A quick break from my Cali Diary to recap a few things:

1. Watched the first few eps of Law & Order: Trial By Jury. Pretty good stuff. It’s similar to the mothership, but different enough where you don’t feel like you’re watching a carbon copy (a la CSI and its various spinoffs). Bebe Neurith is solid as the frazzled ADA, but Jerry Orbach looked awful health-wise in the pilot, and it sounded like they had to loop his dialogue in afterwards because he was too weak to speak. Sad to watch.

With four ongoing series, I hope the storylines don’t get watered down. I can’t remember if it was last season or the one before, but both L&O and Criminal Intent did stories based on the Jason Blair scandal. Hell, L&O used to do the occasional rape story before SVU came to town.

2. I’m reading Airframe by Michael Crighton right now. I picked up a bunch of paperbacks for a dollar before my trip to read on the plane, but since this one deals with the investigation of a troubled flight that kills three people, I decided to wait until I was home to read it.

This is actually the first Crighton novel I’ve read. It’s, well, problematic. Half the novel reads like a Boening instruction manual. The back cover of the novel touts its “authentic information,” and I realize planes are pretty damn technical, but god damn it can get boring talking about slates and VHUDS and NAIL and the like.

The other issue is the dialogue, which blows. I’m talking passages like

“That sleazebag,” Kenny Burne said. “He knows it’s not true!”

and

"Christ," Marder said, disgusted. He pounded the table. "Don't you people understand? I want this fucking thing solved!"

It’s painful at times. But I’m a good portion through the book, so I may as well finish it. There is an OK amount of suspense, and I am curious to see how it ends. We’ll see.

3. I was reading on kickboxing organization K-1 in Japan, and their plans to bring in the Olympic gold medalist from the Polish Judo Team. I don’t know why, but the thought of the Polish Judo Team kills me. I think I found my roto team name.