Looking Forward

 As promised, here's my report on what I plan to be doing (and/or hope to be doing) in the New Year.

Theater: I am currently working as assistant director of a very funny play called Sylvia, about a middle-aged couple with a new dog (the eponymous Sylvia). There are elements of Harvey, Mr. Ed, and (for those of a certain age) the basset hound Cleo in the TV series The People's Choice. Performances are in March.

Immediately after that, I will begin auditions and rehearsals for a show I have been planning in my head for nearly two years: The Lion in Winter. You may be familiar with the film version, starring Peter O'Toole, Katharine Hepburn, Anthony Hopkins and a number other fine actors. It tells a fictionalized version of the conflicts in the family of Henry II and his wife, Eleanor of Aquitaine, largely over which of their three sons will succeed to the throne. It hits the stage in June.

Family life: I hope, as COVID conditions improve, to get out and see people more, together with my wife. We made two brief trips in the past year--one to Lancaster, PA for a four-day visit to friends, the other over Thanksgiving to New England to visit our son and daughter-in-law. In the coming year, I'd like to get to New York to see my other son and his significant other. 

I'd also like to have more time with local friends, for friendly breakfasts and lunches.

Looking Back

 As we approach the end of the year, it is natural to look back and look forward. In today's post, I'll look back at 2021 and on Friday, I'll look forward to 2022.

On a macro level 2021 was something of a disaster, wasn't it? It began in the middle of a health crisis and never really got completely out of it. Politically, it started with a facetiously contested election, culminating in the first attack on our capitol since 1814 and the first one by citizens of this country ever. We are still dealing with the aftermath of all that, including the politicization of the health crisis.

There were numerous weather and other natural disasters, many of them linked to climate change by experts who ought to know what they're talking about--and even that is politicized. And political progress on almost any issue is stagnated, largely by a handful of elected officials who apparently put clinging to office and power above serving their constituents.

On a micro, personal level, 2021 was a mixed bag. I had my own health crisis which I have, so far, come through with flying colors. But my retirement, which began in mid-2020, has developed into a slow slog toward a new normal, mostly because of the macro events discussed previously. My plan, upon retirement, was to dive headlong into community theater--directing, acting, designing--and, of course, community theater all but shut down for most of a year. It is only now beginning to show signs of life. I'll discuss what that means for me on Friday.

Boxing Day and After

 Christmas was enjoyable if uneventful--at least until late on Boxing Day.

Our younger son arrived in the early evening of the 23rd and we had dinner at home. Christmas Eve morning, he and Jill and I had breakfast at a lovely little cafe nearby. (If you're local to Ridley Township and/or Ridley Park, I heartily recommend The Brickhaus on East Hinckley Ave.) Just before noon, elder son and daughter-in-law arrived and we opened presents and stockings and then had a late lunch/early dinner at Iron Hill in Media. On our return, elder son and daughter-in-law left to journey to her parents in Maryland. (We'll see them again on Tuesday on their return trip to New England.)

So, Christmas Day was quiet three-person affair. Jill baked soda bread for breakfast and roasted a turkey breast, and tried out a recipe for a pumpkin cobbler. (Not being a fan of anything pumpkin, I have no personal report on that, but she and son suggest the spicing needs a tweak.) Son watched a good deal of football.

Sunday morning, Boxing Day, we generally slept late, I made our usual Sunday breakfast of rolls and bacon and then our son began packing for his return to New York around noon. Here's where things got eventful. About dinner time, we discovered the toilet was clogged. I worked on it most of the evening and got it to a point where it was usable, if we were careful. I called our usual emergency plumber, but they had no one available until this morning. I checked on it a couple of times overnight, to make sure it wasn't getting worse. The plumber arrived about 8:20 and by 8:45 everything was back to normal.

I'm just back from a quick grocery run and trying to catch up with on-line stuff.

"Happy Christmas to All..."

"...and to all a Good Night!"...as Clement Clark Moore wrote. (And, yes, he did write "Happy Christmas," not "Merry....")



This is my chance to talk about how I feel about Christmas. I'm with Charles Dickens, who put these words into the mouth of Scrooge's nephew, Fred: "I have always thought of Christmas time, when it has come round -- apart from the veneration due to its sacred name and origin, if anything belonging to it can be apart from that -- as a good time: a kind, forgiving, charitable, pleasant time: the only time I know of, in the long calendar of the year, when men and women seem by one consent to open their shut-up hearts freely, and to think of people below them as if they really were fellow-passengers to the grave, and not another race of creatures bound on other journeys. And therefore, uncle, though it has never put a scrap of gold or silver in my pocket, I believe that it has done me good, and will do me good; and I say, God bless it!"

There is practically no version of A Christmas Carol that I cannot stand to watch at least once, although I have a favorite--the 1984 TV version starring George C. Scott, which I consider closest to both the spirit and the letter of Dickens' work. I will confess a soft spot for The Muppet Christmas Carol, in part because my kids love it so (despite their being college graduates now).

So I will close this post with the immortal words of Tiny Tim:

God bless us, everyone!

Christmas Comes Just Once a Year

 ...and I thank the Lord for that! Particularly this year, as circumstances seem to be re-arranging our plans on an almost daily basis. 

Travel plans for our kids seem to be in constant flux, even now, just three days before Christmas Eve, mostly due to pandemic concerns. Plans for what to do when they get here are also unresolved as of right now. We'd planned to go out for dinner Christmas Eve, but at least one child is wary of the lack of mandated precautions in our area. We'd considered going to see a movie on Christmas Day (most likely West Side Story), but the same wariness seems to have scotched that idea as well.

Still, Christmas remains one of my favorite holidays--probably my favorite--despite all the planning and re-planning required.

How Much Do You Know? Last

 This is the last of these, as they don't seem to be garnering much response. Here are the answers from yesterday:

1. Douglas

2. Jordan

3. Randy Travis

4. Yahoo!

5. Crystal Palace

6. Murder

How Much Do You Know? 3

 Yesterday's answers:

1. Antigone

2. Muddy Waters

3. The Blair Witch Project

4. Good Neighbor Policy

5.  Belarus

6. LA Law

And today's questions:

1.   1. What was the last name of the Scottish botanist who introduced the popular Pseudotsuga menziesii into cultivation in 1827, and thus after whom the tree is commonly named (or mis-named, as it is actually a conifer in the pine family)?

2. The House of Hashim (a.k.a. Hashemites) is the ruling royal family of what country (as reflected in the country's full official name)?

3. Name the country artist who released the 1987 album Always and Forever, which spent 40 weeks at #1 on the Billboard Country album chart and saw four of its songs (including "Forever and Ever, Amen") reach #1 on the Country Singles chart.

4. American businesswoman Marissa Mayer, who was an executive at Google for many years (where she was employee #20), served as president and CEO of what other company from July 2012 until its acquisition by Verizon in 2017?

5. What was the name of the building, made of prefabricated glass and iron, that was constructed in Hyde Park, London, to accommodate the Great Exhibition of 1851? It was the birthplace (after its move to South London) and namesake of a still-extant English Premiership side.

6. A best-selling series of young adult mysteries by British author Holly Jackson begins with the 2019 novel (and is collectively known as) A Good Girl's Guide to what?

How Much Do You Know? 2

 Answers to yesterday's questions:

1. Steffi Graff

2. Valley of the Kings

3. radians

4. Lola

5. Kevlar

6. Malawi

Today's questions:

1.    1. Of Athenian dramatist Sophocles's 123 plays, only seven remain intact, including three relating to Oedipus and his children: Oedipus the King, Oedipus at Colonus, and what third, named after and centered on Oedipus and Jocasta's daughter?


2. 1950's "Rollin' Stone" was the first single on the Chicago-based Chess record label by what artist, who was born McKinley Morganfield in (or around) 1915 and raised near Clarksdale, MS?


3. According to on-screen text that opens the film, what 1999 movie is based on found footage shot five years prior by three student documentary filmmakers?


4. The policy with respect to Latin America during the early Franklin D. Roosevelt administration had what popular name, which today may be more associated with State Farm Insurance, but in the 1930s reflected America's intended hands-off approach and military withdrawal from the region?


5. A border crisis and humanitarian crisis erupted in the summer of 2021 as tens of thousands of migrants, mostly from the Middle East and Africa, attempted to enter the European Union from what country, in an orchestrated act by that country in retaliation for the EU's economic sanctions against it?


6. Leland McKenzie, Douglas Brackman, Ann Kelsey, Arnie Becker, and Stuart Markowitz were among the large cast of characters on what acclaimed ensemble drama, which aired Thursday nights at 10:00 pm (ET) on NBC from 1986 to 1994?

Answers tomorrow.

How Much Do You Know? 1

 My son, Brian, and I both participate in an on-line competition called "Learned League". I won't go deep into the weeds about the rules here, but basically, every day you receive a set of six questions in a variety of categories, ranging from science, history, math to different elements of pop culture.

Over the next several days, I'm going to post one set of questions each day. See how many you can answer correctly. I'll post the answers the next day.

1. Name the German who won Wimbledon Singles championships in 1988, 1989, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1995, and 1996, with the first of those a part of a historic "Golden Slam" (all four Grand Slams plus Olympic gold).


2. At least 60 pharaohs of ancient Egypt's 18th to 20th dynasties, beginning with Thutmose I and famously including Tutankhamun, were buried in tombs in a narrow gorge in western Thebes known (quite accurately, in fact) as the ______ of the _____. (Fill in both blanks.)


3. What unit of measurement of angles is equal to approximately 57.296 degrees? Exactly π/2 of this unit equals a right angle.


4. In the original 1955 Broadway run of the musical Damn Yankees, Gwen Verdon played what character, the devil's assistant who gets whatever she wants?


5. American chemist Stephanie Kwolek developed the first liquid crystal polymer fiber, leading to the development of poly-paraphenylene terephthalamide, which has a myriad of applications (e.g., tires, cables, helmet, ballistic body armor). This polymer is better known by what brand name owned by DuPont (Kwolek's employer for 40+ years)?


6. Africa's third-largest lake by area (after Victoria and Tanganyika) covers 20% of its namesake country. What is the name that the lake and country share?

Christmas Prep

 When do you "put up" Christmas? When our kids were younger, we always made sure it was done before they were off from school, usually the weekend before their last day. We would put up the tree and we would decorate it as a family. Sometimes, I would get the outside lights done before that.

Since we became empty nesters, it seems to be getting later and later, with the only requirement being that it be ready before one or both of them came to spend time over the holidays. Confession: Last year, with the pandemic and neither of them traveling, we did nothing at all, not even a tree.

This year, I suggested we put the tree up this coming weekend, especially since we have acquired a much smaller one than usual and it will take up less space. My wife wants to wait until next week. I have acquiesced.

Of course, when I was growing up, nothing happened until Christmas Eve itself...but that's another story.

Theater Future

 I don't think I can make an official announcement yet, but in June I will be directing again--a classic drama set in an historical period, well known for its Oscar-winning film adaptation. More info when I have the official OK.

Vaccine Truths

 There has been a lot of panic news about the increase in COVID infections and hospitalizations since Thanksgiving, but I think the media are generally ignoring the real story. Every story reporting on this should include--in the first paragraph, if not the first sentence--that the vast majority of new infections and new hospitalizations have been among the unvaccinated. Unvaccinated patients make up about 90 percent of all new infections and about 99 percent of all hospitalizations.

Yes, most stories get that information in, but usually not until the third or fourth paragraph (and in a TV report, not until just before the end)--and, frankly, most readers never get that deep into a story.

As a medical expert bluntly said on MSNBC's Deadline: White House on Wednesday, these people are simply "stupid". And he repeated it. Yes, there is a very small percentage of adults for whom a vaccination might be life-threatening due to allergies or some underlying condition. But about 40 percent of Americans over the age of 18 are not vaccinated...and the number who have a true medical reason to skip vaccination is simply nowhere near that amount.

This is, for many of these people, a purely political statement. Recent data indicate that lack of vaccination is much more likely among Republicans than Democrats or independents; that it is far higher in counties that voted for Donald Trump in 2020. 

What does it get you to "own the libs" by risking your own health?

Sad News

 Yesterday we learned that one of my oldest friends in the comics business, who I met when we were both still just fans, is seriously ill.

I met George Perez when I was co-editing a fanzine called Factors Unknown and he submitted work to two of the three issues we published. He was already a far better artist than either I or my co-editor Jim Glenn and within a few months he was working as an assistant to Rich Buckler, and within another year, was doing his own art on a character he co-created at Marvel, the White Tiger.

He went on to become one of the most important artists of the 1980s and '90s, with seminal work at both Marvel and DC, notably on The Avengers and The New Teen Titans, which he co-created with Marv Wolfman. He was responsible for a resurgence in interest in Wonder Woman, when he revamped her for the post-Crisis DC universe.

Complications from diabetes forced George into retirement a few years ago.

Now, he has announced on his Facebook page that he has stage three pancreatic cancer, with a prognosis of six months to a year. He has decided to forego any therapy and let nature take its course.

Beyond his talent, George is beloved in the comics community for his humor, his friendliness, his charity. No "star" has ever been more open and available to his fans. At conventions, he would usually skip appearing on panels or even single interviews, preferring to sit at a table in "artists alley" and greet fans who asked for autographs and sketches. No one ever went away disappointed, even if all they wanted was a few minutes talking with a great artist.

I hadn't seen much of him since he moved to Florida a decade or so ago, but I cherish the time we had together. My prayers are with him and his wife, Carol, that they have longer together than the doctors are predicting.

"Flux" Capacity 2

 Once again, I find myself apparently in the minority among internet commenters on the current season of Doctor Who (but I've been in that position throughout Jodie Whitaker and Chris Chibnall's run). I thought episode 6 of "Flux" was a fine ending to the story, having wrapped up all the many threads from the first five episodes and leaving us with a satisfactory place to move on from.

I was pleased that the Doctor decided she didn't need (or didn't want) to know the information hidden in the watch...but at the same time did not irrevocably destroy it, either. Yes, leave it for another team to explore should they wish to do so.

Yes, Division's and Swarm and Azure's motives remain a bit murky, I'll admit, but villains do not always need clear motives--sometimes they just do bad things because that's the way their minds work. (Does anybody think Charles Manson's motives, as a real-world example, made any sense at all?)

I'm happy with things as they stand and a bit sorry we only get to see three more adventures from this team.

Annie--Not So Live

 First, an admission: I did not watch the entirety of NBC's Annie Live production Thursday night. I caught about an hour of it, from the scene with "Easy Street" through the reprise of "Tomorrow" in the White House. As the title of this post might suggest, I was not impressed.

My major complaints are two. One, it completely destroys the flow of a show that was meant to be seen with only one interruption (at intermission between the acts) when you are interrupting for as much as three minutes every 10 minutes. This is the sort of broadcast that cries out for "limited commercial interruptions." Two: The pacing and tempo of the performance felt like molasses in January. Even numbers that ought to be rousing and enthusiatic like "You're Never Fully Dressed Without a Smile" seemed to be something the cast was just slogging through.

One other thing: Some of the choices made were bad. The production inserted the dance number "We Got Annie" from the movie version, that was included to let Anne Reinking show off her skills. Here, it was obviously chosen to allow Nicole Scherzinger do the same thing. But to fit it in, they had to cut the much better number "You Won't Be an Orphan For Too Long."

Frankly, I've seen high school productions of this show that were livelier.

Lighting It Up

 Jill and I tried to watch the lighting of the tree at Rockefeller Center on NBC last night--but didn't actually make it to the moment when they threw the switch.

The show began locally at 7 PM, with an hour that was obviously prepared for local stations and the network's owned-and-operated stations to run and sell advertising for. Then at 8, they changed over to the nationally broadcast show on the network. We were disappointed that the tree lighting didn't occur by 8, but when the network show began, we figured that they would do it by 9. But, no....the network show ran until 10 and tree didn't finally light until a few minutes before that hour. 

Clearly, like the Thanksgiving parade last week, what was once a local kick-off to the holiday season, scheduled so that New Yorkers could see it and even bring their kids to see a little Christmas wonder in person, is now just a performance put on for the convenience of the TV network that has bought the broadcast rights. As we watched, we realized that the "audience" that was closest to the stage (and thus the tree) were invited guests (perhaps employees of Rock Center and NBC and their families), because they were all armed with the same light sticks and wearing identical Santa hats.

I pity any parent who went to Rock Center with children to see this: First of all, they could never have gotten close enough to really see anything...and they would have been standing in the cold and dark for three hours (actually longer--they probably would have needed to be there by mid-afternoon to get within even two blocks of the site) until well after the kids' bedtime.

Bah, humbug!

"Flux" Capacity

 I am now officially tired of the alleged Doctor Who fans who have been bitching about "Flux," the six-episode story that is tying up much of what show-runner Chris Chibnall has done in his previous two seasons of the show.

Episode 5, "Survivors of the Flux," did, I think, a masterful job of pulling together the various plot strains of this tale and of giving us greater insight to the Timeless Child, Division, and Chibnall's overall plan. Yet still I read complaints. If those complaints are about the very existence of the Timeless Child plot, I can almost understand--some people simply do not like to have long-standing canon toyed with. (And still, DW has done just that numerous times in its nearly six-decade history. For one thing, until the current version, with the glow and the blasts of light from the extremities, every regeneration was depicted differently--from the simple camera dissolves of One to Two, and Three to Four, to the mysterious figure merge of Four to Five).

And if "Flux" is confusing, why did so many of these same fans embrace Game of Thrones--which had enough plot lines and twists to fill four or five six-episode stories...and then clumsily tied them all up in one eight-episode final season?

I have never been confused by anything in "Flux"...perhaps because I've been paying attention and not just looking for things to carp about.

In Memoriam: Stephen Sondheim

 By now, you all know Stephen Sondheim died on Friday. In my amateur theatrical career, I have only been involved with his work a few times: I played Cinderella's Father in a production of Into the Woods, I helped build sets for a production of West Side Story, and I sort of played the man himself in a production of Forbidden Broadway in the number called "Into the Words," which satirizes the sheer wordiness of Sondheim's lyrics. 

But there are a number of his songs I would love to have the chance to perform: "Being Alive," of course; "You Must Meet My Wife," one of the funniest duets ever written; "Something's Coming", among them.

I am not a fan of all his work: Sweeney Todd seems a bit too grisly for my tastes, Pacific Overtures a little depressing, Sunday in the Park with George perhaps a touch obscure and vague in getting its point across. But Company, A Little Night Music, and Into the Woods are genius...and his collaborations--West Side Story and Gypsy--are theatrical masterpieces.

He was 91 and working professionally since he was 21. Seventy years of theater wonderfulness.

Happy Thanksgiving

 I won't be posting for the rest of this week, so I'll wish you all a Happy Thanksgiving today and see you again probably on Sunday.

Rittenhouse Reaction

 I debated posting about this for two days, in part because I wanted to be sure I understood all the legal stuff involved. Now, after reading and seeing analysis from several sources, I'm ready to say my piece.

First, while the acquittal of Kyle Rittenhouse was, in no way, the correct moral outcome, it seems to have been the correct legal one--and it is important to note that legality and morality do not always go hand in hand. Apparently, self-defense under Wisconsin law, is a comparatively low bar to make. Let me explain: In any jurisdiction, self-defense is what's called an affirmative defense. That means that the defendant doesn't have to prove he was acting in self-defense, the prosecution has to prove he wasn't. Based on what I've found out, the standard in Wisconsin is "did the defendant reasonably believe his life was in danger?" That's a tough position for a prosecutor to fight against--it basically asks the jury to read the defendant's mind. 

The prosecution can try to argue that no reasonable person would fear for his life in the same circumstances or, as they did in the Rittenhouse trial, that he put himself in the dangerous position. Trouble is, the law--at least in Wisconsin--considers only the imminent danger, that is, the situation at the moments just before the decision to use deadly force. That Kyle Rittenhouse should have reasoned that just by going into a volatile situation he was putting himself at risk is, it seems, immaterial. All that matters is his state of mind as his attackers acted against him.

And the attackers' intentions are equally immaterial. Was their only intention to disarm Rittenhouse? Doesn't matter. If Rittenhouse thought they intended to cause him bodily harm, that's all that's required to successfully argue self-defense.

So, there's the legal side of it. Now for the moral side of it.

That requires us to ask the question that the legal standard ignores: Why in hell did Kyle Rittenhouse travel 20 miles to a city where he didn't live to confront a mob with a military-style rifle? Even if we accept his testimony that he was there to protect property, we have to ask, why did he feel that was his job, his responsibility? Had it been his property, his neighbors' property, his city, we might be able to agree--he had a right and a duty to defend it. But what made it urgent for him to go to Kenosha that night?

I'm afraid that, morally, I can see no justification for him to even be there--let alone armed as he was. To my mind, he just felt the need to be on the scene, to take the opportunity to do something "heroic" in the eyes of the right-wing crowd he admired. "I will stand up against the mob," he seems to have been thinking--even though, by the time he got there, the "mob" was largely dispersed, those who were left were mostly peaceful, and there was no substantial property damage or human damage that night. (Only three shots were fired that night--all by Rittenhouse--and the only deaths were the ones Rittenhouse caused.)

So, there's my stance: I hate that he got off, but I think the jury had no choice.