June TidBits

 Here's a few musings going on in this overthinker's brain...

GLP-1

As noted previously, my weight loss has slowed, if not completely stalled. I requested, and got, an increase in my dosage to the next tier, 5.0 mg. The way my (self-pay) prescription works, I get four vials for injection at a time, delivered to my house in an insulated cold box by UPS. I can request from my WW provider a refill 2 weeks before I run out. My provider sends the approval to Lilly, they send me a note to pay, and then it gets shipped out. Experience has shown it arrives in 3-8 days from when I initiate with WW, so I can't wait until the very end. They don't ship for it to be in transit over the weekend (because coldpack), so if it's all approved and paid for on a Thursday or Friday, it'll be shipped out on Monday to arrive shortly (last time, arrived on Tuesday). 

So my increased dosage arrived when I still had one vial of the lower (2.5 mg) dosage left, but I went ahead and started the higher dosage. I'm counting the weeks and the timing of when I can re-order, and layering into my calculations that I'll be traveling for two of my scheduled injection days (requiring keeping vials cool and transporting and disposing of my syringe and needles), but also I need to skip a dose the second week I'm traveling because I've got a colonoscopy scheduled the week I'm back and they require 8 days since the last injection to be clear from my system. So, my thinking is, I'll bring the single, lower, dose with me, and a single syringe. I've already checked (via Reddit) on how to dispose of sharps in Sweden. I'll inject in the hotel and dispose of my sharps on land the morning before I board the ship, so no pesky needles around in a place where all garbage is sorted before disposal. 

Further, I should request my refill from Europe, to be processed and sent the Monday after I get home, so I'll be there to unpack and refrigerate when it arrives. 

Overthinking! Sometimes it's useful! More often it's not! But it happens!

TV and Movies

My TV watching comes in bursts, and my tastes change depending on my mood. For a long time, my "total veg" show has been Antiques Roadshow. I used to watch it with my mother, and I find it comforting but it doesn't require a lot of attention. I can walk away and miss a bit without it mattering. But, I'm pretty much caught up with current episodes. So now, the comfort watch is the Great British Baking Show, steered by my friend Kim. It's a competition, but far from cutthroat. It has a 10 (or so) episode season, with an arc as people are eliminated. Some of the hosts are just annoying. And, it makes my mouth water! But it doesn't take a lot of brain power and I enjoy it. Many seasons in the can! I started with the earliest season on on Netflix, and digressed to check out "season 1" on Roku. It started with a different format, where they traveled around Britain each week, and the challenges were simpler. The hosts and judges were mostly different, though Paul Hollywood was there at the start. I decided to stick with the Netflix seasons for now.

I continue to chip away at Vikings, and it is really growing on me. But for some reason, I don't pull it up very often at home. Maybe because there, if I turn on the TV I'm more into just zoning out. Vikings takes more brain power from me. But I'll have at least a season downloaded to the ipad for my flights to and from Europe, and I'm likely to want to catch up as I'm in the area!

I only ever watched the first two seasons of the alternate space-oriented history, For All Mankind. I checked, and there are five seasons total so far, and one 6-episode season of a spin off, Star City. So I'm back into it now. It takes more brainpower than a reality show, but it's less... fraught? violent? than Vikings, so easier to watch.

 On movies, I watched SuperGirl. Fun! Not five stars, but I enjoyed it. The dog is a big part of it.

Books

I've drifted into too much social media time, and I'm consciously re-prioritizing reading and listening to books in an effort to keep the surfing time down. I'm keeping a queue of current and popular books on my library website, fed by reading reviews and recommendations. Randomly, they come through in bunches, and I feel the pressure to get to them all in the three weeks I'm given. But I've become brutal about not finishing anything that doesn't really pull me in. I don't have a rule about how far in I have to go before giving up. But I have started keeping track of my DNF's in GoodReads, with usually a sentence or two about why I quit. I also get a daily email from "BookBub", with lists of e-books currently discounted to $1.99 or thereabouts. Many of those are back-catalogue, and I'm filling out my collection of a few authors I really enjoy and will likely enjoy re-reading, when I see them pop up. I still only do e-books, but I have an e-ink reader that lets me have apps from all the popular vendors, not just Amazon. My preference is Bookshop.org, made by a support organization for independent bookstores. I've nominated a local store, and they get a few pennies from every book I buy.

None of the recent books I've read really stand out. I continue to mostly read mysteries, thrillers, science fiction and fantasy that include elements of mysteries and thrillers. Once I find an author I like, I'll work my way through their whole oeuvre. One series I'm listening to is "Mrs Pollifax", who as a woman of a certain age is an unlikely part-time agent for the CIA. They were written starting in the 1980s, go all over the world, and the world has changed a great deal from when they were written. It's interesting to read about maneuvering before the Wall came down, for example. They are a little bit more hard-boiled and less comedic than I was expecting when I picked up the first one, but they are all the better for that.

I did read "Yesteryear", a buzzy current book supposedly about a tradwife. It was unexpected, and I didn't love it, but it definitely has a big reveal worth staying for. But I really don't think it has important things to say about our culture today, it's just an oddity. I listened to "Heartwood", a novel about a woman lost off the Appalachian Trail and the search for her. It's told in different voices from different POVs. I found it un-satisfying as a survivalist story, but maybe a bit more interesting as a police procedural. It tries to straddle both, while striving hardest to be character-driven. 

Biking

I got me an e-bike! It's pretty exciting and a lot of fun. I rode it home from the store three miles away, and have had a couple of additional rides - the longest one just ten miles. I really like exploring on the bike. It's legal to ride on trails in the area, but some of our paved trails are quite narrow and I need to get more confident about slow-speed maneuvering in close quarters. Passing pedestrians is quite fraught. I'm pretty sure I'm going to sell my Vespa, because I'm not likely to use both. The Vespa has some utility for errands, whereas the bike is really only "go for a ride" - because the theft incidence of ebikes and of parts - especially batteries - is really high. I will eventually try to figure out if I can fit it in the back of my car -- if I can even lift it into the car - it weighs 48 pounds. A rack on the back of the car would require a trailer hitch (surprisingly cheap) and a sturdy rack - which is likely to be nearly as expensive as the bike itself. Still, there are spots within a reasonable drive that would be fun to ride on.

I keep the power-assist function on the bike quite low. The way I have it set up, the harder I push a pedal, the more power-assist I get. It has eight conventional forward gears, so I'm shifting all the time riding on hills. On the steepest hills (which includes the last two blocks to get to my house), I push the power-assist higher and pump hard on the pedals and fly up the hills. My bike does have a throttle which will provide power without pedalling, but except for a cautious trial on level ground, I haven't used it.  I want to experiment more, however, because I read people use it to get started from a stop while pointed up hill - something which is otherwise a little bit tough.

World Cup

I've been following it, and watched a couple of games. Very exciting - on Saturday night, Congo came from behind to beat Uzbekistan, and thus advance to the next round of the brackets - the round of 32. Our family watches these games and have a text going during it. I'm also paying attention to Norway and Sweden and Germany, especially, since I'll be in Sweden during the semi-finals and finals. I'm pretty sure the folks on the ship will figure out a way to watch those games, they will be a topic of conversation, and I don't want to be a complete ignoramus. So it's fun, besides!

Totality!

I made a quick, last-minute, trip to the Midwest to see the eclipse.

A year ago, I read in the morning paper about how there was going to be a total eclipse of the sun in April 2024, crossing a wide swath of the United States, including the midwest and northeast. I decided this was probably my last chance to see a TOTAL eclipse, which I had heard from a friend is completely different from a partial eclipse. One point of the newspaper article I read was that accommodations were already being booked:  make your plans NOW! So I did, and wrote about it here.  

I didn't think about it again until I received an email in November from Airbnb, saying the place I booked was now off Airbnb, and my reservation was cancelled. I immediately browsed possible replacements, and I booked another, nicer, place just a few blocks away for a bit more money. Then, early this year, I got a very nice email from the owner saying he was converting the spot to a long term rental (better for affordable housing market in Cleveland, bad for my eclipse prospects). I decided it just wasn't going to happen.

Then in early March I got the first of several long emails from my very close friend J in Ann Arbor. He sent it to a couple of dozen people, talking about organizing a day trip from Ann Arbor down into the wilds of Ohio to the path of totality. I was interested, but this coincided with my life being taken over by doggie healthcare (something which persists to this day). So I stayed on the communications list, but made no reply.

By Easter, I decided I really wanted to go visit my friends and see the eclipse! Little Sadie dog was doing somewhat better, and my local nephew agreed to watch her (and the more robust Bixby) while I went away. I talked to J, and found to my delight that another couple of old friends (now residents of Bristol, England) were also going to be staying there, so only the couch was the bed on offer. But J rolled out the red carpet for me, insisted on airport rides, and found me a spot in one of the 9 cars signed up for the caravan!

I go way back with these folks. Most of them are a few years older than me. I met S and J while I was an undergraduate and they worked at the University, and S and I became roommates a year after I graduated. J was part of our friend group, and a couple years later he and S became an item. The three of us rented a house for the next three years, and after I got my masters and moved to Ohio S&J tied the knot. 

Roughly five years later, I was living in the Chicago area and bought a house in Evanston. Coincidentally, G, part of that Ann Arbor friend group, was just starting grad school at Northwestern in Evanston. He moved into my house for a few years. He met a woman who worked at his department, C, and they fell in love! When G got a job in Bristol, C went with him. Eventually they married and became UK citizens. I visited them there once, but we fell out of direct contact (though kept up news of each other casually through my besties, S&J). This all happened in the days just at the dawn of the internet for common use, and email was not truly a thing yet, so it was much easier to lose touch. So it was a real treat to catch up with them in Ann Arbor ("so, what have you done in the last thirty years?").

Meanwhile, it turns out there was a core group of serious eclipse fans organized by J. A few of them went to Turkey, twice, in the early oughts to view total eclipses. In 2017, they did a short trip to the center of this country and viewed the eclipse at the centerline by simply pulling over to the side of the road. For our trip, J had a spreadsheet of every one going, with drivers and riders. I was assigned to ride with a couple I know from visits to Ann Arbor and also several international trips we have taken together. J and a couple of friends took a scouting trip to Ohio a couple of weeks in advance, and found two locations. Each was a couple of hours (normal traffic) from Ann Arbor, one towards Cleveland and the other due south in the middle of nothing. They set up and tested text groups including everybody going, and then also got a conference call number that would be able to be open for the entire day. J built download-able google maps directions for each location, with "highway" and "backroad" alternates. Based on news stories about possible crowds, J recommended each car be self-sufficient with food and drinks. A gas stop with restrooms had been selected close to each of the alternate locations, but J recommended in an email that perhaps each car might want their own roll of toilet paper.

The night before, J and a couple of his friends pored over the weather maps and forecasts, and selected the due south location as most likely to have clear skies. The die was cast!

Our group

The morning of, all the cars rendezvoused at a parking lot near the expressway entrance, and off our caravan went. I rode shotgun in my car, and dialed into the conference call. I kept it piped directly into my ears, so as to allow normal conversation in our car.  The first car in the chain reported on traffic conditions (medium slow as far as Ohio where totality began, and then thinning out) and gave tips about routing on the call. The first car reached the municipal park we had selected as the rendezvous, and reported the town was welcoming: open bathrooms, the adjacent school closed, a food truck, tshirts for sale and childrens's games available. We had considered driving on to the exact centerline by the side of a rural road, but we voted to stay put (3 miles from centerline) based primarily on the bathrooms.

Most of us arrived around noon, set up our chairs next to some bleachers, laid out a picnic lunch, and got out tripods and pinhole cameras, made our eclipse glasses and viewers ready to hand. Many of us had downloaded an app that provided updates in exact time based on GPS location, and J hooked his up to a bluetooth speaker. The eclipse began around 1 pm, totality was around 3, and it would be over around 5 pm. The app noted out loud when the eclipse began, gave a couple of updates on progress, and counted down to totality and end of totality.

What a fun time! There was lots of visiting and catching up. I had met many of the folks over the years, and G&C from Bristol were the celebrity guests. We all spent time gazing up through our glasses as the sun got smaller. I realized I didn't have any sunscreen on my face or arms, a real oversight in such a lovely, sunny day. There was a high haze, but no big clouds anywhere nearby. I wore sunglasses all the time I wasn't wearing eclipse glasses, until a couple of minutes before totality when I switched to my clear glasses.

During totality, edited to see people

Totality really is a big deal. The difference between 99% coverage (silvery somewhat dim light) and totality (dark) is stark. We had just under 4 minutes of totality, time enough to both look up at the sky and spot stars and planets, and also around at surroundings and the horizon, and to feel and listen. It got cooler as the eclipse progressed towards totality, and there was stirring of the wind. There was a palpable intake of breath from all of us at the moment of totality. Eclipse glasses came off, and we could look directly up. I have no pictures of the sun, because I wanted to just experience it.

Just after totality

After totality, we hung around for a while (a couple of toasts) and then people started packing up. We headed back north about a half hour before it was over. Going home there was a lot more traffic, but there weren't any big choke points of bridges or tunnels or mountain passes, so traffic just flowed north at medium speed via multiple straight, flat, 2 lane roads. For a while, every time the GPS recommended a new route, we took it, but after a while our driver decided to just slug it out on the expressway directly to home. Fewer decisions for a tired driver. It took about 3 hours (in contrast to the 2 hours down), not bad at all.

I stayed another day, so I had a chance to spend more time with my friends. We visited some nostalgia dining spots, walked many dogs many miles, and just hung out. Flights to and from were uneventful. I returned home to sad dogs, but I was very happy for the break - and the spectacular celestial event!

Comfort Food and Sour Pickles

My knee recovery continues. Sadly, my stomach problems continue as well. I stocked up on food before the surgery, but sadly much of the food I stocked up on isn't suitable for my temperamental acid stomach. For example, I adore Trader Joe's Palaak Paneer, thinking of it almost as a pudding, soft nursery food that doesn't need chewing. But while Indian food folks would consider it bland, I normally cool it down with yogurt or creme fraiche. But I'm not considering trying it for a while. I do have plenty of actual truly bland food, and basics to make more (scrambled eggs coming into their own), so I'm fine for supplies. But it made me think about what gives comfort.

My job is to recover, and in between home exercise bouts and off to PT, I'm consuming entertainment at an unprecedented rate. But it's all comfort food. I'm not looking to be scared or disturbed. I want happy endings. I normally feel guilty about this, and stack up my book and movie queues with some more challenging material, my sour pickles that add interest to a bland life. But right now, nope.

After going literally months without watching TV, I reviewed my watch lists I have set up. Imagine my delight to find a British detective series I love, Shetland, has not one but two seasons out I haven't seen. I have also watched older movies (The Big Year, about bird watching!) and will be looking at the list for more. John Scalzi is doing a blog series on "comfort watches" and I'm adding to my list from his suggestions. I'm not big on re-watches (too many new things out there) but some movies truly stand up over years and repeated viewings. I'm thinking I'd love to introduce my girl to A Fish Called Wanda, one of the greats.  

I constantly keep a queue of ebooks and audiobooks on request at the library, and many of my sour pickles come from there - books that I hear about from reviews. But I'm ruthless at abandoning them if I'm not swept away (in a good way) before very far into the book. I don't know if I'll go back and try them again when I feel more resilient, or if they had their shot and I'm done. I've been listening to books (as opposed to reading) more than usual, and again, if it doesn't engage me, it's terminated quickly. Whether reading or listening, my usual mix of mysteries and thrillers is holding a much larger percentage of feel good books. I'm not sure of the category, there are apparently romances and women's fiction and book club books, I don't know how they sort out. Some of the ones called romances are so bad, predictable and pablum, that I can't handle them either. Right now, I am enjoying Elin Hilderbrand books: all with a connection to Nantucket, with characters who make bad choices but are not bad people, and who get through bad things happening. And not always paired off, either. But they are all OK by the end.

I find science fiction and fantasy to be really a crap shoot. I found a series with good values and plenty of snark, called "Murderbot", and saved up the latest for the day I came home from the hospital, and it did not disappoint.  But the author, Martha Wells, came out with a new fantasy series, and I slogged through the first third of the first book, to find the world-building tedious and overdone. Too many characters and races and types of magic being introduced, and getting in the way of bonding with the characters. Sigh.

I do read (mostly listen, actually) to non-fiction. This is the white rice of my entertainment stream - mostly history. My Audible membership gives me access to a pretty extensive catalog of older, less popular, audio books without having to buy them separately. So I've listened to a biography of Chaucer, another about the place of women in Tudor society, and I have more like that coming up. I like this very sedate but just enough intellectually engaging books as background to other things. Generally, I'll cue them up at bedtime. Guess what? If I fall asleep before the automatic cut-off, I may not rewind to catch what I missed. Who cares? I'm learning, but there won't be a test at the end so it's ok if I miss something. 

My latest jam is actually a podcast, though I'd put it in this history category. It's done by the public TV station in Boston, and it's an 8-part series about the Big Dig. Huh? I hear your minds whirring - what? Really? But yes, really. I am a YIMBY, sick of years of our not being able to build things, to carry out ambitious, big projects. The Green New Deal inspired me. I also spent some of my career at the US Department of Transportation, and I witnessed many infrastructure projects start and stop and be delayed and sometimes be killed, while others that ought to have been killed went steam rolling ahead. One of my work hobbies was reading Inspector General reports on topics related to my work (dealing with reports tied to my work was anything but fun, but we know misery loves company). The Big Dig was a multi-year field day for the IG. So this series starts way back in the 1960s and covers the personalities involved in Massachusetts and Boston politics, and the genesis of the project. I can picture some of the meetings and events described - I've been in the Secretary of Transportation's office while the fate of things like this were decided. I'm about half way through, and funding for the project was just approved in Congress, over-riding Reagan's veto. I know the ultimate outcome - my boy living in the Boston area benefits from the completed project - but I'm curious how they got there, and how common myths about events along the way have evolved.

Norway in the 20th and 21st Centuries

TL;DR - there are some Norwegian TV shows that will be even more fun if you have a little background in Norwegian history.

I've been watching Norwegian TV shows, and that sent me down an internet rabbit hole to understand some of the larger context and to go a little deeper on some points. (Aside: I am struck by how lucky I am to be able to sit on my couch with my tablet - a device with no moving parts - and have the entire history of the world - with moving pictures - at my fingertips!) Most of my information comes from Wikipedia, a source I figure to be fairly reliable (and one I give an annual donation to, because they are so very useful). Already, sitting down to write this piece has led me to several additional clicks and digressions, so this may take a long time to get finished!

I have always had a special interest in Norway, due to my family heritage. My maternal grandfather was born in Norway; my maternal grandmother was born in the U.S. but had elder siblings born in Norway. So I've had a sketchy knowledge of the history, have visited the country a few times, and even met the Norwegian relatives in one of those early visits. (Sadly the families all lost touch with the death of the older generations.)  This has no doubt given me a predilection to be more likely than the average viewer to watch Norwegian TV.

I watched a Masterpiece series called Atlantic Crossing. This is the 8-episode story of Norwegian Crown Prince Olav and, especially, Crown Princess Martha, during World War 2, from the invasion of Norway by Germany in 1940 to the surrender of German troops in 1945. Martha spent most of the war years in America, where she famously and possibly scandalously was great friends with FDR. From there, I encountered a movie called The King's Choice, which focuses on the first few days of the German invasion of Norway and the government and the King's response to it.

So here's a recap of some of the history of Norway in the first half of the twentieth century, including the events in these shows:

Current borders

In 1905 Norway finally threw off the oppressive yoke of its foreign ruler, i.e. the Norwegian and Swedish parliaments agreed Norway should be its own country with self-determination, for the first time since the middle ages. The Norwegians decided their own form of government should be as a constitutional monarchy, and so they elected a younger son of the King of Denmark to be their new king. (Aside: Norway had full women suffrage by then, far before England and the U.S., so it was not only half of the country deciding this, but all the adult citizens.)  Viewers of The Crown will be familiar with the duties of the British constitutional monarch: a lot of ceremonial and symbolic things, and specific recognition of the legitimacy of the Prime Minister and "the government"; Norway is similar, except the king routinely sat in cabinet meetings with the top ministers. Norway's new king enthusiastically embraced the Norwegian-ness of his new role and ensured his only son was raised thoroughly Norwegian.

So it was this elected King and his adult son and daughter-in-law, and their three young children, that were the royal family during the second world war. 

Norway, along with Sweden and Denmark, stayed steadfastly neutral during the first world war. They all three planned to do the same as the second world war broke out in continental Europe, and none of them had a large standing military. But this was a different time and new norms emerged. Norway's strategic importance came from its long, mostly ice free Atlantic coastline which gave year round open ports, unlike Sweden and Finland who became ice bound in the Baltic Sea. Germany did not have sufficient iron ore to support its war effort, and decided the Swedish iron mines in that country's far north would be their reliable source. The only way to get the ore to Germany in sufficient volume was via rail to Norway's northern coast and then via sea down to Hamburg and other ports. 

Finland was attacked and invaded by Russia (which was initially allied with Germany), partly to get access from the other direction to the Swedish ore. So Britain decided to invade Norway to secure the coastline, ports, and rail heads. Initially they asked for free passage from both Norway and Sweden to do this, and both countries declined. And so, in early 1940, Britain made a plan with France to invade anyway, hoping the Norwegians would bow peacefully to a fait accompli. But the allies squabbled over details and pushed their plans back by just a few days. During that delay, in April 1940, Germany invaded both Denmark and Norway, using the imminent British invasion as their reason. In just a few hours, little Denmark surrendered - including their king (the Norwegian king's older brother). (Aside: Denmark retained some internal independence for the first couple of years, but then became completely subordinate to Germany. But Denmark was the only country in Europe that effectively protected the entire Jewish population, evacuating essentially everyone to Sweden overnight, and it was done with the King's support).

The tiny Norwegian military, without any instructions from the dithering government, resisted the German invasion in Oslo long enough for the cabinet ministers and the royal family to escape to the northern countryside. This gave the Norwegian government time to decide on their response to the invasion: surrender or declare war on Germany, ally with Britain and France, and fight?

Remember little Norway had only been independent for 35 years at this point. Surrendering would put them under Germany's thumb, though with a puppet Norwegian government headed by a Nazi-associated member of parliament, Quisling, who had proclaimed himself head of government and seemed to have Hitler's backing. (Does the name ring a bell?) The only possibility of fighting was if the allies came with troops and ships, and they were busy fighting and losing in France at that time - the Dunkirk evacuation yielding the continent to Germany was still a couple of months away. But if Norway went to war, there would be likely massive loss of Norwegian life and destruction of their country.

As the cabinet wrestled with the ramifications of their possible choices, the King and the Crown Prince independently reached a decision. The Crown Princess and her children had fled to Sweden, seeking refuge from her uncle, the King of Sweden, and eliminating a possible pressure point. If the cabinet decided to surrender and recognize the unelected Quisling as head of government, the King and his entire house would abdicate rather than legitimize this puppet regime. Who knows how influential that was in the cabinet's decision? At any rate, tiny Norway declared war on Germany.

Britain executed part of their original invasion plan by occupying the Faroe Islands and Iceland, both at that time considered part of Denmark. Allied troops did land in northern Norway, and actually defeated German troops there and held them off for months. But eventually, the allies decided the position was untenable, they wanted the troops for continental Europe, and they evacuated, leaving the Norwegians to years of occupation and resistance. 

The cabinet and King and Crown Prince fled to Britain, where for a while the King and Crown Prince lived in Buckingham Palace with their cousins the British royals. The Crown Princess and the royal grandchildren proved an embarrassment to Sweden after they rejected a German plan to bring three-year-old Harald to Norway to be the new King of a puppet regime. (Tiny Sweden was trying hard to persuade Germany of the value of maintaining nominal Swedish sovereignty and neutrality in a very friendly regime, rather than simply annexing them.) So the young royals made their way to Finland and then to America on a still-neutral American ship that was fetching home Norwegian-Americans and others who had ties that gave them visas to get there. For a while, the Crown Princess and her children lived in the White House with a smitten FDR, making it official that the Norwegian royals had the nicest reception of any refugees anywhere any time. 

Norway, like France, maintained a government-in-exile in Britain, sponsoring many effective resistance efforts. One notable one included thwarting Germany's atomic bomb efforts through destroying a plant making "heavy water" needed for these weapons. Norway suffered greatly during the occupation, with the Nazis seizing and sending food to Germany, leaving the Norwegians to grow cabbages in every square foot of arable land. In 1944, after D-Day, the Soviets combined with the Norwegians to open a northern front, recapturing the mineral rich north. The hapless Finns had much of their northern territory permanently ceded to the Russians with the allies' blessing at the end of the war. Little Norway escaped that same fate due to support from Britain and the U.S., and now shares a far-northern border with Russia. The Royal Family returned to Norway after Germany's surrender to much acclaim and remains very popular there. The current King Harald V is the little boy who evacuated during the German occupation.

Fast forward to the latter part of the twentieth century and early days of the twenty-first. Norway is one of the richest countries in the world, with enormous reserves of oil under the North Sea yielding huge revenues, much of which goes to the government and is used for the benefit of the people, not private oil companies. They try to balance their green values with being a major world oil producer. They have a social welfare model and multi-cultural values, like the rest of Europe having accepted many more refugees than the United States. They also have a significant racist faction and have experienced white terrorism with significant loss of life. 

So with this backdrop, we (finally!) come to the two near-future 21st century Norwegian series I've been watching. The first, Beforeigners, has so-far a single season, and a second under way. I wrote in May 2020: "my absolute current favorite is Beforeigners from Norway via HBO. The premise is amusing: people from ancient times start to appear in present-day Norway in sufficient numbers over sufficient years to present an immigration issue that challenges the culture. It's neo-nordic-noir; our heroes are a present day troubled and cynical detective and his rookie Viking shieldmaiden partner. There are also some naked men."

And one I've just barely started: Occupied. It's premise is just on the edge of plausible:  A very green Norwegian prime minister chooses to shut down all oil and gas production in order to go renewable and prevent more global warming. Europe needs the Norwegian supply and is in crisis as a result. Russia sees an opportunity and with Europe and America's passive acceptance steps in "just to re-start critical energy supplies". When I first started this 3-season series last year, I was taken with it. But in last year's considerable constant real-life political angst, this tale of consciences struggling with compromise and collaboration versus resistance was too hard for me to concentrate on, and I only watched a couple of episodes.

Now, with my more in-depth background understanding the Norwegian experience and occupation in WW2 and the subsequent Russian invasion in the far North, there are additional overtones to the story I will look for. It's available on Netflix, and it'll pop up in my rotation fairly soon.

Distractions

 I haven't been producing a lot here, and the main reason is I'm in consumption mode. I am sucking in books, on paper and kindle and audio. I'm pursuing movies, not just the Oscars game, but other trivial movies as well. And TV. My ultimate zone-out is HGTV, where I know I'm in trouble when there's nothing but shows I've seen before. Though I do watch some more challenging TV - I am watching Snowpiercer, starring the wonderful Daveed Diggs. But it's dark, and I ration it - an episode is at least an hour, and one is generally all I can take at a time. 

On movies, the most recent of the Oscars contenders is The Father. It is wrenching, especially if you have known anyone with dementia. It is a fine piece of cinema, playing with the unreliable narrator to the max. I appreciated it, I'm glad I saw it, it affected me more than Minari, but less than some others (Promising Young Woman, Never Rarely Sometimes Always). So I think it is worth seeing, and a possible contender.

For books, are any of you into mystery series? I've got a new hot tip - and I was thrilled I was able to turn a librarian friend of mine onto it, indicating to me it's not that popular. But it deserves to be: the Bess Crawford series by Charles Todd. Our heroine, Bess, is truly a heroine - a nurse on the front lines of the First World War. But she pops home to England often (who knew they did that?) and much of her detecting takes place there. I've recently encountered in fiction several British works that bring home to me how very devastating, and society-changing, was that war for Britain. In my reading, we're now up to 1918, the Americans have entered the war, and the first wave of influenza has struck. 

The setting is unique (in my experience), and our heroine is extremely admirable, as are many of the recurring characters. (I have to like some of the folks or I won't bother.) But the books also revert back to Downton Abbey / Agatha Christie settings, so there is familiarity as well.

And my library has most of these as audio books - I've decided to go that route! I have both jigsaw puzzle apps and coloring books on the ipad, and listening to a book while puzzling (the app makes a satisfying "snick" when a piece is in the right place) or coloring, is a splendid way to finish out an evening.

I take in new book selections from many sources constantly. I love me a series, where I can get to know the characters. But I also look at suggestions from other sources, including best seller lists and the Book of the Month Club selections. The most unsettling book I've read, a one-off from one of these sources, is Leave the World Behind by Rumaan Alam. I'm not going to say much about it, other than it disturbed me and stayed with me. Mostly, I do comfort reading, and this was well outside my comfort zone. I found, while picking up the image for this post, that Netflix is adapting it to be a movie. 

Finally, (this is not by any means a comprehensive recap of what I've consumed recently, just what I'm talking about now), I watched Bridgerton, and enjoyed it well enough. Pretty people in pretty costumes in lovely settings being silly and (surprisingly) sexy. Actually, I multitasked through much of it - it didn't require the kind of focus Snowpiercer, for example, takes. But since I liked it, I got the book from the library, but stopped after a couple of hours of reading. Too different from the TV show, and not compelling enough to keep me paying attention. It might have worked if I read first, before watching.

Distractions can be a marvelous thing!