Half Moon Street (and other Odds and Ends)

I never saw this movie (which the hosts liked for the performances not as much as the plot while in my Leonard Maltin guide it was panned) but checked it out in Half Moon Street, which combines two novellas.  The second has another "Doctor" (though it also had another title separately) and "two lives" sort of plot line, if in a shorter and different fashion.  That one was decent enough in its own way.   It was about the right length.

The movie per the review and Wikipedia changes a few things and looks interesting. The book is fairly interesting though even for a short work it probably goes on too long and then tacks on a thriller-like bit and not too surprising twist ending.  The movie has Michael Caine playing a somewhat younger (though if it was filmed later, Caine was still around) version of a character apparently given a somewhat larger role there and the thriller aspect might have been a bit more developed.  In both cases, the character aspects probably are more worthwhile than the thriller ones.  

Mr. Trump exercised his pardon power during a Rose Garden event, granting the turkey named Corn a full pardon. The other turkey, Cob, will live, too.

Whenever the pardon aspect of this stupidity began, this still continues to be ... stupid.  As the less fake President on West Wing noted, they have no power to pardon fowl. At least, as far as I know -- do turkeys have some conceivable liability under federal law that might apply to the pardon power?  These birds did not commit a crime -- the bit is that they won't be used for dinner, but that wasn't some penalty for a federal or state crime.  I am a vegetarian (and ideally a vegan), but even if I was not, talking about pardoning turkeys would be something stupid. Ditto if one wants to look at it from the perspective of the woefully underused pardon power, generally used by Trump for trolling purposes.  

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After a unremarkable order list, the Supreme Court now released the January argument list along with a notice that they will continue their live telephonic oral arguments.  One reporter also flagged that a case recently granted cert involves an opinion that retired Justice Souter took part in as part of his court of appeals work.  O'Connor did that until she fully retired while I don't think Stevens ever did (he was in his 90s) while I have not seen notice of Justice Kennedy doing so either.  Nice to see him still active. 

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Happy Thanksgiving, or as I see it, time to start listening to holiday display oral arguments.