Skip to footer

Top Picks: 'The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel,' the Fly Fishing simulator app, and more

James Earl Jones and Angela Lansbury star in 'Driving Miss Daisy,' the cookbook 'Van Leeuwen Artisan Ice Cream' lets you make flavors like black sesame at home, and more top picks.

|
PBS
  • By Staff

Legends on stage

Did you miss Broadway legend James Earl Jones in the stage classic Driving Miss Daisy? No problem – it’s coming to your living room. On July 17, a production of the show with Jones and Angela Lansbury that was taped in Australia airs on PBS at 9 p.m. Actor Boyd Gaines also reprises his Broadway role as Miss Daisy’s son.  

Taste of summer

With flavors like Earl Grey and palm sugar, New York’s Van Leeuwen scoop truck is not your run-of-the-mill ice cream stop. Now you can make their hand-crafted ice cream flavors with their cookbook Van Leeuwen Artisan Ice Cream. With 100 recipes ranging from the classic mint chocolate chip to the exotic black sesame, there is something for every taste. When we made cantaloupe sorbet, we had sorbet the color of summer only four ingredients and 30 minutes later. Cheers!

Return of the ‘Mockingbird’

In 2012, we were fascinated by Mary McDonagh Murphy’s documentary “Harper Lee: Hey, Boo,” which delved into the life of the “To Kill a Mockingbird” author before and after the publication of her Pulitzer Prize-winning novel. With the upcoming release of Lee’s second book, “Go Set a Watchman,” PBS is airing a new version of the documentary. Screeners weren’t available at press time, but if the new material is as interesting as the original, viewers should be in for a treat. Harper Lee: American Masters airs on PBS July 10 at 9 p.m.

A second stay at the hotel

A-list actors Maggie Smith, Judi Dench, and Bill Nighy return for The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, a follow-up to the 2011 hit about senior citizens staying in India. In the new movie, Asian actors get almost as much screen time as white actors and Smith in particular is stellar. “The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel” is available on DVD and Blu-ray July 14. 

Fish from home

Would you love to go fly-fishing this summer, but you’re on a staycation budget? With the app Fly Fishing Simulator, you can start casting without getting your feet wet! Choose from 165 fishing sites on 27 different rivers and 165 types of flies, and cast your line into realistic currents to catch trout, bass, and bluegill. You can even see how your catch compares with that of other players. So if you can’t get out ... you can still get fishing! 

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.
editor@csmonitor.com
Subscribe
Mark Sappenfield
Editor

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

Subscribe to insightful journalism

QR Code to Top Picks: 'The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel,' the Fly Fishing simulator app, and more
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/The-Culture/Arts/2015/0703/Top-Picks-The-Second-Best-Exotic-Marigold-Hotel-the-Fly-Fishing-simulator-app-and-more
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe