Muppets and more

Happy Black History Month! I was distracted by the elections and the general chaos of the world. I'm old so I don't know a lot of singers on the recent Grammys, but I'm glad to hear a lot of artists spoke out against ICE and spoke up for immigrants. Through cultural osmosis I do know of some stars like Bad Bunny, Shaboozey, Chappell Roan, and Sabrina Carpenter. And I do know that Bad Bunny will sing at the Superbowl, and that rightwingers have been freaking out over him. I don't care about the Superbowl, not even for the commercials, but I don't complain like the fascist weirdos fighting culture wars. Just don't watch it if it offends you.

I did see Sabrina on the new Muppet Show special, and I loved her songs. She interacts with Miss Piggy well, and I was glad to see that they were just competing over showbusiness stuff rather than for Kermit. For example, Miss Piggy was insecure about her age, because of youth-obsessed Hollywood, and she claimed to be a young ingenue. However she enjoyed her icon status and still threatened Sabrina with a lawsuit for copying her style. I was pleasantly surprised by the other songs and skits too. Very good show.

Meanwhile I am trying to get rid of AI, but it keeps getting forced on me in Windows and apps and such. Disney is going big for AI too, which was why I cancelled Disney Plus. If they renew the Muppet Show, I hope they keep airing it on ABC too, which I can get. Otherwise, a dilemma.

Signs of Hope

Hooray, Taylor Rehmet won his election. This is a state office, rather than a federal office, but good. We still have our March primary for the federal Senate seat. Meanwhile, in Harris County, Christian Menefee won his election for a federal House seat.

According to the local PBS station, students walked out of schools on Friday to protest ICE. Tarrant County is Republican-controlled, so I hope this bodes well for these students voting blue when they come of age.

In Congress I understand that the Senate made some deal to remove the ICE budget from the bill. The House has to vote on that change (when they get back) and there may be a partial shutdown. I hear the Democrats have 2 weeks to negotiate more on ICE and force them to change tactics. As much as we want to abolish ICE, the Republicans won't go that far.

Well, anyway, it's a cautious start to February. I'm looking forward to the Muppets Show on February 4th, which will air on TV as well. (I have canceled my Disney+ account.) Soon we'll have Lunar New Year on the 17th.

Snow Day

Another day when I can't leave home. It wouldn't annoy me if I could get out to the store and run errands, but I can't. And I'm certainly not going to ask some driver on an app to go risk their life for me on the icy roads. At least I still have power and internet. So naturally with nothing to do, I obsess over Holmes again as a relief from the grim world. As I said on Bluesky, I found the old Russian Holmes series with English subtitles on a playlist. (I have the series already on DVD, but wanted to publicize the show for other people to discover.) Rewatching it is quite lovely, though I don't like their Hound of the Baskervilles, and it's a slog getting past their awful Sir Henry.

A youtube Johnlock compilation video featured a kiss from a 1986 genderbent Russian movie called My Dearly Beloved Detective, and I found it posted on Reddit. I used to think that "Johnlock" only applied to BBC Sherlock shippers, but now I see it being used in general for Holmes/Watson in every universe. I suppose that's okay, though the Johnlock conspiracy gave them a bad reputation.

Lately I also found the CBS Radio Mystery Theater, which featured sixteen Holmes episodes, starring Kevin McCarthy as Holmes and Court Benson as Watson. I listened to the Speckled Band first, and found that Watson is somehow married in this despite the fact that Holmes woke him up that morning as if he was living in Baker Street. Watson later sends Helen Stoner to hide out with Mrs. Watson a while, and then Helen's fiance Peter Armitage wants to stop her from going back to Stoke Moran. The writers also expanded the plot by having Holmes talk to the Romany people encamped on Roylott's grounds (similar to the BBC Douglas Wilmer version). Very nice that they used the term Romany and had the guy say that Roylott is not their friend; they just do odd jobs for him. Holmes soon rules them out as suspects. I wonder if they made any interesting changes to other stories. I want to listen to everything and watch everything on Youtube too.

Bitter Cold

It's been cold, sleeting and icy in North Texas, but so far I haven't lost power this weekend, so at least that's better than in 2021 when I suffered a blackout. I know other people in other states have it worse. Borowitz's satire is funny, but I do hope people stay safe.

Of course, in Minnesota they are still suffering the ICE invasion and another murder. This latest outrage apparently got Schumer to finally say that Senators would block the funding bill. The government may shutdown on 1/30/26, which I would be glad for. We didn't win any real concessions on the last shutdown. I hope they hold out this time. It's way past time for them to fight harder.

Meanwhile, I did manage to early vote in my local election before the icy weather started, but I was the only voter there. I hope it was just an odd time of day, and not because nobody's bothering to vote.

Mary Darling

I've been reading The Adventures of Mary Darling, a novel combining Peter Pan characters with Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson. It's narrated by a Darling descendant who wishes to combat J. M. Barrie's tale by revealing what really happened when Wendy, John, and Michael disappeared one night. Mary is apparently the daughter of Watson's older brother Henry, who married and moved to Australia for the gold rush. (In chapter 5 of The Sign of Four, Watson did mention seeing gold prospecting in Ballarat, so perhaps he visited his brother or received photographs from his brother's family.)

Anyway, Mary Watson grew up in Australia with her brother Tom. Their mother Alice painted fairies and mermaids often, and she spoke like she's had experiences in Neverland. (Mermaids are malicious and not friendly.) Perpetually victimizing this family, Peter Pan takes Mary and Tom away to Neverland, and by the time the kids return, their mother has died, drowned in what could have been a suicide. So Henry Watson sadly decides to take his family to England, though they get separated from Tom and Sam, who is a friend of the family. (Actually Sam is one of the Lost Boys, and he helped them escape Neverland.) When the alcoholic Henry Watson dies, John Watson has to take care of his niece, with some help from Mrs. Hudson, a boarding school, and eventually his own wife Mary Morstan.

SPOILERS BELOW 

Election Woes

Early voting has started for a local special election in January. It's very hard to find out information about the candidates. The one website I found has information on a candidate's issues, and I don't agree with her policies. The others I know nothing about. I just don't want to accidentally vote for a MAGA person or someone against affordable housing, mass transit, etc.

I'll probably run into the same issues with runoff elections in the spring, and the midterms later. Right now, Tarrant County is embroiled in a fight over candidates on the ballot. The GOP chair wanted to disqualify all the Democratic candidates, so the Dems responded by targeting Republicans.

It's just fucked up in general that we have to use this Republican redistricting map anyway.