Annabelle's back to her frisky self. Last night she and Stella got bored during the last part of the 1983 BBC miniseries of Mansfield Park and wrestled through the finish. As to Mansfield Park, it's a good adaptation of a novel I've read twice, but - much as I love Miss Austen's work - I have to say she was nodding during this novel, and Fanny Price is the most boring sad sack heroine ever. Thank God that old bitch Aunt Norris keeps stirring the pot and the plot. This time around, I started wondering if Miss Jane was channeling Perrault's Cendrillon, with two evil stepsisters, wicked stepmother-Aunt Norris, a ball, and a prince nearly as much of a sad sack as her Cinderella.