Your Bag of Nothing for Tuesday, April 22, 2025

  • While no one wants to be involved in a plane crash, I know we all want an opportunity to go down the slide.

  • BoyGeeding and I have started watching the Amazon series Invincible together. I was delightfully surprised to see that the main character is half-Asian, with an Asian mother and a white father.

    I remember being a young kid watching television and thinking I must have been adopted because no shows had a mixed-race family like mine. In my kid logic, it kind of made sense. I was a loyal viewer of Different Strokes, where the boys were adopted by a white man. So in my little mind, seeing a family like mine just didn’t seem possible unless someone was adopted. Whatchu talkin’ ’bout, young Keith?

    Of course, it made no real sense. I was just an ignorant kid trying to fit myself into the stories I saw. It’s funny looking back now. Too bad I didn’t realize back then that Desi Arnaz wasn’t white either.

    Speaking of Desi Arnaz, he died shortly before Lucille Ball was honored at the Kennedy Center in 1986. Unknown to her, Desi had written a final note that was read aloud during the ceremony after his passing. Sadly, I bet too many today don’t understand the significance of that moment.

    “I Love Lucy was never just a title.”

    That simple line hit her hard. It hits differently knowing Desi died just days before. That tribute became both a love letter and a goodbye. Wild how something written for a formal event ends up feeling so personal.

    The way Robert Stack, with that incredible voice, reads it — calm, reverent, and with so much understated emotion — and Lucy trying to hold it together in the audience, it’s one of those rare TV moments where everything feels honest and real.

    Even though they had divorced back in 1960, there was still a deep, complicated love and respect between them. In private, Lucy reportedly said that Desi’s words “meant the world” to her and that they gave her a sense of closure she hadn’t realized she needed. She also said something to the effect of “it was like Desi was there with me one last time.”

    Turns out TV was teaching me more about life than I realized, even if young Keith was a little slow on the uptake. Guess it only took 40 years, a cartoon, and a Cuban bandleader to finally make it click. Representation matters, even if it took me half a lifetime to notice.

  • No other celebrity is having a better year than Walter Goggins.
  • I watched the first few seasons of Mythic Quest and enjoyed it. After season four aired, Apple decided to abruptly cancel the series. But it’s interesting how Apple allowed the show to edit its season finale to make it a series finale, and fans are no longer able to watch the original ending. For someone like me who takes the canon of television and movies seriously, this raises a lot of questions.
  • It wouldn’t surprise you to know that, as a presidential history nerd, I follow presidential library Twitter accounts. One reason is that they will sometimes post interesting footage of them out of the public eye, acting natural, as in this case with Nixon and Clinton. I’m so used to these men acting formal in front of the camera, it takes a moment or two for me to adjust to just seeing two men talk. Pat Nixon died three months later. In one book I read, Nixon held a grievance against Clinton for not calling on the day of her passing.

  • Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, also known as Friendly Fire Barbie, needs a lesson in optics. But then again, she’s the one who doubled down on shooting a dog that wasn’t up to her standards. Her own party has roasted her for her ‘ICE Barbie’ stunts, calling her out for ‘cosplaying’ as an ICE agent. She wore full makeup and her hair blown out when she toured a prison in El Salvador, sporting a $50,000 gold Rolex. On Easter, while at a burger spot, a thief nabbed her purse, which contained Noem’s driver’s license and passport, DHS access badge, checks, medicine, makeup, and roughly $3,000 in cash.
  • In a guest essay for the NY Times, Larry David skewers Bill Maher for dining with President Trump at the White House.
    “Two hours later, the dinner was over, and the Führer escorted me to the door. “I am so glad to have met you. I hope I’m no longer the monster you thought I was.” “I must say, mein Führer, I’m so thankful I came. Although we disagree on many issues, …”
    “…it doesn’t mean that we have to hate each other.” And with that, I gave him a Nazi salute and walked out into the night.”
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