The White Lotus

 Yesterday, I was in a small hot tub; I watched as a ten-year-old boy slowly and deliberately spat a wad of mucus into the tub.

This kid's father was distracted. Surely, the act wouldn't happen again? Then it happened again. Before I could stop myself, I was interceding. I sternly announced that there was to be no spitting in the hot tub. The father observed none of this.

Later, my husband spotted the father pointing at me. Perhaps there would be a physical altercation! But--to his relief--Marc saw that the father was not notably mobile. We could outrun him.

All this interested me for a few reasons. Had I been impetuous--speaking directly to the kid and not to his parent? What if the father had *sanctioned* the spitting? Did my spouse really think that an altercation could be in the cards? And what was going on in the kid's head? Was the spitting a cry for help (as in the little Spatafore's public pooping incident at the end of "The Sopranos")?

This is what I continue to admire in "The White Lotus," although I've disliked parts of the current season. (Here's what I dislike. Why in the world would anyone agree to attend Jon Gries's creepy party? How can we believe that Walton Goggins would put so little thought into his revenge mission? And why does Jason Isaacs get so much screen time when his character has very little to do?) .....I like the discussions about cell phones, the awkwardness around food, the attention given to bodies and to swimwear (and the inevitable rudeness that ensues from an observation about bodies or swimwear). In my favorite scene, Patrick Schwarzenegger greets a stranger by exuberantly calling, "Swastika!" He has not taken a moment to brush up on Thai customs, and the greeting certainly *sounds* like the word swastika....so....close enough...

It's a bummer that Mike White will be continuing with a fourth season; it would be nice to see him working with a new idea. But of course I'll tune in.