Hills to Climb

My guess is that if protesting truckers mess with the Super Bowl they will lose the support of many backers.

Amusing headline from nypost.com: “Who is leading BLM and where are their millions going? No one can say.” Guess.

Also from NYP: “Why won’t New York pols fight the opioid epidemic?” I wish I had evidence to state what I suspect.

And an amusing headline from newsmax.com: “New Zealand Showers Lockdown Protesters with Sprinklers, Barry Manilow.” “Her name was Lola…”

According to an NM article by Theodore Bunker, congress is proposing a law that may actually reduce costs. “The bill requires retirees from the U.S. Postal Service to enroll in Medicare and eliminates an old measure mandating the agency bank health benefits for retirees 75 years in advance…” Hopefully, this will become the rule for all government employees including — especially — everyone in politics.

America’s cultural war continues. Headline from foxnews.com: “Texas professor sues university after being punished for saying music theory isn’t racist.” U. of North Texas.

Last night Heroes & Icons, channel 9–4 on OTA in NYC, ran Hills Are for Heroes, parts one & two, Season Four, Episodes 25 & 26 of Combat!, first run in March 1966. Lt. Hanley’s platoon is assigned a near suicide mission, the elimination of two bunkers on a hill that offers little cover. It captures the insanity of war. The men gripe vociferously but do their duty despite witnessing the death of many of their comrades in arms. Rick Jason is excellent as the commander of the force, the character holding on despite the toll it’s taking on him, following orders despite the long odds, the brutal responsibility of sending men to almost certain demise. The episode was directed by series co-star Vic Morrow, whose character is wounded in the early going, taking him out of the assault. He directed six others, two films, which he also wrote, and one episode each of four TV shows. What a loss was his accidental death at 53 during the filming of Twilight Zone: The Movie (1983). The episodes were written by Gene L. Coon, who did one other of the series and who was incredibly prolific in his short life. There are 60 titles under his name at IMDb, but that figure does not reflect the multiple scripts he did for popular prime time fare. He did 13 episodes of the original Star Trek, creating the Klingons. He did 23 of Wagon Train alone and at least four of five other shows. He also published two novels about the Korean War. He served during the latter and stateside during WWII, but his bios do not state whether he saw combat. A chain-smoker, he succumbed to lung and throat cancer at 49 in 1974. 99 users at IMDb have rated Hills…, forging to a consensus of 9.3 & 9.2 on them. To add perspective, The Godfather is rated 9.2 by almost two million folks. Granted, the 99 are probably ardent fans of the show. Still, the two-parter is as good as 95% of the big screen war movies ever made. Here are the director and writer:

The floating book shop was rained out today, but all was not lost, as I secured the prime wintertime parking spot and don’t have to move the car until after Thursday’s session.

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