I’ve owned Laclos’ wicked novel for a couple of decades. Finally, I got around to reading Dangerous Liaisons and found its cynical, Machiavellian characters of Vicomte de Valmont and the Marquise de Merteuil unique. In a series of letters, the two wealthy and conniving aristocrats launch a number of sinister schemes. Valmont wants to seduce a married, religious lady. The Marquise embarks on arranging a young girl’s ruination before she can be married. Dangerous Liaisons shows that love is just a game to these two intriguers. Patterned after Samuel Richardson’s massive (1000+ page) epistolary novel, Clarissa, Dangerous Liaisons takes seduction and sexual machinations to a new level. This is a novel you will not soon forget. The movie version starring Glenn Close, John Malkovich, Michelle Pfeiffer, Swoosie Kurtz, and Keanu Reeves is worth watching, too.

Louis Menand thinks colleges and universities are in trouble. I agree with him. In The Marketplace of Ideas: Reform and Resistance in the American University Menand presents an insightful history of American higher education. Then he identifies areas where colleges and universities face a crisis: the problem of a general education curriculum (no one can agree on one) and the super-specialization of many departments. I would add to Menard’s list one more problem: the lack of preparation by most high school students to do college-level work. As the states are forced to cut school budgets and state college budgets, tough choices are going to have to be made. Costs will go up as well as tuition. The “open admissions” policies of the past need to be debated. Federal funding of student aid needs to be questioned. College education will go through a revolution in the next decade as more and more students opt for on-line classes. But what will they be learning? Menand’s book is a good place to start the conversation. GRADE: B+

I’ve been a fan of Loreena McKennitt for over 20 years so this isn’t going to be an objective review. I own all her CDs and I’ve seen her in concert twice (wonderful performances!). This new CD, The Wind That Shakes the Barley, explores folk songs and traditional music. One of the songs, “Down By the Sally Gardens,” uses a W. B. Yeats poem for its lyrics. I love Loreena McKennitt’s voice and the backup musicians are very strong on this CD. If you like folk and traditional music, you’re going to like The Wind That Shakes the Barley. This CD would make a great stocking stuffer! GRADE: A
SET LIST:
1. As I Roved Out
2. On a Bright May Morning
3. Brian Boru’s March
4. Down By the Sally Gardens
5. The Star of the County Down
6. The Wind that Shakes the Barley
7. The Death of Queen Jane
8. The Emigration Tunes
9. The Parting Glass

In December 1933, in the depths of the Depression, an ad appeared in the Canton Respository offering $10 to 75 needy families. The pseudonymous benefactor, “Mr. B. Virdot,” read the letters the people of Canton, Ohio sent him answering the ad and he sent them the checks ($10 in those days is nearly equivalent to $70 today). Fast forward 80 years and Ted Gup, a reporter, discovers a suitcase full of letters. Gup finds these are the letters sent to “B. Virdot” who in reality was his grandfather. After reading the letters and contacting relatives of the people who wrote the letters, Ted Gup has written a perfect book for the Season of Giving: A Secret Gift: How One Man’s Kindness–and a Trove of Letters–Revealed the Hidden History of the Great Depression. The letters will touch your heart. GRADE: A

Love And Other Drugs skates very close to the rim of mawkishness. Jake Gyllenhaal plays a talented drug representative. While pretending to be an intern, Gyllenhaal witnesses a breast exam of a patient with Stage One Parkinson’s disease (played by Anne Hathaway). Of course, he falls in love. But Love And Other Drugs has pretensions to be more than just another predictable romantic comedy. Gyllenhaal has to make a Decision. The much more talented Oliver Platt is on hand to mentor Gyllenhaal on the sales techniques of moving prescription drugs. Josh Gad is funny as Gyllenhaal’s geeky younger brother. George Segal and Jill Clayburgh (in probably her last movie role) are Gyllenhaal’s parents. Love And Other Drugs has a fine cast and aspirations of Higher Things. The group we went with found the serious side of the movie troubling. They wanted to laugh, but they had to contend with a movie that made them think. GRADE: B

I’ve received plenty of email from out-of-town friends who were worried that Diane and I might be buried by the recent snowstorm that descended on Western New York. Yes, some communities found themselves under three feet of snow in a couple of hours. We were the stars of THE WEATHER CHANNEL for a few days as waist-deep snow clogged streets and sidewalks. Schools closed (but not mine). The NY State Thruway turned into a 10-mile parking lot because the Thruway Authority workers continued to allow motorists on to the Thruway even though traffic was stalled and there was NO WHERE TO EXIT! The Thruway became gridlocked with hundreds of cars and trucks running out of gas and stalling out. Some folks were stranded in their cars for 20 hours. Fortunately, the snow bands that dumped all that snow kept south of Buffalo. We live in a northern suburb and received ZERO snow. Yes, I can see my green lawn when I look out my window. Next week, we’re supposed to be hit by a general snowfall in the two to four inch range. Thank you for your concern, but this is just winter in Buffalo. We’re used to it.