Apples, Football and Movies
...Should I even bother to do my annual entry on Apples, Footballs, and Movies?
Should I go to the trouble to get my hopes up?
Yes, I should. And here's why. If I give up on all hope of encountering the things I love about fall, then the Coronavirus has truly won.
We'll start with apples.
No matter what havoc is wreaked by the coronavirus, I will still be able to get apples. I can go to a grocery store, or eat what dad brings back from the food bank. I still have an apple a day. I bought four apples at Hy Vee on Sunday night before heading back to Lewistown last week. I got a free one with my cafeteria lunch on Thursday. I bought three really juicy ones from the County Market in Lewistown on my way out of town on Friday.
As for football? Much as this category makes me nervous, much as I have made myself at peace with not having a typical football season this year, I am fully supporting my nephew Mason as he dons a jersey and begins playing as Wide Receiver for the Freshman-Sophomore team with Assumption High School. I watched him participate in a few plays in their 33-0 win over Davenport West on August 28th, and also made a trip home to the QC on Thursday, September 3rd, when his team beat Davenport Central 13-0 in the fresh-soph contest.
I will have Mason's football games to watch this fall, as the IHSA has cancelled the fall football season, or at least for the time being, postponed it to begin in late February or March.
I'm happy to wait until February! Look, I've been to baseball and softball games in freezing March conditions! And I've been to frigid Hawkeye football games in 27 degree November temperature. February won't be much worse than that. Not that much worse. And unlike baseball, at least football's on a running clock. At least football has a parameter in which it can be over.
I have mixed feelings, to be sure, about going to Brady Street Stadium, watching Mason's games, and hoping to God that the mask and hand sanitizer protects me from spores.
I trust Governor Pritzker's decision to defer gatherings of more than fifty. It speaks for itself that until Labor Day, Illinois' numbers of new cases are declining. If not for Pritzker, if not for the IHSA, the country could have surpassed 200,000 Coronavirus deaths by now. People are still alive because of him.
Going on a political rant, I'm not happy that certain reporters at the Dispatch and the Rock Island Argus went anti-IHSA in a front page story. Clearly, that article belonged in the Opinion section, but it was used as a headline when the decision came down from the IHSA that football and volleyball would be deferred to spring.
Look, I don't want to be in a crowded stadium right now.
I certainly don't want to be in a crowded gymnasium, even if it is to see the Lewistown girls' volleyball team play in a heated contest against West Prairie.
And I find Governor Kim Reynolds' rulings dubious. She walks in lock step with Donald Trump.
Donald Trump. I don't trust him.
Reynolds trying to overrule Polk County in opening county office buildings, or forcing schools to reopen even though the schools elected to move to distance learning, or forcing Iowa State University and UNI to have football programs this fall, even though the athletic directors and the president and provosts had doubts, that's the work of a Dolores Umbridge. That's a lackey for a Dark Lord.
I'm happy for Mason. I'm glad he gets to play sports. I'm very proud of him, and I do feel that this is essential for his growth and development.
But I'm also greatly worried for him, and his teammates, and the teams that he will play against, and the coaches.
Kim Reynolds. I don't trust her.
Pivoting to film.
Here are some movies I am looking forward to seeing this fall. Some of them I was already looking forward to see this past summer.
1. Wonder Woman 1984
2. Tenet
3. #Unfit: The Psychology of Donald Trump
4. I'm Thinking of Ending Things
5. Enola Holmes
6. Ma Rainey's Black Bottom
7. The Personal History of David Copperfield
8. Mulan
9. Greyhound
10. Da 5 Bloods
Did check out an episode of Lovecraft Country on HBO at the hotel. And I watched the 2018 Fred Rogers' documentary "Won't You Be My Neighbor" on WTTW at the Comfort Inn in North Aurora as well.
Even though it was maligned by critics and audiences alike, smugly called the worst of the X-Men movies, I'd still be happy to see New Mutants. Look, I've seen three and a half movies this whole year:
Birds of Prey and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn, Artemis Fowl, Onward, and half of Eurovision.
I guess No Time to Die looks good. I'm really not the world's greatest James Bond fan. I enjoyed Die Another Day, Casino Royale, and Skyfall, and I was fine with Quantum of Solace. I never bothered to see Spectre, and I suppose I should before seeing No Time to Die.
Though Scarlett Johansson is a prideful woman who wants to play all types of characters even if it comes at the expense of other characters who are the right gender or ethnicity getting the work, I suppose that I will see Black Widow.
More excited about Marvel's The Eternals, but I will see Black Widow.
A Quiet Place Part 2 was slated to come out in September. Is it still coming out in September? Or was it pushed to next year like The Fast and the Furious 9 and The Rise of Gru?
Should I go to the trouble to get my hopes up?
Yes, I should. And here's why. If I give up on all hope of encountering the things I love about fall, then the Coronavirus has truly won.
We'll start with apples.
No matter what havoc is wreaked by the coronavirus, I will still be able to get apples. I can go to a grocery store, or eat what dad brings back from the food bank. I still have an apple a day. I bought four apples at Hy Vee on Sunday night before heading back to Lewistown last week. I got a free one with my cafeteria lunch on Thursday. I bought three really juicy ones from the County Market in Lewistown on my way out of town on Friday.
As for football? Much as this category makes me nervous, much as I have made myself at peace with not having a typical football season this year, I am fully supporting my nephew Mason as he dons a jersey and begins playing as Wide Receiver for the Freshman-Sophomore team with Assumption High School. I watched him participate in a few plays in their 33-0 win over Davenport West on August 28th, and also made a trip home to the QC on Thursday, September 3rd, when his team beat Davenport Central 13-0 in the fresh-soph contest.
I will have Mason's football games to watch this fall, as the IHSA has cancelled the fall football season, or at least for the time being, postponed it to begin in late February or March.
I'm happy to wait until February! Look, I've been to baseball and softball games in freezing March conditions! And I've been to frigid Hawkeye football games in 27 degree November temperature. February won't be much worse than that. Not that much worse. And unlike baseball, at least football's on a running clock. At least football has a parameter in which it can be over.
I have mixed feelings, to be sure, about going to Brady Street Stadium, watching Mason's games, and hoping to God that the mask and hand sanitizer protects me from spores.
I trust Governor Pritzker's decision to defer gatherings of more than fifty. It speaks for itself that until Labor Day, Illinois' numbers of new cases are declining. If not for Pritzker, if not for the IHSA, the country could have surpassed 200,000 Coronavirus deaths by now. People are still alive because of him.
Going on a political rant, I'm not happy that certain reporters at the Dispatch and the Rock Island Argus went anti-IHSA in a front page story. Clearly, that article belonged in the Opinion section, but it was used as a headline when the decision came down from the IHSA that football and volleyball would be deferred to spring.
Look, I don't want to be in a crowded stadium right now.
I certainly don't want to be in a crowded gymnasium, even if it is to see the Lewistown girls' volleyball team play in a heated contest against West Prairie.
And I find Governor Kim Reynolds' rulings dubious. She walks in lock step with Donald Trump.
Donald Trump. I don't trust him.
Reynolds trying to overrule Polk County in opening county office buildings, or forcing schools to reopen even though the schools elected to move to distance learning, or forcing Iowa State University and UNI to have football programs this fall, even though the athletic directors and the president and provosts had doubts, that's the work of a Dolores Umbridge. That's a lackey for a Dark Lord.
I'm happy for Mason. I'm glad he gets to play sports. I'm very proud of him, and I do feel that this is essential for his growth and development.
But I'm also greatly worried for him, and his teammates, and the teams that he will play against, and the coaches.
Kim Reynolds. I don't trust her.
Pivoting to film.
Here are some movies I am looking forward to seeing this fall. Some of them I was already looking forward to see this past summer.
1. Wonder Woman 1984
2. Tenet
3. #Unfit: The Psychology of Donald Trump
4. I'm Thinking of Ending Things
5. Enola Holmes
6. Ma Rainey's Black Bottom
7. The Personal History of David Copperfield
8. Mulan
9. Greyhound
10. Da 5 Bloods
Did check out an episode of Lovecraft Country on HBO at the hotel. And I watched the 2018 Fred Rogers' documentary "Won't You Be My Neighbor" on WTTW at the Comfort Inn in North Aurora as well.
Even though it was maligned by critics and audiences alike, smugly called the worst of the X-Men movies, I'd still be happy to see New Mutants. Look, I've seen three and a half movies this whole year:
Birds of Prey and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn, Artemis Fowl, Onward, and half of Eurovision.
I guess No Time to Die looks good. I'm really not the world's greatest James Bond fan. I enjoyed Die Another Day, Casino Royale, and Skyfall, and I was fine with Quantum of Solace. I never bothered to see Spectre, and I suppose I should before seeing No Time to Die.
Though Scarlett Johansson is a prideful woman who wants to play all types of characters even if it comes at the expense of other characters who are the right gender or ethnicity getting the work, I suppose that I will see Black Widow.
More excited about Marvel's The Eternals, but I will see Black Widow.
A Quiet Place Part 2 was slated to come out in September. Is it still coming out in September? Or was it pushed to next year like The Fast and the Furious 9 and The Rise of Gru?