Most Haunted Live V Medium

I had a problem last night. The double bill of Medium on the Sci-fi channel was directly up against the three hour Most Haunted Live Halloween Special on Living. In the event I sort of solved it by majoring on Medium and flipping over to Most Haunted Live during the commercial breaks. I seem to have caught all the grooviest bits- the bit where David Wells described the dead people he was seeing, the bit where Yvette got them (the dead people) to sing to her, the bit where the witch (who was dead) threatened the team and David explained how he'd strengthened the protections because this ghost meant business.

David Wells is cute. Unlike the bombastic Derek Acorah (whom he replaced after Acorah was caught not only cheating but cheating lazily) he doesn't act like it's all about him.  He's openly gay, but not theatrically gay.  Also- dare I say this- I think he's honest. Yeah, yeah, I believe in this stuff- please don't make fun of me. The other night he made rather a good joke. He was apologizing for coming up with a "generic" name for one of the dead people he sees and Yvette told him not to apologize and he said, "I know, but we seem to get more Marys than I meet on my Saturday night out."

Not a lot actually happens on Most Haunted so it's possible to dodge in and out and not lose the thread. Medium, on the other hand, is smart and twisty and you'd better be paying close attention. The more seasons it puts under its belt, the more far-fetched the stories- but it hasn't yet entirely cut loose from planet Earth. The writing is neat and the acting is fabulous. And the kids who play the daughters are so brilliant I fear for them. 

This is where I should be drawing the threads together and explaining just why the TV schedules are overflowing with psychics and ghost-busters and what it says about our society- but actually I'm blowed if I know.  Sure we're anxious- and maybe tales of the Great Beyond soothe that anxiety-  but we were anxious during the Cold War too and the only spooks TV offered to comfort us then were the kind that wear tuxes and flaunt berettas. So, whatever. It's a fashion, a phase, a trend, a fad.  And I don't want it to stop.

The King's Pleasure

This is another poem I don't agree with anymore. I guess it came out of the Clinton years. But it's simply not true that great leaders are necessarily sex-fiends. Lincoln, for example, was quite austere (wasn't he?) and Churchill, from what I've read, was more interested in brandy and cigars. Ah well....

THE KING’S PLEASURE

 

JFK would snatch at snatch

Off corridors between meetings and briefings.

And shower his thirty seconds of gold

On girls who gulped for gratitude.

 

Well, most of them did,

 

                             But the guy held steady

And saved the world from going kerblooey

In ‘62.

 

          Now the ancient Irish

Believed that their king should shag a mare

At his  coronation.(I guess he stood

On a stool to do it.) the idea being

That only a fella so goofy for sex

He could get it up for a horse’s arse

Was fit to rule

 

                             For without a doubt

The emperors of carnality

Are often the best men, the staunch in a test men

The most creative....

 

                             And hence that song

In which an ogress with huge peg teeth

Invites the king for a ride on her hide

And he goes because he’s chivalrous.

But when he wakes he finds she’s a girl

With bright gold hair and the bones of a bird.