Greetings, my fellow port swillers!

I hope you all had a very pleasant Thanksgiving weekend. Owing to You Know What, ours was very quiet.

Ol’ Robbo finds himself without a great deal to say at the moment. So I’ll just go with one item apropos to the start of Advent:

Have you seen the Vatican’s Nativity for this year?

I know it’s 2020 and all, and after everything else that’s happened this year I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised, but really?

I’m sure my Betters will tell me that I am hopelessly narrow-minded, and wrong, wrong, wrong for being put off by this thing. Nonetheless, I am.

I suppose I should just be grateful that Papa Frankie didn’t slip Pachamama into the scene somewhere.

UPDATE: Speaking of general weirdness, Ol’ Robbo stumbled upon a truly bizarre film the other evening, “7 Faces of Dr. Lao” (1964). A travelling circus comes to an Old West town, bringing with it strange creatures and persons, all presided over by the mysterious Dr. Lao, who also gives magic displays and a series of life lessons. The Doctor and six other characters are all played by Tony Randall, of all people. (I believe the host said that the multi-role bit was originally designed for Peter Sellers, who liked to do that sort of thing, but that the plan fell through.)

As I say, the film was bizarre. It was also pretty cheesy. But what was outright astonishing was that TCM even aired it, given that the Doctor as played by Randall was straight out of Central Stereotyping. I wonder if TCM got an earful for it from the Permanently Indignant brigade?