Ponder: The Man Who Died Twice

The Man Who Died Twice ©2021 by Richard Osman is the second book in his Thursday Murder Club Mystery series. From my 2/25/24 post about the first book:

The club is made up of four septuagenarians -- Elizabeth, Joyce, Ron and Ibrahim -- who live in a retirement village called Coopers Chase. They meet in the Jigsaw Room weekly to solve cold case murders.  

Although I found his first book "a humorous delight to read" and rated it four stars, my opinion has changed, reading his second book of the series. The cold case murders become real-time murders not only involving the local police but also expanding to include the British intelligence spy agencies of James Bond fame MI5 (intelligence efforts inside the UK) and MI6 (countering threats from abroad). I can buy in to a couple local police officials buddying up and respecting the input of four elderly residents from an old folks' home, but pushing that scenario to include professionals from national and international agencies is going a bit too far. I have read and enjoyed books in the fantasy genre and I can suspend disbelief to enjoy them. But the Thursday Murder Club Mystery series is meant to take place in the real world with comedic twists, twists I found ludicrous.

Also cited in my 2/25/24 post is my opinion of the diary entries of Joyce in the first book:

Joyce, one of the four, keeps a diary. Her musings seem to run a bit astray sometimes and do not always advance the plot; but they certainly do evoke a chuckle or two from the reader. The diary entries are well worth including since they are a creative mechanism for not only providing a useful consolidation of facts but also delivering a delightful sprinkling of tongue-in-cheek views of the residents and suspects.

Once again I have changed my opinion. It is possible to have too much of a good thing. The diary entries in The Man Who Died Twice are too rambling and too numerous. What was once endearing, morphed to become annoying. I plodded through the second book of the series. I did finish it, only because other friends with whom I share similar literary tastes liked it. I did not. I will not be pursuing the third and fourth books of the series. I rate The Man Who Died Twice two stars.

 

★★☆☆☆ Ok, not great; some redeeming features; I finished it

CaliCeltic

Friday night, March 15th, Frank and I went to a performance of CaliCeltic at the Pleasanton Firehouse Arts Center. Publicity material for the group stated that "mandolin and electric guitars jangle and crunch alongside rock 'n roll drums, melodic piccolo and flute". I photographed the stage when we arrived and also noticed bells, a hand drum, a tambourine, and a banjo rounded out the eclectic and extensive array of instruments. Frank and I were in for a treat.

A fair amount o' green was worn by the St. Patrick's Day crowd. Frank and I tried our hand at selfies and realized we'd do better to take individual photos of each other. 

The music was rousing and cheerful. The flutist, who also played the piccolo, was amazing and clearly extremely talented. The sound of that wind instrument lends a haunting air to folk tunes. Since I also play the flute, it is a favorite instrument of mine. The twanging sound of a good banjo player also makes me smile. The lyrics were fun-filled. They were not always entirely intelligible but we got the gist enough to laugh and enjoy ourselves.

We learned some San Francisco history from the song Hotaling's Whiskey. In 1906 a huge earthquake hits San Francisco with mass destruction, but the song tells of the rescue of the distillery Hotaling. Per https://pre-prowhiskeymen.blogspot.com/2013/03/anson-hotaling-of-san-fran-god-whiskey.html

The song Hotaling's Whiskey, #5 at https://caliceltic.com/#the-music sets that poem to music and further tells the tale of the distillery's rescue. There was a last resort, but a successful one, after sea water failed to extinguish the flames. A bucket brigade filled buckets from the sewers and flung the muck upon the blaze. A verse cites that with cheers, "we saved Hotaling whisky with the product from our rears". Apparently, unbeknownst to Frank and me, Hotaling & Co. is famous to this day with a wide selection spirits.

Another catch tune that caught my fancy was The Mermaid. Typically, songs with a drinking theme can be slightly off-color at times. The Mermaid had a different theme, but managed to be off-color in the final verse. The Mermaid can be heard in its entirety at https://caliceltic.com/#the-music #18. The ditty was cute and entertaining, amusingly bawdy at the end when the mermaid's ugly sister swam by. The repeating refrain goes

The Mermaid
'Cause her hair was green as seaweed
Her skin was blue and pale
Her face it was a work of art
I loved that girl with all my heart
But I only liked the upper part
I did not like the tail.

CaliCeltic's jaunty leprechaun banner at the side of the stage was a fun decoration, adding a bit of gaiety to the evening. Frank and I had a good time. We were happy to have gone out to something nearby where the music was uplifting and even the audience itself seemed in good spirits.

Ponder: Puzzle Purse Pair

Frank and I assembled a 500 piece puzzle Tuesday night. We had just bought it at Barnes and Noble because it caught my eye, mainly due to the color combination. I tend to like peach and aqua and coral and navy.

To my surprise this morning when I looked at the butcher block table where I had placed my purse, the color similarity struck me as uncanny. I had bought this purse nearly five years ago at Disneyland on Main Street during our visit there with Grandkids mid-September 2019.

There are two interpretations of this phenomenon:

1. I like what I like, and I know it.
2. Good taste never changes.