I am always reasonable

1. Four chapters into The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (Män som hatar kvinnor, Men Who Hate Women), I am intrigued most by the allusions that suggest the novel is a crossover fic between two Astrid Lindgren characters, grown up and gritty in 2005. I call jackpot if Ronja Rövardotter turns up.

2. TCM is currently showing a double feature of musicals and the movies that inspired them—first My Fair Lady (1964) and Pygmalion (1938), then Silk Stockings (1957) and Ninotchka (1939). I don't, unfortunately, have the time to watch either. 'Twas a few nights before Christmas and all through the house is a mess and why are there more things to wrap and did we mail all the fruitcake? Oh, God, why not? Et cetera. I am sorry to miss the latter pair, since I haven't seen either Cyd Charisse or Greta Garbo playing Russian since high school. But I am at least going to take the former as an excuse for that post about My Fair Lady and Pygmalion I've been meaning to write since last May; and anyone who's seen both films recently is free to tell me I'm wrong.

( How are all your people down at Selsey? )

3. If CBS Films is going to remake My Fair Lady, as I have been hearing for some months now, could someone please persuade them to cast Hugh Laurie as Henry Higgins? Please?