Month: August 2021

JEOPARDY hosts Mike Richards, Mayim Bialik

How to say “Correct” in different ways

Mike Richards Mayim Bialik JeopardyI’m a bit ambivalent over the announcement of the new hosts of the game show JEOPARDY!

Mike “Richards will kick off Season 38 as the full-time host of the syndicated show… [Mayim] Bialik will serve as the host of Jeopardy!’s primetime and spinoff series, including the upcoming all-new Jeopardy! National College Championship. Richards will continue to serve as executive producer of Jeopardy! and Wheel of Fortune.”

On one hand, as the EP, Richards clearly knows how the game is played. He helped coach the over a dozen guest hosts who have appeared since Alex Trebek’s death. On the other hand, and many others noted this, it’s not entirely unlike Dick Cheney being in charge of finding a Vice-Presidential candidate for George W. Bush, and deciding he’s the best qualified, though other SONY suits weighed in.

JEOPARDY fans have noted the diverse pool of guest hosts, after which they pick Richards, much to the chagrin of quite a few. Is it his fault that he’s a little dull and looks like a Ken doll? He does have some limited game show hosting credentials:  High School Reunion,  Divided ; The Pyramid; Dailies  and Beauty and the Geek , but over 4000 hours of producing credits.

Many have pointed out that Alex Trebek told TMZ in 2018 his top choice as his Jeopardy successor. “There is an attorney, Laura Coates,” Trebek told TMZ’s Harvey Levin. “She’s African-American, and she appears on some of the cable news shows from time to time.” Whether she was even interested in the job, I don’t know.

The Price Is Right

Richards previously worked as Executive Producer on The Price Is Right. A lawsuit claimed he engaged in “pregnancy discrimination in two complaints filed by former Price Is Right models. He was accused of making insensitive statements and taking other questionable actions around models on the show who became pregnant.

“‘These were allegations made in employment disputes against the show. I want you all to know that the way in which my comments and actions have been characterized in these complaints does not reflect the reality of who I am… I would not say anything to disrespect anyone’s pregnancy and have always supported my colleagues on their parenting journeys.’

“Richards got a notably public boost of support from Price Is Right host Drew Carey. Carey credited Richards with making the show’s famous showroom models a much bigger part of the show. ‘He took them from just bodies on the stage to actual people that audiences could get to know as part of the TPIR family,’ Carey wrote.”

It’s all in the game

Meanwhile, I AM pleased by Mayim Bialik’s role in the JEOPARDY brand expansion, although I’m unclear what that will look like. She was among the best candidates, and I watched them all. And one assumes that most of the guest hosts didn’t want to leave their regular gigs.

Hosting JEOPARDY requires some particular skills. Welcoming the contestants and making as though you care about them in the interview section. Reading the clues and indicating whether the contestants’ responses are right or wrong in a timely fashion, trying to vary them: “Yes,” “Right,” “Correct.”

A good host will tell you about where we are in the game. If someone hits the Daily Double, Alex would indicate that the player could take the lead, or get closer, or make it difficult for their opponents.

The hosts in the last few weeks had the difficulty of having a champion, Matt Amadio, who not only won a dozen and a half games and over half a million dollars, but most of his matches were runaway contests. This means that the outcome of Final JEOPARDY often did not matter.

Some folks are enraged by the choice of Mike Richards. I’m not. I admit that I was pulling for LeVar Burton before his appearance, but he wasn’t one of the better guest hosts, unfortunately. And him openly campaigning for the job, I dare say, didn’t help his chances.

But if Richards’ ratings tank, expect that the hosting conversation will be reconsidered.

August rambling: look to the Founders

148 Bonnie Meadow Road in New Rochelle, NY

Simon Bar Sinister
Underdog villain Simon Bar Sinister, and a former NYC mayor

When Even the IEA Sounds an Alarm on Climate, the World Must Listen. “It is unequivocal that human influence has warmed the atmosphere, oceans, and land,” – The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).  Burnt parts of Pacific forests are landing on the Atlantic.

Lying about vaccination status. Some people are going to intense lengths to get unauthorized COVID booster shots and When it comes to COVID vaccines, look to the Founders for answers

The Once and Future Coup

Last Week Tonight with John Oliver: Housing Discrimination and Emergency Medical Services  

After The Fall. Ben Rhodes raises a hard question: How did America get from the pinnacle of our Cold War victory to this sorry place?

Persepolis “Banned” in Commack, NY

Nearly 14M Individual Tax Returns Still Need Processing

The lie of “expired” food and the disastrous truth of America’s food waste  problem

Re: Simone Biles:  Olympians Are People First and Sports Culture’s Toxic Masculinity and ask yourself the questions on this decision tree

Gender inequality in esports

The Cleveland Indians/Guardians a teachable moment?

Are journalism programs properly training students to navigate harassment?

How Rudy Guiliani Went From 9/11’s Hallowed Mayor to 2021’s Haunted Ghoul

Sure, we got a billion bucks lyin’ around someplace (new Buffalo Bills stadium on the public dole?)

The worst money we’ve ever spent

7 Questions About America (from My Danish Husband) I Just Can’t Answer

Explaining the Different Post-Colonial Trajectories of Ireland and Haiti

Childhood of Some (In)Famous Americans

The culture

There’s a reason for the “k” in “knife”

The floorplan of 148 Bonnie Meadow Road in New Rochelle, NY — home of Rob and Laura Petrie and their son Ritchie.

Mark Evanier:  Flying the 747 (1970)

Dream of the Green Turtle, in mid-1944, arguably the first East Asian superhero

Poetry on Vinyl: An Interview with Jeff Alessandrelli of Fonograf Editions

The Oatmeal: Why it breaks your brain to take a compliment and You should love yourself and Leaving your pets at home

Colour trends of the year

Now I Know:  The Village That Went Dark and Was Proud of It and The Staircase With the Traffic Light and  Happy Belated Birthday, Australian Horses! and The Hidden Danger in the Walls of Your Old House and Why Congress Gets Free Men’s Magazines and Where’d the R in Mrs. Come From? and The Bugs That Make Danger Glow and There was once a Mickey Mouse gas mask. Here’s why and  The Great Cookie– er, Biscuit– er, Cake Debate of 1991

FFAPL

2021 Literary Legends Tickets on sale NOW. The program is on Saturday, October 16, 2021, at the Pine Hills branch of the APL. Support the Friends and Foundation of the Albany Public Library and join us as we celebrate this year’s honorees, Lydia Davis and Eugene Mirabelli. General tickets

The Friends and Foundation were very sad to learn that former Friends president Paul Hacker passed away in July. This follows the news about David Colchamiro, who passed away in June.

MUSIC

Sharp Little Pencil: Loving You Today

Find My Way – Paul McCartney and Beck

Drive My Car – MonaLisa Twins

Mr. Popeil – “Weird Al” Yankovic. (RIP, Ron Popeil.)

Overture to La Cenerentola by Giachino Rossini

Rough Boy – ZZ Top

Coverville 1366: The Depeche Mode Cover Story III and 1367: Tribute to ZZ Top’s Dusty Hill, and Cover Stories for Tony Bennett and Martha and The Vandellas and 1368: Track by Track Album Cover – Who’s Next

Footsteps in the Snow by Claude Debussy – Des pas sur la neige (Préludes – Book I)

A Musical 

Love and Mercy – Libera

Contrafactum – noun: A composition that makes use of an existing piece of music with different lyrics

Stories Behind 12 of Aretha Franklin’s Greatest Hits

10 Beatles Hits That ‘Rip Off’ Other Songs

Inside the Making of Prince’s Posthumous Album, Welcome 2 America

Albums almost abandoned, and one that was

Emmylou, Joni, and Herbie

Hissing of Summer LawnsWhile listening to Herbie Hancock in early April, his birth month, I was reminded by two albums almost abandoned by their owners to me. Another one actually WAS given to me.

Around 1995, a choir friend was complaining about the new Emmylou Harris album, Wrecking Ball, that she’d just purchased. She was a huge Emmylou fan, but Wrecking Ball was not her cuppa.

It was produced by Daniel Lanois, who had produced or co-produced albums for U2, Peter Gabriel, and Bob Dylan, among others. Additionally, Lanois was also a solo artist; I’m quite fond of his Acadie album.

My choir buddy decided that maybe she’d get rid of Wrecking Ball. I said, “Give it to me!” But she decided to keep it. I wonder if she ever warmed up to it.

Emmylou, also born in April, shows up on so many of my albums. In addition to her solo stuff, she’s a background singer for Lyle Lovett, Neil Young, and so many more. She’s on albums with Mark Knopfler, Ladysmith Black Mambazo, Linda Ronstadt, and of course the Trio albums with Dolly Parton and Linda, the complete set of which I bought in 2020.

Joni and Herbie

Back in 1975, Sue, the girlfriend of my friend Jon – who I’ve lost track of – picked up The Hissing of Summer Lawns, the new Joni Mitchell album. She did not know if she’d keep it because it was too different from what she had expected. I said, “Give it to me!” But she decided to keep it. I wonder if she ever warmed up to it.

The album is transitional to a more experimental sound (Hejira, Don Juan’s Reckless Daughter et al.) I liked it. BTW, her birthday is in November.

My late friend Donna was kvetching about the 1996 Herbie Hancock album The New Standard. It was a jazz cover album of pop songs by Peter Gabriel, the Beatles, Babyface, Sade, Prince, and Simon and Garfunkel. She was a jazz fan, but she did not like this. She said, “Do you want this?” I said, “Heck, yeah.”

Hancock’s 1998 album, Gershwin’s World features Joni on vocals for two songs, The Man I Love and Summertime. His 2007 album River: The Joni Letters is a tribute album featuring cover songs written by Joni, with an eclectic group of singers
Connections

The songs

Though they are very different, because these three artists have been so eclectic, I think of them fondly in the same way.

From Wrecking Ball

Where Will I Be? with the songwriter, Daniel Lanois
Wrecking Ball, written by Neil Young
Orphan Girl, written by Gillian Welch

From The Hissing of Summer Lawns, the first three songs

In France They Kiss On Main Street, which could have fit on her previous studio album, Court and Spark
The Jungle Line, which would not
Edith and the Kingpin – I heard Rebecca Jade do a great cover of this recently

From The New Standard

New York Minute  – co-written and originally performed by Don Henley
You’ve Got It Bad Girl – co-written and originally performed by Stevie Wonder
All Apologies – written by Kurt Cobain, originally performed by Nirvana

The former Cuomosexuals

Ch-ch-ch-changes

cuomosexualsMy daughter pointed out that after Andrew Cuomo agreed to resign as governor of New York, Trevor Noah was trending on Twitter. Otherwise, I never know what’s trending on Twitter.

The talk show host was being mocked for declaring himself one of the Cuomosexuals in 2020.

“’Never let Trevor Noah forget this,’” the rightwing pundits proclaim when including “a 2020 video of Noah praising the governor for ‘crushing it the most right now’ when it came to his pandemic response…

“While Noah changed his tune since news of the sexual assault allegations and nursing home scandal broke, even posting a celebratory tweet following Cuomo’s resignation, conservatives want to ensure Twitter does not forget the late-night hosts’ initial take.”

Fascinating, he said, in his best Mr. Spock voice

My takeaway here is that, according to these folks, one is not allowed to have an opinion about someone, then to change one’s mind when new circumstances arise or when additional information becomes available.

OK, got it. That is plain stupid. We’re supposed to feel about, say, Bill Cosby in 2018 as we did in 1988?

Many people were comforted by Andrew Cuomo’s daily briefings. They felt that he was attempting to tell them the truth about the coronavirus infection rates, and the latest science, even when it was not particularly good news. This was in drastic contrast with the daily briefings in DC when whatever things Drs. Birx and Fauci et al. said were often countermanded and undermined by their boss.

There were LOTS of Cuomosexuals all over the country, notably the parodist Randy Rainbow. This is explained well in this New Yorker article.

I was recently reading an issue of the magazine The Week from June 2021. The experts suggested that the decline of COVID-19 was on track. No, they did not predict the level of vaccine resistance nor the speed of the delta variant – those two factors being related – so that now mask-wearing indoors is recommended, even among the vaccinated like me.

Changing their minds

It’s also OK to change one’s mind. Back in 2007, Kathy Hochul – pronounced HO-kul – “while serving as the Erie County clerk… threatened to arrest undocumented immigrants who applied for driver’s licenses.” But in recent years, the future New York State governor has supported “the state’s so-called Green Light law.”

Even as President, Barack Obama evolved on the issue of marriage equality. Initially, he opposed same-gender marriage, but his position evolved.

As a person growing up in the church, I’ve seen the changing roles of women, laypersons, and others. The church I attend now only had male ushers, dressed in a certain way, when I was born.

Frankly, people who believe that God, whoever They may be, never changes, so that we need to be doing the same thing, regardless of the needs of the people, make me damn angry.

 

Movie on TV review: Sneakers

Test driver Tetrault

Sneakers.Gallery-1When the movie Sneakers came out in 1992, I had intended to watch it at the cinema, and for a specific reason. Yet I did not.

But when my daughter was flicking through the channels when we were on vacation at the end of June, there it was. We were introduced to the team led by Robert Redford as Martin Bishop. His company tests the security of banks and other businesses.

His colleagues include Crease (Sidney Poitier), the ex-CIA man with anger issues; Mother (Dan Aykroyd), the conspiracy theory nut who, two decades later, would probably spewing his nonsense on Twitter; Emory (David Strathairn), who’s blind but hears extraordinarily well; and Carl (River Phoenix), a brilliant hacker.

Martin is approached by two NSA guys to steal a newly invented computer decoder. He eventually susses out that his new clients aren’t who they say they are. He ends up asking his ex, Liz (Mary McDonnell) for help.

In many ways, this is a traditional caper movie in the Dirty Dozen/Mission Impossible/Ocean’s 11 traditions. But, in hindsight, it has the veneer of a sociological study about how the world changed – or didn’t – after the Soviet Union broke up.

Before its time?

The movie received 79% positive reviews on Rotten Tomatoes. I do agree with most critics that River Phoenix was underused in the film.

The most interesting negative review is this one from 2001. “But this MacGuffin… it could shut down the Federal Reserve, Air Traffic Control, the National Power Grid. Oh, the power! The sweet, warm, delicious power! With this thing I could, dare I say it, rule the world!

“Gack. How 1992. How so early post-Cold War. Here I am worried about cloned supersheep herding humans for food, and Sneakers wants to get me upset over a few crashed airplanes.”

And that is precisely the type of terrorism that we’re worried about in the past decade or so. Because the technology has nearly caught up with the imagination of the script.

I enjoyed Sneakers and I found it surprisingly relevant. My daughter was occasionally confused because it was tricky figuring out who the good guys were. The final scene, featuring a well-known actor, was played for laughs. The film also stars Ben Kingsley as Cosmo, Martin’s former colleague; Timothy Busfield; and Stephen Tobolowsky.

But the reason I always wanted to see Sneakers is that the late Ernie Tetrault, a long-time anchor of WRGB-TV, Channel 6 in Schenectady, NY played the news anchor; he performed the role credibly.

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