Why are there audiences for hopeless stories?

I watched the first two seasons of the Italian television series Inspector Ricciardi on PBS Passport and was engaged by the interesting characters, the Naples setting, and the insights into 1930s fascist Italy. 

Luigi Riccardi has a supernatural ability: he sees the ghosts and hears the last words of murder victims. It aids his investigations but torments his soul. Terrified of passing on what he considers a curse, Ricciardi doesn’t want to marry and have children. But he’s enamored of a young woman whose kitchen window faces his bedroom window, and the feelings are mutual. For the first season and a half, they stare longingly at one another. They finally declare their love, and Season 2 ends happily. 

Passport hasn’t picked up the third season yet, but I Googled and found out that Ricciardi and Enrica marry and she dies giving birth to their child. I won’t watch season 3.

Hearing from long-lost college roommate prompts a life review

The other day an email arrived from an old college roommate. It was startling to hear from someone after more than half a century. It was humbling to Google her and learn that she is a retired multidegreed professor. 

Sharon and I shared an apartment on the University of Illinois campus when it was still at Champaign-Urbana rather than Urbana-Champaign. We lost contact after graduation.

She wanted to catch up by phone or email. What did I have to say for myself? I decided to be candid in my email:

Roth novel foreshadowed Trump's tyranny

“Every day I ask myself the same question: How can this be happening in America? How can people like these be in charge of our country? If I didn’t see it with my own eyes, I’d think I was having an hallucination.” 

Think that’s from a recent news story? Nope. It’s from Philip Roth’s 2004 speculative fiction novel The Plot Against America, which HBO later adapted for television. 

Dear Congressional Republicans . . .

I usually don’t write about politics because I don’t have anything to say that professional pundits have not said already. But every now and then the news is so bad that to ignore it is callous. 

New food guidelines don’t convince me that my cheese habit is OK

Normally I would not pay attention to anything coming from Robert F. Kennedy Jr., but the new USDA dietary guidelines, released earlier this month, have some good recommendations: more fruits and vegetables, whole grains, unprocessed foods, unsweetened beverages, and adequate protein. 

However, the top of the new inverted food pyramid shows foods high in saturated fat: meat, cheese, and whole milk. Recommending them as prime sources of protein contradicts another recommendation to limit saturated fat, which clogs the arteries and leads to heart disease. (We can’t expect consistency from anyone in the Trump administration.)

This is customer service nowadays

I joined Jewel’s Fresh Pass because I wouldn’t be able to go to the store after my knee replacement surgery. Delivery is free if you spend $30 — not hard to do these days — but you are asked to tip the driver from Door Dash. I wish all vegetables and fruits didn’t arrive in separate plastic bags, but so be it. 

Every delivery but one has gone smoothly, but that one was bananas (pardon the pun). 

I’m underinformed about pop culture. Does it matter?

As the oldest Baby Boomers turn 80 this year, a quiz has been circulating online to test how well Boomers know or remember the pop culture of our youth. I could answer only 4 of the 20 questions. 

I didn’t do much better on Mind the Gap, a board game of trivia from four generations, which my family played over Christmas. I answered few of the Boomer questions and drew a blank on those related to later years.