The greatest comedy show ever

Imperial County is one of the poorest counties in California. Sadly, greedy corporations (this time, a foreign-owned company) seems to think the desert is dead and it is OK to destroy the natural environment; our community is an easy target. There is already an open-pit Mesquite Mine just east of Glamis, CA, the Sand Toy Capital of the world. Canadian companies like SMP Gold, who were granted permission by the BLM and Imperial County in late 2023 to begin an exploratory drilling operation called ‘oro Cruz’ surrounding the historic TUMCO mining district in the Cargo Muchacho Mountains ( just 25 miles from Yuma), have no attachment to this land.

The desire to drill 24/ 7 to depths of 800 ft will indeed yield the gold they are looking for; there is gold in the ground in those mountains that run north-south on the eastern edge of Imperial County. The end game is an open- pit, cyanide- leached mine that threatens water and destroys every animal that lives within a few- mile radius, including the endangered desert tortoise, fox, coyote, toads, bats, lizards, squirrels, and

There are two things that should be completely off limits: a person’s children and a person’s grief.

You do not mock a child, something that we often forget when that child happens to belong to a politician we despise, and you do not make fun of someone in the depths of mourning.

I have never had a child, but I have experienced grief. The greatest pain I ever felt, and the greatest I ever will carry, happened 10 years ago when my mother passed away.

No matter how deep your faith in the afterlife might be, and no matter how much support you receive from those who remain behind, the sharpness of that loss does not dim with the passage of time.

I read the statement that former first lady Melania Trump posted on social media, and it sounded exactly like a woman who had just lost one of the most important people in her life:

“It is with deep sadness that I announce the passing of my beloved mother. Amalija Knavs was a strong woman who always carried herself with grace, warmth and dignity. She was entirely devoted to her husband, daughters, grandson and son-in-law. We will miss her beyond measure, and continue to honor and love her legacy.”

I saw many things in this message that reminded me of the way I felt after Lucy Flowers died. First of all and above all things, she was “beloved.”

Not well-loved. Not dear. Beloved. Then there was the word “passing,” because the term “died” has a finality to it that makes it hard to accept in the mouth, hard to pronounce without choking.

Losing a mother is losing your past, removing that link in the chain numerous plant and other animal species. The mountains will not even be visible from the road, and all hiking and jeep/ OHV trails will be closed to public access.

Hard-rock mining companies do NOT employ locals, use water for pennies on the dollar, do NOT pay any royalties to state or federal US government offices, and wreck the environment, sending all the gold and profits to Canada. Why have Imperial County officials and BLM El Centro employees approved this operation? Who was paid off? The operation brings extremely limited revenue to our county and the environment cannot be reclamated; it will never recover.

The answer is that these officials do not live near this proposed openpit mine. They do not care for this land and are not the stewards of the environment that they profess to be. They are letting this Canadian company walk all over them, and doing a tremendous disservice to the people of Imperial County and to the local Quechan Tribe, who is heartbroken at the thought of potentially losing their sacred Cargo Muchacho Mountain range of their ancestors. that tethers you to other generations. When she is gone, you are left exposed to the winds, even the ones we cannot see but feel deep within.

All of this being the case, when I saw people mocking Melania Trump’s grief, I felt rage.

It made me realize that there is nothing I have in common with that sort of creature. There is no bridge to the other side, no way to even try and break bread, empathize with them, or not see their reaction as anything but cruel and repellent.

Politics is one thing, but inhumanity is something exponentially different.

I intended to name names and shame people in this column, reproducing their cruelty for you to experience firsthand.

They deserved it, these buffoons who can’t even spell their insults correctly, and who wrote things like “Who (expletive) cares,” “This is news?” or “Her mother was part of the chain migration you support, Christine.” These weren’t the worst.

I’m very happy to know that many of my own friends who despise Melania’s husband and would not vote for him even if the alternative was an eternity in hell, which they actually would consider a second Trump term, were kind.

My friend Ben wrote “I despise Donald Trump, but this is really a classless post,” referring to someone who was incredibly callous in their reply. Ben is one of those people, like my friend Meg and others who consider themselves liberals who understand that grief must be respected.

It doesn’t matter if a conservative or a progressive, an atheist or a person of faith, a pacifist or soldier is mourning that loss.

The mere fact that there is loss de

Please contact Imperial County Board of Supervisors and the BLM El Centro office and rally together to stop this RAPE of our public lands. The Mesquite Mine has already irreparably damaged northern Imperial County where it meets the Chocolate Mountains. Do not let this happen again just 15 miles to the southeast -- the gateway from Yuma to Glamis and home of OHV/ Jeepers/ hikers/ bikers/stargazers/ nature lovers/snowbirds. Please help me fight for the future of our wild places, for the future of the children of Imperial County residents. This location of proposed drilling is only 5 miles from the fragile lower Colorado River, is part of the California Desert Conservation Area, and an Area of Critical Environmental Concern (ACEC). Shame on the BLM and Imperial County officials for permitting this assault on our environment. This is 2024; not 1824 -- greed should not win out over nature.

— Gail Overton,

Winterhaven mands a moment of empathy.

If not that, the least we can do is keep our hostile thoughts bottled up in our tiny, acrid hearts.

I hope that Melania Trump has not seen the comments that were made ridiculing the passing of Amalija.

I hope that she has surrounded herself with the sort of people who cushion the blow, especially her son Barron who, I am told, was extremely close to his grandmother. I hope that she knows that the vast majority of us are out here extending our arms and our prayers.

But in the end, it doesn’t matter.

The attitude of those around us defines their own humanity, or lack thereof, but it doesn’t blunt the loss.

Even in the warm embrace of loved ones, the face we loved the most is the one we seek.

And even as the years pass, and as the sharpness of the pain is reduced to a constant throbbing beneath the surface, we will always miss that face above all.

As Edgar Allan Poe wrote: Because I feel that, in the Heavens above / The angels, whispering to one another / Can find, among their burning terms of love / None so devotional as that of “Mother.”

Christine Flowers is an attorney and a columnist for the Delaware County Daily Times, and can be reached at cflowers1961@gmail.com.

The final episode of “Seinfeld” was a big deal in this country and beyond. The same was true for “Cheers” and “Friends.”

“Letterkenny,” though, which was, in my opinion, and in the opinion of many others, the greatest comedy series ever, ended with the release of its last season on Christmas Day without much of a bang.

Maybe that’s because it was a streaming series, though it was on Hulu, one of the bigger streaming sites. Maybe that’s because it never gotten beyond a cult following.

But what a cult following it has.

The characters on “Letterkenny” drink Puppers beer, in large quantities. I have a Puppers Beer T-shirt. When I wear that T-shirt in public, it almost always is greeted by strangers responding with trademark quotes from the show, such as, “Pitter patter” or “How are ya now?” One mention of “Letterkenny” at a hockey game a few weeks ago -- I said, “A Texas-size 10-4” -- brought a fusillade of beloved “Letterkenny” sayings from those in the rows around us… for the rest of the match.

I’m not a connoisseur of fine art nor of fine wine, but I am a sommelier of great comedy. I started watching TV near the start of the television era and, I’m not embarrassed to say, have watched a lot of TV ever since. I particularly love comedy shows.

I would say the greatest comedy shows ever, in no particular order, would be “Seinfeld,” “SCTV,” “Get Smart,” “Derry Girls,” “I Love Lucy,” “All in the Family,” “Monty Python’s Flying Circus,” “Sanford and Son,” “What We Do in the Shadows,” “Reservation Dogs,” and “Veep.” But the best comedy show ever, I believe, is “Letterkenny.”

Why would I rate “Letterkenny” above all those other beloved, revered shows? First, “Letterkenny” has great, strange characters, about 25 great, strange characters. It has so many smart and funny lines that it is almost hard to keep up during episodes. It has weird, surrealistic plots. It pokes and prods viewers to laugh when they shouldn’t. The actors are allowed to dare to be extreme in their parts. “Roald” started as a small part but became a big one because the actor, Evan Stern, is so impeccable in the part.

As hilarious, weird and daring as “Letterkenny” is, it also is deep, heartfelt and soulful. On the surface, the show, when it started, was about the different groups in a small down in rural Canada: the hicks, the skids (rockers), the hockey players and the conservative Christians. Gradually the Christians became less a part of the show. I would guess that was because they were too easy to satirize for show creators/main writers Jerrod Keeso and Jacob Tierney. So the local Mennonite and Native American (or First Nations, as they say in Canada) communities became bigger parts of the show.

Because they’re in a small town, the members of these divergent groups know each other, often well. And when it comes down to it, they accept each other, and work together as a community, despite surface differences. The only people all the other groups want nothing to do with are the “degens,” meaning the town degenerates, who are mean, dishonest, dirty and lazy. At the end of the show’s run, the characters, despite their ponderings about life in Letterkenny, all come to the realization is the place where they belong.

“Letterkenny” harks back to simpler times, when the slower small-town life was desirable, when neighbors met at the local pub for an adult beverage or two, and when men, and sometimes women, settled things not with guns but with fists.

I urge you to watch “Letterkenny.” It will warm your heart and make you cry with laughter. Start with the first episode. but don’t be put off by the bizarre characters, the incessant wordplay and seemingly senseless plots. You will, quite quickly, come to love these people and this little town.

Bret Kofford is a lecturer emeritus in writing and film at San Diego State University Imperial Valley. He can be reached at bmkofford@outlook.com.