Short reviews.

ITEM: Pumpkin Seed Brittle.
PROVENANCE: Trader Joe's

I bought this confection today on a whim, which is pretty much the conditions under which I buy lots of things at Trader Joe's. Witness: today's purchase of breaded cod pieces and "Handsome" cut fries.

Re the cod and fries: I was starving, point one. Point two, they were giving away samples. They cut a tiny paper plate in half and put a bite of the cod with, like, six fries and a tiny fork of some delicious, delicious sauce. So I took this sample on its tiny half plate and ate it. Lord, those fries were good. Handsome? Hell, those fries were ravishing. Whatever that sauce was? On its tiny fork? Adorable. Delectable. And yes, the cod was very good. Ergo: I bought it, a package of each, and I will dole these items out to myself on dark, dark days when something delicious will probably save my life. I'm just forecasting here. Winter's around the corner.

The brittle, however, they were not giving samples of. I just saw it and had this thought process:

1. Pumpkin seed brittle: I have made pumpkin seed brittle before. Pumpkin seed brittle is good.
2. Soon it will be October. October = pumpkins. That's why everything--literally EVERYTHING--at Trader Joe's is currently pumpkin-flavored.
3. What the hell, why not?

Reader, I bought it. I ripped into it tonight after our delicious salad dinner. The brittle had a faint dust of something a little pumpkin-y, which I divined from the words on the package was actually pumpkin pie spices. While I had it stuck in my teeth in the way of all brittle, I said to the historian, 'You should try this, it's good.' He tried it. He concurred.

GRADE: A-, small points off for the the pumpkin pie spices which might be just a bridge too far. But not too big a bridge. Also, I am an easy grader. Okay, A.

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ITEM: Law & Order reruns.
PROVENANCE: Sundance channel

There was no good reason whatsoever to be watching L&O reruns tonight, except for the following:

1. The Grantland article which rated all the L&O characters by category: Best D. A. (Jack McCoy, aka Sam Waterston, with Ben Stone, aka Michael Moriarty coming in second, a result I may disagree with, as I have always been a fan of the Moriarty years); Best Assistant D.A., Jill Hennessey, obviously; right on down to Best Detective, a decisive victory for Jerry Orbach, Lt. Lennie Briscoe. You really can't argue with that.
2. There wasn't anything else good on.

In the episode we watched, I called it, that it was the professor/scientist carrying out drug trials on rats and students who was really to blame for the murder (sorry, spoiler alert, in case you were also watching that episode but didn't catch the end). I like when I can spot the evildoer. It was a fairly cozy affair, our L&O watch party, as it resulted in a small nap under a faux fur.

GRADE: B. I feel like Law & Order is a solid B student. You come to appreciate the B students, because they are very reliable, but they never try too hard.

________

ITEM: the new Don Henley LP Cass County
PROVENANCE: a song sung on The Late Show, now hosted by Stephen Colbert!

I only caught, like, 45 seconds of this. So, you know, this review might be based on inadequate evidence.

GRADE: C. Not as good as 'The Boys of Summer.'

Re-views: a review.

Today I saw The Descendants with Dr. Write, the second time I've seen it (the first viewing was with the Historian). I thought it was every bit as good the second time, and that got me thinking about how many movies I see more than once, and why, and also what movies I deliberately seek out to re-view. And why. This may be a reflective post, so hang on.

My movie-going partners are a somewhat fractured bunch. I like, as readers of this blog well know, to see at least two movies a week--I feel robbed of something essential in my life if I don't. "I want to see all the movies," I declared to the historian while he was reading the paper, sometime during Christmas break. But the fact is, I don't want to subject him to some of the movies I want to see, or would enjoy seeing, or frankly would feel more complete if I had seen. He doesn't enjoy superhero movies or most action movies or sci fi or fantasy. I used to see movies with my kids quite a bit, but they've scattered. I typically see kid-oriented movies with them and the grandkids, with an occasional other movie thrown in for good measure. Sometimes that's a re-view. And finally, I see movies, here and there, with friends--trashy dance movies or romantic comedies or (sometimes) vulgar comedies.

If I were to draw a picture of my movie-going, it would look a little something like this:

In those overlapping areas, that's where a lot of the re-viewing happens.

Some movies I have re-viewed in the past year:

• Bridesmaids--once with the historian, once with my oldest darling friend, once with a new friend (at Brewvies--actually, "at Brewvies" is a tag that often goes with re-viewing).
• The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo--once with the historian, once with that same new friend (at Brewvies).
• Crazy, Stupid, Love--once with the historian, once with my daughter.
• Midnight in Paris--once with my oldest darling friend, once with the historian and friends.
• Morning Glory--once with the historian, once with my daughter.
• Horrible Bosses--funny both times, once with the historian, once with...?
• The Guard--both times with the historian, that's how much we liked it.
• Our Idiot Brother--once with the historian, once with friends, though I can't remember exactly which viewing came first.
• Sherlock Holmes: Game of Shadows--once with historian, once with kids.
• We Bought a Zoo--once with daughter, once with historian.

That is a lot of re-viewing, honestly, but it leaves aside entirely the movies that I've seen over and over again, deliberately, because they are my favorites and because they give me endless pleasure and/or in some way formed me, or because watching them is a family ritual:

• from when I was a child: The Sound of Music and Mary Poppins--in fact, I had a great big Julie Andrews thing, i.e. crush. 
• I adored Cabaret when I was in high school, a love which carried over into forever. I have the soundtrack on LP. I also loved Annie Hall and A Touch of Class (George Segal and Glenda Jackson).
• I re-watched The Last Waltz in a theater on University Avenue, showing upon showing, in downtown Provo.
• With my children and nieces and nephews and brothers and sisters I have watched What About Bob?, Groundhog Day, Raising Arizona, and Home Alone more times than I can mention.
• I went back to the theater by myself to see Mrs. Soffel (tragic Diane Keaton and Mel Gibson, directed by Gillian Armstrong omg the humanity!) and Jerry Maguire, yes, I admit it.
• The historian and I will stop what we are doing and watch for minutes or, you know, the rest of the movie, when The Station Agent, A Few Good Men, and You've Got Mail (which--underappreciated!--has killer little Dave Chappelle segments that are entirely worth showing up for) come on cable.

There are times when I would rather go back to the theater to watch a movie a second time than see something new, even if it's worthy.

The other night, we re-viewed a movie from the 90s that Bill Murray directed, Quick Change. My kids had watched it the previous evening, and one of them remembered that I'd loved it all those many years ago. So we pulled it up and watched it. It wasn't great, really, but the parts that were very funny from back then were still funny now, and it gave me great pleasure to see them again.