Monthly Archives: March 2020

Thou Shalt Not Park Here

Posted on by
Reply

Thou Shalt Not Park Here

Bring out your dead, but I’m not dead yet and fortunately, no one I know is either. I texted Dave the last of our clan to check-in yesterday and he is now sheltering with Maren, which is with fewer people than at his place. With that bit of Coronavirus news out of the way, let’s move on to happier topics. OBTW, this no parking sign was found out side the Catholic church in Cruz Bay, on St. John’s island. Parking in this area was always a mess, but I appreciated the church’s attempt to interject some levity.

How about a few jokes? 

  • Did you hear the joke about the Ebola virus? You won’t get it. ¹
  • Did you hear the joke about the Corona virus? Never mind, I don’t want to spread it around. ²
  • A bear and a rabbit were sitting on a log taking a dump. The bear turned to the rabbit and asked, does shit stick to your fur? After a thought, the bunny answered no and then the bear picked up the rabbit and whipped his butt. ³

I probably shouldn’t be footnoting “my” jokes, because it smacks of explaining them, which is generally a bad idea that usually kills the humor.

————————

  1. I heard this joke during the Ebola scare from a co-worker. I told this joke later to Dan’s friend, Jenny, who is a sand-up comedian. She really liked it and wanted to know where I had gotten it. I think that she had hoped that it originated with me and that I would let her use it in her act.
  2. This joke I just got off the internet.
  3. This joke was told to me years ago, by my brother Frank.

White Aster Flower

Posted on by
2

White Flower

Yesterday, I crowed about Dan’s involvement in his newly released movie, Blow the Man Down and how great I thought that it was. I still do. In this movie, the protagonists are the two Connolly sisters. Coincidently, weeks ago, I had agreed to host a pair of real world Connolly sisters for a night, on their journey from Chicago to points further west. Saint Louis is always on your way to somewhere west. I guess that’s why we call ourselves the gateway to the west. I had become increasingly concerned about this rendezvous, as the epidemic continued to grow. Today, the Illinois governor issued a statewide shelter-in-place edict and I reached out to one of these sisters, to see if she still hoped to travel. Fortunately, through a miscommunication, they had abandoned this trip long ago and we just were not informed. I will sleep much better now tonight. Thank you, very much.

This cancelation pretty much clears our schedule. All of our outstanding theater tickets are well on their way to cancelation. We are free and clear to shelter in place. I’ll shop until I feel that it is too dangerous, then I’ll switch to delivery.

Anne and I spent hours on the phone today, speaking with Harry, Dan & Britt, my Dad and Alice & Chris. The big news of the day came from NYC. Move over Seattle, the Big Apple is now #1, the national Coronavirus hotspot. Dan and Britt might have already come down with and then survived the virus. Both of them were ill this last week, but with only mild flu-like symptoms. They have both recovered and are now self-quarantining themselves. Some co-workers were more seriously ill, but now also appear to be on the road to recovery. They won’t likely know for sure, for quite some time. This is because New York is now limiting testing to only healthcare workers and people who have been hospitalized. So much for anybody who wants a test can have one and all of the other bullshit that is being spewed daily from the Whitehouse.

On the left coast, my Dad and brother Chris are sheltering in place and because they had stocked up on enough food in anticipation of our visiting them, they have not had to go shopping for some time. We both agreed that our cancelling of our trip out there was the right thing to do, especially since the governor shut the state down only hours after we would have flown out. Talk about the last flight out. Frank, my other brother is a county supervisor and is very busy these days. Even though his rural county has reported no Coronavirus cases yet, he is working seven days a week preparing for their arrival. 

We offer you this nine minute diversion from all this. Anne loved it as did I. Her testimonial carries more weight though, with this video being about a first grade teacher and Anne having just completed an extended stint in that grade. I might also tout her expertise in teaching math, but that would just be piling on. Enjoy!

Blow the Man Down

Posted on by
Reply

Fisherman’s Wharf

The reviews are in and they look pretty good. Critics have described the movie as ‘darkly funny’, ‘Maine by way of Fargo‘, comparing it favorably to the Coen Brother’s classic and as a ‘splendid Downeast noir’ At ninety minutes, this low-budget independent film enjoys the benefit of little competition on its opening weekend. Anne and I thoroughly enjoyed watching the film and not simply because of our familial connection with the project. Our son Dan is the credited set dresser for the film. One of his most notable contributions was the design and construction of a plywood sign of a lobsterman dubbed Captain Dick. In the opening fifteen minutes it is destroyed in a car crash, but by Dan’s telling that scene was filmed near the end of filming. Anyway, we found this short little movie to be quite captivating and it certainly took our minds off of things.

Man Down is a murder mystery set in the fictional Maine fishing village of Easter Cove. As a mystery, it is not as much about who-done-it, but rather, do they get away with it. Except for a Greek chorus of rubber clad fisherman and a few other two-dimensional male characters, most of the cast is female. The two Connolly sisters are the leads. We first meet them as they host their mother’s funeral, but a quartet of AARP eligible women do much of the show’s heavy lifting and give the show much of its gravitas. Try it, you’ll like it.