Liars and Saints

 Curtis Sittenfeld made the ultimate pitch for "The Americans": You think it might be about geopolitics. Really, it's about marriage. This show has the great luck of enlisting two astonishing actors--Keri Russell and Matthew Rhys--who create a plausible version of a partnership under stress. She really believes in the Soviet cause; he has doubts. She wants to recruit her daughter for the family business; he does not. She has very little trouble toying with American lives; he seems (at least sometimes) haunted by the ethical implications of his bad behavior. A brilliant decision behind the show is this: Choose a foundational belief so deep, it would seem to justify evil. If you fully believed that the Soviet philosophy was "the only way," then wouldn't you do all you could to defeat the decadent American empire? Another thing I like is that no one cares whether we fall in love with the main characters. These two suburbanites are amazingly terrible; they are l...

 My son is learning to survive on the basketball court. This is entirely my husband's project; the effort sounds exhausting, and I admire the commitment of both gentlemen (Marc and Josh). Here is my limited understanding of basketball. It's potentially fun if you have the ball. (That said, I have vivid memories of being mocked for my effeminate approach to the "bank shot"--and I'm so, so happy that I never have to play this game again.) Basketball is *not* fun when you are *waiting* for the ball--and this is where Josh stumbles. He grows bored. He tries to steal the ball even when it is in the hands of a teammate. Josh's cleverness is such that he chooses the exact behavior to make the most people upset in the shortest amount of time. The other day at the Newark Museum, he had grown tired, and he knew he would have trouble competing with the fabulous artifacts of the Ballantine House. So he said, "Look, I took my pants off." And--yes--that *did* catc...

 Some Things I Didn't Know About Ruby Ridge: *The Weaver family actually lived on "Caribou Ridge," but a journalist decided that the term "Ruby Ridge" sounded more poetic. This is really what happened! *Randy Weaver survived for many years after the violent deaths of his wife, son, and dog; Weaver became an atheist. *In the early nineties, the Ruby Ridge incident seemed random. A historian had predicted "the End of History"; with the death of the Cold War, all would be peaceful and ho-hum. Then: Ruby Ridge, Waco, Oklahoma City, January 6. Ruby Ridge now seems like the *start* of an era. *Randy Weaver had been summoned to court, and he was not paying attention to the summons. This was the inciting incident at Ruby Ridge. If it's permissible to ignore a summons, then the American "rulebook" begins to deteriorate. At least on the surface, no official was deeply interested in Weaver's anti-government views, his antisemitism, or his belief...

  This is a polarizing film--and let me start by saying my enthusiasm was less than that of my husband. That said, I still half-liked the movie. Life is really absurd. However serious your choice of subject, you still have to contend with the fact that life is absurd. Is this true even in a world where mass shootings occur? Yes, it's still true. In her teens, Emma Harwood decides that she is so unhappy, she wants to murder several of her classmates. She chooses to film a self-important statement of intention: "I'll bet you want to know why I did it...." But, as she struggles with her phone camera, the battery keeps dying--and she finally gives up on the filming session. On the day of the planned attack, *another* shooting occurs at a nearby mall. This doesn't fit into Emma's narrative--she feels upstaged--and so she abandons her mission and becomes an anti-gun activist. Years later, when Emma's fiance Charlie learns all of this information, he has a meltdo...

 What is particularly galling about my doctor is his "session note": "learning about healthy weight." I find this condescending. First, my weight was exactly at the dividing line between "normal" and "overweight." I think this fact should be included in a footnote. Second, I didn't do any "learning." It's not like I walked in thinking, "French toast is a wiser choice than salmon--this is true from every possible angle." I know what happened. Last year, I discovered bacon. I would travel to the Frick Collection--and, en route, I would eat bacon. I think that, in my head, the virtuousness of the Frick mission "cancelled out" the bacon. Once this was established, I found myself straying even more. Bacon could yield to steak and eggs or to buttermilk pancakes or to pancakes- with -bacon . After the Frick, I would treat myself to a snack--and the snack would not be apple slices or unsalted peanuts. The snack would...

 There is a new book on Sondheim -- considering the writer in the context of his Jewish heritage. Sondheim doesn't often write explicitly about God. But he once acknowledged that his big anthem, "Being Alive," can be seen as a prayer: Make me confused. Mock me with praise. Let me be used. Vary my days. I think that's also true of the song "Take Me to the World," which is about fleeing a sense of stultifying comfort. Let me see the world with clouds-- Take me to the world. Out where I can push through crowds-- Take me to the world. A world that smiles-- With streets instead of aisles-- Where I can walk for miles with you. The speaker craves sensations--walking without boundaries, pushing, seeing clouds and streets. It's interesting to emphasize the word "smiles." The speaker is essentially a mannequin--she rarely has a reason for joy. She imagines something revolutionary outside her store; she will smile, and the entire world will return that fa...