Mimosa, Bloody Mary, nice flute of champagne — or maybe a favorite tipple in your coffee. Make yourself one and join me at our own Algonquin Round Table, the spirit of Dorothy Parker abides.

Happy Sunday, dear friends! Super Bowl Sunday is upon us. I realize, dears, that many of you will be spending the late afternoon with friends to watch commercials interrupted briefly by football, but let’s start the morning with a good, hearty American brunch. If you’re indulging later, you can start out indulging now with crispy bacon, eggs, hashbrowns, biscuits and gravy, waffles and … well, let’s pour the champagne and let’s get to it. À votre santé!

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Obligatory Taylor Swift mention

Old fart alert — I’m one big meh on Swift. I stopped swooning over fluff-class pop stars some time in jr. high school. That was so long ago, too, Swiftians would tilt their heads at the naming of John Fogerty, Al Green or Roberta Flack like my GSD puppy does if I ask her “who chewed my sneaker?” So the weirdness of this OMG the MAGAs have gone insane attacking her makes me reach for a bottle of Tanqueray 10 because I’m not seeing it. Even Bill Maher is caught up in this Leftwing PR hoax.

“I’ve hesitated to cover Taylor Swift like it’s a national news story, but I swear to God- and for all my years of experience doing this, this is a national news story in the sense that this is a person who could literally swing the election,” Maher began a panel discussion Friday night. “I don’t know what that says about this country, but I would just say to the MAGA people, you should be very careful attacking her because this is someone who transcends parties.”

Oh Bill! WHO is ‘attacking’ her? Name some names, give me some quotes. Not some “friend of a friend overheard this Boomer in line at Walmart …” Or is something less than complete adulation of this generation’s Madonna/Brittany/Cher/Paula/Yadda/Yadda/Yadda an “attack”? Outside of this ginned-up kerfuffle, just remember that Swift has made her mega millions on songs about how she always manages to choose the wrong guy.

Oh, snap!

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The El Segundo Fish Wrap circles the drain

And all I can say is “faster, please“.

Joe Biden is old. Like each of us, he comes from a particular place in history, in his case the LBJ years. And that’s one big reason why his first term has been so full of accomplishment: His age, often cited as the greatest obstacle to his reelection, is actually his superpower.

Superpower? Well, I guess when you move a whole country, Mexico, to the border with Gaza, that’s pretty Supermanishy.

via GIPHY

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Punch back twice as hard

The Kansas City Chiefs have remained a thorn in the side for those who attend the Leftist church of Our Lady of Perpetual Offense. They hold on to the name “Chiefs” as related to American Indians :::::gasp!:::::: and that annoys the Best People to the point where fans, even 9 year olds, are treated as fair targets for public bullying.

Holden Armenta and his family have move ahead with filing a defamation lawsuit against Deadspin. https://t.co/o8tkV8ZFLB The publication clearly values the controversial work of Carron J. Phillips. It may now have to decide how much. https://t.co/EIkcC0Cj2X

— Jonathan Turley (@JonathanTurley) February 7, 2024

Boy howdy, this boy’s family is not going quietly into the night. I guess Deadspin missed what happened to CNN when it tried to pull a similar stunt with Nick Sandmann.

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Valentine’s Day — RomComs?

Once your football indulgence has been satisfied, remember that Wednesday is Valentine’s Day. And I couldn’t help but think about the state of movie industry and wondering about the health of the genre of romantic comedies. Earlier this week, VG Lisa covered Elon Musk’s reveal of Disney destroying its brand (again) with an onerous race-based inclusion policy that mandates the most egregious of bean-counting in film making. In one section alone, the mandate is that 50% plus of on-screen, main characters must be minority.

I couldn’t help but think of all the wonderful movies of the past that would never make it even to the pitch — Amadeus, 1917, Dunkirk, Agony and the Ecstasy, or Spartacus. Nothing set in ancient Europe or dealing with European mythology. And what about rom-coms? Could The Quiet Man be made under such criteria?

Dear lord and pass me the Irish whiskey but when was the last great romantic comedy to make it on the silver screen? Sleepless in Seattle, one of our favorites to view on Valentine Day, if made today, would have writer Nora Ephron ridden out of town as a cisheteronormative white supremacist.

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Your Sunday palate cleanser

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Your Sunday smile

I have nothing but mad admiration for those people who work so hard to help make life better for people who suffer from disabilities.

The first-ever prosthetic limb that allows the wearer to sense temperature and feel the warmth of another person has been created.

The MiniTouch device allows amputees to perceive and respond to temperature, an ability that developers hope will improve their human connections.

It works by transmitting thermal information from the fingertip of the prosthetic hand to the wearer’s residual arm.

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Dear friends, our time here has, as usual, slipped away before I’m ready to let you go. But there are parties to attend, snacks to be consumed and general fun and frivolity to be had. So go seize the day and let’s meet back here next Sunday. Cheers!