By Naomi Serviss / New York City As a sudden spike in Covid-19 cases sweeps through the city, a familiar anxiety blankets Gotham. Didn’t we see this movie last year? When the Delta variant threat roiled and testing sites were swamped with wound-up citizens? Omicron is wreaking havoc at the worst possible time of the year. Those planning to travel over the holidays want and need assurance they are not infected before they hug loved ones at gatherings. Over the past two weeks, reports of new cases of Covid have soared 342 percent. The relatively lower hospitalization rate is at 55 percent as a result of vaccinations, a hint of a silver lining. Now that we’re all trying to figure out how to pronounce “Omicron” (there is no agreed-upon pronunciation, so you’re on your own), let’s be good sports about it. If you’re in line for a test, commiserate with the human behind you about how awful everything is again. A smattering of good news: the city has opened 119 testing sites across the five boroughs,and added a number of new distribution sites for at-home tests. The Omicron variant appears to be much more transmissible than earlier versions of Covid. It also seems to evade some vaccine protection. As Omicron spreads and families are planning to celebrate together over the holidays, more people are buying at-home tests. Or at least trying to purchase them. They’ve been sold out in stores and pharmacies more often than not. Frustration abounds. Charles, a Manhattanite who lives in Chelsea, wanted to make sure this week his sore throat wasn’t Covid. When he went to midtown, the line was out the door. Ultimately, he found an Upper West Side unit that had just a few minutes wait for a PCR test, the most accurate available. The downside: his results weren’t in for 53 hours. Still, Charles is on the fence about home testing, reasoning the PCR tests (the gold standard) on-site are better. “I’d rather get it done at facility. There are so many of them in city.” Michael, another Manhattan resident in Hamilton Heights, waited in line an hour and a half for his test, then waited a stress-filled three and a half days for the results. “I called customer service but there were literally 278 people ahead of me. I waited an hour, then hung up.” Nonetheless, Michael also decided against using a home test. “I just took a deep breath and waited it out.” Others have not been as reluctant. The rapid home tests have been selling out like Charmin in 2020. Mega-pharmacy chains such as Walgreens and CVS say they are struggling to keep up with the “unprecedented” demand. Walgreens has imposed a four-item limit on these elusive stocking stuffers. Those preparing for family holidays near and far are also taking extra precaution by wearing masks indoors again, and breaking out the hand sanitizer. We all want to gather with family and friends this holiday season. On second thought, not all. For a first-hand account of the author's own experience with a home test this week, please read My DIY Covid Home Test Naomi Serviss is a New York-based award-winning journalist whose work has been published in The New York Times, Newsday, The Philadelphia Inquirer, Highroads (AAA magazine), in-flight publications, spa and travel magazines and websites, including BroadwayWorld.com

By Naomi Serviss / New York City Having had several Covid-19 tests, including two presurgical hospital experiences and two from nearby mobile units, I wasn’t the least bit hesitant to self-administer one at home. The BinaxNOW test couldn’t be simpler. The materials were set up on a flat surface and six drops of solution were carefully dripped into a small round opening on the testing card. Then the fun part. I took the swab and inserted the same one in both nostrils. It wasn’t uncomfortable, just a tad unpleasant. Then I swirled the swab six times in a circular motion. Next step was sliding the swab in the card, covering the hole with the six drops. And then I waited 15 minutes. If a red line appeared UNDER the red line already present, then Covid was most likely detected. Fortunately, my Covid test was negative. Yay! One caveat: the directions confused me. As my fourth-grade teacher wrote on a report card: “Naomi needs to follow directions more carefully.” Mrs. Gillespie was right! In full disclosure, I misread the test directions and wisely asked my husband Lew to help. He’s been an Eagle Scout (since age 15!) and subsequently has always read directions a wee bit better than me. He’s terrific at making knots, too. Credit where credit is due! If President Biden’s plan to distribute free tests in January bears out, fewer lines! (Although critics pointed out that 500,000,000 tests wouldn’t last very long with a U.S. population of 350,000,000.) NYC Mayor De Blasio has also promised those line-waiting they’d have the option to take home a test. Good luck, everybody! For more about the Omicron crisis, read the author's cover story this week, Déjà Vu All Over Again Naomi Serviss is a New York-based award-winning journalist whose work has been published in The New York Times, Newsday, The Philadelphia Inquirer, Highroads (AAA magazine), in-flight publications, spa and travel magazines and websites, including BroadwayWorld.com

By John Rolfe / Red Hook, NY Though 2021 raced by in an angry, chaotic blur, to this participant/observer, it still felt like the eye of a hurricane. It was a time of relative calm surrounded by swirling political, social and natural forces that are gathering for a return and they will have an increasingly destructive impact on America and the world. In 2022, I fully expect climate change and the pandemic to continue taking or negatively affecting significant numbers of lives and the economy. With resistance to masks and vaccines so entrenched in our polarized politics — 91 percent of Democrat voters have received at least one jab compared to 60 percent of their Republican counterparts — and poor countries still begging wealthy ones for enough doses, the virus should have little trouble finding vulnerable hosts in which to breed and continue mutating. By this time next year, I’ll be shocked if the Omicron and Delta variants haven’t been overshadowed by a new strain or two that fuel alarm, case surges, and kneejerk pushback against efforts to contain the bug with mandates. Along with the mask/vaccine debate (it often resembles a brawl), Americans have come to wrongly believe that vaccines should be the magic bullet that slays Covid-19 once and for all. Vaccines are merely tools in the fight to render the virus manageable like the flu. (Infectious-disease specialist and epidemiologist Céline R. Gounder wrote an excellent explanation of why totally eliminating the SARS-CoV-2 virus is impossible. I urge you to read her piece in The Atlantic: “Americans Are Losing Sight of the Pandemic Endgame”.) With Republicans seemingly hell-bent on preserving our God-given right to get sick and sicken others (pandemic chaos works nicely to their advantage by making it easy to blame Democrats for all the devastation), Covid will infect the 2022 mid-term elections. I fear the outcome will mark a turning point in the future of American democracy. If the GOP reclaims the House and Senate, the stage will be set for the return of Donald Trump to the White House. Republicans are already working hard to seize control of election administration and procedures in states across the country, an effort described as “a five-alarm fire” for the Democrats by Michigan’s Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, a Democrat. Along with gerrymandering that gives GOP candidates a substantial edge in many districts, and new restrictive voting laws, state legislatures in places such as Arizona and Georgia are removing control of elections from their secretaries of state. Arizona has handed that control to its attorney general (a Republican) and is considering a bill that would allow its legislature (assuredly GOP-dominated) to overturn presidential election results without evidence of fraud or even public hearings. Georgia now allows local election officials to be removed for nebulous reasons such as vaguely defined “malfeasance.” Candidates who claim the 2020 election was stolen are running for secretary of state in Michigan, Colorado, Florida, Nevada, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Ohio, and Texas. Wisconsin’s Republican state legislature is being urged by its Senator, Ron Johnson, to seize control of federal elections. Unless Democrats can pass a federal law that nearly bans the capricious overturning of elections, their candidate for President will have to win 2024 in all-out landslides in a large majority of states. Even so, I won’t be surprised if a battleground like Wisconsin or Arizona refuses to certify the Democrat’s victory and sends alternate electors to cast their votes for Trump or whoever has run instead of him. If the result is overturned, massive protests and civil unrest will surely begin across the country and lethal force will probably be used on protestors (as Trump favors and even urged according to his former Chief of Staff Mark Meadows’ new book, The Chief’s Chief). If right-wing militias are allowed to run amok, America’s future as a one-party, authoritarian state will have arrived. It’s a dystopian nightmare, for sure, but we need more hopeful signs than the seven states that have rejected GOP proposals to make elections easier to reverse. According to the drumbeat of polls, Americans are not happy with Joe Biden and the Democrats, but it’s hard to believe that Trump II is an attractive alternative for any right-minded voter. If the GOP has any clear vision for governing the country and helping most Americans other than by mindlessly cutting taxes, building a border wall, deporting undocumented immigrants, banning abortion, boosting fossil fuels, and prosecuting culture wars against public schools, diversity, Black Lives Matter, the LGBTQ community, and mainstream media, the Republican Party has made it a closely guarded secret that not even it seems to know. Will Trump be brought down in 2022 by the January 6 House select committee or any of the investigations into his finances before he returns to power? I doubt it. Too many people regard the Capitol siege as mere politics, and Trump is expertly running out the clock in our court system. But that matters less now. Trump and the GOP are merely reflections of their sizable base and its willingness to discard democracy. That desire is echoed in the “shock troops” rhetoric of Steve Bannon and Rep. Matt Gaetz when they discuss what Republicans will do when they take power. You see it in the support for the coup attempt from Reps. Jim Jordan, Paul Gosar and others in Congress. It comes across loud and disgustingly clear in the deluded, xenophobic lunacy of Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene and Lauren Boebert. All that is just a taste of things that are very likely to come if the Trumpists seize enough control on local and state levels in 2022. If they do, the 2024 elections could prove to be fatal for the America we have long known. The clock is ticking and I would absolutely love to be wrong. I only hope that Americans are exceptional in the face of movements and forces that have destroyed many a democracy. John Rolfe is a former senior editor for Sports Illustrated for Kids, a longtime columnist for the Poughkeepsie Journal/USA Today Network, and author of The Goose in the Bathroom: Stirring Tales of Family Life. His school bus drivin’ blog “Hellions, Mayhem and Brake Failure” is parked on his website Celestialchuckle.com (https://celestialchuckle.com) with the meter running.

By Carly Mitchell / New York City (A pseudonym for professional reasons) I am a seventh-grade English teacher at a public school in Brooklyn, New York where roughly 88% of the students are disadvantaged and qualify for free or reduced lunch. The pandemic has wreaked havoc on the educational system in general, but I worry most about the students whom I teach and the school community of which I am proudly a part. At the moment, the majority of my pupils are reading below grade level (sixth or fifth grade). Some are far below grade level (fourth and under). Unlike many students their age who had the means to do so, the kids in my school were not given the opportunity to join together and form learning pods led by private tutors in order to keep their grades up. But they must take the same state tests and are expected to meet the same New York State learning standards. A learning gap has always existed, but the past year-and-a-half has highlighted the disparities that exist within the system, especially here in New York City, which is the largest school district in the United States and also the most segregated. This is not to say that all of my students are downtrodden and defeated. No, in fact most of them are eager to learn and happy to be back in our school building after 16 months of virtual and hybrid learning. When students are out due to Covid, teachers are instructed to make all work available via Google Classroom. I am so thankful for this technology. I could not imagine navigating the pandemic without the variety of educational apps and websites that make online learning possible. Nevertheless, I do not think students glean the most from their education via remote learning (and I do not think this is an unpopular opinion). Last year, one of the biggest problems was with students who eventually stopped showing up for virtual classes. It was as if they disappeared, and the quality of their work and their grades suffered. Absences were mostly due to not having an adult home to keep them tethered to the grindstone. There were certainly parents who were present but not paying attention, but they were the more dire cases. At least twice a week, my fellow teachers and I made phone calls to the homes of students who had not logged onto Zoom. Sometimes it helped and they returned. Sometimes nothing changed, and when that happened, Child Protective Services was often called to investigate. So what happens if we are forced to shut down again? Unlike their teachers, students in New York City schools are not required to be vaccinated. As of December 3, more than 40,000 ages five to 11 had received the Covid vaccine at pop-up sites in our facilities, according to The New York Post. I’m not sure how many at my school got the jab, but this past weekend I received a schoolwide email sent to staff that listed the names of students who were potentially exposed to Covid. Four of the 60 that I teach were on the list. As per the Department of Education, these exposed students are required to quarantine for 10 days if they are unvaccinated. Otherwise, they are able to come to school only if they are asymptomatic or produce a negative test result. This past Monday, three of the four students on the list were not in school. I do not know their vaccination status, but their absence is troubling. As of now, we have two entire classrooms that are in quarantine in addition to the list of 20 or so students who were potentially exposed. This means that the students in these classes who are unvaccinated will not be allowed to come to the school building for 10 days. Because of the impending holiday break, this will add up to almost two weeks away from the classroom. Mayor Bill de Blasio is determined to keep the schools open. When asked during an interview on The Brian Lehrer Show whether New York should shut down schools, de Blasio responded, “No, no, no. What did I learn? Don't do that. That's what I learned. First of all, there's this truism — never fight yesterday's war. This is not March of 2020.” He went on to claim that “the schools are actually one of the safest places to be in the city. We need to keep our kids in school. It is the safest place for them to be. They also need to be in school after all the disruption.” That interview aired on December 17. As of Tuesday, Dec. 21, seven schools in New York City were closed due to an overwhelming number of Covid cases and another 44 were under investigation for possible closure according to the Department of Education Daily Covid Case Map website. Positive cases in schools are rising, but just as everywhere else, obtaining a COVID test on school grounds continues to be an obstacle. Testing sites that were set up where I work have recently turned teachers away, claiming that they do not have enough tests for everyone. The issue has become so problematic that it was brought to the attention of United Federation of Teachers Union, which promised teachers it would address the situation. In the meantime, I will be mentally plotting ways to keep my students virtually engaged, just in case we are forced to shut down. The best way I know to do that is through music. Fortunately, it is easy for me as an English teacher. (Music is poetry, duh!) For example, last week students in my classes listened to a song by Michigan rapper “NF” (real name Nathan John Feuerstein) titled “The Search” and identified the literary devices in it. (Thank you, NF, for your clean lyrics!) This sort of lesson is easily translated into an online activity. Would something like this be as fun to complete virtually as it is in class? I would argue no. But I won’t let myself get there just yet. For now, I will enjoy my students as they show up in real life. And keep reminding them to pull those masks up.

December 20, 2021 Dear Editor, This week, my wife and I had an unexpected close encounter with the Omicron crisis that is unfolding here in New York City, and I wanted to share our experience. We got tested on Friday because we found out the night before that Daria was exposed to Covid at a work event. On Tuesday, she dined indoors at a restaurant with her boss and co-workers, and she was notified on Thursday evening that her boss had tested positive. So we went together to get tested on Friday. We first went to a mobile testing location in Kew Gardens Hills. The line was not terribly long–maybe a quarter of a city block. But we were told by another person before we reached the back of the line that they were not allowing any more tests for the evening because they were closing in an hour and a half and didn’t have enough staff to finish the line in time. So we then took a drive to Queens Hospital Center in Hillcrest (the next neighborhood over). There were three separate lines, some of which were supposed to be for Department of Education or city employees only. But it was very disorganized and nobody seemed to know where to stand. On a few occasions while we were waiting, there were heated exchanges between people in line and the staff because they felt others were getting ahead of them unfairly. While waiting in the line, we searched the Internet for all types of alternative testing– drive thru, at home, you name it–but everything was either sold-out or had no appointments available. So we stayed the course. The staff did do a good job ultimately of keeping everybody calm. When we finally got to the front about an hour later, everything was handled very professionally by well-trained staff members. Our one complaint was that the tests were done inside of trailers that didn’t seem to be that well-ventilated. But overall, it wasn’t a bad experience, especially considering this was a New York City government-run testing location. We’ve had pretty good experiences with the New York City-run vaccine sites as well when getting our Covid vaccinations. After the testing was done, the anxious waiting began. The testing location only had PCR tests available–no rapid tests. And because of the tremendous demand for tests right now, the wait for results was a lot longer than usual. We were told it normally takes less than 24 hours. However, we didn’t get our results until Sunday night, about 48 hours after we were tested. At that point, we were finally able to exhale. Both negative! We are each triple-vaccinated so we were not very concerned about serious illness for ourselves, but we have a five-month-old at home and also have a trip to Aruba planned for December 24th. A positive test would have likely derailed our plans entirely. The bad news is we need to take another test before our flight, since the Aruba rules require a PCR test no earlier than 72 hours before the flight. We are extremely concerned based on this experience that the delays in testing results will make it very difficult for us to time the next test in such a way that it qualifies us for our flight. But we are very relieved that our scare is over. Stay safe, Matt Nadelson / Queens, New York

By Bonnie Fishman / San Francisco Bay Area It’s that time of year where entertaining normally abounds: office parties, house parties, old friends gathering, church functions, and of course, the holidays themselves. But this year, we may have to take pause, once again, because of the Omicron virus. For those of you who are triple-vaxxed, you may not have to wait. Appetizers are a vital part of holiday events whether they are served before a meal with cocktails, served in the afternoon with wine, or offered as a complete spread instead of a full-plated buffet. They create a festive atmosphere and invite guests to mingle and visit with each other. Before a meal, appetizers in fact, “whet the appetite” for the meal to come. According to Collins Dictionary, an hors d’oeuvre is “a small portion of a tasty food served as an appetizer before a meal or as at a cocktail party.” The origin is from French, literally: outside the work, not part of the main course. In the early 2000s, a new trend appeared in party giving: the small plates affairs, which is still popular today. These are appetizers plated up with a fork and either passed or set out on a buffet. The items are often garnished beautifully. Talk about lots of work! Each plate has one appetizer and then when eaten, the plate is set down. Who is collecting and washing all of those dishes? I hope it’s not you. Been there, done that. Another thing to consider: If your cocktail party is in place of your guest’s dinner, make sure you have some substantial offerings, such as roast tenderloin, turkey breast or ham with rolls, an antipasti tray, or a whole poached fish. You may even put out a few finger food desserts with a pot of coffee toward the end of your party just to finish things off. One last point, and this is important: Please make sure you have enough food. I had one of my most embarrassing catering moments back in the late ‘70s when I was doing parties in San Francisco. My partner and I were really inexperienced, and it showed. The party planner told us this was just a cocktail party. We prepared a few appetizers per person. However, the guests had a different idea: the event was at the dinner hour and they planned to chow down. They queued up at our paltry buffet and we ran out of food before half the guests got through the line. The worst feeling in the world! It never happened again in my 30 years of catering. Tough lesson. When a venue is just too small to seat everyone for a meal, or you don’t want to go to the expense of feeding the hungry masses, consider hosting a cocktail party (late afternoon or very early evening) or an afternoon (2-5 p.m.) get-together where passed appetizers are appropriate. You would think that this is an easy affair for the host but au contraire. I have found it to be more work than you might imagine. For an appetizer party, you will need to offer variety. To keep it interesting, I suggest making at least six different appetizers to pass or set out on a table or a ledge. Think about it: labor-intensive individual snacks. I recommend having 1 1/2 of each kind per person. Do the math: 20 guests times 1 1/2 of each equals 180 pieces. Get my drift? There are a couple of ways to assist in this labor-intensive endeavor. First, consider having some of the dishes that may be left out during the course of the party such as a cheese platter or vegetable crudités with dip. You can take this to the next level and offer smoked salmon and/or Italian meats with small rounds of breads and several mustards. Another time saver is to make appetizers ahead and freeze them uncooked. The day of the party, just pop them in the oven. Make sure not all of your hors d’oeuvres are hot. Do you have enough oven space? Do you want to be shuffling trays in and out of the oven for the next couple of hours? No, you don’t, I promise. Offer cold appetizers to help yourself out. I love today’s recipe for several reasons: this is a do-ahead hors d’oeuvre that is frozen and baked right from the freezer. I am offering these with phyllo triangles with spinach and cheese. The good news is you can use any combination of cheeses. You can also substitute cooked broccoli or sautéed mushrooms for the spinach. This is an expandable recipe, so make as many as you need. Last, if you have the counter space, lay out as many phyllo sheets as you are able. The task will be much easier. We here at The Insider know that your guests will be impressed. Happy holidays and see you in the kitchen next year! Spinach Phyllo Triangles Yield: 2 dozen 2 Tbs. olive oil 1 medium onion, diced small 2 garlic cloves, minced 2 10 oz. boxes frozen chopped spinach, thawed, liquid squeezed out completely 1/2 lb. shredded Swiss cheese 1 large egg phyllo dough melted butter In a small skillet over moderate heat, sauté the onion and garlic in the oil until softened, about 5-7 minutes. Put in a bowl. Cool to room temperature. Blend in the chopped spinach, cheese, and egg. Season well with salt and fresh ground black pepper. Take 2 phyllo sheets off the stack and lay them lengthwise on your work surface. Add as many sets as you have room for on your counter or table. Brush the dough with melted butter. Using a sharp knife, cut the sheets crosswise into 6 pieces, beginning at the top of the dough and pulling the knife toward you. Place about a tablespoon of filling at the bottom of each strip. Fold the dough over the mixture forming a triangle. Working from bottom to top, continue in a flag fold technique. Repeat process so you have 2 dozen triangles in total. Line a cookie sheet with parchment. Lay triangles on the prepared pan. Brush tops with melted butter. Bake in a preheated 400-degree oven until golden brown, about 20-25 minutes. NOTE: Triangles can be frozen raw on a cookie sheet. When frozen solid, gather up in a Ziploc bag to store in the freezer. When ready to serve, do not defrost. Place triangles on prepared cookie sheets and bake for 20-25 minutes. Bonnie Fishman attended the Cordon Bleu Cookery School in London. Later, she owned and operated Bonnie’s Patisserie in Southfield, Mich. and Bonnie’s Kitchen and Catering in Bloomfield Hills, Mich. She has taught cooking for over 35 years and created hundreds of recipes. She is now living in Northern California.

By Andy Borowitz December 16, 2021 WASHINGTON (The Borowitz Report)—As it emerged that Representative Jim Jordan sent a text to Mark Meadows outlining a plan to overturn the 2020 election, millions of Americans were stunned to learn that Jordan is capable of writing a text. “If this is true, then Jim Jordan has command of the English language and the capacity to assemble letters to form words,” Carol Foyler, a resident of St. Louis, said. “I have to admit I’m having trouble processing this.” “Color me skeptical,” Harland Dorrinson, who lives in Akron, Ohio, said, “but, unless I see a video of Jim Jordan actually typing a text with his own thumbs, this so-called news story doesn’t pass the smell test.” Reports that Jordan is capable of writing a text also provoked amazement in a member of the scientific community, Dr. Anthony Fauci. “Much like COVID-19, there’s still so much about Jim Jordan we don’t know,” he said. Andy Borowitz is a Times best-selling author and a comedian who has written for The New Yorker since 1998. He writes The Borowitz Report, a satirical column on the news.

One film journalist’s stream-of-consciousness cinematic journey through the pandemic, Part 64 By Laurence Lerman / New York City It’s the last week of 2021, and the latest Covid-19 variant, this one monikered with the ominous-sounding 15th letter of the Greek alphabet, is doing its damnedest to squelch a lot of seasonal fun. Holiday parties, concerts, Broadway shows, the Rockettes—all were on the docket for the latter part of the month, but all are now being delayed, rescheduled or just flat-out cancelled. But the movies are continuing to shine unsteadily at the cinema—there haven’t been any closings on that front, yet—with a handful of December’s top guns playing exclusively in theaters. Spielberg’s West Side Story (the opening box-office grosses of which were disappointing) Spider-Man: No Way Home (the first weekend’s numbers of which went through the roof) and Guillermo del Toro’s carnival-set crime thriller Nightmare Alley (don't ask!) are three biggies that will require you to head to the theater if you want to see them this season, Omicron be damned. But there are many other eagerly awaited, prominent titles slated to premiere on streaming services or that just began to stream a week or two after they made their largely symbolic theatrical debuts. HBO Max and Disney+ and Netflix have been releasing their films with that kind of day-and-date pattern for nearly a year now and you don’t hear audiences complaining, though their pricing policies have raised some eyebrows. That said, here are 10 films to consider streaming during the last days of 2021. All of them are brand spanking new, having premiered over the past two weeks or are on the brink of going live before January). Dramas, comedies, sci-fi effects extravaganzas, musicals, foreign flicks, animation—there are a lot of flavors to choose from to make this year’s final week a tasty one. So don’t have to rush out to the theater just yet—they’ll be there in 2022. The Power of the Dog (Netflix, now streaming) New Zealand arthouse queen Jane Campion’s first feature in more than a decade is an exquisitely crafted, psychologically intense Western drama based on the 1967 novel of the same name by Thomas Savage. Starring Jesse Plemons, Kirsten Dunst and an outstanding Benedict Cumberbatch, it’s already receiving substantial awards buzz. Being the Ricardos (Amazon Prime, now streaming) This biographical drama centers around the lives of Hollywood stars Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz over the course of a week of production on a classic I Love Lucy episode. Aaron Sorkin directs Nicole Kidman and Javier Bardem as the complicated couple from Sorkin’s own script, which places the action on a politically, culturally and sociologically charged backdrop. Swan Song (Apple TV+, now streaming) Moonlight’s Mahershala Ali is a terminally ill husband and father presented with the possibility of replacing himself with an exact clone without his family's knowledge. Naomie Harris (also featured in Moonlight) co-stars as Ali’s wife in this emotional sci-fi-drama written and directed by Benjamin Clearfield. Mother/Android (Hulu, now streaming) In a post-apocalyptic world where the human race is engaged in a brutal, Terminator-like war against rebellious, sentient androids, a pregnant young woman and her boyfriend set out on a trip to a safe haven (in this case, Boston) where she can safely give birth. The always-game Chlole Grace Moretz stars in writer-director Mattson Tomlin’s feature debut. The Hand of God (Netflix, now streaming) The Hand of God Italy’s Paolo Sorrentino brings his trademark sumptuous style to this autobiographically inspired drama about a boy in 1980s Naples who comes of age in a joyous and tragic world of family, friends, football and films. The Matrix Resurrections (HBO Max, Dec. 22) Keanu Reeves, Carrie-Anne Moss, Lambert Wilson and Jada Pinkett Smith return for still more cyber-thrills in this latest installment of the sci-fi action franchise, co-written and directed by original Matrix creator Lana Wachowski (minus her sibling collaborator Lilly this time around). Encanto (Disney+, available on Dec. 24) The animated Colombian family musical concerns a young girl who must cope with being the only member of her family without magical powers. A colorful, fantastical concoction, it features original songs written by Lin-Manuel Miranda and the familiar voices of Stephanie Beatriz, John Leguizamo, Diane Guerrero and Wilmer Valderrama. Don’t Look Up (Netflix, available on Dec. 24) Leonardo DiCaprio and Jennifer Lawrence star in this sci-fi satire as two astronomers attempting to warn an uninterested public that an approaching comet will destroy the Earth in a matter of months. Veteran comedy writer-director Adam McKay’s latest features a sterling supporting cast that includes Jonah Hill, Tyler Perry, Cate Blanchett, Mark Rylance, Melanie Lynskey, Timothée Chalamet and Meryl Streep as the President of the United States. Finding Kendrick Johnson (Starz, available on Dec. 27) Writer-director Jason Pollock’s true-crime documentary investigates the death of Kendrick Johnson, a 17-year-old who was found dead in a rolled-up gym mat at Georgia’s Lowndes High School in 2013. The film is the product of Pollock’s years-long undercover investigation into the case. The Lost Daughter (Netflix, available on Dec. 31) Maggie Gyllenhaal’s adaptation of Italian novelist Elena Ferrante’s 2006 novel about a middle-aged woman’s troubling summer beach vacation stars Olivia Colman, Dakota Johnson, Jessie Buckley and Peter Sarsgaard. Gyllenhaal’s debut as a co-writer and director has been cleaning up on the awards circuit, receiving honors at the Gotham Independent Film Awards, the New York Film Critics Circle and the Boston Society of Film Critics Awards. Laurence Lerman is a film journalist, former editor of Video Business--Variety's DVD trade publication--and husband to The Insider's own Gwen Cooper. Over the course of his career he has conducted one-on-one interviews with just about every major director working today, including Martin Scorsese, Quentin Tarantino, Clint Eastwood, Kathryn Bigelow, Ridley Scott, Walter Hill, Spike Lee, and Werner Herzog, among numerous others. Once James Cameron specifically requested an interview with Laurence by name, which his wife still likes to brag about. Most recently, he is the co-founder and editor-in-chief of the online review site DiscDish.com.

FRED PLOTKIN is one of America’s foremost experts on opera and has distinguished himself in many fields as a writer, speaker, consultant and as a compelling teacher. He is an expert on everything Italian, the person other so-called Italy experts turn to for definitive information.  Fred discovered the concept of "The Renaissance Man" as a small child and has devoted himself to pursuing that ideal as the central role of his life. In a “Public Lives” profile in The New York Times on August 30, 2002, Plotkin was described as "one of those New York word-of-mouth legends, known by the cognoscenti for his renaissance mastery of two seemingly separate disciplines: music and the food of Italy." In the same publication, on May 11, 2006, it was written that "Fred is a New Yorker, but has the soul of an Italian."

By Willa Beck / New York City Whoosh! Whoosh! I zoom down the hall as my mom, dad, and babysitter stand in the doorway amazed. I’m on roller skates! The wheels light up with red, green, pink, and blue with a background of ultraviolet. I stop as I go wham against the mirror and turn around and my parents and babysitter clap and clap. I try to roller skate in all my free time. I skate after school, over the weekends, and I even dream about roller skating! I go roller skating with my friends. My friend Amalia prefers roller blades, but I roller skate anyway. We race down the halls. Amalia usually wins on roller blades. I hope you try roller skates! Willa Beck, who is 7, is a 2nd grader at PS 87 in Manhattan.  She asked her grandparents for roller skates for Hanukkah and taught herself to roller skate. Other than roller skating, Willa enjoys biking, ice skating, rollerblading, and scootering. When she grows up, she wants to be a roller-skating astronaut. She wants to roller skate on the moon.

December 15, 2021 Jeffrey D. Sachs | Project Syndicate No global structure of peace can be stable and secure unless all parties recognize others' legitimate security interests. If the brewing crises over Ukraine and Taiwan are to be resolved peacefully, the major powers will need to pause and consider the strategic perspectives of the other side. NEW YORK – Two dangerous flashpoints, in Europe and Asia, could bring the United States, Russia, and China into open conflict. The crises over Ukraine and Taiwan can be resolved, but all parties must respect the others’ legitimate security interests. Acknowledging those interests objectively will provide the basis for a lasting de-escalation of tensions. Consider Ukraine. Although it undoubtedly has the right to sovereignty and safety from a Russian invasion, it does not have the right to undermine Russia’s security in the process. The current Ukraine crisis is the result of overreach by both Russia and the US. Russia’s overreach lies in its 2014 annexation of Crimea and occupation of Ukraine’s industrial heartland in Donetsk and Luhansk; and in its ongoing efforts to keep Ukraine dependent on it for energy, industrial inputs, and markets. Ukraine has a legitimate interest in integrating more closely with the European Union economy, and it has signed an association agreement with the EU for that purpose. The Kremlin, however, fears that EU membership could be a stepping stone for Ukraine to join NATO. The US, too, has been overreaching. In 2008, US President George W. Bush’s administration called for Ukraine to be invited to join NATO, an addition that would establish the Alliance’s presence on Russia’s long border with that country. This provocative proposal divided US allies, but NATO nonetheless confirmed that Ukraine could eventually be welcomed as a member, noting that Russia has no veto over who joins. When Russia violently annexed Crimea in 2014, one of its objectives was to ensure that NATO could never gain access to Russia’s Black Sea naval base and fleet. Judging by the public transcripts of discussions between US President Joe Biden and Russian President Vladimir Putin this month, NATO enlargement to Ukraine remains on the table. Although France and Germany might well maintain their longstanding threat to veto any such bid for membership, Ukrainian and NATO officials have both reiterated that the choice to join lies with Ukraine. Moreover, a high-ranking Estonian parliamentarian has warned that walking back Ukraine’s right to join NATO would be tantamount to Britain’s appeasement of Hitler in 1938. Yet American leaders who argue that Ukraine has the right to choose its own military alliance should reflect on their country’s own long history of categorical opposition to outside meddling in the Western hemisphere. This position was first expressed in the 1823 Monroe Doctrine, and it was on full display in the violent US reaction to Fidel Castro’s turn toward the Soviet Union after the 1959 Cuban Revolution. Back then, US President Dwight D. Eisenhower declared that “Cuba has been handed over to the Soviet Union as an instrument with which to undermine our position in Latin America and the world.” He ordered the CIA to devise plans for an invasion. The result was the Bay of Pigs fiasco (under President John F. Kennedy), which lit the fuse for the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis. Countries cannot simply choose their military alliances, because such choices often have security implications for their neighbors. Following World War II, Austria and Finland both secured their independence and future prosperity by not joining NATO, as that would have provoked Soviet ire. Ukraine today should show the same prudence. The issues in Taiwan are similar. Taiwan has the right to peace and democracy in accord with the concept of the “One China” policy, which has been the bedrock of China’s relations with the US since the days of Richard Nixon and Mao Zedong. The US is right to warn China against any unilateral military action toward Taiwan, as that would threaten global security and the world economy. Yet, just as Ukraine does not have the right to join NATO, Taiwan does not have the right to secede from China. In recent years, however, some Taiwanese politicians have flirted with declaring independence, and some US politicians have taken liberties with the “One China” principle. Then President-elect Donald Trump started the US’ backsliding in December 2016, when he said, “I fully understand the ‘One China’ policy, but I don’t know why we have to be bound by a ‘One China’ policy unless we make a deal with China having to do with other things, including trade.” Then, President Joe Biden provocatively included Taiwan in his Summit for Democracy this month, following US Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s recent advocacy for Taiwan’s “robust participation” in the United Nations system. Such US actions have greatly aggravated tensions with China. Again, those US security analysts who argue that Taiwan is within its rights to declare independence should reflect on America’s own history. The US fought a civil war over the legitimacy of secession, and the secessionists lost. The US government would not tolerate Chinese support for a secessionist movement in, say, California (nor would European countries such as Spain, which has faced the real thing in Basque Country and Catalonia). The risks of military escalation over Taiwan are compounded by NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg’s recent announcement that the alliance’s future rationale will include countering China. An alliance created to defend Western Europe from invasion by a now-defunct European power should not be repurposed as a US-led military alliance against an Asian power. The Ukraine and Taiwan crises can be resolved peacefully and straightforwardly. NATO should take Ukraine’s membership off the table, and Russia should forswear any invasion. Ukraine should be free to orient its trade policies however it sees fit, provided that it abides by World Trade Organization principles. Similarly, the US should make clear once again that it steadfastly opposes Taiwan’s secession and does not aim to “contain” China, especially by reorienting NATO. For its part, China should renounce unilateral military action against Taiwan and reaffirm the two-system principle, which many Taiwanese believe to be under imminent threat following the crackdown in Hong Kong. No global structure of peace can be stable and secure unless all parties recognize others’ legitimate security interests. The best way for the major powers to begin to achieve that is to choose the path of mutual understanding and de-escalation over Ukraine and Taiwan. https://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/defusing-ukraine-taiwan-crises-by-jeffrey-d-sachs-2021-12 Jeffrey D. Sachs, University Professor at Columbia University, is Director of the Center for Sustainable Development at Columbia University and President of the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network. He has served as adviser to three UN Secretaries-General, and currently serves as an SDG Advocate under Secretary-General António Guterres. His books include The End of Poverty, Common Wealth, The Age of Sustainable Development, Building the New American Economy, A New Foreign Policy: Beyond American Exceptionalism, and, most recently, The Ages of Globalization.

By Jessie Seigel / Washington, D.C. Censorship is flourishing these days, another front in the culture wars. Freedom of speech under the First Amendment—and its companion, freedom of thought—are under siege. According to Deborah Caldwell-Stone, director of the American Library Association’s (ALA) Office for Intellectual Freedom, this fall has seen an unparalleled number of efforts to ban books. Caldwell-Stone told CNN, "In my twenty years with ALA, I can't recall a time when we had multiple challenges coming in on a daily basis." First in the line of fire are books about the lives and struggles of people of color and LGBTQ people. These range from books about civil rights icons like Rosa Parks and Ruby Bridges to children’s picture books like I Am Jazz, which explains to kids what it means to be transgender through a sweet, cheerful true story of a transgender child. Not even the also true, touching story of two gay penguins at the Central Park Zoo, And Tango Makes Three, rendered with delightful illustrations, has been spared from book banning. According to the New York Times, one of the more frequently targeted books is the 2019 graphic memoir Gender Queer, by Maia Kobabe. It has been banned from school libraries in school districts from Virginia to Florida to Iowa, and its presence on school shelves has been challenged in Rhode Island, New Jersey, Ohio, Washington, and Texas. According to Kobabe, one of the claims against the book is that it promotes pedophilia—“based on a single panel depicting an erotic ancient Greek Vase.” Victoria Manning, a member of the Virginia Beach, Va. school board, was instrumental in getting Gender Queer permanently banned from that school district’s school libraries and curriculum, declaring she was “sickened” by what she had looked at and read. Although Manning said she had read the entire book, her view was based on a couple of panel drawings without considering how they fit into the context of what the entire book was addressing. She is also challenging several other books, including Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye, and Christopher Noxon’s Good Trouble, Lessons from the Civil Rights Playbook. Manning claimed the challenge to Good Trouble was based on the concerns of other parents, not hers, that her concerns weren’t with books’ overall themes, and that she supports diverse literature and “culturally responsive practices.” But author Noxon told the Los Angeles Times in November that Manning has appeared on Fox and Friends to attack teaching about racism and that she keeps a so-called “wokeness checker” on her personal blog to fight the school district’s equity policy. So Manning’s true motivation is suspect. District officials say they expect a final decision on the challenged books by mid-December. But Noxon notes that, in the meantime, those pursuing the ban “have succeeded in getting so-called objectionable books removed from shelves and stoking fear and outrage to shore up the conservative base.” That stoking of fear has been successful. At an October 12 Virginia Beach school board meeting, one parent said of the various challenged books, “I’m not saying, ‘Burn (the books).’ I’m saying: Get them out of our public-school libraries.” Virginia’s Spotsylvania County School Board was even less open-minded. When it voted unanimously to have books with “sexually explicit” material removed from school library shelves, two members said they did want the books burned. “I’m sure we’ve got hundreds of people out there that would like to see those books before we burn them,” Kirk Twigg, one of the members, said. “Just so we can identify, within our community, that we are eradicating this bad stuff.” Texas state Rep. Matt Krause has asked schools in his state to confirm whether they have any books from a list of 850 titles Krause has decided “might make students feel discomfort, guilt, anguish, or any other form of psychological distress because of their race or sex,” the criteria set by Texas’s anti-critical race theory law passed in May 2021. Among the books on his list are Black activist Ruby Bridge’s 2020 memoir, This Is Your Time, and William Styron’s Pulitzer Prize-winning The Confessions of Nat Turner, along with many other books addressing the nation’s racial history, religion, and politics, as well as books addressing struggles with sexual health, sexual identity, and teen suicide. In Johnston, Iowa, challenges were raised to The Hate U Give and The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, two novels featuring young people of color, ostensibly because of sexually explicit content and “anti-police sentiment.” The Johnston school board voted unanimously to allow the books to remain in classrooms. Nevertheless, according to the Iowa Capital Dispatch, at a Johnston school board meeting in November, State Sen. Jake Chapman said teachers who give “obscene” books to students should face legal consequences. The Dispatch suggested that Chapman’s statement is likely a precursor to the introduction of such legislation. The age-old question: Who will get to decide what is obscene? In November 2020, an all-white York, Pennsylvania school board voted unanimously to ban a list of books and educational resources that they categorized as anti-racism. Teachers at Central York High School received the list of banned articles, books, and videos, including even a children's book about Rosa Parks, and a CNN town hall on race featuring Muppets from Sesame Street by email from the high school principal. According to the Allentown daily, The Morning Call, one teacher reacted: “Let’s just call it what it is—every author on that list is a Black voice.” In September 2021, the York school board reversed its decision, unanimously voting to reinstate access to the books. But they did so only after a year of organizing against their decision, culminating in about 200 students and parents protesting, and the students organizing consecutive demonstrations. School officials then tried to backpedal, claiming the materials had not been banned, just “frozen” while the board was vetting them. Jane Johnson, president of the school board, said that they were attempting to “balance legitimate academic freedom with what could be literature/materials that are too activist in nature and may lean more toward indoctrination rather than age-appropriate academic content.” Perhaps the board was influenced by parents like the mother who, according to CNN, said, "Schools are not the place for politics or identity to be shaped." But schools already shape students’ politics and identity—their world view—through the curriculum choices the schools make. As Lauri Lebo, a spokesperson for the Pennsylvania State Education Association wrote of the York choices: “They’re banning material from Sesame Street, but not David Duke. They’re banning PBS, but not the KKK. They’ve even banned the Pennsylvania Association of School Administrators’ statements on racism—which acknowledges that racism exists and is bad.” At worst, the book banners want to be sure students are indoctrinated into the ideas and world view they and established political powers favor. At best, the book banners are only challenging the breadth of the world to which their children should have access. But that, ultimately, is just as harmful to their children’s development into thinkers who can question, examine, and analyze the many ideas that will come at them throughout life. For this, it is necessary for students to have access to and discuss books presenting the varied sides of history and exposing them to the varieties of the human condition existing in the wide world outside their community. Even if Texas state Sen. Krause was innocent of any ulterior political motive in his alleged effort to protect students from books that might make them “feel discomfort, guilt, anguish, or any other form of psychological distress because of their race or sex,” depriving them access to his 850-book list is the equivalent of wrapping them in cellophane and setting them on a shelf like a delicate, breakable curio. His reasoning is reminiscent of Ray Bradbury’s dystopian Fahrenheit 451, in which all discovered books are burned because reading them might upset people—or make them think. This is the age and school is the place for students to face the discomforts of challenging ideas. Those discomforts are the growing pains that teach them how to assess different points of view and learn to think for themselves. Of course, it is possible that Krause and those in power in Texas prefer to produce a crop of citizens who do not question or analyze. Admittedly, there is a good argument to be made that books addressing difficult subjects may be appropriate at different ages. For example, while I Am Jazz would be appropriate to teach elementary school age children about empathy and acceptance of others that are different, Gender Queer would not be suitable for that age group. But, as Kenan Crow, Director of advocacy with OneIowa, told the Iowa Capital Dispatch, “What is age-appropriate for one kid might not actually be age-appropriate for another kid, and that’s really where parents come in … What is not appropriate is for one parent to decide for every other parent in the district what is appropriate for their kids too.” As to Gender Queer, there is nothing of pedophilia or pornography in it. While the book does contain some drawings that are explicit about sex, they are not salacious, but rather illustrate part of Kobabe’s personal journey through gender dysphoria. Through much of her young life, she was trying to understand where she could fit in a world where male and female sexual roles are firmly delineated, and she didn’t feel an affinity with either. The book is about her ponderings, while she tried to figure out whether she was gay, binary, non-binary, or something else, and needing to find some balance in it all. (Towards the end of the book Kobabe expresses the preference to be referred to as “e” rather than she or he.) It is the limitations of those like Virginia Beach School Board’s Victoria Manning that prevents them from finding the empathy necessary to understand that. In response to the Virginia Beach ban, James Lucas Jones, publisher of Oni Press Publisher, said in a statement to The Virginian-Pilot, “The fact is, Gender Queer is an important, timely piece of work that serves as an invaluable resource for not only those that identify as nonbinary or genderqueer, but for people looking to understand what that means. Limiting its availability is short-sighted and reactionary.” And as Nora Pelizzari, communications director of the National Coalition Against Censorship, has pointed out: “Books are often where students can discover broader experiences or develop empathy for people who live lives very unlike their own, because this is a safe way to explore the world — through reading.” If one sets aside the likely cynical political motivations behind the increase in books banned, one is still left with an eternal contest between a broad and narrow view of the world we live in—the broad leading to empathy, acceptance and inclusiveness; the narrow cultivating fear of anything outside of one’s own parochial sphere. Political columnist Jessie Seigel had a long career as a government attorney in which she honed her analytic skills. She has also twice received an Artist’s Fellowship from the Washington, D.C. Commission on the Arts and Humanities for her fiction, and has been a finalist for a number of literary awards. In addition, Seigel is an associate editor at the Potomac Review, a reviewer for The Washington Independent Review of Books, and a dabbler in political cartoons at Daily Kos. Of this balance in her work between the analytic and the imaginative, Seigel jokes, “I guess my right and left brains are well-balanced.” More on and from Seigel can be found at The Adventurous Writer, https://www.jessieseigel.com.