Yesterday, Norman Lear died, at 101. He’s responsible for many of the best sitcoms of the 1970s, including All in the Family, One Day at a Time, and The Jeffersons. Lear gave us what we hadn’t really had before: working class characters, frank discussion of social issues, and families of color in the spotlight.

Maude featured a married woman who had an abortion; Archie Bunker had to accept that one of his friends was queer well before the famous “coming out” tv episodes of the 1990s.

Naturally, The Simpsons owes Lear a debt, something they acknowledged years ago, when they had Homer and Marge sing the All in the Family theme song:

Movies*: 134

Ones I most recommend that you might not know about: 3 (The Mitchells vs. The Machines; the new Persuasion; Russell Howard: Lubricant)

Times an Irish woman sitting near me talked all the way through The Banshees of Inisherin, feeling really proud of herself for announcing what a character was about to do, when the character had just said, “I will do x,” but could not grasp one of the last plot points at all: 1

Number of the 53 Oscar nominated films seen: 48

of the Oscar shorts nominated:

4 of the documentary shorts

4 of the live action shorts

4 of the animated shorts

Short film festivals attended: 2

Resolutions to watch a short film a day in 2022: 1

Resolutions broken to watch a short film a day in 2022: 1

Short films watched in total, though: 103

abdominal migraines: 2

Shows rewatched in their entirety**: 14

(Got to Season 28 in The Simpsons rewatch)

Pies in apple bags: 1 (which my nephew ate most of)

Headlining stand-up performances: 1

Laptops broken by cat (with an assist from me): 1

New obsessive hobbies: 1 (genealogy)

Famous ancestors found: tons, cause we’re linked to John of Gaunt on mom’s side

Discoveries that my paternal grandfather’s parents were cousins: 1

Discoveries that I am linked to Scottish Andersons on both parents’ sides: 1

Times I found Daniel Boone in the tree: 1

Times I missed my grandfather, who would have been excited to see what I found as I continued his work: so many

Shows kept up with (and sometimes finished), not counting ones that were rewatched entirely***: 39

Countries traveled in: 5, two of which get their own blog (USA, Republic of Ireland, Scotland, Northern Ireland, Spain)

Incredible heat waves in Spain: 1

Trips to foreign ERs: 1

New tv shows watched****: 35

Hysterectomies that almost got cancelled due to COVID surge in the hospital: 1

Hours the boy waited in the waiting room for my hysterectomy: 12

Times vomiting while being wheeled out of the hospital, because they didn’t admit me for some reason: 2

Times I learned I have a weird M antibody in my blood: 1

Grammar errors in the letter UCD sent me about my weird blood: 3

Trips to Chicago: 2

Museums, galleries, heritage sites, etc: 58

Months I had to wait for an ear exam I needed: 5

Months still waiting for a dermatology appointment: 4

Health system fuck ups related to my allergies in just one week: 4

Average number of healthcare appointments, weekly: 3

Dear Friends Lost: 2

Weird Al shows missed cause I was in Dublin: 1

Trips to Nando’s: 14

Performing Stand-Up, here and abroad: 7

Senior stand-up shows: 3

Sold out stand-up class shows: 1

Times swimming: 3

Breweries in Napa: 1

Wineries in Napa: 1

Times I actually picked up my wine club selections from Placerville: 1

Different whiskies and scotches consumed whilst in the British Isles: 83

Atwood journals out: 1

Atwood journal pages: 405

Times I was surprised by the bad writing other journals apparently let their authors get away with, when reviewing the abstracts in the bibliography section: so many!

New breweries: 6 (3 in Indianapolis)

Servings of lamb: 20

Servings of the best fries in Indy: 2

Bourbons tried in Indy: 6

Atwood Newsletters produced: 3

Letters of Rec written: 12

Live comedy shows attended, including performances by Jim Gaffigan, Tig, Keith Lowell Jensen, John Mulaney, and Hannah Gadsby: 14

New shitty used cars: 1

Times a friend snuck in under my not dating anyone rule: 2

Times one of those friends became my boyfriend, then my fiancé: 1

Days without a bra in a row, since I fell in December and it hurt my busted shoulder too much to get into one: 60 (not counting the December days)

New Recipes Tried******: 61

Favorite new recipes: 7 (Dijon Thyme Burgers; Rosemary Paprika Chicken with Fries; Lamb Ragu; Red Lentil Soup with Lemon; “Best Damn Pork Tenderloin” in the Air Fryer; Huli Huli Chicken with Macaroni Salad with Lemon and Herbs; Chicken and Leek Stew)

Times I was able to cook in my little Dublin room: 0

White Elephant Parties with my new in-laws: 1

Quarters off for medical leave: 1

Days I was horrified anew at the state of the Republican party: 365

Texts from my fiancé’s QAnon mother (whom I have yet to meet & whom everyone keeps warning me about) to his brother, indicating that my fiancé was probably just marrying me for my money: 1

Times I have looked around my shitty apartment or worried about the horrible sounds my car makes and laughed about the idea of anyone thinking I have money: hundreds

Actual concrete plans to tie the knot made: 0

Dishes I made with last new year’s ham*******: 13

New, mysterious body problems: 4

Days waking up not in awful, continuously worsening pain: 0

Courses taught: 9

Terms abroad that almost didn’t happen: 1

Learning that that term abroad may not happen, for anyone, again: 1

Podcasts listened to********: 19

Applications for relief of my direct loans through TEPSLF: 1

Clarity about whether it’s been granted: 0

Letters from DOE saying my small parent loan will be forgiven if the Supreme Court allows it: 1

Times I served on an honors committee for a student writing on Atwood at another university: 1

Conferences attended: 3

Conference appearances I had to cancel to teach in Dublin: 3

Magazines subscribed to*********: 4

Tours of the Isle of Sky: 1

Rioja festivals: 1

Days overseas: 92

Times I explained to my mother why I was going to Peñíscola in Spain & told her how they spelled it: 2

Times my mother got her souvenir magnet from Peñíscola and said, “but did you realize they spelled Pensacola wrong on it: is this a joke magnet?”: 1

Covid Boosters: 1

Times I got Covid, despite all the world traveling I did: 0

Yay for vaccines!!!!!!

Books finished**********: 111

Anubis ER visits: 1

Anubis surgeries: 1

Years since I had physically seen my now fiancé when we had our first date: 20

Dates with said fiancé: 11

Shortest number of days each date consisted of: 3

Times my voting ballot got to me in Ireland, despite simply having my name and the name of the street on it: 1

Times I got dressed up with the Pumpkin King, in February: 1

Live Plays attended***********: 19

Times I posted about a play and then got to chat with the playwright: 1

Talks attended: 1 (Kendi)

Perfect engagement days: 1

The details:

*Movies: Labyrinth; Being the Ricardos; South Part: Post-Covid; The Wings of the Dove; Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them I; Chaplin; Return to Hogwarts; Queen Bees; Mary Poppins Returns; Luca; Paddington 2; Red Notice; Eddie Izzard: Sexie; Eddie Izzard: Stripped; Save Yourselves!; Force Majeure; Ron’s Gone Wrong; Living in Oblivion; Nights at the Museum Trilogy; Spenser; Don’t Look Up; Leslie Jones: Problem Child; Michael Che: Shame the Devil; The Courier; Sister Act; Russell Howard: Recalibrate; Tick, Tick, Boom!; The Addams Family; The Hand of God; Four Good Days; Ali Wong: Don Wong; Licorice Pizza; The Lost Daughter; The Worst Person in the World; Summer of Soul; Attica; Daniel Deronda miniseries; The French Dispatch; Keith Lowell Jensen: Not for Rehire; Taylor Tomlinson: Quarter Life Crisis: Iliza Shlesinger: Unveiled; Taylor Tomlinson: Look at You; Russell Howard: Lubricant (4x); Nate Bargatze special in The Standups; Nate Bargatze: The Tennessee Kid; Jim Gaffigan: Comedy Monster; Seeing Red; The Mitchells vs. The Machines; CODA; Drive My Car; Parallel Mothers; King Richard; Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings; Death on the Nile; Flee; West Side Story; The Tragedy of Macbeth; Nightmare Alley; Belfast (x2); No Time to Die; Cruella; Lunana: A Yak in the Classroom; The Eyes of Tammy Faye; Ascension; Death on the Nile; Beetlejuice; Lucy and Desi; The Iron Giant; The Adam Project; They Came Together; Jerrod Carmichael: Rothaniel; Doctor Strange 2; Travels with my Aunt; Kimi; A Room with a View; St. Elmo’s Fire; Tonight or Never; Special Agent; Le Test; Arthur Rambo; The Princess Bride; Brave; Meet the Parents; The Green Knight; Star Trek IV; Everything, Everywhere, All At Once (x2); Downton Abbey; Persuasion; Thor: Love and Thunder; Us; Uncharted; The Duke; The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent; Cabin in the Woods; Nope; Prey; See How They Run; Ron Funches: Giggle Fit; Decision to Leave; Black Adam; The Woman King; Enola Holmes 2; Confess, Fletch; Wakanda Forever; Hasan Minhaj: King’s Jester; The Wonder; Patton Oswalt: We All Scream; Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris; Mr. Malcolm’s List; Jurassic Park: Dominion; Trevor Noah: I Wish You Would; 4 Thin Man movies; The Fifth Element; Bridget Jones’s Diary; 8-bit Christmas; The Banshees of Inisherin; Bros; Aftersun; Disenchanted; She Said; Always; Once; Living; National Theatre Live: The Seagull, Jack Absolute Flies Again, The Book of Dust, Henry V, and Prima Facie; Marcel The Shell With Shoes On; Glass Onion

**Shows rewatched: Modern Family; Scrubs; The Good Place; Barry; Only Murders in the Building; Good Omens; For All Mankind; Resident Alien; The Unbreakable Kimmie Schmidt; Ted Lasso; Community; I’m Sorry (3X); Avenue 5; Star Trek: Lower Decks

***Shows kept up with (and sometimes finished), not counting ones that were rewatched entirely: The Simpsons; The Expanse; Archer; Seaside Hotel; Dexter; Bob’s Burgers; All Creatures Great and Small; After Life; Saturday Night Live; Ramy; Reservation Dogs; Woke; Mr. Mayor; Discovery of Witches; Master of None; Star Trek: Discovery; The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel; Killing Eve; Picard; Outlander; Mr. Mayor; The Last Kingdom; Last Week Tonight with John Oliver; Hacks; Grace and Frankie; Stranger Things; Russian Doll; Bridgerton; Harley Quinn; Breeders; Better Call Saul; Disenchantment; The Crown; Dead to Me; Miss Scarlet and the Duke; Doctor Who; Late Night with Seth Meyers; The Good Fight; What We Do in the Shadows

****New Shows: The Other Two; Silent Sea; Around the World in 80 Days; Foundation; Invasion; Vienna Blood; Mare of Easttown; Sex Lives of College Girls; Siempre Bruja; Acapulco; Sweet Tooth; The Woman in the House Across from the Girl in the Window; The Gilded Age; Framed: A Sicilian Murder Mystery; The After Party; Awkwakina is Nora from Queens; Inventing Anna; Vikings: Valhalla; Our Flag Means Death; Abbot Elementary; Star Trek: Strange New Worlds; Kids in the Hall reboot; Vikings; Uncoupled; The White Queen; Sandman; Moonhaven; A League of Their Own; A Private Affair; She-Hulk Attorney at Law; The Extraordinary Attorney Woo; Paper Girls; Reboot; Station 11

******New Recipes Tried: Apple-Ham Quiche; Raspberry-Ham Sandwiches; Creamy Cauliflower, Potato, and White Bean Soup; Dijon Thyme Burgers; Garlic Soy Chicken Thighs; Piri Piri Chicken Breast and Pasta; Spanish Tortilla with Ham; Black Manhattan cocktail; Pad Krapow Gai; French Bread Pizza; Sweet and Sour Brussels Sprouts; Chili-spiced Chicken; One Dance cocktail; Kofta Burgers; Homemade Air Fryer Fries; Curried Lentil Stew with Ham; Chicken Parmesan Sliders; Chicken Bacon Ranch Bake; Slow Cooker Sweet and Sour Chicken; Rosemary Paprika Chicken with Fries; Spiralized Potato Nests; French Onion Pork Chops; Sesame Chicken in the Slow Cooker; Cumin Burgers with Harissa Mayo; Air Fryer Cod Sandwich; Air Fryer Salmon Patties; Hoisin Pork in the Air Fryer; Air Fryer Burgers with Thai Peanut Sauce; Homemade Pizza with homemade crust; Better Than Sex Cake; Pork in Plum Sauce; Shrimp, Brussels, and Polenta in the Air Fryer; Lamb Ragu; Red Lentil Soup with Lemon; Thai Drumsticks in the Air Fryer; Mojo-Marinated Pork; Chicken Cordon Bleu in the air fryer; Chicken Burgers with Spicy Peanut Sauce; Sweet Hot Baked Chicken Breast; “Best Damn Pork Tenderloin” in the Air Fryer; Chinese Pork Medallions with Ginger Lemon Sauce; Fig and Ginger Upside-Down Cake; Pork Tenderloin in Chimichurri; Teriyaki Chicken and Bok Choy; Thai-Style Stir-fried Ground Pork with Basil (Pad Ka Prao); Huli Huli Chicken with Macaroni Salad with Lemon and Herbs; Grilled Okra, Corn, and Tomato Salad; Vietnamese Lemongrass Pork; Chicken and Leek Stew; Ham Hock and Lentil Soup; Air Fryer Chili Lime Chicken Thighs; Limoncello Mojito; Middle Eastern Herb and Garlic Chicken; Soboro Donburi; Crunchy Baked Pesto Chicken Thighs; Garlic Chili Green Beans with Black Bean Chicken; Chef John’s Drunken Noodles; White Manhattan cocktail; White Lady cocktail; New York Sour cocktail

*******Dishes I made with my new year ham: Cubanos; Raspberry-Ham Sandwiches; Apple-Ham Quiche; Baked-Potato Soup; Ham Dinner; Andouille Mac and Cheese; Creamy Cauliflower, Potato, and White Bean Soup; Split Pea Soup; Spanish Tortilla with Ham; Curried Lentil Stew with Ham; Quiche; Ham Tetrazinni; Lentil Soup with Ham

********Podcasts: Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me; You’re Wrong About; Morning Edition; Reveal; Savage Lovecast; This American Life; Side Door; Radio Lab; On Our Watch; Dolly Parton’s America; The Experiment; Mississippi Goddamn; The Trojan Horse Affair; The War of the Roses; American History Tellers; We Were Three; Working it Out; LeVar Burton Reads; This Podcast Will Kill You

*********Magazines: The New Yorker; Asimov’s; Discover; Fantasy and Science-Fiction Magazine

**********Books: Contemporary Women’s Post-Apocalyptic Fiction by Susan Watkins; The Rivers of London Books 7 & 8 & 9, Tales from the Folly by Ben Aaronovitch; The President’s Brain is Missing by John Scalzi; Dearly by Margaret Atwood; Still Life by Sarah Winman; Meat Cute: The Hedgehog Incident by Gail Carriger; Delightfully Deadly trilogy by Gail Carriger; Inanna’s Tears by Rob Vollman & MPMANN; Cathedral by Raymond Carver; Jim Henson’s Labyrinth: Coronation volumes; Wolf Hall; D: A Tale of Two Worlds by Michel Faber; Monstress vol. 1 by Marjorie Liu and Sana Takeda; The Best of Me by David Sedaris; The Best American Comics 2018; A History of Wild Places by Shea Ernshaw; Ancient Egypt by Campbell Price; Little Weirds by Jenny Slate; Hamnet by Maggie O’ Farrell; The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi; Circus of Wonders by Elizabeth Macneal; Gallant by V.E. Schwab; Ink & Sigil 2 by Kevin Hearne; Ark by Veronica Roth; Randomize by Andy Weir; Emergency Skin by N.K. Jemisin; The Kaiju Preservation Society by John Scalzi; No Country for Old Gnomes by Kevin Hearne; How Quini the Squid Misplaced His Klobucar by Rich Larson; My Evil Mother by Margaret Atwood; Wolf of Wessex by Matthew Harffy; What Have You Changed Your Mind About? by John Brockman; Kaikeyi by Vaishnavi Patel; Everything My Mother Taught Me by Alice Hoffman; Halfway to Free by Emma Donoghue; How the Multiverse Got Its Revenge by K. Eason; The Year of Lear by James S. Shapiro; Hurricane Girl by Marge Dermansky; Wild Country and Crowbones by Anne Bishop; The Rabbit Factor by Antti Tuomainen; Incryptid 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 by Seanan McGuire; The Magician’s Diary by C.J. Archer; A Shitload of Crazy Powers by Jackson Ford; Unforgettable by Eric James Stone; Paladin’s Grace & Paladin’s Strength by T. Kingfisher; Florida Woman by Deb Rogers; An Elderly Lady is Up to No Good by Helene Tursten; The Book Eaters by Sunyi Dean; Where the Drowned Girls Go by Seanan McGuire; The Pirate Queen by Judith Cooke; Woman, Eating by Claire Kohda; Artifact Space by Miles Cameron; Clocktaur books by T. Kingfisher; We Are Bone and Earth by Esi Edugyan; Ash Wednesday by Paula McLain; The Near Witch by V.E. Schwab; Uncharted Waters by Sally Hepworth; You’re Invited by Amanda Jayatissa; One Way by SJ Morden; Themes and Variations by David Sedaris; Young, Damned, and Fair by Gareth Russell; That Time I Got Drunk and Saved a Demon by Kimberly Lemming; The Dispatcher by John Scalzi; Keeper of Enchanted Rooms by Charlie N. Holmberg; The Book of the Unnamed Midwife by Meg Elison; That Leviathan, Whom Thou Hast Made by Eric James Stone; A Psalm for the Wild-Built: 1 by Beck Chambers; The Princess Beard by Kevin Hearne and Delilah S. Dawson; The School Mistress by Tess Thompson; The City of Brass by S.A. Chakraborty; Glass and Steele 4, 5, & 6 by C.J. Arthur; The Changeling by Victor LaValle; The Man Who Died by Antti Tuomainen; A Memory Called Empire by Arkady Martine; Palm Beach, Finland by Antti Tuomainen; Magic Bitter, Magic Sweet by Charlie N. Holmberg; The Fortunes of Jaded Women by Carolyn Huynh; The Spare Man by Mary Robinette Kowal; Letter to My Younger Self, edited by Jane Graham; Maniac of New York series of comics; ExtraOrdinary series of comics; The Maid by Nita Prose; The Pull of the Stars by Emma Donoghue

***********Plays: Pass Over; Death and Harry Houdini; Lifespan of a Fact; Smart People; Sanctuary City; The Last Return; Vanishing Grace; Lost Hearts; The Best Man; The Whiskey Wars; Solar Bones; Potted Potter; If These Wigs Could Talk; Haunted; Sky Falls; The Weir; An Lan; Afterplay; Tootsie

******SPOILERS BELOW********

I honestly don’t know how I feel about She-Hulk Attorney At Law. I’ve been ambivalent through the entire season.

On the one hand, I love the actors.

But I don’t love how all of them were used. Tatiana Maslany is capable of so much more than they’re giving her to do. And I love Jameela Jamil, but her role in the show is confusing. There’s no backstory or reason to care about the relationship between our hero and one of our villains.

Speaking of villains, I wanted something more than an “influencer” and a group of incel trolls.

On the other hand, when I thought about it, an evil influencer fits the comedy aspect of the show.

And I shouldn’t discount the terror of male trolls. In our world, they are mass shooters; they are white supremacists trying to end our democracy.

Why do I want an alien or supervillain threat instead?

Maybe because I like it when my sci-fi / fantasy gives me at least the veneer of allegories of evil instead of the real evil that upsets my stomach every day?

Most people have been enjoying the 4th-wall breaking, I just think about how Deadpool does it so much better.

But then again, they wouldn’t have been able to do the meta ending without that 4th-wall breakage.

I’ll watch Season 2, but I want something more.

I got my final grades in today for Spring 2022–it’s the end of my 23rd year of teaching.

My 24th year begins on 6/20, starting with class 316. Over the next week, I need to finish putting the course page together.

And I’m starting to panic: in addition to teaching both summer sessions, I have to get ready to leave the country twice. I leave for Spain in three weeks: I have two conferences back to back there.

And it’s official: I’m going to Dublin at the end of September.

I need my brain to shut up about it all, though, so I can sleep. It’s especially worried right now about how to pack for over two weeks in Spain (while working) and almost three months in Dublin. It keeps reminding me that I’m not supposed to carry anything heavy.

In the past couple of weeks, I’ve introduced the senior comedy show, been to Jacob’s goodbye show, and hosted the extraordinary stand-up class final performance.

I got all dressed up for the senior comedy show: the theme was black tie, and I didn’t have an appropriate outfit, so I had to get a new one. I pulled some black heels out of the very top of the closet. The bottom of both came off before I made it out on stage.

Saying goodbye to my graduating comedy students is breaking my heart.

Last weekend, I saw three plays: a workshop of a new musical about Houdini, Henry V via National Theatre Live, and The Lifespan of a Fact at CapStage. I was especially interested in the latter, since I’ve met its subject, John D’Agata. His aversion to fact checking (and the play about it) is mentioned in Melissa and my sources textbook. One of the authors of the play and I got to chatting on social media after I posted about it.

I’ve recently started dating again. In fact, I was a very sweet guy’s first date from the internet ever. He seemed genuinely surprised when I told him how common it was to find someone there. I had an awful second date with someone too.

Dating is always anxiety producing, and I think of Margaret Atwood’s quote in Cat’s Eye: “I’d been reading modern French novels and William Faulkner as well. I knew what love was supposed to be: obsession, with undertones of nausea.”

The boy and I saw Bob’s Burgers: The Movie, which was great.

My colleagues and I got together at the park–someone missing how I used to spoil them at the grading sessions I ran asked me to make something, so I treated them all to rum cake.

My son’s new girlfriend gave me farm-fresh eggs, and I made quiche, scrambled eggs, and pound cake. She also brought me a new whiskey: so good!

I’ve also been writing a lot of letters of rec, I got a dental cleaning and filling fix, did my yearly eye appointment, and ordered new glasses. I also wrote a furious letter to UCD, after a shot nurse there decided she was done giving me the asthma drug I desperately need, without telling me (I was still on the schedule and still showed up for my appointment, though she was nowhere to be found), and without making sure I could get the shots with my new allergist. So I guess I’m just going to miss this month’s doses.

I watched the first day of Congressional testimony in the January 6th investigation and cried.

I didn’t get Covid, though I feared I would. It’s a matter of time, I know. It’s just too contagious to avoid it forever.

In closing today, I’ll leave you with the best compliment I got from a graduating student: “Yours was the first class at UCD that I couldn’t bullshit my way through.”

Christmas was quiet and lovely. We had our traditional orange rolls for breakfast and appetizer lunch. (We tried Trader Joe’s Green Bean Casserole bites–we’re not fans.) The boy wanted Lamb Shawarma, so dinner was an easy crock pot creation. For dessert, we had local salted caramel ice cream in waffle bowls.

We watched the first Simpsons Christmas episode, the Christmas Futuramas, three classic Christmas movies, and two early Eddie Izzard specials.

We sat on couches under blankets and cats.

It was perfect.

(Except for how I worried that there was something in my ear for a long time because of weird noises coming from inside. But then the boy got it out–a stray piece of my hair was touching things and driving me mad.)

Right now, I’m half-watching the new Matrix, after rewatching the originals throughout the week. The first was so astounding all those years ago. The technology is of course not new now, and I prefer Matthew Vaughn’s fight scenes to these. I want to love this series, but maybe I’ve read too many boring, formulaic undergrad essays about whether we’re living in a simulation . . . Spotting all the layers of allusions and myths engage me mentally, and the meta-ness of the film I’m sort of listening to while I type might too, but I don’t think the series will ever have my heart.

And I started forbidding “what if we’re living in a simulation” papers last year.

In the last week (plus, since I left a lot out of the last one), I’ve gotten to see many of my closest friends, I’ve gotten a swell heated blanket, gotten a Margaret Atwood stamp from Margaret Atwood, gotten to see the Banksy exhibit, which I have mixed feelings about, have had to shift my pill times around (it went from five to seven and back to five times a day), made my annual Christmas music mix . . .

I forgot three important details about my colonoscopy last time: how I bled all over the blanket before I went under, when the nurse putting in my IV messed up, how three of my nurses were named Julie (which was convenient when I needed to get one of them “hey, Julie, I’m bleeding all over everything”), and how they did a pregnancy test for everyone except me, not even asking if they needed to, even though had a whole month of fertility possibility!

The best thing that’s happened recently, though, is that Paul, my beloved primary is back. When I went to the ER a few weeks ago, there was a message from Paul about it before I even got back home.

My arm is still fucked up, but my throat is healed from the colonoscopy day, and I have good doctors, and I’m typing in the light of a Christmas tree, so I’m very lucky.

In no particular order.

Trips to Marina’s cabin in the woods: 1

Octopus necklaces: 1

Octopus necklaces that need a new clasp: 1

Tire blowouts on the freeway: 1

Books Read and Reread: 75

(Blonde Roots by Bernadine Evaristo; The Swallowed Man by Edward Carey; State of Wonder by Ann Patchett; The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern; The Witch’s Heart by Genevieve Gornichec*; Middle-Game by Seanan McGuire; A Darker Shade of Magic (and its two sequels) by V.E. Schwab*; Vicious and Vengeful by V.E. Schwab; The Illigitimates by Killam, Andreyko, Sharpe, and Pantazis; Stiletto by Daniel O’Malley*; Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir*; 1st two books in The Sixth World series by Rebecca Roanhorse; The Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi; The Will and the Wilds by Charlie N. Holmberg; The Chosen and the Beautiful by Nghi Vo; The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V.E. Schwab*; McSweeney’s Enchanted Chamber of Astonishing Stories; The Sunset Route by Carrot Quinn; The Children of Virtue and Vengeance by Tomi Adeyemi; Mrs. March by Virginia Feito; City of Ghosts by Victoria Schwab; The Line Becomes a River by Francisco Cantú; The Books of Magic by Neil Gaiman; The Inheritance of Orquidea Divina by Zoraida Cordova; The Last Graduate by Naomi Novik; Sistersong by Lucy Holland; Cat’s Eye by Margaret Atwood*; Artemis by Andy Weir; The Witching Hour by Anne Rice; How Rory Thorne Destroyed the Multiverse by K. Easton; The first six books of the Rivers of London series by Ben Aaronovitch; Fuzz by Mary Roach; Kill the Farm Boy by Kevin Hearne and Delilah S. Dawson; The Tale of the Wicked by John Scalzi; An Election by John Scalzi; The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss*; Ink & Sigil by Kevin Hearne; Snow White, Blood Red Anthology; Across the Green Fields by Seanan McGuire; the first three books in the Glass and Steele series by C.J. Archer; the four books in The Court of Thorns and Roses series by Sarah J. Maas; Home: Habitat, Range, Niche, Territory by Martha Wells; the first three books in The Frost Files series by Jackson Ford; Spellmaker by Charlie N. Holmberg; Fugitive Telemetry by Martha Wells; Unexpected Stories by Octavia E. Butler; Kindred by Octavia E. Butler*; Passage by Connie Willis; The Master Magician, The Glass Magician, and The Paper Magician by Charlie N. Holmberg; A Wizard’s Guide to Defensive Baking by T. Kingfisher; the last two books in the Parasitology series by Mira Grant; I Met a Traveller in an Antique Land by Connie Willis; Take a Look at the Five and Ten by Connie Willis; four back issues of Asmimov’s)–asterisks denote the most beloved

The book from last year I can’t get out of my mind: Why Fish Don’t Exist by Lulu Miller

Books I’m reading right now: 7

Haircuts: 2, which is 2 more than last year!

Bras worn since I fucked up my shoulder a month ago: 0

Average number of times I scream during the day by moving my arm wrong: 3

Average number of times I scream and wake myself up at night by moving my arm wrong: 5

Dishes I made with my 2021 New Year Ham: 8

(Split Pea Soup; Baked Potato Soup; Ham Dinner; Herbed White Bean Soup; Ham Tetrazzinni; Jambalaya; Ham & Zucchini Bread; Quiche)

Letters of Rec written: 12 (they’re down because of the pandemic)

Magazine Subscriptions: 6

(Discovery; The New Yorker; Food and Wine; All Recipes; Asimov’s; Science Fiction and Fantasy)

Uncomfortable, unadjustable treadmills bought: 1

Other health and safety setbacks to my attempts to be in better shape: 5

Pounds I lost, slowly, anyway: 15

Equity Professional Development workshops attended: 3

Times I rolled my eyes when in equity workshops I was told that we shouldn’t ever count work as late, give zeros to missing assignments, or give credit to students who actually do all the assignments well (they are apparently all wealthy and entitled), or count anything in the final grade except the one assignment they did the best on: SO many.

Simpsons/Davis/Doctor Who paintings acquired: 1

New to me TV watched/binged: 51

(Bridgerton; Supernatural; Star Trek Lower Decks*; All Creatures Great and Small; The Flight Attendant; Miss Scarlet and Duke; Mr. Mayor; Flack; Resident Alien*; Call My Agent; The Watch; Luther; It’s a Sin; The Bureau; Staged*; Lupin; Made for Love; The Nevers*; Family Business; Shtisel; Falcon and the Winter Soldier; Hacks; Ted Lasso*; For All Mankind*; Atlantic Crossing; Wandavision; Loki*; Feel Good; Us; Ragnarok; Blindspotting; Schmigadoon; I’m Sorry*; Dickinson; Katla; Harley Quinn*; Only Murders in the Building; The Chair; The Cook of Castamar; Reservation Dogs; Y The Last Man; Ghosts*; Seaside Hotel*; Landscapers; Station 11; The Miniaturist; The Chaperone; The Long Song; Dexter: New Blood; Another Life)

Air fryers bought and used SO much: 2

Spiders falling into in my wine, drowning, because they were hiding in my aerator: 1

Shows I kept up with: 28

(Doctor Who–I actually finished rewatching all of them again, which I started last year; His Dark Materials; The Discovery of Witches; SNL (except Musk); Seth Meyers (not the interviews, though); Disenchantment; Ramy; The Simpsons; Bob’s Burgers; Stath Lets Flats; John Oliver; Avenue 5; Breeders; The Handmaid’s Tale; The Daily Show; Shrill; Kim’s Convenience; the end of Conan’s show; The Kominski Method; Miracle Workers; AP Bio; After Life; Dead to Me; The Great; Star Trek Discovery; Lost in Space; Grace and Frankie; Woke)

Not-new shows I rewatched in their entirety: 8

(The Expanse; Star Trek: Voyager; Brooklyn 99; Torchwood; Futurama XMas episodes; BBC’s Pride and Prejudice; Call the Midwife; finished rewatching Schitt’s Creek again)

Seasons of The Simpsons the boy and I rewatched: 27

Campus Book Project Talks Given: 2

Postcards and letters sent: not sure, but about 200

Awesome Keynote Speeches Given: 1

Amazing Online Margaret Atwood Conferences: 1

Favorite New Recipes: 13

(corn ice cream; skillet enchiladas; air fryer katsu; greek chicken; air fryer tandoori chicken; harissa chicken; lentils with sausage and apples; drunken noodles; gingerbread cake; green curry chicken with green beans; salmon in fig sauce; fig cake; honey-glazed chicken and shallots)

Average number of health appointments per week: 3

Average number of pills I take first thing: 10

Time-to-take-my-pills times per day: 5

In-person conferences: 1

Audience members at the in-person conference presentation who were not the chair, a speaker, or a speaker’s boyfriend: 1

Movies watched and rewatched: 176

(The Thin Man Returns; Another Thin Man; WW84; Soul; That Touch of Mink; Elizabeth is Missing; Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid; Nomadland*; The Thin Man Goes Home; Coming 2 America; The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone; The Age of Innocence; How to Be A Good Wife; The Adventures of Margo and Marguerite; SFFF Short Films; Judas and the Black Messiah; Minari; Trial of the Chicago Seven; Mank; Over the Moon; Oscar Shorts; Borat Subsequent Moviefilm; Sound of Metal; Wolfwalkers*; White Tiger; Covergirl; Tenet; Hopscotch; Thunder Force; The ABCs of Love; Army of the Dead; Wild Irish Thyme; Shrek 1 & 2; Song of the Thin Man; 36 Hours; The Goonies*; Willow; Rava and the Last Dragon; Murphy’s Romance; Design for Living; Eat a Bowl of Tea; SFFF Shorts (2nd set); Love Affair(s); Faithful; Live Flesh; Dark Habits; The Sunshine Boys; De Gaulle; Delete History; Josep; The Bears’ Famous Invasion of Sicily; Red Soil; The V.I.P.s; A Son; All Hands on Deck; June Bride; Appearances; Chariots of Fire; In the Heights; Blue Bird; The Circus; Passion Fish; Waiting for Guffman; Ready or Not; Torn Curtain; The Madness of King George; The Man Who Came to Dinner; Father of the Bride; Pulp; Body Heat; Rachel, Rachel; Running on Empty; Gypsy; Antonio Gaudi; Stowaway; Deathtrap; They Met in Bombay; And So They Were Married; Black Widow; Spider-Man: Homecoming*; Spider-Man: Far From Home; Tequila Sunrise; Secrets and Lies; Any Wednesday; Fun with Dick and Jane (the original); Beverly Hills Cop (all three); The Hard Way; The Suicide Squad 2; Bowfinger; City Slickers; After Earth; French Exit; Greed; See No Evil, Hear No Evil; Batman; Shang-Chi*; Gunpowder Milkshake; Star Trek; Xanadu; The Extra Man; Addicted to Love; Reminiscence; Their Finest; Contagion; Free Guy; Practical Magic; A Promising Young Woman; Primal Fear; No Reservations; Cabin in the Woods*; Blood and Wine; Get Out*; The Witches of Eastwick; Scotland, PA*; Hocus Pocus; Death Becomes Her; The Addams Family (2019); Beautiful Creatures; Super 8; News of the World; What About Bob; Edward Scissorhands*; Ruthless People; Let the Right One In*; The Philadelphia Story*; Alien*; And So It Goes; My Octopus Teacher; Journey 2; Jungle Cruise; Dune; Psycho; For Your Consideration; Shaun of the Dead*; Cinema Paradiso*; Single All the Way; Six Minutes to Midnight; Bridget Jones’s Diary; The Electrical Life of Louis Wain; Russell Howard: Lubricant; The Nightmare Before Christmas; Ironman 3; Jim Gaffigan: Comedy Monster; The Power of the Dog; The Matrix Trilogy; Ocean’s 11; Four Weddings and a Funeral; Breaking News in Yuba County; Scott Pilgrim vs. the World; new Pixar and Disney and Marvel shorts; Silent Night; Oceans 12; Oceans 13; It’s a Wonderful Life; The Bishop’s Wife; Miracle on 34th Street (original); Eddie Izzard: Unrepeatable; Eddie Izzard: Definite Article; Eddie Izzard: Glorious; The Matrix Resurrections; Eddie Izzard: Dress to Kill; Seven Psychopaths; Spiderman: No Way Home; Encanto; Rush Hour; Deadpool*; Deadpool 2*; Eddie Izzard: Circle; Tig Notaro: Drawn; Taylor Tomlinson: Quarter-Life Crisis?; Daniel Sloss: X; Daniel Sloss: Dark)

Movies in a movie theatre: 3

Times I’ve watched Labyrinth since Vanessa moved to Indiana: 0

Plans to watch Labyrinth on 1/1/21: 1

Movies I watch without cleaning, answering email, or otherwise trying to be productive: almost none

Days without period blood this month: 8

Days until my hysterectomy: 14

Wine advent calendars: 1

Whiskey advent calendars: 1

Things I didn’t do, places I didn’t visit, friends I didn’t see, because of Covid: innumerable

Classes taught: 16 (four in person)–it’s one line, but this was the bulk of the year

Plays, live, on PBS, and on Zoom: 18

(Angry Raucous and Shamelessly Gorgeous; Joy, Unboxed; Smart People; The Baltimore Waltz, Content; On the Rhine; The Sisters Rosensweig; Writing Fragments; Dear Elizabeth; Small Step; The Brunch Club; A Bee in a Jar; an MFA project on food; Ripe Frenzy; Freedom of Speech; Still Will Be Heard; Ann; Gloria: A Life; Admissions)

Days I didn’t do school or admin work this month: 6 (the most of any month!)

Wisconsin things I tried: 5

(A brandy old-fashioned (I prefer an old-fashioned old-fashioned); fried cheese curds; local sausage; local beer; apple pie in a paper bag)

Public Service Loan Applications I filed: 2

Times the DOE gave me terrible advice, which caused the first application to be rejected, which upped my monthly payment amount to more than my rent, which restarted my PLSF clock, which would have changed what I ultimately paid to the DOE to a quarter of a million dollars, and which caused incredible tension and stress: 2

Fingers I have crossed that the second application works: all of them, toes too. Please cross yours.

Nights of shagging: 1, which is one more than last year

Trips to Indiana: 1

Incredible birthdays in Indiana, which included “duck and duck” and “corn brulee”: 1

Trips to Chicago: 1

Atwood Presidencies ended: 1

Atwood Journal Editorships that continue: 1

Merit raises I won in the last three-year review, on top of my regular cost of living raise, because I am a bad-ass: 1

Fights the union won, after years of negotiations: 1

Strikes averted: 1

Raises I’ll get because of my union in the next few years: several

Cable cords cut: 1

DVRs the company said I didn’t have to give back: 1

Subscription streaming services, though not usually at the same time: 8

Cars in our household: 2

Currently working cars in our household: 1

Energy to deal with the non-working car: 0

Kimonos bought: 6

Kimonos kept: 5

Days I tried to edit an essay about the Sons of Jacob right-wing overthrow of the American government in The Handmaid’s Tale while an actual right-wing coup happened: 1

Republican officials who seem to take a fucking coup seriously: 1

(Oh, wait: her party voted her out.)

Republican officials with any integrity or moral compass on this issue, now that the one is kicked out: 0

Atwood journals out: 1

pages of the Atwood journal: 340

Great covers for the Atwood journal by Scott Shaw: 1

Toes I quickly dipped in the dating pool: 1

Times I was stood up: 1

Times I wasn’t stood up: 1

Toes pulled back up out of the dating pool: 1

New slogans, taken from student evals: 1

(“terrifying in all the right ways”)

MLA presentations in slippers and pajama bottoms: 1

Zoom classes, presentations, and conferences without shoes: all of them

Museums/Exhibits attended: 2

My back going out ruining the first week of class: 1

An ER trip ruining a last class: 1

Facet injections: many, but just one session

Colonoscopies and endoscopies: 1 of each

Uterine scrapings: 1

New xmas tree ornaments: 1

Christmas trees put up, with just lights and that one ornament: 1

Handmade figurines of Emmet Otter’s Jug Band: 4

Christmas card to (and from) a penpal I’ve been writing to since middle school: 1

Presents the boy got me after I nursed him through his oral surgery: 1

Double Mix CD for Valentine’s Day: 1

Double Mix CD for Halloween: 1

Double Mix CD for Christmas: 1

New artists I like that I discovered by listening to NPR’s New Music Playlist on Spotify each week: about two dozen

Live and Zoom Stand-Up watched: 30

(Judah Friedlander; Judy Gold; Dr. Katz Live (3); Todd Barry; SF Sketchfest; my students 7 times; Invisible Disabilities; Birbiglia (2); Maria Bamford (2); Myq Kaplan; Sarah Silverman; the Sklar Brothers; Greg Proops; Todd Barry + Natasha Leggaro birthday show; Pete Holmes; Star Wars Day Show; Louie Anderson; Keith Lowell Jensen; Jackie Kashian; New Year’s Eve Show)

Grief counseling in office hours: many

Night guards made: 2

Night guards I had to stop wearing because it made me grind more: 1

Night guards that may help with something, not sure yet: 1

Students who got into Prized Writing: 2

Podcasts: 21

(Radio Lab*; You’re Wrong About*; Fresh Air; This American Life*; Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me*; Morning Edition; All Things Considered; Working it Out; The Improvement Association*; WTF; 1619; Don’t Ask Tig; Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend; The Experiment; On Our Watch; Invisibilia; Savage Lovecast*; Sex, Death & Money; LeVar Burton Reads; This Podcast Will Kill You; Reveal)

(The two episodes of Radio Lab I most recommend: “Everybody’s Got One”; “Oliver Sipple”)

My stand-up performances: 3

(mon chatte; my partisan pussy; bikes)

Times I got to geek out over Zoom with Ellen Forney: 2

Vaccine Doses: 3

Primary care physicians who retired but came back, like they said they would, despite what everyone thought: 1

Letters from Atwood: 1

Days the cats made me a little happier than I would have been without them: 365

Years I’ve wanted eggnog pie, but not made eggnog pie: so many

Times I finally made eggnog pie: 1

Times I screwed up the texture of the eggnog pie, because I got distracted by Betty White, one of my heroes, dying and thus let part of it set too long while I cried: 1

Slightly-screwed up eggnog pies that I’m going to eat anyway: 1

This has been quite a week.

As you’re all aware, the Department of Education is behaving terribly. Mohela said they would help. I don’t think I’ll be able to fully release the breath I’ve been holding since Tuesday until I can *see* that my loans have been de-consolidated on all of the websites.

And then the fun of figuring out the next step will begin.

But that’s not all that’s happened this week.

A beloved colleague died.

I learned that a family member has cancer.

A student said something hyperbolic in an email about suicide, which meant many hours of talking to her and to the powers that could help her.

It’s incredibly hot. The kind of hot where you feel rather ill even in an air-conditioned room.

The highest percentage of students ever failed my untimed, open-everything library quiz. After reading a chapter on how to research and watching a screen capture video I made specific to our library, students are asked to find a nonacademic source, a book, and a peer-reviewed article on The Simpsons. The instructions specifically tell them not to find me something about OJ Simpson, Jessica Simpson, the Simpson’s paradox, etc. So when a third of my students linked to an article about the Simpson’s paradox, I cut and pasted the instructions into the comments, to explain why they got a zero on that question.

I then sent out an announcement about it.

A couple of days later, I got an email from a student who said she didn’t understand my comment or why she was marked wrong. She explained that “the Simpson’s paradox” was in the title of the article, so how was she wrong?!?

In three weeks, these students will be done with the last writing/research class most of them will ever be asked to take.

I had to see my gyno’s colleague because of more issues with bleeding (this will apparently be “Summer of Blood 2: The Bloodening”). When I was getting checked in, the receptionist asked if I wanted to pop back for the allergy shots I was supposed to get the next day, so I only had to come once. Then, the allergy nurse said I needed to meet the new allergy doc, so she could refill my prescription, and asked if I wanted to do that after I saw the gyno. And then the nurse appeared, having to wait for all the shots to go in (there are four, and they’re complicated). It took me a moment, though, in the exam room, to figure out he was trying to check me in for the allergy appointment first. So we had to find the other nurse to take me to the right room.

And the gyno said no sex for a month.

What’s been good?

I started Blindspotting on Starz; it’s beautiful. I wish I had the dance vocabulary to talk about some of the physical work they do on the show. The slam poetry they incorporate is fantastic too. Highly recommended.

Dante stopped watching Schitt’s Creek last year, after a break up, but this week I used my horrible mental health to explain why we had to go back in. And now he’s seen the whole series.

I got to take Melissa to Tapa the World to celebrate her birthday.

I got to make a Mexican feast for a couple of friends last night.

The main thing, though, that has gotten my through this week is the outpouring of support that I’ve gotten from you. So many of you offered to help. So many of you gave your sympathy, love, and prayers.

I am immensely blessed to have you all in my life.

And so, for you, another new wrap pic:

First, the horrifying news: a former student was abducted and murdered in Russia. We were no longer in contact, but my mind conjured her the second I saw her name. She was an extraordinary young woman.

My 304th class began–and advanced writing course at SCC (asynchronous). A few students are already awesome, and a few are already getting on my nerves, due to the inability to go a few hours without emailing me about something they could totally find themselves. I got the whole course loaded–all six weeks are set up on Canvas. And this week I start figuring out my two UCD courses that start just as the SCC one ends.

The Sacramento French Film Festival was this week, so I watched nine films and all the shorts. I also managed to finish the latest season of American Gods and Nghi Vo’s The Chosen and the Beautiful. My brain wants to write nine papers about the former, and I’m glad the latter is part of The Bloggess’s book club, because I need to talk about it. It is beautifully written, but there’s one bold choice that I just don’t get/appreciate. Without giving anything away, I’ll just say that a metaphor becomes literalized in a jarring way that doesn’t really add anything (for me).

I discovered this recipe for skillet enchiladas, and I will never roll enchiladas up and stick them into a hot oven again.

I was part of the judging for Prized Writing (and had another student win), got to celebrate the end of the year with my union, and had a productive end-of-year meeting with the Stand Up Club.

My body has not been helpful at all this week, but I’m back up to 45 minutes on my walk.

I also created a Bumble profile. I’m not really doing anything with it yet. I realize that as things open up, I’ll want to have someone to go to events with–and while I have lots of friends for that, it might be nice to have sex after an event every once in a while.

I’m still hesitant, though, about dating again. It’s often such a demoralizing hassle. And I don’t think I’m looking for anything long-term right now.

I’m pretty sure the writer, directors, and producers of Avenue 5 aren’t psychic. They’re probably just as surprised as anyone that their show, which was conceived in 2017 and premiered on January 19th, 2020 (HBO), is the perfect media mirror for pandemic America.

[Spoilers follow–most are revealed in the first episode. Since it’s a black comedy, you knowing a few things in advance shouldn’t spoil the enjoyment.]

Avenue 5 is a starship/cruise ship. In this future, NASA exists, but passengers have embarked on an eight-month journey on a private enterprise venture. Josh Gadd plays Herman Judd, owner of Judd Galaxy and a not-so-thinly-veiled parody of Trump. (He’s an idiot, he worships himself, he thinks all decorating should be gold, etc.)

The thirty second commercial for his cruise can be seen here, to give you an idea.

Unluckily for him, and perhaps even more unfortunately for his passengers, he’s aboard this ship when they get thrown off course. They quickly learn it’s going to take three and a half years to get home (not that they have enough supplies for that).

Can Captain Jordan Hatwal (Hugh Laurie) save them?

Absolutely not, and not because he’s an incompetent captain in the way that Judd is an incompetent businessman.

Hatwal is an actor, playing a captain, complete with toupee and fake accent. His job is to inspire confidence, which would be relatively easy if the ship were sailing smoothly. It’s much harder when reality and Judd’s antics work against him.

It was eerie to watch this last year, with the pandemic in full swing. When classes first went online in March, and we were all supposed to stay home, we thought it might be for a few weeks. Soon after, as we started to see the numbers, we realized that the end of isolation wasn’t in sight. I lost sleep thinking about everything I needed to prepare for my son in case I got sick, in case my damaged asthmatic lungs succumbed to the virus.

To say I empathized with the ship’s passengers is an understatement. There I was, in seclusion with my son, worried about dwindling supplies and dwindling sanity, watching confused and terrified and isolated people who didn’t know when or if they would make it.

Did that make the show any less funny? Nope. I love this show–it’s hilarious. The cast is amazing. My favorites are Zach Woods, as the nihilistic Head of Consumer Relations, and Himesh Patel, as the ship’s beleaguered stand-up comic.

My students are working on a time capsule assignment this term–if they had to pick one piece of media to put into a time capsule, what would it be? What captures us?

Here’s why Avenue 5 would go into mine.

1. The obvious comparison between the plight of the passengers and the plight of the world in the pandemic.
2. Judd as Trump, for the same reason. Take this Judd quote: “You know how you make things happen? You find someone who’ll say it can happen, and then you make them say it. That’s how they built the pyramids.” You can picture Trump saying that, right?
3. Because the characters have problems connecting with their friends and families back home, and because they can’t physically be with them and because of the lag. Watching Judd get frustrated when there’s a lag with his team back on Earth will be familiar to anyone who had to learn Zoom really fast and had to work with people who aren’t fast learners.
4. There’s a Karen. A literal Karen. Her name is Karen Kelly, in fact, which is funny in my house because of a particularly troublesome neighbor named Kelly. Is Karen Kelly everything a Karen meme promises? Yes. And more.
5. There’s mansplaining. And people who call it out.
6. Staff who actually know what they’re doing are constantly undermined by their asinine bosses, much as Dr. Fauci and all of the other scientists were undermined by Trump and the GOP.
7. The characters struggle, and relationships fall apart under the strain, as happened in quarantine.
8. Women of color have their work and victories appropriated by white men.
9. There’s classism.
10. There’s scapegoating.
11. Some of the passengers begin to think the ship’s tragedy is a hoax. Rather than listen to the (admittedly problematic) leaders, they decide they’re actually on Earth, on a prank show. Much as Boris Johnson went to a hospital and touched infected patients without using PPE to show he wasn’t “afraid” of Covid (and then got Covid and ended up in the ICU), some passengers try to prove their conspiracy theory by going out of the airlock. And they die.

Armando Iannucci‘s satire of human nature under stress is spot on.