What is normal?

 

          Good evening, 919 Gang. There was a time when we talked about “when things get back to normal.” That idea didn’t last, so now we talk about “the new normal” and wonder what it will be like.

 

          LESLIE WOLF BRANSCOMB writes:

          LESLIE WOLF BRANSCOMB writes:

          I was spending time tonight while waiting for trick-or-treaters (it's 8 p.m. and we've had one group so far) cleaning out my email inbox.

          My untended emails went back to about March 2020. This was really eye-opening. Started out with emails from a friend in Spain about them being on serious lock-down, and only being allowed out to walk to the corner grocery or walk their dogs. (I remember being amazed by that.) Then a series of exchanges with the sister of CV Councilmember Steve Padilla about him being in the hospital, intubated. (That's when we realized it was real, and it was here.) Then a bunch of emails between my husband and his relatives about the virus, and the Idaho folks replying that they'd seen no cases there. (They hadn't... it must have seemed like a science fiction movie to them at that point.)

          Then dozens of emails about working from home, how to meet via Zoom, whether we could see our Mom at her nursing home (we couldn't), interspersed with anxious emails about the Nov. 2020 presidential election, followed by a lot of emails about what happened on Jan. 6, 2020. Also, a lot of emails about how we would not be able to visit each other or have family holidays together, first, Easter, 2020, then Thanksgiving, then Christmas, then Easter again in 2021, and all the birthdays and anniversaries missed. Camping trips and vacations canceled.

          There's so much more, but I'm just floored by how much our lives have changed in just the past year and a half since I stopped cleaning out/archiving my emails. In a few weeks, we are having our first Thanksgiving gathering with family in almost two years. And we are planning our first family camping trip for next spring, also postponed for two years. It almost seems unreal... I hold my breath, hoping these things will happen.

          (As an aside, I got my Moderna booster yesterday, and the side effects seem about the same, or maybe a little worse, than when I got the second shot in April. Like a mild flu; but no reason not to do it.)

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          CHUCK BOYD writes:

          Today is Halloween. Yesterday was Eve's eve, so errors are accepted. At least one scary haunted house party was visited by mistake last night. Luckily there was no ghastly mayhem.

          One simply tells Google where they want to go and Google says "Sure, let's go !" Fifteen miles later, I was told "your destination is on the right."

          Lots of cars parked helter-skelter, scary drapings on the front of the house so I adjusted my chef's hat and rang the doorbell. No answer, so I pushed open the door to be greeted by about a dozen small children in costumes running around on a sugary high. A few adults waved me in. There was curiosity about the chef in a white jacket and striped black & white sous-chef pants. Luckily I had left the large butcher knife at home!

 

          I saw a gruesome blood-scrawled plea on a wall that said "Help me" and wandered out to the deck where the adults had gathered.

          I asked one scary-looking construction worker in a hard hat what the address was here, he told me and we both realized I was at the wrong house!

          Dodging the sugar-fueled small ones, I found my way to the door, got in my car, and gave Google another chance!

          At the correct house, filled with sedate adults in a variety of costumes and fluttering bats overhead, I told my story and got an offer for an adult beverage!

 

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          PRESTON TUREGANO writes:

          Two movie-related items: The cable TV news channels’ relentless reporting about the fatal shooting on a movie set in Santa Fe, N.M., reminds of the relentless and pointless reporting about “sharks off the coast of Florida!” in the days before 9/11. Many lives have been ruined by what occurred in Santa Fe. So, let’s give it a rest, TV news.

          As for current released films, I can’t recommend “The French Dispatch,” the latest oh-so-clever in-joke from Wes Anderson, of “The Grand Budapest Hotel” fame. Went to see “The French Dispatch,” which is rapid- fire moving, vacillates between black-and-white and color, and even has some animated moments. Lots of violence, too. There are some big names in the cast, such as Bill Murray, Adrien Brody, Benicio Del Toro, Tilda Swinton, Frances McDormand, Christoph Waltz, Henry Winkler, Bob Balaban, Edward Norton, and Willem Dafoe. Five of them have won Oscars. Even that lanky scarecrow darling-of-the-moment Timothee (cq and with an accent over the first “e”) Chalamet is prominently in it. Can’t stand to look at him. Looks like he needs a good cheeseburger, fries and a shake. I suppose I will have to Google “The French Dispatch plot” to fully figure out what the hell the movie is about. Has something to do with journalism, a newspaper and kidnapping. Save your money. Go see something else.

 

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          JAMIE RENO forwards:

          Being diagnosed with a life-threatening disease is traumatic. But imagine being diagnosed, then told by your doctor that the only treatment for your illness is unavailable.

Supply Chain Crunch Is Causing Drug Shortages for Cancer, COVID-19, and Other Diseases

https://bit.ly/3mucqSm

 

 Jack J. Reber

P.O. Box 2239

Ramona, CA 92065-0938

United States

 

Ready, aim ... don't

 

          Good evening, 919 Gang.

 

          DAVID FARMER writes:

          Regarding guns in the hands of ignorant people, I still blush in genuine shame when I remember a near-tragedy from my youth. When I was in junior high, my family owned a single-shot .22 caliber rifle. This gun was so rudimentary that it barely qualified as a firearm. It accepted only the puny .22 "short" cartridge rather than the more powerful "long rifle."

          Our gun had just two settings: there was a bullet in it or there wasn't. You had to slide the cartridge into the breech by hand, then pull a knob back to cock the gun. Everything was manual.

          So my knowledge of rifles was based on the simplest possible gun. Danger lurked unannounced when I borrowed a neighbor's pump-action .22 rifle. It held multiple long rifle cartridges, probably at least half a dozen. I was playing with it one evening in the family home, where my three brothers also were lounging.

          I decided to demonstrate my mastery of firearms by pumping all the unused bullets out of the borrowed rifle. Then I aimed it at one of my brothers. What jolly fun!

          I was within a millisecond of shooting him when I decided that I might just possibly have miscalculated the number of bullets that started out in the rifle. I swung the gun away from my brother, pointed it at the floor, and pulled the trigger. Horror does not begin to describe my reaction when I heard a crack! and saw a bullet hole appear in the floor.

          That bullet hole would have appeared in my brother's face if I hadn't held back at the last possible second. There's a saying, "Always assume a gun is loaded." It must have crept into my mind just far enough to keep me from disfiguring or even killing my brother.

          I never aimed a gun at a human being again.

 

          JAN RIFE writes:

          Alec Baldwin's unfortunate adventure brought back a memory. Years ago I attended a funeral at Fort Rosecrans National Cemetery for the husband of a colleague. After the chaplain finished his graveside eulogy, he guided our group to the site of the 21-gun salute. We waited a few moments, then a small group of neatly-dressed young soldiers, men and women, appeared, marching with their rifles. In formal military style, they pivoted, facing us, and lined up. I remember the "crack-crack" sound of their guns being loaded.

          Then, suddenly, the guns came down, pointing right at US, the group. The soldiers fired round one. BANG! Some of my colleagues, including women in dresses and heels, hit the ground. The guns were lowered. Then, crack-crack, loaded again, and pointing right at us, another BANG! After that, round three.

          So, so WEIRD.The only time in my life I have faced a firing squad. Years later, at my father's funeral in Arlington National Cemetery, the 21-gun salute was much less traumatic. I believe that the Rosecrans shooters were rookies, shooting for the first time. That's what I told the person I talked to when I called Fort Rosecrans afterward. He probably had already gotten the word, but just in case. Lucky there were no bullets. Or heart attacks.

 

          DAVID FARMER writes:

          I wrote here that some in the press have been doing a sloppy job of reporting about the accidental shooting on the set of a movie filming in New Mexico. The movie is "Rust," for which Alec Baldwin is producing and starring.  

          My point was that parts of the media felt they needed to tie Baldwin to the shooting as quickly and firmly as possible to hook the maximum eyeballs. And in doing so they failed, usually in headlines, to make clear that he was one of the victims, not a perpetrator.

          The accident happened a week ago, and I would have thought that by now, news organizations would know how to avoid making Baldwin look like a clueless gunman. But on Friday The Wall Street Journal ran this headline:

          "Inside the Alec Baldwin shooting: A dysfunctional set and a fatal mistake."

          So in The Journal's view Baldwin tolerated (as a producer) a dysfunctional set while performing a shooting that turned out to be a fatal mistake.

          I found many more headlines that manacled Baldwin to the lethal shooting without attempting nuance. But this one surprised me, coming from the famously fair and accurate BBC: "Alec Baldwin shooting: criminal charges may be filed, prosecutor says."

          Since Baldwin is the only shooter mentioned, he must be the one facing criminal charges.

 

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          TOBY McDANIEL writes:

          I second Michael Burge’s motion suggesting any and all to visit the National WWI Museum/Memorial in Kansas City. It's a gem. And make it a 2- or 3-day venture, as there's also the Truman Library (a great museum within there, too), and Harry and Bess's simple old household; well-kept, sweeps you right back into the 40s; experience the simple life they lived.

 

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          REBER: What a party this is going to be. On Oct. 31 we’re going to sing Happy Birthday to Priscilla Lister, Toby McDaniel, Charlie Starr and Kelly Thornton.

 

 

Jack J. Reber

P.O. Box 2239

Ramona, CA 92065-0938

United States