What is this peanut butter of which you speak so fondly?

I'm a resident of Royal Oak now. Just like that - we rented the apartment and moved right on in. How weird. I live within walking distance of the Detroit Zoo, which means, however, that it's not really in Detroit. And the landlord, Monica, who lives upstairs, has birds, so it sounds like we're living in the birdhouse of the zoo, though not in a bad way. My only complaint about the apartment is that the water pressure in the shower leaves something to be desired. It takes me a while to wash my thick hair when the water pressure is low, but it's not so horrible that I can't live with it.

Detroit water has a subtle scent and flavor that I've always noticed. Oddly enough, I almost always smell it on my grandmother's breath when she leans in to kiss me whenever I visit. The scent wafts up from the tap when the water is turned on, and it lingers in the glass. It's not a bad scent or taste, nor is it particularly good, for that matter. It's, simply, Detroit. I wonder if my breath will start to smell like Detroit water. Of course, maybe it means living in the area for sixty or so years. I don't know that I could spend that long here. Mom says I'll never really be a Detroiter anyway. Maybe that's for the best.

I wish I had more excitement to report about the weekend. Not being a working girl, though, means there's never much difference between weekends and weekdays for me. I went to Nana and Poppy's for the Planned Parenthood holiday mart. It was lame, though I hear-tell it's not usually so bad. There were approximately three Catholics outside the Grosse Pointe War Memorial protesting the holiday mart. Their signs claimed that Planned Parenthood was the nation's largest abortion provider (provider? is that right?). Nana and I remarked that this was sort of the point, and all the better for our going.

Movie report: Good Night and Good Luck. This was a fantastic movie, with a fine, fine performance by David Strathairn as Edward R. Murrow. George Clooney's performance as Fred Friendly was good in that it wasn't necessarily the same role he always seems to be playing. The story was concise and stuck to the broadcasts Murrow made on CBS which challenged McCarthy's witch trials. Frank Langella looks a lot like Christopher Lee. And Clooney directed, wrote, produced, catered, starred in, edited, choreographed, and pantomimed the whole thing. I always said to wait and see what would come out of that George Clooney. From the earliest ER days I said we had ourselves a modern walking genius on our hands. It's good to be right.