22 September 22

"Is this going to be some regular thing now? You had a similar post title last month."

 

Oh, did I? That just slipped my mind, dearie. Nope, just kidding! I rather like the way it looks, with the month booked by the same numbers. Makes it look important!

 

"And was today important for you?"

 

Actually, it rather was! Generation One had a 'lunch & learn' session, with Dr. Timothy Connelly of Memorial Hospital, and this was a full-house event. I guess everyone else wanted to hear all about "Vaccine Update", too!

 

"Was it helpful?"

 

It was to me! The speaker had a very down-home approach that reminded me of my teaching style. As it turns out, he is a teacher now, no longer seeing patients, and letting folks know the latest on the medical front is his specialty.

This new anti-COVID vaccine, for instance, isn't that new. It's still a mRNA vaccine, targeting the spike protein by which the coronovirus gains cellular entry. In fact, 50 % of it is the same as it was, with the balance being tweaked to account for changes in the spike protein.

It does not contain nay of the actual virus, either live or dead or attenuated, as do vaccines for influenza or polio or measles or pneumonia. That is how the mRNA vaccine for coronavirus differs from every other vaccine for disease.

That last part is not news to me.

However, it will be a disappointment to some folks I know.

They're waiting for some super-miracle vaccine that will prevent them from getting infected by the SARS-CoV-2 strain, whether it be Omicron version or the next one down the line.

That's never going to happen.

The way to not get infected is to wear a mask, maintain your distance from folks outside your social bubble, and wash those hands!

What the vaccine does do, and does remarkably well - like, with an effectiveness of >90% - is keep that viral infection from developing into a case of COVID that lands you in the hospital and fighting for life on a ventilator.

That's a huge miracle, to me.

And it's much better odds than folks had 100 years ago when that pandemic came home with the American GI's from WWI. 

"So true. Hey, that's when that crowd-sourced flick, "Pearl", was set, isn't it?"

 

Yep, that's correct! I'll get around to that later... nah, since you brought it up, let's do it now! But, first, you have to hear the title I'd made for this week's A*List.

God's Country Pearl, The Woman King

Nice, right?

 

"Well, not as catchy as last week's trio, but I guess it'll do for a bunch of chick flicks."

 

These were most assuredly not "chick flicks", which tend to be rom-com or deep into weepy, emotional family dynamics.

That is not what any of these were.

By the time I sat through the first two, I suspected each one was centered on a woman with a deep-seated, festering, grudge who loses control and kills people. Fortunately, that theme was not present in the third movie.

 

"Really? That's what "God's Country" was all about? I thought Cinema Savannah was bringing that to town?"

 

Yeah, Tomasz is, and yeah, that's how that movie is. Ex-cop left New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina and moves to Montana as a college professor, with her mom, both still bristling, seventeen years later, with hatred for the mess in Louisiana. After the mom dies, the ex-cop finds an outlet in two rednecks. And just what great wrong were they doing to her? Parking in the canyon where she had her house. Seriously. 

I watched it at the AMC, with Barbara and Carolyn, and they took her side. Seriously.

I took the side of the deputy sheriff, caught between two factions running hellbent for leather into a murderous conflict.

"That doesn't sound like the kind of film Tomasz would get."

 

I agree, especially as there was no nudity in it.

 

"Hahahaha! Yeah, I know what you mean. And the other movies?"

 

"Pearl", like you said, is set in 1918 and features folks wearing masks all around town. The lead role is a fresh-faced young woman, trapped under her mom's baleful eye, trapped on the farm she had wanted so to leave, trapped caring for her dad who is bound to a wheelchair after catching the deadly influenza. She had married a man from a wealthy family, sure that he would take her away from her poverty, but he had joined the Army and left her right there, with her dreams of becoming a famous dancer slipping out of her grasp.

 

"Oh, the poor girl!" 

She may have been financially bereft, but she became morally bankrupt, starting small and then going after any and every source of aggravation in her life. It was rather comical. Try to imagine Dorothy if the woman on the bicycle had been her Auntie Em.

"Yeah, you'll need to target that rabbit hole with your first niece, not me."

Good idea. Now, what about "The Woman King"? Well, that one is billed wrong on several counts. First, the summary would have you believe this was an anti-slavery movie; that's wrong. That aspect is one of the subplots, but not the crux. Second, the previews would have you believe that this is a war movie with lots of fighting; that is also wrong. This is a movie about a squad of fighting virgins, much like the Amazons, and there are a couple of fight scenes. But the heart of the film is the leader of the squad, who, as a rape victim, is not a virgin, and who did bear a daughter, who her best friend put up for adoption.

"None of that is even hinted at in the trailers!"

I know. They concentrate on the slave trade, and try to throw any white people under the bus, so to speak, and minimize the role played by the African king and the black trader he worked with most. It's truly a much better movie than the previews make it out to be. By the end, I was catching a note of similarity between this one and "Lifemark", which also dealt with adoption rather than abortion.

"Well, I guess you can tell what demographic they were targeting by keeping the focus on race relations and conflict. Anyway... what else did you do to mark the date?"

 

I was the gate wench for "The Christians"!

 

"You were what??? Oh, you're trying to be all cutesie about telling me you were a volunteer again for the SavRepTh show."

 

Well partly, but that's also where they put me! For usher detail, I'd expected to be inside. Nope! I was on front gate duty, welcoming 'parishioners' to 'Pastor Paul's church' and waving them toward the open doors. How nice to be outside as the day became dusk! 

But that wasn't the best part. Nope, it was getting hugs from Deborah and Kimmi as they came through and saw my smiling face! They're in-country from Costa Rica for the next two weeks and will be in Savannah for the next few days. After all, the Savannah Jazz Festival is going on and Deborah so loves that music!

 

"Hey! How very cool!!!"

 

It was, it was! And they were accompanied by Sherry, and fellow Savannah blogger Thomas Houston, and I got big hugs from them, too! Then, as the play began, I was able to sit down a row back from them, so we were all watching it together. So very nice!

"And how was it this second time? Did it still leave you with so many questions?"

I think maybe it didn't have as strong an impact on me as it did that first time. Plus, 'talking' it out with Grandpa had helped. Especially after I realized he had been my age when we had those deep debates. What an eye-opener for me that realization had been!

"Well, you have to remember that he's been gone for forty years now. I guess March would have been that anniversary."

I think I need to take a trip to Waycross in the near future. It's been a while since I visited family there, both the living and the dead.

"Lunch with cousin Lynn again? Nice! We could go for sushi!"

Yes, we could! Imagine that: sushi in Ware County! Very nice!

(smile!)