News, Yetis & Calculus
Grim sub-headline from nypost.com on the state of America: “With murders and suicides surging in the US — homicides rose a record-setting 30 percent in 2020 — there is increased demand for companies that clean up after such grisly deaths.”
I break my Covid silence for excerpts from an NYP article by Dr. Joel Zinberg commenting on recent research: “The rate of COVID-19 associated deaths in 2021 rose 20% from 2020, despite the benefit of vaccines that only became widely available in 2021, multiple new therapies, more clinical experience resulting in improved treatment protocols, and a nationwide travel mask mandate imposed immediately after Biden’s inauguration at the beginning of 2021.” And an old quote from Quid Pro Joe targeting Trump: “Anyone who is responsible for that many [Covid-19] deaths should not remain as President of the United States of America.” Of course, that metric does not apply to him. I don’t blame Biden for the deaths. It was new ground and everyone seemed clueless, and still do. But the politicization of the pandemic was deplorable. Then again, never be surprised at how low politicians go.
Economic lesson from an NYP editorial: America “has all the tech giants and that Europe does not have a single company to match the likes of Twitter and Facebook, let alone the far more impressive giants of Microsoft, Apple, Google.” Why? “Europe’s high-regulation, protectionist model simply doesn’t encourage the development of any new industry…” And the left believes we should be more like Europe.
And more in another editorial about student loan forgiveness: “The biggest beneficiaries would be white Americans under the age of 40 who have graduate degrees and live in high-income, majority-white neighborhoods — in other words, extremely online Democrats.” In essence, “Biden’s Hail Mary pass for the coming midterms is a massive wealth transfer from taxpayers to the Democratic Party’s activist class, and that will exacerbate the already-bad inflation crisis.”
Fun headline from foxnews.com: “Elon Musk teases buying more companies, including Coca-Cola… to add back the cocaine.” I have not bought Coke since the infamous “Be less white” appeared on the side of its cans.
Last night Movies!, channel 5–2 on OTA in NYC, ran The Abominable Snowman of the Himalayas (1957), starring Forrest Tucker and Peter Cushing. I expected silly fun. A British production, it was quite serious though a bit hokey at times. I really liked how the Yetis fought back. I also thought the cinematography was skilled, although at times the sets were obvious. I doubt it would have come off as well had it been shot in color. It was directed by London-born Val Guest, who has 55 other titles to his credit, including The Day the Earth Caught Fire (1961), which won a screenplay BAFTA (Brit equivalent of Oscar). He was nominated for two others. He has 79 titles under his name at IMDb in the category of Writer. He passed away at 94 in 2006… Nigel Kneale wrote the screenplay for The Abominable… He was nominated twice for a BAFTA for two critically acclaimed works: The Entertainer (1961), shared with playwright John Osbourne, and Look Back in Anger (1960), adapting Osbourne’s play. There are 44 titles under his name. He passed away at 84 in 2006)… Arthur Grant did the cinematography. There are 100 titles under his name in a career that spanned 1931 until his untimely death at 57 in 1972. He shot many Hammer films. Here are Tucker and Cushing in character:
Given the strong wind on this otherwise beautiful day, I wasn’t expecting much business. Wrong! My thanks to the ladies who donated books and media, and to the kind folks who made purchases. I’d never thought I would sell any more cassettes, but since there were 20 or so in the bag one of the woman brought, almost all by popular artists, I decided to display them, and darn if a few didn’t sell, including the entire Bible on audio. Here’s what else sold: four kids’ books, four hardcovers in Russian; two Calculus texts and one on Pre-Calculus; a Beethoven CD; Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Krystal Skull (2008) on DVD; Driven: How To Succeed In Business And In Life by Robert Herjavec; Confessions of a Street Addict by James Cramer. I am blessed.
My Amazon Author page: https://www.amazon.com/Vic-Fortezza/e/B002M4NLJE
FB: https://www.facebook.com/Vic-Fortezza-Author-118397641564801/?fref=ts
Read Vic’s Stories, free: http://fictionaut.com/users/vic-fortezza
