A Certain Point of View: Writing, Film and Stuff

To my conservative friends who are posting false comparisons between the Obama Administration's handling of the swine flu outbreak in 2009 and the current Administration's handling of COVID-19 on social media: Stop it. When the world experienced the swine flu pandemic, Barack Obama was just settling in as President. The first cases were reported by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) in late March, around the same time that the Obama Administration was dealing with the disastrous state of the economy, which had been battered by the Great Recession of 2008. It took the federal government less than a month to declare a public health emergency, but because the novel Influenza A/H1N1 was a new strain, it took the medical community several more months to get a handle on the outbreak and its spread. President Obama declared a National Health Emergency on October 24, 2009. In all, the CDC estimates that at least 60 million Americans were infected, 274,000 were hospitalized, an

Hasbro Star Wars: The Black Series #91 contains Rey and the droid D-O from Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker. Photo Credit: Hasbro, Inc. © 2019 Hasbro and Lucasfilm Ltd. (LFL) On October 4, 2019. 11 weeks before the premiere of Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, Hasbro released a "wave" of eight Star Wars: The Black Series action figures for the company's "Triple Force Friday" assortment of new  Star Wars collectibles and toys. This wave consisted of: Supreme Leader Kylo Ren Cal Kestis Rey & D-O Sith Trooper The Mandalorian Offworld Jawa Second Sister Inquisitor First Order Stormtrooper Although several of the Star Wars action figures in the October 4 wave are based on characters from video games (Cal Kestis is featured in Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order ) and Lucasfilm TV shows ( The Mandalorian and Star Wars: Rebels ), four figures represent the then-unreleased final film of the Skywalker Saga, Star Wars - Episode IX: The Rise of Skywalker.

Jannah, a former First Order stormtrooper, is Hasbro's 98th Star Wars: The Black Series six-inch scale action figure. Photo Credit: Hasbro, Inc. © 2019 Hasbro and Lucasfilm Ltd. (LFL) On December 20, 2019, Walt Disney Motion Pictures Studio released Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker (aka Star Wars - Episode IX: The Rise of Skywalker ), the ninth and final film of the Skywalker, in North American theaters. Co-written by Chris Terrio and J.J. Abrams and directed by the latter, Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker grossed over $1.074 billion worldwide and was nominated for three Academy Awards (Best Original Score, Best Sound Editing, and Best Visual Effects). But even before the film premiered, Hasbro had already released a wave of action figures, vehicles, and other toys and collectibles based on The Rise of Skywalker. These included the 23rd wave of Star Wars: The Black Series six-inch scale action figures, which consists of: First Order Jet Trooper Luke Skywalker (Yavin Ce

Graphic by Open-ClipArt Vectors from Pixabay In these dark and scary times when most of us ﹘ except virus deniers, stubborn individualists, skeptical libertarians, the occasional inebriated Spring Breaker and #CoronaKatie ﹘ are coping with the New Normality of self-quarantines, social distancing, and trying to remember the symptoms of the novel coronavirus known as COVID-19, humor is an excellent and essential coping mechanism. Now, I know that laughter is not the best medicine to fight the virus itself; avoiding infected persons, washing hands with soap and water, staying away from places where 10 or more people gather, and being mindful of your surroundings are the best preventive measures. But in a world where the reports of more cases and more deaths assail our eyes, ears, and nervous systems on a 24/7 basis, humor ﹘ even gallows humor ﹘ helps keep us sane and a bit less stressed out. So, without further ado, here are some suggestions for Broadway musicals with a COVID

Image by Miguel Padrinan, via Pixabay We Said, They Said: An American Tragedy He's unfit for the job, we said. He's incompetent and dishonest, we said. "But her emails..." they replied. He's a fuckup, we said. "But our 401Ks are doing so well!" they chanted. Now. COVID-19. DJIA below 20,000. We told 'em so. © 2020 Alex Diaz-Granados

Hasbro's #102 Star Wars: The Black Series 6-inch-scale action figure features Wedge Antilles, veteran of the Battles of Yavin, Hoth, and Endor during the Galactic Civil War.  Photo Credit: Hasbro, Inc.© 2019 Hasbro and Lucasfilm Ltd. (LFL)  In 2019, in anticipation of the release of Star Wars - Episode IX: The Rise of Skywalker, Hasbro (originally known as Hassenfeld Brothers) of Pawtucket, Rhode Island released several "waves" of Star Wars themed collectibles and toys. Some, like the Star Wars Vintage Collection's Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker Poe Dameron's X-Wing Fighter, were aimed at adult collectors (such as me!) with their retro late-970s/early 1980s-styled packaging and use of the old "Kenner" brand's logo. I received this beauty as part of my birthday gift during a two-day visit to Disney Hollywood Studios' Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge attraction. Photo Credit: Hasbro, Inc. © 2019 Hasbro and Lucasfilm Ltd. (LFL) Hasbr

Map showing active cases of COVID-19 throughout the world as of 6:33 AM Eastern Daylight Time. Credit: Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE) at Johns Hopkins University (JHU). An open message to my conservative friends (those who will listen to reason, anyway): The coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has hit our shores. As of this morning, there are 4,661 confirmed cases in the United States. 85 persons have died; 17 have recovered. The others are still sick. And, as more tests become available to healthcare workers, the number of COVID-19 patients will increase exponentially. So will the deaths. This is not alarmism; this is the reality of how viral diseases spread. I don't make it a habit of visiting my Trump-supporting friends' social media pages, but (at least on Facebook) my newsfeed often shows me posts from my conservative friends' timelines and comments from posts. The least offensive and relatively harmless posts are ones that are of a religious