We Don’t Talk about Tony, No, No, No

The magical family from "Encanto." Image from Disney.com.

Maybe it’s just me. I’m enchanted with the Disney movie “Encanto,” and, no, I know that’s not just me, as the film seems pretty popular.

What’s just me is that I think it could be taken as being about the COVID-19 pandemic, in a way. Spoiler alert--if you have not seen "Encanto," you may want to stop and go watch it before proceeding to the rest of this blog post.

Think of one of the many popular songs from that film, “We Don’t Talk about Bruno.”

Tio Bruno in the movie gets an unfair bad reputation because he has visions of the future, and when those visions are sad (a goldfish dies), the people blame Bruno. Yet, it’s pretty clear, Bruno didn’t kill the goldfish, nor did his vision. He just saw it and reported it.

Kind of like Dr. Anthony Fauci. The long-time leader of a federal agency called the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, Dr. Fauci has been blamed, these past two years, for things he has said about the pandemic.

NIAID image of Dr. Anthony Fauci.

But the good doctor didn’t create the virus. And the tough advice he’s given isn’t some mad power grab, rather attempts to keep us safe.

Thankfully, unlike Bruno in the movie, he hasn’t hidden himself in the walls.

The analogy doesn’t completely hold, I know. Yet the movie characters couldn’t face reality and thus shunned Bruno.

Encanto is an enchanting tale for lots of reasons. For one things, it’s a Disney story where the witches aren’t evil, but blessed by a life-affirming miracle. The characters are in conflict due to difficult family dynamics and a troubled history—not because they are fundamentally evil. They are just normal people, trying their best.

And sometimes being crushed by the weight of their burdens. Yup, loved the song by the strong older sister, too. And yes, I feel like the pandemic is sometimes like the pressure source, too.

And the movie ends with our lead character, one of only two members of a magical family who has no powers, somehow restoring power to the full family.

Because she reconciled with her grandmother. The other not-magical person. In the family of magic, the two most pivotal characters, the true leaders, are the ordinary women who hold the rest together.

Well, great. We will somehow, I hope, learn as a culture to rebuild what has become broken. And maybe learn to let Dr. Tony back in, too.

Jada Veasey of MMU is Best Student Journalist in Iowa

Senior nursing student Jada Veasey named "Pat Pisarik Student Journalist of the Year" by Iowa College Media Association.

Today was a big day for journalism at Mount Mercy University. I knew what was coming, although I couldn’t tell anybody.

Each year, the Iowa College Media Association gives an award called the “Pat Pisarik Student Journalist of the Year” to one student. This year, the judges said there were three outstanding journalists from three colleges who became the finalists—and the winner is from Mount Mercy University. Times Editor-in-Chief Jada Veasey.

And Jada doesn’t even major in journalism. I’ve had a nursing student be editor-in-chief of the Times before (I am the paper’s faculty advisor), but the previous leader did at least minor in journalism. Jada basically leads the staff of a university newspaper capably from life experience—I’m not sure she’s taken even one of my journalism courses, yet she is among the most talented student journalists MMU has ever had.

It comes from several sources. One, Jada is in the news habit. She comes from a home where there was always a newspaper, and she’s always been a news reader—an important education that many communication students are too short on. Two, while she hasn’t taken a journalism class, she is a natural writer, a talented story teller with a flair for choosing the right words. Again, I think this comes mainly from being a lifelong, active reader. Three, she’s mission driven. She believes in the importance of journalism and student journalism, a civics lesson lost on too many these days.

Jada has been particularly important in helping the Mount Mercy Times cover the Covid-19 pandemic. She wrote the news story about a student who died. She had a hand in a set of staff editorials that were recognized as the best in the state, all of them on the pandemic. The headlines of those winning editorials:

• “Mustangs: We Must do More to Fight this Deadly Pandemic,” Nov. 19, 2020.
• “The ‘Kim Reaper?’ Iowa Not Getting Leadership State Needs in Pandemic,” Feb. 18, 2021.
• “We may be tired of pandemic, but it’s not tired of us,” Sept. 16, 2021.

Besides Jada, other MMU students honored included Annie Barkalow, managing editor; Gwen Johnson, opinion editor; and Veronica Jons, last year’s editor-in-chief.

Annie Barakalow and Jada Veasey, managing editor and editor-in-chief of the MMU Times.

Gwen Johnson, opinion editor.

Veronica Jons, who graduated last year, former editor-in-chief of Times.

Annie wrote a news story about problems with a city bike rental program and rented bikes being left on campus. “Needed or Nuisance? City VeoRide vehicles sometimes clutter campus” was the main front page story on Sept. 30, 2021, and was recognized as the best investigative news story in the state.

“Anne with an e,” Annie’s blog, was named the best student blog in the state. Gwen’s “The Girl in the Chair” was second.

The Times was recognized with a second-place for headline writing, too. And one of its front pages was the best in the state (click on image to see larger PDF version):

So, a total of six awards for the paper, including four first-place awards—that is good results. But the Pat Pisarik award for Jada? That was outstanding, and well deserved. I wrote a letter that was part of her application, here it is, and I meant every word. I’m proud of all the students who work so hard at providing MMU with a vibrant student media.

The Keys to an On-Line Sensation: Ease and Sharing

Almost got it in 2. Almost...

Every day, I post a note like this on my main Meta channel, Facebook: “Got it in 5 today, tough day” or “In 3, not bad.”

Usually, I include the colorful grid that charts letters correct and wrong.

A sister at one point asked what the cryptic notes (that day, no grid) were about, but those in the cult already know. It’s Wordle, an online sensation that netted a software engineer (named Josh Wardle) more than $1 million. The New York Times purchased the app, and didn’t disclose for how much, except it was “low seven figures.”

Well, nice. The game has exploded in recent weeks, for lots of reasons. It’s a word game that tickles the brain, but doesn’t tire it too much. I don’t want to jinx myself, but in several weeks of daily play, I’ve not yet failed to solve the Wordle (although I have sometimes only solved it on the sixth try). I wouldn’t call it super easy, but it’s not a horribly challenging game.

And Mr. Wardle made an incredibly smart move. When you solve the Wordle, it makes the results easily shareable on social media, via phone app or via computer, with an easily recognizable graphical scheme that shows your results and doesn’t spoil it for other players. That graphic, by the way, is the one controversial aspect of the game, as apparently people who use Twitter to share their results kind of mess up visually impaired Twitter users who have the program read tweets—it takes a while, or so I’ve read, for the Twitter robot to read “green square, green square, yellow square, grey square,” etc.

I’m sure the tech minions at the Times will figure that one out soon. When the Times purchased the game it causes some anxiety because it’s been available for free—and does one need a Times subscription in the future to access it? That remains to be seen. But for now, Wordle is an example of something going suddenly hot, for what I think are the right reasons. It’s pleasant, not too taxing, and easily shareable on social media.

It reminds me, a little, of Duolingo, a language app I’ve been using for some time. I am active in three languages: I take Duolingo lessons in Chinese, Hungarian and Spanish.

Duolingo does improve over time due to feedback from users. Because, clearly, Rafael doesn't just have a friend, he has a lady friend, and an English speaker who recognizes that "friend" is not a gender neutral word in Spanish shouldn't have his translation traduced. And, Duo now agrees. Nice. Image of email I got after grumbling in the app.

Based on my experience, having some experience with a language before doing Duo makes a huge difference—I move through Spanish lessons much more quickly. Of course, Spanish is an easier language for a native English speaker to learn in the first place—Hungarian is a bit quirky, and Chinese might as well come from the other side of the globe. Which it does.

I don’t aspire to be fluent in Hungarian or Chinese, but am dabbling with those languages for various reasons. I have family connections to both, for one. And, while Chinese is very challenging, I just like the different sound and writing system it has for their being so different.

Hungarian lessons are slightly goofy fun because of the sentences Duolingo uses. It’s a language course that seems partly stuck in World War II. I’m hoping I don’t have to say “The German soldiers are outside the train station” in Hungarian all that often, but just in case, that kind of sentence has been in lessons. The Hungarian course also has some weird, eyebrow-raising statements like: “The Hungarian actresses and thin and pretty while the English ones are short and slow.” That’s not literal, don’t come at me Duo, I’m pretty sure that particular sentence has not been in any lesson, but sentences like it do appear. Not usually in that horrible form I wrote as an example, but more like: “The Hungarian cars and new and fast” (sentence one) “The German cars are slow and old” (sentence two).

Be a little more polite, Duo. After all, there’s a lot of German soldiers over by that train station.

Anyway, in an age of disinformation, I do take a minor amount of comfort that the internet also brings us some pleasant diversions that may be good for our brains.

Like Wordle. Like easily accessible language lessons. Cyberspace that be a hostile part of the world, but it still has its pleasant neighborhoods.