A Lot of TV

My cable provider gave me free HBO, Showtime, and other pay channels (that I don't have because I can't afford them), so I spent a large part of this holiday weekend watching television. I finished watching The Good Lord Bird (after having seen only the first episode) and largely enjoyed it. As someone I work with said, "Ethan Hawke does bring the crazy." Yes, he does. I also enjoyed Daveed Diggs as Frederick Douglass and Joshua Caleb Johnson as Onion. The performances were great. 

After The Good Lord Bird, I turned my focus to a bunch of documentaries and they didn't disappoint!

First: Murder on Middle Beach: I only watched the first two episodes available (although I believe there's another one tonight). Wow. This guy is trying to figure out who killed his mother and then he learns his mother was mixed up in this pyramid scheme with other suburban housewives. Crazy!

Second: There's Something Wrong with Aunt Diane: This documentary was about a woman who killed herself, one of her kids, and three of her nieces on the Taconic Parkway back in 2009. The toxicology report found alcohol and marijuana in her system, but her husband claimed she didn't drink or smoke that much and didn't believe she'd drive while intoxicated especially with all of those kids in the car. What I couldn't understand was why she didn't just park herself and wait either to come down from the booze and weed because, according to the documentary, she stopped twice during her road trip: once at a rest stop and once on the side of the road (where she left her cell phone). She clearly knew she was having trouble keeping it together, so why keep pressing on??? No one will ever know what was going on with Aunt Diane that day. A sad story.

Third: The Inventor: This documentary focused on Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes who got a bunch of people to financially back her contraption that was supposed to allow for a range of medical tests by using only a drop of blood taken from a finger stick. Yeah, that didn't work, yet so many people (old men mainly) believed in her bullshit. When you're a young, blonde, and cute woman, I guess you can get away with a lot of smoke and mirrors. Ridiculous!

Post-Thanksgiving Greetings

Well, another holiday has come and gone, but this Thanksgiving was quite different from the others I've had in my life. My sister and I normally travel to Michigan for Thanksgiving, but not this year. Due to Covid, we stayed home. It's all about survival now. I've read a lot of fretting about spending the holidays alone or not with the loved ones we normally spend them with and, while I'm sympathetic, I think we all need to do what we can to keep ourselves and others healthy and alive and if that means a solo or low-key Thanksgiving, then so be it. Better lonely than dead, folks. 

I've spent Thanksgiving and Christmas alone before. When I was in graduate school (and even after that) I often couldn't afford to travel for both Thanksgiving and Christmas, so one holiday had to be sacrificed. Also, I've lived in cities where I didn't have any close family members around or friends who'd take me in, so I spent the holiday by myself and I managed to get through it. Now I'm not the kind of person who needs to be around others 24/7, but it was still sad at times to be alone on the holidays. It's not something I enjoyed, but it was necessary due to my finances. I didn't want to start the new year with a ton of charges from airline tickets and other things just because I didn't want to be lonely. You do what you have to do to make it work.

I certainly hope everyone had a nice Thanksgiving.

Szechuan Dumplings

This post isn't really about Szechuan dumplings. It's about Steely Dan singing about Szechuan dumplings. I read a Twitter feed called Good Steely Dan Takes and the feed shows various Steely Dan-related posts from people. One that stood out to me recently said that people like to shit on The Dan but praised them for creating songs that talk about things like sharing a meal of Szechuan dumplings with your cocaine dealer. 

Szechuan dumplings now that the deal has been done. I'm the one.

These lyrics come from the song "Glamour Profession" and, being the good Dan fan that I am, I immediately recognized what song the tweet was referring to. 

NY Times writer Brent Staples frequently tweets various Steely Dan/Donald Fagen lyrics such as "Won't you pour me a Cuban breeze, Gretchen?" (From "The Goodbye Look" from Fagen's solo album, The Nightfly.)

Steely Dan has song lyrics about getting take-out from Dean & DeLuca, drinking kashasha. Who else sings songs about stuff like that? No one! 

Big Mouth

I was supposed to have a root canal a few weeks ago but I freaked out at the dental office when they put a block in my mouth to hold it open during the hour-long procedure. So I'm trying again later today but this time with drugs! I don't normally have problems with dental procedures, but the block in my mouth was a bridge too far for me. The block combined with some clamp they put over the infected tooth just made me feel like I couldn't breathe and was about to have a panic attack. I'm determined to get through the procedure this time because I'm tired of chewing on one side of my mouth only. I have to get this done. Hopefully, the drugs will kick in and I'll take myself to another place mentally during the procedure so I can get through it. I have a big mouth, but the thought of holding it open for an hour is exhausting, so I know the dental block is needed. The things we go through for our teeth. 

I'm glad to be able to have dental care from my day job and growing up from my father's insurance. Many people don't have access to dental care and it shows. I recall reading somewhere that the comedian Tracy Morgan told comedian Tina Fey that he could tell she hadn't grown up poor when he saw her teeth. I didn't grow up wealthy, but my parents did have dental insurance! My poor sister had to wear braces and head-gear to correct her crooked teeth. Years and years of payments went out to cover all of that. Thankfully, I didn't suffer the same dental issues that my sister did.

This Is What Democracy Looks Like!

Finally, the results are in and Biden won the race as POTUS. Donny T.'s reign of terror won't continue for another four years. Yea! I look forward to NOT hearing about something the POTUS tweeted or reading about the POTUS insulting someone with a stupid nickname. I look forward to a POTUS who isn't transactional in every freaking relationship he enters into. I look forward to a POTUS who doesn't ask, "What's in it for me?" but asks instead, "What's in it for the American people?" I look forward to a POTUS who isn't golfing every week and spending taxpayer dollars to support his lifestyle, his businesses, his family, and his minions. I look forward to having a POTUS who listens to experts in the field: the doctors, the military experts, the policy experts, rather than listening to his fat gut. 

There's been so much bad news in 2020 that I'm glad to have some good news for a change. 

Congratulations to Biden and Harris and thank you, American voters! This IS what democracy looks like! 

Post-Election Thoughts

Well, we're still waiting for the official word about who will be the next POTUS. I have to admit, when I turned the TV off Tuesday night, I felt deflated and was trying to mentally prepare myself for four more years of Donny T, and his reign of terror, but by Wednesday morning, things were looking up! I don't know what's been going on in my home state of Michigan, but I'm glad to see it looks like the tide turned for Biden there. I dream of the day when I can wake up and not have to hear about tweets from POTUS or some insult he's hurled at someone or any shenanigans from his administration. Maybe (hopefully) those days are coming soon. 

Once again, we see that polls are ridiculous. I think they served a useful purpose in the past, but not now. They're so inaccurate that they're not even worth having. And when will the media stop lumping all people who speak Spanish together? A Cuban American, a Mexican American, and a Puerto Rican don't share the same views just because they all speak Spanish! I'm not Latino and I know this! Jeez. Get a clue, media. (I guess that's asking too much.) And, speaking of the media, if Donny goes down in defeat (as he should), the media really needs to get its act together too for the next POTUS. They contribute to Donny's ridiculousness by giving him a forum and spending hours talking about his tweets and other assorted nonsense rather than ignoring it and focusing on the actual news. They're enablers. Cable news is the main culprit here. I guess they need something to fill the 24-hour news cycle, but enough already. Get some alternate programming!

And, speaking of programming, why is cable so lousy? Why am I paying for ESPN that I never watch? Why can't I pick my channels a la carte? Why do I have a bunch of Spanish language stations when no habla Espanol? Cable providers will continue to lose customers if they don't get their act together and start giving customers more choices in what channels they want. I haven't cut the cord yet, but I'm seriously thinking about it.

Pre-Election Thoughts

It's the calm before the storm, folks. Well, I hope there isn't a storm, but I tend to be more of a pessimist than an optimist. And what's going on during this pre-election eve?

Businesses in major cities are boarding up their windows in case there's unrest and/or looting in the streets. 

Donny T. is flapping his gums about firing Fauci. (Just when you think POTUS can't be any dumber, he defies expectations with his stupidity!)

Northwestern students are protesting and damaging businesses in Evanston, IL. Those freaking kids. Why can't they go tear up stuff on campus? Why come into the city and wreak havoc on businesses that are struggling to survive? Idiots. Maybe allowing some kids back on campus was a bad idea! Evanston's mayor is right to go to the NU president and request that the university help cover the cost of added city police protection to deal with these students.

I'm fortunate to have tomorrow off from my day job. The company shut down for Election Day and, since I voted early, I've got the whole day off to drink. Okay, I won't drink ALL day, but I'll certainly have some beverages as the polls close tomorrow night. (Maybe they should have given us Wednesday off also to deal with the hangovers!) I need to spend part of my day tomorrow at the laundromat washing my winter coats (because winter is coming, folks). 

What I don't intend to do tomorrow is stress out over situations that are beyond my control. I've voted. I've done my civic duty. If you haven't voted yet, I certainly hope you get out and vote tomorrow. Democracy in action, folks. Let's be the change we want to see.