I began some mild euphoria two years ago, and entered into an almost constant state of higher euphoria six months later. Yet, there was always something troubling me.
I woke up this morning with an unusual sense of peace. Not the ultimate one we all will someday face, a lot more comforting. The events of the past few days combined to impart a feeling that all will be well and the best is yet to come.
At the top of the list is health. All is well with me and vaccines are coming to someday end this COVID-19 pandemic. Deliveries of the Pfizer/BioNTech version began this morning in the USA, and inoculations are in full swing in other parts of the world.
Mask-wearing will still be a must for much of this year and next, but someone asked me to order this plastic thing you place between face and mask, and I found out that I could strenuously exercise with this insert. It's called a face bracket, and, depending on where you get it, it could cost less than a dollar each. I also heard that this device also comes using velour or other material, improving the functionality and comfort.
I usually click on both Safari and Chrome, but this morning made a mistake and got the Opera (O) web browser. This is Google's entry into the game, and seems to operate faster.
This fall/winter season, my teams have not been doing well. For the first time, Stanford, LSU and Hawaii won their football games the same weekend. Stanford and LSU just barely by a field goal, but the LSU victory was a shock, for after being #1 in college football last year, they have been just terrible this season and huge underdogs against Florida. But this day, even with all their injuries (all four cornerbacks were hurt yesterday), defections (some of their top players just took the year off to preserve their health) and a true freshman quarterback starting his first game, a 57-yard field goal was the difference.
Hawaii was going to win anyway, but in the final minute of the game, Las Vegas was driving and about to score. If they had, I would have won the 15 Craigside football pool. But Hawaii intercepted and I lost. Looking at the sheet the organizers delivered, the winner turned out to be one of them. And, you know, in this latest stage of internal peace, I was happy for her.
But that's not all. The Hawaii basketball team finally played Friday night and won. A 15 Craigside basketball pool will soon begin. My five fantasy NFL teams started poorly, but two of them are now a game away from the lead. I haven't yet decided what to do about the NBA, for I have not had a fantasy basketball team for years, but I just might get a team or two.
This sanctuary of 15 Craigside has protected us well. Soon, we will be getting smart, too. A room has been equipped with the latest technology, and I will get a look at it in a week. Coincidentally, I ordered an Amazon Echo with Alexa, and she is to arrive soon.
As I reflect on life in general, the person who most irritated me, regularly, was Donald Trump. However, on Friday, the Supreme Court finally put an end to his efforts to subvert democracy. It was especially sweet that his three nominees supported the Constitution over this seditious fool, unlike nearly two-thirds of the House, who now will be in trouble in two years. Interesting that no senator joined the suit. 22 Republicans and 12 Democrats will run in 2022, and if, as expected, the Georgia runoffs will deny Democrats control of the Senate next year, the next election cycle could change that. Only then will an attempt to augment the Supreme Court and anything like a New Green Deal have any chance for passage.
Other reasons for being at peace:
- There are no major wars, and even the Middle East seems to be headed in the right direction.
- The pandemic has not seriously affected Africa and the region around and including India, and they represent 3 billion of the 7.8 billion world population. You can add China's 1.4 billion to that group. While the deaths/million figure for the USA stands at 919, India is at 103, Bangladesh 42 and Pakistan 39. Nigeria has a population of more than 200 million and only 6 deaths/million, close to China at 3 and Singapore at 5.
- The USA will be re-joining the effort to remediate global warming.
- Donald Trump will be gone in a little more than a month. Had to repeat this.
My favorite song #15 is Always by Deanna Durbin. This is one of those songs that sticks in my mind for unknown reasons.
Written by Irving Berlin in 1925 as a wedding gift for his wife Ellin Mackay, whom he married in 1926. This was well-covered in the media, for here was this Jewish immigrant from the Lower East Side falling love with a young heiress who was Catholic. Her father was opposed and sent her to Europe. But they found each other and eloped.
Five different artists you never heard of released their versions that year, the first by Henry Burr. One by Irving Kaufman. And Paul Ash.
There was a movie in 1944 titled Christmas Holiday (this is the complete film, but I can't recommend it) with Deanna Durbin and Gene Kelly. You would have thought, aha, one of those with songs and dances and good cheer. Nope, it was a film noir crime flick, from a novel by W. Somerset Maugham, with screenplay by Mank (that same Herman Mankiewicz I've been posting on recently) with Durbin playing a naif and night club singer, with Kelly a no-good husband. She sang Always, and the film won an Academy Award nomination for Best Musical Score. The movie was depressing.
In the 30's MGM had two competing for stardom, Judy Garland and Deanna Durbin. They were born a few months apart and performed together in a short film called Every Sunday. The story, which might not have happened, is that Louis B. Mayer saw the production and instructed his underlings to fire "the fat one," who was supposed to be Judy. Well, Durbin was mistakenly released, she went to Universal Pictures, starred in Three Smart Girls, and won an Oscar nomination, saving the studio from ruin. Deanna was all of 14 years old. She actually won a special Oscar with Mickey Rooney in 1938.
In 1947 Durbin made more money than any woman in the U.S., but two years later turned down an offer to be Eliza Doolittle in My Fair Lady on Broadway, retired at the age of 27, married Charles Henri David in 1950 and moved to a farmhouse near Paris forever. By then she had been in 25 films and released 50 records. They had half a century of happiness with three children. She gave one interview, in 1983, and passed away in 2013 at the age of 91. Meanwhile, Judy Garland became famous, had a screwed up life and died at 47. Maybe I selected Always was because of this long happiness.
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