58 thoughts on “Our Daily Thread 1-22-18”

  7. The header is for anyone who says a bird is “just a sparrow.” This is two different species of sparrows (neither one a house sparrow), and you can see they are very different in size, shape, and coloring. Both are species that come to Indiana only in winter (they do not nest here, though we have a bunch of species of sparrows that do); the one on the right, the white-crowned sparrow, I see for one or two days in January if I see it at all (we had two of them for one day last week); but the one at the left, the so-called American tree sparrow, we see all winter.

    Ornithologists are amused by the name “American tree sparrow” since many sparrows spend a lot of times in trees–but this one does not. According to allaboutbirds.org, “Misleadingly named by European settlers reminded of Eurasian Tree Sparrows back home, American Tree Sparrows are ground birds. They forage on the ground, nest on the ground, and breed primarily in scrubby areas at or above the treeline.” Also, “American Tree Sparrows need to take in about 30 percent of their body weight in food and a similar percentage in water each day. A full day’s fasting is usually a death sentence.” You can’t really see details on this photo, but it’s a handsome little bird with a lot of interesting thing going on in its coloring, including a bill with a dark top half and a yellowish bottom half. It looks a lot like the chipping sparrow (which is a less colorful bird), but the chipping sparrow is our species that is here only in summer.

    The white-crowned sparrow is obviously considerably larger and plumper, and is colored in an unmistakable way. Here’s a funny fact from allaboutbirds: “Scientists interested in movement and energetics have discovered that White-crowned Sparrows can run on a treadmill at a pace of about one-third of a mile an hour without tiring out.” It too often nests on the tundra.

    Last summer I found a meadowlark foraging on the ground and I took several photos of it, and ended up with some of the back of its head. To my amazement, its head coloring is very much like that of the white-crowned sparrow. Its wing coloring is somewhat similar too, but the similarities of the heads really surprised me. But the meadowlark has bold yellow and black on its front, so the white-and-black cap doesn’t look as oddly out of place on it as it does on this otherwise fairly plain sparrow.

    The photo was a bit too dark, so I lightened it up to show details and that left the background a bit washed out, and it still doesn’t show as much details on the birds as I would like. But the reason I took the photo, as a comparison shot, “works,” so I still like the shot.

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  8. Yep, it seems to be Monday again.

    And that’s all I have to say about that.

    I accomplished very little this weekend but I think I needed the extra down time, physically & mentally.

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  9. I have been running around at home like crazy trying to get much done in my little bit of time at home before going to the office. We got home late last night and will do the same tonight. It is sad to have to miss important new beginnings/implementation team meetings at church. Really bad timing. We have to vote one more time between Bridgeport Church and Bridgeport Church at Toco Hills. I think we need the distinguishing location.

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  11. 6 Arrows – That’s cute that you pronounce Kizzie as Kitzee. It does rhyme with Lizzie, though. :But you can call me Kitzee if you like. 🙂

    The one friend who calls me Kizzie apart from this blog sometimes calls me Kizzle. (That’s an L instead of an I, if you can’t tell.)

    The nickname Kizzie was made up by Hubby early in our relationship. It is made up of my first and middle names – Karen Elizabeth. (It was also the name of a character in Roots.)

    That reminds me. Our dear departed VS (Vickie) would address me as Karen Elizabeth, and I would address her as Vickie Lynn. (Her first name was simply Vickie, not Victoria, but she wished she had been named Victoria.) Hard to believe that this summer it will be ten years since her death from breast cancer. She and I had become good friends through emails. I have kept her beloved grandchildren, Vinny and Sydney, in prayer, along with her other family members.

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  12. Yesterday on the Rants & Raves thread there was much talk about humor in families. I mentioned that we, too, are a teasing family. And like some others, Hubby and I could keep a string of puns going. We did that a couple times or so replying to each other on another friend’s Facebook post, and would get comments like, “You two crack me up!”

    Hubby is remembered as a man with a goofy sense of humor and a huge smile, as well as being a man of faith. So many people have remarked to me about those things. Even yesterday, I was talking to Pastor Billy after service, and he used the word goofy in relation to Hubby. 🙂

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  13. 6 Arrows commented on the weekend News/Politics thread about her high school class voting on the colors of their graduation gowns. I could have put this comment on the new N/P thread, but thought it might go better here:

    First, a question for 6 Arrows. Why didn’t your school go by the school colors for the gowns? I thought that was how it is supposed to be done. Or am I mistaken about that?

    Our school colors (in the village of Little Chute, Wisconsin, where we lived when I graduated high school) were navy and columbia (pretty much dark blue and light blue). Our gowns, for both boys and girls, were navy, and the tassels on the caps were both colors.

    It’s only been sometime in the last several years that I’d heard that some schools have the girls wear one color and the boys wear another. Of course, in this current social climate of worrying about the transgender kids, the local high school had a problem with that this past year. Should they let each graduate decide which color to wear? Should they have only one color? What to do to make everyone happy?

    The school board came with the idea to continue having the white gowns for the girls, and the blue gowns for the boys, and introduced an combination gown for those who may not want to identify as strictly boy or girl (blue with a white collar, I think it was). Of course, that didn’t please everyone, and there was a big brouhaha about it. (Actually, I think the original idea was to have all the students wear the combination gown, but that was voted down by the students.)

    I just kept thinking of how it would have been so much simpler to just have had one color to begin with.

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  14. Teasing can be tricky. A friend I grew up next door to (and we still are in touch) was one of the most sarcastic people I ever knew. Her sarcasm was biting and even mean. Later she told me it’s how their family interacted — she had 2 older brothers and said she had to learn to bite back, and so she did.

    But ouch.

    She’s mellowed but can still send you a zinger that’s personal & more mean than funny. But I think she does try to watch her tongue more now.

    Anyway, families just need to be careful they’re not fostering tendencies like that. There’s often a fine line with “teasing,” especially with some personalities.

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  16. DJ – I agree. There has to be an understanding in the teasing that it is not serious, not actually attacking the person under the guise of humor. Biting sarcasm is different from the kind of teasing I refer to, and is hurtful.

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  19. My family’s humor can be caustic, or at least I have two brothers whose “humor” strikes me as sometimes very un-funny. One of them, for instance, when I stayed with his family several years ago (when his now-grown children were little) pretended to find a discrepancy in two different things I had said, and in front of his children he accused me of lying. I tried to explain why the two statements were not in fact contradictory, and he picked holes in my explanation. His wife told me with a smile to “Give it up, Cheryl,” telling me that she saw him as teasing and that he wouldn’t let me “win.” I vaguely knew he was teasing, but it wasn’t clear in his manner, and since he was accusing me of sin in front of his children, it didn’t really strike me as funny.

    Another brother, the oldest, is very much a type-A personality, and his humor can go for the jugular. My oldest brother is by far the tallest person in our family, for instance, and eight or nine inches taller than my next brother (the shortest of my brothers, who is quite sensitive about his shortness). Three or four years ago I heard tall brother make some snide comment to short brother about his height and my mind went “Ouch!”

    Since childhood I have hated to be laughed at, even when the other person might think they are laughing “with” me, and at the last family reunion I realized why. When a girl grows up with much-older brothers who can make a barb count, it isn’t really give and take.

    For two years in my early twenties I was part of a youth group that practiced cruel humor, led by the youth pastor. One was supposed to know what teasing to avoid (no fat jokes, for instance), but it was pretty much a free-for-all. I then had to relearn humor, to learn how to tease without the barb, to replay the potential joke for a beat or two before saying it (which sometimes puts me out of rhythm in a conversation–the fact that I think about pretty much everything before saying it does, anyway, and then the fact that for my last couple of years in Chicago one of my friends took offense at nearly everything I said, even if I thought it through very carefully and meant to compliment).

    Now I think I am fairly thick skinned and I can accept teasing by someone who loves me (which is good, because my husband is known to tease). But I still don’t like harsh teasing, teasing intended to leave a welt.

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  21. Puns – One time I went to the mountains with a group of friends. On the way down, someone said something about electricity and for the next twenty minutes or so we had a pun-tastic time telling electricity related puns. “That’s a current topic.” etc.

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  23. Reminds me, sometimes (when she was a teen) my friend would open with “No offense, but …”

    You knew what was coming would (and was clearly meant to) cause offense.

    As I said, she’s better now but still is harsh in her judgments of others and currently is no longer speaking to 2 neighbors (a third recently died) whom she fastidiously avoids at all costs, peering out the window so she’s sure they’re not out there if she has to go out. It’s sad really, but she’s seems to have a self-righteous streak that just won’t give way to mercy. 😦

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  28. We’ll have one photographer and, yes, reporters left will have to take cell phone pics – it’s pretty clear that the owners’ plan is simply to cut until there’s no ‘profit’ for them left, then it’ll close down

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  30. Kitzie, 10:43 — the double z in the middle of your name is like pizza/peet-sa to me. 🙂

    If it’s okay, I will continue to think of you as Kizzie with a /t/ in the middle. 🙂

    I always thought of Phos as /fahz/ before she announced that it’s pronounced /fohs/ (rhymes with close, as in “Close” Encounters of the Third Kind, to stick to the movie discussion from the weekend thread.)

    She’s Roscuro now, of course, but she will, in my mind, remain formerly /fahz/. 🙂

    I’ve heard “Fahz” and “Kitsee” in my head for too long now to go readjust my internal pronunciation. 🙂

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  31. Kizzie, as far as your 11:22 goes, I don’t know why our school didn’t automatically go with school colors for caps and gowns, or why we voted on our preferences. I’m not sure how long that had been a tradition (or if it was at all — maybe our class wanted to have a choice and school officials let us?), or if they still do it that way?

    Interesting questions.

    The different gown colors for males and females I could see being a problem these days, though, like you point out, with all the gender confusion and uproar and, well, I’ve probably said enough.

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  32. DJ, that’s so sad, all the cuts in your industry. And when you see it right in your workplace, with people you’ve worked side by side with. 😦

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  33. Teasing — it’s one of those deals where I try to tell the kids, it’s only fun if we’re all having fun. Watch the faces of those you’re ribbing for clues. And speak up if someone is saying something you don’t find amusing, in case the speaker is missing the cues that would say, “Please knock it off.”

    Boundaries.

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  34. Michelle, I see a few examples in that article of a few rude individuals, but that’s a whole different story from the assertion of a institution-wide hatred of minorities. And a person can despise the term “white privilege” without being a racist. I myself heartily dislike it for several reasons (though having lived in an all-black neighborhood the better part of a decade, and attending a majority-black church for more than a decade, I understand it better than perhaps most white people do). But I think that the term

    (1) really means to speak of “black un-privilege,” and thus it doesn’t say what it means to say;

    (2) is overall broad enough to be useless–“white” is a nearly meaningless term (are Jews white? what about Asians? Hispanics?) and definitely not all white people receive said “privilege.” We don’t receive the disadvantages of being black, but again, that’s why the term doesn’t work. I was raised as one of seven children born to an Arkansas farm boy; I do not identify with “white privilege.”

    (3) puts white people on the defensive, which isn’t the best way to start talks about tricky subjects;

    (4) excuses black people’s inability to get ahead. This is my main problem with the term: for all that “white privilege” may have been historically accurate, in a day of affirmative action it is worse than useless to emphasize “white privilege.” You may give the job to someone less qualified for it and then turn around and deride the person who was actually qualified for being “privileged.” And the term does nothing to encourage minority groups that are less successful (e.g., blacks) to work to overcome the disadvantages, as they are in a historically unprecedented place to do.

    It’s an irresponsible article. It’s also un-Christian to brush a whole institution with the actions of a few individuals.

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  35. I thought it was Phos as in phosphorus.

    It’s starting to get busy here in the office. I would like to be an ostrich putting my head in the sand at a warm beach (unlike the frozen east coast that we visited recently).

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  36. In my county the white students were not weighted equally with blacks and others when it came to having names drawn for the magnet schools, the specialized and meant typically for higher achieving students. The system was rigged to make up for the wrongs suffered in the past by long term disadvantaged students. Basically, it was “black privilege.” So now when I hear the words “white privilege” It makes me bristle a bit. It’s like, we’ve already paid that price. How much more do they expect to take to make things right in their sight? Only God can truly reconcile and bring the best forward for groups of people who feel wronged.

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  39. My former blog moniker was a transliteration of the Greek word for light. In Greek, it is a three letter word, spelt Phi Omega Sigma. Omega makes a long ‘o’ sound, while the short ‘o’ sound in Greek is signified by Omicron. Therefore, Phos is pronouned fOhs. But it doesn’t really matter, since any of you I ever meet will call me by my given name, so how you pronounce my blog name(s) makes no difference to me, just spell it correctly 😀

    None of my family are cruel in teasing. We don’t make jokes about people’s appearance or other characteristics that they cannot help about themselves. But learning to laugh at oneself is a part of healthy development, and good natured teasing by loving family members is an excellent school in not taking oneself too seriously. When I was young, I learned to read very early and very quickly, and once I started to read, my appetite was insatiable for the printed word. I had also inherited my father’s powers of concentration. When concentrating on a task, I would become completely absorbed in it and not hear what was going on around me, which was exactly what my grandmother said my father’s school teacher told her about my father, that she could come up to my father’s desk while he was working and speak to him and he wouldn’t hear her. That meant I would often be sit there reading after everyone else had gathered to whatever they had been summoned for, such as dinner. When that happened, someone would have to walk right up to me and do something to attract my attention, such as wave their hand in front of my face or call my name loudly to get a response from me. So, my family would tease me, calling me Nose-In-Book or say “There’s print on your nose!”

    As most young children do when teased, at first I felt somewhat indignant that they would tease me about my trait. But they would tell me, “We aren’t laughing at you; we’re laughing with you.” Their laughter was good for me. Since I was a natural speed reader enabling me to finish long and complex books in a very short space of time, and I had a photographic memory that enabled me to remember where I saw information in a book, my powers of reading were something I was inclined to be egotistical about, as there was no hiding the fact that they were unusual. My family’s teasing was a good way of reminding me that I was merely human and just because I could read well was no reason for me to be treated as ‘special’. They encouraged and valued learning, so it wasn’t as if their teasing discouraged my bent for getting an education either. After a time, I learned to laugh along with them at my trait and to realize that as good as it was to be able to learn from books, I also needed to engage with and learn from those around me. I learned to be aware of when it was time to put down my book and interact with other people. I’m still an introvert, I still can devour a book at high speed, and I still can get so absorbed in a task that I don’t hear people talking to me; but I can also engage with and concentrate on the people around me, which is a very important part of being a nurse. I’m thankful my family laughed with me all those years ago.

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  40. People do need to be careful about teasing. When I was a child my father’s friends would tell him “That a mighty fine looking little BOY you’ve got there”. Because of that I thought I was ugly and looked like a boy. It didn’t help that my mother kept my hair cut short either. I cried every time she took me to get my hair cut.
    It was only in the last couple of years that it occurred to me that they were teasing my father about having a little girl when he was such an outdoorsman.

    I don’t tease children about things like that.

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  41. World had a long article on the problems at Moody: https://world.wng.org/2018/01/moody_blues

    On white privilege, I see Cheryl’s and Janice’s points. More and more, however, in this political climate of us vs. them, my right vs. your rights, and whose rights trump whose – it isn’t just in the U.S. that the divisiveness is heating up, as in Britain, the bitter debate over Brexit, and recent requirements by the Liberal Government in Canada to support certain popular social movements in order to receive government funds are making the atmosphere increasingly acrimonious – I find myself turning to the Scripture for how I, as I navigate through an academic and professional world in which individual rights are paramount provided they are progressive enough, should respond as a follower of Christ. The passage which reverberates ever louder in my heart and mind comes from the Sermon on the Mount. I will quote it in the King James, since I memorized it years ago in that translation:

    But I say unto you, That ye resist not evil: but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also.
    And if any man will sue thee at the law, and take away thy coat, let him have thy cloak also.
    And whosoever shall compel thee to go a mile, go with him twain. [Matthew 5:39-42]

    The early church preacher John Chysostum noted in his Homily on this passage that being struck on the face was the worst of all possible insults and indeed, cultural references to a blow on the face being the final trigger for a duel being fought to avenge one’s honour abound in our literature. Jesus was saying not to be concerned about that nebulous and yet all-consuming thing, one’s personal honour. The next example in the passage gives an instance of another using the judicial system for personal gain at one’s expense, and once again, Jesus tell us to do the opposite of what we would do naturally, which would be to get a good lawyer, and instead to pay not only the amount demanded but even to double it. Going a mile refers to the Roman law in occupied countries, that a countryman could be compelled to carry the gear of a Roman soldier for a mile – to go the extra mile was to lay down one’s national pride for the benefit of a hated occupying force.

    So, when I am told in my class that my ethnic background gives me certain privileges that others do not have, I may smile somewhat wryly, but I have to nod in agreement. I have worked in an impoverished country, of which the colonialists were from the same country of origin as my mother’s family – the privilege of my ethnic origins were always on display before me. I was more wealthy, and I did have better access to education and health care than they did. Of course it would be nice if others could recognize that my mother’s family’s status as domestic servants and labourers meant they were not as privileged as the upper classes of the same ethnic origin, and that my father’s family history as economic and sometimes political refugees from the oppression of those same upper classes meant that my privilege was greatly limited – although it did still exist. Nevertheless, it really costs me nothing to humbly agree that I have had privilege because of where and to whom I was born. It is really a very slight slap to turn my other cheek to. Where there is real injustice that I have to face is due to my convictions based in the faith that God has freely given me, and for that, we are told over and over to suffer patiently. It is the least of matters to accede to having privilege, and it allows me to have open conversations with those of different ethnic backgrounds that bridling up in my own defense would cut off. In time, they may see that there are more similarities than differences between themselves and I; but entrenching myself in a position of self defense will never allow them to see anything beyond the walls we have both put up. “He that saves his life shall lose it, but he that loses his life for my sake and the gospel, will find it.”

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  43. Well, the finalized plans for completing the missing clinical hours have been sent out. They are to be completed throughout May and June. That not only means I will not be able to go for a remote clinical placement in the summer, it also means I will have to come up with the money to pay for rent, food, and transportation for those two months, since the tuition was already paid for the incomplete clinical course back in the fall, and funding from students loans and grants only comes through if you have to pay tuition. I have sent an email to the contact person, but it is a forlorn hope that they will be able to do anything.

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  44. “White privilege” to me seems not to work largely because what we really mean is “minority disadvantage.” And the “minority” in that case would include people within the group called “white.” This country has in times past had some very egregious policies in place that give great disadvantage to minorities: including Jews, Italians, and Roman Catholics. Those living in Appalachia are still white, and still disadvantaged. The longest term disadvantage has gone to African Americans–though Africans coming to this country now can largely leap past their more established brothers and sisters.

    I think the term “white privilege” can help only if it helps understanding–for instance, if people understand that generations of privilege behind them can help them with a leg up now. (But . . . again . . . I come from Appalachian roots myself, apparently, and I don’t have those generations of privilege to draw from. I have other benefits that have nothing to do with race or with family wealth: coming from a Christian home, a very pro-marriage family–virtually no divorce and to the best of my knowledge no adultery or children born out of wedlock, a family with genes for being smart and creative.) It would be more helpful to say what we really mean, which is historical minority (esp. black) disadvantage. But if the term helps people to understand that advantage or disadvantage can be cumulative, in that sense it can be helpful. But I think the term itself puts up defenses, so I don’t know that it does what it’s supposed to do–if that is what it is supposed to do. (I’ve heard theories it is actually “supposed to” increase racial tension, not heal it.)

    It also isn’t helpful because it becomes the focus for black people. If you tell me before I enter a room that people in that room cannot stand women, or Christians, or people with brown hair, I’m going to have my guard up, and I’m going to expect disappointment. If I am going into an interview and told that the person interviewing me has a certain bias, then if I don’t get hired after that interview, I am likely to focus on the bias. It’s a self-fulfilling prophecy. But focusing on that bias is keeping me from interviewing well! Now, if you can tell me “People in this area haven’t seen a lot of Scottish people, and they’re inclined to be suspicious of strangers, and you need to work to win them over” that puts a whole different spin on it.

    I know someone who has an adopted daughter who is old enough to have graduated from high school, but she dropped out and got pregnant. She is very lazy in terms of personal hygiene or doing any work around the house. And apparently she isn’t a very good student. Well, my friend told me that she hates it that her daughter has two strikes against her in terms of companies wanting to hire her, because she is both black and female. I told her, “No, you don’t understand the job market. Companies drool at the chance to hire a black woman, because they get two bonus points for the price of one. Now, they don’t necessarily want to hire black men, because black men have a reputation for being dangerous people. But they can hire a black woman and get even more credit than hiring a black man, and they’re eager to do that.” Indeed, her daughter has now been hired at numerous jobs, none of which she keeps for more than a couple of weeks (she doesn’t get fired; she stops showing up). If I were talking to that daughter I would tell her she has an advantage her ancestors didn’t have, that people aren’t likely to refuse to hire her for her skin color. But it’s her abilities that will determine whether she can keep a job, move up in it, or get a better one, and those are her choice.

    Yeah, there are probably people here and there who avoid hiring someone who is black–but I think there are more who are more likely to hire them, so it more than evens out. But it doesn’t make any sense to worry about factors you can’t change (your skin color or how tall you are); focus on being someone who will make a good employee, a good neighbor, a good friend, etc. I am NOT saying black people should just ignore that they are black (or that white people should), but making an identity of “victim” isn’t a good way to start a career. There will always be racist people around, but culture as a whole is no longer there, and pretending that we are doesn’t help anyone.

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  47. Cheryl – I have been saying (not here, but on Facebook) basically the same thing – that the term “white privilege” is more apt to shut down conversation and understanding than to foster them. A friend of mine can give lots of statistics that prove the theory behind the term, but he also says that the term itself only serves to shut down conversation. I’ve said, as you have here, that referring to advantage or disadvantage would be more helpful.

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  48. Kim – My mom liked me in a pixie haircut, which to me meant looking like a boy. 😦

    Probably some would disagree, but I think that children should have a say in how their hair is cut and styled, unless the parents have a good reason to not allow the child’s wishes.

    Nightingale allows The Boy to decide how his hair should be, within reason. She did insist on cutting it some when it was getting a bit too shaggy, and he went along with it as she promised not to cut it too short. She also wanted to get to it before his dad did.

    Mr X has forced a couple “buzz cuts” on The Boy, once nicking his ear with the electric razor thingie because The Boy was squirming in protest that he didn’t want his hair that way. So Nightingale tries to keep ahead of that by not letting his hair get too shaggy before trimming it. I think The Boy understands.

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  49. I agree with Kim about teasing.
    You should never tease child about anything.
    You never know how he/she will take it.
    My grandmother used to say that I looked funny in a hat.
    She was right.
    I still don’t wear hats unless I need to (As in the AF)
    I don’t tease nobody about nothing.
    If you can’t say anything good, don’t say anything at all.

    The correlation may be incidental and incorrect, But I have noticed through the years that teasers were not really smart people. They want to be cute abut aren’t .
    They don’t mean to cause trouble, It’s just that trouble follows them.

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  50. Chas, Did you just say my family weren’t really smart?! 🙂 😆
    There was a gentleman at the church we attended when we were young who would call us boys and pretend to be astonished when we protested that we weren’t. It didn’t cause irreparable damage to any of us. When we got older, we just chuckled about how indignant we got over nothing.

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  51. Kizzie, my mother cut our hair. When we reached puberty, we began to give input in how we wanted it cut and she would try to accommodate us, but she was not a professional. There were a few failed experiments, and my hair was never how I wanted it until I earned enough to pay a professional. After a few cuts, I figured out how to do it myself, and since I went to West Africa, I have been cutting my own hair.

    It occurs to me in the discussion about teasing, that what some of you describe as teasing, my family would call ‘making fun’ rather than teasing. To make fun of someone was always off limits and out of bounds. We could tell the difference as children. My mother, who was what she has described as homely, was made fun of for her big feet and ‘liver’ lips when she went to school, so she knew what it was and never permitted us to do the same. So, what some of you call teasing is not what I would call teasing.

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  52. Roscuro – I agree about the difference between teasing and making fun of a person. But then again, some teasing can seem to be making fun of the person. What makes a difference, though, is knowing if the person is sensitive about what they are being teased/made fun of for, and if they are, then it is not merely teasing, and should be off-limits.

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  54. Apparently it is 81° and partly sunny here, according to my email homepage. That’s what the little icon says, anyway. (When I hover over the icon, it gives a town near mine.)

    But when I clicked on the icon, instead of getting a weather report for my area, I’ve got one for Bodrum, Turkiye, with a temperature in the 50s.

    Other clickable buttons on the weather box say Simdi, Hafta Sonu, Uzatlmis, Aylik, Uydu.

    I have no idea how those settings got changed.

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  56. But the dogs are walked and I realize (though I don’t always act or react this way) that jobs and houses and all the “stuff” aren’t the truly big things in life.

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  57. Odd, because last night I wound up watching some old reruns on TV and what should come on but the final episode of the Mary Tyler Moore Show — where a new owner takes over the TV station & fires all of them, with the final scene a group hug and Mary, crying and smiling at the same time, pausing to turn out the newsroom lights.

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  58. And speaking of reruns (I’m in full escape mode these evenings), I saw a Twilight Zone episode from 1962 I’d never seen before but had heard about from the colleague once.

    About a man and his coon dog (my colleague had a dog just like that) who die and wind up at Hell’s gate (thinking it’s Heaven). But when told the dog can’t enter, the man turns away and they eventually find, of course, heaven where dogs are quite welcome.

    Ending narration: “Travelers to unknown regions would be well advised to take along the family dog. He could just save you from entering the wrong gate. At least, it happened that way once—in a mountainous area of the Twilight Zone.”

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