Republicans' Disease

Leftovers & links & reviews without spoilers

ᐅ For everyone who’s been jabbed, the pandemic is effectively over. For everyone else — the millions who’ve refused the shots — new coronavirus variants are coming. In May of 2021, 99% of Americans who died of COVID were unvaccinated. That's impressive stupidity. The shots are free, but 99% of the dead 99% were 'conservatives', who believed the pandemic is a hoax or a conspiracy, hated science, argued against the vaccine, wouldn't wear masks, and died for their dumb beliefs. Perhaps we can rename COVID-19, and call it Republicans’ Disease.

ᐅ Found a dead grasshopper in my pre-packaged salad, or more accurately in my mouth. It was an inch and a half long, old and dried out, and it felt weird on my tongue so I spit it out. No harm done. I'm not a vegetarian, and protein is protein. I reckon the lettuce is harvested by science-fiction machinery and the bugs can’t escape, so maybe I've eaten grasshoppers in the past and not noticed.

ᐅ The Sandlot was my monthly movie via the internet with my brother, and I’d been led to believe it’s a baseball movie. I like baseball and I’m a sucker for a good baseball movie, but this isn't really about baseball — the game is only the backdrop for a standard-issue kiddie movie. The Sandlot knows neither baseball nor the nature of children, and I mildly despised it after what's basically sexual assault on a lifeguard is played for laughs. Or maybe I'm too grumpy. I suppose it might be fun if you’re 6. I’m not 6.

ᐅ The Men Who Stare at Goats — I've enjoyed some George Clooney movies where he tries something outside the norm (The Descendants, Good Night and Good Luck, Oh Brother Where Art Thou?, Up in the Air, etc), but this one is a disappointment. It's a true-ish story about Cold War nuttiness, when the U.S. and Soviets both believed the other side was researching psychic powers, so both countries did research such silliness, just to close the perceived 'psychic powers gap'. The movie is intended as an oddball comedy, but the problem is Ewan McGregor’s character; he plays a reporter who listens to every crazy thing Clooney says, but never replies, "That's bullshit," like any ordinary person would've said over and over again. I'm not Brainiac 5, but when a movie's two main characters are both stupid, it quickly becomes a stupid movie. Also, McGregor played Obi-Wan Kenobi in several sucky Star Wars movies, so maybe it was meant to be funny, each of the many times his character mentions Jedi powers? Like everything else in Goats, I was not amused.

ᐅ I’m the quiet guy in the office. I rarely say much of anything. From working at home for the past year, though, I’ve become very talkative — whatever’s on my mind, I say it. Yesterday, during a text-messaging conversation with a lady I fancy from Accounting, I glanced at her on-screen photo and said, “I’d have a piece of that pumpkin pie.” She couldn’t hear me, of course, but I’ve come close to saying such things in Zoom and Webex meetings, when my mike is live. Gotta start re-censoring myself.

ᐅ When a movie says it’s “based on a true story,” how true is it?

ᐅ Better than Cliffs Notes: Book-a-Minute.

ᐅ Here's a collection of collections of cool stuff.

ᐅ Some links work better as mystery links, so I'll offer no descriptions or explanations for these: [ 1 ] [ 2 ] [ 3 ].

ᐅ I don’t know what’s happening here but it's fun.

ᐅ Gerrymandered jewelry is a cool concept, but beyond my budget.

ᐅ What's bothering you? And is it really that important?

ᐅ Common mythconceptions: World's most contagious falsehoods.

ᐅ Can a burrito actually make you fail a drug test? To my surprise, the answer is yes.

ᐅ Every TV theme song ever, maybe.

ᐅ Here’s another reason I don’t give to NPR.