Playing the Percentages

Does anything manifest the despicable nature of career politicians more than the Dianne Feinstein debacle? She is clearly incapacitated. The seat would go to a Dem. Speculation is that Pelosi and company hope she hangs on for a year so that an appointee wouldn’t have an edge in the senate race against swamp reptile Adam Schiff.

Headline from nypost.com: “America backs welfare work requirements; Dem tantrum is indefensible.” 63%, according to the poll.

Contrasting headlines from newsmax.com: “Redfield & Wilton Poll: Biden Tops Trump, DeSantis.” “Harvard-Harris Poll: Trump Leads Biden by 7 Points.” If voting methods remain the same as in 2020, I don’t see how Republicans can win nationally in ’24, although they may capture the Senate and retain the House. The abortion issue may also prove a huge roadblock. Apparently many women can’t make up their minds within twelve to 20 weeks.

Lightning struck a Florida tree. Given the state of the world, it’s easy to see why some believe it is a Biblical sign. Photo from NYP/Google Images:

An article at foxnews.com sent me to Google for this tasty bit of info: “During the past 30 years, 39.9% of Jeopardy! contestants have been women, and they’ve won 30.3% of games.” Apparently the show is as biased as the SATs.

This week’s movie fix, courtesy of Netflix by mail, was an interesting fantasy that never soared, Three Thousand Years of Longing (2022). Tilda Swinton stars as a scholar of story and mythology who comes into possession of a small bottle that contains a djinn/genie, played by Idris Elba. The latter recounts his history. Elba plays it straight, low-key. Swinton is not as quirky as usual. Her character is wary, knowing that the wishes usually are a burden rather than a boon. Besides, she does not long for anything. She loves her work and pursues it tirelessly. My attention faded in and out. The film’s best aspect is the performance of Turkey’s Ece Yüksel, speaking in her native tongue, injecting much needed life into the proceedings as the third wife of a rich man, as a genius who creates wonderful gadgets in her locked room. John Seale’s lush cinematography is another strength. A five-time Oscar nominee, he won for his work on The English Patient (1997). This was George Miller’s first film since Mad Max: Fury Road (2015). He co-wrote the screenplay with Augusta Gore, her first credit. It’s based on the short story The Djinn in the Nightingale’s Eye by A.S. Byatt, a woman, 86, who has ten novels, five short story collections and nine works of non-fiction listed on her Wiki page. 3000… flopped at the box office. Made on a budget estimated at $60 million, it returned $20+ million, a huge gap not likely made up in streaming and DVD sales and rentals. 46,000+ users at IMDb have rated it, forging to a consensus of 6.7 on a scale of ten, a bit high in my view. Although rated R, I do not recall anything potentially offensive to most folks. Here’s the lovely Ece Yüksel, photo from GI:

The floating book shop was rained out today.

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