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[duranduratulsa]

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[tcm]

The Legacy of Richard Barthelmess by Susan King

Douglas Fairbanks, Rudolph Valentino and John Gilbert are usually mentioned as the top silent film stars of the 1920s. But there was also Richard Barthelmess, who came to fame opposite Lillian Gish in the D.W. Griffith classics BROKEN BLOSSOMS (‘19) and WAY DOWN EAST (‘20). In fact, Gish once said Barthelmess’ face was “the most beautiful of any man who had ever been before the camera.”

A fan once wrote to the editor of Picture Play magazine that “Dick is getting more and more popular every day and why? Because his wonderful black hair and soulful eyes are enough to make any young girl adore him.” At the height of his career, he received 6,000 fan letters.

And then there was my grandmother, aka, Nana. She always seemed nonplussed about Hollywood and actors. But she didn’t feel that way about Barthelmess. Though I remember some of our trip to Miami Beach when I was four, I don’t recall that we encountered him at the Miami Airport. Many years later, my mother related to me with much glee that Nana was beside herself when she saw the then 64-year-old actor checking in for a flight.

Besides the swoon factor, Barthelmess had the acting chops. He received strong reviews playing a kind Chinese man who falls in love with a Caucasian woman (Gish) in BROKEN BLOSSOMS and was equally strong in WAY DOWN EAST as the earnest young man who rescues the love of his life (Gish) from death on a fast-moving ice flow.

And he further cemented his popularity with critics and audiences in TOL’ABLE DAVID (‘21), Henry King’s drama about the youngest son of a tenant farmer who yearns to be treated as a man. The film went on to win Photoplay magazine’s Medal of Honor.

During the 1920s, Barthelmess generally was cast as the all-American hero. As his New York Times obituary stated, he was “masculine, but gentle, modest and unassuming” and possessed a “shy smile” and “sleek black hair.” Fairbanks, Valentino and Gilbert were seen as far more sexual than Barthelmess.

He formed his own production company, Inspiration Pictures, making 12 films under that banner before he sold it when he was offered a financially strong contract with first National Pictures. Barthelmess was one of the founders of the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences, and he was a double nominee for lead actor at the first Academy Awards for THE PATENT LEATHER KID (‘27) and THE NOOSE (‘28). Silents were golden for Barthelmess; talkies less so. Audiences first heard Barthelmess in WEARY RIVER (‘29), one of those hybrid films Hollywood made at the beginning of the talkies era that featured both silent and sound sequences. And, there was a bit of a Lina Lamont/Kathy Selden trick going on behind the scenes for Barthelmess. Initially, it was thought that he actually was singing in the film.

The New York Times Mordaunt Hall even said in his review that “[Barthelmess] does sing it quite well.” It was later revealed that singer Johnny Murray provided the vocals and the actor was lip-synching.

I’ve seen a lot of Barthelmess’ talkies, and personally I found him uncomfortable on screen. His voice was rather weak, and his glacial beauty seemed to hurt his performances instead of enhancing his work, as it did in the 1920s. Still, the critics were giving him good reviews, and audiences seemed to like his pre-Code melodramas and his Depression-era persona.

Barthelmess worked with a lot of the top directors of the day, including Howard Hawks in THE DAWN PATROL (‘30); William A. Wellman in CENTRAL AIRPORT (‘33) and HEROES FOR SALE (‘33) and even the legendary German filmmaker G.W. Pabst (PANDORA’S BOX, ‘29) in his only Hollywood film, A MODERN HERO (1934).

But by this time, his star was fading. And around the time of his 40th birthday, Barthelmess decided to get plastic surgery. The procedure was botched and left him with visible scarring. It was three years before he felt ready to go back in front of the camera. And when he did, he gave the performance of his sound career in Hawks’ ONLY ANGELS HAVE WINGS (‘39), one of my favorite films starring Cary Grant, Thomas Mitchell and Jean Arthur about a group of daredevil pilots working for a small company in South America.

Barthelmess plays a pilot who comes to work at the company with a black mark on his name for having left his former crew to die. Grant gives him the hardest and most dangerous assignments. Hawks didn’t want his scars to be covered. According to IMDB, Hawks told Barthelmess “those scars tell the story and are important to your character.” Barthelmess is a revelation. There is a gravitas to his voice and, no longer strikingly handsome, he turns the supporting role into a character performance to remember.

His scars are also present in THE SPOILERS (‘42), a rip-roaring Western starring John Wayne, Randolph Scott and Marlene Dietrich. Though he was sixth billed, Barthelmess made the most of his role as the Bronco Kid who pines after Dietrich. He also has a great death scene. After making one more film, he retired from Hollywood and enlisted in the US. Navy Reserve during World War II. He lived off of his substantial real estate investment, which included a 50-acre beachfront estate in Southampton, which he sold in 1955 to Henry Ford II.

In 1957, Barthelmess was among the recipients of the second George Eastman Award given by the George Eastman House in Rochester, New York, for his distinguished contribution to the art of film. And three years later, he received a motion picture star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Barthelmess died of throat cancer at the age of 68 in 1963, but not before making Nana’s heart beat a little faster in 1959.

[ladyhistorypod]

Bonus Episode: Cut Content

Attributions: Police Scanner Clips

Click below for a transcript of this episode!

Alana: When we first started this podcast my parents had the feedback that maybe there was too much banter. And now they're not allowed to call me on Shabbat. I went back to dating apps recently, fifty percent because I got those quarantine lonelies and fifty percent to plug the podcast. I'm dead serious if you find my like Bumble profile, I do have the Lady History account hooked up to it to plug the podcast. And some dude from Hinge listened to the first episode and was like this really seemed to drag on but you sound like you're having a good time. And I was like I think that's the first time I've ever been negged, never been negged before I think that's what negging is? But so I said to him, I said you have misread the situation and I only take praise. And then I unmatched with him. So anyway we did take that to heart, mom, dad we were listening and we cut out a lot of banter. And all of it was good especially from episode nine there is probably gonna be a lot from episode nine because all that banter was good. Lexi: And we love animals and that was we just kept going. Alana: We love animals. But here it is. All of the banter that my parents made me cut. Lexi: Dear listeners if you hear little cracks, little swallows, little tap tapping noises. It's because, it's almost Christmas and let Lexi the editor is tired and she's decided that because the bonus episode doesn't really matter. So if you like me have misophonia I apologize but now you k:now what it feels like every day when I edit Haley We be humans not robots. Alana: We be humans not robots. Lexi: I wish there was like an AI podcast editor. [INTRO MUSIC] Alana: So my latest project in the Sims, aside from trying to get to, I think my total is thirteen hundred and sixty hours. For like the police training thing. So far I'm at eight seventy two. Which I have passed Pennsylvania which is eight fifty nine. And I think next is there are two that are eight eighty and I think one of them is Rhode Island. Hawaii is zero hours by the way. Lexi: Wait what. Alana: Zero police training hours. Lexi: You just sign up and you- *frustration sound* We’lll pull that apart another time. Alana *laugh* Yeah.  But. So I'm recreating the restaurants from the area where I grew up because that's like the only thing I miss about Santa Clarita is my restaurants. So I recently I recreated my favorite. My favorite Mexican food place it's in the gallery if you want it it's called Sim Cuco because the name of the actual restaurant is Don Cuco and so I changed it. I also made Eggs-n-Things is my favorite breakfast place and I called that I think I called that Eggs and Sims and then I made In-n-Out and called it Sim-n-Out. Lexi: That is amazing. Police Radio Sound Effect, Male voice: No one wants to go to jail for things. Haley: That makes sense. That makes absolute sense. Lexi’s Brother: Ah precious baby! Lexi: Dude, dude. Alana: Dude. Lexi: Dude. Dude. Could you close the door? Lexi’s Brother: Yeah but look at him. Lexi: I know. Lexi’s Brother: Wait I have- Lexi: Oh, okay everyone come in and hug the dog in my room. Haley: I heard precious dong and I got real scared with your library background. Lexi: No Every it's. It's ten o'clock which is bed time here and so everyone comes in to tell the dog they love him in my room. Haley: That’s acceptable. I'm obsessed with my cat right now and then making him a very nice blanket like look at this! And I just found out I had been allowing him to sit on this Michael’s box. Lexi: This is why he stays in my room, Dad. Because I don't mess with them I let him have a space; he's a Big Boy. Sorry. Haley: My cat peed on my Michael's box and pee was on yarn and I'm like well ya fucker, you just peed on my yarn. Lexi: You can wash yarn though. Haley: I guess. Lexi: Bundle it and put it in the washing machine. Haley: I hope it’s not the box of yearn ya can't wash. But like it got cat pee on it and it's supposed to be his second blanket like his really big blanket that I was gonna like fold up into like a cat bed is this is just gonna be like a little - Lexi: Well then you know what it’s perfect that he peed on it. Alana: He peed on his own yarn. Haley: I know that's what my dad was like just like making him fucking deal with it but I was like but I don't want to have knit with it. Alana: Yeah. Lexi: Wash it. Wash it on a cold gentle cycle. Haley: And I think of what you were saying like let's see the compostable dog toys like that's not something you can go down to your like ShopRite and be like that’s what I need. Lexi: Well I need corn based PLA and a 3D printer which both things I could not purchase down the street. Haley: Maybe the Whole Foods would have that. Lexi: Corn-based PLA? PLA is the material that feeds into a 3D printer to print stuff out. I don't think Whole Foods carries that. Alana: They should. Haley: I now say whole foods doesn't have it it's just it doesn't exist. Speaker 1: Because there’s a Whole Foods next to my parents that's just massive and my mom her response to everything was like go to whole foods and I’m like there's so much more than Whole Foods. There's a Trader Joe's, a Stu Leonard's, an Acme, Stop and Shop. Just now that I have more than like one grocery store at my disposal is- Alana: You have a Trader Joe's. Haley: Oh yeah, Trader Joe's is the best. Lexi: I love Trader Joe’s. Talk about a good business. Alana: Talk about a good business. Lexi:+Did you guys ever use lime wire? I know we were very young when I was a thing. Haley & Alana: Yeah. Haley: Ya, no I’ve use it. Lexi: But when I found out what that was... Alana: Well I was actively not allowed to do it because I could just be like, “Hello” I mean I'm very privileged. “Hello I need an iTunes gift card to buy songs” and my parents would be like “okay”. Lexi: I used it and when I found out it existed. I really went all in. I had the original iPod Shuffle the white brick. That my dad got at an events for work at the Trump golf course in New Jersey. He's not a Trump supporter this was in what 2006 and it was. Alana: Before Trump was a Trump supporter. Lexi: Yes I believe at the time Trump was a Democrat but he wasn't there because of that but his company rented out the golf course for an event and they all got gift bag that said like Trump hotel so my mom had to rip that part of the bag off when we we re-used after that. But I got this- one of the party favors was a white brick iPod. This is all relevant trust me. So... Alana: It’s also like the peak of technology in 2006. Lexi: Yes and I loved it. You couldn’t pick what song you just went with it. So I downloaded, we were going to the beach and my mom said okay you can take it as long as you don't let it get sandy so the night before I went on my morning downloaded like all this stuff and I didn't really check it I just threw it on the iPod. So I'm sitting in the car going to the beach. I'm listening to my iPod shuffle, my white brick with a USB stick and this thing comes on like and I’m like I don’t remember I downloading this? It’s Bill Clinton saying I did not have relations with that woman. And I was like what the hell is this. Didn't cross my mind until I was like a teenager and I kind of became more of the internet and I realized that back in the day on like limewire and other platforms like that people would as a prank put that quote instead of songs and I was like oh my god that's what happened to me when I was ten, eleven whatever that was and that was the first Bill Clinton moment I ever had in my life. My favorite thing to dislike about Bill Clinton is that he decided it was okay to go play saxophone. That made me uncomfortable but it is one of my favorite things to love to hate to love to be a uncomfy about. So yeah that's my Bill Clinton story. Bill Clinton: But I want to say one thing to the American people. I want you to listen to me I'm gonna say this again. I did not have sexual relations with that woman. Miss Lewinski. I never told anybody to lie not a single time. Never.

Haley: Ah okay so there's this thing you can look it up it's Susan Lawrence in Chappaqua, New York so overpriced d for excellent food and it kind of is like a boujie Jewish deli because like you just walk up to the counter be like I want half a pound of kale salad and they just give you the kale salad but then there's like food all around you like black and white cookies which is also something you'll see in New York Jewish deli. And it's just fabulous their mac and cheese cups A+. In the summer with their iced teas because they put half ice when the ice tea and on top they put like lemon sorbet it is beautiful and I've always wanted something like that so I can... Alana: It’s like an Arnold Palmer float. Haley: Yes. Alana and Lexi: I want that. Haley: So so so good. Alana: I'm gonna try that. Haley: Such a cute little seating area and like their part like so they have like the actual food you can eat but then like amazing pastries and cakes so in my head… Alana: Um Haley: What. Alana: You can still eat pastries and cakes. I just want to point that out. The actual food that you could eat. You said that they have actual food that you can eat and also pastries and cakes. You can also eat pastries cakes. Haley: I can't because all the pastries and cakes have eggs, so in my head that's not real food. Lexi: Haley was thinking everyone in the world can't have eggs. You just look at cakes. Haley: That’s how like I describe restaurants to people. That's like not food that all has eggs. Alana: It’s poison. Haley: Food a lot of it has eggs or cross contamination and in my head like Greek restaurants are just not viable for me.

Haley: Can we have like an episode. . . I know this isn't lady but completely can we have like an episode about how like most of the founding farmer, founding not founding farmers, founding fathers Lexi: Just little DC tings.. Haley: Yeah. Were queer. Because boy howdy I have been watching so many youtube videos on that. Alana: I’m in. . . this is totally off topic and it's fine and I'm sorry that Lexi will have to go through all this when editing. Lexi: I don't care. Alana Whatever, cut content. There was a tumblr post awhile ago. That someone was like UWU Alexander Hamilton my bisexual baby with anxiety and then someone repblogged it and was like actually he own people and now he's dead. And I so firmly belong to both of those camps. I am so like yeah he own people and now he's dead. Fuck that dude. I hate him. I hate that dude. But also it's really important to like see queer people throughout history because like it's not- it's not a new identity and I think that's important so I'm all I'm like very much yes he was queer also he sucks. Lexi: This this is like more shit for me to cut but I just have feelings. The thing that irks me is when people equate the character with the history. Separate them. Okay? The character can be UWU your baby because it's not a real person and we don't give a fuck. The real person was a complicated person with lots of different feelings, emotions, and realities. Alana: It's almost like people are complicated. Lexi: It’s important to acknowledge that there were queer people in the past. And that telling your bro how great he smells was probably a sexual thing. Alana: Gay. Lexi: It's probs gay. And, also bad people can be gay too. Haley: Thank you! Alana: Okay so this is something that I was complaining- this is like years and years ago -but I was complaining to my dad about how I think Apple is an evil corporation and he was like but their CEO is gay and I was like yeah dad it's 2018. Queer people can be anything. Lexi: Wait. If you don’t think queer people can be bad like every Disney villan doesn’t make sense. Because so many of them were queer. Alana: So I mentioned that in the witch episode briefly. I have a lot of feelings about this because almost every Disney villain is either Jewish coded or queer coded and it's no bueno. We don't like that. It's not okay.  I'm trying to think of one who isn't. Haley: Scar. Alana: Queer coded. Haley: Yeah. Alana: I guess Hans? He's pretty heterosexual. Haley: Hans was pretty heterosexual. Haley:  Captain Hook was not like as a small child I was like Captain Hook is gay. Lexi: You don’t think Hans has bi vibes? Alana: I guess. Haley: I think. . . Alana: But... Lexi: Everyone has bi vibes to me. I can’t comprehend the straight. Alana: Everyone has bi vibes to you.That's true. Lexi: Literally when you said that thing like all the founding fathers were queer, like isn't everyone a little queer. Haley: Everyone’s a little queer, not gonna lie. Alana If Bonobo chimps are anything to be . . . anything like humans. Haley: I feel like Hans is like 3% in him. Alana: Yeah. Haley: It’s not much. Alana: But like so. I think he's the only one, They're moving away from it in there. . . Lexi: Oh my god I know what it is. Okay Hans is like Winston Churchill where like he hooked up with a guy one time and had a fling with them but like it was just one time in his life. Alana: It’s just a one time thing. Lexi: Just this one time. Alana: He was experimenting. But like he's not queer coded. I think there was not really, there wasn't really a villain in Frozen II was there? Haley: No it was like the universe was like the villian like. . . Lexi: Yeah it was like the world. Alana: Queer coded! Jew coded! Lexi: Okay, okay. Go on to your story. Alana: Ok.

Daveed Diggs: Uh, who provided those funds? Haley: Uh, France?

Haley: Lilac, chartreuse. Oh no not chartreuse is that bright one… Magenta… Alana: Wait wait wait. What color is chartreuse? To you? Haley: It’s green. Alana:  Chartreuse it.. So apparently that's one of those like Mandela Effect things that some people think it's a green and some people think it's pink. Lexi: It’s pink because Chartreuse was Blue’s neighbor and possible lesbian lover. Haley: No that’s Magenta. Alana: No that’s Magenta. Lexi: Oh my god is that a Mandela Effect? Haley: No, no. Alana: No. That's just you being a dumbass. Haley: I always, okay so here's the thing I always thought chartreuse is green and then that Mandela Effect was explained to me so now I always get it mixed up but I think like the best like colors for kitchen are like muted neutrals so it looks like the woods is coming into your baking zone. Lexi: Nah, teal. Ocean kitchen, ocean kitchen! Alana: You guys should see my Sims kitchens. I just made a beautiful little like all black and white... Shout out to the jungle adventure pack. Lexi: The jungle adventure pack is so good. Alana: I also really wanted to doo like a little dining nook but freaking sims don't know how to slide across the booth apparently so it didn't work. But.

Erika: So what I'm currently watching which I watched before is New Girl. I watch it when I have anxiety. Haley: Yeah Erika: So I started again. And then when I'm just like vibing or whatever and watching something that I haven't seen six hundred times I started watching Schitt's Creek. Haley: I’m watching Schitt’s Creek! Lexi: So good. Erika: It’s like.. Like dry funny. And it like almost lands and then it doesn’t. Alana: It’s like. . . Erika: It like pulls back. Alana: It's like Arrested Development but if the characters like had growth. Erika: Yeah Lexi: Yes and I love both series equally. Alana: Ew, David. Lexi: Alexis Erika: I don't get the hotel manager person. Alana: Stevie. I love Stevie. Lexi: I love Stevie. Her character arc is so good. Alana: Imagine the two queer people on the podcast being like I love Stevie.Stevie’s not queer but like she has lesbian vibes. Haley: I tried- Lexi: That’s her whole stick she is straight butch. Alana: Reminds me of someone else I know. Haley: Wow, got called out there. Well the thing that was said is true but the words still hurt. Lexi: You can find this podcast on Twitter and Instagram at LadyHistoryPod. Our show notes and a transcript of this episode will be on ladyhistorypod dot tumblr dot com. If you like the show, leave us a review, or tell your friends, and if you don't like the show, keep it to yourself. Alana: Our logo is by Alexia Ibarra you can find her on Twitter and Instagram at LexiBDraws. Our theme music is by me, GarageBand, and Amelia Earhart. Lexi is doing the editing. You will not see us, and we will not see you, but you will hear us, next time, on Lady History. Haley: Next week on Lady History, we're having a blast from the past and going back to our undergraduate degree to talk about some goddesses be there or be square.

[detectivejigsawpines]

The Most Hideous Creatures Known to Man, part 1 (A three-hour tour)

Stan continues to find his calling.  Unfortunately, not everyone agrees with his methods...

Part 5 of the Flipside AU.

It was only a matter of time before Stan’s clientele in the forest (he’d set up in a glen near C-beth’s place as his unofficial barber shop) began expressing curiosity about the human world.

For all the myths and legends about the amount of time they were supposed to spend kidnapping children, seducing adults, casting spells on farmers’ crops and so on, the creatures in Gravity Falls had surprisingly little direct interaction with humans.  Even the gnomes were mostly limited to stealing food from their cupboards or window sills while they were sleeping, except when they were trying to find an offering for their queen (both of the Pineses had made it adequately clear to the little group they found sneaking into their Ford’s house one night that they were not available, thank you anyway).

Stan wasn’t sure if this ignorance was the case for anomalies all over the world or just the ones in this tiny part of it.  But as he cut their hair, cleaned and polished their scales and massaged their shoulders, they began peppering him with questions about what it was like for human people.

“How do you get anywhere without wings?”

“What’s it like not having gills?”

“Where do the magic lights in your houses come from?  Do you have a wizard who controls all of them? You have a lot of them, so he must be ever so powerful.”

“What is the significance of those strange boxes humans hold up to their ears sometimes?  They can stand and talk to them for hours-are they some kind of listening insects, since they have those long antennae attaching them to the bigger boxes?”

He answered their questions as best he could, making educated guesses (or maybe kind-of-sort-of flat-out lying) if he didn’t know the answers...but after a while he realized that it didn’t seem to matter what he told them, as long as he made it sound exciting.  The creatures ate it all up in delight, amazed at the way humans seemed to use this strange kind of magic called SCIENCE to make things happen.

And just like with the idea for how to get unicorn hair for his brother, an idea began to spark in Stan’s brain.

“So, let me get this straight,” Stan said one afternoon as he finished putting curlers in a beard cub’s fur, “None of you have actually seen a human up close besides me?”

“And that brother of yours,” C-beth whinnied, looking up from her copy of Whinny, Pray, Trot.  “And the occasional visitor to my glen, or hikers, or-”

“No no no, I mean, you’ve never seen humans in their natural habitat.”

The little group-unicorns, fairies, beard cubs, even a mermaid sitting in the nearby pool-all looked at him in sudden interest.

Stan grinned.  “What would you say if I offered to give you guys a guided tour?”

Of course, not all the creatures could afford to pay in gold and jewels, like the unicorns.  Those who couldn’t had to pay in other things, like samples: skin samples, hair samples, feather samples, tooth samples, any kind of samples they could spare.  Stan would bring them home for Ford to study, and he’d get dizzy with excitement over how he’d “been wanting to study this thing for ages, thank you Stanley!” and immediately run off to his lab to put it under a microscope or whatever.  It gave Stan a warm feeling in his gut, knowing that he’d given a valuable contribution to his brother’s research, and in the meantime he could use the treasure the unicorns gave him to handle other expenses, like the mortgage and groceries and stuff.

If it wasn’t samples, it was things like mushrooms, which he could then give to the gnomes in exchange for favors, or enchanted items, or whatever else could be used to set up an elaborate and profitable barter system.

It was like nothing Stan had ever imagined for himself, but somehow it all worked like a charm.  And now here was a perfect chance to make an addition to it.

If I tell Ford about this, he’s either gonna love it or hate it.

****

For the moment, Stan decided to keep it a secret from his brother.  At least until he got all the details worked out and stuff.

This required him first finding a map of Gravity Falls, and marking out places that seemed like the best “attractions.”  Then he had to think about how he was actually going to conduct these tours a) without any humans noticing, and b) without letting the group of nosy anomalies wander off and get into trouble, or (in some cases) cause trouble.

It took him the better part of a day to come up with a plan, which turned out to partially involve the, ahem, liberation of a very large golf cart from a nearby Santa’s Village, and a pound of jerky for the manotaurs in exchange for them tracking down the invisible wizard and bringing him to Stan so he could strike a deal with him.  To his major disappointment the wizard refused to give up the potion that turned him invisible, but he did lend Stan something that was in some ways even better: a few bottles of what he called “un-notice powder.” I hope I don’t need to explain its purpose.

Once he had these and a few other things thrown together, he was ready to take the first group on a wild tour of...the Human World!

“And on your left, you’ll see ‘Greasy’s Diner,’ home of the perpetually broken spinning pie trolley!”

“Oooohhhh!”  The various anomalies leaned so far to the side of the cart that Stan was worried they were going to tip them all over, staring goggle-eyed at the restaurant.  To prevent this, Stan hurriedly put the cart in park, and then, remembering what the gnomes were like, he slipped the keys into his jeans pocket.

“Twenty-I mean, two hundred gold pieces or the equivalent in samples to come in and get your picture taken with it!” he proclaimed, rushing over to the door and pushing it open.  He promptly had to jump out of the way to avoid being stampeded by the eager crowd.

Inside the diner, the guests looked up in bewilderment at the door, which appeared to have been pushed open by a sudden freak wind.  Susan Wentworth, the head waitress who worked there (and who was kinda cute, Stan had to admit), rushed over to close it, and Stan barely moved out of her way in time.

The tour group (ten gnomes, thirteen fairies of various sizes and colors, a Moth Man, the invisible wizard-who’d insisted on coming at a reduced price as recompense for his being manhandled and bullied so rudely, and Stan had decided not to argue with a man who could turn him into a frog if he got mad enough-a manotaur, and the mermaid, who the manotaur was carrying in a portable cooler filled with water) stared agape at the inside of the room, before hurrying over and taking turns being photographed in front of the pie trolley.  They also had fun prodding at the humans, swiping bites of food from their plates, and taking pictures of them pretending to squeeze their heads or whatever.

Stan watched the chaos with a smile, and took the opportunity to eat some blueberries off the top of a plate of pancakes belonging to that dumb Gleeful kid.

****

Their next stops were the town hall, the cemetery (where a few Category 2 ghosts tried to sneak on without paying, but were scared off by the silver mirrors Stan had strategically placed on the cart), the library, and the high school, before finally they stopped in front of an electronics store.

“Behold!”  Stan leaped out onto the sidewalk, arms spread wide.  The dramatic gesture was nearly ruined by a few teenagers who nearly walked right into him (because of course, they didn’t notice him), but he managed to dodge out of their path just in time.  “Ladies and gentlemen-I guess that includes most of you-”

The tour group laughed.

“-For today’s final attraction, I give you the most horrifying, dangerous, yet incredibly enticing invention of mankind yet: the Idiot Box!”  He gestured at the display of televisions in the front window, which were plugged in to different channels about news, sports, movies, and so on.

The anomalies gasped, staring at the images darting across the screens in transfixed amazement.  He could practically see their eyes turning into hypnotized spirals like in the movies.

“These fiendish devices control the minds of millions every day, encouraging them to buy things they don’t need, eat foods that aren’t good for them, and become emotionally invested in the lives of fictional characters who they are never gonna meet in real life!”  Stan had no idea where most of his words were coming from, but he was on a roll now, and there was no stopping him. “And all it takes is a little bit of electricity and a good channel-”

“I WANT ONE!”

Stan blinked, startled out of his spiel by the manotaur’s roar.

The beast abruptly hurled himself out of the cart and charged-right.  Through. The window. He smashed several of the televisions in his excitement, but he managed to snatch one up intact, ripping the plug out of the socket and hoisting it over his head triumphantly.

Not even un-notice powder was enough to prevent the people inside the store from noticing the wanton destruction.

Time to go.

****

Fortunately, Stan managed to herd everyone (several of the other creatures had rushed into the store to snatch devices for themselves in all the excitement) back into the cart and take off before the cops showed up.  Even better, the un-notice powder didn’t completely wear off until they were back in the forest, so even if the townsfolk noticed them fleeing the scene, it wouldn’t have been anything too distinct. Probably.

Stan gladly accepted a few extra tips from the happy group as they left the carts, hurrying off into the forest and chattering excitedly to each other about all the things they’d seen.

“See ya later, everyone!  Tell your friends! And remember, we put the ‘fun’ in ‘no refunds!’”

Huh; I like the sound of that.  Gonna haveta remember it for next time.

Grinning to himself, Stan finished putting everything in the large treasure chest he’d brought to collect everyone’s payments, locked it, and then drove back towards home, feeling that on the whole this had been a pretty good day.

It was just his luck, however, that Ford would be standing in the driveway as he came up, hands on his hips and wearing his “there had better be an amazing explanation for this” expression.

The cart came to a slow stop, and Stan gave his brother a weak smile.

“...Hey, Sixer.  I got you more samples.”

[berwicktimelines]

The Brown Bear

The Brown Bear is one of the most important pubs in Berwick, if only for its name.  The bear and tree are a symbol of Berwick since at least the early 13th century.  Many remember it from the past.  I remember Saturday nights 10 years or so ago when there would be queues outside of eager young things looking for, and finding, a fun night out!  

The Brown Bear is first mentioned in 1806 as being run by Joseph Brown but  earlier Bears prowled the streets of Berwick! In May 1724 and 1725, we find adverts in the Newcastle Courant advertising the annual Lamberton Races instructing entrants to bring their horses to be shown at the house of George Temple at the Sign of the Bear. And between 1724 and 1788 there is a White Bear in Hide Hill. The coincidences continue as George Temple owned the brown Bear site and was instrumental in building Berwick’s first Presbyterian church in 1719—the Low Meeting House—now the ruined structure at the rear of the yard. Was there also a pub on the site? Could the White Bear have been the same as the Brown Bear? We may never know.

The Low Meeting House in 1972.

The site layout has remained unchanged since medieval times. The early pub was little more than a dingy back room of the building fronting Hide Hill, accessed down a narrow passage but it later expanded to take in the shop at the front.

Detail from map of Berwick, 1590 showing the Brown Bear site. Note the opening in the street frontage where the archway leading to the back yard is today.

The Moor family outside The Brown Bear. George Moor ran the pub between 1864 an 1897. The central door led to the pub at the rear. Based on the apparent age of the children, this may have been taken in the 1870s. George and Elizabeth stand in the doorways with “Willie the outdoor porter” . Their youngest sons, Thomas (left) and George (right) stand by their mother. The identity of the elderly gentleman is not known but may be another family member.

The front building was rebuilt in 1898 by local architect Robert Marshall and reopened by Thomas Morrallee in 1901. The new look Bear incorporating all the trappings of the Victorian pub was greeted with mistrust by the locals.

“When the new place was built the critics pronounced it a white elephant. Townspeople had for so long been used with the old order, that they looked with suspicion on the new up-to-date building, the first of the modern licensed houses in the town. Under Mr Morrallee the house soon became a success.”

Berwick Advertiser” 22nd April, 1922

The Brown Bear in the 1910s.

Thomas Morrallee was well suited to the new Brown Bear. He knew the wine and spirit trade by heart and the Brown Bear soon became a success. Despite early reservations from the old clientele, the premises were in an ideal situation to take advantage of the age. His stables and yard offered ample space for parking horses. It was a major centre for farmers to congregate on market days to discuss the news and business. His food was a major draw serving hundreds of meals a day. He was described as a model landlord and did not tolerate drunken behaviour from anyone whatever their status. This meant that some of the less desirable elements of Berwick society quickly learnt to stay clear of “Morrallee’s”. He seems to have been a stickler for punctuality and attention to detail and while described as brusque, he had a sense of humour perhaps bordering on the black.

Thomas Morrallee died in 1922 and the pub was run, less successfully by his son Henry until he retired in 1942. And so what might be called the “golden age” of the Brown Bear came to an end.

There followed a succession of later landlords, most notably Alex Gibson and his wife Margaret, who created the famous “Tartan Lounge”. Alex Gibson is remembered for his charity work within the community. Whilst he was behind the bar, money was raised for the mentally disabled; for the children at the Grove Special School and Northumberland County Council Adult Training Centre in particular. He was also recognised for his fund-raising for the Aberfan disaster in South Wales in 1966. Of all the recollections of Mr Gibson, the most common is the large mirror at the side of the bar which would be steadily filled with coins stuck on by dipping them in beer. He also kept a chamber pot behind the bar into which, people would toss spare change. At his retirement, it was estimated that £33,000 (over £150,000 by today’s standards.In 1978 he was presented the Local Life Award. This was organised by the Brewers Society and administered by the North East Brewers Association in this region. Licensees were nominated by their customers and then assessed on their level of contribution to the local community.

Alex Gibson with the chamber pot and mirror used for charity collections.

Margaret “Peggy” Gibson poses for a photographer in the front bar which faced the front door. The charity collection mirror with coins can be seen in the background.

The 1960s and ‘70s saw many upheavals in society and pubs were not immune. Young people were looking for their own identity. Not for them the “spit and sawdust“ pubs their fathers had frequented. The idea that you might take your wife or girlfriend out to the pub led to improvements in cleanliness and the general presentation of pubs throughout the country. The pub was no longer the preserve of labourers and businessmen. It was now a place of fun for all; a place to meet new people and enjoy the liberation of the last quarter of the century.

These young people demanded greater entertainment. Pool tables and other new distractions such as gambling machines and electronic video games were seen as a useful extra source of income. The old layout of the Brown Bear could not accommodate any of these. And so, the entire building was opened up with a completely new layout to cater for this younger clientele.

The dividing wall between the front room and the Tartan Lounge was ripped out and a  bar laid along much of the length of the north wall. Gone were the traditional stools and tables. In came a more relaxed banquette seating around the walls. This extended into the old Tartan Lounge and the rear room which had been the landlord’s sitting room was added to form an area for the pool table.

In 1995, Kim Riley, Susan and Alan Wakenshaw and family took over the pub. Kim left the business in 2000 and Alan Wakenshaw died in 2005 leaving Susan and her son, Graeme to create the local legend the Brown Bear was to become amongst young people at the weekend. Live music and discos as a “warm up” to the serious clubbing in Golden Square was always a huge pull. So popular was it, that people would regularly be queueing outside waiting to be admitted.

The Brown Bear had always been associated with charitable work but on a personal note, their entries in the Tweedmouth Feast Float Parade were outstanding; consistently the most imaginative and the most fun. Another favourite annual fund raising event was the all day “B in The Bear” music event. A long range of decking was erected in the rear yard and a stage erected for local bands to perform on.

B in the Bear, 2010.

The Wakenshaws retired in 2013. It was a hard act to follow and while others tried, they were not able to and the pub was open intermittently until it closed in 2016.

It reopened in December 2016 by pub campaigner Mark J Dodds. He had a vision of how a pub might be run with the community at the heart of it. I was involved with it from an early stage being asked to look into the history of the pub. Mark had the wholly admirable idea of revitalising the rear space for markets, pop-up shops, artisan crafts and so much more. The Low Meeting house might be rebuilt as a music venue and so much more. And until recently, it appeared to be a thriving venture: regular music nights and pub quizzes.

Crowds in the “new look” Bear.

Sadly, funding sources did not match the dream. There were problems from the start, not least of which was based on an unrealistic comparison to upmarket London pubs, and an inadequate kitchen for serious provision of food and thus greater revenue. The Brown Bear closed on 28th July, 2018. It’s a sad end.

I do hope someone will attempt to save what really could be once more the pub it used to be.

[kansascityhappenings]

Officials now say 9 people are dead after tornado ripped through Nashville

NASHVILLE — Middle Tennessee was hit by tornado overnight Monday into Tuesday morning after severe storms moved through the area.

The tornado passed through downtown Nashville around 1 a.m. The path of the storm traveled almost exactly to a 1998 tornado that hit East Nashville.

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Some of the hardest-hit areas in the storm include Centennial Blvd and Briley Parkway in West Nashville, where there were reports of heavy damage to planes at John C. Tune Airport. Several hangars have been destroyed and power lines are down. The public is advised to say away from John C. Tune until further notice.

Overturned tractor-trailers littered the interstates on Interstate 24 near Antioch and Interstate 40 near Mt. Juliet.

Metro Nashville Public Schools are closed Tuesday.

Metro Schools will be closed on Tuesday, March 3 due to the tornado damage throughout Nashville. District offices will remain open and 12 month employees should report. More information on school closures available at https://t.co/JYTaiJb2ph

— Metro Schools (@MetroSchools) March 3, 2020

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Longtime businesses such as Basement East in East Nashville and Jack Brown’s in Germantown were flattened. Five Points neighborhood in East Nashville is reportedly half-destroyed.

WKRN confirmed nine people have so far been killed in the storms including one in Benton County when a mobile home was picked up and thrown into a field. Two of the other victims were in Nashville. Four of the victims were in Putnam County and two addition victims were in Wilson County.

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Stones River Bridge in Hermitage (Source: Elbert Tucker)

9th Avenue North (Source: Julia Palazzo)

9th Avenue North (Source: Julia Palazzo)

9th Avenue North (Source: Julia Palazzo)

9th Avenue North (Source: Julia Palazzo)

9th Avenue North (Source: Julia Palazzo)

9th Avenue North (Source: Julia Palazzo)

9th Avenue North (Source: Julia Palazzo)

9th Avenue North (Source: Julia Palazzo)

9th Avenue North (Source: Julia Palazzo)

Funnel Cloud (Source: Zak Delaney)

Five Points / North 10th Street (Source: Stassy Olmos)

Jack Browns in Germantown (Source: Stassy Olmos

Camden Hail (Source: Susan Davis)

Basement East in East Nashville (Source: Stassy Olmos)

Donelson Christian Elementary (Source: Megan Armstrong)

Mt. Juliet (Source: Larry Walker)

Mt. Juliet (Source: Larry Walker)

East Nashville YMCA (Source: Colleen Hoy)

East Nashville High Garden on Woodland (Source: Colleen Hoy)

Boom Bozz Patio in East Nashville (Source: Colleen Hoy)

East Nashville / Five Points (Source: Colleen Hoy)

Monroe and 10th

East Nashville damage

East Nashville damage

East Nashville damage

Camden Hail (Source: Susan Davis)

Jack Browns in Germantown (Source: Stassy Olmos)

Five Points / North 10th Street (Source: Stassy Olmos)

Funnel Cloud (Source: Zak Delaney)

Nashville EOC was partially activated Tuesday morning to respond to emergency calls and damage following the severe weather. Representatives from OEM, Nashville Fire Department, Mayor’s Office, Metropolitan Police Department, Davidson County Sheriff’s Office, Metro Water Services, Metro Storm Water, Metro Public Works, Emergency Communications, Metro Nashville Public Schools, Metro ITS, Planning/GIS Department, Metro Codes, Engineers as well as NES are gathering in the EOC to monitor damage reports and respond to emergency calls around the county.

SEE ALSO: Super Tuesday polling locations impacted by severe weather

Mt. Juliet was also hard hit with multiple people reportedly injured and multiple homes damaged.

We have deputies across the county on foot checking multiple residences and businesses that have been damaged. We ask everyone to stay in your homes and not venture out at the moment to see the damage to allow roadways free to all first responders.

— Wilson Co Sheriff (@wilsonsheriff) March 3, 2020

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An emergency shelter with running water is open for residents displaced by the storms at Nashville Farmer’s Market on 900 Rosa L. Parks Blvd in Nashville.

The @RedCrossTN has been notified and is responding to help displaced residents. A shelter is open at the Nashville Farmers 900 Rosa Parks.

— Nashville EOC/OEM (@NashvilleEOC) March 3, 2020

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Cookeville Mayor Ricky Shelton reports multiple homes were damaged and several people were injured in that area.

from FOX 4 Kansas City WDAF-TV | News, Weather, Sports https://fox4kc.com/news/at-least-6-dead-after-tornado-rips-through-nashville/

from Kansas City Happenings https://kansascityhappenings.wordpress.com/2020/03/03/officials-now-say-9-people-are-dead-after-tornado-ripped-through-nashville/

[reviewdoctorwho]

The Daleks- Beginnings of the Never-Ending Villains

This serial is almost as important as An Unearthly Child. In terms of iconography, Doctor Who is nothing without the Daleks. I still remember the first time I’d had Christmas at my dad’s house since becoming a Whovian and asking him if I could change the channel to BBCA for that year’s special. When I explained the show to him, he told me about vague memories about how his dad would watch it on PBS sometimes way back when. He didn’t remember much except for a guy in a long scarf, a “blue phone booth,” and monster robots with sticky-outy eyes and “lightbulbs” all over. Regardless of how you may feel about their constant presence, this story introduces one of the most influential villains in sci-fi history. It’s also the first classic serial to begin to find the tone of the show we know today.

Synopsis: Our heroes leave the TARDIS to find themselves in a dead forest of petrified trees and metal animals and a seemingly abandoned city in the distance. The Doctor wants to investigate the city, but everyone else wants to just fly off and abandon the whole creepy scene, so as a compromise they take a big tour of the TARDIS and discover the wonders of what the 60s thought was futuristic alien technology. There’s a knock on the TARDIS door and a mysterious box full of strange vials, and that’s enough to freak out all three companions and they beg the Doctor to fly them away. As he starts up the engine, however, he reaches under the console and rips out a piece of the TARDIS. He pretends that the piece is busted and that the only way to repair it is to go into the city. They arrive in the city and Barbara and Ian split up to investigate the central building. The first episode ends with the iconic POV shot of Barbara, cornered in a dead end hallway screaming her lungs out as some unseen monster with a plunger slowly encroaches.

The rest of the crew go looking for Barbara only to find a lab with a Geiger counter that’s off the charts. Once the Doctor realizes the danger, he admits he has the “broken” piece of the TARDIS and that they can actually just leave as soon as they grab Barbara. As they head out of the lab, however, they’re captured by the monsters that got Barbara and the four are reunited in a cell. The Doctor is brought to the monsters, called Daleks, who think he is part of another native race called the Thals. The Daleks explain that the Thals are hideous mutated monsters that are the result of a nuclear war between the two races generations ago. The Thals have been in hiding for decades but have recently emerged, so the Daleks assume they’ve got an anti-radiation drug. The Daleks want the drug for themselves, thinking that they must need to be cured of the radiation as well. The Doctor assumes that must be what the mysterious vials were so they let him send Susan to the TARDIS alone because everyone else is too sick to move. Susan makes it to the TARDIS and is stopped by a Thal, a hunky Aryan-looking man rather than the expected hideous mutants, and they get a plan to negotiate peace with the Daleks together before she heads back. Everyone feels much better after taking the drugs, and Susan works with the Daleks in an attempt to create peace. However, the peace talk is all a trap by the Daleks to finally exterminate the Thals, and the TARDIS crew manage to escape the city with the survivors of the ensuing ambush.

The Doctor and Co. plan to just bail and let the Thals and Daleks kill each other, but a problem arises- The Doctor actually forgot the piece he ripped out of the TARDIS back in the now heavily guarded city! Pressed for ideas, Ian and the Doctor go full-on Braveheart and incite the peaceful Thals to start a war just so they can make it back to the city for the piece. The plan works out though, because the Daleks have learned that they’ve evolved to need radiation to survive and that they’ll need to drop another neutron bomb to boost the dropping radiation levels. The Thals, Ian, and Barbara spend what feels like a million years crawling through caves to get through the mountains surrounding part of the city while the Doctor and Susan distract the Daleks and knock out their security. Having earlier discovered that the shells the Daleks ride around are powered by static electricity (ah, when static electricity was considered powerful tech), the Thals and our four heroes break into the building and wreak havoc. They basically murder all the Daleks and head back to the TARDIS. Barbara had a fling with one of the Thals during the 7-million hours of cave crawling (if you pay attention during the episode, at one point she starts wearing Thal pants and they even carry over to the next serial) and has a very steamy goodbye with him before they all head into the TARDIS. The Doctor replaces the piece he ripped out and the crew sets off on their next adventure!

Background Info:

•First episode to feature the Daleks, Thals, and their home planet Skaro

•First episode written by Terry Nation. Though this isn’t his only claim to Doctor Who fame, this is by far his biggest. The Daleks were his creation and were actually his copyrighted property, which led to a lot of interesting production issues down the road.

•First episode directed by Christopher Barry, who would work on Doctor Who until 1979.

Opinion: The parts of this story that aren’t set in caves are some of my favorite Classic Who moments. Not only does this episode introduce the Daleks as scary (albeit easily defeated) monsters, but it provides a compelling tale of good vs. evil that’s still being fought now over 50 years later. The parts that do take place are just plain dull. When I watch this and I’m not doing a review for a blog I actually skip about two and a half episodes’ worth of spelunking. It’s repetitive, dreary, and there’s no way that’s the proper way to go diving in caves. Given that this was made in the late 60s when WWII was still very relevant and people were developing and threatening each other with nukes seemingly on the daily, there was a lot of very un-subtle discussion about war and pacifism vs. aggression that really go anywhere because I’m not sure Nation knew where he wanted to go with it. It may be a result of this confused narrative, or the fact that we don’t know who the characters are yet, that lead to my one big takeaway from this serial. It’s the same thing I took away from the episodes before: the Doctor is violent and selfish in a way he never is again. For god’s sake, he turned an entire race of pacifist farmers into professional Dalek-killers so they can fix their ride! He’s got a lot of ways to go before he really becomes the Doctor we know now.

Favorite Trivia: While Terry Nation was the creator of the Daleks from the writing side of things, the design of the creatures was almost done by a then-unknown guy named Ridley Scott. The same Ridley Scott that would go on to create Alien and Blade Runner. Imagine how much more terrifying the Daleks would have been if he’d had a hand in them!

[pebblesinyourshoe]

Marestail Moment

This summer the daisies by our mailbox were in full bloom and growing near them was a green plant. It looked different than any of the weeds in the bed and had the appearance similar to what I remembered a black-eyed susan plant that had been in the bed the previous year. So I left it. Others asked about the plant and I proudly stated, "It's a black-eyed susan."  We left for a little over a week and the person watching the house noticed the plant. He too thought it odd, but didn't want to pry into someone else's gardening. When I returned home from our time away, the plant was now greater than three feet tall. It was at that point I knew I had guessed wrong.

So doing what any person who knows farmers would do, I took a picture of the plant and sent it off. The response was, "It's Marestail. It's incredibly invasive and when the plant reaches its full height - could be over six feet tall, it will spray thousands of seeds all over the place and create a gigantic problem. It's too late for any chemical treatment. You need to immediately dig it up and throw it into the trash can."  So I did.

Good intentions. Sometimes you go down a path that you think will lead to something beautiful only to find that there is something that you didn't count on waiting on the other side. You are going to have Marestail Moments this school year - when your best of intentions simply go awry. That's okay. At that point, cut bait and try something different. Because when it comes to working with children there are never any 'sure things'. Rather, there are opportunities that might blossom into black-eyed susans and other moments when you find marestail.  The thing to remember is to take on the approach of the master gardener and keep planting toward a more beautiful space. Because the children need you to have that mindset and they need you to understand that while marestail grows in many parts and places, so do black-eyed susans. This year, keep your thumb green and your eyes on all that is beautiful and don't be afraid when the marestail grows to rip it out of the soil and try something different.

[willowsgardenblog-blog]

Bees!

There are many types of different bees in the world. We all know this. But I have read a statement that I found simply ridiculous.

https://www.petakids.com/food/honey/

As my first post I will say that I do not approve of PETA or the way they act and think and try to push their agenda. Now. That's not to say that, yes, many animals and insects are not treated quite so nicely in every situation. However the main thing that turned me off of their ways was an article I once read about how you shouldnt milk cows because its stealing. In this situation it's ridiculous because cows literally need to milk. I have seen a whole farm of cows deprived of being milked. Their udders were so massive that they could all only lay on the ground in pain. They looked so heavy they could rip right off.

Now bees are obviously a different creature entirely but they still dont seem to listen to themselves when they speak. Yes bees can get hurt in the process, but I can bet that bee keepers try their best not to. If your running an apple orchard, do you pick the apples, or chop down the whole tree? You obviously pick the apples or you lose out on your crops.

Now as for cutting the wings on the queen bees. Theres many reasons for it. One being that it prevents swarming. It's also used for age marking and value of the queen. However cutting their wings is about as harmful as cropping an animals ears. Queen bees usually dont move far from the colony, except in emergency. And why would she? Shes housed in a safe structure made, maintained, and guarded by humans. Not to mention it's a bit hard to move when you're pregnant with a lot of eggs.

Furthermore. As with the argument of that we steal milk from baby cows. Bees dont need all the honey they produce to live. They place the larvae into the honey. And not all the cells get filled with larvae. Also, I'm no expert on this, but I dont believe that it would be good business practice to burn down your bee apiary just because the months are cold. To make the example again. Would you burn down your apple trees just because it's cold and the crop is gone or spend the winter making sure they survive and dont get wind burnt so you dont have to waste money and time on new ones next spring?

Finally

Are you really that dense? "If bees are imprisoned by the honey industry, how will nature's plants continue to reproduce?!" Do you really think apiaries are inescapable boxes? The bees leave the box to gather pollen from plants like any bee does, then returns to the apiary. The honey industry is also the number one people even past PETA trying to make sure that the bee population thrives.

What would it serve them to have bees go extinct?

To make the example one final time. PETA acts like the honey industry is an apple orchard farmer deciding to cut down his trees every time the apples are ripe, so he can gather the apples easily, until there are no trees left.

My final note is, bees are important to the life of the plants throughout the world. Instead of trying to slander every person with bees and shame-on-you finger pointing to the consumer they should be trying to advise people to be friendly to bees. To plant flowers that bees love. To not just kill a bee because it's a bee and might sting you. (I'm excluding those with allergies. I know that's very a scary situation for you guys. And it can literally be life or death over a small prick.)

If you would like to help some bees, here are some bee friendly plants they enjoy.

-purple coneflowers

-common yarrow

-sunflowers

-giant hyssop

-horsemint

-black eyed susan

-asters

-golden rods

-weeds (dandelions and such)

Now get out there and plant bee friendly flowers. We need them for the health and wellness of our world.

(Source for bee image - https://kids.nationalgeographic.com/animals/honeybee/#honeybee-whitebackground.jpg)

[theliberaltony]

via Politics – FiveThirtyEight

Last week, Fox News host Chris Wallace asked President Trump about his role in how the coronavirus pandemic has unfolded in the U.S., where case numbers and the death toll are surging even as some other countries seem to be getting things under control. But in response, Trump diverted responsibility, saying, “It came from China. They should’ve never let it escape.”

Blaming China for the pandemic isn’t a new tactic for the president. In fact, it’s become a fairly common refrain as Trump and other Republicans have doubled down on accusing China of causing the coronavirus or exacerbating its spread. And while it’s unlikely that this gambit will solve all of Trump’s problems — approval numbers for his handling of the pandemic continue to tank — there is at least some evidence that Americans may be more receptive than in the past to seeing China as the culprit, as opinions of the nation are now the worst they’ve been than any time in recent history.

In 2005, Pew Research Center started regularly asking Americans about their views on China, and at that point, Americans had a fairly positive opinion of the country (43 percent said they had a favorable view and 35 percent said they had an unfavorable one). But in March of this year, as a number of states were issuing stay-at-home orders and millions of Americans were losing their jobs, the share of Pew respondents with a favorable view of China had fallen to 26 percent, while the share with a negative opinion sat at 66 percent. Granted, public opinion of China has long been on the decline, but this was still the lowest approval rating of the country since 2005.

And it wasn’t just Pew who found Americans’ opinions of China are deteriorating. An NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll that ended in early June found that the majority of Americans held negative views of China, a 12-point uptick in unfavorable opinions since 2000. And an Economist/YouGov poll from late June found that 65 percent of Americans think China is unfriendly toward — or even an enemy of — the United States.

To understand why China is so unpopular with Americans, I spoke with Susan Shirk, a political science professor focused on U.S.-China policy at the University of California San Diego, and Michael Beckley, a political science professor at Tufts University. They suggested that, even before the pandemic, China’s own actions in recent years — including its increased military presence in the South China Sea and its alleged violations of human rights and civil liberties — have been driving down Americans’ opinion of the country.

Shirk told me she traces the changes in China’s behavior to the 2008 financial crisis, as she argued that was when perceptions really started to change. At the time, the U.S. economy was in shambles, but China’s economy emerged relatively unscathed. Shirk said this contributed to China taking a more active role internationally, which hasn’t always been well-received.

Beckley argued that Xi Jinping’s presidency has also played a significant role in creating a negative public image of China because of how he has consolidated power while in office.

Shirk told me that first and foremost, she thinks people feel increasingly negatively toward China because of “the way China’s acting.”

At the same time, though, Trump has also exacerbated tensions with China by waging a nearly two-year trade war, imposing a series of tariffs on goods U.S. imports from the country. Then, of course, the pandemic hit. “The coronavirus comes and is kind of like the final nail in the coffin,” said Beckley. And reports that China hid or downplayed severity of the pandemic in its early days are further harming the country’s global reputation. “[Unfavorability of China] has been an ongoing trend, but obviously, the current crisis makes it much, much worse,” said Beckley.

In the U.S., this has meant a rapid deterioration in public opinion toward China, with both Democrats and Republicans souring on the country. In three recent polls, all taken after the pandemic reached the U.S., about three-quarters of Republicans said they had an unfavorable opinion of China, felts negatively toward China or considered China unfriendly or an enemy. Among Democrats, the share who felt the same was anywhere from 44 percent to 62 percent.

It’s not clear, though, whether this increased negativity toward China presents a political opportunity for either Trump or presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden. Some have argued that a firm anti-China stance could benefit either or both parties, though Beckley and Shirk were pretty skeptical that this would be a top issue for voters.

As you can see in the table below, the polling picture on who Americans trust to handle China is pretty hazy. One poll shows Biden with a 8-point lead over Trump on this question, while two others give him a more modest lead, and one gives Trump a narrow advantage.

No strong consensus on who’d handle China better

Share of voters who think Biden or Trump would be better at handling U.S. relations with China

Pollster Polling Dates Biden Trump Morning Consult/Politico June 26-29 43% 37 Harvard CAPS/Harris June 17-18 54 46 NBC/WSJ May 28-June 2 40 43 Fox News May 17-20 43 37

Source: Polls

Additionally, given that the U.S. is dealing with a major health crisis, an economic downturn and protests across the country, Beckley and Shirk both told me they were somewhat dubious of the idea that either Republicans or Democrats would be able to rally voters around China. Shirk said that unlike some other topics in the news, U.S. relations with China just aren’t as personal to voters. And Beckley said that given each candidate’s track record with China, he didn’t think either Trump or Biden would be able to use the issue much to their advantage.

“Even though the Trump administration can claim a lot of credit for altering U.S.-China policy and taking a harder-line turn, Trump has said a lot of nice things about Xi Jinping and has been willing to look the other way on China’s human rights violations,” said Beckley. And Republicans will likely paint Biden as belonging to an administration that had a “naive” approach toward China, Beckley said, “basically coddling a rising power.”

But China might play an outsized role in the election if Trump successfully uses it as a scapegoat for the pandemic, allowing him to shift some of the blame for his response onto China. Brian Reisinger, a Republican strategist who advised Sen. Ron Johnson’s and former Governor Scott Walker’s reelection campaigns, says that “there is a lot of room to blame China” because of its actions in the early days of the pandemic, but also because it plays on an existing hostility in important electoral states like Wisconsin, where almost 12 percent of the state’s jobs are in agriculture. “Farmers in rural Wisconsin have felt for years like they’re getting ripped off, whether its milk prices or any other type of commodity. And one of the biggest offenders in the global marketplace is China,” Reisinger said.

If Trump is able to shift the blame, it could help his campaign stanch the bleeding. And it might work. A Navigator poll from late April, for instance, tested multiple narratives about who’s to blame for the pandemic, asking voters which of two statements they agreed with more even if they didn’t fully agree with either. When forced to choose between a statement that placed all the blame on Trump and one that put all the blame on China, respondents were essentially evenly divided, 49 to 51, which is well within the poll’s confidence interval. A statement that blamed both Trump and China got slightly more support, at 54 percent. This suggests that at least some voters are open to an argument that gives China a significant share of the blame for the pandemic.

For Democrats, that means the party’s messaging on China will need to focus on what they see as Trump’s flawed argument on the coronavirus — arguing that he, not China, is to blame — and setting the record straight on Trump’s previous dealings with the country, said Mike Spahn, managing director of Democratic consulting firm Precision Strategies. “I think what you’ve already seen and will continue to see is the Biden campaign poking holes,” Spahn said. For example, Biden released an ad in April that criticized the president for accepting Jinping’s word that the coronavirus was under control and failing to get more American experts into China.

Of course, a lot has changed since April. Now, more than 145,000 people have died from COVID-19 in the U.S. and a majority of Americans disapprove of how Trump is handling the coronavirus. And who Americans believe is at fault has been shifting too. Morning Consult has been asking registered voters who is most to blame for the spread of the coronavirus, and in late March, a plurality of voters, 36 percent, blamed the Chinese government, compared to just 23 percent who blamed Trump. However, by late June, 35 percent of voters said they blamed Trump. Granted, 31 percent still blamed the Chinese government (and 20 percent said they didn’t know or had no opinion) but the fact that Trump led on this metric instead of China certainly doesn’t bode well for him.

In the coming months, Republicans will likely double down on efforts to convince the public that China is to blame for the devastation caused by the coronavirus — Trump is routinely doing so in his coronavirus press briefings and other public appearances — but it’s not clear that this will be a winning argument. But as long as some voters seem open to the idea, we can probably expect to keep seeing it come up as a diversionary tactic.

[placetobenation]

Hercules

Release Date: June 13th, 1999 (released nationwide June 27th)

Inspiration: The legend of Hercales

Budget: $85 million

Domestic Gross: $99 million

Worldwide Gross: $252.7 million

Rotten Tomatoes Score: 84%

IMDB Score: 7.3/10

Storyline (per IMDB): Hercules, son of the Greek God, Zeus, is turned into a half-god, half-mortal by evil Hades, God of the Underworld, who plans to overthrow Zeus. Hercules is raised on Earth and retains his god-like strength, but when he discovers his immortal heritage Zeus tells him that to return to Mount Olympus he must become a true hero. Hercules becomes a famous hero with the help of his friend Pegasus and his personal trainer, Phil the satyr. Hercules battles monsters, Hades and the Titans, but it is his self-sacrifice to rescue his love Meg which makes him a true hero.

Pre-Watching Thoughts: We continue to trek towards the end of the decade and the millennium with our next film, and this is another one that is considered by many to be one of the more underrated films in the Disney canon. As I mentioned in the last review, I have not seen any of these films prior to this point and considering how these films have been more favorably looked at over the last few years, it does make me wonder if I had missed out all these years. I was very pleasantly surprised with how much I enjoyed the last film and I’m hoping that I get the same feelings after watching this film.

Voice Cast: After the last two films that had a slightly smaller cast than previous films, we have a significantly bigger cast in this film and the majority of it features new voices though we do have some returning actors. The first returning actor is Patrick Pinney who voices the Cyclops along with the left head of Lythos and other additional voices, and then we have Paddi Edwards who voices the Fate Atropos in what would be one of her final roles as she sadly passed away two years later. We also have the return of Carole Shelly who voices the Fate Lachesis in one of her last roles of her career and finally, we have the return of Frank Welker who voices Pegasus the horse as he was in the prime of his career to this point. We now move onto the newcomers as we have Tate Donovan who voices Hercules in what would be one of his only animated film roles, and we have Josh Keaton who voices Hercules as a teenage with Roger Bart providing the singing voice as this is the first time in a while we had multiple actors voice one character. Next, we have comedian Danny DeVito who voices Phil as he was in the prime of his career to this point, and then we have another longtime actor involved as James Woods voices Hades in one of the most memorable roles of his career. We then have Susan Egan who voices Meg in arguably the most memorable role of her career, and then we have the pair of Rip Torn and Samantha Egger who voice Zeus and Hera respectively as they were hitting the peak of their careers. Next, we have the quintet of Lillias White, Cheryl Freeman, LaChanze, Roz Ryan, and Vaneese T. Thomas who voice the Muses Calliope, Melpomene, Terpsichore, Thalia, and Clio respectively as they serve as the narrators of the film and also provide vocals for a few of the songs. We then have the pair of Bobcat Goldthwait and Matt Frewer who voice Pain and Panic respectively as they are Hades’ bumbling henchmen, and then we have film legends Hal Holbrook and Barbara Barrie who voice Amphitryon and Alcmene as they were hitting the twilight of their careers. Next, we have Amanda Plummer who voices the Fate Clotho as she was in the prime of her career at this point, and then we have Paul Shaffer who voices Hermes though he was better remembered for being the lead instrumentalist on David Letterman’s show. We then have Wayne Knight who voices Demetrius in a minor role and we also have Keith David who voices the God Apollo in a minor role, and finally we have film legend Charlton Heston who serves as the narrator at the beginning of the film as he was winding down his long career. It was interesting that most of the actors in this film have been around for quite a number of years, but it helps give the film legitimacy and it will be interesting to see if this trend continues going forward.

Hero/Prince: The interesting thing here is that one of the themes of this film is becoming a hero and that is the goal for our hero in this film, and that is of course the son of Zeus and Hera which is Hercules. As a baby, he is kidnapped by the henchmen of Hades who attempt to use a potion to strip him of his immortality though a farmer and his wife scare them away before they finish which allows Hercules to maintain his strength. He grows up an outcast until his adopted parents inform him of his lineage and Hercules meets Zeus, and he is sent to Phil who is tasked to train him as a hero and he saves a damsel named Meg from Nessus. He then moves to Thebes where he rescues two boys who are revealed to be the same ones that kidnapped him as a baby, and the Hydra is released though Hercules defeats him along with other monsters as he is hailed a hero though Zeus tells him he hasn’t become a “true hero”. Hercules falls in love with Meg who is in debt to Hades and he offers her safety in exchange for Hercules giving up his strength, and Hercules accepts this though he is distraught when he learns Meg was in league with Hades albeit against her will. Hercules is attacked by a Cyclops which he still defeats and Meg sacrifices herself to save him, and as a result his strength is restored and he helps Zeus and the gods defeat the Titans and save Olympus. Meg dies from her injuries and is taken to the Underworld where Hercules goes and he sacrifices himself to save Meg, and this act of sacrifice restores his immortality and he sends Hades into the river Styx. Zeus offers him his spot amongst the gods though Hercules declines and decides to stay on Earth where he begins a relationship with Meg. Hercules is an interesting hero as he is kind and good-hearted though he is a bit clumsy in dealing with his strength and is considered a freak, and after Phil helps train him he becomes famous and lauded as a hero though as Zeus tells him, these actions don’t make him a true hero as it takes something deeper. As mentioned, one of the themes Hercules has to learn is how to be a true hero as he does numerous heroic deeds, but it is not until his willingness to give up his life to save Meg that he becomes a true hero. All that being said, Hercules is still one of the better heroes in Disney history though it will be interesting to see where he ranks amongst the other heroes in the canon.

Princess: For the second film in a row, we have included in this category someone that is not technically a princess, but deserves to be mentioned and that is the lady known as Megara or Meg for short. We first meet her when she is being attacked by a centaur and Hercules saves her as he quickly becomes smitten with her, and it is discovered that she sold her soul to Hades to save her lover only for them to leave her and she is still in debt to Hades. He forces her to lead Hercules into a trap though Hercules overcomes it and defeats the Hydra, and he decides to spend some time with Meg as she learns that she is in love with him and Hades uses this to his advantage. He takes Meg hostage and demands Hercules give up his strength which he agrees to if Hades promises to leave Meg unharmed which he does, and Hades reveals he and Meg were in cahoots much to Hercules’ dismay and he is nearly killed by a Cyclops. Meg rallies him to fight back and she ultimately sacrifices herself to save Hercules which causes the deal to become void and he regains his strength, and she dies from her injuries and is taken to the Underworld by Hades. Hercules goes after them and offers his own life in exchange for hers which Hades agrees to, but this sacrifice leads him to regain his immortality and he saves Meg as he decides to stay on Earth and be with her. Meg is clearly shown to be a strong, independent woman though her faith in love is shaken due to her selling her soul to Hades in exchange for her lover to be saved only for him to leave her for another woman. She has a personality that is unique to her as she is sarcastic and initially indifferent of Hercules, but she eventually falls in love with him despite her ties to Hades and she redeems herself by sacrificing her life to save Hercules. I feel that she doesn’t get the credit she deserves for how good a character she is, and it will be interesting to see where she ranks amongst the more well-known princesses especially she isn’t a princess.

Villain: We’ve been on a run of really good villains in the Disney canon and that continues here as we have the God of the Underworld, Hades who yearns to dispose of his brother Zeus and become the new ruler of Olympia. He learns from the Fates that in 18 years, the planets will align which will allow him to release the Titans and attack Olympia though the plan will fail if Hercules gets involved. Hades has Pain and Panic steal Hercules and take away his immortality, but they fail to feed him the whole potion and he retains his strength though they tell Hades that they were successful. After the 18 years pass and Hades learns Hercules is still alive, he has Meg who sold her soul to him to save her lover lead Hercules into a trap though Hercules succeeds in killing the Hydra and he constantly overcomes all of Hades’ monsters. Hades then has Meg get close to Hercules and when he realizes Hercules is in love with her, he holds Meg hostage and Hercules agrees to give his strength up for 24 hours though he makes Hades swear that Meg won’t be harmed or the deal would become void. Hades releases the Titans and has them attack Olympia while having a Cyclops finish Hercules off, but after Meg sacrifices herself to save Hercules he regains his strength and heads to Olympia where he helps Zeus destroy the Titans. Hades returns to the Underworld and Hercules follows him as he offers his own soul in exchange for Meg’s and Hades accepts, and Hercules dives into the river Styx and saves Meg while regaining his immortality and he sends Hades into the river where he is sucked down by the spirits. Hades is the true definition of a hothead and not just because he has fire for hair, he is insanely jealous of Zeus and the other gods as he wishes to be the true ruler and is willing to do whatever he can to achieve his goals. He is a fast-talker and has a silver tongue in that he can be very cunning and convincing in his words, and this is seen in Meg willingly giving up her soul to save her lover though he ended up leaving her which leaves her in a tough spot. In the end, his overconfidence proves to be his downfall as he is unable to talk his way out of being knocked into the river Styx by Hercules. Hades is still one of the more memorable villains in the Disney canon and we will see how he manages to fare against the other villains in the canon.

Other Characters: Once again, we have a lot of characters in the film though most of them are mainly used in the background with only a handful that serve a bigger purpose in the film. At the top of the list is the satyr Philoctetes or Phil for short as Hercules seeks him out to train him to be a hero, and Phil is hesitant at first though he eventually accepts and he remains at Hercules’ side as he becomes popular. When he finds out that Meg is in league with Hades, he tries to tell Hercules who believes he is lying and Phil decides to leave Thebes, but he is convinced by Meg to return as he gives Hercules support and stays by Meg’s side when Hercules heads to help the gods. After Hercules returns to Earth, he is lauded as a hero and a god as Phil is finally recognized for helping make Hercules who he is. We then have Hercules’ horse Pegasus who is given to Hercules as a gift when he is born, and 18 years later he reunites with Hercules and assists him in his training. He helps Hercules fight off the various monsters and he takes Hercules to Olympus to help Zeus fight off the Titans, and he stays at Hercules’ side when he decides to return to Earth. Next, we have Hades’ henchmen Pain and Panic who steal Hercules as a baby and try to feed him the potion to make him mortal, but they are unable to feed him the whole thing and he maintains his strength as they tell Hades they were successful. After Hades learns Hercules is still alive, Pain and Panic continue to support him until he is sent into the river Styx and they appear happy that he is gone. We then have the Gods led by Zeus and Hera who rule Olympia and have a son named Hercules, and when Hades leads the Titans against Olympia Zeus leads the charge though he is captured by Hades until Hercules saves him and the gods. After having his immortality restored when he saved Meg, he is welcomed to Olympia by Zeus and the Gods though he chooses to stay on Earth with Zeus and Hera’s blessing. We then have the Titans that are released by Hades to invade Olympia as the Cyclops is ordered by Hades to kill Hercules, but Hercules manages to kill the Cyclops despite having lost his strength before heading to Olympia and sending the remaining Titans into the cosmos where they are destroyed. Next, we have the various humans throughout the film starting with the farmer Amphitryon and his wife Alcmene who find Hercules as a baby and raise him, and they eventually tell Hercules of his past and continue to support him through his journey. We then have the 5 Muses who serve as the narrators of the film and also sing various songs throughout the film, and then we have the 3 Fates who tell Hades that he is destined to conquer Olympia and become the ruler so long as Hercules doesn’t interfere. They are shown at the end of the film where they cut the string of those that end up dying including that of Meg, and they look to cut Hercules’ life string though he regains his immortality due to his sacrifice. Finally, we have the citizens of the village that Hercules lives in as he is growing up and then the citizens of Thebes that are unsure of Hercules at first, but he wins them over and they idolize him to the point that he becomes a celebrity. I think that it is good that they put a lot of focus on the main characters, but there some background characters that are just as memorable and you would think would be more integral to the film as we will see how that continues to play out.

Songs: One thing I can safely say is that even though these last few films may not be as highly lauded as the big trilogy from earlier in the decade, they have produced some pretty memorable songs and that trend continues here as we have some good songs featured here. The first song is the opening piece called “The Gospel Truth” sung by the Muses as they set the stage for what’s to come in a solid song, and then we have the song “Go the Distance” that Hercules sings as he laments on his life and vows to become someone and it is a good song for him. Next, we have the song “One Last Hope” sung by Phil as he basically lays all his hopes and dreams on Hercules in what ends up being a pretty fun song, and then we have “Zero to Hero” again sung by the Muses as they recap Hercules’ path to glory in Theses in what ends up being an energetic song. We then have perhaps the centerpiece song of the film which is “I Won’t Say I’m In Love” sung by Meg and the Muses as Meg struggles with her feelings towards Hercules, and it is a pretty good song and as mentioned it is perhaps the most memorable song in the film. Finally, we have the song “A Star is Born” which the Muses sing at the end of the film as Hercules is given his place in the stars, and it is a fine song to close out the film much like “The Gospel Truth” was at the beginning of the film. As I have done for the last few films, we also have a pop version to quickly mention and that is the pop version of “Go the Distance” sung by Michael Bolton for the soundtrack. While these songs may not be quite as memorable as songs from the previous films, they are still fairly solid songs and work well in the film.

Plot: For the second time in three films, we have a story based on a historical figure which in this case is the mythological deity known as Hercales, or Hercules as he is known in Roman literature. Most that known about Greek mythology and history are probably aware of this legend and the tales of his heroics, and he was certainly interesting enough to merit a Disney film about him. The story begins with Hercules’ birth as Zeus’ brother Hades plots to overthrow Zeus and become the ruler of Olympus, and the Fates show him that in 18 years the planets will align which will allows him to free the Titans and conquer Olympus so long as Hercules doesn’t get involved. Hades has Pain and Panic kidnap Hercules and feed him a potion to strip him of his immortality, but they fail to feed him the whole potion so he maintains his strength as a farmer and his wife take him in and raise him. Once he is 18, they tell him of his lineage and Hercules meets Zeus who tells him he can reclaim his immortality by becoming a true hero, and he trains to be a hero under Phil and they head to Theses on Pegasus. On the way, Hercules saves a damsel named Meg from a centaur and he falls in love with her unaware that she is being held as a slave by Hades, and he arrives to Theses where he overcomes various monsters and is lauded a hero by the citizens though Zeus says he hasn’t become a true hero yet. He decides to get closer with Meg which Hades uses to his advantage as he offers to free her in exchange for Hercules giving up his strength, and Hercules agrees on the condition that Meg won’t be harmed which Hades agrees to. Hades releases the Titans and they attack Olympus while a Cyclops fights Hercules who defeats it, and Meg saves Hercules from a falling pillar and the agreement is voided which gives Hercules his strength back. He heads to Olympus and saves Zeus while destroying the Titans though Meg dies and her soul is sent to the Underworld, and Hercules goes to the Underworld and offers his life in exchange for Meg’s. He dives into the river Styx which nearly kills him though his sacrifice restores his immortality and he sends Hades into the river, and he is welcomed to Olympus as a God though he decides to stay on Earth with Meg. I’ll be honest in that I haven’t read that much about Hercules given the subjects that I learned in school, but I thought that this plot was fine and worked well for a Disney film while showing Hercules in a new light to a younger audience.

Random Watching Thoughts: Much like the last film had a running message about who is the monster and who is the man, this one asks what makes a true hero; I like how they told the prologue of the story through the use of these various depictions along with the Muses singing, and it was interesting they treated it like they were singing Gospel music; Hercules is the most jacked baby I’ve ever seen; Zeus says Hercules won’t hurt himself with the thunderbolts as he zaps himself in the mouth; That has to be a record for that column to be fixed mere seconds after getting destroyed; The first thing Hercules does when he meets Pegasus is headbutt him; So looking into the background of the film, James Woods ad-libbed most of his dialogue as Hades and I think it made it better, and it definitely draws comparisons to Robin Williams’ performance as the Genie; Zeus was benevolent enough to invite Hades to the party yet Hades immediately tries to kill him; Zeus was so proud of that joke he made to Hades; That one piece of meat was not going to be enough for a 3-headed dog; So the Fates can end people’s lives simply by holding a thread and cutting it; The Underworld: Over 5,000,000,001 Served; That one Fate was spot on about the indoor plumbing; I don’t know if I would want to know my future because you would have nothing to look forward too, or you might not like it and try to change it; We never do learn exactly what planets are the ones that align though we are to assume Earth is one of them; That was a quick transition from day to night; Zeus seems like the one God you would never want to piss off; If only Pain and Panic were able to feed Hercules that one last drop; If Hades can see everything, wouldn’t he know that Hercules was still alive?; Someone actually yelled out “Sunday Driver” to Hercules even though he wasn’t driving; That horse got some hangtime there; Clearly, Hercules has caused so many accidents that the villagers didn’t want him to help them; All the work it must’ve took to build all that and Hercules inadvertently destroys it in a matter of seconds; I almost thought that mob was going to try and do something to Hercules; Considering how strong he was, you would think Hercules would be more built than he is even though he is just a teen; That was quite the trek that Hercules had to make just to get to the temple of Zeus; It’s a good thing that no one else came to the temple while Zeus was talking to Hercules or they would’ve been frightened to death of a statue talking; Pegasus headbutts Hercules to remind him of their friendship; Zeus says that Pegasus has the brain of a bird which sounded a bit like an insult; How did Hercules even know where to find Phil?; Phil is quite the leech spying on the nymphs like that; Phil calls animals disgusting when he is a half goat; Hercules pulls the door off the hinges and Phil manages to put it back in place like nothing happened; I guess know we now where the term “Achilles’ Heel” comes from; Phil was prepared to reject Hercules for good only for Zeus to “persuade” him by zapping him with lightning; Who gets a trophy for finishing in 11th place?; That’s quite the job they did in cleaning up the stadium; How many rules does he have?; I don’t think it was talked about enough of how well Danny DeVito did in singing “One Last Hope”; Your basic DID: Damsel in Distress; Phil tells him not to barrel in without thinking and that’s exactly what Hercules does; It would be like Hercules to try and reason with Nessus before having to fight him; Phil tells him to use his head and he hits a running headbutt into Nessus’ ribs; He punched Nessus so hard he knocked him right out of his horseshoes; Pegasus is like “No way I am having that chick on my back”; That moment where Pain and Panic realize they’ve screwed up royally; Call me crazy, but I doubt that “Jason” and “Brittany” were big names in ancient Greece; Hades goes into a rage and Meg just casually looks at him; Thebes, if you can make it here you can make it anywhere; Phil pulling a Dustin Hoffman from Midnight Cowboy when he says “Hey, I’m walking here”; Someone with a pita cart; Funny bit where it seems like that one guy is flashing Hercules and Phil, but then we see he is selling sundials; Snowball looks like he’s seen better days; Last I checked, that was a cricket and not a locust; Meg is scared to death about flying and Pegasus loves it; A fur wedgie just sounds terrible; Somebody call IX-I-I; Hercules presses up a massive boulder to save two boys and all he gets is a golf clap from the crowd; So the Hydra gets its head chopped off and it manages to grow three heads back; You’d think Hercules would’ve realized soon that constantly cutting off the heads would just cause new ones to grow; So for those who didn’t know, Hercules defeating the Hydra was one of his Twelve Labors which we then see the rest done during “From Zero to Hero”; Grecian Express credit cards; Air-Herc shoes; Hades asking “What are those?’ long before it became an Internet meme; Even Pain and Panic can’t resist getting on the Hercules bandwagon with the merchandise; That’s putting it mildly that the Trojans bet on the wrong horse; That was a real douche move by Meg’s lover to leave her after she sold her soul to save his life; Again, we go back to what makes a true hero which Hercules hasn’t learned yet; The Pecs and Flex Gift Shop; Buns of Bronze workout scroll; A pretty interesting and fairly creepy Easter egg is Hercules is wearing the skin of a lion and if you look closely, you will see that it is Scar; The Daughters of the Greek Revolution; Hercules even has his own groupies; Hercules is the greatest thing since they put the pocket in pita; Hercules does have a point, Oedipus has some issues; Meg clearly trying to seduce Hercules and all he does is lift her one shoulder strap up; Leave to Hercules throwing a rock too hard at the statue of Venus de Milo to make it what it is; Of course there would be a statue of Cupid that Meg would hit; First kiss attempt thwarted by Phil and Pegasus; Pegasus flapping his wings like he’s a helicopter; It is a nice juxtaposition of Meg trying to convince herself not to fall in love with Hercules and the Muses telling her to just accept it; Meg does her best to keep Hades away from Hercules though he quickly figures out she loves him and vice versa; That is quite the horse that Pain and Panic made to draw Pegasus to them; Even though he’s a villain, Hades does have a way with words; It is interesting that they basically had Hercules lose his color when he lost his strength; The Titans were so excited to be free and destroy Zeus, but somehow they didn’t know the right way to Olympus and Hades had to show them the way; The Gods were clearly unprepared for the Titans; Phil was taking his sweet time getting to his boat considering Thebes was in flames; Hercules beating Cyclops with his brain as opposed to his strength; Even near death, Meg remains as sarcastic as ever; Hades barely got to sit down in his throne when Hercules arrived; Only Hercules would be able to grab a tornado by the base and whip it around while also sucking the rest of the Titans in it and throwing it into space; Hercules found the Underworld fairly quickly; You’d think Hades would’ve realized that Hercules sacrificing himself for Meg would allow him to regain his status as a God; The moment where you think Hercules’ life thread will get cut, but it doesn’t because he becomes immortal; Hades still tries to talk his way out of this only for Hercules to punch him into the river; Pain and Panic were all too pleased to know that Hades might be gone for good; Second kiss attempt interrupted by Zeus bringing them up to the gate of Olympus; Hercules finally realizes what it means to be a true hero; Third time’s the charm as Hercules and Meg finally get their kiss; Even Phil got his wish fulfilled in the end; I believe this is the first time we have a character talking during the credits as we hear Hades one more time to close things out.

Overall Thoughts: Overall, this was a pretty solid film and continues the string of good movies, but it is a step down from the last film and not quite as good as I was hoping it would be. Again, this is one of those films that did ok when it first came out and its reputation has gotten better over the years, and most think it is pretty underrated though I feel that it is properly rated when compared to other films from the Disney Renaissance. Having said that, the 1990s have been a pretty profitable time for Disney as the theme parks are continuing to grow and they are gaining more traction on TV. We are nearing the end of the decade and we will see how these next few films play out and if the decade can end on a strong note, As for this film, it is a solid film though to this point it is probably the weakest entry of the Disney Renaissance.

Final Grade: 7/10

[oldguardaudio]

@realDonaldTrump -> HAPPY MOTHERS DAY + Very powerful people in DC are panicking

  Donald Trump banner at HoaxandChange.com

@realDonaldTrump tweeted HAPPY MOTHERS DAY

pic.twitter.com/NlL3YNhxly

pic.twitter.com/NlL3YNhxly

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 12, 2019

  — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 12, 2019

@realDonaldTrump tweeted

Big attacks on Republicans and Conservatives by Social Media. Not good!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 12, 2019

May 12, 2019 at 01:15PM via Twitter http://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1127622664477134848

@realDonaldTrump tweeted

Because if they acknowledge the reality that Trump is neither of those things, they would be essentially admitting to have been running hoaxes for 2 years & defrauding the country. They can’t do that. The only other option is doubling down on what they know are Delusions

— Melissa A. (@TheRightMelissa) May 12, 2019

May 12, 2019 at 01:30PM via Twitter http://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1127626794314752001

  Trump – my turn

Trump Crowds

If Trump cured cancer

@realDonaldTrump tweeted

Yap Candace! No one in their right mind believes the crazy looney toon things coming out of the left. They have invested too much in their Trump is a white Supremacist, literally Hitler Russian Agent… They must double down even in the face of blatant evidence to the contrary

— Melissa A. (@TheRightMelissa) May 12, 2019

May 12, 2019 at 01:35PM via Twitter http://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1127627180186451968

@realDonaldTrump tweeted

.@KimStrassel discusses what she wrote about in her column today re: how very powerful people in DC are panicking because AG Barr is investigating how the whole Russia hoax started. This is why they are frantically trying to discredit him.https://t.co/caTkOXOO00 pic.twitter.com/AN0GYABF6N

— Lisa Mei Crowley (@LisaMei62) May 4, 2019

May 12, 2019 at 01:40PM via Twitter http://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1127629495995961344

@realDonaldTrump tweeted

I know he won’t do this, because obviously the political narrative is important to him and people around him, but Mueller should say, “I wrote a 400-page report. That’s my testimony. Do with it what you will.”https://t.co/oEIXoe5llc

— Rich Lowry (@RichLowry) May 10, 2019

May 12, 2019 at 01:50PM via Twitter http://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1127631564869963776

@realDonaldTrump tweeted

pic.twitter.com/6Xc1NJnf1Z

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 12, 2019

May 12, 2019 at 01:55PM via Twitter http://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1127632644471128065

@realDonaldTrump tweeted

Really sad! https://t.co/OjzNjhJeHt

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 12, 2019

May 12, 2019 at 01:55PM via Twitter http://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1127633247024840705

@realDonaldTrump tweeted

Schiff knew.

Comey knew.

Obama knew.

Susan Rice knew.

Biden knew.

Brennan knew.

Clapper knew.

Peter Strzok knew.

Lisa Page knew.

Andrew McCabe knew. They all knew there was no evidence of @RealDonaldTrump Russia collusion. https://t.co/5box2bTQ92pic.twitter.com/IozgEamkFJ

— Tom Fitton (@TomFitton) May 12, 2019

May 12, 2019 at 02:00PM via Twitter http://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1127634612564443137

@realDonaldTrump tweeted

President @realDonaldTrump put forward 4 principles to protect American patients from the financial devastation of surprise medical bills. It’s time for Congress to get legislation to his desk! https://t.co/8sUxzlbOQr

— The White House (@WhiteHouse) May 11, 2019

May 12, 2019 at 02:05PM via Twitter http://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1127635174693515270

@realDonaldTrump tweeted

Republicans and @realDonaldTrump are delivering for Americans:

*6M new jobs

*Unemployment at 3.6%, the lowest since 1969.

Meanwhile, Democrats are fantasizing over baseless impeachment, government-run health care, and the socialist Green New Deal.

— Ronna McDaniel (@GOPChairwoman) May 11, 2019

May 12, 2019 at 02:05PM via Twitter http://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1127635285246914561

@realDonaldTrump tweeted

The @realDonaldTrump effect on the 2020 Senate Map:

Chuck Schumer is 0-7 in recruiting Senate challengers!https://t.co/XQqCfydEqg

— Ronna McDaniel (@GOPChairwoman) May 11, 2019

May 12, 2019 at 02:05PM via Twitter http://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1127635456831569920

@realDonaldTrump tweeted

We are right where we want to be with China. Remember, they broke the deal with us & tried to renegotiate. We will be taking in Tens of Billions of Dollars in Tariffs from China. Buyers of product can make it themselves in the USA (ideal), or buy it from non-Tariffed countries…

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 12, 2019

May 12, 2019 at 05:09PM via Twitter http://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1127681372896800768

@realDonaldTrump tweeted

….We will then spend (match or better) the money that China may no longer be spending with our Great Patriot Farmers (Agriculture), which is a small percentage of total Tariffs received, and distribute the food to starving people in nations around the world! GREAT! #MAGA

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 12, 2019

May 12, 2019 at 05:09PM via Twitter http://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1127681373966409730

@realDonaldTrump tweeted

The Democrats new and pathetically untrue sound bite is that we are in a “Constitutional Crisis.” They and their partner, the Fake News Media, are all told to say this as loud and as often as possible. They are a sad JOKE! We may have the strongest Economy in our history, best…

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 12, 2019

May 12, 2019 at 05:44PM via Twitter http://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1127688823264169984

@realDonaldTrump tweeted

….employment numbers ever, low taxes & regulations, a rebuilt military & V.A., many great new judges, & so much more. But we have had a giant SCAM perpetrated upon our nation, a Witch Hunt, a Treasonous Hoax. That is the Constitutional Crisis & hopefully guilty people will pay!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 12, 2019

May 12, 2019 at 05:44PM via Twitter http://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1127688824409264129

@realDonaldTrump tweeted

Despite two years and millions of dollars spent, the Democrats are acting like crazed lunatics ever since the results of the Mueller Report were made public. But they knew there was NOTHING even before the Report was started. It is all a big Hoax, the biggest in American history!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 12, 2019

May 12, 2019 at 07:04PM via Twitter http://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1127710864650514432

@realDonaldTrump tweeted

Ever since the Mueller Report showed No Collusion & No Obstruction, the Dems have been working overtime to damage me and the Republican Party by issuing over 80 demands for documents and testimonies, and with NO REASON. That’s all they want to do – don’t care about anything else!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 12, 2019

May 12, 2019 at 07:14PM via Twitter http://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1127712737310728194

@realDonaldTrump tweeted

When the Mueller Report came out showing NO Collusion with Russia (of course), it was supposed to be over, back to work for the people. But the Dems have gone “nuts,” and it has actually gotten worse! Hope the Republicans win back the House in 2020, or little will get done!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 12, 2019

May 12, 2019 at 07:24PM via Twitter http://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1127714109921869836

@realDonaldTrump tweeted

The “Constitutional Crisis” is the Democrats refusing to work. Let them start by fixing the mess that their Immigration Laws have caused at the Southern Border.

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 12, 2019

May 12, 2019 at 07:24PM via Twitter http://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1127714988313980928

@realDonaldTrump tweeted

China is DREAMING that Sleepy Joe Biden, or any of the others, gets elected in 2020. They LOVE ripping off America!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 12, 2019

May 12, 2019 at 07:24PM via Twitter http://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1127715742898692097

@realDonaldTrump tweeted

“Even Director James Clapper admits that the FBI actions against the Trump Presidential Campaign do in fact meet the definition of spying, perhaps FBI Director Christopher Wray will be the next to do so.” @LouDobbs

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 13, 2019

May 12, 2019 at 09:24PM via Twitter http://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1127745216088367106

@realDonaldTrump tweeted

“Just another abuse of power in a long series of abuses of power by the Democrats that began during the Obama Administration, continued through the Mueller FBI operation, & now the baton has been passed to Jerry Nadler to continue to abuse power to harass President Trump..

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 13, 2019

May 12, 2019 at 10:04PM via Twitter http://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1127755536638906370

@realDonaldTrump tweeted

….and the Democrat National Committee-The Democrat Party apparatus-has been caught using donor Dollars to Collude with Russian Intelligence to attack a domestic political opponent (me). The FBI has no leadership. The Director is protecting the same gang…..that tried to….

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 13, 2019

May 12, 2019 at 10:04PM via Twitter http://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1127755537997811712

@realDonaldTrump tweeted

….overthrow the President through an illegal coup.” (Recommended by previous DOJ) @TomFitton @JudicialWatch

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 13, 2019

May 12, 2019 at 10:04PM via Twitter http://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1127755538765438977

@realDonaldTrump tweeted

“It’s the attack strategy of harass. This is not about the Attorney General, who is very sophisticated & knows it isn’t about him, it’s about trying to destroy President Trump through an assault on his AG for upholding the rule of law. He released a massive amount of……

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 13, 2019

@realDonaldTrump -> HAPPY MOTHERS DAY + Very powerful people in DC are panicking @realDonaldTrump -> HAPPY MOTHERS DAY + Very powerful people in DC are panicking @realDonaldTrump tweeted HAPPY MOTHERS DAY…

[todaynewsstories]

Trump hails ‘historic’ Canada, Mexico trade pact

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Donald Trump on Monday praised Canada’s entry into a reworked NAFTA pact with the United States and Mexico after the two countries forged a last-minute agreement to salvage the trilateral trade accord, delivering a key win for the U.S. president.

The deal, announced on Sunday, helped preserve the nearly quarter-century old, $1.2 trillion open-trade zone among the three North American neighbors that Trump had long sought to rip up as part of his vow to shake up global trade.

The new United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) is aimed at bringing more jobs into the United States, a top Trump campaign pledge.

While it avoided tariffs, the deal will make it harder for global auto makers to build cars cheaply in Mexico and

It also preserved a trade dispute settlement mechanism sought by Canada to protect its industries from U.S. anti-dumping tariffs even as Ottawa agreed to open up its dairy markets to U.S. farmers.

The United States and Mexico had already clinched a bilateral agreement in August. U.S. officials intend to sign the new trilateral deal at the end of November, after which it would be submitted to the U.S. Congress for approval, according to a senior U.S. official.

Trump on Monday called U.S. agreement with its neighbor to the north “wonderful” and “a historic transaction.”

Slideshow (3 Images)

“It is a great deal for all three countries, solves the many deficiencies and mistakes in NAFTA, greatly opens markets to our Farmers and Manufacturers, reduce Trade Barriers to the U.S. and will bring all three Great Nations closer together in competition with the rest of the world,” Trump wrote on Twitter.

Reporting by Susan Heavey; Editing by Robin Pomeroy and Franklin Paul

Our Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Source link

The post Trump hails ‘historic’ Canada, Mexico trade pact appeared first on Today News Stories.

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[alamante]

WASHINGTON/BISMARCK, North Dakota (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump accused China on Wednesday of targeting American farmers in a “vicious” way and using them as leverage to get concessions on trade a day after the administration announced a $12 billion farm aid package.

FILE PHOTO: Soybeans grow in a field near a farm building in Buda, Illinois, U.S., July 6, 2018. REUTERS/Daniel Acker/File Photo

Some farmers and farm-state lawmakers, including Trump’s fellow Republicans, ripped the move, saying they would rather trade with no tariffs than receive government help.

China and other top U.S. trade partners zeroed in on American farmers with retaliatory tariffs after the administration imposed duties on Chinese goods as well as steel and aluminum from the European Union, Canada and Mexico.

Farmers are being targeted since they rely on export markets for agricultural produce and have broadly supported Trump. As the dispute escalates, China and other importers have slapped tariffs on incoming shipments of U.S. soybeans, dairy, meat, produce and liquor.

“China is targeting our farmers, who they know I love & respect, as a way of getting me to continue allowing them to take advantage of the U.S. They are being vicious in what will be their failed attempt. We were being nice – until now!” Trump wrote on Twitter.

The administration on Tuesday unveiled the largest emergency farm aid package since 1998, dipping into a Great Depression-era program that will pay up to $12 billion starting in September to help U.S. farmers weather losses.

Rural and agricultural states supported Trump by wide margins in the 2016 election, and the aid package comes ahead of U.S. mid-term elections in November.

Republican Senator Ben Sasse of Nebraska, a Trump critic, likened it to “golden crutches” to make up for a trade war that will cost farmers far more.

China is trying to undermine support for Trump’s policies among farmers. Last week it launched a short video in English featuring a talking cartoon soybean vouching for the importance of trade.

The United States exported $138 billion in agriculture products in 2017, including $21.5 billion of soybeans which were the most valuable U.S. export. China alone imported $12.3 billion in soybeans last year, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Republican Senator Mike Rounds of South Dakota said on Wednesday that farmers in his state have lost millions of dollars in orders.

“It’s going to get down to a point where they’re not going to be able to survive if this continues down the same path,” Rounds told CNN on Wednesday.

U.S. President Donald Trump walks from Marine One as he returns from Kansas City, Missouri, to the White House in Washington, DC, U.S., July 24, 2018. REUTERS/Joshua Roberts

‘CHINA PLAYS HARDBALL’

Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue said the impact of lower soy prices and the loss of Chinese buyers would likely cost farmers some $11 billion – an amount that will be covered via direct payments to farmers, government purchases of some products for food assistance programs and trade promotion.

“We believe this is a temporary stop in order to get our producers to a point of profitability again by a normal trading relationship,” Perdue told reporters on Wednesday, adding that he hoped the impact would ease next year.

Trump on Wednesday met with members of Congress from agricultural states to discuss trade issues. He earned praise from House Agriculture Committee Chairman Mike Conaway of Texas for the aid package and for announcing an agreement with the European Union’s chief executive, Jean-Claude Juncker, to work toward eliminating trade barriers.

“I thank the president and Sec. Perdue for having our farmers’ and ranchers’ backs,” Conaway said in a statement.

But Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska urged Trump on Twitter to “recognize that trade assistance is no substitute for trade itself.”

Meanwhile, farmers inspecting crops in North Dakota said they preferred not to rely on the aid but were optimistic that Trump would find a long-term solution.

“Ultimately we want to get our revenue from the markets,” said Tom Bernhardt, who farms wheat, corn, sunflowers and soybeans in Linton. “But if we have to dig our heels in for a little while to come up with fair trade, rather than free trade, I’m sure most producers in this area are willing to go through a little hardship to eventually have a stronger end game.”

Dining with the Wheat Quality Council’s crop tour at a steak picnic near the state capital of Bismarck, farmer Phil Volk said he was concerned about the longer-term damage from the trade war.

“This (the aid package) took a little weight off my shoulders,” he said. “But is that the real solution? I don’t want to lose these markets that we’ve built.”

Reporting by Daphne Psaledakis in Washington and Julie Ingwersen in North Dakota; Additional reporting by Doina Chiacu and Susan Heavey in Washington and Mark Weinraub in Chicago; Writing by Caroline Stauffer; Editing by Simon Webb, Jeffrey Benkoe and Cynthia Osterman

Our Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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   The post Trump says China is appeared first on MySourceSpot.

[deltamovies]

Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Long Haul

Release Year: 2017

Rating: 3.6/10 ( voted)

Critic's Score: /100

Director: David Bowers

Stars: Jason Drucker, Alicia Silverstone, Tom Everett Scott

Storyline A Heffley family road trip to attend Meemaw's 90th birthday party goes hilariously off course thanks to Greg's newest scheme to get to a video gaming convention. This family cross-country adventure turns into an experience the Heffleys will never forget.

Writers: Jeff Kinney, David Bowers, Jason Drucker, Alicia Silverstone, Tom Everett Scott, Jason Drucker, Alicia Silverstone, Tom Everett Scott, Charlie Wright, Owen Asztalos, Dylan Walters, Wyatt Walters, Joshua Hoover, Chris Coppola, Mira Silverman, Carlos Guerrero, Danny Vinson, Stephen 'Big Steve' Dupree, Neva Howell, Ricky Muse, , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Cast: Jason Drucker –

Greg Heffley

Alicia Silverstone –

Susan Heffley

Tom Everett Scott –

Frank Heffley

Charlie Wright –

Rodrick Heffley

Owen Asztalos –

Rowley

Dylan Walters –

Manny Heffley

Wyatt Walters –

Manny Heffley

Joshua Hoover –

Mac Digby

Chris Coppola –

Mr. Beardo

(as Christopher A. Coppola)

Mira Silverman –

Brandi Beardo

Carlos Guerrero –

Luis

Danny Vinson –

Hog Man

Stephen 'Big Steve' Dupree –

Tall Farmer

Neva Howell –

Farmer Lady

Ricky Muse –

Butter Vendor

Taglines: A Wimp will rise

Details

Official Website: Official Facebook |

Official Instagram |

Country: USA

Language: English

Release Date: 3 Jan 2017

Filming Locations: Atlanta, Georgia

Box Office Details

Budget: $22,000,000

(estimated)

Opening Weekend: $7,126,084

(USA) (19 May 2017)

Gross: $13,581,961

(USA) (26 May 2017)

Technical Specs

Runtime: 91 min

Did You Know?

Trivia: Jeff Kinney expressed interest in making the film animated. See more »

Goofs: The van the characters are in has an Ohio license plate. The GPS says it will take 47 hours to get from Ohio to Indiana. It should take them much less time than that. See more »

Quotes: [

User Review

Author:

Rating: 1/10 Diary of a Wimpy Kid, the Long Haul, simply put, is a bad Film.

Summing up The Diary of a Wimpy Kid, The Long haul = Predictable dialogue, predictable action, predictable repetitive jokes from the past, a lousy no-chemistry cast, and profoundly boring. The fact that everyone in the cast comes off as "acting" is just another nail in the coffin.

About 98% of the reviews on Long Haul point out how bad the movie is. Variety and Hollywood Reporter gave it some kudos. Which shows that a big studio, like Fox, can still "Pay Off" reviewers in an attempt at not making the film a "total bust", which it is.

You had an iconic cast in the first 3 movies that were excellent. The original cast had charm, chemistry, great interaction, and made 3 very entertaining movies based upon Jeff Kinney's Diary of a Wimpy Kid series. This movie, Diary of a Wimpy Kid, the Long Haul, just doesn't connect at all.

The Long Haul film is sort of like a stand alone idea created in an attempt to "con" the public into thinking this is a continuation of the original three movies. It is nothing of the kind. The movie is so bad on all accounts that 20th Century Fox had to go out and try and get the original cast members to say something nice about the movie. But that just came off as a "cheap hustle".

The story and performances are not funny. This movie reeks of predictable action and dialogue, as well as a cast that are, simply put – just bad, without cohesiveness or chemistry.

Our 4 kids, my wife and I really enjoyed the first 3 Wimpy Kid movies and we watch them over again, to this day. I don't think anyone could ever take the place of Zachary Gordon as Greg Heffley, even though a very weak attempt was tried. Gordon "was" Heffley and performed masterfully as the main character and kept true to the personality of Kinney's book series character. In the Wimpy Kid, Long Haul, the part of Rowley, which was so prominent in the first 3 movies and in Kinney's book series, has been completely downplayed to almost non-existence, with little screen time. Let's not even talk about the actor who they chose to play Rowley – what an amateur and not believable in any way.

The actor who plays Rodrick came out of "left field" and is a farce in that he doesn't fit the character of Roderick both in physiology and performance. He doesn't match the characterization as written by Jeff Kinney. Devon Bostick (the original Rodrick) could surely have played the part since Hollywood uses 25-35 year-old's to play Jr. High and High School kids anyway. In addition, attempting to replace Rachel Harris and Steve Zahn with Barrymore and Tom-Everet makes it all an underwhelming, futile attempt at movie making.

This is a movie that should never have been made. The original movies were fun and entertaining. Wimpy Kid, Long Haul is an empty attempt to make money as an "after-thought" and rip off the public because Fox was too stupid to make 6 back-to-back Wimpy movies, which they could have done, when they had the opportunity. Apparently, 20th Century Fox is not a pro-active or foresightful studio as, for example, Warner Brothers or Universal would have been. Ie: Warner Bros shot Harry Potter movies back to back. Fox could have easily made 6 Wimpy Kid series movies from the original cast long before they matured and everyone would have been happy.

Don't waste your time or money on this poor attempt at resurrecting the Wimpy Kid movie world. If the studio had 1/2 a brain, they would have made this an Animation Film instead, which might have garnered some interest from the fans.

Find something else to do with your own time or kids this weekend as sitting through the Wimpy Kid, Long Haul is just that – a boring long haul.

The post Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Long Haul appeared first on The Movie Entertainment of the 21st Century!.

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[zenruption]

The Daily Disaster-4/25

AN UNDER-APPRECIATED PROBLEM WITH THE TRUMP PRESIDENCY IS HOW HE AND HIS STAFF CONTINUOUSLY NORMALIZE DISASTER. BECAUSE WE WITNESS NEW SCANDALS, GAFFES, COVERUPS, HYPOCRISY, MISDIRECTION, INCOMPETENCE, ATROCITY, CRONYISM, IGNORANCE, RACISM, XENOPHOBIA, TREASON, EMBARRASSMENT, LIES, DYSFUNCTION, POWER GRABS, WAR ESCALATIONS, ENVIRONMENTAL ASSAULTS, MISOGYNY AND MORE ON A DAILY BASIS, THE MAGNITUDE OF EACH IS DIMINISHED IN OUR CONSCIOUSNESS BY THE SIMPLE VIRTUE THAT WE HAVE BECOME SATURATED. BECAUSE OF THIS, WE AT ZENRUPTION WILL BE PUBLISHING A DAILY CURATION OF THE EVENTS THAT HAVE BEEN REPORTED, FROM VARIOUS SOURCES, INCLUDING LEAKS WITHIN THE WHITE HOUSE, SO THAT WE CAN FULLY EXPERIENCE THE LEVEL OF DISASTER OUR EXECUTIVE BRANCH HAS BECOME AND THE IMPLICATIONS IT HAS ON ALL OF US.

Today, April 25, 2017

Check back often

and contribute!

By Jerry Mooney

Canada has made business for our dairy farmers in Wisconsin and other border states very difficult. We will not stand for this. Watch!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 25, 2017

Don't let the fake media tell you that I have changed my position on the WALL. It will get built and help stop drugs, human trafficking etc.

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 25, 2017

60% say immigration helps more than it hurts, an all-time high in NBC/WSJ poll. That number keeps going up & up as Trump backlash continues: pic.twitter.com/5UjjgvL1NT

— Nick Gourevitch (@nickgourevitch) April 25, 2017

Some USDA scientists say their work has been tampered with — maybe for political reasons https://t.co/JauK4GhXBj

— AltUSDA (@altusda) April 25, 2017

Obamacare is getting more popular by the day https://t.co/JfLu6fB9nW

— AltUSDA (@altusda) April 25, 2017

REMINDER: Trump thought Flynn was qualified to lead on national security. (He chanted "lock her up" at the RNC.) https://t.co/KeZQNfKcb0 pic.twitter.com/tOSJjFDIys

— Rogue White House (@RogueWhiteHouse) April 25, 2017

Everyone knows Ivanka's only role is as a liaison/funnel between the gov't and the Trump Org... except her, apparently.

— Rogue WH Snr Advisor (@RogueSNRadvisor) April 25, 2017

.@24th_Air_Force ^^ Same day the Entire US Senate summoned to White House (instead of Capitol Hill for some reason?) for NK briefing. https://t.co/bN1r7BDgKK

— JΞSŦΞR ✪ ΔCŦUAL³³º¹ (@th3j35t3r) April 25, 2017

Could they be...hiding something? https://t.co/PMt6xa0HBe

— Rogue White House (@RogueWhiteHouse) April 25, 2017

German reporter to ivanka in Germany: who are you representing? Your father? The American people? Or your business? ( msm need to learn)

— ALT🛂 Immigration (@ALT_uscis) April 25, 2017

These kinds of numbers reflect the importance of Dem voter engagement & turnout to overcome insular partisanship. #CountryOverParty https://t.co/fX3gFNGJRc

— State of Resistance (@AltStateDpt) April 25, 2017

And while you're at it, better get to work on that border wall along the Colorado line. We're all expecting New Mexico to pay for it. https://t.co/RDxANhdWUc

— State of Resistance (@AltStateDpt) April 25, 2017

Mr. President, you've changed your position three times in the past 24 hours alone. https://t.co/QEyrrbYWTs

— Rogue POTUS Staff (@RoguePOTUSStaff) April 25, 2017

.@RealDonaldTrump may not know the U.S. runs a $400M agricultural surplus with Canada https://t.co/AtitqIuxai

— West Wing Reports (@WestWingReport) April 25, 2017

What. A fucking. Clown. 🤡 https://t.co/pAbfjOlL5J

— Alt_Dept. of Labor (@alt_labor) April 25, 2017

When @BarackObama speaks, there is occasional, mid-sentence silence. I miss the sound of a President thinking about the impact of his words.

— Jason Kander (@JasonKander) April 24, 2017

Econ advisor (& ex-Goldman COO) Cohn eyed as replacement for Fed's Yellen, if President opts to replace her next year (Beacon Advisors rpt)

— West Wing Reports (@WestWingReport) April 25, 2017

President willing to delay border wall funding (which comes from your pocket) if it will avoid a govt. shutdown (WSJ)

— West Wing Reports (@WestWingReport) April 25, 2017

medianet_width = "728"; medianet_height = "90"; medianet_crid = "728762653"; medianet_versionId = "111299"; (function() { var isSSL = 'https:' == document.location.protocol; var mnSrc = (isSSL ? 'https:' : 'http:') + '//contextual.media.net/nmedianet.js?cid=8CUTI81HQ' + (isSSL ? '&https=1' : ''); document.write('<scr' + 'ipt type="text/javascript" id="mNSC" src="' + mnSrc + '">' + 'ipt>'); })();

Democratic state attorneys general decry student loan rework by Republicans https://t.co/UmD7hseykZ pic.twitter.com/vIRYhB2KVk

— Reuters Top News (@Reuters) April 24, 2017

This is what happens when political motivations drive any investigation.#IndependentCommission needed NOW. https://t.co/WdGafNHHn5

— State of Resistance (@AltStateDpt) April 25, 2017

Senate probe on alleged Russia-Trump campaign collusion floundering - as calls for a 9/11-style investigation rise https://t.co/9s3QTZoeoP

— West Wing Reports (@WestWingReport) April 25, 2017

If Flynn didn't disclose foreign payments on SF86, that's highly significant b/c his ties were publicly known before he was selected as NSA. https://t.co/atOaFRDUVA

— Susan Hennessey (@Susan_Hennessey) April 25, 2017

Trump eyes union-buster for NLRB https://t.co/s8eTJ9MKUl pic.twitter.com/bngVHkO1d6

— POLITICO (@politico) April 25, 2017

Senate Intel chair: U.S. in new Cold War with Russia https://t.co/5ZiXXUWwvz pic.twitter.com/8hOxZjfD7N

— The Hill (@thehill) April 25, 2017

A Turkish man who gave Flynn a lobbying deal before Trump chose him as national security adviser has ties to Russia https://t.co/q8nCYVMcZ7 pic.twitter.com/mvE7bUPUx5

— POLITICO (@politico) April 25, 2017

Trump admin is refusing to give congressional investigators documents needed to look into Russia connections https://t.co/2Lk27yUnbw

— Samantha Michaels (@sjmichaels) April 25, 2017

Whoa. Trump’s #childcare plan only benefits wealthy: *$5/year for avg voter *$7,390/year for Upper East Side family https://t.co/U37UsG6kjo

— Rachel West (@rwest817) April 25, 2017

Congress set to deny Trump wall money https://t.co/yYPlandebq pic.twitter.com/vz4vHTLlcc

— POLITICO (@politico) April 25, 2017

medianet_width = "728"; medianet_height = "90"; medianet_crid = "728762653"; medianet_versionId = "111299"; (function() { var isSSL = 'https:' == document.location.protocol; var mnSrc = (isSSL ? 'https:' : 'http:') + '//contextual.media.net/nmedianet.js?cid=8CUTI81HQ' + (isSSL ? '&https=1' : ''); document.write('<scr' + 'ipt type="text/javascript" id="mNSC" src="' + mnSrc + '">' + 'ipt>'); })();

Trump now says "somebody" came up with idea of 100 day plan. The "somebody" was...Trump! via @GlennKesslerWP: https://t.co/3PSz3KTu3W

— Greg Sargent (@ThePlumLineGS) April 25, 2017

White House rejects Oversight Committee request for Flynn documents https://t.co/rBsB1cjNqR pic.twitter.com/YvTnU1EH34

— The Hill (@thehill) April 25, 2017

Conservative media rip White House after exclusive Trump meeting https://t.co/RNZBRc1qcW pic.twitter.com/95AwwQNB4K

— The Hill (@thehill) April 25, 2017

How much did FBI/CIA know about Trump/ Russia before he thought of running for president? asks @MichaelWinship https://t.co/5NhAsAKbai

— BillMoyers.com (@BillMoyersHQ) April 25, 2017

Flynn did not disclose payments for a 2015 speech in Moscow in his security clearance application for 2016 https://t.co/4xFmoQAlWG pic.twitter.com/sSkToDBCHt

— POLITICO (@politico) April 25, 2017

Trump White House refuses to give key Flynn documents to Congress https://t.co/7vts5mQkA8

— Mother Jones (@MotherJones) April 25, 2017

Seth Meyers looks at Trump’s first 100 days, is not very impressed: https://t.co/n61L4lKmxy pic.twitter.com/tmW0rpNGr6

— Slate (@Slate) April 25, 2017

Late-night TV roundup: 'It’s 100 days in Trump time. For us, it’s 15 years' https://t.co/NGFOpgNesp

— The Guardian (@guardian) April 25, 2017

JUST IN: Flynn may have broken law by taking money from Russia, Turkey without permission https://t.co/z5UIi5wXdG pic.twitter.com/Cn8Quk9xBj

— The Hill (@thehill) April 25, 2017

Six times Trump said executive orders were bad before he decided they were actually goodhttps://t.co/hU1dsnVWqC

— Washington Post (@washingtonpost) April 25, 2017

What's the real deal with Richard Burr and the Senate Intel Committee’s Trump-Russia investigation? https://t.co/9C3loGRTSJ

— Palmer Report (@PalmerReport) April 25, 2017

Sally Yates public testimony on Trump-Russia ties set for May 8: https://t.co/jHWPE4xUOM pic.twitter.com/DBSkNIDcLq

— The Hill (@thehill) April 25, 2017

At Holocaust event, Trump pays tribute to "those who survived history’s darkest hour"https://t.co/sCuH8UmJpp

— Washington Post (@washingtonpost) April 25, 2017

21 state AGs denounce DeVos for ending student loan reform https://t.co/mrHPB1fYU6 pic.twitter.com/p5JjImQmaX

— The Hill (@thehill) April 25, 2017

Poll: Nearly three quarters of Americans want independent investigation of Trump-Russia ties https://t.co/CG6UPq2Mn7 pic.twitter.com/FFpuAvAaf4

— The Hill (@thehill) April 25, 2017