Category: Politics, Religion & Money

The Peasants Are Revolting

I stopped watching “The Simpsons” after the third season, mostly because I was extremely busy, not only working but also being a new father. Now I’m an old father, and retired, so I’ve been recording “The Simpsons” on the TiVo OtA DVR. Now that I’m recuperating from surgery, I’ve started watching the episodes. The 28th (!) season opener puts the yellow-skinned denizens of Springfieldland in a fanciful medieval feudal society. Maybe it’s supposed to be a parody of “Game of Thrones,” but I don’t know because I don’t watch it.

Anyway, while watching the Simpsons I was reminded of a BBC historical documentary series I had seen maybe ten years ago, created and presented by Monty Python alumnus Terry Jones. I was hoping it’s on YouTube, and here it is.

https://youtu.be/qMrvE2CwRsQ

Sadly, Jones now suffers from a form of dementia that has robbed him of the ability to communicate, so we don’t know if he retains any of his cleverness and wit. By chance, just a week ago Michael Palin had this update on his old chum’s condition. Palin and Jones had worked together years before “Monty Python’s Flying Circus.” Most notably in what was ostensibly a children’s show, but it became one of the precursors to Python. The delightful series “Do Not Adjust Your Set,” which also featured the wacky and wonderful Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band.

“Alexa, Where’s the Nearest Chinese Laundry?”

Thankfully, I have had only two bouts of lower back trouble. The first time was almost ten years ago, as posted here. What got me moving again were a couple of Percocets. I was amazed at the immediate relief the drug provided, but it made me feel terribly sick. One tablet would have been enough, and I later commented to my primary care physician that I couldn’t imagine becoming addicted. He replied, “You’re not a 15-year-old with a football injury. They have a very different reaction. It makes them feel great.”

So here we are, once again struggling with opium as a nation and a society, centuries after the first crisis. My buddy Denro sent a link with a brief history from the Smithsonian.

“It’s a poor town now-a-days that has not a Chinese laundry,” a white opium-smoker said in 1883, “and nearly every one of these has its layout” – an opium pipe and accessories.

So far, post-op I’m doing all right with Tylenol and Celebrex. I have a prescription for an opiate painkiller, but do not anticipate having it filled. By the way, my original post regarding back pain turned out to be wrong. The problem was a simple muscle spasm, and taking a muscle relaxant would have been just as effective as the Percocet. After the second time my lower back gave me trouble, a physical therapist told me the best preventive measure is doing push-ups, and he was right.

13 Hours of Punishment

https://youtu.be/OMW_dPtm7Bo

For myself, the Silver Age of comic books ended when I graduated from high school. At this moment I can’t think of a comic book title that was introduced during what is, for me, the Bronze Age of comic books, that interests me all that much. Which means that I’m not much of a fan of Wolverine or the Punisher, hugely popular Marvel Comics characters that were introduced in 1974, while I was in college. Alan Moore’s “Watchmen” series for DC in the 80’s is an exception, but those characters were all based on Charlton comics from decades earlier. Speaking of Charlton, I really enjoy E-Man, and he makes the cut because he was introduced before I started college.

Vigilante justice has always been present in comic books, although Superman dropped that approach very quickly, and even The Batman let go of his angst after becoming just Batman and picking up a sidekick. What came about in the 70’s, when vigilantism was reintroduced, were extra helpings of violence to go along with the justice.

In “The Punisher”, now streaming on Netflix, I see more than a little borrowing of elements from the TV series “Person of Interest”, which wrapped up a year-and-a-half ago. There was plenty of obligatory shooting of bad guys, but being a network TV series it never reached the level of ultra-extreme violence that is seen in “The Punisher”. I can’t say that I actually enjoyed all the blood and gore, but one thing for sure is that Jon Bernthal is perfect in the role. He says he wanted the challenge of putting across a sympathetic character that isn’t likeable, and Bernthal pulls it off, as long as you can stand watching him when the Punisher is in “killing machine mode.”

There is one truly great line in the Punisher script — “Pissed off beats scared, every time.” I agree.