Fall, Film and Fresh Fruit

Working backward, since I promised to get to this bizarre story:


In 2022, it’s a full-time job keeping track of all the criminal investigations and civil suits facing Donald Trump. Luckily, today, we can cross one of them off the list: the 2015 lawsuit filed by a group of protesters who alleged they were assaulted by Trump’s security guards outside of Trump Tower. Y’know, the one that led to the revelation that the ex-president thinks it’s highly possible he could be killed by a piece of fruit. But more on the fruit later.

On Wednesday, Trump reached a settlement agreement with the plaintiffs, just days after the case had gone to trial. The suit revolved around a September 2015 incident, in which a group of activists protesting the comments Trump had made about Mexican immigrants while campaigning for president were allegedly assaulted outside of Trump Tower by his security guards. According to the plaintiffs, Trump’s head of security allegedly punched one of the protesters in the head while trying to rip away a sign that read “Make America racist again.”

While Trump claimed in a February 2016 affidavit that he had no knowledge of the situation at the time, and only learned about it the next day, in May, his former fixer, Michael Cohen, said that was a lie. In a sworn deposition, Cohen claimed that he’d told Trump about the protesters when he saw them that morning, at which point the then presidential candidate allegedly told his head of security, Keith Schiller, “Get rid of them.” When Schiller returned, according to Cohen, he told Trump: “I took the sign. He grabbed me, so I hit him across the side of the head,” to which Trump allegedly responded, “Good.” In his own deposition last October, Trump maintained that he “didn’t know about” what happened but also that Schiller “did nothing wrong.” Which brings us to the bit about the former president and his apparent fear of flying fruit.

During that deposition, an attorney for the plaintiffs brought up a 2016 campaign rally at which Trump told attendees, “If you see someone getting ready to throw a tomato, just knock the crap out of them, would you?” Asked why, Trump testified that he and his security detail were on high alert that someone was “going to throw fruit.” “You get hit with fruit, it’s—no, it’s very violent stuff. We were on alert for that,” he said. “It’s worse than tomato, it’s other things also. But tomato, when they start doing that stuff, it’s very dangerous. There was an alert out that day.”

Christ, the man is ruining perfectly good Monty Python sketches for me!
 

Watch on YouTube

But then, today is celebrated across the Pond as Guy Fawkes Day, when an armed band of insurrectionists, inspired by religious zealotry, tried to overthrow and kill their elected leaders!

Remember, remember
The Epiphany Terror!

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Continuing with the British theme, particularly alums of the Potter franchise:

Last night we watched the second Netflix film in the Enola Holmes series which just came out. Stranger Things actress Millie Bobby Brown is the title character, with Henry "Supe" Cavill as her not quite smarter brother Sherlock; but the cast is awash in others from the Hogwarts crowd, including Helena Bonham-Carter and David Thewlis. The script was written by the playwright of one of the post-canon Potterworks, who is NOT a transphobic bitch.  There is plenty to spoil, so I won't even begin to get into what happens, other than to remind you to watch. Everything. CAREFULLY. And do not read reviews or even check IMDB listings of cast members, since the latter spoiled one of several major ones for me.

Meanwhile, Harry himself has returned in a streaming-only release of the Weird Al Yankovic biopic.  I go way back with the performer, hearing his Dr. Demento radio debut of the Knack-off song "My Bologna" which was recorded in a bathroom with only his voice and his accordion.  From there, the production values went way up, and to this day if "Beat It" or "Another One Bites the Dust" comes on at the gym, I sing along to his parodies about "EAT it" and "RIDES the bus."  I passed on seeing him live this summer at Artpark, but this should make a good fill-in until the next tour comes round.

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And finally returning home, to where the clocks move back an hour tonight and we're supposed to be heading toward that bleak midwinter. Wegmans, always doing its part, has already prepared for it with its icy weather signs, now permanently planted:



They mayyyy be a little early with that: this was the forecast at the moment I took that photo-



The other noticeable thing in that store that day? They've dehumanized their cafe registers. The 7-or-fewer checkout line, usually personed by older cashiers (it was one of Eleanor's last gigs before retirement) now leads to cashless kiosks.

Maybe they were getting too much fresh fruit thrown at them.