Big wins by Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump clarify the race for the White House. Hillary has pretty much locked up the Democratic nomination. Donald Trump will win more delegates next week in North Eastern states like Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Delaware, and Maryland. Cruz will probably be in third place in all of these states. Kasich seems to be an insignificant factor. I can’t wait for the Trump vs. Hillary Presidential Debates!

When The Night Manager aired in the UK, it drew a big audience. Whether AMC will see a huge ratings boost with this mini-series is an open question. But, I’ll be watching Tom Hiddleston (famous for his role as the evil Loki in the Thor and Avenger movies) and Hugh Laurie (famous for his grumpy, opioid-popping role as Dr. House). The novel had Laurie’s character selling guns to the Colombian drug loards. This updated version has the gunrunning happening with the Egyptians during the “Arab Spring.” I’m curious to see what other changes this TV version of The Night Manager will surprise its audience with. Will you be watching?

Donald Trump will speak tonight at the First Niagara Center which holds aobut 18,000 people. All the seats will be filled. And, outside the First Niagara Center, as many as a 1,000 protesters could show up. There’s rain in the forecast so the numbers may decline. The local political talk radio programs are split between supporting Trump and supporting Cruz. However, Western NY is heavily Democratic so tomorrow’s New York State primary will feature a big win for HIllary–and an equally big win for Donald Trump. Bernie Sanders spoke to the Pope over the weekend but I don’t think that will help him here.

Diane wanted a new kitchen set so we shopped around and settled on this Bassett Studio B table and chairs. We went with the Guilford (a warm sandy color) instead of this Safari color so just imagine the picture above with those alterations. The chairs will be a Java (coffee color) hue. The top contender was the Paula Deen River House table and chairs. The price for both sets were about the same, but Baasett gave us more options and I preferred the cleaner design. Bassett was also having a sale so we saved a couple hundred dollars. Are you in the market for new furniture?

Tuesday night on AMC the mini-series based on The Night Manager begins. I figured I’d read The Night Manager first since it’s one of the few John le Carre novels I haven’t read. When The Night Manager was published in 1993, it generated plenty of speculation. What was le Carre going to write about since the Cold War was over? Critics claimed the spy novel was dead. Le Carre cleverly saw that terrorism and gunrunning and drug-smuggling, the next growth industries, provided plenty of material for future novels. I’ve mentioned this before, but it bears repeating. Le Carre’s classic spy novels from the Sixties–The spy Who Came in From the Cold and A Small Town in Germany–were a fraction of the length of The Night Manager (429 pages!). The shorter books were better books. Are you a fan of John le Carre? What’s your favorite le Carre book? GRADE: B

The Caped Crusade: Batman and the Rise of Nerd Culture follows the same template Glen Weldon used in his Superman: The Unauthorized Biography. After some general remarks, Weldon takes a chronological approach to the evolution of Batman. Initially, the focus is on Bob Kane and Bill Finger producing a character that is a direct rip-off of The Shadow. But, over time, Batman changes into something other than an a vigilante. Robin, The Boy Wonder, is added (the first comic side-kick, according to Weldon). The comic book industry goes through turmoil in the 1950s and Batman changes again. Weldon spends a whole chapter on the Batman TV show starring Adam West and Burt Ward (Weldon’s first exposure to Batman). After the campy series goes into reruns, it continues to hold a fan base. But the Seventies finds Batman going to the Dark Side. Weldon documents the change from a detective to an avenger with a violent streak. This new, more ruthless Batman shows up in the movies of the Nineties. The new millennium brings the Christian Bale Batman movies directed by Christopher Nolan. And, now we have to contend with Ben Aflick as Batman. If you’re a Batman fan, you’ll love The Caped Crusade. GRADE: A
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
Introduction: Batman, Nerd
1. Origin and Growing Pains (1939-1949)
2. Panic and Aftermath (1948-1964)
3. Same Bat-Time (1965-1969)
4. Back to the Shadows (1969-1985)
5. Bat-Noir (1986-1988)
6. The Goth of Gotham (1989-1996)
7. The Caped Crusade (1992-20003)
8. Trilogy of Terror (2005-2012)
9. The Unified Theory (2004- )
BIBLIOGRAPHY
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
INDEX
IMAGE CREDITS

Ted Cruz, running a distant third in next Tuesday’s Republican Primary in New York, holds a “Town Hall Meeting” at SUNY at Buffalo (about 15 minutes from my house) with Chuck Todd of MSNBC today. The event will be taped and broadcast tonight at 8 P.M. on MSNBC. So far, Cruz has been heckled and harassed since he arrived in New York City last week. This is not Cruz country. Donald Trump arrives in Buffalo over the weekend. If John Kasich was in town, no one noticed. It’s been a long time since New York had an impact on the primary process. A big Trump win could make the prospects of a Cruz comeback remote and a “Contested Convention” less likely. I still think the Republican Convention in Cleveland in July will resemble the 1968 Democratic Convention in Chicago. Chaos!

If you’re a fan of P.G. Wodehouse’s wonderful Jeeves and Bertie, you’ll find Nigel Cawthorne’s slim little book a delight. Cawthorne provides outlines of the thirty-five short stories and eleven novels. From “Extricating Young Gussie” to Aunts Aren’t Gentlemen, this book is a celebration of the clever stories and unforgettable characters in the series. In addition, Cawthorne also discusses the many adaptations of the Jeeves and Bertie Saga for stage and movies and TV. Nigel Cawthorne has also written A Brief Guide to James Bond and A Brief History of Sherlock Holmes. I can recommend both volumes in addition to this one. GRADE: A
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
Introduction
Chapter 1: P.G. Wodehouse
Chapter 2: The Birth of Jeeves and Wooster
Chapter 3: The Short Stories
Chapter 4: The Novels
Chapter 5: Bertram Wilberforce Wooster
Chapter 6: Jeeves
Chapter 7: Aunts and Uncles
Chapter 8: Fiancees and Sweethearts
Chapter 9: Drones and Other Acquintances
Chapter 10: Old Hardened Arteries and Rozzers
Chapter 11: Stage and Screen
Bibliography
Index

Back in 2003, DC Comics published Superman/Batman issues 1-6. The premise was Lex Luthor becomes President of the U.S. and Superman and Batman become Public Enemies as a result. Lex Luthor manages to entice other superheroes like Captain Atom, Power Girl, Katana, and Starfire into working for his Government. Watching superheroes battle each other is one of the attractions of the graphic novels and this new animated movie. This package includes the six graphic novels and two Blu-ray disks with the 69-minute movie and a disk full of extras. If you’re a fan of Superman and Batman, you’ll enjoy this wonderful package. GRADE: B+

Ever wonder why the U.S. economy is so sluggish? Or why our roads and bridges are crumbling? Or why our schools continue to decline? Michael Mandelbaum thinks he has the answer to those perplexing questions. Mandelbaum wrote Mission Failure to show how American foreign policy has not only produced failures, they were expensive failures! Haiti, Somalia, Bosnia, Kosovo during the Clinton Administration started the expensive military adventures. Then the Bush Administration started two wars, first in Afghanistan and then in Iraq. And didn’t raise taxes to pay for them. If you look at the $19 trillion debt the U.S. is burdened with, much of that money was spent on frivolous and ill-considered military actions. From 1993 to 2014 the outcomes of American foreign policy have failed. Mandelbaum provides convincing evidence that U.S. interests over the past 20 years would have been better served by fixing our infrastructure and improving our education system.

Mission Failure suggests strategies the new Administration in 2017 could implement to reverse this two-decade pattern of failure and waste. I was saddened and enlightened by this brilliant book. GRADE: A
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
Chapter 1: Introduction
Chapter 2: China, the Global Economy, and Russia ; A New Administration in a New World ; China and Human Rights ; Economics as Foreign Policy ; Russia: The Good Deed ; Russia: The Bad Deed
Chapter 3: Humanitarian Intervention ; The Innovation ; Somalia, Haiti, Rwanda ; Bosnia ; Kosovo ; Famous Victories
Chapter 4: The War on Terror and Afghanistan ; To the World Trade Center ; The War on Terror ; Afghanistan: Success ; Afghanistan: Failure ; Afghanistan: The Long Goodbye
Chapter 5: Iraq ; From War to War ; From Success to Failure ; The Wars After the War ; The Home Front ; Exit and Reentry
Chapter 6: The Middle East ; The Center of the World ; The Peace Process ; Land for War ; The Democracy Agenda ; The Arab Spring
Chapter 7: The Restoration ; The End of the Post-Cold War Era ; The Bubbles Burst ; The Rogues ; The Rise of China ; The Revenge of Russia
Chapter 8: Conclusion