One Year

 This is the 364th posting on this blog. It ought to be the 365th, because when I started on May 1 of last year, I planned on posting something every day for at least a year. I missed one Saturday in December when I traveled to the funeral for my mother-in-law. I could have written and scheduled a posting for that day, but things were hectic and I never got around to it.

Still, I feel pretty good about missing my goal by only one (and for, I think, a pretty good reason). This has not been the first year of retirement I was expecting and the second year will not be either (for personal reasons I choose not to discuss on this blog). From this point on, I will not be maintaining a daily posting schedule, though I will endeavor not to miss more than two days in a row.

in Memoriam: Michael Collins, Astronaut

 

The death of Michael Collins leave just one of the Apollo 11 crew still with us, Buzz Aldrin. It also brings to mind a question: Where were you on July 20, 1969?

At the time of the landing, I was with a singing group at a Muscular Dystrophy camp in upstate New York. We had gone there from Staten Island to entertain the campers and staff. While we were there, the camp loudspeakers were broadcasting the radio coverage of the landing.

When the performance was over, we loaded onto our bus for the several-hour trip home. Arriving at about 11 PM, a group of us went to the home of a member who lived near the drop-off point to watch the TV coverage of Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin actually walking on the moon....because we didn't want to split up to our own homes and miss it all.

Those of you who weren't alive or who were too young to remember 1969 have no idea what this all meant to us. We were sure it was the beginning of a grand future of space exploration. After all, the original run of Star Trek had ended only weeks before and it predicted that by the 1990s, we would have colonies on the moon and Mars. But Vietnam, Watergate, and so many other things got in the way...public interest and support for the space program waned. We had beaten the Russians to the moon--wasn't that the whole point?

The final Apollo mission came just three years later...and our space program came to be about satellites and occasional manned missions like SpaceLab. Nobody wanted to spend time and money on putting men on another planet. Didn't we have enough problems right here?

We've now kept the International Space Station manned continuously for more than 20 years and, thanks to private companies like SpaceX, plans for a return to the moon are on track.

It took but 60 years to go from the Wright Brothers to Apollo 11. Let's hope the span between Apollo 11 and a permanent presence on the moon isn't any longer than that.

TV Deja Vu

 Has this ever happened to you? Jill and I have recently begun watching a New Zealand cop/mystery show, The Brokenwood Mysteries. It's well done, with interesting cases, a terrific lead ensemble, and nice work maintaining a sense of a continuing world around them--the same locals appearing in multiple episodes, the same pub, etc.

But last night, we were watching the first episode of the third season--based around a guy who is running a scam "Lord of the Rings" tour (in an area of NZ that was not part of the trilogy)...and we realized we had, somehow, somewhere, seen it before. Trouble is, we could not for the life of us figure out when or where it was. We both could swear that we ran across the series while scanning through the shows available on the Acorn channel, we had never heard of it before.

Did it briefly run on one of the local PBS stations a few years back and we stumbled upon it? Not that we recall....but the episode began and we both immediately recognized it...and I even recalled the solution to the mystery.

I guess that makes for a new mystery.

I-Knock-ulation

 Well, it's 24 hours since Jill and I got our second shots of the Moderna vaccine. I'm fine, save for a sore shoulder, but Jill has been knocked for a loop.

She was all right until about 8:30 last night, when she began to get the chills. She felt that way all through the night, tossing and turning. When she woke this morning, it was better but she's still chilled and very tired. She has gone back to bed.

I think she's running a low-grade fever; she's taken Tylenol and had fluids.

Vax to the Max

 Jill and I both got our second Moderna vaccine shots this morning. In two weeks, May 10, we will be fully immunized.

Toon Theology

 This is really aimed at those among my friends who regularly attend religious services. I enjoy a good sermon, which leads, naturally, to the question: What makes a good sermon?

Well, let me tell you a bit about the sermon delivered by the deacon in my church this morning. Today is the Fourth Sunday after Easter, commonly called "Good Shepherd Sunday," because the Gospel reading will be one of the several that refer to Jesus by that term (today's was John 10:11-18). The psalm will be number 23--"The Lord is my shepherd...." and the hymns will all be ones that use that kind of reference.

So the deacon was taking that as the basis for his talk, and what did he start off with? A reference to a Warner Bros. cartoon, one of the several with Sam the sheepdog and Ralph the wolf, who clock in and out like factory workers. Why was this a good way to start? Because it was entertaining, it was light-hearted, and it put the congregation in the mood to listen. 

The sermon went on in that way, likening a shepherd's job to modern ones, speaking of those who are dedicated to their jobs--as the biblical shepherd is--and those who simply show up for the paycheck--like the biblical hired hand (or, for that matter, Sam and Ralph). Not a lot of deep historical stuff about sheep herding in ancient Palestine or even deep theological thought about God's relationship to his "flock"....just a way to make the analogy relevant to a 21st Century audience.

That is a good sermon.

I'll Take My Specialty for $200

 Time for something a bit light, I think.

If you were a contestant on Jeopardy, what categories would you want to have come up? Here are some of mine:

Comic books

Comic strips

Musical theater

Television

Movies

Science fiction

US geography

US history

Obviously, some of these might come up tangentially, or as categories like "Actors and Their Roles" or "State Capitals".

What would be your hoped-for areas of expertise?

Ultra Infrastructure

 What is our country's most pressing infrastructure need? 

Yes, obviously our failing bridges, roads and rails need to be repaired and replaced. But beyond those, what else constitutes "infrastructure" that keeps our nation working, moving, thriving? Several things come to my mind:

1. Broadband, both wired and wireless. Looking at coverage maps for the major wireless carriers, it seems that most of the nation is in good shape, at least for 4G service. But wireless service is not robust, it is too easily disrupted by weather and too often weakens as you are further from a cell tower (the dreaded "I only have one bar" syndrome). Wired is a better deal for truly reliable service, but vast areas of the country are unserved, either because it is not profitable to run wires to sparsely populated places or because there aren't enough people who can afford to pay for it, even in densely populated areas (particularly true in some urban environments).

The solution: We need, for broadband, what we had for electricity in the 1930s--a federal program to support the "internetization" (to coin a term) for rural and poverty areas.

2. Perhaps tied with this--because the wires would be on the same poles and towers--a strengthening and hardening of the power grid. No one should be without power for days on end after a natural disaster; our grid should be able to take up the slack and allow places where generation ability has been shut down to buy power from other locations. And no state or municipality should be allowed to go it alone (no more "Texases"); tying into the national grid should be a federal mandate--or you lose FEMA assistance in a power emergency.

3. Healthcare. Again, rural areas and areas with high poverty rates have both the poorest health and poorest healthcare. Just as education should not be dependent on zip code, neither should healthcare. A federal program to build and, if necessary, staff and operate hospitals and associated healthcare networks is required (and no matter what anyone says, yes. that is infrastructure).

Guns and Police

 Not every confrontation with a police officer is the same...even the ones where the officer is forced to fire a weapon. The examples of Daunte Wright in Minnesota, the 13-year-old in Illinois, and the 16-year-old in Ohio are not identical and should not be judged from the same position. 

Now, I'm not a lawyer, nor a policeman, but as a rational, reasonable observer, I can see the differences: Daunte Wright was completely unarmed and represented no threat to the officer or anyone else--and clearly the officer was in a heightened mental state, resulting in her confusion about which weapon she had even drawn; the 13-year-old did have a weapon when first encountered and refused to follow the officer's commands to stop running and to drop the gun, until the very last moment when it was clear he could not escape--and by then, the officer had, apparently, already made a decision about firing, a split second (literally) before the kid tossed the gun away; the girl in Ohio clearly had a knife and was definitely threatening serious harm (if not death) to another person, a situation in which we should expect and do expect a police officer to act decisively.

I wish we had a society like that in the United Kingdom, where cops do not regularly carry guns and those who do receive very special training about how to respond in the situations to which they are called to respond. Crimes committed with firearms are relatively rare in the UK, in part because ownership of such weapons has never been considered a "right" there. Even in rural areas, a license is required for any sort of firearm--from a pistol to a shotgun to a high-powered rifle--and those weapons must be kept under lock-and-key when not in legal use, as for hunting or target practice. A police officer can demand to see such licensed weapons at any time and failure to report them missing or stolen is a serious offense.

Reading His Mind

 Inside Derek Chauvin's head as the verdicts were announced:

Marvel on TV?

 Following up on yesterday's post, I began to think about what Marvel characters, now owned by Disney, of course, I would prefer to see in TV versions as opposed to movie versions--that is, which characters are simply not big enough, popular enough, to need a major motion picture. (Of course, I acknowledge that 20 years ago, no one would have thought Iron Man, Ant-Man, or the Guardians of the Galaxy fit into that mold.)

Anyway, I came up with a few:

The She-Hulk: The major reason I put her in this category is bccause of the way I would want her handled on screen. I firmly believe the only time Jennifer Walters' verdant alter-ego worked as a solo character was during John Byrne's run on the title, when it was treated with a light touch, almost as satire, and with a lot of broken fourth walls. That's an interpretation that I think works best as episodic television.

Luke Cage, Hero for Hire: This should be, essentially, a  private eye show where the detective has super-powers...Shaft with super-strength and invulnerability. I see it as 90-minute episodes, each standing alone, except for underlying plots about Cage's private life.

Werewolf by Night: Sure, it's just a twist on the classic horror theme, but in a movie, there has to be a final resolution to the hero's plight--either he dies or is cured...and then this is just one more version of The Wolf Man. But in an episodic format, especially if we go with the version where Jack Russell can control his wolf form on nights without a full moon.

Tunneling Through Time Again

 

The other day, the FXM Channel (sort of TCM for just 20th-Century Fox films) ran the movie version of Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea...and that got me thinking.

Thanks to its acquisition of Fox, Disney now has the rights to all of the Irwin Allen movies and series. And then I pondered, which ones would lend themselves to a series on one of the Disney streaming services? I decided the most likely candidate (after Lost in Space, which has already been done) is The Time Tunnel.

With Disney's bigger budgets and modern SFX, this story of two guys lost in time and the home team trying to retrieve them could be a major success. And it needn't be plopping them down into a big historical event every week. Just a tale of trying to survive and fit in a time period that isn't your own would be intriguing enough and, of course, just as the original series did in its short run, sometimes they could wind up in the future, not the past.

Possibly, it could even be done as more than one new time jump every week. Maybe do it as an eight-episode season, with each story taking two episodes? And with an underlying season-long arc, perhaps one that is linked to the home base and not the time travelers?

Any thoughts?

Belated Birthday Thoughts

 Friday was my birthday. I am 69 years old. I am now 16 years older than my father was when he died, but still more than 20 years younger than my mother was when she died last year. I am nearly twice as old as my oldest child. 

I have reached the age where icons of my childhood--TV and movie stars, authors, politicians--are dying nearly every week. That's actually not surprising, as most of them are about the same age as my parents would be. More disturbing, perhaps, are the reported deaths of those I thought of as my contemporaries, people who are within a decade either way of my own age. I'm not talking here of the unfortunate ones who die from their misuse of drugs or alcohol, but from "natural causes," the same things that might well lead to my demise at some time. These are all reminders of my mortality.

I am not in fear of either old age or death, actually. I expect that, like my mother, I have another two decades in me, decades I will live to their fullest, as she did. On the other hand, I am less than a year from accomplishing the Biblical "three-full-score and ten".

Anglo-Saxon What, Exactly?

 Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, she of the Qanon alignment, is trying to organize an "America First" csucus in the House of Representatives, dedicated--she says--to promoting "uniquely Anglo-Saxon political traditions"--whatever those are.

Well, if we go back to the real Anglo-Saxon period in England, we're talking about a society divided by kinship, into families and tribes. We're talking about a very loose national identity, rooted in a king (there were actually three Anglo-Saxon kingdoms). Is that the political tradition Greene is alluding to?

Or is she talking about the later English tradition, where all political power was held by wealthy male landowners--one in which she, as a woman, would be merely the chattel of her nearest male relative, whether husband, father or brothers?

Or the pre-Victorian tradition of "rotten boroughs," where the common people were represented in Parliament (and I use "represented' in the loosest of possible terms) by, again, wealthy landowners, often not even part of their own community, who essentially bought their seats from the local aristocrat?

I could go on...because if she even means the political traditions brought to this continent by "the founding fathers." then we are still speaking of a government operated by and for the benefit of white male property-holders. Of course, maybe that is what she means--especially the "white" and "property-holders" parts, at any rate.

Getouttastan

 Who would have thought that, in the 21st Century, the United States would be involved in a conflict that in chronological length rivals some of the great wars of European history--the 30 Years War, the Hundred Years War? I propose that, in the future, we refer to the US involvement in Afghanistan as the 20 Years War.

Actually, if you include the Soviet invasion of that country and the US support of the mujahideen insurgents, it might well be called the 50 Years War.

And still there are those inside our military and outside, who insist we cannot withdraw, that two or three generations of US armed forces was not enough to achieve our goals and another generation (or two) is required. Isn't it just possible that our goals are simply not achievable, absent what was suggested in the early days of the conflict--bombing Afghanistan "back to the stone age"?

Afghanistan has proven to be an impassable wall for literally thousands of years, going back to Alexander the Great. What does it say that the Romans and Byzantines never even tried?

Quick Draw?

 Here's a question I think has not been put forward enough in regard to most interactions with police, and especially the two most recent ones to get national attention (the killing of Daunte Wright in Minnesota and the traffic stop of the Army officer in Virginia): Why were the cops so quick to draw their weapons?

In both cases, these were nothing more than traffic stops. "Hey, buddy, your registration tag is expired." "Hey, buddy, you're missing the rear license plate." In the first case, the Minnesota DMV has admitted it has been delayed in processing registration renewals, so why was this a big deal to the cops? In the second case, the driver had a temporary plate in his rear window--which he pointed out to the police officers--and yet they still treated him as a violent threat.

Are these officers being trained that any refusal or hesitancy to respond to their commands is a life-or-death situation that requires weapons to be drawn? Are they so in fear for their lives even when they outnumber the "suspect" two- or three-to-one? What's more--as the video of the Virginia incident shows--multiple responding officers can result in them giving contradictory orders: "Show me your hands!" "Undo your seatbelt and get out of the vehicle!" (Literally impossible to do both, right?)

Is every suspect now to be considered "armed and dangerous?" Even military personnel in uniform? Will it only stop when the unarmed person injured or killed is a middle-aged white woman?

Behavior Modeling

 In this pandemic, how far does my personal responsibility extend? If I am comfortable not wearing a mask outdoors in non-crowded situations--such as a walk through a suburban neighborhood or a wide-open park--should I worry that my decision is "modeling" bad behavior for those who would choose to not wear masks in other more crowded conditions? Should I worry that my decision to eat in a restaurant--following all the local rules regarding that activity--will encourage others to be more risky in their own behavior, such as going maskless in a crowded bar?

I think not. Extending such philosophy to non-emergency situations, should I be concerned that my decision to wear only a light coat in 40-degree weather will lead others who are more prone to weather-related illness to do the same? Is it a problem that I go hatless most of the year--both in cold weather and in extreme heat and sun? Is that encouraging others to be equally "reckless"?

Reversing this: Is the guy who drives while texting encouraging me to be equally foolish? Or am I responsible for my own decisions in that regard? 

Make your own choices, based on the best information you have about both the community situation and your own.

My Perfect Community

 If you could live anywhere in the world, where would it be?

Here are my requirements: I want someplace that has actual seasons, but not extreme ones. That eliminates places like Hawaii or the Caribbean where it is essentially what we'd call "summer" 12 months of the year. It also eliminates places that get really cold on a regular basis.

I want a place with a major city nearby, but not necessarily in that city. I like the things that being near a city provide--theater, restaurants, public transportation. So the northern midwest is out of the question as is much of the Deep South.

I want a place where I can have outside space that belongs to me, to use at my convenience. It doesn't have to be huge--I'm not looking for acres of land, just a decent sized backyard. That probably means the really close "ring suburbs" of most cities are unlikely.

I want neighbors and community, but not to be cheek-by-jowl with them. I want to know I can go next-door or a couple of houses down and find someone to ask for help if needed. And I want diverse neighbors, a community that welcomes people of all kinds.

I want good schools and libraries--not because I have kids but because they say the community cares about kids and families, and education, and civic responsibility. 

Am I asking too much?

Let's Put on a Show

 Here's a question: Name a book or movie that hasn't been turned into a stage production (musical or not) that you think could be successfully transferred to live theater. This is inspired by the announcement that there will be stage production of a story based in the world of Westeros from Game of Thrones. My understanding is that it will not be an adaptation of anything in the books published so far, but a sort of prequel.

 A couple of my thoughts: The Phantom Tollbooth; Beverly Cleary's Ramona books (pick a series of incidents from them and build a plot); Great Expectations; Scaramouche (the film version features the longest duel in movies--imagine that on stage).

Any ideas?

 

Dissing Meghan

 And now there is discussion on exactly why Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex, is not accompanying her husband, Prince Harry, to his grandfather's funeral. Why is it some people cannot simply accept the perfectly reasonable explanation that her doctor has advised against a pregnant woman making a 6000-mile flight? For that matter, with the attendance limited to just 30 people, isn't it a humane gesture for her to make space for someone with a much closer relationship to Prince Philip than hers? (After all, the prime minister has said he will not attend for just that reason.)

It amazes me how people will seek to find the worst in this woman.

Closing the Gaetz?

 So, Matt Gaetz's  buddy Joel Greenberg has been arrested and charged, after several hours of a stand-off in which he threatened harm to himself and/or others, if he didn't get a deal. No word on what that deal may include, but experts in federal law enforcement say there's no way he got any deal at all without agreeing to talk about others involved in his encounters with under-age women....and the biggest suspected fish in that pond is Gaetz.

And, finally, another Republican member of the House, Adam Kinzinger, has said Gaetz should, at the least, lose his seats on any committees and, at the most, resign or be ejected from Congress. The feeling seems to be that none of that will happen unless and until Gaetz is also officially charged with a crime. Meanwhile, Gaetz continues to operate as a member of the House committee that oversees the very people who are investigating him.

The House ethics committee is also looking into Gaetz. I'm not impressed...the ethics committee is, for the most part, a toothless tiger.

In Memoriam: The Duke of Edinburgh

 Philip Mountbatten, born with the surname Battenberg, was a prince of both the Greek and Danish royal houses. He was exiled from Greece (where his grandfather had been king) with his family after the Graeco-Turkish war in the 1920s. Eventually, he settled in the United Kingdom and, like his uncle Louis, anglicized his name and became a British citizen.

He served with distinction in World War 2 and, as a cousin to King George VI, became friendly with his daughter, Elizabeth, the princess royal and heir to the throne. Despite a bit of familial interference, they were married and had two children, Charles and Anne, before Elizabeth's father died and she became Queen Elizabeth II.

They have had one of the longest royal marriages in history--65 years--and, reportedly, one of the strongest. The Prince has been recognized as a driving force in the modernization of the British monarchy, especially in the early years of Elizabeth's reign.

Binge Thoughts?

 As I do periodically, I ask: what are you watching?

Many of the things Jill and I have been watching are either ending, have ended, or--if they are series that actually stopped production years ago--we have reached the end of what's available. Before I ask for recommendations, let me give you a look at what we have been viewing, so you know our tastes:

Death in Paradise (which just began putting its latest season on Britbox)

Waking the Dead

Hinterland

The Brokenwood Mysteries (New Zealand)

Midsomer Murders

New Tricks

Longmire

Upstart Crow

Wycliffe

Shetland

Vera (completed its most recent season before the pandemic and doesn't seem to have gone back into production)

Murder City

City Homicide (Australia)

Yes, it's a lot of mystery/crime and much of it British. So, can you recommend similar material from the US or  other countries? Or perhaps, to coin a phrase, "something completely different"? FTR, we currently subscribe to Netflix, Britbox, Acorn, Disney, Paramount+, Amazon Prime, and YouTube TV.

Cui Bono?

 The title of this post is Latin for "who benefits?" In law, it's a question asked when there is an issue of financial or other benefit to a person from a crime--be it murder, fraud, or something else. The presumption is that the individual or individuals who gained the most is the most likely culprit.

Who benefits when voting is made more difficult? When the very act of getting to the polls is hard? When proving you have a right to vote is made arduous? Clearly it's not the challengers in an election--they want a big turnout, because it may bring to the polls the people who oppose the incumbents. Smaller turnouts are almost always beneficial to incumbents, who have the name recognition and record to run on; who can, in most cases, rely on those who have voted for them in the past to vote for them again. This is especially true in places where the majorities are very lopsided and have been for a long time.

So, when a legislature acts to restrict access to the polls--by making mail-in ballots harder to get, by "consolidating" polling places, by limiting the hours and days when polls are open--it's a good bet it did not do so to help the minority party. Virtually any voting law enacted by a legislature--whether Republican or Democrat-controlled--is designed to help the party in power.

Trial? Error?

 Have you been watching any of the TV coverage of the trial of Derek Chauvin for the murder of George Floyd? I can't say I've been glued to it, but when I sit down to lunch I turn it on and I sometimes catch another 30 to 60 minutes toward the end of my day.

It's fascinating watching the prosecution build its case, particularly as they clearly work to forestall predictable defense tactics. For example, yesterday as the Minneapolis police chief took the stand, the prosecutor took him through a somewhat tedious recitation of his entire curriculum vitae--where he grew up, where he went to school (including high school), what positions he has held in the department, etc. Usually in those cases, a witness's resume will be submitted to the court and stipulated to by both parties....but it seemed that the prosecution wanted to leave no holes for the defense to drive a case through. They wanted it clear that the chief knew every inch of the training, policy, and methods of the police department.

The defense is equally interesting. The strategy seems to be to suggest that department training, policy and practice gives an officer great leeway to operate "in the moment," to make decisions of how to handle a situation and a suspect in terms of the circumstances at that moment....and that Chauvin therefore was acting appropriately. While the chief--and other police higher-ups who have testified--acknowledged that an office must be allowed to act in a manner consistent with the immediate situation, they all insisted that in no way did that permit Chauvin to restrain Floyd in the way he did once it was clear that Floyd could no longer resist and, indeed, had stopped resisting. The chief put it this way (paraphrasing): Once a person is handcuffed behind his back and placed in a prone position, there is no cause for further restraint.

Does violation of that policy and practice make Chauvin's actions murder? I am not entirely read up on the Minnesota statutes, but when you combine it with Chauvin's and his fellow officers' callous disregard for Floyd's physical condition--no attempts to check his pulse or breathing, despite calls to do so from a trained EMT bystander--and it starts to look that way.

Truth, Justice and.....?

 I'm going to ask a question and not answer it myself, because I want to hear what others think.

We all remember the final words of the opening to the 1950s Superman series: "a never-ending battle for truth, justice, and the American way." What is "the American way"? And if it needs to be delineated separately from truth and justice, does that mean it is something more than those virtues? If so, what is it?

I am truly interested in your answers.

Rising

 I attended a lovely church service last night, an Easter vigil, held outdoors with a fire pit, candles and unusual readings, including a singing of the spiritual "Go Down Moses," in place of the Old Testament reading from Exodus.

Of course, as in any Easter service, a good part of the theme was "rising". And that got me to thinking today about our current situation. Are we rising, as a community, as a nation, as a world? In many ways, I think we are--we are rising, slowly and in fits and starts, from a pandemic; we are rising from a political morass of lies, corruption, and partisan stagnation; we are rising from a world of international distrust.

But, in other ways, we may be sinking. Sinking into a feeling that only those who believe as we do (politically, religiously, ethically) are men and women of good will; sinking into a world divided by wealth and poverty.

My hope is that we can rise above that sinking into a dawn of nationwide and worldwide resurrection.

Happy Easter!

Seasoning Humanity

 Every religion has festivals and holidays tied to the seasons. For Judaism, it begins in the fall with Rosh Hashana (New Year) and Yom Kippur coming right around the autumnal equinox. Then comes Chanukah, at the winter solstice and Passover at the vernal equinox. In late spring, just before the summer solstice is Shavuot.

For Christianity, it starts with Christmas, just after the winter solstice, followed by Easter at the vernal equinox, Pentecost in late spring, and All Saint's Day just after the autumnal equinox.

We began as hunter-gatherer and agrarian people, to whom the seasons were important because of changes in the available food. Now the seasons mark our other activities--sports, vacations, school. We are a seasonal animal, as much as birds, insects, and other mammals.

Two Films to Miss

 What's the worst movie you've ever seen? I'm not talking about the acknowledged disasters, like Plan Nine from Outer Space or even Reefer Madness. I'm talking about a movie made by people with respectable resumes and careers, that had reasonable budgets (i.e., not made on a shoestring), and that the filmmakers obviously intended to be successful?

For me, it has long been and remains Superman III, with Christopher Reeve, Richard Pryor, and Robert Vaughan. I should point out that I saw it at a press screening during the time I was writing regularly for Starlog. I have always joked that it was movie I saw for free and still paid too much. I have steadfastly refused to ever see it again.

Second place would have to go to Ken Russell's abominable attempt to make a movie from Sandy Wilson's musical The Boy Friend, starring Twiggy in the role originated on stage by Julie Andrews (yes, you read that right). I also saw this at a press screening when I was in college, working for the campus radio station. What's wrong with it? Virtually everything--casting, tone (Russell took a light-hearted retro romp and turned it into a dark "behind-the-scenes" story), jettisoned all the best songs (or reduced them to a verse and a chorus, often performed while other action was taking the forefront), and filmed it all in cinema-verite style. Another film I have never made any attempt to see again (and I love musicals!).

April Fools

 No, no pranks...but a brief comment on the nature of the foolish things being said and done politically right now.

Top of the list: The Georgia legislature and governor--in the long run, this attempt to protect Republican domination of state government there can only result in damage to the state's economy and reputation. 

Next is the defense in the Derek Chauvin trial in Minneapolis. So far, their plan seems to be to discredit the various eyewitnesses who are testifying. Such discrediting can work when the only record of events is the testimony of those witnesses...but we have multiple video records of the incident, from multiple vantage points and angles, and so far, the witnesses' descriptions all seem to agree with that video evidence.

Third is Matt Gaetz. The Justice Department probe into his relationship with a teen-age girl began under a Republican administration; it's hard to see how he can possibly decry it as a partisan campaign.

Last is those trying, somehow, to make the behavior of the Bidens' dogs into a cause celebre. Really? The best you can come up with is that one of them has harmlessly nipped at a few ankles and one of them (we don't know which) had an accident on the White House floor? I doubt any of this will make the complainers popular with a dog-loving American public.