More stuff to read, yay!

It was raining most of today - as it turns out, and cold. With a chill in the air. When it wasn't raining, it was misting.

1. I'm glad I'm not flying anywhere at the moment. Newark has had several plane collisions in the last few months, and on Sunday, Laguardia (LGA) in NY had a fatal plane collision with a Fire Truck. Air Canada and a Fire Truck collided.

LGA Air Canada and Fire Truck Collision.

I woke up this morning - turned on the news - and there it was as the lead story. It happened late Sunday night, they shut down the airport and evacuated the terminal - the news broadcasters told us that nothing was flying in or out of LGA until 2pm.

And if you were catching a flight before then - to contact your airline because it was probably cancelled and the airport was closed. This was at 6:30 am this morning.

( what happened as far as we know... )

( how many flights were canceled )

Art History Major aka Busy Bee - is off to Florida on Wed. ( TSA and ICE not the best mix for travel )

God, how did we get here? We all agreed that we wanted the thing in the White House gone. And when it happens? We'll flood the streets, hold impromptu celebrations, dance in the street, kiss each other on the cheeks, and hold a big street party. We'll be united in glee. Another rendition of ...the classic 1941 ditty, When that Man is Dead and Gone - which is both tragically and ironically valid today

Mother, I, AHM's boss, and Breaking Bad have all decided we're not flying anywhere any time soon. I'm hoping this sorts itself out by at least May or June. But not holding my breath.

2. I'm frustrated with My Doctor's Office/Health Care Provider. So the PT wanted me to schedule an appointment with his buddy - the vestibular therapist on Tuesday, but alas my primary care gave me a referral to a therapist who can't see me until May and isn't the vestibular therapist the PT introduced me to and wanted me to see this week.

I went online, and after a lot of maneuvering in their site - managed to find the PT that I wanted.

So I asked if I could choose my own or switch to the other one. Primary Care agreed - and if they don't allow it, let her know and she'll send a new referral.

So I call the physical therapy scheduling office and after an hour on hold and, it doesn't exactly go well?

( talking to healthcare provider schedulers requires far too much patience... )
[I'll got talk to the schedulers tomorrow in person. Maybe I'll get somewhere. Unlikely, I'm going in with low expectations? With Healthcare Providers - it's best to go in with low expectations - that way you don't get disappointed.]

See? This is the reason that I've done nothing about the vestibular/vertigo issue. By the time, I actually see the guy, the problem will be gone.

3. There's been a lot of "problematic" famous people dying lately? James Vander Beek, the guy who shall not be named - he was a political guy, and Nick Brendan. Of the three JVB was probably the least controversial and easiest to deal with - and considering he was against vaccines, and a Trump supporter, that's kind of saying something?

Nick Brendan portrayed a problematic character on Buffy (who I consider complicated and was actually quite likable towards the end of S3 and through S7 for the most part. Being a well-rounded and 3 dimensional character - he had plenty of flaws, but that made the character memorable. Also, beloved and relatable to many. Perfect characters or goody two shoe characters are not relatable or beloved. We tend to forget about them. Yes, he was a bit of a jerk in S1-3, but also an adorable goof-ball, and he saved Buffy's life three times). He was troubled and problematic man in life, far more so, actually than most of the characters he portrayed or at least the most familiar of them.

I stumbled upon Nick Brendan's last post on FB - where he takes questions from his devoted fans, and ....I felt for him, while at the same time, was horrified at what he'd become and what his fans, unwittingly enabled. There's a lesson for us all in there somewhere? ( discussing a dead man feels so morbid but here we go... )

The internet scared me today - because I looked up what ailed him. It's "Cauda equina syndrome (CES)" which according to the Orthopedic Centers of Colorado is a rare, medical emergency involving severe compression of nerve roots at the base of the spine, requiring immediate decompression surgery—ideally within 24 hours—to prevent permanent paralysis, incontinence, and sexual dysfunction. Key symptoms include severe low back pain, saddle anesthesia (numbness in groin/buttocks), and sudden bowel/bladder dysfunction.

The internet loves to throw symptoms at you that you think you have and don't. Technology is turning me into a hypochondriac.

( back to discussing Brendan's demons )

4. Stumbled upon this disturbing article about being a young professional screen actor and dealing with the toxicity of social media.

Barry Keoghan Says Online Abuse Means He
Doesn't Want to Go Outside Any More

"Oscar-nominated actor Barry Keoghan has said online abuse about his appearance is affecting his life, to the point that he now does “not want to go outside”.

The Irish actor, who is playing Ringo Starr in Sam Mendes’ upcoming Beatles tetralogy, told SiriusXM host Ben Harlum that though he left social media in 2024 due to online abuse, it was still so bad that he was “shying away” from the public eye – and it was making him want to retreat from acting.

Asked about his fans, Keoghan acknowledged that some “people are so lovely out there”, but added: “There’s also a nasty side of it. And I’ve removed myself from online, but I’m still a curious human being that wants to go on. And if I attend an event or if I go somewhere, you want to see how it was received. And it’s not nice, you know?”
( my two cents )

1. Been watching mostly Grantchester on Netflix this weekend. Season 1 - which is a cozy little murder mystery series - about a jazz loving vicar and a semi-alcoholic homicide detective who solve crimes in the 1950s - in a quaint English village just outside of Cambridge. The village is going through a bit of a crime spree?

[ Apologies for typos or mistakes? My reading glasses aren't working well tonight for some reason - the distant vision appears to be fine, but my reading vision is kind of blurry - it's very odd. It was fine earlier.]

It has a kind of Call the Midwife/All Creatures Great and Small vibe to it - except murder mysteries. And it develops its characters rather well. I like the characters and find oddly comforting.

2. Also finished watching Song Sung Blue on Peacock - the film starring Hugh Jackman and Kate Hudson, in which Kate was nominated for best supporting actress? They play two singers that impersonate famous singers, who meet and decide to create a Neil Diamond Tribute Experience. It's based on the true and somewhat tragic love story of Lightening and Thunder. It's based on the 2008 documentary.

It's tragic, but surprisingly doesn't milk the melodrama or sentimentality like most of these things do. And kind of earns the tears. I credit it - for being based and adapted from the 2008 documentary, I think Clair (Thunder) pushed them to downplay the melodrama. I was surprised by it - it is rather good, particularly if you like Niel Diamond, who specialized in easy listening, hummable ditties, that could and often did fall into ear worm territory - but are fun to thing. Kind of like ABBA. I'd put ABBA and Diamond in the same category.

And damn, Hugh Jackman and Hudson are good performers. Both can sing, move and have chemistry to spare.

3. Illona Andrews - the sci-fi novel, The Inheritance, follows a trend I've been seeing of late in science fiction - which is making arachnids not villains or evil monsters. The Inheritance kind of turns them into something akin to silk worms or domesticated animals like I don't know sheep, aka dangerous sheep.

I get the metaphor though? That often the thing we've demonized in our heads isn't so scary or evil if viewed through another angle. And can in fact be a friend or ally.

It's an interesting book - the writers do a good job of navigating difficult themes without preaching, sermonizing or providing easy answers, and I can't help but applaud them for that.

In other news? Someone did a theme of "what books" the Buffy characters would be reading, and listed Illona Andrew upcoming book - "This Kingdom Will Not Kill Me" as the book that Xander was reading. I found that interesting - in a - my two fandoms collide - in a way I wasn't expecting sort of way? Continuing along those lines - I saw an interview with Sarah Michelle Gellar stating her two favorite books were Donna Tartt's The Secret History (which she struggles to explain why she loves it so much to folks) - and Shadow of the Wind. (I may have to pick up Shadow of the Wind - it's about the hunt for different pages of a book.) I am a fan of Donna Tartt's The Secret History, which much like Gellar - I hope is never made into a film, and just is great as is. So again, fandoms indirectly collide.
This rarely happens.

I've watched and been fannish about a lot of television series in my life time? But Buffy will always hold a special place in my heart, that nothing else can quite touch - and that's something people either get or don't?