Merry Christmas.  But first, from the  Honolulu Star-Advertiser : A Hawaiian Volcano Observatory geologist on Monday checks a webcam on the rim of Kilauea caldera. Kilauea began erupting again early Monday, with lava fountains up to nearly 300 feet. The eruption paused in the afternoon but lava resumed flowing onto the crater floor today . Every so often, the news of the day, or a film, or something just happens that reminds me of me.  Such is the case of a new series on Netflix,  A Man on the Inside .   Rotten Tomatoes,  95 reviewers and 92 audiences.   Read this article , which describes the production. Ted Danson plays an old, retired, engineering professor in the San Francisco Bay Area, whose wife has passed away.   Sort of like me. Of course you remember him.  Sam Malone on  Cheers , 275 episodes, where he won two Emmys and two Golden Globes.  And 53 episodes of  The Good Place , a comedy about a Heaven-esqu...

Monday is many times my film/food day.  I'll get to the Mariah/cuisine part, but will start with a dream to which I awoke this morning that was unique in two aspects.   All this began last night when I began watching on Netflix  Something in the Rain , a Korean series starring Son Ye-Jin.  This was her return from a five year absence, and led to Crash Landing on You , which was rated 98 by Rotten Tomatoes.  Only scored 75 from Rotten Tomatoes , but has an appealing nature, where popular American songs are inserted to set the right mood.  Two in particular, Stand by Your Man by Tammy Wynette, and Save the Last Dance for Me by Bruce Willis were repeated numerous times.  I couldn't quite recognize the singer of the second song, and was astonished to later find that this was the Bruce Willis of all those action films. So anyway, I began viewing from around 7:45PM, and this series apparently has 16 episodes of 2 hours or more each.  To sh...

MERRY CHRISTMAS!  A nice way to start the day is Feliz Navidad with Jose and his grandson: As I neared #1 on my favorite songs list, I wondered why I had a couple of days to spare before the year ended.   Turns out I skipped #53.  How that happened is I just goofed.  But this gives me a slot for what I should have included anyway.  The Christmas season is when we've had the most songs that keep returning.  They never quite go away. If you Google the Top 10 Pop Christmas Songs of All Time, you might not even recognize one.  Again, try the 50 Greatest Christmas Songs , and at least some are more conventional.  In both ratings, #1 is  All I Want for Christmas is You by Mariah Carey.  She also wrote it and published this song more than a quarter century ago.   Wikipedia lists it as the best-selling Christmas single with 3.2 million digital downloads.  So I had to listen to it.  Amazingly, never heard it before. I searche...