Of Mice and Movies

(1) Of mice: My home internet up and died a while ago.  I have a working hypothesis about why, based on the last time this happened: mice.  Apparently the “box” where all of the wires related to my home phone and DSL service is a popular spot for gangs of mice to do a little breaking, entering, and nesting.  This is the fourth time, by the way, since I’ve lived in this house that my voice and/or data service has mysteriously stopped working.  All of my best laid plans about working and posting, dashed by mice.

 

(2) Of movies: This weekend featured a double-header of romantic comedies, except neither was quite what I expected.  First up was Ira & Abby, which I did not choose but will be blamed for choosing regardless.  The NYT review describes it as a “breezy riff on monogamy, trust and how to make love last,” except that wasn’t what I got from it.  It sort of reminded me of a more benign version of Closer, which somehow made it worse, because instead of saying, “Wow, these people are kind of screwed up,” Ira & Abby is more “wow, everyone is screwed up, and there is no hope for monogamy ever, even couples who love each other very much and have been married for 30 years will cheat on each other, thus marriage is an outdated institution and why bother?”  I’m perfectly willing to discuss marriage as an outdated institution, but somehow this movie still left me with an uncomfortable pit in my stomach.  The second movie was Lars and the Real Girl, which I liked much more (though it was slow in parts).  Strange how a movie about a man in love with a sex doll he ordered from the internet was the sweeter of the two; it’s the one I’d recommend.