Before we get into this week's touchbase, a word on the passing of actor Eric Dane. Dane died from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS).
A lot of the tributes I saw referenced his work on Grey's Anatomy and Euphoria but none noted his appearance on Brilliant Minds.
I have opined that Brilliant Minds has not gotten the love and respect it deserves but come on! A man has died! And still nothing about the show that gave us Eric Dane's final and perhaps greatest performance as an actor?
Dane's role in Brilliant Minds was not only heartbreaking but heroic. While in the grip of his worsening and debilitating ALS, Eric Dane played a fire fighter struggling with his worsening and debilitating ALS. Dane overcome the restrictive effects of ALS on his speech and movement to give a powerful performance.
Andrea told me she finally saw one story that mentioned Dane's appearance on Brilliant Minds.
God rest your soul, Eric. I can't say I followed your career all that much but your episode of Brilliant Minds impressed me with your talent and your courage.
Now on with the Touchbase.
Last week, Andrea and I were in exile with her father after his medical episode a couple of weeks ago.
(How that all turned out will be covered in tomorrow's post.)
As an old man of 88 years old, Andrea's dad has a voracious appetite for news.
Despite being an old man of 88 years old, Andrea's dad does NOT feed that appetite with Fox "News".
He watches CNN. A lot.
I watched shows hosted by Jake Tapper, Anderson Cooper and Kaitlin Collins who approach their topics of discussion with professionalism, candor and compassion.
(An aside to that goddam jackass Donald Trump, Kaitlin Collins does smile when it's appropriate, you dumb fuck!)
One story that was covered a LOT was the mysterious disappearance of Savannah Guthrie's mom, Nancy. I'm writing this post on Sunday and I hope by the time it posts on Tuesday, that mystery will be solved and hopefully with a good outcome.
Nancy Guthrie has been missing for 3 weeks now and a positive outcome seems unlikely but I hope I'm wrong.
The lack of an answer to Nancy Guthrie's disappearance is not for lack of CNN looking REALLY hard.
I know more about that doorbell ring cam footage than I know what my own wife looks like.
CNN was interviewing anybody in Nancy's neighborhood including one guy who made it very plain he had nothing to add to this conversation but kept graciously taking CNN's questions. (If something happened to one my neighbors, I would be equally unhelpful.)
Whenever CNN wasn't scouring the Arizona desert brush looking for Nancy Guthrie, they were covering whatever dumb shit Donald Trump did in the last 5 minutes.
Donnie does a lot of dumb shit.
I watched and barely tolerated some panel shows where conservatives and liberals sat around a table to tell each other what Donald Trump just said or did 5 minutes ago was perfectly reasonable or the worst case of dumb shit ever.
Andrea and I did make efforts to guide her dad away from CNN.
Hey, the Winter Olympics was going on so let's watch some of that.
Which is not always that interesting.
You would think that something called SPEED skating would engage me more but eh, I could barely stay awake despite announcers screaming as the Netherlands zoomed past Lichtenstein or something.
We did get to witness the amazing skill, talent and artistry of Alysia Lui who won a gold medal for figure skating.
She also deserves a medal for whatever she's doing with her hair.
We also got Andrea's dad to watch Jeopardy and it's Jeopardy Invitational Tournament. Ken Jennings still insists on trying to call it "JIT" but it ain't catching on.
The always affable Andrew He won the tournament for his amazing depth of knowledge, his skills with the buzzer and some daring wagers.
And for whatever he's doing with his hair.
I also made Andrea's dad watch Bob Ross paint stuff. He was impressed by Bob's skill with a paint brush and his calm, friendly delivery of his painting tips.
And for whatever Bob was doing with his hair.
And we traded CNN for ESPN to watch basketball.
Andrea and her dad watched their beloved Carolina Tarheels defeat Syracuse and they even stuck around to join me in pulling Duke past #1 Michigan.
Now that Andrea and I are done with our exile from the Fortress of Ineptitude, we can get back to scripted television.
Next week, we've got the debut of The Fall and Rise of Reggie Dinkins with Tracy Morgan and Daniel Radcliffe and the return of Scrubs.
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.
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