Diane and I finally got around to seeing Harriet, the story of Harriet Tubman. Cynthia Erivo plays the slave turned abolitionist, ROTTEN TOMATOES notes that the movie is “formulaic” and I tend to agree. The movie begins with scenes of racism and brutality on a plantation in Maryland. When Harriet realizes her master intends on selling her, she decides to flee the the North. Harriet, hunted by men and dogs, manages to make the 100-mile trek to Philadelphia where she finds help with William Still–abolitionist, and writer–played by Leslie Odom, Jr.

After a year of working as a domestic servant, Harriet decides she needs to return to Maryland to free her husband and her family. William Still thinks she’s crazy to return to a slave State and risk her freedom…and her life. But Harriet, determined to bring others to freedom, undertakes the dangerous journey. There are some surprises and Harriet’s fate changes when she becomes a “Conductor” on the Underground Railroad. Cynthia Erivo’s performance as Harriet Tubman spans a range of emotions. She delivers some powerful speeches and isn’t afraid to do battle with the slavers. My only quibble is with the pacing of this movie which lurches from action to static scenes to back to action with regularity. GRADE:B

Rob Kapilow is a composer, conductor, and music commentator. He loves this music and it shows in each of the chapters he writes about these great songs. Kapilow first provides the context for each song–the historic significance, the song’s genesis–and then proceeds to show how the song “works.” Yes, there is actual music–notes and everything–on the page. But Kapilow adds to the musical notation the actual music a web site, Listeningforamerica.net, where you can hear the music that printed on the pages of Listening For America.

I particularly liked the chapter on “Send in the Clowns.” Stephen Sondheim, who has written hundreds of songs, can’t believe “Send in the Clowns” is his most famous song. “It sounds like a piano bar song,” Sondheim told Hal Prince. Kapilow shows why “Send in the Clowns” is much more than a piano bar song. If you’re interested in this music and want to know more about these classic songs, I highly recommend Listening For America. GRADE: A
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
PREFACE — xii
Prologue : Nothing Comes from Nothing — 1
Inventing America / Jerome Kern’s “Can’t Help Lovin’ Dat Man” — 21
The New Sexual Morality / Cole Porter’s “Let’s Do It” — 40
Airbrushing the Depression / George Gershwin’s “I Got Rhythm” — 57
Segregation and Opportunity in Harlem / Harold Arlen’s “Stormy Weather” — 82
Appropriation or Inspiration? / George Gershwin’s “Summertime” — 102
Immigration and the American Voice / Irving Berlin’s “Cheek to Cheek” — 133
How the Other Half Lived / Cole Porter’s “Begin the Beguine” — 156
Love in New York / Richard Rodgers’s “I Wish I Were in Love Again” — 181
The Impact of Recorded Sound / Jerome Kern’s “All the Things You Are” — 202
America Goes to the Movies / Harold Arlen’s “Over the Rainbow” — 227
World War II and the Integrated Musical / Richard Rodgers’s “If I Loved You” — 249
America Gets a Classical Voice / Leonard Bernstein’s “I Can Cook Too” — 279
Will the Real Annie Oakley Please Stand Up? / Irving Berlin’s “I Got the Sun in the Morning” — 309
Fantasy in New York / Leonard Bernstein’s “Tonight” — 334
Rock and Roll, Broadway, and the Me Decade / Stephen Sondheim’s “Send in the Clowns” — 364
New Directions On and Off Broadway / Stephen Sondheim’s “Finishing the Hat” — 393
Epilogue : The Broadway Musical Goes Global –419
Acknowledgements — 427
Notes — 431
Credits — 435
Index — 449

The twelfth series of the British science fiction television program Doctor Who premiered on January, 1 2020 and is scheduled to air weekly to March 2020, a 10-episode run on BBC America (on Sunday nights) and on other streaming services. I’ve already enjoyed the first two episodes–Spyfall (Parts 1 & 2)–which spoof spy movies. Jodie Whittaker returns for her second series as the Thirteenth Doctor.

For those of you not aquainted with Doctor Who, he/she is an alien Time Lord who travels through time and space in the TARDIS (which appears to be a British police box on the outside but is vast on the inside). Series 12 also stars Bradley Walsh, Tosin Cole and Mandip Gill as the Doctor’s traveling companions, Graham O’Brien, Ryan Sinclair and Yasmin Khan. I was much happier when the Companion was Karen Gillan who has gone on to greater roles.

If you’re looking for some fun Science Fiction adventures, I recommend this latest version of Doctor Who. GRADE: B+

I read a fair number of graphic novels, but Fairlady: Volume One written by Brian Schirmer and illustrated by Claudia Balboni, departs from most of the Super Hero, SF, and Fantasy graphic novels I usually buy. Jenner Faulds, who disguised herself as a man to fight in a war, returns home to The Feld for a new start after the war ends. Jenner decides to become a “Fairman,” a licensed private investigator. But, Jenner calls herself a “Fairlady”–the only one–and tackles cases the other Fairman won’t touch.

So Fairlady is a mashup of police procedurals and fantasy. Each of the five issues collected in Fairlady: Volume One includes a self-contained story. My favorite adventure was “The Case of the Missing Page.” If you’re looking for mystery with a fantasy setting, I recommend the Fairlady series. GRADE: B
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
The Case of the Blue Rock
The Dead Fairman Mystery
The Case of the Barbarian’s Secret
The Case of the Missing Page
The Case of the Missing Murderess

Generous Art Scott (aka, Eagle Eye) sent me this copy of Crimson Snow: Winter Mysteries (2016) edited by Martin Edwards. The theme of this anthology centers around murder in the Winter. My favorite story in Crimson Snow is Julian Symons’ “The Santa Claus Club” that involves a fatal poisoning. But Art informed me of a surprise in Crimson Snow that even Martin Edwards missed. “Mr. Cork’s Secret” by MacDonald Hastings featured a contest where readers could send in their solution to the crime and a winner would be selected.

The winner from Australia–A. G. Yates–was probably better known as “Carter Brown.” Art Scott, celebrated lately for his marvelous work on the Robert McGinnis covers for PAPERBACK PARADE’s Carter Brown issue (you can read my review here), spied the “A. G. Yates” name while my Evelyn Woods speed-reading trained eyes just zipped over it. Congratulations, Art! GRADE: B+
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
INTRODUCTION 1
The ghost’s touch / Fergus Hume — 5
The Chopham affair / Edgar Wallace — 24
The man with the sack / Margery Allingham — 40
Christmas Eve / S.C. Roberts — 68
Death in December / Victor Gunn — 82
Murder at Christmas / Christopher Bush — 157
Off the tiles / Ianthe Jerrold — 175
Mr. Cork’s secret / MacDonald Hastings — 186
The Santa Claus Club / Julian Symons — 237
Deep and crisp and even / Michael Gilbert — 253
The carol singers / Josephine Bell — 267
Solution to “Mr. Cork’s Secret” 307

Robert Skidelsky is best known for his three-volume biography of John Maynard Keynes, the great British economist. So, it should come as no surprise that a big chunk of Money and Government chronicles the impact Keynes had on 20th Century economics. And, the impact of Keynesian Economics was huge until the 1970s when the theory broke down because of “stagflation.” Stagflation perplexed Keynesian economists because the Economy wasn’t supposed to experience rising unemployment and inflation at the same time. But the 1970s–perhaps suffering a hangover from the Vietnam War and then jolted by the OPEC oil embargo–struggled with an Economy mired in slow-growth and rising inflation–conditions that were supposed to be impossible together under Keynesian Economics.

You might not want to read all the macroeconomic stuff in Money and Government, but I recommend you read Chapter 1: “The Mysteries of Money: A Short History.” That will explain how we got from bartering to credit default swaps and crypto-currencies. Skidelsky provides clear explanations for the thorny economic issues of today. He doesn’t overreach with predictions. Money and Government reveals the workings of the economy system we’re living with and tackles some of the problems we will be facing in the years ahead. Recommended! GRADE: A-
Table of Contents
List of Figures xiii
Preface xvii
Introduction 1
i Unsettled Issues 1
ii The Culprits 4
iii A Brief Sketch of the Book 8
Appendix 1.1 Ideas, Vested Interests and Cycles 11
Part 1 History of Economic Thought 19
1 The Mysteries of Money: A Short History 21
i The Classical Dichotomy 21
ii The Origins of Money 23
iii The Value of Money 25
iv Creditors and Debtors 27
v The Origins of the Quantity Theory of Money 32
vi The Demand for Money 35
vii Money, the Great Deceiver 36
viii Conclusion 38
2 The Fight for the Gold Standard 40
i Prelude to the Gold Standard: the British Recoinage Debate of the 1690s 41
ii Nineteenth-century Monetary Debates: An Overview 44
iii Bullionists versus the ‘Real Bills’ Doctrine 45
iv Currency School versus Banking School 49
v Bimetallism 50
vi How Did the Gold Standard Actually Work? 52
3 The Quantity Theory of Money: From History to Science 60
i The Quantity Theory of Money: The Two Branches 60
ii Fisher’s Santa Claus 62
iii Knut Wicksell’s Credit Money version of the QTM 67
iv Was Wicksell a Quantity Theorist? 70
v Conclusion 71
Appendix 3.1 Fisher’s Equation 71
4 Theories of the Fertile and Barren State 73
i Introduction 73
ii The Fertile State of the Mercantilists 77
iii The Wasteful State of the Political Economists 81
iv The Victorian Fiscal Constitution 85
v The Persistence of Mercantilism 88
vi Conclusion 93
Part 2 The Rise, Triumph and Fall of Keynes 95
5 Keynes’s Intervention 99
i The Trouble with Money 99
ii The Problem with Fiscal Policy 106
iii The Macmillan Committee 114
iv The General Theory of Employment, Interest, and Money 117
v Policy Implications 124
Appendix 5.1 Contrast Between the Classical and Keynesian Models 132
Appendix 5.2 The Fiscal Multiplier 133
6 The Keynesian Ascendancy 137
i Keynesianism Ascendant 137
ii Full Employment Keynesianism: 1945-60 141
iii Growth Keynesianism: 1960-70 148
iv Reasons for the Strength of the Boom 154
v Stagflation Keynesianism: 1970-76 162
vi Great Britain: the End of the Keynesian Road 167
7 The Theory and Practice of Monetarism 171
i Keynes and the Classics 172
ii The Neo-classical Synthesis 173
iii The Emergence of the Counter-orthodoxy 174
iv Monetarism 176
v The Monetarist Experiment: 1976-85 184
vi Monetarism’s Fiscal Legacy 190
vii From Friedman to the New Consensus: 1985-2008 194
viii Conclusion 201
Appendix 7.1 IS/LM, the Keynesian Teaching Tool 203
Appendix 7.2 The Modelling of Expectations 205
Appendix 7.3 The Central Bank Reaction Function 212
Part 3 Macroeconomics in the Crash and After, 2007- 215
8 The Disablement of Fiscal Policy 221
i The Fiscal Crisis of the State 221
ii The British Debate 225
iii Austerity: A Comparative Assessment 241
iv Conclusion 244
Appendix 8.1 Monetary Financing of the Deficit 246
9 The New Monetarism 248
i Pre-crash Monetary Orthodoxy 249
ii Why Quantitative Easing? 253
iii Quantitative Easing Programmes, 2008-16 256
iv How was QE Meant to Work? 258
v Assessment 263
vi Conclusion 277
Appendix 9.1 A Note on Tim Congdon 279
10 Distribution as a Macroeconomic Problem 288
i The Indifference of Mainstream Theory to Inequality 288
ii The Microeconomics of Distribution 290
iii Distribution and the Macroeconomy 293
iv The Modern Under-consumptionist Story 298
v Conclusion 305
11 What Was Wrong with the Banks? 307
i Pre-crash Orthodoxy 308
ii Theory 310
iii Understanding Banking: Some Essential Terms 316
iv Loosening the Regulatory Noose 318
v Financial Innovation 322
vi Conclusion 327
Appendix 11.1 Why Didn’t the Credit Ratings Agencies Do Their Job? 329
12 Global Imbalances 331
i Introduction 331
ii A Pre-crash Bird’s-eye View 334
iii Some Basic Theory 335
iv Current Account Imbalances as a Cause of Meltdown? 336
v Saving Glut versus Money Glut 338
vi Banking Imbalances 342
vii Conclusion 343
Part 4 A New Macroeconomics 345
13 Reinventing Political Economy 347
i Introduction 347
ii What Should Governments Do and Why? 349
iii A New Macroeconomic Constitution 351
iv The Inflation Problem 358
v Making Banking Safe 361
vi Inequality 368
vii Hyper-globalization and its Discontents 371
viii Reforming Economics 384
Notes 391
Bibliography 427
Index 461

If you’re a fan of noir movies, you’ll love this 9-film–3 disc–collection of noir classics in high definition with their original aspect ratios.

The Crimson Kimono (1959) Directed by Samuel Fuller
Starring: Victoria Shaw, Glenn Corbett, James Shigeta
The Lineup (1958) Directed by Don Siegel
Starring: Eli Wallach, Robert Keith, Warner Anderson
Man on a String (1960) Directed by Andre DeToth
Starring: Ernest Borgnine, Kerwins Mathews, Colleen Dewhurst, Alexander Scourby
The Shadow in the Window (1956) Directed by William Asher
Starring: Phil Carey, Betty Garrett, John Barrymore, Jr.
The Long Haul (1957) Directed by Ken Hughes
Starring: Victor Mature, Diana Dors, Patrick Allen
Pickup Alley (1957) Directed by John Gilling
Starring: Victor Mature, Anita Ekberg, Trevor Howard
The Case Against Brooklyn (1958) Directed by Paul Wendkos
Starring: Darren McGavin, Maggie Hayes, Bobby Helms
She Played with Fire (1957) Directed by Sidney Gilliat
Starring: Jack Hawkins, Arlene Dahl, Dennis Price, Bernard Miles, Ian Hunter
The Tijuana Story (1957) Directed by Leslie Kardos
Starring: Rodolfo Acosta, James Darren, Robert McQueeney

How many of these noir movies have you seen? GRADE: B+

Lisa Taddeo spent eight years researching these profiles of three women and sexuality from women’s perspectives. Taddeo visited their towns, met their friends and families, studied their jobs and the patterns of their lives…and their sexual desires.

I confess, I’ve been baffled by women and their behaviors throughout my life. And, I grew up with three sisters so I had plenty of behavior to experience. That’s why Lisa Taddeo’s book fascinated me. In North Dakota, Taddeo chronicles the predicament of Maggie, a high school student who has a relationship with her handsome, married English teacher. This is NOT To Sir, With Love. Taddeo travels to suburban Indiana and introduces the reader to Lina, a frustrated mother of two, whose husband isn’t interested in affection or love or sex. Lina connects with an ex-boyfriend on Facebook (where else?) and Taddeo reports on the passionate affair that results. The third woman, Sloane, is a wealthy restaurant owner in the Northeast. She is happily married to a man who likes to watch Sloane have sex with other men and women.

Lisa Taddeo writes with a novelist’s eye for detail and immediacy. This is not dry, academic writing. All the events are told through the women’s viewpoints. I understand the guys in Three Women, even when they’re behaving badly (maybe especially when they’re behaving badly). The emotionality of the women in Three Women leaves me pondering about the complexity and fragility of the female psyche. GRADE: A

The AFC and NFC Championship games feature four excellent teams. The Titans are the Cinderella team (although they are 7 1/2 point underdogs). KC Head Coach Andy Reid experienced more than his share of Playoff heartbreak, but 2020 could be his year. It helps to have Patrick Mahomes as your quarterback.

The Smart Money says the San Francisco 49ers should win this game going way. Aaron Rodgers is 36 years old and prone to mistakes now (and the Parkers are 7 1/2 underdogs, too). But the Packers can be gritty at times. Will this be one of them? I’m going with the Chiefs and Art Scott’s 49ers. Who do you think will win today?