I rushed home from ballet class to watch 'Get Smart' on television. I can remember one day especially, waiting at the glass and wood doors of the building, it was a rainy afternoon, and my Mom was soon going to pull up in the car and pick me up. That one day sticks in my memory for no reason I can think of. I just remember the rain and the theme at the beginning of "Get Smart" going through my head over and over as I waited for my Mom. Once we were home it was always just in good time to see Maxwell Smart, the Chief and Agent 99.

Do you Remember Maxwell Smart and Agent 99?

Maxwell Smart (Agent 86) was an agent of CONTROL, along with Agent 99 and other super spies. They fought KAOS. Max always had great gadgets and a shiny red convertible car. Best known among the gadgets was his shoe phone. I still see someone refer to the shoe phone on modern TV shows every now and then. Of course, the shoe phone back then was rotary. So much has changed since the days of Maxwell Smart (1965 - 1970).

It's funny how much I enjoyed the show. I don't watch many comedies these days. I usually find them too silly and immature. The same old jokes, misunderstandings and such which situation comedies have been all about for too many years. 'Get Smart' was more than stupid humour. Max seemed to bumble around and yet he always pulled it off (with help). I really liked Agent 99 and the Chief though. Agent 99 was so cool and collected, so smart and such a modern 70's woman.

Barbara Feldon was Agent 99. She was always the smart woman behind the bumbling but lovable Maxwell Smart (Don Adams). Recently I watched the modern remake of 'Get Smart' with Anne Hathaway. Although she captured Agent 99 quite well, there was much less snarkiness and feeling of being superior to Barbara Feldon as Agent 99. She did respect Max and though she had the odd smirk at his goof ups, I never felt she was smirking at his expense. Barbara Feldon as Agent 99 was class and clever, very well dressed too.

I enjoyed the opening and closing credits and watched every time. I don't know if I expected something to be different, but I did think it was funny to see him get stuck in the phone booth or have his nose caught in the doors. That's how I remember the show most of all, the opening music and the long corridor of doors.

The Unclassified Get Smart Site

Get Smart with Would you Believe...

There are dinosaurs in Canada and they aren't all quiet, old fossils.

Primeval was (or maybe still is) a science fiction series about dinosaurs coming into the current, modern time through anomalies. The anomalies were portals which popped up in the time of the dinosaurs and led them to the current time. If you watched Primeval you would see dinosaurs in the swimming pool, the fast lane on the highway and acting like a bull in a china shop at the city museum.

The show was created in the UK, cancelled and brought back, then cancelled again. For a year (a season) Primeval had a new version, made in Canada. The Canadian show didn't get a second season but it sure went out with a bang, not a whimper.

The Story So Far

The leader of the Canadian team (Vancouver, British Columbia) is Evan Cross. He seems to have unlimited money from a business connected to science and computer technology. Evan Cross discovered the anomaly and the dinosaurs while urban exploring with his wife. She was eaten by a dinosaur, he witnessed her death but was unable to stop it. Since then he became determined to discover where the dinosaurs are coming from, how they are able to travel through time and how it can be stopped.

So Evan builds up resources (hidden inside his existing business) and a team of people to help him. First on the team is Mac Rendell. I count Mac as first because he has a connection to the dinosaurs in his own unique way. He was also killed by one, but in a future time which is how Even finds him (at Mac's death). It is a complicated story and yet while you watch the episode on the show it all seems pretty logical and sensible. Mac, in the future, was on the UK Primeval team and died trying to capture an escaped dinosaur. Of course, he could not have his body found in the past (when he should have been a teenager living in the UK still). So Evan hides the body in a deep freeze in his offices.

Dylan Weir is used to dealing with wild animals, in the present time. She joins the group when her mentor is killed by a dinosaur - this is also how she finds out about the dinosaurs. Evan invites her to join and she becomes his right hand in the field.

Toby Nance is a young woman who dresses like a pop star but is actually the brains being the operation. She is inventive and ingenious. She does not usually join the group in the field but stays behind in the secret lair to guide the team and come up with solutions when technology fails or any other problems arise.

Ange Finch starts out running the actual business. She is Evan's business partner and a trusted friend. As the show progresses Ange wanted to take part and do more. She has feelings for Evan and though he also likes her romantically he can't quite get past his wife's death and his own feelings of guilt and the drive to do something about it. At one point Ange seems to defect and being working with another group who are aggressively hunting the dinosaurs for their own purposes.

Primeval New World didn't get another season but you can watch the original UK series for more background on the story.

Periscope glasses let you watch TV (or read) without facing the television directly. If you get into being a super spy you can pretend not to be watching television at all while seeing everything in the periscope glasses. Just watch for channel changers trying to sneak up and put on some other TV show.

Watching Television While in Bed

I like to watch television while I'm in my bed. I find just the right position with my head comfortable on the pillow, my back supported just right and my arms sorted out so neither of them is in the way or in danger of becoming all pins and needles. But, I can't always see the television once I get all perfectly settled in. So, it starts over again. Or, I decide to just not watch television in bed tonight - there wasn't anything much on anyway... I just like the quiet noise of conversation to distract my brain from thinking about all the stuff I should be doing, or could be doing, if I weren't trying to get to sleep.

But, sometimes there actually is something I want to watch but I'm too cold to stay up or I just want to be more comfortable. Other times I watch television when I'm sick, sometimes in the front room. Either way, I find the comfortable position and then I can't always see the television.

So these odd looking glasses could be just the thing. You can spy on your own television - seeing the screen even if you are not quite face to face with it. Periscope glasses let you watch the TV even if you are flat on your back and facing the other way from it. Especially nice because you can avoid the glare of the screen on your face.

How will it really be when humans and robots live together? I'd like to date a robot man but I think it's not for all the best reasons. Also, I imagine an idealized version of the male robot. It could all be a pipe dream.

I read this book about two or even three years ago. I remember it well. I've been trying to find more books by Ekaterina Sedia since reading "The Secret History of Moscow" but so far I have been out of luck. When I find a book it isn't available for delivery to my location. I would especially like to read "The Alchemy of Stone" which is about history and gargoyles. I have a long standing interest in gargoyles and grotesques and the old buildings they are part of.

Ekaterina Sedia writes fiction about Russian history, legend and lore.

She writes urban fantasy mingled with a fairy tale for modern readers. Her writing is unclear in that good way that pulls you into the story and makes you think about what you are reading, think about how it all fits together and where it is all going. I love a book that assumes I have a brain!

The Secret History of Moscow is...

• a little creepy but not actually scary
• about crows and ravens stealing people away
• about a secret, underground sort of world
• are you really not yet tempted to read the book?

Reading "The Secret History of Moscow" made me wish I had paid more attention to what I do know about Russian history. I don't know a lot but I did think I had absorbed or researched enough to find my way around. I was not as clever as I thought. As I read I found out about individual people and events and I wrote notes to find out more. But, the book is not a dry historical tome. There is life in the history she writes. There is romance, mystery and seduction in her story.

This is not the standard story you read from standard romance or fantasy or science fiction writers coming from the US. You will find a difference in the writing style and the way the story is told too. But, we need some shaking up and the chance to explore another culture through it's works of fiction. You can read about another country, another culture but you can't see between the cracks, read the minds, hearts and souls of the people until you wander past the non-fiction section and read about more than the facts and statics written for tourists.

I'm not going to rehash the story. You can read the preview and reviews on Amazon. But don't read too much there. Read the book for yourself and form your own fresh opinions and ideas.

Savour the adventure and mystery of a culture you may never see from this depth and perspective again.

Postcard "Forgotten Moscow"