Just finished watching Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom with my boys. It's not really age appropriate -- they're only four and seven -- but whatever. I'm that dad, I guess, who doesn't care what his kids watch. The thing is, they aren't scared by it. We watched Raiders of the Lost Ark, and they said they loved it and showed no signs of it affecting them negatively whatsoever. Since then they've been begging me to show them the second one. S went out tonight, so I figured, why not?
The movie has a lot of potentially scary stuff in it -- evil rituals, monkey-brain eating, the barehanded pulling out of a human heart. But, again, it didn't even seem to phase them. Some of the action looks kinda phony by today's standards, which might have something to do with it. I remember my mom telling how terrified she was as a child of the flying monkeys in The Wizard of Oz, but they always just looked kinda silly to me. The Wheelers from Return to Oz, now that's a different story... those these things creeped the shit out of me the first time I saw them, when I was like eight.
Temple of Doom isn't a very good movie, but it has it's moments. I like how they free all the kids from the mine, and the movie ends with Indy and Willy getting mobbed by them in the village. Also, pretty sweet move by Indy to wrap his whip around Willy as she's walking away and pull her into him. Slightly problematic (Willy's entire character is ridiculously outdated), but c'mon... Is there a woman -- nay, a person -- alive who would wouldn't be completely smitten if a young Harrison Ford did that to them?
Actually, Harrison Ford wasn't all that young when that movie was filmed. He was about my age now, 42. I just realized looking on Wikipedia that he's the same age as Joe Biden. And Harrison Ford still seems cool to me. I mean, he dates a younger TV star and wears an earring. So, maybe Biden isn't too old to save American democracy after all. That is, if it's Biden who even wins the nomination. I still think he's the favorite, but Bernie is coming on a lot stronger than I thought he would. I thought his campaign was dead six months. But, say what you will about the tenets of democratic socialism, the dude's a fighter, and he's got an enthusiastic foundation of supporters. It wouldn't surprise me if he's the next president. I wouldn't take an even money bet on it, but it wouldn't surprise me.
With the first primary caucuses/elections coming up this next week, I've been trying to sort it all out in my head, but I haven't gotten anywhere. I just don't care that much who the candidate is. Like all sane people, I want somebody, anybody, who can beat Trump, but I don't have a great sense about who that is. I think it's probably Biden, but I don't think that enough to be a hard-core Biden supporter. My feeling is: Y'all sort this one out yourselves, and I'll go hard for whomever you pick. If it's an old establishment white dude like Joe Biden or Michael Bloomberg, cool; if you go with youth, then I'll be Mayor Pete's number one fan; if you think we need a moderate woman to appeal to all those suburban women in swing districts I keep hearing so much about, Klobuchar is just alright with me; if you wanna get nuts with Sanders or Warren -- fuck it, let's get nuts. You guys decide; I'm in no matter who.
I took a Washington Post survey to figure out which candidate most agrees with me on the major issues, and somewhat surprisingly, given my ambivalence, there was one with whom I'm aligned much more so than all the others: Andrew Yang. That's right, apparently I'm a closet member of the Yang Gang. It makes some sense. We're the same age, same temperament, and we're both analytical thinkers, who want pragmatic, technocratic solutions, and don't really care where they fall on the political spectrum. "Not Left, Not Right, Forward," as is his motto.
But, I'm not going to donate or stump for Mr. Yang or anything like that. He's not going to win the primary, and my heart isn't in it enough to strongly support somebody who's definitely not going to win -- maybe in a future election. Also, I'm not totally in love with UBI, his signature proposal. I'm fine with it. If people want it, I'll gladly accept it, even if it means raising my taxes. But, I'm not as into it as he is. And that actually gets at one of the flaws of the survey. All the questions are weighted the same in the survey, but we don't weight them the same when we are actually evaluating candidates. If you agree with Bernie on almost every issue, but you're adamantly opposed to single payer health insurance, then you don't really agree with Bernie at all. See what I mean?
Okay, enough talk about politics. I'll end on something else, just as a palate cleanser. Let's see... oh, I took the test to try out for Jeorpardy! It's a long shot, obviously. I have to have passed the test (whatever that means), and then I have to pass another in-person test/tryout. But, who knows? I'm acquaintances with several former Jeopardy! champions through crossword puzzling, and if they can do it, why can't I? I mean, other than the fact that they're all much better at trivia than me. It was cute, though; I told S that I took the test (she's been suggesting I take it for years), and Lil' S1 one overheard me, and he said, "Don't worry, Dad, you'll get on. We believe in you." So sweet.
Until next time...
The movie has a lot of potentially scary stuff in it -- evil rituals, monkey-brain eating, the barehanded pulling out of a human heart. But, again, it didn't even seem to phase them. Some of the action looks kinda phony by today's standards, which might have something to do with it. I remember my mom telling how terrified she was as a child of the flying monkeys in The Wizard of Oz, but they always just looked kinda silly to me. The Wheelers from Return to Oz, now that's a different story... those these things creeped the shit out of me the first time I saw them, when I was like eight.
Temple of Doom isn't a very good movie, but it has it's moments. I like how they free all the kids from the mine, and the movie ends with Indy and Willy getting mobbed by them in the village. Also, pretty sweet move by Indy to wrap his whip around Willy as she's walking away and pull her into him. Slightly problematic (Willy's entire character is ridiculously outdated), but c'mon... Is there a woman -- nay, a person -- alive who would wouldn't be completely smitten if a young Harrison Ford did that to them?
Actually, Harrison Ford wasn't all that young when that movie was filmed. He was about my age now, 42. I just realized looking on Wikipedia that he's the same age as Joe Biden. And Harrison Ford still seems cool to me. I mean, he dates a younger TV star and wears an earring. So, maybe Biden isn't too old to save American democracy after all. That is, if it's Biden who even wins the nomination. I still think he's the favorite, but Bernie is coming on a lot stronger than I thought he would. I thought his campaign was dead six months. But, say what you will about the tenets of democratic socialism, the dude's a fighter, and he's got an enthusiastic foundation of supporters. It wouldn't surprise me if he's the next president. I wouldn't take an even money bet on it, but it wouldn't surprise me.
With the first primary caucuses/elections coming up this next week, I've been trying to sort it all out in my head, but I haven't gotten anywhere. I just don't care that much who the candidate is. Like all sane people, I want somebody, anybody, who can beat Trump, but I don't have a great sense about who that is. I think it's probably Biden, but I don't think that enough to be a hard-core Biden supporter. My feeling is: Y'all sort this one out yourselves, and I'll go hard for whomever you pick. If it's an old establishment white dude like Joe Biden or Michael Bloomberg, cool; if you go with youth, then I'll be Mayor Pete's number one fan; if you think we need a moderate woman to appeal to all those suburban women in swing districts I keep hearing so much about, Klobuchar is just alright with me; if you wanna get nuts with Sanders or Warren -- fuck it, let's get nuts. You guys decide; I'm in no matter who.
I took a Washington Post survey to figure out which candidate most agrees with me on the major issues, and somewhat surprisingly, given my ambivalence, there was one with whom I'm aligned much more so than all the others: Andrew Yang. That's right, apparently I'm a closet member of the Yang Gang. It makes some sense. We're the same age, same temperament, and we're both analytical thinkers, who want pragmatic, technocratic solutions, and don't really care where they fall on the political spectrum. "Not Left, Not Right, Forward," as is his motto.
But, I'm not going to donate or stump for Mr. Yang or anything like that. He's not going to win the primary, and my heart isn't in it enough to strongly support somebody who's definitely not going to win -- maybe in a future election. Also, I'm not totally in love with UBI, his signature proposal. I'm fine with it. If people want it, I'll gladly accept it, even if it means raising my taxes. But, I'm not as into it as he is. And that actually gets at one of the flaws of the survey. All the questions are weighted the same in the survey, but we don't weight them the same when we are actually evaluating candidates. If you agree with Bernie on almost every issue, but you're adamantly opposed to single payer health insurance, then you don't really agree with Bernie at all. See what I mean?
Okay, enough talk about politics. I'll end on something else, just as a palate cleanser. Let's see... oh, I took the test to try out for Jeorpardy! It's a long shot, obviously. I have to have passed the test (whatever that means), and then I have to pass another in-person test/tryout. But, who knows? I'm acquaintances with several former Jeopardy! champions through crossword puzzling, and if they can do it, why can't I? I mean, other than the fact that they're all much better at trivia than me. It was cute, though; I told S that I took the test (she's been suggesting I take it for years), and Lil' S1 one overheard me, and he said, "Don't worry, Dad, you'll get on. We believe in you." So sweet.
Until next time...
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