I’m watching the 1999 version of Mansfield Park, right now. At first I was horrified, but now I find the whole thing laughable. The writers have decided to make the whole thing about slavery. They’ve cast Tom’s illness as a crisis of conscience about his father’s brutality as a slave trader. And they’re having all the women say things like “I can’t get out” when talking about marriage. So there’s just a little bit of social commentary going on.

Fannie is the only one who says that slavery is bad (except for the sick Tom), and she then “gets out” of marriage proposals. And just now, Sir Thomas has gazed at her meaningfully and asked her to read the newspaper because “you have such a clear voice.” Aaarrrggg!!!!!!

They’ve even given Fannie some of Miss Crawford’s lines! Didn’t they know that Miss Crawford was supposed to be a foil to Fannie?

What’s so sad is that there’s quite enough social commentary in the original Austen novel. It’s just more subtle and more multifaceted. Austen saw the whole gender/marriage/society thing as vastly complex.

Oh, and now the credits are rolling with some vaguely ethnic music playing in the background. Strange.

In Boston, I visited Ye Olde Pepper Companie, the oldest candy shop in the U.S. They had lots of handmade fudge (in among a whole host of other handmade goodies). How many pieces of this fudge would you guess fit in this half-pound box?

Would you believe only four? It’s amazing! Each piece is an eighth of a pound of creamy goodness.

Best T-Shirt EVER!

So here I go, starting yet another blog. I don’t know why anyone would need two blogs, but I’m finding that I want to write more and more these days, and my semi-professional blog just doesn’t seem the place to do it. So, as I sit on my porch, sipping iced tea and watching the sky slip into a deeper and deeper shade of persian blue, I push aside my reservations and set my fingers to the keyboard.

Hmmm…. Mosquitoes can definitely ruin the outdoor blogging experience. Inside I go.