Good afternoon. It is I Gigi the parti poodle here to tell you this has been a most distressing week. My beloved novelist has fallen gravely ill. She has what I am told is an RSV or respiratory virus. I have been awoken in the early hours of the morning with her horrifying coughing. It started last Friday and has been haunting our happy home ever since. Luckily, I remained immune and can care for her hand and foot. I bring her my love and my toys and my companionship. What more could she need? But I am worried. Most of these illnesses seem to have a trajectory where the human starts with some symptom which turns to something else which turns to something else and then the human gets better.

But it doesn’t seem to be the situation here. She just keeps experiencing times when the coughs get worse, or the coughs get better. But nothing seems to have changed. Nothing appears to let up. It is dreadful to watch, and I have gone off on my own when the distress has completely undone me and sob. I am a terrible wreck. In the afternoons she watches television. Not something she often does. So, I have been going outside and chatting with Bernard. He says keep the faith. My novelist will pull through this. But she has asthma, I wail. Bernard tells me to make sure she doesn’t get a fever, especially a high grade one, and she should be okay. Make sure she drinks lots of fluids, he says. Make sure she gets plenty of rest. Still, I worry. I do not know how long this dreadful nastiness will last but I will be a better poodle when it is over.

MY BOOKS

You can check out my books Chicane and all five installments of the Musicology book series Musicology: Volume One, Baby!, Musicology: Volume Two, Kid!, Musicology: Volume Three, Twist!, Musicology: Volume Four, Sweetie! and Musicology: The Epiquad on Amazon in Kindle and Paperback editions. You can also check out Musicology’s web site at www.musicologyrocks.com and vote for who you think will win Musicology!

STREAM OF THE WEEK: JUROR #2 (2024) HBO MAX

Clint Eastwood returns to the director’s chair for this taunt, intriguing take on the classic courtroom drama.

Recovering alcoholic journalist Justin Kemp (Nicholas Hoult) is soon to be a parent for the first time with his wife, schoolteacher Ally Crewson (Zoey Deutch). They have struggled to carry a pregnancy full term. About a year ago when they lost a baby, Justin left during the night and headed into a bar. He purchased a shot, didn’t drink it and headed home.

A short while before Ally is due to give birth, Justin is called for jury duty. He finds out it is a high-profile murder case. Assistant District Attorney Faith Killebrew (Toni Collette) and Public Defender Eric Resnick (Chris Messina) pick their jury and despite Justin’s argument that he’s about to become a father he is chosen to be one of the twelve. Faith wants this case to go well because she is running for District Attorney, and the future of her career is at stake.

Kendall Carter (Francesca Eastwood) and her boyfriend James Sythe (Gabriel Basso) had a reputation for fighting with each other in public. On the night of Kendall’s death, the fight started in a bar and ended with Kendall storming outside and walking home and James following her with his truck. The next day Kendall was found dead under a bridge she was crossing. Witnesses at the bar saw James and Kendall fighting, and confirmed James had been drunk and disorderly before following her with his truck. The coroner confirms that Kendall had injuries that would be consistent with being struck by a blunt object that would have occurred before she fell over the bridge. And an eyewitness claims to have seen Sythe at the location where Kendall’s body was found.

As the trial starts, Justin begins to realize the bar he went to when he and his wife lost the baby was the same bar Kendall and James were at that fateful night, and he realizes he is not only a witness to their fight but that he may have important information that could seriously affect the case. However, his AA Sponsor Lawyer Larry Lasker (Kiefer Sutherland) warns of the dangers bringing forth such information could cause.  

Rounding out the cast are J.K. Simmons as Justin’s fellow juror Harold Chicowski, a former homicide detective who questions James’s guilt.