Buffy and the Remnants of Isidore

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Meg, if you haven't seen Buffy yet, look away, as I'm reviewing it, now, and I can't be sure I won't spoil it for you.

Overall, I was satisfied. It was a great start to the season. As an episode, however, I found it to be a little incoherent, jumping around from Buffy taking Dawn to rebuilt Sunnydale High, to Giles acting as a mentor to the healing Willow, to Anya and her sister discussing the coming evil. As I said, the episode was all set-up. It had to lay down several season-lasting ideas at once. It hurt the story, but it holds out a lot of promise for what looks to be Buffy's last season.

Now that I type the paragraph above, I notice the similarity of the storylines: they're all about the old looking after the young. One is always giving advice to the other. I especially liked how Dawn ended up making new friends in a manner that seemed rather similar to the founding of the original "Scooby Gang". "Like mother, like daughter" as someone would say, leaving poor Buffy to cringe.

This story was peppered with good moments. Poor Spike. That's all I can say. Poor Spike, what a mess he's in. The moment when Buffy bursts into Dawn's classroom, just as Dawn is introducing herself before the class had me covering my eyes in sympathy shame for Dawn. But the moment which made the episode was when the season baddie stepped out of the shadows and spoke to Spike. For a moment, I actually thought they'd resurrected Warren, but the moment he morphed into Glory, I knew they were going to cycle back through all the previous seasons' master villains, until they ended up with the Master.

This is Buffy's last season, and I think the cast and crew know it. And they're going to go out on a high note.


Yet more evidence that my place of employment is cool? I'm walking down a corridor, after having delivered mail, talking with a co-worker, whom I first met about a week ago. She halts by an office door and the person inside says, "well, what did you think last night?" And I knew, at that moment, that they were talking about Buffy.

As soon as they started to go on about Spike's horrifying hairdo, I jumped in. They were delighted to find another Buffy fan in their midst.


The Gulf States aren't the only ones watching Tropical Storm Isidore, although we here in Southern Ontario are watching it with a good deal less trepidation.

We do get hit by hurricanes, or rather, the remnants of hurricanes. Anything that enters the Gulf of Mexico usually turns north and heads up the Mississippi valley and dumps a lot of rain on us. We're not talking about Hurricane Hazel, here (a 1954 storm that took a wrong turn at New York City and headed up the Hudson River for Toronto), but if Isidore keeps on its projected path, I think we can expect a very wet Friday afternoon.

Not that I mind. I like a good rain storm. And there is an excitement to encountering a named storm, especially if there is no immediate life-or-death issues about its arrivals (I apologize in advance to my Gulf Coast readers who are probably not looking forward to Isidore at all). I remember Hurricane Hugo after it blew past Toronto as a strong tropical depression. We actually had a bit of storm damage.

It would, however, be sad to see Word on the Street and the Halton County Fall Trolley Festival rained out. Fortunately, that doesn't seem likely to happen. The remnants of Isidore will be past us by 1AM Saturday morning.

I'm sorry to say that I'm going to be missing out on Word on the Street. After the fun of the Eden Mills Writers Festival, I want more. However, I've already committed to driving streetcars for the museum that day (Sunday, September 29) and, if there is ever one day that you have to be at the museum, that's the day: every streetcar, every interurban, every piece of equipment that runs will be run that day. It's always a fantastic day, and I'm looking forward to it.

Perhaps next year, there will be no conflict between the two festivals.


Telemarketers You Have to Respect

Oh, my. Read Erin's recent conversation with a telemarketer. It just goes to show, there are good people everywhere. And though I'll never vote for the Canadian Alliance, there are a few of their supporters I'd happily host a barbecue with.


I've been trying to tweak the layout and put together a new title bar. I'm almost there, but something doesn't seem quite right. Any suggestions on how I can fix the banner? Please comment!

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