Homeland Series Five - Compass Fini - MTM Mary Tyler Moore

CARRIE'S BACK IN THE SADDLE AGAIN

First we sat up in bed eating his
home-made pizza on a long rosie towel
as we watched the credits roll across
the screen. Would it be any good
without Brody? I could barely remember
his blue eyes and how they groomed
him "to turn." And tried not to, down
that hole.

I bit into an olive and munched with
joy as Scott pretended to remove my
half-filled plate. Season Five was off
to a slow start, like a dog with a limp
in a reading primer. Donna had told me
they get even better with each season.

I just put my sun tan lotion in my carry-on
like she told me...think of something...
bag it! Carrie, with her bipolar, has a
certain brilliance, it was Saul, who saw
it first - I imagined him singing on The
White Way - but it was impossible

And of course now I was hiding my eyes
Such terrible things - the woman we hated
most - a spy! - why! - a brilliant trickster
who dies gangster-style at the end - Carrie's
hunch was right

Carrie as mother? Like us, she and Franny
read before bed. I'll be home by eight, sweetie,
she says, while slinging her rifle up the
stairs toward the end of the show. "Forgot
to tell you," said Scott today, and we replay
the end of the show - by then, we were curled
up on our sides, nodding on n off, watching
Quinn flatline, if indeed he did.

***

Got my final article for The Compass from Daniel G Hartman, MD. I'd asked him a simple question: Why Does It Take So Long to See a Psychiatrist?

Why?

A recent trend in physical medicine is the growth of “concierge” practices.  These are medical practices that do not accept insurance but, instead, charge a fee for access to your doctor.  These fees can be hundreds of dollars each month, making it out of reach for most families.  The cost for the concierge doc would be on top of your standard medical insurance since that would be required to cover fees for lab work, x-rays/MRIs or hospitalization (required under the Affordable Care Act).  The up-side of this is that you get easier access to your doctor (you generally have his/her direct cell phone number) and more time with him/her when you do need a face-to-face assessment.  

Dan himself takes insurance. Ever read his Sidewalk Psychiatrist column?

Anyway, in the not-too-distant future, you'll read the whole thing.

***

Just woke up - 1:15 am. Mary Tyler Moore: A Celebration was On, orig'ly aired in October 2015. She just died on January 25, 2017 at age 80. 

We don't think of these actors as aging. Ed Asner looked odd in his older years. Ted Knight aka hilarious newsman Ted Baxter died many years ago.

Robert Redford chose MTM to play the repressed uptight mom in Ordinarily People by Judith Guest. She was terrific. Timothy Hutton played her son in his debut role. It was hard to watch her play a woman who couldn't face her feelings.

At my nursing home job the morrow, I'll speak briefly about MTM. Gotta think of two songs we'll sing. They love it. When the lights went out in the Minneapolis Newsroom for good, they all sang It's a Long Way to Tipperary. I'm not familiar with that song.  Are you?

  Famous group hug at show's end.

Hurry hurry print out two songs and then you can return to bed.

Was at Mom's tonight. She suggested we do Beatles' songs.

Just printed out Yesterday.

Any other ideas out there?

Got it!  February is Valentine's Day. What's your favorite love song?  Tea for Tea they might know since Mom knows it.

In October 1927, the conductor Nikolai Malko challenged Dmitri Shostakovich to do an arrangement of the song after the two listened to it on record at Malko's house. Malko bet 100 roubles that Shostakovich could not completely re-orchestrate it from memory in under an hour. Shostakovich took him up and won, completing it in around 45 minutes. His "Tea for Two" arrangement, Opus 16, was first performed on 25 November 1928. It was incorporated into Tahiti Trot from his ballet The Golden Age first performed in 1929.

Impossible to sing, so we're going with My World is Empty Without You, Babe.

Oh, good news, one of my fave short stories just got published. The Schmitt's Turkey Farm. Here's another:  A Thief Comes Calling.

Thankyou thankyou thankyou for publishing it!!!