The Friend, which features potent performances by Naomi Watts and Bill Murray, hit theater screens this spring and now can be streamed. The plot focuses on Murray’s character, Walter, a successful New York City-based writer, who left his beloved great dane behind when he chose to commit suicide.

Shake It Up: A Shakespeare Cabaret, a mash-up of modern music and Shakespearean verse, is presented by Shakespeare & Company in Lenox, Mass., today through Sunday. Allyn Burrows, director and co-creator of Shake It Up, says “Shakespeare and rock ‘n’ roll have been part of the fabric and lifeblood of popular culture for a long time. Mashing them together yielded fun and fascinating results.”

Penn athletics hasn’t been a significant part of the national discourse since around the mid 20th century, when they still had a dominant football program with big fan base. Beyond the occasional NCAA basketball tournament appearance and the Penn Relays, the Quakers don’t get a lot of air time.

From 2011-2018, fans of police procedurals were treated to a Nordic noir series called The Bridge (Bron/Broen).

The MAGA people are against immigrants. They’re afraid that immigrants are taking their jobs. But every economist on all sides of the isle will tell you that stopping immigration and expelling immigrants will damage the economy, increase prices and reduce available jobs, not increase them.

It has been reported that there are currently 400,000 factory jobs that are going unfilled because employers cannot recruit qualified and reliable employees. It does not appear that this issue has been considered by the Trump administration as it touts the idea of reshoring.

Last week, the big policy announcement was one made by Governor Hochul. The governor directed the New York Power Authority to develop one or more nuclear power plants with enough capacity to supply electricity to roughly 1 million households.

Around this time last year, my wife noticed some black spots on the parsley and dill growing in our garden at home. I didn’t think much of it – the dots looked like bird droppings to me – but my wife got pretty excited: They’re eggs, she said – most likely of the black swallowtail butterfly.

There’s an old saying that claims, “There is no such thing as a free lunch.” That seems wise, but such a simple statement can be complex. Park Playhouse is the theater company beginning a four week run of “Oklahoma” in Albany’s Washington Park. It’s first performance is Tuesday.

Uncharacteristically, last week I attended a major league baseball game, and a day game, and a Yankees game at that, with my friends Bruce and Mike.