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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?

Now a word from our sponsor.

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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"! 

Movie Time: The Women In Green

Last week, I posted about a murder mystery movie where the case was solved by sheep.

Which is admittedly a bit atypical for the whole murder mystery movie motif.

Today we tackle another murder mystery movie with a more traditional protagonist.

Perhaps the greatest detective of all time.

Elementary, my dear blog reader, it's... Movie Time! 

Today we pick up one of a series films featuring Sherlock Holmes starring Basil Rathbone as the great detective.

While others have portrayed Holmes in film and television such as Jeremy Brett, Benedict Cumberbatch and Robert Downey Jr., many still consider Basil Rathbone as the ultimate archetype of Baker Street sleuth on film.

Today's post is about the 11th of the 14 Sherlock Holmes films made by Basil Rathbone with Nigel Bruce as Dr. Watson. 

From 1945, it's The Woman in Green.

London is in the grip of terror! 

Murder, it is! Murder most foul! 

Several young women have been murdered. And adding a gruesome detail to the most heinous killings is mutilation. Each young lady has her forefinger severed.  

Scotland Yard is baffled by this killing spree and turn to Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson. 

Right off the bat, Holmes... has no idea what the hell is going on. Hey, he might be a genius but give the guy a minute to sort things out, eh? 

Meanwhile and elsewhere, wealthy widower Sir George Fenwick has a romantic evening with glamorous young Lydia Marlowe.

The movie is in black and white so we need to assume she's wearing green.  

The evening takes the pair to her apartment for some wink! wink! nudge! nudge! where they share a drink and odd, he feels a bit... woozy?

Ten hours later, George Fenwick wakes up in a seedy room in a decrepit flop house.  Outside a newsboy is hawking his papers with the tawdry news of another mutilation murder.

George is already a bit freaked out about how he came to be in this awful place and wondering what the hell happened in his missing 10 hours.

His mental state is not helped at all by a woman's forefinger he finds in his jacket pocket.   

Later, at 221B Baker Street, Holmes and Watson are still pondering the murky mystery of the serial killings when a new client comes calling, Maude Fenwick, George's daughter.  She found the severed finger that George tried to hide and now Maude is worried about what the hell is going on her with her dad and wants Sherlock Holmes to look into it.

This investigation takes a dark and sinister turns when George Fenwick is found dead in his home.

Murdered!

Sherlock Holmes deduces his old nemesis Professor Moriarity is  behind all this.

I'm not sure exactly how Holmes makes this leap and even Watson calls him on it.  "It can't always be Moriarity!" 

Look, Watson, there's a formula here and everbody has to follow it! 

Evil shit happens.
Enter He-Man!
Who's responsible for the evil shit?
Skeletor! 

Evil shit happens.
Enter the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles!
Who's responsible for the evil shit?
Thrasher! 

Evil shit happens.
Enter G.I. Joe!
Who's responsible for the evil shit?
Cobra Commander! 

Evil shit happens.
Enter Perry the Platypus!
Who's responsible for the evil shit?
Dr. Dufenschmirtz! 

Everyone understands the deal, eh, Dr. Watson?

Evil shit happens.
Enter Sherlock Holmes!
Who's responsible for the evil shit?
Moriarty! 

Let's move on, shall we?  

YES, it is indeed Moriarty and after a few scenes of investigating and general poking at things with a stick, Holmes figures out what the big deal is.

• Lydia Marlowe seduces then hypnotizes a wealthy prominent man.
• Moriarty's men find some hapless female victim to murder then cut off her finger. 
• The wealthy prominent man comes out of his hypnotic stupor with a severed finger in his pocket.
• Moriarty shows up to blackmail the wealthy prominent man.

That's a lot of trouble to go through! Whatever happened to good old fashioned bank robbery, for crying out loud! 

Hey, that's quite a good yarn that Holmes has cooked up. But how to prove it?

Sherlock Holmes will allow himself to be seduced and hypnotized by Lydia Marlowe. 

Sherlock Holmes seduced? By a woman?!? I say, how will that ever work since Holmes is gay and in a committed relationship with Watson and remember this is a movie from 1945 and I'm just fucking with you.  

Surely a mind as strong and agile as that of Sherlock Holmes, the great detective could never be hypnotized, right? 

Lydia (who I presume is wearing green or the movie's title makes no sense) does indeed successfully work her wiles and Holmes succumbs to hypnotism. 

And Moriarty shows up to end his hated nemesis once and for all! 

Long story made short: All is not what it seems and Moriarty will get what's coming to him, the scheming scoundrel.  

When the movie first started, I assumed the film was set in the Victorian era of the original stories by  Arthur Conan Doyle. But from his apartment at 221B Baker Street, Holmes looks out the window and sees automobiles from the 1940's.

Fun Fact: the Sherlock Holmes movie series starring Basil Rathbone did begin with mysteries set in Victorian England. After about 3 of those movies, the setting changed to 20th century England with some cases set around fighting Nazi spies and other World War II stuff.  

The Woman In Green follows premises originated in Doyle's stories  "The Final Problem" and "The Adventure of the Empty House".

The Woman In Green is a rather perfunctionary entry, checking off the boxes one needs to check off in a Sherlock Holmes mystery.  A lot of this is saved by the blustering Nigel Bruce as the frequently incredulous Dr. Watson and the sharp edged performance of Basil Rathbone as Sherlock Holmes. I can see why Rathbone's interpretation of Holmes stood the test of time as the peak iconic version of Doyle's great detective.

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We're back tomorrow with Star Trekking and the latest entry in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds.

 

Your Friday Video Link Set At Random

Welcome to this week's edition of Your Friday Video Link.

Usually for these YFVL posts, I come up with some kind of unifying theme.

Not this week.

I've set the YFVL controls for random and what do we get?

Unicorns! 

Unicorns, Charlie!  

Unicorns that will take us to Candy Mountain, Charlie! 

OK, the YFVL controls go all random and shit and gives us this:

Ryan George explains Q Tips!

What do you do with Q Tips?

You put them in your ear! 

NO! They don't go in your ear holes! 

Stop putting them in your ears!  

You have Q Tips in your ear holes, dontcha? 

Random! Random! Random! 

The YFVL gives us a penguin whodunit! 

OK, I think I need a break from Your Friday Video Link.

So no YFVL post next week.

Next Friday is the 25th anniversary of the September 11 the attacks and I'm going to need to be serious about that.

Tomorrow: it's another Whodunit and Howdunit and Whydunit! 

Sherlock Holmes solves a perplexing case of murder for this week's Movie Time.

Dave-El's Spinner Rack: Batman#156 - "Robin Dies At Dawn"

Last time I was at Acme Comics, I picked up a copy of a new DC facsimile edition.  Facsimiles are not mere reprints of old stories but a full reproduction of a complete comic as it originally appeared back in the day.

There is a small indicia on page 1 to show the current management of DC Comics and of course the price on the cover. $3.99 for a comic book? Fuck me, that's a lot! 

OK, other than that, it looks like it looked back in the day.

This facsimile edition I picked up was of Batman#156 which includes the seminal classic tale "Robin Dies At Dawn".

It's not like I haven't read "Robin Dies At Dawn". It's been reprinted before.  Still, getting the facsimile edition gave me to chance to experience the entire comic as it was presented back in the day.  

One thing I was not aware of is that "Robin Dies At Dawn" is not the lead story in the issue.  

Batman#156 kicks off with "The Secret of the Ant-Man". ostensibly a Robin solo story.   

Batman tells Robin he is off on a special secret mission and will be out of touch for awhile. Robin is left with the the task of patrolling Gotham City. 

It bears remembering that Robin is still a Boy Wonder but hey, if Batman thinks it's OK to leave it up to his kid to fight crime alone in Gotham City, who am I to judge?

Well, not quite alone.

While taking on some criminal nogoodniks, Robin gets an assist from a diminuitive doo-gooder called Ant-Man.  

Robin momentarily entertains the notion that Ant-Man may really be Batman and his secret mission is helping some scientists working on a shrink ray or something. 

It is the very sort of thing that was happening in Gotham City during this era of Batman comics.

But no...

Robin discovers Ant-Man is not quite so murdered mobster Jumbo Carson. His assisting Robin was part of his revenge scheme against the crooks who done did him wrong.  

in case you're wondering who came first in the Ant-Man sweepstakes, Jumbo Carson at DC or Henry Pym at Marvel, Pym made it to the comic book spinner rack a full year before.

Meanwhile, where the heck did Batman get to?

That brings us to our main event in Batman#156.  

Batman on alien world? Well, why not?

Under editor Jack Schiff back in the 1950's and early 1960's, the Caped Crusader was far removed from his dark and gritty source material on which he was founded.

Batman and Robin were frequently dealing with otherworldly threats and menaces.  Aliens came to Gotham or summoned the Dynamic Duo to extraterrestrial worlds. 

Interest in the burgeoning space race and fear of atomic annihilation fueled a boom in science fiction in movies, TV shows and comic books.  Even Batman and Detective Comics.

In Batman#156, Batman and Robin find themselves on a desolate and dangerous alien world.  Various menaces arise to attack them, perpetually keeping the Dynamic Duo in danger.

Danger with a fatal outcome.  

Robin is dead and Batman is devastated. The Caped Crusader might be the most physically and mentally awesome person ever but even he has his limits.  

It turns out the alien encounter has an Earth bound source.  

Batman has volunteered to take part in a special military experiment to test the long-term effects of isolation on the human psyche. 

Batman walks away from the experiment seemingly none the worse for the wear.  But despite being "a hardy specimen with an above average mind", Batman still experiences relapses into his trauma inflicted by the hallucinatory alien world.

Watching Robin die hits him hard.

While on patrol with Robin and fighting crooks, Batman keeps seeing stuff from the Gotham landscape turn into threats from the alien world.

Unable to trust his own senses, Batman has to take himself out of action and leave the crime fighting to Robin going solo.

A gang of criminals dressed as gorillas are committing crimes because they, it's a DC Comic, of course you dress as gorillas. 

So they capture Robin and Batman has to suck it up and get out there and save his ass.

But....

Batman finds the Gorilla Gang and Robin tied to a giant balloon because...  you really need to stop asking so many questions and just accept what's going on.

Oh no! Is Batman going to have a relapse and think he's back on that alien world? 

No! With Robin in actual real danger (death by balloon? Noooo!), Batman gets the shock he needs to snap put of his traumatic reverie to save Robin and stop the gorilla goons.

Despite some inherently absurd elements, writer Bill Finger treats this story with some seriousness.  Often Batman writers indulge in the overused trope that the Caped Crusader is ready for anything.  Here we have a story that reminds us that Batman is still human and subject to the same levels of trauma we all can experience.   

This story also allows Bill Finger to indulge the era's sci-fi mandate but still tell a grounded story.

In this era, Bob Kane's ghost artist Sheldon Moldoff was employing a more cartoonish, blocky look.  With inker Charles Paris, Moldoff seems to tone down that approach, on occassion evoking hints of Batman's early shadowy self.   

The facsimile edition of Batman#156 includes all the ads from the era.

• A comic strip PSA urging kids to not be a high school drop-out.
• A DC house ad featuring new comics with the Atom, the Flash, Doom Patrol and Adam Strange.
• A "Letters to the Bat-Cave" with readers apparently delighted with the "Prisoners of Three Worlds" in Batman#153.
• An ad for your own collection of missiles for only $1.25!
• Or you can buy up to 104 knights for $1.49!
• Or 100 toy soldiers for a buck and a quarter! 
• Why take chances on missing your favorite DC comic at the spinner rack? Complete the handy-dandy subscription form! 

Here are some covers from Batman as the Dynamic Duo have to contend with alien shit.

Howl in the Dark Wilderness

Today is Wednesday.  Guess what that means? 

It's HUMP DAY! 

I want to take a moment to ponder Monday's blog post.  

It was a standard issue rant that Donald Trump is a lying, petulant, bullying, unintelligent, yadda yadda yadda piece of shit.

And I'm a bit disappointed in it.

Not because the feelings expressed are not valid or the facts addressed are in question.  

But I am disappointed in that this is not what I wanted for this blog and for the moments of my life I invest in it.

Just for the record, we are now about 12 entries away from BLOG POST 5000! That's a lot of posts and quite frankly it's a disappointment to me that so much of the space on this blog and in my head is occuppied by that lying, petulant, bullying, unintelligent, yadda yadda yadda piece of shit.

I think my main motivation is to make sure there's a record that in this awful time of division of hate and fear mongering, that a regular schmuck like myself could see what was really going on.

I have no power to affect change. I can only howl in the dark wilderness that in this time I can see the truth about Donald Trump and the gutless cowards who capitulated to his reign of corruption and contempt out of ignorance, hate and a desire for power.  

When this time is over and when (or if) we survive it, I have a record, however remote and unread it may be, that I saw the terrible truth of our world. 

And I did not care for it.

It's a pathetic motivation but damn, it's all I got.

Writing for The Hill, psychotherapist and author Jonathan Alpert postulated on the obsessions of Trump's critics.  

 Alpert wrote, "Many people who wish Trump would disappear from public life nevertheless follow him relentlessly. They monitor his speeches, dissect his social media posts and debate his every move." 

 

I must cop to that.  I frequently find myself distracted as I scan the headlines on my various news feeds anxious about what fucking dumbass thing this lying, petulant, bullying, unintelligent, yadda yadda yadda piece of shit has done now. 

Alpert continues, "Trump has supplied something modern politics rarely offers: genuine uncertainty about what comes next. Tomorrow may bring a policy announcement, a personnel decision, a courtroom development, an impromptu exchange with reporters or the renaming of some major body of water."  

 

In my years on this planet, there have been times I've almost forgotten who the President is. OK, not really "forgotten", but I can honestly say I never got up every morning wondering:Gee, what goddam thing is Ronald Reagan or Bill Clinton or Barack Obama going to fuck up today.  

I may not have always agreed with everything any given President did but I felt confident that whatever they did, I didn't have to hear that whatever they did was goddam fucking "unprecedented".  

Alpert describes the self-perpetuating cycle. 

• Trump says or does something unexpected. 
• News organizations rush to cover it. 
• Critics condemn it. 
• Supporters defend it. 
• Television panels debate it.

I would posit that "something unexpected" is a nicer way of expressing "something stupid or crooked" or some other 3rd thing.  

 

Alpert says, "Attention is not the same as approval."

Donald Trump is delusional in thinking he has the approval of the American people even as poll after poll shows a precipitously declining approval rating. 

But mostly, like the lying, petulant, bullying, unintelligent, yadda yadda yadda piece of shit he is, he mostly longs for the attention.

Trump lives by the adage "the only thing worse than bad publicity is NO publicity."  

There's a reason he ends his godforsaken posts with "Thank you for your attention to this matter."  He's literally just wants your attention.  

And as much as I hate the motherfucker, damn it, he has my attention. And he eats up space on this blog on Mondays.

And by the looks of it today, Wednesday too.

But this was supposed to be about me and what I write. 

I've seen my blog stats and I know I have no power and no influence.  I'm So Glad My Suffering Amuses You is little more than a journal of a barely interesting man who wants to share the TV shows and movies I watch and my comic book and sci-fi fandoms and whatever first world foible frustrated me lately.

As I approach the 5000th post, I am sorry that Donald Trump and his snivelling syncophants take up so much space on this blog and in my head. 

But when history looks back on this abyss in American and world history and wonders, did anyone not see what was happening, I want this on record: I did see it.

God help me I could not do anything about it but I will speak to history and say, at least I could see it.  

It's only a mournful howl in the dark wilderness. It's all I got but it's mine. 

_____________________________

Tomorrow: comic books!  (YAY!)  

 

Tuesday TV Touchbase: Blue Skies and Jeopardy Masters

 

I'm going to start today's post about a show:

• With a police officer.
• Whose partner is a dog.

Now you're thinking that sound like Hudson & Rex, well, yes, it does but that's not the show we're talking about today.

The show is called Blue Skies and it's about a police detective named Jodie Larson played by Scarlet Hunter.

Now THAT is a NAME! Scarlet Hunter!  

That could be a super hero name!

"I am vengeance! 

I am the night!!

I am Scarlet Hunter!!!"

OK, some back story: after finishing up her tour of duty in the military, Jodie Larsen has returned home to rebuild her relationship with her father after the death of her mother.  Jodi has a job as a police investigator with the National Park Service.  Her beat: Crystal Ridge National Park. 

Apparently national parks are a hot bed of criminal activity as there is always something to keep Jodie and her team busy.

Like Jesse on Hudson & Rex, Blue Skies has their resident tech nerd who can call up anything on his 'puters. 

Like Charlie and Sarah on Hudson & Rex, Blue Skies has it's own chaste as hell heck flirtatious relationship between Jodie and Ryan, a high school "friend" who runs a coffee shop and also is an expert climber who helps with search and rescue missions in the mountainous Crystal Ridge National Park. 

And like Hudson & Rex, Blue Skies has... a dog.

Blue is a yellow lab who just shows up at Jodie's cabin one day. 

Efforts to extricate herself from Blue do not succeed.  No matter what Jodie does, Blue inevitably appears by her side.

And it turns out that Blue is an extraordinarily gifted tracker. 

Who is this dog? Where did he come from? These are mysteries the show will explore.

I'm gonna call it: Blue is Jodie's reincarnated dead mom! 

I'm gonna admit: that's probably not it.

In addition to the mystery of what is the deal with this dog, Jodie has questions about the death of her mother.  She presumably died in a mountain climbing accident but there are questions about this "accident". 

The location of the fictional Crystal Ridge National Park is left vague. I thought it was a Canadian park but it might be in Colorado.  

Blue Skies has a lot of gorgeous park scenery to look at and the calm, measured pace of the show is in line with all the natural scenery. 

Blue Skies is very family friendly as befits a show that is on UP TV and it's UP Faith and Family streaming service.  

Like Hudson & Rex, we came to Blue Skies for the dog and Blue is quite the scene stealer.  

But the mysteries around Jodie, what happened to her mother and where the hell heck this dog came from, is keeping our attention.  

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ABC has launched a new season of Jeopardy Masters.

 Victoria Groce, Yogesh Raut, Andrew He, Paolo Pasco, Juveria Zaheer and Long Nguyen are the players for this year's contest.

Yogesh is as insufferable as ever, cocky and arrogant when winning, pissy and grumpy when he's not. 

Victoria is as charming and delightful as ever. 

But....

After three episodes, Andrea and I came to a most unfortunate conclusion: Jeopardy Masters is boring.

It's hard to play along. The clues are more obscure and trickier than regular Jeopardy.  

It always seems like a foregone conclusion on which 2 of the initial 6 contestestants are going to wash out. This year does not look good for Long Nguyen.  

But after Andrea and I said the quiet part out loud about how Jeopardy Masters just wasn't doing it for us, the game got interesting on night #4.  

Long Nugyen has a kick ass dominating game and vaults into the top 4.  

You just never know with Jeopardy.

We've got another week and a day of this fershlugginer thing.

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Late Nite With Seth Meyers is on a very long hiatus (from August 1st to September 21st) as I wrote about here.  

But we are not being denied A Closer Look.  Seth is joining writer  Sal Gentile for podcasts to cover some of the Trump world shenanigans going on while the show is in reruns. The podcast series is called A Closer Look: Out of Office  (or AKA "Proof of LIfe").  

While a typical Closer Look segment can run on average about 10 minutes or so, the podcasts are nearly an hour long as we watch Seth and Sal talk it out in real time all the bullshit that Donald Trump and his syncophants are up to and it's a lot.  

As such, the podcasts are a bit unfocused, a major pet peeve I have with a lot of podcasts. Still, the form does allow Seth to stay in the loop while he is away.    

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That is that for this week's the 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.  

 

Ubu really likes it when we watch crime shows about dogs!