A few weeks ago, I received an unexpected email from Human Resources.
They had found 4 boxes of stuff with my name on it from 2020.
2020 was the year of the double whammy of the COVID-19 pandemic that sent us all packing to work from home which was followed by notice that my services were no longer required.
Within about a month, there was an exchange of “hostages” where the company delivered a couple of boxes of my stuff and I sent back their computer and other equipment.
By January 2021, I was back with the company albeit in a different capacity.
So I wondered what could possibly still be left that belonged to me from 2020?
I went to the office to peruse the 4 boxes. I fully expected they would contain a lot of old correspondence relating to my old work that I no longer needed and could easily send to be shredded and recycled. I figured out of 4 boxes, there might be one box of stuff I might want to keep.
Not quite.
After a couple of hours alone in a conference room, I distilled the 4 boxes down to 3.
1 box was a random collection of office supplies that I did not need. I told the reps in HR this could be used by anyone still working in the office or taken home for use as school supplies for kids.
2 boxes remained of personal stuff. A variety of certificates and awards for reaching milestones, for achieving certain goals and accomplishments, a lot of stuff celebrating what a great employee I was before they showed me the door in 2020.
I can’t be too snippy about this. I did not remember that I was missing this stuff when they sent over the boxes to my home in 2020.
But it is odd to me that at one point these things meant a lot to me. But as I explored the contents of those boxes, I struggled to remember why I thought these things were important to keep.
And ponder the mystery of how I could've forgotten it all so easily.
OK, I hate to come back for a Wednesday post to talk politics again but after the downer of a post on Monday, I feel compelled to put down some words of encouragement.
Or try to.
Thanks to political analyst Shawna Presley Vercher (AKA “the Political Fixer”) for providing some context and much needed perspective.
There has been a surge of polls commissioned by the Republican Party. Pollsters for these surveys will contort themselves into knots to provide positive results for Donald Trump by manipulating demographics and sample sizes. Think of it has “jerrymandering” for pollsters. One pollster in Pennsylvania arrived at a Trump victory by eliminating non-white voters.
The upshot is a commiserate surge in headlines about Trump leading in this state or that demographic where he had previously been behind.
And national polls that provide an average or aggregate of polls that had Kamala Harris by a larger margin are now tighter.
That's not to say there not real problems for Harris going into the final weeks before the election. Apparently men are still leaning towards Trump despite Sam Elliot telling them to get off the same old fucking broken road, be a MAN and vote for a woman, god damn it! (See this post here for that video.)
Shawna Presley Vercher relays accounts from pollsters from who have spoken with women who have confided they are going to vote for Kamala Harris but please don't tell their husbands.
What the hell? Really?
Yeah, I could see that happening.
Sadly, I can also still see Donald Trump winning come November.
Despite Vercher's attempts to hold my hand and assure me things are not as bad as they seem, I am still worried there are more stupid people than non stupid people in this country.
This Saturday, Li'l Donnie held a rally at Coachella in California. The parking lot was several miles from the actual location of the rally. Trump paid for buses to bring people from the parking lot to the rally.
What he did NOT pay for were buses to take them back.
Hundreds, even thousands of MAGA heads were left alone in the cold dark desert miles from their cars.
They took to social media to complain.... about the obvious conspiracy by Democrats to take away the return buses.
You gotta be fucking kidding me!
By the way, Trump pulled a similar stunt to rally goers in Omaha, Nebraska in 2020 in the middle of winter. He paid for transport to the rally. He did not spring for the return trip.
But the Trump faithful remain convinced it's not his fault.
On Monday, things got weird even by Trump standards.
At a town hall event in Pennsylvania on Monday, Trump took a few questions about the economy and housing and gave the same damn answer to both: “We’re going to drill, baby, drill! We’re going to get the energy down. When the energy comes down, prices are going to come down.”
Which is kind of true but it's not quite that simple.
The United States is already the leading producer of oil in the world.
Then a couple of people fainted who required medical attention and Trump appeared to grow bored with the town hall format.
Li'l Donnie declared “Let’s not do any more questions. Let’s just listen to music! Who the hell wants to hear questions?”
After dedicating Schubert’s “Ave Maria” to the father of a service member who died in Iraq, Trump just stood in one place, swaying on stage, occassionally fist-pumping to supporters while songs from Sinead O’Connor, Leonard Cohen, Elvis Presley, Guns N’ Roses, the Village People and others played.
Most people looked at this and wondered, is Donald Trump finally having that slide into dementia we've been expecting for years now?
As Mary Trump put, "This is the Republican candidate for President of the United States losing his goddamn mind."
Or to look at it another way, per Trump spokes demon Steven Cheung, "Something very special is happening in Pennsylvania right now at the Trump townhall. @realDonaldTrump is unlike any politician in history, and it's great!"
And this after Trump declared over the weekend that the greatest threat to America is not China or Russia but it's own citizens, "the enemy within", those who do not agree with him or support him, suggesting the National Guard or the Army might be needed to fight this enemy.
Well, that's some serious fascist shit there folks!
Or if you're the white Christian Nationalist male who forms the core of his unholy MAGA cult...
Well, that's some serious ass kicking shit there folks!
This weekend at Coachella, Trump was joined on stage by a celebrity supporter, actor Dennis Quaid.
Turns out Randy is not the only crazy Quaid in the family.
Immediately I was worried about Dennis's son, Jack! The guy who plays what may be favorite version of Superman can't be in this corner with dear old dad!
He isn't, that goodness! He's definitely on board to support Kamala Harris so I'm glad to hear that.
But damn Donald Trump to hell for separating another father and son.
I am trying to remain hopeful. I do have some sense the current zeitgeist of our nation is leaning towards Kamala Harris and Tim Walz.
But is it enough?
I'm going to be worrying about this all the way through to November 5th.
And living in a state of terror for the four years that follow?
I can't stop stressing.
Let's just listen to music.
Taking us out is my favorite live performance by U2 of "Where the Streets Have No Name". (U2 will never be on Trump's playlist!)
Last week we welcomed 4 brand new series to the Tuesday TV Touchbase.
Today we take a look at 3 returning series and…
Superman & Lois
OH! MY!! GOD!!!
This show is so depressing.
Relentlessly damn heartbreakingly depressing!
At the end of season 3, Lex Luthor’s marching orders to Doomsday were:
Kill Superman
Bring back his heart
And Doomsday does just that, dropping Superman’s heartless corpse in the middle of Main Street in Smallville.
What the fuck?!?!
Damn this is dark!
Jordan takes Superman’s body to the Fortress of Solitude where hologram Lara says there’s not a lot Kryptonian science can do without a heart.
So Jordan tries to super power threaten Lex Luthor into giving back the heart.
Lex drops the heart on the floor and stomps on it!
Oh what the what now?
I mean, what the fuck?!?!
This Lex Luthor is not one to be fucked with!
And I am seriously bummed out!
Look, I went through this in the comics with the whole Superman Vs. Doomsday thing which led to Superman being killed off but you know, that’s comics.
Superman & Lois is a TV show in it’s final season on a notoriously cheap network which renewed the show for one last season but only with a seriously slashed budget. Could that budget cut come from Superman’s actor Tyler Hoechlin being reduced to recurring for flashbacks and as a Fortresss hologram? Reallly?
Superman might be deader than dead, y’all.
I’m writing this before last night’s episode. I hope something happens that proves me wrong.
Amended: I've been proven wrong.
Law & Order
Ever since this series botched it’s relaunch 3 years ago, I only occasionally watch an episode (like last season’s departure of Sam Waterston as Jack McCoy). I tuned for this year’s season premier to see Maura Tierney join the cast as the new lieutenant.
Maura's biggest role was as Abby Lockhart on ER (1999 to 2009) but it was as Lisa Miller on NewsRadio (1995 to 1999) when I first fell in love with her.
Yes, I said "love". Don't make a big deal of it,'kay?
And I'm really digging her role as Lt. Jessica Brady who quickly establishes her bonafides as both a detective and the new squad leader. She's smart, tough, insightful and not to be fucked with.
Is the addition of Maura Tierney enough to put NEW Law & Order on my regular viewing rotation? Almost.
It still bugs me that new L&O has dispensed with the body reveal in favor of showing the actual murder itself.
In the classic series, the murder reveal went like this.
Two guys out jogging in Central Park.
Bob: Hey, Mike, have you told Rachel the news yet?
Mike: No, Bob, the time's just not been right.
Bob: C'mon, man! She's gonna find out sooner or later.
Mike: I know but it's a big step and I don't know how she's going to....Holy Crap! Is that a dead body?!
And then the cops show up, a detective makes a mad pun about the murder and we are off without ever finding out what the hell Bob and Mike were talking about, what news did Mike have for Rachel and how did Rachel take it when she found out or any of that shit!
Abbott Elementary
After that big damn kiss at the end of season 3, Janine Teagues and Gregory Eddie are dating but trying to keep it on the down low. It's a secret from virtually no one.
All the teachers know.
So do most of the kids.
Eventually Janine just blurts it out ("We're just having sex.") at the most awkward and inopportune moment possible.
Janine and Gregory have to meet with HR who is OK with it.
I'm OK with it too as long as they don't "Ross and Rachel" this damn thing to death.
Meanwhile a golf course being put in next door causes all sorts of problems for the school: power and water pressure being cut, noise, dirt, traffic congestion.
And looming gentrification? The new golf course looks to be the overarching story point for this season of Abbott Elementary.
Next week on the Touchbase, it's the return of Ghosts for it's 4th season and while Young Sheldon is gone, the Cooper family lives on with the debut of George & Mandy's First Marriage.
And Andrea and I have finished up Gravity Falls.
Until next time, remember to be good to one another and try to keep it down in there, would ya? I'm trying to watch TV over here.
The following post will spoil the ending of movie that came out over 65 years ago.
In the 1957 film A Face In the Crowd, a woman named Marcia Jeffries (Patricia Neal) discovers a man who goes by the sobriquet of Lonesome Rhodes (Andy Griffith), a crude and unkempt vagabond with a wonderful singing voice and a clever way of telling stories.
Despite his unsophisticated demeanor, Rhodes has a certain charm, a charisma if you will, that Jeffries thinks could make Rhodes a star.
Starting with Marcia's small town radio station then moving on to a bigger market, success leads to success as Lonesome Rhodes becomes a national sensation with his own network TV show.
The growth of his popularity as an entertainer brings him into the orbit of politics and Rhodes is being groomed for a leadership role in government.
Marcia Jeffries thinks this is a bad idea.
For whatever talent and charm he might possess, Lonesome Rhodes is an appallingly ignorant person with a volatile temperament and a narcissistic ego.
One night as the closing credits roll for the Lonesome Rhodes show, in the control room Jeffries flips a switch at turns on the microphone near where Rhodes is sitting and holding court.
"Those rubes out there, they're mine! There stupid, like sheep, but they are mine! They will do what I tell them do! They will think what I want them to think!"
By the time Rhodes takes the elevator to the ground floor to his waiting car, his popularity has plummeted and his political support has evaporated.
Since he came down his gold escalator in 2015, I have been waiting for Donald Trump to experience his Lonesome Rhodes moment.
The epiphany that will finally break the spell Trump's faithful cultists exist under.
We've come close a few times. Damn it, January 6th should have been his Lonesome Rhodes moment, that showed the whole world for the loathsome, self-serving motherfucker he is.
Instead Donald Trump and his sniveling sycophants have tried to re-write history, to turn that day of infamy to a day of celebration, to re-cast the hundreds who have been convicted of crimes for their actions that days as heroes and martyrs.
The facts that Donald Trump is a morally deficient, intellectually limited, sexual assaulting, empathy deprived, incoherent convicted felon are NOT a secret.
And yet...
Recent polls show that over all Kamala Harris has a lead over Donald Trump but that lead is narrow and in certain battleground states that will decide the election (such as here in North Carolina), Trump has regained ground and as of now has the lead again. It's a slim lead and within the margin for error.
But...
How can anyone who actually listens to his angry, hate filled rhetoric and his rambling incoherent speeches come away thinking, hey, I want this guy to be President again.
Consider the case of the idiot in Valdosta, GA.
In the immediate aftermath of Hurricane Helene, Donald Trump arrived (getting in the way of clean up and recovery efforts) to angrily proclaim such lies that Gov. Kemp couldn't get President Biden on the phone to get help from the Federal government and basically just lied his ass off.
A young man who came to hear Trump speak left the event with the resolve "that cinched it: I'm voting for Trump." His logic? "Trump really cares about people."
Or the consider this woman who I saw on video proclaiming that "America needs a MAN to lead us" and that Donald Trump is that man, admitting that yes, "He is narcissistic but he cares about America!"
Of course the definition of narcissism is to care about the self above all other things.
As I write this, an NBC poll has Donald Trump tied with Kamala Harris.
But he is... ALL that stuff we can see and hear!
The lying, the hate, the anger, the incoherence!
On SNL, they did a sketch where Kamala Harris and Donald Trump face off on Family Feud. Steve Harvey asks Harris "Why are you not ahead more in the polls?" and Harris replies, "That's what I scream into my pillow every morning."
You and me both.
I am truly frightened.
I am trying to remain hopeful that Harris can and will win this thing.
But I think the harsh reality is that Donald Trump might just win this thing.
It's time for another edition of Doctor Who Is CLASSIC!, an intermittent series of posts about everyone's favorite space/time travelling show from the 20th century.
Today's post takes us back to 1983 and the 20th season of Doctor Who.
While most stories in the classic era were 4 half hour installments, today's tale is a 2 part adventure.
Starring Peter Davison as the Doctor, here is The King's Demons.
The place is England, the time is March in the year 1215.
King John is visiting the castle of Sir Ranulph Fitzwilliam.
The entertainment is a medieval joust which is interrupted by the strange appearance of a mysterious blue box.
The Doctor, Tegan and Turlough exit the TARDIS and find their sudden arrival is NOT the cause for consternation one might expect in the 13th century.
The King with his aide Sir Gillis Estram greet their arrival warmly as the King declares the visitors as "friendly demons" and express his intrigue at their "blue engine".
The Doctor quickly susses out that King John and Sir Gillis are not who they claim to be and Sir Ranulph Fitzwilliam is suspicious as well. Those two guys are acting kind of weird and the last anyone in the castle heard, the King was back in London.
There shenanigans and stuff going on. (Even with only 2 half hours to fill instead of 4, we still have some classic Doctor Who filler to meet the run time.)
It turns out Sir Gillis Estram is... (Ta da!) the Master.
("Estram" is an anagram of "Master".)
And...
King John is really Kamelion, a war weapon found by the Master on Xeriphas, which can be mentally controlled and used to adopt disguises and personas.
Here's the plot: King John acts like a total dick totally offending the various noblemen who will go on to sign Magna Carta so they don't and that is that for the foundation of democracy.
This seems like a fairly small potatoes kind of thing to involve the Master. So why is the Master doing this? It's not made plain so I'm guessing out of boredom or just a case of the "evulz" or whatever.
The Doctor engages in a battle of wills with the Master to wrest control of Kamelion away from the sinister Time Lord.
And he does. Yay? Yeah, why not. Yay!
Kamelion is his true self, the plot to stop Magna Carta is foiled and the Master escapes to never be heard from again.
(Until the very next episode, "The Five Doctors".)
The Doctor welcomes Kamelion aboard the TARDIS to join Tegan and Turlough on their adventures through space and time.
And it is a glorious partnership as Kamelion has ever so much fun with the TARDIS crew as they scamper around the far reaches of the galaxy and all through time and...
No, he doesn't.
Kamelion never shows up again until season 21's "Planet of Fire" where he is written out.
The Kamelion robot is not some skinny actor is a robot suit but is in fact an actual robot. Unfortunately the guy who built this robot didn't write down any instructions on to work the robot which became a problem when the robot creator died.
"The King's Demons" is clearly a time filler before the bigger spectacle of the 20th anniversary special "The Five Doctors" comes along.
I'm trying really hard to remember what Turlough and Tegan contributed to this story and I'm guessing not much. I do recall Tegan complaining about how cold the castle is owing to her very short light material dress. Tegan should know by now that the Doctor isn't very good at navigating the TARDIS and should be better prepared for any number of environmental challenges.
(Companions never seem to learn this. In the 11th Doctor story "The Hungry Earth", Amy Pond has to keep justifying her provocatively short ensemble: "I was dressed for Rio!")
The Doctor gets put Peter Davison's fencing skills to use for a good ol' sword fight so there's that.
So that is that for this post of Doctor Who Is CLASSIC!.
Next month I will be back with another post about a Doctor Who episode from the 20th century.
And in December, we've got a Christmas special coming and that means a new post of Doctor Who Is NEW!
The 3rd Paddington movie is coming to theaters this November which will send the adventurous bear and his human family to back to the place of his birth, Peru.
Recently, Andrea and decided to catch up on the first movie in the series.
Andrea had read Paddington books when she was a child but neither of us has seen the movies and I came into this cold.
I actually assumed Paddington was some kind of magical creature, a toy bear brought to life or something.
Nope, Paddington is a real bear.
And this is a real movie.
And Andrea and I really watched it.
And this is a real blog post about it.
Paddington opens with a montage as a British explorer tells of his journey to darkest Peru where he found a most remarkable species of bear. They are quite intelligent to the point they learn human speech.
They also develop quite an intense fondness for marmalade.
Before the explorer departs, he leaves his hat as a parting gift and an invitation to visit him in London.
Several years later and after the death of some bears, young Paddington has made his way to London to do just that.
Paddington has been lead to believe that Londoners are a cordial and welcoming people and would be more than happy to take a young bear in for a visit.
Er, not quite.
Everyone rushes past and studiously avoiding eye contact with the forlorn bear.
(Is this London or New York City?)
Until one person's compassion compels her to engage with the poor bear.
For the moment, Paddington has a home for the night with the Brown family although with varying levels of enthusiasm from the family.
Henry Brown is a fastidious man with an obsession with order, security and safety. He sees Padding as a threat to all that.
His wife Mary is a woman of compassion and imagination and is more willing to accept Paddington's account of himself and is willing to go off on an adventure to help him find the explorer who came to Peru.
Son Jonathan is an adventurous sort himself but held in check by his fearful father.
Daughter Judy is very intelligent (she speaks different languages) but lacking in confidence to truly be herself.
Eccentric housekeeper Mrs. Bird finds Paddington endearing and thinks this ursine visitor is just what the Browns need.
Unfortunately, there's a least one person who does not have Paddington's best interests at heart, a female taxidermist who is determined to add Paddington's stuffed and mounted body to the museum where she works.
Well, that's kind of dark, ain't it?
Overall, Paddington has a surreal magical tone where the real world runs up alongside another world that is just a bit different from ours.
Where bears talk and really love their marmalade.
The "It's a British Film! Of Course Someone's Been In Doctor Who" Department
12th Doctor Peter Capaldi is in the movie as Mr. Curry, a nosy neighbor who causes problems for poor Paddington.
Doctor Who companion Nardole Matt Lucas is on hand as Joe the taxi driver.
Hugh Bonneville who portrays Henry Brown was the Pirate Captain in the Doctor Who episode "Curse of the Black Spot".
Geoffrey Palmer has a small role in the film; he was the captain of the spaceship Titanic in the Doctor Who special "Voyage of the Damned"
Michael Gambon who provides the voice of Paddington's Uncle Pastuzo was Kazran Sardick in the Doctor Who special "A Christmas Carol".
Jim Broadbent who is Sam Gruber in the film played one of the Doctors in the 1999 charity special "Curse of the Fatal Death".
The "It's That Person Who Was In That Thing" Department
Sally Hawkins as Mary Brown was Willy Wonka's mother in Wonka
Julie Walters as Mrs Bird was also Molly Weasley, the matriarch of the Weasley family, in the Harry Potter film series, and she was one Donna's band mates in the Mamma Mia films.
Barry the security guard was played by Simon Farnaby; Simon is a creator, writer and star of the UK version of Ghosts and he also co-wrote Wonka and had a role in that film as... a security guard.
The "It's That Woman Who Is In Everything" Department
Nicole Kidman is the evil taxidermist.
My God! Nicole Kidman is in EVERYTHING!!
Steve Martin once commented that he does not always recognize all the actors he meets so he usually says "I loved you in that thing you did with Nicole Kidman and 9 times out of 10, I'm right."
Back to Paddington, the movie is mostly family friendly (bears do die in this movie!) but it's not dumbed down. The filmmakers treat their kid audience with respect as they do with the adults watching this movie with those kids.
Or in the case of Andrea and myself, without them.
We will not a little thing like not having kids in the house stop us from seeing a kid friendly movie. Back in the 1990's, before Andrea and I were parents, we paid money to see Rugrats the Movie in a theater. (I am NOT making that up.)
Tomorrow is a Doctor Who post and I'll be back next weekend with another movie post (or two).
Until then, remember to be good to one another.
Especially to talking bears who really like marmalade.
