A New Era

 So, I went to see the new Downton Abbey movie tonight.  Despite all the mockery of my friends, there I went.  First, a pretzel at Auntie Anne's was $4.69... oi.  No pre-movie snack for me! 

Anyways, the movie itself was.... fine?  I don't think it was quite as good or sharp or funny as the first one.  Not that it didn't have its moments.   Much as "Glee" suffered from having two locales, so too did this one, though either plot line would have been enough.  More seriously, the series said goodbye to several characters in this one -- through death, love, and general departure.  I would say that these moves were probably necessary, not that it made it any less sad.  But such is life, if you will.

One thing that amused me about the reviews was that it wasn't woke enough; not enough diversity in the cast (I do not recall any non-whites among the aristocracy in Britain at any time in the country's history but that is besides the point), though they have plenty of class issues, some LGBT characters, and -- with some justice -- the fact that the Crawleys act far better than most aristocrats (at any time) have traditionally done.  I guess the point to me is that fans of the show don't really care about that sort of thing; not that we are not aware of them, but we just want an escapist drama for a bit.  I know they are, but I can't believe that liberals are such worrywarts about things all the time.  Oi.

https://hotair.com/ed-morrissey/2022/05/20/breaking-pelosis-archbishop-orders-her-to-stop-receiving-communion-over-abortion-n470919

Well, this was a bolt out of the blue!  I am not sure I agree with this -- for a bunch of reasons --but it is absolutely invigorating to see Catholics actually standing up for the faith and endorsing the Church disciple once in while...