Kaitlin Olson‘s Morgan Gillory is back to solve crimes and provide fun. Taran Killam, who plays Morgan’s friendly ex-husband, Ludo, returns to help with the kids. Morgan juggles her three children while dealing with her complicated Life. The mini-skirt-wearing genius who has agreed to help the LAPD’s Major Crimes unit with their cases continually surprises in these episodes.

If you’r looking for mysteries and humor, check out High Potential! Premieres: Tuesday, Sept. 16 at 10/9c on ABC, streaming next day on Hulu. GRADE: INCOMPLETE but trending towards a B+

“In 1976 when we were both based in Brussels, my BBC mentor, the great Charles Wheeler, came back to the office from a grand US embassy party one evening and remarked: ‘The cleverest and most entertaining people at these things are always CIA. Makes it all the harder to understand why they get everything wrong.’ An exaggeration, of course, but one with a degree of truth to it. Why has an organisation with huge amounts of money at its disposal, a record of recruiting the brightest and the best, and the widest of remits, failed to notch up a better record? It’s true that we may not know about many of the CIA’s successes. But we know about a lot of its failures, and some of them have marked US history ineradicably.” — John Simpson, The Guardian

Tim Weiner, who wrote the classic Legacy of Ashes: The History of the CIA (2007), returns with a book that will become another classic, The Mission: The CIA in the 21st Century. Weiner shows how the CIA’s power has slowly been eroded after the debacle of 9/11 where rival intelligence agencies withheld information about a possible terrorist attack. Yes, the attack on the Twin Towers could have been prevented with some data sharing.

Weiner shows the disaster Trump is causing to America, and to the CIA today. Weiner’s example of the incompetent John L Ratcliffe, given the job of CIA Director by Trump, who unhesitatingly complied with Trump’s extraordinary demand that the CIA should send the White House the first names and initials of every recent CIA recruit by non-secure email. An incredible intelligence breach! And that is the tip of the serious intelligence violations…

The Mission explains why the CIA and our other intelligence agencies won’t protect us with the DOGE cuts and Trump’s fools running the organizations. Things are grim for our National Security. GRADE: A

TABLE OF CONTENTS:

• Prologue: The spy and the scribe — 1
• The dark horizon — 7
• Denial and deception — 15
• “It was all sadly absurd” — 25
• The Bay of Goats — 32
• The new world — 41
• “We were all making it up as we went along” — 56
• Unprecedented trouble — 72
• What you do when you do not know — 92
• Sufi mystics and walking zombies — 105
• A beautiful operation — 119
• The butcher’s bill — 131
• Guerrilla warfare — 140
• The black cloud — 160
• “How far were we prepared to go?” — 177
• The god’s-eye view — 189
• No middle ground — 200
• The keys to the castle — 213
• The right side of history — 228
• “Someone is always watching” — 238
• Lethal and legal — 251
• Face-eating baboons — 265
• The useful idiot — 280
• Ring-kissing and kneecapping — 298
• The enemy of intelligence — 310
• “We are on the way to a right-wing coup” — 326
• The glory gate — 343
• Human intelligence — 358
• The morality of espionage — 371
• Epilogue: Autocracy in America — 388
• Acknowledgements — 397
• Notes — 399
• Index — 441

Breece Hall is no Derrick Henry. Justin Fields is no Aaron Rodgers. But the pesky Jets give the Bills a tough game almost every time they play. While the Buffalo Bills are 6 1/2 point favorites in this game, the Jets almost beat the Steeler last week. The 34-32 score shows how close the Jets came to winning the game. I’m expecting a close game this afternoon.

How will your favorite NFL team perform today?

Only Murders in the Building might be showing some plot fatigue in Season 5. The format of investigating a cosy whodunnit with some social media satire might be wearing thin. Steve Martin and Martin Short still deliver their zippy one-liners with sight gags and physical comedy but the effects are lame. And then there’s the “cameos” of other actors who pop into the plots.

Lucy Mangan of The Guardian wrote: “Now, with season five, the centre is failing to hold. We ended the previous season in the traditional manner, with our heroes finding another murder in the building (or at least its grounds): this time of Lester the doorman (Teddy Coluca). Then we have another. Then the clues (including a missing finger, a mafia connection and an elevator crank) and suspects (including Téa Leoni as an Italian widow and potential love interest for Charles, who is taking testosterone supplements for his health; three billionaires; and Lester’s wife, Lorraine – Dianne Wiest, her brilliance eternal) begin to arrive. But they feel randomly scattered rather than meaningfully laid. The podcast element falls by the wayside, the proportion of red herrings to genuine progress is off, the action is too often located outside the Arconia, and the core team are too often split up – not least by the return of Streep as Oliver’s now-wife, Loretta. I know that I am probably in a minority in feeling that: a) a little of Streep goes a long way; and b) she should, wherever possible, be kept away from comedy.”

After one episode, I have to agree with Mangan. GRADE: Incomplete, but trending towards a C.

Secret Agent of Terra (1962) by  John Brunner. It is the first book of the Zarathustra Refugee Planets series. The other books are Castaways’ World (1963) and The Repairmen of Cyclops (1965). Brunner explores aspects of survival, societal structure, and the human conflicts likely to occur when facing harsh conditions after a planet’s star goes nova.  GRADE: B

A. Bertram Chandler created a series involving The Rim of Space (1958) where the unusual occurs. The crew of the starship Lorn Lady meet intelligent alien lifeforms and experience strange space anomalies in this novella.

Only one man ever survived contact with the Outsiders (aka, aliens) and Commander William Maudsley has always refused to speak of the horrors that destroyed his starship, killed his crew, and left him broken and confused.

Derek Calver intends to succeed where Maudsley failed. Despite the fears of his crew and vague rumors of terrible alien life form beyond the rim, Calver crosses the final frontier to enter the warped, unknown infinity of the “Outside” with all its dangers. This is #2 in the Commander Grimes series. GRADE: B

Are you a fan of ACE Doubles?

Once upon a time in the 1990s, retailers used compilation CDs as marketing tools. Some, like Starbucks, charged for the CDs–mostly the going rate of regular music CDs. Other retailers offered the compilation CDs for free with a purchase. Other retailers discounted the CDs to move them.

BOKS ROCK (1993) from Reebok had a more eclectic variety of songs. George Thorogood rubs shoulders with Slowdive. Beyond the Blues (1996) from Lane Bryant offers Name artists–like Patti LaBelle, Taylor Dayne, Etta James, Oleta Adams, Rod Stewart, Peter Frampton, Rita Coolidge, and Gloria Gaynor. And a couple Well Known groups: Gladys Knight and the Pips and Bachman-Turner Overdrive.

The fact that no corporation I know is offering music as part of the buying experience today–not even streaming–shows that this marketing tactic is now obsolete. But, back in the day, this was a fairly common practice.

Do you remember these songs? Any favorites here? GRADE: B (for both)

TRACK LIST:

TRACK LIST:

Tor Doubles are a series of science fiction books published by Tor Books between 1988 and 1991, mostly in tête-bêche format. The series was inspired by the Ace Doubles, published between 1952 and 1973.

I’ve bought Tor Doubles when I came across them. I’m less enthusiastic about the Tor Doubles than the ACE Doubles. Many of the Tor Doubles feature stories that have been reprinted many times…like Fritz Leiber’s classic, “Ill Met in Lankhmar.” ll Met in Lankhmar was originally published in F&SF  in April, 1970. It won the Hugo Award and the Nebula Award.  But on the plus side, they also include more obscure stories like Charles de Lint’s “The Fair in Main Macha” (1990).

Obviously, “Ill Met in Lakhmar” is a classic sword & sorcery story. It recounts the meeting and teaming-up of Leiber’s adventurous duo, Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser. Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser make the mistake of messing with the Thieves’ Guild which results in disastrous consequences. GRADE: A

The Fair in Emain Macha was originally published in Space and Time #68 in December, 1985. It was nominated for the Aurora Award. The Fair in Emain Macha de Lint’s fourth story about the life of Colum mac Donal, an outlawed man from Aerin serving King Artor of the Grey Isles.

I prefer de Lint’s Urban Fantasies to this mundane tale of swords and magic. The Fair in Emain Macha is an early de Lint story. His story-telling improved over the years. GRADE: C+

“Everyone is out to escape something in Task, though it will be holding viewers happily hostage: Perhaps the best crime thriller of the year, it’s also a validation of the seven-, eight-, or nine-part TV series.” That’s what Wall Street Journal TV reviewer John Anderson wrote about this new HBO MAX series.

Task is a seven-episode television miniseries created and written by Brad Ingelsby for HBO. It stars Mark Ruffalo, Tom Pelphrey, Emilia Jones, Thuso Mbedu, Raúl Castillo, Jamie McShane, Sam Keeley, Fabien Frankel, and Amanda Mahlaba.

FBI Special Agent Tom Brandis (Mark Ruffalo) is lured out of a semi-retirement to head aI FBI Task Force to deal with a string of violent robberies in the working class suburbs of Philadelphia. Brandis is “saddled with a motley crew from local law enforcement, including shaky state trooper Lizzie (Alison Oliver), domestic violence survivor Aleah (Thuso Mbedu) and pretty boy detective Anthony (Fabien Frankel, free from the chainmail of his “House of the Dragon” role).”

If you’re in the mood for a gritty crime series, Task delivers. New Episodes drop each Sunday on HBO MAX. GRADE: Incomplete but trending towards a B+

“The greatest wealth is health.” Virgil wrote that centuries ago but it’s still true. Nick Maggiulli’s The Wealth Ladder addresses the necessary strategies needed to successfully manage each phase of your Life.

Obviously, I focused on what Maggiulli has to say about the Retirement Years and End of Life Decisions. Diane and I anticipated Maggiulli’s advice to transfer our assets to our children. Katie is now owner of the house we live in (Patrick opted out). Patrick and Katie will split our wealth 50-50 when the time comes. Also Diane and I have made plans to deal with catastrophic health problems should they strike us. I have donated my body to the State University of New York at Buffalo’s Medical School. So far, so good.

The early chapters of The Wealth Ladder counsels reducing Debt (we have none–the house is paid off, so are the vehicles, and we pay off our credit cards completely each month). Diane likes to buy clothes, I like to buy books, CDs, and Blu-rays, but neither one of us is extravagant. We don’t smoke, we have a glass of wine regularly, and we don’t gamble (other than the occasion Powerball ticket when the amount goes over a billionaire dollars).

Diane and I have two great kids, a loving family, great friends..and each other. We climbed the Wealth Ladder successfully and now we just have to deal with the Future. How about you? How was your climb on the Wealth Ladder? GRADE: A

TABLE OF CONTENTS:

1. Introduction — ix
2. Part I: Understanding the Wealth Ladder
3. Chapter 1: Spending up the Wealth Ladder — 3
4. Chapter 2: Earning up the Wealth Ladder — 17
5. Chapter 3: Investing up the Wealth Ladder — 41
6. Part II: Making the Climb
7. Chapter 4: Level 1 (<$10k) — 59
8. Chapter 5: Level 2 ($10k–$100k) — 71
9. Chapter 6: Level 3 ($100k–$1M) — 85
10. Chapter 7: Level 4 ($1M–$10M) — 99
11. Chapter 8: Level 5 ($10M–$100M) — 111
12. Chapter 9: Level 6 ($100M+) — 133
13. Chapter 10: How Long Does It Take to Climb the Wealth Ladder? — 145
14. Part III: Finding Your Summit
15. Chapter 11: Does Money Buy Happiness? — 165
16. Chapter 12: The Great Enhancer — 175
17. Chapter 13: My Journey up the Wealth Ladder — 193
18. Epilogue: Finding Simplicity in Complexity — 209
19. Acknowledgments — 215
20. Notes — 217

The National Football League schedule makers decided to open the 2025 season with a blast: Baltimore Ravens vs. Buffalo Bills. The Ravens are 1 1/2 point favorites according to Vegas. Back in January, the Bills beat the Ravens in a Playoff game, 27-25. I’m guessing the Ravens are motivated to avenge that game tonight.

I watched FIRST TAKE on Friday morning and all three commentators–Stephen A. Smith, Dan Orlovsky, and Ryan Clark–all proclaimed that the Baltimore Ravens were the best team in the NFL and will win the Super Bowl this year. We’ll find out just how close to Reality these predictions are. How will your favorite NFL perform today?