19FEB2019 – Photo of the Day
Month: February 2019
18FEB2019 – American Greatnesss Post of the Day – Foggy Crossroads by Angelo Codevilla
Codevilla reviews what he thinks the choices are for President Trump. Either deliver the Wall and Immigration Law enforcement or lose in 2020. He also discusses the bi-party ruling class and what part they play in our awful politics. No surprises here. Just the outline of what to look for going into the coming election cycle.
The Twilight Zone – Complete Series Review – Season 1 Episode 36 – A World of His Own
Gregory West is a playwright. His wife Victoria suspects her husband of engaging in a love affair with a mysterious blonde. When we first see Gregory, he is sitting in his study sharing a drink and a tender moment with Mary, the blonde Victoria is searching for. But outside the bay window of the room we see a dark-haired woman staring in. This is Victoria. She enters the house and calls into the study telling Gregory to let her in. When he does let her in, she searches for Mary and even checks the walls for hidden doors. When she finally tells that she saw him with a woman he explains what is going on.
Gregory relates that for a playwright sometimes a character can have a will of his own and in fact one day a character he was writing showed up at the house and disputed with him over his actions. Then he explained that one day he thought up the character of Mary to give him a low-key companion who wasn’t as intimidating as his “perfect” wife Victoria. He recorded a description on his dictation tape recorder and she appeared. And when he needed her to disappear, he cut the piece of tape on his recorder that contained her description and threw it in the fireplace and when it burned Mary would disappear.
Victoria didn’t believe a word of this and told Gregory that he was lying. So, Gregory demonstrated. He described her and narrated her reaching the house and walking into the house and into the study. And there she was, the woman that Victoria had seen through the window. But Victoria didn’t believe it. She thought it was a set-up. So, Gregory snipped the tape and threw it into the fireplace and Mary disappeared in front of Victoria.
Now Victoria decides that she will have Gregory locked up in an insane asylum and tells him so. Gregory believes her and tells her that she herself is also a product of his imagination and shows her a piece of tape in an envelope with her name on it in a safe in the room. She scoffs at him and throws the piece of tape in the fire. And Victoria disappears.
Sighing, Gregory starts up his tape recorder and starts describing Victoria, then stops, rewinds the recorder and instead conjures up Mary. Only this time he calls her Mary West, his wife. She appears and their mutual love and happiness is visible.
Now Rod Serling is in the room and he’s disparaging the reality of such an impossible story and Gregory takes offense and takes out an envelope with Rod Serling’s name on it and throws it into the fire. Rod shrugs, smiles and disappears. And we are left with Gregory and Mary happily ever after in the Twilight Zone.
As you know I like the fun episodes. This is a fun episode. Even the usually dour Serling shows some humor. And of course, I always like when an insufferable woman gets her comeuppance. B.
18FEB2019 – Quote of the Day
Well, it’s snowing up here but I guess I should have saved this for December but it speaks to her traditional values.
“Christmas is a day of meaning and traditions, a special day spent in the warm circle of family and friends.”
Margaret Thatcher
18FEB2019 – Photo of the Day
17FEB2019 – Photo of the Day
The Twilight Zone – Complete Series Review – Season 1 Episode 35 – The Mighty Casey
This episode is a pure comedy. The Hoboken Zephyrs are supposedly a very bad NL baseball team residing solidly in the standings cellar. Their Manager, McGarry (played by Jack Warden) is informed by the General Manager, Beasley that he is going to be out of work if the team doesn’t improve ASAP. Along comes a young left-handed pitcher named Casey and his “mentor” Dr. Stillman. After displaying unhittable stuff McGarry wants to hire him on the spot. When he asks Dr. Stillman for Casey’s age, Stillman tells him that he’s three weeks old. He further explains that Casey is a robot that Stillman built.
But McGarry is completely unconcerned with the details of his star prospect’s ancestry and the team goes on an extended winning streak which brings them to the very brink of pennant contention. But fate steps in. Casey gets beaned and for the sake of safety he is brought to the hospital for a checkup. The league doctor says that Casey seems fine but upon trying to take his pulse he discovers that Casey has no heart. Dr. Stillman confirms this and elaborates that Casey is a robot. The league doctor reports back to the National League that Casey isn’t human and the League official reads the pertinent baseball regulation. “The game is to be played with nine men.” It is reinforced that if Casey hasn’t got a heart then he can’t be on the team. McGarry objects, but Beasley hasn’t got a heart and he owns forty percent of the team.” But the official is adamant; no heart, no play. Dr. Stillman intercedes and says that if Casey needs a heart in order to qualify then he’ll install one. Everyone is satisfied and the modification is made. At the next game, Casey shows up with his new heart. He is smiling and happy as compared to his former robotic blank stare. Dr. Stillman is pleased with the more human aspect of his creation and everyone is jubilant.
Casey is shelled inning after inning. After the game McGarry questions him about why he was so awful. His answer was that his new heart meant that he had empathy for the opposing hitters and didn’t want to be responsible for their lack of success. So, he let them win. Dr. Stillman comes over to McGarry and tells him he thinks Casey should change careers to social work and gives McGarry a copy of Casey’s blue print as a memento. Looking at it McGarry has an idea and he goes running across the outfield to catch Stillman and suggest an idea for using his robots in baseball. It ends with a voice over by Serling talking about a certain East Coast team that moved to California and suddenly had a pitching staff that was basically unbeatable (meaning the actual Dodgers who were the team the Zephyrs were a stand in for).
This is a hokey joke. When Rod Serling made a later series called the Night Gallery he would have a couple of longer stories and then a short vignette, usually of a comic nature. This story in a slightly more condensed form would have been perfect for that kind of treatment.
But as you know I prefer the more light-hearted approach to sf&f. I especially liked the line about the GM not having a heart. And the Dodgers were the team my family (well most of them) followed until they left New York the year I was born. For sentimental and aesthetic reasons, I’ll give this a B but I can understand if the more serious readers disagree. To each his own.
17FEB2019 – Quote of the Day
“My policies are based not on some economics theory, but on things I and millions like me were brought up with: an honest day’s work for an honest day’s pay; live within your means; put by a nest egg for a rainy day; pay your bills on time; support the police.”
Margaret Thatcher
16FEB2019 – OCF Update
This has been a pretty eventful week compared to the preceding few. William Barr was approved as the new Attorney General. The President has declared a National Emergency on the southern border and expressed his intention to use that declaration to build a wall on the border. The useless Congress has produced a bloated awful budget document. The President continues to chip away at the Obama legacy such as the “disparate impact” criterion by which even good legislation is made worse. Amazon has reneged on their decision to put a headquarters in New York City, much to the sorrow of Mayor De Blasio and Governor Cuomo (they really need the tax dollars) but much to the delight of that dingbat Ocasio-Cortez. Even the Chicago Police Department couldn’t acquiesce in Jussie Smollett’s lies about being attacked by MAGA quoting noose brandishing hooligans and seem to have identified the alleged attackers as a Nigerian actor on the show Empire and his brother. Another four or five Democrats have declared their 2020 Presidential race aspirations. One of them, Elizabeth Warren was mocked mercilessly by Howie Carr in the Boston Herald because of her ongoing exposure as a lying hypocrite who used her fake native American ethnicity as a ticket to the Harvard Law School faculty and thereby fame, fortune and a senate seat.
I have some more winter photos and I’m embarking on a project in astrophotography. And because this is Orion’s Cold Fire my first subject will be in the constellation of Orion and I’ll use the Orion 10010 Atlas Pro AZ/EQ-G Computerized GoTo Telescope Mount to track with. I’m very excited but full of trepidation over the time needed to master the equipment side of it.
On the review side I’ll continue to plow through the Twilight Zone and I’m a third of the way through the latest Galaxy’s Edge volume (Retribution) and will review it when completed.
Now I’m off to my grandson’s basketball game. Have a nice Saturday everybody.
16FEB2019 – Quote of the Day
“There is no such thing as society: there are individual men and women, and there are families.”
Margaret Thatcher