Hey there, kids, welcome to the Phile for a Wednesday. How are you doing? At this point in 2020 I'd be willing to accept a really good banana bread recipe from a Murder Hornet. Doctor Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease expert, is warning Congress that if the country reopens too soon during the coronavirus pandemic, it will result in “needless suffering and death.” Fauci is among the health experts testifying to a Senate panel. His testimony comes as President Donald Trump is praising states that are reopening after the prolonged lock-down aimed at controlling the virus’ spread. Fauci, a member of the coronavirus task force charged with shaping the response to COVID-19, which has killed tens of thousands of people in the U.S., is testifying via video conference after self-quarantining as a White House staffer tested positive for the virus. With the U.S. economy in free-fall and more than 30 million people unemployed, Trump has been pressuring states to reopen. Fauci, in a statement to The New York Times, warned that officials should adhere to federal guidelines for a phased reopening, including a “downward trajectory” of positive tests or documented cases of coronavirus over two weeks, robust contact tracing and “sentinel surveillance” testing of asymptomatic people in vulnerable populations, such as nursing homes. “If we skip over the checkpoints in the guidelines… then we risk the danger of multiple outbreaks throughout the country,” Fauci wrote. “This will not only result in needless suffering and death, but would actually set us back on our quest to return to normal.” Other senior health officials scheduled to testify before the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions committee will also appear via video link after going into self-quarantine, following their exposure to a White House staffer who tested positive. The chairman of the committee, Republican Sen. Lamar Alexander of Tennessee, also put himself in quarantine after an aide tested positive. He’ll participate by video, too. Besides Fauci, of the National Institutes of Health, the other experts include FDA Commissioner Dr. Stephen Hahn and Dr. Robert Redfield, head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, along with Adm. Brett Giroir, the coronavirus “testing czar” at the Department of Health and Human Services. Even before the gavel drops, the hearing offers two takeaways for the rest of the country, said John Auerbach, president of the nonprofit public health group Trust for America’s Health. “One thing it tells you is that the virus can have an impact in any workplace setting or any community setting,” said Auerbach. “All businesses will find it very challenging to ensure safety when there are cases.” Another lesson is that the public officials involved are taking the virus seriously by not appearing in person. “They are following the guidelines that they are recommending to others,” said Auerbach. “There is not a double standard.” The main questions for the administration experts revolve around the “Three T’s,” or testing, tracing and treatment. Without widespread testing, state and local officials will be basing decisions to reopen businesses and schools on incomplete data with blind spots lurking. Without the ability to do the painstaking work of tracing the contacts of people infected, unwitting transmission will continue. Without effective treatments, hospitals in a given community could be overwhelmed in a COVID-19 rebound. Ultimately, the goal is a vaccine that would offer widespread protection. The health committee hearing offers a very different setting from the White House coronavirus task force briefings the administration witnesses have all participated in. Senators on the panel are knowledgeable and some have working relationships that go back years with the agencies that the panelists are representing. Most significantly, President Donald Trump will not be controlling the agenda. Eyeing the November elections, Trump has been eager to restart the economy, urging on protesters who oppose their state governors’ stay-at-home orders and expressing his own confidence that the coronavirus will fade away as summer advances and Americans return to work and other pursuits. The ranking Democrat on the health panel, Sen. Patty Murray of Washington State, doesn’t think the Trump administration is doing nearly enough to keep the virus under control as the economy reopens. “President Trump is trying to ignore the facts, and ignore the experts who have been clear we are nowhere close to where we need to be to reopen safely,” she said in a statement. Murray will participate via video, but some senators are expected to attend in person. Alexander is more nuanced about the nation’s readiness. He suggests there’s enough testing to move to reopen the economy, but worries that there won’t be enough to sustain a return to normality. “It’s enough to do what we need to do today to reopen,” he said on NBC’s “Meet The Press” on Sunday. “But it’s not enough, for example, when 35,000 kids and faculty show up on the University of Tennessee campus in August.” With more types of tests on the market from different manufacturers and providers, testing is an area that’s become particularly difficult for lay people to navigate. Until now there has been only one kind of test to detect active infection. Called a PCR test, it detects the genetic material of the virus, and is still considered the most accurate. Last weekend the FDA approved the first “antigen” test, which looks for protein traces of the virus instead, much like rapid tests for flu or strep throat. Antigen tests aren’t as accurate as PCR tests but promise to be faster and easier to use. A third kind of test detects past infection, by spotting antibodies in people’s blood. But it’s not yet clear if having those antibodies means someone is immune from another bout of COVID-19.
Bethel is a near Anchorage, Alaska, a city with one of the highest sex crime rates in the country. Horror stories of sexual assault are common in that rural area, and with enforcing federal law being difficult in that far northern region, it’s no wonder Alaska has a history of failing to protect and garner justice for its victims. And this elementary school principal is a great example of how. Christopher Carmichael, the elementary school principal at Gladys Jung Elementary School, was finally arrested by the Bethel Police Department, Alaska State Troopers, and the FBI’s Child Exploitation Task Force back in December 10th, 2019. He is now being held in custody in Anchorage with bail set at $250,000. On April 13th, he was arraigned on charges of two counts of sexual abuse of a minor in the second degree for incidents that happened back in 2017 and 2018. Carmichael’s first criminal charge was reportedly when he touched an 11-year-old girl’s breast while she was holding his office door open. Criminal charges didn’t initially follow through until his arrest in December 2019, even though it happened in February 2018. Carmichael’s second criminal charge came with the same M.O., touching a different underage girl between 2017 and 2018. According to Bethel Police, they received a report in June 2019, this elementary school principal was touching this seventh grader’s breasts and thighs, taking her into a closet or office to avoid cameras. This happened after school every Friday for almost a year. He also was charged with possession of child pornography. So how did they finally nail this guy? According to Anchorage Daily News, since 2016, parents had already been complaining about this sex offender to police. Even with the culmination of complaints, Carmichael was still allowed to work in the Lower Kuskokwim School District because the criminal charges were not initially sticking. So an officer used one of the victim’s Facebook accounts to pretend to be her, getting Carmichael to talk about their physical interactions. The “victim” then led the principal to her “13-year-old cousin who was having trouble with her family in Anchorage,” setting up the trap. This “13-year-old cousin” was actually an undercover FBI agent, and the principal caved. Carmichael would text her, saying he wanted to meet her, describing the sexual acts he wanted to do with her, and warning the “victim” to “keep referring to herself like she was eighteen so that he wouldn’t get in trouble.” He also said during a recorded phone call, “I love you exactly how you are and exactly how old you are,” and asked both girls to call him “daddy,” according to the charges. How sickening. After getting arrested, Carmichael told FBI agents that he was especially attracted to “children who are beginning puberty and pubescent,” and admitted that he started the relationship and sexual communication with the two girls, fully aware they are minors. What’s even scarier is that Carmichael was originally revered as a popularly loved principal when he arrived in Bethel back in 2014. The investigation started in 2016 when a mother saw a Facebook exchange between her 14-year-old daughter and Carmichael that were wildly inappropriate. However, after finding no illegal pictures and only finding the text messages, the former Bethel principal was only put on administrative leave at the time, returning after law enforcement could not charge him for sexual exploitation of a child. It’s sickening to see sex offenders take advantage of their positions and locations, but it’s even more obnoxious that it took so long to keep this guy away from children, even with the blatantly obvious evidence. I don’t think I’m exaggerating at all when I state my opinion that the school district should’ve fired him immediately upon the first confirmed exhibits of evidence. Seriously, I have no idea how anyone could let someone come back to work with children after seeing how he or she inappropriately talks to them.
A Houston woman was filmed driving her minivan over the graves of dozens of veterans on, of all days, V-E Day, to avoid a traffic jam inside the Houston National Cemetery. The woman was at the Houston National Cemetery, like numerous other people there and causing the traffic jam, to watch a flyover by the Lone Star Flight Museum to commemorate the 75th anniversary of VE Day, which marks the day the Allies declared victory in World War II in Europe. As everyone’s cars were filing out of the narrow-roaded cemetery it seems the woman grew impatient about how long it was taking her to leave... maybe she had an appointment to use some grave a little boy dug his dead gerbil as a toilet and was running late?... and decided to pop up on the grass to bypass the other cars. The problem, however, is that at cemeteries the grassy parts are typically where they put the graves, and at military cemeteries, those graves have war heroes and veterans in them. Jeremiah Johnston, whose grandparents are buried at the cemetery, filmed the woman take the world’s worst detour while others at the cemetery attempted to block her from driving over any more graves. According to bystanders, the woman seemed totally unfazed by what she was doing and did not seem to care about the fact that she was driving over the graves of veterans to avoid ten extra minutes of traffic. Please find this lady and make her scrub that entire cemetery with a toothbrush. A bad toothbrush. The kind you get for less than a dollar at the Dollar Store. The kind that’s not even capable of actually cleaning anything. You’d think that living in Houston would make you tolerant enough of traffic to be able to reason, “Well I’ve been in worse jams, I suppose I don’t need to drive over the graves of dead soldiers” but Goddamn I guess not.
I’ve written about how the coronavirus pandemic has brought out some of the best in people, kindness, and unity spread everywhere. I’ve also written about how the same pandemic has brought out some of the absolute worst in people, exposing true colors everywhere. And this story isn’t any less horrible than those types of stories. Danielle Conti, a 43-year-old nurse from Staten Island, New York, would normally be praised for her hard work in one of the most affected states by COVID-19. People are struggling on the front lines up there, and the entire country can only watch and help where it can. However, this isn’t a story talking about her hard work. In fact, she did one of the worst things you could do, notably as a nurse, to a family who has just lost a loved one. Especially one that has lost their loved one to COVID-19. So what did she do? While making her daily rounds around Staten Island University Hospital North, Danielle Conti had the audacity to swipe the credit card of a COVID-19 patient who passed away. And when I mean swipe, I mean steal. This nurse stole the credit card of 70-year-old Anthony Catapano, who passed away from the coronavirus on April 12th. He was a widow and also grandfathers a 12-year-old girl. Anthony’s daughter, Tara Catapano, spoke on the situation, extremely disappointed, “I can’t believe a person could do something like that to someone fighting for his life. This is a nurse who took an oath to treat, protect, and save patients. It’s disgusting … Never in a million years did I expect any of this to happen.” On April 9th, just three days before Anthony passed away, Danielle allegedly had stolen Catapano’s card when he was in the ventilator unit at Staten Island University Hospital North and got caught when she used approximately $60.23 at a gas station and made another charge at a ShopRite store the same day. And according to the New York Daily News, Staten Island had also hit a peak of nearly 1,200 coronavirus cases that same single day. Tara Catapano realized the card had been stolen when her dead father’s credit card bill showed up in her mail. She was alarmed that there was a gas station charge because her father always used cash to pay for gas and the charges on the card were made the day he was moved into a ventilator unit. Then on April 28th, Tara reported the issue to the police. Danielle was arrested and charged with grand larceny, and a Staten Island University Hospital North spokesperson disclosed what will happen to Danielle moving forward. The spokesperson explained, “Danielle Conti has been temporarily suspended and faces termination in response to the felony charges. We are working closely with the law-enforcement authorities and the hospital is conducting its own investigation.” I’m not sure what kind of conscience a person has to steal a credit card from a dying coronavirus patient. What kind of desperation forces someone to do that? Or was Danielle Conti not motivated by desperate factors, and did it out of pure insensitivity thinking she could get away with something like that? Who knows. All I do know is that my heart breaks for the Catapano family. Tara had also lost her brother seven months earlier, so this family shouldn’t have to be dealing with shit like this.
Stories of COVID-19 survivors of all ages are surfacing everywhere to celebrate and encourage our world as it comes together to defeat the coronavirus. And personally, I’ve written quite an amount of them. But a video of this 96-year-old four-time cancer survivor is one of the best examples of how one should celebrate overcoming the coronavirus pandemic. Ralph Abercia, from Houston, Texas, was caught on video wiggling around more than I’ve seen any other elderly person can. The 96-year-old veteran dances simply because he can, and I’m sure I would too if I had overcome what he has in his lifetime. Ralph has not just simply beaten COVID-19. He has also lived through the Great Depression, fought in World War II, beat cancer a whopping four times, and now overcome a pandemic that has caused the entire world to go virtual. But that’s not all he’s celebrating. Ralph’s wife Adelene Abercia also has some wins herself. The 88-year-old two-time cancer survivor has also kicked COVID-19’s ass. This tough Houston couple was diagnosed with the virus in mid-March when Adelene had trouble breathing and Ralph had a high fever. They spent a few weeks at Houston Methodist Hospital and became virus-free by the end of April. Adelene spoke about how they were feeling, saying, “We thought this is going to be the end for both of us, and we prayed and prayed, and God answered us. We realize that there is love out there in the world still.” The Houston couple has been happily married for 68 years. After everything they have been through, cases of COVID-19 honestly didn’t even stand a chance against them. And they sure deserve to be dancing after being so tough for so long. “That’s one thing that’s keeping me going: playing and dancing and moving your body and really enjoying life,” says the 96-year-old World War II veteran. Damn right, Ralph. Damn right.
Ever see those panhandlers holding signs? Some of them get pretty creative...
Movie theaters are getting creative with their marquee signs as theaters are closed...
Hey, future kids, this was Elon Musk and Grimes...
Okay, now from the home office in Port Jefferson, New York here is...
Top Phive Things Said By People Venting About Their Neighbors During Quarantine
5. If the quarantine has taught me anything its that my upstairs neighbors vacuum much more than I do.
4. Ah, yes, its that time of day where I get to play my favorite quarantine game Are My Upstairs Neighbors Doing Zumba Or Are They Having Sex?
3. I wasn't a big fan of my upstairs neighbors before quarantine. Now I can for certain, not a fan.
2. It's 2 a.m. and my upstairs neighbors are either rearranging their furniture or bowling. Either way I'm glad they are staying busy during quarantine.
And the number one thing said by someone venting about their neighbors during quarantine is...
1. How are both my upstairs AND downstairs neighbors having arguments in there respectively households simultaneously... quarantine truly got people acting out their Goddamn minds.
If you spot the Mindphuck let me know. Okay, let's take a look at Port Jeff today, shall we?
There's someone walking their dog. Haha.
Dang. That's crazy, right? Okay, wanna laugh?
A young naval student was being put through the paces by an old sea captain. "What would you do if a sudden storm sprang up on the starboard?" "Throw out an anchor, sir," the student replied. "What would you do if another storm sprang up aft?" "Throw out another anchor, sir." "And if another terrific storm sprang up forward, what would you do then?" asked the captain. "Throw out another anchor, sir." "Hold on," said the captain. "Where are you getting all those anchors from?" "From the same place you're getting your storms, sir."
Phact 1. Weight loss programs like Weight Watchers and Jenny Craig can be tax deductible.
Phact 2. Fly ash emitted by a coal power plant carry 100 times more radiation into the surrounding environment than a nuclear power plant producing the same amount of energy.
Phact 3. American actor Orson Welles and Ernest Hemingway became great friends after getting into a fist-fight with each other in a theater.
Phact 4. Ohio police have been on the lookout for a Pooping Bandit for over three years, who has pooped on at least 19 cars so far.
Phact 5. Chinese vampires are depicted in movies as hopping around because in the Qing Dynasty people used to pay "corpse carriers" to return dead migrants to their hometowns. They’d been transported at night lined up on bamboo poles, which would flex as the carriers ran, making the bodies appear to bounce.
The 124th book to be pheatured in the Phile's Book Club is...
Ellie will the guest on the Phile on Friday.
Today's guest is an American writer, actor and producer for television and film. He has written the screenplays for films such as School of Rock and Nacho Libre and has additionally directed several films that he has written such as Brad's Status. He is also known for his appearances on reality television, competing on two seasons of "The Amazing Race" and later becoming a contestant and runner-up on "Survivor." Please welcome to the Phile...
Me: Hello, Mike, welcome to the Phile. How are you?
Mike: I'm fine, Jason, thank you.
Me: I loved you on "Survivor." You really wanted to be on that show, right?
Mike: Yeah, I was dying... DYING to be on and I finally got my chance on "Survivor: David vs. Goliath."
Me: I am a HUGE "Survivor" fan and never missed an episode. I can't wait to see tonight's finale. For those that don't watch it or don't know tell them what you did on the show.
Mike: I battled 19 other contestants to try to win one million bucks and I did really well.
Me: Yeah, you came in second place! So, you are living the Hollywood dream, something I wanted to do as a kid and that's be a writer for movies and TV. So, why would you want to be a castaway on "Survivor"? I wouldn't last five minutes on that island.
Mike: I'm not a closet reality TV fan, particularly of "Survivor," and "Amazing Race" which I also participated in a few years ago with my dad. When I was a kid I watched movies, I was in the movies and I watched these adventure movies like James Bond or whatever and then I get into the business and I realized that being in production on a movie is not as exciting and adrenalin packed as I expected it to be. And so I think there's a little bit of a feeling it's like is there an adventure in this world. After a while I'm like why don't I just live the adventure instead of sitting there in a Burbank soundstage watching paint dry.
Me: I'd rather do that honestly. Haha. How long did it take for you to get on the show?
Mike: Well, like you I've watched every season. I think I watched every episode of the show. Then a few years back I was on "Amazing Race" and I was kind of in circles where I would meet the "Survivor" producers and Jeff Probst and I was like, "I'd love to play "Survivor,' it'll be so fun to do 'Survivor.'" Thinking they'd immediately turn around and say come do it, but they never did. So I would have to get more overt over the years and be like "come on! I'd be a good contestant." Finally I think they broke down and let me do it. I was appreciative.
Me: How did you feel when you found out that you were gonna be on the show?
Mike: I wanted to win and I wanted to be asked. When they asked me I was like what the hell, what am I doing. Only last year did I realize that I'm older. I'm 49-years-old and was about 48 when I did the game but I see myself as a young guy. I was like am I up for this, am I in shape for this? Then getting on the island with all these people who were literally twenty years younger than I was, or half my age. I was like I'm the old guy on "Survivor," how did this happen? I was excited but immediately I was having "buyers remorse."
Me: Did you think of backing out?
Mike: There's no way of getting out of these things without humiliating myself at some point along the way. I had to come to mental terms with that.
Me: What was your mindset going into it?
Mike: I had to really be above the game, get down in the dirt with the other pigs.
Me: I have a picture of you on the show I have to show...
Me: You had bad weather on that island if I remember, right? And some other crazy shit happened but you always had a good positive thought of it.
Mike: Yeah, it's funny the things I thought I was going to be good at I was mediocre at and the things I thought would be my downfall weren't that hard for me. I realize I don't get as cold as everyone else and so I can sleep out on the beach even when the conditions were brutal and they were all hovered in the shelter and freaking out.
Me: Did you ever feel you were suffering?
Mike: I think maybe the cameras out there, the suffering anonymity and alone is what real suffering is. There's suffering and there's a camera crew to document the whole thing. It takes some of the edge off of it. It's "performance suffering," I knew they weren't going to let me die out there. And then I just thought people are going to witness this pain that I'm going through and somehow it made it less painful.
Me: What is the worst thing you had to survive and get through?
Mike: I'm starving and yeah I'm cold but it's really the other people... hell is the other people. Honestly 36 days in I'm with the same people and I like them all but it's a psychological game and I really was immersed and I had to manage these relationships so I couldn't just take a day off. I couldn't just say, "You go sit by the fire." I think the hardest part was just getting through with the people.
Me: Yeah, I think the being hungry part would be awful. I get cranky if I get tired and don't eat, I cannot imagine being around people all the time feeling that way.
Mike: Look, I live in L.A. and did cleanses of course and literally cannot get to 3 p.m. without being irritable, wanting to lie down with headaches or whatever. It makes a big difference when there really is no food. There's no temptation. What's weird actually the food part I felt better. I did learn that we do eat way more than we need to. Actually we spend a lot of energy eating and digesting food. Sometimes under eating I can actually feel better and that was unexpected.
Me: I love reality TV from CBS... "Survivor," "Amazing Race," "Big Brother," and wanted to get someone from any of those three shows on the Phile for a long time. And you've been on two of the three. Anyway, when I mention to people I like the shows it gets an odd reaction... what are people missing with reality TV? Does that question make sense?
Mike: Yeah. Well, as a writer who tries to write hopefully good scripted stuff when "Survivor" first started airing I got jealous of the show because I felt that I don't know, the kind of characters that were populating that first season of "Survivor" I was like I've never seen these people before. It felt revelatory. It felt new and I realized even the best scripted shows can't come approximate the weird weirdness eccentricity and the unexpected sides of people that I see on these reality shows. Some of these real authentic moments, even if it's in the context of a game show or something that feels fabricated or trumped up or false stakes or something. "Survivor" I can testify is a true show, there's no real manipulation of the results. Whatever happens happens. As someone who became a writer because I'm interested in my fellow humans and what motivates them and how they act under pressure, if there's high stakes or whatever like I just found it fascinating and I still do. I think there's a lot worse scripted shows than reality shows.
Me: Are their any reality shows you don't like?
Mike: They're some reality shows I don't watch. I don't like dating shows and stuff like that but something like "Survivor" even at it's worse it's better than a lot of scripted shows.
Me: Did you learn anything new being on "Survivor" in terms of the work you do?
Mike: I definitely learned a lot about myself. I was so stimulated out there. There's so many ideas that come out. It really is a microcosm, its sort of like an office, a grip of people working in an office. There's just all these different kind of characters and I do see that I learned that maybe it's an old lesson, but the way I tried to survive "Survivor" is the same way that I try to survive in my career in Hollywood with situations that are new. Some of those lessons are hard, I'm like oh, yes, this is what I do.
Me: Like what?
Mike: I expose myself to myself and that is very interesting to me.
Me: You say you survived "Survivor" is the same way you survive your career... like how?
Mike: Well, I think as a writer I go into new projects and sometimes I'm in charge and sometimes I'm not but I have to go in there and see the lay of the land. I have to see who has the power and who doesn't. Who's obnoxious and who I can galvanize the others to. It's a power play and it's like a king's court in that I felt that in Hollywood. How will I never let them know that I hate them? I've had so many work experiences with actors and studio executives who have power over me and I just have to get through it. How do I end up getting that I want? To me "Survivor" is the perfect microcosm of capitalism. Which is how do I elbow my way to the front of the line and still have people root for me at the end of the day? That's the trick of getting through with every career, whether it's Hollywood or any business. Push my way to the front and also not be someone that sticks their head out not too much or is too obnoxious and gets me voted off the island. I think that's why it has lasted 40 seasons. It definitely sparks some catharsis for people out there.
Me: That was your dream and now you have done it, so how do you feel now?
Mike: Everything pales in comparison. My adrenalin is pumping, I'm so engaged and then I come to life and I'm back on my phone and I'm like I don't want to live this life. I just want to live, I don't know what that means. But for me I'm hoping the lesson I take from it is not that I have to keep playing "Survivor" but I have to use my imagination not just toward my work but how I live my life. And to keep pushing myself to have experiences and put myself out there, not being afraid of embarrassment or failure and keep leaving all out on the island.
Me: I know someone who wants to be on the show really bad, and I'm sure there's readers this blog that do as well. What is some advice you can give them?
Mike: All I would say if you're a fan of the show and always had the fantasy of doing it don't be like Walter Mitty, go do it. It's worth taking a chance and it definitely will change your life.
Me: Do you want that experience again? Would you go back again if they asked you?
Mike: Honestly I had such a great time the first time I worry it would feel like not the same. Also I'm getting older and I wonder do I really have it in me. Never say never but I hope a new adventure will beckon.
Me: Mike, thanks for being on the Phile. I hope you'll come back soon so we can talk about your movies you wrote and starred in. Stay well.
Mike: Thanks for having me.
That about does it for this entry of the Phile. Thanks to Mike for a great interview. The Phile will be back tomorrow with actress Mira Sorvino. Spread the word, not the turd... or there virus. Don't let snakes and alligators bite you. Bye, love you, bye.
I don't want you, cook my bread, I don't want you, make my bed, I don't want your money too, I just want to make love to you. - Willie Dixon
1 comment:
Thanks ggreat blog
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