About That Insane Moment at the Academy Awards -- No, Not That One

What were these people thinking???

Above: it’s not sexual harassment if it’s a woman doing it, says the Academy

Don’t see this as another Will Smith/Chris Rock take. I mean, it is that, in part — but it’s so much more. It’s a discussion of Stoicism, the varying ways that we perceive events based on sex and gender, the ways that the Academy sucks, and much more.

Let me start by explaining that today’s newsletter never would have been written if we had not had a leaky pipe a couple of years ago.

You see, it’s always been my habit to ignore the Academy Awards, because I dislike just about everything about the show. First off, I’m not a big movie fan. I consider a movie to be a potential waste of two hours of my valuable time — and for me to watch one, I need to be assured that it will be good. My wife, who loves movies and doesn’t mind watching them twice, will usually tell me when she sees one I really need to watch. When she watches one and expresses regret, I get to smugly exult in my decision not to waste those two hours.

And so, historically, Mrs. P. watches the Academy Awards and I read a book or get on the computer. It used to be the case that this would place me in a different room of the house.

Enter the leaky pipe.

The water that flowed from it destroyed our carpet in our dining room and living room, buckled our kitchen floor, and otherwise wreaked havoc in our house. We decided to put down new flooring on the whole first floor, and while we were at it, we remodeled the kitchen, which was tiny. Down came two walls, and voila! we have an open floor plan, and visibility of our view from many more areas of the first floor. Hooray!

Also, my computer is now in the same room as the TV. Which meant I was there when the wife was watching the Academy Awards. And we saw the craziest thing happen . . . something that made us look at each other and say: are they serious? Is this really happening?

[Today’s edition is a newsletter for the paid subscribers. I still do free missives, but I owe the paid customers a missive and this is it. But I hate clickbaity stuff, so rather than say “you have to subscribe to see what moment I am talking about!” — which would feel cheap and tawdry — I’ll just tell you what’s coming: a discussion of the moment Regina Hall called up a bunch of hunks onstage for “COVID tests.” If you watched the show, you know what I mean. I’ll have a few things to say about the Will Smith thing too — and just to make the paid portion totally irresistible, a discussion of Stoicism! If this sounds like content that’s too good to pass up — did I hear Stoicism?! where do I sign up?!?!? — you can check it out with a seven-day free trial.]