Tuesday, January 11, 2011

The luckiest girl in the whole USA

Behold CGCIS Special Agent Abigail Boren.* This is her second appearance on NCIS, and she and my beloved TV boyfriend, Gibbs, have a certain chemistry. I hope that she becomes a regular. I'd like to see Gibbs settle down and find happiness ... so I can get all swoony when she kisses Mark Harmon.
*Actress Diane Neal, previously of Law & Order: SVU

10 on Tuesday

Ten double Oscar winners

The nominations will be announced later this month, and so I'm working myself up into a frothy Oscar lather. Let me share some of the soap bubbles with you.

These performers have all won more than one Best Actor/Actress Award

1) Dustin Hoffman
2) Elizabeth Taylor
3) Jack Nicholson
4) Daniel Day Lewis
5) Hillary Swank
6) Sally Field
7) Jane Fonda
8) Tom Hanks
9) Jodie Foster
10) Sean Penn

In a class by herself is Katharine Hepburn, who has won four awards in the top category.

"A return to the America I grew up in"

I hear that on TV a lot, from people who seem to be longing for a return to some bucolic Mayberry existence, complete with trips to the fishing hole with Andy and Opie.

That's not the America I grew up in. The most vivid memories of my youth include assassinations and the riots at the 1968 Democratic Convention and four dead in Ohio.

I fear we have returned to the America I grew up in, and it breaks my heart.

Look at these faces and please, remember to think before you speak. Remind others that words have meaning and actions have often escalating reactions. I do not understand why this is threatening to some people -- why accepting even a portion of the responsibility for the tortured zeitgeist of our time and trying to improve it is an anathema. I have always tried, and must try harder, to acknowledge the humanity of those I disagree with. I must redouble my efforts.

I don't want my niece and nephew to grow up in the America I grew up in. I want them to have a better country, the one I know it can be.