Liars and Saints

 I find Thanksgiving stressful and exhausting, so it's important to me to have books that will immediately lift me from my surroundings and take me to another world. The books should also be short because, if there is ever a time for super-ambitious, long-march reading, then Thanksgiving is not that time. This year, I chose Laurie Colwin's last novel, "A Big Storm Knocked It Over." Colwin was beloved during her career, but she died young, in the early 1990s. She seems to specialize in perceptive stories about anxious New Yorkers, in which little or nothing actually happens. But she, Colwin, is smart and writes well: Sven was compact and well-made, like a good canoe. He had short-cropped silver hair and light, cold-blue eyes. His clothes were very beautiful and expensive. It was said that he had only two real interests in the world, besides running the art department of a publishing house: poker and fucking.....It was said that the art departments of major NYC publishi...

 Just so you know: Last night, PBS made available an edited version of a recent Lea Salonga performance, filmed at the Sydney Opera House. Lea Salonga understands two things that certain other Broadway stars fail to grasp. (1) People have a limited appetite for banter. (2) People really, really want to hear your hits. (So, unlike Leslie Odom, Ms. Salonga did not use her time to perform sleepy, deconstructed versions of obscure 1930s slow jams. For this, I'm grateful.) Basically every Salonga number is a barn-burner, but I'm ranking the top three here: (3) "The Human Heart," from Salonga's most recent Broadway appearance. Nice to hear the rather scathing story about the ONCE ON THIS ISLAND costume department, as well. (2) "Meadowlark." It's similar to Patti LuPone's version, except that you, in the audience, can understand all the words. (1) "On My Own." Like musical fireworks! I loved this concert. https://www.pbs.org/wnet/gperf/

 My favorite episode from the Middle Phase of THE CROWN was "Margaretology." In that one, Princess Margaret traveled to America; on her trip, she met with LBJ, and she persuaded LBJ to give funding to England for one event or another. (In THE CROWN, England is always in danger of suffering a major blow, and there is always just one unorthodox person who can change history with a few well-timed gestures. Maybe it's Margaret, joking with LBJ. Maybe it's Di, hugging children in Australia. Maybe it's Elizabeth herself, expressing public faux-sadness after Di's death. We'll need to wait for Season Six, for that.) In "Margaretology," everyone wants Margaret to be formal and polite with LBJ, but Margaret understands the person she is dealing with. So she insults the memory of Kennedy. Then she becomes involved in a dirty limerick contest, and she delights LBJ: There was a young lady from Dallas Who used dynamite instead of a phallus. They found her vagi...

 A stand-out villain should be at least as lovable and interesting as a hero, and I'm including three of my favorite baddies here (in ranked order): (3) The Crocodile, "Red Riding Hood." Hoping to eat our heroine, the crocodile removes his cap, a courtly gesture. Red Riding Hood is not impressed. (2) The Wolf, "Red Riding Hood." (It's hard not to feel charmed by both villains in this tale. There is a lightness in "Riding Hood" that you miss in "Hansel and Gretel," which is why I'm not quite as captivated by Marshall's Witch.) The Wolf can't help himself; it's suggested, in this strange story, that the Wolf's greatest sin may be disrupting Granny during her reading hour. (1) Viola Swamp, "Miss Nelson." Ms. Swamp looks a bit like a drag queen. However, we know she is villainous, because she arrives in front of the classroom and "cancels Silent Reading Time" (see "The Wolf," above). Ms. Swamp...

 This Thanksgiving, I plan to watch "Notorious," which has been called "Hitchcock's best film," and also "the best movie Cary Grant appeared in." (Debates begin: now.) A thick new Cary Grant biography emerged a few weeks ago ("A Brilliant Disguise," by Scott Eyman), and among its notes are these: *"Notorious" is subversive because the protagonist is rather psychologically "ugly." The villain is actually easier to like, in some ways. *Cary Grant complained that Hitch had "thrown the film to Ingrid" (though he wouldn't have a similar complaint for his final two Hitchcock films, "To Catch a Thief" and "North by Northwest"). *Ben Hecht did a great deal of the writing work, but Clifford Odets made some contributions. Grant had just made "Night and Day," one of his worst movies--so the context, here, is inspiring for all of us. I'm looking forward to a cup of tea, a filmed tale of ...

 Susan Meddaugh worked with James Marshall--she called him "Jimmers"--and, eventually, Meddaugh had writing ideas of her own. Meddaugh's masterpiece--"Martha Speaks"--borrows from the famous first sentence of "Where the Wild Things Are." That sentence: "The night Max wore his wolf suit and made mischief.....his mother called him WILD THING...." Meddaugh's opening: "The day Helen gave Martha dog a taste of alphabet soup, something unusual happened." The soup travels to Martha's brain--not to her gut--and Martha dog suddenly acquires verbal abilities. The talking is cute until it isn't; Martha talks too much. Her family scolds her harshly. She swears never to speak, or to eat alphabet soup, again, but a crafty robber arrives. Hunger-Strike Martha has forgotten her own rules of sentence construction; she cannot notify anyone about the robber's forced entry. Hoping to make Martha go away, the robber tosses her (Martha) s...

 Last week, a couple of Trump judges moved to make conversion therapy legal in some part of this country. The judges said there was "not enough research" to show that conversion therapy severely damages many lives. I thought of this while watching "Carol," Saturday, with my husband. It's a movie partly about a kind of conversion therapy. Carol, a gay woman in the fifties, has some trouble separating from her wounded husband. The husband--Coach Taylor, from "Friday Night Lights"--can't really let go. And it's embarrassing for him--the thought of his wife with another woman. This guy does all he can to break Carol down. (Also, he is not entirely unsympathetic, which is one of many miracles in this beautiful movie.) Threats pertaining to child custody get trotted out. A strange man on a cross-country road trip turns out to be a spy; he is collecting audio evidence of Carol's homosexual transgressions, to be used in court. Seemingly defeated, C...