Broadway and Vax

 Here's an important piece of news for anyone with an interest in theater:

Theatregoers eager to return to Broadway will need to show proof of full vaccination against COVID-19 before the curtain rises. The Broadway League, the trade association representing producers, theatre owners, and more, announced that all 41 Broadway venues will require vaccines for audience members. Masks will also be required inside the theatre, per current CDC recommendations in the wake of the Delta variant.

The news follows the release of safety procedures made in agreement between the League and Actors’ Equity, the union representing stage performers and stage managers. Those protocols include, among others, that companies are “Fully Vaccinated.”

https://www.playbill.com/article/broadway-will-require-covid-vaccines-for-audiences 

 Now my next question for anyone running local professional or community theaters: If the Broadway League, whose members have a high stake risk in the profitability of their productions, can make this requirement, why can't you?

Olympian Reaction

 "Walk it off."

"Get your head in the game."

"She let the side (team, country) down."

If I hear one more comment such as those about Simone Biles, I swear I will hit the person who says it. I have to wonder how these people would react if Biles had competed and suffered a career-ending or, worse, life-ending injury. Would it have been "Those are the breaks"? Or would they then be saying Biles should have known she was in no shape to compete? Some people want it both ways.

I think it's noteworthy that I have not seen one Olympic champion, past or present, suggest that she was wrong to make the choice she did.

Return to Theater update

The read-thru for A Few Good Men has been postponed to August 8th. More at that time.

Return to Theater

 Later today I am attending the read-through for a production of A Few Good Men, the first stage work I will have done since February of 2020, save for a one-time outdoor show last fall. Not sure what I'm doing for this one (as the show is already cast), but the director asked me to come by.

More in a later post.

Is Vaccine Hesitancy Driven by Bigotry?

 I may take some flack for this, but it's been on my mind for a while.

I wonder if some part of the vaccine reluctance among the conservative population--particularly the rabid Trump supporters--is that a significant number of the experts (both governmental and private) are people of color. The Surgeon General is of South Asian heritage, as are quite a few of the medical experts frequently interviewed on the TV news. Although she is not a person of color, the head of the CDC is a woman and Jewish.

Is that enough to make some portion of the right-wing populace discount what they say? These are people who disparaged a previous president simply for his family heritage and who consider the current vice-president illegitimate, in part because of her background and gender (not to mention their attitude toward the Congressional representatives they call "the Squad").

I fear it may be.

Back to Work--Or Not

 I retired just over a year ago--in the middle of the pandemic--so this doesn't affect me directly, but it's interesting to read the many speculations on why hiring people has become so problematic in recent months.

You'll hear that unemployment payments are too high, that wages are too low, that people are still concerned about the virus, that they do not have reliable child-care. I suspect that, depending on the individual and the job, any one of those might be the reason. On the other hand, if an extra $300 a week in unemployment pay is enough to keep people from taking a job with your company, maybe you were never paying a sufficient salary in the first place. If your prospective employees are still concerned about getting sick, maybe your workplace precautions are not good enough...or maybe you should be looking at what you offer in terms of health insurance. And if child-care is an issue for a sufficient number of your applicants, either you should be thinking about offering flex-time, or expanding the pool of candidates into people for whom that won't matter.

Just a few thoughts.

Space Flight and Business

 Fifty-two years ago, man first landed on the moon. If you want some idea of the scale of that accomplishment, remember that man first flew in a heavier-than-air vehicle just 66 years before that, and commercial aviation began only about 40 years earlier. The first manned spaceflight was in 1961. 

And today, there are people complaining about three very rich men who are once again planning to make spaceflight a regular occurrence, with plans for a return to the moon and eventually land on Mars. "Why aren't these billionaires using their money to solve world hunger, or homelessness, or climate change or whatever major problem is at the top of their list?" these people ask. Of course, the solutions to those problems are infinitely (and I mean that literally, infinitely) more complex than simply being able to reach escape and orbital velocity. They require cooperation among national governments, aid organizations, and massive bureaucracies. Merely throwing money at these problems will not result in them going away.

Richard Branson, Jeff Bezos, and Elon Musk are not statesmen or diplomats; they are very very wealthy businessmen. And, as I have frequently noted in conversations with friends and acquaintances. their wealth is not like that of Scrooge McDuck. It does not consist of a huge vault filled with coins and paper money, in which they can go swimming for amusement. It is in the form of investments in their own companies and others. To access it in the way these people would like would require the dismantling of those businesses, probably putting a significant number of their employees out of work.

Even when the government broke up the big trusts of the early 20th century--Standard Oil, US Steel--it did not insist that the owners give away their fortunes. It simply required that the wealth be spread around to other businessmen to foster competition. If that's what you wish, then say so.

Hot Hot Hot

 I'm not saying my area is experiencing anything like the devastating heat on the Pacific Coast, but here's a little factoid for you. According to the meteorologists on the local TV stations, in a normal year, the Philadelphia region gets (on average) 30 days with temperatures of 90 degrees Fahrenheit or above in the period between June 1 and September 30. This year, as of today, we have already had 20 such days!

We're only six weeks into a 16-week period...and we're at two-thirds of the "average" number of "hot" days. Most of those days have been in high end of the spectrum, too--not just 90 or 91, but 95 or 96--and with a humidity that makes it feel like it's above 100!

Fortunately, so far our power grid seems to be keeping up with demand...but for how long?

Interesting TV

 I'm going to use this space today to recommend two TV series, both available on streaming services in the US.

The first is Staged, a BBC comedy starring David Tennant and Michael Sheen, playing versions of themselves. The first season takes place during the pandemic lockdown, as Tennant and Sheen attempt to put together a production of Six Characters in Search of an Author. The second season follows as their director, Simon Evans, tries to mount a live production on stage of Staged itself. I've only seen the first few episodes of season one, but it's very funny and largely improvised.  The series is available on Amazon Prime, Hulu, Apple TV, and Youtube.

The second series is Leverage: Redemption, a continuation/reboot of the series that ran on TNT several seasons ago. All of the regular characters are back--Sophie, Hardison, Parker, Eliot--except for leader Nate Ford, who has died since the end of the previous series. (Timothy Hutton, who played Nate, was not invited back after allegations of sexual harassment, apparently.) New characters are Harry Wilson (Noah Wylie), a corrupt attorney trying to earn redemption (hence the title) and Breanna Casey (Aleyse Shannon), Hardison's foster sister, who is almost as good with computers as he is--and more updated with modern social media, etc. The first eight episodes are currently available for streaming on IMdbTV, with another eight planned to be dropped in the fall. If you were a fan of the original, I think you'll be pleased, as the writing is still as sharp and witty as it always was.

The Problem with CRT...

 ...and, no, I don't mean "cathode ray tube".

For the first time in many years, I attended a meeting of my local school board, because some postings on social media suggested there would be a challenge during the public comments on "critical race theory." I wanted to be there to see just how much fuss would be made and how the board and other administrators would respond.

Well, it turns out there was only one person who brought it up, asking if CRT and/or "white fragility" were or would be part of the curriculum. The very smart superintendent stopped the discussion with three sentences (I'm paraphrasing here): "Our curriculum is based on material approved by the state education department. The state education department has not approved CRT as part of the curriculum at any level. Therefore, it is not and will not be part of our curriculum." The questioner sat back down.

After the meeting, I spoke with the superintendent, with whom I have been friends since the time my kids attended school. I said to her, "I'd put $100 down on the fact that the questioner couldn't define 'critical race theory' if you asked him to." She agreed, saying it was obvious he was following a script he'd found on social media. "CRT is a college-  and law-school-level subject, completely inapplicable to elementary and high-school courses," she said.

That is the problem with this whole controversy--it is being fanned into flames by people who don't understand the terms riling up people who have even less understanding of them.

Sunday Blues

 I'm old enough to remember a time when most retail businesses were closed on Sundays--or, at least, were only open for part of the day.

Right through the time I was in college (I graduated in 1974), major retailers--supermarkets, department stores, etc.--closed at about 6 PM Saturday night and didn't reopen until Monday morning. Smaller local shops--Mom 'n' Pops, as we called them--might be open for a half day on Sunday, in order to supply last-minute items to their customers. Usually, if they sold coffee and newspapers, they'd open early on Sunday (say about 6 AM) and close by 1 PM; if they sold alcohol--bars, some small groceries--they'd open around 1 PM (in New York, where I grew up, it was illegal to sell alcohol before 1 PM on a Sunday).

These were called the "blue laws". The term likely derives from the same source as the word "blue-stocking" for an overly religious person.

While I have times when I appreciate the ability to shop on Sundays, I also think those hours could be restricted more than they are currently. Is Sunday really the only day you can go buy clothes--especially when most clothing stores are now open to 9 or 10 PM on weekdays? I say this not from any religious stance, but just from the idea that one day a week without retail business is a good idea.

Let's Sing About Friday....Or Not

 There are many songs about other days of the week--"Monday, Monday," "Saturday Night's All Right," "Ruby Tuesday," "Sunday Morning Coming Down," "Wednesday Morning, 3 AM," even "Thursday's Child"...but few about Friday that I could find and other than the ubiquitous "TGIF" none that treat it like something to celebrate. 

We need a happy Friday song--any suggestions?

Hot or Cold?

 Which bothers you more--extreme heat or extreme cold?

I'd have to say extreme heat, such as we are experiencing right now in my area. In extreme cold, I can always put on more layers, or snuggle in the blankets, or turn up the heat, without risking that I am overtaxing the power grid. In extreme heat, I can't go any further than naked...and even that won't necessarily be a relief. And I cannot really spend the entire day in air conditioning and, even if I did, it stresses both my own system and the area's power supply.

I'd be happy to live somewhere that the average temperature ran from 75 degrees (Fahrenheit) in summer to 40 degrees in winter, on average. Sure, there might be occasional days when it hit 85 in summer and the nights when it got below freezing in winter, but those can be dealt with.

I'd just like to live in a temperate climate that was really temperate.

Summer is Icumen In

 We have reached the one time of year when our yard is truly pretty--when our Rose of Sharon is in bloom. It usually pops right before July Fourth and it will stay in bloom through September. For those unfamiliar with the plant, the trumpet-like flowers close up at night and re-open at dawn. And, no, it doesn't produce two different colors (white and purple) on the same plant. When we moved in, we had one white Rose of Sharon in the front yard and one purple one in the back. Over the past 20 years or so, through wind and avian propagation, we now have a mix of both in both places.

Rose of Sharon is very prolific and its seeds will germinate and grow without actual planting; just landing on fertile ground is sufficient. In fact, have a couple of them we have to keep cutting down because we don't want them where they are.

FTR, the scientific description is

• Hibiscus syriacus, a deciduous flowering shrub native to east Asia, and the national flower of South Korea (also known as "Mugunghwa")^[13]

Reefer Madness?

So, the US Anti-Doping Agency says marijuana is a performance-enhancing drug. I've never used the stuff myself, but from the reactions I've seen in those who do and have, I somehow doubt that--especially when it comes to sports like track, where speed is the most important factor.

Never seen anybody's reaction time or body movement get faster after taking marijuana. Generally, they seem to get lazy, lethargic and sleepy.That doesn't seem like a reaction you want in a runner.

Why do I have the feeling this is all just a left-over from the days of "Reefer Madness"?

Why July to Me?

 Sorry, couldn't resist the wordplay!

One year ago today, we were lamenting the loss of Independence Day fireworks to the pandemic, and wondering if we would be out of the woods in time for Labor Day. Well, we know how that turned out. Today, in most communities, we are looking forward to a relatively normal July Fourth--provided we are vaccinated--with socially distanced fireworks displays and even parades in some places. And it looks like things will be even better by Labor Day.

Oddly enough, the places least likely to be able to safely celebrate Independence Day are in the sections of the country who would normally be making the biggest patriotic fuss...and all because their "conservative" mindset has them rejecting the sound advice from medical science about masks and vaccines.

Does demonstrating your "independence" that way make any sense?