De-Escalation

 I'm trying to enjoy my remaining weeks of staying inside and indoors while Covid still lingers and the weather is cold before things start opening up and I'm forced back outdoors. (Thankfully, my day job is allowing folks to continue working from home for the time being even though offices are reopening later this month.) While I'm indoors, I've been watching way too much TV, mainly stuff about people climbing or attempting to climb Mt. Everest. Crazy! The danger! The altitude sickness! The oxygen deprivation! 

I also have some free premium cable channels so I've been watching documentaries on HBO and other services. I watched one earlier today about the guy who shot and killed the teen in Florida because he didn't like the rap music the teen and his friends were blasting from their truck that was parked next to the guy's vehicle. When I finished watching the documentary, something the judge said stuck with me. He talked about deescalating the situation and, had that simply been done, things probably wouldn't have gone south the way they did. Why do so many people find it so hard to mind their own business or just turn away from conflict rather than running straight towards it? I know conflict can't always be avoided, but in so many situations that get out of hand, the chaos comes because someone just can't let it go. A teenager is dead and a guy is in jail because one complained about another one's music. One guy popped off on the other one for complaining, then the gun comes out. How did the situation escalate so quickly over music? I also read recently about a case where one guy shot another one in a movie theater because one guy complained about another one using his cell phone during the movie previews. Then when the guy with the phone got angry with the complainer and went after him, the complainer took out a gun and killed the guy. He felt his life was in danger. Again, did it have to come to this? Could no one de-escalate the situation? Have people lost control of their faculties? 

In totally unrelated news, I watched Nightmare Alley recently on HBO a few days ago. Bradley Cooper looked awful in it even after he got some money and cleaned up. He really hit the wall hard. I've always thought Bradley had a limited shelf life in terms of his looks. I think he hit his peak with the first Hangover movie and that movie where he took the drugs to make himself smarter (that I can't remember the title of). Speaking of that movie that I can't remember the title of, I actually saw him filming a scene for it on 5th Avenue in New York. In the scene, he looked like a bum because he hadn't taken the drugs yet, but he still looked pretty good. What happened, Coop? 

Worst Roommate Ever...WTF???

Why did I just binge watch Worst Roommate Ever on Netflix? Oy, what a mess. The last two episodes were especially disturbing. I'm actually glad Netflix has actually come through with some good programming lately. Between this and the Tinder Swindler, I'm feeling better about keeping the streaming service because every month or so I contemplate dropping it all together. But for every Tinder Swindler, you get four Emilys in Paris or some other crap I don't want to watch. But back to Worst Roommate Ever. When I see stuff like this, it makes me glad I'm able to live alone. I'd rather live in a one-room studio apartment than have to share space with a random person. Seriously. But people (women in particular) really need to start being smarter about who they welcome into their lives and their homes. The women in the Netflix roommate stories and the women in Tinder Swindler often didn't trust their gut. Many sensed something wasn't right with the dudes they were dealing with, but they ignored their instincts. Sometimes you have to go with your gut and stop aiming to please. You can't be all things to all people. I've learned that the hard way. You also can't let greed or desperation override common sense. Maybe you have to take two steps back to take one step forward. I'm sure if some of the women in the roommate stories had just taken the time to look into their sketchy roommate applicants, they would have saved themselves from a world of hurt. Maybe that extra time meant an extra month where they had to carry the full rent or borrow from friends and family to make ends meet, but better to be in the hole with Mom and Dad than fighting with some psycho who's living under your roof, not paying rent, and threatening to kill you. 

When I watch stuff like Worst Roommate Ever and Tinder Swindler, I start to wonder, Can you trust anyone anymore? Yes, but I think it's getting harder and harder to do that. 

Tired of This

 With so much war in the news lately, I found myself thinking, unfortunately, about things I'm tired of:

1. Tyler Perry/Madea: I thought he was giving this shtick up but, every few years, he trots out another Madea installment because he claims the public wants it. Whatever. I'm proud to admit I've never seen a Madea movie or been to a Madea play. I strongly feel Perry gets some perverse thrill from watching women get beaten down and then somehow redeemed. Which leads me to our second candidate of tiredness.

2. Andy Cohen: Why is he still a thing? I do admit I used to watch many of the Housewives shows when they first started before I got smart and stopped that noise. Cohen, like Perry, I believe, enjoys seeing women be humiliated but while Perry might have some sympathy towards women in the end, I feel like Cohen just cackles at the women he's made so much money from as he watches them degrade and embarrass themselves on TV. There's no sympathy, no redemption, just money and laughs at their expense. This joker should have been off the air a long time ago, yet he keeps on keeping on. I can't figure out why Anderson Cooper is friends with him. Ugh. You can and should do better, Coop!

3. Commercials featuring Jimmy JJ Walker and Joe Namath: These commercials seem to run nonstop on many stations I watch during the day. Walker's is particularly annoying. When Walker says, "It's me again!" I can't hit the mute button quick enough. Ugh.

4. Ye/Kayne/Kardashian/Jenner/Whatever news: Enough of these people already. I can't even read my daily gossip sites without one of these annoying folks popping up in the mix. They're all awful and their ten minutes of fame should have ended years ago, yet they're still here. Ugh again.

5. The Royal Family: I've had enough of them too and I mean all of them (William, Kate, Meghan, Harry, Andrew, Charles, Camilla, Lizzie). Must their every trip, statement, baby, item of clothing be discussed and analyzed in detail? No. Give it a rest already.

I'm really trying not to live in the negative because I do this far more than I should, but these people/things put me in a negative headspace. 

March 12, 1992

Do you remember what you did on March 12, 1992 (if you were even alive at that time)? I do. I met author P. J. O'Rourke at Hillsdale College. The bigger question is exactly WHY I felt the need to drive to conservative Hillsdale College and see O'Rourke speak and then meet him and get him to autograph my copy of Parliament of Whores. When I heard O'Rourke passed away earlier this week, I remembered that I'd met him. I remember him being very nice and laughing and telling me that his wife was angry with him when I asked him how she was doing. I believe my main interest in O'Rourke had to do with the fact that, at that time, he was married to Amy Lumet, one of Lena Horne's granddaughters and one of Sidney Lumet's daughters. I found that interesting. Still, was it interesting enough to make me drive from Detroit to Hillsdale with a friend? Apparently it was back in 1992. I even borrowed my father's Mercury Marquis to make the drive because I figured the beater I was driving at the time wouldn't make the trip. 

I don't even recall reading Parliament of Whores. I'm not one to read political satire, yet I've held on to my autographed copy of O'Rourke's book for all of these years. I pulled it from my bookshelf today for this post. Maybe I actually SHOULD read it now that he's passed away. Maybe. RIP, O'Rourke. 

I Weep for Humanity

I watched The Tinder Swindler on Netflix last weekend and my first thought after watching it was that I weep for humanity. So many women were perfectly willing to give a man they barely knew thousands of dollars. And these women couldn't afford to give anyone this kind of money, so many of them took out loans and ran up their credit cards to help this phony billionaire. This may sound cruel, but I didn't even feel sorry for the women who were duped. I felt sorry that they were so gullible. I also felt angry that they were probably the same kind of women who'd reject a guy with a normal job who didn't have access to a private jet or wear designer clothes. Am I blaming the victim? A little, but am I wrong? I don't think so. People certainly should trust others, but people also need to trust their gut and if something doesn't feel right, it probably isn't right. If you can't afford to lose any money you loan/give to someone else, then don't loan/give it. 

I know the Tinder Swindler had all kinds of stories about being chased by bad guys and having his funds locked down due to this but why didn't he get money from his wealthy family? Why weren't they about to provide him with funds to help him out during this rough patch? The whole thing just didn't pass the smell test. If you're flying around the world in a private jet on one hand then begging your girlfriend to up her Am Ex limit to help you out on the other, something ain't right.    

Snow...Again

It's another snowy day in the Chicago area and I'm tired of the white stuff already. As someone who grew up in the Midwest in Detroit, I'm no stranger to snow and ice and dreary overcast days during the winter, but I don't know how long I want to keep dealing with this weather. I keep seeing commercials on TV that are trying to lure people to Florida. I see ads for the Keys, Orlando, and I just saw one for Ft. Lauderdale. What kills me is that all of these ads show people relaxing on the beach or sunning themselves on a boat and I can't help but wonder, What about Covid??? It's still out there, folks. Alive and thriving! Still, I'd love to be somewhere warm and sunny now. (Maybe not Florida, but somewhere else where there isn't a foot of snow on the ground.) 

The snow here is getting in the way of my daily walks. I was able to get out yesterday and it's horrible that some folks can't be bothered to shovel their walkways. The picture below was taken yesterday outside of a local business. I could see if someone's elderly or physically unable to shovel their walk and might need some help, but a business should know better. I bet folks in Sanibel aren't worrying about sidewalks that haven't been shoveled.

Cooking with Gas

A few weeks ago, one of the side handles on my stove broke. I glued the broken piece back on, but it looks rather janky now (see below). So I bought a replacement handle, but in order to get it on, a whole You Tube video worth of work is required. (I thought I'd be able to pop the old handle off and pop the new one on, but I was wrong.) So I need to have someone do this for me. In the meantime, I keep reading about gas stoves being outlawed in New York for new construction places and how gas stoves cause harm to people and the environment. I grew up with a gas stove and I have a gas stove now. I love having a gas stove! I've had electric stoves in the past and I didn't care for them. I cook with gas, baby! Does that mean I don't care about the environment or potential illnesses from gas stove vapors? No, but gas stoves have been around a long time and they haven't killed us yet, so I'm willing to stick with mine. Besides, if your power goes out, how are you supposed to cook all of the food that has the potential to go bad because your fridge is out if you have an electric stove? At least with gas you can light the burners and keep on trucking.