Liars and Saints

  In Woody Allen's great film "Husbands and Wives," Judy Davis announces that she is leaving Sydney Pollack. Two members of Davis's audience--Allen and Mia Farrow--can't wrap their heads around this news. The rupture in Davis's life has strange consequences. Allen and Farrow begin to argue, and ultimately they decide that *they* will split (while, oddly enough, Davis goes back to Pollack). The main idea is that, no matter how cool and calculated you are, you can't really control your life. To make God laugh, tell Him your plans. It's the genius of "The Simpsons" to rework this story as a cartoon. In "A Milhouse Divided," it's Luann and Kirk who are splitting up. This is revealed at a dinner party, where Marge tries to make chit chat about the new "Woods-y Allen" movie. ("I always enjoy his work, except for that one whiny guy who seems to get all the starring roles....") Will Luann's dissatisfaction trigge...

If you have two gay dads in one house, then the Halloween planning discussions begin early. They begin in June, or July. Back then, Marc and I had a grand vision of a "Beauty and the Beast" theme: Josh as Chip, Marc as Mrs. Potts, and the third human family-member dressed as Belle. But: so much work. And who knew if trick-or-treating would even occur, in Covid times? We have downscaled. Josh will be dressing as a chicken. I'm not sure about his dads. You can't stream "Great Pumpkin"--which seems criminal--and ABC hasn't announced the air-dates yet. I would think somewhere around October 22, and then again on October 27 or 28. My family *does* own the first "Treehouse of Horror," and this holds up really well. It takes on Steven Spielberg, Stephen King, "Planet of the Apes," AND Edgar Allan Poe, at the least. In my favorite scene, Homer calls a broker to complain that he hadn't been told about the risks inherent in purchasing an an...

It's nearly Halloween. May I recommend the very first Simpsons "Treehouse of Horror"? Some thoughts: *The first volume, in which a haunted house turns against the Simpsons, pretty clearly builds on Spielberg's "Poltergeist." The big revelation is that the house was erected on "an Indian burial ground." (Difficult not to think about the current Apu controversy when you land on this joke. One grave is "Mahatma Gandhi"; another is "Not So Crazy Horse"; and so on.) *The great virtue of this half-hour is the writers' love for their material. The second volume--in which the Simpsons wrestle with possibly-nefarious aliens--seems to borrow from "Planet of the Apes." (The big idea is that we tend to imagine that The Other is the enemy, when, in fact, we ourselves have been the enemy all along.) The writers give Lisa the line including the dramatic epiphany: "When searching for evil, we should look inside our own he...