1230

 Friday, December 30, 2022

In bed somewhere around 9, dry cough kept me awake, got up to get some Halls cough drops, Geri still reading Stephen Miller's transcript, awake around 4, up at 4:10, let Lilly out onto wet grass but balmy temperature of 45 degrees.  Another windy day expected with gusts over 25 mph, windiest year I can remember, climate change???  Sunrise 7:23, sunset 4:25, 9 hrs. 2 min.

Horrifying: Elderly driver, elderly victim.  A 75-year-old woman was killed Wednesday when she was hit by a vehicle as the driver pulled out of a driveway, police said. Whitefish Bay police said the incident happened around 5:38 p.m. at the intersection of East Lake View Avenue and North Santa Monica Boulevard.  According to police, the woman was walking on the sidewalk when a 77-year-old Whitefish Bay man backed out of a driveway and unintentionally struck the woman.  The woman became caught under the vehicle and was dragged several blocks before witnesses were able to alert the driver, police said in a statement!!!

Is the Pandemic over?  At least 261,000 Americans will have died of covid-19 in 2022.  Mostly old folks, not surprisingly.  In China, covid is rampant and certainly mutating, almost certainly to avoid vaccine immunities.  New futile testing requirements instituted for travelers entering the U.S. from China, as if that will stop the inevitable spread.

The IRS Really, Really Should Have Audited Trump: The failure to do so is outrageous and needs to be investigated..  By Noah Bookbinder in this morning's Atlantic  but Washington abides by its Golden Rule: He who has the gold makes the rules.

Aunt Lydia.  Working on her portrait, very crude.

Heavily glazed, companion piece to The Handmaid

Kieslowski, The Dekalog 3.  This is the kind of story/film/narrative that usually throws me; either it's too subtle in revealing what is going on as it is going on or I am just too obtuse.  I fully suspect that it is the latter.  I'm just slow on picking up things that are clear to others.  My wife has had occasions to remind me of this.  It's Christmas Eve.  The protagonists in this one were adulterous lovers at an earlier time.  They were discovered in flagrant delictu by her husband who gave her the option of staying with her lover or staying in their marriage.  She went with her husband but on this Christmas Eve, she telephones her former lover telling him that her husband has disappeared and expecting, and getting, the lover's help in finding him.  In fact, the husband had divorced her a few years ago and remarried.  She was profoundly lonely on Christmas Eve and wanted her former lover's company.  There are indications of suicidality, a lot of lying, a lot of cryptic dialogue, a superabundance of dark scenes, and an ending that, as usual, wasn't too clear to me except that the lover returns home to his wife with the suggestion that he is now and intends to be faithful to their marriage.  The Decalogue touchpoints are keeping holy the Sabbath (Christmas Eve), adultery, bearing false witness, coveting thy neighbor's spouse, and perhaps others.  In any event, not an enjoyable or particularly uplifting or instructive flick.

Georgie Oliver called Geri.  Got filled in on family happenings, illnesses, Jimmy.  

Total Wine was incredibly crowded today over the noon hour.  I picked up a supply of St. Regis Brut.

Robert Duvall's The Apostle, one of my favorite movies.  Robert Duvall's performance is superb.  Love the Gospel music.  Great character study of True Believers, those with a rich vivid imaginary lives.  Bible believing evangelical Baptists, cocksure of their beliefs, sure of what's good for them and for everyone else.  Some glad mornin' when it's time to go, I'll fly away, to my home on that eternal shore,  I'll fly away.  I'll fly away, O Glory, I'll fly away.  'Victory is mine, victory is mine, victory today is mine, I told Satan get thee behind, victory is mine today.'

January 6 Committee Report, NYT edition arrived today.