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Inter Regnum

Doldrums between holidays. Lip-synched Christmas carols. Regem angelorum. Glimmer of a glow. James Franco. Best SNL in years. Nicki Minaj killed it. Bieber impression surpassed the Beebs himself. Unusually funny show. Homeland’s homage to Benghazi. Really?

Will & Kate. Duke & Duchess’ first date in Manhattan with mAdBen’s top boss. WPP’s Sir Martin Sorrell. Mad Men rule. Reigning American couples compete for regal photo ops. Barack & Michelle. Chelsea & Hill. Grandma-in-waiting.

NFL playoffs shaping up. Niners need spanx. Bye bye Harbaugh. Smart matters. Chargers’ Eddie Royal fell short of plucking Pats off their throne.

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Saturday Matinée

NBC’s Peter Pan Live! More like Walken Dead. Christopher’s zombie impression of Cyril Ritchard’s brilliant preening and prancing original Hook. Allison Williams’ creepy Pan surrounded by fabulously made-up rejects from Broadway chorus lines. Very gay and boring all at the same time. We could see the wires.

Tiger’s back on the course. Not Lily. A little rusty still. Spieth impressive. Florida looking good on a rainy cold day. Shrimp Fra Diavolo by the fire instead.

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When Pigs Fly

Have we finally reached the pets v. people tipping point? When do the rights of the one trump the rights of the many? Bradley International down the highway had vocal local residents incredulous as they saw a woman with a pig boarding their Thanksgiving flight. Her “support animal” was allowed by U.S. Airways. What? Stunk up the whole plane. Finally they got kicked off.

In the same article, a tiny mention of a woman who is allergic to cats saying she couldn’t breathe and realized it was because her seat mate was holding a kitty. Get it. You love your pets. But, now they have more rights than people. Peanuts and cigarettes are verboten in restaurants, hotels and airplanes. So, why is it the new trend to welcome pets everywhere? Tabby-poo nuzzles up to you on your pillow at the Hilton. I am next to sleep on that bed. Without warning, I could be anaphylactically dead. Publish pet policy at the very least.

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Women’s Fib

Women’s Lib. Coinage of the day circa 1970. Misandry replaced romance. Friedan. Steinem. Started a political movement. The fib. That women could have it all. Work-life balance morphed into a myth. Recent Harvard Business School study says it’s not kids but husbands who determine a woman’s climb up the career ladder. Today’s Supreme Court considers whether pregnancy merits the same benefits as a disability in corporate terms, the UPS case.

Before the Libbers, Helen Gurley Brown maybe had it right. A woman who chose a sexy single life. Starting as a secretary at Foote Cone & Belding ad agency, she rose to the top of the publishing world. Brooke Hauser’s upcoming book, Enter Helen has already been optioned to be made into a movie prior to the book’s 2015 debut.

Just finished Sarah Waters’ The Paying Guests. 2014 feminist lit. Post-WWI England when all the good men had been lost and women had to find solace in each other. Makes one wonder. Have women come full circle back to spinning their domestic wheels? What will millennials do.

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Post Stuffington 2014

Scattered family this year. KrankyKristmas will reunite all factions.

It is complicated to be a young American man anything other than white. Unless you’ve lived it, you can’t understand it. Charles Blow makes it clearer. But, still. We never will. Author Harlen Coben’s familiar experience at a Barnes & Noble in Holyoke 2005 . Take our blessings as they come.

Unusually interesting football games on Thanksgiving. Too bad they were all lopsided. Mark Sanchez had a resurrection. More like Easter. Kaepernick is stu…not smart. Harbaugh lousy time manager. Seahawks sleazy. Go Green Bay.

Winter Header Photo: G. Levine. Shelburne, Massachusetts
Snow: WordPress

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Gladwell v. Gladiators

Author Malcolm Gladwell calls American Football a moral abomination. Likening it at one point to dogfighting. More like modern Gladiators. Armed combatants fighting to the delight of huge arena crowds. In Football, arms are the arms. Larger bodies, muscles, enhanced artificially as well as physical drive. Defensive ends gain speed and brute brawn. Hits are becoming close to lethal.

Universities pay football coaches far more than professors. Stadiums continue to be funded by alums in staggering amounts. Behavior of players has deteriorated more with each year on and off the field. Cloistered, covert, cult of silence surrounds these transgressions. College courses for hallowed warriors unattended with no grades. And then there are the Pro’s. Gladwell v. Goodell.

As a lover of the game, it’s getting scarier and more difficult to watch. Plus. Niners v. Giants today. Which to root for? A safe game.

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This Old Neighbor ReView

photo-45Norm, Richard, and Roger gone. Dirt guy revving his Mack truck on Sunday mornings, too. Gallons of gas and oil expended. Fake siding sawing fumes cleared. Air quality improved. Porta potty departed. Red trash bin lifted out. Shaking. Banging. Clanging. Crashing. Stopped. After nine-month gestation, monster machines delivered. Writing can resume. Sanity restored. Sorta. photo-48

 

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Parts Known

Back to CNN’s Parts Unknown. Anthony Bourdain this week brings us to Massachusetts. Assumed it would focus on Boston dining scene. Wrong! After taking us to his beginnings in Provincetown, land’s end of Cape Cod, he reveals that’s where his heroin addiction began. From there, he comes here. To Western Massachusetts. Route 91 North to SideTrekFalls. And Greenfield.

Heroin has been epidemic in these parts for decades. My former “facialist” first clued me in to the problem in Northampton in the late ’90’s. Kids of clients dead. From smack. It has only gotten worse as the economy declined. And when hometown sports heroes get injured, need surgery, they get hooked on oxy’s. Yup. Doctors as dealers.

Behind our red barns, beyond our fertile meadows, under our bridges of flowers. What you don’t see is a sorry scene. Bourdain is a brilliant journalist. cropped-shelburne-falls-18_3_21-2