Worlds Apart

Having finally caught up on the Marvel movies online…I think…and whilst I’m waiting for more Oscar nominees to be streaming, I went in search of a new binge.

Because I’m a multitasker, even in spite of the “experts” that tell you it can’t be done, I need to keep busy while I’m watching television. I mean, I can sit still in a theater, but when I’m at home, I feel like I’m wasting time if I’m not multitasking.

So, while I’m writing, or doing some creative project like the #100DayProject, I try to keep busy doing something creative that allows me to both watch and keep myself occupied.

So, when I knew I was beginning the current #100DayProject I went looking for new shows to binge.

I wound up watching both The Gilded Age on HBO, and 1883 on Paramount.

Two dramatically, if you will, different shows. But set only a year apart.

This design and more available in The Write Side Shop (click the pic).

The Gilded Age stars Christine Baranski and Cynthia Nixon.

1883 stars Faith Hill and Tim McGraw, as well as Sam Elliot.

I’m enjoying both. Although I did break my self-imposed rule of not watching a new series until all the episode of a season have aired. I’ve never liked waiting for the next weekly episode, and thanks to streaming, I generally don’t have to. Except that I am.

I’ve been a fan of Christine Baranski since her days on Cybil. I’ve loved her in just about everything I’ve seen her in, with the exception of Mama Mia, and that’s because I just didn’t like the whole movie. While she’s brilliant in this role, I do think she does comedy better.

She will forever be in my heart as Martha May Whovier.

Kudos to Hill and McGraw for branching over to acting from music. As for Sam Elliott, this sort of redeems him from his time on The Ranch.

While catching up on both series over the weekend, I realized that I was spending my time in the latter 1800s but in two different worlds.

There’s the upscale world of the rich and nouveau riche in New York. And there’s a family trying to survive the hardships of travel in a wagon through Comanche territory accompanied by a group of German immigrants who don’t speak English and have no idea of how to get where they want to go.

I’m enjoying both series. But I’ve been struck by the vast differences between the two.

Money and power in New York. Struggle and hunger on the western plains.

I don’t have enough years left to learn all the history I’d like to learn. But I’m trying.

Sure both of these shows just scratch the surface of what life was really like.

There’s political commentary here, but I’m not inclined to write it, other than to say that we have a vast and varied history. It has taken all kinds to bring us to the country we are today.

Read into that what you will.

Just read about it.

American actor, singer, and politician, Sonny Bono, was born on this day in 1935. (d. 1998)


 

THINGS YOU SHOULD READ

TIPP Poll: Two-Thirds of Dems Say Hillary Clinton Should Be Investigated
NewsMax
A full 66% of Democrats want to see Hillary Clinton investigated for any role she might have had in trying to manufacture former President Donald Trump’s ties to Russia in an attempt to smear him, according to a new poll by TechnoMetrica Institute of Policy and Politics (TIPP). Read More.

Durham probe: Media outlets avoid, downplay latest developments implicating Clinton campaign
FOXNews
Liberal media outlets have largely downplayed or otherwise ignored the court filing from Special Counsel John Durham as part of his investigation into the origins of the Russia probe. Read More.

Ratcliffe Reveals More on Durham Probe Including Biden Connection as WH Dodges Questions
RedState
Ratcliffe also noted that not only was Obama advised on the plan in 2016 in the Oval Office, but Joe Biden was, too, as well as members of the national security team. So, Biden knew about the false plan and “everything that happened after that..is one of the reasons that John Durham is investigating,” Read More.

Hillary Refuses to Answer Questions About Her Own (Worse) Watergate
RedState
The media, unable to ignore the story any longer as indictments continue with the threat of more to come, is beginning to ask the former Secretary of State and 2016 presidential candidate exactly those questions. And she’s not talking. Read More.

A Counterintuitive Cure for Burnout
The Art of Manliness
An absence of consensus around burnout also makes it difficult to disentangle it from other conditions that manifest in similar ways. Are you burned out or just bored? When is burnout different from simple tiredness or stress? Is someone burned out, or are they actually depressed? Read More.

How to Sell Your Novel: Learn Essential Steps Here
selfpublishing.com
To sell your novel like a pro, there are several things you MUST get right before you even think about publishing.  Read More.

ALSO BORN ON THIS DAY

1893 – Katharine Cornell, American actress and producer (d. 1974)
1903 – Edgar Bergen, American ventriloquist and actor (d. 1978)
1909 – Hugh Beaumont, American actor and director (d. 1982)
1921 – Vera-Ellen, German-American actress, singer, and dancer (d. 1981)
1926 – Margot Frank, German-Dutch holocaust victim (d. 1945)
1957 – LeVar Burton, American actor, director, and producer
1959 – John McEnroe, American tennis player and sportscaster

WHAT I’M READING


 

BENEDICTION

Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.

Ephesians 3:20–21

 

Ronald Wilson Reagan
February 2, 1911 – June 5, 2004

Don’t Quit

Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.
Galatians 6:9

I don’t know who gets to make up the National Day Calendar. But today is Singles Awareness Day. Seems a bit cruel. I think they were all pretty well aware of it yesterday.

But maybe it’s today because chocolate is 50% off.

Our Valentine’s Day was pretty low-key. After all, we spent the weekend celebrating the younger offspring’s birthday and seeing three, that’s right, three, theatrical performances.

After thirty-six years of marriage, the romantic dinners, the flowers, the ten dollar cards…well, we’ve got better ways to spend our money.

And if my cooking dinner for the whole family doesn’t say “I Love You,” a hundred dollars worth of roses that will be dead by the weekend won’t either.

The emotional impact of The Diary of Anne Frank playing through this weekend at The Theater Company of Ft. Lee will stay with me a long time.

Anne wrote:

“In spite of everything I still believe that people are really good at heart. I simply can’t build up my hopes on a foundation consisting of confusion, misery, and death. I see the world gradually being turned into a wilderness, I hear the ever approaching thunder, which will destroy us too, I can feel the sufferings of millions and yet, if I look up into the heavens, I think that it will all come right, that this cruelty too will end, and that peace and tranquility will return again.”

She did not survive the concentration camps.

The production we saw was masterful. As I told the director, I do not have adequate words. You have three more chances to see it this weekend. Go if you can.

Like I said yesterday, seeing three shows over the weekend made me miss my involvement in theater. But I thought later hat perhaps what I want to do is tell great stories. I can do that as a writer, and I’m working on it.

Thing is, sometimes I have to tell bad stories to get to the good ones.

I need to keep telling the stories, writing the things, doing the work.

Most of all, no matter how difficult it gets, don’t quit.

The Write Side Shop

It is extremely unlikely that any of us in the U.S. will ever experience anything like Anne Frank’s family. I should noted that in my occasional work with Jewish Family Theatre, I have been blessed to know some who did.

Certainly, there are those around the world experiencing similar situations now, or perhaps worse. We shouldn’t lose site of that.

I know from Last Summer’s Great Unpleasantness (TM), that when you’re in the middle of your own struggles, it’s hard to think about what others might be going through.

But we’ll all be better off when we remember that everyone is struggling with something. The intensity and severity may vary, but most days, we’re all doing the best we can.

Hang in there. Don’t quit. Remember others are struggling too.

That’s it. That’s the message.

American singer-songwriter and original member of 2nd Chapter of Acts, Matthew Ward, was born on this day in 1958.


THINGS YOU SHOULD READ

‘I Will Vote No’: Manchin Slams The Door On Another Biden Nominee
The Daily Wire
Senator Joe Manchin (D-WV) said in no uncertain terms that he would not support President Joe Biden’s nominee to lead the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Robert Califf. Read More.

BREAKING: Trump Responds to Spying Allegations Against Hillary Clinton Operatives
Chicks on the Right
Trump responded, “The latest pleading from Special Counsel Robert Durham provides indisputable evidence that my campaign and presidency were spied on by operatives paid by the Hillary Clinton Campaign in an effort to develop a completely fabricated connection to Russia.” Read More.

Two-thirds of Canadians ready to drop COVID-19 restrictions
National Post
Closing schools and airport arrivals testing are the restrictions that should be eliminated first, say respondents. Read More.

Lesley Stahl Slammed for Unearthed Trump Interview After Durham Report
NewsMax
The backlash comes after new allegations by special counsel John Durham in the inquiry into the origins of the Russia investigation support the former president’s suspicions. Read More.

Yesterday I Was Levi’s Brand President. I Quit So I Could Be Free.
Jennifer Sey at Substack
In the fall of 2021, during a dinner with the CEO, I was told that I was on track to become the next CEO of Levi’s—the stock price had doubled under my leadership, and revenue had returned to pre-pandemic levels. The only thing standing in my way, he said, was me. All I had to do was stop talking about the school thing. Read More.

ALSO BORN ON THIS DAY

1809 – Cyrus McCormick, American journalist/businessman, co-founded International Harvester (d. 1884)
1820 – Susan B. Anthony, American suffragist and activist (d. 1906)
1907 – Cesar Romero, American actor (d. 1994)
1909 – Miep Gies, Austrian-Dutch humanitarian, helped hide Anne Frank and her family (d. 2010)
1927 – Harvey Korman, American actor and comedian (d. 2008)
1951 – Jane Seymour, English-American actress, producer, and jewelry designer

WHAT I’M READING


 

BENEDICTION

Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.

Ephesians 3:20–21

 

Ronald Wilson Reagan
February 2, 1911 – June 5, 2004