March 7, 2021

Something happened to me last week that I thought would make for a good intro to today's CBS Sunday Morning Power Rankings as a short personal story. But then I actually sat down to write up the power rankings, which can take time and it no longer felt like a fit. Each week, I attack the rankings a little differently. Sometimes, I need an intro to gather my thoughts. This week, I started with the rankings proper and decided to circle back to the intro. Five hours later, I had finished, but not edited the rankings sans intro. I needed to go to bed. This evening, I circled back to the intro and find there is not enough time to execute my original idea. And with the benefit of hindsight, I'm just not as excited about the idea as I was originally. C'est la vie. If I am smart. I will write it up at my leisure and save it for another time.

Wait, five hours?

Do I spend too much time on the power rankings? It takes me anywhere from 3-5 hours to crank out something that maybe takes 15 minutes to read. After noticing that the first rankings were quite spartan and that the internet was made to embed links, images, and even video to spice things up, I spent extra time to include the bells and whistles available on the web. I also spend time doing a little research to look up old stories from the correspondents that seem relevant and cross reference a few things to ensure that I do not come across as a complete idiot. The recap is intended in the spirit of the show: erudite, laid back, and hopefully interesting.

Although, how laid back can it be when I am trying (and usually failing) to hit a self imposed deadline intended to keep the power rankings timely. My faithful reader(s?) cannot be kept waiting.

Is it worth the investment of my time?

This is precisely the wrong question to ask. Stop trying to life hack your way to maximum productivity and enjoy the process. What am I going to spend the saved time on? Chores? Work?

Is it fun?

I'm not sure that even this is the right question either. In the middle of composition, I get anxious and think about other things I could be doing. I'd be lying if I said this wasn't a bit of a self imposed burden. Writing is hard.

Writing is hard. Writing is hard... Why are you doing this? In the end have your really accomplished anything?

Yes. Even if no one reads this, yes. I manage to cobble together semi-cogent thoughts and put them down. It's not nothing. Someday my writing may graduate to something more sophisticated. A short story? A novel? Pray, tell what lies in store for the future? I don't know. Right now, I just know this is an exercise. And like physical exercise, it can seemingly get in the way, but only to instant gratification. I need to force myself to do it, whether I'm looking forward to it or not because, in the end, I will have accomplished something. Not much, but enough that I think it will pay dividends down the road. Even if just for the benefit of my own mental well-being, it is worth it. It may just seem like a frivolous recap blog, but it is not.

It is the CBS Sunday Morning Power Rankings! And so here they are:

1) Martha Teichner

Honestly, I didn't want Teichner's first Sunday Morning Power Ranking's crown to be for a segment like this. I greatly prefer it when she covers the arts or food or other wonderful sundries. (By the way, I am borderline obsessed with geography and want one of those globes from the "wonderful sundries" link. How expensive can they be? Don't answer that...) Truthfully, I would prefer anyone doing "light" stories over a COVID retrospective. But one year on, one terrible year on, they weren't not going to do a COVID retrospective. And who better to reassuringly guide us than Martha. She's going to very calmly tell us the truth and nothing but the truth. And she's going to do it while appearing in this shot:

Oh, I'm sorry, how did my Emmy's end up in frame?

Emmys over the shoulder: a baller move by Teichner.

Look, if you are a Sunday Power Rankings regular, you know that Martha Teichner is the champ. I want nothing more in life than to spend a day at the MET or Florence, Italy with Martha as my guide. But given the constraints of today's episode, yeah, the committee is giving the top seed to Martha even though it is not the sort of segment we love most. Martha is a real live journalist after all.

Also, give José Andrés a nobel prize already. All the interviewees are greatly respected in their respective fields, but I love that guy.

2) Ramy Inocencio

Ramy is not a regular, but drops in on rare occasions to cover stories out of Asia. It seems odd to put an interloper so high, but follow the logic. Bats are awesome. Ramy did a story about bats. Ramy gets the 2 spot. (The logic is unimpeachable.)

There were breathtaking shots of entirely colonies of bats in flight across southeast Asia. Bats keep pests in check. Bats are the only flying mammal. Despite the fact that some people are scared of them and they are associated with vampires, I find them cute:

I used to play with bats as a kid, although probably not in a way the bats actually enjoyed. Whenever, I saw a bat in the sky, I would throw a baseball towards it. Ok at it. Not to hit or injure the bat (they were generally too high up to be in danger), but to see how it reacted. As the ball would get close, the bat would pick it up by echolocation and dart out of the way of the projectile in an act of self preservation. Then it would just return to it's original position. This dance was mesmerizing. A bird could not do this because most birds can't hover like a bat, but birds are cool in their own way.

I apologize to all bats that thought I was trying to injure them. It was not my intent.

Instead of blaming bats for the pandemic, why don't we study them to figure out why are resistant to perhaps thousands of types of coronavirus. Oh, we are already doing that? Great! (Although I got a little squeamish at the footage of blood being drawn from a bat.) Now if we can just get people to stop xenophobically blaming Asian people for the pandemic, to wear masks, and to get vaccinated we'd be set.

Be nice to a bat. One may decide to live in you window and you can name him Rasputin (based on a true story).

Finally, there are two things in nature scare me because we don't really know why they are happening. White nose syndrome (bats) and colony collapse syndrom (bees). Entire colonies of bats and bees can just get wiped out. We need these creatures to survive. Their prosperity is also ours. Imagine if cities of humans got wiped out because of some mysterious plague... oh... yeah... I see it... nevermind.

If only white noise syndrome had to do with bats doing cocaine, it would be a lot funnier, but please don't give cocaine to bats.

Regardless, bats are cool and they don't need Batman to make that a fact.

 

I can't stop sticking my tongue through the hole. It's maddening.

3) Jane Pauley

Deborah Birx, this is how you rock a neck scarf:

 

 

'nuff said. Still waiting for the return of Sunday Almanac.

4) Lee Cowan

4 years ago, Lee shared first shared with us the geographical oddity that is Point Roberts, Washington, which is part of the United States via 19th century treaty even though it is not actually accessible by land except by way of Canada. Apparently, there are also spots in Minnesota where this happens. Geography! Lee's visit to the pene-exclave is a bit more somber this time. It is basically being killed off by coronavirus due to border crossing restrictions. Americans in Point Roberts are essentially stranded and Canadians that own property there are blocked from crossing the border, which is basically a few cinder blocks, meaning that some properties in Point Roberts haven't been maintained for a year and are falling into disrepair. If it's not one thing its the other.

Since I'm hooked on geography this episode, the geographical oddity of Point Roberts is basically the same thing that occurs in another one of my favorite exclaves, Kentucky Bend:

 

 

Exclaves are cool and it is a life goal of mine to live in one. At least that would be the case if most weren't  created by wars or other messy disputes which make many them dangerous places to actually live. Maybe I need some new life goals.

5) Baboons of Botswana

Mama, don't let your chimps grow up to be monkeys. Botswana is a country in central southern Africa, north of South Africa and east of Namibia. Namibia is where Mad Max: Fury Road was shot. Botswana's flag is sky blue with a black and white horizontal stripe across the middle. I have a shirt with the same pattern. It's not a very good shirt and it's fit is questionable, but I hang onto it because it is my Botswana shirt. I used to have a grey sweater with a similar blue and yellow stripe. I kept that sweater too long because I liked referring to it as the uniform for Swedish Communists. That is all.

6) Tracy Smith

Tracy Smith rules the celebrity interview segments on Sunday Morning. So this segment looking back on Bob Hope's USO shows came somewhat out of left field, especially considering that a Regina King interview was left on the table.

I don't want to beatify Bob Hope. I can't say with certainty he was a great or even a good man. I certainly hope he was and the people interviewed seemed to think he way. Perhaps I should just buy in, but I think it can be dangerous to sentimentalize the past too much. He was a celebrity which is neither good nor bad. And back then studios had fixer to ensure someone's squeaky clean image stayed that way.

Bob Hope was possibly the most famous man in America for a time. Having a status like that is not normal. It turns people weird. Maybe that wasn't the case for Bob Hope. Along that vein, there is something noble and honorable about Bob Hope making it his mission to entertain troops for decades, often not in the safest conditions. The fact that he read, replied to, and kept letters from the soldiers makes it pretty clear that this was something that he felt was his duty. Like I said, I don't want to beatify him (but I do want to beatify LeVar Burton), and a USO show may seem like a frivolous thing, but it's really not and Bob Hope probably did much more for the Armed Forces than most.

I know I probably poke fun at Tracy Smith's celebrity interview segments. This one, while still focusing on a celebrity, demonstrates a bit of depth and makes me think that yes, it is only a matter of time before Tracy takes her place atop the power rankings. 6 feels too low, but we all know the power rankings committee can be capricious.

In conclusion, gratuitous excuse for inclusion of a Simpsons reference:

7) Michelle Miller

This is going to be more about Regina King than Michelle Miller. The segment felt very Tracy Smith, even though Michelle Miller conducts the interview. There was Oscar buzz. There were wide shots where the mics and lights are visible. I could have played the Sunday Morning celebrity interview drinking game.

I'm not a fan of this shot.

Having said that, I am of the opinion that If Beale Street Could Talk was the best film of 2018 - due in large part to Regina King.

I had no interest in watching the TV show Watchmen. The movie was... I was not a fan. (Two words - blimp sex.) When someone told me to check out the TV show, I was skeptical. But I tried it and, oh my goodness, was I glad I did. Again, due in large part to Regina King.

I could write about Regina King's career and subjects of race and racism  addressed in a her work, but I'm not exactly equipped to have that conversation. I'll just say that I think her work is generally of very high quality and her SNL episode was one of the best of the year.

Coincidentally, I watched One Night in Miami last night before I saw this particular interview (I think this is the 34th interview I've seen Regina King give to promote the movie - an exaggeration, but good job getting out there to promote your work). Quick review: I'd put it in the hall of very good, not the hall of fame. It felt very much a filmed play. The fact that most of the movie takes place with the characters cloistered hotel room sort of serves to add tension, but it also kind of just felt like a play with only one set. Is it an artistic choice, or is it just a budget limitation? I guess a movie can be good or great without showy cinematography but then what really sets it apart from another medium, like the stage play on which it was based? It made me want to see the play though.

There is one scene in the movie that transcends the rest - when Malcolm X recounts the concert where Sam Cooke performs with no microphone. It gave me the chills.

Not that my opinion counts, but right now I'd lean toward Nomadland/Chloe Zhao/Frances McDormand for Oscars. And yet none have been on Sunday Morning. Sigh...

8) Seth Doane

I worried for a little bit that I had been spelling Seth Doane's name wrong. I this week, I typed "Seth Doan" before thinking better of it and rechecking the spelling. "Oh god, have I have I been forgetting the 'e' this whole time? No? Disaster averted." Some day I'm going to forget the 'e'.

Seth is based in Italy. He got COVID early on in the pandemic when Italy got hit hard. We're all glad he's doing fine. Italy's been one of the countries worst hit by the pandemic:

I'm not sure what more to add. It's heartbreaking in Italy. It's heartbreaking everywhere. Italy did have the disadvantage of being one of the first western country where the virus got out of control before we really knew what was going on. A UEFA Champion's League match between Atalanta and Valencia last February was pinpointed as a superspreader event. (Blogger is trying to tell me superspreader isn't a word. Get with the times.)

Italians tried to warn us it would be bad right as we were locking down and we didn't really listen. Those who chose to ignore history are doomed to repeat it. In this case history happened in Italy literally 3 weeks before it repeated itself in the US.

Here's hoping Seth can return to stories about olive trees, balsamic vinegar, and Americans getting Italian citizenship soon with the vaccine being distributed. (Oops that last one was a Mark Phillips segment. It feels like a Seth Doane in spirit though.)

8) David Martin

I'd rather not spend time on the Oathkeepers or the Jan. 6 capital riot. Instead, here's a Bill Hader clip that makes me laugh without fail:

Is this apropos of something? David Martin's voice kind of reminds Bill Hader's impression of Bob Simon. Do I get Bob Simon mixed up with David Martin? Other than the fact that Bob Simon passed away some time ago, they are both old white guys primarily known for 60 Minutes.

9) David Pogue

So many David Pogue stories. When does the man rest?

I once new someone with a genetic disorder and they received some kind experimental stem cell treatment to help treat it. Basically they might not have been able to live without that treatment. It seems like CRISPR has the potential to become the go to way to treat and potentially cure these types of diseases safely in the futures and is maybe less objectionable to some people than harvesting fetal stem cells.

Score one for science?

On the other hand... there are potential downsides.

Also, since it's Women's Month, I should mention that Doctors Doudna and Charpentier are 4th and 5th women to receive the Nobel Prize for Chemistry, the 2nd and 3rd not to be named named Curie and that their 2020 win was the first time in 109 years that the prize was not awarded to at least one man. Marie Curie gets it done...

10) Dana Perino

Originally, I was going to not put Perino on the list, but that would have left it at 9 and made me seem petty. But now that I've mentioned it, I still seem petty. Yes, she a Fox News talking head. That does not make her good or bad. Neither does it make the shows on which she appears watchable. I'm not 100% sure what the point of her "opinion" segment, other than being a paean to her late father, which is very sweet and all, but I'd like to offer a breif counterpoint: some things are not ok.