Shutdown Diary
I was driving home from a Sam's Club when I heard my cellphone burst into a cluster of likely family texts. While at a traffic stop, I decided to pull up the latest text from my RN sister, 14 months younger. She was writing about an unspecified female family member being in a 14-day quarantine. I have a relative living in assisted living and in a high risk group for the pandemic, so I was immediately concerned. Since I was driving, I had to wait until I was home to read the thread.
No tragic story here, but it's the kind of thing you worry about during the crisis almost obsessively. In this case, it turns out that an assisted living staffer had tested positive and all residents, including my relative, were subsequently tested (negative/no COVID-19). Even Texas has some stiff regulations and/or the owners/operators of relevant facilities. Apparently they'll let a relative take her out to a weekly Mass, but one of my sisters in a Dallas suburb some 300 miles away wanted her to visit for Christmas, and so my RN sister explained that this visit would unlikely be allowed under current circumstances and she would likely be put in quarantine subsequently if the visit happened.
The familiar reader probably shouldn't be surprised by my Man of the Year post. The biggest news is the Pfizer and Moderna's COVID-19 vaccines approved/almost approved recently. Yes, I will take one myself if and when it's locally available to me. I've made it clear public policy is overdone in the COVID era. I flirted with the idea of summarizing a half dozen or other posts here (I'm forever clipping posts with my copy of Joplin), but, to give an example, up to 70% of infections apparently occur in homes, not in bars, outdoor restaurants, etc., which may account for maybe 1-2%. So it's somewhat similar to climate change legislation: the US has rapidly dropped carbon emissions, but it's very expensive to reduce even further under unilateral restrictions while other countries expand their own emissions at our competitive disadvantage.
Let's be clear: the health risks of COVID-19 are very real, not a hoax. But state and local policymakers are acting out the legend of the last quarter. I've referenced this legend in past posts: a boy was looking for his lost coin under the street lamp. "Did you lose the coin here?" "No, over there." "Then why are you looking here?" "Because the light is better."
Entertainment Notes
Cable Holiday Programming
Probably the "new" Christmas movie I've seen and like is "Merry Kissmas" via Amazon Video. (Apparently, as expected, this is a 2015 cable movie I hadn't seen.) There have been a few films in this genre, like "Splash!"'s unlikely romance between a mermaid and a mortal man who initially met as kids when he falls overboard off Cape Cod. When they meet again as young adults in a similar mishap, Madison (Daryl Hannah) passionately kisses Allen (Tom Hanks); I mean, what guy doesn't fantasize about a beautiful woman being attracted to him? I almost wish I fell overboard off Cape Cod), Madison finds his wallet and tracks him down in NYC.(It turns out she is able to transform her tail into legs on land.)
There's been a few films of unlikely first encounters in elevators (at least as far back as Lacey Chabert's "Elevator Girl" from 2010). I think I've seen 2 or 3 relevant Christmas romantic comedies on cable TV in the recent past. MK starts off with Doris Roberts, Raymond's mom from the "Everybody Loves Raymond" series, quickly pouncing on the unsuspecting male protagonist (who reminds me of the male lead in "Holiday Engagement") under the elevator mistletoe, But the male caterer's real encounter is with a gorgeous blonde trapped in a now loveless relationship of convenience with a high-profile, volatile stage director/choreographer. I have a bad habit of zoning out when I write my blog posts, but I paid close attention to this movie.
There are a number of Hallmark cable "oldies" which I haven't seen yet in this year's rotation including "November Christmas" and "Help for the Holidays" (which may be on Hallmark's newer drama channel I don't have), "Christmas Magic", etc. The interested reader may find a useful summary of Christmas movies on cable here. As for Christmas Magic, Google Play sells a license for $10, but you can find it on Amazon in a film two-pack DVD for about $6.
One movie I've routinely mentioned is "Farewell, Mr. Kringle". Of all things, I found it in a collection available for streaming from an inspirational channel via my cable service. I've found using my patch cable is more stable than WIFI for streaming; I ran into a few minor technical glitches but they were worth it. I still don't understand why this film isn't available for purchase (I just checked on Google Play).
Some cable remotes integrate third-party apps into their remote. For example, as an Amazon Prime customer, I can play one of my favorites (I've got a copy in storage) "It's a Wonderful Life", I can simply say into my voice-recognition remote, "Play 'It's a Wonderful Life' on Amazon Prime", click through a couple of Amazon prompts, and I'm there.
I'm still amazed this close this Christmas I haven't seen the usual classics of 'White Christmas', 'A Christmas Carol, or 'Miracle on 34th St.' (well I think I saw the first scheduled to play at 2 AM; I don't think so).
Wrestling
I don't find any of the storylines compelling right now. Probably the best is AJ Styles confronting McIntyre, and probably my favorite wrestler in WWE, Kevin Owens, is challenging Roman Reigns, but I don't think either champion will job in Sunday's PPV/ As for the women, the storylines aren't interesting; maybe a rumored returning Charlotte Flair or Rousey will spice things up. It looks if they do shake anything up, it may be taking the title off my favorite heel, Sami Zahn, on the grounds both major titles are held by heels.
