The Christmas List

For John, BLUF:  Not every movie has to be serious.  This is a movie that relaxes and entertains.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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ONCE UPON A CHRISTMAS WISH

Here is the sub-headline:

"CHRISTMAS ROMANCE MEETS OLD HOLLYWOOD MAGIC"

From Movie Guide, by .

Here is the lede plus one:

ONCE UPON A CHRISTMAS WISH on Great American Family is a delightful “Christmas romance meets Old Hollywood” spectacular.  Mario Lopez stars as Brian Ortega, a small-town mayor who revisits his childhood Christmas wish list.  He discovers a deeper meaning of Christmas and a rekindled appreciation for his community.  Meanwhile, a real estate tycoon has plans to turn the town into something more modern, trendy and corporate.  With the help of his childhood sweetheart, played by Mario’s real life wife, Courtney, the Mayor must find a way to bring in more revenue to save his special town.

ONCE UPON A CHRISTMAS WISH is an unusually highly entertaining Christmas romance promoting Christmas spirit and the importance of community.  Full of dancing, singing and festive fun, it’s a holiday delight.  Great acting and choreography keep viewers clamoring for more fun.  The movie opens with schoolchildren singing the classic Christmas carol “Silent Night.”  It also has plenty of delightful singing, dancing and Christmas cheer promoting the reason for the season and celebrating love and community.  ONCE UPON A CHRISTMAS WISH is a win!

I thorooughly enjoyed this movie, although I fully admit that it is corney.  It is, however, pure Christmas, with Saint Nicholas showing up in the guise of a local Santa playing helper.  The Christmas Wish List has been hidden in a wall in the back stage of the Elementary School Auditorium.  The Mayor, watching a Fourth Grade Student sing a Christmas Carol reminds him of his time in Fourth Grade and the list and why he hid it.  It was his Fourth Grade sweetheart announcing that the family was moving away that made him abandon the list.♠  When he pulled out the list he found the items on the list come to fruition.  And thus the story evolves as the list is completed.

I strongly recommend this movie as a good Christmas relaxation story.

Regards  —  Cliff

♠  Is there something about Fourth Grade?  The prettiest, smartest, strongest student in Fourth Grade, Susan Sawyer, moved away at the end of the school year.  Her Father had been given the job of Assisstant City Manager for Philadelphia and they had to move to the City.  Tragically, her Father died of a heart attack a short time later.  We never saw Susan again, unlike our Hero, Mayor Ortega, who gets to reacquaint with his Fourth Grade love.

All The Cooking Fit For Wokism

For John, BLUF:  Political Correctness ruined a popular cooking show from Bon Appetit  Who benefitted?  Not the many people who viewed the show and learned about cooking while being entertained.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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How Toxic Leftism Killed The Vibrant Bon Appetit YouTube Channel

Here is the sub-headline:

The Bon Appetit saga proved you can politicize everything, as the mob demands, or you can create a vibrant, innovative culture — but you can't have both.

From The Federalist, by Sommelier Ellie Bufkin, 10 December 2020.

Here is the lede plus five:

During the lockdown regime of the past year, millions of Americans turned to their televisions, computers, and phone screens to escape despair.  Because we are creatures of innovation and curiosity, however, many people taught themselves to make sourdough bread starters from the internet and something new the next day.

The bread-baking game got so out of hand at one point this summer that yeast vanished from grocery store shelves.  The appetite for hobbies, knowledge, and bread was ferocious.

Suddenly barred from dining out, the gastronomically inclined turned to their own kitchens, ordered new tools from the internet, and taught themselves culinary tricks.  Social media overflowed with images of the burgeoning class of new home chefs, spurned from their favorite table at Le Diplomate but finally finding joy in sipping Gamay at home while searing their first-ever magret de canard.

It takes a nearly perfect combination of skill, approachability, and charisma to hook an audience the way Julia Child did, but one cooking channel stood above the rest, garnering millions of loyal followers even before the pandemic.  Bon Appetit’s “Test Kitchen” series on YouTube seemed to truly understand people’s modern need for a combination of real instruction with a willingness to fail.

Even in the vast sea of online cooking shows, this one stood out.  Imagine the natural give and take of NBC’s enormously popular sitcom “Friends” in a cooking show.  That was the vibe from the bright and engaging stars of the “Test Kitchen.”

Even with all its charisma and promise, however, Bon Appetit couldn’t stave off the death grip of leftist ideology.  It became one more source of entertainment and inspiration relegated to the burning cultural heap just when Americans most needed a pandemic and political escape.

Many of us learn from our mistakes.  That is not good enough for our woke masters.  For them it is one strike and you are out.  There is no redemption.  It is an attitude that reminds me more of the Chinese Communist Party than of America.  Freedom means the right to be wrong.  It is not a license to do wrong, but it is the space to grow and correct one's mistakes.

Bad behavior is not to be encouraged.  Rather, it is to be discouraged.  Having an alternative view is one thing, and being a bore, or being insulting to other people is another.  There may be a fine line in some cases.  We must leave space for alternative views, although not necessarily in our own parlor or our local drinking establishment.  Alternative views help us advance.  Much of what we knew to be true 121 years ago has now been proven false.  And it is a better world for it.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

Cross About Crosswords

For John, BLUF:  Sometimes I do crossword puzzles and sometimes I don't.  My wife does them near every night.  And I like Hallmark's Crossword Puzzle Mysteries series, with Actress Lacey Chabert.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Please Update Your Files And Lifestyles Accordingly

Here is the sub-headline:

From the pages of The Atlantic, a new torment for woke sophisticates:

"The hidden bigotry of crosswords".

From the David Thompson Blog, by Blogger David Thompson, 22 March 2020.

Here is the lede plus six:

That sound you hear is barrel-bottom-scraping.

The popular puzzles are largely written and edited by older white men, who dictate what makes it into the grid—and what is kept out.

The world of woke crossword-puzzlers - because that’s a thing that exists - is one in which enthusiasts, via social media, grumble about white men, bemoan the insufficient prominence of “queer or POC colloquialisms,” share “off-colour jokes about hypothetical titles for a Melania Trump memoir,” and fret about the exact ratio of male and female names used as clues.  Because a lack of “gender parity” in crossword puzzle clues constitutes one of “the systemic forces that threaten women.”

Crossword puzzles can do that, apparently.

The list of possible crossword-puzzle wrongdoings is, of course, extensive, ever-growing and not entirely straightforward.

Transgressions include clues for ILLEGAL (“One caught by border patrol”); MEN (“Exasperated comment from a feminist”); and HOOD (“Place with homies”).

I’ll give you a moment to steady yourselves, to recover from all that gasping.

"The popular puzzles."  Heaven forfend.  The puzzle writers are catering to their audiences.  Can you imagine that?  Life must be hard for the woke.  One wonders if there was more freedom when the Puritans managed affairs in the Massachusetts Bay Colony?

English is an interesting and rich language, with lots or words from the past, interesting words, words that should not be suppressed.  And we shouldn't lose that richness because some word, at some point, had, in some usage, a negative connotation.  Fashion changes, but we shouldn't just condemn those who are still wearing last year's fashion.  It is OK to feel sorry for them, however.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

Christmas Television Watching

For John, BLUF:  What are the limits to what one wishes to watch for entertainment?  Must it represent the cultural tastes of the avant guard, the bien-pensant?  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Hallmark Channel Under Assault by Race Hustlers and LGBTQ Cult, 'Too White'

From PJ Media, by Ms Megan Fox, 29 November 2019.

Here is the lede plus one:

Every Christmas season, it appears we have to endure listening to the race hustlers and the gay patrol complain about the one channel left in America that does not partake in envelope-pushing.  The Hallmark channel really is the last known entertainment that does not engage in the culture wars by pushing "diversity" for the sake of pleasing the agitators and instead focuses on its demographics; white moms and grandmas.  But these days, being white and enjoying things white people like is a cause for concern and mockery.  I'm white, and a mom, and Hallmark doesn't particularly appeal to me except in the sense that I know I can turn it on and not be concerned that my children will be exposed to clown world morality that is on every other channel. It's safe.

The Hollywood Reporter penned an article called "Hallmark Channel Struggles to Give Diversity a Home For the Holidays."  In it, author Lesley Goldberg takes aim at white people liking to other watch white people as if it's some kind of mortal sin.  "While other networks are viewing the holidays  with an eye toward inclusion, Hallmark is delivering the dream of a white Christmas, just like the one's audiences used to know."  I doubt Goldberg would ever complain about the lack of diversity on Black Entertainment Television (which, by the way, I happen to think is a great idea and caters to a specific audience that likes what they do. What a concept!)

As bad as the acting gene rally is on the Hallmark channel, the stories are blissfully devoid of any toxic cultural stew pushing politics with every line. There was a time in America where television censors would never allow any sex scenes as graphic as what you would see on Cinemax after dark but today it's old hat to have to watch people groaning and panting (and swearing) at 7 pm on NBC.  It's gross.  As a result, I've given up cable and only subscribe to online services with access to movies and shows the cultural elites now call "unwatchable."  I've completely lost the desire to watch any new programming.

In an article from 2017 in the Walrus entitled "The Unwatchable Whiteness of Holiday Movies," Hallmark fans give reasonable explanations for why they like the channel.

“It’s clean and I just don’t enjoy cussing,” a Georgia grandma told E! News in October.  The sentiment was echoed by a North Carolina senior who said, “There is no profanity nor any offensive sex acts in any movie I have ever seen.”  A middle-aged Minnesotan added, “There are no politics, there is no crime, no hate, no war.”

But in a culture that values offensive sex acts, profanity, and violence overall, the Hallmark channel is doomed.  The diversity activists will never be satisfied until everything white people like is canceled, including white people themselves.  And they will eventually get their wish because white people in America will become a minority in the not-too-distant future.  Meanwhile, however, whites are still the majority population.  Even so, if that majority wants to watch entertainment that represents them or doesn't include a constant assault on morality and decency, they're relegated to one cheesy channel that plays nothing but sappy Christmas movies most of the year.  But when the social justice soldiers get done with Hallmark, they won't even have that.

I am a Hallmark aficionado.

The Hallmark channel's CEO, Mr William J Abbot, has signaled that the network is open to gay stories.

Since we still don't force feed television programming, it will be a case of Go Woke, Go Broke.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

To Kill Theater

For John, BLUF:  If professional theater producers are worried about the amateur crowd they must have some pretty big problems.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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When way off Broadway still isn’t far enough

From The Boston Glob, by Staff Reporter Malcolm Gay, 1 March 2019.

Here is the lede plus two:

Broadway just gave a community theater in Braintree the hook.

The 70-seat Curtain Call Theatre has become the latest to abandon an upcoming production of “To Kill A Mockingbird” after receiving a cease and desist letter threatening a major lawsuit on behalf of a powerful Broadway producer staging the play in New York.

The letter, received last week, cites a 50-year-old contract that places limits on amateur stage adaptations of the Harper Lee classic when there is an approved large Broadway or touring production — in this case Scott Rudin’s new Broadway version, written by Aaron Sorkin.

Besides shutting down of amateur theater appearing to have little financial impact on professional productions, including road shows, there is the counterproductive aspect of not encouraging interest in theater overall.  Then there is the loss of civic engagement and discussion from staging shows like "To Kill a Mockingbird."

This seems penny wise and pound foolish.

Regards  —  Cliff

The Pike

For John, BLUF:  People love going to the shore and enjoying amusements.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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A Walk Along Long Beach’s Gaudy, Tawdry, Bawdy Pike

From KCET Broadcasting, Reporter D. J. Waldie, 8 February 2017.

This is great and interesting history from a year ago.

Here is the lede plus one:

Beginning in the late 1880s, the Southern California coast sprouted piers that fronted new beach resorts made accessible by rail.  Most of the piers were connected to amusement zones – miniature Coney Islands – where ballyhoo, fakery, and slightly naughty entertainment brightened working class lives.  This is the story of one of largest of those playgrounds by the sea.

In 1925, Sarah Bixby Smith, who had grown up on the nearby ranchos of Los Cerritos and Los Alamitos in the 1880s, remembered picnicking on the deserted shore at what would become the crowded amusement zone called the Pike.

By 1900, Sarah’s lonely beach had become part of Willmore City (a brief failure) and then Long Beach (which had incorporated, disincorporated, and reincorporated).  The little town – Long Beach hardly more than 2,500 residents then – already had some seaside attractions:  the usual wood-frame hotels, a municipal pier, and “bath houses” for swimmers to button themselves into their flannel “bathing costumes,” as they were called then.

And then it goes from there.

I remember the Pike from the 1950s, with the roller coaster, the Cyclone Racer, and various stalls catering to sailors on shore leave.  One of the things that remains with me is sailors getting the cuffs of their jumper tops embroidered on the inside—"Liberty Cuffs". : One design I remember was a Chinese Dragon.

The location of the "Liberty Cuff" is on the inside, at the light blue ring:

Rolled up, the cuff reveals the dragon, or other design:

I didn't realize, at the time, what a wonderful world I was exploring and learning about.

As a side note, Long Beach is, today, the other big Cambodian-American City in the United States.

Hat tip to my Middle Brother.

Regards  —  Cliff

President Trump Illiterate?

For John, BLUF:  Reading is important.  Not everyone enjoys it.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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When hosting SNL, Donald Trump ‘struggled to read,’ says former cast member. Can the President read?

It is the web site Boing Boing.  The article is authored by Ms Xeni Jardin, and was posted on Friday, 7 April.

Here is the lede plus one:

The President is “a moron,” says former SNL cast member Taran Killam.  That may be true.  But can he read?

When Donald Trump hosted Saturday Night Live in 2015, none of the regulars were happy about it, according to an interview with Killam in Brooklyn Magazine.

Then the article goes on to quote Mr Taran Killam, from an interview with Brooklyn Magazine

"What you see is what you get with him, really," he said.  "I mean, there was no big reveal.  He struggled to read at the table read, which did not give many of us great confidence.  Didn’t get the jokes, really.  He’s just a man who seems to be powered by bluster."

In posting this story at his own Blog Sight, Law Professor Glenn Harlan Reynolds quips:

If it’s true, then Hillary and all the brightest minds of the left were beaten like drums by a man who can’t even read!

Well, "beaten like a drum" may be a little over the top, but the basic fact remains, per this SNL cast member, a functional illiterate beat Ms Hillary Clinton.♠

To quote President Donald John Trump, "It is sad, very sad."

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

♠  On the other hand, we were told the same thing about President George W Bush, who read a number of books each year, and was even in a book reading contest with his advisor, Karl Rove.

The Last Casablanca Actor Dies (RIP)

For John, BLUF:  A great movie.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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"Madeleine LeBeau, French actress who sang ‘La Marseillaise’ in ‘Casablanca,’ dies at 92".

The source is The Washington Post and the Reporter is Mr Adam Bernstein.

Madeleine LeBeau, a French actress who fled Nazi-occupied Europe for Hollywood, where she made the best of a small role as the scorned girlfriend of Humphrey Bogart’s Rick Blaine in “Casablanca,” died May 1 in Estepona, Spain. She was widely reported to be 92.

The cause was complications from a broken thigh bone, her stepson, documentary filmmaker and mountaineer Carlo Alberto Pinelli, told the Hollywood Reporter.

Ms. LeBeau (sometimes credited as Lebeau) was the last surviving credited cast member of “Casablanca” (1942), which the American Film Institute lists as the second greatest movie of all time. “Citizen Kane” is No. 1, according to the film preservation group.

Sad news, but we will always have Paris.

Regards  —  Cliff

Julius La Rosa (RIP)

For John, BLUF:  Take a licking and keep on ticking.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Julius La Rosa has passed on to his just reward.  Likely better than what he got from show host Author Godfrey♠.

Mr La Rosa, who had a great singing voice, passed away at 86, from natural causes♥.

Regards  —  Cliff

♠  Who I met once in late 1966, when Mr Godfrey, himself a pilot, was doing a USO tour in Viet-nam and stopped by our Squadron Operations Building (390th TFS, the Blue Boars).
♥  I always wonder what that is a euphemism for.

The Little Sparrow

For John, BLUF:  The best singer ever.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Today is the 100th Anniversary of the birth of Edith Piaf, the Little Sparrow.

Here is a report from The International Herald Tribune in 1947, when she first came to the US from her native France.

And there is her song, “Non, Je Ne Regrette Rien”, dedicated to the French Foreign Legion.  It was adopted by Foreign Legion Beret Rouge, the 1st REP (1st Foreign Parachute Regiment) as their song after their failed coup attempt against President Charles DeGaulle and the civilian Administration in Algeria.  Here is The Little Sparrow singing "Non, Je Ne Regrette Rien".

Regards  —  Cliff

State Sen Leland Yee Pleads

For John, BLUF:  If you submitted this as a script to Hollywood it would be rejected as not believable.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Here is the reason you can't trust Gun Control Nuts.  They may just be covering for their nefarious activities involving gun smuggling.♠

From Reason Magazine we learn that California State Senator Leland Yee, "THE GUN-HATING CALIF. POL. ACCUSED OF HELPING SMUGGLE GUNS AGREES TO PLEA DEAL".  The reporter is Mr Scott Shackford.  Here is part of the story:

In March 2014, State Sen. Leland Yee, in the midst of a campaign for secretary of state, was arrested in part of a massive raid in the [FBI] [San Francisco] area, accused of political corruption and helping arrange illegal firearm deals on behalf of violent group in the Philippines.

That scandal was crazy enough, but adding fuel to the fire was the fact that Yee, a Democrat, was also an open supporter of tougher gun control laws and was a proponent of legislation in California to ban the sales of violent video games to children, a law that the Supreme Court subsequently struck down as unconstitutional.  Yee was a critic of games like Grand Theft Auto, even though he apparently behaved in real life like one of its characters. He took political hypocrisy to brand new heights.

Today it all ends with a plea deal.  He has agreed to plead guilty of one count of racketeering in federal court and faces the possibility of up to 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

The Blogger for this item, Mr Ed Driscoll, is from California.  He ends the post thusly.

Shackford describes Lee’s crimes as “the craziest political scandal to hit California in a while.”  And that’s really saying something considering the wretched hive of scum and villainy that is the Mos Eisley cantina Sacramento.

I like the timely Star Wars reference.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

♠  In this case, into the United States, from the PI.

Jackie Robinson Anniversary

For John, BLUF:  History is mostly written by the Academics.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Today is the 68th Anniversary of Jackie Robinson becoming a major league baseball player.  And a good thing it was.  To honor him, and that event, all MLB players will wear number 42 today.

But, did you know that Mr Robinson was an OpEd writer for The New York Post.  Let go in November 1960 for being too Republican.  At the link is part of Mr Robinson's response, published in the New York Amsterdam News.

Hat tip to the Instapundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

No Sound Check?

For John, BLUF:  Beyoncé was right to lip-sync.

I was listening to Rush Limbaugh as we drove up to Nashua to look for a watch battery.  Yesterday, at Burlington the Zales guy said he couldn't replace the battery.

At any rate, Rush was talking about CNN covering Ms Beyoncé Knowles at a Super Bowl news conference, where Ms Knowles provided a live rendition of he Nation Anthem.  Anyone past the age of four understands that The Star Spangled Banner is difficult to sing and should be replaced.♠

The reason for this is that she lip-synced the song during the Presidential Inauguration.  Per Wikipedia:

During a press conference for the Super Bowl XLVII halftime show on January 31, 2013, Knowles confirmed that her performance was sung to a pre-recorded track because she "did not have time to rehearse with the orchestra".  She explained that "due to no proper sound check, I did not feel comfortable taking a risk.  It was about the president and I wanted to make him and my country proud, so I decided to sing-along with my pre-recorded track, which is common in the industry"

No rehearsal time?  No sound check?  I have seen "no sound check" ("trust me, it is OK") turn out to be a mistake.  It was about the President and no one wants to risk a mistaken and end up making it all about them.  This is one of those low risk, high penalty situations.

Ms Knowles was totally justified in lip-syncing at the Inaugration.

Regards  —  Cliff

♠  As Congress can't seem to pass a budget or fix the debt, it might as well fix the National Anthem.  I recommend America the Beautiful.

Rightly Understanding the Past

For John, BLUF:  Let us dispense with the false equivelency of American Democracy and Soviet Communism.  And let us not go overboard by branding our friends on the left as Communists.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

The InstaPundit provides an important point for us.

J.P. FREIRE:  The “Hollywood Holocaust” and Other Cold War Myths.  Leaving aside the obscenity of comparing out-of-work screenwriters with gassed Auschwitz inmates, there’s this:  Communists are no better than Nazis.  Refusing to hire Communists is on the same moral plane as refusing to hire Nazis.  Which is to say:  It’s a good and admirable thing, not a sin.  Go broke and starve, commies.  It’s what you deserve for being eager, willing servants of totalitarianism.

Yes, we were allied with the Communist Soviet Union during WW II, but that Great American, Prime Minster Winston Churchill, points the way to rightly understanding the relationship:

If Hitler invaded Hell, I would make at least a favourable reference to the devil in the House of Commons.

To his personal secretary John Colville the evening before Operation Barbarossa, the German invasion of the Soviet Union.  As quoted by Andrew Nagorski in The Greatest Battle (2007), Simon & Schuster, pp. 150-151 ISBN 0743281101

Let us draw a distinction between the Socialists of Europe and elsewhere and the Communists of the Soviet Union, particularly under Joseph Stalin.  The second lot were cruel and evil, killing millions of their fellow countrymen and women in the pursuit of a dream to reduce individuality and independence.  The fellow travelers of Hollywood were misguided at best and knowing supports of an evil up there with the Nazi regime at worst.  It is not that we couldn't forgive them.  We forgave the Germans  It is that their support of evil should not have been swept under the rug, where it would rest, waiting to infect others.

Where scores settled and wrongs done?  Absolutely, but there were reasons Mary McCarthy said of Lillian Hellman "Every word she writes is a lie, including and and the."

Regards  —  Cliff

Althouse on Warhol

For John, BLUF:  Life is complicated, complex and confusing.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

At the Althouse blog is a short post on Andy Warhol and his sexuality and his spirituality.

Regards  —  Cliff

Hidden Clues

My wife and I are in the process of watching all the old Castle episodes.  The night before last we watched "Almost Famous", written by Elizabeth Davis and Directed by Félix Alcalá.  This is the 41st episode and the 7th of the third season, first airing on 1 November 2010.

The basic storyline is:

Beckett and Castle respond to an "Officer Down" call only to find that the murdered "officer" is actually a male stripper wearing a police costume.

My problem, our problem, is that at the end Beckett and Castle go to the home of a rich widow (a trophy wife) to arrest her for the murder of the stripper and when they arrive they almost immediately go for her lawyer as the murderer.  So, what happened in the car during the ride over that caused them to refocus their attention?

Regards  —  Cliff