I’m not sure we will ever know exactly what COVID was or is or how it happened, but there is no denying it changed the landscape and mindset of the world. It is the perfect main character in a scary novel that erases its effects with the sweeping branch of affected minds. And it is the perfect political tool for everyone. I’ve had it twice. The first time it eliminated taste and smell for 9 months, 2/5 of my senses, 1/3 if you include cosmic awareness as a sense. Those 9 months were mind blowing, like remnants of an intense altered experience. So whatever it was or is, it rewrote life on Earth as we knew it. Not on the scale of mass extinction. But a big one in my 71 years.

A surprisingly good movie. Like Sinners, or the current shows "Watson," or "The Residence," it's all teed up just to be DEI cardboard, but it escapes that and becomes something real.

So after the final battle one capstone is an attack on the Klan members. And then there is the coda after the credits, which I assume you saw too since you say there were too many "capstones" plural. That last scene, with 3 of the characters meeting probably 50 or 60 years later, for me took it out of "From Dusk to Dawn" territory and into Anne Rice land (though maybe more interesting and grittier).

I saw all the first week's episodes, and watched off and on over that summer, probably only when there wasn't a Yankees or Mets day game on TV. Glacial is the right word: it took a week of episodes to advance the plot a smidgen. In the fall of 1966 my school day was too late to watch. A few years later, when it had become popular, I tried to start up again. Then the show was a convolution of plot lines across multiple (maybe?) flashbacks, and I couldn't follow it. Only other soap I ever watched was "Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman", which was not fast-paced either. Good luck with your viewing project. I fantasize about doing the same with "The Simpsons".

Even back in 1979 I thought it was bad taste, and never wanted to see it. Never saw much written about it, and I don't recall anyone discussing it - odd since my circle talked a lot about Harvard and National Lampoon, and SNL back then. I'm suprized to learn it earned more than its budget - I always thought it flopped.

Order of Nine Angles making some news: "A high school student from Wisconsin killed his parents as part of a larger plot to assassinate US President Donald Trump, the FBI has said." "A newly unsealed search warrant also alleges that the suspect's phone contained material relating to a neo-Nazi group called the Order of Nine Angles and praise for Adolf Hitler." https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c62g8d47z86o

Please provide a similar list of those balancing out the partisanship of the above names.

The claim that NED is bipartisan is false. Trump ended that. The list of very partisan individuals associated with the organization includes board member Anne Applebaum, former NED president Carl Gershman, Robert Kagan, Larry Diamond, and board member Rachel Kleinfeld.

"Andrew for now the fifth time and almost word for word you repeat the same mealy-mouthed statement “NED did not fund GDI’s activities in the U.S.” This is a devious obfuscation of reality." Sorry the truth is so painful. Somebody who hides his name clearly cannot even accept the truth about himself.

The cast alone would get me into the theater. Greer was also great as a jealous werewolf in "Cursed," and as a drunken and horny straight woman who thought she was taking a walk on the wild side and being picked up by a lesbian couple when the mom and daughter team of Allison Janney and Anna Farris tried to keep her from driving and get her into AA on "Mom."

Beautiful essay. I was also a youngest child and had a prolonged bedridden illness while very young, so the movie always brings back memories. When I scanned the weekly printed TV listings (that came with the Sunday paper in the 70s and 80s), this is one of the movies I would always circle.

I watched the whole series and I saw something very different. First every show is about a gay issue, and one could ask if high school students, even in English classes, should always be invited to think about sex and sexuality in every class. As to discrimination, more than one episode involves super woke "radical" queer and trans students giving this unpierced, untattooed teacher grief for not paying attention to their ever-changing jargon and concerns as a CIS male gay. The show is much more about gay jokes and gay life than about teaching, with the constant on again off again ex-lover and the new love interest who he can't date because he too is a teacher.

Schwarburratas? Fancy jawn over there, hope they don’t forget to sell pretzels. Go Phils!

Which one, Hellman or McCarthy, would comb through the other's Twitter interactions in an attempt to "bust" the other in such a cheap, trivial way? We were not even rivals, as those once two became, when this BS began. I only pointed out Silberman's embarrassing essay on the exceptional mental fitness of Biden after he decided to "expose" me. Nothing he's "revealed" about me comes even close to being as damning as having written that piece of nonsense. I'd retire if I put my name to that.

Since the mid 1970s until its repeal in 2022 the preservation of Row vs Wade has been the motivating issue for the activist wing of the Democrat party and anyone who posed a threat to unfettered abortion access [and Kavanagh was definitely a threat] risked getting steam rolled by the activist Dems, the Deep State and the liberally biased MSM. Associates of Kavanagh who were innocent bystanders like Mark Judge were also fair game for the activist Dems in their mission to seek out and destroy anyone who would jeopardize their raison d’être ....When the Kavanagh SCOTUS confirmation hearing began and the Dems on the Senate Judiciary committee peddled the hokum of Christine Blasey Ford’s ridiculously flimsy allegations and the even more absurd accusations from attorney Michael Avenatti and his client which were amplified by the character assassins in the MSM it reminded me of scenes out of Arthur Koestler’s ‘Darkness at Noon’. They attempted to ruin his public reputation and destroy his professional life as well as cause personal humiliation to himself and his family. They pretty much did everything they could to him short of putting a bullet in the back of his brain in the basement of the Lubyanka .

It would so much easier if people crossed their eyes while lying or looked down at their feet. The showmanship is mind boggling.

of course, but mine are fitted with custom Philadelphia Eagles logos ;)

Greenland belongs to poor, little Denmark? Not to Greenlander homesteaders? What species of libertarianism is this? Council of Foreign Relations libertarianism? Perhaps Trump will end up being like President Polk, who added Texas, Arizona, New Mexico and the west coast to the U.S. I think the people there now are probably freer than they would be ruled by Mexican cartels.

No silver buttons, all down your back?

I never wear suits, only Philadelphia sports gear.

Didn't the French influence lead to the continuation of slavery? Jefferson's penchant for imported French wines put him in such debt that if he had emancipated his own 600+ slaves they would have been seized by creditors and sold back into slavery.

Yes. But I only got acid reflux.

Good one, but does that make you Nora Ephron?

I am trying to figure out which one of you is Lillian Hellman and which one is Mary McCarthy.

A loving/moving biography of Les Baxter: https://lesbaxter.com/pages/biography

This is great. please add a blusky link one of these days.

Just saw it yesterday. She was terrific.

Kamala Harris makes a surprise SNL cameo appearance on the weekend before the election and gets rewarded with a slobbery kiss from SNL and their informal endorsement. Unlike the SNL portrayal of Kamala from early in October where she was humorously mocked this appearance was a cringe inducing fawning over her by SNL which came across as contrived and particularly unfunny ..https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ff-rqlU4ZWw...I'm sure this Kamala SNL appearance and portrayal by Maya Rudolph got Howard Sterns full approval though.. .For a minute there I thought SNL was getting back to it's roots of prioritizing comedy and being funny but I guess I jumped the gun on that. For SNL it is back to their primary objective of being left wing propagandists..

There was a time when the politically incorrect Howard Stern tested the social boundaries with his unique and edgy form of humor. In recent years Howard Stern has become a tyrannical establishment weasel. During the Covid-19 epidemic he said "When are we gonna stop putting up with the idiots in this country and just say it's mandatory to get vaccinated? F--- 'em. F--- their freedom. I want my freedom to live," He said this months after the data proved that the Covid vaccine did not prevent people from getting infected or from becoming infectious... In this recent butt kissing interview with Kamala Harris he criticized SNL comedian Maya Rudolph"s mocking portrayal of Kamala saying " I hate it. I don't want you being made fun of." How dare comedy get in the way of his political agenda. What a sad pathetic stooge Howard Stern has become.

Their best album. I will never stop listening to it.

Decades ago, I was at a party in my uncle's Manhattan high-rise apartment when the building suddenly filled with smoke and we had to evacuate down the stairs. My uncle grabbed a Picasso lithograph, and I grabbed a big tray of roast beef.

Great pic of Riverrun. Really miss that place!

In college I had a bartending job at Steak and Ale. Tips were good so I always had a couple hundred bucks in my wallet. It felt good to be a student and be able to walk into any restaurant that I felt like dining at. I rarely did that, but it was still a good feeling to know that I could.

As former Friendly's waitress of the year, Friendly's is always a yes. Wattamelon roll FTW

Loved Friendly's growing up in NJ. Fribble, hot-dog on toasted buttered roll, and fries was a great way to go. I also miss the diners with jukeboxes. After a night of drinking, your party could get anything from breakfast to a hot open-faced turkey sandwich at one place at 2 AM. Diners are considered a theme restaurant here in Texas and a poor facsimile at that. I like Five guys fries but they obviously don't compare to Nathan's fries. I always thought Roy Rodgers was best quality of those chains but haven't seen one in decades and good riddance to Arthur Treachers! If you're going with fried food, why choose fish? Last time I had Ritz crackers was when my girls were young, and they would suck/drool them soggy while in their car seats. Good cracker though, when dry

Oh I see it's Booker. Is that another child? How big is your tribe?