[five things]

1)My Thanksgiving was a lot of  fun..My mom and dad  and I did Meals On Wheels. We had Thanksgiving dinner at a hotel near their house.It was really good-I'd never had stuffing with chorizo-but I am now a fan-see also:The bread pudding, which had butterscotch chips on top of it. Mind you, I hate butterscotch-and bread pudding-but *that* I liked! Then we went to see The Theory Of Everything, the movie about Stephen Hawking.

2)My new favourite thing is the Jag ads with Nicholas Hoult. Hard to believe that's the kid from About A Boy.

3)What can I say about Ferguson that hasn't already been said?I found it upsetting.I'll just leave it at that.

4)I LOVED the trailer for the new Star Wars  movie. I decided that I am going to go to a midnight showing the day it comes out.Which is something I would NOT normally do..but that is  how excited I am about it.

5)I am a technologically savvy person..to a point..but trying to figure out the pluses and minuses of certain things(like makes and brands of cell phones)that makes my head hurt.

[who let the dog(s) out?]

Apparently there has been a problem with a service dog on the Niew Amsterdam.The problem?It's not a real service dog.And it's very badly behaved.

The dog's owner is on an extended(world?) cruise.Just think of all the logistical issues involved with having a "service dog" on an extended cruise.I mean, it's not like there's an area you can take the dog to, like you can at, say, an airport. It's really surprising that this dog hasn't been making more of a mess. But, as I said, it's become a bit of a major issue for other passengers. Plus, the matter of the dog not being a real service dog, too.

Thanks to the ADA act, bus drivers and the like can't give people trouble about whether their dog is or isn't a real service dog. They can get sued.Which sucks. Not only that,there is a whole black market for  fake certification and vests and the like.It is illegal, but it goes on all the time.

According to the thread about this on Cruise Critic,the wonder is stressed by the situation. But the crew are bearing some of the brunt too(and probably are stressed themselves) as they have been enlisted to watch the dog whilst the owner and her husband go on shore excursions.

*I can't remember what thread it was on(I thought it was on the service dog thread but it's not) about knowing when to quit cruising.

Now, this is something I have  seen before-people talking about how they travel with a disabled family member, or a family member with health issues.There was a woman who was saying that they would not be cruising anymore because it was too much stress for her and other family members. Well, it's probably stressful to the disabled family members as well-they're having to be flexible about timing of everything, etc and it's not always easy.

So I wonder why they always choose a cruise as their vacation. They would be much better served finding something that would be more appropriate.

[the review posts will return..they're just taking a bit of a break for now!]

There has been quite a bit of talk about whether Hannibal could come back earlier than expected since the show that is in its time slot(Constantine) is not getting any additional episodes.

This means that Hannibal has the potential to come back as early as late February or March.The problem is that Hannibal has only been in production since October 20th.Presumably they're taking time off for Christmas. Mads is not going to his daughter's debutante ball(which is in Paris), which leads me to think that they are working really hard to get things together in case Hannibal gets a time slot for next year.

Hopefully, there isn't *too much* rushing to get things done-Filming moves to Italy next week.

Again, this is just a guess, but I have a feeling that a decision about Constantine was made pretty early on. Its ratings have improved..but not by much. Mind you, Hannibal's ratings are pretty marginal but here we are,on the verge(r) of Season 3.Supposedly NBC is supposed to announce their mid-season lineup soon, so maybe we'll find out something  then?

Last time, they announced an air date out of the blue in mid-December(to say that it was unexpected would be putting it mildly!)

Pretty much the only problem that I could see with it is that there will be a several week break between episodes. But then again, seeing as how Bryan Fuller has said that S3 will be split into two chapters-the hunting for Hannibal chapters and then the start of the Red Dragon arc, maybe that is actually a *good* thing?

I like to tell myself that the lack of spoilers/on set pictures is because they have been SO busy putting together an *amazing* S3 for us Fannibals. We do love our  spoilery pictures and have fun figuring out what they mean(see also:The promos, both  U.S. and international, for S2) and also also a picture of Will with antlers sticking out of his back.That was taken so out of context it's not even funny!

[meme]

*If you could  do one thing to change the past,would you do it? Yes,I would. I know *exactly* what part of my past I would change, too.

*What's the first thing on your bucket list and why? Believe it or not, snorkeling the Great Barrier Reef in Australia.

*Talk about green. When I think of green, I think of the color. Of grass(I love the smell of freshly mowed grass)

*If you could have any five actors/characters for dinner, who would they be? Hugh Dancy,Michael Fassbender ,Harrison Ford,Ian McKellen and Sean Connery.

*What has been your favourite trip?I really liked our family trip to Alaska a few years ago,so I'll say that!

*Sleepwear: This time of year, whatever shirt I wore during the day, and pajama pants.Or a nightshirt and pajama pants.

[blog housekeeping]

*Because of..circumstances I will not be posting my Hannibal review this Friday..but it will be back next week.

*You may have noticed a new weekly(providing I can come up with enough things) post-Five Things. I did Five Things a few times back at the old blog.

*Finally, at the end of the year,I will be posting a list of the books I read/liked this year.

[fair weather fans]

This is something I've noticed in several fandoms-including Hannibal, though I'm going to start with other  fandoms and wrap up this post by talking about Hannibal

I'll start with House  and Once Upon a Time.

There is a writer, Barbara Barnett who is/was part of several fandoms.She writes about TV and pop culture for a living, so her opinion is out there,in a big way.

Well, some of her (very strong)opinions about House started to filter to others fans.And her opinion-that she didn't like the way the show runners were doing things-became the majority opinion in the House fandom.When a favourite character of Barnett's was written out of the show she made her opinions *quite* known.Because of that,there are certain House fans who, 3 years later, feel very strongly, and have been known to harass former show runners and writers on Twitter. Even now. And Barbara Barnett is *entirely* to blame for that.

I get that Barnett is in the buisness of writing about TV but when you can  get dissent in the ranks of  a fandom by writing your opinion and stating it as how *everyone* feels, that is a conflict of interest.

BTW, the 10th anniversary of House was the other day and the producer David Shore(one of the people involved with the show that she dislikes intensely) was one of the few people that acknowleged that fact on Twitter. Of course,I pointed that out to her and.. *crickets.* Yeah, she really dislikes him THAT much.

Fast forward to 2014.She's doing the same thing same thing with the Once Upon A Time fandom. A show she's watched for several years but now no longer reviews because(once again) she doesn't like the direction that the show runners are going in.

Yes, it is all a matter of opinion but a lot of the things that she had to say came off like nitpicking.For all the people  that agreed with her reviews, there were plenty of people who DISagreed with  her.Especially on IMDB.For all the smack that I talk about the IMDB boards(and I do) they know what's what on that score.

Now, she's moved on to The Walking Dead fandom, and I'm sure they'll be annoyed with her before too horribly long.It seems  like fandoms have become a little less innured to..outside opinion since House.

I'm waiting for The Walking Dead's show runner to do something wrong..at which point she will move on to another show.Probably. And it'll start all over again.

And finally, Hannibal: I have been hearing that some Mads fans have been feeling like Mads is getting short shrift from the official Tumblr and the like, and that the show is called Hannibal and that  Hannibal is the main character and other characters(Will, Jack, etc.) are minor characters. Yes, really.Luckily,that(unlike with House) is a small minority of the fandom. And there's plenty of people to call bullshit on it-that they love Mads/Hugh Hannibal/Will equally.

[weekend report, Nov. 21-23]

Friday: I went to Encinitas and hung out there for a few hours.

Saturday:Was Mads Mikkelsen's birthday(I have to mention that!) I went down to Point Loma, to Liberty Station(the old Navy training station here in San Diego  which is now a bunch of shops, galleries and the like. It's amazing.)

My parents had a dinner party Saturday night but I wasn't part of that. :)

Sunday: I went to the Farmer's Market near my parents' house.Later on, my brother and his wife and kids came over  for dinner.