around the world in 80 days

  

Around the World in 80 Days: October 17, 1956, premiered at the Nixon Theater in Pittsburgh.

The movie’s plot: Victorian-era Englishman Phileas Fogg (David Niven) proclaims before his fellow members of a London gentleman's club that he can circumnavigate the globe in a mere 80 days, further boasting that he will bet the princely sum of 20,000 pounds on the success of his endeavor.

 

My Aunt Meercy was an employee of NATO back in the 1950s. No, not THAT NATO, but one with the same initials, but translated into actual words, it was the National Association of Theater Owners, and back in the day, that made my Aunt Meercy even more famous as far as we were concerned, because her job, included meeting and greeting MOVIE STARS; and that MATTERED! My Aunt Meercy always received invitations for movie premiers and would always get Movie Passes for all movie theaters in the Greater Pittsburgh area. AND, when the lead actors would actually come to Pittsburgh to smile, sigh, and emote for the public, you bet my Aunt Meercy was front and center, and she brought her favorite nephew (ME) along as her date! On this particular PREMIER for Around the World in 80 Days, I actually met David Niven, but more importantly, met Shirley MacLaine who kissed me on my right cheek, (I remember this because Ms. MacLaine’s more photogenic side was her right-side side) The movie was filmed in CINEMA-SCOPE a widescreen interactive technique, and back in the day, we could watch what seemed to be a 3D, movie, wider, bigger, and bolder than we ever imagined. I loved the movie, and wondered then, what it might be like to travel the ENTIRE WORLD in just 80 days. I mean, back then this WORLD seemed mighty, MIGHTY, and faraway places were to dream about!

 

This morning, my ACCU-WEATHER App, sent me a weather advisory for Cape Cod. The people at the ACCU WEATHER headquarters, wanted we New Englanders to prepare for UNHEALTHY AIR-QUALITY. The unhealthy/do not stay outside if you have any respiratory condition/your lungs will grow grey and narcoleptic WARNING, informed us that FINALLY, the same UNBREATHABLE AIR that the entire Pacific Coast had to endure, and still must worry about, found its way in the jet stream, and is settling in on the East Coast. The world is round (much to my chagrin of the anti-vaxxers/the MAGA Morons/FOX Noise Viewers/and QAnon Crazies), Climate Change is real, and a combo of a round EARTH which has tried to sustain the HUMAN DAMAGE will CONTINUOUSLY spread the disease round and round and round…in 80 Days more or less!