'Housekeeping' was a wonderful movie, and the book is a joy to read.  I can't imagine one without the other.  

'Far From the Madding Crowd' is always the first one that comes to mind for me.  Movie is dated now, but the story is intact and well cast.

'A Passage to India' is done well, too, and not 'hollywooded' into over PC-ness.

And I agree George C. Scott's 'A Christmas Carol' is the best at portraying the depths and heights Mr Scrooge goes through.

Madonna, if she could manage an American accent.

Is 'comedian' the same as one of the gifted women who were foils or set-ups for other characters by using perfect nuance and timing?  Penelope Keith was mentioned, and I would put her in that category.  Felicity Kendall.  Connie Booth.  Jayne Meadows.
I think of 'stand-up' as a woman who could just enthrall an audience from the stage with jokes and stories without having to sink into sex and bathroom humor.  Carol Burnett, Paula Poundstone, Tracey Ullman, Gilda Radnor..

When young people who aren’t musicians finally get exposed to classical music, it is only to serve as a dividing line between those who 'get it' and those who don't.   I read somewhere that J Robert Oppenheimer made fun of people who liked Beethoven because they weren't complex enough to understand Mahler.   (I don't know if it's true about him - he had his share of detractors)

I feel that 'classical' should be the earlier age, and 'romantic' should be the later age of great music.   Bach mostly bores me with the repetition, Mozart’s longer pieces as well.   But Beethoven and Tchaikovsky take me somewhere.  And Scheherazade is the greatest 45 minutes of music there is.   Mozart and Beethoven will always be remembered because they were the last of one, and the beginning of the other, great period of musical genius that set the tone of western music.  In my opinion.

Another column could be asking 'Where does the movie soundtrack fit in to the grand scheme of things?"

If Ricochet was a letter of transit, we would all be Ugarte.

Jim Backus - Delicious

Frank Crumit - Abdul Abulbul Amir

Can't Find My Way Home. - Blind Faith.  Done by many, but Yvonne Elliman always did it the best.  Here with the Bee Gees

Ann and Nancy Wilson 
Bob Newhart
Elton John
Ann Margaret
Gene Hackman
Bart Starr
Roy Clark
Joe Morgan
Mandy Patinkin

Sloppy Joes, mac and cheese, and all the informal stuff I could think of.   In fancy bowls, though.     Several assorted beers, soda, juice, cheap wine.  In fancy glasses, though.   Gotta show I've got a little class.

I certainly would.  Now if the Germans drove 37 in a 35mph zone, then stop everything and bring down the whole weight of Johnny Law.

It's not like law enforcement people have to put things in some sort of priority - we have unlimited resources after all.   My fear of wild mobs of Lutheran church ladies is just as strong as anyone's.   

Is there someone in the Justice Department who's job is to wander the country, at random, looking for obscure reasons to spend tax dollars?  Did some private citizen who had a grandfather killed at Anzio make a complaint to the Governor?

How do these cases even come up?  Is the country so small and the govermnent so large that this can be a routine occurance?    Who had the pointy stick up their you-know-where to decide this even merits attention, with all the crime going on elsewhere?   Is there dead time at Holder's office so people need to 'look busy'?  In other words, why do I know more about this small harmless family in Tennessee than I do about dead border patrol agents and ambassadors?

After I wrote it, I thought I should soften my stance, so as not to appear too approving...  99 Luftballons and We are the World and such.

The 'Hounds of Love'.    Europe was still a tourist destination.   Car engines were still in cubic inches.  We bombed the French embassy (by accident).   You could still buy pixie-sticks.  MTV played music.    I was slim...  Why wouldn't I go back?

Lagavulin - with a small squirt of water.

Virginia Gentleman, when in the backwoods.

Agree.   Robinson's 'Housekeeping' is wonderful and sometimes poetic.    Grahame's 'Dream Days' are great.   And don't forget the 'Oz' books.   I never get tired of them, in between the heavier stuff I usually read.

Have you ever had leaches put on you?  Drank goat urine to prevent a buildup of bad humours?   Had wine from lead cups?   You are forgetting that science made the mistakes that science corrected.   We needed ICBM's and nuclear submarines because a scientist gave nuclear secrets to an aggressive communist country in the interest of 'fairness'.   Nearly everything science does was a correction from something else science did.    What makes you so sure science got it right this time?  I use science, sure.   Mankind has used science since they controlled fire.   Could we have come further than we did?  Did we miss something?    It would take complete arrogance to think we could not have done better.  Or worse.  We can save you from a bullet wound.  Good.  We invented the bullets that gave you that wound.   It that a 100% win?     Saying that 'science' is all good is not using science.