We watched the Oscars last night, start to finish. I think they did a decent enough job with the show. I didn’t miss the drama. The one improvement that could be made would be to display the names of the presenters who are called up to the bima. Most of them (read: virtually all of them) are not known to me, and it would have helped if I could put names to faces. Often, when they are announced, their names are slurred through and I miss them completely.

Why don’t I know them? In part, because they act in shows that I haven’t seen, and are featured in magazines and on websites that I don’t look at. In part, because unless a name is George Washington or Abraham Lincoln, I have trouble remembering them any way. In part, because most of these people look identical to each other to me, and have for a long time.

But some I recognize. Take Morgan Freeman, for example. He looked older than the last time I saw him. I guess that isn’t surprising, because he is 85. Jeez. And I remember when he was just 5 years older than I am.

I particularly enjoyed the music. The winning song from RRR was a five star treat. And I enjoyed, as always, Lady Gaga, but found Rihanna disappointing after what I thought was a great (I know it’s controversial) Super Bowl halftime show. The singer who sang the first song (name ?) also has a beautiful voice, I thought.

Other than that? Some of the women were dressed in particularly unflattering clothes, as usual, and some in the audience had head pieces that blocked the view of anyone sitting within three rows behind them. And what about animation? After the award was announced, one of the winners talked about taking animation to the next level. That made it clear to me for the first time. With AI progressing as it is, who needs real actors any more? Film stars will become as obsolete as linotype operators.

Moving on…….I read the NYT pretty much cover to cover this morning. A few things worthy of thought:

1. It’s really true that in Indigenous settlements in Northern Territory of Australia, native peoples are not permitted to buy alchohol? Really?
2. The dilemma of what to do about Prof. Amy Wax of the U. Penn law school is something to ponder. A tenured professor who has taught at Penn for over 20 years, she is an avowed racist, having belittled the capabilities and accomplishments of Blacks, the selfishness of gays, the lack of assimilation tendencies in Hispanics, and the built in left wing biases of Asians. She says (I paraphrase) she is speaking truth to culture. She is certainly sowing dissent at the law school. Do you let her go on, because she is tenured and, besides that, she should have the right to free speech as an academician? Or do you fire her or limit her activities because her speech is deemed destructive to society? And if you discipline her for being to “conservative” (that may not be the right word here), do you distinguish this from disciplining left wing teachers for what they might be saying about American society and its members? A dilemma.
3. And did you know that pharmacies are having a difficult time obtaining drugs to fill legitimate prescriptions for non-opiates that may be deemed habit forming, including drugs to treat depression, anxiety, cancer and ADHD? The article starting on the front page of the Times is eye-opening.

Finally, Mexico beat the U.S. in the World Baseball Classic yesterday. That’s OK with me. Because Major League Baseball players now come from all over, it is hard to identify with them when they are member of a team you support, and then root against them in the WBC. So congratulations to Joey Meneses of the Nationals and the Mexican WBC team for his two home runs yesterday. As the designated, designated hitter for next year, may you do the same for the Nats.