At 10 AM this morning, just about an hour ago, I lost connection to the Internet. After restarting my computer several times and doing stuff like that in an increasing panic, I went downstairs to the lobby of my building to see whether my iPhone could connect down there and I met several other residents who told me that there was a general outage in the Chapel Hill area and Spectrum was working as hard as they could to restore service. I felt like an addict who had just learned that my supplier was out sick with a cold. How on earth did I survive without it for 65 years?
On the matter of the absurd prices charged for out-of-print books, I do not think booksellers actually expect to get those prices. There must be some other reason why they do that.
Well, I am not in position to hand out any pardons but I will say Merry Christmas to one and all – and I say that as a lifetime nonbeliever.
This has been a perfectly terrible year-long conclusion to an awful four years and I insist on believing that things will get better by next summer. Meanwhile, we have a genuine chance in Georgia. God bless Stacey Abrams!
I have internet in my computer from one phone company and internet in my cell phone from another. Thus, if internet in my computer doesn't function (which does occur and once for almost a week), I use the internet in my phone. It costs a bit more, but I feel that it's worth it since I, like most of us, am addicted to going online.
ReplyDeleteAbout the cost of internet: Why does it cost so much in the uS than in Europe?
ReplyDeleteAnd a Merry Christmas to you and Suzie, from one atheist to another. One meme I liked went as follows: HAPPY SOLSTICE, THE SHORTEST DAY OF THE LONGEST F****** YEAR OF OUR LIVES.
ReplyDeleteWallerstein, Merry Christmas. Two providers is a good idea. Thanks.
Christopher M.,
ReplyDeleteMerry Christmas to you too.
Professor Wolff, S. Wallerstein, MS, Christopher Mulvaney, et al:
ReplyDeleteMerry Christmas and Happy Holidays. 2020 has made me a hard atheist and a brutal realist. But I just wanted to thank everyone on this blog for providing a stimulating, intellectual community where we can freely and rigorously argue and debate various issues. It has helped significantly during the pandemic and stay-at-home orders. So thank you.
C
ReplyDeleteMerry Christmas to you too and to everyone else who may be reading this...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pv0hlbWpa1w
ReplyDeleteC,
ReplyDeleteThank you for your good wishes, which I reciprocate.
I just read that Il Duce has been tweeting threats that he will not forget it if the Republicans don’t come to his aid on January 6. Which called to mind the last scene in my favorite movie of all time (aside from winning 5 Academy Awards, it was made in my home town of Hoboken, N.J.), with the union boss Johnny Friendly (played by the incomparable Lee J. Cobb), shouting “I won’t forget this! I’ll remember each and every one of you!” as the dock workers whom he has abused and cheated for years walk around him to go back to work, with a bloodied Terry Malloy (Marlon Brando) looking on.
If you're looking for a great xmas movie then there is no greater movie than The Shop Around the Corner.
ReplyDeleteDDA,
ReplyDeleteThe Shop Around The Corner, starring James Stewart and Margaret Sullivan, is a wonderful Christmas movie, not as well known as Miracle On 34th Street or It’s A Wonderful Life. It was remade twice : In The Good Old Summertime, starring Judy Garland (singing her signature Trolley Song) and Van Johnson; more recently, You’ve Got Mail, starring Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan. In my opinion, the original was the best, but Judy Garland was great in the musical version.
MS,
ReplyDeleteSince you seem to be an expert on Hollywood movies, have they ever made a movie for those of us who detest Christmas?
In the archive of the BBC program, In Our Time, there's a podcast on the Frankfurt School where Raymond Geuss (who seems like a guy who detests Christmas) mentions It's a Wonderful Life as the epitome of what Adorno and Horkheimer hated in Hollywood movies.
s. wallerstein,
ReplyDeleteHa, ha. Very funny. Since the objective of Hollywood producers is to make money, any Christmas story which is to be viewed in the Christian world which begins with the protagonist disliking Christmas usually has a socially pleasing happy ending, with the protagonist becoming a pro-Christmas convert by the end of the movie, e.g., Scrooge, the Grinch. The movie Bad Santa stars Billy Bob Thornton as an inebriated Santa, but since I have never seen it, I do not know how it ends. A solution for the Chrisanthropes among us would be to splice together the first 30 minutes of A Christmas Carol and the Grinch for a thoroughly pleasing Christmas movie.
There are two Christmas horror movies, Black Christmas and Better Watch Out, which may be the ticket for the Chrisanthropes.
I actually do like It’s A Wonderful Life, but from an early age when I first saw it at the age of 7 or 8, I realized that its message that one should appreciate one’s life, because but for your birth, events which you caused would not have occurred which improved someone’s life, was not entirely accurate for certain people- but for whose birth the world would have been a better place, e.g., the current resident of the White House. Query: Is the movie’s proposition more true for more people than it is false?
I look forward, Steven, to our occasional debates, philosophical and political, in 2021.
Thanks.
ReplyDeleteI guess that Christmas is sacred. Hollywood is capable of taking the viewpoint of the bad guy or girl, for example, Bonnie and Clyde or the Godfather or Goodfellas or Dog Day Afternoon and I even believe they've made a couple of war movies where one or another German or Japanese soldier is a good guy. But, no, you can't detest Christmas.
I look forward to having more conversation with you, like this one and fewer debates like those we've been through. I prefer conversing to debating and actually my name isn't "Steven". A holiday toast to more conversations!!
Sorry. Then I believe its “Stephen,” correct?
ReplyDeleteI know of at least three movies in which Germans and Japanese are portrayed in a positive manner. In the movie “The Young Lions,” Marlon Brando gives a favorable portrayal of a Nazi officer. In “Ship of Fools,” Oscar Werner gives a poignant portrayal of a German physician just before the war, for which he won the Best Supporting Actor Oscar. And Clint Eastwood directed a view of WWII combat from the perspective of the Japanese in “Letters From Iwo Jima.”
Three cheers for Auld Lang Syne!
@s. wallerstein try this: an alternative xmas movie
ReplyDeleteDDA,
ReplyDeleteThanks. "Silent Night" is one of my favorites. I was thrown out of class in the 5th grade because I loudly sang "shepherds quack" instead of "shepherds quake".
I got out of it by claiming that as a Jew, I had religious qualms about singing it, but actually, I just simply detested and detest Christmas. I've always hated all mass rituals and celebrations that are imposed on me. I reserve the right to be cheerful when I feel like being cheerful, not when I'm supposed to be cheerful and to mourn when I feel like mourning, not when I'm supposed to mourn, to be grateful when I feel like being grateful, not when I'm supposed to be grateful, etc., etc.
I have to confess a major cinematic blunder. Last night my daughter suggested that we watch “Meet Me In St. Louis.” I responded, that’s funny, because just today I submitted a comment on a blog and mentioned that Judy Garland introduced the “The Trolly Song” in the movie “In The Good Old Summertime.” The little smart-aleck replied, “No, Dad you’re wrong, she sang that song in ‘Meet Me In St. Louis.” “You are absolutely wrong,” says I, “because there are no cable cars in St. Louis, whereas in San Francisco, where I believe ‘In The Good Old Summertime’ takes place, there are lots of cable cars. Ten bucks says I’m right.” Well, I’m out $10.00 and have ruined my perfect record of always being right. So, my apologies to those who were grossly misled by my error.
ReplyDeleteJudy Garland also introduced the Christmas song, “Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas” in “Meet Me In St. Louis,” which she sang to an adorable young Margaret O’Brien. (I’m right about that.)