Movie Time With Tim Curry

 A few weeks ago, actor Tim Curry passed away. While thinking of ideas for our movie night, Andrea suggested we catch up on a couple of Tim's movies.

So this week it's Movie Time with Tim Curry! 

First up on the Tim Curry retrospective is Muppet Treasure Island (1996), a musical adaption of the classic book by Robert Louis Stevenson.  

Muppets? Musical numbers? Just the way Mr. Stevenson envisioned it, I'm sure.  

Jim Hawkins is a young orphan who lives and works in an inn in England with his best friends, Rizzo and Gonzo. 

• Rizzo is a rat.
• Gonzo is a...  a...  Gonzo is Gonzo.

Jim comes into possession of a map that leads to the buried treasure of the notorious pirate Captain Flint. Narrowly escaping from a band of marauding pirates, Jim, Rizzo and Gonzo seek a ship to help them go in search of the treasure.

The trio enlist on the Hispaniola as cabin boys. The ship is commanded by Captain Abraham Smollett, (Kermit the Frog) and his strict first mate, Mr. Samuel Arrow (Sam Eagle). 

• Kermit is a frog.
• Sam is an eagle.

Jim befriends the ship's cook,  Long John Silver.

• Long John Silver is a Tim Curry.

But Long John is not to be trusted.  He's a pirate as is most of the crew. Long John is out to get Capt. Flint's buried treasure.

Long story made short: Long John and his crew take over the Hispanola and steal Jim's map. They make way for the island get the treasure for Tim Curry's big musical moment.  

Smollett, Gonzo, and Rizzo land on the island to rescue Jim but they are  captured by the native tribe of pigs, where Smollett reunites with his former lover, and the pigs’ queen, Benjamina "Mina" Gunn.

• "Mina" is a pig.

This is getting complicated.

Longer story made shorter: Jim gets free, regains control of the Hispanola, there's a big sword fight and the pirates are defeated. Arrrh! It all be in good fun, matey! 

But Long John Silver still tries to bugger off with the treasure but winds up marooned on the island.  

Muppet Treasure Island is a fun energetic movie with a lot of bad puns, in jokes, anachronisms and meta-aware 4th wall breaking.  

Since this post is for Tim Curry, let's say a few words about his Long John Silver.  The old pirate can be sinister and foreboding as needed but he can also be warm and charming. Curry develops a character who can be appealing as a friend and confidant to Jim Hawkins.  In turn, Long John does display genuine empathy and concern for the young lad.  

Ultimately, Tim Curry's Long John Silver may be a ruthless scalawag but he's a pirate you can't help but want to like.

FUN FACT:  The Hormel Foods Corporation (the creators of Spam) sued Jim Henson Productions for using the name "Spa'am" for one of the film's tribal pig characters. The judge dismissed their suit on September 22, 1995 after a trial for failure to prove damages, noting, "one might think Hormel would welcome the association with a genuine source of pork."

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Next up on the Tim Curry film fest is Clue, released in 1985 based on the board game Clue.

It's 1954 and a group of strangers have been summoned to a mysterious, secluded Gothic mansion in New England for a dark and dangerous purpose.  

It's a dark and stormy night....

Upon arrival at the mansion, six people are greeted by the butler Wadsworth and the maid Yvette. Each is assigned a pseudonym to maintain confidentiality: 

• "Colonel Mustard"
• "Mrs. White"
• "Mrs. Peacock"
• "Mr. Green"
• "Professor Plum"
• "Miss Scarlet". 

As the evening transpires we learn that the 6 guests are all connected in some way to the U.S. government.

And that all 6 of them have secrets that if discovered could jeopardize those connections.

They were joined by a 7th guest, Mr. Boddy, who knows all those secrets and has been blackmailing them.  

Suddenly the lights go out, someone screams in the darkness and when the lights come back on, Mr. Boddy is dead.

Murdered!!

Well, of course we can't have a murder mystery without a (ahem!) "Boddy".  

And this is but the first of several murders this fine dark and stormy night. 

The rest of the movie involves the 6 guests along with Wadsworth and Yvette running around and skulking about, accusations and revelations flying as this motley crew endeavor to learn who the real killer is and also avoid being killed.  

The twists and turns in this murderous mayhem are cracy and convoluted but don't worry: there is a solution to these crimes!

OK, there are two solutions.

Or three! Yes, THREE solutions to this malicious night of murder. 

When Clue was first released in theaters, there were three different versions, each with a different ending.

This was regarded by a lot of people as not a good idea.

In subsequent releases on video, cable and streaming, all three resolutions are presented at the end with 2 of them being speculative and the 3rd described as the "real ending".   

There is a lot of great actors on tap to round out our 6 suspects from the board game.  

Eileen Brennan as Mrs. Peacock

Madeline Kahn as Mrs. White

Christopher Lloyd as Professor Plum

Michael McKean as Mr. Green

Martin Mull as Colonel Mustard

Lesley Ann Warren as Miss Scarlet

Among this very talented group, Tim Curry of course stands out as Wadsworth, the butler.  At turns fastidiously formal and also frantically frightened, Curry's Wadsworth ranges from cooly subdued to heatedly overplayed.  

Is Wadsworth (A) the victim of cruel circumstances or (B) is he the secret master manipulator?  

Or (C) all of the above?

The "It's That Person Who Was In That Thing" Department

The Cook is played by Kellye Nakahara who was Nurse Kellye on M*A*S*H.   

In perhaps the movie's fastest and funniest murder, the The Singing Telegram Girl is played by Jane Wiedlin, a founding member of the Go-Go's.  

That stranger at the door asking about your relationship with God is Howard Hesseman, AKA Johnny Fever from WKRP In Cincinatti.  

The "It's That Person Who Was NOT In That Thing" Dept.

• Carrie Fisher (Star Wars) was originally cast to portray Miss Scarlet but withdrew to enter treatment for drug and alcohol addiction.
• Lesley Ann Warren, who was cast to play Mrs. White, took over the role of Miss Scarlett.
• And Madeline Kahn (Blazing Saddles) was brought on for the role of Mrs. White.   

FUN FACT: Mrs. White's monologue over how much she hated Yvette was completely improvised by Madeline Kahn.     

Tim Curry was so perfect as Wadsworth, it's hard to imagine he wasn't the first choice for the role.

Leonard Rossiter was originally cast as the butler but he died before filming commenced. (No, I never heard of Leonard Rossiter. Here's his Wikipedia page of you're inclined to look him up. ) 

Next up, Rowan Atkinson but the studio wanted a bigger name.

So Tim Curry was the producer's 3rd choice? 

Writer/director Jonathan Lynn set up a screening of the classic film His Girl Friday for the cast to get a feel of the rapid fire dialogue he had in mind for Clue.  

Contemporary reviews of Clue did not elevate the film to the high standards of classic Golden Age comedic cinema.  

Gene Siskel of the Chicago Tribune; "Clue offers a few big laughs early on followed by a lot of characters running around on a treadmill to nowhere."

Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times:  "The screenplay is so very, very thin that the actors spend most of their time looking frustrated, as if they'd just been cut off right before they were about to say something interesting". 

Over the decades since it's initial release, Clue has improved on it's reputation as a genuinely funny ensemble piece and is even considered as a brilliant satire on political culture and societal norms.  

To be honest, a lot of Clue is profoundly stupid but it's a good kind of stupid that has a decent chance at making you laugh.

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How can we do a retrospective of Tim Curry without covering The Rocky Horror Picture Show?  

We already covered that back on October 31, 2021 and you can click here for that post.  

________________________________

Tomorrow we'll have a couple of posts on Star Trek AND Doctor Who.

And on Monday....

BLOG POST 

September 11th: 25 Years Gone

Today is the 25th anniversary of the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001.  

As I thought about what I wanted to say on this subject today, I decided to look back at what I've written before on previous commerations of 9/11.

In the first year of this blog, on Wednesday, September 11, 2013, I wrote my first post about the events of September 11, 2001. 

As the father of a 9 month old child, the events of that day weighed heavy on me and as I reflected looking back 12 years.

"With eyes raised to an empty sky then lowered in prayer to those lost on that day, my thoughts go back to when my child was a still a baby, so healthy and happy but also so very helpless, held by a father who wondered about what was going to happen next in a world changed in the course of a single morning."

                    Empty Sky Memorial, Liberty State Park 
This is a memorial for the residents of New Jersey who died during the attacks on September 11, 2001. The two-walled structure is engraved with the names of all 746 New Jerseyites who were lost that day. The walls line up with the Manhattan skyline to direct the viewer’s gaze across the Hudson River to the place where the Twin Towers once stood.

It's kind of interesting to me that young people of my son's generation are not as invested in the emotional weight of this day.  I concede that may be a gross generalization but I'm not surprised if it is on the whole mostly true. 

For all of us who came before and were here for that fateful day, I wonder what exactly have we wrought from the terrible price we paid that day.

I allowed the date to pass without commentary on this blog for 2 years but I had something say on Sunday, September 11, 2016.

"In the hours after 9/11, as hurt and frightened as we were, we knew without a doubt that we were greater than those who would bring us down, we were stronger than those who thought to defeat us. 

Now there are so-called "leaders" who will tell us that our country isn't great, isn't strong and will eagerly point to "others" whose fault all that is. Politicians and pundits scream at us that we are weak, our leaders are weak and only certain people can save us. 

If we are weak, it's because we are divided and where we are divided, we have only done this to ourselves. 

It doesn't take much to destroy. Cowards and demagogues will always find a way to knock something down. 

It takes greatness of strength and spirit to build something up."

If you will note the date of that post, it was two months before the November 2016 Presidential election that would bring Donald Trump to the White House for his first term.  

If you were a mere baby in 2001 or born afterwards, you look at the world that followed and wonder, what was the point? 

In the grim aftermath of that Tuesday morning in 2001, we were united in grief and fear but we were also united in determination to rise up and be heard and to build.  

It was a terrible moment that had the potential to galvanize our nation into being something better, stronger. 

We could answer hate and destruction with love and creation.

For the 2016 post, I created a graphic using the lyrics from U2's "The Hands That Built America", an anthem to our pain and sacrifice and any appeal to what we could create and build from all that.  

From death and destruction, we would stand tall and put to use the hands that built America.

 So what the hell happened?

Why did we betray those who died on that dreadful day by not uniting behind a better America?

Why did so many Americans give in to the hate and fear and bitterness and divide us against ourselves, neighbor against neighbor, lines drawn based on skin color and religion and gender, anything that make certain people "other"?  

On September 11, 2001, we were ALL in this together. 

So again... So what the hell happened?

If you are young and do not understand the big deal behind

commemorating this date in history, maybe I can't really blame you.

In 2018, September 11th came 'round again to happen on a Tuesday and I had some thoughts on this occasion, starting with my assessment of President George W. Bush.

Here is some of what I wrote in 2018 looking back on President Bush and what he did on September 14, 2001.

"I had concerns about George W. Bush as President from the start. I perceived a lack of intellectual curiosity that I found troubling.  

But Bush stepped up and demonstrated he could reach beyond himself and be a leader.  He said what needed to be said, to acknowledge the tragedy, the loss, the need to mourn. To also speak to the need to respond to this assault on our soil. 

Notice he does not speak of himself. He spoke for the nation that "sends its love and compassion". He only references himself to say "I can hear you!" The importance in that statement is not what he has to say but that he was listening. 

Thankfully, in that moment, George W. Bush had the humility to understand his best role as President, to heed the voice of the people."

Bush spoke to a rattled nation from a position of empathy and compassion. Can you imagine the current occupant of the White House doing any better than a blustering incoherent litany of hate fueled threats to rain down fire and fury in a blistering retribution "like never seen before" blah blah blah.   

I may not have liked Bush as President but in that moment, he understood the job well enough to speak to the people, not at them, to speak for the people, not for himself.  

In the aftermath of what we lost on September 11, 2001, we had so much to gain from a united spirit of compassion for each other.  This is what the hell happened: We traded that in for suspicion, fear and anger.  

Revisiting 2001 from the MAGA mangled world of Donald Trump was on my mind in 2019. I thought of what we lost from our 9/11 experiences and how it connected to a recent disaster.

A hurricane had decimated the Bahamas leaving people in desperate need for help. Here's what I wrote about that.

"A mere hundred miles or so from the Bahamas is the United States, a potential refuge for many people in such desperate need.

 

Trump said "No".

 

His reasoning, such as it is, is that there could be some bad people who might slip into our country under cover of the hundreds of men, women and children who are in such real and desperate need. 

 

I have questions for Mr. Trump and those who support him.

• When did the United States of America become so small? 
• When did our nation become so weak?
• When did this country become so afraid?

 On September 11,2001, we were afraid but we had something to be afraid of. But we stood up, stood tall and confronted that fear.

 

Now, Donald Trump, a man who likes to think of himself as a tough guy, cowers in fear from the bad guy that might lurk in the midst of people who are hungry, sick and in need of help. 

 

We can’t help the many because the few might hurt us. 

 

I have tried to look at September 11,2001 as a crucible that tested us and did not find us wanting in courage and strength.

 

Today, the leadership of this nation and those who would follow such people are lacking in courage and strength."

In the immediate aftermath of 9/11, we had the potential to be so much more, to dust ourselves off and stand up, strong, proud and united.  

We failed to live up to the price paid on that day to be a better nation.

If the events of September 11, 2001 lack relevance to your life, to your perception of America, well, it's because we let everyone down, the people who died on that day and the people who survived. 

I added these comments to the 2019 post.

The lesson of September 11,2001 is not that we can be hurt. No, the lesson of September 11,2001 is we can rise up from the hurt. 

I revisited these sentiments in my post on 2020.

"The days and nights that followed that terrible Tuesday morning were fraught with tension and worry. But as time passed, there was a growing sense of something greater than fear, better than worry. It was a growing sense of confidence, of determination that this would not defeat us." 

Again, I mourn not just for what we lost that day but what we failed to hold on to in the aftermath.  

On September 11, 2023, I wrote a post called "Is September 11th Still a Thing?"  

"Over the intervening 22 years, half of our country has been taught that the other half is the enemy.

Politicians and pundits rail and sputter into their microphones that those who do not agree with their political philosophy HATE America, that they are the true ENEMY of America.  So called leaders who strut and preen extol the "virtues" of a specific demographic of citizens who voted for them as representing ALL Americans.  There are political leaders who have sacrificed the IDEALS of America in pursuit of PERSONAL power."

Here we are in 2026 and I'm sad to report that nothing has changed.

OK, that may not be true.

Things have changed in that the sacrifice of American ideals to the naked quest for personal power has only gotten worse.

It's been 25 years gone since that fateful morning in 2001.

I remember with perfect clarity the details of that day, the coolness of the day, the first hints of fall within the lingering warmth of summer.

The infant child in my arms whose life and future I had pledged to protect.  

The fear I felt that I may not be able to honor that pledge as the gut wrenching sorrow and fear gripped me, watching the swirl of smoke and ash in the rubble of our dreams and aspirations. The destruction in New York City. At the Pentagon. In a field in Pennsylvannia.  

The flickers of light and hope as we gathered ourselves, dusting ourselves off, making the choice that this would not break us.

Here today, on September 11, 2026, I wish I could say we have proven worthy of the pain and loss we paid that day.

On September 11, 2001, the world rushed to our door to offer their support, their defense.

25 years later, we stand as the world's pariah.  Our enemies emboldened, our friends uncertain and wary of our country.

To those who gave their lives on 9/11....

To those who survived and thought we would come out of that day stronger and better somehow...

To those who were the children of that day and since...

To all of these we owe them so much better than what we are.

On 9/11, we survived the devastation brought by outside forces of evil.

Today, can we survive the devastation we have brought up on ourselves?

If the commeration of this day is to have any value, it is to remind us we do have the power to be united.  

It is our choice to stand up, dust ourselves off and make that choice to save us from ourselves.  

Banana Time

 

You know what the bananas mean.

Yep, it's time for a blog break.

The  blog will be back:

• On Friday, I will have a post on the 25th anniversary of September 11th.
• Saturday, it's a Movie Time Post featuring 2 films with Tim Curry.
• Sunday is the latest chapter of Star Trekking as the 4th season of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds continues.
• And then after a couple of more posts, if I have done my math correctly, it's Blog Post 5000! 

Until next time, remember to be good to one another.   

Tuesday TV Touchbase: Wheel of Fortune, Jeopardy, Librarians and More!

 

Wheel of Fortune is back ALL NEW next week with some changes.

Instead of a pair of toss ups, the game will now open with a speed round for players to solve as many puzzles as they can in a short period of time. 

Well, that sounds like it might be fun.

Also Jim Thornton will no longer be the announcer.

For reasons that are not fun at all.  

Apparently Jim was caught watching kiddie porn on an airline flight back in May.

I don't won't to insinuate there is a right way to watch kiddie porn because people who use children for sex are the lowest life forms and deserve their own special corner of hell with especially hot and sharp ass pokers.

But here are some wrong things to do while watching child porn:

• watching In public 
• In a restricted space (like on a airplane) 
• with no disguise, no glasses or hat
• wearing a Wheel of Fortune jacket

Sony suspended Jim Thornton.

Jim lawyered up and his lawyer said the link to the child porn site was an accident, he didn't know it was a link to child porn, he doesn't like this sort of thing, he's a good person who helps people....

Taking all that into consideration....

Sony fired Jim Thornton.  

I can't help but think Sony wouldn't be stirring the pot like this unless they know some really seriously bad shit about Jim Thornton.  

Presumably producers are scrubbing Jim's announcing audio from the new episodes shot for this season and scrambling to find a new announcer. 

My wife Andrea has been agonizing all weekend over how Ryan, Vanna and the Wheel of Fortune crew have been dealing with this horrible mess.  

You would think Ryan and Vanna are her friends or something. 

Jeopardy Masters

Tonight is the finale of this year's Masters tournament.

Man, we were so close to see Yogesh Raut washing out and not making the cut for the tournament final.  A bad bet by Paolo Pasco on Friday let the prickly Yogesh slip through.  

Tonight the contest is down to  Victoria Groce, Yogesh Raut and Andrew He.

Everyone think good thoughts: Yogesh must not win. Yogesh must not win. Yogesh must not win. 

The Librarians: The Next Chapter

Last night was the season 2 finale.  

As I write this, Andrea and I have not watched the season finale but we've enjoyed this new season a lot. 

While the plots about various magical artifacts have been entertaining, the real driver for this season has been really good character growth which fed a lot of the drama and comedy for this season. 

Vikram, Lysa, Connor and Charlie have had to deal with past traumas and current fears in order the meet the challenges they've encountered.  

We got a visit from Lindy Booth as Cassandra Cillian from the O.G. Librarians and I squeed like a total fanboy when Cass did her super math! The episode was structured as a team up of Cass and Jacob Stone with Charlie with the rest of the new crew sidelined. Which meant we missed out on a face to face meet up of Cass and Lysa doing a complete geek out nerd meltdown. 

Olivia Morris who plays Lysa got to pull double duty with an adventure as Vikram's lost love Anya chasing down a dangerous magical artifacts in 1857. 

I'll post more next week on the season finale as the team has a show down with Merlin who is up to some sketchy shit.  

Spider-Noir

Prime announced it's season one and done for Spider-Noir.

Which is OK.  I mean, I enjoyed this wild and wooly film noir take on Spider-Man with an unhinged Nicholas Cage and I wouldn't have minded seeing more of this distinctive world.

But season 1 felt such like a complete thing with a story arc that was satisfactorily resolved.  

Lanterns

Speaking of a super hero show taking a unique spin on the subject. we're halfway through season 1 of Lanterns.

Speaking as a comic book nerd with a fairly extensive knowedge of Green Lantern comic book lore, I am not offended by the shifts away from that lore the show is taking. I am impressed they have kept as much of that Green Lantern mythos from the comics as they have.

I know there are some fans bitching and whining "That's not how that happened in the comics!" regarding John Stewart's back story. Hey, this is not your comic books, OK? This is a TV show which has a specific agenda to meet for a story built for television.

Not only does John Stewart deserve the ring, he may well deserve it more than Hal Jordan.

So Kyle Chandler's Hal Jordan is a jerk. Get over yourselves! You know damn well that the Hal from the comics could be quite the asshole.  

Anyway, I am enjoying Lanterns and I am very interested in seeing how this season 1 arc plays out.  

Stuart Fails To Save the Universe

Last week, Stuart, Denise, Bert and Barry landed in a universe where everyone is telepathic.

Things we learned:

• Barry's mother bathed him until he was 12.
• Bert wasn't sure he liked chili on hot dogs but then he tried it and he did.
• Telepathy helped Denise and Stuart have the best sex ever.

There's also a sequence where Stuart, Denise, Bert and Barry encounter 2 other universe travelling versions of themselves in the same scene. 

Kevin Sussman, Lauren Lapkus, Brian Posehn and John Ross Bowie had to shoot the scene once, then shoot it again and then a 3rd time. In an interview, Brian and John said it took 3 days to shoot that sequence. 

Then there was the multiverse chase with our three teams of Stuart, Denise, Bert and Barry running through every universe the show has been to so far before ending with one of the teams in a universe where everyone is a centaur.  

All that produced an episode that was (I kid you not!) 15 minutes long.  

That didn't stop Wil Wheaton and Felicia Day from hosting a 50 minute podcast following that episode.  One of their guests was the super hot Riki Lindhome who keeps turning up as some form of Ramona Nowitzki in each universe, working the receptionist desk at Caltech.  

Yes, we're watching the Stuart Fails To Save the Universe Official Podcast.  

That is that for this week's Tuesday TV Touchbase!

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.   

Lettuce Away!

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My wife Andrea is afraid of salad.

The outbreak in several states of cyclosporiasis due to contaminated lettuce has left her more paranoid than usual of anything with any kind of lettuce.

I tried to assuage her concerns with math.  

There have been 955 confirmed cases of cyclosporiasis in North Carolina since May 2026.

955? Whoa, that sounds like a lot. 

But the population of North Carolina is 11.3 million so 955 case of cyclosporiasis represents  .00845% of the population. 

The odds of actually contracting cyclosporiasis are very, very, very small, almost infinitesimal.    

But fear of explosive diarrhea is more motivating than math.

Not just diarrhea but explosive diarrhea! 

.00845% chance of explosive diarrhea is still too damn high.

Which presents a problem for Andrea as her favorite meal is steak with a bake potato and a nice side salad. 

She's paralyzed with fear on what to have instead of her salad. 

And she's even questioning the beef.

But first another word from our sponsor.

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In order to curb the high cost of beef, Donald Trump set up a deal to import beef from some place in some other country at a discounted price.

Which pisses off the cattle ranchers who voted for him and are now surprised der Führer has fucked them over.  (Trump fucking over people who supported him is such a common thing, that's on your dumbass to be surprised by it.)  

Which worries a lot of Americans is the source of this beef is sketchy as fuck and we have no idea where it came from or what it is.  

FUN FACT: weeks ago, Li'l Donnie signed off on a plan to allow wild horses to be killed. 

And now there is a mysterious supply of cheap mystery meat?

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Back to Andrea and her fear of salad.  

She wishes there was a respectable and unbiased source of information she could trust.

The C.D.C. says cyclosporiasis is under control.

But can we trust the C.D.C. to be on the level?

Robert F. Kennedy Jr looks and sounds like a man for whom explosive diarrhea is just another damn day.

Get a load of this (pardon the turn of phrase) shit?

Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro announced that the deaths of 2 infants in the state were attributed to measles. 

RFK Jr. went on Twitter (or  fuck it, X) to describe the governor as "giddy" when he made the announcment and claimed the data attributing those 2 infant deaths to measles was fabricated.  

It should be noted that Gov. Shapiro is a Democrat and frequent critic of Donald Trump.  

RFK Jr is in charge of the Dept. of Health and Human Services (and by extension, the C.D.C.) not because of any kind of skill or experience but for his loyalty to Donald Trump.  

After that, the C.D.C. site that tracks diseases across the country updated their information on Pennsylvannia.  They recorded the 2 deaths from measles but added an asterisk to that number, advising that the C.D.C. doesn't know this for sure.

Here is how this is supposed to work: the C.D.C. defers to the states' assessments of what they report without commentary or analysis. The states are obligated to do their due diligence to assess the diseases within their boundaries and the C.D.C. acts in an advisory capacity as needed.  

Instead the C.D.C. data is influenced by RFK Jr.'s loyalty to Trump and his own ignorant obessession against vaccines. Both he and Trump buy into the myth that vaccines cause autism.  Children dying from measles makes him and der Führer look bad. 

So much for being non partisan and factual.  The C.D.C. is subject to political influence.

So if the C.D.C. says that cyclosporiasis is under control, can we believe that?

Or any government institution under the sway of Trump? 

SIDE NOTE: Back when this cyclosporiasis outbreak first came to light, the source of this infection was tracked back to heads of lettuce imported by Taylor Farms according to the FDA.

The CEO of Taylor Farms is a Trump supporter and some calls were made and...

Whoops! The FDA says it's not totally sure the cyclosporiasis  was tracked back to heads of lettuce imported by Taylor Farms.

So Andrea remains afraid to eat salad.

Hey, it's our sponsor back again! 

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Cyclosporiasis in our lettuce is not our only problem

It seems there is always some new food recall.

Jalapeños, blueberries, radishes and mangoes are among various foods that have been recalled due to potential contamination for Salmonella and E.Coli.  

An outcome we all saw coming last year.

When Elon Musk and his DOGE goons were hacking and slashing away at the federal government, a lot of jobs were eliminated from the very agencies tasked to make sure our food would not fucking kill us.  

Hey, RFK Jr, this is what fucking "giddy" looks like, you jackass! 

So the government that is supposed to serve the people and our interests has been decimated by a reckless, stupid billionairetrillionaire.

And the government that is left is subverted to a political agenda to promote the interests of certain corrupt individuals over the needs of American citizens. 

So we're left with Andrea afraid of salads.

And I can't talk her out of it.

And I'm not sure I should.

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StarTrekking: Star Trek: Strange New Worlds - Season 4 - “Like Chronitons Through the Hourglass"

 

And we're back with more Star Trekking as we Trek through season 4 of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds. We're up to episode 7 of season 4 ,  “Like Chronitons Through the Hourglass".

Captain Pike wakes up to find out life on the Enterprise is a soap opera.

Literally a soap opera.

What the hell? Another damn gimmick episode? Really?

Well, yeah. But bear with it. The story has some compelling places to go and the gimmick helps to get us there.

So here's the deal, Sparky.

The cosmic entity who may or may not be a Q (It's a Q) who may or may not be Trelane (it's Trelane) who bedevilled the Enterprise in season 3 ("Wedding Bell Blues") is back, played by Rhys Darby.

This being who we will call "Trelane" is on board the Enterprise to finish a school assignment.

Who is what to do how why now?

Trelane is in what we will call "Q School" and his homework assignment is to present a paper on "Humans: Just What Is Their Deal Anyway".  

To facilitate that assignment, Trelane has altered reality to play out like a soap opera. 

Everyone is acting weird. Except for Pike who for reasons of plot is the only one not caught up in this hyper reality filled with such nonsense as super amnesia, space madness, secret children (Uhura is Pike's daughter) and evil twins (Ethan Peck has double duty as Spock and Sybok).  Everyone is being melodramatic.

Basically, Pike is like Deadpool, aware his reality is fictional.

Pike questions why everyone keeps pausing for dramatic effect before finishing a sentence. 

He also hears the music stings when anyone says something particularly dramatic.  

For everyone on the Enterprise, this is just... life.  Except for Pike who sees the soap opera absurdity of it all.  

Trelane is puzzled as well.  Everyone is playing their parts in this melodrama but Pike insists on going off script. And his story arc keeps going to places Trelane does not anticipate.

Like when Pike's daughter Juliet shows up.

Who is what to do how why now?

Trelane is all "Wait! Since when did Pike have a daughter?" 

To answer that, we have to go back to the season 3 finale, "New Life and New Civilizations".  Before Marie Batel, Pike's girlfriend, evolved into some kind of energy thingy to be locked into an eternal battle against evil to save the universe or something, Marie took Pike through a future where the two of them got to live their lives.  They built a home together and had a daughter named Juilet and got to live out their lives into old age.  

After living that whole lifetime together, Marie did her thing and went off to fight evil for eternity. Or something. It was sad.

Pike had made peace with the loss of Marie.  However he has not made peace with the loss of that alternative lifetime.  He has not made peace with the loss of his daughter Juliet.

Through the cliches and conventions of TV soap opera, Pike, La'An, M'Benga, Ortegas and Uhura are forced to confront some uncomfortable truths about themselves and their unresolved traumas.   

Before we get to the serious culmination of the episode, we do have a lot a fun with playing with soap opera tropes: pensive pauses, dramatic music stings, tight zoom in shots, preposterous plot twists and more.

If the soap opera comparisons were not obvious enough, the role of the ship's counselor is played by Deidre Hall who is most famous for her iconic role of Dr. Marlena Evans on Days of Our Lives.

Her second most famous role was as the star of Electra Woman and Dyna Girl.   

ELECTRA WOW!! 

Bellows is a post credits scene featuring the characters of "Days Of Our Enterprise". 

That's is that for today.

Live long and prosper, y'all and keep on trekkin'!  And enjoy your "Shakey Box"!