Weekend Update

The Slow Decline Of Musicals. Saw A Catered Affair Friday night (thank you, Laura!) and our entire post-show discussion can be summed up with the words "When did composers stop writing songs for Broadway musicals?" It was like watching a dozen people sing to the underscoring of a Warner Brothers melodrama, which describes both the musical style and the memorable nature of what was playing.

The Extended Television Episode. Saw X-Files: I Wanted To Like It I Want To Believe Saturday morning. Far too much fake drama (They need your help, I don't want to help, please help me, this is too much for me, this is who I am, goodbye then, I'm worried about you, let's go to an island together) and not enough creepy weirdness. Most entertaining part of this made-for-TV movie? The guy who started snoring after ten minutes and then left fifteen minutes before it ended. Basically a police procedural with telepathy grafted onto it. And if you've seen the movie, then you know that I use the word "grafted" deliberately.

The Rise of Illiteracy. During Sunday night's Red Sox game, ESPN put up clips about this year's Hall of Famers, one of whom is manager Dick Williams, who brought the Sox from the cellar to the pennant in '67. One of the stats they cited was "Cy Young Award winner: Jim Longborg." When I saw that, I did an Uncle Tonoose spit take. Hey ESPN--his name is LONBORG. And you can look it up.