The last episode of “Call the Midwife” was quite enjoyable.
It is based as you know on a poor neighborhood in the East End of London where
a group of midwives who include both nuns and lay people help the poor give
birth in their home. It was just at the beginning of socialized medicine in
England so they paint a warm fuzzy glow over the government taking over health
care. Nostalgia covers up the cracks that lead to people suffering from
government run health care that they want to impose on us today.
Be that as it may the stories are the thing. This week
featured Nurse Phyllis Crane who was the subject our last “Whose that Girl.”
She is the tough no nonsense older nurse who brooks no nonsense from the
younger midwives. At first she was very tough and did not reveal anything of
her personal story but as time has gone on she has softened and given us more
of a window into her personal life.
Spoilers to follow if you didn't get to see the episode.
This week’s case was hard to figure out to start. It was a
much younger woman married to a much older guy. She seems very weird and
depressed about having the baby. Which she ends up having the baby in the
hallway before the midwife shows up. You see Nurse Crane had a car and when she
was called to come to her the car didn't start. So she had to jump on a bike
like some of the younger girls. Which she really couldn't handle so it took
much longer than usual. In the meantime the poor girl was on the phone with the
one nurse in the joint who wasn't a midwife because they were all out on calls.
She plops out the baby on the floor of her vestibule and it wasn't breathing.
But all is well in the end and they get it to cry. This just reinforces the
fact that she feels she is not a worthy mother in her eyes. What you don’t know
is that she was a hooker and he was her client. She runs away but they find her
and bring her back and it all works out in the end.
We get to find out a little about Nurse Cranes back story.
It seems her Mom was abused and thrown out of her family house and had to go on
the street just like the woman she was trying to help. She reveals herself in a
tender and heartfelt way that was very moving. She has become one of my
favorite characters on the show.
The subplot revolves around smoking. The doctor in the show
smokes like a chimney and wants to start a lung clinic but his son tricks him
into quitting smoking. It was a cute subplot along with the two fat older
people who work together in the woman’s shop. The wife is ill and the husband
has to fit a woman for a bra. The less said about that the better because it
strikes to close to home. But you will smile if you see it.
The show airs on PBS and I think it is well worth you
checking out. Highly recommended.
4 comments:
Not just a regular recommendation, a high recommendation.
*jumps and swipes* I cannot jump. Your recommendation is too high for me. You must lower it.
Apologies. Antitrumpers are pissing off my lowbrow fundamental nature. The Driscol dude posted a lowbrow dummkopf vexing Cruz with massive simplicity, "I like turtles" or something similar, and Cruz spent seven minutes straightening him out on the proprieties, the shared values, the legalities, the moralities, the possibilities, the impossibilities, the wants and needs and desires of eager nations tied together in shared humanity, I'm imagining all this because who's going to watch? We're invited to watch. Who does? Seven f'n minutes answering a dum@sse's question so the dumb@ss can characterize ALL Trump supporters in antitrumpites minds. They say so in comments. Dipshit represents ALL Trump supporters. That's all they see. Then as as one, in unison, a proper chorus, a vote for Trump is a Hillary presidency. Of that they are certain.
Why?
Because they'll vote for her, that's why. The person writing will consider voting and it comes out that way, the only way you can possibly vote for Trump is to be already a complete idiot unworthy of any representation at all.
Observing this is the most remarkable thing. Thank you for having me be alive long enough to see this. The crackup of an elitist and resolutely non-representing political party. So fine to see the veneer of civility shorn off by power blaster for the necessity of guild preservation.
Anne Rice develops a wonderful scene in The Vampire Lestat. It's the sort of thing that make you go, "Damn, this broad actually thought of this. This came out of her mind. She thought and thought and thought and delved into her make-believe world and came out with this. It's brilliant." That's what you think when read something like this.
In her vampire world when they're turned then their physical development is arrested at that age. Child vampires never grow up. She has vampire children that are hundreds of years old. One such boy she describes as an angelic painting. A perfect gorgeous marble white boy precious of face. He can't help it. He's stuck on that.
He's an elder, respected for his age, the cupid boy devises a terrible vampire plan. Something goes wrong and the kid gets mad as hell, murderously angry and his face changes to pure anger personified, the features of his angelic face turn demonic as he flashes anger then regains control and relaxes his face. That is his real self. The real multi-hundred year sinister vampire, the real thing. The thing seen the whole time is the mask, the physical body that cannot age is the mask. Not the other way around.
In the case of antitrumpers, over there, they are the ones who are really angry, their guild is opened to a populist, their mask dropped, their clothes dropped, their skin peeled away, they are raw and wide open and direct anger. At fellow conservatives. And not at anything else.
So that's what a party crackup looks like.
Goes like this: fail to represent, resolutely so, then space is created for populist to move in. So much, so intense this map-representation that they are actually majority! Republican party stiff armed. See Colorado. Those people are still conservative. But don't expect them to support your guy. Not anymore.
And Driscol is still playing again the antique tarot, vote for X equals a vote for Y.
Fine then, vote for Hillary as you broadcast. The majority will be voting for Trump. Apparently. Thus the intense anger.
I have a Trump post for you Chip. It is a reprint but I think you find it interesting.
I also think you might find this TV series interesting. Just a thought.
It can't all be about politics.
But I have better news than this.
I learned how to pair the bluetooth speakers to Yosemite that everyone has so much trouble with. Just look online. Nobody can get it see their speakers.
Now the laptop has decent sound.
Pairing was an otaltay itcbay. Key: the device must be in "pairing mode." Not just on. Not bluetooth light on. Not blinking, Not beeping. Not already paired with galaxy. In its own new just for Yosemite pairing, you and you alone, right now, the very beginning and only the very beginning, one beep is all you're having -- pairing mode.
The very special evanescent state of being in the rarified realm that is nonphysical, we shall say "spiritual" realm of a sort of magical pairing between two electronic entities having only just encountered each other. They're aware of each other's presence, but having them pair is another story. Yosemite fails to even acknowledge its presence. You must go to the device, cast your voice to high pitch sweetness of coquettish delight and trepidation of newlywed bride:
"I'm pair-r-r-r-r-r-r-ring, you can come i-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-in now."
"I'm pair-r-r-r-r-r-r-ring, I'm pair-r-r-r-r-r-r-ring, I'm pair-r-r-r-r-r-r-ring, I'm pair-r-r-r-r-r-r-ring, I'm pair-r-r-r-r-r-r-ring, you can come i-i-i-i-i-i-i-in now."
You must get right next to each other and do this.
*bink* I see you.
And it's ON!
I will not in this lifetime watch Call the Midwife. I did, however, watch Downton Abbey. I liked the way nearly everyone was kind and decent and helped each other muddle through life. If only........There's a movie called Brooklyn which has that kindly Downton feel, and should be right in Trooper's wheelhouse. . The movie is so old fashioned that the priest is a good guy who helps out the parishioners. The part could have been played by Barry Fitzgerald. Saorise Ronan was terrific as a young Irish immigrant to America. She falls in love with a nice Italian boy who does not have mob connections. It's that kind of movie. The small period details seemed really accurate, and all the characters and all their problems were credible......I generally prefer plot lines that feature decapitation and large scale destruction as a way of solving life's problems, but this movie was pretty good. It showed how small acts of kindness can keep you going.
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