Take a good, good look...

That's right...take a good, good look at these photos...photos of some of Big Media's biggest powers at the top.

Netflix founder Reed Hastings...

Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav...

Comcast CEO Brian Roberts...

Paramount Global CEO Bob Bakish...

Disney CEO Bob Iger...

Fox Corporation CEO Lachlan Murdoch...

Yes, I'm going to ruffle a bunch of feathers for saying this...but I'm going to say it:

If it weren't for (let's face it) corporate greed and for complacency at the top (in other words, the studios' tremendous reliance on movie franchises, movie remakes, and TV reboots), the Writers Guild of America and the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists wouldn't be out on strike. It's the first time since 1960 that both unions shut down.

Not all actors are wealthy. Matter of fact, the average California actor earned $27.73 per hour in 2022, according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics. And movie-TV performers aren't paid full-time year-'round. And, per a 7-17-2023 post on cnn.com on why the writers and performers are picketing, 12.7% of all SAG-AFTRA members make an annual salary of $26,470...the minimum amount that qualifies an entertainer for health insurance.

160,000 SAG-AFTRA members...11,000 people in the WGA.

I still think that there's more than enough money out there to satisfy all sides in the matter. How about you?

The strike must continue

The Writers Guild of America began its current strike on Tuesday, 5-2-2023...after a three-year contract with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers ended. Weeks of negotiations fell through because the AMPTP failed to come up with a pact that would satisfy the 11,500 WGA members. WGA leaders sought to gain increased compensation for TV-and-movie writers, guaranteed duration of employment for writers who get gigs in the industry, better residuals, and (of course!) the assurance that human writers wouldn't get replaced by artificial intelligence. Streaming has become a major factor since the previous WGA strike. Because of streaming, residuals for writers have become less frequent...and smaller, too. We've now got minirooms (with only a few writers instead of the usual seven or more), shorter seasons for TV series, and no rerun residuals for countless series. The money's there to give WGA writers what they want. Writers would've gained an extra $429 million per year had AMPTP leaders come through for the folks who cook up scripts. Instead, AMPTP bigwigs offered an annual increase of $86 million. Some people have questioned the WGA's decision to shut it down. One of them's even on the creatives' platform I joined in January 2019. If you've questioned the first writers' shutdown since 2007-08, think about this: Shows like "This Is Us" and "Abbott Elementary" wouldn't have come on the air if somebody hadn't thought them up...and movies such as "Avatar" and "Tar" came about because someone wrote a script. And why shouldn't writers be compensated decently for what they come up with? They've got bills to pay, too.

It's been such a long, long time...

57.5 years, to be exact.

It's been that long since I began wearing glasses. (Back then, the fall of 1965, when my constant squinting led to the decision to get me into my first pair of glasses.)

Well...thanks to two cataract surgeries (3-6-2023 and 3-27-2023), subsequent followups, and two bottles of Pred-Brom, I now see 20/20 for distance. Don't need glasses for driving anymore.

Okay...I still need reading glasses when I'm looking at books, newspapers, magazines, and computer screens.

Still, that's good enough for me.

Brumm Eye Center and Miracle Hills Surgery Center, thank you so very much!

Vive la difference!

Great to see some different teams than the usual ones win regionals in this season's NCAA Division 1 men's and women's basketball tournaments.

No Number One seeds left at the moment in the NCAA D-1 men's tourney (Alabama, Purdue, Houston, and defending champion Kansas all went down before the regional finals)...and two remaining in the NCAA D-1 women's tourney (Virginia Tech and last season's champ, still-unbeaten South Carolina).

The Hokies and Gamecocks spearhead a women's D-1 Final Four that includes a Louisiana State team that hadn't won a regional final since 2008...and an Iowa squad making just its second trip to the women's D-1 Final Four. (The first happened in 1993.)

Now...how about the D-1 men's side? Three teams in the men's D-1 Final Four for the first time ever!

Two of those first-time teams (Florida Atlantic and San Diego State) taste it up tomorrow...when Miami (FL) takes on one of its old rival from its Big East days, Connecticut. That's right...a University of Connecticut basketball team made the Final Four after all.

Dan Hurley's...not Geno Auriemma's. So...2022-23 is the first season the Huskies' men's team got to a Final Four since 2014 and the first campaign where the Huskies' women's squad got left out of a Final Four since 2007. And, here in 2022-23, not a single Number One seed among the men's D-1 regional semifinalists...a first. All right...I'm going to try some predictions about the last team standing in each D-1 NCAA tourney this season. WOMEN: Louisiana State over Virginia Tech, South Carolina over Iowa...and then on Sunday, an all-SEC final in which Dawn Staley's Gamecocks make it back-to-back titles.

MEN: Florida Atlantic over San Diego State, Connecticut over Miami (FL)...with Hurley's squad cutting down the nets late Monday night for its first title since 2011.

The watchdogs chalk it all up to the transfer portal...something that's redistributed the talent in both women's and men's Division 1 hoops. (You know what I say? Right on for the portal!)

I'm going to be watching...hope you'll be watching, too.

Tomorrow's the day!

This could've taken place in January 2017...except the need to replace the transmission on the car I had at the time (a 2006 Ford Taurus SEL that I bought in June 2007) came first.

Instead, it's going to happen tomorrow at 9:15 AM at the Miracle Hills Surgery Center (11819 Miracle Hills Dr., Suite 201, Omaha, NE 68154).

The mission: To remove the cataract from my left eye.

Quite a few things during the intervening six years and two months delayed the surgery...from the need to continue building a retirement fund to 2020's successful enrollment in Medicare to my having to buy a replacement car in April 2021 to retiring from my factory job in October 2022. But now, I'm ready for Dr. Matthew Brumm to come after that cataract.

A followup will ensue this coming Tuesday at 8:30 AM at Brumm Eye Center's north office (6751 N. 72nd St., Building 2, Suite 105, Omaha, NE 68122).

After all this...who knows? All I want is to see better...so that I can, among other things, drive at night again.

Now...it's your turn. Have you faced cataract surgery (or surgeries) in the past? What was it like? How'd you fare?

Thanks for reading "Boston's Blog!"

Scratching the five-year itch

The results are finally in for the 2021 edition of the "shoulda-coulda-woulda" NCAA Division 1-A football playoffs...and for the first time since 2016, the champion came from a league other than the Southeatern Conference. Well...without further ado, here goes:

FIRST ROUND (seeding in parentheses): San Diego State (9) 45, Northern Illinois (24) 38/BYU (16) 50, Oklahoma (17) 47 (3 OT)/Iowa (20) 28, Ohio State (13) 27/Appalachian State (21) 19, Houston (12) 10/Utah (19) 52, Mississippi (14) 31/Pittsburgh (11) 20, Oregon (22) 16/Michigan State (15) 31, Coastal Carolina (18) 30/Baylor (10) 24, Utah State (23) 17

SECOND ROUND: Cincinnati (1) 28, San Diego State 7/Oklahoma State (8) 35, BYU 14/Louisiana-Lafayette (5) 31, Iowa 17/Georgia (4) 45, Appalachian State 9/Utah 24, UTSA (6) 22/Alabama (3) 38, Pittsburgh 26/Michigan State 34, Notre Dame (7) 31/Michigan (2) 14, Baylor 7

QUARTERFINAL ROUND: Cincinnati 24, Oklahoma State 0/Georgia 24, Louisiana-Lafayette 3/Alabama 35, Utah 3/Michigan 52, Michigan State 14

SEMIFINAL ROUND: Georgia 24, Cincinnati 7/Michigan 17, Alabama 10

CHAMPIONSHIP GAME: Michigan 27, Georgia 17

MVP: Michigan RB Blake Corum

The last time a team other than one from the SEC went all the way in these playoffs, Penn State took down Washington, 29-13...the second straight year a Big Ten team ruled the roost. What's more, the Wolverines picked up their second D-1-A playoff title. The first one came in 1983 (just the second year of these "shoulda-coulda-woulda" playoffs), when Michigan stopped Texas, 30-17.

Now to figure out which teams would've made the 2022 edition...

Dear Rozanne:

It's been eleven days since you passed away...and I still think about you. We had some great, great times together in the twenty-five years since we first met at the church you joined when you were little. Man, you touched bunches and bunches of lives...not just at church, but also during the years where you delivered flowers and all the years you brought "Omaha World-Heralds." You really brought the enthusiasm...especially at those concerts we attended. Didn't matter if they were RCTOS events or GPRS ones...or the times it was just you and me at the Pink Poodle Steakhouse. Rozanne, you set one heck of an example for the rest of us to follow. You stood tough. And I'm going to keep trying my best to live up to that example. So doggone glad for the privilege of being a part of your life...and I'm so doggone glad you were (and still are!) a part of my life. Thanks so much for everything! Sincerely, Jim