Scarlett Johansson at 2:20 as Katie Britt

 

I didn't initially get the "My Tea Is Ready" meme. Apparently it's a reference to "Get Out" (the best movie of 2017).  Welcome to the Sunken Place!

The horror genre has long claimed the trappings of normalcy as its natural playground. The family home is one of those places. The GOP hasn’t quite realized that yet, but everyone else has. When Katie Britt introduced her kitchen, my thought was, “Oh no, not the kitchen!”

Katie Britt's Central Lie

This is very interesting, and yet completely expected. Katie Britt lied when she told the story about the mattress in the shoebox room. There was just too much emotional investment in the story for it to be anything but a lie:

 

@katzonearth This isn’t going to make her like TikTok more. #katiebritt #sotu #stateoftheunion #lies #politicians #biden2024 #trump2024 #immigration #traffickingawarenes #mexico #bordersecurity #fyp ♬ original sound - Jonathan M. Katz

Katie Britt's State-of-the-Union Response

Somewhere beyond Stepford comes the GQP response. It’s brilliant. The emotional seesaw. The sternness. The lurid mattress story. I also love how the ads are strategically placed in the video - brilliant editing. Not necessarily convincing, of course. AI can only do so much, and pod people have their limitations. At least no six fingers. Bless her heart!

 

People will have fun with this for days.

@stellamagz Replying to @user4840663161667 BUCK COYOTE why wait till Saturday?? Its FRIDAY AFTERNOON LIVE with Stella Magz 💙💙💙 #sotu #stateoftheunion #rebuttal #katiebritt #politics #political #alabama #comedy #fypシ #fyp #fy #fyppppppppppppppppppppppp #fypシ゚viral #foryoupage #foryourpage #stellamagz ♬ original sound - Stella 🧿💙

@jojofromjerz #MAGA #stateoftheunion #katiebritt #BidenHarris #2024 #republicans ♬ original sound - JoJoFromJerz

@colormeloverly I’m still recovering from her rebuttal sorry!! #parody ♬ original sound - Clara

@atlantis99_ #katie #soto #politics #humortiktok ♬ original sound - TJ

@dallassheraton A lighthearted parody of #katiebritt and her response to Joe Biden’s #sotu #comedy #parody #politicalsatire ♬ original sound - MakeoverMike

@lacceeyy This is probably the most terrifying thing Ive seen air on television. Watching Serena Joy come to life in a united states senator. Like June Osborn says- we need to open our eyes. #thehandmaidstale #serenajoywaterford #offred #serenajoy #juneosborne #commandorwaterford #serenaandfredwaterford #handmaid #martha #hulu #margaretthatcher #booktok #tvshows #unitedstatessenate #katiebritt #senatorbritt #senate #womensrights ♬ A lonely, sad, crying piano solo(955976) - Hoshijima Satohide

Katie Britt: Inside the Actors Studio

(Points to @FrankConniff for the idea) pic.twitter.com/JMbOwCfNwK

— Ben Bowman (@BowmanInc) March 8, 2024

here you go https://t.co/WIAkWIL8mO pic.twitter.com/7iNEjQT26g

— Emissary of Night 🔆🍉 (@EmissaryOfNight) March 8, 2024

@bmotheprince The Katie Britt Republican Response #comedy ♬ original sound - Brian Moller | B Mo the Prince

@deesknots Closer to God #katiebritt #sotu #fundy #babyvoice #sisterwives #rebuttal #staysweet #trad #churchlady #demoCrAZY #politicaltheater #hairspray #christiannationalism #parody #funny ♬ Boundless Worship - Josué Novais Piano Worship

The Elephant in the Room

Me In The Morning

Greta Gerwig's Growing Pains

I went to Gunther's Ice Cream Parlor (an iconic Sacramento landmark) and saw a colorful flyer for this documentary. Ah, a guerilla advertising strategy, cleverly-placed at one of Greta's favorite places! (Maybe too much advertising for my taste, but it is interesting.)

 

Dune 2

Saw Dune 2 last night. I liked it - it was good. Somehow different than my memory of when I read the book back in school days, circa 1970. Can't recreate those memories, I suppose!

My Doctor Cousin's Gloom

When I was in Albuquerque, I gave my doctor cousin a telephone call. She was in a glum, depressed mood about her work. She reports a wave of death in her hospital, making a mockery of her efforts. She's taken to haunting the death statistics office at the hospital, trying to assess just how bad the situation is. 

The deaths result from either: 

• people showing up at the hospital with undiagnosed stage four cancers, and thus already beyond help, or; 
• people suffering weird infections that even amputation can't solve, and that require massive doses of antibiotics just to survive.  

My doctor cousin speculates that people are not getting the health care they need in a timely way, and we discussed that possibility.

My doctor cousin also worries about the growing use of nurse-practitioners instead of doctors.  Doctors can be sued; nurse-practitioners can't be sued, and so there is great interest in the hospitals for using nurse-practitioners whenever possible.  Nurse-practitioners miss diagnoses though.  They don't have the proper training.  My doctor cousin recently berated a nurse-practitioner for missing a cancer diagnosis, which resulted in an unnecessary early death.

My doctor cousin's report contradicts another report that New Mexico has the lowest average annual new cancer rate in the country.  A Facebook friend speculates that maybe untreated New Mexico people are dying of cancer too fast to get reported in new-cancer statistics. The rapid deaths clean up the pool of ill people before it gets sampled for cancer incidence.  Maybe that's it.

And I learned another friend of mine has been battling a dangerous infection for a long time, which worsened last September, and has improved only lately, after massive doses of antibiotics.  I'm worried about her future. 

A Cute Video of Rare Pine Martens Playing

At this post.

Watching The Blizzard From Afar

It's been impressive watching from afar as the recent blizzard crushed the Sierras. 

On March 2nd, the storm set up a conveyor belt of moisture just south and east of Sacramento. It did rain in Sacramento - about 2/3 of an inch of rain, which would translate to about 6 inches of snow - but given the orographic lift of the mountains and the conveyor belt of moisture, something like 5 feet of snow fell in the Lake Tahoe area in the same period - a full order of magnitude difference! 

Sometimes its nice to live in the flat.

The blizzard dumped 5 to 7 feet of snow in parts of the Sierra Nevada over the weekend. The National Weather Service in Sacramento said a rare blizzard warning would remain in effect until midnight Sunday for areas above 6,500 feet elevation, while other parts of the Sierra Nevada were under a winter storm warning.

...Just west of Echo Summit on Highway 50, a few vehicles were temporarily stuck in several feet of snow that slid off the mountainside onto the road, said Steve Nelson, a spokesperson for the California Department of Transportation. He said a crew pulled the vehicles out, and no one was injured.

 On the north side of Lake Tahoe, Interstate 80 remained closed due to snow for a third day.

...And in the Eastern Sierra, U.S. Highway 395 was closed in Mono County, where Caltrans crews were working to clear the snow.

Even as the blizzard conditions began to ease, the National Weather Service urged people to avoid driving in the mountains. 

“Winds can get up to 45 miles an hour at those higher elevations, and with snow still falling, that causes really dangerous travel conditions,” said Sara Purdue, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Sacramento. “We’re highly discouraging travel to the mountain areas still.”

Just Listened To The "Say My Name" Musical Soundtrack

I had trouble with my CD player recently, so I was unable to immediately listen to Rob Gathercole and company's "Say My Name" musical soundtrack (a Christmas gift from the UK from Rachel, via Dave Layman). I had to switch out the CD player, but having done so, I have to say I like it a lot! Very clever! Here is one of the songs: