Isolation Booth Debate

 Yesterday, I suggested that last night's debate might resemble scenes from a Marx Brothers movie. Turns out I chose the wrong comedy troupe for comparison: It was more like a Three Stooges short in which the director had lost all control and Moe continued to wreak violence on his partners long after the director called "Cut".

But it gave me an idea for the next two debates. If you're of the right age, you'll remember this (or if you're younger, you'll have seen it in the movie Quiz Show):

Those sorts of "isolation booths" were common on the quiz shows of the 1950s. On some of them, the contestant's mikes were not only cut when it wasn't their turn, the lights were turned off or turned down at that time as well.

I suggest that as a way to control the kind of disruptive behavior engaged in by President Trump last night. And I suggest making it automated: "Each candidate will have two minutes to respond to a question. At one minute and 45 seconds, they will be given a signal to begin wrapping up. At two minutes, the mike will cut off and the lights will dim." Why dim the lights? So the candidates cannot try to distract from their opponent's remarks with faces and gestures.

There should be no "open discussion." That merely turns into a shouting match, especially with this President. Instead, after each candidate has had his two minutes to answer a question, the opponent (who has been able to hear the answer) has 30 seconds to formulate a question (again with an automatic cut-off, so it can't be used as soapbox) and the other candidate gets 90 seconds to respond, automatically cut off as before.

Will either side, especially Trump, agree to such conditions? Probably not--but if the proposal is made and they refuse, it says a lot about how they view the debates, doesn't it?

The Duck Soup Debate

 Why do I have the feeling a certain amount of tonight's presidential debate will sound like these two exchanges from the Marx Brothers' masterpiece, Duck Soup?

Minister: "We need to take up the tax." 

Groucho: "I'd like to take up the carpet." 

Minister: "I still insist we take up the tax." 

Groucho: "He's right - you've gotta take up the tacks before you can take up the carpet."

Or

Prosecutor: Something must be done. War would meant a prohibitive increase in our taxes.

Chicolini: Hey, I've got an uncle that lives in Taxes.

Prosecutor: No, I'm talking about taxes. Money. Dollars.

Chicolini: Dollas! There's-a where my uncle lives! Dollas, Taxes!

 You take your choice as to which candidate is playing which part in those scenes.

Return to Theater?

 This past Saturday, I participated in my first theater production since February. Two friends, Jess Stinson and Natalie Lythgoe, organized a small group to present a staged reading of a one-act play on the front-yard patio of Jess's home. A small audience of invited friends watched from the lawn, socially distanced and masked.

For those unfamiliar with the term, a staged reading means the cast went on with scripts in hand, limited props and set and virtually no technical effects such as lights and sound. We in the cast did not wear masks (except in rehearsal) and obviously could not socially distance, but we all reported as asymptomatic and had our temps taken before the show.

The performance seemed to be appreciated by the audience, who were probably as starved for entertainment as we who performed were starved for the opportunity to show our craft.

This weekend, another local group held their "Parking Lot Theater," performing a series of skits outdoors   as well. October is probably the last month this kind of thing will be possible, as weather conditions and diminishing daylight make outside rehearsals and performances increasingly difficult.

Some local community theaters have announced plans to resume their schedules in January. Though I think that's optimistic, I hold out hope.

Faith in the Voting Booth

 It's Sunday, so I guess a little discussion of religion and political is not out of order.

I am a practicing Episcopalian, who was a practicing Roman Catholic until his college years. From about my mid-20s until shortly after the birth of our first child, I remained a Christian in faith but I was, as the current phrase puts it, "unchurched." My wife and I began attending our local Episcopal parish then and I was "accepted" into that denomination a year or so later.

So, how does my faith affect my politics? On reflection, I would say surprisingly little. The religion (or lack thereof) of a candidate has had very little bearing on my support for him or her, except when I view hypocrisy on their part. Don't tell me you're a "good Christian" when you have repeatedly cheated on your spouse. Don't tell me you're "pro-life" and then support capital punishment. Don't tell me how much your faith means to you if you can't quote a single thing from the Bible or the Torah (not even the opening lines of the 23rd Psalm or a couple of the Beatitudes--or worse, you don't know what "Beatitudes" means) or you haven't been inside a house of worship for other than weddings or funerals in years.

How do I think their faith should affect how a sitting politician votes? I would never tell someone they should ignore what their religious beliefs say....but, on the other hand, when those beliefs conflict with the law of the land, their oath to uphold those laws and the Constitution should be supreme. (Otherwise, in my opinion, they are violating the Commandment against false swearing.) If you cannot reconcile that conflict, then resign. 

I would appreciate any comments.

SCOTUS Nominations Used to Be More Civil

 Thirty-eight days. That's how long we have until election day. President Trump will name his Supreme Court pick today. In 2016, President Obama named Merrick Garland with seven-and-a-half months (on March 16) until election day...and Mitch McConnell said that was too close to election day and that we should wait until the people chose a new president to confirm that choice. He refused to even hold hearings, let alone allow a vote. (Given the political atmosphere, Garland probably would not have been confirmed anyway, but he deserved to be heard.)

Yet, today, Mitch McConnell is promising a vote on Trump's pick before November 3...and claims it's a different situation, because now the White House and the Senate are controlled by the same party. In other words, timing never had anything to do with it...it was always about party. Chances are, if Obama had had the opportunity to name another justice in 2015, McConnell would have held up that one, too.  (I note that Obama's two successful nominations were made in 2009 and 2010, when the Democrats controlled the Senate.)

I remember when court nominations, though there may have been controversy over specific policies and decisions--such as civil rights, voting, campaign financing--were not fought along party lines. Even in the highly contentious Nixon era, nominees were confirmed by wide majorities, often nearly unanimously...because it was seen that a president, even Richard Nixon, would choose nominees who were largely centrist, despite leanings in one direction or the other.

I long for a return to such civility.

Death of a Republic

 The Roman Republic died when the men they elected to head the government in times of peril used the powers they were given to restore order instead to simply maintain their own positions. It began with Sulla and then moved on through the First Triumvirate (Julius Caesar, Pompey, Crassus), Caesar alone, the Second Triumvirate (Antony, Octavian, Lepidus) and finally Octavian alone as Caesar Augustus.

Is our own republic standing on the same precipice? Four years ago, did our electorate put a Sulla in charge, without quite realizing it? And now, having recognized the danger he poses, is their attempt to end his rule destined to fail because the very power they granted (or he seized with help from the Senate) protects him?

I hope not. 

Coming Up Empty

 For the first time since I began this blog on May 1, I find I have nothing to write about. It's not writer's block, per se, just that nothing seems important enough to fill this space.

You all know where I stand on the important political issues of our time, and nothing has occurred in the past 24 hours that I find noteworthy on any of them. Nothing inconsequential in the realms of science fiction, comics, or general entertainment has tickled my brain, either. On past days, when this occurred, I have struggled to find a suitable subject to expound upon, even if for only a couple of sentences. This morning, the struggle still left me empty.

After 146 posts, I suppose that's not unusual. I hope to have something to say tomorrow.

Bothered by Geography

 As I mentioned more than a few posts ago, I had been binge-reading the works of Rex Stout--the cases of master detective Nero Wolfe and his aide-de-camp, Archie Goodwin. Having finished the 46 titles Stout completed before his death, I began reading the novels by Robert Goldsborough, the writer authorized by Stout's family to continue the series.

In general, I have enjoyed Goldsborough's work; he manages to maintain Archie's "voice" as the narrator, come up with interesting plots in Stout's vein, and simultaneously keep the stories rooted in the time and place in which they were written, just as Stout did. (Although Stout never allowed Wolfe or Archie or any of their close associates to age, the world did change around them: The Dodgers and Giants moved west, the Mets became Archie's favored team, etc.)

But near the beginning of the sixth novel in the series, The Silver Spire, I was temporarily knocked out of the narrative by some clearly invented geography. As most of you know, I was born and raised on Staten Island in New York City. This novel revolves around a mega-church supposedly located on the Island. No such church has ever existed, but neither does Wolfe's brownstone (the address generally given for it would place in the middle of the Hudson River). No, the problem is where on the Island Goldsborough put it--a 20-minute walk from the ferry terminal, in the hills of St. George and New Brighton.

Here's a slightly edited version of Archie's description of his trip from the ferry to the church:

After consulting the directions, I got myself squared away, heading south up Schuyler Street—and I do mean up. 

If I ever knew how hilly the island was, I’d long since forgotten. In ten minutes, I was out of—and above—the small business district and into tree-shaded residential blocks….I followed winding streets, all of which ran uphill, until, breathing hard, I reached a large open area that was level. In the center of this clearing, at least a block away, stood the Tabernacle of the Silver Spire…. 

….The clearing turned out to a parking lot—acres of blacktop, crisscrossed with yellow lines…

 And here's a map of the area, with Archie's presumed path marked. Unsure of which direction he would have turned on reaching the end of Schuyler Street, I indicated two different paths, one in red, the other in blue.

If you want a better look, here's a link to the map on line. There's no appropriate large flat area anywhere around, except for the grounds of Curtis High School--which, I assure you, have never been replaced by anything else.

Now, if Goldborough had put his mega-church somewhere on what the natives call the "South Shore"--that is somewhere south of the Staten Island Expressway, I-278--that would have worked. There's lots of flat open space down there...and there was even more in the time when the book was written, some 30 years ago. But I guess he didn't want to have Archie have to bother with Staten Island's bus routes, or trying to get a cab or the like. Of course, Archie could have driven over the Verrazzano Bridge...but that would have removed the quaint charm of the ferry ride and the hilly walk through the oldest part of the Island. (Later in the book, when Archie has to get Wolfe to the church, they do take the car.)

Anyway, I got past the problem by simply ignoring for the rest of the story where the church was supposed to be...as it doesn't seem to matter much to the resolution of the mystery.

It Isn't All About One Issue

 How do you choose who to vote for? Are you an "one-issue" voter? Is there a single cause or principle that a candidate must support to get your vote? Abortion (pro or con)? Second Amendment (pro or con)? Health care? Education?

I'm not a one-issue voter. All the things I mentioned in the last paragraph, and many others, are important to me...but no one of them is a deal-breaker. For one thing, I have found that someone who agrees with me on most of them probably agrees with me on the others, even if he or she hasn't campaigned on that issue. And even if the candidate takes a position on one of them that I oppose, well--that's just one vote on one issue. I would be cutting off my nose to spite my face if I let that one disagreement keep me from supporting someone who agreed with me on everything else.

And even if the candidate's position isn't precisely the same as mine--he/she prefers a single-payer health-care system while I think a public option among other options is a better way to go, for instance--it's still preferable to vote for someone who is close to my point of view than to not vote at all.

You see, that's the problem: If not having a perfect candidate means you won't support a good candidate--or support some "perfect" third-party person who has a snowball's chance in hell of winning--then you're giving up. You're throwing in the towel. I might even say you're throwing a tantrum: "If I can't have everything I want, I don't want anything at all!"

Don't retreat to your corner and pout because your "perfect" candidate isn't running. That's like going hungry because Mom made spaghetti when you wanted lasagna. Accept the compromise--that's ultimately what governing is all about.

Virtual Awards?

 I only watched the first hour of the Emmy Award broadcast last night, but even that led to some questions:

Going in I thought, well, without the need to have winners walk their way to the stage, exchange greeting with the presenters and have their awards brought to them...and then to be "played off" after their acceptance speeches, this should move a lot faster than normal. But it didn't. My wife thought they were giving the winners more time for their speeches than usual, and perhaps they were. Still, I've seen grade school assembly programs with more energy.

And I had a question about security: Many of the statues were actually presented to the winners in their distant locations...including to the Schitts' Creek crew in Toronto. In order to that, the people handing them the awards had to be "on location" already...and that means someone other than the accountants charged with the vote counting had to know ahead of the envelope opening who the winner was...and, in terms of being somewhere like Toronto, possibly as much as 24 hours before. Were all those people bonded? Sworn to secrecy? "Honey, I have to fly to Toronto with a bunch of Emmy statues..." That didn't raise questions in someone's mind?

Finally, what's the point? I realize ABC has a contract with the TV Academy to broadcast the ceremony and there's money involved. But it seems to me the whole thing could have been done in about 90 minutes.

One last thing: Didn't someone realize the pandemic/lock-down gags would get old in about 15 minutes?

Ridley Marches for Justice

 Posting a bit late today:

Yesterday afternoon, there was a second Black Lives Matter march in my hometown of Ridley Township in PA. Unlike the march in early August, this one was peaceful, thanks in large part to a far more visible police presence. I didn't march but, because I live just a few doors from the end of the march at the township building, I went to observe.

I'd guess there were about 200 marchers; I can't estimate the number of counter-protesters, because they were clumped in little groups or strung out along the barricades set to separate them from the marchers. As in last month's events, the counter-protesters were vocal and, in many cases, abusive. It also seemed that, this time, they acted more like a Trump rally than a police-support group. (See the pictures below.)

The police I saw were polite and, indeed, very protective of the marchers. When one counter-protester near me began to hurl invective, one of the cops told him to knock it off. "That's what instigates violence," he told the heckler. "We want this to be peaceful."

There are times when I am both proud of and ashamed of my neighbors. In many ways, this was one of them.

Hoping Against Hope

 One of the worst fears of all progressives happened last night: Ruth Bader Ginsburg died and Donald Trump gets his chance to replace her on the Supreme Court and remake the nation further in his own anti-democratic, anti-constitutional image.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has already announced--before RBG's body is in the ground and her family has been able to sit shiva--that he will push through any confirmation before the end of the year and preferably before the election, in other words in just under six weeks. The only sure way to prevent that is for four Republican Senators to step up and act on principle and conscience and not on party loyalty.

You will remember that, in 2016, McConnell refused to even hold hearings, let alone a vote, on President Obama's nominee to replace Justice Scalia, holding that, in an election year, "the people" ought to get to vote before a nomination was confirmed. Now, with essentially the same circumstances (and, indeed, even closer to the election), McConnell is rushing to prevent exactly the situation he preferred four years ago.

The GOP has a three-vote majority in the Senate. If four Republicans refuse to confirm, then McConnell and Trump's plan fails. (Three won't do--that would be a tie to be decided by Vice-President Pence...and we all know how he would vote.) Alaska's Lisa Murkowski has already said she will not confirm a nominee until at least after the election; Maine's Susan Collins is said to leaning that way; Utah's Mitt Romney, known to be completely at odds with Trump, has not said anything but is likely to vote "no" as well. 

So, who is a likely fourth GOP defector? Any thoughts?

What Makes Me Feel "Old"

 At the age of 68, I generally do not feel "old". I still move pretty well, my aches and pains are few. I have some health problems, but none of them are disabling.

I feel old when I find out that some celebrity of my youth has died (the latest was Dame Diana Rigg) or that someone of that era has passed a milestone birthday (I dread the day Betty White turns 100, though I hope she gets there). I am often surprised to discover or realize that people I once thought of as young are or were older than I imagined. (I recently discovered that Honor Blackman--of The Avengers and Goldfinger--would be just two years younger than my mother if both were still alive.) I first saw actress Diane Lane as a pre-teen in the film A Little Romance in 1979 (memorable because I saw it on a plane flying to London for the World Science Fiction Convention)...she is now 55 years old. I was enamored of Annette Bening in The American President in 1995...first of all, I'm shocked to realize that film is 25 years old, and further shocked to realize that Bening is 62 now!

What makes you feel "old"?

Political Opinions from Celebities

 A frequent complaint: "I don't watch sports or award shows or talk shows to hear players or actors or singers comment on politics. Keep your political opinions to yourself."

Of course, most of the time, this is only said when the celebrity has expressed an opinion the speaker doesn't agree with. And, I have to say, it more often comes from the conservative side of the political aisle. And, of course, you didn't hear that when Charlton Heston was spouting about prying his gun from his "cold, dead hand" or Ted Nugent is talking about hunting down liberals. Then what you get is a full-throated defense of the First Amendment right to free speech.

There's an equally frequent complaint about political speech on college campuses--that right-wing opinions are regularly shut down and left-wing opinions welcomed and celebrated. It has seemed to me that the real difference is between those (of any political stripe) who respect diversity and those who see any deviation from long-standing practice as heresy. Or between those who see the opposition as principled people with differing viewpoints and those who see it as simply "the enemy." And if you view your opposition as "the enemy," it's hard to fault them when they react in kind.

I don't have political enemies; I have people who I disagree with, for the most part. They only become my foes when they seek to silence me or ridicule me or slander me.

High School Sports in the Time of Covid

In this morning's edition of my local paper, the high school sports reporter and columnist argued that the area school districts should reverse their decisions and allow sports to be played this season. He said, in part

`...there is enough evidence to suggest that putting teenagers back on the field can be done safely, provided everyone is following CDC guidelines and, frankly, not being stupid.

It does require cooperation from every high school athlete, coach and staff member to ensure he health and safety of everyone involved. That includes high school athletes being extra mindful of one's family, friends and community.

(I hesitate to say this, but I suspect part of what motivates the writer is his own livelihood. If high schools do not play sports, what will he have to write about it?)

At any rate, I wrote a letter to the editor in response and I post it here. I have redacted the columnist's name for use here.

To the editor:

Regarding his column on Wednesday, September 16, is [the columnist] Matt Smith completely unaware of what has happened on college campuses across the country in the past month? Has he not read of the surges in corona virus cases caused by young people ignoring the rules set down by their administrations and local authorities? What makes him think that 15-to-18-year-olds will be any more careful than their older brothers, sisters, and cousins?

Is he also unaware of the virus cases that have arisen in the professional sports that have returned to play? If baseball players whose livelihood depends on being able to continue to operate in a safe, healthy environment cannot remain infection-free, what makes him believe high schoolers will be any different?

What's more, any infection that occurs within a high school football, soccer, or whatever team will not remain isolated to that team. Those student athletes attend classes with non-athletes, return home to their parents, grandparents and siblings, and, of course, will pass on the infections to the teams they compete against.

[The columnist] is living in a fool's paradise if he believes high school sports can be played safely in the current environment.

I'm very interested in anyone else's thoughts.

 

The First Thing I'll Do....

What's the first thing you want to do when you're sure it's safe, post-pandemic? What have you missed most in the past six months and will be most eager to return to?

For me, it's theater--either going to see a live performance or performing or directing in one. Mostly, I miss all the people I work with, the lively, talented, mostly amateur actors, directors, and stage crew that make working in community theater in this area such a delight.

So the first thing I will do is go see a show--even if no one I know is involved. The mere experience of seeing a live performance surrounded by other people is like nothing else in life...20, 50, 100 people, most of whom do not know each other, laughing, crying and applauding--reacting to the same stimuli all at the same time.

What's the first thing you'll do?

"Make Sure the Hurricane is On Time"

Dumb things heard on TV:

This morning, as she discussed the weather in the Gulf of Mexico, the local CBS weather person said: "We're keeping an eye on Tropical Storm Sally, which is scheduled to become a hurricane before it makes landfall...."

Yes, indeed, we're scheduling our weather disasters now, because we don't want them piling up on us all at once. "Hey, guys, be sure Sally meets the schedule to become a hurricane at 3:20, OK? We don't want it to be late and have it overlap with our coverage of the fires in California."

Filling the New TV Gap with the Old

Let's get a little less serious today.

In normal times, a new TV season would be about to begin...with old series returning with new episodes and new series premiering, hoping to last long enough to become old series. But the entertainment industry shut down production in March and has stayed largely inactive during the period when new TV production would have begun in the summer. So there's very little new to show yet.

Still, the networks--both broadcast and cable have hours and hours of time to fill. A thought occurred to me--what if they filled it by running shows from the past that didn't get the audiences they deserved?

Here are some of my thoughts on series that might find a viewership today:

Hec Ramsey: The adventures of Hec Ramsey, a turn-of-the-20th-century detective who prefers to use his brains instead of his guns. It starred Richard Boone in the title role, with Rick Lenz and Harry Morgan in supporting roles. Ramsey used the just-developing sciences of forensics to solve crimes. There were ten 90-minute episodes that originally ran as part of the NBC Sunday Mystery Movie in 1972 and '73.

Q.E.D.: In 1912, Quentin E. Deverill, an eccentric expatriate American professor, uses his unique skills to solve mysteries in London. Sam Waterston starred with British character actor George Innes. There were just six episodes that ran as a summer replacement in 1982.

The New Perry Mason: An attempt at a revival of the series that starred Raymond Burr, with Monte Markham as the famed lawyer, Sharon Acker as Della Street, Albert Stratton as Paul Drake, Harry Guardino as Hamilton Burger, and Dane Clark as Lt. Tragg. Fifteen episodes ran in 1973. It was generally seen as a failure back then, but I suspect it might get a warmer reception today.

Finally, in memory of the recently departed:

Diana: After a divorce, beautiful Brit Diana Smythe (Dame Diana Rigg) decides to begin a new life by moving from London to New York City and starting a new career as a fashion coordinator at a Fifth Avenue department store. Clearly in the mode of the very successful Mary Tyler Moore, the series lasted just 15 episodes in 1973.

Those are my choices, off the top of my head. What are yours?

A Surfeit of Memorials--2

I hadn't intended to give two days to this topic, but this morning's newspaper spurred me to write an addendum.

This morning our local paper, the Delaware County Daily Times, devoted five full pages (not counting the front page) to covering the local 9/11 memorials. That was virtually its entire "news hole," as the journalistic usage goes. I find it hard to believe that, in a county of more than 500,000, nothing else of note occurred in the past 24 hours--no fires, no crimes of any kind, no political activity at all? I should also point out that the Daily Times also runs news about neighboring areas--Philadelphia, Chester and Montgomery counties, even the state of Delaware--there was nothing newsworthy in any of those areas on September 11, 2020?

This is what I mean when talk about a "surfeit of memorials."

A Surfeit of Memorials

This is, to some extent, a repost of something I wrote on Facebook exactly one year ago.

I'm about to post something that I suspect is going to get me a lot of flack.

Is it time to stop obsessing over the anniversaries of 9/11? Yes, it should not be forgotten, but must we make a fetish of its commemoration? I was 9 years old on the 20th anniversary of Pearl Harbor...and I do not recall TV broadcasts interrupting their schedules to show the memorial services in Hawaii. They were featured on the evening news, but not presented as a special event. I do not recall my mother and father making a big deal of the date.

When do we reach a point where we can say, "Yes, this happened--it was tragic, it was disastrous, it changed the way we live our lives...but we cannot let it rule us forever"?

Update: I was surprised to see so much about 9/11 again today. In the midst of a pandemic that has killed many multiples of the dead from that date, I am surprised that it still rates this kind of coverage. Foreign terrorism of this kind is no longer a deadly threat to the United States. (To be honest, it really hasn't been for much of the past 19 years at all.) We now face a more political threat--attempts to interfere with our elections, to divide the nation in all sorts of ways, many of which seem to be instigated and/or supported by people in our own government.

Why do we obsess over this one foreign attack and seem so oblivious to the domestic threats that have been and continue to be far more dangerous and effective?

I Want to Laugh

Where's the funny on TV lately?

I've had "comedy" recommended to me, such as The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, but I find it more sad than amusing. I've enjoyed Star Trek: Lower Decks, but more for the in-jokes than for any really good comedic writing or acting. The last comedy series I really enjoyed was The Big Bang Theory. Repetitive as it got in its final seasons, it always featured sharp jokes, characters you could like, and actors with range. Avenue 5 was fun and I await its second season.

Has the ability to tell a funny story in 30 minutes or less disappeared? Must everything be "bitter-sweet"? Or "dramedy"? For that matter, why is the only sketch comedy on TV Saturday Night Live?

I want to laugh!

Context Is Everything

As I read about the various recent controversies surrounding the pandemic, it has become clear that too many people simply do not understand the importance of context.

Example: There's been a flurry of complaints from Philadelphia residents and especially Philly restaurant and bar owners over a photo of Mayor Jim Kenney dining indoors while he was visiting Maryland's Eastern Shore a few weeks ago...during a time when Kenney said it was unsafe to have indoor dining in Philadelphia. "If it's unsafe, why could you do it?" was the question, calling the mayor out for hypocrisy.

Context: Just because conditions make it unsafe to dine indoors in a dense urban environment like Philadelphia doesn't mean those same conditions prevail at Maryland's very rural Eastern Shore. Philly has 145,000 cases of C-19 and nearly 8,000 deaths. While I could not find data for the entire Eastern Shore, Worcester County's case count is under 700.

I realize that educating people about such things can be difficult, but I would have thought that Philly restaurant owners would be very aware of how different their business model and clientele are from that of Maryland's Eastern Shore eateries.

More on Mandatory Vaccines

Back in June, I suggested that when a proven C-19 vaccine is available, it should be made mandatory.

Now, with controversy over President Trump's "prediction" (more like an absurd political wish-dream) that it will be ready before Election Day, there are people saying they certainly will not get it then (neither will I), and some say they will never believe it is safe. That got me to thinking of an experience from my childhood.

When I was in, I think, fifth grade, the Sabin oral polio vaccine was approved and became widely available. I remember virtually every child in my New York City public school lining up in the nurse's office, where she put a drop of the vaccine on a sugar cube and popped it into our mouths. I'm pretty sure it was mandatory; there may have been what we call now an "opt-out" provision for those with religious or health concerns, but I don't recall anyone in my class not taking the vaccine. (There might have been a few Christian Scientists in my Staten Island neighborhood, but I wasn't aware of any.)

I do not see why the same protocols could not be used in the current situation. While COVID is not as deadly or as debilitating as polio, it is certainly more contagious. And it would need to be mandated in more than schools--as I said back in June, it ought to be a requirement to get a driver's license, a passport, or any other government document.

Your thoughts?

Local Theater Issues

As I met for the first time in months with some other local theater participants, we got to talking about what might be the problems in re-opening. The biggest issue, we decided, was space.

It's assumed that, when local community theaters re-open, they will be dealing with certain restrictions. First and foremost will be limited capacity and social distancing for audiences. While this will mean a reduction in revenue, it is not a physical problem. But the bigger problem will be space for casts and staff. Most of the theaters have very small backstage areas (in one I'm familiar with, having more than four people waiting to go on was a squeeze under normal circumstances). If the cast and crew have to social distance (even if the space between is reduced to three feet), it means a cast and crew of more than about eight people is probably impossible.

Dressing room and "green room" space will also be problematic. (For those unfamiliar with theatrical terms, the "green room" is the common area where cast can gather and await their cues before going to the wings.) Most of these theaters have shared dressing rooms--one room for men, one for women--and a green room that will hold perhaps 15 people comfortably in normal spacing.

Given all that, I suspect that large shows--major musicals, for instance--will be difficult to stage for the average community theater...if not impossible.

The future will be interesting.

Another Opening, Another Show

It seems as if community theater in my area is slowly showing life again, post lock-down.

One of the groups I've previously worked with is doing an outdoor version of its annual collection of short comedy skits ("the Quickies") which would normally have been produced back in June. Another is posting a series of recorded Shakespeare monologues on Facebook (look for "Spotlight on Shakespeare). I've done one of them--I'll let you know when it posts.

And a group of actors has come together independently to put on a staged reading of a short play in a home setting. And, yes, I'm involved in that, too. More details when we get closer to the performance date.

Uniform Candidates

A thought that came to me as I watching and reading about Trump's latest outrage. Many of his critics have noted that his comments on military men and women come from a men "who has never served in uniform." Now, I get that complaint, especially in regard to someone who used a specious thing like "bone spurs" to beat the draft and then suggested that anyone who couldn't find a way to avoid the Vietnam era draft was "stupid". (Full disclosure: I also avoided the draft on a medical issue, the result of a broken arm when I was five. But mine was discovered when I went in for my physical; I had no idea it would make me 4-F.)

But I am concerned that there are those--especially on the right wing--who seem to think military service is a prerequisite to sitting in the Oval Office. And, yes, a majority of our Presidents were in uniform. (26 out of 45, for the record). But there's nothing in the Constitution that says a President must have a military background...and if you think there should be, there's a remedy: amend the Constitution.

Personally, I prefer a candidate who did not serve...not because I think that's a bad thing...but because it means he probably sees every conflict through the eyes of a soldier--and especially if he was a high-ranking officer. I'd rather have a diplomat than a soldier as President--and, apparently, so did our founding fathers: three of the first five Presidents were Secretary of State.

Your thoughts?

Labor Day

 What does a three-day weekend look like in a time of pandemic and lock-down? Well, based on what happened over Memorial Day and Independence Day, it looks like a time when a lot of people think the rules are suspended.

Naturally, that worries me...especially with school having already started or about to start. How many kids, teachers, staff will be exposed to the virus who haven't been up to now....and I'm not even talking about anyone who foolishly attends some big gathering where people go maskless and crowd together too close. I'm talking about the ones who will inadvertently come into contact with the idiots who do ignore safety and sense for the sake of a little temporary fun.

Here's some advice: You may think the virus is a hoax; you may think the whole thing is overblown...but why not take the precautions anyway? You probably think you're a good driver and you won't have an accident--but you buckle your seatbelt anyway. Think of masks and social distancing the same way.

Vote Early, Vote Often?

President Trump actually advised, even urged, his supporters to vote twice yesterday. He framed it in terms of "preventing fraud," but what he actually told them to do was to mail in their ballot and then, on Election Day, go to the polls anyway and, if their ballot had not yet been counted, vote again.

Since, in most states, mail-in and absentee ballots are not counted until the polls close, of course a mail-in ballot will not have been counted yet. OTOH, in Pennsylvania's primary, I requested a mail-in ballot but it had not arrived by Election Day (in fact, it arrived the day after). When I went to the polling place, the roll book indicated I had requested a mail-in ballot...and while I was not allowed to cast a regular ballot, I did cast a provisional one...which was eventually counted as my vote, when my mail-in ballot never arrived.

That's the way it's supposed to work. If you received a mail-in ballot, filled it out and mailed it on time, if you show up at the polls anyway, you should get a provisional ballot...which will only be valid if your mail-in ballot does not arrive by your state's deadline.

Things You Don't See Anymore

Ignoring that the pandemic may skew results a bit, when was the last time you saw:

A hopscotch board chalked on a sidewalk

Kids playing football in the street

Girls jumping rope (single or double-dutch)

Boys just having a catch

A bicycle with a card or a balloon attached to make noise on the spokes

People just sitting on their front porch

School Sports Protest

It sometimes seems to me that there is a certain type of parent who believes that school exists to provide a place for their kid to excel in sports. Virtually all the high schools in my county have decided to cancel or postpone the fall sports season as result of the pandemic. And yesterday, a group of parents from those schools held a rally to oppose that decision, arguing we were one of only two sports districts in Pennsylvania to do so. (Of course, the fact that both of those districts are in the most densely populated areas, with some of the highest incidence of infections, seems to have escaped them.)

I have to wonder what these parents would do if the schools had decided to go forward with football, soccer, field hockey, cross country, etc. and a large number of student athletes had contracted COVID. And then those student-athletes spread that infection to their families.

 I have something to say to those parents: If playing football (and I firmly believe it's mostly that segment that is involved) is the most important part of school for your child, then you have a bigger problem than a cancellation or postponement of his season.

Those Who Can....Teach

I have a lot of friends who are teachers or former teachers...and this post is dedicated to the ones still on the job and beginning a new and challenging school year.

First to those who will actually be entering classrooms: Stay safe. Stay healthy. You face a multitude of new problems--can you effectively communicate through a facemask? Are your eyes enough to transmit your meaning and emotion? Are the students' eyes sufficient to tell you when they are struggling or really getting it? How will it feel when you want to be close enough to a student to offer encouragement but social distancing prevents it? Do you want to be the COVID-19 cop, constantly enforcing mask and distancing requirements? Isn't maintaining order and discipline enough of a challenge under normal circumstances?

And now to those who will, for the time being, teach remotely: Stay calm. Stay focused. Yes, you had a six-to-eight-week trial run on this in the spring...but that was all on the fly and no one could realistically expect perfection. But now, I suspect they will. Students, parents, administrators will expect you to be on the ball, ready to deal with all the vagaries of the internet, different household requirements, and communication without contact. While you won't have the obstacle of masks, you will instead have the obstacle of long-distance communication. Is the screen subtle enough to let you read a student's expression? Is there enough time to deal with all the questions in an on-line environment? Can you manage a private conversation with a student when required?

Finally, to the parents and public in general: Don't grouse. Yes, this will not be the best way to teach (no matter in person or by computer). But it's what we have to work with right now. There will be those among the public who are certain that this is simply a way for teachers to make their jobs easier (I've already seen postings and such to that effect). Believe me, it is not. I do not know a single teacher who wouldn't prefer to be starting school exactly the same way they did in September 2019. Running things this way is meant to protect not only teachers, students and staff, but all of us--it prevents a whole lot of possibly infectious people from circulating in the wider community.

Once again, to all of you: Stay safe; stay healthy; stay calm; stay focused.

Future Life

What do the next six months look like? What businesses will re-open and under what conditions? If they do, can they survive with the reduced revenues those conditions will entail?

Museums in many areas, such as Philadelphia and New York, have re-opened or will re-open in the coming weeks. They are all requiring masks and social distancing and restricting attendance to some percentage of capacity (the exact figure depending on rules in their location). I suspect that the capacity restriction will be moot, as few people will wish to visit under those terms.

Movie chains, notably AMC, are announcing re-openings, again based on the regulations in the respective theaters' regions. What, exactly, they will be showing remains a question. Hollywood has not been in production, not even in post-production, for months. There are some major films that were completed and ready for release in the spring, but some of them have already gone direct to streaming and there is the possibility that the studios will prefer not to release others until the possibility of a strong box office is more viable. Some places have announced plans to show "classic" films for the time being (but "classic" seems to mean nothing older than the mid-1980s). Will that draw people back to the cinema?

Live theater--Broadway, local and community--seems to be in the most trouble. The Broadway theaters do not expect to be operating before February...and even then, a lot of theaters will be dark, as the shows they had on the boards have decided not to try to re-open and there are few new ones ready to open so soon. Local theaters rely to a great extent on the national touring companies, all of which are currently shut down and will likely require months to be back in operation. Community theater, with which I am very familiar, has now lost half of last season and probably the beginning of the 2020-21 season as well. In some cases, that could mean losing their venues, as the places they rent from have either moved on or will want higher fees.

Restaurants, already re-opened in some form in most areas, may do better. They have had some revenue thanks to take-out over the past few months. The issue, again, will be whether they can be profitable with reduced seating.

Am I missing anything?

Keeping in Touch

How are you staying in contact with friends and relatives? For me, in addition to this blog, I'm on Facebook, I attend a regular Zoom meeting on Friday or Saturday evening, and of course I call and text.

Somehow, it doesn't seem enough. I miss face-to-face encounters. I miss the gatherings where we could just sit around and shoot the breeze. I'm going to miss a family wedding this fall, because I just can't figure out a way in which it will be viable.

I'm not saying my situation is any worse...or any better...than anyone else's. I'm just tired and bored and not pleased with the prospect of at least another six months like this.

Un-Caped Crusader

Wednesday, I wondered if Donald Trump could learn a lesson from the origin of Spider-Man ("with great power comes great responsibility") and decided no, such thinking is alien to him. Today I woke up thinking, maybe I picked the wrong hero. Bruce Wayne is a lot more like Donald Trump: rich, inherited wealth, businessman, reputation as a playboy. Maybe Batman should be the role model.

Bruce Wayne saw his parents gunned down on the street. Traumatized, he vows vengeance...but not just on the person who killed his family. He vows a war on all of crime and evil...and he sets out from a very young age to follow through--with training, with education, with using his wealth to fund his campaign. Further, that wealth not only allows him to design, build and maintain his arsenal of weapons, it allows him to aid the victims of crime. Eventually, when Bruce finds the man who killed his parents, the crusade doesn't end--it turns from one of personal vengeance to societal protection.

What would Donald Trump take away from that story? I fear he would decide, as he would with Spider-Man, that Bruce Wayne is a chump. Why is he wasting his time and money on all these lesser mortals? Don't search for the killer yourself--hire some mercenary organization to do it for you. All those "wonderful toys" (as the Joker puts it in one of the films) shouldn't be used in crime fighting--they should be marketed and sold for a profit. And a foundation that helps others? Well, we know what Trump did with his foundation.

No, to become Batman, Bruce Wayne had to see his personal tragedy reflected in the tragedies of others and act on that realization. The evidence of his life is that Donald Trump is incapable of that.

Rittenhouse Scare

I thought the killing of Jacob Blake in Kenosha was bad enough. If anything this is worse:

Kyle Rittenhouse, a rifle-toting teenage Blue Lives Matter and Trump fan, has been charged with murder after allegedly shooting two people dead and injuring another during protests in Kenosha over the shooting of Jacob Blake.

Rittenhouse, 17, was arrested in Illinois and faces charges of first-degree intentional homicide, according to Lake County, Illinois Clerk of Courts public records.

And then we get the usual idiots actually defending Rittenhouse's actions. These are the words of Tucker Carlson on Fox News:

“Kenosha has devolved into anarchy because the authorities in charge of the city abandoned it. People in charge from the governor of Wisconsin on down refused to enforce the law. They stood back and they watched Kenosha burn,” Carlson said.

He then added: “So are we really surprised that looting and arson accelerated to murder? How shocked are we that 17-year-olds with rifles decided they had to maintain order when no one else would?”

How anyone can defend this...or defend Tucker Carlson...is beyond me.

With Great Power....

Earlier this month, I suggested that Donald Trump was acting like a comic-book villain. Today, as I was watching coverage of the Republican Convention (I refuse to watch in real time), I wondered if he could be educated by reading the adventures of some of the great comic-book heroes, such as Spider-Man...and then I decided, probably not.

Consider Spidey's origin story: Peter Parker accidentally acquires super-powers and his first impulse is to use them to earn money. He becomes a costumed wrestler and then a TV personality. At one of those TV appearances, a thief runs past him and he makes no effort to apprehend him. He is then berated by a security guard, who correctly notes that--given his abilities--Spider-Man could have captured the thief easily.

Later that evening, Peter returns to his home to discover that his beloved Uncle Ben has been killed in a botched robbery. Pursuing the criminal as Spider-Man, he learns that the killer is the same thief he had refused to help capture at the TV station. Distraught, he decides to dedicate himself to using his powers not to enrich himself but to fight crime and defend the defenseless. As a final caption notes, "With great power comes great responsibility."

What would Donald Trump learn from this tale? Probably that Peter Parker is a loser. After all, Peter forgoes the rewards of fame and wealth that could be his and decides to help others, basically anonymously. Donald Trump not only uses his "power" to enrich himself, he has a history of treating others as mere pawns, as victims of his own schemes--Trump University, Trump Foundation, etc.

If he hasn't learned anything about compassion and selflessness from that Bible he awkwardly displayed in front of a church he has never entered, how could he learn anything from Stan Lee and Steve Ditko?

Seven Shots

Jacob Blake was shot in the back by police officers. Jacob Blake was shot seven times in the back by police officers.

I don't care what they thought he might have been doing as he reached into the car....there is no reasoning they can give that is an excuse for shooting a man seven times in the back. It's been said they thought he had a knife, or was reaching for one. OK...the rational thing to do in that case is to back away, out of reach from the knife. It's been said he was following an order to get his documentation from the car. OK...if you think he might have a weapon in the car, the rational thing to do is to get the documentation out of the car yourself.

The Kenosha police union is arguing the video doesn't show the whole circumstances. Fair enough, what are the missing elements that explain why Jacob Blake had to be shot in the back even once in order to protect those police officers? Let alone shot seven times? There are at most three officers on the scene. For seven shots to have been fired, one or more of them had to have fired at least three times...three shots from a distance of a few feet? Really?

I'm sorry, you can tell me "Blue Lives Matter" all day, and there's still no explanation for this.

Four Months

At the end of this week, it will four months since I retired and began this blog. In that time, I have posted every day, for a total of 115 posts. The most read post was "Who Was That Un-Masked Man?",  which discussed my own mask-wearing habits and those of others in the pandemic.

Just a bit of info if you're a regular reader here.

Open and Shut?

There's a controversy in my area--and probably in yours, too--about whether schools should open with in-person learning or only with on-line instruction. There appears to be a small but vocal group arguing that it is perfectly safe for kids to return to the classroom as long as masks, social distancing, etc. are part of the protocol.

On one level, I agree...but I don't think the people advocating in-person school have really considered what that means. In my area (and I suspect in most others), classrooms are designed to hold 20 to 30 desks at normal spacing--call it four or five rows of desks, each with just enough space for a chair between each desk in a row and an aisle of maybe four feet between rows. Change that spacing so that there's six feet between each desk in all directions and how many desks can you put in that room? Half as many? Less? Let's call it half--that means we need twice as many classrooms to hold the same number of students. And, assuming one teacher for every room, twice as many teachers.

While it might be possible, I suppose, to hire double the number of teachers (or maybe some para-professionals) to cover those extra rooms...where are the rooms going to come from? The school buildings were built with X number of rooms. I suppose gymnasiums and cafeterias might be utilized to some extent, but that leads to questions of noise control, classes interfering with each other, etc.

And so far, we're really only talking about elementary school conditions, where students largely stay in one room for the whole day. What happens in middle schools and high schools, where students change rooms four to six times a day (depending on schedules)? How do you maintain social distancing in the hallways? I've heard suggestions that students remain in place and teachers move from room to room...but different classes require different equipment, different books, different configurations.

Doing any of this will require more spending, and schools are already increasing budgets for other COVID-related expenses, such as cleaning and PPE supplies. I'm already seeing complaints in the local papers about rising school taxes, especially from people who seem to think their taxes should have gone down since the school buildings were closed for three months this year.

I'm sorry....but even in the best of all worlds, in-person learning in a safe way is probably impossible before January at the earliest.

Fall Sports

The organization in charge of high school sports in Pennsylvania--the PIAA--has decided that those schools that want to proceed with outdoor interscholastic sports this semester can. That would mean football, predominantly, but also soccer, cross-country track, and, I think, field hockey. They are still advising against indoor sports (such as volleyball). And the state regulations still pretty much prevent fans in the bleachers (limit is 250 people...so maybe family members of the players could be permitted).

Not sure how I feel about this, when so many other non-athletic extra-curricular activities are still prohibited--no band or choral concerts, no plays or musicals. (I'm assuming the marching bands will not be doing their traditional half-time shows or pep-band material, since they are not permitted to practice.) This seems to put the athletes on a different level from all the other students.

Your thoughts?

More Home Memories

Last weekend, I posted a photo of what the house I grew up in looked like in 1940...and what it looked like for most of the time I lived there.

Today, I've got a picture of what it looked like in the 1980s, after new siding, new windows and a new front porch.

It still looked basically like that the last time I saw it in November of 2019. I don't know if my sister intends to make changes to the exterior as well as the ones I know she's made inside.

Watch List

Yesterday I talked about binge-reading. I'm really not a binge-watcher, though; I prefer to mix up the kind of things I watch in an evening.

And I'm watching some stuff that some of you may never have seen. Murder City is a police procedural from the early 2000s, set in Melbourne, Australia. The team of detectives has a nice chemistry and the occasional looks at their backstories help make them seem like more than devices to carry forward the plot. If you've watched The Doctor Blake Mysteries, you'll want to see Nadine Garner in the series she did before that.

Avenue 5 is a science-fiction comedy starring Hugh Laurie; it's all about a luxury space tourist liner that winds up on a three-year trip instead of the six-week tour of the solar system it was supposed to take. Each episode is only 30 minutes, but they pack a lot of story and a lot of laughs in that time.

Pointless is a British game show that could be described as the opposite of Family Feud. The object is not to find the answer most people gave in a survey...but the one the least people did. In the final round, a "pointless" answer will win you the jackpot. (One caveat--even the pointless answers have to be correct.)

Binge-Reading

Lots of people binge-watch...choose a TV series (old or new) and watch it in order, often several episodes in one sitting, until you've seen everything.

I am currently "binge-reading". Have you ever done that? Chosen a series of books, preferably a long series that is still all in print, and read every title in the order they were written and published? I'm going through all of Rex Stout's Nero Wolfe series...he wrote 42 books (some novels, some short-story/novella collections). I'm about to finish number 35, The Final Deduction.

When I finish the last one, I have to decide whether to continue with the handful of Wolfe novels written by others with the consent of the Stout estate.

Are you binge-reading in the pandemic? And what have you chosen?

Edited to correct an earlier error--Stout wrote 42 Wolfe books, not 86.

Background Info

So, I finally have a web camera to use in all the Zoom meetings I'm doing these days. Lots of people create CGI backgrounds for themselves for these meetings (my wife uses the ceiling from the Library of Congress sometimes) and I'm trying to decide what I should pick.

A few of my ideas:

1. The TARDIS interior (maybe a classic one from Tom Baker's era, or the one Matt Smith had)
2. The Adam West Batcave
3. Some version of Superman's Fortress of Solitude.

Any other suggestions?

Lock Them Up?

When Al Gore, back in 2000, talked about "lock-boxes," I don't think mailboxes were what he had in mind.

The top image was posted on Facebook; the second one is from Mark Evanier's blog--it's the mailbox outside his local post office. I checked some of the ones near me--one that had been there a long time is now gone, another is still unlocked. (But I live in a strongly Republican neighborhood.)

Positive It's Negative

This past Tuesday, in anticipation of a medical procedure scheduled for this coming Thursday, I took a Covid-19 test. On Friday, I got the results: Negative, I do not have the corona virus.

While I was pretty sure I didn't--not having had any symptoms of it of any kind in the past six months--it's good to know for certain.

Memories of Home

Thanks to a link in a Facebook post, I was able to find this picture:

That is 70 DuBois Ave, on Staten Island, the house I grew up in (but not where I was born; my parents moved there in early 1953, just before I turned one year old), as it looked when the City of New York took photos for tax purposes 1939.

It still looked pretty much like that most of my school years; the siding and front porch were replaced, as I recall, in the late 1960s. And by the time I knew it, the driveway on the right no longer existed. The old wooden garage it led to was still standing though, used as storage by my family until it literally fell down in the 1970s. The most interesting thing about it was that the previous owner, who did use the garage and driveway, had decorated the interior walls with all his old license plates, going all the way back to this era. I suppose he owned the house when this photo was taken.

For the record, the room I shared with my younger brother was the front second floor window on the left; the one on the right was a "dressing room" for when our bedroom had been the "master bedroom." It was basically extra storage space for us. The rear window on the left indicates where my parents' room was....and my sister's room was all the way in the right rear corner.

My sister owns the house now; she bought it from my mother who continued to live there until just before her death earlier this year. It's being remodeled for my sister to rent or sell in the future.

Obligations, Responsibilities

In recent days, I have come across several examples of people who served in the military using the phrase "I fought for your rights" in response to those who disagree with them on matters of race, politics, or protest...almost always from people taking the most conservative stance on those issues.

I honor, respect, and thank those who have served in the military, such as my late father, who was a SeaBee in WW2, my late father-in-law, who retired as a full colonel from the Army, and my niece, a West Point graduate who is currently a captain in the Army Reserve and has taught at her alma mater. But having worn the uniform of your country does not excuse you when you act in a manner that sullies that uniform.

You have an obligation, a responsibility, not to use that service as a cover for your racism, your disrespect for those who honestly disagree with you, your wholesale disregard for the values of the nation you say you fought for. Don't tell me you fought for my right to protest while you simultaneously tell me I shouldn't be protesting. Don't tell me you fought for my right to vote while you simultaneously support those who would deny that right to others.

Live up to the oath you took when you put on that uniform and performed that service you claim to be proud of.

Tanks a Lot

Believe it or not, the police in one community near me are actually arguing that they need this monstrosity, now that the mayor and township council have sent it to another municipality in the state. The damned thing doesn't even fit through many of the streets in the township. The cops, through their FOP and a Republican councilman, say they need it to "protect" them in cases of riots and to effect water rescues. It has been used for the latter purpose just once--this past week after Tropical Storm Isaias--and even then was not useful in some areas because of its sheer size. Inflatable boats were handier, more versatile, and easier to maneuver in most circumstances.

Oh, and should such a vehicle be needed in the future...several nearby departments have one they could loan out.

No Pleasing Some People

I have come to the conclusion that one useless man is a called a disgrace.... No, sorry, that's John Adams at the beginning of 1776.

What I have concluded is that it's simply impossible to please some people--especially, currently, some segments of Star Trek and Star Wars fandoms. And I'm not just talking about the incel/comicsgate/sad puppy brigade who reject anything that suggests that those fictional worlds should reflect or comment upon current events in the real world...particularly if they tend toward a liberal viewpoint.

No, I'm talking, in addition, about the ones who seem to think there's no room for humor or light-heartedness or satire in the canonical material of these two universes. The ones who object to Star Trek: Lower Decks because it is comedic; the ones who think any Star Wars story must be about the battle between the Light and Dark Sides of the Force.

For god's sake, guys, lighten up. Some of the best remembered episodes of the original series of Star Trek are the comedies: "The Trouble with Tribbles" and "Piece of the Action." Some of the fan-fave scenes in the very first Star Wars episode are the humorous ones: "Aren't you a little short for a storm trooper?" "Reactor link, very dangerous...."

The creators of these universes aren't writing Scandinavian noir thrillers. They are writing light entertainment for the masses.

Going Down at DC

In what may well come to be known as the "Monday Massacre," about one-third of the staff of DC Comics and the DC Universe streaming service were "laid off" yesterday. (In this case, "lay off" is simply a euphemism for "fired," as it is unlikely that any of these people will be asked to come back at some later date.) For more on what and who, I recommend this report:

DC Comics, DC Universe Hit By Major Layoffs

Many in the comics world had been expecting something like this since DC's corporate owners, Warner Entertainment, were acquired by AT&T last year. It is widely thought that AT&T sees Warner and DC in particular as simply a collection of valuable intellectual property and copyrights, with no real interest in creating new material to add to that collection.

So, what is likely to happen to DC's properties now? Though I have not been active in comics journalism for two decades, I keep my eyes and ears open, and here's my prediction.

AT&T will, within a year, license all the publishing of DC-owned properties to other publishers (notably not Marvel, IMO), while maintaining ownership of said properties. I can even see that these properties might be parceled out to more than one publisher (why put all your eggs in one basket?) And, again IMO, I could see that only the big three--Superman, Wonder Woman, Batman--are licensed for long-term, ongoing titles or projects, and maybe each to a separate publisher: Superman to IDW, for example; Wonder Woman to Dynamite, Batman to Image (that last is because I think the Image brand best fits the current attitude toward the Dark Knight).

The others? Flash, Green Lantern, Aquaman, etc.? They will be licensed for occasional projects, timed to coincide with other media versions: when there's a new movie or TV series about to debut, for instance.

Time will tell if I am right.

Come Saturday Morning

I'm about to reveal just how old I am. This is a remembrance of how I spent Saturday mornings between the ages of roughly five and thirteen.

Depending on how early I got up, the day began with either Crusader Rabbit or Howdy Doody (later on Shari Lewis would replace Buffalo Bob and the residents of Doodyville).

I don't remember exactly the order these came in but after that would be:

Andy's Gang ("Plunk your magic twanger, Froggy")
The Roy Rogers Show ("Happy trails to you....")
Mighty Mouse ("Here I come to save the day....")
Fury ("The story of a horse and the boy who loved him...." and the first place I saw Peter Graves)
Sky King ("Out of the blue of the western sky....)
The Lone Ranger ("Return with us now to those thrilling days of yesteryear")

By that time, it was lunch and then the family went off for weekend shopping.

So, what are your memories of Saturday mornings?

Singers I Love

Prompted by a piece in today's paper--on a totally unrelated subject--I started thinking about the female singers I enjoy, the ones I wish could sing every song I've ever loved.

Top of the list is Karen Carpenter, who I consider the best female pop singer of the past 50 years. I think there is probably no song she couldn't sing and make it better. She turned a silly ditty from Sesame Street, "Sing," into a Top 40 hit and the Beatles' "Ticket to Ride" into a minor-key lament. Listen to her version of "Don't Cry for Me, Argentina," and you'll wish she had dubbed Madonna in the movie. I think it's a tragedy she died before she could record an album of American standards and Broadway classics.

Second is probably Gloria Estefan. Her vocal range is much the same as Karen's, but she brings a Latin flair to everything she does...and does numbers Karen probably wouldn't have attempted, such "Conga" or "Go Away". But on a ballad, she's on a par with the best--if you can sing along with "The Words Get in the Way" without a catch in your throat, you're not human.

Third is a bit more obscure--Marilyn McCoo, once one of the leads in the Fifth Dimension. Another alto, she puts soul into the ballad mix, as well as a little jazz, with numbers like "Wedding Bell Blues" and "One Less Bell to Answer".

One more who died too young: Laurie Beechman. I first saw and heard this remarkable performer as the narrator in the original cast of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. After appearing in lead roles in other shows, notably Les Miserables and Cats, and recording some solo albums, she died of cancer at age 44.


You'll note an absence of sopranos. IMO, too many of them let their ability to sing above the melody obscure that melody in vocal tricks. Whitney Houston would have been a much better performer, again IMO, if she stopped trying to show off.

Any thoughts?

Why We Need the Electoral College

There's a lot of talk, as there is in any presidential election year, about abolishing the Electoral College. It always centers around "one person, one vote" and they way that the votes of the citizens of, say, Wyoming have more clout than those of, say, California. That the EC, in other words, dilutes the value of votes in the most populous states and increases the value of those in the least populous states.

Further, it is often said that the EC was created by the Founding Fathers to keep the Southern States from rejecting the Constitution and is, thus, inherently racist.

All the above may be true.

But it neglects the one problem with a direct popular vote for President: It would, effectively, disenfranchise the citizens of about two-thirds of the states. How? Let me explain: the bulk of the population of the United States now resides in the urban centers of a double handful of states: Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Florida, Illinois, Texas, and California. There are enough voters in just the big cities and surrounding suburbs of those states, not even counting their rural and exurban populations (and two of them, NJ and CT, don't really have rural areas), to be a majority of voters in a Presidential election...in fact, to be an overwhelming majority.

It might be true that the two biggest cities in Texas--Dallas and Houston--would be outliers in that calculation, that they--unlike the other major metropolises--would be more likely to vote Republican than Democrat (but I'm not really sure of that). Still, the major metro areas of other states--Denver and Seattle, for instance--would likely take up the slack.

What do you think would happen if we elected a President in a system where only urban dwellers have a real voice in the result? How would the farmers of Iowa, Nebraska and Kansas react? What would the miners and oil riggers of West Virginia and Oklahoma think? Do you think they would simply acquiesce in a system that essentially treated them as irrelevant?

And they would be irrelevant, at least politically. No President would feel any need to invite their representatives to the table. What they would not be is irrelevant in other ways. They would still be relevant economically....but their economic importance would not grant them any political power any longer.

No, the EC is now the way we keep the energy belt and bread basket of this nation as supporters of the Constitution...and we, who dwell in the big cities, better keep that in mind.

Too Basic Communication

"What we have here is failure to communicate."

I'm sure I'm not alone in thinking that famed line from Cool Hand Luke applies to much of our political and social discourse in the current climate. As an example, I've been trying to argue that the phrase "defund the police" is poor communication, because it's too easy for opponents to define "defund" as "abolish" and thus completely misrepresent the intentions of the cause. The problem is "reform the police" doesn't quite cut it, either--because police reform, historically, has been about official corruption not about the basic functions of the police.

Basically, we're stuck in a time when every issue has to be able to be reduced to a three- or four-word slogan, when the reality is that there is a long, nuanced policy proposal behind the sloganeering. But nobody has time for long, nuanced proposals anymore....and they don't fit in headlines or television chyron crawls, anyway.

In an episode of The West Wing during the preparations for a campaign debate, Jed Bartlet's staff are seeking a "ten-word answer" to the difficult questions of the day. Finally, Jed comes up with this:

That’s the ten-word answer my staff’s been looking for for weeks, there it is. Ten-word answers can kill you in political campaigns, they’re the tip of the sword. Here’s my question: what are the next ten words of your answer? Your taxes are too high? So are mine. Gimme the next ten words: How are we gonna do it? Gimme ten after that, I’ll drop out of the race right now … Every once in a while, there’s a day with an absolute right and an absolute wrong. But those days almost always include body counts. Other than that, there aren’t very many un-nuanced moments in leading a country that’s way too big for ten words. I’m the President of the United States, not the president of the people who agree with me. And by the way, if the left has a problem with that, they should vote for somebody else.

That sums up how I feel about political and social discourse right now.

Weather or Not

OK...we were lucky. Tropical Storm Isaias gave us a mildly flooded basement (but we have one corner that gets wet in any rainstorm), but we never lost power or any other utility, no trees came down near us, and by 1 PM on Tuesday we had bright sunny skies and cool weather.

Wednesday was one of the nicest days this summer...not very hot, not very humid, a breeze blowing.

This morning, we woke up to a thunderstorm--not violent, but enough to say "I'll wait for a bit before I run errands."

My thoughts are with all my friends and associates in PA and elsewhere who have experienced severe flooding, damage from fallen trees, and utility outages, including some who will apparently be out for at least the weekend, and some who cannot work because of it.

Rain, rain, go away.....

Trump: Comic-book Villain?

I haven't watched the entire Axios interview with Donald Trump (I have far better ways to spend that much time), but I have seen enough, with his responses on a wide array of subjects, to know that this man is either eternally confused, simply not interested in learning anything, or adamantly opposed to anything he doesn't see as being in his own best interest. Possibly all three.

And it doesn't seem to do any good to present him with evidence that refutes his position. Told that blacks are proportionally more likely to be killed by police than whites, he responds "I don't know that" and reverts to the argument that whites are killed as well and in higher numbers. Either he doesn't know what "proportionally" means, or he ignores it because he thinks his base audience neither knows or cares. Possibly both.

Clearly, in his mind, if he "doesn't know" something, it is either wrong, a lie, or simply doesn't really exist because, after all, he's a "stable genius," the smartest man he knows, the person whose advice he most relies on in regard to all subjects--and if he doesn't know something or knows differently, all other data must be false.

In my experience, these are indications of malevolent egotism, the kind we once associated with fictional villains like Lex Luthor and Doctor Doom.

Lantern's Light

Moving away from politics and current events for a bit....

When I was an active comics collector, one of my favorite titles was Green Lantern. For those unfamiliar with the character, GL was a test pilot named Hal Jordan who was recruited to become one of 3600 interstellar police officers throughout the universe by the group's founders, the mysterious Guardians of the Universe.

As a member, he was given three things: a power battery, shaped like a green lantern; a uniform; and a ring which, when charged at the battery, would emit a green energy that could be shaped and commanded by his will and imagination into anything he desired. A good deal of the time, GL used that ability to create giant, verdant versions of familiar objects: boxing gloves, fans, arrows, you name it.

That, of course, led to a question: Why use the power that way? I had my own theory--the ring was limited, as described, by the ring-bearer's will and imagination...but I figured it was also limited by his knowledge and abilities. He could create and manipulate those objects because he knew how they worked. He couldn't create a weapon that would vaporize an opponent because he had no idea how such a device would work...or even if it were possible.

Over time, I had to give up that theory as the writers came up with ways to use the ring that Hal Jordan couldn't possibly have understood (in one case, he used it to turn himself into a robot in order to enter a room filled with deadly radiation). But I always thought it was a logical limitation on his power...and one that would differentiate the various members of the Green Lantern Corps as they came from differing backgrounds and planets.

"Invaded?"

This is a follow-up to yesterday's post about the Black Lives Matter march and rally in Ridley, where I live.

Yesterday, a counter-rally (unfortunately, much bigger) was held at the site of the police station...and while it appeared to be peaceful and the organizers made all the right noises about "only supporting the police" (see the article in today's Daily Times--I'd link to it, but the paper only allows me to read three articles on line a month),  including a statement from chief organizer Joe Carafa, who said, "What happened yesterday had nothing to do with us." But it was clear that many of the attendees were the same people who screamed, shouted obscenities, and attempted to disrupt the BLM march--including some pick-up trucks that were identified as the same ones that deliberately spouted black exhaust at the marchers on Saturday.

More disturbing perhaps were a couple of comments in the "Sound-Off" column this morning, a feature in which people can call or e-mail and make anonymous remarks.  One caller proudly announced "I was there and flying a Confederate flag, why is it wrong?" Well, my friend, if you have to ask, you clearly will never get it.

Even worse, though, was this one: "We have our rights. This is our home. We don't want it invaded and we can stand up for ourselves...." [emphasis added].

"Invaded?" If that is the way you speak and think of your fellow citizens exercising their rights, then you don't have any idea what the United States of America is about.

Shame on Ridley

I moved to Ridley Township almost exactly 22 years ago, in August 1998. In all that time, I have been happy to call myself a resident and have never felt my neighbors in the township are a problem. Yes, I've met a few jerks, but on the whole, they are polite, respectful people.

Yesterday, I was ashamed to admit I live here. A small Black Lives Matter march and rally was held (I counted the participants at under 100) and was met by a rude and, yes, violent counter-protest of about the same size.

While the Black Lives Matter protesters marched along MacDade Boulevard, two pick-up trucks stopped in front of them near Kedron Avenue and burned a bunch of black smoke in front of them.

Throughout the route, which started at the park across the street from Frontier Saloon, then went down Academy Avenue to Holmes Road, then down MacDade to the township police station, both sides yelled at each other with shouts ranging from "Go the f--- home!" to "We love you!"

That's a quote from the article in this morning's Delaware County Times.

I didn't join the group until they got to the township police station, which is a short walk from my home. The violence was over, thanks to the local police who professionally separated the two sides, but the rudeness and stupidity from the counter-protesters continued. I heard one man yell to a speaker, "You're a Marxist!"--which makes me question if he even understands the word, because the speaker had said nothing that could remotely be characterized in that way, unless of course to be in favor of justice for all, no matter race, ethnicity or religion, is now a Marxist precept. Another yelled for the speaker to "Go back where you came from," but since the speaker, a young black man, spoke with no discernible foreign accent, that could only be a call for him to return to his own home, which was just as likely to be in Ridley as anywhere else.

I give full marks to the Ridley Township police and those from other jurisdictions who were also present. They did not turn out in riot gear, though some of the non-local cops wore visible bullet-proof vests. At one point a line of the police was deployed in front of the police station, in an obvious move to "protect" it--although the marchers gave no indication they intended to attack it in any way. In fact, shortly after that action was taken, the speakers announced that the marchers were returning the way they came and left to go back to their initial rallying place.

One more point: The marchers all wore masks. For the most part, the counter-protesters did not.

I am sad for my neighbors who were so badly misrepresented by the few who showed up yesterday. I urge you all, let it be known they did speak for you.

Updates

1. Updating yesterday's entry on baseball: there is now at least one more team out of action, the St. Louis Cardinals, who had several staff test positive on Thursday. Whether that will affect the team they played earlier in the week, the Minnesota Twins, remains to be seen.

2. Updating Thursday: The heat wave here has broken, after thunderstorms Thursday night and rain nearly all day Friday. Now, we're waiting to see how much we're affected by Hurricane Isaias. (Ad how are your local broadcasters doing with pronouncing that one? Consensus here seems to "Ee-sigh-as".)

3. Updating Wednesday: Thursday's paper did not include all the things missing from Wednesday's edition--except the classified ads and death notices (which are paid for, so they have to run them). It did however include, again, the "special section" aimed at senior citizens, which ran complete--as near as I can tell--in Wednesday's paper.