Remember the Drones?

Hello, what about those drones flying over New Jersey? They seem to have completely disappeared from the news, yet we the people never got an explanation. Are they gone? Did they leave because it's now 2025 and the people who know decided to stop mentioning them? Can the current government be trusted after awarding the Presidential Medal of Freedom to 19 people including Hillary Clinton, soccer star Lionel Messi, actor Michael J. Fox and singer Bono? 

Just asking.

Modern Inconveniences

Gas station attendant of the past

Until quite recently I believed that most things would improve over time, what with modern inventions, advances in technology and Elon Musk making life so much easier for us. But a recent trip running errands made me see how wrong I've been.

I ran to the supermarket to get cat food since we were down to only about five cans and that makes my cat nervous. Actually it makes my husband nervous but that's a different story. Anyway, since this is 2025 and things are so up-to-date, I had the pleasure of checking out my own groceries at the super-duper-market since only one of the dozen checkout aisles had someone working the register. So there I was doing the job myself, and since I had amassed about 20 cans of cat food, along with a few other items for the humans, it was quite annoying and tiresome. (No wonder they can't find workers!)

Then I stopped to get gas. It's 22 degrees here in Maine right now, let me add, although according to the wind chill factor on my phone it feels like 13. Dressed inappropriately sans hat and gloves, I of course had to do the job myself. Teeth chattering, I fondly remembered the days of my youth when a nice man in a uniform would approach me, ask how much gas I wanted, and then would clean my front and rear windshields and check my oil and tires after filling the tank, all while I sat cozily inside my car listening to the radio.

I miss those people. I also miss the receptionists at all the offices who answered the phones on the first or second ring and asked how they could be of help. I miss getting a doctor's appointment for the next day, instead of being told in January that "he's booking into July."

Yeah, I'm old enough to remember those times. Thank God, because if this is all there ever was I'd be pretty damn depressed.

Film Review: OH, CANADA

Consider this less of a movie review and more of a public service announcement. The latest starring role of former cinema heartthrob Richard Gere has him dying of cancer in a most unpleasant way. Being a great actor he does it quite convincingly, making the disease look even more horrific than what you might have imagined. And if you already have cancer and are feeling optimistic, you don't want to see this version of it. But hey, maybe that's just me.

Richard Gere, Jacob Elordi

A complex and complicated film based on the novel "Foregone" by Russell Banks, Oh, Canada recounts the life of documentarian Leonard Fife, as told on camera to a former student of his and fellow documentarian played by Michael Imperioli, the actor best-remembered as Tony Soprano's bad-boy TV nephew Christopher. Featuring Uma Thurman as Fife's devoted wife in a nearly silent role -- although she plays someone else for a minute near the end, who knows why -- it's a star-studded cast gone to waste.

Slow, dark and basically boring, the film is also tricky and keeps you guessing. Over the course of it we see our hero as a teenager, then a young husband and father, and an old man, but not in that order. It jumps all over the place as Fife recounts his past, with a few delusions thrown in since he's also suffering some sort of mental decline. Sometimes he is played by Mr. Gere and sometimes not. His youngest version is played by Jacob Elordi, who I never heard of before but have since learned is a hot box-office draw with the ladies. 

The music is loud, often atonal and annoying. There is nothing pretty to look at, except for one brief scene of a car driving through a sleepy Vermont town on a rainy day; you'll know it when you see it since it's a stark contrast from the rest of the film, mostly close-ups of Fife's grizzled face -- badly in need of a shave, coughing and dying.

Just Call Her "Loser"

These days the news is full of nonsense. A perfect example involves the FBI, which last summer failed to alert President Trump that an armed man was spotted in the area of his rally in Butler, PA, allowing him to go on stage where the guy took several shots at him, grazing his ear and almost killing him, is busy trying to ascertain whether or not the terrorist who rammed his truck into a crowded street market in New Orleans on New Year's Eve "acted alone." 

Who cares? The guy is dead, as are 15 innocent people who were out having a good time. Certainly there are other Arab Muslims with ISIS leanings walking among us who will do the same eventually, you can bet on that. We'll find them after they do it, like always.

Similarly, TIME magazine has printed an article about the fact that Kamala Harris, our current VP, will be "forced to swear in" three new senators who have mispronounced her name in public. Are they kidding? First of all, how is this news? Secondly, what difference could it possibly make to her, or anyone, if one says KAM-ala or Ka-MAL-a or whatever-the-fuck? She should just make it simple for everyone and change her name to LOSER. It's much easier to pronounce and so very apt, nobody would ever get it wrong.