Random Musings

 

Here we are at the start of another week. 

I spent most of last week not feeling good with one damn thing or another. One day I spent with a persistent queasiness in my stomach that had me right on the edge of wanting to throw up but it never happened. Whatever the source of my gastro-intestinal distress, it resolved itself in the other direction. 

And if people are not inclined to talk about vomiting, there's even less inclination to discuss other expressions of gastro-intestinal distress. 

The day after that, I was totally ragged out with little to no inclination to do anything. 

On top of that, I had a couple of bad mental health days. Instead of not feeling doing anything, I didn't want to feel like doing anything. I lost a couple of days to sleep and a couple of nights to sleeplessness. 

Then it was back to feeling bad physically, this time with a general achiness and tiredness that left me weary down to the bone. 

The problem with not feeling well in this time of the coronavirus pandemic is living with the fear that anything I might feel bad with is the damn coronavirus.  My wife Andrea was constantly fretful that I had somehow come down with the 'rona. 

It feels like my not uncommon sinus pain to me. Plus I'm just getting old. To be blunt, I never feel good. 

At any given moment of time, something on my body hurts all the time. I'm just old. 

Here's something else about getting old that no one talks about: it itches. 

Son of a bitch, some part of my body somewhere is itchy all the time. Every part of my body can and will itch at any given moment. 

Enough of that all that. What about Thanksgiving? 

Well, we got through it here at the ol' Fortress of Ineptitude. As is our tradition, we put the Christmas tree up on Wednesday, Thanksgiving Eve. This was no small feat of engineering. 

In order to facilitate my wife working from home, we had configured part of our living room to office space which otherwise cause the space where we normally put the tree to be filled. We managed to make room for our trust ol' Christmas tree even if we are using the trunks of our cars as temporary storage space. 

The restructuring of our living room to accommodate the presence of a tree like object adorned with lights has been a bit disconcerting to our canine resident Rosie. Our daughter Randie sought to bring Rosie into the Christmas spirit by adorning her with a hat.

Rosie was less than enamored with the hat. She's also keeping her distance from our arboreal interloper.  

As for Thanksgiving itself, I had a menu planned for us to have a full socially distanced holiday meal. But Andrea's brother and his wife graciously offered to cook for Thanksgiving and prepare meals for curbside pick up at their house. 

I am very grateful for their kindness and generosity but I'm not sure this was the best option. I think swinging by to pick up food from their house just underscored the unusual isolation of the holiday. I think for the three of us, actually preparing food in our home here in the Fortress of Ineptitude might have been better for us.  

We did make dessert here. At our daughter Randie's request, Andrea made her famous cherry cream cheese pie. Randie really loves this dessert. 

Except... she doesn't like cherries. 

She likes the juice of the cherries as they suffuse the cream cheese but the actual cherries? Eh, not so much. She picks the cherries off. 

Is it possible we could make Andrea's famous cherry cream cheese pie but with a different fruit? 

Randie says no. She prefers the pie experience with cherries even if she does not prefer the cherries. 

Coming up on the blog thing tomorrow, it's the Tuesday TV Touchbase as we continue to watch the Mandalorian and I wrap up the 4th season of Fargo. 

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

Cinema Sunday: Gambit

Today's Cinema Sunday takes a look at a film that I never heard of until I happened to run into it a few weeks ago on TCM.  The film is called Gambit, a 1966 a comic crime caper film starring Shirley MacLaine and Michael Caine. 

The poster urges you to tell everyone about the ending of the movie but don't spoil the beginning. 

Well, I will.  

Cockney cat burglar Harry Tristan Dean (Michael Caine) and his sculptor friend Emile Fournier (John Abbott) discover in Hong Kong an exotic Eurasian showgirl Nicole Chang (Shirley MacLaine) whose resemblance to another woman provides a vital part of their scheme to rob the world's richest man, an Arab named Ahmad Shahbandar (Herbert Lom). 

Over the course of the film's first act, Harry's plan unfolds like clockwork. Shahbandar is entranced by Chang's resemblance to his beloved late wife which gives Harry the opportunity to get access to Shahbandar's luxury apartment and steal a precious work of art, an ancient Chinese sculpture that also resembles Shahbandar's former wife. 

The scheme unfolds like clockwork as the various pieces of Harry's plan falls into place perfectly. It is a bit weird that Nicole never utters a word or has even so much as a facial expression. 

Because it turns out the first act never actually happens. It's just been Harry describing to Emile how the plot will go. Nicole Chang being silent and unexpressive is because Harry does not account for Chang having a voice or a personality. 

When Harry Tristan Dean approaches Nicole Chang for the 2nd time (for real this time), it is very clear that Ms. Chang does have a voice and a mind of her own. It is clear that Harry's clockwork gambit will not go as smoothly as it did in the imagined first act. 

Assuming the identities of Sir Harold Dean and Lady Nicole Dean, Harry and Nicole check into Shahbandar's hotel in the Middle Eastern city of Dammuz where Shahbandar himself lives in the penthouse. Things are not going according to plan and Shahbandar himself is immediately suspicious of this Sir and Lady Dean. 

What little of Harry's plan that works owes a lot to Shahbandar's curiosity as to what Sir and Lady Dean are up to and Nicole's own knowledge and charm.  Harry Tristan Dean remains confident that he can steal the statue but Nicole immediately intuits that Shahbandar knows they are up to something and is just playing out the string for his amusement and to catch Harry and his accomplice in the act. 

With help from Nicole, Harry escapes from Shahbandar's penthouse with the statue.  

Except he didn't. Yes, Harry escapes back to Hong Kong but he left the statue hidden in Shahbandar's apartment. 

It seems the robbery of Shahbandar's penthouse is to further a larger scheme by Harry and Emile.  

It's basically the plot of the Doctor Who episode, City of Death. It's hard to sell a reproduction of the Mona Lisa as the real thing when the real thing is hanging for all to see in the Louvre. So you have to steal the real thing. 

This movie is a lot of fun. Shirley MacLaine as Nicole is an interesting experience. The entirely silent, implacid performance in the first act is surreal. Then Nicole speaks and we discover a woman of uncommon wisdom and wit  who will not be the docile pawn in Harry's game.  

Michael Caine as Harry is Caine's first role in an American film. He gives what will become a quintessential Michael Caine performance, of a rough around the edges guy trying to be a suave English gentleman.  

Star Trek alert

Roger C. Carmel was Harry Mudd in Star Trek, the original series. Carmel is on hand in the first act as Ram. 

John Abbott who portrays Emile was in the original series episode "Errand of Mercy" as Ayelborne of the planet Organia.

----------------------------------------------

Under the topic "you can't do that now", Arab characters are not played by actors of Arabian heritage or descent.  

Ram is an Arab but Roger Cormel is an American actor born in Brooklyn, New York.  

Herbert Lom who played Shahbandar was a Czech actor who moved to the United Kingdom in 1939.

Shahbandar is gadget happy super rich dude worthy of a James Bond villain. Lom is most famous for his role as Chief Inspector Dreyfus, driven to madness by Inspector Clouseau in the Pink Panther movie series.  

On a similar note, born in Richmond, VA, Shirley McClain is neither Euro nor Asian.  

-----------------------------------------

Gambit is a fun comedic crime caper movie that enjoys poking holes in some of the more absurd tropes of the comedic crime caper movie. The almost out of left field romantic attraction between Harry and Nicole feels more inevitable than organic but hell, it still works for the movie. 

Next week, Cinema Sunday will take a look at a really strange and really bad semi-modern sci-fi classic. 

Songs For Saturday: Sarah Jarosz, Dee Dee (of Dum Dum Girls) and the Surfrajettes

 

A fews weeks ago, I did a Songs For Saturday which featured songs performed by a dude with a guitar. 

This week: a dudette with a guitar.

Is "dudette" a word? It's my blog. I say it is! 

Up first is Sarah Jarosz with a cover of U2's "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For". 

Sarah is a is an American singer-songwriter from Wimberley, Texas who released her first album in 2009.

She was a regular  on the weekly National Public Radio series Live from Here, hosted by Chris Thile until it was cancelled this past June. 

Next up is Dee Dee of the Dum Dum Girls with "Little Minx".  

Click here for the Songs For Saturday featuring Dum Dum Girls. 

OK, for our next song, we have three dudettes with guitars. 

Give a listen to the Surfrajettes with their cover of Britney Spears' "Toxic". 

You gotta love babes playing surf music! 

Click here for the link to the LA Weekly article with more about the Surfragettes.  

That is that for today's Songs For Saturday.

Until next time, remember to be good to one another and to always keep the music alive.  

Enola Holmes

Getting to see a new movie in a time of pandemic has been a mixed bag. The last time  the fam and I ventured forth from the Fortress of Ineptitude to see a movie in a theater, was in March to see Onward.

With most theaters closed due to lockdowns, a lot of new movies looking for their big debut on the big screen 

have been circling in a holding pattern. 

Wonder Woman 1984 will finally touch down in December on HBO Max. Guess I may be springing for HBO Max after all. 

Which brings us to the movie for today's post: Enola Holmes. 

Enola Holmes was originally planned for a theatrical release by Warner Bros. Pictures. Instead, the film was sold to Netflix due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Enola Holmes made it's Netflix debut on September 23, 2020. We finally watched it this past weekend. 

Getting all of us together to watch Enola Holmeswas a tougher sale than I thought it would be. 

The movie stars Millie Bobby Brown from Stranger Things. We all like Stranger Things and we like Millie's character, Eleven. 

The movie is set in the universe of Sherlock Holmes. The family followed Steven Moffat's Sherlock. 

Finally, 2 months after it's release, we sat down to watch 

Enola Holmes. 

Enola Holmes is the younger sister of Sherlock and Mycroft Holmes. Living alone with her mother Eudoria for 16 years, Enola has received a most unique education, from chess to jujitsu, for a young woman living in the 19th century. Eudoria encourages her to be a strong, independent thinking young woman.

Then on the occasion of Enola's 16th birthday, Eudoria vanishes.  

Enola's brothers arrive. Sherlock is a bit bemused by Enola's intelligence and non conformity but Mycroft is aghast. It's as if he's found Enola foraging in the wood dressed in wolf skins or something. She's not wearing gloves or a hat? Really! 

Mycroft is determined to send her to stern Miss Harrison's finishing school for girls to get Enola all fixed up to be a proper lady.

Enola likes herself just fine and has no intentions to attending Miss Harrison's finishing school for girls. Disguising herself as a boy, Enola hops a train to London on a mission to find her missing mother.  

On the train, Enola encounters the the young Viscount Tewkesbury who is seeking to escape his family and an unwanted destiny set forth by others. Enola wants nothing to do with Tewkesbury but her mission to find Eudoria keeps her crossing paths with the Viscount.  

Sherlock Holmes is searching for Eudoria and Enola. His search for this missing mother consistently finds the master detective several steps behind his sister. 

It seems Eudoria is involved with a radical suffragette movement that is prepared to engage in violence as needed to further a reform agenda in Parliament.  

Meanwhile, those seeking Viscount Tewkesbury intend to do him harm to keep him from assuming his deceased father's seat as a Lord in Parliament where Tewkesbury intends to vote in favor of reform.  

With help from Inspector Lestrade, Mycroft is able to locate and capture Enola where she is sent off to Miss Harrison's finishing school for girls which is like some kind of Handmaid's Tale hellscape. However, Tewkesbury is able to affect Enola's escape from Miss Harrison.

In turn, Enola cracks the case of what's going on in 

Tewkesbury's family that has put her friend's life in danger. 

In the end, Sherlock Holmes cracks the case of what's going on in Tewkesbury's family only to find his sister has beaten him to the punch and already delivered the guilty party to Scotland Yard for arrest. 

Enola continues to elude Sherlock and Mycroft. 

Enola Holmes is a fun movie that plays with the conventions of a Sherlock Holmes mystery in a very enjoyable way. 

Enola herself is a fascinating character. Like her detective brother, Enola possesses a keen intellect and impressive talents but also lacks certain social skills, making her a protagonist that is both formidable and flawed. 

Millie Bobby Brown obviously is having a lot of fun as Enola, employing a rapier sharp wit and a fast moving intelligence. The physicality of the role is impressive with Enola getting into fights, running everywhere and constantly changing up her look as a stylish lady of a society, a widow in mourning and several turns as a boy. 

Enola pierces the fourth wall to talk to the audience as she spins out her lightning fast thought processes.  Enola thinks so fast, even she can't keep up. 

"On to stage 5 of my plan. Or is it 4? 6 maybe? I've lost track!"

The visuals get in the act with title cards flickering in black and white as if from a 1920's silent movie. And Terry Gilliam-eque animations are also employed. 

Henry Cavill is on hand as Sherlock Holmes. Perhaps it's his time as Superman that's influencing my thinking but I found it a bit hard to accept Cavill as the usually eccentric Sherlock. Cavill's take on Sherlock Holmes is a bit too normal.  

Knowing Fiona Shaw from Killing Eve, I felt she was perfectly cast as the the stern, judgemental Miss Harrison.  

While there is some intent for Enola Holmes to serve as launching pad for a possible franchise for Millie Bobby Brown, the movie itself is self contained with a beginning, middle and end. 

Still, I hope there is an opportunity for Millie to return as Enola in another adventure soon. 

Thanks and Regrets

Today is Thanksgiving. 

It is a day for expressing what we are thankful for. 

I am thankful for my wife, our daughter and our dog. 

No, I am not thankful for being out of work but I am thankful for the generous severance package that allowed me to continue to support my family and maintain our way of life for the last several months. 

I am thankful for Rick, my yard guy. Yes, I have a yard guy. Rick's a Trump guy but he's not in my face about it. And when I needed help taking care of my yard, he stepped up to do what no other neighbor has done before: he offered to help. 

I am thankful for my step brother Roger. Ever since the death of our mother, Roger stepped up to take care of her house. I was going to have to sell it and I was reluctant to do that. But it was going to be a burden to provide for it's upkeep if I didn't sell it. Roger took on the responsibility of helping me keep the house in good shape, protected and cared for. 

I am thankful for Heidi, my therapist. 

I am thankful for Acme Comics, the best comic book shop ever.

I am thankful for I'm So Glad My Suffering Amuses You. Virtually no one reads the damn thing but writing for this blog has given me purpose when I have otherwise lacked one. 

On a day of expressing our thanks, it may seem counterintuitive to talk about regrets. But this video from Mayim Bialik addresses the topic of having regrets and the value one can get from accepting those regrets. 

I want to close out with one more thing I'm thankful. 

I am thankful for music. And to celebrate that appreciation for music, here is a choral performance of...

Spider-Pig! 

Thanks for reading! 

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

My Thanksgiving Plan

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving Day here in the good ol' US of A and quite frankly things are a mess here in the good ol' US of A.

Our country remains in a fractured political debacle because Donald Trump will not concede his loss to Joe Biden in the 2020 election and continues to asses the Presidential election has been beset by rampant fraud, a charge for there is absolutely zero evidence. 

And our country remains ravaged by the coronavirus pandemic with infection rates for COVID 19 spiraling ever upward along with a consistently growing death count. 

OK, I'm seriously bummed out. How about some Thanksgiving jokes? Maybe that'll help me feel better.

No, that did not make me feel better at all. 

On the subject of not feeling well, as I write this, I am not feeling well. Some gastrointestinal thing has made my tum-tum all wibbly wobbly. 

Let me plug in my symptoms into Web MD and see what it says.

"You have some gastrointestinal thing that has made your tum-tum all wibbly wobbly."

Well, I'll be darned. And people say Web MD is useless.  

I am starting to feel a bit better which is a good thing as tomorrow is Thanksgiving. 

Normally, we abscond from our home here at the Fortress of Ineptitude and venture forth to my brother in law's home where and he and his lovely wife graciously prepare a lavish meal. Because of the current spike in the spread of the coronavirus, we're not doing that.

My wife Andrea was worried about what we're going to do for Thanksgiving. Andrea has a very bad habit of worrying about things that she doesn't need to worry about. I've been working out a menu for our Thanksgiving day here at the Fortress.

I have cooked a turkey before and with very good results. The key to cooking a turkey is patience and lots of moisture. I'm big on olive oil and butter to keep a turkey from drying out. I was considering cooking a turkey this year but only two of us would be eating it. Our daughter Randie does not eat turkey. 

So instead I was planning our Thanksgiving meal around a rotisserie chicken which is not completely out of line with what we have at my brother in law's house. He rarely serves turkey on Thanksgiving, opting instead for grilled chicken and/or a beef roast. 

My meal plan was going to include macaroni and cheese, a broccoli cheddar casserole, sweet potatoes, corn and/or green beans and rolls. It would be a right proper Thanksgiving meal. 

My meal plan also included cranberry sauce. No, not that crap with the actual cranberries mixed with nuts and stuff. No, I was going to get the stuff that comes in a can and comes out of the can still shaped like the can, just as God intended. 

The only thing lacking in my plan was fried dressing. My wife's family has this recipe for fried dressing that is so good, it should be outlawed as a controlled substance. My father in law used to make it and now Andrea's brother has taken on the sacred duty of the fried dressing. 

Sunday morning, Andrea got a text from her brother. While the family gathering was off, he and his wife would still be cooking and we could pick up food "curbside". That includes the fried dressing.

Well, that's nice of them.

But dammit, I had a plan! 

_______________________

I'm going to include a clip from one of the funniest scenes ever on TV. From WKRP In Cincinnati, here is the infamous "WKRP Turkey Drop". 

Happy Thanksgiving, everybody! 

Our Long National Nightmare(s)

 Our long national nightmare is now one step closer to being over. 

I suppose I should clarify which "long national nightmare" I am referring to. 

No, not the pandemic. Yes, there have been some positive results on the vaccine development front but that's a long game thing. In the short term, the disease continues unabated with spikes in infections and deaths all across the country. 

Tuesday morning I was startled by a loud buzzing alert from my phone, receiving a statewide emergency alert to reminding everyone that COVID-19 is still a thing and to remember to 3 S's:

1. Stretch a mask across your nose and mouth if you have to go out
2. Soap and water to keep your hands clean
3. Stay the fuck away from each other! 

As the coronavirus pandemic burns through the country like a house on fire, there are images on the news of people lining up at airports to catch flights to go back home for Thanksgiving to huddle up in close proximity with other people in enclosed spaces. 

After all this illness, after all this death, there are still people who just do not get it. But damned they will be among those who will get it, coming down with a debilitating illness that can lead to death. And we'll be asked for thoughts and prayers on their behalf. 

Sadly, that "long national nightmare" is still with us. 

No, the long national nightmare that is one step closer to being over is the 2020 election. 

Finally the Trump administration acquiesced to allowing the General Services Administration (GSA) to begin the formal transfer-of-power process with President-elect Joe Biden. 

We can brief a small sigh of relief that this puts an official end to Trump's fact free challenge to his election defeat. Not that it will stop Li'l Donnie from still whining that the election was rigged and fraudulent and he should still be President WAH! WAH! WAH! WAH! 

No, we are not done with this petulant man-baby yet. 

With the GSA's move to allow the official transfer of power from Trump to Biden, a few more Republicans are actually admitting the obvious that Biden won the election. But the damage has been done after weeks of allowing Donald Trump's temper tantrum to play out on a public stage. 

Sen. Mitch McConnell said that Trump is "100% within his right" to exhaust every legal challenge of his election defeat.  

This reminds me of the joke told by  Ron White about being arrested for being drunk in public. "The officer said I had the right to remain silent. But I didn't have the ability."  

Yes, technically it is true Trump had every right to challenge the election in court.  What he didn't have was a reason to. 

Time and time again, Trump's legal team met defeat as lawyers stood before judges with zero in the way of actual evidence to support any of Li'l Donnie's scurrilous claims.  

McConnell and all the other snivelling sycophant enablers who have propped up Donald Trump for the last 4 years knew he had nothing. Nonetheless they continued to assert Trump's "100% within his right" options to challenge the election. 

One Republican congressman wondered what is the harm in giving Trump time to work through this.

Here is the harm: Trump has primed his base of supporters to only believe him. The media is FAKE NEWS and lying to you. Only Donald Trump is telling the truth. 

When Trump says the election was rigged and fraudulent and he should still be President, there's about 72 million people out there who believe him. The news may report facts like Biden won the popular vote and the electoral college, that states have certified the votes and the courts are denying Trump's allegations due to lack of evidence, those 72 million people are not listening to that. They are only listening to and believing Trump. 

Even as court case after court case flounders in defeat and incompetence, even as the day inevitably approaches when Joe Biden will take the oath of office, Trump will have convinced 72 million people that Biden stole his job, that the election process is not trustworthy and democracy does not work.

72 million people will have no faith in our nation or it's government and will only have faith in the delusional word of one desperate little man. 

That is the harm in that. 

With the GSA officially acknowledging the transfer of power from Trump to Biden, yes,  our long national nightmare is now one step closer to being over. 

But we have oh so many steps still to go.

___________________________________________

What are my family's plans for Thanksgiving? A second post on that subject will be going live on the blog later this morning.  

Spoiler Alert: it involves staying the fuck home! 

Tuesday TV Touchbase Two: Supernatural

 Hi there and welcome to I'm So Glad My Suffering Amuses You. I am Dave-El, the usual purveyor of questionable wisdom that adorns this blog but today, I will turn this small patch of internet real estate to my daughter Randie for a bonus edition of the Tuesday TV Touchbase.

Randie will share some thoughts about the recent series finale of the long running CW show, Supernatural. 

___________________________________

So hi. Dad has called me in as the resident queer kid and Supernatural expert.

He requested that I provide some insight on the series finale of the show.

Here's my in-depth analysis:

FUCK!
FUCK!
FUCK!
FUCK!
FUCK!
FUCK!

Okay, for real, the series finale was exactly what we were told we'd get. A return to basics and the original feel of the show. Just the Winchester brothers saving people and hunting things.

That is, in fact, what we got.

That is ALL we got.

This show has gone on for 15 seasons and has evolved beyond what anyone expected for a Monster of the Week drama on the CW.

Aside from the angel in the room, the Winchesters have firmly established that family doesn't end in blood. The friends they've made over the years are just as much a part of the show as the brothers, yet they are all but absent from this finale.

And then there's Cas.

Cas is the canonically queer angel who once gripped Dean tight and raised him from perdition. The two have shared a profound bond that captured the hearts of pretty much all of Tumblr in the powerhouse of a ship: Destiel.

We all came into this episode with Destiel half-canon after Cas confessed his feelings for Dean, and the certainty that they wouldn't leave Cas out of the finale. His name is carved in the table in the bunker, he's family too.

All shipping aside, to leave Cas out of the ending of this story was unforgivable. To narrow the entire series down to being just the brothers again is shameful.

This wasn't a good ending. 

Not for Dean who never got to live a life outside of hunting.

Not for Sam who had to lose his entire family just to be able to grow old.

Certainly not for Cas, who was all but forgotten by the people he loves most in the world.

And not for any of us. The hopeful fans who have been on this road since the beginning, only to be left behind with the smoking remains of the endings that could've been.

Still, we'll carry on and do what we do best: write our own endings, tell our own stories, and never forget the road so far.

---------------------------------------------------

Thanks, Randie! 

Let's close out this post with this version of Carry On My Wayward Son by Neoni. 

Tuesday TV Touchbase: The Crown, Young Sheldon and more

 

The Crown 

So Andrea and I have started off on another season of The Crown with two new additions to the cast.  

Emma Corrin joins the Crown as Diana Spencer, a young ingenue, a bit shy but charming, bright as the proverbial button and sweet as all get out. She checks off all the boxes to be a perfect wife for Prince Charles. The royal family is rather rapturously in love with the young lady. 

Prince Charles himself is not. He likes her just fine but his heart still yearns for the now married Camilla. Still forces greater than of even a future king of England can resist are in motion and driving Charles and Diana towards matrimony whether either of them are ready for it or not. 

Also joining the Crown in season 4 is Gillian Anderson as Margaret Thatcher and what a piece of work this woman is. Perennially in a dull and sour disposition, Thatcher is unrelenting in her work which is to force political conservatism on the British government even in the face of political and social unrest. Thatcher has no patience for the antics of the royal family but her disdain is not just rooted in some kind of populist resistance to the egalitarian royals. Thatcher also lacks empathy or understanding of the working class.  Thatcher can't seem to see past her own conservative ideology.  

Queen Elizabeth and the royal family aren't exactly endearing themselves. As the queen gets older, she seems more isolated. Olivia Colman does her best to bring some spark and wit into an otherwise rigid and humorless role.  Prince Phillip is aging into a self righteous stick in the mud; Tobia Menzies take on Prince Phillip with his restrained clipped phrasing is a far cry from the more free wheeling days when Matt Smith was in the role. 

I'm hearing that the royal family is less tolerant of The Crown as the narrative has moved into more recent times. The family is not cast in a positive light with Prince Charles's characterization being regarded as particularly loathsome. 

Young Sheldon

The new season saw li'l Sheldon Cooper graduating from high school age 11. The graduation episode was originally intended for the finale of the previous season but was cut short due to coronavirus pandemic lockdown.  

The first episode ends with a special twist via the narration when older future Sheldon notes he has a son named Leonard. Now if you're thinking that it's sweet that Sheldon's son is named after his best friend, narrator Sheldon tells us that he wanted to name him Leonard Nimoy Cooper but Amy wouldn't let him.

Then Amy sounds off in the narration: "You're luck I let you name him Leonard!"  

As much as I enjoy this series, Young Sheldon does stuff that makes future Sheldon's behavior in Big Bang Theory problematic. Young Sheldon learns lessons in human behavior that adult Sheldon in BBT has clearly forgotten. 

Also in BBT, Sheldon would describe his father in less than glowing terms while in Young Sheldon, George Cooper has been a kind and supportive husband and father. Perhaps George takes a turn for the worse before he dies when Sheldon turns 14. Which is quite the dark and haunting sword of Damocles to be hanging over such a funny and charming show. 

Jeopardy and Wheel of Fortune

Since the death of Alex Trebek, Andrea and I have been making a concerted effort to watch these last new episodes that Alex recorded before his passing. 

Occasionally I will get caught up in the game where I will get a hot streak where I know stuff or watch in awe as players answer correctly while I sit there on the sofa like a gape jawed Neanderthal wondering "how the hell did they know that?"  

Then I will remember that man hosting this show is quite literally a ghost, a flickering image of a life that has since passed from this earth. It is a dark and daunting knowledge to accept while also racing the players on the screen to a correct response and calculating wagers for the daily double. 

A Jeopardy viewer posted this image on Reddit where they paused Jeopardy right in the middle of a transition from one shot to another.

Kind of spooky.  I was able to accidentally replicate a ghost Alex on my TV screen as well.  

Meanwhile, I figure if Andrea and I are going act like old people and watch Wheel of Fortune every night, I might as well take a shot at making some money from it. Yes, I've signed up for the Wheel Watchers Club and I have a spin ID. Yes, I have a Wheel of Fortune Spin ID and I might as well admit I am a senior citizen. 

Supernatural 

I don't make a habit of writing about shows I do not actually watch but my daughter Randie does follow Supernatural and she recently watched the series finale of the long running CW show and has this insightful review of the episode:

"FUCK!" 

Actually, she is prepared to elaborate on that a bit more so I will give her some space to do so.

Before noon today, a bonus Tuesday TV Touchbase post will go live here on I'm So Glad My Suffering Amuses You as Randie gives you her take on the series finale of Supernatural. 

In my own next go-round with the Tuesday TV Touchbase next week, I will see where I am to date with the Mandalorian.  

Until next time, stay safe, remember to be good to one another and keep it down, will ya, I'm tryin' to watch TV here.

 

Donald Trump Is Still a Problem

It's been nearly 3 weeks since election day and 2 weeks since the major news organizations called their projections that Joe Biden won the election. 

Meanwhile, Donald Trump is still a problem. 

Li'l Donnie refuses to concede. 

Li'l Donnie continues to insists he won the election.

Li'l Donnie is still perpetuating allegations of voter fraud.

Li'l Donnie goes WAH! WAH! WAH! WAH! like a petulant baby!

Despite Joe Biden's clear and definitive win in the 2020 election, all the bad feelings that come with enduring Donald Trump in the White House continue. 

Sorry. Li'l Donnie will not allow us to forget our bad feelings.

Donald Trump is fighting against all odds, facts and decency to keep a job he has little interest in doing.  

This weekend was the G20 summit. Due to the pandemic, it's being held virtually. All Trump has to do to attend is flip open a lap top and click on Zoom. 

Trump attended the opening session Saturday morning where he bragged about the United States economy and military. 

When he wasn't talking, Trump wasn't paying attention. He was tweeting during the opening session alleging voter fraud in the 2020 presidential election.

Then he left. 

The following event on the G20 schedule was dedicated to the COVID-19 pandemic. While that session was underway, Trump was off to the Trump National Golf Club in Sterling, VA. 

By the way, that G20 pandemic meeting is not the only pandemic thing Trump is ignoring. Trump has not attended a meeting of his own pandemic task force in over 5 months.

Donald Trump isn't doing the job he's fighting to keep. 

And that fight goes on. 

Trump claims, without any evidence, “hundreds of thousands of fraudulent votes” have been discovered — “enough to ‘flip’ at least four States” and “more than enough to win the Election.”

This lack of evidence hasn't stopped Trump's ranting on Twitter but it has stopped his lawyers. Judges across the political spectrum have firmly and emphatically rejected every court filing by Trump's lawyers to over turn or throw out votes.

Trump's response to these judges is to file appeals. I guess he hopes he can eventually kick this can to his hand picked conservative majority on the US Supreme Court. 

Trump is also looking to Republican led state legislatures to select electors to the Electoral College who will presumably vote for Trump despite Joe Biden winning the vote in those states. 

Here's the thing. Donald Trump's endgame is to declare a win, even if he has to slink out the White House back door on Inauguration Day in January.  

Trump will continue to keep alive the myth that his re-election was stolen from him, keep alive the anger of his base that agrees with him, force Republican members of Congress to maintain their fealty towards Trump less they offend that base and delegitimize Joe Biden's presidency from day one.  

Trump will do what he's always done. Cast a loss as a win and refuse to accept the consequences of that loss. 

Even as every effort on Trump's behalf meets with failure to overturn the will of the American people, Donald Trump will continue to be a problem. 

Sadly, we will not be done with Donald Trump for a long time.

Cinema Sunday: Won't You Be My Neighbor?

 

It was a year ago on this day, more or less, that my wife and I went to see A Beautiful Day In the Neighborhood, a wonderful story centered around Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood. 

My wife Andrea was a big fan of Mr. Rogers when she was a child and her respect and admiration for the man continues into her adult years.  

As I noted in my post about that movie, A Beautiful Day In the Neighborhood is not a bio pic about Fred Rogers. It is a story about how and why Mr. Rogers was so beloved and influential. a story told through Lloyd Vogel, a hard nose magazine writer with a whole lot of trouble weighing on his mind and his heart.  

For the life story of Fred Rogers, we can turn to the documentary film Won't You Be My Neighbor? that came out the year before. Andrea and I sat down to watch this film a couple of months ago.  

Won't You Be My Neighbor? tracks Fred Rogers' life and career from a would be seminary student to his early work in the nascent TV industry of the 1950s.

Rogers wanted to work in television because he hated it and thought that something better could be done with the medium. 

After working as a floor director for NBC programs in New York City, Rogers became a program developer at public television station WQED where he helped create The Children's Corner,. Rogers worked off-camera to create puppets, characters, and music for the show. Many of the puppets and characters Rogers created here will follow him to Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood. 

From there, Rogers goes to the  Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) where he creates a children's program called Misterogers. Fred hosts the show where he develops the rhythms and cadences that will inform how Fred talks to kids on Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood. 

From the CBC, it's back to Pittsburgh for Fred Rogers where he creates Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood which is sent out nationwide on what would ultimately become PBS. 

The documentary includes footage of Fred Roger's appearance before Congress where he appeals for full funding of PBS in the face of budget cuts.  Rogers' testimony has been described as "one of the most powerful pieces of testimony ever offered before Congress". Funding for PBS was increased from $9 million to $22 million.  

Won't You Be My Neighbor? provides a lot of archival footage from Fred Rogers' earliest TV work to his appearances on talk shows with hosts like Arsenio Hall and David Letterman. And of course lots of clips from Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood as well as behind the scenes footage. 

The narrative of Won't You Be My Neighbor? is rather straightforward: it's the story of a man who became interested in television, developed plan to use the medium to make the lives of children better and created a show called Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood designed to do just that. 

Won't You Be My Neighbor? tells a story that is at once wholly unremarkable but completely amazing, the story that Fred Rogers was in fact the good and kind man that he appeared to be. 

The closest thing to controversy that the documentary touches on is the animosity directed towards Fred Rogers by Fox News. It seems some pundits thought that Mr. Rogers' message of "you are special just by being you" created a generation of entitled spoiled brats or something. 

Like a lot of things on Fox News, the pundits there missed the point of what Mr. Rogers was trying to do. 

Won't You Be My Neighbor? is a well made archive of the history of Fred Rogers and his signature program. Andrea who remains a devoted fan of Mr. Rogers' work found the documentary very enjoyable and insightful. 

That is that for this week's Cinema Sunday. Next week, I will be writing about a recent discovery, a comic crime caper movie from 1966.

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

Songs For Saturday: TV Theme Songs from Justified, Gentleman Jack and Young Sheldon

 

Today's Songs For Saturday are all TV theme songs but the commonality ends there. 

We're looking a diverse selection of musical styles. 

For example, what happens when you mash up bluegrass and hip hip? You get the theme song to Justified. 

Here is "Long Hard Times to Come" by Gangstagrass featuring T.O.N.E-z. 

I'm kind of like Judge Hydrogen from The Good Place and Justified is now my new jam. 

Not that I am sexually attracted to Timothy Olyphant. 

Not completely, anyway. 

Let's bring on more gay! 

From bluegrass hip hop, we move to Celtic folk music. 

Next up is the song used as the closing theme song for  the BBC/HBO drama 'Gentleman Jack'. The song is from the album 'The Fragile' by O'Hooley & Tidow.  

O'Hooley & Tidow are an English folk music duo from Yorkshire. Singer-songwriter Heidi Tidow performs and records with her wife, singer-songwriter and pianist Belinda O'Hooley. 

I have still only seen one episode of Gentleman Jack. I want to see more but I'm still refusing to pony up money for one more damn streaming service. 

Our next song is some straight up guitar shredding indie rock.

This is a theme song that frequently gets stuck in my head as I go about my day. From Young Sheldon, here is "Mighty Little Man" by Steve Burns. 

Yes, it is THAT Steve Burns! Steve from Blue's Clues!  

OK, guys, that is too cool!

That's that for this week's Songs For Saturday. 

Until next time, remember to be good to one another and to always keep the music alive.  

Let's Monkee Around With Batman

From June 1970, Batman#222 featured an odd little story titled "Dead... Till Proven Alive!" by Frank Robbins, Irv Novick and Dick Giordano.

The story was a riff on an urban myth going around about the Beatles, specifically the myth that Paul McCartney was dead. 

Among the alleged clues to this secret that Paul McCartney was dead was the cover of the Beatles "Abbey Road" where the four Beatles are crossing the road (presumably to get to the other side) and Paul is the only one not wearing shoes. 

The "Paul is dead" myth serves as the impetus for the lead story in Batman#222 when the Twists, analogues of the Beatles, visit Gotham City.

Frank Robbins has a clever take on the whole "Paul is dead" thing with an ending that reveals there is a conspiracy to cover up death within the Twists but it's not the member you expect.  

Here is the cover to that issue by Neal Adams. 

Batman's first word balloon "Here they come..." puts me in mind of a real life group of Beatle wannabes, the Monkees. The Monkees were assembled to star in a TV series about a group of Beatlesque musicians having zany adventures. 

The Monkees theme song went like this: 

"Here we come!
Walking down the street! 
We get the funniest looks from everyone we meet! 
Hey, hey! We're the Monkees!" 

So here is my badly modified version of the cover to Batman#222. 

And that is what I have for today.

Tomorrow is Songs For Saturday which includes theme songs from some of the TV shows I write about on the Tuesday TV Touchbase.

Cinema Sunday follows on Sunday (duh!) with a look at a documentary about Fred Rogers of Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood.

Thanks for reading and until next time, remember to be good to one another, even if you get the funniest looks from everyone you meet.   

 

Some Bach and Forth

 Michele Wojciechowski is a writer, author, and humorist that I follow on Twitter. She recently posted this graphic on Twitter.

Here is my comment on this and Michele's comment on that.

Thank you, Michele but please, it only encourages me.

This reminds me of one of the biggest laughs I ever got. 

It starts with this very bad joke. 

ME: Who is the favorite composer of classical music among chickens?

RESPONSE: I don't know, who is the favorite composer of classical music among chickens?

ME: BACH!!!

Now that bad joke is just the wind up. Now here's the pitch for one of the biggest laughs I ever got. I was working on a project at my old job with a guy named Chad. 

But Chad's a smart ass who thinks he can beat me to the punchline so I showed him.  

ME: Who is the favorite composer of classical music among chickens?

CHAD: BACH!!!

ME: No, don't be silly. It's Beethoven. 

I swear to you the dude laughed for about 5 minutes. 

It was all in the delivery. I guess you kind of had to be there.

Thanks for reading. Remember to be good to one another and feel to to come BACH for more posts.