Holiday Confidence

It would be so nice just to talk about movies.

We’ll get to that and a lot more next week.

But okay, if you must know, I’ve seen about two thirds of the most highly touted films of 2023 and so far my top two are Maestro and Oppenheimer.

I do not care about the nose (and neither should you)

This leaves out a bunch of non-English language films I hear are great but are not yet available, or I couldn’t get to in the maybe one theatre they are playing in.

What is playing 24/7 in my house via TV, newspapers and way too much scrolling, is the potential end of democracy in a year or so if The King of Queens becomes POTUS again.

Yeah, he can have that title.

The former, not the latter.

I think Kevin James might have an issue with that

As I’ve written previously, I’m convinced the one whose name few Republican presidential candidates dare to speak out loud, will get nowhere near the Oval Office again.

Still, it’s become more than a part-time job convincing many of my worrywart friends who keep checking in and asking me if I am still sure.

Yes, I’m sure as I can be about anything. Though if you’d asked me last year at this time if we’d need a new roof on our house in less than 12 months I would’ve bet against it.

And lost.

Ouch.

(Note: Oh relax and don’t take that as anything more than the snide remark I intended it to be).

The point is The King of Queens lost to Pres. Biden by well over 7 million votes in 2020 and will lose by even more next year if his party is dumb enough to give Mr. Too-Many-Multiple-Indictments-To-Count another shot as its nominee.

Three years after he LOST and Joe Biden WON the economy is defying all expectations – unemployment is low and prices are down at the gas pump and at the supermarket. (Note: Check the cost of fuel and eggs compared to all the doomsayer logic six months ago).

I promise we are not in the Twilight Zone

Then look at the stock market in the last few weeks and compare it to when Kingy (Note: Or Queeny) left office. And then remember where we were in the COVID pandemic late in 2020, thanks to Multi-Indict-y’s head-in-the-sand illogic of hiding the real truth from us, vs. where we are now.

And then, most importantly, remember this —

If you think the overwhelming number of women in this country are going to sit still and once again let us elect the understudy lead in next year’s summer stock touring production of Mein Kampf: The Musical as POTUS you are dead wrong.

The vast majority of American women don’t want to check in with a bunch of old white men who don’t have medical degrees, especially that one, on whether or not to have a child.

Nor should they.

My feeling on this is simple: Possession is nine-tenths of the law.

Or, as we used to say back in the late sixties and early seventies:

My Body, My Choice.

By the way, we men, and those who identify as non-binary or anything else, should be right by their side. Yet I’ve had enough of a cross-section of female friends over the decades to state without hesitation that even if enough of us don’t join them they are still —

NOT. HAVING. IT.

You can count on that, and not two honest Black female poll workers, as the reason for every single seemingly missing vote for a Republican running for election in 2024.

Including Les King of Queens.

Is the middle east war, the Ukraine war and the fight over American immigration a mess? Sure.

But do you believe the bulk of us, an Electoral College majority, think it would be better to go backwards in time to Adolph Drumpf?

Nein.

Americans historically DO NOT like to go backwards and re-elect people they threw out in the first place.

But, um, isn’t this different? I mean, we’re letting in vermin and our American bloodline is being poisoned, right?

It sounds like an argument the dirty, old, unbathed men playing checkers in the public park in Queens near where I grew up used to make.

Just because you scream louder than everyone else as you feed a few appreciative dumb birds junk food doesn’t mean the rest of the flock won’t shit on your head for being an obnoxious human ass hat.

And just because you cheat at checkers when your opponent’s back is turned and announce you’re the winner doesn’t mean you will be awarded the big trophy.

People, not to mention birds, are watching.

It’s survival of the fittest AND the smartest in our animal kingdom – that is unless the majority of us animals are too scared, frozen or busy to fight one tired, old and very bloated bird one last time.

Demi Lovato – “Confident”

11.12.23

by notesfromachair

Hello Again

This is what happens when you leave for just a little while. When you return, everything is a mess.

Of course, I blame no one but myself. Certainly not any of you. For the last month or so my other half and I have been furiously working day and night to meet a deadline on an update to a book he first wrote about the history of Saturday Night Live ten years ago.

Oh, you want to know what it’s called?

Sure!

Saturday Night Live FAQ: Everything Left To Know About Television’s Longest Running Comedy.

Actually, it’s part history, part academic, part fan-based nostalgia, a lot of reliving of outstanding and controversial moments, a TON about how they cover politics (especially in the last 20 years) and hopefully all fun and informative.

And it will be coming out Fall 2024.

But meanwhile, what the what with the world??????

This Jewish, gay man of a certain age wants to know. Or do I?

Let’s not get too heavy this first week back, though it’s a little difficult to even broach the subject of being Jewish these days with a sense of humor while saying anything relevant.

On the other hand — um — FRAN DRESCHER!!!!

Yeah, you didn’t think she’d get the SAG strike settled to almost everyone’s satisfaction AND do anything about A.I. and streaming residuals.

See, like Fran, I grew up in Flushing so I know what we’re capable of when we put our minds to it. You want to make fun of her for bringing a plushy heart to a negotiation with Bob Iger or speaking with a NY (nee Jewish) accent? Go ahead.

It only makes her/us stronger.

Fran’s body language says “f*ck around and find out”

See New York Jews tend to thrive when the chips are down. Which is not to say we are the only ethnicity or cultural people this applies to. Far from it. It is also not to say we Jews, as a whole, are always right about everything, despite what our tone and manner might suggest.

However, what I can’t wrap my mind around is the knee-jerk anti-Jewish sentiment (Note: It used to be called anti-Semitism) that has suddenly blazed across the country and world, especially among the academic community, like wildfire. It makes one suspect it was always there.

Here’s a link to an article in The NY Times this weekend about what’s going on in college campuses across the country.

The bottom line for me is that it is possible to hold two or more thoughts in your head at the same time.

You can be appalled at the Hamas terrorist attack on Israel that killed hundreds of Israelis of all ages, took hundreds of hostages of all ages and was joyfully celebrated by its perpetrators of all ages.

You can also be horrified at the brutal decimation of the Gaza Strip and the deaths of many more hundreds of innocent Palestinians by Israel in an attempt to retaliate, protect itself and get its people back.

It’s ALL appalling and horrifying.

But to blame Jews for being, well, practicing Jews and protective of its people, or Muslims for feeling and advocating for Palestinians while practicing their faith is two awful sides of the same coin.

I have no sense yet of what the answer is to a many centuries old issue but it isn’t reveling in what about-isms like who was here first and who did what to whom when.

And it’s certainly not about threats and name-calling — veiled or not so veiled. It’s about trying to turn down the temperature a little and to then, slowly, begin to talk – or at least communicate.

This seems strange coming from a citizen of a country that elected Donald Trump president (Note: Ugh, saying his name, feel free to turn away) and may do so again. Though I, for one, do not think that will happen. It’s clear to me that Never Trumpers far, far outnumber those foolish enough to vote for the four times indicted, twice impeached huckster sociopath from Queens (Note: Yeah, we gave you Fran but we also gave you Him) again. Mark my words, he will lose any kind of national vote anywhere and anytime despite what any one snapshot in time poll number might now be saying.

None of which says anything about being Jewish anywhere, especially in the U.S. and most especially on a college campus, from 2023 on.

The only thing to remember is to be wary of ANYONE spouting racist, anti-Semitic, anti-democratic or virulently non-factual, pro-nativist dogma. Giving voice to, reproducing or energizing their platforms of hate in any way is how we got into this mess in the first place.

SNL – A Thanksgiving Miracle (Adele)

notes from a chair

Tag Archives: Joe Biden

Holiday Confidence

Hello Again