Comic Books--Past and Future 2

An exchange on Facebook yesterday reminded me of exactly how I went from being a comic-book reader to being a comic-book collector. When I was growing up on Staten Island, there was a place called the Farmer's Market, a big open space under corrugated steel walls and roof, divided into stalls, that were rented out to various merchants. It was only open on weekends--Friday to Sunday. Most of the renters sold food of one kind or another, as the name "Farmer's Market" would imply. But some dealt in what now would be the stuff you find at flea markets...and one of them sold old comic-books. Not really old ones, though the proprietor did deal in those by mail, but issues from the past six months to five years, roughly. I discovered this place when I was 16, in 1968.

The owner was Bill Morse and his helper was Dave Kaler, a name I knew because he was a sometime-comics writer, notably on Captain Atom for Charlton. For about a year, I went there every Saturday (the market was about a 15-minute walk from my home) and picked up a few dollars worth of comics. (Back then, most of his recent back-issues--those about two years old or less--sold for 35 cents each; cover price in '68 was 12 cents.) Business was slow, though, so sometime in '69, Bill closed up shop.

He returned to running the business from his home....and I became one of his helpers. Every Saturday, I spent two or three hours sorting comics and keeping them in order. I got paid in comic books--three dollars worth for every hour I worked, as I recall. In 1971, Bill rented a storefront in another section of the Island, along a stretch that had become known as "antiques row". I worked there as well every weekend. Eventually, he moved the operation to Manhattan, in Greenwich Village. I continued to work for him until I finished college.

Through Bill, I met a number of young professional comic-book writers and artists, among them Marv Wolfman, Len Wein, and Paul Levitz. Those acquaintances became important about ten years later when I started writing about comics for a living.

Apology Not Accepted

 "Apology accepted, Captain Needa." That line, delivered as the captain drops to the deck, dead via Force attack, came to mind yesterday as I listened to Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene's non-apology on the House floor.

I wish that Speaker Pelosi could have responded as Darth Vader did...and with more reason than Vader had--because Needa's apology was at least honest. Greene's speech was little more than a litany of excuses. "I was allowed to believe...." Really? Who "allowed" you to put faith in the Qanon claptrap, other than you, yourself? You are not a teenager, brought up to believe nonsense in a cult family; you made a conscious decision that absurd, asinine conspiracy theories--related to everything from 9/11 to school shootings to the 2020 election--made more sense than the obvious truth as reported by a myriad of reputable sources.

That 95 percent of the Republican members of the House accepted that "apology" and voted against removing her from her committee appointments is a disgrace...and, perhaps, an indication that they are more dedicated to their constituents who agree with Greene than they are to their oaths as members of Congress.

Comic Books--Past and Future

 I spent half of my adult life as a writer, writing on a variety of topics, from office supplies and equipment to jewelry to comics and film/TV. That last was my real passion.

Oddly enough, some of that passion has waned in the past 20 years, as the nature of those two media has radically shifted--especially comics. When I first got interested in comics, as a teenager, they were truly a part of the "mass media". You could find them sold in the same stores as newspapers and general interest magazines like Life and Time and Newsweek--often on the same racks as those publications. Around the time I began writing about them professionally, that all changed: Comic books became a "specialty" product, sold (for the most part) in "boutique" environments to fans. They had moved from an impulse, casual product to a "destination" product; you no longer picked them up while you were doing other shopping, you went to a specific place to make a specific purchase.

At the same time, comics reached the culmination of a trend that had begun two decades earlier. In the 1960s, comic books were written, drawn, edited and published by people who largely had been doing that for 15 or 20 years. It was a job; for many a job they loved, but they had no real emotional attachment to it...they were journeyman craftsmen. Beginning around 1970, that changed, as people a bit older than I was, who had grown up as comics fans started to find work in the business. By a decade later, they were virtually running the business, as their predecessors retired or found that their work was no longer desired by the changing audience. It had become a medium in which fans were creating for fans.

From the beginning of my time writing professionally about comics, I found that kind of comics lacking....precisely because it was all aimed at the same target. Humorous comic books no longer sold well. Even superheroes with a "light touch" were outsold by their grim and violent counterparts. Comics were becoming "adult," it was said. I disagreed--they were becoming, to my mind, adolescent...the print equivalent of the explosion- and chase-filled movies of the same period.

I kept thinking it couldn't be sustained...that other media told such kinds of stories better. Turns out I was right. More on that another time.

Snow Big Deal 3

 With any luck, this is my last posting on this topic for a while.

By noon yesterday, I had cleared enough of the driveway, that I was able to get the car out on the road. We live on a main drag, so it was clean to the pavement and even the back streets in the neighborhood were in good shape. Later in the afternoon, I went to Home Dept and brought home another 50 lbs. of rock salt. I also cleared a path on our sidewalk and by nightfall it was still in good shape.

This morning, with temps predicted to be above freezing and the sun beginning to show, I spread some of that salt on the remaining snow and ice on the driveway, so that the combined heat, sun, and salt would melt and/or soften it all.

Later today, I'll go for another drive, probably to pick up lunch.

 

Snow Big Deal 2

 So, yesterday at noon we had 2 inches of snow in the backyard and it had stopped coming down. It started again about 2 PM and by 5, we had 4 inches. It snowed until sometime around midnight, best as I can figure, and this morning at 8:30 we had 6 inches. It's snowing lightly again now.

I went out to clear some of the driveway with the snow blower, but the bottom layer of snow is packed enough that the blower couldn't clear to the pavement. I'll have to use the shovel on that later this afternoon or tomorrow. But the driveway is clear enough that I'll be able to get the car out should the need arise.

Fortunately, the plows didn't block the entrance to the driveway too badly, and their leavings are still soft, but heavy. I'm pretty sure I can get the car through it without having to shovel immediately.

Snow is supposed to end this afternoon, with warming temps over the next few days.

One good thing: There's absolutely no way any groundhog in the Northeast (Punxsutawney Phil or Staten Island Chuck) saw his shadow this morning. Early spring anyone?

Snow Big Deal

 Yesterday, as the storm was beginning, I put down a layer of salt on my driveway; it kept things clear for a few hours, until it got dark, I think. This morning, there was about an inch of snow on the driveway, but about two inches on the sidewalk I didn't salt.

Two inches isn't enough to bother with the snow blower--and the snow is pretty light and fluffy--so I got out the shovel and with little lifting and a lot of pushing, I cleared most of the driveway to the pavement, and the sidewalk almost to the pavement. Then I threw more salt on the sidewalk, to help that along.

Sure, I'll have to do some of this again tomorrow--and maybe use the blower--but getting through four or five inches of snow is a lot easier than getting through six to eight inches.

Updates tomorrow.

Mono-blogue?

 Last night, I participated in a "Monologue Mixer," in which ten actors from the local community theaters each did a monologue or soliloquy. The material ranged from a couple of Shakespeare soliloquies to Sam Shepard to The Vagina Monologues. My choice was from the play Inherit the Wind, by Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee.

What I've included below is not my performance from last night, but the "audition tape" I sent in to be chosen for the cast.

Chasing WandaVision 2

 OK, I'm caught up through episode 4 and at least they're trying to explain what's going on. That's better--but this is still, IMO, a seriously flawed series.

Let's start with the basic concept (SPOILER ALERT!)--Wanda is doing all this in an attempt to deal with her despair at the loss of both her brother and her lover, creating a perfect fantasy life. Sure; but why does a woman in her 20s, raised in Eastern Europe, base her image of perfect married life on the American sitcoms of the 1950s-70s, that I assume--given her background--she never saw until she came to the United States as an adult? Further, why didn't she just pick one, instead of advancing from the 1950s to the '70s? (Of course, the answer to that, from outside the world of the series, is that the writers and producers wanted to hit as many iconic shows as they could.) And, if she continues, what will she emulate when she gets to the 1980s? Family Ties? Married with Children?

Now let's get to the real problem--it's taken four half-hour episodes (the time equivalent of a full-length movie) to reach the point where the story is explained to the audience. Tell me, would you sit through a movie or a stage production that took that much time to make sense? I wouldn't. I'm all for a mystery...but at some point, at least the bare outlines of the story have to be made clear so the final resolution of the mystery is understandable.

I'll keep watching--but probably two episodes at a time--in the hope the pace picks up.

Thoughts on Heroes

 What makes a hero? Specifically, what makes a superhero? Extraordinary abilities, obviously...but some superheroes--notably Batman and Robin--have no superpowers; their extraordinariness comes from training and study.

But I think there has to be something more than that. I have always been drawn to the characters who would have been heroic before they gained superpowers or put on a tight-fitting suit. Prime example is the original version of the 1960s Green Lantern: Hal Jordan. Jordan was a test pilot before he met the alien who handed him a glowing lantern and a ring. If you read the accounts of his past as they were revealed, he was to all extents the DC Universe equivalent of Neil Armstrong. Had that fateful meeting not put him on a different path, he might well have been one of his world's Mercury astronauts. He was already a hero.

Similarly, because of the way he was raised by his foster parents, Clark Kent might have been a hero even if his alien origins didn't give him superpowers. In some ways, even when he wasn't flying around dressed in red-and-blue, he was: Reporters take risks, put themselves in danger as part of their jobs. Clark was dedicated to helping his neighbors--he didn't need a cape to do it.

I don't feel the same way about Batman, at least not as he is characterized today. In the 1950s and '60s, I did. In those days, Bruce Wayne, having exorcised his own demons, set about to protect everyone else. Today, it seems as if he is still all-consumed by those demons, viewing the world as bleak and corrupt, barely worth saving, except as doing so eases his own soul. That seems incredibly narcissistic to me.

I'll always prefer the hero who can smile when his job is well done.

Winter Doldrums

 I know there was a time when I loved winter. I have clear memories of sledding well into my teens. I remember snowball fights and trudging through drifts and not minding a bit.

Even as I reached my early adult years, I can't say I hated winter in general. Sure, by the time I was commuting to work, even a minor snowstorm was a pain in the ass and a major one--say a foot or more of snow--was just impossible to deal with. But just cold weather? Not a problem.

Now, though, as I approach my 69th birthday, I find myself really dreading the winter. We're only about halfway through it (if you figure it starts at the end of November and ends at the end of March), and I've already had enough---and this hasn't even been a bad winter so far. We've only had one measurable snowfall and temps through most of January were above normal.

A larger part of it may be the diminished daylight. It's still dark at 7 in the morning, and dark again at 5 in the afternoon. Yes, that will get gradually better over the next month, so that by March daylight will be at least an hour longer, but I still find it depressing to spend a third of my waking hours in the dark.

Maybe I need to move to the tropics?

Constitutional?

 The Senate shall have the sole Power to try all Impeachments. When sitting for that Purpose, they shall be on Oath or Affirmation. When the President of the United States is tried the Chief Justice shall preside: And no Person shall be convicted without the Concurrence of two thirds of the Members present.

 

Judgment in Cases of Impeachment shall not extend further than to removal from Office, and disqualification to hold and enjoy any Office of honor, Trust or Profit under the United States: but the Party convicted shall nevertheless be liable and subject to Indictment, Trial, Judgment and Punishment, according to Law. [emphasis added]

The above is the entire text of the clause in Article I of the U.S. Constitution that sets out the role of the Senate in an impeachment trial. I bold-faced that one phrase because it is important in the context of the current trial of Donald Trump. There is nothing in the text that even suggests, let alone days outright, that an officer cannot be impeached and tried after leaving office...and it is clear that if he or she has left office, the punishment of disqualification remains available in the event of conviction.

Why is it important that this be true? Let's take it out of the context of a president, and make it another impeachable officer--say, Secretary of the Treasury. Our hypothetical Secretary Badguy is charged with actually embezzling from the U.S. Treasury. The evidence is clear, and the House votes for impeachment. But before the trial can begin, Mr. Badguy sees the handwriting on the wall and resigns. Is there now to be no recourse for the Congress? "Sorry, he's out of office, no point in trying him now." That would leave him unpunished and still eligible to be appointed, or worse, elected to another position in the future.

So, yes, it must be Constitutional to try an officeholder whose term has expired or who had resigned.

Placing Blame

 Clearly the plan to get the COVID vaccines out to the public is, so far--in the words of my kids--an epic fail. The issue now is how to fix it, and to do that, we need to know where the problem really is.

My first impulse is to put the blame squarely on the Trump Administration. I suspect, just as it was for the entire four years, they talked a good game but couldn't really play. They were really good at marketing--"Operation Warp Speed," anyone?--but really terrible at actually implementing their cleverly named plans....or at actually having a plan to go with the name. Too often--and this is one of those times, I think--the plan was "Here, we're going to give you all this stuff...now, you figure out how to distribute it and pay for the distribution." It's a way to avoid responsibility.

Second, I have to think that Pfizer and Moderna share some blame as well. Clearly they were not able to ramp up production as quickly as they promised. Now, that may not be entirely their fault; it may be that important ingredients in the manufacturing process are supplied by third parties and those ingredients are the bottleneck--whether because the suppliers are not able to meet demand or because they are coming from overseas and the pandemic itself is causing disruptions to the supply chain.

Third, the state and local governments have to take some responsibility as well. The experience with the PPE supply chain in the spring should have warned them that the federal government, at least under the Trump administration, could not be relied upon to meet its commitments...and that they would need to be prepared to deal with that incompetence. In some cases, it seems the state and local authorities just threw up their hands and said, "We don't have a plan--it's a free-for-all, first-come, first-served, line up and take your chances...." (Florida seems to be the prime example of that.)

It is, of course, too soon to put any blame on the Biden administration; they haven't even been in charge for a week yet. That hasn't stopped some on the right-wing and GOP side of things from pointing fingers: "You said you'd be better at this, why hasn't it improved yet?"

Will it improve? I certainly hope so.

Stove Saga Conclusion

 The new stove was successfully delivered, installed, and tested this morning. 

The old stove on the top, new one on the bottom:

Tonight we cook with the new one for the first time.

Unlucky Thirteen?

 

As promised, my thoughts on Doctor Number 13, Jodie Whittaker.

In my experience, whenever any group of mixed gender gathers for any length of time, one person--usually female--will emerge as the social leader: the organizer of parties, the consoler in times of trouble, the one the others look to for guidance. I have seen this phenomenon in science-fiction circles and in theater casts. I call this person the "den mother".

That is Doctor Number 13's role--"den mother". It is signified by her decision to call her traveling companions a family. And I think it is one of the reasons some fans dislike her characterization....it is distinctly female.

I think that some fans, when they heard the new Doctor would be played by a woman, expected someone who would portray this new incarnation as simply "a guy in a dress". She would have all the typical masculine traits of her predecessors....but Jodie Whittaker (and the writers) chose a different path. Number 13 is female all the way through...affectionate (given to hugs), maternal, sharing--even sharing decision-making. This has been the most democratic of all TARDIS teams; Number 13 is not given to barking orders to her family.

And she is at the same time dependable...and dependent. Imprisoned, she knows her family will rescue her, even as she knows she has to stay strong because they depend on her. I saw complaints on line that this was not "heroic"....that a true hero would have rescued herself. (I guess they never saw the Errol Flynn Robin Hood, in which Robin is saved from the gallows by Maid Marian's plan, not his own.)

I applaud Whittaker, Chibnall et al for taking this controversial direction.

An Even Dozen

 Some thoughts on each of the first 12 Doctors, leading up to a separate post about Number 13, Jodie Whitaker.

1. William Hartnell: The "grumpy grandfather," always finding his traveling companions lacking (even his own granddaughter), but not without affection for them.

2. Patrick Troughton: The "jolly grandfather," always good for a laugh, but ready to defend his companions to the death.

3. Jon Pertwee: The "daring uncle," full of tales about his adventurous past and taking his companions on equally exciting trips.

4. Tom Baker: The "madcap uncle," incredibly intelligent and incredibly wild, you're never sure if he's being brilliant or just crazy.

5. Peter Davison: The "big brother," just a bit older and wiser than his companions, but protective of them.

6. Colin Baker: The "critical uncle," his disagreements with his companions never seem to come from any sense of affection.

7. Sylvester McCoy: The "screwball uncle," not as physically wild as Number 4, but more given to absurdities as part of his plan.

8. Paul McGann: The "heartthrob," Lord Byron in an alien's body with a time machine.

9. Christopher Eccleston: The "reformed bad boy," ready to drag you into something you really aren't ready for.

10. David Tennant: The Doctor as "Mr. Darcy," the brooding, handsome guy every girl falls for...but who deliberately keeps them all distant.

11. Matt Smith: The "daft best friend," the one guy in every circle of chums who maintains a platonic relationship with all the girls--except for the one who he can never quite keep hold of.

12. Peter Capaldi: The "cranky neighbor," always on the verge of saying "Stay off my lawn," but in reality the neighborhood watchman, keeping an eye out for the dangers you don't know are lurking.

Next time, a more extensive look at Number 13, Jodie Whitaker and why she's so disliked by one very vocal segment of fans (and no, it's not entirely just because she's female).

Jeopardy's Future

 Let's get off politics for a while (at least a day). 

Tonight completes Ken Jennings' two-week "try-out" as host of Jeopardy. Overall, I think he's done a good job. He's somewhat chattier than Alex Trebek and he certainly doesn't have the professional polish that Trebek brought to the position, but he keeps the show moving, and he hasn't made any egregious missteps that I've seen. I'd be happy to see him chosen as the permanent host.

Reportedly, for the next two weeks, the show's executive producer, Mike Richards, will step in as the more famous "guest hosts" gear up for their 10-day auditions. Apparently, the first of those will be Katie Couric, followed by former quarterback Aaron Rogers, Bill Whitaker of 60 Minutes, and Mayim Bialik, late of The Big Bang Theory and now starring in Call Me Kat on Fox.

And those four may not be the last of the try-outs. It looks like we might go through the rest of the season--which ends in June, I think, before a permanent new host is announced.

Twelve Months From Now

 Where will we be a year from now?

I believe in one year we will be about two months from having celebrated a normal Thanksgiving, one month from celebrating a normal Christmas, and a few weeks from celebrating a normal New Year's. We will be anticipating a normal Easter and Passover season.

But our entertainment will still be different. Most live entertainment will still be just gearing up to restart; the few venues and productions that managed to open in the closing months of 2021 will be struggling to attract an audience that remains wary of gathering in closed spaces. Movie theaters--those that manage to re-open--will be short of material to show and remain so probably until the spring.

Our politics will be different and yet the same. Governing by legislation (rather than executive order) will have made a return, thanks to a Senate that does not operate as a dam to all bills coming from the House...but there will still be Republican opposition to a lot of what the Biden administration wants to do and the filibuster will let them block some of it (but not all--they will no longer want to be seen as the party of "no").

The extreme right-wing will still be with us...but much diminished by criminal trials and convictions, as well as general public recrimination. The fear is that they will go deep underground, back to where they were a decade ago, only to occasionally burst out like some horror movie monster in violence.

I remain optimistic but realistic of our future.

A New Beginning

What we saw today was in part a study in contrasts. In the space of under four hours, we heard two Presidents speak...one for his last time in that office (we hope) and one for his first time. The differences could not be more stark.

Although President Trump reportedly had prepared remarks for his farewell, he apparently tossed them out and decided to "wing it" in his usual disjointed, incoherent, self-aggrandizing style. His brief speech said little about anything but Donald Trump himself, extolling his non-existent accomplishments of the past four years, once again lying or exaggerating about the economy and the pandemic. 

On other hand, President Biden spoke from a prepared speech...but still far more from the heart than his predecessor had or ever has. I couldn't, of course, transcribe his entire speech (and that will be available within minutes from the media, I'm sure), but here are the sentences and phrases that caught my attention:

"This is democracy's day...."

"The American story depends on....all of us...."

"The dream of justice for all will be deferred no longer...."

"My whole soul is in this...uniting our nation...."

"Without unity there is no peace...."

"Disagreement need not lead to disunity...."

"We must end this uncivil war...."

"We will not lead merely by the example of our power, but by the power of our example...."

Beyond the new President's own words, I was moved by two other things. The first was Lady Gaga's incredible rendering of the National Anthem. She did not simply sing it, she performed it...with grand gestures and powerful emotion. The second was the poem by Andrea Gorman, the poet laureate, and her reading of it. It's clear her style develops from rap and hip-hop--the rhythms and rhymes of her work all reflect that--and yet it was also clearly not merely an urban, ethnic opus. Like Hamilton, it uses those tropes to speak to a wider audience.

This was an inaugural ceremony for our time.

Inaugurating the Future

 Yesterday was a post of predictions of long-term events. Today we'll deal with the short-term--what to expect tomorrow, Inauguration Day.

1. Joe Biden's speech will not be particularly memorable. He is not a Lincoln, FDR, JFK, or even an Obama-type orator. There will be no phrases like "the better angels of our nature," "nothing to fear but fear itself," or "ask not what you can do...." (unless he quotes from those, of course). It will, also, I think, not be a laundry list of what he hopes to accomplish; he'll save that for his first State of the Union speech in a few weeks.

2. Someone, somewhere, will do something stupid and/or dangerous in protest...not necessarily in Washington and not even at one of the state capitals. They've telegraphed those and know they will be too well guarded. Where? How about at one of our national monuments? A massive demonstration at Mt. Rushmore? Will the "second Civil War" types decide one of the battlefields of the first one is an appropriate place to wreak havoc--Gettysburg, Antietam, Bull Run?

3. Some GOP representative will immediately file a lawsuit against one or more of the executive orders Biden intends to put in effect tomorrow--most likely anything pertaining to immigration as that is their go-to issue to rile their base.

This time Thursday we'll know how good a prognosticator I am.

Return to Normalcy?

 Will noon on Wednesday mark the beginning of a return to normalcy? And not just for our political lives, but everything else--shopping, entertainment, social life in general? I hope so; I think so.

Note that I say "the beginning"...I don't expect it to be like flipping a switch and all the lights come on, the engines start turning, the doors unlock. It will be more like when you start your car on a cold morning and the heater comes on--the first air that comes from the vents is cold and then slowly, over a period of ten minutes or so, it begins to warm the air. In fact, after 20 minutes or so, you'll probably have to turn down the system, because it gets too hot.

Certainly, politically, we will see the end of gridlock for the most part. While Republicans may still vote against most Democratic proposals, we will no longer have the situation of the last two years, with every bill passed by the House sitting and rotting on the desk of the Majority Leader in the Senate. That was not normal.

As for the non-political, I hope the change in atmosphere in Washington will engender a change in the rest of life--that wearing a mask will cease to be a political statement, that arguments about health restrictions will return to a debate about the science and not be a debate about "tyranny." I hope that those changes will lead to others--that more people being sensible about the restrictions will lead to more sensible restrictions (when you don't have to assume that a sizeable part of the public will not obey the rules, you can make the rules less strict).

BTW, a niggling note: Before Warren Harding used "normalcy" in his Presidential campaign, most people would have said the noun form of "normal" was "normality." "Normalcy" was a purely mathematical term, for the most part.

I've Got a Little List

 This isn't a bucket list; it's a "what I'll do as soon as I can post-COVID list." In no particular order:

1. Go to a movie in a theater.

2. Go see live theater (probably only local community theater, but still).

3. Direct and/or perform in live theater.

4. Play trivia in a bar.

5. Sing karaoke.

6. Go to a restaurant and not rush to get out.

7. Visit friends in person.

I'm sure you have a list as well--what's on yours?

Chasing WandaVision

 I watched two things last night on TV: WandaVision and The Chase.

I'm not sure about WandaVision; I get that there's more than the surface to what's going on (a hint was the reaction of the boss's wife to his choking), and that the surface is an homage to sitcoms, especially The Dick Van Dyke Show and Bewitched, but I'd prefer if that homage were more loving and less satirical. It wouldn't detract, IMO, from the underlying premise if it were.

In addition, I find that there is little comedy chemistry between stars Elizabeth Olsen and Paul Bettany. Their timing is so bad that Kathryn Hahn stole every single scene she was in. I may wait until there is more to watch in a bunch to try again.

OTOH, I quite enjoyed The Chase. It's a neat format for a trivia/quiz show. The one thing I don't like is that, like every new game show since Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, it is swallowed up in flashing lights and loud, dramatic musical stings. Why is it that producers haven't noticed that the most successful game show in TV history, Jeopardy, relies on none of those things? (They've even toned down the sound effects when someone hits a Daily Double in recent years.) The tension and suspense should come naturally from the gameplay and not need to be augmented with gimmicks.

I'll keep watching because, like Jeopardy, the questions are frequently quite difficult and cleverly written.

Impeach Pit

 So the new argument is whether impeachment only makes things worse. The current assumption is that the Senate will not convict, leaving Trump free to continue his established ways, and his most rabid followers to virtually and literally attack those who opposed him.

This morning I heard a respected expert suggest a 9/11-style commission as a substitute. My first thought was that, today, almost ten years after 9/11, there remains a significant part of the American public that rejects the findings of that commission, that puts forward a range of conspiracies from the idea that the Twin Towers were collapsed by bombs and not the plane strikes, that the entire event was a "false flag" to justify Middle East intervention, and even that the planes never struck the towers and the Pentagon and all the video we have is fake (and the live broadcasts were a ruse that the networks were in on from the beginning).

Commissions and hearings just drag out the controversy and allow the fringe nuts to point to theories expounded in that testimony as "the real truth" or as evidence of whatever conspiracy they choose to accept.

Short of Trump dying (and I'm not even sure that would work, as there would surely be people who presume reports of his death are false--either perpetrated by his supporters or his detractors), I don't know how to end his influence on our politics in the short term. As was pointed out recently, Juan Peron died in 1974, but the movement he began in 1946 persists in modern Argentina.

Number 14?

 It is widely rumored that Jodie Whitaker will be leaving her role as the title character on Doctor Who at the end of the 13th season, currently in production and scheduled to be aired in the fall. That will mean that, in terms of number of episodes, Whitaker will have the shortest tenure as the Doctor in the show's 58-year history. (Of course, little of that is her fault--her first two seasons were cut to 10 episodes from 12 by budget restraints and her final one is reduced to eight because of the pandemic.)

Although the BBC has yet to confirm the rumors, speculation has already begun on who should succeed her in the role....so I've decided to put in my own thoughts. Admittedly, this has only jelled for me in the past couple of days, as I watched my candidate perform as a contestant on BBC's Celebrity Mastermind game show.

My choice would be comedian and panel show personality Stephen K. Amos. Why? Well, as I watched him on the show--which he won, by the way--I saw a mature man with a gravitas belied by a twinkling eye...precisely what I think the show needs right now. I don't think we need another very young person, such as Matt Smith or even Whitaker. I don't think we need another grandfather-figure. We need someone like Patrick Troughton or Tom Baker--someone who could be a leader but with the slightly off-kilter attitude of those men.

Here's a link to the Wikipedia entry on Amos. Read it, catch one of his appearances, and see if you don't agree.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_K._Amos

Are You a Mastermind?

 I've been watching a British gameshow called Mastermind (actually, only the celebrity version is available for streaming on Britbox, but the rules are the same for both). In the first round, each contestant is grilled for 90 seconds on a subject of his or her choosing. The second round is two minutes on general knowledge--everything from pop culture to science to history to politics to...well, whatever.

What amazes me is the subjects some contestants pick for their specialty...and then how bad they are at it. A good score in either round tends to be 7 to 9 right answers. On one show this week, one of the contestants (a Brit reality show "star") chose "cetaceans"--whales, dolphins, porpoises. I presumed she either had a lifelong interest in them or had boned up on the subject in advance. Based on her answers, I would have been wrong. She got three right. I'm no expert on the subject, but I would have doubled her score.

She was no better on general knowledge, where a good score is usually 8 to 10 right. She got 5. The whole time she was whining about how this was much harder than she thought it would be. It made me wonder why she agreed/volunteered to be on the show at all.

It also made me wonder what I would choose as a specialty in the same situation. Comic books and comic strips are an obvious choice...but to narrow it to stuff I really know (and you can do that here--one contestant had a category of the movie Die Hard...not the whole franchise, just the first film) I might make it only DC superhero comics from 1960 to 1970.

What would be your specialty?

Eight Days? A Week?

 I am torn as to what should be done in the remaining days of the Trump administration (eight left as of this morning). 

Clearly, the best thing is for Trump to resign--it's the fastest, requires no action on anyone else's part and takes effect immediately. But we all know that's not going to happen, at least not without some kind of metaphorical gun to his head.

Second best would be activating the provisions of the 25th Amendment, declaring him unfit to continue to serve. There are several problems with that: First, Vice President Pence has said he is opposed, so the simplest way to do it (the VP and cabinet voting for it) is not going to happen and any other method would take too long; second, the provisions outlined in the amendment's language seem to be largely directed toward health reasons and not criminal ones, which means there could be court fights over whether the amendment even applies; and third, the amendment allows the President to challenge the action in the courts, again delaying the effectiveness.

Third best is impeachment, which the House has taken the first steps towards. But until the two new Senators from Georgia are seated, the Senate remains with Republican majority. That's not expected to happen until Inauguration Day itself, so there couldn't be a successful vote to remove Trump until he was already out of office.

Eight days may not seem like a long time--especially now that so much of Trump's bully pulpit has come unplugged--but his most rabid followers, the ones who eagerly heard his words last Wednesday as permission for riot and insurrection, are tuned into him, no matter how he gets the message out. Eight days is more than sufficient for a dangerous conspiracy to continue.

All Stove In

 Update on the stove:

Sunday morning, we determined that it would be safe to use the stovetop burners, but we are still unsure about any part of the oven, so we won't be baking, roasting or broiling anything for a while.

Called GE's repair service this morning, the soonest they can get anybody here is nearly two weeks away...the Friday after next. I made the appointment, but I suspect I'll be canceling it because we will have ordered a new stove before then.

Anyone have any good crockpot recipes they can share?

What Else Can Happen?

 Yesterday evening, Jill and I had a very pleasant on-line meeting with a group of friends. We discussed TV, movies, books, and life in general (no politics). About 7:15, we said our goodbyes and went to the kitchen to start dinner. We were broiling some hot dogs in our electric range.

About 60 seconds in, I heard a loud buzzing from the stove and opened the oven door, to see the broiler heating element shooting sparks from what appeared to be a break in it. I turned off the broiler and the sparks continued, so I went to the basement and tripped the breaker for the power to the stove. That ended it...for the moment. 

We decided to get sandwiches from Wawa for dinner instead.

Some background: A few years back, we had a similar short occur in the main oven heating element. We had it replaced. In 2019, the hinge on the oven door was damaged, such that it will simply fall all the way open when released. We have been meaning to replace the entire appliance...and then the pandemic and lockdown occurred.

An odd thing about our stove: When it was installed (before we bought the house), it was "hard-wired" into the electrical system, as opposed to being plugged in. I don't know if that was standard some 25 years ago, but it means when we replace the stove, we need to have an electrician disconnect it and probably install a socket for the plug on any new stove. Oh, and it has to be an electric...there's no gas line to our house.

We'll probably be doing a lot of crock-pot and grill meals for the next few weeks.

What Do You Read?

 Still keeping things light (or trying to):

What's your favorite form of reading material? Two decades ago, I would have answered science fiction...but too much SF has taken on a dark, dystopian feel. Even the normally future-hopeful genre of Star Trek has begun to look at the world through a dark glass.

These days, I'm reading mysteries--and mostly older mysteries. I went through the entire Nero Wolfe catalog, including the ones not written by Rex Stout. I've started my way through Erle Stanley Gardner's Perry Mason novels--there are more than 80 of them, so that will take me awhile. If I read a currently published mystery novel, it's likely to be historical.

In addition, I read a certain amount of non-fiction: History (I'm in the middle of one about the Bowery section of New York City), politics (but not current politics, thank you--I get enough of that in the news), some popular science (especially paleontology).

So, what do you read?

Reviving Our Youth?

 In an effort to lighten the mood around here after the past few days, here's a somewhat trivial question:

If you were a TV producer, what favorite television of your youth would you revive, with a new cast, and perhaps a more modern outlook--without losing sight of what made it a hit back then?

Here are a few of mine, divided by categories:

Comedy: The Patty Duke Show (obviously no longer called that, but maybe something like "Identical Cousins"). The idea of a pair of teenagers, twins but not sisters, with very different upbringings and personalities, is still a viable source of light-hearted farce. Mistaken identity as a source of comedy dates at least as far back as Shakespeare. And with modern special effects, the illusion could be quite effective.

Adventure: The Wild Wild West. In an age where steam-punk is popular, why not bring back the show that was using it before it was called that? Plus it's a buddy-comedy adventure and has the potential to make science-fiction-like commentary on current events.

Crime Drama: Honey West. It only lasted one season, but it was a groundbreaker in putting a woman in the title role of a private eye...and without the need for a male partner (like Remington Steele or Moonlighting). Casting? I have no idea...but surely there's someone with the appeal of Anne Francis in Hollywood today.

What are your ideas?

Coordinated Violence?

 Not sure how many people have seen this, since it hasn't been mentioned in any TV coverage I've seen, but the insurrection against the Capitol in Washington may not have been a standalone attack.

State capitals in at least six states--Utah, Oregon, Washington, Kansas, Texas, and Arkansas--were threatened by large, violent and armed mobs yesterday afternoon. While none of these incidents seems to have resulted in the sort of breech of security that occurred on Capitol Hill, all of them resulted in some disruption of normal activity--including lock-downs and evacuations. (https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/532997-state-capitals-under-siege-by-pro-trump-mobs)

Does anyone think this is all coincidental? That there was not some sort of coordination involved? That followers of QAnon and 4-Chan and the like did not put out a call, a signal, to their compatriots that the afternoon of January 6 was the time to rise up and take control? I am not that naive.

I've seen some commentary on line comparing yesterday's insurrection to the famed Gunpowder Plot that is commemorated in Guy Fawkes Day. I think that comparison is inapposite. I think it has more in common with the Beerhall Putsch of pre-Nazi Germany. (If you're unfamiliar with that historic incident, here's a link:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beer_Hall_Putsch)

Either way, we're talking an organized attempt to disrupt or overthrow the government.

Trump's Epiphany

It is perhaps significant that today's events in Washington fall on the Feast of the Epiphany. In the Christian church, this is the date on which the Magi arrived in Bethlehem, indicating Christ's manifestation to the Gentiles. But the word has a larger, more secular meaning as well:

an intuitive grasp of reality through something (such as an event) usually simple and striking; an illuminating discovery, realization, or disclosure

I'm hoping the failure of the last-ditch attempt to overrule and override the electoral results in Congress today will be an epiphany for Trump...or at least for his rabid followers--a grasp of reality, an illuminating realization that their ill-considered crusade is at an end. They lost in a fairly contested election in which there was no overwhelming voter fraud. (There's always some fraud--human nature practically demands it. Somebody somewhere is going to try to cheat.)

The question is, will this epiphany be the like the one Saul of Tarsus had on the road to Damascus--when he changed from persecuting Christians to leading them? Will Trump--or at least his followers--stop being perverters of democracy and become supporters of it?

Brick Walls and Rabbit Holes

 I have stopped trying to respond to people who insist that the election was "stolen" from Donald Trump. There's no point to it. You either wind up talking to a brick wall or following them down the rabbit hole of their own deluded thinking. Even when you present them with verifiable facts (with citations from multiple sources), they tell you it's all fake and part of the vast conspiracy. When you ask them to present verifiable evidence of their "truth," they fall back on the oldest conspiracist argument in the world: The fact that there is no evidence is the evidence of how big the conspiracy is. 

Early last year, before the pandemic, I directed a production of Neil Simon's The Prisoner of Second Avenue. I never thought the ravings of the lead character, Mel Edison, as he goes through a nervous breakdown would have any bearing on the real world, but....well, read the following and tell me it doesn't sound familiar if you've argued with a pro-Trumper or an anti-masker virus-denier in the past six months:

MEL: Do you want proof, Edna? Do you want me to give you actual, indisputable proof?

EDNA: Of what, Mel?

MEL: That me, that Dave Polichek, that Mike Ambrozi, Hal Chesterman, twenty-three secretaries, six point seven of the working force in this country today is unemployed not because of a recession, not because of wages and high prices, but because of a well organized, calculated, brilliantly executed plot? Do you want me to give you proof right here and now in this room?

EDNA: Well--alright...If you want, Mel. 

MEL: I CAN'T GIVE YOU ANY PROOF!! What kind of proof do I have? I'm out of work, that's my proof...They won't let me work!

 Let me point out that Simon wrote that in 1972, decades before Twitter and Facebook were even gleams in their creators' eyes.

Traveling Companions

 With the departure of two companions over the weekend and the imminent arrival of another this fall, I thought this might be the time to talk about what makes a good partner for the lead character on Doctor Who and who I think have been the best ones (and I've seen at least a little bit of each of them along the way).

I think a good companion has to complement the Doctor they travel with, contribute something to the story and the team that the Doctor does not. A bland companion or one who simply echoes the Doctor's role and abilities is not as asset. That's why I never thought either iteration of Romana worked--we didn't need another Time Lord (or Lady), we already have one.

I also think the best companions are the ones who have shown an ability to work well with more than one Doctor. That's why I think the best companion of the classic series was Sarah Jane Smith. She came to the team with Jon Pertwee's Third Doctor and stayed through several seasons of Tom Baker's Fourth....and she was a fine partner to both. Sarah Jane's strength was her "down-to-Earthness"...though she was never thrown by the circumstances she encountered, she also never stopped seeing them through the eyes of a very human journalist (a trait that also made her character work in The Sarah Jane Adventures). 

A close second was Tegan Jovanka--her feisty attitude was an equally good fit with Tom Baker's somewhat manic portrayal and Peter Davison's laid-back approach. The absolute worst in that period? Undoubtedly, Peri Brown. Her aggressiveness and argumentative style was a nice challenge to Davison...but it simply ground the story to a halt when she confronted Sixth Doctor Colin Baker all the time.

In the reboot period, my favorite companion will be a surprise to many fans--Clara Oswald. During her time on the show, many fans complained that the stories were more about her than the Doctor...and my response is, "Yes, certainly." By the time Clara joined Number 11 (Matt Smith), we had already seen him with Amy Pond, Rory Williams, and a number of one-shot partners. We knew him quite well already--it was Clara we had to learn about. And when she had to switch to the Twelfth Doctor, in the very different guise of Peter Capaldi, she shifted her relationship well--from the flirty girl-buddy to the stand-up daughter figure. (And she showed an ability to relate to Number 10 (David Tennant) and the War Doctor (John Hurt) in the 50th anniversary special.)

Second place goes to Amy, even though we only saw her with Number 11. My feeling for her comes from the idea that she was the first companion to have a real romance and life during her time with the Doctor.

Who is your favorite?

Real Life?

 In 24 hours, the holiday season will be over for most of us, and we will return to real life...or as much of "real life" as we get in the current situation.

Jill will go back to work tomorrow after two weeks off...but, other than not spending eight hours or so every day at her desk, those two weeks were not all that different from the ones that preceded them or will now follow. (FTR, Jill has been working from home for five years now; the only thing the pandemic has done to her work environment is suspend the occasional business trips; her last one was in February.)

And, of course, I've been retired since May 1. I thought my retirement would be filled with things to do--especially community theater. But by the time I actually left my job, there was no community theater to do. And many of the other things I wanted to get involved in (I had proposed a "puppet ministry" for the young people in my church) have been put on indefinite hold.

So, frankly, except for some extra time on Zoom with friends and family and receiving some gifts, these holidays have not been any different from the "real life" that came before or will come after.

I suspect the same is true for most of you.

Patrick Sees a "Who"

 So, what did you all think of the New Year's special episode of Doctor Who (assuming you watched it)? While I'm not a big fan of the Daleks, it's nice to see someone try to use them in a different way. It did lead to a question, though--by this time, in the long history of the show, the people of London have seen Daleks a number of times before, probably some within the lifetimes of people still alive in 2021. Why is it they never recognize this menace when they see it?

Jill suggests it's because the authorities always cover it all up, putting out stories that chalk it up to a hoax, a new technology gone awry, or even--in a case of meta-story--a TV or movie shoot. This one may be a touch harder to explain that way: The prime minister was assassinated on live TV by Daleks. Surely the TV networks kept tape of that!

Trying to avoid spoilers, I was happy to see that the departing companions (or "fam") were left alive, well, and happy...and even with the wherewithal to do some adventuring on their own in the future (leaving room for guest shots, I suppose). I'm not as pleased with the hints that Yaz's friendship with the Doctor may go deeper than that. We went through that with Rose and Martha, and it never plays well, IMO. (And the fact that it's two women this time only gives the incels and social-justice objectors more ammunition.)

Your thoughts? (And if you include spoilers, I will not publish your comments for at least another week.)

What Does a "New Year" Mean?

 Jill just said something to me this morning: "As you hear people talk about how happy they are that 2020 is over, you have to wonder about how we have come to divide up time." I know what she means: has anything really changed in the past 24 hours, other than some numbers on our calendars or the clocks in our computers? Why do we treat this as some great watershed moment? What makes January 1 so different from December 31? I mean, for most of us, even the weather today will be pretty much the same as it was yesterday.

I think about the great "historical" years. People will talk about 1929 as a "bad year," because of the stock market crash that caused the Great Depression....but the crash didn't occur until October. Did that one event color the previous nine months that, up until then, no one had viewed as especially momentous?

On the other hand, in my memory, 1968 was a truly terrible year: April saw the assassination of Martin Luther King, June the assassination of Robert Kennedy, the summer the demonstrations and riots around the Democratic convention in Chicago, and November the election of Richard Nixon (until the last four years the worst president of my lifetime). Those events so overwhelm me that I have little direct memory of anything else that happened that year--even though it was the beginning of my last year in high school.

So, yes, 2020 is forever marred by nine months of pandemic and political/social strife. Too much all at once. The new year perhaps lets us turn a page, like starting a new chapter in a book--building on all the stress of the previous chapter, but writing of new and hopefully better events to come.

What's Ahead

 I'm far from an expert on any of this stuff, and some of this is just my hopeful nature, but here some predictions for 2021:

1. The last ditch attempts by some Republicans to reverse the Presidential election will be a dismal failure.

2. The Georgia Senate run-offs will result in a 50-50 split in the Senate, with VP Kamala Harris casting the deciding vote. That will put, most likely, Chuck Schumer in the majority leader position, allowing him to control what bills come to the floor.

3. By mid-year, theaters (both film and live) will reopen, with some restrictions. In some areas, that might include proof of vaccination before you can use a ticket. 

4. In September, most school districts will offer in-person learning to anyone who wants it, while continuing on-line offerings to those who don't, at least through the winter holidays. The largest districts will likely require proof of COVID vaccination before re-enrollment.

6. Indoor dining will largely resume by early spring, with some restrictions.

7. While state-wide mask mandates will be over by mid-year, some areas and some businesses may continue to require masks for the foreseeable future. The plexiglass shields in retail businesses will remain, I'd bet forever.

8. Because so many people have grown used to using them, restaurant delivery services like Grub Hub and Uber Eats will continue to thrive. Same with grocery delivery.

9. Domestic airline and train travel will be virtually normal by Thanksgiving...although it's possible there may be rules about proof of vaccination or negative tests, on a company-by-company basis.

10. Depending on how much foreign governments trust that the Biden administration has things under control, foreign travel will return to normal as well....but the cruise industry will still suffer.

Mid-Holiday Doldrums

 Even back in my childhood, I always found this time between Christmas and New Year's to be problematic. All the excitement of Christmas had usually dissipated by the morning of the 27th and the weather was not often conducive to being outside. (Staten Island rarely got snow before January, so sledding was out, but it was too cold to be out biking or something like that.) As a kid, New Year's Eve was nothing special, really...my parents would get me up around 11:30 so I could watch the ball drop on TV, but our big celebration was dinner the next day with my father's family.

As an adult, it got better--I would attend New Year's Eve parties, for instance. But December 26 to 31 often felt like a long period of nothing much.

And, of course, in this time of pandemic restrictions, it's even worse. There's so little to do in normal circumstances that the letdown from Christmas just feels that much worse. Don't get me wrong--I'm not depressed, just feeling a bit at loose-ends. Jill and I both have lots of time on our hands...and nothing we can do with it. Normally, we might plan a night out--a movie and/or dinner--but that's not possible now.

I'm hoping it will all make next year's celebration that much brighter.

What Are You Doing New Year's Eve?

 Last night, on the news, Jill and I saw a report on the preparations being made for the traditional "ball-drop" in Times Square on New Year's Eve. The report included the plans New York City was making to keep the crowd within pandemic restriction limits.

It immediately occurred to both of us: "If that's really your concern (and it should be) why are you permitting the ball-drop at all?" If you don't want a crowd in Times Square, the easiest way to avoid it is not to give them a reason to be there. Sure, there will still be idiots who want to gather in large numbers to celebrate, but there will be far fewer if there's nothing to draw them to that one location. If nothing else, they would be spread out among several other places in the city, such as along the Hudson River waterfront to watch the fireworks display instead. (Or, even better, stay home and celebrate sensibly there.)

You might as well announce "Come to our COVID super-spread party in Times Square! There will be entertainment and spectacle!"

A Pain in my....

 Not sure what I did, but somewhere in the past three or four days, I pulled or strained something in my lower back. It's not bad if I stand and walk around, but sitting for any length of time (in any kind of chair) makes it stiffen up, so that when I stand back up it's difficult to straighten all the way for the first few moments. After walking for a bit, it loosens, but I can still feel the tightness and some residual pain. The problem seems to be centered just where my back transitions to my bottom.

I've used heating pads (that helps a bit) and Aleve (that helps a bit more). Right now, I'm trying a spray-on analgesic and a lumbar pad in my desk chair. They seem to be helping some as well.

Anybody got some suggestions as to what the problem is and a solution?

Peace On Earth

 I don't think anything else needs to be said:

Box It Up

 Happy Boxing Day (or, if you prefer, the Feast of Stephen, as it is called in the carol "Good King Wenceslas"). Here's a little history on the name:

The Oxford English Dictionary gives the earliest attestations from Britain in the 1830s, defining it as "the first weekday after Christmas day, observed as a holiday on which postmen, errand boys, and servants of various kinds expect to receive a Christmas box".

The term "Christmas box" dates back to the 17th century, and among other things meant:

A present or gratuity given at Christmas: in Great Britain, usually confined to gratuities given to those who are supposed to have a vague claim upon the donor for services rendered to him as one of the general public by whom they are employed and paid, or as a customer of their legal employer; the undefined theory being that as they have done offices for this person, for which he has not directly paid them, some direct acknowledgement is becoming at Christmas.

It is also the "second day of Christmas" (Christmas itself being the first), so give your true love a pair of turtledoves, if you are so inclined.

 

Merry Christmas

 I wasn't sure what to post for the holiday, so I decided to get a little traditional, from the Gospel According to Luke:

In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world.  (This was the first census that took place while Quirinius was governor of Syria.) And everyone went to their own town to register.

 So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David. He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child. While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no guest room available for them.

And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord. This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.”

Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying,

 “Glory to God in the highest heaven
and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests.”

 

Pardon Me?

 I used to have a standard line I used when people would say, "Pardon me?" I would reply, "Who do you think you are, Richard Nixon?"

After this week, the number of political felons who would fit in that joke must be nearing a dozen...and may well double by the time we reach January 20. As I heard mentioned last night on MSNBC, this kind of flurry of pardons around the holidays is fairly common...but usually they are non-political: people who were given surprisingly harsh sentences, people who had clearly turned their lives around, people with health problems. 

There's one good thing that might come from all this--if any of the folks Trump pardoned in the last days of his term are called to testify about their role in his malfeasances, they can no longer claim the protections of the Fifth Amendment. The pardon means they cannot be prosecuted for their crimes, and hence they have no fear of incriminating themselves.

Crazy Like a Fox?

 Okay, so after months of avoiding any contact with the COVID relief efforts in Congress, now that they've passed--by a veto-proof majority--a minimal package that includes the necessary legislation to keep the government running for another few weeks, Trump decides it's not what he wanted (not that he told anyone what he wanted until now) and suggests he won't sign it.

Has this been his plan all along? To (1) blame Congress for not doing enough; and (2) hand Biden a government shut-down on January 20? "If I can't run the country, nobody gets to do it. Nyah-nyah, let's see you solve this one, wise guy!" And as for the prospect of a continued Republican majority in the Senate? "You're on your own, Mitch! I won't be here so I don't give a damn!"

Hasn't this been his pattern throughout his business career? Run a company into the ground, then declare bankruptcy or sell out to some poor sucker who doesn't realize how bad it really is, and leave it to others to suffer the consequences?

Is this just his biggest bankruptcy and abandonment?

Vote Fraud Found

 ...but it won't make Donald Trump happy. After examining more than 100 allegations of voter fraud or irregularities in Delaware County, PA, District Attorney Jack Stollsteimer and his bi-partisan staff found just one verifiable case--and it was a Republican who illegally voted for Trump in the name of his dead mother. As reported in today's edition of the Delaware County Daily Times:

Stollsteimer said Bartman accessed the Pennsylvania online voter registration portal in August 2020 to register his mother, Elizabeth Bartman, who died in 2008....

Bartman was able to use his mother’s driver’s license number... as [an identifier] in the Pennsylvania system. In the case of Bartman’s mother, Stollsteimer said the system not only failed to catch the information as a registration from a deceased person, it actually uploaded information from the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation database.

Bartman then applied for and received an absentee ballot for his mother from the Election Bureau, filled it out and returned it. That ballot was received Oct. 28 and counted Nov. 3 for Nether Providence’s 3rd Ward, Stollsteimer said. Bartman also voted in that same precinct...

https://www.delcotimes.com/news/d-a-marple-mans-dead-mom-voted-for-trump/article_fea7510e-43e7-11eb-aea6-2f7f71b245ec.html

Christmas Prep 2

 You would think that the pandemic would have given us so much extra time that we'd be ahead of schedule on Christmas...and you'd be wrong. We are at least a week behind our normal timing on shopping and shipping. Packages to our children will not be shipped until later today...which means they more than likely will not arrive in time to be opened on Christmas morning.

Of course, we had things beside the pandemic to deal with. The death of Jill's mother and the planning to attend her funeral took up most of a week that normally would have been our wrapping and packaging time. Then, of course, the snowstorm last week meant getting out to the shipping places was delayed as well.

So, we're working on the idea that anything that arrives by Epiphany on January 6 is on time, since the 12 days of Christmas are the period between December 25 and that date.

Christmas Prep

 Did you decorate for Christmas this year? We didn't--except for putting up lights outside.

We disposed of our artificial tree after last season (it was on its last legs) and had intended to order a new one for this year. But as the holidays approached, we realized that we would undoubtedly have no visitors over Christmas--the pandemic restrictions and their own requirements meant that our sons and their significant others would not be joining us.

Getting a new tree. putting it up and decorating it seemed like an awful lot of fuss for just the two of us. It would have meant clearing space in the living room (always more of a hassle than it seems), hauling the decorations out of the attic--and then undoing it all just a couple of weeks later. So, we decided to skip it this year...and maybe do it up even bigger and better next year, as a celebration of getting out of pandemic.

How has your Christmas planning changed?

Let It Snow 4

 Last one of these, I promise--unless we get snow again before the New Year.

I finally cut a narrow path through the packed ice on the sidewalk, thanks to the ice chopper blade I bought at Home Depot. I will let the sun and warmer temperatures expected in the next few days work at widening it, thank you. (But those warmer temps didn't arrive this morning--16 degrees at 6 AM!)

Let It Snow 3

 So, I got the driveway clear, but by the time I could get to work on the sidewalk, the sun had gone down, it was getting colder, and the snow--most of which was from the plows that had thrown the stuff from the road onto my walk--had turned rock hard. It's still rock hard this morning. (Worse, I'm the last house on the street to clear things...but I'm also the one that gets hit hardest by the plows, because the road widens to three lanes right in front of my house, so the plows are clearing right up to my curb--and all that ice and snow has nowhere to go except on my walk.)

I've thrown salt on the top of the ice, hoping that--combined with warming temps and sun--will soften it enough to let me get at it. I've seen some suggestions for a vinegar/water solution and/or boiling water as a help. Anyone have experience with this?

This is the worst I've ever seen it in 20 years here.

Let It Snow 2

 As a kid, I used to love snow. I even loved it as a younger adult. I still think new-fallen snow is a lovely sight...the problem is that it doesn't last.

Soon it is just heaps of plowed up dirty ice along the edges of the roads, or worse at the top of my driveway. When the snow is followed by rain, it just turns into slabs of ice...and even a snow-blower will not clear those easily...so out comes the shovel, trying to crack the ice enough to get it off the pavement. 

I spent 30 minutes so far today trying to dig out...and only managed to clear about five feet of my driveway and the back porch. The sun is out now, streaming down the driveway, so I will shortly go back out to see if that is helping any.

Snow is no longer something I love.

Let It Snow?

 Here I was hoping that, after the last nine months, we would have an easy winter, like last year's. Last year, our area got literally no measurable snow. This year, we are about to have one of the earliest real snowstorms I can remember in the two decades we've lived around here.

We rarely get any snow before New Year's...and that tends to be light flurries that melt within 24 hours. Today, we're expecting anywhere from 3 to 6 inches, some of which might be "wintry mix". I can't imagine what road clearing in a pandemic might turn out to be like.

Cars and Phones

I live on a major thoroughfare, just a few yards from an intersection with a traffic light, so traffic often (almost always) backs up to my driveway. Not a complaint--I knew it would happen when we moved here. Yesterday, though, I observed for what must be the umpteenth time, something that rankles me.

I drove to the end of the driveway and waited my turn to be able to enter traffic. There was a car directly in across my path (again, not the issue). The driver had his face buried in his phone, paying no attention to the circumstances around him. Now, on one level, I understand this level of thinking: "I'm stopped at a red light, it's gonna be at least 30 to 40 seconds, let me check my phone...." But I think it's more dangerous than it seems...and let me tell you why, using what actually happened yesterday.

The light changed, the car ahead of this fellow moved...and he didn't--because all his attention was on his phone. I had to honk at him to wake him up to reality around him. Now, suppose the driver behind him, unaware of the phone-user's inattention, had begun to move? Accident? Quite possibly.

There's probably no way to make this work, but here's an idea for a future phone/car feature. When the vehicle's transmission is in any mode except "park" the phone doesn't work. No texting, no calling, nothing. 

Your thoughts?

Google-Eyed

 Nothing like waking up and finding that none of your usual agenda is working, because all of it is tied to Google.

Normally, we get up, I go to my computer and check e-mail and the like, while Jill turns on the TV in the bedroom to catch up on the news and weather. We get our broadcast news through the YouTube TV service and that was down along with most everything else Google does--e-mail, Google Docs, Blogger, etc. We finally got some news by finding the CBSNews stream.

As of the time of this posting, there's still no word from Google on exactly what the problem was. 

Beginning of the End

 This morning, the news was doing live reports of the first trucks leaving Pfizer's Michigan plant loaded with COVID vaccine. Jill wondered if this were really something that required this kind of coverage, or if it were a circumstance of Pfizer looking for publicity and the media playing along.

I said I think it is a news-worthy event, comparable to coverage of troops boarding ships and planes bound for combat. Since then, another comparison has come to mind: In the days before the launch of Apollo 11, the news media followed the three astronauts constantly. And on the morning of the launch, there were reports on their every move--what they had for breakfast, their farewells to their families, the trip to the launch pad, etc.

 This deserves that kind of coverage...if only to show the public, on a stage-by-stage, day-by-day basis, that the vaccine is real, it is being distributed, it is not being hoarded for the "elite" (and yes, I have seen that accusation being made).

I applaud the media for this.

Hotel Blues 2

 Well, all that agita over a hotel reservation was for naught. Just hours after I successfully made the reservation, Governor Wolf announced new COVID restrictions going into effect at midnight tonight, making our plans for this trip impossible. (We have to go out of state for a family funeral; we had planned to go to this hotel tonight, stay overnight, drive the rest of the way to the funeral Saturday morning, return to the hotel for Saturday night and come home Sunday morning.)

The new restrictions mean the hotel's restaurants will not be serving any meals and, since there is no convenient place to order meals delivered, that meant there would be no food to be had easily at the hotel (possibly at all, since all the restaurants anywhere around would be under the same restrictions). I cancelled the reservation--and may have to pay a cancellation charge, since I was past the 24-hour grace period.

Instead, we have made plans to meet with another relative and share driving so we can do it all in one day. To be honest, I was looking forward to the chance to spend 24 to 36 hours away from home.

Hotel Blues

How hard should it be to make a hotel reservation? I went online to a hotel I have used many times before to make a reservation for this weekend. The online system refused to deal with me because I had my browser set to reject cookies. So, I went in and changed that to allow all cookies. Still rejected. Went in and specifically said to accept cookies from the hotel's site. Still rejected.

So, I gave up on that and called the phone reservation line. Despite being an 866 number (which are usually manned 24 hours), I was told that the office hours didn't start until 9 AM. (It was about 8:50.) I hung up, waited about 15 minutes and tried again. I got the same voicemail message. I left a message.

So I called the hotel front desk, explained the situation, and the clerk said he would check on the reservation staff. He came back to say that the first thing the staff does on arrival is check all their messages, so I would probably get a call back soon.

Thirty minutes later, still no call back. I tried again and this time got a live body in the reservations office. She was apologetic about my problem and immediately began taking my information. Now, I have used this hotel often enough that as soon as I gave my name, she began reading back the info to me. Five minutes later the transaction was complete. I have my reservation.

But should it have taken three on-line tries and three phone calls?

Horrible Year

 Queen Elizabeth II called 1992 her "annus horribilus". (That was the year Princess Diana died and the Queen took a lot of flack for her apparent lack of empathy.)

2020 is turning into my "annus horribilus". It began in January with the death of my mother. While it was not unexpected, it was still somewhat surprising as her final decline was a rapid two or three days. A month later, the pandemic began and all the plans I had made for the year crashed and burned. I had decided in late 2019 that I would retire from my part-time job on April 30, with the intention of spending my newly free time largely on work with local community theaters. Before I hit my last day of work, all the community theaters closed up shop and have remained closed.

All our usual "fun things" have not been possible this year. Our annual get-together with SF fans in the spring was cancelled. Plans to see my family at a memorial for Mom in June have been postponed until next June at the earliest. Thanksgiving, of course, was a bust, save for a three-hour Zoom meeting with our children.

And now, one last blow. My mother-in-law died over the weekend. My wife is depressed--not so much because of the loss of her mother (like mine, we knew this was coming), but by the limited ways we can deal with the situation. At the moment, we will make a 24-hour trip to West Virginia this weekend for the burial, along with just a handful of her children and grandchildren. Any larger memorial will have to wait until later this year.

A year bookended with personal deaths and filled with misery of every kind in between.

Lights Up!

 Christmas has arrived in the O'Neill front yard:

28 Days

What can be accomplished in 28 days? That's what left for the current session of Congress, including the probable recess for Christmas and New Year's. If you take that out, this session has only about 12 days left--less than two weeks!

In that time, the Congress must pass at least a continuing resolution to keep the government funded; it ought to also pass some kind of additional relief bill tied to the pandemic. What are the chances? I doubt either party wants to see a government shut-down timed for the holidays, so the funding bill will pass in some form. I am less sanguine about the relief bill. Mitch McConnell seems adamant about not allowing anything that will look like a "victory" for the Democrats, at least not before the Georgia Senate run-off on January 5.

Joe Biden has said we are in for a "dark winter". I fear he is right.

Remembering My Youth

 How much do you remember of your childhood? As I get older, I find that certain details fade. Certainly, I still remember the layout of the house I grew up in and the neighborhood (the fact that I left that area only about 20 years ago and frequently visited until earlier this year probably helps), but other things have become fuzzy...like the names of the friends I played with.

Some are still clear but others remain just "the family that lived across the street and two doors down." The names of neighbors who didn't have children are even more harder to recall. My immediate next-door neighbors I still can name...but the ones a few doors away or across the street are merely blurry faces without names in my memory.

Weirdly, though, I still vividly recall other parts of my childhood--the Saturday morning shows we watched, and even the schedule they aired on, as an example. The theme songs of those programs and others I haven't seen in decades. The daytime soap operas my mother watched (she was strictly a CBS network fan): The Brighter Day, Search for Tomorrow, and As the World Turns.

Why are some things so crystal clear and others just dimly recalled?

Theater Struggles

 Once again, I'm posting here a letter I sent to my local paper, The Delaware County Daily Times, on a subject near and dear to me:

I commend you on reprinting in Saturday's paper the editorial from the Philadelphia Inquirer regarding the difficulties the live entertainment industry has faced over the past nine months and will continue to face in the foreseeable future.

But I note that, in Delaware County, live theater mostly means volunteer community theater...and those venues are struggling as well. They have rents, utilities and other costs that continue whether they are putting on shows or not and they have had no revenues to support those payments since March.

I ask your readers who enjoy live theater to support these organizations with donations. In order to avoid omitting anyone, I simply ask that they search "community theater in Delaware County" on line and see the results. Anything you give will keep these organizations alive until they can once again stage a play, a musical, or a revue.

That plea goes out to you all, too. No matter where you live, find a local community theater and donate.

 

Audition Assets

 This post is mainly for my theater friends. What do you consider the strongest assets you bring to an audition? Not necessarily the assets you bring to a role should you be cast, but the strengths you have that would encourage a director to cast you? What are you weakest ones?

For me, I think my strongest asset is the ability to give a good cold read. I pride myself on getting up on stage with a script or side in hand, one that I may have had only five or ten minutes to look at, and flawlessly perform the part. I know how to pronounce the difficult words, I know how to look up from the page and then back without losing my place, I can find a character and a voice for that character.

As a director, I value that in an auditioning actor, because it's difficult to know how the actor will perform when cast if he or she is stumbling through a cold read.

My weakest asset? This only applies to musicals, of course--I can't dance. I have no training in it and I have the rhythm of a centipede with all left feet. I hate when I have to do a dance audition for a show in which I am trying out for a character who doesn't dance. Want an idea of how bad my sense of rhythm is? Watch this video:

(I can sing in rhythm, of course...but I can't move in it.)

So, what do you bring to an audition that will get you cast? And what do you hope will not be asked?

The Middle-Class Bubble, Revisited

 The Delaware County Daily Times published my letter today (the one I also posted here); strangely enough, they also published a letter from a friend, Paul Kerrigan, who expressed some of the same objections to Mr. McOscar's conclusions, though from a different angle (and no, neither of us knew the other was going to write to the paper on the topic). Paul wrote, in part:

...in Nether Providence where I was an observer, the local Judge of Elections confirmed what appeared to be true, that two contiguous wards had about a 5 to 1 disparity in the number of voters being served. The one ward had no line to speak of, while the voters in the adjacent ward consistently had a wait of an hour or more. Interestingly, the under-served voting ward was the one that had the apartment complex, as opposed to the single home properties in the first. I’m not saying that there was malicious intent, but the nearly all white voters in one ward were impressive when compared with the diverse voters who made up the other.

These subtle discrepancies reinforce the historical racism of the red-lining and de facto segregation of the past. 

Always good to know you are not alone in your thoughts. 

 

Donating

 What did you contribute to yesterday, Giving Tuesday?

As I think you should always give to things that bring you joy and that really matter to you, I donated to the two local community theaters with which I am most involved. Both had connections with groups doing matching donations, so it was very worthwhile to participate. I hope it allows them to stay in business long enough to be operating again in six months or so.

Living in a Middle-Class Bubble

 This morning, my local paper, the Delaware County Daily Times, ran an op-ed, which spurred me to write this letter to the editor:

To the editor:

Clearly, Jerry McOscar lives in a white, middle-class bubble and doesn't understand how his life differs from those who may be poor, non-white, elderly, or otherwise "out of the mainstream".

In his op-ed on Tuesday, after outlining the problems that Julie Berger, a Senior Research Coordinator at University of Pennsylvania’s Graduate School of Education, observed at a polling place in West Philadelphia--problems that included an inability to locate the proper polling place, long lines, and difficulty in understanding how to operate the ballot scanning machine--McOscar wrote:

"The truth is that most of these purported 'obstacles' are easily remedied by a little pre-election day homework — reading sample ballots, verifying the proper polling place, checking paperwork, voting early if work is an issue, for example. Ms. Berger even admits to being confused at times when voting in person.

"She asserts that voter suppression can take blatant forms, but its more insidious forms can be hard to see for those, like her, who have always exercised their voting rights easily: a labyrinth of registration forms and deadlines, a hard-to-read ballot, 'complex' voting machines, mismatched polling books."

What McOscar fails to acknowledge is that that kind of "homework" may require an access to the internet, or a library, or even the skills to utilize either, that may not be commonplace in areas like West Philly, especially among the poor and elderly. Has he not heard of the "digital divide"? Further, it may require a time and effort that even a younger person, working two or more jobs, holding together a single-parent household, simply cannot manage.

 
I'm a senior citizen who was an "early adapter" to the computerized world, thanks to working in the publishing industry in my youth; but when I took a part-time job in a supermarket in my later years, I discovered a wide swath of people of all ages and races who had difficulty operating a self-checkout or understanding how our loyalty card system operated.

Mr. McOscar needs to realize that what he finds simple and easy may not be for everyone.