It’s Friday and that means I’m back with some things that I’ve been thinking about over the past week.
I appreciate you taking the time to check them out. If we disagree, that’s cool. Feel free to tell me about it — diplomatically.
Enjoy your weekend!
GAME, SET, MATCH*
(* Changes are pending on this policy, so this story is developing and could change at any time!)
In another life (in other words, if I could have a “do over”), I would have played basketball in high school and perfected my tennis game.
As a teenager, I loved (and lusted for) Swedish legend Bjorn Borg.
Chris Evert, Billie Jean King, and Martina Navratilova were also my favorites.
I didn’t care much for John McEnroe and Jimmy Connors and after reading their autobiographies recently, my teenage feelings remain intact! 🙂
I’ve always been a fan of Serbian hottie and 21-time Grand Slam winner, Novak Djokovic.
However, I disagree with his views on being vaccinated against Covid-19.
Although I wish that everyone had gotten vaccinated back in the spring of 2021 and we would have saved more lives and altered the state of the pandemic. But, it is what is and that didn’t happen.
While Djokovic is not associated with the wider anti-vax movement, he RIGHTFULLY believes it’s a personal choice and an individual’s right.
He didn’t get to play the 2022 Australian Open, where he was the defending champion for the past three years, because all players had to be vaccinated.
And, at the time, he’s not getting to play in the U.S. Open in New York City later this month into early September for the same reason — he’s unvaccinated.
This is not a vaccine mandate from the U.S. Open, it’s from the American government — unvaccinated non-U.S. citizens cannot enter the country.
Here’s my problem with his whining. When I traveled to Greece last fall and to Costa Rica this spring, the U.S. government required me to test negative within 3 days of returning home last fall and test negative a day before returning home this spring.
I didn’t want to take that test to return home for fear of being positive and being stuck in a foreign country. But, I paid for the tests both times and both were negative. I did it because it was U.S. policy.
If the imaginary Joe Smith, a minimum wage worker from Birkenhead, outside of Liverpool, England, wanted to visit his cousin in Newark, New Jersey, he’d have to vaccinated to enter the U.S.
Just because Djokovic is a multi-millionaire and one of the top tennis players in the world doesn’t give him any more right to come into the U.S. unvaccinated than any other non-U.S. citizen!
Djokovic, it’s the way it is!
“BIG SKY”
Last week, I talked about the Peacock reboot, “Queer As Folk”.
I fell in love with Jesse James Keitel and I’m now going to check out the ABC series “Big Sky” to see more of the non-binary, trans actress.
Plus, Reba McEntire has joined the crime thriller for the third season!
If that wasn’t enough, I have a sweet tooth for “eye candy” — Ryan Phillippe, Omar Metwally, and Jensen Ackles!
GRACE AND FRANKIE
I finally got around to watching the seventh and final season of Netflix’s “Grace and Frankie”. While I love Jane Fonda, Lily Tomlin, and Martin Sheen, I was ready for it to end.
While four episodes dropped last August and the final twelve episode debuted this past spring, I just wasn’t too excited to jump back into it (plus I was watching other series at the time).
Well, I’m done. I was very happy with the final season dealing with memory loss, aging, and fearing death.
I wasn’t thrilled with the storyline of a psychic telling one of the leads that she was going to die on a certain day and it became the focus of the last season!
My favorite characters other than Grace (Fonda) were Brianna (June Diane Raphael) and Joan-Margaret (Millicent Martin).
And, the two characters (*not actors*) that made my patience wear very thin were Frankie (Tomlin) and Sol (Sam Waterston) — just too eccentric and whiney, respectively!
BIRTHDAY GIRL…
Earlier this week, Madonna turned 64.
To celebrate her birthday, the “Queen of Pop” on Friday released “Finally Enough Love”, a 50-track, three disc collection, which is a 40-year retrospective of remastered and remixed songs.
Madonna is the only artist in music history to score 50 #1 hits on a single Billboard chart — hers is on the Dance Club Songs chart.
Here’s a fun version of “Music”, one of the songs that’ll be on the compilation, from a recent visit with Jimmy Fallon.
& DEATH ANNIVERSARIES…
Last week, I mentioned the 45th anniversary of Elvis’ death is this week and shared my three favorite Elvis songs: #3 “Kentucky Rain”, #2 “Suspicious Minds”, and at #1, “Blue Christmas”.
This week also marks the 4th anniversary of the passing of Aretha Franklin. So, in honor of the “Queen of Soul”, here’s my favorite Aretha Franklin song (a #1 duet with George Michael from 1987).
And, my favorite Aretha solo hit, “Freeway of Love” (#3, 1985).
Ironically, both Elvis and Aretha died on August 16th, Madonna’s birthday.
THE REIGN OF TELEVISION!
While the 1982 book “America in Search of Itself: The Making of the President 1956-1980” by Theodore H. White is mostly about presidents and presidential campaigns of that era, the chapter on television was a great read.
According to White, only 4.4 million American households had television sets in 1950. But, by 1980, that number was at 80 million — as close to saturation as statistically possible!
A turning point for television and newspapers was in 1963 when network evening news on CBS and NBC expanded from 15 minutes to 30 minutes. It was estimated that by the end of that year, about two-thirds of Americans were getting ALL of their news from the three networks — 50 million to 60 million viewers!
That was also the first year that Americans relied on television for news more than newspapers forcing some big city papers to cut out afternoon papers.
THAT’S IT
With all the craziness in the world, make it the best in your little part of it!
Anthony
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