Story is simple and gets going fast: New York mafia guy (Frank Tagliano played by Steven Van Zandt) rats out his ‘family’ to the FBI and is entered into the witness program. Instead of choosing to go somewhere climate-friendly and in the US, he goes to Norway after having fond memories of the 94 Winter Olympics. As you can imagine there’s quite a clash of cultures between the ex-mafia boss and the quiet, socialist and subdued culture of Norway. Add some romance, crime and friendships and you’ve got a great story.

This is a satire/comedy series and apparently created by the Norwegian TV channel NRK and originally targeted for Norwegians. A lot of the show is about typical mafia dealings (i.e. running a nightclub, and managing the local riff-raff, etc.) and the absurdities of the politically correct Norwegian bureaucracy / Norwegian culture in general. I also want to mention that I LOVE how they’ve incorporated spoken Norwegian in the show, its easy to understand (they do have subtitles) and it makes the show seem more authentic and international-friendly.

I won’t go into all the characters, but Frank’s flunky partner, Torgeir Lien, is quite hilarious (whats up with his baseball cap?), kind of like a Norwegian Barney Fife. The female police chief has a soft soul. The immigration integration guy is a bumbling idiot, and almost all are soon under Frank’s thumb. And there is even a love interest for Frank, a woman who is attractive enough, but is even more sweet and unquestioning – just take a leap of faith and go with it!

Love the Norwegian scenery, actors, English subtitles and mobster mysteries. This show is easy for anyone to fall in love with. Det er bare Fantastik!!! (It’s just Fantastic!!!) Great job Netflix!

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All I knew about Feynman was that he was a great physicist but I didn’t know how eventful of a life he lived. Richard Feynman gives the reader a first hand look into the experiences that made him into one of the most successful physicists of all-time. He gives a glimpse into fixing up radios as a youngster, experimenting in his college years, and working with other physicists in his older days with such humor mixed with an obviously enormous amount of knowledge. Besides making a significant contribution to the Manhattan Project at Los Alomos, and receiving a Nobel Prize, Feynman constantly developed many varied interests and pursued them passionately. Don’t worry if you aren’t a physics major for Feynman spends relatively little time on physics and instead concentrates on his many other interests – his interpersonal relationships (he was married three times, and also wrote quite a bit about his efforts to meet women in between), and his scuffles with government and university bureaucracies. In one amusing anecdote, he agrees to give a talk for a government program only on the condition that he will not sign his name more than thirteen times in the required paperwork… and sure enough a 14th signature is required and the aftermath is hilarious.

There were some elements that were interesting – his attitude and experiences towards women, how he tormented a waitress by giving her a tip in a very unique manner which probably resulted in her yelling expletives at him.  He is amusingly curious, taken either way. I’m not sure if he’s likable, but he is certainly brilliant and I enjoyed his stories.

This book is light reading. As mentioned earlier, you won’t get a much deeper understanding of physics from reading it. I did fee that it was a lesson on how to think about things colorfully, from first principles. To get an idea of the man, I highly recommend seeing “The Pleasure of finding things out“, which can be seen on YouTube. It’s an interview from 1982 and would help paint an image of what his childhood experiences, personality and quirky essence was all about.  This is definitely a book I see myself re-reading simply because of the number of times it made me laugh and that its all based on, at times, very serious reality.

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For those of you who are not familiar with the Archy McNally series by Lawrence Sanders – Archy is the son of a prominent Palm Beach, FL attorney and is the sole member of the Department of Discreet Inquiries. These “discreet inquiries” allow you to lose track of time and imagine the life of dashing about in his red Miata, hanging out at the Pelican Club and in his spare time solving sensitive cases for his father’s richer-than-God clients down in Palm Beach, Florida. Archy loves wine, women, and song–not necessarily in that order. In fact, he eats too much, drinks to much, and always seems to get in trouble with the wrong sort of gal, much to the dismay of his unofficial girlfriend Connie Garcia.

Lawrence Sanders, is extremely well acclaimed within the mystery genre having other award winning series – Commandment and Timothy Cone books – to his resume. Sanders’ ability to use foreign language words now and then is a treat, as they usually add some humor as well his ability to spend time describing Archy’s attire and menu. Never before have I enjoyed reading such descriptive narratives that really do paint a full picture in my head of the life Im absorbing through words. I would also like to add that it was a major personal win when I realized after reading my first book (Archy’s Puzzle) that I realized there were almost a dozen more books waiting for me. I came across the first book during a pretty dark period in my life, perhaps the sarcastic and extroverted Archy was partly helpful in keeping my chin up. This series is definitely a fun easy read to pass the time away, not by any means a ‘book club’ novel, but good for easy reading/ mystery lovers.

RIP Lawrence Sanders!

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“You could have had everything.” I wonder if Mr. Davi had some kind of premonition about the shortcomings of future Bond movies. Eighteen years later, I’m still waiting for one that can give me the same sense of complete satisfaction Licence To Kill did. I always found that Bond had one thing lacking in his movies and that was the ability to be taken seriously. If he wasn’t over the top then the villains surely were and it never gelled. True when it came down to business he always got the job done, but there was never a time in any of the movies when I wouldn’t have minded it if he would’ve gotten picked off. This was definitely not the case with Licence To Kill. The story is about vengeance, and Bond is not taking orders. He has his mind set on what he needs to accomplish and this time Her Majesty’s Secret Service can come along for the ride. Robert Davi is as cool as they come and was the perfect choice to play the role of the cold villain Franz Sanchez, but the surprise for me in this movie was the appearance of a very young Benicio Del Toro. Right then and there you could see his quality and magnetism, and have no doubts that he would be major star one day. Timothy Dalton’s portrayal of Bond at his most rawest is fantastic and completely freshened up the franchise. Unfortunately, the audiences were expecting more of the Roger Moore era of Bond and so the studios returned to the old formula which guaranteed commercial success. However, die-hard fans will appreciate that the franchise was once brave enough to make a movie that took Bond back to his core character. You can clearly see Licence To Kill’s influence in the latest offering Casino Royale, but the studios compromising and playing safe again turned what could’ve been a great movie into another dull disappointment. Bottom line, Licence To Kill is the complete Bond film. It has a great story, great characters, and great action. The cherry on top is the super soundtrack which features the excellent theme by Gladys Knight, and a complete gem by Patti LaBelle to take us into the ending credits. Find it, enjoy it.

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Do you have that friend who you think is smart and is curious as hell about how everything works? Well if by everything its the human body then this is the perfect DVD to give as a gift. I love science, which is why I practice what I do, however this movie takes me a step beyond simple biology and chemistry. It brings in quantum physics and relates it to the human body and cells on the atomic level. A movie that I found fascinating while watching, yet more importantly, it left me thinking about a lot of things differently long after I was done watching it. I love thought stimulation and this movie did exactly that, for me. Again, like most things I enjoy watching, a background in the sciences will certainly add to the enjoyment, while a lack of it can end up stimulating something that has been dormant, a sense of curiosity that wont go away.

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