I started to write a piece about Trump and about a third of the way into it, I suddenly got sick of thinking about the guy and stopped. Sometimes, it's so on my mind that I have to write about it just to get it out of my head. Sometimes, I can stop by just stopping.
I've been out of the house a bit lately to some stores, two "to-go" restaurant pick-ups and even one car wash. I don't think I saw one person not wearing a mask even though a few of them don't seem to understand that it's supposed to cover at least the bottom half of your nose. I even saw a couple of homeless people with them on.
Got a message from a guy writing to ask how come I haven't written anything condemning the violence we're seeing in the streets a lot these days. Has it come to that, America? That if someone doesn't explicitly state that they're against looting and vandalism and shooting people in the back, they just might be in favor of them? Hey, in case I forget to mention it, I'm against the torturing of puppies. And all those other things.
For those of you who asked: I thank everyone who wrote in with suggestions about my broken DVD player. A lot of the suggestions — like just throwing it in the trash — had occurred to me. But one person — Mike Frank — recommended a repair service that ain't that far from me and the folks there say that if I bring it in, there's a good chance they can get it working. We'll see. Either way: Thanks, Mike!
Just had a lovely phone call with my ol' neighbor Betty Lynn, who sounded great on the phone. I couldn't get through to her yesterday because she got so many Happy Birthday calls…and couldn't go out to celebrate because — well, you know. But I told her than when all this COVID stuff is over, I'll get back to North Carolina to see her again. This is the most optimistic thing I've written in months.
No further Cartoon Voices Panels are scheduled. There will be more…I just don't know when. But I'll be doing my Tuesday Night Conversations for a while and this Tuesday, I'll be talking with a great magician and a very wise gent named Max Maven. Magic is one of my interests and if I had fewer interests, I'd probably be a lot better at all of them than I am…but magic especially.
One of the topics I want to explore with Max is the difference between the magician lying when he says "I just put the three of clubs in my pocket" and lying when he says "The person I selected from the audience to aid in this illusion is a complete stranger and we have never met or planned anything." I have on a couple of occasions been an Audience Plant and I still feel guilty about it. I also want to discuss the many parallels I, at least, have observed between performing magic and performing stand-up comedy…and many other topics. Join us if you can.