Rutabaga

I guess with all the evident corruption in the police force near Mike and Johnny my suspicion radar is on constant alert. R

If there was an issue it looks like it now has been fixed. I see Chapter 63 from that link also. R

Watched the second film (based on the second book), "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets" last night. It struck me again what an inspired casting choice it was to have Kenneth Branagh portray the narcissistic Professor Gilderoy Lockhart in this film. Brilliant. This is the film that introduces Dobby, the house elf. I had not realized until scrutinizing the end credits that this character was voiced by Toby Jones, whom I had known from his serious acting roles (i.e., "Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy"). His falsetto Dobby voice was entertaining. Stephen Fry and Jim Dale are both British actors, and both are good. One review site decided that Stephen Fry must be better as the Harry Potter narrator because he was taller. I think they both have merit. R

To properly commemorate getting my big TV system in the living room hooked up and working again, I decided to watch both Part 1 and Part 2 of "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows," based on the seventh and last book in the J.K. Rowling series. Emboldened by this, I went back and watched the first film, "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone" (known as the "Sorcerer's Stone" in the U.S.). I had forgotten what an adorable kid Daniel Radcliffe was at that age, with his "say cheese" grin, and how bratty Hermione (Emma Watson) was. Seems like I will have to carry on with the second film, "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets," which has a number of very funny bits in it. And so on. I admit it . . . I am a Harry Potter fan. I liked the books and the movies. I also have all the books in the American audiobook versions, read by actor Jim Dale. It's strange, though -- people I meet either also are at least familiar with Harry Potter stories, or have had no exposure to them at all and don't know what I'm talking about when I refer to a story element. I'm not sure if it's because they think it's all too juvenile for them, or they resist anything that smacks of fantasy, or what. Obviously they don't know what they're missing! 😁 OK, so it's a guilty pleasure. At least there is no prospect of going blind, or growing hair on my hand. R

I think we're all suspicious of where this is heading . . . R

Mike and Johnny are worrying about storing the heirloom jewelry safely, but seemingly have left those formerly-well-concealed diaries lying around loose somewhere. At a minimum they should immediately have scanned them and stored the files in multiple safe places. The bad guys are still out there. For that matter, what business did the police have in staking a constable at a "former crime scene"? How is it that no one has found anything suspicious about that? R

I encountered it regularly eating breakfast in Ireland, and found it tasty, but pretty much stopped eating it once I learned what it was made from. R

In regard to "pudding": I found this extensive discussion. R

My mother didn’t seem entirely sane to me. Now there's an understatement for the ages. R FOOTNOTE: Did anyone notice that this chapter ended with the prototype, or paradigm, of Tim running away when something bad is happening?

Ooooh . . . I just love it when the plot thickens. R

In the latest chapter, Johnny muses: It is strange. I think of Jack and Flora as being my grandparents, but I never think of Dad's parents as my grandparents. Probably because I’d never met them. Indeed, we readers know very little about them either, including -- as far as I can determine -- their given names. Chapter 3 of "Living with Johnny" discloses that Mike's father was an accountant, the only non-Jewish one in the area, and that they lived above his office next-door to the tailor shop of Bernard's father. Then when Ben was born they moved to a nearby house in Hampstead, about a mile away. Mike's mother was a doctor who worked part-time, which meant that Mike and Bernard were often babysat by Aunt Sarah (Bernard's mother). My memory of the first series is fuzzy as to any further details about Mike's and Ben's parents. I'm not even sure if they are still alive at the time Johnny is musing about them. I do recall comments that Mike's dad was an accountant for the Thompson enterprises -- at least those with a patina of legitimacy -- further explaining Miss Jenkins's interest in the various events. But I am as curious as Johnny as to what has become of Mike's and Ben's parents. UPDATE: I wasn't paying close enough attention in the first chapter: I had moved into the bungalow during my divorce. My father had died a couple of months before Johnny's birth, a year after the death of my mother, who was considerably younger than my father. They had moved here when my father retired at sixty-five. Mam had just turned fifty. A few weeks after the move, she had been diagnosed with cancer and was dead within six months. I do not think Dad really got over her death. From then on, he just went downhill, and he was dead in a year at the age of sixty-seven. The bungalow in question was where Mike was living at the outset of the story. So the reality is that Johnny never met his paternal grandparents because they were gone before he was even born. Which makes his remark in the newest chapter a bit weird, since surely he was aware of why he had never met his paternal grandparents. R

Agreed. At least I can understand the French in the film, although the Belgian accent is a bit of a challenge. It does indeed look harrowing. R

Wishful thinking?

The chapter 19 page lacks the "next chapter" link. I emailed this info but no response. R

You know . . . witchcraft and evil spells and curses and . . . ? R

@Nigel Gordon beat me to the punch. I don’t think I have read this story before, and it is quite entertaining. I’m always a sucker for a bit of woo-woo, and this story definitely has it. The ending was a surprise. R

A quick note -- one egg has hatched and a fuzzy little eagle chick is now in the nest. The second egg has not done anything, and may be a dud. Here is a clip from Monday showing the little eaglet getting breakfast. R

Joyful and triumphant, this story returns again as a Pick from the Past. I will never look at mountains the same way again. R

Found here. The story definitely hits the ground running. And the title page picture is outstanding. R

In which the reader encounters the age-old question: How would you like it if you had to decide which limousine to use whenever you wanted to go out? Found here. R

The revelations to Tim about Shawn's activities are just as shocking now as when I first read the story. R

Yes but with the Elmchurch family you are dealing with English Gentlemen. They will always clean the blade of the knife before they stab you in the back. You can't begin to imagine how reassuring it is to know that. 😁 R

Once it was the Henderson family; now it's the Elmchurch family. At this point we readers can be excused for being skeptical about every apparently accidental death of family members. R

And now another chapter has been appended: Donner and Blitzen Epilogue R

I certainly did not mean any criticism -- I just thought the irony was considerable in that each of them has separately talked about what they plan to do when the other one turns them out, as each expects. They need each other, and need the kind of emotional breakthrough that will allow them to believe in one another despite their past experiences. In particular, they need to conquer the self-doubt and self-loathing that convinces them they are too worthless to warrant affection from anyone else. We all just hope that nothing happens to wreck their growing relationship while waiting for this to occur. R