St. Francis, downtown, looking sad for everyone.

Good weekend, although of course darker than the last one. I don't mind falling back, and in fact welcome it. No half measures! Let's get this started so we can get it over. Pure self-delusional justification, of course. But that extra hour in bed is nice.

The pedants, the chrono-fetishists, complain that you're not getting an extra hour. It doesn't work that way. I know. But that extra hour is nice.

I thought my DirecTV bill was wrapped up in my AT&T payment info, but apparently not. It was tied to the old credit card, the stolen number. So it was declined, and my service was suspended. It says something about TV watching habits that I didn't notice for three days.

Oh, I suppose I got an email about that, but since they send 400 emails a day it probably went unnoticed. When I tried to watch something I learned about the situation, and called to see if I could get a better deal when reconnecting.

They don’t know that they have me over a barrel, since the competitors do not have the Tennis Channel. My wife needs the Tennis Channel. There’s an app for it, but from the reviews it hasn’t been updated and doesn’t work. Because why would it?

Called the customer number. Annoying phone tree. Ended up saying OPERATOR over and over until I got a person. Hellish sound from the call center, as if non-performing agents were being mauled by tigers. Heavy accent from the customer assistance person. Bottom line: can’t give me a deal, but sure, we can reconnect. Many PINs sent to me. Many times being put on hold to research something.

Can’t you just push a button, and make it happen? Guess not. Well, at the conclusion of it all she said that I could indeed reconnect, but I would either have to buy a box for $49 or rent one for $10 a month, and it would take two weeks to arrive.

Hold up. Wait. I watch the DirecTV stream through the app on my Apple TV. I do not need a box. A box with another remote. A box with a monthly fee. No no.

“You need to have the box to stream the DirecTV stream.”

“No. I don’t. I’m looking at the app right now on my AppleTV. I am looking at my account information and recorded shows.”

“Sir I have to investigate whether the AppleTV can play the DirecTV stream.”

“Of course it does. That’s how I watch it. I’m looking at an app on the main screen that says DirecTV.”

Off she goes to INVESTIGATE. Back after four minutes.

“I can’t reinstate your account unless you have the box.”

Back and forth. Impasse. “So you’re telling me that to connect again I have to rent a box for ten dollars a month instead of streaming it through the app as I always did before. Does that make sense?

Never ask this question. They can’t say yes or no. It’s not in their job description to tell you if anything is logical or sensible.

Then she asked if I could access the DirecTV website to reactivate. Whereupon I described the steps I had gone through, which did not end with an option to reconnect. Turns out I was supposed to sign up for a free trial. That’s intuitive! It worked.

Half an hour. When I hung up I looked at the Alexa unit and saw it had been listening, and was offering solace.

I’ve almost nothing to say about this one, because it’s such a lesser number.

IMDB: "Dale Jordon is on her way to Panama with Trixie Snell and Her Hotcha Girls to be a cabaret singer at the Bull Ring Cafe. Traveling by ship, Dale meets and falls in love with Tom Baylor, who owns copper interests near Panama."

Gee, it could happen to you!

The luxury cruise ship of the era:

At first we see what was going on, pre-Code:

Ha ha he’s a peeper

What a creepy guy. He must be socially ostracized! Now let's show ladies in various states of undress for you to ogle:

I’m always interested in the cruise ships of the day, and this one shows you that swimming pools have improved somewhat. Well, a lot.

Since it’s the Panama route, could it be . . . the California?

That’s it. That’s the whole piece today.

Okay, well, no. How about this:

Review: Former Mack Sennett bathing beauty Juanita Henson, presumably in the period between her cocaine and morphine addictions, stands out as the brassy, bullying leader of a dance troupe, and a youngish Walter Brennan appears in a couple of scenes as a gormless waiter.

Was anyone everr excessively gormed?

Okay, that's done, newsreel's done, cartoon's done, time for the  main movie.

That'll do! See you around.