I Hate This Song, But…
Last week I mentioned that I hate the song Amazing Grace. I decided to elaborate a bit on my hatred of the song. Mainly I hate it when it is sung with no musical accompaniment and I don’t mind the song when played on bagpipes as an instrumental.
But, then I saw ABC Nightly News do a profile on Lori Marie Key, a Michigan nurse who sings Amazing Grace during shift changes at her hospital while dealing with the Covid pandemic. A video of her singing the song went viral (no pun intended) last March and she was invited to sing at the Covid memorial that was televised the night before the Inauguration. (Joe Biden won! There was no steal.)
Don’t get me wrong, I still hate the song, but ABC included a photo montage of frontline healthcare personnel dealing with the pandemic and I got the feels.
In my talk I mentioned this amusing moment from the classic sitcom WKRP In Cincinnati.
A Friend’s Downplaying Of The Pandemic
Also on last week’s show was my friend who was downplaying the Covid. He implied it was merely a really bad cold with a high survival rate. I pointed out his numbers were wrong and I explained that survival just means people didn’t die. There are lingering health problems, some quite horrible.
Since that show he had responded, he was incredulous that I would suggest he implied that everyone was OK once the Covid had left their systems. (I quote his first comment on my Facebook thread: “I keep surviving Covid… Almost like it was a really bad cold with a 99.98% survival rate.” I sense an implication there, don’t you?) And he let me know he, his wife, and two of his kids had Covid.
Fortunately, they all recovered. Unfortunately, my friend came out with a what’s the big deal? attitude. Much like his favorite president after he had recovered from the Covid.
I took the opportunity to read a list of famous people who had died from Covid in 2020. And my list wasn’t complete.
And there is Minnesotan Glenn Vierling age 74. He was just released from the hospital to a recovery center after a 70 day stay battling Covid, much of which was spent in the ICU and in a coma. While Mr. Vierling was in the hospital, his wife had a month’s stay of her own in another hospital. She also had Covid!
But as my friend downplayed, “[Covid is] almost like a really bad cold with a 99.98% survival rate.”
Sigh.
Dana Gould And Amy Miller Don’t Know God Doesn’t Exist
Comedian Dana Gould has an excellent podcast and on the most recent episode his guest was comedian Amy Miller. Amy has her own podcast called Who’s Your God. She has comedic guests on to discuss their religious beliefs or disbeliefs, as the case may be.
On Dana’s show the two expressed the idea that atheists hear all the time. “Atheists might not believe in God, but they don’t know God doesn’t exist.”
This is true.
However, I could counter by saying to them, “Well, you don’t know Zeus doesn’t exist.”
Switching out one dubious god for another makes the statement seem less of a gotcha, doesn’t it?
I suggest they look into Bertrand Russell’s orbiting teapot.
By the way, Dana Gould is an atheist.
Friendly Fire Came To An Abrupt End
One of my favorite podcasts hadn’t dropped a new episode in a few weeks and I was beginning to wonder what was going on. Did I unsubscribe? Did they make it a pay to listen podcast? Were they taking a belated holiday break? Their last show dropped January 1st.
The podcast is Friendly Fire. Each week, the three hosts review a war movie and I really enjoyed the show. The chemistry of the three hosts (Benjamin Harrison, Adam Pranica, and John Roderick) was evident and very enjoyable.
While I awaited a new episode, I listened to the aforementioned Dana Gould Hour. During which Dana and Amy touched on cancel culture and Amy mentioned that John Roderick had run afoul of Twitter.
“Huh? John Roderick did what now?” I asked.
Then a new Friendly Fire dropped. It was a three minute episode with just the producer telling the listeners the show was over.
A Google search clued me in on why. Roderick was given the name #BeanDad for his alleged mistreatment of his 9 year old daughter, which he chronicled in a series of tweets. The harrowing tale of teaching his daughter how to use a can opener had upset the internet. And, because the internet is forever, some very questionable earlier tweets by Roderick were found. Of those older tweets, he claimed ironic and sarcastic use of racial, homophobic, and anti-Semitic slurs.
Yikes!
As my wife said about Roderick’s explanation, “Twitter does not do sarcasm.”
A fairly good explanation of the #BeanDad incident can be found here.
Roderick has apologized.
A Cool (If Disturbing And Terrifying) Thing: Night Stalker: The Hunt For A Serial Killer
My wife texted me the other day telling me she was watching Night Stalker. I was stunned. “She hates that show,” I thought.
But I gave it some more consideration. I asked her, “Carl Kolchak or Richard Ramirez?”
It was the latter. And it’s a four part true crime documentary series on Netflix. It is fascinating and horrifying. That Ramirez was messed up.
Ah, The 1950s. So Much Patriarchy
Speaking of Darren McGavin (he played Carl Kolshak of TV’s Kolchak: The Night Stalker), I stumbled across an early moment in his acting career. It’s the 1955 short film A Word To Wives. It’s an amusing, if unintended, look at the patriarchy of 1950s America.
From what I gather, the film was sort of an infomercial to promote the wonders of the modern conveniences of the new houses of 1955. Housewife Jane was envious of her friend’s new house, especially the kitchen. If only her husband George (Darren McGavin) would buy a new house. Jane’s friend cooks up a scheme to get George interested in making an upgrade.
Oh, the patriarchy! It’s laid on so thick, you can cut it with a knife.
Be patient. Wash your hands. Stay home. Stay safe. WEAR A MASK!
Dimland Radio opening theme song: Ram by The Yoleus
First ad break bumpers: Never Follow by Naked Raygun and Der Kommissar by Falco
Second ad break bumpers: Tabazan by Killing Joke and English Roundabout by XTC
Closing song: Angler’s Treble Hook by $5 Fiddle
That’s it! See you next Saturday night for Dimland Radio 11 Central, midnight Eastern on www.ztalkradio.com you can also download my show from the z talk show archives page. You can email your questions and comments to drdim@dimland.com
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