How to Escape Bad News, Politics and the Virus Times Three

I find by the end of my work week I need an escape.  I’m immersed in news and politics.  It’s my job.  I also need some time away from what’s often the worst of humanity.  Some afternoons I watch marathons of Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives.  Last week I even saw the original pilot.  The show has made me a better cook.  Even with simple things such as hamburgers.  I watch how the cooks add a few extra seasonings and have been inspired.  I made meatballs this past weekend for the first time in ages. 

Then there are Saturday mornings.  I’m up early.  Very early.  Long before sunrise, no matter what time of year.  I do laundry, guzzle coffee and look for a way to decompress.

IFC was for a time airing re-runs of Batman and The Three Stooges.  I lost interest in Batman after a month or so, however.  The Stooges are timeless.  “Everybody likes the Stooges,” my dad once told me.  He had grown up watching them at Saturday matinees.  “Grampa” would drop my dad and his brother at the movie house and leave them all day.  It gave their father a break from raising two rambunctious boys.

There are some people who tell me women don’t like the old comedians and I can see where it’s more a guy thing.  Still, a woman I worked with at a previous radio station could quote old Stooges routines and if I mentioned any episodes she would break into laughter.  And even Curly, Larry and Moe knew how to treat the contemporary politics of the time, as you can watch below.