#5SmartReads - November 28, 2022

Hitha on a very viral season, making a holiday movie, and Andrew Morton's many thoughts on the British royal family

November 28, 2022

It brings me no joy to share articles warning us of a tripledemic, but that’s what we’re experiencing right now.

Both of my kids had terrible bouts of viral gastroenteritis that lasted weeks. We’ve had our own respiratory symptoms. And I’m furiously knocking on wood, sanitizing all frequently touched surfaces daily, and washing my hands more than I was in March 2020.

And while we had relaxed on masking, we’re all wearing them again and continue to test weekly.

This article does a really solid job of outlining the symptoms and duration of each virus in kids, and when to seek out medical care. I recommend bookmarking this article, and I hope you never need to reference it.

Having just finished A Merry Little Meet Cute (equal parts steamy and adorable and inclusive), I’m very much in the Christmas movie spirit - and the making of a Christmas movie mode even more.

Christmas movies deserve more respect than they get. Absolute happy magic is created with tight budgets, tighter deadlines, and with an efficiency I’m in awe of.

“I’ve seen the scale of this production, the number of film-industry workers it employs in the area, and the ancillary businesses that sprout up around it. The set decorator runs his own year-round Christmas store in Jonesborough. The young women who lead the wardrobe, hair-and-makeup, and art departments get to make bold creative decisions like letting Santa wear blue. These movies are training grounds for writers and steady work for production teams in smaller markets. It’s an efficient, chaos-free set.”

So what’s it like working on a Christmas movie? Rebecca Alter traveled to Nashville to find out, as an extra on “Santa Bootcamp.” And I cannot wait to watch it - along with every single Christmas movie I possibly can over the next month.

“"We've had to cut back a lot to get by," says Nazar, as he makes his way through a food line. "We used to eat meat several times a week; now we're lucky if we can eat it a couple times a month."

He doesn't blame the new government for upending his life. Few waiting in line at the WFP distribution center do. Instead, many see the international community at fault.

"Life was much better before the arrival of the Islamic Emirate," Nazar says, referring to the Taliban government. "The sanctions imposed on this government have affected us all."

While certain Taliban leaders, now in the government, have long faced international sanctions, the country and its institutions do not. The economic factors that have turned the lives of so many Afghans upside-down have more to do with international recognition of the Taliban.”

While the US withdrawal from Afghanistan is but a memory for many of us, it has made the basic survival of 90% of the country’s residents a challenge - especially this winter. And that’s unconscionable and tragic.

While I have my own thoughts about the role of the British monarchy today and in the future, I can’t help but be fascinated by the pomp and circumstance their appearances bring, nor how they’ve caused and been documented in modern culture.

And I know it may sound strange, but to know that we’ll never see another Queen of England in our lifetime - or likely my own kids’ - is something that makes me feel a little sad.

In any case, I very much enjoyed this wide-ranging conversation between Elizabeth (of So Many Thoughts fame) and Andrew Morton, a respected royal biographer and consultant to The Crown on the moments of this past year and what to expect in the future.

And if this article leaves you wanting more, I highly recommend picking up a copy of The Queen: Her Life, which I’ve started but decided to save for the longer holiday break.

With the Republicans in control of the House of Representatives and the Democrats maintaining their current margin in the Senate, don’t expect much to come out of Congress other than the typical lame duck bills (and the same partisan drama over raising the debt ceiling).

But you can likely expect to see the Respect for Marriage Act to make it to President Biden’s desk before this session ends, and that is a big deal indeed.

With the Dobbs decision, privacy as the basis of a number of issues became at risk. Outside of reproductive health, interracial marriage and same-sex marriage could be at risk without congressional action, and I’m heartened to see Congress act with both speed and urgency and in a bipartisan manner.

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