I finally got to see Walk The Line this weekend - wow, what a great job Joaquin Phoenix and Reese Witherspoon did. Phenomenal movie and stellar performances by both actors.

Also, I finished the book I started on the airplane: Fatal Burn, by Lisa Jackson. Made me laugh out loud - too bad it wasn’t humour. This was another that I made the fatal mistake of buying, thinking it was a mystery/suspense novel and not realizing it was a Harlequin Romance in disguise. “My daughter’s missing, presumed kidnapped and I’ve just seen my brother’s murdered body hanging from the rafters...I know! Let’s have sex!” Because, you know, nothing gets me in the mood like the dead body of a close relative, how ‘bout you? Ahem.

But the part that had me laughing fit to burst when I read it - and every time I recall it since - was the horribly tense, emotionally churning moment of dire revelation when the brave heroine, Shannon, realizes that her very own father is the Stealth Torcher (dun dun DUNNNN!), a serial firebug who’s been terrorizing the area, and she makes this identification - which had puzzled many a professional law-enforcement type heretofore - based upon the stunning, startling realization that she and her brothers’ first initials spell “ARSONS”. Yeah, from Aaron and Robert down to her, the old man named his kids a crime anagram. Bwahahahaha! Because wouldn’t you, if you had a favorite crime? How do you explain this to your spouse? Nancy would be arguing with Mark, “I know you like ‘Anthony’, honey, but I plan to rob jewelry stores one day so he has to be named ‘Lawrence’, for larceny - and if we have another child, that can be the ‘A’ child - Anthony or Anna.” And Mark would reply, “That’s all well and good but can’t you specialize in ‘theft’ so we can stop at five? I think seven’s too many.” Alan will be fussing at me, “I know as an accountant you’re poised best for embezzlement but no way am I having twelve children, plus no good names start with ‘Z’ - no, we are NOT naming our son ‘Zedediah’, I’m sorry, you’ll just have to get better at hot-wiring cars. GTA, I can handle.” I’m racking my brain trying to figure out what nefarious deeds my mother got up to, but Helly and Bo don’t anagram to anything. What can this mean? She must have had a bunch more kids without our knowledge and given them up for adoption or sold them to Columbians or something. You can't have a good crime without vowels.