You can learn a lot from Lydia

``A lawyer and two idiotic performers try to save a bankrupt circus with one show-stopping new number,'' is the cable box description of the movie. I suppose this is literally true, but what movie does that suggest to you? I'm not sure just how I'd describe it except, ``the Marx brothers at a circus,'' which comes dangerously close to just repeating the title. I'm tempted to watch, but it starts at 12:50 am, and I've already got it on DVD. And while it's airing on Turner Classic Movies, the channel isn't as cool in Singapore as it is in the US - they put a bug in the upper right corner of the screen, most notably. Still, there's some weird property that makes a movie more compelling when you catch it on TV, rather than by watching a video or DVD you already own. I can't explain why.

After the Marxes comes The Sandpiper, described simply as, ``An Episcopal priest falls for a free-living artist.'' Well, who could resist a movie like that? (It's a Richard Burton/Elizabeth Taylor movie.) After that comes Billy Jack, around 4:40 am (though it's repeated tomorrow afternoon). A more curious fit for the channel comes Saturday, when ``Giant killer rabbits terrorise a community'' -- and while I'm happy to see a suitable bad movie, Night of the Lepus does seem to stretch the word ``Classic'' in the channel's name to the breaking point.

Meanwhile, at a television trade show in Cannes, the Singaporean shows are getting a warm reception. MediaCorp Studio's drama PS I Luv U -- a 3G mobile drama, meant to be shown on hand phones -- has been nominated for an award for ``best mobile content.'' If the clip I saw on the evening news is representative, the show is letterboxed.

Trivia: The CSS Shenandoah had one of the first water desalination plants on a steamer. It allowed her to stay at sea as long as the food and coal for the plant held out. She had sails so the need for the steam engine wasn't as critical. Source: The Last Shot: The Incredible Story of the CSS Shenandoah and the True Conclusion of the American Civil War, Lynn Schooler. Trivia point generously donated by gafennec.

Currently Reading: The Sputniks Crisis and Early United States Space Policy, Rip Bulkeley.