Beloved Longtime Cleveland Weatherman Dick Goddard Dies At 89 – ideastream

Longtime Cleveland TV meteorologist Dick Goddard passed away Tuesday morning. He was 89 years old.

Goddard tested positive for COVID-19 in June.

Goddard gave his final signoff in November 2016, while surrounded by colleagues at WJW-TV, a company he started working for in 1966.

"What he displayed on the air is exactly the kind of person that he was. There was nothing fake about him. And of course he was an incredible meteorologist," said former WJW General Manager Virgil Dominic. "He's one of the greatest guys I've ever known, not only as a colleague, but as a friend. I love him."

Goddards television career began in 1961 at what is now WKYC-TV in Cleveland. He holds the Guinness World Record for the longest career as a weather forecaster.

"I think Dick would say that there wasn't a day that he came to work that he did not really look forward to coming to work," Dominic said. "Especially in times of tornadoes or dangerous weather, you could really tell that he cared. He really was concerned about the welfare of the viewers."

The local TVicon was a native son of Northeast Ohio. Goddard grew up in the Akron suburb of Green. He served in the United States Air Force and graduated from Kent State University.

People just identified with Dick. They considered him much like themselves. They didnt so much look uponhim as a celebrity so to speak, but as the neighbor next door," Dominic said.

Goddard was never short of wit in his half of a century of forecasts.

"You know why cannibals never eat clowns?" Goddard asked a co-anchor on a 2010 Fox 8 News newscast. "They taste funny."

That Dick Goddard wit shined through in the books he wrote one of them titled "Six Inches of Partly Cloudy."

He also made the occasional appearance on the WJW produced comedy show "Big Chuck and Little John."

Dick Goddard in 1975. [The Cleveland Press Collection]

In addition tohis comedic charm, Goddard was caring. Thatwas perhaps most evident as he advocated for what he so often referred to as "the four-foots" pets. He was a longtime supporter of pet adoption and pet safety. He pushed lawmakers to strengthen the penalties for animal cruelty. When such a bill was passedin Ohio in 2016, it became known as Goddard's Law.

"You wouldn't be into any conversation for any length of time before the subject of pets would come up," Dominic said.

Including when Goddard appeared on ideastreams Sound of Ideas in 2011 on 90.3 WCPN.

If I have any beliefs about immortality, it is that certain dogs Ive known will go to heaven, but very few people," Goddard joked.

Goddard was fascinated with woolly bears the fuzzy black-and-orange caterpillars that eventually become the isabella tiger moth. Its believed that the haironwoolly bears predicts the severity of the coming winder. His love for the creatures lead to the creation of the annual Woolley Bear Festival in Vermillion, which Goddard helped create in 1973 and now bears his name.

He volunteered for festivals, stood up for animals and was always willing to give out a woolly bear sticker.

As much as Cleveland lovedGoddard, he loved Cleveland back.

As he said on his final WJW appearance: Ive been so lucky. People have been so good to me being a weatherman. And to be treated the way they treated me, I cant be happier.

More:

Beloved Longtime Cleveland Weatherman Dick Goddard Dies At 89 - ideastream

Brooks Koepka unbothered by pressure of making PGA Championship history – Yahoo Sports

The weight of history would be a burden to most. A roadblock on the path to immortality.

For Brooks Koepka, though, it's nothing more than the wind at his back.

"I don't view it as either one," Koepka said at TPC Harding Park when asked if the topic about his quest for three straight PGA Championships was a help or hindrance. "I've already dealt with it at the U.S. Open going into Pebble. I feel like I know how to handle it and I played pretty well there.

"I just got beat."

Sure enough, Koepka arrived at Pebble Beach last June looking to become the first player to win three straight U.S. Opens since Willie Anderson did so from 1903-05. He entered the final round four shots back of Gary Woodland, but Koepka was unfazed by the enormity of the moment. He birdied four of his first five holes that Sunday and looked like he would indeed become just the fourth golfer since 1882 to win the same major three consecutive years in a row.

But Koepka couldn't get the putts to drop on the back nine, and eventually finished three shots behind Woodland, his quest for U.S. Open history sinking to the bottom of Stillwater Cove.

It's a familiar feeling for Koepka this week, who arrives at TPC Harding Park again with a chance to join that club. After tearing about Bellerive Country Club in 2018 and surviving a back-nine stumble at Bethpage Black last year, the four-time major champion has the opportunity to become the first golfer to win three straight PGA Championships since Walter Hagen won four in a row from 1924-27.

Koepka's game has been a work in progress all year. He's battled a left knee issue that required a stem cell treatment in the fall, and has struggled to find the consistent excellence he enjoyed the past two seasons. But after leading the field in stroke gained, tee to green two weeks ago at the 3M Championship, and leading the field in strokes gained, approach last week at the WGC-FedEx St. Jude Invitational, Koepka appears to be rounding into form just in time for another assault on the history books.

Story continues

"My game feels like it's in really, really good shape right now," Koepka said. "I like the way I'm hitting it, and feels -- putting it really, really well. Every day is a lot more comfortable. I'm excited. This is a big-boy golf course. Got to hit it straight and put it in the fairway. It's going to be quite long.

"I think it kind of plays into my hands."

The list of golfers who have tried and failed to win a third consecutive major title is a who's who of Hall of Famers that includes Tiger Woods, Jack Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer, Ben Hogan and Nick Faldo.

Woods won consecutive PGA Championships in 1999 and 2000, and did so again in 2006 and 2007. He won the British Open in 2005 and 2006, and triumphed in back-to-back Masters in 2001 and 2002. Woods missed the cut in three of his four tries at a three-peat and didn't play in the 2008 PGA due to a knee injury.

Hagen Anderson and Peter Thomson are the only three golfers to successfully win three consecutive majors since 1882,alist Koepka hopes to join with an impressive showing at Glory's Last First Chance.

[RELATED: What does Tiger's Harding Park history say about PGA hopes?],

Koepka, like Woods and Nicklaus, saves his best for the game's biggest stages. Four of his seven career wins have been major titles, and he said prior to the 2019 PGA Championship that he feels winning majors is easier because he really only has to play better than a handful of his competitors.

When most people would wilt, Koepka thrives, dominating the best in the world without appearing to break much a sweat. Winning majors is difficult. It's a test only the best are born to pass.

One Koepka thoroughly relishes acing.

"It's fun," he said about the setup at the PGA Championship. "I love it. I love the fact that it's probably the toughest test of golf you're going to play all year with -- setup-wise and then mentally it's exhausting. I enjoy when it gets tough. I enjoy when things get complicated. You can really -- there's always disaster lurking, I think it is something I enjoy, where every shot really means something."

Every shot will have the added weight of history on it this week for Koepka. That weight would bother most, but to Brooks Koepka it's nothing major.

Brooks Koepka unbothered by pressure of making PGA Championship history originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area

Read more:

Brooks Koepka unbothered by pressure of making PGA Championship history - Yahoo Sports

Vampire Diaries: What Happened To Bonnie In Originals & Legacies – Screen Rant

On The Vampire Diaries, Bonnie Bennett was a powerful witch who saved Mystic Falls from destruction. Nowadays, Bonnie's whereabouts remain a mystery.

The Vampire Diariesended in 2017, but some of its characters, including Bonnie Bennett (Kat Graham), have been mentioned in the spinoff shows, Legacies and The Originals, thus explaining what happened to them after the main series concluded.Bonnie is best friends with Elena Gilbert and Caroline Forbes, and she descends from a long line of powerful witches - including those who developed the immortality elixir, made daylight rings, and helped the Gemini Coven create the 1994 Prison World.

Because Bennett witches were the driving force behind so many spells, Bonnie was the key to breaking them. She also resurrected the dead, petrified Silas, rescued the Salvatores from the Phoenix Stone, released Elena from Kai Parker's sleeping spell, and incapacitated enemies and moved objects with her mind. Bonnie underwent many transformations throughout The Vampire Diaries'eight seasons. She was a witch, a ghost, the Anchor to the Other Side, a Vampire Huntress, and a powerful psychic. During the Vampire Diaries series finale, aided by her ancestors, Bonnie saved Mystic Falls from hellfire. When fans last saw Bonnie, she was preparing to leave her hometown and travel the world. But what happened after that?

RELATED: All 5 Doppelgangers In The Vampire Diaries Explained

Although Bonnie never appeared on The Originals or Legacies, she was referenced multiple times. Judging by the context in which her name was used and the events that were happening at the time, it seems she served as a mentor to Josie and Lizzie and remained close to Caroline and Alaric in Mystic Falls. However, the burden of continually saving the day has been lifted from her shoulders. So despite leaving to travel the world, Bonnie eventually found her way back to her home in Mystic Falls.

Bonnie was referenced in The Originals season 1 episode "A Closer Walk with Thee," in which Klaus and Elijah were haunted by their dead father due to the impending collapse of the Other Side.Klaus learned of the imminent implosion after a phone call to "a rather reluctant Bennett witch in Mystic Falls." Then duringThe Originals season 5 episode "The Tale of Two Wolves," Klaus's plan to save Hope from the Hollow relied on the Saltzman twins siphoning the evil spirit from Hope's body. Alaric had strong objections and suggested Bonnie as a replacement.

Bonnie's name has also been invoked several times on Legacies. In season 1's "Malivore," Dorian explained to Alaric that Bonnie located the vampire lover of a Dryad, using a ring to do a locator spell. Bonnie couldn't have accomplished this time-sensitive, hands-on task from a distance, indicating she was back in Mystic Falls. During season 2, when Alaric and the twins were stuck in the Prison World, the girls created with their "Aunt Bonnie" years earlier, Emma left to help Caroline figure out a way to get them back. Before her departure, Dorian tried to convince her to stay, stating Caroline could call Bonnie.

It's strange Bonnie's apparently still living in Mystic Falls but has adopted a hands-off approach when it comes to the Salvatore School. However, given the numerous heroic sacrifices she's made for her friends in the past, she deserves a break. Bonnie isn't likely to appear in the flesh on Legacies. According to TV Guide, Graham told reporters during a summer press tour she had closed the door on Bonnie Bennett. "I say that with absolute gratitude and appreciation, but I don't feel like reprising a character that was almost 10 years of my life."With Landon's and Hope's fates undecided after a shortened season 2 and a huge cliffhanger, Bonnie isn't at the forefront fans' minds - but she could be mentioned once more in Legacies season 3, which would allow fans to keep up with Bonnie's story from afar. Graham could stop by the Salvatore School one day, but in the meantime, maybe the series will offer up some juicier tidbits on what's keeping Bonnie so busy.

MORE: Every Vampire Diaries & Originals Character Who Returned In Legacies

The Umbrella Academy's Complete Timeline (And Alternate Timelines) Explained

Jennifer has been working as a freelance writer for eight years, contributing to BuddyTV, TVRage, Hidden Remote, Gossip On This, and PopMatters. She prefers binge-watching old episodes of The Office (British and American versions) to long walks on the beach. She's still holding out hope that Happy Endings will get a revival.

Read more from the original source:

Vampire Diaries: What Happened To Bonnie In Originals & Legacies - Screen Rant

How to talk to kids about the different school year – KARE11.com

Whether your child is going back to school or distance learning, a clinical psychologist has tips for helping parents and kids cope with their new normal.

MINNEAPOLIS Are you wondering how to explain the upcoming school to your kids during this pandemic? Whatever your districts scenario, your child might have questions and strong feelings.

Dr. Sarah Paper, a clinical psychologist at Allina Health, says before you even talk to your kids about the new school year, check your own emotional reaction.

"Kids are going to look to them to know how they feel about it, so if a parent is not calm, theres no way their kid is going to believe that they should be calm or that it's going to be OK," Paper says.

Paper said when you're in those conversations, its important to validate however your child is feeling so they can pedal back to realize its OK.

For example, if they're upset they cant see their friends because of remote learning?

"Listening to that and saying, 'That is so true, that is so true. Its so hard not to see your friends. Oh my gosh, this is so hard on you. What can we do and still stay safe?'" Paper suggests.

She says thats also a way to get them to participate in problem-solving.

"The more control and decisions they can have in it the better theyre going to feel during this," says Paper.

But what if theyre worried about in-person learning?

"I think parents can say again, validate that fear that its a really scary time, but that schools important and that really smart experts are working on this and making sure that its safe. And that everybody wants children to be safe," Paper says.

Here are two donts from Paper:

Paper says a sign something might not be OK with your child is oppositional behavior. She says that's often based in anxiety, or a kid is trying to protect themselves or avoid things that feel scary. She says if they're acting more irritable or oppositional, ask them what they're worried about.

"Even maybe saying to them, 'I know this is scary,' if theyre not able to admit to their fears," Paper says. "Name it for them and they can tell you youre wrong, they will, and if youre right theyll feel really heard and understood," Paper says.

She says if you can, find a bit of fun in the whole situation.

"Help them pick out their own mask to wear to school. Come up with masks that match their outfits," Paper recommends. "Try to find the opportunities in that to have some fun."

Paper says dont forget to pay attention to adolescents and teens. You might think theyre older and just get it, but she says they may have a sense of immortality, and youre asking them to believe bad things will happen if they hang out with their friends. She says to also take their feelings into account.

Continued here:

How to talk to kids about the different school year - KARE11.com

The Book of VE Schwab’s Heart – Publishers Weekly

On lockdown at her parents 500-year-old stone farmhouse in the Sarthe region of France, Victoria Schwab is, like many of us, stressed out. I landed here an hour after lockdown, and I feel safe, from a very privileged perspective. Its like Im in a medieval village, says the Nashville-raised author, who now calls Edinburgh, Scotland, home.

I feel like the whole world is burning, and I cant do anything, says Schwab. Shes taken these feelings of helplessness and decided to focus on work. And Schwab, 33, is nothing if not a good worker.

Now a frequent bestseller, Schwab, whos notably prolific, is known for successful fantasy series like the Darker Shade of Magic trilogy and the Villains duology. She has published 17 titles (plus comics and graphic novels) since making her YA debut with 2011s The Near Witch (Disney).

A decade into her career and about to launch her next book, The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue (Oct. 6, Tor), the publishing process should be old hat for Schwab. But this one feels different. Im coming up on my 10-year anniversary of my first book, she says, but in some form Ive been working on Addie since then.

Addie LaRue centers on a woman who makes a Faustian bargain to live forever, but soon realizes her deal with the devil comes with a curseshe can never be remembered. Its an ambitious historical fantasy that shimmers with shades of The Picture of Dorian Grey and Peter Pan, while covering 300 years and spanning from medieval Francenot far from where Schwab is nowto modern-day New York City.

The idea for the novel first struck when Schwab was 24 and living in a literal Home Depot shed in an exprison wardens yard in Liverpool, England. Those were the three most formative months of my life, she says, shaking her head at the memory. It was February and freezing, she recounts, and her grandmother had dementia. While hiking in Englands Lake District one day, she recounts, she began thinking about immortality. I started thinking about the heinously sad ending of Peter Pan. Hes already forgetting all of it, the magic, the people.

Given her grandmothers condition, I had very close-range experience, watching my mom being erased from my grandmothers mind. Forgetting is sad, but being forgotten is truly horrible. That really started the whole idea. An immortality tale, sort of an inverted Peter Paninstead of a boy who forgets, I wanted to write a girl who is forgotten.

The idea simmered for a decade, Schwab says, because she knew she wasnt ready. I checked in with myself about it every few years, she explains. By the time I hit 30, I started thinking to myself, Im going to die without finishing it. It became like this huge white whale. I knew it was going to be a monstrous process and I knew there was going to be more fear than joy in it.

Despite her fear about the difficulty of writing the novel, Schwab finally felt, at 30, ready to tackle it. Part of her readiness can be attributed to the empathy she began feeling for Addie. With years in publishing under her belt, Schwab felt like she, too, had made her own difficult bargains. Were all just trying to leave our mark, in some way or another, she says. Especially the artists and writers among us. It can be a really lonely, isolating business, especially when you only hear about the triumphs, never about the failures. At least that was how it was for me.

Schwab started her career off with a bang, selling her 2011 debut, The Near Witch, to Disney before shed even graduated from Washington University, in St. Louis. Witch, which didnt make much of a showing commercially, was followed by the YA fantasy duology The Archived (Disney, 2013). The duology was also released to little fanfare. I earned out, but was told Id failed to meet some arbitrary expectations, Schwab says. It was really rough, and I felt really alone. I was 21 when I debuted, and I remember feeling like I was washed up at 24.

Writing has always been my full-time job, she says. So I figured, just take it to the next step. If your career is going well, youre going to have to write another book. If your career is going poorly, youre going to have to write another book. The only proactive thing you can do in publishing is write another book.

Broke and living in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, she decided to move back to her parents home in Nashville. Her parents told her she could stay for three months; she wound up there for nine. Thats the only way I could make this career work, she says. I could always go home to them, and thats a huge privilege.

She also decided to shift gears. I figured, if I cant control the mechanisms of publishing, if I cant control whether or not my books are successful, at least I can control what I want to write. She started working on Vicious, a very weird supervillain bromance. According to Schwab, Miriam Weinberg at Tor bought Vicious with an eye toward what I would write next.

That next book, even then, was supposed to be Addie LaRue. Every so often, Miriam would ask, Hey, when are you going to get back to that project? Schwab says. But I wasnt ready yet, voicewise, timewise, agewise.

While she was working on Vicious and its follow-up, Vengeful, Scholastic reached out with a work-for-hire middle grade series about guardian angels. The series, Schwab recalls, laughing, was like the least on-brand thing ever. Nonetheless, she took the job. I ended up pitching this really Dr. Who-esque adaptation of it and said, What if I do this? The Everyday Angel series became the darling of the [Scholastic] book club and fair scene and sold almost a million copies.

Her next project was the Shades of Magic trilogy, centered on misfits, magic, and mayhem in four alternate versions of London. Looking back at these books, Schwab says, I think so much of my work has been about the fact that I didnt come out til I was 28, even to myself, Schwab says. Poor me, its like the throughline of all my books: This is a book about a person who doesnt feel at home in their skin and in their community. And then when I finally came out, I was like, Shit, thats what it is.

While the Shades series made her a bestseller, it didnt make her rich. I got paid $15,000 for A Darker Shade of Magic, she says. Her smaller advance checks required her to juggle multiple projects; while working on A Darker Shade of Magic, for example, she was also writing the YA fantasy This Savage Song. Like a lot of writers, I was constantly working, and constantly underpaid, and always scrambling.

Thats why she feels the constant need to remind writers that publishing is not a meritocracy. We assume that we are at fault for our own experiences, she says. We assume that if we are feeling sad or lonely or unheard, that its on us, not on the publisher or on our team. Its so difficult to feel like equals in this game. Its so important to find relationshipswith an agent, an editor, a teamthat make you feel like youre on equal footing. Were gaslit by this business every day, when it wouldnt function without us, the creators.

Next up for Schwab is the recently announced five-issue Extraordinary graphic novel series with Titan, set in the world of her Villains titles. Then she makes a return to the Shades world, with the three-book Threads of Power series. Im terrified, she confesses. I mean, 33-year-old me is going to write a different book. Im gayer, Im louder, Im weirder, and I care about different things. I just hope my readership gives me the space. I think they will, because I try never to do the same thing twice. I unfortunately have this complex where I need to challenge myself every book. I have to, because I live with the story for so much longer than anybody else does.

Thats certainly the case for Addie LaRue, whose time has come, for better or worse. Its crazy to have a book out this year, Schwab says. But what guarantee is there that the world will be better in 2021? Ive lived with this story in my head for a decade. Id rather people just read the damn book before the end of the world.

She also thinks the book can serve as an escapewith a relevant message. Its about survival and defiant joy, and Im hoping whoever does get around to reading it in this flaming hellscape will at least enjoy that, she says. The irony of me starting to write something considered hope-punk, though, is hysterical. Looking at my canon, which is so dark, and its like, I guess I write hope now? But I have to. Because I cant compete with reality at the moment.

A version of this article appeared in the 08/10/2020 issue of Publishers Weekly under the headline: Time After Time

Go here to see the original:

The Book of VE Schwab's Heart - Publishers Weekly

How Credible Is the ‘Death Becomes Her’ Remake Rumor Reportedly Starring Anne Hathaway, Kate Hudson, Lady Gaga, and Robert Downey Jr.? – Showbiz Cheat…

Rumor has it that Death Becomes Her the 1992 campy comedy starring Goldie Hawn, Meryl Streep, and Bruce Willis will return to the silver screen. The original film followed a novelist (Hawn) who loses her husband (Willis) to her former best friend and celebrated movie star (Streep). The frenemies wind up head-to-head when they stumble upon a mysterious elixir granting eternal youth and beauty. Yet, the immortality drug is not without its drawbacks, leading to moments of outrageous physical comedy and witty one-liners.

While the movie did not premiere to rave critical reviews, it has become a cult classic over the years, which would make for quite the highly-anticipated reboot. Yet, where did this remake rumor begin, and how has it caught fire? Is the leak credible, or is the reported dream cast just that: a pipedream?

In early July, a Facebook user took to the social media platform claiming that a Death Becomes Her remake was in the works. The user noted that the film would star Kate Hudson in the role her mother previously portrayed, and Anne Hathaway in Meryl Streeps former role. Robert Downey Jr. will reportedly take on the man who falls for his wifes best friend. And, as for Lady Gaga, she would take over for Isabella Rossellini the wealthy socialite who gives the immortality potion to the films opposing ladies. Following this Facebook post, a few other digital media sites and social media presences followed suit on the report.

RELATED: The 2017 Beaches and Other Misguided Remakes of 80s Movies

FilmJunkie a page with about 100 thousand followers was quick to share the news, as was TrulyDisturbing.com. Both reports noted the remake report as a rumor, avoiding giving too much clout to the relatively unknown source origin. Yet, could it be true?

Deadline, The Hollywood Reporter, Variety, and other notable sources have yet to share the news, and these three sources, in particular, are known for leaking movie information as soon as it becomes available and credible.

The situation isnt looking too promising for a Death Becomes Her remake. While the rumor could be possible and in very early stages IMDb is often usually quick to include movies that have been announced on their actor profile pages. The movie is absent from the profile pages for Robert Downey Jr., Anne Hathaway, Kate Hudson, and Lady Gaga.

While fans of the original Death Becomes Her would surely enjoy a remake with such an incomparable cast, its not yet time to get excited. As of now, this film is still a rumor a dream that seems perfect but feels out of reach.

Continue reading here:

How Credible Is the 'Death Becomes Her' Remake Rumor Reportedly Starring Anne Hathaway, Kate Hudson, Lady Gaga, and Robert Downey Jr.? - Showbiz Cheat...

Pirates: On Stranger Tides: The only good part is Ian McShanes Blackbeard – Polygon

With the Pirates of the Caribbean movies more accessible than ever, and a summer season void of blockbusters, this month were diving deep into Disneys swashbuckling series. Grab your cutlass and hoist the colors: here be Polygons take on all things PotC.

No one would ever accuse Rob Marshall of being a great, or even mildly interesting filmmaker. The director didnt find much magic in a musical adaptation of 8 1/2 starring Daniel Day-Lewis, cast half of Hollywood in a stiff version of Into the Woods, and for some reason tried to direct a sequel to Mary Poppins. So its no surprise that his Pirates of the Caribbean movie is far and away the low point of the series. But not even the glossy mediocrity of Rob Marshall could stop Ian McShanes Blackbeard from achieving legend status.

In the very likely event that you saw this movie once almost a decade ago and dont remember a single moment from it, allow me to remind you what happens: In On Stranger Tides, which actually adapts a 1987 novel by Tim Powers into a Pirates of the Caribbean sequel, King George II hires Jack Sparrow to find the Fountain of Youth, who fills the navigator role on an expedition led by rival pirate captain Hector Barbossa. At the same time, the legendary Blackbeard, the most famous and feared pirate on the seas, is also looking for the Fountain so that he can live and pillage forever. Also for some reason Blackbeard has a sword called the Sword of Triton that lets him control his ship with his mind this doesnt really have anything to do with the grander Pirates mythology, but it helps move the plot.

The first three Pirates of the Caribbean movies had excellent villains in Barbossa and Davy Jones. Each, at one point or another, was cursed with eternal life, and Geoffrey Rush and Bill Nighy play their respective characters with all the energy and ridiculousness thats called for in a series based on a theme-park ride. The sour taste of immortality adds nuance to what could be mustache- (or tentacle-)twirling performances. It helped that they also had highly dramatic movies around them. Ian McShane got none of that.

Rather than a character who has suffered through godhood and understands that escaping death is a punishment not a reward, Blackbeard is actively seeking ascendance in On Stranger Tides. In a series thats all about the hubris of cheating death, Blackbeard is our look into what kind of character would invite that curse on themselves. Hes like a perfect thematic prequel to both Barbossa, Davy Jones, and even Javier Bardems Captain Salazar from Dead Men Tell No Tales.

The only problem is that neither Rob Marshall nor the script hes shooting, written by the original series pair Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio, seem to recognize that these are important themes of the Pirates of the Caribbean series. Thankfully, Ian McShane gets it. Rather than the tortured lives of the series other villains, Blackbeard is pure unrestrained hubris. From the moment he first walks on-screen its clear how he became a myth while he was still alive and why he thinks he deserves deification, and is willing to sacrifice his own daughter to achieve it.

Unfortunately, the rest of the movie never quite makes it to McShanes level. Jack Sparrow, a character best used with at least a little restraint, is the protagonist rather than a supporting character and the weight crushes out all the life and strangeness that makes the character fun. Sparrow even gets a love interest in the form of Penlope Cruzs Angelica, but her only real contribution is to be a bargaining chip for Sparrow and Blackbeard to throw around rather than her own character a far cry from the first three movies where Elizabeth was easily the strongest character. All of this combines to make a film that commits the worst sin a movie about undead pirates ever could its boring. That is except for Ian McShane.

Beyond single-handedly tying On Stranger Tides to themes of the other Pirates movies, McShane is just fun to watch. He gives Blackbeard a level of confidence and swagger that makes Jack Sparrow look timid. His literal entrance is built on the premise of upstaging Sparrows antics. He strides out of a door, backlit by golden light, with his beard literally smouldering. Its a grand entrance, but the only thing that really sells it is McShanes presence. He has a wide heavy walk that commands undivided attention and a look in his eyes like he owns the entire world.

Just moments after he walks on screen, he has to use his sword powers to command his ship, the Queen Annes Revenge, to tie Sparrow up. This is an objectively silly action that involves swinging his sword in the air for no apparent reason. There are few actors on earth who could point a sword at nothing and make you believe they controlled an entire ship, but god dammit Ian McShane most certainly can.

None of this is to say that On Stranger Tides is a good movie (it isnt). But thank god for Ian McShane, the only actor alive who could drag Pirates 4 up from the depths to at least make it watchable.

Continue reading here:

Pirates: On Stranger Tides: The only good part is Ian McShanes Blackbeard - Polygon

Inside the final resting place of Tutankhamun’s treasures – Action News Now

For almost a century, King Tutankhamun has been the poster boy for Ancient Egypt. His death mask was sublimely, breathtakingly crafted over 3,300 years ago from 24 pounds of beaten gold, with eyeliner of lapis lazuli and eyes of quartz and obsidian.

It's probably the most recognizable artifact we have from antiquity.

Once entombed in Egypt's Valley of the Kings, the mask has toured the world, entrancing audiences with its aura of opulence and millenia-old regal mystery.

"You know, if you ask a child from the age of eight and you tell him Egypt, and he will tell you King Tut," Zahi Hawass, an Egyptian archaeologist and former antiquities minister, tells CNN. "I made a Skype last week to a school in the States. All the children ask about one thing, Tutankhamun."

While ancient Egyptians crafted great monuments to their dead, wonders of granite and limestone including the Pyramids at Giza, modern Egyptians have been building a new home for Tutankhamun and his ancestors just over a mile away.

Something monumental of their own in glass and concrete.

Construction has taken eight years so far, the opening delayed multiple times, but the Grand Egyptian Museum isn't called "Grand" for nothing.

At almost half a million square meters, it's the size of a major airport terminal, with a price tag to match. Most of the huge cost has been met with loans from Japan.

The Egyptians badly want tourists back in the large numbers that the country hasn't seen since before the country was gripped by political upheaval in the wake of the 2011 Arab Spring.

This museum amounts to a calculated gamble -- a $1 billion dollar bet on Tutankhamun. His treasures will be the star attraction when all finally arrive here next year.

This should be their last resting place.

A selection of Tutankhamun's treasures have been on the road -- off and on -- since the 1960s. Among them, the Boy King as "Guardian Statue," a proud figure, face and body painted black to symbolize the fertile silt of the Nile.

Another gold-covered statue shows Tutankhamun carrying a harpoon and wearing one of his many crowns. On the back of a golden throne, the young pharaoh appears in a tender marital portrait, king and queen bathed in the rays of the sun. And on a golden fan, he's seen hunting in his chariot.

Tutankhamun's portrait was always idealized, as it was on his famous death mask.

The reality may well have been rather different.

Images of his unimposing mummy, first revealed in 1925, show that Tutankhamun was probably a child of incest, standing about 1.65 meters (5 ft 5 in). Scientists think that he may well have had a clubfoot and buck teeth.

He was dead at 18 or 19 and Egyptologists still speculate about what killed him.

"When you go really deeply into the collections of the king, into the history of the king, you discover that he was a really important king," says Tayeb Abbas, head of archaeology at the Grand Egyptian Museum.

"What is also important about the king is that his life and death are still a mystery. And that's why people all over the world are still fascinated by King Tutankhamun."

The creation of the new museum has taken almost as long as Tutankhamun's lifespan. A winning design was chosen in 2003, with a facade or wall of semi-translucent stone, one kilometer long, that can be backlit at night.

The original architects were a small Dublin-based practise, Heneghan Peng, led by an American-Chinese architect, Shih-Fu Peng.

The Egyptian Revolution in 2011 delayed things and construction only began in earnest the following year.

CNN first caught up with the project six years later, in 2018, as the pyramid's entrance took skeletal shape.

"It's a new landmark that is being added to the complete view of the city of greater Cairo... for the first time the pyramids and the fantastic treasures of Tutankhamun will be eye to eye," Tarek Tawfik, the former director general of the Grand Egyptian Museum Project, said at the time.

A visit to the museum in May 2020 revealed everything looking pretty much landscaped and ready.

But behind the scenes, it's still a construction site -- and Covid-19 hasn't helped.

Going in, everyone had to have their temperature checked, including CNN's team.

Like extras from a remake of "Ghostbusters," gangs of workers wearing tanks of disinfectant on their backs were out spraying.

"We are working hard, despite Covid-19," says Major General Atef Moftah, the army engineer who is the museum's general supervisor. "We are taking precautions, sterilizing everything and everyone."

On the ground, it's easy to get a sense of how gargantuan this project really is.

The statue of Ramses the Great -- the largest of all the museum artifacts -- arrived in 2018 so they could build the atrium around the 13th century BCE pharaoh.

More than 20 meters high, crafted from 83 tons of red granite, he's simply magnificent -- even with his nose royally chipped and his stubby toes lightly coated in dust.

The new museum is a far more dignified place to hang out than the polluted spot outside Cairo's main railway station where Ramses used to stand.

His companions -- on a grand staircase behind him -- are mostly still under wraps.

There'll be 87 statues of pharaohs and Egyptian gods on the steps. As visitors ascend, they'll get a sweeping history of Ancient Egypt. Some 5,000 years of it.

Or at least they will when the museum finally opens.

"The project is scheduled to be finished by the end of this year," says Moftah. "Then at the beginning of next year, we will work on the antiquities side of the project for four to six months. Hopefully by then, Covid-19 will be over and have left the world in peace."

What was clear from CNN's brief visit, as work to tidy up the vast spaces goes on, is that tourists may need to set aside two days to get around it.

Wandering through the museum, visitors may spot a familiar recurring motif.

Pyramids are everywhere. Upright and sometimes inverted, huge triangular designs built into the museum's monumental structures and mosaic surfaces. And then there are the real pyramids -- visible through gigantic windows. This is a museum with a view.

That Great Pyramid less than a mile away took roughly, it's thought, 20 years to build, when Pharoah Khnum Khufu wanted to create a burial place for himself back in the 26th century BCE using more than two million granite blocks -- each weighing over two and a half tons.

From architectural competition to planned opening in 2021, the Grand Egyptian Museum has also taken almost 20 years.

The museum is manifestly a matter of huge prestige for Egypt. In tandem with the building, an extraordinary program is underway to conserve every single one of Tutankhamun's treasures.

The intention is to exhibit all of them together -- for the very first time.

The Conservation Center for the Grand Egyptian Museum is the largest of its kind in the Middle East. It's a seemingly endless corridor leading to no fewer than 10 different laboratories, all devoted to the art of conservation.

The labs themselves are enveloped in an almost monastic silence. The experts working within them need intense concentration, a good eye and a steady hand.

There are more than 5,000 artifacts to conserve from Tutankhamun alone. "His magnificent panoply of death," as Howard Carter, the man credited with finding his tomb, once said.

Many items are being freshly conserved so that they can be shown for the very first time when the new museum opens.

Funding for some of this work comes from Tutankhamun's golden legacy -- income from exhibiting his treasures overseas.

"When I sent that Tutankhamun exhibit in 2005 to the States, Australia, Japan and London, I brought to Egypt $120 million to build the conservation labs. I never thought to see young Egyptians -- geniuses with golden hands -- returning every piece back," says Hawass, the former minister of antiquities. "That was the first thing that captured my heart."

Here in the labs can be found the lion goddess, Menhit, with nose and tears of blue glass, eyes of painted crystal. There's the deity Ammut, part hippo, part crocodile, part lion -- with teeth and red tongue of ivory.

The cow goddess, Mehet-Weret, is here too, represented in a pair of bovine figures, solar discs wedged between their horns.

There are also ritual couches that were apparently intended to speed Tutankhamun on his journey to the afterlife. After conservation, they remain in astonishingly good condition.

It's a privilege to witness all this material before it goes under glass in the new museum.

And not everything was golden.

Tutankhamun was buried with some 90 pairs of his sandals. Some of rush and papyrus, others of leather and calf-skin.

Before conservation, one pair had partially rotted away, but even these were still somehow salvageable.

"We create a new technique by using some special adhesive," says Mohamed Yousri, one of the conservators. "It's condition was very bad, and I think it comes alive again."

One pair -- almost brand new, it seemed -- is decorated with captured warriors, one Nubian, the other Asiatic. In these sandals, Tutankhamun could symbolically crush his enemies under foot every day.

"What we are doing here is re-discovering the collections of the king," says Tayeb Abbas, the museum's head of archaeology. "So we are doing the job which is really as important as it was done by Carter."

Howard Carter, an Englishman, was 48 years old when he made the discovery of his life in the Valley of the Kings, a pharaonic burial complex on the western banks of the Nile near the city of Luxor.

He would spend a decade -- from 1922 to 1932 -- recording the treasures and methodically clearing the tomb.

Without his doggedness, Tutankhamun might never have been found. And without Tutankhamun, we probably wouldn't have a Grand Egyptian Museum.

"This king was unique," says Hawass. "I think Howard Carter was so lucky to discover his tomb. And this is my opinion. This is the most important discovery, still, in archaeology."

Carter's archive is kept at the Griffith Institute, an Egyptology center at the UK's Oxford University.

A meticulous, demanding man, Egyptology will forever owe him an immense debt. Carter's clearance of the tomb was, for the time, exemplary.

Artifacts like the black and gold Guardian Statue were sprayed with protective paraffin wax. But now, almost a century later, the wax is being taken off.

In the labs, a ceremonial chariot was having every little bit of wax winkled and teased out during CNN's visit. Its old sheen was restored.

Tutankhamun's outer coffin, meanwhile, has been fumigated for insects. Just conserving this one artifact has taken some eight months.

This is the first time the coffin has ever left the tomb in the Valley of Kings. And it won't be going back there, a fact that not everyone's happy about.

"To be honest, most of the people on the west bank were angry because of this," says Abbas. "But when we took it out of the tomb, the people saw the bad condition of how the coffin was, people started to encourage us to get it back to how it looked like before."

The local residents did win one campaign. They're going to keep Tutankhamun's mummy, even though, like the outer coffin, the authorities had coveted it for the new museum.

"The people of Luxor think that their grandfather should stay there," says Hawass, the former minister of antiquities. "And I really do respect this. When we decided to move it a few months ago, all the people of Luxor disagreed with that. And this really actually made me happy. The mummy will stay there."

Fifteen years ago, Hawass did manage to extract the mummy for a CT scan -- but only for a day, barely enough time to incur the "mummy's curse" -- the supposed deadly consequence of moving King Tut's remains, a legend that is said to have claimed the life of Carter's financial backer Lord Carnarvon.

"When I went to scan the mummy and I took the mummy out of the coffin, I looked at his face," Hawass says. "That is the most beautiful moment in my life. The discovery -- November 4, 1922, 5,398 objects were found, excavated by Carter for 10 years. The curse. Lord Carnarvon died. All of that made the magic of King Tut!"

Everything, it seems, always comes back irresistibly to Tutankhamun. A century ago, only a few Egyptologists even knew his name. Now everyone does.

While the new Grand Museum will help preserve his status and many more of Egypt's ancient artifacts, it's reassuring to note that a piece of the country's more recent history will not be overlooked.

Head into central Cairo and the salmon pink sandstone edifice of one of its most distinct landmarks is unmissable.

The Egyptian Museum of Antiquities -- so beloved by Egyptologists -- opened in 1902.

Inside is hall after hall of statuary and an ever-expanding collection. It's here you can meet some of the Boy King's relatives.

There's Akhenaten, the so-called "heretic" pharaoh -- Tutankhamun's father. And an unfinished bust of his stepmother, the serene Nefertiti. His grandparents are here too -- Yuya and Tjuyu were once a power couple.

"You know, Cairo Museum, you cannot close it even if you have the Grand Egyptian Museum," says Hawass. "If you enter this museum, you smell the history. You smell the past and that's why we are keeping it as it is."

Of course, tourists always swiftly take the stairs to the first floor of the Cairo Museum. That's where -- for the time being -- you can still find the death mask and the rest of Tutankhamun's treasures

The display here has always seemed a bit dull. Beautiful but old-fashioned glass cases and drab lighting.

But then gold is still pretty stunning in any light.

There's the solid 22-carat gold likeness of Tutankhamun that formed his innermost coffin. It measures just over six feet long, and weighs a hefty 108 kilograms (240 pounds) -- about the same weight as Anthony Joshua, the heavyweight boxing champion.

More endearing perhaps, is a painted wooden sculpture of Tutankhamun, probably executed when he was in his early teens. This may have been a mannequin for his clothes.

Back in the labs, they have, in fact, been carrying out the first ever scientific study of Tutankhamun's textiles, including a scarf or shawl several meters long that has somehow endured over the 3,300 years since his death.

The research is part of a joint Egyptian-Japanese project.

"Among the many objects from the Tutankhamun's tomb, textiles are the most deteriorated materials," says ancient textiles expert Mia Ishii, an associate professor at Saga University in Japan. "Therefore it was a request from the Egyptian government to work especially on the textiles from the beginning."

More than 100 textile examples were recovered from the tomb and were evidently used in life. Among them is a tunic of some kind. Clearly visible is the design of a lotus flower -- for ancient Egyptians, the symbol of eternal life.

Japanese experts have also been advising on the big move -- from the Cairo museum to the new Conservation Center's labs 10 miles away.

Back in 2018, CNN watched a ritual couch being bandaged up like a patient with sunburn. Traditional Japanese washi or tissue paper was applied to fragile areas of gold leaf.

A hunting chariot needed a bespoke crate and a lot of manhandling -- almost enough men for a football team.

Tutankhamun's chariots, they've discovered, were all made from a hardwood -- elm -- a tree not native to Egypt. The wood probably came from somewhere in the Eastern Mediterranean more than 500 miles away.

Some artifacts are still revealing their secrets. A set of rods covered with gold leaf were a bit of a puzzle, but it's now believed they were part of a sunshade for a ceremonial chariot -- the oldest sunshade ever found.

One discovery, a dagger found with Tutankhamun's mummy, was made with iron from a meteorite. Anything that fell from the heavens seems to have had special meaning for ancient Egyptians.

Another treasure is a fabulous pendant, covered with scarab beetles -- the ancient Egyptian symbol for immortality.

Back in the 1920s, the pendant was photographed around the neck of a boy who was employed to supply Carter's archaeological dig workers with water. This, so the story goes, is the child who found the tomb.

Clearing a space for his large water jar, he chanced on the first step -- the first of a flight of sixteen down to the tomb.

View post:

Inside the final resting place of Tutankhamun's treasures - Action News Now

Wait: The power ballad is more than 1,000 years old? – A Journal of Musical Things

[I associate power ballads with the preening rock bands of the 70s and 80s. Apparently, though, those acts were late to the party. This is from MelMagazine.com. AC]

When the great chronicle of human civilization comes to be written, the 1980s will go down as the decade when we had everything in our grasp but let it all go. So many self-inflicted threats were allowed to escalate unchecked during that time, and were now all being forced to live with their consequences: Nuclear proliferation, global carbon emissions, free-market capitalism, and most monstrous of all, adult-oriented power ballads. Its virtually impossible to explain exactly how the first three Promethean nightmares came about. But with the last one, as a runaway outgrowth of deeply misguided pop-culture trends, we can at least attempt to trace its origins in the hope that it will never happen again.

First off, for a culture that daily had to deal with the risk of Cold War annihilation, the popularity of a musical style desperately reaching for immortality makes a lot of sense. Traditionally, the power balladeers sing of an emotional Valhalla where flames are eternal, feelings are boundless and everything everybloody thing that pops into their heads has to be forever. Power ballads are pop-cultures response to the abyss, which is probably why theyre often so abysmal.

[]

How did such an affected, risible, ultimately silly formula ever get to be so popular? And which needy, over-earnest songwriters should we hold directly responsible?

Keep reading.

See the article here:

Wait: The power ballad is more than 1,000 years old? - A Journal of Musical Things

The Eternal Champion: Charlize Theron Comes Out Swinging in The Old Guard – Memphis Flyer

In the early 1960s, writer Michael Moorcock created Elric of Melniborn. The albino emperor of a dying kingdom, he is weak and sickly until he acquires Stormbringer, a black sword that transforms him into a near-immortal hero. But the cost is great. The life energy Stormbringer grants Elric is drained from the people he kills, and the sword is always hungry for more blood. Constant death is the price for eternal life.

As Moorcock's writerly fame grew, he expanded Elric's world into a multiverse, eventually revealing that the antihero was an incarnation of the Eternal Champion, a supernatural warrior fated to incarnate and kick ass when the cosmic balance tipped too far off plumb. It was not a new idea. General George S. Patton believed he was the reincarnation of a Roman legionary and a Napoleonic soldier. The idea that immortality would be more curse than blessing goes back to the Wandering Jew, a man present at the Crucifixion cursed to live long enough to see the Second Coming.

Despite being hugely influential on modern fantasy, Moorcock's works haven't gotten the film adaptation treatment. The closest we've come is Highlander, a franchise responsible for both some tasty '80s cheese and the worst film ever made. (Highlander II: The Quickening is the answer to the unasked question, "What would it be like if an insurance company made a movie?")

Enter The Old Guard. Based on a comic series by Greg Rucka and directed by Love and Basketball helmer Gina Prince-Bythewood, the Netflix film introduces Andromach of Scythia (Charlize Theron), a nigh-immortal warrior who has been taking names for several thousand years. She impersonated the goddess Athena, rode with the Mongol hordes, and advised General Grant at Vicksburg. Andromach Andy to her friends has assembled a tight-knit group of fellow long-lived freelance sword-swingers to take on good causes.

But after centuries of intervention, Andy has come to believe it's all in vain. She's coaxed out of retirement by CIA agent James Copely (Chiwetel Ejiofor) to help rescue a group of trafficked Sudanese kids in the sprawling Juba refugee camp. But when Andy arrives, she finds a setup: Someone has gotten wind of their immortality, a secret they try very hard to keep. They can't be killed, but immortality has its own drawbacks, like being locked in a prison cell for decades. Or even worse, trapped at the bottom of the ocean, drowning afresh every few minutes like Andy's first partner Quynh (Veronica Ngo), the victim of a Puritan witch hunt.

Copely is in league with pharma CEO Steven Merrick (Harry Melling), who wants to study the immortals and sell their secrets of instant healing. As Andy and her friends Nicky (Luca Marinelli), Joe (Marwan Kenzari), and Booker (Matthias Schoenaerts) regroup, they are bombarded with psychic visions from Nile Freeman (KiKi Layne), a Marine who wakes in Afghanistan after being pronounced dead from a mortal wound. The companions must save Nile from the clutches of the military industrial complex while keeping a step ahead of Merrick's private army.

The good news is, The Old Guard is better than Highlander II but that's true of literally every movie ever. Mostly, that's due to the presence of Furiosa. Theron is among our finest actors, and while not every film can be Monster or Mad Max: Fury Road, she needs material worthy of her gifts. This ain't it. I would have settled for another Atomic Blonde, a Theron-led beat-em-up which at least showed some stylistic panache. Instead, The Old Guard is mostly a slog. It wants desperately to appeal to the John Wick cult, serving up long sequences of Andy and company shooting and slicing their way through legions of faceless security contractors.

Staging and editing action sequences is an exacting art. I'm on record as Wick-skeptical, but I admit the Keanu Reeves vehicle delivers the goods. If pop-soundtracked ultraviolence is your thing, you'll recognize that The Old Guard is not top flight. Prince-Bythewood gives over to the temptation of using every angle she can shoot. The John Wick movies at their best shoot their stunt performers like dancers in a Gene Kelly movie long takes of full-bodied frames, so you can appreciate the athleticism. (Sadly, this is what we get instead of An American in Paris.) The Old Guard takes four cuts to show our heroes simply walking down a hill.

In the occasional emotional moment, Prince-Bythewood's talents become more apparent. Theron's Andy is soul-sick from the constant killing. Nicky and Joe are lovers, and they get a nice moment professing their love while chained in the back of a police van. But then, there's the inevitable non-ending designed to set up a lucrative franchise, and it all kind of feels pointless. In a world plagued by too much mortality, the problems of immortals seem very remote. The Old Guard is streaming on Netflix.

Excerpt from:

The Eternal Champion: Charlize Theron Comes Out Swinging in The Old Guard - Memphis Flyer

Film Festival Founder Leaves Legacy of Passion for the Arts – outlooknewspapers.com

Velvet Rhoades

As one close friend coined it, a light went out on Sunday, July 26, when longtime Glendale resident Velvet Rhodes, the idiosyncratic founder of the Glendale International Film Festival, died in hospice care after a four-year battle with stage-4 cancer.Rhodes, who was 70, is survived by a brother in Tennessee and a cousin in Arizona. She leaves with her friends and colleagues the memory of a strong-willed woman whose fashion ensemble for the day would often announce her arrival to an event, whose passion for performing arts and her festival were positively radioactive, and who, by numerous accounts, would not take no for an answer.I think really thats the thing that stood out most about Velvet, said Elissa Glickman, CEO of Glendale Arts, which operates the Alex Theatre. At our first meeting, she pitched me an idea and concept that I wasnt so keen on, but what her project could have brought to the community was so important that she made us believe that our vision could be her vision and it could translate into something really special to our community.

Rhodes lasting contribution to the city, the Glendale International Film Festival, was formed in 2014 and was frequently hosted in the Alex Theatre. It is slated to continue this year, in virtual format, on account of the pandemic.She was so passionate about the film festival, said Peggy Smith, a friend and fellow member of Glendale Sunrise Rotary. She didnt do it for herself. She was doing it because it was important to her to bring to the forefront young authors and screenwriters and filmmakers, so they could get a bit of a start through the film festival. She also did it to bring more immortality to the greats in film.Rhodes was born as Patricia Laura Adams on Aug. 16, 1949, in Los Angeles, and was raised in Pacific Palisades. A precocious girl, she left her familys home as soon as she could and set out for the world, where she adopted Velvet Rhodes as her name.I am imagining she was a very strong-willed child, because she was certainly a strong-willed adult, Smith explained. Her mom and dad were crazy about each other, and they didnt really have time for children. As a result, she did not grow up in a loving, cozy home, and she left home at a very early age.An early fan of writers, composers and playwrights, Rhodes studied at the Royal Academy for Dramatic Art in London, where she also ventured into singing in rock bands, theater performances and oil painting. Rhodes ultimately returned to L.A., where her career included uncredited roles in Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band, Rocky II and Batman Forever. She settled in Glendale in 1989 and would eventually join local clubs such as Sunrise Rotary, the Glendale Chamber of Commerce and the Glendale Kiwanis Club. She formed Velvet Rhodes Productions in 2004.This is something Ive said to a number of people that I never found out: why Glendale? said Randy Slaughter, president of Glendale Kiwanis, whose career was in film distribution and theater ownership. As soon as Velvet found out that I was in the film business, that was it. She can nicely suck you in. She had such a passion for art and entertainment.Believe me, you cant forget her, Slaughter added. The first word I used was colorful, but it wasnt because of her hair. Shell be missed. She wanted to be something in the community. Ive been in the industry a long time. Ive seen egos. She didnt have an ego. She wanted to be at the table and she wanted to be noticed, but she didnt have an ego.With her film festival, Rhodes hoped to recreate the glamor of other storied festivals in the more humble Glendale and in a way that sought out smaller and independent filmmakers from throughout the world.Her goal was to try to make this one of the biggest events that Glendale had, said Alex Parajon, a fellow Rotarian and treasurer for the film festivals board. Were located obviously near Burbank and Hollywood, the capital for movie-making, and the passion she brought for movie-making, she wanted to inspire locals to make films and show them at the festival.Rhodes was known for her tireless advocacy of the festival and would take any chance she could to bend someones ear about getting their organization or nonprofit somehow involved in the event.It is certainly a legacy to be honored and it is certainly impressive what she was able to accomplish in a short time, Glickman said. She is probably going to be remembered most just for being a large presence and enthusiastic promotor of both our community and the artistic brilliance that really comes out of our community.Her later career credits include writing, directing and producing the 2008 short film The Cell Phone and also her 2015 documentary, Vintage Glorious Glendale, which paid tribute to the vintage heritage of her city. This enthusiasm translated to her film festivals homage to its creators and sponsors. The film festival board is exploring titling its top award in honor of Rhodes.What she tried to do is incorporate the diversity, which means during the festival there would be certain programing there would be some Armenian films, of course and certain programs related to a topic of one of the nonprofits, like a film related to homelessness or hunger, Parajon said.Smith, who said her friend was full of life in spite of her cancer struggles She might have been dying inside, but you didnt know it, Smith said last spoke with Rhodes days before her death.We had a good conversation, Smith said. She talked with me like there was nothing wrong and had that booming voice. Usually when people are nearing death, they have a rally at some point and they come back like theyre stronger for a little while. Hers was only for one day, but she was Velvet for that day. I told her that her board at the film festival was going forward and that were going to have a virtual festival in October. I said, Were going to keep it going, Velvet. She pulled herself forward, clasped her hands in front of her as if in prayer, and said, That is the best news.

Related

Here is the original post:

Film Festival Founder Leaves Legacy of Passion for the Arts - outlooknewspapers.com

SB Nation Reacts: Wings fans make hard choices – Winging It In Motown

Welcome to SB Nation Reacts, a survey of fans across the NHL. Each week, we send out questions to the most plugged in Red Wings fans, and fans across the country. Sign up here to join Reacts.

As the NHL prepares to restart the 2020 season, fans have reassessed where they think their favorite team stands.

In the latest SB Nation Reacts survey, NHL fans were asked if they believe their favorite team is a serious championship contender. Or, if their team is no longer playing, who that fanbase will turn to now.

The Red Wings are one of seven teams that wont be participating in the rest of the season. Instead, Detroit fans have decided to spread their fandom among teams around the league.

J.J. - Im going to chalk this up to a lot of folks wanting to see a team built by Steve Yzerman being successful and not rooting for Tyler Johnson to win a cup, but Id also put the Leafs on there as teams that want to see win a trip to obscurity way more than I want to see them win one to immortality. At least you animals didnt put the Bruins on here.

To vote in the Reacts surveys and have your voice heard each week, sign up here.

See more here:

SB Nation Reacts: Wings fans make hard choices - Winging It In Motown

Our greed, judgment, indifference, and misery are senseless and have to stop now! – Kent Sterling

by Kent SterlingAugust 7, 2020

We have reduced ourselves to protesting both the need to wear a mask and our right not to. What are we doing?

About 50% get really cranky, answered the Sams Club security guard tasked with reminding shoppers a mask is required attire for entrance.

I had forgotten my mask, and when she reminded me, I thanked her. When I returned, I asked what percentage of people are upset when she reminds them.

Whatever your belief is about wearing a mask, treating people like inconveniences put on Earth to make your life more challenging is just bad policy.

Click herefor your copy of Oops the Art of Learning from Mistakes and Adventures by Kent Sterling

These are tough times. People are on edge. They are either terrified by the possibility of being exposed to COVID-19, or they are brazenly indifferent to it. Each sect responds to the other with negativejudgment. Add the protests for racial equality and defunding the police, political leaders of both parties inciting discontent with their counterparts, and our unquenchable thirst to be annoyed, and 2020 has become a giant pain in the ass.

The correction is simple. Just be nice.

Dave Thomas, the founder of Wendys, always had posters with that phrase hanging in his restaurants Just be nice! When people smile at you, smile back. When people wave at you, wave back. If no one smiles or waves, smile and wave anyway.

If you are having a bad day, try to make someone elses day better. Its not all about you, dummy! The world doesnt spin at your convenience, and everyone in it was not put here to agree with you.

Heres a thought you might be wrong about some of the things you believe. Somewhere over the past 30 years, we decided that being right is the most important thing we can be. Its inconceivable to each of us that our theories about life and how to live it are totally screwy, and yet many of us disagree on almost everything.

We talk more than we listen and I mean actually listen rather than just await your turn to talk again. We listen, we learn. But learning means acknowledging we there is something we already do not know, which makes it difficult for some off us.

Admitting a mistake is an implausible notion, unless someone else is doing it. Being caught making a mistake sends people into an out-of-control emotional tailspin.

We measure our worth as human beings based upon how many zeroes we have onour bank statement. Our scoreboard has real numbers, and those who dont measure up are seen as inferior. Parents spend crazy money to send kids to colleges believing tuition is an investment that will pay off in cash, rather than wisdom and knowledge. How silly.

These are dark times, but not because of out reaction to COVID-19 and racism. Those are the symptoms, not the cause. Sadly, the cause is far more insidious our rampant insensitivity and greed. And the cure is the reversal of our current attitude toward life itself.

We are here for 80 years, give or take. No amount of money buys us immortality, and yet we continue to step on those around us to become more efficient earners of wealth for ourselves and others. Instead of helping each other smile more, we deride givers of happiness and decency as saps who just dont get it.

I usually write about sports, but I have had enough of callousness for this lifetime a great deal of which I have exhibited myself. I apologize for that. If you are one of the thousands of drivers I have flipped off over the years, I apologize. If I made you sad with an offhand remark I found amusing, I apologize. If you felt I judged you as insignificant 10 seconds after we met, I apologize, although I was probably just distracted by something.

Life is sosimple yet we choose to complicate it by running a race no one really wins. Dave Thomas has it right. Just be nice. Im going to try it.

More here:

Our greed, judgment, indifference, and misery are senseless and have to stop now! - Kent Sterling

Celtic begin 10-in-a-row quest with immortality and beating Rangers to the punch on their mind – iNews

Glasgow Celtic embark on the new campaign with eyes on a gargantuan prize immortality.

Neil Lennons men will go all out for an unprecedented 10th league title in a row. Such a feat has never been achieved in Scotland. Lennon was in his first residency as manager at Parkhead when he delivered the 2011-12 title and the Celts have been top of the tree ever since. Come kick-off against Hamilton on Sunday, the Hoops will have reigned supreme in Scotland for more than 3300 days.

Celtic have basked in the shine of nine once before. Jock Stein reached nine-in-a-row in a halcyon period between 1966 and 1974. Back then dominance domestically was eclipsed by efforts aboard. In 1967 Steins brand of pure, beautiful, inventive football saw Celtic become the first British club to win the European Cup defeating Inter Milan in the heat of Lisbon. By winning Europes top prize the Lisbon Lions gained god-like status. And many supporters believe the current crop of players are on the verge of similar veneration.

Against a backdrop of a world gripped in a health and economic crisis, more than 50,000 season tickets have been snapped up. The season ticket waiting list has swelled to 17,000 names. Such fervour is striking considering the season starts behind closed doors. And no refunds will be offered for games with the crowd excluded.

So while the fans of yesteryear watched Billy McNeill and Jimmy Johnstone from terraces, this generation will initially watch from tablets. Season ticket holders must make do with a digital pass to Paradise. Laura Dewar is one supporter who had no hesitation renewing her season ticket despite not knowing when shell be allowed to walk up London Road and into her seat.

I was always going to renew, she says. No questions. Celtic is a club founded on charity and continues to support the local community. So I am always willing to support them.

We are watching history in the making. Winning 10-in-a-row is up there with winning the European Cup. It will be the most significant achievement by Celtic in my lifetime.

The Green Brigade, Celtics most ardent support, were singing about 10-in-a-row as early as 2016. Then the sequence of success stood at five titles. Is the quest for consecutive championships an obsession?

Obsession is the wrong word, says Dewar. Its about being the first in history to achieve the 10. To me its more of a challenge, players are put on the park to win the game and ultimately the season. Winning becomes the obsession.

City rivals Rangers won nine-in-a-row between 1989 and 1997 only to be stopped by a Celtic side inspired by Henrik Larsson. Dewar remembers that era well: Celtic where awful for too long during my high school days. I was at a predominantly Rangers supporting school, so it was sweet when we stopped them winning the 10.

Fellow supporter Jez Stewart, 53, shudders at that period of Rangers dominance as the Ibrox men walked away with the top prize each May: I remember Celtic didnt win a trophy of any kind for five or six years. During this era the only satisfaction we got was when Rangers failed. There was a song we used to sing: You think youre great, youve only done eight, youll never do nine-in-a-row.

But Rangers did reach nine and I just remember the nerves and fear around them going for the 10. But when we stopped them it was such a relief and a great joy. This time its Celtic going for the 10. But its not really about the number. Its about doing something that our rivals havent.

Derek Kirwan, 51, has been a season ticket holder at Celtic for 33 years: Ten-in-a-row is the holy grail. But its purely about rivalry between Celtic and Rangers. If Celtic make it, Neil Lennon will be held almost in as high esteem as Jock Stein.

Excerpt from:

Celtic begin 10-in-a-row quest with immortality and beating Rangers to the punch on their mind - iNews

Koepka unbothered by pressure of making history at PGA – Comcast SportsNet Bay Area

The weight of history would be a burden to most. A roadblock on the path to immortality.

For Brooks Koepka, though, it's nothing more than the wind at his back.

I don't view it as either one, Koepka said at TPC Harding Park when asked if the topic about his quest for three straight PGA Championships was a help or hindrance. I've already dealt with it at the U.S. Open going into Pebble. I feel like I know how to handle it and I played pretty well there.

"I just got beat.

Sure enough, Koepka arrived at Pebble Beach last June looking to become the first player to win three straight U.S. Opens since Willie Anderson did so from 1903-05. He entered the final round four shots back of Gary Woodland, but Koepka was unfazed by the enormity of the moment. He birdied four of his first five holes that Sunday and looked like he would indeed become just the fourth golfer since 1882 to win the same major three consecutive years in a row.

But Koepka couldn't get the putts to drop on the back nine, and eventually finished three shots behind Woodland, his quest for U.S. Open history sinking to the bottom of Stillwater Cove.

It's a familiar feeling for Koepka this week, who arrives at TPC Harding Park again with a chance to join that club. After tearing about Bellerive Country Club in 2018 and surviving a back-nine stumble at Bethpage Black last year, the four-time major champion has the opportunity to become the first golfer to win three straight PGA Championships since Walter Hagen won four in a row from 1924-27.

Koepka's game has been a work in progress all year. He's battled a left knee issue that required a stem cell treatment in the fall, and has struggled to find the consistent excellence he enjoyed the past two seasons. But after leading the field in stroke gained, tee to green two weeks ago at the 3M Championship, and leading the field in strokes gained, approach last week at the WGC-FedEx St. Jude Invitational, Koepka appears to be rounding into form just in time for another assault on the history books.

My game feels like it's in really, really good shape right now, Koepka said. I like the way I'm hitting it, and feels -- putting it really, really well. Every day is a lot more comfortable. I'm excited. This is a big-boy golf course. Got to hit it straight and put it in the fairway. It's going to be quite long.

"I think it kind of plays into my hands.

The list of golfers who have tried and failed to win a third consecutive major title is a who's who of Hall of Famers that includes Tiger Woods, Jack Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer, Ben Hogan and Nick Faldo.

Woods won consecutive PGA Championships in 1999 and 2000, and did so again in 2006 and 2007. He won the British Open in 2005 and 2006, and triumphed in back-to-back Masters in 2001 and 2002. Woods missed the cut in three of his four tries at a three-peat and didn't play in the 2008 PGA due to a knee injury.

Hagen Anderson and Peter Thomson are the only three golfers to successfully win three consecutive majors since 1882,alist Koepka hopes to join with an impressive showing at Glory's Last First Chance.

[RELATED: What does Tiger's Harding Park history say about PGA hopes?],

Koepka, like Woods and Nicklaus, saves his best for the game's biggest stages. Four of his seven career wins have been major titles, and he said prior to the 2019 PGA Championship that he feels winning majors is easier because he really only has to play better than a handful of his competitors.

When most people would wilt, Koepka thrives, dominating the best in the world without appearing to break much a sweat. Winning majors is difficult. It's a test only the best are born to pass.

One Koepka thoroughly relishes acing.

It's fun, he said about the setup at the PGA Championship. I love it. I love the fact that it's probably the toughest test of golf you're going to play all year with -- setup-wise and then mentally it's exhausting. I enjoy when it gets tough. I enjoy when things get complicated. You can really -- there's always disaster lurking, I think it is something I enjoy, where every shot really means something.

Every shot will have the added weight of history on it this week for Koepka. That weight would bother most, but to Brooks Koepka it's nothing major.

Go here to read the rest:

Koepka unbothered by pressure of making history at PGA - Comcast SportsNet Bay Area

Darth Vader and Hitman coming to PlayStation VR – Metro.co.uk

Last nights State of Play confirmed a PSVR release for the episodic Vader Immortal series and a VR mode for Hitman 3.

Despite Sony advertising its latest State of Play as being PlayStation 4 and PlayStation VR focused, there was surprisingly very little of the latter, with much more on upcoming PlayStation 5 games than was expected.

What VR news we did get, though, is still interesting. Firstly, the once Oculus exclusive Vader Immortal series will be making the jump to PlayStation very soon.

Set in the Star Wars universe, Vader Immortal puts you in control of a smuggler who is unlucky enough to be captured by Darth Vader, who seeks to use you to retrieve an artefact that will grant him immortality.

We reviewed the first episode in the series when it released last year and were very impressed with its production values and lightsaber combat. All three episodes will now be available on PlayStation VR from 25 August.

The other announcement was related to Hitman, revealing that not only will the upcoming Hitman 3 have a VR mode but that the option will be added to both the previous games as well.

A snippet of first person gameplay was shown, where Agent 47 follows a target into a toilet before pulling out some wire to choke them.

The games are known for providing players with many options for dealing with targets, avoiding guards, and escaping, but according to developer Io Interactive everything in all three games will be playable in VR.

As for the PlayStation 5 news, we got our first look at Bugsnax gameplay, an in-depth demonstration of Godfall, and some completely new announcements, like multiplayer game Hood: Outlaws & Legends.

Its rumoured that another PlayStation event is planned for this month and could finally reveal the PS5s price and release date.

Email gamecentral@metro.co.uk, leave a comment below, and follow us on Twitter.

MORE: Hitman 3 is more serious, lets you import previous games content

MORE: PS5 backwards compatibility works for all PS4 games claims source

MORE: More black PS5 DualSense controller images surface but are they fake?

Follow Metro Gaming on Twitter and email us at gamecentral@metro.co.uk

For more stories like this, check our Gaming page.

Continued here:

Darth Vader and Hitman coming to PlayStation VR - Metro.co.uk

Will this be the summer of Naseem Shah and Shaheen Afridi? | ESPNcricinfo.com – ESPNcricinfo

A decade ago, Mohammad Asif and Mohammad Amir lit up an overcast English summer, heirs apparent to some of the most exhilarating fast-bowling pairings you could think of. They bowled Australia out for 88, beating for the first time in 15 years an opponent they didn't know how to beat, before turning their focus to England, against whom Amir was Player of the Series despite Pakistan losing it 3-1, and despite - well, you know what. They combined for 53 wickets across six Tests over that delirious English summer. They were 27 and 18, and they were the future.

Shaheen Afridi and Naseem Shah will have watched those two run riot, either at the time or in the years since. They were ten and seven at the time, watching their heroes flourish in the country Pakistan's bowlers have found to be the most fertile breeding ground for their skills. A place where, among other things, a mixture of colonial grievance, stylistic conflict and simmering mutual resentment have combined to birth some of the most celebrated moments in Pakistan's history.

Blue-eyed Fazal Mahmood on a crackling transistor radio would begin it all with a 12-wicket haul at The Oval in 1954, setting benchmarks for Pakistan's quicks. Many failed to live up to that standard, but it wasn't a coincidence that plenty who went on to earn immortality could trace it back to an England tour. Open-chested Imran Khan, who tormented David Gower on English pitches and Ian Botham in English courthouses, learned the basics of his trade entirely in the English university and county system. A bit of guidance from Sarfraz Nawaz didn't hurt, and it was Nawaz's discovery of reverse swing that took cricket from the back pages to being a matter for the English courts in the first place. Wasim Akram enjoyed the privilege of having both Khan's ear and his backing on his first English tour in 1987, where he would finish below only his mentor on the wickets chart as Pakistan won a series there for the first time.

Five years on, Akram had accumulated half a decade of English county experience and he teamed up with Waqar Younis to clean up again, the pair combining for 43 England wickets in another series victory. They would go on to become a byword for the ideal fast-bowling partnership, and after several false dawns, years of Umar Gul hopefulness and Mohammad Sami hopelessness, it appeared Amir and Asif were finally the next logical step in that cycle. Their performance in 2010 would be an inspiration, and then, crushingly, provide a cautionary tale. In other words, it would be a welcome to Pakistan cricket.

It might have been hard to believe then, but those depressing days of the spot-fixing scandal would eventually lead to where Naseem and Afridi stand now. Afridi is yet to hit 21, and will lead an attack once spearheaded by the names above it who it still feels sacrilegious to compare him to. Seventeen-year-old Naseem likely lies in wait as first-change. They might not have got their opportunities quite so soon, especially if Amir had not retired from Test cricket so prematurely, or even if Asif, lost to the game forever, had gone on to fulfil the promise their talent foreshadowed.

England, make no mistake, is where these young men's destinies lie, where their careers, should Pakistan's history be any guide, will be forged. For all the acrimony, for all the accusations, both true and libellous, that Pakistan have felt aggrieved by, England has been perhaps the most generously rewarding place in the world for its most prized skill: fast bowling. It has turned anonymous chancers into household names, extended exposure to players who might otherwise have been severely underrated, and since the late 1960s, offered lucrative county contracts to players who financial pragmatism might have otherwise forced out of the game. It may have been a bully, but it has also been benefactor.

Even with cricket's freshly aligned priorities, the shifts of power from the English and Australian antipodes to the subcontinent, the value of excelling in England is higher for Pakistan than it has arguably ever been. Deprived of cricket's most reliable cash cow - bilateral cricket against India - and locked out of the IPL, proving oneself in England remains a Pakistani cricketer's one big chance to be heard beyond their echo chamber, and a chance at earning a fraction of the income contemporaries around the world have the luxury of taking for granted.

Pakistan's fast bowling has struggled on tours of Australia, and to a lesser extent, South Africa, and that does little for their value in the eyes of those who might hand them a lucrative T20 contract. The country's fast bowlers average just over 40 in Australia, almost five runs worse than anywhere else they have played. That number is an indifferent 34 in South Africa. In England, it stands at 30.28, which means they have been more successful there than in any other country away, except Bangladesh, Zimbabwe and New Zealand.

The divide between performances in England and in Australia has widened into a chasm in the past decade, with Pakistan's quicks managing a wicket every 27.89 runs in England, the best of anywhere they have played more than five Test matches. In eight Tests down under, meanwhile, the price of each wicket has been 47.05 runs, over 11 more than second worst. (Their third-worst record is in South Africa, with a wicket every 34.18 runs.)

As the wickets have come, county contracts have followed. Mohammad Amir, Junaid Khan, Wahab Riaz, Mohammad Abbas and Faheem Ashraf have all had the chance to hone their skills in the County Championship, and those are just the fast bowlers. Azhar Ali and Babar Azam were drafted in for Somerset, and several others have played in the T20 Blast.

Selective historical and statistical precedent may suggest fate holds something special in store for Naseem and Afridi. Their selection in the side and the elevated responsibility they look set to be given despite their youth isn't a gimmick, it is a reflection of the status in which Pakistan cricket holds them. You could almost see Afridi transition from boy to man on a brutally unforgiving tour of Australia last year, where, forced into being the team's leader, he ended up being the only one to maintain the standards Pakistan had hoped of their fast bowling contingent, finishing with five wickets at 36.80 even as Australia amassed record-breaking totals.

Naseem, who would play just the first of those two Tests, would experience the worst either cricket or life had to offer, making his debut the day after the death of his mother 11,000 km away, and dismissing David Warner for his first Test wicket, only for it to be called a no-ball (he would not be deprived, however, making Warner his first Test wicket later). He would follow that up with a blitz of a home summer, becoming the youngest fast bowler to take a Test five-for, against Sri Lanka in Karachi, and the youngest to take a hat-trick, against Bangladesh in Rawalpindi a few months later.

So, should they excel in England, let no one who only pays attention to cricket when it's played in a handful of nations tell you they were a bolt from the blue. With the coronavirus pandemic and the crowd-free venues in which the series will be played, the setting is such as never quite seen before in England. But if Afridi and Naseem manage to summon up the spirit of legends gone by, there will be many in Pakistan rejoicing at the return of something they have always recognised. "We've seen this happen before," they might wistfully whisper to ten- and seven-year old kids who finally realise those tales were true after all.

Read this article:

Will this be the summer of Naseem Shah and Shaheen Afridi? | ESPNcricinfo.com - ESPNcricinfo

Joleon Lescott has it completely wrong about Wolves – and Nuno proved it – Birmingham Live

After 378 days, 29 games and 15 wins, Wolverhampton Wanderers' Molineux season is over.

Their mammoth home campaign ended in exactly the same fashion as it started back in July 2019. A home win in the Europa League, with Rui Patricio keeping a clean sheet.

Aside from that, the nights could have scarcely been more different. Exchange Irish minnows Crusaders, for the Greek champions Olympiakos. Instead of a first-leg lead in the second round of qualifying, Wolves booked their place in the final eight of a major European competition. And that is forgetting the 30,000 fans that were forced to watch from behind their furniture, rather than bathed in sunlight on the terraces.

Sign up for our Wolves newsletter with your email in the box at the top of the page or click here

Following the win, Wolves boss Nuno Espirito Santo, ensured his entire squad gave their home stadium a proper send off, before they depart to Germany for the final-leg of their marathon.

The Portuguese demanded his entire playing and coaching staff returned to the centre circle, where he impressed upon his players, that they were not to waste this opportunity.

The images were captured live by BT Sport, as Wolves moved one step closer to history.

However, as fans watched Nuno hold court, former Wolves defender and pundit Joleon Lescott, attempted to put a negative on proceedings.

Its the most important signing they can make this summer, he said about the head coach's imminent contract negotations.

He probably needs a lot of players to stay, I hate to say that and think about that. This could potentially be some of their top players final game at Molineux in a Wolves shirt.

In recent weeks, Raul Jimenez has been extensively linked with Manchester United, while Adama Traore is reportedly a target for champions Liverpool.

But a simple look at the images told a completely different story. Whether it was 17-year-old Christian Marques, in his first senior squad, Rui Patricio and Joao Moutinho, with 208 Portugal caps between them or Barcelona graduate Traore - every player, was hanging off every word.

This doesn't look like a team, or a squad, that is ready to give up on this club or the manager, that has taken them to the precipice of immortality in Wolverhampton.

There may be outgoings, but in Nuno, Wolves have a man that has built a family of players that have been willing to fight for the badge, in a season longer than any other.

In three games, it may be even more historical.

View original post here:

Joleon Lescott has it completely wrong about Wolves - and Nuno proved it - Birmingham Live

Between Paul and Marx: The Good Life and a Pandemic – Atlantic Highlands Herald

I was recently ministering to a friend in his 80s. He was upset about being in his apartment for months on end because of his susceptibility to COVID-19. He was also concerned about the high number of people who have died in this country from the virus. We talked about life, death, pandemics, and the future.

Just a couple of weeks ago, I wrote an article for this column about the almost invincible Angel of Death. I thought that if Karl Marx had read my article, he would say, I am right! When those Christians go through crises, they always revert to pie in the sky. Heaven, as I said, is the opium of the working class.

But people have always wondered what will happen after they draw their final breath. Poets have often written about the concept of eternity, and placed it in the hearts and minds of the people. I thought of the Apostle Paul, who wrote that if only for this life we have placed our hope in Jesus, we are to be pitied more than anyone else. In my mind, I participated in a discussion between St. Paul, a Jewish rabbi, and Karl Marx, who knew the Torah well because both of his grandfathers were rabbis. I thought that Paul would argue that the good life happens here and in the next life when we are faithful to the God who has granted us both, while Marx would counter that there is no such thing as eternity and the good life can only happen on this earth.

Both the Old Testament and the New Testament talk frequently about the good life. God promised to bless the people who honor him with long life here on earth, and the blessings of God will be in the fields and in the homes. Abraham, the father of Judaism, Islam, and Christianity, was a pilgrim here on this earth. While he wandered, he was seeking a country beyond this world whose foundation was laid by God.

COVID 19 has taken over 100,000 lives and that is a tragic number. Among the dead, there were beloved grandmothers and grandfathers, beloved mothers and fathers, beloved brothers and sisters, beloved sons and daughters, and beloved friends and neighbors. That horrific number must be seen in contrast with the number of people who prevailed against the pandemic and recovered. It made me think that I graduated from the 8th grade in 1965 with 32 classmates and 27 of us are still alive today. That is the good life. My mother, her brother, and her sister had 10 children altogether, and 7 of those cousins are still alive and doing well. That is the good life. In fact, even the statistic that the group most susceptible to COVID-19 is people over 60 is intriguing. Living into your 60s, 70s, and even 80s is a relatively new situation for Americans. It was only during the middle of the 20th century that the average life expectancy jumped about 20 years and living that long became expected. That is the good life.

In talking with friends and colleagues, one hears various phraseswe are susceptible, we are invincible, we are seeking immortality. My octogenarian friendis very aware that he is susceptible because his primary care doctor refuses to see him in person and the specialists who will see him only allow him in the office after multiple preliminary checks. The young people who are partying with few precautions on the beaches, in bars, and at private parties think that they are invincible. They believe that this virus that has taken so many lives will surely not touch them.

Ecclesiastes says, He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end. The fact that we strive for eternity is not wrong, but in meantime we should fully enjoy the blessings that the Lord has given to us here on this earth when everything is well and when we are going through crises such as this pandemic.

Follow this link:

Between Paul and Marx: The Good Life and a Pandemic - Atlantic Highlands Herald

Punters pile on Rangers to win Premiership but Celtic remain odds-on for title immortality – Daily Record

Rangers to win the 20/21 Premiership title is the hot bet among punters ahead of the season getting back underway.

Over 52 per cent of bets for next season's title winners have been on Steven Gerrard's side ahead of their curtain-raiser against rivals Aberdeen.

The Ibrox barely put a foot wrong last season before a dramatic collapse before lockdown left them trailing the Hoops by seven points.

Celtic are searching for an unprecedented 10th consecutive title this season and remain the betting favourites to secure top spot once again.

But Callum Wilson of Oddschecker has revealed supporters are piling in on Rangers on ending their long wait to reclaim top spot in Scottish football.

He said: With the Scottish season about to get underway, weve seen increased interest in title betting this year.

That comes to no surprise when you factor in everything riding on the season and it appears that punters are keener to back Rangers at underdog prices.

Steven Gerrards side opened up at 2/1 before being cut into 15/8 to stop Celtics 10-in-a-row ambitions.

FULL ODDS

Celtic 1/2

Rangers 15/8

Aberdeen- 66/1

Hibernian 200/1

Motherwell 500/1

Link:

Punters pile on Rangers to win Premiership but Celtic remain odds-on for title immortality - Daily Record