How are those school and college reopenings going?

by Therese Odell, posted in Uncategorized

Hi! It’s Wednesday!

Here are some bears in swimming pools. I feel ya, guys.

 

So, school openings are going just as well as expected. The University of Notre Dame is going online after an outbreak tied to off-campus parties; an entire sorority is under quarantine at Oklahoma State University; an entire dorm at Colorado College is under quarantine; Rice University had to move their orientation week for freshmen online after two advisors tested positive (O-Week began ON SUNDAY); and a Yale administrator wrote to students warning that they need to be “emotionally prepared for widespread infections — and possibly deaths — in our community.”

Meanwhile, The University of Georgia Bulldogs are planning on going forward with their season and have 23,000 fans in the stadium for their home games.

what could go wrong

Oh, and the federal government is not keeping track of these college or school outbreaks because of course they aren’t.

And here’s the part where I turn into a hypocrite: though I sound like a scold on this issue, the truth is my college sophomore is returning to school in a month — his school in GODDAMNED GEORGIA of all places. Now, his classes are going to be held online, and he will be living in a four-person suite with only one other person, allowing for each of them to have their own bathrooms, but that’s still a risk! He’s still taking a huge risk! I would rather he not go back, in no small part because I think there is a better chance than not that the residence halls will be closed and he will be sent back home in a matter of weeks. But I am also just terrified of sending my kid to school several states away during a global pandemic that is in no way under control in this country.

All that said, I also understand why he wants to go back — why he wants to see his friends again, why he wants to return to that sense of independence and early adulthood. I can’t blame him or any other college kid who wants to return to college life.

I’m also the mother of a high school junior who did not thrive on online learning in the spring. Here in Houston’s public school system, we are starting the first six weeks online before trying to return to the classroom and I am dreading it. Even with all the advantages my kid has, between high-speed internet here at the home, two parents who are working from home and can keep an eye on him, access to multiple devices, not just the one the school gave him, and the ability to afford a tutor if he falls into a hole, it is still a struggle to keep him on task. I can’t imagine what it must be like for the millions of families who don’t have all of those pieces in place, and I join in the worry and concern for those kids who are going to fall behind. My sister is a teacher in a disadvantaged elementary school, and I know the worries she has for her students on a very personal level. At the same time, I worry about her health and safety, and for the health and safety of every school employee and family member who is going to inevitably be exposed to this virus when we send our kids back.

It’s an impossible situation and lord knows I don’t have the answer. But what I DO know for certain is that the answer isn’t: “Let’s host 23,000 students in a football stadium for a bunch of completely unnecessary football games!” I know that for sure.

Padma Lakshmi discusses the impact of this virus on the restaurant industry:

“I do think that it’s such a large disaster that has befallen the restaurant business that we’ll have to build it up from the ground again. Hopefully, there will be better protections put in for its labor force, and more humane working hours, finding a way so that everybody has health insurance, and everybody gets family leave, and everybody shares the burden of running that restaurant. And it may mean we have to pay a little more. I think in America, Americans are bargain hunters. It’s kind of in our DNA. We always want to see “value for our money”, and I think we’re going to have to remember that there’s a pair of hands that made that food that has to pay his or her rent, that has a family, that has maybe an elderly person they’re caring for, just like we are. There has to be a little bit more empathy and a lot more equality in restaurants.”

She’s not wrong.

The Glorias, a Gloria Steinem biopic, will stream on Amazon Prime beginning September 30. It had been set to premiere in theaters.

It’s official: Supernatural has begun filming on the final two episodes, thank Chuck.

The Dancing With the Stars stars and professionals are all being required to live alone during the filming — even the professionals who are married to one another.

Jason Bateman will not be directing the first two episodes of Ozark, season four, for the first time as a means to keep the actor bubble safe.

The Great British Bake Off has completed filming on the most recent season in a secret location? Ok. Whatever it takes.

Meanwhile, Jon Favreau is confident that The Mandalorian will be on track for season three, thanks in large part to its remote setting and use of CGI.

Political Crap

Night Two of the DNC was a little less explosive than the night before, but it still had its moments, namely THIS GUY RIGHT HERE:

rhode island calamari guy dnc

Last night featured the roll call when each state announces its delegate counts and formally nominates the candidate, and for the first time, it was held remotely, which allowed each state to show off a little local flair. It was surprisingly entertaining, and with its display of the full diversity of the Democratic party — including Matthew Shepard’s parents, and Fred Guttenberg, who lost his daughter in the Parkland shooting — remarkably moving. “This Land is Your Land,” indeed.

Also, George W. Bush’s Secretary of State, Colin Powell, endorsed Joe Biden, and Cindy McCain, the wife of John McCain, helped narrate a video about her husband’s friendship with Biden, making so many GOPers SO. MAD. It has also pissed off some progressives, and I get it, I get why they’re nervous that Republicans are weaseling their way into the party and are going to pull it to the right. But 1. This is the farthest left the Democrats have been in literally decades and 2. WE NEED THEM TO VOTE FOR BIDEN. KEEP YOUR EYE ON THE BALL, GUYS.

george w. bush strategery

The only real controversy from last night was courtesy of NBC News of all places. Before the roll call (whose results we all knew when going into this) Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez was given the honor to second the nomination of Bernie Sanders — which is part of the DNC formal rules.

NBC News decided that this was actually not procedure and instead some sort of Joe Biden diss and tweeted this (they have since removed it):

AOC NBC DNC tweet

AOC was not having it.

In addition to this blatant error heaping on abuse at Ocasio-Cortez, it also encourages a Russian-supported message of division within the Democratic party, which WE CAN NOT AFFORD RIGHT NOW YOU FUCKING IDIOTS. GET IT TOGETHER.

Meanwhile, two pretty huge things happened on the other side yesterday:

  1. Postmaster General Louis DeJoy has pulled a “WHOOPSIE!” and said that he won’t continue his prolonged attack on the post office, including removing mailboxes and sorting machines until after the election. Which is great! But I would like to hear more about how motherfucker is going to replace those sorting machines that he’s already removed, please and thank you.
  2. The Republican-led Senate Intelligence Committee’s report on Russia’s shenanigans in the 2016 election dropped yesterday and HOLY SHIT GUESS WHAT: collusion. There was collusion. Because OF COURSE THERE WAS COLLUSION.

Sorry for the big chunk of text I’m about to drop on you, but GOD DAMN, Y’ALL. We’ve been saying this for years, and now the Republicans are like, “Yep. This happened just like y’all said it did.”:

“It provided a bipartisan Senate imprimatur for an extraordinary set of facts: The Russian government disrupted an American election to help Mr. Trump become president, Russian intelligence services viewed members of the Trump campaign as easily manipulated, and some of Mr. Trump’s advisers were eager for the help from an American adversary.

“… the report showed extensive evidence of contacts between Trump campaign advisers and people tied to the Kremlin — including a longstanding associate of the onetime Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort, Konstantin V. Kilimnik, whom the report identified as a ‘Russian intelligence officer.’

“The Senate report was the first time the government has identified Mr. Kilimnik as an intelligence officer — Mr. Mueller’s report had labeled him as someone with ties to Russian intelligence. Most of the details about his intelligence background were blacked out in the Senate report.

“Mr. Manafort’s willingness to share information with Mr. Kilimnik and others affiliated with the Russian intelligence services ‘represented a grave counterintelligence threat,’ the report said.

“It also included a potentially explosive detail: that investigators had uncovered information possibly tying Mr. Kilimnik to Russia’s major election interference operations, conducted by the intelligence service known as the G.R.U.

“… The Senate investigation found that two other Russians who met at Trump Tower in 2016 with senior members of the Trump campaign — including Mr. Manafort; Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law; and Donald Trump Jr., the president’s eldest son — had ‘significant connections to Russian government, including the Russian intelligence services.’

“Links between the Kremlin and one of the individuals, Natalia V. Veselnitskaya, ‘were far more extensive and concerning than what had been publicly known,’ the report said.”

Also, they looked into the infamous “tapes,” and came to the conclusion that there might be a leeeetle something to them:

“The report portrayed the dossier as shoddy and criticized the F.B.I.’s vetting of Mr. Steele as ‘not sufficiently rigorous or thorough.’

“At the same time, it dove into one of the main subjects of the dossier — whether the Russian government has compromising material on Mr. Trump from his past business dealings in Moscow. The report explicitly said it ‘did not establish’ that the Russian government obtained any compromising material on Mr. Trump or that it tried to use such materials as leverage against him.

“It did, however, spend pages describing Mr. Trump’s relationships with women in Moscow during his trips there starting in the mid-1990s, when he began looking for sites to build a Trump Tower. Mr. Deere, the White House spokesman, did not comment on those details in the report.

“According to the report, Mr. Trump met a former Miss Moscow at a party during one trip in 1996. After the party, a Trump associate told others he had seen Mr. Trump with the woman on multiple occasions and that they ‘might have had a brief romantic relationship.’

“The report also raised the possibility that, during that trip, Mr. Trump spent the night with two young women who joined him the next morning at a business meeting with the mayor of Moscow.”

BUT WAIT, THERE’S MORE!

🤔

The Republicans, God bless them, are hoping that you won’t read this 1,000-page report yourself and just waving their hands, saying that this is actually proof that there is NO COLLUSION, but I don’t know, guys, this feels pretty colludey to me …

All Other TV News

A casting call for Daemon Targaryen has been released by HBO (squeeeeee!).

PRINCE DAEMON TARGARYEN (Male, 40-50) – The younger brother to King Viserys, Daemon wasn’t born with “naked ambition” for the throne despite being in line for it. He’s less methodical and more impetuous. Not to mention easily bored…stumbling from one distraction to the next with the subconscious yet singular obsession with earning the love and acceptance of his brother the king. Most of Daemon’s joy is found at sword-point. But even as the most experienced warrior of his time, he vacillates between vile and heroic, making him the true rogue of the series.

SERIES LEAD. OPTIONS ESSENTIAL *This role is currently scheduled to film between January – December 2021*

The Tiger King zoo is closed permanently on account of it being a hell hole for animals.

OOOH, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle are shopping around a SOOPER SEKRET TV series project. Please be a remake of “I Wanna Marry Harry …”

Netflix is adding a “Shuffle Play” feature that will play random TV shows or movies for complete lunatics.

JERRY!

James Timothy Norman, a star of the former OWN reality TV show Welcome to Sweetie Pie’s has been arrested for a murder-for-hire plot that ended with the murder of his own nephew. Eesh.

Renewals

  • Stranger Things is NOT ending with the fourth season — but it is unclear whether it has been officially renewed for a fifth season on Netflix.
  • Warrior Nun has been renewed for a second season on Netflix.
  • Ted Lasso has been renewed for a second season on Apple TV+

Cancellations

  • Younger will end on Freeform with the seventh season.

In Development

Casting News

Mark Your Calendars

  • Unsolved Mysteries returns on Netflix on October 19 (and with a ghost episode, yay!).
  • The Walking Dead: World Beyond will debut on AMC October 4.
  • On the Rocks will debut on Apple TV+ in October.
  • Class Action Park will debut on HBO Max on August 27.
  • Bookmarks: Celebrating Black Voices will debut on Netflix on September 1.

  • Enslaved will debut on Epix on September 14.
  • Baby returns on Netflix on September 16.
  • Nice One! will premiere on Quibi on August 24.
  • Bad Decisions and Mala Decisiones will debut on Netflix on September 1.

R.I.P.

Jesse Goins, Miner on Gold Rush

Ben Cross, Actor in Chariots of Fire, Star Trek, and First Knight

WATCH THIS

Democratic National Convention: Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Senator Elizabeth Warren, Governor Tony Evers, Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham, Former Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, Senator Kamala Harris, and Former President Barack Obama 7 p.m., PBS, CNN, MSNBC, Fox News 9 p.m., ABC, CBS, NBC

Growing Belushi: Have you been wondering what Jim Belushi has been up to? Growing pot. That’s what he’s been up to. Series premiere. 9 p.m., Discovery

High Score: A docuseries about the history of video games, for you gamers out there. Series premiere. Netflix

Dodgeball Thunderdeom: It’s dodgeball. Adults play dodgeball. The only surprising thing about this is that it’s not on The Ocho. Series premiere. 8 p.m., Discovery

purple cobras we will rock you dodgeball

Late Night:

  • Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon: Tyler Perry, Maisie Williams, Trevor Daniel
  • Late Night with Seth Meyers: Sandra Oh, Gayle King, Thomas Land
  • The Late Show with Stephen Colbert: Sen. Bernie Sanders
  • The Late Late Show with James Corden: Ethan Hawke, Chris Tomlin featuring Florida Georgia Line & Thomas Rhett
  • Jimmy Kimmel Live: Zendaya, MUNA & the Knocks, guest host Ben Platt
  • The Daily Show: The Daily Social Distancing Show

 

WEDS. 7:00 7:30 8:00 8:30 9:00 9:30
ABC United We Fall
(new)		 The Goldbergs
(repeat)		 The Conners
(repeat)		 American Housewife
(repeat)		 Democratic National Convention
CBS Big Brother
(new)		 Tough As Nails
(new)		 Democratic National Convention
CW The 100
(new)		 Coroner
(repeat)		 Local
FOX MasterChef/b>
(repeat)		 News/Local
NBC America’s Got Talent
(new)		 Ellen’s Game of Games
(repeat)		 Democratic National Convention

One thought on “How are those school and college reopenings going?”

  1. I feel like we should have more political parties. The 2 main parties have shifted to the fringes leaving people like me in the center not liking my options. If there were 3 or 4 parties that represented the entire political spectrum and had to work together just to form a majority in Congress then things would work better. There would have to be a runoff for president too. Someone would have to win an actual majority. I know I’m rambling and it’ll never happen. But I’m tired of voting for the lesser of evils.

    Reply

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