THE SOPRANOS

Hasidic Jew (after telling the story of the siege of Masada): "And the Romans--where are they now?"

Tony Soprano: "You're looking at 'em, asshole!"

--The Sopranos

Did I say we dropped our subscription to Crave TV?  We resubscribed because Moira wants to watch The Sopranos. (She tried it before, but couldn't get past that episode with the Hasidic Jew.) Tonight we watched the first episode with him blowing up his friend's restaurant so the fried won't lose business from a hit being carried out there. (A Rhode Island gangster actually did that!) James Gandolfini would have made a good silent movie actor.

I must say that the first season was the best, what with the conflict between Tony and Uncle Junior, though Joe Pantoliano as Ralph Cifaretto did a lot for the third and fourth.  As with Six Feet Under and Mad Men, the later seasons have diminishing returns:  after Adrianna got killed in the fifth season the show couldn't really be funny any more.  And Carmela's character arc, in particular, got inconsistent.  That's what happens when shows get planned one season at a time. (One of many things I admire about Breaking Bad is that all five seasons were planned out from the start!)

I finally fixed the problem with Google Play not loading. (I did it by clearing the memory cache, or something like that.) I paid actual money for an Ebook with a translation of the Lusiades into modern Portuguese.  I've already found a few mistakes I made in my translation:  I thought "frauta" meant fruit when it actually meant flute! And "Parcas" wasn't parks but the Three Fates. I've also resumed reading that book about TV shows that only lasted one season.

We've been eating scalloped potatoes and diced ham almost all this weak!  And I never get tired of it, like Archie Bunker with Edith's meatloaf.