Crispin

April 24, 2026 ~ gigicatchesair ~ Leave a comment

Good afternoon. It is I Gigi the parti poodle here to introduce this week’s blog. As you may remember the kidnapper was going to sell “the Persian”, or in other words Demeter, to a buyer on the black market. The other Canis lupus familiaris and Felis catus and I are going over to the house in Ruffle’s owner’s van, and we plan to follow the black-market customers just as soon as—

“I have news.”

“Bernard D. Bunny? What is it?”

“Crispin.”

“Crispin? You mean—”

“Yes. Do you want me to tell them or should I?”

“I shall. Dear reader, the following words I tell you are most chilling. As you may remember from the beginning of this catnapping tale, Bernard had mentioned coyote sightings in our neighborhood and how he had to stay back at his hutch to protect his little sister Belle Bunny. There have been coyotes that come and go but the most disturbing one of them all is Crispin Z. Coyote.

Crispin is a Goliath amongst the Canis latrans. My novelist once witnessed him wolfing down a squirrel from the ears to the tail which dangled out of his mouth momentarily before it was ghoulishly devoured whole. My novelist forced me to go outside continuously with a harness and a leash for a while after that. The monster was also spotted nearby having mangled and munched on a bunny. He is a bloodthirsty beast with neither morals nor mercy.

After my novelist witnessed the terror and spoke to me about the dangers, I had a nightmare about Crispin. I was sleeping quietly, curled up next to my novelist on my soft blanket which I always make into a nest. The blinds were closed and the soft music my novelist likes to play at night had stopped. Suddenly, I heard something. My ears perked up and I listened intensely. Something was moving about in the other room. I did what any respectable poodle would do. I stood on my novelist and began licking her face. “Gigi,” she said. “Go back to sleep. It’s dark outside.” I could not wake her up and I can always wake her up. I heard the noise again. Footsteps…no, paw steps.

I hopped down off the bed and went to investigate. With cautious steps I trotted towards the door to the bathroom. I nudged it with my nose. The door creaked open and I held back nervous as to what I would find inside. I could see the soft glow of the nightlight plugged into the outlet over the sink counter. My ears perked again thinking I heard a low growl. My swift paws stepped back out of the bathroom. I hightailed it back to the bedroom. Blindly, I ran to the bed and flew into the air, sailing and hoping I would land on the mattress. I did…only to find the growling was louder. I ran to my novelist and jumped on her, trying to get her to wake up. “Go back to sleep, Gigi,” she said. “It’s dark outside.

Suddenly, I heard the growling again, closer this time. I turned to look. The bathroom door creaked open and there stood Crispin, his glowing red eyes fixed on me, his jaws salivating. I woke up in a sweat yelping, my novelist gathering me into her arms trying to get me to calm down.

And now it appears he is on the prowl again. But we must rescue Demeter. If she is sold off tonight, we will have no chance of retrieving her and bringing her home. This will not do. We must be brave, even if the evil Crispin is lurking about.

“Shall we tell the others?”

“Yes, let’s go.” Until next week, I bid you adieu.

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: ZODIAC (2007)-PARAMOUNT+**

The most chilling and terrifying thing about David Fincher’s near masterpiece film is that it was never nominated for a single Oscar. No, instead they decided to nominate such wonderful mediocrity as Michael Clayton and Juno for a bevy of awards including Best Picture. But not one Oscar nod went to Zodiac. Not for Harris Savides’s cinematography, not for Angus Wall’s editing, not for Mark Ruffalo’s supporting performance or Jake Gyllenhaal’s lead performance, not for its brilliant screenplay by James Vanderbilt based on the best-selling book of the same name by Robert Graysmith, nor for Fincher’s flawless direction, and not for Best Picture of the year. This movie is better than any film I saw this past year, even One Battle After Another. If you have seen Zodiac, you know what I’m talking about and if you haven’t, it is absolutely a hands-down must-see experience that will leave an eerie feeling with you long after its credits have rolled.

The story is based on a real life infamous serial killer named “Zodiac” who hunted and killed people during the late 1960’s and 1970’s in the San Francisco Bay Area. He was fond of attention and frequently sent letters with detailed information about the killings to the Bay Area newspapers. Information only the police would know. He took credit for the killings and had a fondness for cryptograms which he included in his letters as well.

One month after the Zodiac Killer murders Darlene Ferrin and seriously wounds Mike Mageau on July 4, 1969, he sends a letter to the San Francisco Chronical. The Zodiac killer insists that his letters including the cryptogram, which he says his name is burried in, be published in the paper. Robert Graysmith (Jake Gyllenhaal), a young political cartoonist for the paper, heads to the library and gathers up books on decoding cryptograms. He is correct in figuring out that even though the Zodiac said his name was in the cryptograms, it was not. Paul Avery (Robert Downey Jr.), a reporter for the Chronical and the other members of the staff think little of Graysmith’s contribution and ignore him. That is until Graysmith and Avery begin discussing the coded letters. The two begin to work together to figure out who the Zodiac is. Graysmith notes that in the letters the Zodiac refers to “the most dangerous animal of them all” which could be a reference to a 1932 film called The Most Dangerous Game in which the lead hunts humans for sport.

In September, the Zodiac strikes again, attacking law student Bryan Hartnell and Cecelia Shepard at Lake Berryessa in Napa County. After two weeks go by, the Zodiac kills again, this time a taxi driver named Paul Stein. San Francisco police inspectors Dave Toschi (Mark Ruffalo) and his partner Bill Armstrong (Anthony Edwards) are assigned to the case. Toschi becomes chief investigator. In 1971 they question a man named Arthur Leigh Allen (John Carroll Lynch), who bears a striking resemblance to the drawings, wears a Zodiac brand watch with the symbol on it that keeps appearing in his letters, and has a history of mental illness.

Chloë Sevigny also stars as Graysmith’s wife Melanie and Brian Cox stars as lawyer Melvin Belli.

Brainstorming

April 16, 2026April 22, 2026 ~ gigicatchesair ~ Leave a comment

Good afternoon. It is I Gigi the parti poodle here once again to introduce this week’s blog. We are all overjoyed to have our precious cats Edison the Manx and Madeline the British Shorthair back with our illustrious group after Artemis and I rescued them.

“I helped rescue them too.”

Yes, yes, Bernard D. Bunny also assisted in their liberation by bashing open the door with his remarkably strong hind legs.

“Thank you.”

Yes, of course. Apparently, even bunnies need validation. All of us, however, are dismayed that we still do not have our lovely friend Demeter the Persian, Artemis’s sister, home safe and sound. We know that Edison heard that the kidnapper is planning to do something with “the Persian” tonight and we all must hurry to put together a plan to thwart him before she is sold off to someone on the black market. Our biggest problem is when tonight the kidnapper is planning to meet his buyer or buyers and send our precious feline to some brutish monster keeping us from ever seeing her again.

There has been much debate among us as to how to go about our second feline rescue. Ruffles the Bulldog thinks we should park the van across the street as planned, wait until we see the buyer or buyers arrive, and then all of us should open the side door of the van and attack. Charlotte the Chow thinks we should stealthily position ourselves at all the entrances to the house and then wait for them to exit and attack. Bruiser the Jack Russell thinks we should sneak in the house and catch them by surprise. Titus and Tyler, the twin dachshunds, are chasing each other around the room.

I listened to all their proposals and said, “I think we should all stay together and whoever comes to the house we should follow in the van.”

“What if we follow the wrong automobile?”

“As long as it’s not a delivery truck coming to drop off a package, we will have the right vehicle.”

We all sat there for a moment and postulated the proposals. Then Bernard D. Bunny spoke up and said, “I think Gigi might be right. I think we need to stake out the house and see if a person or persons come to the house and if they leave with a cat.”

“But what if we cannot see well enough to know if they even have a cat in their possession,” Eddison said.

“I will bring a couple of pairs of my best binoculars.”

“You have binoculars?”

“I’m a bunny. Of course I have binoculars.”

Charlotte the Chow nodded. “I do think that waiting and following them may be the safest idea. We have all risked a great deal getting too close. Let’s see if we can make more progress at a distance.”

“Then we are agreed,” I said.

“But what do we do if we find Artemis and where she is being taken?” Bruiser the Jack Russell asked. “How will we get her back?”

We all thought deeply about this dilemma.

“I think I might have an idea of what to do when we find their destination,” Bernard D. Bunny said.

Until next week, I bid you adieu.

MY BOOKS

CONGRATULATIONS, BILLY IDOL

Before I do my stream of the week, I just wanted to say congratulations to all the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees. Last week my stream of the week was Billy Idol Should Be Dead which is a terrific documentary about his life and music. I was delighted to find out this morning that he made it in and glad Gigi and I chose his documentary as our Stream of the Week last week.

**STREAM OF THE WEEK: PINBALL: THE MAN WHO SAVED THE GAME (2022)-HULU**

This week’s pick is a comedic biopic sleeper about how a down-on-his-luck recently divorced college graduate saved the game of pinball. The film was written and directed by brothers Austin and Meredith Bragg. The film is set to act like an interview with the present-day Mr. Sharp (Dennis Boutsikaris).

In 1975, Rodger Sharp (well-acted by Mike Faist), a 25-year-old college graduate from Chicago, decided to become a writer. His wife Judy (Olivia Koukol), whose father owns a furniture store, recently filed for divorce from him. After signing the papers, Rodger moves to New York City and gets an interview with the fledgling G.Q. Magazine. On the way up in the elevator, he meets a woman named Ellen (Crystal Reed) and is smitten. She gives him her business card and exits while he rides up to interview with Jack Haber (Mike Doyle). Rodger also meets fashion magazine co-workers Harry Coulianos (Bryan Batt), Deborah (Victoria Giler), and photographer James Hamilton (Toby Regbo). He is given an assignment to see if he is suited for the job. Shortly afterwards he goes in search of a pinball machine, his favorite pastime. But he quickly discovers the machines are hard to find. The only one he locates is in an XXX Rated adult store where an apprehensive man named Jimmy (Connor Ratliff) works the counter.

Rodger gets the job at GQ and works up the courage to call Ellen and ask her on a date. She agrees to go out to lunch with him. At lunch he discovers she is a secretary and has an eleven-year-old son named Seth (Christopher Convery) from her previous marriage. She tells him she is 32 years old and planning in the future to marry again and have more children. The two find they continue to have good chemistry and agree to meet again for lunch where he takes her to the XXX Rated adult store and shows her the pinball machine.

Shortly thereafter, the pinball machine was confiscated from the adult store by the New York City Police. Baffled as to why, Rodger finds out from Jimmy that pinball machines have been illegal in New York City for over thirty years thanks to a politician named Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia (Carlos Lopez). In 1942 LaGuardia convinced the public pinball machines were owned by the mob and encouraged children to gamble. Thus begins Mr. Sharp’s odyssey to write a book about pinball and hopefully overturn the unfounded laws in New York and other major cities to make pinball machines legal.

Exit and Plan

April 9, 2026 ~ gigicatchesair ~ Leave a comment

Good afternoon. It is I Gigi the parti poodle here to introduce this week’s blog. As you may remember last week Artemis the Persian and I had crept downstairs and found we were face-to-face with a locked door. But because Bernard D. Bunny could not resist executing his Easter Bunny rock performance, he jumped up and opened the door with the power of his hind legs.

When the door blew open the three of us were stunned to see our kidnapped friends Madeline the British Shorthair and Edison the Manx inside. They looked distressed to say the least and they both had lost weight. Bernard offered them a carrot. They munched it down quickly despite being carnivores.

“Where is my sister?” Artemis asked.

“We don’t know,” Edison said.

“You don’t know?”

“We don’t know,” Madeline echoed.

Artemis sobbed a long sorrowful sob as I have never heard a cat sob before.

“There, there,” Bernard said patting her on the back with his paw. “There, there.”

“I overheard the kidnapper say something about a Persian cat,” Edison said.

Suddenly, everyone went silent and looked at him. When he didn’t answer I said, “Well? What did he say?”

“He said he wanted to take the Persian to market.”

“To market? What does he mean by take her to market?”

“I do not know what he means by take her to market. I only know he said he was planning to do it tonight.”

“Tonight?” Artemis said. “When did you hear him declare tonight?”

“Today.”

“Today?” Madeline said. “I never heard him say anything of the sort.”

“It was when he took us outside this morning. He got a phone call and I overheard it.”

“My goodness! I am so glad you did. I must have been preoccupied with something else, like being incarcerated.”

“We must set a plan in place,” I said.

“I concur,” Bernard said.

“But first we must get Edison and Madeline out and returned home safely. Let’s head back up the stairs.”

Artemis, Bernard, Edison, Madeline and I all stepped out of the room. I could hear both Edison and Madeline breathe a collective sigh of relief. We ascended the stairs one step at a time. When we reached the top step, we all looked around to make sure no one had come home. We then trotted over to the front door and Artemis, and I pushed the chair over so Bernard could hop up, turn the knob and let us out. But after devising a plan, we will be back to rescue Demeter. Until next week, I bid you adieu.

MY BOOKS

**STREAM OF THE WEEK: BILLY IDOL SHOULD BE DEAD (2026)-HULU**

So, how does a normal middleclass clean cut English boy who wears glasses named William Broad become a drug addled major punk rock icon named Billy Idol? That is the story presented in this engrossing documentary by Jonas Åkerlund. I must say off top I have seen Billy Idol perform twice and he and his band put on an exhilarating show. The first time I saw them play, woman after woman stormed the stage and were escorted out of the concert by security. The second time was tamer in that way and still a great show. I hope he gets inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame this year.

The documentary starts in England with the dawn of punk rock. Born into a middle-class family, the young Mr. Broad started to observe the scene. At the time he was not a drinker, smoker, or drug taker. In 1976 he joined a band named Chelsea and the lead singer told him he should wear contacts instead of glasses and bleach his hair blonde. He took the advice and shortly thereafter he and a couple of other musicians left the group and formed the band Generation X. William Broad then changed his name to Billy Idol. He chose the name based on his chemistry teacher referring to him as “idle” on his report card. The band had hits like “Ready Steady Go” and “Dancing with Myself” and appeared on British television. During this time, he met dancer Perri Lister and the two started a long-term relationship. It was also during this time drugs started to hit the punk scene, and Idol became acquainted with heroine.

When he was only two years old, his father, an English salesman also named William, moved William, William’s mother Joan and his little sister Jane to New York where the family lived for four years before returning to England. Because he was familiar with the city, when Idol realized the punk scene in England was waning in 1981, he saw an opportunity to head back to where he had spent his early childhood and become a solo artist.

At that time a new phenomenon was about to take place called MTV and in 1982, Idol became one of the earliest artists to perform on it. He wrote the mega hit “White Wedding” and working with his new guitarist Steve Stevens. They came up with a concept for the video with his girlfriend Perri playing the bride, shot it in a few short days, it aired and the rest is history.

But success brought pressure, and pressure made the drinking, drugs worse. Idol’s paralleling success and harrowing drug and sex spiral play out in both interviews, footage and animation over the course of the film.

The Bunny Cometh

April 3, 2026 ~ gigicatchesair ~ Leave a comment

Good evening. It is I Gigi the parti poodle here to introduce this week’s blog. As you may remember Artemis and I headed downstairs to the basement where we heard a sound on the other side of the door. Artemis said, “I’d know that meow anywhere!” I leaned in and we both listened closely. She was correct. It was Madeline the British Shorthair’s meow.

“Madeline, are you alright?” Artemis said. “We’re here to rescue you.”

Then I heard a different familiar meow.

“Edison, is that you?”

He meowed again.

“We are coming to rescue you too, Edison. Artemis, we must find a chair to climb up on and pick the lock so that—”

“Hello.”

Artemis and I whipped around to find Bernard D. Bunny sitting behind us.

“Bernard!” I said surprised. “What are you doing here?”

“I’ve come to tell you something.”

“Wait,” Artemis said, a perplexed look on her face. “This isn’t in the script. You aren’t supposed to be in this scene.”

“You say Easter. I say Bunny.”

“What?”

“Bernard,” I said with a huff. “This isn’t funny. We’re trying to tell a story here.”

“You say Easter. I say Bunny.”

Artemis turned to me and whispered. “I don’t understand. We didn’t rehearse this. She pulled out her script and showed it to me. “Do you see? Bernard is not in this scene and “You say Easter, I say Bunny” is not on the page.”

“You say Easter. I say Bunny.”

“Do I need to call my agent?”

“You say Easter. I say Bunny.”

“Easter!” Edison shouted from the other side of the door.

“Bunny!” Bernard shouted back. “You say Easter. I say Bunny.”

“Easter!” Madeline shouted from the other side of the door.

“Bunny! You say Easter, I say Bunny.”

“I am fed up with doing this every year,” I told him. “I am not going through this again.”

“Easter.”

“No.”

“Easter.”

“Bernard—”

“Bunny,” Artemis said.

I turned to her. “Seriously?”

She shrugged. “Sometimes it’s good to go off script.”

Bernard put on a pair of Ray Ban Wayfarers. “You say Easter, I say Bunny.”

“Easter!” Everyone said but I.

“Bunny!”

“Easter!”

“Bunny!”

“Easter!”

“Bunny!”

Bernard pointed at me with his front paw. “You say Easter, I say Bunny.”

“This is absurd! We’re in the middle of an important plot advancing scene here.”

“You say Easter, I say Bunny.”

“For crying out loud, Bernard.”

“You say Easter, I say Bunny.”

“No.”

“Bunny.”

“Not a chance.”

“Bunny.”

“Ugh! Fine. Easter.”

“Bunny!”

“Easter.”

“Bunny!”

“Easter!”

“Bunny! Stage Dive!”

It was at this point that Bernard jumped up, his back feet forwards, sailed through the air, and kicked in the door. Artemis and I stared in shock at what we saw before us. Until next week Happy Easter and I bid you adieu.

MY BOOKS

**STREAM OF THE WEEK: HIGH POTENTIAL (2024)-HULU**

As spring break season is in full gear, I thought this would be a good week to feature a fantastic streamer that’s as fun and smart as it is addictive. Based on the Franco Belgian series Haut Potentiel Intellectuel (HPI) which is also streaming on Hulu, is show is a whodunit comedy mystery about a mother of three with a 160 IQ and HIP or high intelligence potential, a condition found in people with an IQ over 130 where they have significantly enhanced cognitive abilities. Her name is Morgan Gillory (played by the always likable Kaitlin Olson) who cannot seem to find her place in the world due to her unusual gifts which sometimes affect her concentration. She had gone from dead end job to dead end job with her most recent being a janitor working at the L.A.P.D. police department.

One night, as she is cleaning, she happens to notice the department’s crime board. Upon studying it she quickly realizes the board needs to be changed to crack the case. She makes the necessary adjustments and goes back to cleaning.

The next day detectives Adam Karadec (Daniel Sunjata), Daphne Forrester (Javicia Leslie), Lev “Oz” Özdil (Deniz Akdeniz) and their head of department Selena Soto (Judy Reyes) find their case board has been tampered with. After reviewing the security footage, they found out their night janitor Morgan was the one responsible. Karadec and Özdil head over to Morgan’s house and bring her in for questioning and detain her. They tell her that tampering with a crime board is a serious offense. Karadec is skeptical but Soto is intrieged. They release Morgan after Forrester does a little research to find Morgan is correct on her reasoning of the evidence. The release Morgan who meets her ex-husband the sweet and unflappable Ludo Radovic (Taran Killam) who is the father or their whip-smart son Elliot (Matthew Lamb) and their newborn daughter. Morgan manages to get into an argument with a couple of officers on the way out of the precinct and ends up back in the holding cell.

Soto gets her out of the incident and asks her to work with the no nonsense Karadec as his partner, an arrangement Karadec is less than happy about. But as they begin to work together the two discover they make a better team than each of them originally envisioned.

Rounding out the cast is Amirah J as Ava Sinquerra, Morgan’s daughter from a previous marriage in which her artist husband Roman Sinquerra, who went missing when Ava was a baby.

UPS Delivery

March 27, 2026 ~ gigicatchesair ~ Leave a comment

Good evening. It is I Gigi the parti poodle here to introduce this week’s blog. Artemis and I froze. Then she carefully climbed down from the chair.

“Do you think he’s returned?” she asked.

I hurried over to the window. I have a certain set of skills when it comes to peering out windows. Upon doing so, I saw a familiar nemesis. “No, he has not returned.”

“Who is it then?”

“Brown.”

“Brown?”

“It’s Brown.”

Artemis crept over and peered out the office window. Sure enough, a UPS delivery driver skipped up to the porch in his uniform and set a shipping box on the step. Then he hopped back into his truck, turned it around and headed right. Artemis looked at me and I looked at her. I knew what she was thinking. She knew what I was thinking. We were both thinking we needed to go get a look at that box.

Lucky for us there was a table near the door with a bowl to toss one’s keys into. Artemis jumped up on the table and flipped open the deadbolt. Then she jumped down like a gymnast, grabbed the handle and turned the knob. I pushed her back and the door opened with her. I trotted onto the steps, put my head at the back of the box and pushed it forwards until it slid inside.

“PetSmart,” I said reading the label.

“PetSmart indeed.”

“There’s cats here somewhere.”

“Shall we head downstairs this time?”

“Let’s go.”

We trotted down the stairs to find there was only one room option this time as opposed to upstairs where there were three. And it was shut. Shut and locked. We tucked our tails, sat down and pondered. And then we pondered some more.

“There must be a way to unlock the door,” I finally said.

“Hmm, yes,” Artemis said lifting her front paw and licking it.

“Do you think we could find a spare key around here somewhere?”

“Perhaps.”

“What do you think we are going to find in there?”

“Who knows?”

Suddenly, we heard a sound on the other side of the door. We both leaned in and put our ears near the door and listened. Artemis’s eyes grew large and round.

“I’d know that meow anywhere!”

Until next week, I bid you adieu.

MY BOOKS

**STREAM OF THE WEEK: THE PLASTIC DETOX (2026)-NETFLIX**

Believe it or not, this is a rather uplifting film about a downer of a topic. It will make you want to severely cut back on purchasing plastic in any form going forwards. Or perhaps even cut it out altogether. And halleluiah to that. Gigi and I often post about our dislike of fast fashion around school clothes shopping time every year here on the blog. And in addition, we discuss our intense dislike of man-made fabrics regardless of the brand.

The documentary focuses on the likable and renowned Dr. Shanna Swan who decided to conduct an experiment about lowering the number of plastics in the homes of six couples who have unexplained infertility. Dr. Swan is an environmental and reproductive epidemiologist who is Professor of Environmental Medicine and Public Health at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. She and her research team wanted to find out if switching out many plastic household items for healthier options would help the couples to conceive. Not only is this an engaging experiment, but it is also an excellent documentary on how to start ridding your own home of plastic toxins and begin to live a healthier lifestyle. Because I read there were some viewers out there who wanted more specifics on what the couples did to change their living environment, I worked with AI to provide a list of items Dr. Swan had her subjects take out of their homes and what she had the subjects replace those items with.

Here is a list of what Dr. Shanna had the couples change:

Scented products (air fresheners, candles, perfumes, fragranced lotions) → replaced with fragrance‑free alternatives

Plastic-packaged personal care items (lotions, shampoos, conditioners) → swapped for lower‑plastic or fragrance‑free versions (not always fully plastic‑free, but reduced exposure)

Plastic food containers → replaced with glass or stainless steel

Plastic‑wrapped foods → avoided when possible; couples were encouraged to choose fresh, unpackaged foods

Plastic water bottles → replaced with non‑plastic bottles (glass or metal)

Plastic‑wrapped foods → avoided when possible; couples were encouraged to choose fresh, unpackaged foods

Heating food in plastic → eliminated entirely (a major source of BPA/phthalate leaching)

Polyester and other synthetic clothing → replaced with 100% cotton clothing

Synthetic baby items → replaced with green/low‑plastic baby products (cotton clothing, non‑plastic bottles, low‑plastic gear)

Plastic baby bottles → replaced with non‑plastic bottles (glass or stainless steel)

Scented cleaning products → replaced with fragrance‑free cleaners (to reduce phthalates)

Plastic-heavy household goods (e.g., certain storage bins, organizers) → swapped for wood, metal, or glass where feasible

Plastic kitchen tools → replaced with wood, silicone, or metal (not always shown directly, but consistent with the swaps described)

Chewing gum (often contains synthetic polymers) → avoided

Books and items with plastic coatings (e.g., some children’s books) → minimized when possible

Plastic water filters, plastic kettles, and other heated-plastic appliances → replaced with stainless steel or glass versions (implied through the “remove heated plastics” guidance)

You can also get more information by going to this website: https://opsociety.org/theplasticdetox/

In addition to Dr. Swan’s study, the film also focuses on Reverand Lennox Yearwood Jr., President of Hip Hop Caucus. He is featured along with the founder of Rise St. James, Sharon Lavigne who have both worked on pushing back on petrochemical plants expanding in Louisiana in an area infamously known as Cancer Alley. You can get more information here: Resist | Rise St. James

Also featured is Lydia Wendt, a fashion model and the founder of California Cloth Foundry who designs all natural, sustainable clean and healthier clothing. You can read more about the company here: https://clothfoundry.com/

And finally, the film also features the brilliant Professor John Warner, Founder of the Institute for Green Chemistry. His website is here: https://johnwarner.org/

Investigating the House

March 20, 2026 ~ gigicatchesair ~ Leave a comment

Good evening. It is I Gigi the parti poodle here to introduce this week’s blog. As you may remember from last week, Artemis and I were perched on the catnapper’s kitchen counter looking down at the long drop to the Pergo floor. I turned my head towards the left and saw the glass topped stove and two kitchen towels hanging down from the bar handle. If we worked our way from the sink to the stove, we could each grab one of the kitchen towels and lower ourselves to the floor.

Artemis considers my idea and nods. She is, however, concerned about the slipperiness of the glass top stove. I agree with her but can see no other optimal way down. Except of course to jump which frightens me and my delicate poodle paws. We begin inching our way down the tan granite counter paw by paw until we arrive at the glass stovetop. Artemis deftly sinks her claws into both sides of the first towel and lowers herself to the Pergo. Unfortunately, my claws are not as deft. I slip and slide on top of the stove as I try to get my bearings. I reach down…grab the towel…and flip! I am dangling in midair about to slip! I could break my nails this way! Artemis quickly pushes a kitchen floor map under me and…plop! I land. Artemis looks at me shakes her head and licks her paw.

We look around at our surroundings and head towards the living room. Much like the kitchen, it is cleaner and neater than we expected. The place has cream-colored wall to wall carpet, a comfortable cloth couch and chair, an old-fashioned desk, a fireplace and a potted tree. I was stunned. Apparently, the catnapper vacuums.

Not noticing anything nefarious in the living room, we trotted on to the foyer. There were two flights of stairs. One that headed up and one that led down. And when you are trying to figure out where a catnapper might be up to something nefarious, down is the more likely choice. However, just to make certain this was indeed the case, we ascended the stairs to check out the rooms on the second floor first. After Artemis and I trotted to the top step, we found there was a narrow linen closet in front of us, and a door to a room. To the right there was one door and to the left there were two doors. We pushed open the first door to the left to find it was a bathroom. We trotted inside and saw it had grey walls and white tile with white fixtures with a dark brown fancy tile bathtub.

Next, we looked in the room to our right. It was set up to be an office. The room was painted mint green and had a computer desk, an office chair, a docking station, a printer, a bookshelf and a couple of file cabinets. Next to the file cabinet there was a wooden chair. I told Artemus there may be a clue in the file cabinet. She agreed. She hopped up on the wooden chair and was just about to open the cabinet when we both heard a car pull up in the driveway. Until next week, I bid you adieu.

MY BOOKS

**STREAM OF THE WEEK: ALL THE EMPTY ROOMS (2025)-NETFLIX**

Stanford University is one of the leaders if not the leader in studying mass shootings and the individuals that commit them. It’s important I point this out because there are some films out there, let’s call them Problem Films, movies and television shows that get awards and accolades which present skewed information, missing information, and/or swaths of false information. They play on emotion over logic because the creators have an agenda. Or as the kids say, these films are rage bait. And being a writer, I’ve run across enough emotional artists to know sometimes they’re idiots. Seriously stupid empathic dolts. They will refuse to do their research and instead follow their misguided arrogance, write with their heart and not their head, and deeply and profoundly annoy those of us who take the time to look up facts.

That said, this movie is not a Problem Film. This movie is superb in delivering not only its message but the reality of the situation. Yes, the movie is emotional, but it is not irrational. And it absolutely without question deserved its Oscar win this past Sunday. But before I get into this must-see short documentary let’s look at some facts from Stanford’s studies:

Stanford researchers were able to study 35 mass shooters and determine a diagnosis on 32. Of the 32 diagnosed 28 met the diagnostic criteria of at least one psychiatric disorder. The most common diagnosis was schizophrenia, which affected 18 of the patients. https://med.stanford.edu/news/insights/2022/04/investigating-psychiatric-illnesses-of-mass-shooters.html
Other diagnoses included bipolar 1 disorder; delusional disorder, personality disorder, substance use disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder.https://med.stanford.edu/news/insights/2022/04/investigating-psychiatric-illnesses-of-mass-shooters.html
The study also points out the following: “None of the assailants had received medication or other treatment before committing the crimes. Most had never been medically diagnosed using scientific criteria.” https://med.stanford.edu/news/insights/2022/04/investigating-psychiatric-illnesses-of-mass-shooters.html

You think maybe as a society we should make researching mental health a priority?

Moving on: in addition, it turns out, shock of shocks, it’s a very bad idea to have guns in a house where children live. Especially if their parents or siblings have any of the mental health issues listed above. In fact, it’s just a lousy idea to have guns and kids in the same house even if said parents, siblings, etc. are sane. Here’s why:

In 2020, gun violence surpassed car accidents as the No. 1 killer of children in the United States. https://med.stanford.edu/news/all-news/2025/02/children-mass-shootings.html
Lo and behold, 59% of kids who died in mass shootings were at the hands of a family member. Over 22 million U.S. children live in a home with a gun. If a domestic disturbance arises in those homes, the risk of death dramatically increases. https://med.stanford.edu/news/all-news/2025/02/children-mass-shootings.html
And most importantly, “…there may be opportunities to prevent incidents of domestic violence by removing firearms from homes where relationships between adults are deteriorating or mental health concerns are rising.” https://med.stanford.edu/news/all-news/2025/02/children-mass-shootings.html

The point is there are essentially two problems involved in most mass shootings. Not all but most: mental health and easy access to firearms. It’s both mixed together like bleach and ammonia. It’s getting rid of lax gun laws and addressingthe urgent need to better advance psychology and neuroscience. That’s the bottom line. Some television and movies will often have you believe it’s a myriad of other fallacies from a person’s cultural background to visiting dark web online web sites to witnessing narwhals shooting confetti and glitter out their asses that invoke mass shootings. Where does this asinine stupidity come from? And even more befuddling, why do viewers believe these inane lies? Because they’re too lazy to fact check information? Because some filmmakers are too arrogant to get all the facts to make their film? Because a conglomerate of low-rent critics says said film is good? The last time I checked most critics and filmmakers weren’t scientists or professional researchers.

All that said, this is a profound short documentary about two very brave, and I do mean brave men, correspondent Steve Hartman and photographer Lou Bopp. Hartman originally was given the job of going to schools where a mass shooting had occurred and present an upside story on the occurrence. These absurd missions took their toll and after a while Mr. Hartman concluded since he had a soul, he would rather do something useful and profound instead. Along with photographer Bopp, they decided to document and photograph all the bedrooms of children who lost their lives in school shootings. Bopp has an interesting ritual he does which is take what he and his daughter call “the morning picture”. Every day he takes a picture of her in the morning right at the time she is about to leave for school and has done so for years. He does it because you never know what might happen on any given day.

At the time of the filming, Hartman and Bopp had been doing this for seven years, which is remarkable, and they had three bedrooms to go. Looking at one of these rooms is brutal enough. Imagine what kind of courage and compassion it took to do this project for seven years. Their hope is to present their work on air. Everyone should see this short. There is no excuse. It should be required viewing as well as the short If Anything Happens, I Love You which I had as one of my streams of the week last year.

Enter Through the Window

March 12, 2026 ~ gigicatchesair ~ Leave a comment

Good afternoon. It is I Gigi the parti poodle here to introduce this week’s blog. Artemis and I had to sneak behind the fiend’s yellow house to get to the back door. Artemis, being a Persian cat, is more surefooted than I. However, I am a bold and clever poodle. After we sat in the van with Charlotte, Bruiser, Ruffles and the twins and watched the man pull his white Corvette out of the garage and drive off to whatever nefarious thing he does for work, Artemis and I looked both ways, crossed the street, and headed up to the house.

We had to go around the outdoor catwalk that sticks out at the front of the residence. A rickety disturbing thing if you ask me. I have not once seen a feline walk down it the entire time that we have been scoping out the house. In fact, we have not seen anyone, human or beast, enter or exit the fiend’s abode except the fiend himself. Artemis and I had to jump up and climb a wood fence to reach the rear side. My back foot slipped a little, but I regained my balance and followed Artemis. We tiptoed along the back of the house, surprised to find a rather lovely red wood composite deck. It was rather opulent and looked down a hill. Not the horror house we originally expected. We looked over at a window that according to the blueprints was the rec room. When we climbed up on a deck chair to get a better vantage point into the room, we realized it had blackout curtains which hung across the glass. I looked along the building to my right and saw the sliding glass door. I pointed it out to Artemis and said, “We could see if he left it unlocked.”

“Or possibly try the window,” she said. “He may have cracked it, and we could push it open and crawl inside.”

“Brilliant,” I said and we headed towards the door. We wanted to peer into the house but only saw the slats of Hunter Douglas blinds. I got down as low as I could and attempted to look under them but all I saw was darkness. Artemis and I saw a folding chair standing against the side of the house. It was light enough that the two of us were able to scoot it over. Artemis leaned her weight on one of the legs and I jumped up onto the seat to see if the door was open. I pushed against the handle and tried to get it to move. But my efforts were to no avail.

“We should try the window,” Artemis said. “Humans can be more careless with windows than they are with doors.”

“I indeed hope you are right.”

“Demeter used to talk about slipping into windows of houses at night all the time.”

“Did she get caught?”

“Not…usually.”

“Right. Let’s try it again.”

Artemis and I nudged the chair along till it was under the window. I climbed up on the chair and gave it a shove. Much to our delight it opened… to blinds. I pushed them forwards as I climbed in…and found myself in a kitchen sink. This petrified me because kitchen sinks are slippery and I did not want to be trapped. I put both my forepaws on the counter and hopped up. Suddenly, I noticed it was a long way down to the floor. Artemis scampered up the chair and into the window. She too found herself in the kitchen sink. She hopped up on the counter and looked down.

“It is rather high,” she said.

“We’re going to have to get down from here somehow.”

Until next week, I bid you adieu.

MY BOOKS

**STREAM OF THE WEEK: SONG SUNG BLUE (2025)-PEACOCK**

Sometimes the critics get it wrong. And they certainly failed to give enough appreciation to this underrated sleeper, about a couple of real-life down-on-their-luck musicians, who teamed up to create a sensational Neil Diamond tribute band. The film was directed by Craig Brewer who co-wrote the script with Greg Kohs based on Kohs’ 2008 documentary film of the same name. One of the most heartbreaking things about the movie is Hugh Jackman not receiving an Oscar nod for Best Actor for his electric performance.

Mike (Hugh Jackman) is a Vietnam veteran and 20 years sober alcoholic who has grown weary of performing covers of famous singers. One night he tells his boss Mark Shurilla (Michael Imperioli), a Buddy Holly impersonator, he’s not going to perform as Don Ho at the Wisconsin State Fair but rather wants to create his own persona and call himself Lightning. On that fateful night he meets Claire (Kate Hudson in a well-deserved Oscar-nominated performance), a versatile singer and musician who happens to be performing as Patsy Cline. They chat and flirt a little and then he watches her perform. He is informed by Sex Machine, a James Brown impersonator (Mustafa Shakir) that she is a very versatile performer who can sing just about anything from country to rock and even opera.

The two meet again a year later and Claire tells him he would make a terrific Neil Diamond. Mike thinks over her suggestion, contacts her again, and says he likes the idea provided she performs with him. The two begin to rehearse together and start to put together a Neil Diamond experience show all the while falling in love. Claire introduces Mike to her teenage daughter Rachel (Ella Anderson) and son Dana Cartwright (Hudson Hensley). Mike in turn introduces her family to his teenage daughter Angelina (King Princess) who lives with her mother.

Mike gets in touch with his agent and dentist Dr. Dave Watson (Fisher Stevens), who introduces him to Tom D’Amato (Jim Belushi), a bus driver for a hotel that can get them gigs. Shurilla swallows his pride and offers to be lead guitar for the band. But the road to success is rocky and just as the band starts to take off, the unthinkable happens.

Perusing the Plans

March 5, 2026 ~ gigicatchesair ~ Leave a comment

Good afternoon. It is I Gigi the parti poodle here to introduce this week’s blog. After Sergio bravely retrieved the blueprints for the layout of the yellow house with the catwalk, we gathered at Artemis’s place. We laid the plans out on a table and studied them carefully. I noted it might be difficult to get into the house from the back, but the front seemed too conspicuous.

“I agree with Gigi,” Charlotte the Chow said. “The back of the house may be more difficult to enter but the front faces a cul-de-sac and a pack of dogs entering a residence would appear peculiar.”

“Entering from the back could be dangerous,” Bruiser the Jack Russell said. “But according to these plans we seem to only have two ways in.”

“What about the garage?” Ruffles the Bulldog asked. “It’s in the front but maybe if we time it just right a couple of us could sneak inside, maybe when he’s backing his sports car or van out. Then we could wait for the guy to come home and follow him into the house.”

“That sounds dangerous,” Charlotte said. “I think it would be difficult to slip inside unnoticed with him opening the door.”

“How do we even get to the back door?” Ruffles asked. “There’s a whole bunch of foliage there.”

Artemis sat up from her curled up position. “I am a cat. I can do it.”

“Are you sure?” Charlotte asked.

“Absolutely. If Gigi will go with me. She’s small and nimble. I think she could accomplish the task.”

“I will go with you,” I replied with great poodle dignity.

She put her paw on my shoulder. “Thank you. I believe it is safer to go in pairs.”

The twin dachshunds Titus and Tyler barked, “Better in pairs, better in pairs!” Then they started chasing each other’s tails again.

“When should we attempt this break in?” Bruiser asked.

“Soon,” Artemis said. “I want to find out what happened to my sister Demeter.”

“Saturday night,” I said. “Bernard D. Bunny has been watching the house, and he found out the brute goes out on Saturday nights. It will give us enough time to relook over the designs and hatch the best plan.”

“Agreed,” Charlotte said. “We will park the van just outside the cul-de-sac where we will have a strait view of the house.”

Then we all put our right forepaws out and set them one on top of the other. “We’re going in,” we all said in unison.

Until next week, I bid you adieu.

MY BOOKS

**STREAM OF THE WEEK: BLUE MOON (2025)-NETFLIX**

Every so often, though I think perhaps less these days, a movie comes along that is more of a filmed stage play than a movie. These films are less for the average audience and more for the cinephile. They tend to have very few sets and well-crafted monologues. This week’s pick is one of those films. The script is eloquently written by Oscar Nominee Robert Kaplow and directed by Richard Linklater.

The story takes place on the opening night of what would turn out to be the first blockbuster musical, Oklahoma written by Richard Rodgers (Andrew Scott) and Oscar Hammerstein (Simon Delaney). But before the existence of this powerhouse musical duo, Rodgers’ professional partner was Lorenz Hart (Oscar Nominee Ethan Hawke). The two of them wrote about twenty plays together and many great American standards such as “Isn’t it Romantic?”, “My Funny Valentine”, “Ten Cents a Dance”, “The Lady is a Tramp”, “The Most Beautiful Girl in the World”, and of course “Blue Moon”.

Disenchanted after watching the opening night of the show, Hart goes directly to his favorite bar where the cast will be gathering. Being quite savvy and forward thinking he realizes, somewhat to his dismay, that the show will be a huge hit and have a very long run. He also realizes, on some level, his place in the musical theatre world is waning. He sits down and discusses this with his favorite bartender Eddie (Bobby Cannavale) as well as a soldier/piano player named Morty Rifkin (Jonah Lees). In addition, Lorenz starts to discuss the intense infatuation he has with a college co-ed and actress named Elizabeth Weiland (Margaret Qualley). Also privy to the conversation is writer E.B. White (Patrick Kennedy). Eddie is a little surprised by Lorenz’s passion for Weiland as he knows Lorenz discretely lives his life as a homosexual. But Hart’s fixation on the young woman is indeed real.

As the night progresses, Hart, who suffers from alcoholism, tries to stay on the wagon as he watches the accolades roll in for Rodgers and Hammerstein. But each small pitfall he encounters over the course of the night makes him drink a little more and a little more.

The Squirrel and the Blueprints

February 27, 2026 ~ gigicatchesair ~ Leave a comment

Good evening. It is I Gigi the parti poodle here to introduce this week’s blog. This week Artemis, Bruiser, Charlotte, the twins Titus and Tyler, Ruffles, and I all called on Sergio Squirrel’s assistance once again. He’d done such a spectacular job getting pictures off the surveillance tape at the 7-Eleven we asked if he could get us the blueprints of the layout of the yellow house with the catwalk. He scampered down to the planning and building department at city hall late in the afternoon. He returned with photos the next day but told us it was a harrowing experience.

He said he had arrived at city hall at four forty-five P.M. just as they were about to close. As a man and a woman who were in a heated argument were coming out, he darted inside without being noticed. He found a place to hide under a vending machine and waited until five o’clock when the place closed.

After that Sergio told us he crawled out from under the machine and headed down the slippery tile hall to find the room where the blueprints are kept. He almost skidded into a copy machine but regained his footing and pressed forwards. He entered what looked like the right place, but found it was only a generic conference room. Someone had left a plate of crackers on the boardroom table and he snatched one. One cannot feel peckish when one is on a mission, he said. He continued down the hall and darted into a couple of rooms he found out were only offices. He was, however, delighted to discover a small bowl of peanut M&M candies on one of the desks and stopped briefly to enjoy the confection.

Finally, he came to a room at the end of a hallway with a double door, but it was locked shut. He didn’t know how he was going to get inside. He scampered back to one of the offices and hopped up on the desk chair. This was no easy feat as the chair had casters on it and rolled around as he climbed to the top of the back of the chair. He almost lost his balance and narrowly missed falling into a round metal trash can.

Once on the top of the backrest, though, he was able to study the window. He noticed it had the ability to open. If he could push the glass forwards, he could escape out the bottom, head outside and then scurry back inside the window of the room with the double door if it also had a window that opened out. Sergio said opening the window was no small feat. He had to push a lever down with all his might. But it worked and the window swung out from the bottom. He crawled onto the window frame and hopped out onto a nearby tree.

He skuttled along the branch and sat studying the position where he believed the double door room was located. It indeed came equipped with a window that opened but said window was closed. Disheartened, he headed back to the other office. Once inside he snatched a couple more M&M candies and munched them down to deal with the stress.

As he was leaving the office, he happened to see a maintenance guy rolling a garbage can down the hall, wearing a pair of headsets and singing off key. Sergio hid in the doorway of the office and when the man moved past him. Sergio jumped onto the rolling garbage can and held on. The man rolled the can all the way down to the double doored room at the end of the hall. He unlocked it with his badge and inadvertently rolled Sergio inside.

Sergio realized immediately this was the place where the blueprints were kept. As the man began cleaning and sweeping the room, Sergio scampered under a plush desk chair and lay low. It took a while, but the man finished cleaning the room. Sergio crawled out thinking he was gone when the man turned around. Sergio stepped back and hid behind a table leg. The man narrowed his eyes and stared straight at him. Our poor squirrel said his heart was beating so fast he could hear pulsing in his ears.

Then the man shut off the lights and left the room, rolling his garbage can down the hall. Sergio waited and then he headed over to a vault at the wall. He knew that under one of the keyboards on one of the desks there must be the code. Humans were always a little careless. He of course was right. He entered the code into the vault, and it unlocked. He scampered inside and found hard copies of the blueprints of houses. After several minutes of figuring out how the blueprints were organized, he found the ones to the yellow house with the catwalk. He took pictures on his phone and carefully put the blueprints away. He went to leave the vault when he heard a terrifying sound.

A guard-dog entered the room. Sergio’s heart nearly stopped beating. Somehow the security guard realized the vault was open and now said security guard and guard-dog were entering the vault. He would have to hide again. He hopped up onto one of the racks and crawled into one of the rolled-up blueprints. He tried not to shiver. He tried not to make a sound. But a guard-dog’s ears are sensitive.

The dog turned towards him and barked and growled viciously at the blueprints where he hid. The security guard turned and told the dog to calm down. Sergio knew he was trapped, cornered, doomed. What choice did he have but to use his talents. Just as the security guard shined his bright flashlight into the rolled-up documents, Sergio drew in a breath and sprung out into the security guard’s face. This stunned the security guard and his horror hound enough to allow him enough time to dash out of the vault, out the open door, back down the hall, into the room with the still open window, leap into the tree, scurry down the trunk and dash for freedom. He was so shaken by the experience he hid in his drey cuddling his acorns until the next day when he mustered up his courage and brought the pictures to us. Thank you, dear Sergio. Until next week, I bid you adieu.

MY BOOKS

STREAM OF THE WEEK: IF I HAD LEGS I’D KICK YOU (2025)-HBO MAX

Easily one of the best films of the year, this excellent piece of independent cinema fabulously written and directed by Mary Bronstein is an all-out attack on parenting and the medical system. Loaded with symbolism and metaphor, it is an original wonder. Some viewers have found it difficult to watch. I did not. Maybe because I’m an INTJ. I could easily rewatch the film and look for more clever layers in this story. Honestly, I’m baffled as to why it was not nominated for an Oscar for Best Original Screenplay.

Linda (Rose Byrn in a phenomenal Oscar nominated performance) is a psychotherapist who has a daughter known only as the Child (Delany Quinn). As viewers we barely get a look at the girl’s face. This is because Bronstein wants the audience to focus on the mother who in other films is often relegated to the background. This is Linda’s story. Not her husband’s nor her daughter’s. The Child has a rare pediatric eating disorder and must be fed through a tube (likely a phallic symbol) in her stomach at night which Linda must always attend to.

One day, after Linda and the Child come home from an appointment with Dr. Spring (Mary Bronstein), the Child’s passive aggressive medical doctor, carrying a cheese pizza for which the Child will only eat the crust, the Child heads into the bathroom of their upper middle-class Montauk apartment. The kid starts crying out that there is water all over the floor. When Linda goes to check out the situation she finds a crack in the ceiling. The crack gives way, and water rushes everywhere leaving her with a large hole in the ceiling.

Finding herself looking directly into womanhood she calls her husband Charles (Christian Slater who, like the daughter we rarely see) and he says he cannot come home because he is busy with his career. Take notice when you do see Charles, he is dressed in white, a wink and nudge to him being a “white knight come to rescue her”.

Linda then takes the Child to a motel near the water. During her stay she will find herself confronting Dr. Spring, Charles, a Parking Attendant (Mark Stolzenberg), a sardonic desk clerk named Diana (Ivy Wolk), sexist contractors who find reasons to stall on fixing her ceiling, and her own psychotherapist (creepily played by Conan O’Brien) a covert narcissistic jerk who makes the Crane brothers look like selfless saints. Her only comfort is escaping from their motel room at night clutching a receiver in one hand and marijuana paraphernalia in the other.

During their stay she meets James (ASAP Rocky), the motel’s superintendent, who provides some comfort and grounding. But this becomes short lived as one of her patients Caroline (Danielle Macdonald) who is struggling with being a new mother does something drastic.

Pedigree Certificates

February 19, 2026 ~ gigicatchesair ~ Leave a comment

Good morning. It is I Gigi the parti poodle here to introduce this week’s blog. Artemus the Persian, Bruiser the Jack Russel, Ruffles the Bulldog, Titus and Tyler the twin dachshunds and of course yours truly sat around this past week trying to come up with a plan. But before we did that, we had to consider how this evil catnapper found himself able to afford a white Corvette.

We called a tea party. The twins insisted on something with caffeine being served. This was concerning to the rest of us what with their difficulty keeping focus. We were stunned to find out that Earl Grey calmed them down. Shocking. The rest of us had a lovely fruity herbal. It was most scrumptious.

But getting back to the task at hand. Bernard D. Bunny joined our convention and helped us think about what could be going on. After drinking tea and deliberating the matter, it occurred to me that the villain may have acquired his car money by way of selling cats on the black market. When I spoke the words, I suddenly felt ludicrous. But Bernard after pondering the possibility for a moment said, “I think that sounds plausible.” The others agreed. “Yes,” Charlotte said. “Artemus and Demeter have pedigree certificates. So do Madeline and Edison.” But, I said, they would need the papers along with them to be valuable. We all thought about this dilemma. “Maybe,” Ruffles said, “he was able to hack into the computers and get an electronic copy.”

“Or possibly,” Bernard said, “he counterfeits them.”

This initiated a unified gasp.

“Counterfeit! Counterfeit!” the twins barked and ran around chasing each other’s tails.

“Do you think it’s too late?” Charlotte said. “Do you think he’s already sold our dear feline friends to evil conglomerates?”

“Maybe he hasn’t sold all of them off yet,” I said.

“Either way, we’re going to have to hurry. We must go investigate that brute’s house.

Until next week, I bid you adieu.

MY BOOKS

**STREAM OF THE WEEK: THE LOST BUS (2025)-APPLE TV+**

One of the more underrated films this year is this survival drama gem. Deservedly nominated for an Oscar for Best Achievement in Visual Effects for Charlie Noble, David Zaretti, Russell Bowen, and Brandon K. McLaughlin who provide a truly harrowing atmosphere. The story is based on the book Paradise by Lizzie Johnson about the 2018 Camp Fire which occurred in Paradise, California. It was the deadliest and most damaging wildfire in the history of California.

The story starts on Thursday morning November 8, 2018, in which badly maintained hardware belonging to the Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) was hit by Katabatic wind. This caused a line to fail in the Feather River Canyon and fire ignited. A truck driver saw it and called the fire department to report it. Because of the difficult terrain of the area, Ray Martinez, CAL FIRE Division chief (Yul Vazquez) was told by his crew they could not reach the location of the blaze. Listening to the advice of Jen Kissoon, CAL FIRE battalion chief (Kate Wharton) he realizes the fire is going to spread into a runaway wildfire. He attempts to send out an order to evacuate the area but runs into computer failure.

School Bus Driver Kevin McKay (well-acted by Matthew McConaughey) is struggling with financial and family issues. He has returned to Paradise to care for his aging mother Sherry (Kay McCabe McConaughey, McConaughey’s real life mother) and presently has custody of his son Shaun McKay (Levi McConaughey, McConaughey’s real life son). There is a lot of friction between Kevin and Shaun. Shaun is not doing as well in school as his father hoped, and he wants to leave Paradise and return to live with his mother. Not to mention Kevin is forced to take his beloved dog to the vet to have him put down. He asks his boss transportation director Ruby Bishop (Ashlie Atkinson) for extra hours. But she is reluctant to provide them as he has delayed returning his bus to the depot for maintenance several times (an interesting parallel with the badly maintained electrical lines).

After dropping off the kids at school that morning, Kevin gets a call from his mother that Shaun has a fever. Kevin tells her he needs to get gas for the bus and turn it in for maintenance, but he will stop at the pharmacy and get medicine after ending his shift. He fills the bus with gas, purchases Tylenol, and is on route home when a message is sent out to all the drivers that a wildfire is in effect. And Kevin is the only driver near enough to pick up 22 children stranded at Ponderosa Elementary School with their teacher Mary Ludwig (well-acted by America Ferrera) in the Paradise evacuation zone.