It’s that time again, one of the best times of the year. It’s Oscar time! Specifically, the month before the actual awards are awarded. I don’t care much who wins this year’s Academy Awards. If anything, I may pay attention to the the cinematography or writing awards, but in general, this year’s winners have a long time to ferment before I’ll open them for a taste.

If you are a regular reader, or even a slightly irregular one, you know my golden age for movie watching coincides nicely with the golden age of movie making. I have made that same assertion at this same time of year several times. If you pop over to the “Search My Blog” page and type “Academy” in the search window, you will be rewarded with several posts to read about my preference for the older movies, particularly at this time of year.  Naturally, that won’t stop me from asserting that same assertion here.

In addition to what you”ll read in any of those past posts, I also think part of what makes the older movies the better choices, is the same reason why so many other older things, are just generally better. I’ll use some of my own experiences.

For well over 40 years I worked in hospital pharmacies, both non-profit and for-profit. When I started, healthcare was a terrific career choice, specifically for me, but for many others. And a well-respected field of endeavor. Today, not so much. The people working it are questionable in their dedication for excellence in providing care, and the people running it are not at all questionable in their disdain for providing care.

Here is what I believe happened.  When I began practicing hospitals were run by doctors, pharmacies by pharmacists, and drug companies by chemists and biologists. We made people well and made a respectable living. Sometime in the 1990s, hospital and pharmacies and drug companies decided to swap out the professionals from their corporate offices and replace them with “business people.” Dedication went down because they had no stake in the history of the professions. Quality went down because quality is expensive and that didn’t fit with the “increase the bottom line at all costs” narrative. Care went down because nobody needed to care anymore.

Without getting further into that diatribe, that’s what happened to movies. In the 20s to the early 60s, actors acted, writers wrote, directors directed, and producers produced. They were good at what they did. They had stables of people to draw upon, and they enjoyed what they did. And they did what they knew how to do. There are some exceptions, but it became prevalent in the 60s that people  wanted all the control so they started writing and directing and producing their own parts that they acted. Movies became pet projects rather than works of art.

If you want something good, have the professionals who want to do it, who have experience doing it, who know the good and bad of doing it just do it. It works with healthcare. It works with cars, it works with running a country. (I had to addd that – come on now. DEI caused a plane crash? Sheesh)

Back to the movies. From now until awards night, my favorite TV network, TCM will play nothing but Oscar nominated and winning movies. All day. Every day. Some even written, directed, produced, and performed by other than old white men.

You know when else is the best of times? February! It’s not only Groundhog Day month, it is also when love is in the air. Do the right thing and spread your love to everyone, even strangers. We talk about that very thing in this week’s Uplift post, All We Need is Love, Part 2. It’s all natural, requires little effort, and makes big differences. Check it out.

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