Yet another sign that LEGO is the true alternate currency! This story I found yesterday in The Guardian is funny, sad and just amazing in how stupid these people were. Screw crypto, that’s a pyramid scheme! LEGO is the better investment. Sure, it could collapse as tulips allegedly did a couple centuries ago. If the LEGO market went bust, you can still build a shelter with the plastic bricks to keep the rain out while you live under an interstate bridge in Amerika.
Holy Buckets! I hadn’t thought about this PBS program in years and today was its anniversary. Growing up in the Seventies, The Electric Company was must-see TV after you “graduated” from Sesame Street and/or found Mr. Rogers too patronizing; today, I revere him as a rare saint.
The show was an awesome demonstration of how to teach phonics and all of English’s weird pronunciations because we love to mess up words with those silent Es. I was too little to understand the comedy Company‘s skits were performing, probably to keep the trapped adults from being bored. Still, I loved Easy Reader, Fargo North, the gorilla Paul, Crank, Letterman and how loud Rita Moreno was. When Spider-Man joined the show, then I couldn’t be kept away! He was my fave at the time and the Sixties version of Spider-Man was being shown on Channel 44 before it went all Spanish, ergo, I was awash in fandom for what it was in the Seventies.
I didn’t know Company ended well before the Seventies (1977), they could’ve had a field day with Disco. Quite a bummer but Sesame Street was the smarter investment as its characters could be licensed as toys, so I don’t blame PBS and CPB for its decision. The funnier thing was seeing all the actors in other TV shows, movies and commercials. Moreno was already famous from at least West Side Story and The Ritz. Morgan Freeman (Easy Reader) had his second act in the late Eighties and is a constant presence today. Judy Graubart (Jennifer of the Jungle) was in a detergent commercial and Alan Arkin’s odd comedy Simon. Skip Hinnant (Fargo North) was also in a detergent ad, nothing else I saw. Luis Avalos (Dr. Doolats) was quite busy on TV until he died yet I only remember him squeezing a guy’s junk with pliers in Stir Crazy. The others are a blank and I feel bad about it. According to imdb.com, Hattie Winston and Lee Chamberlin had prolific careers alongside Luis and Rita. I vaguely recall celebrities appearing: Gary Owens, Lily Tomlin and Willie Tyler with Lester. I had no idea Mel Brooks was involved nor Gene Wilder and Joan Rivers with the Adventures of Letterman cartoons. Zero Mostel I remember a bit. Sadly, I do clearly remembers Bill Cosby’s earlier involvement before he went to Captain Kangaroo to host Picture Pages. The Dr. Jekyll side of him was probably key to making the show happen. He was huge promoter of education and early child development but all his good legacies are erased by the true Mr. Hyde we’ve finally have been informed of.
The Electric Company was a great show for its day. Entertaining and educational, especially at a time when most American TV programming was limited to four broadcast networks and three were only interested in making money. Despite its brief tenure, it did have great reach and impact as it lived on in skits on SNL and years later with Family Guy, I didn’t say they were good skits…
It went on to be repurposed through cable stations. It’s the least Nick Jr., Disney Jr and the other attempts at true educational programming could do; it’s sad when “The Learning Channel” is absolute shit now. Poor PBS, a victim of its own success. Personally, I hope PBS can find a way to be reborn as its own streaming product in the same way the BBC has done. For all of JFK’s numerous personal failings, he was a champion of public television and using television as a means for helping, teaching and informing everybody regardless of their wealth.
Thanks to everybody involved with The Electric Company. I count myself as one of its successful graduates! Through the first half of my grade-school education, it helped me for I was in the top reading classes until St. Agnes, and as an adult, I would give the show credit for my voracious vocabulary. As for my pronunciation difficulties caused by my Midwestern accent, regional dialects proved to be more formidable than radio/TV critics claimed.
Sorry, I’m really running behind on what’s current or contemporary TV or movies. It was a crazy Summer…no wait, I’m only partially sorry because I planned on spending much more time on my house. Then in the near future, it won’t be such a hassle to write, HA!
Anyway, I wanted to cover these two, quite different, more mature interpretations of superheroes if you haven’t watched them yet and/or you’re bored by the Marvel/DC Comics offerings.
I’ll start with the one everybody knows was cancelled pretty quickly by Netflix, the Fox Network of streaming, Jupiter Ascending. Based upon a miniseries written by Mark Millar (Kick Ass, The Kingsmen) and published by Image a few years back. Jupiter appeared to be a knock off to DC’s Kingdom Come because the story’s key elements dealt with the generational divide between superheroes. I preferred Jupiter since there were fewer characters to track (six) during Jupiter‘s Golden Age and due to the first generation’s extended lifespans, there’s only one younger generation following them. Kingdom was a ka-jillion.
The Netflix show then merged the two printed series Legacy and Circle by having the show go back and forth in time. One arc is how the Utopian and his teammates got their powers during the Great Depression. The other is the modern era as the Utopian copes with a changing world in which today’s villains don’t play fair and his two children refuse to uphold his ideals. The other modification Netflix made was A-OK with me; diversifying the cast. In the comic, it’s pretty much a White-people world. Changing characters to other ethnic groups or sexual orientation didn’t diminish anything neither. In a couple instances, it enhanced the character developments.
Many people crapped on the show’s special effects, saying they were subpar. I guess I need new glasses, they looked OK for Netflix to me. The show’s pacing was probably what killed it. Not enough beatdowns on the villains, too much soap opera padding like Arrow. Jupiter was more interesting when it told the origin story; a quest to a dangerous island with tests for the heroes to earn their powers.
Since Jupiter was cancelled, I can spoil what nobody will get to see. The Utopian’s brother Brainwave has been playing the long game to run the world. For far too long, Brainwave let Utopian call the shots: no interference in the wars, the social unrest, etc.; and more importantly they’re not allowed to use their powers to save humanity from itself. Legacy was originally written in the aftermath of the Great Recession so you can see Brainwave’s emphasis on “fixing” the economy to keep everyone pacified. Brainwave also enlists the Utopian’s son and other younger heroes into killing all the older Union members to establish their dictatorship. Any other heroes or villains refusing to comply go into hiding, mainly the Utopian’s daughter Chloe; a Paris Hilton type with Supergirl’s incredible powers. Within a decade, humanity grows tired of Brainwave’s meddling and it’s up to Chloe to lead the resistance.
Image Comics and Amazon Prime fared better with Invincible. Created by Robert Kirkman (The Walking Dead) with help (just Hollywood credibility) from Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg. Thankfully, the latter duo didn’t mess this up with their just-not-funny vulgarity as per Superbad, Future Man and Sausage Party. According to my comic book store, Invincible came to an end, only spin-off characters/stories are published lately.
While Jupiter chose to streamline the superhero population, Invincible is the opposite, a universe filled with super-powered characters on par with Marvel and DC. The focus is on Mark Grayson, the son of the world’s mightiest hero Omni Man (Superman) and an earth woman; she’s a realtor, not a reporter; glad to know Mark’s mom has a viable career. Unlike his father who had powers since birth, Mark’s don’t kick in until he’s a senior in high school.
The first season isn’t a tiresome montage involving him practicing. Mark masters his abilities quickly so the show advances to the larger arcs immediately: protecting his identity, getting a costume, taking the name Invincible, learning about who he should help given how powerful he is, balancing school work, having a crush on a pretty girl, fitting in with a supergroup of fellow teens, etc. The major one which will carry over into the second season is (not a spoiler)…who killed the Guardians of the Globe? I will say, it’s revealed within a couple episodes.
What separates Invincible from Jupiter and the mainstream animated competition, is its level of gore. This is not a tidy world. Bystanders are killed routinely by the villains and heroes although the latter didn’t intend those casualties, they just can’t prevent the indirect deaths from property damage all the time. There’s also more shades of gray: infidelities, mixed loyalties, self-interest overruling the greater good and the biggest lesson Mark learns, be careful who you help.
I think Invincible will go on to be a genuine hit for Amazon Prime. The show is on its way to being the most successful superhero franchise not derived from the big two and the first show the streaming service has offered that I want to keep watching. I can’t get into The Boys as it tries to hard to be The Watchmen in overdrive and it isn’t funny. The Man in the High Tower lost me midway through its first season; next time Amazon, go with a book which has a narrative and isn’t a philosophical exercise. The other biggest factor making me bet on this series was the voice casting. It has many pros (JK Simmons, Grey DeLisle) and most of Big Mouth‘s cast.
Give them both a try. Maybe Jupiter Ascending will get a second chance as Tuca & Bertie did thanks to [adult swim]. Invincible season two is slated for 2022.
It was a shame to hear he passed away yesterday. I saw the news via Twitter first and it got me to thinking about what he’d been doing lately. He won an Emmy for playing a parent in HBO’s Girls! Pretty amazing. Standing out in a show focused on four people being shitty friends to each other is a big feat; OK, that’s what I’ve been told Girls is about, I’ve never watched it and have no opinion.
As for Peter, he is immortalized in two roles with my fellow Gen Xers. The first is Henry from Bosom Buddies, a short-lived SitCom on ABC in the early Eighties. It’s more remembered as Tom Hanks’ first starring vehicle, yet they were co-stars. The premise of two grown men disguising themselves as women for one purpose or another is as old as theater in Ancient Greece but Peter and Tom did a great job pulling it off.
Then Peter got another great gig as the vapid, highly annoying Michael on Newhart. He was the perfect companion to Julia Duffy’s vain, lazy and spoiled Stephanie. How the character bugged Dick (aka Bob Newhart) with his preppie chatter.
Beyond those things, I mostly saw him around in bit parts. He was the voice of some blind optimist on Duckman, he was the host of a variety show in That Thing You Do! and the live-action actor for Mr. Bill.
Thanks for everything Peter! You will forever be Henry/Hildegarde, the creative young writer trying to make it in NYC with his best friend Kip/Buffy.
Albuquerque didn’t pan out and I’m not going into great detail about it. The short version is that the people in charge didn’t get everything lined up in time properly so Jennifer decided to come home, take a better opportunity at home!
I’m very glad to have her back!
We had made all these cool plans involving shows, holidays and all. We were going to be attempting our best to get around them with the distance now being a factor.
Not a problem anymore!
Now we just wait for all the logistics on the Austin-based gig to gel.
Giovanni is a really an odd character in History thanks to his two brushes with fame through coincidence. The latter, read on, is what made him a temporary celebrity in the US and it should’ve led to a cameo in Dustin Hoffman’s opus Little Big Man.
He was born possibly in late 1851 to early 1852. Since Giovanni was abandoned at an orphanage, the Catholic Church baptized him, gave him a rather generic name and handed him over to a local wet nurse. When he turned 14, he left the orphanage to join Italian unification leader Garibaldi’s forces as a drummer boy in the campaign against Austria. This would be 1866 and Italy allied with Prussia in what would be the Austro-Prussian War. Even though Italy was an established de facto state by 1861, the Austrians still controlled the Northeastern states containing Venice.
Nothing further of note seemed to happen after the war and in 1873, Martino hopped a ship to America. I’m guessing it was find a new start, a better opportunity, etc. Despite Italy joining the rest of Europe as a nation-state club through its size, its economy was nothing close to the big three: UK, Germany and France.
America didn’t go any better and after a year of no luck landing steady or gainful employment, he joined the US Army. The Army chose to send him to Missouri where he trained to be a cavalry soldier and bugler. Maybe his past experience playing drums led the recruiter to say, hey, you could play a horn then, right? It’s all the same!
Within two years, Giovanni was assigned to the infamous US Seventh Cavalry led by Custer to fight in the Plains Indians Wars in the Dakotas and Montana. On the fateful event known as the Battle of Greasy Grass (Little Big Horn), he was luckily dispatched by Custer to get reinforcements and extra ammunition before Custer led Company H into the trap laid out by First Nations’ forces. Giovanni managed to survive because he reached the nearby hill where the Seventh’s remaining soldiers were stationed and he then spent the next 36 hours fighting for his life with his comrades until another US unit came to their rescue. Due to his “exotic” nature and circumstances, newspapers labelled him “the last White man to see Custer alive.”
Several years later, he met and married an Irish immigrant named Julia while stationed at a less conflict-ridden base in New York State. They started a family (first son was named George, after Custer) and Martino continued to be a career Army member until he was forced out upon reaching the mandatory retirement age in 1904. He then went to have multiple careers on the East Coast: owning a candy store, ticket taker for the NYC subway and a nightwatchman. Reporters and historians continued to seek him out on the anniversary of the fateful battle or they were writing a bio regarding Custer. He passed away in 1922 after dying from complications caused by being hit by a truck.
In some ways, Giovanni Martino was a mini-Forrest Gump given his brushes with famous people and events. The difference? His actually happened.
Despite it being the wrong kind, the costume is pretty impressive in its accuracy from what I’ve seen up close at local power stations or telephone lines or whatever they’re called. I just love how children are masters at the genuine, sincere look of, “Ugh! You just don’t get it do you?”
We now move on to the miscellaneous professions of the numerous people with Italian heritage.
This entry goes to Enrico who is an animation person and you might be familiar with his biggest work to date, Pixar’s Luca. The movie represents his turn to take the helm at the legendary studio after having various roles in the productions of Cars and about everything they’ve done to date. Before Pixar, he was involved with Ice Age, Robots and some Disney TV shows in the Nineties.
What’s next? I’m guessing whatever Pixar has on deck for 2022 as Enrico joined the Senior Creative Team with Coco.
As expected, the lazy corporate media kicked off with all the hagiography about Mr. Powell on how he was a first in certain positions and his reluctance to present the bullshit evidence to the UN about Iraq’s weapon-production capabilities. Or how he “redeemed” himself by backing Obummer or opposed Girth Vader.
I will always remember him for being the low-principled coward he always was. He was involved the cover-up regarding the My Lai massacre. He was always part of the ridiculous military-industrial complex destroying America’s infrastructure under St. Reagan and Bush the Elder. He did plenty of armchair quarterbacking when out of power during Slick Willie’s days when it came on “what to do about” the Balkns Wars. Lastly, if he any shred of self-respect, courage or decency, Powell would’ve resigned as Secretary of State. Instead he still chose to tell those whoppers which led to thousands, almost millions of deaths, alongside trillions lost for an enormous lie.
I remember when Dubious Bush picked him for the job. What a sick joke! Powell was supposed to represent diversity amongst the Lily White Country Club Restoration. Sure. When the FBI didn’t have any Black agents, J Edgar Hoover immediately deputized his chauffeur to deflect the fact. Powell was an intelligent man but given how Darth Cheney was really in charge and this administration was hellbent on a war with Iraq for any reason, he should’ve known from day one, his role wasn’t any different.
So, I will speak ill of the dead. He doesn’t deserve any praise. He doesn’t deserve to be labeled a “grown up,” amongst a rebellious administration. He was always an enabler. He willing collaborator in creating the mess we’re in at home and abroad. Much like many of his war-mongering ilk, he just couldn’t imagine how the monsters he helped create (the Taliban, ISIS-ISIL, America’s home-grown terrorists) would break free from their poorly guarded cages.
On the surface, this is great. Watching the Republicans fight amongst themselves: the pro-Fascist MAGAts and the anti-democratic Country Clubbers trying to save their fig leaf of dignity. But keep in mind, the top assholes in Texas follow the wind, they’re not known for having spines unless it involves taking away a woman’s rights over her body, a non-White’s rights to vote, killing workers in the name of Kapitalism or screwing over a victim whose family’s net worth is under a few hundred thousand. So remember not to applaud the slime involved with this or the Lincoln Project. They had a hand in creating this monster by appeasing the voters who put him in power. Where they went “wrong,” is all their button-pushing, race-baiting and lying resulted in the base nominating the populist they want, the usual Country Club WASP the GOP prefers: Bush, Romney, Taft, McCain, etc.
As to why the picture is all “checkered.” My iPhone 13 Pro’s camera when recording is probably capturing the activity at a rate faster than the billboard refreshes. Ergo, we’re seeing the LEDs flickering.
My gourd, my choice!
Oriana was primarily a journalist who was famous for getting some really spectacular interviews, experiencing some History firsthand and writing numerous books which allows me to give her the final author slot for this month. Her life was also a series of contradictions at the end; happens to us all when we age. I personally hope I don’t drift so rightward as John Cleese has (Pro-Brexit? Really, then why is he in LA?) and I’m confident some relatives I admired did as well. The latter concern came through the good ol’ September 11th attacks as you will read on.
Mrs. Fallaci was born in 1929, during the early years of Mussolini’s disastrous, oppressive and murderous reign. She was automatically a member of the opposition since her father was already a political activist fighting the Fascists. Oriana joined the resistance when WWII came to Italy and a couple decades later, the Italian army finally recognized her participation with a certificate of valor. Upon receiving it, she was quoted as saying (translated obviously):
Whether it comes from a despotic sovereign or an elected president, from a murderous general or a beloved leader, I see power as an inhuman and hateful phenomenon … I have always looked on disobedience toward the oppressive as the only way to use the miracle of having been born.
After the war, Oriana attended the University of Florence to study Science, switched to Literature then dropped out. Through her uncle Bruno’s encouragement, she became a journalist. By the late Sixties, she graduated to being a war correspondent covering the Vietnam War, India and Pakistan’s little wars and the turbulence in the Middle East.
I think these experiences braced her for the horrors to come because Oriana got assigned to write about the unrest in Mexico while the country was hosting the 1968 Olympics. Unfortunately, she was a little too close to what would be known as the Tlatelolco Massacre; this is when the Mexican Army fired on peaceful protestors, killing hundreds, ten days before Opening Ceremony. We all know this story very well in America via our over-militarized police forces: the protestors provoked the soldiers (bullshit) so they had to use force and/or denied anyone was killed (also bullshit). She was amongst the protestors, getting the scoop, and got hit by three military bullets. Then the soldiers dragged her by her hair to throw her into the pile of corpses and left her for dead. Oriana survived, gave pretty damning testimony, foiling the Mexican government and its CIA-backed sponsors trying to just sweep the whole thing under the rug.
Most sane people would’ve probably quit and try to live out a quiet life afflicted with horrendous PTSD. She chose to keep going yet moved her focus to interviewing. This wasn’t exactly new. Before the Seventies, her coverage was primarily talking to literary and cinematic figures. Now Oriana was going after the big fish…political figures on the world stage. This led to her gaining a reputation of being formidable and instilling fear in a few famous people. I’m impressed by her courage to tell Ayatollah Khomeni where he could stick the chador his inhuman, sexist regime imposed on Iranian women as she removed it in front of him calling it “…stupid medieval rag.” The old bastard thought he could shame her by saying it’s for “respectable ladies.”
Oriana did make at least one major journalistic mistake. She got romantically involved with a former interviewee, Alexandros Panagoulis. Panagoulis belonged to the resistance fighting the Greek dictatorship called the Regime of the Colonels which came to power via a coup in 1967. Although “democracy” was restored in 1974, he was murdered by right-wing thugs in 1976 through a “car accident.” Oriana’s book A Man was inspired by Panagoulis’ life.
She retired by the late Eighties and went on to lecture at the heavy hitters for Trust-Fund-Baby Reporters (their alum Nate Silver, Galen Druke and Eric Alterman if you need an idea): Yale, Harvard, Columbia and the University of Chicago. All while Shuttling between her home in NYC and Florence.
Sadly, the terrorist attacks on NYC and DC that fateful day brought out some shitty things in Oriana, namely three books criticizing Islamic extremists (nobody’s a fan) and Islam overall. She mainly compared the uglier movements’ behaviors to what she endured under Mussolini. Given all the documented horrors under the Iranian Republic, ISIS-ISIL-Daesh and the Taliban, those are worthy and valid concerns. However, it wasn’t fair nor right to paint the other billion-some followers with the same brush. The average Muslim isn’t terribly different than any other adherent, Agnostic or Atheist after you remove the superficial things…all are trying to just get through the daily grind known as life. Blowing up buildings, killing non-believers and arguing the minutiae of scriptures aren’t part of the agenda. This tainted her legacy, got her accolades from the political parties she wouldn’t want to be associated with and if there’s a branch of thin-skinned cancelers in Italy, I’m confident they put her on the chopping block.
Oriana died in 2006 from cancer. I’ll take a wild guess and say from smoking so we can no longer ask what was in her heart or mind then or now or would she dial back those ugly generalizations 15 years later. I will say this in her defense. She survived an actual Fascist regime which brought ruin upon her home country and then witnessed more slaughter in the name of public order (Mexico), defeating Communism (Greece, Vietnam) or Divine Sky Cake (take your pick). All three are part of the blueprint to establishing Fascist dictatorships and it put her danger sense at an oversensitive level.
This person did more to make the world a better, more transparent place to compensate for her latter years. Ergo, Oriana Fallaci deserves praise, respect and her rewards while we remember how all our heroes have feet of clay.
A little callback to the late, great Cole having a little sibling spat with Marmalade as the two demonstrate the eternal struggle…cats don’t give a damn about time when it comes to their stomachs! As we all know, Daylight Savings Time will be ending soon (November 6th or 7th this year) plus Jennifer’s cats were already having to adjust to their 4 AM feeding ending. With her departure for Albuquerque, Mason and I will be taking over this sacred duty. For a while, the five at her place will be “starving” as they adjust to 6 AM for breakfast. Such a hard life for them. It will be trickier when Jennifer and at least two of the menagerie move in Aggie, Isis and me, there can’t be a buffet due to Aggie’s bladder issues.
For starters, her name is pronounced LEE-cha TRO-easy, not, what I’m predicting from lazy American English, LEE-sia TROY-see.
I’m also going to be upfront, I don’t know much about Mrs. Troisi other than I was thrilled to find a person of Italian heritage that hit all the checkboxes! Female. An author. Alive! Given the previous two are dead and rather obvious, I wanted to introduce us all to someone completely new. Her writing being in the Fantasy genre is a huge bonus. Being an active Scientist, a humongous bonus! I hope that one day, she becomes Italy’s DeGrasse Tyson. Unfortunately, Mrs. Troisi’s catalog hasn’t been translated into English so it will be a while before I can read any books as my Italian is on par with an entry-level tourist. A new incentive to really get cracking on my fluency via DuoLingo!
You can learn more about this incredible person via Mrs. Troisi’s web site. Meanwhile, I’m going to write her an e-mail, in English, I have a feeling she’s better at English than I could ever be in Italian thanks to Science and Tech having an English-speaking bias.
It’s great to see someone out there resetting everyone’s expectations on who is a Scientist. Who is an author. Who writes Fantasy.
My cousins Leesa and Dana had told me earlier in the month how Loran had been ill with COVID-19 as he was battling the virus in an Iowa hospital. The location puzzled me but upon further explanation, he was in the process of moving to Arizona for his declining health when he tested positive with symptoms. His spouse Gayle is in quarantine sans visible symptoms. Let me answer the obvious question…no, he wasn’t vaccinated which is a damned shame given that people his age were put to the front of the queue long ago. And no, it wasn’t a surprise he wasn’t vaccinated given his stances.
Writing about Loran is a bit trickier than Skip, Chief or Letty too. I last saw him in person during Gradma’s (Maggi) funeral as the Summer of 1985 was winding down. He did come all the way from Alaska to have a final conversation with her before she died and made it to the funeral. He was in tears too. Unfortunately, there was tension between (at least) him and my father, namely some actions Loran was doing I will leave out. They rarely got along until the end since Loran’s death was first announced to me in an SMS message; somebody gave Dad my number as we haven’t spoken in 18 years. You shouldn’t speak ill of the dead is the cliché (for a while) so I will honor that for his children, the only two I’ve ever communicated with are his oldest son, Ron (a huge reason for me deleting FeceBook) and daughter Cara, who is cool but disappeared as her Xmas card bounced back. Ergo, I don’t have any good anecdotes involving him. When I was a little kid and he lived around Ottawa near Uncle Skip, Aunt Letty and Grandma, we’d talk a bit yet it wasn’t any different than other adult-kid interactions.
In the end, he was a person who did the best he could based upon his circumstances, life decisions and reputation. He wasn’t evil but he was “that uncle” as the Daily Show and other left-leaning comedies would brand him. To be fair, I’m probably “that cousin” as per Fox News, The National Review and OAN. It’s nice to posit that he and my old man appeared to have some reconciliation before the end came. They were close in age which meant there were good times during their childhoods.
I will close with one funny story which could give you non Maggis an idea of who Loran was before being drafted into the Army to serve in Vietnam.
Quick aside, Loran was very fortunate in the pointless and unnecessary conflict, he didn’t participate in any (major) fighting and was spared the frightening PTSD I’ve witnessed from other veterans.
Anyway, my maternal grandmother wrapped up her teaching career at Ottawa High School, the alma mater of multiple Maggis. In a conversation, Grandma (Maier) brought up how my mother got married. When asked to whom, I can imagine she said something to the effect of, “Oh the Maggi boy,” which led to, “Oh my god! Seriously? He was a hell raiser and often in trouble! But his father would come down to defend him no matter what.” Pale with shock and ready to collapse, Grandma responded, “That was Steve?” The respondent said, “What? No. Steve was fine, played football. I was talking about Loran.” Knowing how über-Catholic Grandma was, while she was panicking, I’m confident she was calculating how to get my mother an annulment from the Pope until a first name came up.
I can only hope my Uncle Loran will live on as a warning about the dangers of not getting vaccinated against any preventable illness regardless of the cure’s efficacy.
