Netflix & Chili

EASY KIDS. IT'S NOT A TYPO. It’s the 60-something’s version of a good way to spend a winter’s eve. I have a wonderful chili recipe by the way. I’ve actually won a couple of chili cookoffs with it—I would be happy to share. The secret ingredient is cocoa powder.

There is nothing better (for supper) on cold night than a steamy bowl of chili. Sometimes I like it with spaghetti and a few crackers crumbled in the bowl. Sometimes I like it over Fritos® with chopped onion and a squirt of mustard.

So the fire is going in the fireplace, the chili is ready, now what to watch. I have been so looking forward to the new show featuring David Letterman. It didn’t disappoint. It’s called, My Next Guest Needs No Introduction. It’s a long-form, sit-down interview show and in my opinion, no one does that better than Letterman. 

The guest and the content of this first episode I found to be poignant, smart, and timely—for a number of reasons. With Letterman fairly recently “retired”, and his guest recently “retired”, and me peering in to retirement, I found something in the discussion you might not. But don’t be dissuaded. It’s well worth the time.

My next recommendation isn’t on Netflix, but then, whether you’re “Netflix and chilling” or watching Netflix while enjoying chili, it’s really not just about the Netflix is it now?

This one is on Amazon. I had first noticed ads for it and then when it won a couple of Golden Globe awards, I read the premise and decided it was worth a look. Let me say right up front, many might find the language objectionable. It’s right up there with stuff you could hear on a visit to the Oval Office or listening to a postgame interview with Carmello Anthony.

The series is The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel. It’s set in New York City in the 50s. They call it a comedy-drama. Normally I would say you can’t have it both ways, but this one is indeed both very funny in really smart ways and an interesting story, dramatically. The series follows a housewife who discovers she has a knack for stand-up comedy.

The lead character, Midge Maisel played by Rachel Brosnahan is wonderful. My favorites though are Midge’s parents Abe and Rose Weissman, played by Tony Shalhoub and Marin Hinkle. I do fear though that I cold be too much like Abe Weissman in a not so good way; if I were a Jewish math professor.

Did I mention the language is rated R? If frequent use of sailor-speak and chili give you heartburn. I highly recommend you choose instead watching The Crown on Netflix with a bowl of chicken noodle soup.

Or, you could just chill.

You Win Some

If you’ve been a loving parent of a young child just learning to play Candy Land, you know the quandary: do I let them win, do I stack the deck so that they will draw the double purple card, or do I teach them to lose well, you know in case they grow up to be a Dallas Cowboys fan or something.

That quagmire is even deeper and more daunting when you’re a grandparent and your mission in life is for your beautiful grandchildren to never, ever know loss, disappointment, heartache or failure of any kind.

Harper & Pops & Checkers

My grandfathers were real men, not weepy, whiny, bleeding-heart liberals like me. I played checkers with my maternal grandfather. He was a well digger and used cuss words in normal conversation. I know he never intentionally, out of pity, sympathy or compassion or anything else, ever LET me win a game. I know this because I never won a single game of checkers against him.

The game of choice of my paternal grandfather was dominoes. The occasion of letting me win or not never arose because I was never allowed to play. Seats at the domino table was reserved for serious players who could count their own points, not put their partner in jeopardy and pretty well knew the dominoes in every players hand half way through the round.

Sometimes you wonder if maybe sometimes some Adults out there, including me, had too many people in our lives who LET them win a few times too many.

What about this? Wouldn’t it be nice if KD would come back “home” Saturday night and do something to sort of help his old team win one. I’m referring of course to the game this Saturday, between the OKC Thunder and the GS Warriors, and the first time Kevin Durant will return to OKC for a game since his midnight abandonment of us a few months back. I guess that would be a hollow win wouldn’t it. I tell you what I would really like to see, not that I’m a sore loser or anything, but I would love to see KD hold Draymond Green down while Steven Adams kicks him in that place where no man likes to be kicked. Of course the sweetest victory of all would be one where the Warriors (with the exception Green, of course) play one of their best games and still lose to our Thunder.

When it comes to playing checkers with Harper, I don’t actually LET her win, but I also don’t stand in the way of her being a bit creative with the game. For example, apparently in Harper’s version of the game, she can earn a third checker on her “kinged” pair. That makes for an omnipotent King that can pretty much move anywhere at anytime. You have to watch out for those omnipotent rulers. It’s hard to beat them no matter how well youplay.

Some wise person said, “When the game is over, all the pieces go back in the box.”

Or as my mother and the mothers of other frequent losers used to say: “It’s not whether you win or lose, it’s how you play the game that counts.”

Did The Best One Win?

THE VOTES WERE CAST AND COUNTED. Maybe you agree with the final outcome, maybe you don’t. Maybe you’re indifferent to it all. Maybe you have a sense of justice about it all or maybe you feel like the system’s rigged.

Does the guy deserve some respect? Has he earned it? Maybe it’s all a popularity contest. Some don’t like his style. Most, at least here in Oklahoma, seem to love him, like he can do no wrong. Maybe if it weren’t for those voters out on the west coast, it would have looked more certain, more decisive.

Does he deserve to be the top guy?

YES! In my humble opinion, Russell Westbrook deserves to be the starting point guard on the Western Division All-Star Team. No doubt about it.

Baby It's Cold Outside

THERE ARE A LOT OF THINGS I'M GLAD I'M NOT: doctor, infectious disease scientist, activities director on a cruise ship, podiatrist, weatherman/meteorologist.

Maybe back in the day I wouldn’t have minded being a weatherman. Back then they didn’t claim to be able to predict ice storms a month in advance, convincing people to empty grocery shelves like maybe they would never have the chance to buy bread, milk and chicken noodle soup ever again.

I know they have really high-tech stuff they trust and love. I know they REALLY want to be able to run promos on TV after power has been restored telling how they were the first to predict the frozen future.

We can all appreciate wanting to be first. Who wouldn’t want to be able to say, “We tried to warn you!” But do they ever feel bad for prognosticating with such certainty and doom that schools shut down across the land, that people hunker down for a winter like we haven’t seen since the settlers crossed this land decades ago searching for the beaches of sunny California.

It’s kind of like those poor end-times preachers, who have solved the puzzle of the second-coming--again. One of these days they will all be able to say, “See I told you so.”

If I were a weatherman, or end-times preacher, I think I would stick to what I know for sure. Of course, no one would listen because my weather report would be so obvious, no one would close school or gas up their generator, or rededicate their life because of anything I said.

Here's an example of what my weather report might sound like: I can speak with complete certainty regarding the weather right now. As I’m typing this, it is 29 degrees Fahrenheit in OKC, and it is literally colder than Hell, Michigan.