Variety is the spice of…whatever…

We’ll tackle a variety of subjects this 22nd of May.  Let’s start with the most pressing.  His name…is Blippi.

Okay, we watch our 5 year old grandson Milo and 2 year old grandson Remy on a regular basis.  And Remy is all about Blippi.  Even Milo occasionally.  This is not a movie, not a TV series.  It’s a guy, dressed as some type of clownish character, but not a clown…playing.  There’s no story.  The kids are simply watching a grown up version of a kid, playing.  On playgrounds, at parks, wherever.

Granted, this is not nearly as bad as those YouTube videos where the kids are basically looking at other kids opening toys and then demonstrating them.  I so wish I had just made that last sentence up.  That is actually a thing.

What have we come to that we are not “doing” with our kids and have to resort to watching other people play and open presents?  More so, why are the kids so invested in this?  Last week Remy cried for 10 minutes when we told him, “No more Blippi!”  We didn’t use the exclamation point, but on the inside I was using thirty of them!!!!!!!

Next up, I don’t know how the rest of you feel about it, but if the Eagles visit the White House there is going to be the mother of all bitter tastes in my mouth from this past season and Super Bowl.  Enough even, that I might have to boycott this upcoming 2018 season.  I know that sounds drastic.  But the image of that team, our team, surrounding the Horseassface in Chief might be something I can’t recover from.  Keep you posted there.

Speaking of Commander Mortal Sin, doesn’t he remind you of that bratty, asshole kid that would show up transferred, in mid year, at your school?  You didn’t really have to associate with him all that much, unless you were assigned some school project together.  And then he was the one eating the glue.  He’s also the kid that always got picked last and then would leave with his ball, ending the game.  Here’s the problem, now that kid has moved into the house next door.  And he’s there every day.  And you have to keep your doors closed with the shades down on the windows.  Yet, every day there he is knocking because he has no one to play with him.

A friend of mine the other day tried to convince me of what a great job Orange Crush was doing, and that how the country was headed in the right direction.  I asked him to give me one example of this.  He couldn’t.  He was just reading the hats.  I told him to stop watching Fox News and pick up the New York Times or the Washington Post.

Should we be building statues for the first person who ever tried a bungee cord, jumping off of a bridge?  What about the first person who jumped out of a moving plane wearing a parachute?  You think it was travelling, maybe 100 feet off the ground, just in case?  What about the first guy who tested a shark-repellent swimsuit?  These people were pioneers.  And a bit off their nut as well.  But imagine where the world would be without them?

Movie Review:  “Regarding Henry”.  Most of you have seen the BIG Harrison Ford movies, Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Jack Ryan.  But if you haven’t seen it, check out this small film he made in 1991.  It is a drama with some funny moments, directed by the legendary Mike Nichols.  Starring Ford and Annette Bening.  Ford plays a win at any cost lawyer who is shot during a holdup, suffering significant physical and memory issues.  Ford is tremendous showing range outside of his swashbuckling roles, and Bening is terrific as his struggling spouse.  This is not the type of movie you expect Mike Nichols to have directed but thank goodness that he did.  A good movie for a rainy afternoon or a late night when you can’t sleep.

In closing, let’s forget fate, okay.  As glamorous as it is in the movies, there is no fate.  I’m not trying to rain on anyone’s parade here.  I think when we accept something as, “Fate”, we lose our edge to really explore what things, or we, can be.  I respect one’s need for religion, but when I hear, “If that’s God’s fate, so be it”, it makes me cringe.  Never stop trying to make a situation what you want or need it to be.

Perhaps that is YOUR fate.  To rise against the current.