It has been a long time, Gentle Reader(s)—longer than I care to reflect—since I last posted any ruminations regarding whatever the heck has gotten stuck in my thinky-thing. Perhaps the reason for this hiatus, or at least part of the reason, is that there’s just so much… stuff. Personally and otherwise. Another day, another challenge, another outrage to decency, common sense, humanity—whatever. Where does one begin?    Personally and otherwise, I have been stunned and horrified by Russia’s brutal and inhuman invasion of Ukraine. Of course it’s not extraordinary to see suffering, suppression, oppression and horror in this world—there’s more than enough to go around. But being who I am, with all of the innate socio-cultural baggage that being Me entails, I find my response to a land war in Europe to be particularly visceral. I’ll admit: When the horror is taking place in Africa or Asia or Latin America or wherever it’s easier for me to maintain some sort of intellectual and emotional distance from it all. It’s sort of a ‘Oh my God, that’s so awful, but…’ response. The ’but…’ being that my prejudice, to some degree, is that the people being murdered in Ukraine look more like me. I’m not proud of that. I know it’s not an excuse, but I’m just trying to be truthful here. I do what I can with the resources available to me to try and make the world a slightly better place. I could certainly do more. We could all do more.   Having said that, why in the world would I be moved to write something about the spectacle that unfolded at the 94th Academy Awards last night? The reason might be because of the immediacy of it. Because I saw it right there in my living room on the ol’ Sony idiot box—live, give or take nine seconds. Like a lot of folks—including people right there in the Dolby Theater—at first I couldn’t figure out what was going on. Was this a scripted ‘bit’? Will Smith—the smiling, perpetual good guy, mainstream feature film actor—smacking the shit out of Chris Rock?? That can’t be real, right?