Author: Kris

The TwitsRoald Dahl’s “The Twits” is currently playing in London, so of course Snookums and I headed off to see the opening night performance Tuesday. I’m sorry to say that I was rather underwhelmed by the show. It seemed more like a Christmas panto than legitimate children’s theater. I could count on one hand the lines of text that actually survived from Dahl’s book, and those were mostly the insults that the Twits hurled at each other. The problem with dramatizing this story is that it was always a crude and confusing piece. One one hand you’re supposed to loathe the Twits and on the other you’re supposed to laugh at them. In the book, Quentin Blake’s manic scribbled illustrations hit the right tone and made the crude bits seem more cartoony and surreal. Playing it straight is not the right strategy for a stage adaptation, I fear. And, as with all the Dahl dramatizations I’ve seen lately, there was an emphasis on cheezy moralizing that wasn’t present in the original work. This production wanted us to feel sorry for the poor Mugglewumps, captured from the jungle and forced into degrading circus slavery, yet at the same time it urged us to laugh delightedly as the monkeys’ captors scratched their bums and farted. Needless to say, I didn’t enjoy it. (I do feel a bit guilty for saying that though, considering that Sadler’s Wells linked to my Dahl site. Oh well.)

Combating an “olfactory nuisance”: Apparently London Underground is going to start perfuming Tube stations. The idea originated in France, where the Metro has been “perfuming platforms for three years with Madeleine, a scent named after one of its smelliest stations.” Starting Monday, Euston, St James’s Park and Piccadilly Circus will hopefully smell of a “fresh watery floral bouquet of rose and jasmine combined with citrus top notes, giving way to strong woody accents and a hint of sweetness in the base” as opposed to the “earthy concoction of sweat, fast food and mouse droppings that is the real l’air du Tube.” I’ll give you a review as soon as I can.

Roger Ebert says the new Crocodile Dundee movie isn’t great, but you could do worse. I also appreciated Ebert’s deft use of Australian expressions. (“Good on ya, mate!”) As a side note, why the heck is Ebert’s site so slow these days? Take my advice – if you actually get the main page to load, open all links in a new window. Otherwise you’ll never get back to the main page again.

Since I seem to get a lot of search requests for it, here’s my official Bejeweled Strategy Guide:

  1. Always play on Level 2. It’s impossible to get a decent score on Level 1, and Level 3 is just too darn fast.
  2. Getting a high score is less about making single matches and more about making combination moves. Always go for the combo-setup as opposed to the easy score.
  3. Make vertical matches whenever possible. This allows for more pieces to fall and gives more opportunities for combo-scores. Matching a horizontal row means that the three rows fall together, and your chances of making another match are smaller.
  4. Try working in only one area of the screen at a time, as opposed to jumping all over the place. I find I do better when I concentrate on a smaller area and get every possible match before moving on.
  5. The time of day that you play can have a huge impact. If I play in the morning or after lunch when I’m “fresh”, my scores are much higher than when I play at the end of the day (with my brain fried from ten hours of work). Find the time that’s best for you.

I have to warn you though, my personal strategy seems to have a built-in score cap. While I have occasionally broken 10,000 points, 9 times out of 10 my score will hover in the 7000-9000 range. If that’s an improvement for you, go for it.

Congratulations to my sister, who won the “Best Poetry Award” from her college’s literary magazine! You can read the three winning pieces at her website. Way to go, sis.

How incredibly weird. A reporter for the New York Observer managed to infiltrate the secret initiation rite of the “Skull and Bones” society at Yale University. This is the same society that both President Bush and his father belonged to, as well as “founders of Time Inc. and the C.I.A.” and “several Secretaries of State and National Security Advisors.” Slate calls the exposé a “great day in the annals of American journalism“. Wasn’t it also a movie starring Pacey?