Captain Phillips & Tutoring

A quick word or three about Captain Philips: Tom Hanks was a great Captain Phillips; the young Somali, Barkhad Abdi, who played the pirate captain, was great (and, as I understand it, an untrained actor); the tension was gripping, especially when the four pirates boarded the Maerik Alabama and went searching for the crew hiding on this massive cargo ship; and the film was at least twenty minutes too long. Too much time was spent filming the action aboard the lifeboat (and if I was ever put adrift on open seas, I’d want to be in this thing they called a lifeboat). It was good, about three and a half stars out of five, but not as good as the reviews led me to believe.

And here’s my latest picture of the three boys in their cat tree, Charlie and Tiger and Tuffy. The little ones are still smiling, but they’re scheduled to be “tutored” tomorrow and they won’t be smiling for quite a while after that.