2020 Life Logs, Day 33: Somebody Ought To . . .
Date: Sunday, February 2, 2020
Weather: Mostly Cloudy; High 42 degrees, Low 31 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Cottage, East Falmouth, MA
Nobody that knows me would ever call me a prude. But tonight when I watched the Superbowl half-time show, I sure felt like a prude. As I watched, all I could hear in my head were the words of my grandmother saying, “Somebody ought to spat her as . . .” The year I was born, 1947, a movie came out starring the Brazilian bombshell, Carmen Miranda. Copacabana was a musical comedy and in it, Miranda, performed one of her ‘high energy’ dances. My grandmother, a country woman, was visiting sometime during the next year when Copacabana was playing at the local theater, so my sister Patsy who was 14 or 15 at the time, took my grandmother to see the movie. When Carmen Miranda came on the screen with her signature bowl of fruit on her head and started dancing with that ‘high energy’, my grandmother stood up and announced loudly that “Somebody ought to spat her as . . .” My sister was so embarrassed that she grabbed my grandmother and left the theater. Of course, I don’t really remember any of this, but I have heard the story many times over the years. And tonight, as I watched Shakira and Jennifer Lopez perform, I knew how my grandmother must have felt. Dancing is one thing, but in tonight’s performances, the ‘dancing’ went too far. And the costumes were just plain offensive. I had been at Heather and Jed’s for the beginning of the game, but I decided to come home to be with Shadow. Hopefully they put the boys to bed before half-time. I read that Shakira and Lopez had promised to deliver an empowering performance for women. That is not what I saw. They are definitely talented and if someone wants to pay to go see them perform in a concert that is one thing. But to have that coming into your home during the half-time of a football game is another thing. It convinced me that our society has gone totally off the rails. Lots of things make me feel that way these days, but this sealed the deal. I immediately changed the channel to public television and watched Sunday night Masterpiece Theatre. Quite a contrast!
Shadow and I spent time with Ollie mid-day. We took a walk to the bogs with Joey, the little boy that lives next door. Then I took Ollie to play with a friend. Later in the afternoon, I went to a meet and greet session with a woman who is running for the State Senate seat from this district. I have never gotten involved in local politics, but I am convinced that now is the time that all of us need to be involved in politics at all levels. If we have met the people that are representing us, hopefully it will have a more dramatic effect when we call them not doing their jobs. This was a small group setting in someone’s home. I knew a couple of the people attending, but not most. I was very impressed with the level of questioning. Health care, education, the opioid crisis, climate change issues, and immigration were the topics brought forth by those of us attending. I listened carefully to this candidate’s responses. Now I need to find a way to meet some of the other candidates running for this State Senate position and hear what they have to say.
Other than being Superbowl Sunday, today was special in two other ways. Punxsutawney Phil did not see his shadow this morning, indicating that we should have an early spring. Since we have not really had winter yet, that is good news, but we could have a nasty February and still have an early spring. The other thing was today’s date of 02/02/2020. This was palindrome day when the date reads the same way forwards and backwards. And this one was very special world-wide. “Unlike the date in 2002, this one reads the same in the US, where dates are written as month-day-year instead of day-month-year as in much of the rest of the world.” And it also worked for China and a few other countries that put the year first. The last time this happened was 11 November 1111.
