Murder for Dessert

 Death Sits Down to Dinner by Tessa Arlen is a turn of the twentieth century mystery novel.  It begins with an invitation to a birthday dinner for Winston Churchill's 39th birthday.  I'll start off with a bit of a spoiler.  This was a botched assassination attempt on Winston Churchill.  Unfraternally, another guest, from an important family, and who looks like Winston Churchill from behind, is murdered. Lady Montfort is a guest and an amateur detective.

Lady Montfort and Mrs. Jackson, the housekeeper, solve the mystery.  Lady Montfort would not presume to poke her nose downstairs, at the gossip and goings-on, of the help, but Mrs. Jackson can and does.  That's how the two ladies put two and two together to solve the problem.  

If you enjoy historical settings, you will enjoy the Edwardian setting and mores.  It took me awhile to get everyone straight.  I had to put a bookmark on the list of characters, so I could refer back. Whenever I read about families with servants, I always think the servants are more interesting.  They also had more fun. The upstairs/downstairs focus was certainly intriguing.

Bingo Skit

 Narrator Pete:                                            The Day Bingo was Gone!

When the key in the lock, opened the Franklin Senior Center, who knew what the day

would bring.  The cafe opened with the alluring smell of coffee. The Sunshine Club 

participants started arriving.  The yoga mats soon spread out.  The Senior Van arrived  

and dropped off passengers. All seemed normal, until the Director of the Senior Center

made an announcement over the intercom for everyone to gather in the cafe.

Listen to what the Director said.

Director Steve: I’m afraid I have some alarming news.  This morning all the equipment

for Bingo is gone.  It’s missing.  Someone took it.  

Everyone:  No/what happened/how/who cares/now what….Angry Ad Libs!

Director Steve: Quiet down and listen.  I know this impacts some of you, but we still 

have other activities–cribbage, mah jong, bridge, scrabble, puzzles and

Everyone: What?  What else?  What now? How?

Helen: Someone stole Bingo?  Who?

Everyone: Yeah, Who?

Alice: That’s not right.  I miss Bingo.

Everyone: Yeah.  Get a life.

Bill: How can we play with no cards?  Can we buy more?

Everyone: Yes.  Buy more.  We pay taxes, buy more Bingo cards!

Director Steve:  Order!!  Keep it down.  This isn’t murder.  Someone, we don’t know who, 

or why, or how, but the Bingo board, cage, numbered balls, and cards

are all gone.

Faith: Maybe the school department borrowed it, or some other town department.

Helen: Maybe another town took it.

Director Steve:  If anyone borrowed the Bingo equipment, they would have asked permission

first.  Everything is gone.

Bill: Call the police.

Alice: Yes, file a missing Bingo game report.

Director Steve:  Wait/wait/wait/  Don’t get carried away.  It’s only a game, and an old, kind of 

decrepit one, at that.  I’d feel foolish calling in the police over a silly old game.

Bill: I just called the police.

Director Steve:  (panicked voice)  You did??  Who gave you authority?  What if it’s just missing?

Faith:  Where would anyone put a Bingo Board, cage, and other stuff?  No it’s gone.

Police Chief Pete: Hello!  Good morning.  Quiet down.  Listen up!

Good morning.  For those of you who don’t know me, I’m the police chief.

I understand your Bingo equipment is missing.

Helen: Yes!  There’s been a theft of a vital component in the Senior Center operation.

Alice: Of course!  Bingo is vital.  What are we to do?

Police Chief Pete: Well, I know this is disruptive.  I’ve never played Bingo, myself, but I

do recognize the seriousness of the situation.

Everyone: Yes!  Help us!  Please help.

Police Chief Pete:    I will find it and I promise I will find the guilty person who stole it.  Any 

Questions?

Alice: Stop talking and start looking.

Director Steve:  Look, I know this is a hardship but we will get through it.  Stay strong.

Everyone: Yeah!  Boston strong.  Franklin strong.  Senior Center strong!

Faith: Don’t take too long, or I’m going to a different Senior Center.

Police Chief Pete:  So what is exactly missing?

Everyone: Bingo Board–big board/cage/cards/number balls…

Police Chief Pete:  ALL that?!?

Deputy Director Bob:  What do we do meanwhile?

Director Steve:  I will order new Bingo equipment/ new bingo software/automated balls/ virtual 

Bingo show that is much better than the old Bingo Board.

Everyone: Yay!  

Director Steve:  It will come tomorrow.  See, you won’t be without Bingo for long–one day.

Police Chief Pete:  That was fast.  Too fast.  So fast, it’s suspicious, like it was pre-meditated.

Director Steve, you keep stressing that the stolen Bingo equipment was old?

Outdated?  

Director Steve:  Yes, actually, the thief did us a favor because now we have an excuse to 

purchase new Bingo equipment.

Deputy Director Bob: Yes, it actually was so worn, it was embarrassing.

Police Chief Pete:  Mmmm.  You know, I’m going to get search warrants to search the premises

of the Senior Center, Director Steve, and Deputy Director Bob’s homes.

Director Steve AND Deputy Director Bob:   WHAT!!!  Wait!  What, why?

Police Chief Pete:  I think this theft was an inside job.  It looks like a scheme to get new Bingo

Stuff, especially since the Director and Deputy Director already ordered new 

Bingo Equipment before the old Bingo stuff was even missing.

Director Steve AND Deputy Director Bob: Er. We give up.  

Deputy Director Bob:  We did it for the Senior Center.

Director Steve:  We didn’t think the police would get involved over an old Bingo Game.

Everyone:   Don’t arrest them.  They did it for us.

Police Chief Pete: Still.  A crime has been committed.

Everyone: NO!

Helen: We’ll say it was all a joke.

Bill: I called the police.  I’ll say it was a mistake.  I didn’t know it was a joke.

Faith: We will all stick together.  It was a joke, a mistake.  It will be our word–all of

us, against you, Chief.

Police Chief Pete: Ah.  I see how it is.  I guess there’s nothing I can do.

Director Steve: You got that right.

Everyone: BINGO!

Tehillim 71:9

 Tehillim is a book in the Torah.  We Christians call the book Psalms. Psalm 71:9 is about feeling vulnerable in old age.  "Do not cast me away when I am old; do not forsake me when my strength is gone."

I am approaching 80.  Since I recently traveled across country, to go to a wedding, I often felt age related vulnerability.  I found the parking garage, the shuttles, the airports, overwhelming.  

However, I don't feel cast off.  The opposite, people defer to me.  I find it embarrassing.  I think, "Do I look the decrepit?"  But I know it's kindness.  Too bad King David didn't feel that way.  He worried about his age-related weaknesses.  

One thing King David and I have in common, though.  We have always love and trusted God's grace and know that God won't abandon us.

Historical Conspiracy

 The Lost Pope by Glenn Cooper doesn't have any sex in it.  I make that statement because the hero, Cal Donovan, is always jumping into bed with women.  The author doesn't make it necessary for the story, but still.  And I do get it, I really do, but this book proves that it's not necessary.  It's a good story.

What if I told you that Mary Magadalene wrote a Gospel?  Mmmm.  You've heard that, already.

What if I told you that she wasn't a prostitute?   Mmmmm.  You know that.

Well, I bet you didn't know that she was married to Peter.  That when Peter knew he was going to be killed, he passed the papal ring to her.  

Got ya!

That's the story and the papapari to prove it, is what this story is about.  The author tweaks the noses of rich conservative Catholics.  They want to suppress the idea of a woman pope, never mind discredit Cal's dream woman, Sister Elisabetta. As usual, the setting is Cambridge, MA, and Rome, there are libraries in Harvard and the Vatican, and the chase.  It has everything.  I think you'll like it.

Emotional Triggers

 There was something that happened at the wedding rehearsal, that still bothers me. I'm sure no one noticed or if they did, would remember it.  It amazes me how fast something hurtful, even if not intentional can deflate one's confidence.

Before I left for the wedding, I posted the reading Christina chose. At the wedding rehearsal, I started reading it.  It's from Song of Songs, about a lover waiting for his beloved.  Song of Songs is poetry. It begins with "Hark."  The minute I said "Hark," someone giggled. As I continued about "peeking through the latices," there was more giggling. I was not reading it dramatically, either.  After all, this was only a rehearsal.  I read it matter of fact.

It unsettled me.  Instantly, insecurities enveloped me.  I remembered my Boston accent was strong.  I remembered a speech teacher telling me that I had, "an annoying Merrimac Valley nasal twang." I remembered all the criticisms I received in Toast Masters.  I remembered when I quit being a Lector in church, no one tried to talk me out of it.

Well, it's over with, what's done is done.  However it came across, no one will remember.  It was the wedding that was important.

Christina & Ian's Wedding

Celebrating

 Christina's wedding was fabulous!  It lasted five days!!!!!  The first day was a dinner to meet everyone.  After all, people came from across the globe. The wedding was in California.  The groom and myself live in Massachusetts.  The bride's mother was Austrian.  So, everyone got together for appetifs at a restaurant, then to the bride's father's house for food and snaps.  The next day was the wedding rehearsal, followed by dinner at a Middle Eastern restaurant.  Finally--the big day.  The wedding was a nuptial Mass.  It was beautiful.  After the Mass, Christina took a bouquet and placed it at the foot of a statue of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel.  They said it was an old Catholic custom.

Following the wedding was a reception on a cruise ship.  While the revelry went on, the ship cruised Newport Harbor.  What a fantastic experience!

My!  I know I'm using a lot of exclamatory statements, but how else to describe this event?  Lastly, the next morning was a brunch, at a restaurant.  

May God bless this marriage of Christina & Ian.

Apocalypse

 Here's another Book Review.  This time it's Wild Fire by Nelson DeMille.  John Corey is the detective with his long suffering wife.  He's a smart mouth investigator.  His friend was murdered in an assignment that was meant for him. Corey's partner is his wife.  Both are investigating this crime, in the Adirondacks.  

The bad guys are out to blame Islamis.  This takes place right after 9/11 They hope to accomplish revenge by nuclear bombing American cities, which will force our government to think Islamic terrorists were responsible and go to war.

This is a fast-paced political thriller.  I see that it is part of a series and John Corey is featured in all of them.  If you like sarcastic, sexy heroes.  This is a book for you.