Old, Older, Oldest....
Apr. 14th, 2020 08:37 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
captainsblogThis week dawned the work equivalent of Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs. (Haven't rewatched that one, although we did enjoy finally seeing the original Wreck-It Ralph and, the past couple of nights, the Disney+ showing of Onward.) Things were going fine yesterday until I got a call: a bankruptcy trustee had just bounced two checks on me, and a third on a client. "Printing error," they said. "We'll replace them soon," they said. Fortunately, the clients hadn't gotten theirs yet, and my bank had only made part of the rubber available to me after I did make my deposit, so I was able to cover it with the disbursement-fund equivalent of change in sofa cushions. Still, when bonded government officials start passing bad checks to you, Shit ratchets up to a whole new level of Real.
I came home after that, watching a couple of Dexter episodes from season 1 because bad checks will put you in that mood. Things improved with the watching of the Disney. Yesterday was after Eleanor's first day back to work; Wegmans continues to be way ahead of the flattening of the curve, first allowing their employees to wear face masks and, as of this coming Thursday morning, requiring them to. They also ejected the idjit customer who threatned to sneeze on a cashier over some perceived slight, and considering that there is no precedent whatsoever for this kind of reaction in our lifetimes, they've done a remarkable job in a very short time of adapting in a thorough yet kind way. Other businesses are joining in the effort- such as the medical offices on the "time and temperature building" a few blocks from our house-
(Great sentiment, but it'll take almost a day to get this earworm outta u head;)
----
But that's just this week; I'd promised some time travel here. Let's start with the 80s:
A friend noted that today was the 155th anniversary of Lincoln's assassination. I can't think of the man without remembering his heroic portrayal by Rex Hamilton in the six broadcast episodes of the immortal television series Police Squad! (In color!). I went looking for the image of that, and found something far more amazing: a full teleplay of an unaired episode of the show! It's been kicking around the internet for almost three years, and this piece, in perfect ZAZ style, gives some of the backstory of how it came about and almost made it to the air. I'm Facebook friends with someone who is in turn friends with a couple of guys associated with the show back in the day, and they verified its provenance and even that there was an additional unaired episode being written when the show was sadly canceled. There was even talk of whether we could recast it for these times, the way Norman Lear brought back All in the Family and The Jeffersons last year.
Because things are way too serious right now. And surely they can't stay this way.
----
Not far enough? Back to the 70s, then:
After getting the bad-check news, I farted round a bit on Facebook, where posting your high school yearbook pictures has become the alleged sign of solidarity with the Class of 2020 who likely aren't going to get a graduation this year. I'd thought I was out of the running- couldn't find any wallet photos, and my yearbook itself was near destroyed in the 1991 ice storm- so I went with a fake one from way down in the Bedrock from my graduation back in LXXVII:
But then, amazingly, I found a framed 5 x 7 of the shot down in our cellar. It was fused to the glass of the frame, but the scanner didn't care:
----
Finally, to the 60s, and beyond!
I've corresponded a few times now with my not-quite-relative in Vermont, stepdaughter of my father's Cousin Ruth who is part of the Mary Edison family tree I've been researching. She confirmed a story I'd already heard from my sister- that Ruth's (and my father's) grandfather Charles (so, my great-gran) was blinded in a lab while working with Tom Edison on one of his 1,000 failed attempts at a light bulb. Cathy also mentioned that her stepmother had a younger sister Gertrude, who would then also have been a cousin of my father's; Gertrude was in the service, and she with the help of her mother, my father's Aunt Allie, helped get people out of Germany during WW2. (Gertrude was in Europe and Aunt Allie helped arrange to get them safely into Canada.) There's that Canadian connection again which I still have to run down.
I mentioned some of this online, and was pointed to a riff on my family's weirdest in-law from a series called Bob's Burgers, which I've watched with Emily a few times and know she adores. She'd seen the episode, and has been following some of my journey down this rabbit hole of history:
I know they mentioned Edison messing with horses in Current War, but elephants?!?
----
Worp! Worp! Worp! Stop the TARDIS! We're back home!
Today went better, at least in my own life. Our President is plumbing new depths for the Deep End he's going off, but I turned in last night knowing that Democrats had overcome the cynical judicial efforts to force Wisconsin voters out into harm's way to cast their votes on Tuesday. The effort backfired when so many of them turned out- and turned out a Scott Walker-appointed GOP stooge from the state's Supreme Court by a wide margin.
I continue to get calls from businesses about bankruptcy at the end of this tunnel; I've also been going back to past individuals who inquired about it, reminding them that they can basically get their cases filed for free or close to it as long as their legal plan covers them when they first call me. I worry that many will put it off until after they've been laid off and then won't have the coverage.
Off to turn in soon, but I'll finish one more Dexter. Those never get old;)
I came home after that, watching a couple of Dexter episodes from season 1 because bad checks will put you in that mood. Things improved with the watching of the Disney. Yesterday was after Eleanor's first day back to work; Wegmans continues to be way ahead of the flattening of the curve, first allowing their employees to wear face masks and, as of this coming Thursday morning, requiring them to. They also ejected the idjit customer who threatned to sneeze on a cashier over some perceived slight, and considering that there is no precedent whatsoever for this kind of reaction in our lifetimes, they've done a remarkable job in a very short time of adapting in a thorough yet kind way. Other businesses are joining in the effort- such as the medical offices on the "time and temperature building" a few blocks from our house-
(Great sentiment, but it'll take almost a day to get this earworm outta u head;)
----
But that's just this week; I'd promised some time travel here. Let's start with the 80s:
A friend noted that today was the 155th anniversary of Lincoln's assassination. I can't think of the man without remembering his heroic portrayal by Rex Hamilton in the six broadcast episodes of the immortal television series Police Squad! (In color!). I went looking for the image of that, and found something far more amazing: a full teleplay of an unaired episode of the show! It's been kicking around the internet for almost three years, and this piece, in perfect ZAZ style, gives some of the backstory of how it came about and almost made it to the air. I'm Facebook friends with someone who is in turn friends with a couple of guys associated with the show back in the day, and they verified its provenance and even that there was an additional unaired episode being written when the show was sadly canceled. There was even talk of whether we could recast it for these times, the way Norman Lear brought back All in the Family and The Jeffersons last year.
Because things are way too serious right now. And surely they can't stay this way.
----
Not far enough? Back to the 70s, then:
After getting the bad-check news, I farted round a bit on Facebook, where posting your high school yearbook pictures has become the alleged sign of solidarity with the Class of 2020 who likely aren't going to get a graduation this year. I'd thought I was out of the running- couldn't find any wallet photos, and my yearbook itself was near destroyed in the 1991 ice storm- so I went with a fake one from way down in the Bedrock from my graduation back in LXXVII:
But then, amazingly, I found a framed 5 x 7 of the shot down in our cellar. It was fused to the glass of the frame, but the scanner didn't care:
----
Finally, to the 60s, and beyond!
I've corresponded a few times now with my not-quite-relative in Vermont, stepdaughter of my father's Cousin Ruth who is part of the Mary Edison family tree I've been researching. She confirmed a story I'd already heard from my sister- that Ruth's (and my father's) grandfather Charles (so, my great-gran) was blinded in a lab while working with Tom Edison on one of his 1,000 failed attempts at a light bulb. Cathy also mentioned that her stepmother had a younger sister Gertrude, who would then also have been a cousin of my father's; Gertrude was in the service, and she with the help of her mother, my father's Aunt Allie, helped get people out of Germany during WW2. (Gertrude was in Europe and Aunt Allie helped arrange to get them safely into Canada.) There's that Canadian connection again which I still have to run down.
I mentioned some of this online, and was pointed to a riff on my family's weirdest in-law from a series called Bob's Burgers, which I've watched with Emily a few times and know she adores. She'd seen the episode, and has been following some of my journey down this rabbit hole of history:
I know they mentioned Edison messing with horses in Current War, but elephants?!?
----
Worp! Worp! Worp! Stop the TARDIS! We're back home!
Today went better, at least in my own life. Our President is plumbing new depths for the Deep End he's going off, but I turned in last night knowing that Democrats had overcome the cynical judicial efforts to force Wisconsin voters out into harm's way to cast their votes on Tuesday. The effort backfired when so many of them turned out- and turned out a Scott Walker-appointed GOP stooge from the state's Supreme Court by a wide margin.
I continue to get calls from businesses about bankruptcy at the end of this tunnel; I've also been going back to past individuals who inquired about it, reminding them that they can basically get their cases filed for free or close to it as long as their legal plan covers them when they first call me. I worry that many will put it off until after they've been laid off and then won't have the coverage.
Off to turn in soon, but I'll finish one more Dexter. Those never get old;)