Airplane!

I enjoyed Zero Hour! both on its own as a 1950s airplane disaster film and because it is so much like Airplane!. I decided to watch the "real thing" so to speak and see the two parody films.

The Airplane! DVD menu is set up creatively with airplane jargon. It also has a commentary track, an extended version track, and a track with trivia. I checked out the other tracks (not the extended version -- should have just watched it -- most DVDs have a collection of extra scenes). The commentary was reasonable but didn't watch the whole thing.

Airplane II: The Sequel's DVD just had the movie. The film is predictably not as funny as the first but as sequels go is fine. William Shatner (this was just when he began again in the Star Trek films) was especially fun. It also has the early 1980s "we will give you one" bit of gratuitous topless nudity in a PG film.  

I haven't watched either film for a long time. I was still amused and impressed at how much work went into both of them. The films have three basic classes of actors. You have older actors like Robert Stack who were known for their serious roles. Toss in a gimmick role of a basketball player (Zero Hour! had a non-professional play a pilot).  

You had the two leads who at that time hadn't done too much (one did have a sitcom role in Angie). So, it was a good find (one trivia bit said David Letterman read for the Striker role!) to get such perfect choices. 

And, then you had a bunch of supporting roles, including many very amusing bits. A few faces are familiar (Jonathan Banks, who later was familiar playing heavies, had a small role). It takes a lot of talent to have such a large cast do so much good.

Books 

Herod the Great: Jewish King in a Roman World by Martin Goodman is a straightforward history of the Jewish king best known as a heavy in the New Testament. The book is part of a series of short Jewish biographies. We mainly know about him because Josephus wrote about him in his histories.  

The "killing of the innocents" story is fictional. OTOH, he did have a history of having multiple family members (including a wife, multiple sons, and an elderly grandfather-in-law) killed for fear that they threatened his authority. Early on, it was impressive he rose so far without being in a royal family. 

Not that engrossing but was an okay way to learn about the biblical character. 

==

Piglet is a recent fictional novel. The title comes from an unfortunate childhood nickname that stuck. Her bestie doesn't use it but we never hear her use the actual name either. So, she's always referenced as "Piglet." We get the real name near the end.

We never (quite annoying) are told what horrible secret her fiancé told her two weeks before the wedding. Whatever it is, her attempt to continue with the wedding plans led her to have a sort of mental breakdown. Meanwhile, she had more and more embarrassing things happen to her. Rather depressing.

The book starts fine enough and it was easy reading as I hoped (1) to find out the secret and (2) get her to move on from being such a pathetic loser but it basically didn't go anywhere. She finally realizes that the marriage is a big mistake late in the book. 

Oh, joy.  The book promises to be a story about a woman who realizes her life is unsatisfying. But, it really doesn't seem to be that bad, except for her loser of a husband-to-be. Not marrying a jerk is significant but the book jacket suggests a bit more. 

She has an embarrassing family (her parents after all still call her "Piglet") but that is fairly typical. It is suggested at one point her sister has her own body issues but that is dropped. 

She's also a food editor and the book has a lot of food stuff. So, we have pages of her prepping and cooking meals and such. It reads natural enough, to the degree I can tell (not much of a cook), but again, it doesn't really go anywhere. It feels like filler. 

I don't read much fiction. This was not a good example of the few I do read. 

ETA: After writing this, I found a famous modern version of Gilgamesh -- the ancient myth -- with various appendixes. I read it a long time ago in school. It has a lot of stuff, including an early flood narrative.