Showing posts with label pop culture. Show all posts
Showing posts with label pop culture. Show all posts

Thursday, September 17, 2026

Green Lantern Alias John Stewart

While the Lanterns TV series is introducing us to their version of how John Stewart becomes Green Lantern, I thought I would do a post on John's comic book journey to wearing the power ring.

Here is the Neal Adams cover to Green Lantern#87 (on sale October 1971) where we meet John Stewart for the first time.




John Stewart is a college graduate, a trained architect who is unemployed because life sucks for black men in 1970's America.

In a story written by Denny O'Neil and drawn by Neal Adams & Dick Giordano, Hal Jordan is tasked with recruiting and training John Stewart as his back up. The Guardians of the Universe have selected John to be that person.

And Hal has problems with that.

Stewart is headstrong, anti-authority, and race-conscious, which Jordan's perspective sees Stewart has having a bad attitude,  disrespectful and angry.

The Guardian tells Hal, "He has all due qualifications! And we are not interested in your petty bigotries!"

There may be some inherent racism in Hal Jordan's assessment of Stewart but since Hal has spent the last year on the road with Green Arrow, I figure Hal knows about "attitude".



Hal Jordan and John Stewart go into action to stop an act of political assassination against a Presidential candidate who is racist as fuck.  

Jordan is unhappy that Stewart appears to have shirked his responsibility to protect the candidate due to his dislike for the person. Until Stewart reveals that the assassination they stopped was staged by the candidate and there was a real killer in the crowd ready to strike.  

Hal Jordan concedes that John Stewart will make an excellent Green Lantern.

So no, the story of Hal and John from GL#87 does NOT play out with the same crackling animosity Hal has for John in the Lanterns TV show.  

It's in the pages of Justice League of America#110 (on sale December 1973) by Len Wein, Dick Dillin and Dick Giordano that John gets his next go 'round as Green Lantern.  

Hal Jordan slips on a bar of soap in the shower and conks his noggin.

Sasha over on Casually Comics chats a bit about Hal Jordan being a klutz.  

The rings summons back up John Stewart to answer a summons by the JLA.  


When Stewart shows up at the JLA satellite HQ, there is some consternation of who the hell this guy is but Green Arrow says Hal told him about this new GL and we're all copacetic.

Long time JLA enemy the Key is up to some shit and John Stewart is more than capable of keeping pace with the League as they take on their nefarious for.

Stewart finds a loophole in the Green Lantern manual that allows him to rebuild housing for some poor people who lost their homes.  




Unless I'm missing an appearance elsewhere,  John Stewart next rings up as Green Lantern in Green Lantern#94 (on sale Janiuary 1977) by Denny O'Neil, Mike Grell, Terry Austin and Dick Giordano. 

Six years after his debut, John Stewart is making only his 3rd appearance.  

Hal Jordan has come down with some kind of space sickness so John Stewart takes him into space to see if the Guardians on Oa can fix him up.  


I assume that somewhere off panel, John's been practicing if he can just zip off into interstellar space and navigate his way to Oa.  I noticed he also has the updated power ring introduced in Green Lantern#90.  Did John go to Oa to get the upgrade or did the Guardians mail it to him? 

After a few more random appearances in the early 1980's, John Stewart would finally get his first real continuing shot at being Green Lantern in 1984. 

Len Wein who wrote John's 2nd appearance in 1973 in JLA#110 would take over as the regular writer of Green Lantern and cooked up a storyline where Hal Jordan gets pissy with the Guardians and decides to quit being Green Lantern.



The Guardians were all "Fine! Go do dat!" 

Hal Jordan was all "Nah! I was just mad for a moment..."

The Guardians are all "You Earth creatures are way too much trouble. Someone get John Stewart in the phone!"


A special promotional image by artist Dave Gibbons gave notice of some big changes coming to Green Lantern.

Apparently forgetting John "is a black man who let's it all hang out"?  He's wearing the mask.  


And those changes kicked in with Green Lantern#183 (on sale September 1984) by Len Wein and Dave Gibbons.   


After 13 years since his first appearance, this begins a long run with John Stewart as the Green Lantern of Earth and Sector 2814.  

Until as always the case in comics, some writer or editor decided on a "Let's get back to basics" approach and Hal got his ring back.  

But John Stewart as Green Lantern remains a fairly consistent presence in the DC universe.

In the Justice League animated series, the producers opted to use the John Stewart version of Green Lantern to add some diversity to the line up. It is arguable that because of the television exposure, more people know John Stewart as Green Lantern than they do Hal Jordan.  


SIDE NOTE:  Swapping out the white guy with the black guy has already been done a year or so before over at Marvel.   

Denny O'Neil (who co-created John Stewart) was writing Iron-Man and had Tony Stark relapse into alcoholism and turn over the Iron Man armor to Jim Rhodes (Rhodey).

Rhodey stayed on as Iron Man for a long time until some writer or editor decided on a "Let's get back to basics" approach so Tony got sober and got his amor back.  

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NEXT WEEK: What comic books did a young Dave-El buy in September 1976? Comic Book Retro 50 will address that burning question next week.   

Monday, September 7, 2026

Lettuce Away!

Today's blog post is brought to you by...



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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.

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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.

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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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Wednesday, June 10, 2026

This (Non) Sporting Life: Baseball But With Bananas

This past Saturday, Andrea and I made our inaugural 2026 visit to the Burmil Park Communal Bath Tub Swimming Pool for the summer season.

It was, I suppose, a nice day for it.  The weather was hot but not too hot.  Some of the kids and worse still some of the adults were a bit too boisterous for me.   

It interfered with favorite pool activity: standing there. 

I can't swim so mostly, I just... stand there.

Occassionally, if I'm feeling frisky, I will bob.

After several hours of too much sun and... standing (& bobbing!), I was ready to crash on the sofa of the Fortress of Ineptitude for some televised entertainment.

I chose... sports! 

Really? Me? 

Welcome to This (Non) Sporting Life, a blog post about sports written by a guy who does not know or care much about sports.

And I chose to watch a sporting event? 

Yes.  Yes, I did.

And the sporting event in question was Banana Ball.

Which is baseball.  But with bananas. Sort of.

Banana Ball Championship League (BBCL) has six teams: the Savannah Bananas, the Party Animals, the Firefighters, the Texas Tailgaters, the Loco Beach Coconuts and the Indianapolis Clowns.


Saturday Andrea and I watched a match between the Bananas and the Clowns.  

Whenever a player for the Clowns came up to bat, I could say "Hey! Who's this clown?" and it was not an insult.

The flagship team for the BBCL is the Savannah Bananas. They started off as a garden variety minor league farm team but moved into exhibition games a few years ago.


The Bananas have yellow uniforms and the team owner shows up at games in a bright yellow suit.  

They have player who wears stilts.  

There's a lot of nonsense.  



The Bananas and all the teams in the BBCL are committed to their bits.

The Clowns have a mascot, Peanut the Elephant, who is also a pitcher.

The Firefighters dress in fire fighting themed gear. 

The Party Animals are known as  "gayest team in baseball" for their theatrical routines heavily influenced by queer and drag culture.

All the teams have choreagraphed dance routines, comedy bits and specialized musical bits when batters approach the batter's box. 

Back flips and trick plays are part of the game play.

Here's a nice feature about banana ball: it can't last indefinitely.

A game last 2 hours plus whatever it might take to finish the last inning.   

There are other rules that are unique to Banana Ball and those are provided in the bonus below.

I'm not going to make watching Banana Ball games part of my regular TV watching habits but it was a fun diversion that helped me decompress after the trauma of the Burmil Park Communal Bath Tub Swimming Pool.

And I think I would like to see a Banana Ball game live if they come anywhere near the Fortress.

_______________________________________

BONUS FEATURE!

How the Hell Do You Play Banana Ball?!?!?

Listed below are the 13 rules that make banana ball more than just another baseball game! 

  1. Games are won by points, instead of runs: the team that scores the most runs in an inning gets one point, except in the final inning when every run counts as one point. The final inning may be earlier than the ninth inning, due to the time limit noted below. When the home team has scored enough runs to "win" any inning other than the final inning, the inning immediately ends.
  2. There is a two-hour time limit; no new inning may start after 120 minutes have elapsed. Once an inning starts, it is played to completion.
  3. Batters cannot step out of the batter's box. Doing so results in an automatic strike.
  4. Batters cannot bunt. Doing so results in an automatic ejection.
  5. Batters can attempt to steal first base at any point during their at bat, including on passed balls or wild pitches.
  6. Walks are replaced by "ball-four sprints". After ball four, the batter and all baserunners are allowed to advance as far around the bases as they can while the ball is sequentially thrown to all of the fielders other than the pitcher, starting with the catcher. The ball remains dead, with the all runners not liable to be put out, until the four infielders and three outfielders have each touched the ball. This often results in the batter-runner advancing to second base on the sprint, and baserunners advancing multiple bases, often scoring.
  7. No mound visits are allowed. Once a pitcher is out there, they're on their own. No pep talks from Daddy.  
  8. Foul balls caught by fans on the fly are counted as outs.
  9. Ties are broken by a "showdown tiebreaker", an abbreviated extra innings format. Each team's half-inning during the showdown ends with any out, or run scored by the batter—if the batter puts the ball in play, he must attempt to score. A batter who draws a walk advances to second base, with the hitting team allowed to send a new batter to the plate. The same happens if the batter is hit by a pitch. At any point during the showdown, a home run hit over the outfield wall immediately ends the game in favor of the batting team. If the game is still tied after a showdown round, another showdown round is played, until there is a winner. Scenarios differ by showdown round: In showdown round 1, each team selects a pitcher and hitter to face off, with the defense fielding only their pitcher, catcher, and a single fielder. In showdown round 2, the fielder is eliminated. In showdown round 3 (and later), the fielder returns, but each half-inning starts with the bases loaded, and each run scored counts as a point. This also affects the ball-four sprints or walks given up: as walks or sprints are added during this time, runners are added in for either the home or away teams, with 3 consecutive walks/sprints determining the walk-off victory by the home or away team.
  10. Each team is allowed to challenge certain calls by the umpires: whether a ball was fair or foul, whether or not a runner was tagged out (at home plate or on the basepaths), and whether a ball was caught or not. A team retains its right to challenge until they lose a challenge, after which they may not challenge any calls for the remainder of the game. The fans can also challenge one play per game, as determined by a fan who is chosen to initiate the challenge. Challenged plays are reviewed by the broadcast team, who relay their ruling to the umpire.
  11. "The Golden Batter Rule" – One time in a game, a team may send any hitter in the lineup to bat in any spot. The goal of this rule is so a team can have their best hitter hit when the game is on the line.
  12. "The Equalizer Point" – If the visiting team has more trick plays than the home team after eight innings, they get an extra point before the ninth inning.
  13. "The Designated Fielder Rule" – Similar to the Golden Batter rule, but on the defensive side: any team can, once in a game, send one extra or bench player to field in replacement of an active player.



Monday, June 8, 2026

What Does CBS Stand For?

Yes, I know Donald Trump went into a tizzy of a snit meltdown on Meet the Press yesterday.  

That will need to be a topic for a different post. 

Maybe later this morning? 

Geez! This guy.....

Meanwhile, what's all the fuckery going on at CBS? C'mon, kids! Let's find out! 

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


Last week, Scott Pelley of 60 Minutes was fired by CBS.

Firing a top rated journalist for the network's #1 news magazine show seems a bit short sighted and self destructive.


Why it would be like firing the host of a #1 late night talk show. 

But wait! CBS did that too.

It's been a couple of weeks since The Late Show with Stephen Colbert ended it's run.  How's that worked out  so far?

Well, the two Jimmies are doing OK.

Both Jimmy Kimmel Live and The Tonight Show With Jimmy Fallon have both saw increases in their ratings. Meanwhile, the show CBS replaced Colbert with has lost approximately 70% of the audience Colbert had.

That replacement show is called Comics Unleashed, a half hour syndicated show hosted by billionaire media mogul Byron Allen. Allen is joined by 4 stand up comedians who sit around and run through their paces for 20 minutes.

A full 1/3 of the half hour run time goes to ads.  

Allen delivers a new half hour for 11:35 PM followed by a rerun to fill out the hour.   And since this show has been on for 20 years, Allen has a lot of reruns to choose from.

Episodes of Comics Unleashed are mostly interchangeable, fastidiously apolitical and avoiding anything that smacks of topicality or any potential offense.

There's nothing there to offend Donald Trump and his MAGA faithful. 

Norm McDonald once said of Comics Unleashed "comics are most definitely leashed". 

Does CBS stand for "Canned Bland Sludge"?  

Is CBS concerned that it traded a ratings winner for an anemic platform of bland comedy? It seems no.

The deal is Byron Allen leases the time slot from CBS in exchange for keeping whatever ad revenue he can earn. CBS gets paid up front so it's pure profit for them. 

And they don't have to deal with that pesk Stephen Colbert hurting the feelings of Paramount CEO David Ellison's best pal,Li'l Donnie Trump.

But we're not supposed to bring up stuff like that.

But Scott Pelley did and he got fired.

OK, some background.

When Ellison's Skydance bought out Paramount with the Trump administration's OK (especially after CBS announced it was cancelling The Late Show with Stephen Colbert), Ellison came gunning for CBS News.  He hired Bari Weiss to head of the news department.  

Who the fuck is Bari Weiss?

Weiss is a Trump supporting MAGA centric writer and pundit who founded The Free Press, a conservative media outlet with a pro-MAGA anti-woke agenda.  

David Ellison bought The Free Press for $150 million and made Weiss editor in chief of CBS News.  Weiss got this job with ZERO experience running a news organization.   

Here's what Weiss has accomplished so far.

She ended the venerated CBS News Radio after nearly a century on the air. Look, I get that radio ain't what it used to be and there is a real possibility CBS News Radio had outlived it's usefulness. But my main point is Weiss' biggest accomplishment is to kill something. And perhaps she has other targets. Which brings us to....

As anchor of the CBS Evening News, Weiss installed Tony Dokoupil as anchor. Dokoupil is a vacuous empty headed card board cut out of a news anchor.  He ends every broadcast with "that's another day in America" as if news isn't happening elsewhere in the world but hey, if makes the America First MAGA faithful happy, who cares? 

There's apparently not enough of America First MAGA faithful who do actually care as CBS Evening News is plagued by declining ratings.

Now she has her eyes on 60 Minutes.   

She fired correspondents Cecilia Vega and Sharyn Alfonsi. Alfonsi produced the piece on El Salvadoran prisons that Weiss tried to spike last year. It made Trump look bad.

Weiss also fired Tanya Simon.  Simon has been with 60 Minutes for 30 years and was rewarded for her dedication and experience with the position of executive producer about a year ago.  

Under Simon's leadership, the consistently #1 news magazine show on television continued to be the #1 news magazine show on television. So it's not like Tanya Simon had wrecked a vital and successful part of CBS programming.

But Bari Weiss decided Tanya Simon had to go.

And replaced her with Nick Bilton who (you guessed it) has ZERO experience with 60 Minutes or running any kind of news magazine show.  

Does CBS stand for Can't Be Serious? 

Arguably the best correspondent on 60 Minutes was wondering that and Scott Pelley said so in a meeting with the new show's boss in front of everybody.  

Nick Bilton responds to Scott's criticism by firing him.  

Now I get there is only so much shit a boss needs to take from an employee, especially a new boss who needs to affirm he is in fact the boss.  So I get that Nick Bilton needed to do something about Scott Pelley for making him look bad in front of the staff.

But...

Firing a top rated journalist for the network's #1 news magazine show seems a bit short sighted and self destructive.

Does CBS stand for "Can Be Stupid"?   

Scott Pelley has not held back in his criticism of the network and the current leadership of CBS News.

Pelley said he was told to add false, misleading statements to some of his stories and the CBS News management was acting in deference to Trump administration preferences.

Does CBS stand for "Capitulating Bullied Syncophants"?   

It's as if David Ellison hired an inexperienced, incompetent person to run CBS News into the ground on purpose.  I can see the notorious bean counting bottom line obsessed billionaire thinking running a news organization is a financial loss for the network. 

He wants Bari Weiss to drive CBS News towards destruction so he can decimate the whole thing and save a lot of money.

Killing an outlet that's mean to his li'l buddy Donnie is a nice bonus.  

Does CBS stand for "Corporate Bull Shit"?  

It's clear over the last year that CBS doesn't stand for much, willing to sublimate itself to the easily bruised ego of Donald Trump and his penny pinching billionaire buddies.  

CBS has become an embarrassment. 

The network that saw Edward R. Murrow stand bravely on the roof tops of London to report on the bombings by Nazi Germany, the network where Mike Wallace would make corporate lackeys squirm as he exposed their corruption, the network that saw Walter Cronkite speak out against the needless death of American youth in the jungles of Vietnam, this network is now known for surrendering to autocracy and soulless capitalism. 

CBS "Can Be Sold" to whoever wants to pay enough money to destroy it.  

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

OK, there is a 2nd post coming up later this morning.  The topic: is Donald Trump sleeping or merely.... blinking?

I will shoe horn into my cleverly written post some deets on Li'l Donnie's tizzy of a snit meltdown on Meet the Press yesterday. 

I swear we will get away from the motherfucker on Tuesday's TV post, Wednesday's sports post and the comic book post on Thursday.

Wait! Trump gets name checked in the comic book post too? Damn it!  


Tuesday, June 2, 2026

Tuesday TV Touchbase Too: Taylor Tomlinson: Prodigal Daughter

Having said good-bye to the fictional stand up comedian Deborah Vance in the series finale of Hacks, I thought I would serve up this bonus Tuesday TV Touchbase Too about a stand up special by a real life stand up comedian, Taylor Tomlinson.

Yes, today is the 2nd day of June and this special came out in February. So I'm late to the party.

Being late to a party is fashionable.  

Anyway, let's get this Touchbase Too going.  


Taylor Tomlinson recorded her Prodigal Daughter special in a church.

A real honest to God church with pews and a pulpit, stained glass windows, crosses, the whole deal.

And it's a real ballsy move as Taylor does NOT curtail her signature style at all, talking about sex and saying "fuck" a lot.

She will explain how going down on a woman is different than giving oral to a man and Jesus is right there. 

The special opens up outside the cathedral style church as the camera enters up the stairs (oh look! LGBTQ+ pride flags... nice touch!), through the narthex and into the sanctuary.  

After collecting herself with some deep breaths, Taylor bursts from back stage into the spotlights and the cheering crowds filling the pews.

All to the strain of a choral arrangement of ABBA's "Gimme, Gimme, Gimme (A Man After Midnight)." 

And we're off to the races! 

Taylor does her deep dive into her struggles with depression, her life in a conservative Christian culture and her own queer awakening. 

It's all heavy stuff but Taylor makes it funny.  

Since she's doing this set in a church, religion comes in for some scrutiny.

I do feel for pastors on Christmas and Easter. Those are big weeks at church, right?. Those are recruitment weeks. That’s when everybody comes out of the woodwork. That’s when the decaf Christians swing by. You only see those motherfuckers twice a year and you got to blow their minds so hard with the extras that they upgrade their subscription to weekly.

That’s a lot of pressure.

And as the pastor on Christmas and Easter, you can’t get creative. You can’t get weird with it. No acoustic set. You have to play the hits. You gotta tell the stories, right?

Easter’s a better story than Christmas, in my opinion. If you don’t know, Easter is the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus Christ. It’s where all our merch is from. You’ve seen it. You’ve seen a dead guy up there, but tasteful. Somehow very tasteful.

Makes you think about your own death, like, ‘Ooh, hope I die in a way that looks good on jewelry, right’?

Think about it. When grandma died, were you like, ‘Slap her on an anklet’?

No. He’s really doing it up there.


The special's title Prodigal Daughter comes from her  take on the parable of the Prodigal Son.

“If you ask a pastor about that story, they’ll tell you it’s about how you can go off and sin and lose your way spiritually, but you can always return to the Lord and he’ll forgive you. 

And if you ask me what that story is about, I will tell you that it is about how Jesus was an only child.”

But the special's title also represents her pushback on the passive-aggressive expression of “I’m praying for you.” 

Having grown up in that culture, I understand where Taylor is coming from, “I’m praying for you" is often a judgement.  

Not "I hope life gets better for you and you are truly happy" but more "I hope you realize what a mess of a sinner you are and you come around to right way of living."  

Taylor is not repudiating faith or religion, just what people do with it.

And to be clear, I’m not an atheist. I just don’t know what happens. Neither do you. Spoiler alert, nobody knows. 

I’ve never related to the certainty so many Christians feel where they’re like, ‘I just know’. You’re like, ‘But how do you know there’s a God’? 

‘I just know’. 

The only time I’ve ever just known something, it was that I had diarrhea. 

That’s the only—the only time I’ve ever been like, ‘Oh Mhm, mhm’. 

And I did start praying.

Towards the end of the special, Taylor takes a more serious turn regarding the abuse and weaponization of  the Christian faith.

“Religion can either be used as a weapon or a tool. And to be clear, if you are using religion as a weapon to control, manipulate, scare people, to make yourself feel superior to everyone else, fuck you. That’s not what it’s for. You are not using that correctly.

Because if God does exist, he does not exist to make you feel better than other people. He exists to make you better for other people… Whatever makes you a better person for other people, that’s what you should be doing.”

Taylor Tomlinson's  Prodigal Daughter delivers a lot of laughs from Taylor's not afraid to say anything persona. And damn it, she also makes you think thoughts and feel feelings. 

Prodigal Daughter is epic in it's scope and sheer audacity and worth a look and a listen.

_________________________________

Geez! How many weeks have I done TWO Tuesday TV Touchbase posts a week? 

And I'm still running behind! 

OK, enough is enough.  Next week, back to ONE Tuesday TV Touchbase a week.  But we've got a lot of TV to touch base on!

  • Georgie & Mandy's First Marriage
  • Ghosts
  • Brilliant Minds
  • Two Dan Levy series, Schitt's Creek and Big Mistakes
  • Stranger Things (Yes, NEW Stranger Things!) 
  • Spider Noir
  • Invincible
  • Jeopardy and Pop Culture Jeopardy
  • Wheel of Fortune
And more to come! 

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.   



Sunday, May 31, 2026

Star Trekking: McKinley Station


What pray tell is McKinley Station? 

McKinley Station is the space dock in Earth orbit where the Enterprise was repaired and refitted after damages sustained fighting the Borg in "The Best of Both Worlds".


McKinley Station is also my way of saying Star Trekking is taking a bit of a rest. 

Coming up later this morning is a bonus Movie Time post on The Mandolorian and Grogu.

What? Did I, an avowed Star Trek nerd, lower myself to watch a...a... Star Wars movie?

Yes.  Yes I did.

I blame my wife. Andrea loves Grogu.

And I gotta say, he is just too gosh darn CUTE!!!

But never fear. Even as I tread into the valley of the shadow of George Lucas, I will alway  root for the home team.


Next week, Star Trekking returns for the 7th season of Star Trek: The Next Generation. 

In couple of hours, I will venture forth to a galaxy far, far away.

And if anyone has a problem with that, in the immortal words of Wil Wheaton, "Live long and suck it!" 


Midterm Madness Aftermath

CAUTION: Today's political post goes on a bit. Sorry but I had a lot of ground to cover. And even with all that is to come, I didn'...