[AKA the Post I Forgot to Title]

We've had two recent not-quite-obsessions: listening to Sugarland and watching "Pillars of the Earth" on tv. Last one first: yeah, we have movie channels because our cable company didn't want us switching and offered us a bribe which we took. I liked the novel by Ken Follett two decades ago, long enough past that I don't recall anything of the plot or characters to be bored by the miniseries, with Rufus Sewell and Donald Sutherland. I like the costumes and settings, even if the plot is going to be a lot of rich and poor crisscrossing coincidentally across each other's dramas. It's better than a lot of things on . . .

. . . and a lot better than "The Real L Word," the reality show about lesbians in L.A. Well, lesbians in L.A. are just different. But I wouldn't call it "real." Where are the fat dykes? The softball-playing "family?" The downwardly-mobile, socially-conscious, guitar-playing political ones? The crunchy granola vegan pagan ones? Or the "passing" suburban-mom-with-twins-in-her-minivan one? The corporate-IT-professional-who-loves-gadgets one? Ugh. I couldn't even watch. These aren't lesbians I know . . . or would even want to, really. But then I was never a partying bar dyke. Which is, in a way, a segue to Sugarland, because I can't see any of the L Word reality stars listening to the Indigo Girls, Ani De Franco, Dar Williams, or Kristen Hall, who was an original member of Sugarland (and yes, Texas readers, they take the name from Sugarland, TX). I don't really recall how we came across Sugarland (an odd combo of hearing Jennifer Nettles on the new "We are the World" and hearing it at PT), but it's kinda like a faster, funkier Dixie Chicks.

Give'em both a try, I'd recommend them, as well as the book I'm reading, The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane, an academic-quest-cum-historical-mystery of the Salem panic which explores the supposition that witchcraft was real. It almost lost me in the beginning, as the main character in the modern-day stressed out about orals and choosing a dissertation topic. Sure, for me, that all ended more than seven years ago with my Ph.D. (in fact, my orals--which I passed with distinction!!--were in 1998!) but came back all-too-strongly. Anyway, considering that more than one witch was hung here in our corner of Connecticut, it's an illuminating (and, gasp, entertaining) exploration of a dark page in New England's history. Hopefully, with some redemption for the condemned.