7 p.m.

Roessler Hall 66, UCD

Number of resolutions made last year: 5

(rest more, try at least 52 new recipes, see a movie in the theatre each week; learn to make 12 new cocktails)

Number of resolutions kept: 2

Days in hammock: 0

New Recipes Tried: 59

(Best new recipe: Spicy Thai Eggplant with Ground Pork and Tofu)

New Cocktails Made: 17

Podcasts I’ve tried to keep up with: 23

Magazine subscriptions I tried to keep up with: 6

Times Karen drove down from Santa Rosa to see me: 2

Movies watched: 69

(including 6 at the Sacramento French Film Festival)

Oscar-Nominated Movies last year: 9 + 15 this year = 24

Oscar-Nominated Shorts: 11

Drunk women encountered at the airport who could not believe she had to change terminals to get to Omaha: 1

Times Jeff accidentally told the Omaha woman to get off the tram at the wrong stop: 1

Times I overheard Italians saying “Mamma Mia” in a completely natural way, which I didn’t believe they did: 6 (three just at the airport when dealing with tourists)

Times my house was completely clean: 0

Times in Ireland that I went to find a King crest souvenir because a paternal ancestor migrated from Derry to PA in the 1700s, and a Conroy crest souvenir because my maternal cousins’ paternal ancestor migrated from Derry to PA in the 1800s, and I learned that some Conroys anglicized their names to King, so maybe my cousins and I are related in another way way back: 1

Painful two-part dental procedures: 1

Places visited: 9

(Chicago, Indianapolis, Milan, London, Guatemala, Northern Ireland, Malta, Anaheim, Verona)

Weeks away from home: 8

Full days home between Milan and Ireland: 5

New nieces: 1

Bad mental health months: 2

New combination air fryers / toaster ovens, which resulted in the net loss of one kitchen tool: 1

Visits to the airport Pappadeux: 2

Derry Girl sets sat upon: 2

Museums & Galleries: 25

Times Jeff and I went back to the same favorite restaurant in Malta: 5

Fancy multi-course dinners in Malta: 1

Times I could get a taxi easily in Derry: 1

Times I could NOT get a taxi easily in Derry: 3

Times I could NOT get a taxi at all in Derry: 3

Times I set up a taxi and waited for it on the street at 5 a.m. and it didn’t come and didn’t come and finally they sent another taxi because the first one had a flat and the driver told me to relax because we had plenty of time, but then I got to the airport (the airport with *1* terminal) and they had stopped check in and the lady who worked there started to lecture me about getting to the airport on time and I started to cry and she let me check in, so I did get to join the 11 other people getting on the plane a while later: 1

Students who got into Prized Writing: 2

Conferences: 7

New summer abroad classes developed: 1

Film Festivals: 2

Indian fairs: 1

Trying fry bread for the first time: 1

A dinner ruined by nearby conservative Americans in Milan: 1

Times I wanted a gazpacho (with egg topping), but misread the menu and somehow ended up paying 16 euros for *a* poached egg with gazpacho drizzle: 1

Poached eggs enjoyed: 0

London Arboretums: 1

New lovely scarves: 3

Times I got Covid: 1

Days picking up wine with my man: 1

Times a pharmacist in Milan was rude when I needed help for my IBS: 1 (“No. We don’t have it! Goodbye!!!”)

Nando’s meals: 6

Atwood talks given: 1

Times I got a flat tire on the way to my Atwood talk and abandoned my car on the side of the road to make it on time: 1

Meals at my favorite Milan restaurant (Mappamando): 5

Comedy Specials Watched: 21

Live Comedy Shows: 3 (Keith Lowell Jensen; Judah Friedlander; Hannah Einbinder)

Other Live Shows: 3 (Nina Totenberg; Meow Meow; The Labricks)

Times Meow Meow had Jeff come up on stage as part of her act: 1

New tires required: 2

Front end work required: 1

Times Dante got a flat while my car was in the shop: 1

Days just in December when I couldn’t walk: 3

Days in December when I could just shuffle: 5

Classes taught: 12

(full time is 7)

New ornaments for the tree: 11

Time I tried Malort: 1

Times I enjoyed Malort: 0

Times I finished 25 years of teaching and threw myself a party: 1

Times I got closure or clarity on my student loans: 0

Times I had to start repayments on my student loans: 0

(Have they been forgiven? Who knows. Probably?)

Live Plays: 16

Hours spent researching my family tree: not enough + too much. This next year, I’ll keep track of how many people I add.

Ear Surgeries: 1

Worsening health conditions, including my clumsiness (I have broken three wine glasses while doing dishes this week): all – 1 (my ears)

TV Shows: 84

Arts and crafts projects: 1

New roombas: 1

Lower bite guards that don’t stop me from grinding at all: 1

Books Completed: 84

New jewelry organizers: 1

Stand-up performances with my students: 4

Completely dreadful scamming Airbnb hosts: 1

Times I read through this list and realized why I might be ending the year exhausted beyond measure: 1

Perfect weddings in Guatemala: 1

Wedding ceremonies in Woodland to make it legal here too: 1

The Details:

New recipes: Spiced Roast Chicken with Tangy Yogurt Sauce; Berry-Jam Fried Chicken with Savory Cornbread; Mustard and Rosemary Pork Tenderloin with Fried Apples; Saucy Chicken and Peppers with Manchego Polenta; Slow Cooker Chicken and Stuffing; Red Wine Chocolate Cake; Pork Medallions with Red Pepper Sauce; Ginger-Sesame Pork Burgers with Slaw; Thai One-Pot; Laap Pla Duk (Thai Catfish Salad); Chicken Soup with Chilis, Coconut Milk & Lime; Corned Beef; Meyer Lemon Olive Oil Cake; Garlic Red Pepper Chicken; Peanut Noodle Salad with Cucumber and Roast Pork; Pastrami Carbonara; TikTok Baked Spaghetti with Bison; Creamy, Lemon Pasta (from NYT); Best Damn Air Fryer Chicken Legs; Spiced Pork Chops with Peas, Radishes, and Mint; Spicy Thai Eggplant, Pork, and Tofu*; Crock Pot Pork from AllRecipes, with Air Fryer Green Beans from The New York Times; French Sloppy Joes; Lamb Burgers; Chicken Stroganoff; Rosemary, Honey, and Fig Cake; Egg and Potato Chip Tortilla; Slow Cooker Massaman Curry; Murgh Kari (Indian Chicken Curry); Skillet Tortellini with Corn and Rosemary; Catalan Tomato Bread; Slow Cooker Ethiopian-Spiced Chicken and Black Lentil Stew; Fig Sour Cream Cake with Caramel Cream Sauce; Laab; Air Fryer Ranch Pork Chops; Crunchy Baked Pesto Chicken Thighs; Slow Cooker Sweet and Sour Chicken Thighs; Cumin Lamb Noodles with Eggplant; Soy-Butter Corn Ramen; Air Fryer Sesame Chicken Breast; Blueberry No-Churn Ice Cream; Sheet-Pan Chicken Thighs with Spicy Corn; Air Fryer Chicken Wellington; Slow-cooker Spanish Chicken; Coconut Curry Salmon; Pizza Chicken; Cannelloni*; Slow Cooker Coconut Pork Curry; Air Fryer Cod; Grilled Tandoori Chicken Sandwiches; Chicken Pesto Pasta Bake; Pork au Poivre; Dutch Baby (Ham and Cheese); Fettuccini with Ham and Zucchini; Curried Lentils with Ham; Summer Rolls; Salmon with Lemon-Ginger Butter; No Bake Eggnog Pie; Grandma’s Casserole, but with Elk!

New Cocktails: Moonpool; Lemon Basil Martini; Death in the Afternoon; Corpse Reviver 2; Lemon Lavender Sour*; Blood Orange Irish Mule; Brainstorm; Emerald; Southside*; Tom Collins with Wild Pink Icelandic Gin; Monte Carlo; Lemon Lavender Old Fashioned; Blackthorn; French Absinthe; New York Sour*; El Diablo; Hot Buttered Rum

Podcasts: RadioLab; This American Life; Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me; History of Egypt; Morning Edition; All Things Considered; American History Tellers; Sidedoor; LeVar Burton Reads; Savage Lovecast; Will Be Wild; Working It Out; More Perfect; Fresh Air with Terry Gross; You’re Wrong About; The Retrievals; Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend; 1865; Over My Dead Body; Beef and Dairy Network Podcast; Wiser than Me; This is History with Dan Jones; American Scandal; RadioLab

Magazines: The New Yorker; Discover; Smithsonian; Fantasy and Science Fiction; Asimov’s; National Geographic

Movies: Good Luck to You, Leo Grande; Weird; The Mitchells Vs. The Machines; Lover Come Back; The Muppets; The Muppets Most Wanted; Star Wars IV, V, VI; Star Trek 2009; Guardians of the Galaxy; You Hurt My Feelings; Love Sarah; Ticket to Paradise; Brian and Charles; The Lion in Winter; Luther: The Fallen Sun; Indiana Jones 1, 2. Spiderverse 2; The Night of the 12th; Everybody Loves Jeanne; Little Ones; The (In)Famous Youssef Salem; Labyrinth; Past Lives; Indiana Jones V; Dungeons and Dragons; Emily the Criminal; Shaun the Sheep; Blue Beetle; Austenland; Linoleum; A Man Called Otto; Barbie (twice); Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings; Bob and Marge Go Large; Hunt for the Wilderpeople; Crazy Rich Asians; The Nannies; The Man Who Came to Dinner; Bridget Jones’s Diary; Paddington 2; Toni; Catherine Called Birdie; Clueless; The Boy and the Heron; Trains, Planes, and Automobiles; Chicken Run 2; Poor Things; Persuasion; Elvis, Everything, Everywhere, All At Once; The Fabelmans; Tar; Triangle of Sadness; Women Talking; Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio; Puss in Boots: The Last Wish; The Sea Beast; The Whale; Blonde; To Leslie; Empire of Light; Babylon; Saltburn; Renfield

Comedy Specials: Wanda Sykes: I’m an Entertainer; Nate Bargatze: Hello, World; Jim Gaffigan: Quality Time; Kathleen Madigan: Hunting Bigfoot; Russell Howard: Lubricant (2); Mike Birbiglia: What I Should Have Said Was Nothing; Birbiglia: My Girlfriend’s Boyfriend; Neal Brennan: Blocks; Leanne Morgan: I’m Every Woman; Randy Feltface: Smug Druggles; Randy Feltface: The Book of Randicus; Zainab Johnson: Hijabs Off; Sarah Silverman: Someone You Love; Birbiglia: The Old Man and the Pool; Pete Holmes: I Am Not for Everyone; Leo Reich: Literally Who Cares?!; Maria Bamford: Local Act; Trever Noah: Where Was I?; Eliza Shlesinger: Unveiled; Ari Eldjárn: Pardon My Icelandic; John Leguizamo: Latin History for Morons

Live Plays: The Hombres; Book of Mormon; The Predictor; Accidental Death of an Anarchist; Tambo and Bones; Strange Loop; Dr. Semmelweis; The Play That Goes Wrong; Clyde’s; Ragtime; Harry Clarke; The Anarchists; POTUS; Christmas at Pemberly 3; To Kill a Mockingbird; Hadestown

New Shows: Andor; Kindred; His Dark Materials; The Last of Us; Moon Knight; Queen Charlotte; American Born Chinese; Poker Face; Shrinking; The Bear; Blindspotting; Ahsoka; Hijak; Life on Our Planet; White House Plumbers; Over the Garden Walls; Colin from Accounts; The Diplomat; Obama’s Working series

Mostly Kept Up With: Call the Midwife; Foundation; Outlander; Futurama; Star Trek: Strange New Worlds; Harley Quinn; The After Party; Foundation; Picard; Schmigadoon; Loki; Upload; Lower Decks; Breeders; Disenchantment; Lupin; Our Flag Means Death; Vienna Blood; Doctor Who; For All Mankind; Bob’s Burgers; SNL; The Simpsons; Fargo; Gilded Age; Reservation Dogs; The Crown; Abbot Elementary; Barry; The Great; Marvel’s What If; Good Omens; All Creatures Great and Small; Vikings: Valhalla; Last Week Tonight with John Oliver; Seth Meyers; Colbert; Daily Show; Resident Alien; Ted Lasso; Marvelous Mrs. Maisel; Barry; Miracle Workers

Shows Jeff and I binged that I had seen before: The Americans; Counterpart; Acapulco; Brooklyn 99; Killing Eve; For All Mankind; The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt; The After Party; Schmigadoon; Only Murders in the Building; Ted Lasso

Other binges: Kim’s Convenience; The Spanish Queen; Julia; Scrubs; Archer; The White Princess; The White Queen; This is Going to Hurt; The Witcher (S1); I Love That For You; Vikings

(I first wrote this for Matchflick (now defunct) in 2009. I’m posting it here today in honor of Tom Smothers’s passing.)

I don’t know what’s going in your stockings this year, but if I had my way (why do I never get my way?), it would be a copy of David Bianculli’s DANGEROUSLY FUNNY: THE UNCENSORED STORY OF THE SMOTHERS BROTHERS COMEDY HOUR. I would probably throw in some DVDs of the show just to make sure you were able to appreciate the master comedy show Bianculli is talking about.

None of my college students knows who the Smothers Brothers are, which is a shame, since all of the political satire the students enjoy (on THE DAILY SHOW WITH JON STEWART, THE COLBERT REPORT, and SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE) owes its existence to the brothers and the show they created.

Of course, they’ve heard of THE SIMPSONS, which featured the Smothers Brothers last Sunday. They’ve also heard of Steve Martin, who got his comedy chops as a writer for the show, but they don’t know the other great writers or the impact the show had.

A few years ago, I did a unit on censorship with some classes and I showed the students a great documentary on THE SMOTHERS BROTHERS COMEDY HOUR called SMOTHERED. It illustrated the spirit of the show with fantastic clips and interviews and then took the viewer into what the show is most remembered for—being taken off the air.

THE SMOTHERS BROTHERS COMEDY HOUR made a lot of people uncomfortable because of its progressive politics. It was against racism, against politics and religion as usual, and against the Vietnam war.

My students were unimpressed—the satire seemed tame, but we must remember that comedy shows had not tackled politics or race or war or religion on T.V. before. All of a sudden, a T.V. show had the attention of the White House (and not in a good way). Network executives came under fire for allowing the show on the air.

It’s hard to put ourselves back in time to this moment. Try to imagine watching the news about Kent State—the National Guard opens fire on unarmed student protestors (and quite a few students who were merely walking to their next classes). Now try to imagine your neighbors being happy that those students are dead; many people said the students deserved to die because they were protesting the war. To protest the war was un-American and thus exercising your freedom of speech made you a target.

The SMOTHERS BROTHERS came under similar scrutiny. In fact, I asked my grandmother about them a couple of years ago and she was still mad—she saw their Vietnam protests as a direct insult to her husband who was serving in the war. (Strangely, it was my grandfather who first introduced me to THE SMOTHERS BROTHERS.)

The network wanted to get rid of them, but there was a contract. Thus, the network ended the contract at the first chance, when they claimed that a tape was delivered to an affiliate a few hours late. That same year, THE SMOTHERS BROTHERS won the Emmy for best writing. The show also sued the network for breach of contract and won.

But by then it was too late. Decades later, the network wanted another SMOTHERS BROTHERS special. They said they wanted edgy. A lot had changed. TV had changed and THE SMOTHERS BROTHERS was the germ of that change.

Now, when you watch the DVDs, you’ll note that a lot of the numbers are silly; it’s a variety show after all. And like all shows, it’s uneven. But just as MONTY PYTHON’S FLYING CIRCUS changed and defined British comedy, THE SMOTHERS BROTHERS made American television satire what it is today.

We luckily have a great adjective to describe that which the British wrought: Pythonesque. We don’t have a similar word for the comedy THE SMOTHERS BROTHERS gave us, except, as Bianculli reminds us, “dangerous.”

I finally got my grading done on Friday. Saturday, I did a lot of cooking and cleaning, and yesterday, I took my beloved to a play in SF.

I couldn’t get to sleep last night, though, because my brain kept telling me everything I needed to do over break: mostly the usual (prepping for my Winter courses, editing the Atwood journal). I also have to do a lot of prep for my new Oxford summer course.

After not getting enough sleep, I got up and went straight to the computer and got to work. I was only an hour in, though, before my back seized up.

To add insult to injury, it was the second time in the last month that I’ve humiliatingly had it freak out when I was getting off the toilet.

So now I’m trying to at least send out some emails, heavily-medicated emails.

I’m also trying to enforce my rule that I’m not even allowed to do that if Snowball wants on my lap.

Despite everything, I’m trying to be grateful. I already had a chiropractor appointment scheduled for later this afternoon, and Jeff can take me to it. My fridge is stocked with lots of lovely things I cooked on Saturday. There are homemade cookies, and my tree, whose name is Matilda, is beautiful.

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:

I am unable to hear Henry Kissinger’s name without picturing him as depicted on The Simpsons, having dropped his glasses into the toilet at the Springfield Nuclear Power Plant.

Monty’s Python’s song about him gets stuck in my head too:

If my brain has to keep doing this right now, at least it’s because he’s dead.

Mr. Burns says all he needs to be invigorated is “the blood of a young boy.”

Now there’s a study to back that up: <https://www.discovermagazine.com/health/anti-aging-benefits-could-be-found-in-blood>.

#SimpsonsScience #Simpsonology #TheSimpsons #SimpsonsDidIt

I am not going to see it in all its glory, but I’m at the Halloween capitol of Europe.

(Death with a King keyring, in honor of my 6th GG, Thomas M. King, born in Derry on 8 April 1695, who emigrated to the Pennsylvania colony)

I got to Derry on Saturday, after securing what was likely the last room in the city (though it’s across the river, in “Waterside”).

The Derry Halloween festival was running all weekend. The city is decked out, but I have to say I felt out of place being dressed for the season Sunday: only the kids were done up that day.

My festive wardrobe was more appreciated at the conference yesterday, where I gave my paper on Juan of the Dead.

Today, I’m just in my low-key Gaiman’s death get up, sadly, when some of the other adults in town have decided to join in.

My body just isn’t up to more. My IBS has been wrecking its havoc, I had to use my cane a bit already, and I’m definitely coming down with something.

After grading this morning, I managed to go out and get something to eat and hit a store for some provisions in case I can’t leave my room tomorrow: storm’s a-coming!

(What?)

A storm WITH A NAME is coming!

(Like a hurricane?!?)

Yup! Exactly like a hurricane. And since it’s a UK hurricane, it has a name I’m not sure how to pronounce: Ciarán.

The storm is a “danger to life” to Southern England–we’ve got an amber warning here, which means flooding (not a kidnapped child, like in the US).

I couldn’t find a gif of this, but here’s the video of Meryl Streep warning about a storm in Only Murders in the Building.

So: difficulty walking + no cabs at all because of the crowds + cold weather + my cold + my lungs still not bouncing back after COVID + cold weather- and cold-induced asthma + an upset stomach + a typhoon or whatever = me not being out in all the festivities tonight.

(a totally normal decoration to have on a bridge)

All I want are hot toddies and bed, but getting my hands on whiskey at a store has been surprisingly difficult (WTF, Derry?1?!). Thank goodness there’s a pub next door.

Happy Halloween!

(Death with a scarf from Vanessa & a glass of verdejo)

If Republicans tell you not to talk about guns today, that’s fine.

They aren’t just ok with guns.

They’re okay with each ambulance ride costing at least 1,300, out of pocket, even if a survivor has insurance.

They’re ok with survivors paying at least a few hundred to enter the ER.

They’re ok with survivors going bankrupt as they struggle through surgeries and PT.

They’re ok with not funding PTSD help the survivors will need.

They’re ok with uninsured survivors being discharged once they’re stable, with no access to further surgeries, to PT, to medication, and with those people’s crippling debt and bankruptcy.

But, Karma, what if the survivors are disabled?

Then remember they’re ok with Republican states making them wait 2 full years after being certified as disabled before they have access to care, and that they’re actively trying to cut medicaid, medicare, and social security.

Oh, and if the doctor looks at your haircut and decides you’re queer, they ok with the doctor refusing to save your life in the ER, in the operating room, etc. “Religious freedom” laws allow that. In Florida, an insurance company employee can simply take your coverage away under the same policy.

But, Karma, surely Republicans aren’t ok with everything?!?

They’re not ok with white children learning about Rosa Parks.