Odds and Ends

As we actually have a second major snowstorm (not much snow last few years) in NYC, various odds and ends as we also enter February. Groundhog's Day tomrrow.

After a lot of "is it 2021 yet?," it is one month over. Now, it's "is the COVID bill passed, yet?" or "what about other stuff?" Merrick Garland waits too ... this time his hearing and confirmation is much more likely. Plus, Biden waited for the Georgia Senate elections and apparently DOJ takes longer normally. Anyway, guess they also would like to have a judge ready to fill his key DC appellate slot too.

Today was the Pro Bowl, with no in person game because of the Big V. The game had become a bit lame lately, so a twist might be a good thing there in a fashion -- they had virtual presentations and a video game approach. NFC with a 32-12 win over the AFC. Heck, other than the lack of a trip to Hawaii (toss it in, if you want) or some such place, I say keep it like that.

I got Nine Days: The Race to Save Martin Luther King Jr.’s Life and Win the 1960 Election a bit too late for his birthday, but finished it just before Black History Month. Interesting book, written by a father and son team that also wrote a book about a predecessor to Brown v. Board that was a fail at first (though Massachusetts soon changed their law on school segregation). Interesting opinion that basically says equal protection doesn't actually mean everyone is treated equal all the time, silly!

Though Monday might be a better day to hibernate (then again, this is NYC, not D.C.), there were various interesting discussions on C-SPAN over the weekend, including about that book. Then again, you can find them generally online (including a new book on Kamala Harris, one on forensics [Blood, Powder, and Residue] and one on rabbis giving invocations in front of Congress).

I also checked out a pretty good PBS Mystery series entry about a woman Victorian detective. Over the years, I checked out a few PBS entries (back in the day, Rumpole; more recently Grantchester, but it got a bit too unrealistically liberal for a 1950s vicar or whatever mystery series) over the years, including non-mystery fare. I probably missed something along the way; shrugs. 

Oh. Father Martin is finally going to be on the Colbert late nite show this week.  He was on his Comedy Central show as their official Jesuit or something and not sure why he never popped up on the other show.  He is pro-GLBT rights (as far as one can be as a Jesuit, one guesses) and has written about humor and spoke out against conservative hatred sort of things.  So, he would be a good fit. Will see how it goes and if the delay comes up.