Digested Ham

Media Digest: August 29, 2016 -- This Old Man

What I'm Watching

• Columbo 3.1 (Lovely But Lethal): I know I've seen this one before, but I didn't remember anything about it. Vincent Price! Who knew. And a young Martin Sheen plays the victim, a chemist who gets his comeuppance after trying to peddle the stolen secret formula of a miraculous anti-aging product. "I'm your hairy little teddy bear," Sheen says to the killer, not long before she bonks him over the head with a microscope.
• Columbo 3.2 (Any Old Port in a Storm): Donald Pleasence plays wine maker Adrian Carsini, who kills his half-brother when he threatens to close down the family's celebrated winery. Pleasence is a pleasure to watch in this role. One wonderful moment is Carsini's reaction when Columbo tells him that the bottle of wine he'd lambasted at a fancy restaurant had been from his own cellar. (His wine had turned because Carsini shut off the air conditioner in the cellar after storing his not-yet-dead brother there.) This, by the way, is the first episode in which Columbo whistles "This Old Man," which would become an unofficial theme song of the show.

A final toast, in Columbo's car.

Media Digest: August 25, 2016 -- It takes two

What I'm Watching

• Columbo 2.8 (Double Shock): Martin Landau plays twins who conspire to murder their rich uncle before he marries Catwoman (Julie Newmar). The best part of this episode is Columbo's relationship with Mrs. Peck, the victim's housekeeper, who cannot stand the slovenly policeman. Columbo, who can't seem to do anything right when she's around, is amusingly contrite. (There's a weird scene in this one in which Columbo appears on the cooking show that one of the twins hosts. It's very strange. Columbo isn't himself at all. I feel like it really doesn't fit in the episode, or indeed in the series.)

Columbo apologizing to Mrs. Peck for his untidiness.

Media Digest: August 23, 2016 -- Dr. Spock and the dissolving suture

What I'm Watching

• Columbo 2.6 (A Stitch in Crime): Leonard Nimoy is a cool cucumber in this episode. He plays a surgeon who tries to kill Will Geer by using dissolving suture during his heart operation. Columbo isn't pleased when the doctor laughs in response to his suture theory. He picks up a coffee carafe (?) and bangs it on the guy's desk to get his attention, an uncharacteristic display of anger.
  
  One thing I'm finding interesting in rewatching the series is seeing the way Columbo behaves toward suspects versus how he acts toward others. When Columbo is talking to other policemen or to involved parties he doesn't suspect, he can appear more competent, more abrupt, more efficient. But it is subtle difference, which I think is to the show's credit. He doesn't ham it up for the suspects and then obviously behave differently with others. One example is his conversation with Harry Alexander in this episode. Harry looks good for the murder of a nurse (Nimoy did it, of course), but Columbo doesn't think he's guilty. He asks why Harry hadn't seen the woman lately:
  

  Why haven't you seen her in six months?
  
  What's that got to do with you?
  
  Don't be foolish. You're an intelligent person. Why'd you stop seeing her?

  I can't imagine that Columbo would talk like that—"dont' be foolish"—to a murderer he was trying to catch.

Here's Columbo about to pick up that carafe.

Media Digest: August 22, 2016 -- Checkmate

What I'm Watching

• 

  Crazy-ass sideburns.
  Columbo 2.7 (The Most Dangerous Match): American grand master Emmet Clayton endures deafness, psychedelic hallucinations, and crazy-ass sideburns in this episode. Shortly before their chess match, he pushes his Russian opponent down a garbage chute, and later fiddles with the poor guy's meds to finish him off. (I accidentally watched this one out of sequence. I'll go back and watch the Leonard Nimoy episode next.)

 

Clayton and the Russian guy play chess on a checkerboard tablecloth the night before their match.

Media Digest: August 20, 2016 -- Catch a falling star

What I'm Watching

• Columbo 2.5 (Requiem for a Falling Star): I've certainly seen this one before, but didn't remember it as well as some others. An aging movie star kills her secretary, who's been making time with a gossip columnist: thing is, she has a big secret she can't afford to let get out. Columbo's a fan of the murderess and is a bit star-struck—or maybe he just pretends to be.

What I'm Reading

• The No S Diet. Reinhard Engels is a librarian turned computer programmer turned diet book author—an unlikely career trajectory. Some years ago, I guess in the mid-2000s, he put the system he'd devised for gaining control of his weight on the internet (check out everydaysystems.com), and it gained adherents. Ultimately the website resulted in this book, which codifies the information available online. You don't need this book to get the info. Indeed, the whole of the diet can be simply stated: No snacks, no sweets, no seconds, except (sometimes) on days that start with "S." But you'll want to read more, because Engels is a brilliant guy who approaches questions from an unusual perspective and offers workable solutions to real-life problems (not only about diet, by the way). This really isn't your average diet book. It's largely about habit building, training yourself to adopt habits that will make your life simpler, your diet better, and your food more pleasurable. I'm reading it now for the second time just because it's motivating reading. (See also the author's podcasts, which are a great resource.) Even if you don't wind up losing weight by No S'ing, adopting the habit of eating as Engels suggests is beneficial because you'll come to have a better relationship with food.

Media Digest: August 17, 2016 -- Paging Doctor Bombay

What I'm Watching

• Columbo 2.4 (Dagger of the Mind): Columbo goes to England in this charming episode and gets caught up in investigating the murder of a theatrical producer. The victim's butler didn't do it—the murderers were a pair of egocentric actors—but Wilfrid Hyde-White is fantastic as Tanner, the cunning gentleman's gentleman.

Media Digest: August 14, 2016 -- ConNECTing with the word CHICK

What I'm Watching

• Columbo 2.3 (The Most Crucial Game): Robert Culp is back! He's the general manager of a football team who kills the team's owner (Dean Stockwell) in the second quarter—while dressed like an ice cream man. 

Media Digest: August 13, 2016 -- Orchids and nepoticide

What I'm Reading

• J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (audio): Onward to book 3 in the series, which I believe is about 12 hours listening time. Jim Dale really does an excellent job on these.

What I'm Watching

• Columbo 2.2 (The Greenhouse Jungle): Orchid grower Ray Milland kills his nephew as part of a complex faux kidnapping scheme. The victim looks like he hangs out with Jack Tripper at the Regal Beagle.

The victim (right) would look right at home in Three's Company.

Media Digest: August 12, 2016 -- Maestro in paradise

What I'm Watching

• Columbo 2.1 (Étude in Black): A cheating conductor kills his girlfriend after she issues an ultimatum, but he accidentally leaves his lapel flower at the scene. The maestro's wife is Gwyneth Paltrow's mother, Blythe Danner. This is also the first episode in which Columbo's basset hound appears.
• Bachelor in Paradise: God help me. This show makes The Bachelorette look like high art. Not sure I'm really watching it. I may not be in it for the long haul. But I will say this, and it's potentially controversial: I think Daniel is probably a worse person than Chad.

Media Digest: August 11 -- He had it coming

What I'm Watching

• Columbo 1.7 (Blueprint for Murder): Texas tycoon Forrest Tucker bitch slaps an architect (Patrick O'Neal) and earns himself a pair of cement cowboy boots—so to speak. The hard part for Columbo this time is finding the victim's body.* Meanwhile, I think O'Neal is one of the most natural seeming and least over-the-top villains in the Columbo canon.
  
  *I was thinking of titling this post "We're the Hekise," but would anyone have gotten the reference?