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June | 2015 | The Passing Scene

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Monthly Archives: June 2015. Wolf Hall, Episodes Three and Four. June 24, 2015. The legislative program effected a revolution. Elton attributes the modern view that this was a period of significant conflict a view he demonstrates to be wrong to the notoriety of the very small number of persons who objected:. He could not abide a situation in which the king replaced the pope as head of the Church, but was this a matter of principle beyond his loyalty to the institution? I do wish to read the labels, to kn...

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January | 2015 | The Passing Scene

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Monthly Archives: January 2015. Downton Abbey, Season Five, Episode Four. January 29, 2015. Sometimes you can tell who is watching a show by studying the commercials. At least that information can tell you what the advertisers think about who is in the audience. This insight sometimes sends a feeling of ice through my spine when a program I am enjoying breaks for commercial and they start selling catheters or adult diapers. A thought occurred to me about hats. Early in the episode, we are at lunch at...

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May | 2015 | The Passing Scene

https://the-passing-scene.com/2015/05

Monthly Archives: May 2015. Wolf Hall, Episodes One and Two. May 8, 2015. The PBS presentation of Wolf Hall, which so far (I have watched two episodes) has done a spectacular job (in my opinion) of bringing the Hilary Mantel novel to the screen, offers us television viewers a new portrait of Saint Thomas More. Is it possible that Thomas More is revered by the Roman Catholic Church for Red Sox reasons? So, he broke minds and bodies, and those he could not break, he burned. But what was the great cause...

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The Passing Scene | One Man's Opinion | Page 2

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Downton Abbey, Season Six, Episode Nine. March 9, 2016. Well-deserved congratulations to those of us who watched every episode of Downton. Those who missed a few episodes might consider a visit to the gift shop. You could buy a brightly colored T-shirt with the legend: My Friends Watched Downton Abbey and All I Got Was This Stupid Shirt. And with a two-hour finale, there was time enough for happy endings out to the horizon. When the lovely editor caught Edith’s bouquet just moments after Tom openly f...

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February | 2015 | The Passing Scene

https://the-passing-scene.com/2015/02

Monthly Archives: February 2015. Downton Abbey, Season Five, Episode Eight. February 25, 2015. But Susan was just getting started. It was she who arranged the honey trap at Atticus’s bachelor party. But how did she manage those arrangements? Meanwhile, Lord Sinderby has his own objections, none of which slowed anyone down for a moment, but I was intrigued by his use of the word shiksa [1]. Incidentally, did you notice the menorah sitting on the shelf to the side of Lord Sinderby’s desk? The British gover...

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Downton Abbey, Season Five, Episode Nine | The Passing Scene

https://the-passing-scene.com/2015/03/03/downton-abbey-season-five-episode-nine

Downton Abbey, Season Five, Episode Nine. March 3, 2015. This episode could be subtitled A Night at the Improv . Several story lines turned on the ability of the characters to improvise solutions to problems that they had not anticipated. Lord Sinderby nearly had a coronary when his unexpected guests arrived, and with all the money at her disposal dear Lady Sinderby could not buy a clue. What a lovely coincidence that Diana Clark’s little boy has the same first name as her husband! It’s a nice try to dis...

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Downton Abbey, Season Five, Episode Seven | The Passing Scene

https://the-passing-scene.com/2015/02/18/downton-abbey-season-five-episode-seven

Downton Abbey, Season Five, Episode Seven. February 18, 2015. I think Edith should be proud that she kept her secret for more than two years. When I say kept her secret I mean of course apart from her grandmother, her aunt, Mr. and Mrs. Schroeder, Mr. and Mrs. Drewe, and, at least so it appears, Mrs. Hughes. I can think of English novels where secrets have been kept considerably longer (. But it does seem likely that the process will continue in inexorable Downton fashion. In the meantime, Edith will...

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March 4, 2015 | The Passing Scene

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March 4, 2015. March 4, 2015. March 4, 2015 is the 150. To what levels of brutality and inhumanity would the slaveholding population have sunk before the system crumbled under its own weight? Yet that is what the nation endured as the 47 months from Fort Sumter to the Second Inaugural ground on. And every morning, Abraham Lincoln had the option to decide that the sacrifice made by the nation in the days preceding that morning were enough, were all that the nation could ask of itself. Those thoughts are d...

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Downton Abbey, Season Four, Episode One | The Passing Scene

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Downton Abbey, Season Four, Episode One. January 9, 2014. January 9, 2014. What a delight to return to the manicured grounds of Downton Abbey! For those of us who vaguely remember attending law school, this first episode of Season Four held special charms as one legal issue after another was unfolded, but perhaps we should come back to those gems later and focus on the developments that didn’t require the audience to blow dust off law books. My first question is: What happened to Isis the dog? I was cert...