BSR

I was pretty horrified to see eggs for $5.99/dozen before Christmas. I thought for sure that price had to be for free-range or organic, but nope, just regular old eggs. Apparently a bird flu has killed millions of chickens, causing a severe egg shortage. I was going to make my own eggnog this year (love a boozy eggnog!) but once I saw those prices, I shelved my eggnog experiment until Christmas 2023.

Where my aunts live in central Florida, it's supposed to get down to 23° tomorrow morning. Yikes! Gotta wonder if that's a record.

This is what happens when there's no room at the inn ... a stray dog took shelter in a Mexican town's nativity scene. Once settled in, she gave birth to a big litter of puppies! Town officials have decided to let her & the pups stay, and the local animal welfare group is working to get all pups adopted.

Uh oh, somebody made a big boo-boo ... a 67-story condo tower in Manhattan is leaning 3 inches *gulp* The crazy thing is that even after they realized it was tilted, they still continued construction (because yeah, that totally makes sense). Now everyone is pointing fingers, filing lawsuits, and claiming $millions unpaid. Needless to say, buyers have fled the once almost sold-out tower like rats off a sinking ship. Yikes!

Doc Martin was so popular that it was remade in a number of other countries: Czech Republic, France, Germany, Greece, Netherlands, Russia, and Spain. I watched the Spanish version Doctor Mateo, which had a similar run length and basically the same plot: big-city surgeon develops a fear of blood, moves to a small town to work as the town's GP, falls in love with a local schoolteacher, etc. I don't know if the British series was more drama or comedy, but the Spanish remake was definitely more about laughs. As corny & silly as it was at times, I busted a gut plenty while watching the show. Not sure why the lead character's name was changed from Martin to Mateo, but the fictional Spanish town was called San Martín. Although the Spanish setting looked nothing like the town in Cornwall, it's arguably just as picturesque.

Sobre el gusto no hay nada escrito (there's no accounting for taste) ... I think the old room looked dated & cheap whereas I quite like the new decor. Honestly, I don't understand the meltdown some brides-to-be are having over it. Then again, I don't understand the all the obsessing over wedding details in general. The two poshest weddings I've ever attended (both must have had budgets waaaaaay into the 6 figures), the couples were divorced within 3 years. Both divorces you could see coming from a country mile. Engaged couples should think a whole lot more about the marriage itself than the wall color of their wedding venue.

Your mileage may vary ...

I found this hot! hot! hot! clip from End of the Century. I liked the movie on its own merits, but the sex appeal definitely adds to its charms.

Another picture of the happy couple, posted on Reboul's Instagram ...

Smiley the Netflix series is based on a play that was a smash hit in Barcelona 10 years ago. When playwright Guillem Clua was asked to adapt it into a series, he had to make some big changes: expanding the main storyline, developing secondary storylines, and translating it into Spanish from Catalan. Yes, Smiley (the play) has a sequel, and Clua very much wants to adapt the sequel into a series as well, but that depends on Netflix. Early signs are promising: Smiley is the 3rd most-streamed series in Spain and in the top 10 in a number of Latin American countries, especially Argentina, Brazil, and Uruguay. Carlos Curvas already had a big fan base in Argentina (Chile & Peru as well) because the original Merlí was a huge Netflix success in those countries. Trivia tidbit: Ramón Pujols, who plays nerdy fellow architect Ramón in the series, actually played 2-gym-going Alex in the play. Pujols was less muscle-bound than Carlos Cuevas but just as hunky, imho.

Bruno gave Alex Bringing Up Baby, a favorite movie for both of them.

I posted about Smiley in the "Anything good on Netflix?" thread. I liked it so much I watched it a second time just a week later. I asked the moderators to move this thread into TV and Streaming, hope you don't mind.

I didn't realize that he married another So You Think You Can Dance contestant, Allison Hollker, one of my favorites from when I used to watch the show. I can't imagine what she's going through right now. Yes, such a tragedy.

I wish you would make arguments instead of just being nasty and disrespectful. True, the government is prohibited from establishing an official state religion, but allowing a Christian (or a person of any religion) to read a book based on Christian values falls far short of "establishment." No particular faith is being established nor made official. A man simply wants to read a book (a book you have not read, correct?) that he believes spreads good values and therefore helps children. You believe that your values should be allowed in the public square, i.e., your support of drag queen story hour, but want to shut down and ban anyone whose values you don't like. That's not how the world works, nor is that your "constitutional right."

The copy & paste text of the 1st Amendment: Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances. I don't know where you picked up freedom from religion, but "freedom from religion" is nowhere in the US Constitution.

Not yet, but I'm not trying to ban Mein Kampf from public libraries nor would I ever attempt to because for any student of history to understand Nazism, s/he must read Hitler's manifesto. Your analogy fails on a number of levels. Wokety-wokes are banning the reading of Kirk Cameron's book. I'm guessing the vast majority of supposedly "enlightened" book-banners, like you, has never read it. By his own admission and by even laymen's observation, Kanye West is mentally ill. Your comparison of Kanye to Cameron fails as badly as your Mein Kampf analogy.

So you've read Kirk Cameron's new book?

I mentioned ube halaya in another thread. It's a yam pudding that we made only once a year because back then ube jam was expensive & hard to get. Even now that frozen ube is cheap & readily available, you have to stir nonstop over a hot pot for 45+ minutes, so still a special occasion dessert. For the main course our special Christmas dinner was usually rellenong manok (stuffed chicken), a Christmas tradition in many hispanic countries. No, not bread stuffing like Martha Stewart. You debone a large chicken (except legs & wings), remove most of the breast meat, stuff the cavity with seasoned ground beef and diced dried fruit (prunes, apricots, raisins), sew it back up, and roast it. Yes, it's quite a chore (how many here have mastered deboning a chicken?), which is why it's a Christmas or very special occasion dish. The Filipino version uses ground pork instead of beef (beef is super-expensive in the Philippines) and includes hard boiled eggs, Vienna sausage, and shredded carrots -- not the Spanish recipe, but I think every country has its own variation.

You don't have to be Italian to have lasagna for Thanksgiving. Mom & I used to roast a duck because a big turkey for only 2 people is just silly, but for whatever reason we felt like lasagna this year, so that's what we had. We did have ginataang mais (sweet corn rice pudding made with coconut cream+milk) and ube ice cream because those are our favorite Filipino desserts.