![]() We may never be clear of the COVID virus, but the days of thousands of newly infected patients jammed into overpacked hospitals and thousands of deaths per day seem to be behind us. We have vaccines, tests, and medications to help fight the disease, and for many of us life has headed back to a semblance of normalcy. Three years, 105 million cases and 1,148,391 deaths later, COVID is still around, in variant forms. We all know what followed – two years of sheltering at home, the shutdown of non-essential businesses, bars and restaurants, schools rushing to set up remote instruction systems while kids stayed home, mask mandates, etc. Two days later the Trump administration declared a nationwide emergency, and states soon followed suit. March 11, 2020, was the day the World Health Organization officially declared COVID-19 was a pandemic. ![]() THUMBS DOWN: Today is an unhappy anniversary. ![]() Be sure to write to your legislators and to legislative leaders to voice your concerns about the need for nursing homes now and in the future. Since that is not likely to happen, we hope the committee chairs and leaders on health issues will pay attention. When they do, it would be nice if legislators would give the same attention to our state’s senior citizens as it does to the state’s sovereign nations and hold a joint session where all the state’s long-term care facilities can state their case. The organizers of the bus trip are hoping to reschedule. Nursing homes are unable to pay enough to keep nursing staff because the state ties nursing home rates to the state’s Medicaid rates, and the Legislature has not kept up with the needs of the nursing homes. We are sure their needs are many and pressing, but so are the needs of the nursing home industry in the state. It is Sovreignty Day at the Capitol, and all legislators will be in a mandatory joint session of the House and Senate so leaders of the 11 Native American nations in Minnesota can raise awareness of their issues. Like most historical dramas, Gladiator took some creative liberties with the history its story is based on, but it always knew how to keep its audience entertained.THUMBS DOWN: A special bus trip to the Minnesota State Capitol to lobby legislators on the crisis in nursing homes had to be canceled for Monday. Not only did the film win Best Picture at the Oscars, but Russell Crowe’s Maximus and Joaquin Phoenix's Commodus have become two of the most iconic characters in cinematic history. Gladiator is not a historically accurate film, but it had a large impact on cinema. Changing the thumb gestures is a small historical change that helped audiences connect more with the source material and the story. Ultimately, as most audience members wouldn’t know the contradicting and complicated history of the thumb gestures, this was probably the best choice. Thumbs down: Despite record turnout in the eight-day early voting period, turnout for Tuesday’s primary election was among the lowest Carroll County has experienced in the past 20 years. However, the crew reported that they knew about the switch but decided to go with thumbs-up meaning life and thumbs-down meaning death, as how audiences would likely perceive these signals by contemporary use of " thumb language." With this in mind, Scott could have researched the real meaning behind the thumb gestures but instead, like most, he associated the thumbs-down with a call for death. ![]() Businesses that enter such agreements are going to be known as Monument Mitras. Private firms, companies, and public sector units can enter into agreements with the Union Ministry of Culture to adopt and maintain State-owned archaeological sites or monuments. The gladiator painting inspired Ridley Scott, and he agreed to make the film on the spot. A thumbs down for the ‘Adopt a Heritage’ scheme. Based on the behind-the-scenes of the making of Gladiator, the screenwriters came to Ridley Scott with their script, proposal, and a copy of the Thumbs Down painting.
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