Category: Humor and Weird Wilson-isms Page 1 of 34

In the spirit of her full-length book “Laughing through Life” that featured humorous stories of child-rearing and general life, Connie has written humor columns for a variety of newspapers, which Erma Bombeck’s widower described as being very much like her columns when presented with a book at an Ohio writing festival.

From Substack: This Will Hold

By Connie Wilson

On October 29, 2025

In Editorial, Essays on Politics: Best Political Essays & Ideology, Politics

Breaking the American Spirit: Trump’s Recreational Depravity Has An Agenda

To Christian Nationalists, Even Hitler Was Forgiven

This Will Hold

Oct 29

Evil on Steroids

To be clear, when we say “Trump,” understand we’re talking about the Heritage Foundation’s agenda. Trump and his tigers, elephants, and giraffes are not the ones steering this country, although it’s evident he’s enjoying the cruelty. The infrastructure behind him—ideological, financial, and operational—is what’s actually in control.

Elon Musk and the DOGE boys served as the slash-and-burn team, generating the chaos and distraction required for the early stages of Project 2025 to move forward. Trump is simply the vehicle the Heritage Foundation used to gain power.

Do they really intend to deport all brown immigrants, including birthright citizens? They’re certainly trying; the Supreme Court has the case on its docket. And if they succeed, who will work the agricultural jobs? Well, what happens when millions are unemployed, hungry, and sick? Crime rates increase.

So why the new prisons and camps? To house the “new criminals.” And what happens to those criminals? They become “free labor” in the fields.

The Heritage Foundation and the tech bros are building their own fiefdom. Sound far-fetched? More than 40 million Americans are about to lose their SNAP benefits. 13.8 million have already been laid off under Trump’s administration. The uninsured population could climb to 31 million or more by 2026. And when enhanced ACA subsidies expire on December 31, 2025, premiums are projected to increase 114% for 22 million Americans.

Now add the ridiculous tariffs designed to skyrocket the cost of living, along with every other heinous policy meant to push the American people to the brink of despair.

How will they control all these people? With the “law enforcement” they’ve created to report to the Executive Branch, of course.

The ICE Budget for Weaponry

Puppy-killer Kristi Noem received two luxury jets valued at $200 million, and ICE is flush with cash like a hog at the trough with a $170 billion budget. It’s as if torment and cruelty are now line items in America’s priorities.

In 2019 Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) spent just $5.7 million on the “small arms” category through October 18; during Trump’s first administration the government averaged about $8.4 million per year. In 2025, ICE has increased that weapons spending by 600 percent. In the last nine months alone, they have spent $71,515,762 on purchases listed as “small arms, ordnance, and ordnance accessories manufacturing.”

Think about that: the MAGA Big Budget Bill made ICE the largest federal law enforcement agency in the nation’s history, with a budget larger than most of the world’s militaries and a 600 percent increase in weapons spending.

This is a domestic enforcement agency—not going to war “over there,” but here: in our streets, against our people.

Blonde and Blue Jesus Forgives Them

I listen to pundits ask, “Why? Why would Republicans give up all their power? Aren’t they concerned about legacy? Why have they abdicated all authority to this Epstein-adjacent convicted felon?”

In short: The GOP has spent more than forty years twisting, remolding, and regurgitating Christian nationalist rhetoric until this moment feels like their long-awaited “crusade.” In their worldview, all one has to do is believe that a white Jesus was the Son of God—and their eternal elevator will come equipped with an “up” button.

Yes, Jesus is their get-out-of-Hell-free card—because in their version of Christianity even Hitler is forgiven. And what is “legacy” when the people destroying history are the ones holding the pen—what does it even mean to be on “the right side” of it?

“Who controls the past controls the future: who controls the present controls the past.” – George Orwell, 1984

The Republican Party of fiscal responsibility and rule of law is dead. In its place stands a movement that made a deal with the devil: fall in line behind Trump and his whims, or be destroyed in a primary. And as we’ve seen over the past year with Elon Musk, the DOGE boys, and the election data, it’s no longer just the voters deciding who wins—at least not in elections large enough to cross a certain vote-count threshold.

Their recreational depravity is evil on steroids, and I feel it every time I scroll the news or check on a friend who’s barely hanging on. You probably feel it too. Or you’re trying not to. We watch as Trump’s sycophants hack away at the agencies that keep us alive, leaving them bleeding and gasping for air.

This is how they break the spirit of the American people.

To act as if this is just “Trump being Trump” is to underestimate their underlying agenda.

“Can’t you just shoot them? Just shoot them in the legs or something?” Trump to former SECDEF Mark Esper in 2020.

This quote is disturbing, but it’s 2025 and we’re nowhere near the civil unrest of the 2020 Floyd protests—unless they’re able to create it.

The Manufactured Flashpoint

I think about the families in North Carolina—maybe you do too. One storm. One night. And suddenly they’re living under a tarp in the hills, shivering, staring at the mud where their home used to be. They waited for FEMA. They prayed for FEMA. And then came the denial. Trump said no. Just… no. No aid. No lifeline. No reason. Try telling a child huddled beside you that the government of the richest nation on earth just shrugged. DESPAIR.

Or the mother who did everything right—every well-check, every vaccine—until the lies and poison from RFK Jr. made her second-guess what she once trusted. Now she sits beside a hospital bed, watching her child fight a disease we had already beaten. She carries the guilt. Her child carries the consequences. HOPELESSNESS.

Then there are the farmers who voted for Trump with their full chest, now watching as the slashing of USAID and the illogical punitive tariffs decimate their businesses. Meanwhile, Trump handed Argentina a $40 billion bailout, cut a deal to purchase their beef, and in return Argentina struck new agreements to sell soybeans to countries that once bought from U.S. suppliers. All as JD Vance and his AcreTrader investors scour the country for farms on life support, ready to swoop in and rob hardworking American families of what they spent generations building. ANGUISH.

And then there’s the veteran I can’t stop picturing—perhaps because I am one, and this visual occupies space in my brain and heart that I can’t turn off. It’s reality for too many. Trump’s tariffs were supposed to help the economy and the American people; that’s what they were told. Instead, prices exploded. Jobs disappeared. The VA slashed support. Some were hit twice, never realizing that “eliminating DEI” also meant eliminating programs that kept women in the workforce. Now they stare at stacks of bills no one with PTSD should ever have to face. They’re a month away from losing their home, and SNAP benefits are days away from a hold-status until the government reopens.

An unnecessary government shutdown that could have been avoided if Speaker Johnson would just release the Epstein files. They’re confused and crushed. Fox is on in the background, reporting that Trump is building a $300 million ballroom. For who? The billionaires? The oligarchs? RAGE.

Bannon’s Firehose of Maximum Outrage

And now we have the beginnings of the uprising that Putin, Trump, Steve Bannon, the weak-ass tech bros with their pre-built bunkers, and the Project 2025 Nazis have been engineering—by slashing and burning the people’s lifelines.

This is the architecture of despair:

Watching in horror as a corrupt Supreme Court legitimized race as a factor to remove Black and Brown people from our streets.
Knowing that Democrats signed off on the Laken Riley Act with human rights violations baked in—now we question all politicians.
Trump canceling 94 million pounds of food aid to our food banks in the spring.
A looming SNAP halt that will hit over 40 million households, even as a $5 billion surplus sits unused—money we know will not be spent to feed families this Thanksgiving.
Rural schools hurting after DOE cuts, as vouchers go to the wealthy.
Food borne illnesses on the rise as RFK Jr. guts the agencies that protect the public—literally killing people.
The Medicaid cuts we know are coming as the wealthy continue to fiscally rape the working class.
Sexual assault protections rolled back—for women in the military, on college campuses, and in corporations that choose to embrace Trump and Hegseth’s pre–women’s rights mindset.
Military bases renamed after Confederate traitors, using random soldiers with matching names to stoke racial division.
Funding slashed for HBCUs and for health research programs serving Black women—a reminder that no matter the progress, it can always be snatched away. The boot will always be on the neck. There can never be trust. Ever.
Jackie Kennedy’s Rose Garden ripped out for a tacky patio to host criminals and pedophiles.
The East Wing of the people’s White House reduced to rubble for a 90,000-square-foot ballroom for a puny little man who can’t even dance.

He tore down the fucking White House—our White House.

It’s the methodical destruction of our sacred institutions and the places we turn when we are scared, sick, or desperate. It is the breaking of the American spine by men drunk on unearned power, men who enjoy watching people crawl.

And that is why $170 billion to ICE matters. Because once you break people, you need an army to control the pieces. An army they plan to have in place by the spring, before the midterms.

“Eternity” Closes Out 61st Chicago International Film Festival

By Connie Wilson

On October 27, 2025

In Humor and Weird Wilson-isms, Movies, Of Local (Quad Cities') Interest, Pop Culture

The closing night film of the 61^st Chicago International Film Festival was an homage to films of the 80s and 90s, romantic comedies like “Notting Hill,” written by Patrick Cunnane (his first feature screenplay) and Director David Freyne (“Dating Amber,” 2020). During the Q&A onstage following the showing on October 26^th, Trevor White, a producer who works with his brother, Tim, talked about the film that the audience had just enjoyed.

PLOT

“In an afterlife where souls have one week to decide where to spend eternity, Joan (Elizabeth Olsen)is faced with the impossible choice between the man she spent her life (65 years) with (Miles Teller, “Whiplash,” 2024, “The Gorge,” 2025) and her first love Luke (Callum Turner, “The Boys in the Boat,” 2023; “Masters of the Air,” 2024) who died young and has waited 67 years for her to arrive. [It reminded me of the Albert Brooks/Meryl Streep vehicle “Defending Your Life” (1991).]

Guided by an After Life Coordinator (Da’Vine Joy Randolph, Oscar winner for “The Holdovers”), they have just one week to confront the ultimate dilemma: where and with whom to spend eternity.” Da’Vine and fellow ALC afterlife coordinator Ryan (John Early) are hilarious in their roles and add much to the film. So does a neighbor of Joan and Larry’s, Karen (Olga Merediz). These supporting cast members get high marks for humor.

GENESIS

Director David Freyne of “Eternity.”

Screenwriter Patrick Cunnane, who is the son of Congresswoman Madeline Dean, met Producer Trevor White (and Tim, his brother and production partner) at the White House where Cunnane was then working as a member of the White House speechwriting staff (the East Wing was intact then. Yay!). This fortuitous meeting propelled “Eternity” forward. The addition of Director David Freyne (co-credited as writer) was also serendipity. Cunnane said, “When David came on, everything went to the next level. David had a clear vision of the afterlife…It could have looked 110 different ways…I couldn’t be more thrilled with the way this turned out. It is better than I imagined it in my head.” (This is not what many screenwriters say, so give this production a Gold Star for being a happy set. It was also better than I imagined it would be, which is a recommendation for audiences to check it out.)

IMAGINING THE AFTER-LIFE

This was Freyne’s third movie and his third with Elizabeth Olsen. A corkboard outside his office led to creative suggestions for how the afterlife might appear. Since the idea was to blend romance with comedy, emulating the rom-coms of old (“That was the North Star for this movie”), some of the ideas added to the corkboard during production caused the duo to admit to the audience’s amusement, “Some were very funny and probably not appropriate for PG13.” The screenplay was on Hollywood’s Black List of the Best Unproduced Films since 2022, so its potential was recognized.

CREW

That potential was turned into reality by the expert work of Production Designer Zazu Myers (“My Old Ass,” 2024) and Cinematographer Ruairi O’Brien (“Dating Amber,” 2020; “Sea Fever,” 2019). The composer was David Fleming (“Superman,” 2025; “The Last of Us,” 2023) and the Costume Designer was Angus Strathie. (Edith Head he was not; the red-and-white checked outfits for Joan’s character and the gold-striped shirt worn by Miles Teller in the same scene did not enhance the constant remarks about how attractive the lovely Elizabeth Olsen looked, from each of her husbands. For that matter, how many of us would vote for Miles Teller as the more attractive husband of the two? But I’ll leave that plot point open to viewers, while admitting that, in terms of attractiveness–which is emphasized in the script—they could have flipped the parts, for me, but might have lost Teller’s flip finesse with humorous lines, his forte.)

SCREENPLAY

Elizabeth Olsen, Miles Teller, and Callum Turner in “Eternity,” the closing night picture for the 61st Chicago International Film Festival.

“Eternity” goes from Chicago to Austin’s Film Festival next, where it will be a Spotlight film. Austin is known as a screenwriter’s festival and the screenplay is very good. I particularly enjoyed the digs at the Korean War (not one of the “cool” ones) and lines like, “We can go to space for eternity, for all I care as long as Luke (husband #1) is not floating around,” from Larry (Husband #2).

HEAVEN?

The various iterations of the afterlife are presented like a giant convention, with scads of brochures about spending your after-life in 1930s Germany, but with 100% fewer Nazis; Parisland 55 (where they speak English, but with a French accent); or Infantilization World. There’s even a run on eternities where there are no men, but it filled up fast and a second similar eternity was under construction. All of the throw-away lines/ concepts were very clever.

RELATIONSHIPS

Screenwriter Patrick Cunnane and Producer Trevor White of “Eternity” at the Q&A, closing night of the 61st Chicago International Film Festival.

The opening scenes of “old” Larry and “old” Joan driving to a gender reveal party were charming and realistic. Betty Buckley, now 78 years young, played Dr. Karen Fletcher in 2016’s “Split.” I’ve missed her. Barry Primus (2013’s “Grudge Match”) portrayed old Larry. Their bickering is characteristic of marriages that have endured for decades (67 years). I can personally attest to this. The relationship question of this film is intensified when the real question is how you would choose a mate for eternity if your family were a love triangle.

CONCLUSION

The screenwriter freely admitted to stealing real-life stories from his elderly parents’ lives (the flat tire story). Cunnane shared a touching story of his mother, on-set watching the film while it was shooting, breaking down in tears when one episode unfolded.

That says it all: there are real-life lessons about family and its importance in this one, much as there were real-life lessons about important people in your life in the George Clooney vehicle “Jay Kelly.” Life without someone special can be hollow. But who will Joan choose to spend eternity with—and which of the hilarious afterlife options will win out? Check out “Eternity” in November to find out.

Important Message from Professor Emeritus Dr. James Greenberg

By Connie Wilson

On September 26, 2025

In Editorial, Essays on Politics: Best Political Essays & Ideology

Please read this insightful and informational warning about the Rule of Law and our Justice system, from legal Professor Emeritus, Dr. James Greenberg.

James Greenberg

Justice in America is breaking. Not in its statutes or codes, which still sit on the books, but in the trust that makes them real. Prosecutors are supposed to pursue evidence, not enemies; courts should weigh facts, not loyalties.

LIKE RUSSIA

I used to teach a comparative course in law and development, and the lesson was always the same: once that trust erodes, law becomes theater. That is where we are headed.

The indictment of James Comey, pursued at Donald Trump’s urging, is more than a dispute between two men. It is a battle over whether the American judiciary will remain a neutral arbiter or become an instrument of retribution. Trump wants to transform the Department of Justice from an independent institution into an extension of his will. Comey, who refused to pledge personal loyalty and later confirmed Trump’s pressure to halt the Russia investigation, has become both symbol and target. The revival of charges—earlier dismissed for lack of grounds—cannot be understood outside this political frame.

LEGAL SYSTEM TRUST

In anthropology, the health of a legal system is not measured by its statutes but by the cultural trust that sustains them. That trust is fragile. In the United States it rests on two thin pillars: prosecutorial independence and judicial restraint. Both have been chipped away. When a president demands prosecution of an opponent, classification no longer guarantees fairness. A charge like “false statement” is drained of its meaning and poured into another mold: disloyalty. At that point, the form of justice may still stand, but the substance has gone.

Trump’s strategy is blunt. He shouts his demands in capital letters—“JUSTICE MUST BE SERVED, NOW!!!”—as if volume were verdict. In that gesture, accusation and conviction collapse into each other. Common law depends on the wide space between them, the courtroom itself. That space vanishes when the indictment becomes the sentence and trial becomes the spectacle. Whatever the outcome, the charge itself is punishment—and that is the point.

COMEY CASE

Comey’s case is less about old disputes than about rewriting the script of Trump’s presidency. By going after a former FBI director, he signals that defiance itself is criminal. For anyone who studies authoritarian systems, this is a familiar maneuver: law is turned from a shield for citizens into a weapon against them. Trials become ritual performances, staged to demonstrate loyalty and vengeance. The target is not only the accused but everyone watching. (In 2 OLLE classes at the University of Texas in Austin last year this was underscored.)

POLITICAL ECOLOGY

Political ecology offers another lens. Systems are interconnected; stress in one part spreads through the rest. Undermine prosecutorial independence, and the damage doesn’t stop there. It weakens protections for voting rights, environmental rules, labor standards—anything that depends on fair enforcement. Once courts become partisan stages, the whole edifice of governance tilts. Legal categories drift from neutral tools into political weapons. While the system may still use the same words, their meaning is altered.

TRUMP ACCELERATES DECAY

Comparative perspective makes the drift clear. In civil law systems, codification can slow political abuse; in common law systems like ours, reliance on precedent and discretion can adapt, but also bend. Everything depends on norms: restraint, good faith, and independence. Precedent is more than procedure; it is the memory of the system. When Trump revives long-dismissed charges, he severs that chain of memory. Courts stop functioning as repositories of experience. Once that memory is broken, decay accelerates.

ASSAULT ON THE JUDICIARY

Trump’s assault on the judiciary has been steady, cumulative. He has called judges “so-called,” branded rulings as partisan, and accused prosecutors of corruption. Each step chips away at legitimacy. The Comey indictment is another blow: a message that courts and prosecutors are simply tools of politics. Delegitimize the referee, and only loyalty counts; truth dissolves into performance.

The danger is not limited to Comey or to Trump’s direct critics. Once justice shifts from evidence to allegiance, no one is safe. Friends today can be enemies tomorrow. Categories like “traitor” or “enemy” float free from legal definition, ready to be pinned on whoever falls from favor. Anthropologists call this symbolic inversion: rituals meant to guarantee order are turned upside down and used to enforce domination. (*Some interesting reading on this “report your neighbor” stuff in a documentary about the East Berlin police force.)

For ordinary citizens the erosion can be hard to see. Life goes on. Judges still wear robes, hearings still convene. Yet symbols matter. Once the courtroom becomes a theater of power, the public’s ability to tell the difference between real adjudication and political stagecraft fades. Trust—already worn thin—begins to collapse. And fear does the rest. When prosecutors hesitate, when judges weigh not only law but personal risk, when citizens decide silence is safer, the system disciplines itself. Fear spreads like contamination through an ecosystem.

McCARTHY ERA

We have seen this before: the McCarthy hearings, Nixon’s enemies list, the detentions after 9/11. Each twisted law to partisan ends. What makes the present moment different is the breadth and the brazenness. Trump is not content to exploit the judiciary; he wants to redefine it in his image. That is why the Comey indictment matters. It is not a minor skirmish. It is a marker of systemic change.

Anthropology reminds us that law is never only technical. It is always cultural: a mirror of trust and expectation. When those expectations tilt toward vengeance, the entire system tilts with them. Political ecology adds the warning: stressed systems reach tipping points. Just as an ecosystem pushed too far may fail suddenly, a judiciary stripped of trust may not recover. Rules can be rewritten, but trust—once gone—takes generations.

The indictment of Comey is not just about one man or one office. It marks how far the judiciary has been dragged into the theater of loyalty. Trump’s attack on the courts is an attack on the very trust that sustains democracy. Whether that trust endures may decide if democracy itself does.

“The True Beauty of Being Bitten by a Tick” at Nashville Film Festival

By Connie Wilson

On September 14, 2025

In Health/Medicine, Humor and Weird Wilson-isms, Movies, Reviews, Scary stories, Science and Medicine

Zoe Chao in The True Beauty of Being Bitten By A Tick

Zoe Chao as Yvonne in “The True Beauty of Being Bitten By A Tick” at the 56th Nashville Film Festival.

I missed “The True Beauty of Being Bitten by a Tick” when it premiered at SXSW. As it turns out, that was probably for the best. Director Pete Ohs is having much more success with his newest film, “Europcja,” starring Charlie Xcx at TIFF in Toronto, where it has been described as “delightful.”

When “The True Beauty of Being Bitten by a Tick” premiered in Austin (henceforth to be referenced as TTBOBBBAT) it was described by critics as “intriguing but tedious,” “not cohesive” and “creepy.” It was also called a “sunny-yet-claustrophobic” nightmare. Critics remarked on the “intense sense of discomfort” that the contrasting moods of sinister versus serene evoked.

COMPARISONS

TTBOBBBAT reminded a bit of the 2019 horror film “Midsommar” by Ari Aster (“Hereditary,” “Eddington”), where there was a plot involving a young girl similarly grieving a personal loss.She travels to be with others to recover. In TTBOBBBAT, Yvonne has joined Camille to try to forget about and recover from the loss of her dog Jerry. “Midsommar” was known for unsettling visuals and psychological tension. We could say the same of TTBOBBBAT.

Another film that we might compare TTBOBBBAT to is “Get Out,” once the veneer of sociability and normal life is peeled away.The difference between those two films (“Get Out” & “Midsommar”) and this 80 minute film, however, would be the logic of the story the film is attempting to tell.

THE SCRIPT

Supposedly the four leads wrote the script, which means credit or blame goes to Zoe Chao (Yvonne), Callie Hernandez (Camille), James Cusati-Moyer (A.J.) and Jeremy O. Harris (Isaac). Audiences prefer movies that make sense. True, Yorgos Lanthimos and Ari Aster have done well with some outrageous plots, but they may be the exception that proves that rule. I admit that some scripts have holes wide enough to drive a Mack truck through, but I had issues with the screenplay even before the lead played her part without ever cracking a smile.

PLOT BY GROUP MEETING

In the tick movie, throwing the plot together in a collaborative, spontaneous group fashion did not work well. I can believe that sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. It was not the first time this method has been used by the Director.

Ohs films are known for unsettling visuals and psychological tension. In this one, the farmhouse rural setting is beautiful, but even more important is the sound. The eerie noises are extremely important in creating a suspenseful mood. Sound designer Danny Madden and Sound mixer John Bowers deserve special mention and kudos for their work. Isabella Summers composed music for the film and flutist James King is credited.Without the eerie and strange sounds that cue whatever action exists in TTBOBBBAT the film would be nearly devoid of momentum.

Zoe Chau as Yvonne in “The True Beauty of Being Bitten By A Tick” at the 56th Nashville Film Festival.

PLOT

So, what is the plot?

Yvonne (Zoe Chao)—who initially presents as hysterical and rarely smiles or appears to be enjoying herself—joins old friend Camille (Callie Hernandez) by invitation in a lovely pastoral countryside setting. She is urged to join Camille after suffering the loss of her dog Jerry and reaching out to Camille for support . She seems consumed by grief and guilt–almost hysterically so— and, later, by a tick bite she suffers while walking in the woods near the farmhouse setting.

When Yvonne arrives at Camille’s house, there are two gay realtors already in residence, which does not please her. However, nothing really seems to please Yvonne. I can’t remember her smiling. There also was a mysterious ghost-like sighting of a figure in the woods that is never developed, just as the doors opening and closing somewhat mysteriously are thrown in once or twice, but never really pursued.

A.J. (James Cusati-Moyer) and Isaac (Jeremy O. Harris) apparently know Camille as a result of helping her find the house in this bucolic pastoral setting, which causes A.J.,in particular, to wax rhapsodic about the “farm-to-market” advantages of living in the country. A.J. is a bit of a holistic healer and an all-around Master Chef. The dishes he prepares look like road kill. Yvonne initially seems very reluctant to sample one of A.J.’s masterpieces, but, in later scenes, she consumes a plateful with great gusto after initially pronouncing the dish as bad.

That is a complete shift from her earlier opinion of A.J.’s cooking. Yvonne’s change of heart towards A.J.’s food is similar to Camille’s change of heart from a woman who never wanted children to one who suddenly announces her pregnancy, but never reveals who the father is, despite being asked. The best we can get from Camille is, “The father died as soon as we had conceived.” That odd remark doesn’t draw the follow-up questions you would expect.

TICK BITE

The trailer for the film tells us that Yvonne should not be concerned about the tick bite because, “Fear controls us. It ruins us. And that is the true beauty of being bitten by a tick. Because, after that, there’s nothing left to fear.”

Does that explanation hold water? Is a tick bite the worst thing that can happen to you? Yes, tick bites can become serious, but treating them with antibiotics is effective, if done promptly. When I was a business owner I left my second-in-command in charge of my business to go off for a franchise-required event for a week. I was upset to learn, upon my return after 7 days, that my Number One employee had—without asking me or telling me—designated someone else to take over running the place so that she could fly to Michigan to be at her mother-in-law’s hospital bedside. What was wrong with her mother-in-law? Tick bite. (No, I’m not making this up.)

I immediately began trying to find out the answer to the question, “How serious is a tick bite?” It was apparently serious enough that my employee risked her position to fly off, (without permission from or prior notification to me), to be at the bedside of her husband’s mother, who recovered quickly. Was a tick bite really THAT serious? If Lyme disease goes untreated, you can develop serious heart and nervous system problems, including the following:

Nerve pain and tingling
Drooping on one or both sides of your face
Heart failure
Memory loss
Dementia

The symptoms above are the result of untreated tick bites, which can cause Lyme Disease, a disease called STARI, or Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever. In most cases, the effect of a tick bite is more like that of the flu. So, why doesn’t Yvonne march out to her car and go see a doctor? Good question. Never asked or answered. Yvonne’s failure to seek medical treatment is mystifying and—even more mystifying in what passes for a plot—when did being bitten by a tick lead to a 9-month nap?

THEMES

One theme in the film is the over-emphasis on staying healthy (which, given the current status of the CDC seems merited). Does the word “pandemic” not justify a certain amount of care be given to paying attention to one’s health? One reviewer (Alison Foreman, 3/8/2025, in “IndieWire”) dubbed TTBOBBBAT “a strange self-care thriller.” Another theme that emerged late in the plot: “We’re all part of a cycle. Eventually I’ll die and just feed the worms. We’re meant to return to the dirt.” The lengthy title was dubbed as “Generally useless as a dramatic question.” The narrative was termed “wobbly.”

Pete Ohs, Director of “The True Beauty of Being Bitten By A Tick” at the 56th Nashville Film Festival.

When four people “collaborate” on a plot, the plot can become incomprehensible. “Wobbles” can lead to collapse. However, Director Pete Ohs has been working a long time and has achieved some notable successes, including the recent premiere at TIFF of “Eurupcja,” which was dubbed “delightful.”

Not all of the plots Ohs has developed came off as well as “Eurupcja.” I watched an interview with Ohs and his wife and collaborator Andrea Lauren Sisson where he shared a plan for a different plot, a story about a character wandering a desolate landscape carrying a robot head. Ohs went on to say that the character is attempting to rebuild his robot girlfriend. O….K….

RANDOM OBSERVATIONS

Accents I have heard, but not identified:

Callie Hernandez (Camille), who was in Damien Chazelle’s “La La Land” and Ridley Scott’s “Alien: Covenant” was born in Jacksonville, Florida, but said she considers her home to be Austin, Texas. There were many points in the film where she seemed to be speaking with an accent, which sounded most similar to an Aussie accent. There were so many times that her accent came through that I set about trying to find out where she grew up to find out what accent I was hearing. For instance, the two words “Not yet” came off as “Not yit” (when transcribed phonetically.) When Camille asks “What’s the matter?” she again seems to have an accent. Since this was a bit of the improvised dialogue the quartet created, it might be time to give the rest of that dialogue exchange with Yvonne.

Dialogue example:

Camille: “What’s the matter?” (weird pronunciation)

Yvonne: “I can’t stop thinking about dying.”

Camille: “Everything’s OK.”

Biodynamic enzymes & mugwart?

There was also talk of “biodynamic enzymes” right after this exchange. That made almost as much sense as A.J. chiming in that he was going to “burn some mugwort” (used in witchcraft, I have learned, and potentially a sleep aid).

Strangely choreographed scene: The discussion above was followed by a strangely choreographed scene where the others tell Yvonne that she is going to experience a wonderfully “restorative sleep” while they are performing a little syncopated hand jive. Nine months of “restorative sleep?” Nine months later, Yvonne awakens and dresses up in a nice outfit, including donning Camille’s pearl earrings. And she learns that everybody is pregnant (except Yvonne.) Right. This seems reasonable.
The Title Design was almost impossible to read. Pick something different.

I have to admit that the review I read during SXSW where someone described the plot as “hanging on like a confused parasite” kept me from attending. From the reviews of Pete Ohs’ latest film “Eurupcjas”, which are quite good, it’s safe to say that everyone doing anything creative has some hits and some misses and I’ll hold out for that one described as “delightful” by the majority.

Here’s to many more future hits for Pete Ohs and his collaborators.

CAST

Director: Pete Ohs (Also Cinematographer/Editor)

Zoe Chao – Yvonne

Callie Hernandez – Camille

James Cusati-Moyer – A.J.

Jeremy O Harris – Isaac

Julian Sanchez – Tristan

Jack Ferver – Jude

Maia Novi – Julia

Jack Mikesell – Stephen

Stella Schnabel – Alice

Emily Deforest – Emma

Ben Brewer – Luke

Danny Madden – Sound Design

Sound Mix – John Bowers

Composer – Isabella Summers

Flutist – James King

Jessie Reed – Title Design

“Bark” Short to Screen at Nashville Film Festival on September 19, 2025

By Connie Wilson

On September 11, 2025

In Humor and Weird Wilson-isms, Movies, Reviews, Scary stories

Bella and Roger meet his parents.

Directors Steven Lai and Leonardo Giovenazzo wrote and directed an 11-minute short entitled “Bark.” It will have its Southeast Premiere at the 56^th Nashville Film Festival on Friday, September 19^th at 9 p.m. in Regal Green Hills Theater #4. The film features veteran actor Eric Roberts as Albert, the father of Roger (Kiser Shelton). Roger has invited his girlfriend Bella (Brianne Tju) home to dinner to meet his parents. Albert’s wife is played by Karen Culp.

Brianne Tju, who appeared in “I Know What You Did Last Summer” (2021).

As Bella is driving to her boyfriend’s house, she accidentally hits and kills a large Black Labrador Retriever that is smack dab in the middle of the road. She then has to put the dog out of its misery using a large rock. By the time Bella arrives at Roger’s house, she is in no condition to enjoy the meal or the dancing afterwards that Albert (Eric Roberts) suggests, and is having flashbacks involving the sudden appearance of the hapless animal in the middle of the road.

ERIC ROBERTS

GLENDALE, CALIFORNIA – OCTOBER 07: Eric Roberts attends the 7th Annual HAPA Awards at Alex Theatre on October 07, 2023 in Glendale, California. (Photo by Olivia Wong/Getty Images)

On June 4, 1981, Eric Roberts was driving in Connecticut with then-girlfriend Sandy Dennis’s German Shepherd in the passenger seat when he crashed his jeep into a tree. While the dog escaped serious injury, Roberts spent 72 hours in a coma and was hospitalized for more than a month, forcing him to drop out of the Broadway show Mass Appeal. I wondered if the “Bark” plot involving a car crash and a dog spoke to the veteran actor and factored in his decision to take the small, but necessary part. Roberts is known for having more IMDB credits than anyone, listed today as 882.

When I interviewed Eric and Eliza on my Weekly Wilson podcast (#6 on this blog) during the pandemic, as he was appearing in the indie film “Lone Star Deception,” a 2019 film, he had 569 IMDB credits. In the intervening six years, Eric Roberts has racked up 313 more credits, which means an average of 52 roles per year, or roughly one role a week. Needless to say, these are not leads, nor are they necessarily feature films. When I asked Roberts about leisure time back during that interview, he said he hadn’t had any “leisure” time in 5 years. (He used to enjoy horseback riding, but had given it up, he said.)

I asked Eric about his work ethic in deciding what parts to take (something which his wife, Eliza, handles). He answered, “Once you’ve established yourself as someone who’s worth their salt, who’s good, you have to live up to it. So every time you’re offered something, you have to ask yourself, ‘Can I be my best?’ And if you can, you take it.”

OTHER CAST

In this 11-minute short, the photography by William Albu was good, the Production Design by Claire Huber was superior, and the music (“Meet Me Halfway” by the Black Eyed Peas) was more than adequate. I watched Kiser Shelton as Roger wolf down a dessert in an overdone fashion from a beautiful piece of china and realized that this was my mother’s pattern, “Allure” (Japanese Noritake). Since Mom was born in 1907, this was definitely antique china and beautiful. It’s odd to see weird things you identify with in a film, whether it’s Tony Soprano’s bedspread ( I own it in Texas) or the silverware fork that was supposedly used by JonBenet Ramsey in 1996 the night she was murdered, (which was also my mother’s pattern.) I found the production design—the house, the setting, everything about the house and table to be extremely well-done. Kudos to Claire Huber!

THE BAD?

I have only one small criticism, which can perhaps be attributed to the fact that “Bark” is described as both comedy and horror. Three of the four actors played it straight. Kiser Shelton went for the comic aspect and came out looking and sounding over-the-top.

Since “Bark” is billed as a comedy/drama, the overacted (and overwritten) proposal by Roger to Bella in the dining room (“You are the sunshine in my garden“) can be attributed to Kiser Shelton’s attempt to ham it up for comic purposes. For me, it would have been better to follow the lead of Eric Roberts, Brianne Tja and Karen Culp and play the part straight.

There is an interesting ending for the short and it was professionally done and enjoyable.

Printers’ Row on Saturday & Sunday, 9/6 and 9/7/2025

By Connie Wilson

On September 8, 2025

In Books, Essays on Politics: Best Political Essays & Ideology

Printers’ Row on 9/6, Saturday.

Today was the final day of Printers’ Row 2025.

It is the third largest outdoor book sales event in the United States. I’ve done Printers’ Row at least 5 times, always with limited success, because the expense to participate is substantial and most of the other vendors are offering books for as low as $5. If you bring the book you worked on for years to the table and try to charge the price listed on it, good luck to you.

Also, if you drive down and park, it costs a bundle. Buying something to eat while present for 8 hours in the streets of Chicago is also a fairly pricey proposition.

I think the cost to be present at the Illinois Association of Penwomen booth this year was $145 for 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Saturday and $135 for the same 8 hours on Sunday, which would be a total of $280 to be present for 16 hours in the streets of Chicago for the two days. If you bought the 2 days, all day, the price was lowered to $250, I was told, when I asked to be reminded today. (Yikes!)

The other problem I have is that I find it extremely taxing to spend a full 8 hours in the streets of Chicago, outside. I am not a morning person. Getting set up by 10 a.m. is bad enough. What I used to do was split the 8 hours with a second writer, taking the 2 to 6 p.m. shift myself and letting the 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. shift go to another writer who found the price tag for the full day rather high, as I do, and perhaps didn’t also want to spend 8 hours in the streets of Chicago (4 hours is about my limit). Cancer treatments from December of 2021 and on through 2023 definitely stopped me from participating those years. Last year (2024) I was still in Texas following our annual Family Fest over Labor Day. This year, we planned to exit Austin (Tx) in time to fly to Chicago on Thursday so I could participate on the following Saturday and Sunday. But it sounded like a lot; it is and it was.

My organization, which I have been a member of since 2002, routinely has a tented booth in a great location, but up until now they only allowed you to purchase an entire day, You could then split the 8 hour day with another interested writer—if you could find one. That is what I have done every other year I have participated.

But the number of published writers from the Quad Cities who were ever interested in participating has bottomed out from zero to minus zero. I could never talk my friend David Dorris into participating in Chicago and he is now deceased. The entire event used to be held in June on the same day as Sean Leary’s birthday, so no dice there ever, despite several overtures to Sean.

Sometimes, I would find a Chicago writer—usually a total stranger—who wanted to split the 8 hours (and the fees) but driving 7 hours for meetings of the group has not been easy and my primary participation hs been selling my books at Printers’ Row. (Although I did serve as the official photographer at the national convention in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, in 2019.)

So, this year, I bit and paid the freight for two days of sales, primarily for the collegiality and community of participating. Art & Sue Brauer always do a bang-up job of setting up the tent, (BIG THANKS to both of them). I tried setting up a table by myself one year, a year that it rained non-stop. That was totally miserable. Pam, my college roommmate, and I spent much of the time huddled inside the Dearborn Station, which was then a restaurant site, which I think may have closed.

There was one year that we had a mini-tornado and our booth nearly blew away! Doing the entire 8 hours in the sun if you did not have a tented canopy was also grim. It is necessary to have a canopied tent in case it rains (as it did my first year) or the weather is truly hot. Today was 66 degrees, cool in the shade, and there was a 25 to 30 mph wind. I took 2 coats. For most of the day, I wore both of the lightweight jackets.

I roused myself on Saturday to make it to the booth by 10 a.m. pulling my weighty books. I was there until 20 minutes before closing at 6 p.m.. I knew my BEE GONE book with Trump’s visage on the cover would draw attention, and it sure did! I started out with about 50 books and tonight I have 5 left. They were not a pricey purchase ($10); that was also a good thing.

I even sold a couple of sets of “Obama’s Odyssey: The 2008 Race to the White House” , one set to a woman about my age who had worked for the Obama campaign. We shared our feeling of optimism when the United States elected its first Black president and how much we miss him now. I hope she enjoys the books.

I knew that, with troops massing on the edge of Chicago, a book with BEE GONE and DJT’s face on it would be a hit, and it was. It is a unique book. The illustrations by Gary McCluskey are Top Notch. The sentiment on the streets of Chicago was definitely not pro Trump today or yesterday.

I have heard that, next year, the PTB may decide to sell the days in halves, which would be good news for someone who spent 2 years doctoring for cancer and turned eighty this summer. Eight hours in the streets of Chicago is still a tall order. I get tired (and bored) after 4 hours. I came home both days, took a hot bath, and had a lengthy nap. I did not have enough energy to go out to eat either day, but ate food we had picked up at the grocery store on Friday. I also hosted my nephew Chris and his son Owen, who wanted to go to a baseball game, so the condo got some real use this weekend.

I did better this year than in any previous year. My little BEE GONE book seems to have made an impression. Someone said to me that he thought the book had had “national attention.” Not that I know of, although I did my best to get it into the hands of Seth Meyer when he played Chicago for his TV special. I also negotiated with the Biden campaign, getting to the right people to have a conversation just prior to Joe Biden’s run against Trump. The campaign intended to use the e-book as a reward for Democratic donors, but the pandemic moved the needle to facemasks, instead.

I also traded a film review for the e-mail contacts of people working behind-the-scenes for some of the late-night talk shows that Trump is now doing his best to get canceled (Stephen Colbert, anyone?). When Trump won the election (over Hillary) neither Facebook nor Amazon allowed me to advertise the book unless I changed the cover, which I refused to do, so my small protest against Trump 1.0 has languished ever since. Maybe it will live to fight again?

I feel like I worked very hard today and yesterday, even though, today, I did not show up until 1 p.m. I closed down the entire open air festival at 6 p.m., one of the last to pack up my old kit bag and leave. I did not completely sell out all of my books, but I did have to scavenge books from my book shelf in the condo in order to have some to sell today.

Printers’ Row on Sunday, 9/7/2025.

Did I make any money? Well, I used the Square successfully, which, in itself, was a Small Miracle. It showed about $200 of sales, which, obviously, would not be “a killing” if I paid $250 to be present. There were other cash sales. I spent zero dollars on parking, as my spouse kindly consented to drop me off and pick me up, and, as per usual, I packed a sandwich, some pop, and an apple for an economical lunch.

Selling books in the streets of Chicago is interesting, however. I met some lovely folks who applauded my continuing efforts to underscore the need to oppose DJT and I sold quite a few of the actual children’s book that inspired BEE GONE, which was intended for my granddaughters, initially, via Ingram Spark Publishing, the sixth in “The Christmas Cats in Silly Hats” series.

Check out the other five books in the six-book series at www.ConnieCWilson.com.

Kyle Langford Poses Outside Auschwitz in GOP Run for California Governor

By Connie Wilson

On August 13, 2025

In Editorial, Essays on Politics: Best Political Essays & Ideology

Did Kyle Langford, a Republican candidate for governor of California, post a photo of himself in front of Auschwitz as an advertisement for “My 0% unemployment Plan.” Yahoo fact checked it and here’s the truth:]

“The Week” Nails DJT Kakistocracy as “Ship of Fools”

By Connie Wilson

On August 8, 2025

In Editorial, Essays on Politics: Best Political Essays & Ideology, Of Local (Quad Cities') Interest, Politics

By William Falk, Editor, “The Week”

[ August 8, 2025 edition of “The Week” magazine]:

“It’s a fierce competition, with no winners and only losers. Which of the unqualified kooks and fawning toadies working for Donald Trump is the most incompetent?

Attorney General Pam Bondi.

Attorney General Pam Bondi and FBI Director Kash Patel are currently the most visible contenders, thanks to their tragi-comic bungling of the Jeffrey Epstein debacle. They promised the MAGA base the release of the full “Epstein files,” even though their boss was the sex trafficker’s best buddy for more than 15 years and noted during that time that Jeffrey liked women ‘on the younger side.’ (Ha, ha!)

When Bondi and Patel discovered with cold fear that Trump’s name appeared multiple times in the voluminous records, they announced, ‘Nothing to see here. Case closed!’ Now they’ve saddled the president with a festering scandal that won’t easily be reburied. (*Although JFK’s assassination and the truth has been fairly well buried for over 60 years.)

FBI Director Kash Patel.

But the self-inflicted Epstein wound is no anomaly. It’s just the most lurid demonstration of the Trump gang’s pervasive ineptitude. Pete Hegseth, a Fox News talking head chosen as Defense Secretary for his chiseled jaw and good hair, has blabbed classified information on an unsecured app about an imminent military attack, cut off defensive weapons to Ukraine without the president’s approval, and demanded that top aides and generals take polygraph tests to prove they weren’t telling the press he was unfit for his job. (*Not to mention including the Editor of “The Atlantic” on a Top Secret meeting about war plans.)

Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., a quack who thinks jet contrails are a Pentagon plot, is aggressively dismantling the country’s vaccination regimen and shutting down scientific research on viruses and cancer, while promoting suntanning, cod liver oil, cane sugar, and measles. (Whooping cough is also on the rise.)

Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth (rumored to be on the way out.)

The ghoulish senior advisor Stephen Miller does not hide his sadistic glee as he dispatches masked agents to drag away migrant workers from farms, construction sites, meat processing plants and restaurants.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, aka “ICE Barbie,” has shown up at migrant raids and El Salvador prisons while sporting cowboy outfits, tactical gear, false eyelashes, and a $50,000 Rolex (when she isn’t having her purse stolen at D.C. restaurants). After catastrophic floods killed 138 people in Texas, she delayed disaster relief for three days, because everything had to be “approved” by her personally.

And so it goes.

It’s a ship of fools, and we’re all passengers.”

“11:11” Screens at Holly Shorts Film Festival

By Connie Wilson

On July 30, 2025

In Humor and Weird Wilson-isms, Movies, Of Local (Quad Cities') Interest, Pop Culture, Reviews

Jasmine (Mahaela Park) and Noori (Tara Raani) in “11:11.”

Mahnoor Euceph wrote and directed the short (15:27 mins.) “11:11”that will screen at the HollyShorts Festival from August 7^th to the 17^th in Hollywood, California. [Among those listed as Executive Producer for the film was Cate Blanchett].

The short follows a 9^th grade Pakistani Muslim girl Noori as she moves to Palos Verdes, California in 2009 and attempts to assimilate into the culture of her new homeland and her new school (Palos Verdes High School). Noori didn’t even realize that she had brown skin until 3^rd grade, but that fact is driven home to her in America by the locals. Like every teenager, Noor wants to fit in and she wants to be popular, as she was back in Pakistan. That universal urge is what is ably dissected in this 15 minute short.

HIGH SCHOOL CLIQUES

The short opens with Noori describing the various cliques that exist in the school. She has categorized them as The Culture Vultures, who are obsessed with all things Bollywood; the Future Overreaching Billionaires, or FOBs; the Halal Harami, who spend their time sinning and praying for forgiveness; the Coconuts, who hate brown food and love indie rock; and the Race Traitors, who spend their time making fun of their own kind, only speaking of their race to diss those like themselves.

Jeff Benesh (Caiden Falstrup-finny).

As we learn during an Art History class—Jeff Benesh is the BMOC, who only dates white girls and apparently doesn’t even seem to know that Noori is alive (as kids say in the U.S.). But Noori has had a crush on Jeff. Noori’s best friend Jasmine (Mahaela Park) shares with Noori that Jeff likes someone in their Art History class. Jasmine prints out a note asking Jeff if that person in the class that he likes is Noori. When Jeff reads the note, he gives it back to Noori, saying, “You’re not my type.”

Cold, heartless, but very real.

“FREAKY FRIDAY” SPIN-OFF

Noori (Tara Raani) and her blonde alter ego (Taylor Geare) during the Freaky Friday-like switch,

Noori and her blonde version (Taylor Geare) as the “change” after the wish takes place.

At this point, the film becomes derivative of “Freaky Friday” (and the soon-to-be released “Freakier Friday”) where, by wishing she looked more like Jeff’s type, Noori actually finds that her skin has lightened and her hair has turned blonde. The actress portraying Jeff’s blonde type is played by Taylor Geare, who gives her name as “Rooni,” when asked her name at Jeff’s house pool party. Noori’s reaction upon realizing in the rest room mirror that she is several shades whiter, “I wanted him to like me for me. I didn’t want to get Michael Jackson-ed!”

BRIGHT SPOT #1

The script provided some good moments. Well done! I enjoyed this line: “I’m not really afraid of trouble, because then it would give me something to write about on my college apps.”

BRIGHT SPOT #2

Enjoyed the music, most of it played by a group called Tetherball. The songs “Buoy” and “Twisting in the Sky” were written by Bernie Bridges, Julian Bridges, Miller Kitsner and Irfan Zaidi and the Supervising Sound Editor and Recording Mixer was Nathan Ruyle. Lara Hall’s costume designs (especially the outfits at the pool party), along with the production design (Sara Millan), Editing (Julian Bridges) and Cinematography (Director of Photography Lee Muller) were all excellent.

The 2009 time frame is pinned down well by the reference to Michael Jackson as the biggest star on the planet, a mention of Barack Obama as Noori’s idol, and by the fact that the online activity is away from MySpace (and onto Facebook.) The current events references depicting what is going on in 2009 are right on target, as are the outfits and the music. Only the “Freaky Friday” switcheroo was derivative, but it served the plot’s look at prejudice towards those with darker skins in America and does so with well-crafted lines like the heartthrob’s dismissal of Noori as having “a big nose and small titties.”

Jeff and Noori at Jeff Benesh’s pool party.

All of the teenagers depicted came off as real and genuine, and Noori’s rejection of Jeff “You know what, Jeff, you’re not my type” and her ultimate rejection of becoming a “Race Traitor” is a great message for this 15 minute film.

The film was chosen by a committee that included Greta Gerwig and Lilly Wachowski — in partnership with Netflix, the Annenberg Inclusion Initiative, and Dirty Films. Mahnoor Euceph is an award-winning writer and director from Los Angeles She holds a BA in Design/Media Arts from UCLA and an MFA in Film & TV Production from USC .

CONCLUSION

A top-notch short that takes a look at prejudice in modern-day high school America and combines that serious topic with the difficulties any student in a new school experiences trying to “fit in” and be considered cool. Mahnoor Euceph is a promising up-and-coming Pakistani filmmaker.

“Sunday Sauce” Bubbles Up at Holly Shorts 2025

By Connie Wilson

On July 30, 2025

In Humor and Weird Wilson-isms, Movies, Pop Culture, Reviews

“Sunday Sauce” is a Holly Shorts entry from Matt Campanella, who both directed, wrote and stars as Marco. Anthony Campanella produced and Matt’s real life grandmother, Vincenza Campanella, plays his grandmother at the Italian dinner party that is the center of the story.

If a dinner party sounds drab and dull, now might be the time to mention that the first third of this 14.25 film features Matthew Risch (“Modern Family,” “How to Get Away With Murder”) as Gino, whacking off in the bathroom. He is sexting with a young gay guy he calls Twunk. Gino definitely looks hot, sweaty, bearded, and uncomfortable throughout. His Catholic faith finds him feeling repressed and guiltridden and gives credence to the saying, “Good old Catholic guilt. The gift that keeps on giving.” Many judgmental portraits of Jesus underscore the Catholic guilt he feels.

Cathy Moriarty (and DeNiro) in 1980’s “Raging Bull.”

Gino finally exits the bathroom, having decided to send a face shot to his anonymous sexting partner and begins preparing food for a sumptuous Italian dinner, presided over by Cathy Moriarty as Nancy. Moriarty is the glue holding this short and this family together. She is an intense presence and has worked steadily since her 1980 nomination as Best Supporting Actress opposite Robert DeNiro in “Raging Bull.” Moriarty was only 18 years old at the time, and lush. For those too young to remember her, a picture of her in her prime is essential. Her acting chops are impressive. She also had an iconic role in “Neighbors,” which I highly recommend.I attended a zoom press conference for a 2020 film of Cathy Moriarty’s entitled “Shooting Heroin.”

That film was shot in the middle of Pennsylvania in the winter in 12 days on a shoestring budget and was very much a family endeavor. Moriarty was just as essential in it as she is in this 14.25 minute short. And this film, too, seems to be a family endeavor. Moriarty is the hostess for “Sunday Sauce’s” dinner party and there is a spirited conversation with young Francesca, who is 19, pregnant and unmarried. Nicole Ehringer, who plays Francesca, has a boyfriend (Chad) but Nancy (Moriarty’s character) is obviously trolling for more suitable potential life mates for Francesca. Hence the invitation to Marco and his Nonna to come to dinner.

Francesca (Nicole Ehinger) in “Sunday Sauce” at HollyShorts.

That effort to find a man for the pregnant Francesca reminded me of the film “Love with the Proper Stranger” (Natalie Wood, Steve McQueen) where Natalie’s close-knit Italian family is constantly trying to find a mate for her, since she is also with child. I recently watched the 1963 film for free on YouTube for the first time in 60 years. I was amused to see that Tom Bosley of “Happy Days” portrayed the young Italian man Natalie’s family thought might make a more suitable mate than Steve McQueen (in his prime—his last romantic film.)

When the young Marco and his Grandmother arrive, Gino is horrified to see that his young guest is the very same gay partner, Twunk,that Gio has been sexting with in the bathroom.The rest of the plot (such as it is) reiterates the concept of queer identity and the repression of same in culture and religion. There was a slight injury to Gino’s hand when he grabs the hot pasta sauce pot without a pot-holder and what happens to his hand after that instantly summoned “District 9” and Sharlto Copley. Again, tonally, somewhat at odds with the themes of family, repressed identity and faith.

I would insert a thought here about how queer identity is not that repressed any more. If you haven’t seen the closing night 2025 SXSW film “On Swift Horses,” there’s one example of homosexuality that is very open. It featured a currently hot young star, Jacob Elordi (“Saltburn”) in the gay love scenes.

However, with Trump 2.0 in full swing, stay tuned. Apparently U.S. military records are currently being purged of any mention of “gay” or “homosexual.” “Don’t ask, don’t tell” of the Clinton years is starting to look absolutely progressive in DJT’s America. Russia is not a gay-friendly country—nor are Iran and/or many others that the U.S.’s current leader openly admires. I get the sinking feeling that diversity, equality and inclusion (DEI) will continue to be under intense assault for (at least) the next 3 and ½ years.

So my first impulse was to say that Gino shouldn’t feel as much guilt and repression as he obviously does. But that point-of-view has given way to recognizing the cultural norms under which Gino was raised, as well as acknowledging the cultural norms regarding sexuality that are being thrust upon us in 2025 America. Most of the progress in many areas since at least the sixties (and I’ve been reviewing since 1970)—a woman’s right to have control over her own body, racial equality, free speech, diversity—is in the cultural crosshairs right now in the United States. So Gino’s fear of reprisal and good old Catholic guilt are not without a real-life basis and merited.

Gino’s repressed sexuality bubbling over as it does when he finally meets the boy of his dreams, may be timelier than it seemed upon first viewing. All I could think of after the denouement of the plot was how uncomfortable and sweaty and hassled poor Gino looked throughout the entire film. Cathy Moriarty’s line about the death of romance applied. (“Today there’s no romance. They don’t do it like that no more.”)

The original score by Lorenzo Barcella helped escalate the tension in this tale of family, faith and repressed identity. The press notes say, if you’re queer or Catholic, this film about hiding, revealing and transforming, may resonate. Pitching it as “The Sopranos” a la Cronenberg worked.

But, for me, introducing the comatose Maria—an oddball touch— added humor that didn’t really blend that well with most of the film’s messaging. The cinematography (Stefan Nachmann) was good and the Italian aria playing throughout added to the drama (although it also reminded me that Donald J. Trump also has a thing for playing dramatic Italian arias.)

Dinner with the Catholic Campanellas in “Sunday Sauce” was interesting, even if the odd-ball inclusion of the comatose Maria and the lobster-clawed Gino seems like it would be appropriate to a different movie with a different tone. But Maria does get to utter the film’s last line and the incomparable Cathy Moriarty is, once again, the glue for this family dramedy.