Foyle's War, The Closer, and Tea

I've been rewatching Foyle's War lately. If anyone reads this blog and has not seen at least one episode of Foyle's War, they really should. Aunt Kitty? Have you? Do I need to bring up a DVD when I visit? For those Not In The Know, it's about a detective dealing with murder and mayhem amidst the backdrop of World War II. The British made it, and it's awesome.

One of my favorite little things about the show is tea. Yes. If Foyle's War is to be believed the British see tea as a cure all. When they capture a German spy and don't know what to do with him, they put him in a room and give him some tea. When a woman's husband is found murdered inside her bombed out house, they stick her in a pub and give her some tea. I've decided that at some point a Foyle's War drinking game must be done, and of course you would drink whenever they drank tea.

Meanwhile, I've been drinking more tea lately. If it works for them...

And then there was The Closer, a TNT series about a woman who comes from out of state to be a Deputy Police Chief in Los Angeles. The situation is ripe for overblown conflict and yelling, but they managed to handle it in a manner that was funny and realistic. No yelling, but plenty of subtle power struggles. The secondary characters, the detectives who work under her, are very well done. Once they get to know her they are protective of her, but at the same time, she is their boss, and they are willing to be a little mean and nosy as well.

I adored season one, but I'm having a major issue with season two. Our heroine keeps coming up with major clues to the solve the case through correlations with her personal life. Like, three episodes in a row. Done once with finesse, this is fine. But now it makes her seem lucky rather than intelligent. So, if her own life hadn't mirrored the case in some way, would she have never come up with the solution?

So Foyle's War, keep it up with the tea. And Closer? Stop that!

Why don't my roses look like my neighbors?

I got an e-mail from someone recently saying they kept an eye on me through my blog which prompted me to think that maybe I should update it just a tiny bit more often. Japan is going to be on the side burners, but I may update it at some point.

The title of this post is a reference to a TV Ad for Time/Warner Cable. Apparently the evil overlords at Adelphia and Comcast were defeated recently by Time/Warner, and they now feel it necessary to tell us with commercials every 15 minutes. This particular quote comes from an ad where some stressed out people are worried that now that they have a new company they will no longer receive e-mail, etc. A nice, clean-cut Time/Warner guy assures them that they can answer all their questions. This of course leads to questions like: Why does my husband always disappear when it's time to do the dishes? And: Why don't my roses look like my neighbor's?

"That seems like a strange question to me." Tech Support said.

"Um. I don't really think so." I say.

"Well, why would he want that? What is he asking?" Tech Support said.

Growing confused and a little disbelieving I am having this conversation I say: "I think his neighbor's roses are nicer and he wonders what they are doing to get them that way."

"Oh." A pause. "You know what I thought he meant, right?"

And I didn't. But a moment later it dawned on me. He thought the guy was saying: Why don't my roses look like my neighbors? Without the apostrophe. He thought the man wanted his roses to look like his neighbor's human faces.

Sometimes Tech Support is on another planet I think, though we now laugh whenever that ad comes on (9 million times a day - I watch too much TV).

In other news my cucumber plant made 3 cucumbers before dying, my worm bin is going strong, one of my best friends arrived in Japan last night and is going to be there for a year teaching English and I already miss him, and I now work part-time at The Knitter's Studio.