This guy is good:
A little treat for fans of #TheCrown!
Bad TV Impressions: The Crown Season 4#TheCrownSeason4 #impressions #comedy pic.twitter.com/ZLd0rWWTob
— Kieran Hodgson (@KieranCHodgson) November 20, 2020
I’ve already binge-watched Season 4, which was pretty good, IMO. The mister and I also just finished up The Queen’s Gambit on Netflix — highly recommended. (It’s about chess, not royalty.)
Did a grocery run earlier to lay in supplies for a two-person Thanksgiving. I’m making Ina’s turkey roulade, green beans, mashed potatoes, rolls and pumpkin pie. Plus extra stuffing and fresh cranberry sauce. It will be way too much.
It’s dark and cloudy today. The forecast calls for rain, but it’s just clouds and mist so far. The weather will likely deter us from taking a boat ride, but we did yesterday and saw this pretty anhinga in a tree:
That’s all I’ve got. Open thread!
mad citizen
Trying a #1 post.
ETA: I made it! I’ve laid in supplies for our two person T-giving meal as well. Turkey breast (will check out Ina’s recipe–have not heard of it). I saw in our Walmart (Indiana) they are carrying frozen pies from a place in Nebraska that our friends always make for us when we’re in the Denver area–the Village Pie Company. Good stuff! Unfortunately no peach, but they are carrying apple, cherry and strawberry rhubarb. Also have pecans in transit from Georgia for more pies.
Re: The Crown we viewed episodes 5 (intruder) and 6 (Aussie tour) last night. I really liked the intruder episode. My attention waned a bit during the Aussie episode, I started looking up when they finally broke away from the U.K., etc., among other things, on my phone. I’ve read/seen youtube stories about “remember this is fiction/these are fictional characters”, but I think that is a copout. Obviously the showrunner and crew have done the research; they aren’t just pulling this stuff our of their ass
Will add that although I’ve been loving Olivia Coleman’s acting these last few years, most of time this season when I see her as the Queen I’m thinking “there is Olivia Coleman playing the Queen”.
NotMax
Holiday table needs a butter turkey.
:)
VeniceRiley
I’m not into The Crown this season, for some reason. I think the writing has slipped.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
I started The Crown last night, because I hear so much about the great performances in later seasons. There are some great actors in it– Jared Harris, Eileen Atkins, Lithgow almost, almost, unrecognizable (there are moments when his voice is unmistakable), Harriet Walter completely unrecognizable– but I find the pace is a bit slow…. Does it pick up?
mrmoshpotato
@NotMax: So so true!
LuciaMia
Gillian was good as Margaret Thatcher. Down-right scary good!
jeffreyw
I like pie.
Dorothy A. Winsor
I finished a mystery BG in Chi recommended: WINTER COUNT. Good book set on the Rosebud Reservation. I’ve had trouble concentrating enough to read lately, but this one kept me focused.
Mr DAW and I will be home, eating a turkey dinner we ordered from the restaurant in the building. We usually spend the day with our son and DIL, who is a fabulous cook. We talked to our son today and they’re eating by themselves too.
I do worry about him. He works for a defense contractor who has decided he’s an essential worker so he has to go to the office every day. COVID is on the rise in his building. Because of our age, Mr DAW and I will probably be vaccinated before he is. I wish I could give him mine. It’s easy for me to stay home.
NotMax
@Jim, Foolish Literalist
The scenes with Thatcher strapping on bandoliers and heading off to the Falklands move along with alacrity.
//
LivingInExile
Has anyone heard from Jay? Last I knew he was going back into quarantine, and no sign of him since.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@NotMax: no spoilers but I hear she and Olivia Coleman nail the scene where Maggie and Betty draw swords on each other like in Kill Bill (which I never saw)
Catherine D.
What this season reminded me is how much I loathed and still loathe Margaret Thatcher.
(ETA must go listen to Ian Robb’s song The Iron Lady (Maggie May).
Citizen Alan
@mad citizen:
I’m still bitter that Olivia Coleman was not the 13th Doctor instead of Jodie Whittacker. Of course, I’m bitter about a lot of things in the current Doctor Who run, so maybe she dodged a bullet there.
raven
@mad citizen: The pecans are nuts this year! All the doggies on walks are gorging themselves across the street!
raven
@Catherine D.: 4 and not liking here is as good a reason to now watch as not watching Mrs America because you hate Schlafly. . . not!
NotMax
@Jim, Foolish Literalist
The entire Thelma & Louise sequence with the two of them in the royal coach at the white cliffs of Dover was relegated to the cutting room floor, too.
Maybe when the director’s cut is released.
:)
scribbler
@LivingInExile: I also have been wondering about Jay. I hope he is okay.
Betty Cracker
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Kill Bill is fabulous!
Chetan Murthy
@Catherine D.: Obligatory
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9t4-zDem1Sk
raven
Aw man this thread is going to be full of spoilers!
JPL
@Dorothy A. Winsor: I discovered that mysteries, especially psychological thrillers keep my attention, and allow me to rest at night. Strange times, call for strange solutions.
Now I’m going to watch the Christmas movie on Netflix starting Dolly Parton.
trollhattan
Wrapped season #3 last night so I’m caught up with the spouse and we can watch #4 together. Preparing myself for Scully as Thatcher–watching a heartthrob play evil is not going to be easy. One is not amused.
The actress playing Anne is terrific, capturing teenage girl with sarcastic perfection.
Another Scott
A reminder…
Have a good Sunday, everyone.
Cheers,
Scott.
Omnes Omnibus
@Catherine D.: Funnily enough, that was my reaction as well.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@JPL: Psychological thrillers and Christmas movies with Dolly Parton is an odd combination, but enjoy!
JPL
@Another Scott: I always felt he would be a strong candidate, but now realize that he is the only person to put back some type of government. At this point it wouldn’t surprise if trump set the place on fire, just to prevent Biden from moving into the White House.
laura
@JPL: Nothing (except the GBBO) has assuaged my frequent 2am anxomnia like a british murder mystery or a skandahoovie. I’ve Ms. Marpled, Sherlocked, Hammished, wallandered and then I can usually get a second round of sleep. Last night, for as long as I can remember, I slept through the night, woke up without a clenched jaw and felt refreshed. I sure hope it’s not a one off.
I’m relieved that all the shopping is done and done during elder hour or outside at the farmer’s. Besides racing out Tuesday to pick up the poultry parts, we should be able to shelter in place for a week or so.
Slowly watching past seasons of the crown in hopes of holding off starting season 4. Princesses Ann and Margaret are so good. I I can’t wait to see Gillian Anderson as the monsterous filth that is the other Margaret. I loathe that woman with the heat of 10 thousand white hot suns. Her son’s a disgrace as well.
debbie
@Citizen Alan:
She was brilliant in The Favorite.
Steve in the ATL
Neighbor at the lake has had a trump flag up for weeks now. I’ve been checking periodically to see if he has taken it down, which he he hasn’t. Just noticed today that it’s now trump 2024 flag.
WTF is wrong with people?
Louise B.
Not enjoying Season 4 of The Crown as much as prior seasons. I’m not sure the writing has slipped, but the material just isn’t as good. I always found Charles and Diana to be fairly boring people, so it’s not surprising that I would be bored by a story based on their relationship. I loved The Queen’s Gambit, though.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@debbie: in Fleabag, too, which I heartily recommend if you haven’t seen it
@Louise B.:
ha! I’ve seen the clip of Diana roller skating through the palace, which even though I think I remember hearing about that in real time, the video makes me think “Okay, Wes Anderson has just taken this thing too far’
debbie
@Steve in the ATL:
The few Trump signs around here all went away the day Trump had that first crazy news conference after the election.
debbie
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Adding it to my list. Based on comments here, I just reserved the first three seasons of The Crown. Bet I won’t get them in the right order.
Nicole
Doing Postcards to Voters while listening to the Diana series of “You’re Wrong About” podcasts (I’m two episodes from the end of this season of The Crown and trying to save them another day or so).
Lordy, Diana had a messed-up childhood. Between that and her only being 19 when they got married- whew. Not a life I’d ever envy.
Lapassionara
@JPL: And Chuck Todd would likely say that it was understandable that Trump would want to torch the White House on the way out, because the British once set it aflame, so …..
Baud
@Steve in the ATL:
There was a photo on reddit that showed some of these people putting the Trump flag above the American flag.
cain
I see chuck todd is trending on twitter – again. Looks like that fool gave a Trumper politiican 8 minutes to spew conspiracy theories. Then signs off with “It looks like Biden is going to be the apparent winner. There’s still more to go through,”
2021 should begin with seeing the coverage of Chuck Todd leaving MSNBC in disgrace.
VeniceRiley
I binged the entire season of Raised By Wolves yesterday. Highly reccomend! SF lover but you don’t need to be to enjoy it. High death count warning.
Chetan Murthy
@Nicole:
I’m a 55yo male who pretty much doesn’t understand humans at all. But from what I understand, a massive number of women in my precise age group (when they where idolized her, dreamed of having her life, etc, etc, etc. I mean *idolized*. She was 19 when she got married, so I was 15, and I’m speaking specifically of girls who were in high school at that time. This was described to me in detail by a girl of my own age, not long after the wedding, and certainly long before their marital difficulties were well-known.
RandomMonster
We’re making more than turkey for two, because leftovers.
NeenerNeener
@JPL: Well, that would be one way to get the Trump stench, Russian listening devices and COVID germs out of the White House.
Steve in the ATL
@Baud: he hasn’t gone that far, but the fact that he has a second pole for his Dallas Cowboys flag on Sundays is just as bad.
WaterGirl
Update on family Thanksgiving plans. All except my editorial commentary is paraphrased from a text from sister.
Yes, I am being snippy and sarcastic – I am venting here because if I don’t I might scream.
Suzanne
My friend with the mom in the memory care home canceled her Thanksgiving plans, thank FSM.
I need a good recipe for stuffing. Not big on sausage or oysters.
JPL
@Lapassionara: lol If not Chuck, then surely Kevin McCarthy.
HinTN
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: You simply must see Kill Bill. Worth every minute, even if you’re not a QT fan. Especially vol.1 but I loved both.
Betty Cracker
Had to drive through The Villages the other day chasing down an ingredient that is too froo-froo for my little town. The weirdest thing happened: I was stopped at a traffic light, and there were a few Trump sore losers waving STOP THE STEAL and TRUMP WON signs at people.
I had a 1960s playlist on shuffle, and the Na Na Na Hey Hey Goodbye song came on! Serendipity! Of course, I cranked it up to full volume and waved bye-bye and blew kisses at the sore losers. Sometimes the cosmic tumblers just fall into place…
JPL
@Suzanne: Epicurious has a decent bread and butter stuffing. I’ll look for a link. Don’t worry about adding raisins, although I have added dried cranberries before.
Stuffing
zhena gogolia
OLIVIA COLMAN
PETER STRZOK
Suzanne
@HinTN: I adore the Kill Bill movies.
HinTN
@Steve in the ATL:
It’s the zombie apocalypse.
Alternatively, look at it as culling the herd or clearing the decks or…
ETA – Which lake?
Chetan Murthy
@HinTN: Am I misremembering, or did Daryl Hannah just *chew* thru the scenery in that movie?
germy
Alan Rickman’s Diary Spanning 25 Years Set to Be Published in 2022
zhena gogolia
@germy:
Ooh, sounds great!
HinTN
@debbie: Not around these parts. They’re all still in place.
Catherine D.
@Betty Cracker: Love it! The universe is making its wishes known!
Dorothy A. Winsor
@WaterGirl: I can see why that’s maddening. It’s oblivious and dangeous
Mike in NC
We took a walk through our development this morning and one house had already put out Christmas decorations. Whatever will people do when Trump is gone and we can’t say “Merry Christmas” anymore? SAD!
WaterGirl
@Suzanne: Very happy to hear that!
debbie
@germy:
Bummer that he won’t be reading the audio version.
Steve in the ATL
@HinTN: Oconee, near Eatonton, Georgia. Jody Hice country, but a beautiful lake!
WaterGirl
@Dorothy A. Winsor: Second sister in another state, who sent photos of 13 people around the table, inside, for Labor Day, isn’t even telling me their plans because she suspects that I will be horrified and doesn’t want to hear it. But they are very religious and I’m pretty sure they believe that God will be keeping them safe.
HinTN
@Chetan Murthy: Uma Thurman, but yeah, she pretty much did.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Mike in NC: my neighbors put their lights up– had their lights put up– on Nov 1. I bought a new fake wreath with the pre-strung lights a couple days later– 60% off!, and was going to wait till after Thanksgiving, then I thought, what the hell, it’s pretty and the days are short. So my lights are up too.
WaterGirl
@Dorothy A. Winsor: If I had only known that I could simply declare myself safe, my life would have been much less disrupted this past 10 months.
Chetan Murthy
@HinTN: Oh, no, I remember Uma Thurman, and sure she was good too. So was Lucy Liu. But I just have this memory of Daryl with the eyepatch, bein’ all badass ….
HinTN
@Steve in the ATL: That’s a beautiful part of Georgia, although I’ve never spent any time there.
JPL
@WaterGirl: Balloon Juice is your adopted family and you and the pups can celebrate with us.
Son, DIL and grandson are coming over later in the day for turkey. They quarantine and I watch their son when they allow me. ?
cain
@Chetan Murthy:
I felt really bad for her because she was constantly hounded by the press, and I could say she was really lonely. She was so unhappy. Her death was tragic and I blame the press for her death. They are to blame. Charles and Diana should have agreed to divorce.
For some reason I feel that it is happening to the older child, but the younger child is much better and got the fuck out all that. Good for him.
HinTN
@Chetan Murthy: LAFAO, yes!
Chetan Murthy
@cain: Yeah, you’ve just raised another example: my memories of those years include AIDS, The Challenger, the Wall, Desert Storm, electing Bill&Hill. But not Diana, not really. I mean, why would I have cared? And yet, so many people cared and were interested, and that drove the press frenzy. I just never understood it.
zhena gogolia
@WaterGirl:
People are idiots.
TheOtherHank
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
FYI for those looking for readings suggestions: Amazon tells me there’s a Winter Count and a Winter Counts. The first is a collection of short stories, the second appears to be the one to which Dorothy referred.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Chetan Murthy: My Irish-born grandmother (County Down, 1897– though she would have cut you if you said that out loud, and her driver’s license, which she never should have gotten, said 1915), who sent money to Noraid and claimed to hate the royal family, set her alarm to get up in the middle of the night to watch the wedding live. “She’s so pretty, and she seems like a real nice girl”. Go figure people.
The Thin Black Duke
@Chetan Murthy: Everybody did, unfortunately. I’m the oddball who thinks QT went off in a bad direction after Jackie Brown.
trollhattan
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
It was a BFD in the States for whatever reasons. And IIRC she/they later toured the States to yuge crowds a certain Orange Menace would be utterly jealous of today.
To her credit she helped de-stigmatize AIDS during the Reagan era. He, being so very helpful on that issue.
Spanish Moss
My family of ten (me, hubby, adult kids and spouses) are trying to have Thanksgiving outdoors this year. Everyone lives within easy driving distance, but we live in MA so the weather is a bit challenging. We don’t care which day it is on, we are hoping for a day above 50 with no rain on the weekend. Hard to say if we are going to be able to do it — the extended weather reports change daily and most days show some rain. If we can’t have it outdoors then we won’t have it at all.
We live on a couple of wooded acres and we are planning to set up a few tables far apart on our very long driveway, with no mixing of households at the same table. We will have masks on with distance when not sitting at a table actively eating. We have three fire pits to warm people up. My immediate family will think that temperature is fine but some of the spouses might get chilly.
We have been getting together outdoors over the summer, and have rediscovered croquet. It is a great social distancing game. I was surprised to discover that it is actually much more cutthroat than the mild game I played as a child. My husband and sons are never happier than when they are roqueting or roving, even if their choice makes them lose the game in the end.
JoyceH
I want to crowd source an opinion here – whether or not I should get a haircut next week. I feel like it ought to be safe. My salon is being very careful – plastic sheeting between stations, and you’re only allowed in when they ready to take you to the chair, everyone is masked, hand-sanitizer, etc. I got a cut a couple months ago, and know that I can be in and out in under fifteen minutes.
My area, like everywhere else, is getting worse, but we’re still in the orange rather than red zone. On the one hand, I’m feeling cowardly about it, but if I don’t go before Thanksgiving, I probably won’t feel safe going until well into 2021, and that’s a long time to deal with my bangs flopping into my eyes.
Thoughts?
Kent
I get as outraged as many of you by the NYT’s political coverage. But I still subscribe (using my teacher’s email to get the teacher’s discount) because they do so much truly good non-political reporting.
Today they dropped a brilliantly done and truly thought-provoking feature story about Russia’s “Road of Bones” which is the 1200 miles slave labor highway from Magadan on the Pacific to Yakutsk in the Siberian interior. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/22/world/europe/russia-stalin-gulag-kolyma-magadan.html
It is a story of a crumbling depopulating rural heartland and people who are clinging to a rose-colored past that never existed. And how even Stalin is being rehabilitated and becoming iconized by the actual descendants of the gulags that built the road and subsequently settled there. And it’s the kind of story that you have to have deep pockets like the NYT to produce. Alt-media sources like TPM just don’t have the resources.
There are too many parallels to the decaying American heartland and love of Trump despite all evidence to the contrary. And we can already feel the horrors of the Trump years slipping away into the mists of time as we speak. It won’t be long until the true believers think that Covid was some sort of Obama-Biden thing.
The ability to deny and forget history as it fades into the past is such a classic theme of literature. Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s 100 Years of Solitude treads the same ground. About a horrific military massacre that fades away into the mists of time until it is as if it never happened
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@trollhattan:
didn’t he claim she tried to arrange a date with him? that she had a mutual friend try to set them up, or something?
she was active on behalf of AIDS treatment and IIRC removing landmines and helping with famine and other charities, and in his dithering way, Charles has been a climate activist. I think if I were a Brit, I’d be a Republican, but I’d be lying if I said that Helen Mirren hadn’t made me more sympathetic to the Queen, gotta give her props for her WWII service, and her statement at the outbreak of Covid was something. “We will meet again”.
trollhattan
Today being the 57th anniversary of the Kennedy assassination it’s interesting to see that retrospectives have fallen off the radar. Suppose it’s to be expected.
UncleEbeneezer
Queen’s Gambit was SO GREAT!!
Stylish, great story, acting, cast etc. Had a wonderful Girl Power kind of vibe to it that was so refreshing. Especially the way the men who lost to her never got bitter about it, but genuinely respected her virtuoso talent and dare I say, were able to view her as an equal. And while there was some romance with them, they also didn’t view her solely as a sex object.
If you enjoyed Queen’s Gambit, make sure you watch Godless, which is an amazing western series with a similar vibe and a lot of the same cast members.
EmanG
@BettyCracker saw this headline at the great orange satan, made me think of you (and chuckle):
https://www.metrotimes.com/detroit/lock-the-motherfucker-up/Content?oid=25831861
EmanG
Btw I cannot recommend The Queens Gambit highly enough. Succeeds in all 3 areas – script, shoot and edit. The art direction and styling are amazeballs. The performances are spot on, the story beautifully structured. If Joe Bob was still around he’d definitely say “Check it out!”
JPL
OMG This Dolly special on Netflix is something else. I’m not sure that I’ll last ten minutes.
debbie
@JoyceH:
I got mine cut last weekend. I washed it myself and she cut it dry. I was in and out in less than 15 minutes.
WaterGirl
@JoyceH:
If all goes well, you’re in and out in 15 minutes. But what if there’s a phone call, or something else comes up, and it’s not just 15 minutes.
I cancelled my appointment for last Sunday.
My advice: cut your own bangs (like I did a couple of days ago) and cancel your appointment.
J R in WV
@Suzanne:
I like cornbread based stuffing, but that really doesn’t matter much.
Saute chopped sweet onions and celery, with lots of sage and crushed and minced garlic (just a little for the extra richness. I like to sear the onions til they’re a little browned on the edges, and I start them for a few minutes while I chop the celery and add that to the skillet.
Add pecans and pour broth (I use chicken ’cause I won’t have giblets, doing a tiny breast for use the two of us – if you have giblets, simmer them in water and wine for 30 or 45 minutes) in to soak up all the goodness. Scrape the pan to get that goodness off the skillet, add some wine, any wine you would drink. Even red if it’s good drinking wine. ETA: The nuts are both soft and crunchy after the baking — some use walnuts, I don’t, but chestnuts are also really good for this.
Pour the fluids/veggies/nuts over the bread and stir. Amounts depend upon how big a bowl of bread you work with, you want it moist but not sodden. Press it into a nice oven-safe casserole dish and bake at 350 until the top is crusty, like 35-45 minutes. Lots of sage, it’s not a strong flavor. I also use some thyme and rosemary, but that’s optional.
WaterGirl
@JoyceH:
Know Your Risk During COVID-19
Here’s an except:
They rate it moderate-high risk. Where we are now in most of the country: If you don’t HAVE to do it, don’t do it. That’s my take.
Steeplejack (phone)
@WaterGirl:
That sounds awful! You’re well out of it.
I’m picking up my brother at the airport tonight and giving him a ride home (masked), and then I won’t see him or his family for two weeks.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
apparently Larry Hogan told trump to pack it in on one of the Sunday shows
cain
The entire royal family was kind of nuts then. I guess when there are no wars, or any kind of bullshit our attention turns to shit like this – busybodies judging and shaming celebrities. Pfah.
I noticed that the press did some retrospective but then continued on as before. Their treatment of Harry and Meghan was eye opening – their open racism have earned my scorn and contempt. Harry clearly took after his mother. I will enjoy Harry being a thorn in the royal family and their media enablers.
WaterGirl
@Steeplejack (phone): Thanks. i was starting to wonder if I’m losing perspective.
cain
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
It’s always good when people like Larry Hogan and stick it to the orange one. Good to have folks like him around who do care about people.
Ruckus
@Steve in the ATL:
Sounds like with your neighbor, every fucking thing, WTF=EFT.
Suzanne
@JoyceH:
There is absolutely zero evidence in the building science research that any of those dividers have any positive effect at all. Reason: the space is designed to share air supply and return. Hell, depending on the configuration of the space, those after-market dividers that everyone is putting up may do more harm than good.
I don’t know if this will inform your decision. But these things are hygiene theater.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@WaterGirl: On my grocery run this morning, at 8 am, I was stunned at how many overflowing carts I saw. Sure didn’t look like planning for nuclear family sized meals.
If the weather’s warm, my brother, sister, their adult kids and I may meet up in my brother’s huge driveway for a socially distanced beer. And I kinda hope it rains. I’m rather unsentimental.
Ruckus
@WaterGirl:
I’m not sure their version of safe is the same as the less religious. I believe that safe to a very religious person is that they will get to met god, therefore fulfilling their destiny, rather than they will live longer.
SFBayAreaGal
@Steve in the ATL: Watched an ID mystery last night about an older couple that was murdered at that lake. Murders are still unsolved.
NotMax
@JPL
Noticed the Paul Lynde Halloween Special listed on Prime.
While arguably not the absolute nadir of TV, more than earns a permanent exhibit in Television Hall of Shame.
:)
SiubhanDuinne
@germy:
Well, now, that sounds yummy! I first saw him in the early ‘80s on PBS as the oily and scheming Obadiah Slope in The Barchester Chronicles, and fell for him in a big way. (Actually, a quick look at his filmography tells me that I must have seen him several years earlier as Tybalt in the BBC’s Romeo and Juliet, but that didn’t make the lasting impression on me.)
Thanks so much for mentioning this. I’m excited about the publication of Rickman’s diaries.
WaterGirl
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: I could happily do a socially distanced beer, if it’s warm enough!
On the other hand, the day I was supposed to get together with my best friend for a final “yard visit” on the last good day before the weather was going to turn…
She called me up and said she wasn’t coming over because her husband didn’t feel well and thought he might have COVID. He got tested, and he was COVID-positive. So I kind of feel like I dodged a bullet there.
The day before I had a yard visit with another close friend, distanced but no masks, and she had been traveling and I didn’t realize it, so I was a little worried after that, but it all got my attention in a pretty big way.
Along with my neighbor being taken away in an ambulance (COVID) the same week, and my lawn mower guy having COVID, too.
Fuck, I just want to make it to summer and hopefully a vaccine without getting this thing. If my hair’s too long, who cares? I’ll put it up in a pony tail. Except for buying groceries, the answer to everything else is: “It’s not worth it.”
Nicole
@Chetan Murthy:
I was a bit younger than you when she got married and my cohort was also smitten. Because all we saw was the glamour; no one talked about emotionally-deprived childhoods back then. I was too much of a tomboy to be interested in weddings, but I had friends who definitely were. I remember our local library invited kids to come to a special day dressed as a “historical figure” and more than one girl, including a good friend of mine, came as Lady Diana (this was before they got married). (Because I was, and always will be, a dork, my brother and I came dressed as the Smothers Brothers and had a big fight over which one of us got to be Tommy.)
We still do it today; the royal family, really, are just a more pedigreed version of the Kardashians; famous for nothing other than being famous. At least the royal family is expected to do charity work, I guess. And what’s with the fascination with the Academy Awards, other than watching people prettier and richer than we are congratulate each other and give each other trophies? Yet people watch.
I can get pretty eye-rolly about a lot of these things, but hearing about Diana’s childhood in this podcast makes me pretty sad for her, is what I’m saying. With a better childhood she might not have been so quick to get married at 19.
To your later comment, though, I remember when she held hands with AIDS patients, back when people were freaking out that maybe it was contagious that way. It was a big deal for the most photographed woman in the world to do what she did, and it went a way towards eliminating stigma. It was a pretty big deal at the time.
WaterGirl
@Ruckus: Oh no, she has pretty much said out loud that God is looking out for them and keeping them safe. It is definitely not “If god calls me and it’s my time, so be it.”
Nicole
@WaterGirl: I’m sorry about your family. It’s really frustrating when people you love do things that are clearly not in their best interests. I had to listen to a friend waffling about going to her mother’s for Thanksgiving- mother is in her 90s, and it would be ten people. I have reached the point where I can just nod and say, “Well, the concern is who the other people have been in contact with, because you just don’t know, so it’s how much risk you’re willing to take on.” Because if you say, “This is a terrible idea” a lot of people tend to double down.
(But obv. I think it’s a terrible idea.)
Patricia Kayden
Steeplejack (phone)
@JoyceH:
I say do it now. I got a haircut Friday and am set until February.
CarolDuhart2
@trollhattan: More and more people who were alive for the event aren’t any longer-and the conspiracy theories that fueled a lot of interest are less and less plausible as potential co-conspirators also pass away as well.
I think of the McKinley assassination as a perspective. Even in 1963 it was going out of living memory so much so that people barely remembered it when Kennedy was shot.
Ruckus
@WaterGirl:
I have found that a lot of the very religious will say god is keeping them safe. But. Their thinking is that if he (and it is always a he) does call on them, they are ready, they have prepared. They don’t want to necessarily go, they probably aren’t looking forward to it, but if it’s god’s will…. They are just more accepting than one less religious might be. Say me for example.
CarolDuhart2
@NotMax: How I missed that is a surprise. But I can only imagine. Lynde was too camp to be scary.
Patricia Kayden
@Steve in the ATL: Trump is their savior. I don’t see how Republicans ever get out from under his dark shadow.
zhena gogolia
@NotMax:
I enjoyed your Tyrone Power-Rock Hudson anecdote. Did you see my answer?
I’ll repeat it. A friend was once sharing a cab in NYC with an undergraduate, and he pointed out the building Rock Hudson used to live in. The student said, “Oh, is he the guy they named the river after?”
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Ruckus: masks, social distancing and hand washing are the “I sent you two boats and a helicopter!” of this era
@Nicole: I listen to teh BBC History Extra podcast, and a couple of weeks ago they announced an interview with historian Charles Spencer– about his book on the White Ship disaster that took out the cream of the Norman aristocracy, including the eldest son of Henry I, in 1120. I thought it was a funny coincidence that he had the same name as Diana’s brother. Then the announcer said, “He joined us by phone from his home at Althorp.” They never mentioned his title. I guess he’s written several books, and I suspect it doesn’t hurt to be an earl, especially that earl, when you’re looking for a publisher. Good podcast, that one and in general, and the book sounded interesting.
dimmsdale
@UncleEbeneezer: I dug out the crumbling galley proof of Tevis’ original novel last night–I’ve been holding onto it since it was fresh and new-smelling (that would be around 1983), hoping all these intervening years that someone, someday would do SOMETHING with it. I can picture Network Suits over the years going “Nah, too niche” or “the chess sequences are too hard to explain” or …whatever. Haven’t seen it yet, looking forward to it though. Meanwhile, rereading the novel and (since I don’t yet stream) wondering if the series goes to dvd at some point.
Nicole
@JoyceH:
I’m going on Tuesday and getting mine cut short so there’s plenty of room for it to grow out as things shut down again, which I think they will soon. The salon I go to is also very careful (I went once, back in July, when things opened up again), and it was all masks, distanced from other customers, the stylist didn’t hang around the station while color was setting in on hair, etc. So if you think things will shut down again, I’d say go now.
Mousebumples
@Spanish Moss: we did a mostly outdoors Thanksgiving today. Weather in the 40s, and a total of 5 people. (my parents, who drove an hour to get here, my husband, 1 year old daughter, and i) a little cold, but we were bundled up and it worked. We also cooked over the firepit (mostly – potatoes were in the instant pot), which also added a little extra warmth.
I hadn’t been able to see my parents since early October – we had Halloween plans that were scrapped due to a covid scare/exposure.
Not sure what we’ll do about Christmas, but i doubt the weather will be this nice in Wisconsin at that point. ?
@JoyceH: I missed my scheduled appointment in April while we were on lockdown and haven’t rescheduled. But I don’t have bangs, after growing them out years ago. My hair is getting long, but it’s still manageable. Do you have anyone you trust to cut your bangs? Or would your stylist come to you versus having you go in to the salon?
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: I had an overstocked cart, but that’s because I’m not planning to go back to the grocery store again for 2-3 weeks – longer if we can make do. Hoping most were thinking along the same lines but I doubt it too. ?
WaterGirl
@Nicole: I just send information that I think is relevant. I don’t even offer my opinion to my family.
Maybe that’s why I am outspoken here when people ask “should I do this?” Or “is this safe?”
NotMax
@zhena gogolia
Not only saw it, appropriate round of chuckling ensued.
Nicole
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Oh, I’ll have to listen to that one- I just learned about the White Ship disaster a few months ago (I tend to read Wikipedia entries on history when I can’t sleep and I really couldn’t sleep during the late spring-summer). And that’s funny about Diana’s brother. The podcast I’m listening to had to decide how to refer to him and to Prince Charles since they both have the same first name. He will, they decided, be “Young Charles” in the podcast.
Spanish Moss
@WaterGirl: Thanks for that link to the risk list. I might send it to my sisters. Both are being moderately careful, but don’t seem to have sound ideas about the relative risks of various activities. I found that surprising, but then I read a lot more news and factual material than they do.
So far I have been lucky with my extended family. Any discussion of risk factors is mostly informational, even when we make different choices in the end, and nobody is doing anything totally stupid.
JoyceH
@Steeplejack (phone): I’m still waffling. It’s mainly their being so assiduous with the masks and only letting you in when they’re ready to cut that makes me feel fairly comfortable with the notion. I keep remembering that story of the two COVID positive hair dressers who had contact with something like 140 clients before they knew they were positive, and nobody got infected because everyone stayed masked.
And wondering, does anyone else do this? When I’ve been out in public and come back home, first I do that wash hands like a surgeon thing, and then I squirt saline spray into my nose and do a really good nose blow. Haven’t seen that in any of the recommendations, but I have heard them talk about “viral load” and what matters is how much of the infected particles get into your system. So it just makes sense to me that if anything got into your nose, water it down and blow it out ought to help.
Nicole
@WaterGirl:
Sometimes that’s all you can do. Someone sent in a question to one of the advice columnists on Slate, concerned that their family was not being careful this Thanksgiving (the letter writer had chosen to stay put and not join them) and feeling like if they didn’t say something, if the family got sick, it would be their fault. The columnist was like, look, there’s no way in heck they don’t know what the risks are; they know and they just don’t care and there is nothing you will say or do that will convince them, so don’t let yourself get knotted up over a situation you have no control over. It was good advice.
WaterGirl
@Ruckus: You could be right. Or I could know my sister well enough for you to be wrong. We’ll never know, so we should probably drop this particular conversation.
WaterGirl
@Nicole: My hair person is also very careful, and she owns the salon.
When we spoke last week she said “we have been very lucky that we haven’t been hit as hard as a lot of salons”. Which says to me that they have had COVID employees there, in spite of the extra ventilation they put in, etc.
I agree with Martin that we all need to have the absolutely smallest public footprint possible now, and for me that’s groceries, and nothing else.
Everybody gets to make their own choices. That’s mine.
Spanish Moss
@Mousebumples: I am glad to hear you pulled off your outdoor celebration. Cooking over the fire pit didn’t occur to me, that could be fun. I am curious what you did. Did people cook some of their own individual food items over the firepit?
Ruckus
@CarolDuhart2:
I’d agree with this. I was young and in HS when JFK was shot, we got the word in a special assembly in the auditorium. All the adults from that time that I know of are gone or getting very close.
Ruckus
@WaterGirl:
Fair enough.
Fair Economist
@Chetan Murthy: I remember finding out about Diana’s death and thinking it was sad, but no more so than any number of other premature celebrity deaths. I was and remain nonplussed at the massive worldwide response. Supposedly her funeral had more TV watchers than any previous TV event. Why?
Sure Lurkalot
We decided not to take up our SIL-BIL invite but our other BIL and nephew are going. No one is coming from out of town and it will be 4 people from 3 households (without us). AFAIK, nothing was planned until the nephew and BIL called them asking if anything was happening for TG. Funny thing is that we are the ones that usually host Thanksgiving but no one called us…likely because they didn’t want to hear “hell no, stay the fuck home and cook your own Thanksgiving dinner for a change.”
I’m pretty sure no one is all that concerned about it despite the incessant begging of officials and health care workers.
Mousebumples
@Spanish Moss: we were masked while cooking, and my husband made steak with onions and mushrooms, and we did asparagus in foil. Probably not 100% safe but I figure the fire probably killed any hypothetically covid? And with only 2 households, that also minimizes risk. Not 0% but to a level we were comfortable with.
Pudgie pies would be a more individualized option, but I’m not sure that my parents would have been on board with something like that.
Nicole
@WaterGirl:
I think it’s a solid choice. If I were anywhere else in the country but NYC I’d likely not take the risk of getting my hair cut, but the current infection rate where the salon is is just above 1% at this point, and the city in general is still hovering at about 3%, which is lower than most of the country. If the salon was on Staten Island, though, forget it.
(As it is I may have to be out of the city for some months next year in a higher infection area, so, the short hair cut now so I don’t have to even look wistfully at a salon until at least June. :) )
Ruckus
@JoyceH:
I went to the dentists last week. I have another appointment next Monday.
I’m not ecstatic about the idea at all but some things you can’t put off forever or even too long. The office is very strict and clean everything very well, but of course the risk is higher than staying home. It would be far better if we as a country had done everything possible months ago and kept up with at least minimal not being dumbasses about it. But we’ve had a complete and utter dumbass in charge with a lot of dumbass followers in charge of states and we as a country are paying massively for that. That doesn’t mean one can’t be as realistic of the situation as possible, just because so many adults are acting like spoiled brats. I’m in some ways lucky, I’m used to staying in, I’m mostly bald so hair is easy to do myself, I don’t drink or party, my family is gone so very few get togethers, I didn’t eat out much so I don’t miss that, I’m almost a perfect pandemic citizen. And still I don’t like the concept that I have to stay in, be a hermit. But life gives us far more “I don’t likes” than it does amazing days and I don’t see us changing that anytime soon.
WaterGirl
@Nicole: We are at 14% around here.
Steve in the ATL
@SFBayAreaGal: at Great Waters with a missing head? Solved, but not for public consumption.
JaySinWA
@Steve in the ATL:
It implies that they acknowledge he lost this one at least. Unless they are buying into president for life. In fact the existence of T 2024 flags is a hopeful sign that the end of the T won nonsense is nigh.
mrmoshpotato
Losing what little is left of their damn minds. You hate to see it.
Spanish Moss
@Mousebumples: Pudgie pies! I never heard of them, so I just googled them. Apparently a midwest staple. I never knew what I was missing. We are totally going to try this. Thanks!
Ruckus
@WaterGirl:
14%? Ouch!
Parts of LA county are twice as bad as where I live but we’ve had masking indoors, no indoor food service, I don’t think bars are open, since the start. Many people wear masks when outside at all times or will mask up around others. The positive testing rate is going up and is at 5.9% with 56,000 tested in the last week, total deaths reported are 7329 in the county and are dropping.
LA county has a lot of data posted on the LA county public health site, broken down by city and date
UncleEbeneezer
@dimmsdale: I understand that the chess play has a few sequences that missed the mark, but MOST of them are very well done and accurate for depicting realistic play at that level. Anya Taylor-Joy is an absolute treasure in this role. My wife and I both came away with a big crush on her, even though we didn’t love her in Emma and couldn’t get into Peaky Blinders either. It’s the type of role where she can be cute/sexy but also strong, intelligent, fearless, competitive and a whole lot of other traits that Hollywood rarely lets women characters be. Godless was also very good on this front with Michelle Dockery and Merritt Weaver both playing incredibly strong women who show their strength without constant shows of toxic masculinity. It’s so great to see a whole bunch of tv shows doing this nowadays, as well: GLOW, Killing Eve, Handmaid’s Tale, Pose, The Fall, The Bridge (Swedish version), Borgen and Unbelievable to name just a few. Girls (and boys) will have such better tv/movie depictions of women characters now, and that is such a good thing.
JoyceH
What are these percentages people are listing? Is that positivity rate? I just found a site that gives positivity rate by state and by county and my county’s rate is 1.02.
Juju
@JoyceH: Learn to trim your bangs. There are how to videos on YouTube and how to on various fashion magazine websites. Google how to trim bangs.
WaterGirl
@JoyceH: What’s the link to the site?
Nicole
@WaterGirl:
Oh gadzooks! That’s scary. I’m sorry.
dimmsdale
@UncleEbeneezer: thanks for your comment. I wouldn’t know about the “chess plays that missed the mark,” but Tevis’s novel lays all that stuff out with an exactitude (and with historical references to classic games and moves) that makes you realize Tevis was a chess buff himself. The “action sequences” (because that’s what they are) are beautifully laid out and dramatized.
“She took her queen and brought it all the way to the last rank, offering it to the black rook that sat back there, not yet moved. Cooke stopped his squirming for a moment and looked at her face. She looked back at him. Then he studied the position, and studied it. Finally he reached out and took her queen with his rook. Something in Beth wanted to jump and shout. But she held herself back reached out, pushed her bishop over one square and quietly said, ‘Check.’ Cooke started to move his king and stopped. Suddenly he saw what was going to happen: he was going to lose his queen and that rook he had just captured, too. He looked at her. She sat there impassively. Cooke turned his attention to the board and studied it for several minutes, squirming in his seat and scowling, then he looked back to Beth and said, ‘Draw?’ Beth shook her head. Cooke scowled again. ‘You got me. I resign.” He stood up and held out his hand. “I didn’t see that coming at all.’ His smile was surprisingly warm.”
If they got THAT onscreen, in full, I’ll be very happy. Thanks for the reminder about “Godless,” too, I’ve had a SAG screener sitting here for ages. And yes, “The Bridge.” I’m trying to hurry up and forget that one so I can go back and watch it again.
WaterGirl
@Nicole: Yep. It really is.