Good show so far, and the Italian bit on the villages in the Abruzzi mountains was pretty interesting. Dark Knight, of course, looks amazing, and it is the one movie I am really excited to see it. Probably will hit a matinee a week or so after it is released to avoid the crowds.
The Doris Day piece was really upsetting though. I know there a lot of people who would kill for her life, but it is always troubling for me to see people who seem to have everything, but just never seem to be happy. It is just so sad, although it is pretty clear that some people are just never going to understand or experience happiness. A shame.
MMM
Que Sera, Sera….
Observer
Recognition is often the goal of the chronically driven and unhappy. Those more easily satisfied with their circumstances are probably not going to rise beyond the notice of their immediate community.
I prefer to turn it around with a positive spin and instead quote Shaw: The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man.
Bob In Pacifica
Glad to see you survived your night of boredom, John.
The Thinking Man's Mel Torme
I know you think the current “Sunday Morning” is aces, but compared to the day when there were long-form (10 minute plus), thoughtful pieces by serious reporters, I can’t help but feel I’m watching a dinner-theater production of a Broadway show. But I guess since any cotemporary attempt at intellectualism is billed as elitist faggotry, I should take what I can get and like it.
I guess I’m extra grumpy because I was over a friend’s house last night and he had “America’s Top Dog,” or whatever that abortion is called, on in the background. My recurring thought while this was assaulting my senses was that the Republic is truly doomed.
John Cole
Well, there is always Frontline.
The Thinking Man's Mel Torme
Oh, sure, if I want to pop antidepressants like peanuts while I’m watching, then hide under the bed.
“Sunday Morning” was regularly edifying and entertaining, i.e. Billy Taylor showing us that Jazz wasn’t all hopheads failing away at hard bop. John Leonard’s overweening, weirdy-beardy logorrhea could make me grind my teeth, but you did at least get pointers to some good teevee.
Just Some Fuckhead
If you can’t obtain happiness from the simple, mundane things then you won’t find it anywhere.
The Thinking Man's Mel Torme
Feh. Given the rainy nature of the day, one of my cats is on my lap, sawing the wood, and will stay there as long as I let her. That right there is aces.
Dinah
No matter what your circumstances are, if you have a problem with depression, you can’t be happy most of the time. These problems are often inherited, and drugs are usually only a partial answer.
AnneLouise
Hello folks – can someone give me the name of the hotel in Abruzzi that the story was about on the Sunday Morning Show – Please?
ThymeZone
So, um, without my having to spend the day reconstructing this, what is the actual true story here?
ChenZhen
I honestly don’t remember the last time I went to a theater where there were crowds. Or maybe I don’t remember the last time I went to a theater at all?
I must have a point in there somewhere.
phobos
I didn’t hear it named, but Sextantio il Albergo Diffuso fits the description.
J. Michael Neal
“Money can’t buy you happiness, but it can buy the form is misery that you prefer.”
Seconded on depression being really hard to conquer. I have made a lot of progress with mine over the last year, which makes it ironic that I am now signing up with a program that helps the disabled find new jobs.
Bobzim
In my experience one of the most difficult aspects of depression is that there are no blue placards that have a synapse in a wheel chair.
My favorite quote on the subject came from Muddy Waters: “I used to think I had the blues because I was poor, couldn’t pay rent and take care of my family, but even though I can do those things now, I still have the blues. I guess some people just have the blues in them”.
Words to that effect.
Liz
I’m bipolar, and I’ll tell you, manic’s not all that great either. I tend towards the downs more than the ups these days, and it’s taken a lot of therapy and med adjusting to get to where I am today. Today, I am happy, I’m in a healthy relationship, I have a very cute cat sleeping in the doorway to my office, and life is, overall, pretty nifty. I agree with Bobzim… I tell people I’m a housewife because it’s technically accurate and sounds a helluva lot better than “I was deemed disabled/unemployable by Social Security because I’m batshit nutty.” Not enough people realize that neurochemical imbalances can cause a lot of pain and some pretty debilitating symptoms.
J. Michael Neal
Yeah. Trying to explain why I suddenly quit a very well paying job trading options after a year and a half without any hint of saying it’s because I had a nervous breakdown is very tricky. Somehow, saying that I just wanted to go back to school doesn’t quite cut it.
What really, really makes me angry is that disability insurance policies put a two year limit on benefits for mental health conditions. If something physical had gone wrong with my, I could still collect, but because it’s my brain that makes me unable to do my old job, they cut me off. They consider it unworthy of permanent disability status, and yet, it is something that would cause employers to flee from hiring me faster than any physical disability.