Friday Grab Bag
Leave me alone, I'm very tired
So I had a root canal yesterday. Upper-right molar. Had a crown put in there a few years back, and now the underlying tooth is messed up. (I believe that’s the clinical term.) It wasn’t a lot of fun getting the nerves and whatnot yanked out of there. The dentist had to give me about a gallon of novocaine, because every few minutes I’d start to feel the drilling. But it wasn’t as bad as I expected. And no blood. No blood is good.
Managed to get some sleep, and the pain is better today. It already hurts less than when it flared up a week ago. Don’t even need any painkillers, which is nice. Screw you, Big Pharma! But I’m exhausted. Healing really takes it out of you.
Anyhow, here’s some stuff I typed up. If it stinks, blame the dentist.
Oh, Joe Biden is doing just fine. Why do you ask?
At first, this seems like another hilarious brainfart by President Grandpa. But then you realize it’s not an addlebrained boast. It’s an admission that he needs to bring that number way down.
Half the women are women? Why are any of the women women? That’s transphobia!
Hey, did you notice Hunter Biden finally admitted the laptop belonged to him after all?
It wasn’t a Russian hoax. They made up all that crap because they hate Trump more than they love the truth. He’s a liar, so they think they’re justified in lying. That’s not how it’s supposed to work, so of course that’s how it actually works.
Joe isn’t too bright, but he’s been in Washington for half a century and he knows the #1 rule: The truth is a measure of last resort.
This is the most embarrassing thing AOC has done since the last time she was in front of a camera:
That doesn’t explain why Schiff and Swalwell also got bounced. But forget it, she’s rolling.
AOC isn’t an effective legislator, but she’s not trying to be. She’s playing to journos and other liberals, and right on cue, they applauded her for throwing a fit like a child in a grocery store who wants Cocoa Pebbles. And once that hit of endorphins fades, she’ll have another temper tantrum about something else.
THE FOLLOWING IS ALL SPOILERS FOR THE LAST OF US, BOTH THE GAME AND THE TV SHOW. IF YOU DON’T WANT TO KNOW THESE THINGS, MOVE YOUR EYEBALLS TO SOMETHING OTHER THAN THE FOLLOWING WORDS.
The critics are all swooning over the third episode of HBO’S The Last of Us, which starred Nick Offerman and some Australian guy as Bill & Frank, two names that are familiar if you’ve played the video game.
If you haven’t played the game and don’t think you ever will, here are some highlights from Bill’s part of the game. Here he’s played by W. Earl Brown, best known to HBO viewers as Dan Dority on Deadwood. If you don’t want to watch the opening gameplay, you can skip to the 2:30 mark:
But that doesn’t really give you the whole flavor of playing the game, because you’re just watching it. As a player, you form a bond with Bill because you’re in combat with him. You’re not just a passive observer; you’re a participant. You’re trying to keep each other alive. I’m not saying it’s anything like being in actual combat, but it’s not like watching a TV show either.
You really feel like you get to know this guy. He’s a rude, paranoid, obnoxious, misanthropic know-it-all. He’s also smart and brave and hilarious. He and Ellie start feuding the moment they meet, and it’s some of the best dialogue in the game.
I was looking forward to Nick Offerman sparring with that little twerp, and her giving it right back to him. Now he kills himself before they even meet, just because his boyfriend has MS? What the hell?
I really don’t know what they were thinking. Bill’s whole segment is one of the best parts of the game, and he’s one of the three best characters in the game. He deserved better than the treatment the HBO boys gave him.
If they weren’t going to have a sequence where Bill and Joel and Ellie fight through a horde of monsters — in a show about, um, people fighting through hordes of monsters — I guess they just figured they’d do a gay Hallmark movie. They turned Bill from a standout character into a guest star. They rounded off his rough edges and made him a cuddly LGBTQ spokesman.
Yuck.
In the game, you don’t find out Bill and Frank were a gay couple until you’ve already spent hours battling your way through a ghoul-infested town with Bill. You feel like you’ve gotten to know him, and then the game drops that revelation on you. It adds another wrinkle to an already interesting character. It handles him so much better than the HBO show did.
Video Game Bill would laugh at HBO Bill for going out like such a punk. But I assume the show will win an Emmy for showing two gay guys making out and then spending their whole boring lives together. There’s nothing braver than doing what everybody expects you to do.
It’s funny to me that the libs are cheering for a right-wing conspiracy nut, just because he’s gay. They’re dull, so they prefer their fictional characters to be what they expect.
Oh, one last gripe: Why did HBO Bill stand in the middle of the damn street when he was fighting off those invaders, in the episode’s only interesting scene? The guy is paranoid enough to build a mini-Batcave underneath his basement. You’re telling me he didn’t have a sniper’s nest set up in his attic?
Everybody welcome Stephen “Not the Trump Guy” Miller to Substack!
That’s the only podcast I listen to.
Alright, I did my best. Now I’m going back to sleep. Thanks for reading, and please remember to brush and floss after every meal. You don’t ever want a root canal, trust me.
I should’ve paid closer attention to ABC Saturday mornings when I was little:
Sorry, Scatman!
How does Joe know half the women in his administration are women? What is a woman? Oh please, Joe is just as confused as Hunter. Is the Binder a woman? Klepto boy? What a bunch of lunatics
Ummm, I'm not watching Last of Us. I don't need someone "tricking" me: https://www.breitbart.com/entertainment/2023/02/03/hbos-the-last-of-us-director-says-you-need-to-trick-viewers-into-watching-a-gay-love-story/
As for your "root" cause, I hope the weekend treats you well. Rest. come back strong before the balloon crashes.