Lest it pass unnoticed, Dec 28th was Scott’s and my 7th wedding anniversary. In previous years, when our schedules and finances permitted, we would try to get away somewhere to celebrate our anniversary, but that wasn’t possible this year. We had a nice day anyway. We went to a favorite diner for brunch, did some shopping, and came home. Scott cooked us a nice dinner, and we watched Duty, one of the new Horatio Hornblower DVDs. One of the plot points in Duty is Hornblower’s marriage, but that was just a happenstance of timing.
Aficionados of the original C.S. Forester series may find the additions to the plot confusing and/or annoying. Or as Scott might put it, I have a really bad habit of yelling at the TV when the plot deviates from what I expect based on the book. Nevertheless, overall the A&E version of the Hornblower series is a lot of fun. Its strength in casting goes a long way towards alleviating the weaknesses of the plot and the production values. Ioan Gruffudd (Hornblower), Paul McGann (Lt Bush), and Robert Lindsay (Sir Edward Pellew) are my favorites, but the other actors are all quite good as well.
One aspect of C.S. Forester’s Hornblower books that’s extremely hard to dramatize is Hornblower’s internal life. In modern parlance, Hornblower struggled with depression and poor self esteem, which only his extreme self-discipline and willpower kept under control. It’s not easy to put that on screen, and the A&E series generally doesn’t try to do so – which is, I suspect, part of the reason for so many plot additions.
Anyway, I’m re-reading Hornblower and The Hotspur.
And so 2003 winds to a close. We’ll spend New Year’s Eve at a local comedy club, which should be fun. We hadn’t planned it that way, but a friend has tickets she can’t use and it’ll be a nice change of pace. Some of the better New Year’s Eve’s we’ve spent in the past few years have been up at Lake Tahoe, but again, time and $$ took that off the table for this year.
I can’t say I’m sad to see 2003 go. It was a better year than 2002, but not a stellar one. Financially, we’re ending the year in better shape than when it started, but we’ve got a lot of catching up to do after the fiscal chaos of the past couple of years, and it’ll be a while yet before there’s light at the end of that tunnel. Our families are healthy and thriving, which is good, but America as a whole is still a mess, the war in Iraq is a sinkhole, and the outlook for the future could be better.
One bright spot: in 2004 America will elect a new President. My heartfelt wish is that we Americans get our collective butts in gear and send President Bush back to Texas where he belongs. In 19 days, the Democratic primary season starts with the Iowa caucuses. It’s an exciting time. It’s no secret I’m for Howard Dean, but even if some other Democrat is the nominee, I intend to do my part to make sure whoever gets the nomination can beat Bush.
Happy New Year, everyone! Please be safe if you’re going out tonight.