In an effort to end the carnage wrought by the previous post and stop all the dying (plus it’s been a while), I’m putting something new up here. I don’t actually have anything to say, so I apologize for the lack of substance (if only Donald Trump would do the same). Anyhow, in looking for something – anything – to write about, I noticed that it was 12 years ago today that Air America Radio launched (IIRC, it started up at noon, Eastern, with the Al Franken Show, which I think was initially called “The O’Franken Factor”). Oh, how I was looking forward to that (no radio up here in the provinces carried it, and I remember the stream being very unreliable in the beginning.) I think Al locked Ann “Bebe Neuwirth” Coulter in the closet or something. Ah, those were the days. Sure didn’t last long, did they?

Speaking of Jews, I also see that it was on this day in 1492 that King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella kicked the Jews out of Spain. I guess 1492 was a busy year for those crazy kids. It’s always struck me as odd that you hear about those two together. Kind of unusual for monarchs, isn’t it? I mean, you hear of Queen Victoria or Queen Elizabeth or Richard the Fourth, but you typically don’t hear about their spouses (with the exception of Henry VIII, of course). I guess Ferd and Issy must have been quite the team.

Speaking of Henry VIII, if you get a chance you should watch Wolf Hall (based on the books by Hilary Mantel), which has just gotten four BAFTA nominations, including best actor for Mark Rylance, who plays Thomas Cromwell. The Catholics are all up in arms over it (how unusual) because it depicts Cromwell as an intelligent self-made man, and Thomas More as somewhat less than saintly. The miniseries ends with Anne Boleyn’s execution (I hope I’m not spoiling that for anybody), so hopefully they’ll do another one (poor Cromwell didn’t last even last as long as AAR after Anne lost her head).

I got to go to the Tower of London way back when, and the pain and suffering that went on there is truly palpable (though I didn’t know enough at the time to go over to Tower Hill and visit the site where everybody had their heads chopped off – it apparently took the executioner a few whacks to get Cromwell’s head off).

Today is also Al Gore’s birthday (not to mention Gabe Kaplan, Rhea Perlman, and Christopher Walken, among others). So Happy Birthday to them.

Oh well, I’ve squandered enough time and should probably get back to working on something. Let’s hope people stop dying for a while.