Slow Horses 1.6: The Scorecard

An excellent season one finale to Slow Horses -- firing on all kinds of cylinders.  (It's the end of the first season, not the end of the first half of the first season -- the coming attractions say "Second Season").

[Spoilers ahead ... ]

Here's some of what I especially liked about this episode:

1. The discussion early on about Assam and Builders tea.  I love Assam (I mix two parts Assam and one part Keeman for my perfect cup of tea).  But Builders is good, too -- better than anything you can get in a bag in America, that's for sure.

2. The action with the kidnappers and Hassan and the dogs in the sky (were those guys dogs?) was top-notch.  I'm glad he survived, and I liked the ways he survived, and the way Cartwright did all the right things and was the hero.

3. I'm glad Min and Louisa will be getting together that evening.  They're good people.  They're entitled to at least a little more happiness.

4. The revelations at the end pushed everything up a notch -- Lamb killing Catherine's man, on orders from Cartwright's father David -- whew, that's strong stuff, and could be the basis of all sorts of future possibilities.  If Catherine finds out, would she kill Lamb, in revenge? And if she found out about David's role, what would that do to her relationship with River (though, actually, they at present don't have much of one).

5. Sid: no big revelations here, after all.  She's probably alive.  Was that her, in the coming attractions?  Not sure, it's been too long since we've seen her on the screen.

6. And on the flatulence scorecard: not sure, Lamb may have let one go as he walked slightly ahead of Louisa to the car.  But it could have been a creaky car door, and Louise didn't seem to have much of a reaction.  If I had to be on this, I'd say, yes, it was.  Which gives Lamb a perfect, six per six record.

Anyway, I'm down -- or up -- for the next season, and I hope to see you back here with my continuing reviews.

PS -- Great song by Mick Jagger.  Just wanted to say that again.

See also Slow Horses 1.1-2: Fast-Moving Spy Thriller ... Slow Horses 1.3: The Fine Art of Bumbling ... Slow Horses 1.4: Fine New Song by Mick Jagger ... Slow Horses 1.5: Did You Hear the One About the ...

  

Obama's Missed Opportunity at Online Townhall

I enjoyed Barack Obama's online townhall meeting yesterday - the first ever, and a good thing for democracy, as have been so many other innovations in new media communication initiated in the Obama campaign and continuing now in his governance. (See my New New Media book, due out in September from Penguin/Pearson, for more.) But I think Obama missed a significant opportunity when he joked about the question about legalizing marijuana and the impact of that on the economy, and answered definitively "no".

To be clear, I'm not saying that Obama should have answered "yes," or that he was wrong to smile when he answered the question. But I am saying that I think this is a serious, significant issue, which deserves careful consideration.

Billions of dollars a year are spent on enforcing anti-marijuana laws, and billions of dollars could be made via taxation of legalized weed. Money is certainly not the only issue here, but that's a lot of money, especially in these times.

And then there's the deepest issue, in my view: does the government have the right to tell a consenting adult what to do with his or her own body? Why is prohibition of cannabis ok, while prohibition of alcohol or tobacco or caffeine is not?

For those who are interested, by the way, the only one of the above I ingest several times a day is caffeine, in the form of tea. I have a glass of wine every now and then, and have never smoked - weed or tobacco. I don't like smoke. I like my mind just the way it is, for better or worse.

But who cares what I like or don't like? What counts, if you are a compos mentis adult, is what you like - as long as you don't impose your likes on anybody else.

And it's equally wrong for the government to impose such laws on adults.

Barack Obama should take another look at the benefits of legalizing marijuana - ethical as well as financial.

White Tea and Infinite Regress

Hey, this is a post about television - not about what I'm watching on television, but what I'm drinking when I'm watching television. And, maybe more important, what I'm drinking when I'm writing about what I'm watching on television. Come to think of it, what I'm drinking right now - when I'm writing about what I'm drinking when I'm writing about what I'm watching on television.

Infinite regress....

Whatever I may be doing and watching, I usually drink it at the end of long, tiring days - actually, even long days that are not tiring. It has enough caffeine to keep me sharp, without keeping me awake, unless I want to be.

A long time ago, I used to drink coffee. But it had the strange effect of turning me into a real grouch the next day. Some people said this was a complete reversal for me.

I can't recall exactly when I switched to tea.

It's a touchy thing. It's not that hot in northern New Jersey, and I'd guess that's because of the water. It's almost always good in London, probably the same reason. In New York City, and close by, it's usually good. A lot depends upon the tea, too, and how you prepare it.

First, white tea is a kind of green tea, best prepared not by boiling but steaming water. Best of all is water that just starts to steam. But if you forget about this and the water starts to boil, wait until it cools down just a bit.

I have seen white tea in bags, but do yourself a favor and get some sort of tea maker. You can use a tea-ball and chain, and they sell contraptions for $15 or so which make excellent tea from loose leaves.

I sometimes put white tea leaves in a cup, add water, and let the tea brew in the cup. Most of the leaves settle to the bottom, and they're fun to suck on.

White tea comes from the tips of green tea leaves. Which means they are the most tender part of the leaf. Unlike black tea leaves, green and white leaves are not aged.

White tea is said to have powerful anti-oxidizing qualities. That's good, but I'd drink it anyway, because I like it what it tastes like, and how it makes me feel.

It comes in lots of varieties. I'd recommend Mutan - it's sweet and smooth. If you want a white tea with a little more tingle, try Silver Needle.

The age of the tea leaves - how long they have been stored - is extremely important. We're not talking wine here. The fresher the tea the better. I bought some white tea in an old Chinese shop in London a few years ago. I had the idea that maybe I was getting a taste from some secret, delicious, ancient stash.

The tea itself was very old, that was certain. It tasted like it came from the Manchu dynasty - which means, it tasted awful. Old tea tastes like some kind of wood shavings, which, although I've never tasted, can't taste too good.

White tea has become one of my favorite off-beat beverages. It also seems to be attracting a lot of public interest - I have more listens on my White Tea episode than any other piece on my Ask Lev podcast. If you'd like to hear it - it's about 3-minutes long - just scroll down on the right-hand column of this blog.

All right - you saw this coming. I've got some water on the boil that's starting to steam ...

I'd send a cup to you right through the Web, if I could, but java script can't process tea - not even java - just information, like this...


The tea merchants below are quite good. The tea maker on the right works like a charm - we use it instead of more traditional tea-strainers...