We're at 10 hours now and counting, and the boot scan of my desktop computer is still going on. Thank goodness for having a notebook...
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Okay, so yesterday I mentioned songs in You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown that are little known, and posted one of my favorites in the show that fits well-into that category. But this one is even less known, even to people who love the cast album and have listened to it repeatedly -- because the song is not even on it! And I absolutely love it for a couple of reasons -- one is that it's a lunatic idea for a song, and I love the kind of mind that would think of doing it, and two, I admire that they used a song that wasn't original, which is so deeply rare for a musical, so I love the selflessness of that. It's a difficult song to perform, requiring challenging timing, since the words (as you'll see) pour out quickly over one another, and much of the humor of the song is its overlapping, and the words have to be song clearly enough over the arrangement. (In fact, I tried to find a live performance video of this, because it's perfectly fun when performed live and also hearing the audience reaction at how unexpected it is. But none of that found handled it clearly enough, and that 1973 animated TV special does.) So, this below is why I love "The Glee Club Rehearsal." I notice that there are two, recurring criticisms that get posted online about the Affordable Care Act. Each a bit contradictory of the other. One is that "the ACA plan is more expensive than what I now have." The other is that "I don't benefit from the ACA plan."
The thing is, most of these laments are meaningless because a) they offer no detail, and b) they tend to be information gotten when checking if they qualify, not by looking at the actual plans. For those who say the ACA plan is more expensive, they're ignoring several things. First, if their own plan is cheaper, that's because they have a plan through work, are being subsidized by their company. That's why it appears to be less. Second, the monthly cost of an ACA plan doesn't tell the full story of the savings. For instance, the monthly cost may be more, but there is likely a significantly lower deductible. (So, you might save thousands right there.) And the costs of procedures covered by the ACA plan might likely be much less than they coverage they now have. Moreover, the co-pay of the ACA plan may well be much less. Plus, there are many ACA plans to choose from -- with lower monthly costs, but higher deductibles (and vice-versa). So, there are a great deal of savings that people aren't "reporting." And as for saying that they don't benefit from the ACA -- that's just not true. Even if you don't quality for a government-subsidized plan, you still benefit. The Affordable Care Act is MUCH more than just those plans. You benefit because a great deal of preventative procedures are now fully covered. Colon cancer screening exams, mammary screening exams, a lot of prescriptions, doctors exams and a great deal more -- all fully covered, 100%, whatever medical coverage you have. And you now can't be turned down for instance if you have a pre-existing condition. And there's no longer a lifetime cap on how much will be covered. (That could save you hundreds of thousands of dollars, let along for some people literally millions.) And your children up to the age of 26 can now be covered on your policy. All that whatever your policy is, whether it's a subsidized plan or the one you have now and are keeping. So...you DO save, it DOES benefit you. Even if you do nothing. And as for not qualifying for a government-subsized plan...the ACA is not intended to subsidize everyone. That part of the plan is meant for people who don't have health insurance through work or who can't afford it. Everyone else, if you have health insurance and like it...you keep it. (If your insurance rates go up -- blame the insurance company. They're the ones who raised your raised. Other companies haven't.) The thing is, for all those people who are complaining that they don't qualify for a government-subsized plan -- hey the next time this comes up, you might want to consider supporting Single Payer. Y'know, that thing you were against before and are complaining you don't have now... As for the computer glitches -- Yes, they're lousy. Most state exchanges don't have the same glitches and are running much better, but that's no excuse. The glitches on healthcare.gov are bad. Forgetting for a moment, however, that almost all big rollouts have had computer tech glitches, and Republicans loudly defended the big glitches of the Bush Medical D rollout, my favorite comment on all this was a simple statement that read -- "I'd rather support a party that has a big computer glitch than one which didn't offer low-cost healthcare at all." And in the end, it's a computer glitch. The actual program itself? It's very good -- see above. So, this morning when I checked my computer, the overnight scan had detected a virus and was waiting for me to delete it. Fine, deleted, gone. Then it suggested doing a boot scan -- restarting the system to scan before Windows loaded. Fine, always a good idea, I figured that it would take 10-15 minutes.
Silly me. It's over four hours later and still scanning. (I think it's also scanning my back-up drive, which is what's made it seem SO long.) And since this is all before Windows has loaded, I can't use the computer, while simply scanning in the background. Then, feeling like a fool, so focused on my desktop system running through its scan, I realized that I actually have a notebook computer, sitting off there elsewhere at home. So, I've started that up, and here we are... I've been mentioning various book reviews lately, and that brought me to mind this little-known song. You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown has a few songs that have become somewhat familiar, though the only one that really "broke out" was "Happiness." In large part that's because the songs -- written by Clark Gesner -- are "book" numbers, those which are case-specific to the story and don't really lend themselves to a life outside of the show. This is one of those book songs, and it's also one of the lesser-known ones, more a dramatic quartet than a traditional song -- and one of my favorites. It's "The Book Report," which wonderfully follows the horrors that little kids feel when given a Big Homework Assignment, and the lengths they'll go to somehow finagle their way around it, often thinking that they're tricking the teacher. It's so insightful, and whimsical, and richly musical, focusing on four of the characters signing in counterpoint. This comes from the 1973 television adaptation of the musical, that used the animated characters rather than the adult actors of the Broadway show. I mentioned a British columnist here the other day, Miles Kington, and had a wonderful quote from him. As I mentioned, I'd tracked down a bunch of articles by him, which were great, and said I'd post a few. First though, I thought it would be nice to provide a terrific tribute to the humorist by one of his former co-workers at The Independent. It puts him and his work in a richer perspective, and shows why he was so admired. "Quantity was one thing, quality quite another," writes Simon O'Hagan. "And the quality of Miles’s columns never wavered." That's particularly impressive when one has written over 10,000 columns.
Mr. O'Hagan worked at the copy desk and as a result the happy recipient of the material Miles Kington sent in, that often included whimsical notes. He comments, "What did Miles write about? Everything and nothing. Especially nothing. Writing about nothing – or almost nothing – was I think where his real genius lay. He wrote about words, about motorway service stations, about being out and about on his bicycle. He was a spoof agony uncle. He noticed things no one else noticed." You can read the tribute here. Occasional columns to follow. |
AuthorRobert J. Elisberg is a political commentator, screenwriter, novelist, tech writer and also some other things that I just tend to keep forgetting. Feedspot Badge of Honor
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