so guarded, deceptive, and stingy with interviewers, we don't really know her. Some journalists have been happy to fill the void. Someone on Slate wrote in a shallow way about how empty-headed Holmes must be, and about how it's shocking that Holmes is now appearing in sunny Instagram photos, and is actually engaged to be married. (Who gets engaged to a woman who may spend twenty years behind bars? May wonders never cease!) Styme, in "The New Yorker," smartly resists the temptation to fill in blanks that can't be filled in. We don't know Holmes. It's possible there isn't a "neat psychological explanation" for her behavior--and Styme is right to worry that the upcom

It's fun to watch this documentary while also reading "The Journalist and the Murderer" on the side. Janet Malcolm reminds us, in "Journalist and Murderer," that there are generally multiple sides to any one story. So, though it's easy to think of Elizabeth Holmes as Satan, it's also possible that Holmes has a version of the story that differs from the filmmaker's version. That said, Holmes hasn't offered her version of the story. The director of "The Inventor" went to her, and she led him on for five hours, and then she turned him down. He says he thinks she mainly wanted to tease out the tone, or possible tone, of the documentary--and that she never had any intention of helping. He also says that she continues to blame her own downfall on "sexism." (In other words, she seems unwilling to examine herself and her behavior. At least for now.) Malcolm also reminds the reader that real people are different from great fictiona

The cold came late that fall and the songbirds were caught off guard. By the time the snow and wind began in earnest, too many had been suckered into staying, and instead of flying south, instead of already having flown south, they were huddled in people's yards, their feathers puffed for some modicum of warmth. I was looking for a job. I was a student and needed babysitting work, and so I would walk from interview to interview in these attractive but wintry neighborhoods, the eerie multitudes of robins pecking at the frozen ground, dun-gray and stricken--though what bird in the best of circumstances does not look a little stricken--until, at last, late in my search, at the end of the week, startlingly, the birds had disappeared. I did not want to think about what had happened to them. Or rather, that is an expression--of politeness, a false promise of delicacy--for in fact I wondered about them all the time: imagining them dead, in stunning heaps in some killing cornfield outside

Some items to note about THE TRIAL OF LIZZIE BORDEN... -it is true crime by a woman about a woman. And maybe that is rarer than it should be. -it points toward a well reasoned conclusion...that the young lady is guilty. -it is under 300 pages ...and surely this would be different if the author were a pompous man. -it makes observations about prejudice with regard to class and gender. It points out that the title character might have really struggled in court if she had not been a wealthy white woman. -it represents several decades of authorial obsession. The writer began her research when she was an undergraduate. -it has a chance to examine folklore. The heroine walked free and yet she was semi convicted via nursery rhyme. Why was there apparent certainty outside the courtroom? -I am so excited about this book. Just wanted to put it on your radar! P.S. the Times gave this book a weekday review and called it enthralling. A rare achievement....

I have a bit left in "The Inventor," but I'm ready to say I love this movie. Highlights so far: -A story is different from data. A good narrative has an emotional component. When you appeal to people's emotions, you can be very seductive. You don't need to point to numbers. Elizabeth Holmes was an extraordinary storyteller. She would trot out the tale of her uncle, dead too soon from cancer, and people would want to open their wallets for her. -People find it easy to lie if they believe they're supporting a good cause. A thing I enjoyed was this: A certain economist had people roll dice. If you rolled, you would have to commit to choosing the top or bottom of your roll. ("It landed on a 2, but I'm committed to the top of the roll, a 5....so I get 5 dollars." "It landed on a 3, and I'm committed to the bottom of the roll, so I get 3 dollars.") People would freely lie if the difference was between 6 and 1, and then they would tell

"The Journalist and the Murderer," by Janet Malcolm. This is one of my all-time favorite books. It concerns a case in which a convicted murderer, Jeff MacDonald, went after his biographer, a loathsome man called Joe McGinnis. The problem was that McGinnis had led MacDonald to believe all was well; MacDonald thought he would get a sympathetic profile from McGinnis; the actual profile, an attack on MacDonald, came as a shock. Malcolm uses this case to examine *all* journalism. Isn't there something weird about an interview? Isn't the writer looking to pierce through the subject's self-presentation and get at an actual, unflattering truth? (Famously, one of Malcolm's subjects, in this book, says, "I teach at a low-income university because it's noble; I could be at Harvard or Yale, but that wouldn't make as much of an impact." Malcolm can't let this pass. "Did you get offers from Harvard and Yale?" Immediately, the subject realiz

People say that evil isn't very interesting; it's the human response to evil that can hold our attention. I think that's true in "Bad Blood." Elizabeth Holmes--the monster at the center of the story--doesn't seem to have much depth. She doesn't really show signs of genuine contrition, and it's never clear in the story that she is wrestling with the scary implications of what she is doing. For that reason, she can be a bit tiresome--as a character. To me, the real stars of "Bad Blood" are the people who struggle against Holmes: a young man whose nonagenarian grandfather tells him to just fall in line with EH, a guy who ends up committing suicide because the pressures of working with EH are too great, and an outspoken lab expert who takes photos of various problems in EH's facilities (among many other characters). It worries me that Adam McKay is involved with the Holmes story, because McKay tends to have contempt for his characters, and

"A Sea of Troubles," by Donna Leon . I have reservations about almost every Leon book. Her interest in the actual crime sometimes seems minimal. The murder sometimes seems like a mere coat rack; Leon has it there, but she is more interested in various colorful "coats"--digressions about food, or about office politics--that she can hang on it. That's true in "A Sea of Troubles," and, as is often the case, I can't quite follow all the thinly-sketched men who may be involved, or not involved, in the central conspiracy. But I enjoy Guido at the dinner table with his family, weathering interruptions, sometimes failing to model the behavior he wants to see from his own children. And I like the subtext: Leon, more than many writers, understands that the thing a character says is not quite the thing a character means. Over and over, you sense a murky layer underneath the thing you're actually reading about--and that murky layer is pretty consistently

If you're looking for something mindless and factual, it's worth considering "The 2000s" on Netflix. This is a "documentary" about pop-culture shifts that happened between 2000 and 2010. That's where my tired brain is at--at present. Here is some ground covered, for the ten-ish minutes I watched as I listlessly stirred sausage and peppers, in a skillet, last night: -"The Sopranos" was a major change for everyone, blah blah. The show's thesis is that, after "The Sopranos," TV and movies switched places. Movies became more invested in one-size-fits-all tent-pole productions. (Witness "The Avengers.") By contrast, prestige TV became more and more about niche markets. Catering to smaller audiences--but rabid audiences. (One breathless observer points out that people were paying for HBO strictly to watch one drama. One show about a mobster in therapy. Which is impressive.) -Richard, on "Survivor," was a major fi

In case you missed the great Jason Zinoman profile of Amy Schumer--currently in the NYT--then here are a few things to know: -There's a great Jason Zinoman profile of Schumer in the NYT. -Zinoman wrote one of my all-time favorite books: "Letterman." Enthralling and weirdly literary--and it's about someone (Letterman) whose work I don't even like very much. -Schumer insists that her now-abandoned racist comedy was a way of poking fun *at racists* -- "I was EMBODYING a fictional racist character." This doesn't totally seem plausible to me. When Schumer said, "I used to date Latinos, but now I prefer consensual sex" -- it wasn't clear, at least to me, that Schumer wasn't speaking as Schumer. And who would the airhead be? An airhead who had dated various Latino gentlemen, and had actually had consensual sex, but then mis-remembered the consensual sex as rape? This doesn't make sense to me. -Zinoman correctly observes that Sc

By far the high-point of the Oscars was Melissa McCarthy's brief appearance. If you have been living on Mars, know that: MM wore Olivia Colman's costume from "The Favourite." On her absurdly long train, sixteen or seventeen stuffed bunnies appeared. Also, one stuffed bunny was attached to McCarthy's hand, so that she could make it "come alive" while she talked. How tedious it is to write about "why something is funny," but still I have to point out that McCarthy's short appearance: (1) paid surprising and unusual tribute to one of the iconic characters from the past year, (2) sliced through the fatuous self-importance of the Oscars in a wordless and elegant way, and (3) made McCarthy into the evening's court jester, which is always an appealing character, from the p.o.v. of the audience. (It seemed perfect that the recipient of the award McCarthy was presenting couldn't be bothered to make even one remark about McCa

Someone needs to check up on the prosecution. In an interview with the D.A., The Intercept publicized the D.A.'s claim that "Serial" hadn't "really tried" to track him down. But then "Serial" confirmed it had indeed tried--and had "tried hard." The D.A. then misidentified the date on which "Asia" tried to contact him; he was off by one full year. (A particularly important year.) This guy seems a bit fishy. That said, the D.A. maintains that the cell-phone data he leaned on was, indeed, accurate. He says that the pro-Adnan camp is talking about cell-phone technology that was introduced after the events surrounding Hae's death . It seems like there should be a clear answer here. Who is right: HBO, or the D.A.? Adnan reminds me a bit of O.J. Simpson. The intense love; the breakups, the reunions, the new breakups, the new reunions. The fact that Hae found Adnan so intimidating, she asked a teacher to *lie* for her....*to* A

I wander around the gym with my favorite Kindergarten student, and we notice different colors . "Look, that shirt is red." "And those sweatpants are green." This seems to be immensely satisfying to my friend, and then her sullen "mood" is over. Here is how to impress middle school students. They will want to investigate your knowledge of trivia. They will ask: "What is Cardi B's first name?" Here's what to say: "I don't know, but I DO know this. Cardi B was originally 'Bacardi.' But the liquor company threatened to sue her. So she changed the syllables around." THIS will win you street cred. One teacher is always ill. It's not as if all teachers take the same number of sick days. The perpetually-ill teacher has announced he is not returning next year; this decision seems to have emboldened him. He is now sick, and sick, and sick again. His students have a wild look in their eyes, as if they were newly orpha

"The Case Against Adnan Syed" has started, and here a few items to bear in mind, if you're not yet fully obsessed: * A great deal hinges on cell-phone data. One side argues that information from cell-phone towers is reliable; the other side argues the opposite. The pro-Adnan side is very excited to suggest that you can't trust the towers, but it's important to note that the prosecution has never backed down from its "we-trust-the-towers" stance. * The HBO show may have crippled itself. Vox argues--intelligently--that if you really want to make someone look innocent, then you must first start with a serious examination of the counterarguments. This wins you credibility. If you *begin* by saying, Look, we know he had a history of being possessive and controlling, and he once scribbled something about wanting "to kill," and his girlfriend once asked a teacher to lie for her because she was so afraid of Adnan....If you *acknowledge* all of thes

Keep an eye out for.... *"Too Much Is Not Enough" ...This is Andrew Rannells's (perfectly-entitled) memoir about moving to New York and making it on Broadway. It's evident from excerpts that Rannells has learned from Lena Dunham's brutally candid and cringe-inducing style. Rannells's televised cabaret, from Jazz at Lincoln Center, is among the greatest theatrical works of all time (if you ask me). I especially loved the revelation that Rannells--unaware of other protocol--simply showed up for auditions and performed Bruce Springsteen's "Born to Run," over and over, regardless of questions about "appropriateness." I'm so excited about this memoir. *"Never Tell," by Lisa Gardner ...This is a lurid NYTimes bestseller, apparently based on a real case, in which a pregnant woman (in Alabama? or somewhere around there?) may or may not have slaughtered her husband. Say no more! *"Fay Wray and Robert Riskin: A Hollywood

"Manhattan Murder Mystery" is seen as "minor Woody Allen." It's "one of his best movies of the nineties," which isn't saying much, because the nineties weren't his decade. Still, I love "Murder Mystery" for a few reasons. First, there are the breathtaking shots of Manhattan, and especially the bathed-in-a-red-glow scene near the trash compactor where Lillian's body is to be demolished. Then, there's the score: "I Happen to Like New York" and "Sing, Sing, Sing." And there's Woody Allen's chemistry with Diane Keaton--a last-minute replacement for Mia Farrow. ("I forbid you! I forbid you! Is that what you do when I forbid you?") But beyond this, there's the continuous alluding to "Rear Window." (When we live in New York City, we may find ourselves asking questions about our neighbors, and then doubting our own sanity.) There's the elegant "quoting" of "The

(5) Clearly, I was wrong about Jordan Peele's "Us." The reviews have been over the moon. I believe I should stop making predictions. I'm reminded of the time I saw a season-one episode of Ellen's day-time talk show and thought: Well, *that* won't last. (4) Even Julianne Moore can be fired. She has revealed that my hero--Nicole Holofcener--dismissed her from an early version of "Can You Ever Forgive Me." Dismissed her! This raises several questions. Who the hell does Holofcener think she is? Has Ms. Moore deliberately calculated an end for Holofcener's career (because when someone as beloved and diplomatic as Moore shovels some dirt on you, things can't be good)? And did Holofcener consider her muse--Catherine Keener--for the Moore role? What is going on with Keener and Holofcener these days? (3) Do you know what is intensely irritating? It's Keri Russell's behavior in front of the press. Russell is now starring in an off-Broadway

The title of Malcolm's new book--"Nobody's Looking at You"--is taken from the rants of an embittered Catholic mom. It's Eileen Fisher's mom--Eileen Fisher, the well-known clothing designer. Fisher's mom wanted to encourage a sense of self-effacement, so whenever Eileen would get a bit self-satisfied, Mom would scowl and say, Nobody's looking at you. In other words: Don't be vain. Don't think you're somebody. Nobody is looking at you. Malcolm--of course--takes this sentence in another direction. In her hands, the sentence seems to mean this: Everyone around you is lost in a kind of fog. So when people look at you, they really see their parents, or their children, or their spouse. They take their own inner dramas and project them onto you. So rest assured that people don't really see you. They look at you--but they don't look at *you* .... One of my favorite recent bits of Malcolm-the-contrarian greatness is this: She was asked, i

Prepare for full-scale existential panic. At any moment, a child may burst into sustained, earth-shaking sobbing, because a button has fallen off her pants. At first, you are unnerved, because the reaction seems so out of proportion with the thing that has gone wrong. But look deep into your soul. Think about waking up this morning. Did a part of you not want to let loose with earth-shaking sobs? It did. You can empathize. There's a beer waiting for you at 4:00. * Lean on the Magic Schoolbus. For whatever reason, Amazon Prime and Netflix don't work with many SMARTBoards. But "The Magic Schoolbus," on Youtube, is always available. Children don't realize they are bored until midway through Episode Two--because there's a fair amount of color, and there are various diverting audio cues, in this series. Skip the final two minutes of any show, when Lily Tomlin reappears and gives a boring speech about the science behind the shenanigans you've just witnessed. T

She's back! "Gloria" has earned rhapsodic reviews. So it's time to revisit what we all know and love about Julianne Moore. * She did not think that she would win an Oscar for "Still Alice." She thought it would go to Marion Cotillard, for that movie about unemployment. The unemployment movie was definitely better than "Still Alice"--the script for "Alice" is sort of a mess--but how could anyone ever "vote down" Moore's performance? In a way, Moore's achievement in "Still Alice" is *especially* staggering--because she was working with not-great material. * Moore does not like the "strong female character" cliche. "Strong?" she asks, over and over again. "We're all weak. We're all struggling. The act of living *with weakness and pain* -- persisting despite real baggage -- that's what is interesting." God Bless Moore for that! (I think she may have honed this observati

I had a strange reaction to "Thought Crimes." I thought: This is the birth of a writer. Valle, "the Cannibal Cop," seemed unusually gifted. He would go on a site called Dark Fetish, and he would write at length about his fantasies concerning cannibalism. As he observes in the documentary, he was a vivid writer. Perhaps too vivid. Other users of Dark Fetish would get really, really excited about his work. Valle--like anyone in the grip of a new passion--began staying up later and later. He was flexing his muscles. You see some of his disquieting sentences in the documentary--and they are brisk and detailed and shocking. In other words, the man can WRITE. I began Googling Valle as I watched the documentary, and--sure enough--he has emerged from the Cannibal Cop mess as a new man. He is a published author. One memoir, one horror novel. Thus far. This is not to dismiss the wrongness of a great deal of Valle's behavior. He should not have been posting informati

Sondheim's "Company" is in the news, because it will almost certainly return to Broadway next year, and because John Mulaney has written a spoof. And so it's time to look at "The Little Things You Do Together." This is not one of Sondheim's favorites among his own songs--I think because it doesn't build to anything. It's merely a list song. It's not a one-act play. Still, what a list song! It takes a cliche and turns it upside-down. The cliche is: "The greatness of marriage derives from the little things you do together." And, so, Sondheim's song begins by embracing this cliche: "Hobbies you pursue together....Savings you accrue together...." But, then, a worm in the apple: "Looks you misconstrue together..." Gradually, the worm pops up more and more often: "Concerts you enjoy together....neighbors you annoy together....children you destroy together..." Eventually, Sondheim digs into his fon

A masterpiece arrived on HBO several years ago, and it has taken me until now to find it. Diane Schüler seemed to be an ideal parent. She worked hard and earned six figures, and yet she was available to her children on a regular basis, consistently made cupcakes when cupcakes were desired, etc. People within her circle credited her with having "tamed" her husband--Daniel--and many seemed to think of Daniel as just another one of Diane's children. This seems cute and warm and fuzzy, until you really think about a wife who views her husband as a child, and then things don't seem so cute or fuzzy anymore. Famously, one day, Diane arranged to drive her children, along with various other relatives, back from a camping trip. Throughout the morning, she had various encounters--with a McDonald's employee, with a bodega operator--and seemed fine. And yet things ended badly. She hopped onto a highway, heading in the wrong direction. She drove in that direction for almos