Once upon a time, Dan's roommate Jennifer received an unexpected film from Netflix. It was called The Wolves of Kromer and it was kind of fascinating.

In other news, I wrote two pages of my dissertation today. It's the chapter on anthologies. I am enjoying it so far. Writing my dissertation is hard! I just want to watch Cynthia Nixon with Multiple Personality Disorder on Law and Order: SVU.

More wisdom from Carol Channing:

So! One night in Vegas, Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz brought Dietrich to the show. I prayed to do her accurately. That was before I found out the last person to know what your victim is like is the victim herself. There were seven boys doing me in Vegas at the time, all acting exactly alike, with not one tiny thing that resembled me, I felt. However, George Burns laughed his head off at them. All I could see on a couple of them was a five o'clock shadow, but how come they all assumed the same weird mannerisms? Then I knew anyone who knows what he himself acts like is totally phony and therefore a bloody bore.

It turns out Marlene Dietrich was very offended by Carol Channing's impersonation of her. But then that ended up being a good career move, because she got so much press out of it.

I am reading Carol Channing's autobiography. It is hilarious. She offers the best critique of George Bernard Shaw that I have ever read:

You know it has always been said that art should never be didactic, that then it isn't art anymore. But Shaw argued constantly that art should always be didactic. The result in any Shaw play is that Epifania (my part) [in The Millionairess] would say to her suitor, excellently played by John McMartin, lines to the effect of "I love you," and McMartin would say, "I love you, too. Will you marry me?" Epifania would say, "Yes. But first let me discuss income tax." The monologues go on for three pages. Or "I'm leaving you." "Oh, please, don't go." "I won't go until I tell you how I feel about organized religion." This one goes on for four pages.

From Just Lucky I Guess: A Memoir of Sorts. (New York: Simon and Schuster, 2002), p. 176.

Another weird thing about being back in the U.S. is watching American Crime Dramas (CSI, Cold Case, etc.) with the characters actually speaking English. I had gotten used to hearing them speak French while they mouthed the English words. I was talking about the translated titles of these shows the other day. CSI is "Les Experts;" Law and Order: Special Victims Unit is "New York: Unite Special." And they're dubbed. I always talk about learning lots of new vocabulary from seeing "The Usual Suspects" dubbed in French, but I don't remember learning much from the televised crime dramas.

I had a very busy Labor Day weekend filled with out-of-town vistors. P. visited briefly, which was nice. He and Laura and I met up for a drink downtown. It was nice to hang out with them. Friday night I had dinner with Tony, who was visiting from Missouri. And Monday was Jacob's birthday at Old St. Andrew's.

We started rehearsals for Translations this week. I'm excited about it. I am learning a lot more about Irish language, history, and culture. I just checked out three books on the Ordnance Survey, which was England's effort to map all of Ireland, between 1824 and 1842. The play is set in a small town in County Donegal in 1833. (Actually, the name of the town, Baile Beag, means "Small Town" in Irish.)

This weekend was more relaxing. I went over to Laurie and Dave's on Friday night, and then went to a birthday party last night. Today Jen and I picked up some furniture from a friend who just moved into a smaller apartment and was getting rid of some stuff. So now I think out apartment is completely furnished. Hooray!