You can truly tell that every last statistical angle has been squeezed out of the election cycle when Nate Silver's "538" site turns to analyzing "Love Actually," the film that always dominated Christmas in my San Francisco apartment. It came out in 2003, the year I moved there, and my kids were 9, 7 and 5.
I never hesitated in letting them watch it, though there was simulated sex on a porn set, lots of nudity, drinking, and all sorts of language issues.
After all, how can a single dad who is an ex-Rolling Stone staffer prevent his kids from learning about sex, drugs and rock 'n roll? Not this one. It was violent movies that I eschewed in our household.
Now the kids are all grown up, they seem to mostly have avoided the excesses of youth. So it mildly surprised me when my youngest son, now 24, was musing about what to do this pandemic Christmas, and he said, "I guess we'll watch 'Love Actually'.
That brought the movie back to life for me. One of its oddest lines, I think, is when one of the characters says "at Christmas you tell the truth."
I'd never heard that before; in fact, my memory of Christmas is we were told Santa Claus was real, which has to be one of the all-time great myths along with the Easter Bunny in the religious hall of history.
Whatever, I've always been a sucker for romantic movies, and I just hope things worked out for those mythical couples. After all, imaginary love is the next best thing to the real deal. At least that's what I imagine.
***
Naturally, any mention of telling the truth in the news sites I scan is going to catch my attention; thus "538" woke me up. Our journalism profession is reeling in the wake of the Trump years. Not that we are particularly thin-skinned people, but journalists did not appreciate being labeled as "enemies of the people" by the president.
And rarely has one of us been murdered and sawed up in pieces by a foreign government whose leader is embraced by that same president.
Or rarely have our peers from other countries been poisoned abroad by the KGB, sent by another good buddy of said president.
No, we will not be missing Donald J. Trump. Wanna know some truth? This bastard did more to poison the relationship between the press and the people than anyone in the history of our republic.
As he slinks away to the swamp where he belongs, all we can mutter is a cliche: "good riddance of bad rubbish."
But we know we have much work to do to repair the damage he caused. A steady flow of conspiracy theories -- the opposite of journalism -- are flourishing. It appears they will outlive Trump.
***
The news, actually...
* Los Angeles County -- the biggest county in the US -- is under a stay-at-home order (CNN)
* Trump lawyer says public official who said election was secure should be shot (CNN)
* Trump’s lawyers vowed to appeal to the Supreme Court, even though a federal appeals judge in Philadelphia declared that the “campaign’s claims have no merit.” “Calling an election unfair does not make it so. Charges require specific allegations and then proof. We have neither here,” Third Circuit Judge Stephanos Bibas, a Trump appointee, wrote for the three-judge panel, all appointed by Republican presidents. The Pennsylvania Supreme Court unanimously tossed another Trump lawsuit that sought to disqualify mail-in votes. [AP]
* Brazen Killings Expose Iran’s Vulnerabilities as It Struggles to Respond -- After suffering a string of audacious attacks, Tehran faces an agonizing choice: embracing hard-liner demands for swift retaliation or trying to make a fresh start with the Biden administration. (NYT)
* Inside a hospital as the coronavirus surges: Where will all the patients go? (WashPo)
* Fox News host Eric Shawn debunked election disinformation that President Donald Trump disgorged hours earlier on the same network in his first live interview since the election. Shawn pointed out that Trump’s campaign has failed to prove any of his accusations in court, and invited Axios political reporter Hans Nichols to help dismantle many of Trump’s bogus claims, including that ballots counted after the initial tallies on election night were somehow fraudulent. [HuffPost]
* Dr. Scott Atlas, a highly controversial member of the White House's coronavirus task force, has resigned from his post in the Trump administration, according to a person who works with the task force. (CNN)
* One challenge for remote teaching: how to assign grades. A surge in D’s and F’s in San Diego County schools is raising questions. [The San Diego Union-Tribune]
* One Seat, Competing Pressures as Newsom Considers Senate Pick -- Alex Padilla, California’s secretary of state, has emerged as the front-runner to succeed Kamala Harris. But Gov. Gavin Newsom appears to be in no rush to make his choice. (NYT)
* Sparrows in the Bay Area are singing in tones — including in a “more seductive trill” — that researchers haven’t heard in decades. [The San Francisco Chronicle]
* The Winding Journey Of Avril Haines, Biden's Pick To Lead U.S. Intelligence --Avril Haines, the first women nominated to the top intelligence post, took a strange path to this job. She studied judo in Japan, physics in college, and rebuilt a plane that she later crash-landed. (NPR)
* The coronavirus has turned the NFL into a joke, and nobody should be laughing (WashPo)
* Trump’s maskless campaign rallies may have boosted the spread of COVID-19, but they didn’t serve Trump well at the polls, according to a ballot analysis by NBC News. In an overwhelming number of cases, Trump came up short of his 2016 victory margins in the counties where he held rallies in the two weeks before the election. In a significant number of cases, he either increased his negative margins or lost the counties to Biden that he won the last time around. [HuffPost]
* ‘I Have Never Seen So Many Toadstools.’ A Bumper Crop of Mushrooms in Ukraine. -- Hunting for mushrooms deep in the forest is the ideal socially distanced pastime (NYT)
* Trump pushes an unprecedented and unjust wave of executions (WashPo)
* Merriam-Webster’s top word of 2020 not a shocker: pandemic (AP)
* Plan to Hold Corporations Liable for Violations Abroad Fails in Switzerland -- The proposal would have exposed multinational companies to greater scrutiny over human rights and environmental abuses. (NYT)
* “Love Actually,” the 2003 film that launched a generation of cinematic hottakes, is the story of nine interconnected relationships in the weeks ahead of Christmas in the United Kingdom. They’re united not just in their relationships but also by Heathrow Airport, a third space that bookends the film and is used by lowly tourists and prime ministers alike. It has a plotline for every moment in your relationship, from first crush to the grave, and the story covers all the holiday season staples: the Christmas party, the school pageant, the holiday songs. Plus, the cast is great, and the performances are solid — there’s a lot to like, actually. Yet by the time the credits roll, you may not have learned much about the titular emotion. (538)
***
I wonder how am I still here
And I don't want to move a thing
It might change my memory
I'll do what I want
But I can't hide
And I won't go, I won't sleep
I can't breathe
Until you're resting here with me
And I won't leave, and I can't hide
I cannot be until you're resting here with me
They might wake me from this dream
And I can't leave this bed,
Risk forgetting all that's been
I'll do what I want
But I can't hide
And I won't go
I won't sleep
And I can't breathe
Until you're resting here with me
And I won't leave
And I can't hide
I cannot be until you're resting here
And I won't sleep
And I can't breathe
Until you're resting here with me
And I won't leave
And I can't hide
I cannot be until you're resting here with me
-- Dido Armstrong / Pascal Gabriel / Paul Statham
-30-
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