POTD: Goliath Heron

From 2019 11 19 Aswan

Decompressing from the election, it's time for something completely different. Today's photo-of-the-day is from the Nile River near Aswan, Egypt. The Nile riverbanks are home to countless birds. Today's photo is of a Goliath Heron.

POTD: Osprey

From 2019 11 19 Aswan

Decompressing from the election, it's time for something completely different. Today's photo-of-the-day is from the Nile River near Aswan, Egypt. The Nile riverbanks are home to countless birds. Today's photo is of an Osprey.

POTD: Grey Heron

From 2019 11 19 Aswan

Decompressing from the election, it's time for something completely different. Today's photo-of-the-day is from the Nile River near Aswan, Egypt. The Nile riverbanks are home to countless birds. Today's photo is of a Grey Heron.

Secrets of the Saqqara Tomb (2020)

Rotten Tomatoes

Secrets of the Saqqara Tomb (2020): Documentary about the recent discovery and excavation of a noble's tomb near Cairo. Some scenes show the nearby step pyramid, which we visited just after this documentary was filmed. It needs fewer scenes of digging and more history. C+

The Queen's Gambit (TV 2020)

Rotten Tomatoes

The Queen's Gambit (TV 2020): Orphaned chess prodigy works through childhood traumas, struggles with alcohol and pills, and her own genius. It's a "sports movie" like no other. None of the usual characters act to cliched form. It's her life story that steals our attention. A+

Review: A Burning

From A Burning, by Megha Majumdar:

The night before, I had been at the railway station, no more than a fifteen-minute walk from my house. I ought to have seen the men who stole up to the open windows and threw flaming torches into the halted train. But all I saw were carriages, burning, their doors locked from the outside and dangerously hot."
	Amazon

A Burning is a debut novel by an Indian woman, born in Kolkata and now living in the United States. Its three featured characters are all from the poorer classes, and all seek to rise to middle class. Their prospects intersect and cross.

Emily in Paris (TV 2020)

Rotten Tomatoes

Emily in Paris (TV 2020): Young American Instagram influencer gets transferred to Paris where she flirts with every handsome or rich French man. Could be a 1960s TV show updated for today, maybe "Gidget Gets Laid." Every cliche about French snobbery and dumb American overseas. C+

POTD: Senegal Thick-Knees

From 2019 11 19 Aswan

While the last few states are still counting their votes (get it done, get it right), it's time for something completely different. Today's photo-of-the-day is from the Nile River near Aswan, Egypt. The Nile riverbanks are home to countless birds, almost all of them new and interesting to someone from North America. Today's photo shows two Senegal thick-knees.

Forecast: Rain Ending, Blue Skies Ahead

Update November 4. Rain clouds to linger for at least a couple of more days.

The Consequences of (Secret) Compromise

Fifty-eight years ago in October, the world came closer to nuclear war than at any other time in history. I'm talking about what's become known as the "Cuban Missile Crisis". We're alive to talk about it today because war didn't break out. Why didn't it break out? A peaceful compromise was found.

Random Thoughts: Alexa, Change the President

Tweets from October, 2020:

• 2020-10-01: Me: "Alexa, change the President."
  Alexa: "Sorry, I'm not sure."
  Alexa must be the last undecided person in America.
• 2020-10-01: "Insects have been around for 480 million years, solving nearly every problem nature has dealt them. Maybe it's worth listening to what they have to say." -- Natalie Angier
• 2020-10-01: "Stand back. Stand by." -- Donald Trump.
  "Bigotry or white supremacy in any form is blasphemy against the American creed." -- George W Bush, after Charlottesville in 2017.
  There. That's not hard, is it, Mr. President?

After the jump, more random thoughts.

POTD: Spooky Halloween

Today's photo-of-the-day is from the Dallas Museum of Art. It's from "Rubber Pencil Devil," by Alex Da Corte, ("2018, glass, aluminum, vinyl, velvet, neon, Plexiglas, high res digital video, color, sound"). It's part of the exhibition "For a Dreamer of Houses".

Barry - Season 1 (TV 2018)

Rotten Tomatoes

Barry - Season 1 (TV 2018): A poignant comedy about a vet with PTSD who turns hit man. On a trip to LA he decides to quit his job and go to acting class. Can he turn his life around? Unlikely stars Bill Hader and Henry Winkler pull it off. Acting lessons are a bonus. B+

#VeryTardyReview

The Pale Horse (TV 2020)

Rotten Tomatoes

The Pale Horse (TV 2020): Two episode adaptation of Agatha Christie's mystery novel. People are dying. A list of names, including our hero, is found. Police suspect him. He suspects witches. WTH? Convoluted plot but it kind of works out. Good period piece of 1961 England. C+

The Way I See It (2020)

Rotten Tomatoes

The Way I See It (2020): Documentary about Pete Souza, White House photographer for President Obama. It's at its best when it lets his photographs do the talking. It's not as good when it expands to include video and photos taken by others. Souza's "Shade" was a surprise hit. B-

"Identity Politics" in the 1860 Election

In a review of a biography of Abraham Lincoln in The New Yorker, Adam Gopnik makes a couple of throwaway observations of the 1860 campaign for the Republican nomination for President, observations about parallels to today's world.

The Lincolnians also courted a now often overlooked interest group, the émigré Germans, including many exiled by the failed liberal revolutions of 1848. As [Sidney] Blumenthal notes, Lincoln had bought a German-language newspaper, in order to appeal to those key players of the “identity politics” of the time. (It was the equivalent of surreptitiously funding Facebook pages in 2020.)

Source: The New Yorker.

Identity politics. Facebook. Both in a paragraph about the election of 1860. The more things change, the more they stay the same.

POTD: For a Dreamer of Houses

Today's photo-of-the-day is from the Dallas Museum of Art. It shows "Rubber Pencil Devil," by Alex Da Corte, ("2018, glass, aluminum, vinyl, velvet, neon, Plexiglas, high res digital video, color, sound"). It's part of the exhibition "For a Dreamer of Houses".

Bonus photo after the jump.

Borat Subsequent Moviefilm (2020)

Rotten Tomatoes

Borat Subsequent Moviefilm (2020): Blunt satire of Trump supporters, debutante balls, plastic surgeons, anti-abortion clinics, and, yes, Rudy Giuliani. But vulgarity is no longer shocking, merely vulgar. But then, Giuliani and Trump themselves are vulgar, so call it a draw. D+

 

 

 

 

 

My Octopus Teacher (2020)

Rotten Tomatoes

My Octopus Teacher (2020): Nature documentary like you've never seen. Diver in South Africa spends a year visiting, studying, and learning from one particular octopus. He even makes friends, if that's the right word. It's clearly intelligent, curious, and playful. Fascinating. B+

Review: The Index of Self-Destructive Acts

From The Index of Self-Destructive Acts, by Christopher Beha:

On the day that Waxworth arrived in New York to write for the Interviewer, a man named Herman Nash stood on the rim of the fountain in Washington Square and announced that the world was about to end."
	Amazon

The index of self-destructive acts is a baseball statistic developed by Bill James that counts up all the mistakes a pitcher makes that are entirely in his control: balks, wild pitches, errors, etc. There's not much baseball in this novel by Christopher Beha, but there are a lot of self-destructive acts.

The Man Who Wouldn't Spy for the US

"The F.B.I. tried to recruit an Iranian scientist as an informant. When he balked, the payback was brutal." Laura Secor tells the story of Sirous Asgari, an Iranian who had once attended graduate school in America, where his wife gave birth to his American citizen daughter, and where his two sons attended American universities. But on a visit in 2017 he was detained by the F.B.I. He was charged with "theft of trade secrets, visa fraud, and eleven counts of wire fraud." He considered the charges to be nonsense and refused a deal offered that appeared to be the real reason behind the charges — to get him to agree to act as an informant, that is to spy for the US back in Iran. He fought the trumped up charges in an American courtroom and won. But after the judge dismissed all charges against him, even before he could leave the courtroom, he was detained by I.C.E. And then the real hell began.

Lovecraft Country (TV 2020)

Rotten Tomatoes

Lovecraft Country (TV 2020): Monsters, magic, witches, ghosts, shape shifters, time travel, and racism, lots of racism, from 1921 Tulsa race massacre to 1950s Jim Crow. The Korean War filler episode is the best. The CGI is impressive. The plot doesn't make a lick of sense. C+

Lake Highlands Gets a Signature Bridge

Advocate Lake Highlands has the story: "That bowl of spaghetti that is the Skillman/Audelia/LBJ interchange will become a beautiful — and safe — gateway into Lake Highlands."

David Attenborough: A Life on Our Planet (2020)

Rotten Tomatoes

David Attenborough: A Life on Our Planet (2020): Part memoir, part nature doc, part prescription for avoiding environmental disaster. Attenborough calls it his witness statement of global decline in a single lifetime. He warns the next 93 years will be worse without change. B-

POTD: Mausoleum of Aga Khan

From 2019 11 19 Aswan

Today's photo-of-the-day is from Aswan, Egypt. It shows the Mausoleum of Aga Khan on the Nile River. According to Wikipedia, "He was the 48th Imam of the Nizari Ismaili religion. He was one of the founders and the first permanent president of the All-India Muslim League. His goal was the advancement of Muslim agendas and protection of Muslim rights in India." He died in 1957.

The Boys - Season 2 (TV 2020)

Rotten Tomatoes

The Boys - Season 2 (TV 2020): Big pharma, military, a Scientology-like religious cult, and our ragtag team of resisters strive for control of a serum that gives people super powers. Only message is nihilism. If you like gratuitous random exploding heads this might be for you. C+

POTD: Nile Fishermen...or Something

From 2019 11 19 Aswan

Today's photo-of-the-day is from the Nile River in Aswan, Egypt. I have no idea what these men are doing. Maybe beating the fish to death? Or is that some kind of net on the end of the pole? Who knows?

The Forty-Year-Old Version (2020)

Rotten Tomatoes

The Forty-Year-Old Version (2020): Character study of a struggling playwright/teacher/wannabe rapper in a mid-life crisis. Should she sell out her vision to be more commercial? The dignity and even greatness in an everyday woman. Written, directed, and starring Radha Blank. B+

Extending the Reach of Richardson's Gag Order

The City of Richardson is considering a social media policy. Let's stipulate that this resulted from the City's embarrassing BimboGate in early 2019. Mayor Paul Voelker addressed that, eloquently and sufficiently, in my mind, with this statement of belief: "Richardson’s values are best upheld when we engage in civic discourse that is civil in tone, respectful of others and designed to produce constructive outcomes for the betterment of our community."

Now Democracy is a Dirty Word, Too

For years, I've tracked how virtues like tolerance and compromise and civility have all come under attack from conservatives. I've said, "What I thought made American democracy great is being surely dismantled, virtuous brick by virtuous brick." Ironically, the latest such motherhood and apple pie virtue that conservatives want no truck with any more is "democracy" itself.