Are We There Yet? vol. 32

Late yesterday afternoon, my colleague, Zuhra Aziz, emailed me about when this week’s edition would be ready.  Zuhra is the person who is responsible for posting this email each week and she knows to keep me on schedule.  I explained to her that I was struggling with writer’s block but that I was taking my 11-year-old, Alex, to his lacrosse practice and that maybe I would find inspiration there.  Or perhaps after watching the debate.  Zuhra told me that she was betting on the 11-year-olds.  Well, Zuhra was wrong.  I know it was the first time, Zuhra.  I won’t tell anyone.

The debate last night was nothing like the train wreck of a first debate.  The mute button or just the fear of the mute button is apparently a powerful tool.   The bar was pretty low but I was surprised by how well it went.  When I woke this morning, for some reason, I was thinking about how my dogs would handle a debate.  Harvey, the 5-year-old incumbent against Hope, the puppy challenger.  They don’t have to worry about social distancing so the debate would begin with the typical dog greeting of perpetual motion; the circle and sniff.  The dogs had difficulty staying on point because they were distracted by the occasional squirrel or the sound of a crumb dropping anywhere in our house.  But they got through the process without any fighting or acrimony or so I thought.  Just as the debate was ending, Hope noted that Harvey has very small paws.  

We have 11 days until election.  Let’s hope that the rhetoric remains constructive.   Please vote if you can.  We then get the well-earned break of about 3 months before the campaigning starts for 2024.  

This week’s selection is:

MOVIE

The Trial of the Chicago Seven

The film is based on the infamous 1969 trial of seven defendants charged by the federal government with conspiracy and more, arising from the countercultural protests in Chicago at the 1968 Democratic National Convention. The trial transfixed the nation and sparked a conversation about mayhem intended to undermine the U.S. government.