Pax Massilia (or: Blood Coast) is a new French crime series about a group of police officers who try to track down a dangerous criminal who is busy plunging Marseille into a bloodbath. This six-part drama was created by Kamel Guemra, who was one of the writers of the Netflix-hit Balle Perdue (Lost Bullet). The main director is Olivier Marchal, in fact Pax Massilia is being advertised as ‘the new series by Marchal,’ since the veteran filmmaker (and former police officer!

To read part 1 of the allergy trilogy, click here. To read part 2 click here. I also want to give a shout-out to this week’s new readers! Welcome! You can check out the more than 90 posts on the Earworm & Song Loops archive page. Leave a comment If I were to take a poll asking you to choose the first song about breathing that comes to you, I would bet Pink Floyd’s “Breathe (In the Air)” would be #1.

Now let’s gossip. In his busted Planet of the Apes rehash, director Tim Burton cast Lisa Marie and Helena Bonham Carter as chimpanzees. The former was his girlfriend of seven years, had been a Mars Attacks! alien and a Sleepy Hollow witch. Then Burton and Bonham Carter got together. They made six more films and two children. When a director toward the end of a long relationship winds up dating a performer from their newest movie, the end product can feel deliciously treacherous.

Hi friends! It’s that time of year when the Dog Days of Summer are coming to a close, and everyone is getting jazzed for Fall. One of the hallmarks of the “end of Summer” is the appearance of late-Summer stone fruit: think all kinds of plums, apricots, peaches, and pluots. When these summer stars start making cameos at the farmers’ market, we know it’s time to make “The Plum Torte.”

I spent two days last week in Little Rock, Arkansas — doing an event for my book. (You haven’t bought it yet? Do it!) While I was there one thing became immediately clear to me: The entire Arkansas political world was talking about a podium that Republican Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders bought with state money. Yes, a podium. Let me explain. On June 8, Sanders, using a state credit card, bought a podium — it’s actually probably more accurately referred to as a lectern for you linguistic nerds out there — from an Arlington, Virginia-based company called Beckett Events LLC.