Mary Dothard Cooper

I knew Mary from Oct. 1990 until her death on Dec. 8, 2003. She was first my co-worker, then my friend, and finally my boss. She was an extraordinary human being. She was one of the most intelligent people I have ever known. She had a veracious appetite for knowledge. She read all the time. She read for fun. She read for self-improvement. She read like most people breathe -- reading was life to her. She always had books she was trying to get me to read. She was always passing on books she had read to others. Mary was a librarian and the Director of the Meadows Library but reading was separate. She would have read had she been an accountant or a lawyer.
Mary was a wife and a mother. She was a professional educator who loved what she did. She was open to change and encouraged thinking outside the box.
Mary was a good person. She was almost Zen in her outlook on things. She could take a breath and think a situation through before she spoke. She could and would see the other person's point of view. She was wonderful in tense situations. She would bring a rational viewpoint to even the most heated discussion. She could lead by just showing the way. She did not micromanage. She trusted the people who worked for her and made them want to do their best.
I miss Mary. We could use someone with all her gifts today. I will always miss her. I hope she knows how much we all loved her and how large a hole she left in our lives.

Barbara's birthday

My former sister-in-law and friend Barbara has a birthday today. I will not say how old she is because you would never believe me. She looks wonderful. She was a kind lady who has not always had an easy life. But she does not let life beat her down. She rises from the ashes like the Phoenix.

Now Barbara has a wonderful husband, Ken Morgan. He has been there for her and helped her survive some very trying times.

I hope that Barbara and I will always be friends. I feel like she is my sister. I'm lucky enough to have made three trips to Europe with her. Barbara, Shirley (one of my sisters) and I made our first trip to Europe together back in the nineties. Then the three of us made another trip in which we stayed a week after the tour group and wandered around on our own. We had a marvelous time. We traveled by train from Glasgow to York and then spend a few days getting more acquainted with that great town.

Then we took the train on down to London. That was fun a well. We saw shows and did a lot of shopping.

A couple of years later Barbara and I decided to go to London on our own. We even went to Paris for a day by the Chunnel Tunnel. We also took a train to Sheffield and saw Kenneth Branagh in Richard III. Very great performance.

I have been back to London one more time without Barbara and I missed her. She is great to travel with. She is very accommodating. I hope some time in the future we will be able to travel together again.

Happy Birthday Barbara!

Torchwood Children of Earth Perspective (Spoilers)

I have now seen all of Torchwood Children of Earth and I have written synopses of each episode. Because I was reading spoilers before I watched each episode I put my self though much more angst that was necessary. Not that Children of Earth was not wrenching. The first three episodes of this series are among my favorites of all seasons. Four and Five are among the best written episodes since JMS finished season 4 of Bablyon-5. But Day Four and Day Five are almost very difficult to watch.

I have watched the growth of the Captain Jack Harkness character since he appeared in the first season of the new Doctor Who. And the character of Jack has matured more than most tv characters, possibly because he has lived many more lives than most. In the last two episodes of this mini-series Jack loses his world, but if I can be forgiven the religious overtones, he gains his soul. I realize that at the end of Day Five he does not see it that way but I do. I did not immediately upon watching realize this. This came to be later. Jack had much in his life to regret and much to atone for but his sacrifices in this season, and to a certain extend in the last, have gone far to evening the scales. Since Jack can't die he ends up suffering through everyone else's deaths. He has watched men and women he loved die. He has probably watched his children die. In this series he watches a grandson die. Jack will continue to suffer for these deaths and all the ones who have come before and all the ones who will come after for a very long time.

Russell T. Davies has been castigated on websites, in blogs and in online chat groups for this season of Torchwood. It would seem that even though we have been told repeatedly that Torchwood is dangerous and very few Torchwood workers ever grow old we still have a hard time understanding that characters on Torchwood that we like are going to die. Ianto's death was a shock to me. I admit that I should have seen it coming. There were pointers. In the third radio play The Dead Line Ianto talks to a comatose Jack about the fact that he, Ianto, will die and Jack will go on without him. There were many signs but I like almost all the fandom did not see or maybe did not wish to see what was coming.

Ianto Jones was a great character and Garth David-Lloyd did a great job portraying him. The character had known heartbreak. He had a rough childhood. But he refused to quite. He did not give up on love even after what happened to Lisa. He forgave Jack for his involvement in Lisa's death. And what had began as a flirtation had become a love affair for them both. Ianto Jones you will be missed.

Torchwood Children of Earth Day 5 (Spoilers)

I'm not sure I have the stomach to do a full blow by blow of this episode. I starts with a Unit agent going back to Thames House and asking the 456 why they need the children. He finds out that the children are used as drugs for this species. Everyone watching in is sickened by this.

Then Forbisher comes to where Jack and Gwen are in the morgue. Jack asks him to take Gwen back to Wales and to let Ianto's sister know about his death. Then Jack is arrested and taken to a cell. Lois is across the hall from him and calls out to him. She asks what they can do now. He does not answer. He has been told that his daughter and grandson will be released.

The woman releases Alice and Stephen and shows Alice the footage from Thames House of the alien child.

The Prime Minister goes on television and tells the public to send their children back to school and that they will be given inoculations at noon the next day.
He then calls Forbisher into his office and tells him and his daughters will be given inoculations at noon on television to convince the other parents that it is safe. Forbisher says but there are no inoculations. The Prime Minister says that after the public realizes what has happened to their children they will be able to see that the government officials also lost children. Forbisher begs for his daughters but is denied.

Forbisher has his secretary get something for him. He uses a number. She does not want to do it but he insists. She returns with a box, very obviously a gun, and gives it to him. He kisses her on the cheek and leaves.

Then we see children in schools and army trucks start to arrive. Then it cuts to Forbisher's secretary coming to visit Lois in jail. She starts telling Lois how she meet Forbisher 30 years before. While she is talking we see Forbisher arrive home. He kisses his wife and hugs his daughters and sends them all upstairs. He goes up after them with a gun behind his back. He closes the door and we heard three shots in quick succession and then one more.

The soldiers begin going to schools and marching the children out. Some mothers show up and try to get their children. The children are loaded on buses. Some of the children are crying.

Gwen, Rhys and PC Andy go to Ianto's sister's house and tell her about his death. Then Gwen tells them they have to get the kids away. Rhys who was left outside as a lookout sees the trucks coming into the housing project. He runs to warn the others.

Jack's daughter and son are with the woman who kidnapped them. She says they will be safe. She tells Alice what is going on. Alice tells her that they need Jack Harkness. Men arrive at the jail and break Jack out. Then he is seen on the roof of a building still handcuffed as a helicopter lands.

In Wales, Gwen and Ianto's sister are getting coats on all the children and telling them to be quiet. Rhys, Ianto's sister and Gwen take the children out the back and down a hill to an old warehouse. Ianto's brother-in-law and some of their neighbors take on the troops in a fist fight. PC Andy joins them. PC Andy and the others are subdued.

Jack is brought to the place where Alice is being held. He is asked if he can save the children. He gets to work on the computers.

Gwen promises Rhys that she will not abort their child. She also records her message about how the world is ending.

Jack asks about how MacDonald died. He is shown the recording and he listens to the sound. An idea occurs to him. The scientist from Thames House who was brought along with Jack says that they must use the same method the 456 used. Jack realizes he means using the children. Then he tells Jack they must use one child who as he puts it will be fried to send the signal. Jack is horrified. His daughter who is next to him says no Dad you can't. The others are saying it is the only way to save millions. Finally Jack nods. The guards go and get Stephen. Alice tries to stop them. They bring Stephen back to the room with Jack. He stops struggling when he sees Jack. Jack looks so fragile. They place Stephen in the center of the room and Jack begins to send the signal. Stephen begins to emit a high pitched scream. Soon all the children are doing the same thing. We see the 456 reacting. Then they explode and then the light goes up and into the clouds giving the impression that the 456's ship was destroyed as well. Stephen falls. Alice runs to him but he is dead. Jack is crying. Later Alice is trying to leave but Jack is waiting for her. She turns back and reenters the same room refusing to talk to him. Jack gets up and leaves.

The Prime Minister says that things worked out luckily for Britain. He will say that the rounding up of the children was all the US's idea. Forbisher's secretary tells him that she had been to visit Lois and that she got instructions on how to wear the Torchwood contact lenses. She has been recording all his conversations. The woman MP says that she will see that Lois is released and that she will be taking over a lot of the PMs duties. He looks shell shocked but realizes there is nothing he can do.

Six months later Rhys and a very pregnant Gwen have travel out to meet Jack. Gwen gives him his vortex manipulator. He tells her he has been traveling but the world is empty. Gwen tells him that what happened was not his fault. He doesn't believe her. He says he has a way to leave the planet. Gwen asks him to stay for her but he says he can not. He transports away leaving Gwen in tears. Rhys comes to her and leads her away.
End of part five.

Torchwood Children of Earth Day 4 (big mama spoilers)

Okay, fasten your seat belts, you're in for a bumpy ride. Last nights Torchwood was gut wrenching. The episode starts with a flash back to 1965 in Scotland. Captain Jack has been called in to oversee the handing over of 12 children to the 456. It isn't spelled out explicitly but it seems to be a government operation. When Jack asks why they need him for this he is told it is because he doesn't care. This seems to take him by surprise. You see Jack pick up the children from an orphanage and tell them they are going on an adventure. He drives them on a bus to the coordinates and has them follow him off the bus. When a light appears ahead he tells the children to walk into the light. 11 do so, 1 stands back by Jack. He asks if it is safe. Jack tells him it is and he starts after the others. Then there is light and noise and the 12th child is running off onto the moor. The light vanishes and the children are gone.

MacDonald listening to Jack's story is reliving the whole experience. He tells Jack that he Jack is in every nightmare he has ever had. Jack says he is sorry. MacDonald pulls a gun away from Gwen and shoots Jack. Ianto goes and cradles Jack's body while Gwen goes to MacDonald and takes the gun away from him. When Jack comes back to life MacDonald runs off and Gwen follows him. She convinces him to come back. He says how ironic that the man who sent him and his friends to die can not die himself.

Captain Jack's daughter and grandson are taken to the same base where he was kept after the explosion. Alice tells the woman placing them in a cell that she better watch out that her father is not a man to mess with.

Back at Hub2 MacDonald asks why he and his friends were chosen in 1965. Jack says because they wouldn't be missed. Jack says that the one consolation was that the deal seemed to have worked. The 456 were gone for 44 years. MacDonald ask why was he left behind. Gwen guesses that maybe he was too close to puberty for whatever the 456 needed the children for.

Gwen notices that the government meeting that Lois is attending is starting and they all listen in and record the meeting. Forbisher is asking what the 456 really need. He asks for clarification. The 456 notices the camera and asks who is watching. The 456 say that a remnant is watching. MacDonald thinks they are talking about him. Gwen says no it is the camera in the room. Forbisher tells the 456 that the prime minister is watching by link. The 456 tells them to send the camera into their glass room. The camera man is placed in a Hasmat suit and send in. He takes his camera. The monitor picks up three heart beats and they tell the cameraman to get closer. He sees a child hooked into some sort of apparatus. This is one of the children from 1965. The camera man is brought out. Forbisher says this is unacceptable. The 456 say they do not harm the children, they feel no pain. The 456 say they have one day to give them 10% of all the Earth's children.

The UN official is very upset to find that the UK had dealing with the 456 in the past and kept it a secret. They demand the files.

Ianto tells Jack that this knowledge must have been eating away at him. Ianto says he should have told him. Ianto says that he has only ever seen the surface of Jack. Jack says that is all there is. Ianto says no that that is what Jack wants them to think. Jack leaves to call Forbisher. He tells Ianto that Forbisher has his daughter and grandson. He tells Forbisher that he will work with him if he releases Alice and her son. Forbisher refuses. Then he is summoned to the Prime Minister's meeting room.

The Torchwood crew watch the meeting. The Prime Minister asks for an alternative offer to make to the 456. They want to know how many children will be offered to them. They want to know how many can be given without anyone noticing. They discuss giving up failed asylum seekers children. They ask Forbisher to go back to Thames House and offer the 456 60 units (children) from Britain. Forbisher calls his wife and tells her that he loves her and their daughters. His wife doesn't answer until he has hung up. She is crying.

The Prime Minister is watching as Forbisher makes his offer to the 456. One child for every million people on earth. The 456 say that is not acceptable. They say 325,000. All the children in the UK start saying 325,000. The children from other countries say other numbers. Those are the number of children needed from each country.

A man tells the prime minister that it is worth considering doing as asked because the earth is over populated and that would be one way of slowing the growth. He says he is thinking of a way to spin this to the public. Politics as usual no matter what crisis.

The woman in charge of the group after Torchwood decides to go to London to try and find Jack.

The Prime Minister asks for practical solutions to this problem. Forbisher says he can transport the children and that he has school rosters. They discuss how to go about choosing. They fight among themselves. They do not wish their children or grandchildren to be in the groups. The Prime Minister says that the children and grandchildren of everyone around the table will be safe. A woman says what about nieces and nephews. So she says they should choose who will be most useful in the future to the country to be spared. The lest fortunate will be the ones who's children will be given up. The distaste is palpable but but no one will speak against this idea.

Gwen says they have enough evidence recorded to take down the government. Jack says they can use it to force their way into Thames House. He and Ianto take off for Thames House.

Ianto makes a call to his sister. He tells her that he loves her and that she must not let the children out of her sight. He says that all the people listening in should know that their children are not safe. He tells them to tell every parent they know. Gwen sends Rhys away with a laptop. The woman is still trying to find Jack. They figure out where the Hub2 is and head that way.

Forbisher says they need a cover story for getting the children. He suggests saying that the the children need an inoculation to keep the 456 from speaking though them. Then when the children disappear they will say that the 456 double crossed them and took the children. Ass covering time for the government.

Ianto calls Gwen and says that he and Jack have arrived. The baddies zero in on the Hub2. Jack and Ianto march into Thames house. Gwen asks Lois to tell the government that Torchwood is at the door to help. Lois raises her hand and asks to speak. She is hushed but she will not shut up. She tells them that she is working for Torchwood. She tells them that Torchwood has been recording all the meetings unless they do what Torchwood says the recordings will be made public.

The bad guys reach the Hub2. They enter and order Gwen to the floor. She says we have been expecting you. She asks them to take her to Alice and Stephen Carter. The woman says they will be in the next cell. Gwen says no she has a better idea.
Lois tells the government to let Jack take charge. Gwen tells the woman that Rhys has all the recordings and will distribute them unless they do as she says.

Ianto and Jack enter the room with the 456. Jack tells them that he was there in 1965 and that he will not let it happen again. The 456 says they yielded in the past that that they will yield again. Jack says he will go public and let all 6 million on earth take on the 456. He says the human race in defense of their children will fight to the death.

The 456 says that humans adapt to death. The 456 release a virus into the building.
They say all will die. This is to show their resolve. Ianto and Jack try to shot out the glass in the tank. The bullets will not break the glass. They release a high pitched noise. MacDonald reacts. He is screaming.

Jack says he must get Ianto out of the building. Ianto says it is too late. Jack begs for Ianto's life. MacDonald dies. Ianto cradled in Jack's arms dies. Jack dies. All the people in Thames House are seen trying to escape and the falling over dead. The 456 say tomorrow your people will deliver the children.

The Prime Minister tells Forbisher to put a plan into action but which plan to turn over the children or to fight.

Gwen is taken to a morgue where she is directed to two bodies. She first uncovers Jack and then Ianto. Jack awakens and puts his arms around Gwen as she cries over Ianto's body. She says there is nothing we can do.

End of part four

Torchwood children of earth Day 3 Spoilers

Day three of Torchwood Children of earth starts with the Torchwood gang moving into an abandoned warehouse. Rhys calls it Hub2.

Gwen decides that since they are being treated as criminals that they act like so they go on a crime spree. Jack steals a sports car. Gwen steals a laptop. They all get credit cards and other items which they need to refurnish the new Hub. Pretty soon they are up and going. Gwen is send to talk to Lois again. She tries to convince Lois to wear the Torchwood contact lenses which will allow Torchwood to see what she sees. Lois is not keen on this and who could blame her.

Back in Hub2 Ianto asks Jack if he thinks he will ever be killed. Jack says that the doctor says he is a fixed point in time so he thinks that means that no he can not be killed. Ianto says so Jack will watch him grow old and die and he will just go on. Jack says yes. Ianto then says that should make the most of the time they have. But before they can make some new memories Ianto finds that Mr. MacDonald has been arrested and sends Gwen to spring him. Then Jack has him retrieve pictures of the other people that Forbisher had killed. He wants to see what they looked like in 1965. Turns out he recognizes them. Then Jack takes off leaving a puzzled Ianto.

Jack's daughter is still trying to call her Dad. Finally she borrows another phone and calls the police to find out if Jack was involved in the explosion. They transfer to the bad guys and she gets spooked and hangs up. But CCTV footage shows the baddies where she lives. She realizes something is wrong and she and her son try to get away but are captured just as the children all start pointing toward London.

Gwen calls Andy to help her get Mr. MacDonald out of jail and he agrees to help her. She manages to get him out and brings him back to the Hub2.

Jack finds Forbisher's house and steals a cell phone. He then calls Forbisher and tells him he is going to come forward with what he knows about the 456. Forbisher tells him he has his daughter and grandson. Jack says he can get Forbisher's wive and daughters. Forbisher says but you won't because you are a better men than me.

The 456 appear in the glass room tell Forbisher they wish to speak to the world.
He arranges to have other representatives from countries come. The Prime Minister says that Forbisher will be the point man and he will take a back seat. You feel it is less to do with trust he has in Forbisher and more to do with covering his own backside.

Lois puts in her contacts and Torchwood can see into the meeting with the 456. Forbisher asks what the 456 want and they say the children. They want 10% of the earth's children.

Jack arrives back at the Hub and MacDonald realizes that he has seen Jack before. Jack was the man who came and got the kids from the orphanage in 1965. Gwen assumes he is mistaken about what Jack was doing. But Jack says know he was there and he gave those children to the 456 as a gift.

TaTa. End of Episode 3. Can not wait until tomorrow.

Torchwood children of earth Day 2 (spoilers)

Torchwood children of earth episode two was a doozey. The one who planted the bomb in Jack realize that he is not an ordinary man so they pick up the pieces (glad we don't see any more than an arm at this time) and place them in a cell. Sure enough Jack begins to regenerate but it seems a slow and very painful process. Ianto has seen the people take Jack's body away and gets a license number off the vehicle so he can find Jack.

Gwen and Rhys are on the run and head for London on the back of a lorry (truck for us Americans) full of potatoes. In this very unromantic setting Gwen finally tells Rhys she is pregnant and he is very happy but also very worried. Gwen explains that they can't stop just because they are going to be parents. She is right but you feel for Rhys.

Ianto's sister's house is searched but Ianto manages to get a message to his sister asking her to meet him where his father had broken his leg. It turns out to be a park and you figure there are a lot more to that story but you really don't have time for it now.

Jack's daughter tries to call him but just gets his voice mail.

Ianto's brother-in-law and some of his neighbors cause a disturbance which lets Ianto's sister drive away to meet Ianto. She brings him a laptop computer which he needs so he can locate Jack. While they talk the children in the park give their next message. "We are coming tomorrow."

Jack has come back from the dead and recreated his body but he is chained naked in a cell. But this is not enough for the woman who had been trying to kill him so she pours concrete over him.

Gwen and Rhys make it to London and she calls John Frobisher's office. As we know Frobisher is the one who put the hit on Torchwood. So when Gwen calls Lois who is new in Forbisher's office recognizes the name and arranges a meeting at a Cafe. Lois meets them and explains that he boss is the one who is trying go kill all the Torchwood folks. Lois is caught in all this and does not really know who to trust but does know that she didn't sign on to have people killed. She does know where Jack is being held and she gives Gwen a blueprint of the building and tells her that the body of the doctor killed in episode one is to be released to a funeral home and when this will take place.

Gwen and Rhys meet up with the funeral home van and place the worker in a coffin and leave him on the side of the road. They make it into the base and locate Jack's cell only to find him encased in concrete. They run into a fire fight and when Gwen runs out of bullets it seems they are about to die but when the concrete behind them explodes giving them a chance to escape through the whole in the wall that Ianto has created in taking Jack out in his concrete suit. Gwen and Rhys jump aboard the machinery that Ianto is driving and they head out with the bad guys after them. Gwen has Rhys drive a lorry into the road way and as the baddies arrive she shoots out the gas tank making the lorry explode.

After their escape Ianto drives to a quarry where he drops the hunk of concrete from the top. Then he joins Rhys and Gwen in his sisters car and they drive to the bottom. A naked Jack awakens and come and joins the others. Now if only episode 3 gets here soon.

Torchwood Children of Earth Day 1 Review (spoilers)

I have enjoyed Doctor Who for years. I started watching in grad school. WWOR out of New York, which was available on cable in Tuscaloosa, ran the episodes on Saturdays. Then PBS in Georgia ran the show while I lived in Rome. Then when I came back to Alabama there was Doctor Who on APT. I was very upset when the show was cancelled.

I was in London the week that Russell T. Davies new version of Doctor Who was launched. All the magazines had articles about the new Doctor Who. Some of the old Who fans were upset. Some were happy that someone had thought enough of the show to resurrect it. I was in the latter category. I did not get to see that first episode of the new Doctor Who for several months but I was very happy to know that somewhere in the world people were watching "the doctor". Then here it was on our tv, Doctor Who. Christopher Eccleston was the first of the new doctors. He was darker than most of the older doctors but he had one big advantage, he had kick ass stories to tell.

I enjoyed all of that first season. I really liked the Steven Moffat stories The Empty Child and The Doctor Dances which introduced the character of Captain Jack Harkness. Now I will not pretend that I like Captain Jack from his first introduction in Doctor Who. I thought he was handsome and not to be trusted. But he was different from any other character I had ever seen. And with the writing and the acting I came, like many others, to be a fan of Captain Jack. When I first heard that Russell T. Davies was going to do a spin off of Doctor Who and it was to be called Torchwood I did not hold much hope for it. Spin offs have often been pale imitations of their parent show. I set my DVR to record Torchwood but I did not watch the episodes until almost the end of the first season. Finally one Saturday while cleaning out a closet I started the first episode of Torchwood. The first episode was alright. It was exciting but it didn't seem to be that great. But I kept watching. Episode two about the "sex" monster almost turned me off the series. But I kept watching and episode three about the alien device that could let people see things from the past, I thought okay I could like this series, but the fifth episode about the fairies was the one what really made me a fan. From that point on I was determined to see all of this series.

Series one was good. Series two was better. I loved the first few episode of Series Two and then Torchwood turned dark and death started to be a character. You just had to realize that bad things where in store for the guys and girls of Torchwood. Then Owen died and Jack brought him back but at what price. Then the last episode of season two left me in tears. Not only was Owen gone for good but we lost Tosh as well. Poor Jack, Ianto and Gwen they had to go on. And now Children of Earth is upon us. It is an abbreviated third series which started in the UK on July 6th. BBCAmerica does not show these episodes until July 20th (the 40th anniversay of the moon walk) and the first day of BBCAmerica's HD channel. But being the impatient type I have seen the first two episodes from Youtube and they are fantastic. The series may be shorter but wow they are coming out with all guns blazing (quite literally in Gwen's case).

For some reason the government has decided that Torchwood is dangerous to what ever plan they have for an alien race called the 456. When the Aliens start communicating though the children of earth and Torchwood (well Jack) offers his help they are targeted for death. Jack is killed and a bomb is planned inside him. His killers know what he will come back to life and take their bomb into the Hub. He does but thanks to Gwen's pregnancy scan Jack realizes that he is carrying his on little bundle. He gets Gwen and Ianto out of the Hub just before he explodes. Gwen is then targeted by some guys pretending to be EMTs but she gets away and Ianto also manages to escape.

Oh and on the day before all of this happens we meet Jack's daughter and Grandson. Turns out the daughter doesn't want him around, to hard to explain why your Dad never ages. The grandson called him Uncle Jack. Ianto also goes home. He visits his sister and her family. Turns out they have heard rumors about Ianto and a gorgeous man (like a film star) . Ianto explains that that was his boss but does finally admit that he and Jack are more than co-workers. Jack and Ianto's trips to see family could seem less than pure when you realize each was hoping to borrow a child to figure out how the alien messages are being relayed through the children. They have the right idea but the wrong way to go about it. Our heroes are flawed. Not exactly a surprise. Russell T. Davies has not lost his punch. That first episode is some of his finest writing to date.
More to come....