It looks like the Michigan statewide state-wide interlibrary loan service called MeLCat may be in danger.

I got the following email from my local library:

The Michigan eLibrary (MeL) and MeLCat are made possible with funding from the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS). You most likely have heard about the Presidential Executive Order calling for the elimination of non-statutory components of IMLS, and earlier this week all IMLS staff were placed on administrative leave. 

The Continuing Resolution that was approved by Congress and signed by the President on March 15, 2025 includes full funding of IMLS through September of this year. With no IMLS staff, it's unclear how the approved funding will be executed, but from what we know at this point in time, there are no changes or interruptions.

Please continue to enjoy use of these services. We are watching the developments closely and will keep you informed of changes as we become aware of them. 

This is a service I actually use a lot since returning to the US.  (Of course, it would be just my luck that right after I return to the US, they would get rid of this service.)

So, I just called the office of my local representative (link HERE)  to let them know that this was a service I enjoyed using, and that I hoped it would continue to stay funded.

I was substitute teaching again today, and the instructions the teacher left was to play an episode of MacGyver.  (Usually the instructions are to put on a movie, but this time it was a TV show.)

Some of the students had never heard of MacGyver.  (Of course they hadn't.  This show was way before their time.)  Other students recognized the name MacGyver from Simpsons references.  

As for myself, I actually had never seen an episode of MacGyver before.  I definitely knew about it.  Several of my friends from the church youth group were fans, and I remember some discussion about it.  But I had never seen it myself.  Mostly because my parents exercised tight regulation on my tv viewing when I was young.

In fact, I didn't even realize until I looked it up just now, but MacGyver was actually a 1980s TV show.  I always thought it was from the 1990s, I guess because I remember my friends talking about it in the 1990s.  But it turns out it started in 1985, and ran until 1992 (W).

Anyway, the episode that the students (and me) were assigned to watch for today was Season 2 Episode 21: "D.O.A.: MacGyver".  And because this was the lesson plan for 4 of the classes I was covering today, I ended up watching it 4 times.

If you know anything about MacGyver, you know that his schtick is that he's an action hero who fights crime using science.  This is why teachers generally approved of the show.  (I mentioned before that many of my church youth group friends were fans of the show, and I also remember the youth pastor himself talking approvingly of the show.)

It struck me upon watching my first ever episode that this was a pretty clever idea by someone.  Basically the show seems to play like any other 1980s action tv show, but the episode included a couple brief references to fixing things with some sort of science or mechanics.  It's a very small part of the episode, but it's just enough to get the show recommended by teachers and youth pastors.  And then the rest of it plays out like a normal action show.  Clever marketing.

D.O.A.: MacGyver plays like a pretty by the numbers 1980s action TV show.  In fact, it's SO by the numbers that they include not 1 but 2 TV tropes commonly used in that era: MacGyver has amnesia and can't remember who he is, and also as MacGyver begins to remember his past, they sprinkle in clips from past episodes.  That's right, it's both an Amnesia Episode and a Clip Show Episode.

But as much as I love to poke fun at 1980s TV shows, you do have to admit that it's very watchable.  I mean, you do really have to admire what they were doing in action TV shows in the 1980s--they managed to pull off 22 action episodes a year, on a tight budget, and ended up with a lot of action sequences and stunt work that were actually pretty good.

The ending of this particular episode, however, was anticlimatic.  I'm not sure how typical that is (as this is so far the only MacGyver  episode I've seen.)

Also, I didn't realize it until I went to the IMBD page, but the girl in this episode is played by Nana Visitor, who I, as a huge Star Trek fan, know from Star Trek Deep Space Nine.  (I thought she looked recognizable when I was watching the episode, but didn't realize who she was.)

Bonus: Someone made a fan trailer for this episode:

Check out this show on Amazon: https://amzn.to/43E3BeD           (This is an Amazon Associate's Link.  If you buy anything through that link, I get a commission.)

The Truman Show--Movies I've Half Watched

Once again, you can blame substitute teaching for this one.  I was substitute teaching today, and the lesson plan was to resume playing this movie.  The students had already seen the first 12 minutes yesterday, so I played it from 12 minutes to the 48 minute marker.  And I had to do this 4 times in 4 classes today, so by the end of the day I was well acquainted with those 40 minutes.

This is a movie I've already seen.  (I saw it in the theaters when it originally came out.)  So it was another rewatch, or half-rewatch.

Although I didn't rewatch the whole thing (I missed the first 12 minutes, and the whole second half of the movie), it did strike me that the movie is operating on a few different levels.

1) It's a philosophical movie--the old "What if our reality was just a simulation?" hypothetical

2) It's a commentary on reality TV

3) It's a comedy

4) It's a suspense movie--as Truman keeps trying to escape his reality, and as he keeps getting thwarted, you get sucked into the suspense of "Will he be able to get out this time?"

It works realitively well on all of these levels.  The suspense scenes work great.  The humor is good.

It is, however, a bit repetitive, especially in the beginning.  The first 50 minutes of the movie are essentially Truman discovering that his reality is manufactured.  And then discovering it again.  And then discovering it again.  (He seems to realize fairly early on in the movie what is going on, but then the movie just has scene after scene of him rediscovering this.)

The movie is also completely unrealistic, even if you grant its premise.  (Even if you grant that society would tolerate a TV show making a prisoner of someone like this, and even if you grant that the show has the budget to do all the things that they do, there were still a lot of scenes were I didn't believe that this is a realistic portrayal of how people would actually act in this situation.)  So as you're watching this movie, you have to constantly shut down that voice in your head that keeps saying, "But real people wouldn't act like that."

This was one of Jim Carrey's first serious roles, and he plays it mostly well, but he's still a little bit over the top in some scenes.  Would this movie have been better served with a different lead actor?

It also occured to me (on the 3rd time watching) that this movie might also be operating as a commentary about how difficult it is sometimes to escape from your hometown and get out into the wider world.

Check out this movie on Amazon: https://amzn.to/4i4vvUK        (This is an Amazon Associate's Link.  If you buy anything through that link, I get a commission.)