vinegary

Mr. Brisbane looked a little vinegary again on Monday morning, though.

His foil is the vinegary, steely-spined principal, Sister Aloysius, who forbids the kids to sing “Frosty the Snowman” and is suspicious of ballpoint pens.

The leads give it their all — Hopkins’ vinegary parrying is especially lively — but the overall takeaway is of historical puppets playing philosophical gotcha, when we yearn for three-dimensional humans filling up a room with their lives, learnings and flaws.

Mambo sauce, also spelled as “mumbo,” is a regional specialty of the nation’s capital — a tomato-based sauce with a sweet, spicy and vinegary flavor.

Enlivened by Fey’s vinegary wit and Green’s acerbic dialogue, this Miss Oliver is a snappier, more sardonic presence, keeping Poirot’s sizable ego in check even as she tries to lure him out of super-sleuth retirement.