Liars and Saints

  My town is captivated by "the hell nanny." Hell Nanny had a bad afternoon at pre-K pickup. She was in charge of identical twins, but she forgot this fact, and she secured just one of the two children in her SUV. Then she sped off, leaving the other child alone in the parking lot, where, apparently, an accident almost occurred. Dramatic footage was posted online. Then other allegations surfaced. One former client made a vague reference to this hell nanny, and to "a moment of violence involving our cat." Another said that the hell nanny had sent a child to sleep, then disrupted the sleep and demanded that the little child search for an iPhone charger. My spouse and I have different views. Marc is more sympathetic to the Maplewood mob. I'm skeptical. What is "a violent incident with our cat"? (As moms* begin foaming at the mouth, I'm reminded of Professor Harold Hill. "Trouble! Right here in River City! RIGHT HERE! Remember the Maine, Plymouth ...

 Jon Klassen's "The Skull" has a sensational opening: As she ran....Otilla began to hear her name being called. She couldn't tell if it was someone's voice or the wind in her ears.  Otillaaaa....Otillaaaa.... The narrator never explains what the heroine is fleeing. We only sense that the danger is severe. After running for a long while, Otilla stumbles on a palace, owned by a friendly skull. Otilla and the skull become companions, taking walks, dancing, snacking together. But the skull has a secret of its own. Every night, a headless skeleton emerges and begins a chase. "Come to me!" screams the skeleton. Otilla cannot repress her own painful memories, but she can make life easier for the skull. She throws the headless skeleton from a cliff. Then, she gathers the scattered bones and grinds them into a paste. She dissolves the paste in boiling water, and she dumps the mixture into a bottomless well. Klassen has a remarkable talent for taking children seri...

 Brian Tyree Henry repairs utility poles; this is his job. But, during off-hours, he pursues his passion, which is the study and practice of boxing. He has always loved boxing; some miscalculations have resulted in his *not* becoming a professional boxer. However, he enjoys teaching. He is "the loudest one in the room." A stranger comes to town. It's Ryan Destiny, who wants to enter a "boys' club." Soon, the Olympics will break with tradition and make space for women's boxing. Ryan has a special kind of fury, perhaps because her parents are negligent, perhaps because she has endured sexual assault. She wants to beat people up. BTH recognizes Ryan's extraordinary talent. The boxing part is easy. But it's harder to translate Ryan's wins into a viable career, because America seems unwilling to idolize an "unfeminine" phenomenon from Flint, Michigan. America's neglect enrages Ryan. BTH tries to give a holier-than-thou speech: "...

  Two new friends have entered our lives. The friends are Buster and Rina. People can be a little crazy about playdates. There is an idea that, if you're hosting a playdate, you must interact with your guest at all times. At *all* times. So my dog, Salvy, was actually expelled from his first playdate with a chocolate lab, Buster; Salvy was judged to be uninterested, and he was sent back to my yard. And my daughter had a similar issue; playing with her new buddy, Rina, she dared to wander off toward the Play Doh corner, and this moment of solitude was viewed as a transgression. Buster throws himself into my kitchen. My children--not often fond of rules--suddenly become strict disciplinarians. "Buster, out! Out!" Rina, Susie's new friend, becomes envious of a certain plastic "Elsa wand." Rina wrestles the wand from Susie's hands, then tosses it into the "ashpit" within her family's fireplace. As if feeling guilty, Rina's mother sends an a...

  Drea de Matteo won her Emmy Award not just for "Long Term Parking" but also for "Irregular Around the Margins," a terrific and plausible hour of "The Sopranos." In "Irregular" (a title worthy of praise), Tony is slightly off-kilter, because he believes that he may have cancer. Meanwhile, Adriana has colitis and a deepening addiction to drugs. Because Adriana is attractive and kind, Tony finds himself struggling with boundaries. The two leads head out into the night, in search of heroin--and we can infer how the evening will end. Except that a car crash occurs, and the crash actually spares everyone from a real catastrophe. Where there's smoke, there's fire. Second-tier figures in Tony's life can't accept that this car ride was "innocent." Rumors spread. Adriana must have been dishing out a blow job. That's why Tony swerved and crashed his car. The episode is extraordinary in its handling of an "open secret....