Little Reviews: Poem for Wednesday

Wednesday, January 25, 2006

Poem for Wednesday

Hour of Peaceful Rest
By William Bingham Tappan

There is an hour of peaceful rest
  To mourning wanderers given;
There is a joy for souls distrest,
A balm for every wounded breast,
  'T is found alone in heaven.

There is a soft, a downy bed,
  Far from these shades of even—
A couch for weary mortals spread,
Where they may rest the aching head,
  And find repose, in heaven.

There is a home for weary souls
  By sin and sorrow driven;
When tossed on life's tempestuous shoals,
Where storms arise, and ocean rolls,
  And all is drear but heaven.

There faith lifts up her cheerful eye,
  To brighter prospects given;
And views the tempest passing by,
The evening shadows quickly fly,
  And all serene in heaven.

There fragrant flowers immortal bloom,
  And joys supreme are given;
There rays divine disperse the gloom:
Beyond the confines of the tomb
  Appears the dawn of heaven.

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This morning I was sidetracked by a Stupid Project, and by the time I had finished it, UPN and the WB had announced plans to merge, thus necessitating that I check news sites so I could write an article on that (and another on a Kate Mulgrew movie that was supposed to be direct-to-DVD but opened in New York last weekend, and yet another on Desperate Housewives and ABC's preferring to run Grey's Anatomy in the highly desirable spot right after the Super Bowl). Then I had the usual Tuesday carpool and Hebrew school runaround, hubby decided to bring in pizza after I mentioned that I was craving it and boys responded enthusiastically, and this evening one son had a meltdown of indeterminate origins after I had a couple of long phone calls with people having various crises...

By the time I blinked it was 9 p.m. and time for Commander in Chief. Have I mentioned lately how much I love Geena Davis? The script was reasonably interesting this week -- not predictable, at least, though way too much time spent on sleazoid campaign manager for no good reason and the kids' party storyline could have been half the length as well. The West Wing would at least have nodded to what else was going on in the world while dealing with the campaign issues and the domestic crisis of the week.

And then Boston Legal, which was fantastic even though there was almost no Denny/Alan interaction. It was really "managed health care sucks!" night on ABC, wasn't it! Only William Shatner can pull off griping that people at the firm are being coddled while getting a manicure. And of course he assumes Shirley must be jealous of Bev rather than having a legitimate beef about Bev's behavior...it makes very little sense that Shirley would be the person doing the beefing, since of course Denny would assume that whereas he might not with Paul, but it's so much funnier with Shirley. After she storms out, his manicurist says, "Happy ending, Mr. Crane?" and he says, "Not today, I'm engaged now!"

Now, I can't quite figure Bev out. If she's just a gold-digger, then the joke has gone on too long and Denny is going to look like an idiot when they give her the boot. She's so manipulative, and a little bit of a lunatic...the business with the sandwich guy came close to being this week's over-the-top moment though compared to previous weeks, this week was pretty focused and low-key. The Catherine storyline was the straightforward comic relief -- little old lady repeatedly robs convenience store at gunpoint. ("Now HER I know we fired!" Denny announces when Catherine suggests his brain is like a sieve, and then Alan offers her money and she thinks he wants sex!) I keep wondering exactly how much money Alan makes...he seems to have a lot of cash and cars and things to throw around to his assistants, friends, etc. And then there's Brad with his half a million to make the Bev problem go away! (When he suggests to Shirley and Paul that he take care of it, their only demand is, "No chopping off fingers." Hee!) Well, Brad made partner, so presumably he's in good shape anyway...

Oh, and Alan, speaking for David Kelley again with his HMO profit numbers and his absolutely brilliant closing argument. That Irma Levine has his number. She invites him to the shelter to help poor women in need of legal counsel, he asks if they're cute, she says, "You don't fool me. You're a compassionate man." That's because he's only passingly interested in women; Denny is the great love of his life! "There you are! I've hardly seen you this episode," they greet each other for the cigars at the end, where Alan briefly lectures on the lack of privacy on the internet in case we somehow missed that during the HMO case. Denny says his life's an open book, he tells everyone he has mad cow anyway. Alan explains that he doesn't want to know what it says about him on internet: "I don't want to know me." And Denny says, "I know you. You're not so bad." Then they talk about whether Alan should take Irma Levine to Denny's wedding and Alan gazes adoringly while Denny smokes. Happy sigh. If only Denise and Daniel could get a happy ending, too...