Favorite Fictional Character --- Captain Caveman

 

"Caaaptain Caaaavemaaaan!"

I was that kid who would plop himself down on his grandparents’ living room floor — even when they had brand new white carpet — turn on the USA Network, and get lost in USA Cartoon Express for an hour or two, depending on the day. The vast majority of the cartoons came out in the 1970s, but that never mattered to me. I could watch Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!, The Herculoids, Thundarr the Barbarian, Space Ghost, Jabberjaw, and the rest of the gang just as easily as I watched newer shows like He-Man and the Masters of the Universe, G.I. Joe, Shirt Tales, Kissyfur, and The Wuzzles. If it was a cartoon, I was all in. It didn’t matter how old it was or when it originally aired — if it was animated, it had my full attention.

One of the shows I loved most was Captain Caveman and the Teen Angels. If you’ve never seen it, think a mix of Scooby-Doo and Charlie’s Angels, with the addition of a caveman accidentally thawed from a block of ice by three teen girls. Cavey quickly joins them, and before long, he’s right there alongside Dee Dee, Brenda, and Taffy as they travel around solving mysteries and catching the bad guys.

There was something about Cavey — ridiculous as he was — that stuck with me. Between his Cousin Itt-like appearance, his “Me Tarzan, you Jane” way of speaking, and powers that never quite worked the way they were supposed to, he shouldn’t have worked as well as he did. And yet he did. He never gave up. No matter how often things went wrong, he would shake it off and keep going, completely content with the life he had found with the Teen Angels.

They only solved mysteries for 40 episodes, but those adventures have stuck with me far longer than that. It’s still one of those shows I find myself going back to every now and then — not just for the nostalgia, but for the simple joy it always managed to bring with it.

Trust: America's Best Chance by Pete Buttigieg

 

Synopsis From Dust Jacket:

Trust is essential to the foundation of America’s democracy, asserts Pete Buttigieg, the former presidential candidate and South Bend mayor. Yet, in a century warped by terrorism, financial collapse, Trumpist populism, systemic racism, and now a global pandemic, trust has been squandered, sacrificed, abused, stolen, or never properly built in the first place. And now, more so than ever before, Americans must work side by side to reckon with the monumental challenges posed by our present moment.

Interweaving history, political philosophy, and affecting passages of memoir, Buttigieg explores the strong relationship between measures of prosperity and levels of social trust. He provides an impassioned account of a threefold crisis of trust: in our institutions, in each other, and in the American project itself. Today, these perilous patterns of distrust have wreaked havoc on nearly every sector of society, as Americans increasingly resent the very government that needs to be part of the solution. With the internet and partisan television networks acting as accelerants, Americans jettison any sense of shared reality, lose confidence in experts and scientists, and cope with the grim national tragedy of a pandemic that has only further exemplified the lethality of distrust.

Buttigieg contends that our success, or failure, at confronting the greatest challenges of the decade―racial and economic justice, pandemic resilience, and climate action―will rest on whether we can effectively cultivate, deepen, and, where necessary, repair the networks of trust that are now endangered, or for so many, have never even existed.

I’ve admired Pete Buttigieg for quite a while now, and reading Trust only deepened that admiration. During his presidential campaign, he and his husband Chasten carried themselves with a level of dignity and respect that often feels rare in modern politics. Even in a very intense national spotlight, they remained gracious, grounded, and consistently decent. As a gay man, that meant a lot to me then, and it still does now.

What stands out most in Trust is how clearly Buttigieg explains the growing crisis of mistrust in our institutions — and how complicated the reasons for that mistrust actually are. He writes about the erosion of confidence in government, the news media, and other institutions that shape our public life, and he does so thoughtfully rather than defensively. If I’m being honest, it’s one of the most balanced discussions of the issue I’ve read, and that approach really resonated with me.

He is also careful to acknowledge that mistrust didn’t simply appear out of nowhere. In many cases it was earned — particularly among marginalized communities that have historically been excluded, ignored, or even harmed by the very institutions now asking for their trust. At the same time, he addresses the rise of purposeful misinformation and how it has deepened existing fractures. In many ways, that deliberate misinformation feels like pouring gasoline on a fire that was already burning.

When I finished Trust, I felt that the problem he describes is serious but not hopeless. Buttigieg clearly believes our democratic institutions are worth repairing, and I appreciated his willingness to engage the issue directly. The country could use more leaders willing to do that — and honestly, I’m begging him to run for president again someday.

Favorite Fictional Character --- Charles "Trip" Tucker III

 

I’m going to apologize in advance if this ends up being a little rambling as I’m currently dealing with a medication change from gabapentin to Lyrica. The brain fog is real and I'm ridiculously tired — all I want to do is lie down and watch TV until I fall asleep.

Lately I've been binging Star Trek shows, which is not a series I've ever been all that interested in. I kept reading a certain segment of the fandom is melting down because of Starfleet Academy, so I gave the first two episodes a try, and I'm now hooked. I loved it so much that I decided to watch all of the shows in chronological order. I started with Star Trek: Enterprise, and now I’m finishing up Star Trek: Discovery.

I wasn't sure what to expect as I've never been an actual fan of the Star Trek universe. I was a sporadic viewer of The Next Generation and Voyager, and I would watch the original series with my mom as a kid, if I couldn't get out of it. I think I watched more episodes of The Animated Series than I did the live-action version.

I absolutely loved Enterprise, and one day I'll do a binge review, and a huge reason I enjoyed it as much as I did was because of today's FFC subject, Charles "Trip" Tucker III, the chief engineer of Enterprise (NX-01).

I don't often describe someone as magnetic, but I can't think of a more fitting descriptor when it comes to Trip. He has a large personality and has more self confidence stored in his blue eyes than I have ever possessed. When he walks into a room, it's impossible not to notice him. He's loyal, yet can be quick to anger and hold a grudge like no other. And yeah, I'm rambling a bit but I really do like this guy.

When he fell in love and eventually had his heart broken, he showed a level of emotional maturity that had me thinking he needs to jump off the screen and start teaching people, and I mean men, how to handle heartache in a way that can't be described as toxic.

He's a complex guy with a strong sense of duty, and he is one of those guys I would have had a hero-worship crush on when I was younger. Now that I'm only a few months shy of fifty, he's the kind of guy I would respect the hell out of — and gravitate toward as someone who would make a great friend.

I think I'm going to pick one character from each show to do one of these on, as I'm curious to see who will end up being my favorite on each show. I just hope whoever I pick from Star Trek: Discovery isn't treated as badly by the writers as Trip was at the end of Star Trek: Enterprise. That was a damn shame, though you'll have to watch the show to find out what I'm talking about.

Midnight Lace (1960)

 

Synopsis From Rotten Tomatoes:

When the American wife of a wealthy London-based financier starts receiving frightening phone calls, she believes her life is in danger, but when she protests to her family following a near-fatal accident, they and the police doubt her claims and even her sanity. 

I'm not sure when I first watched Midnight Lace, but the scene with Doris Day in a fog-filled park while an invisible stalker whispers death threats stayed with me for years. It's one of those scenes that sends chills up your spine, and Doris Day absolutely sold me on her fear and panic as her life was being threatened.

As a kid, I grew up on the Doris Day and Rock Hudson movies, so I wasn't expecting her performance as a woman whose life is slowly unraveling to be so captivating, as I had prejudged the type of actress she was based on my limited knowledge of her. She was mesmerizing — just staying this side of paranoid madness.

The supporting cast is just as good — but what would you expect from Rex Harrison, an actor who can swing between hero and villain effortlessly? Watching Myrna Loy as Aunt Bea reminds me of just how little the studios made use of her gifts as she aged. She was brilliant in the 1930s, and she was just as good here, albeit in a much smaller role than she deserved. John Gavin, despite his politics, was a talented actor who drew an audience in and never let them go. I'm pretty sure it had just as much to do with his good looks as it did with his talent — he was always easy on the eyes. His performance in Midnight Lace as the man who swoops in and saves the day could give some of our current action heroes a point or two.

If you've had the pleasure of watching Grace Kelly in Dial M for Murder or Barbara Stanwyck in Sorry, Wrong Number — two of my favorite movies — it's not hard to guess who's behind the murderous scheme. But don't let that stop you from watching Midnight Lace — it's a thrilling romp through the streets of London, and Doris Day proves she was more than a brilliant romcom actress. It's just sad that she didn't do more movies like this, because I would have become just as addicted to them as I am to this one.

What I'm Currently Reading

 

The God of the Woods by Liz Moore — A friend of mine sent this to me when it was first released, and while I’m just now getting started, I’m enjoying it so far.

Trust: America’s Best Chance by Pete Buttigieg — With the steady rise of misinformation bombarding us from all directions, this felt like the right moment to revisit it.

The Mage and His Brute by Ava Salinger — A gay Regency romance/mystery series with an intricate magic system. I'm turning to this when everything else feels too heavy.

Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen — This was one of the selections for the “12 Books from 12 Friends” challenge on Facebook. As much as I want to enjoy it, I’m struggling.