Avoiding crowds over coronavirus? You can still have some fun at home
Everyone gearing up for a fun St. Patrick’s weekend likely is hastily making other plans, as concern grows about coronavirus.
Along with other cities across the nation, Pittsburgh officials Wednesday made the call to cancel the popular St. Patrick’s Day parade planned for March 14.
In cancelling the parade, @CityPGH is following @CDCgov recommendations to avoid mass gatherings and observe “social distancing.” https://t.co/5QqW3z4Sr6
— Office of the Mayor (@TheNextPGH) March 11, 2020
And though the city’s bars will remain open to serve up green beer and stout, bar owners are asked to voluntarily reduce the number of patrons allowed inside. Occupancy limits will be strictly enforced.
What’s a healthy person to do in a time of trying to enjoy a holiday known for raucous celebrations?
Or finding one’s hopes to attend a sporting event dashed when they may be closed to the public, or canceled?
Given the uncertainty regarding next steps regarding the coronavirus, Clubs are advised not to conduct morning skates, practices or team meetings today.
— NHL Public Relations (@PR_NHL) March 12, 2020
For those who enjoy staying in, are going through a self-imposed quarantine, or just think staying away from crowds is the best case scenario for now, we’ve got some suggestions on how to pass the time.
Indulge in screen time
There may never better be a better time to guiltlessly indulge in binge watching television.
Some recommendations:
• “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel.” Actress Rachel Brosnahan struggles with the confines of being a Manhattan housewife when she really longs to perform comedy on stage.
This Amazon Prime Video original series will take you back to a time before cellphones and lengthy airport security lines. Plus, she and the cast are flat out funny.
• “The Office.” If you haven’t checked out “The Office” on Netflix, now might be the time. Worker bees doing the 9-5 in cubicles everywhere will recognize many of the characters toiling away at Scranton’s fictional Dunder Mifflin paper company.
Most of us know a “Pam” or a “Jim.” Watch out, though, for the “Michaels” and “Dwights.”
Between their messy personal lives and sometimes odd lifestyles, it’s amazing this cast of nonprofessional misfits gets any work done. But they do bring the laughs.
Looking for something new? Here are a few of the intriguing offerings coming to Netflix in April:
• “Sunderland ‘Till I Die (Season 2),” April 1: Documentary on the demise of a UK soccer club.
• “Coffee & Kareem,” April 2: A new comedy starring Ed Helms, of “The Office” and “The Hangover” fame.
• “Terrace House: Tokyo 2019-2020 (Part 3),” April 7: A 12-episode Japanese reality series in which contestants share living space a la MTV’s “The Real World.”
• “Sergio,” April 17: A biopic based on the life of Brazilian diplomat Sergio Vieira de Mello, who was killed in the 2003 Canal Hotel bombing in Baghdad, Iraq.
• “Extraction,” April 24: The new action-thriller stars Chris Hemsworth as a gun for hire on his toughest assignment yet.
And if you’re still on edge about missing out on what remains of the basketball and hockey seasons, high school and college sports and the suspension of Major League Baseball, there are several nostalgic and comedic sports-themed movies available for streaming.
• “Hoosiers” follows Gene Hackman in one of his best roles as a coach taking his small town Indiana high school basketball team to the state championships.
It’s a sweet film full of interesting characters and a feel-good ending. If the ending doesn’t make you tear up, the late Dennis Hopper will. Keep the Kleenex close.
• Looking for something more lively? Check out “Slap Shot,” the 1977 hockey movie starring Paul Newman and filmed in Johnstown.
The washed up coach and a down-on-its-luck professional hockey club manage to revitalize a small town with their on-ice antics.
The trio of Hanson Brothers can still make you laugh out loud, probably the best medicine there is.
If the Hanson brothers aren’t quirky enough for you, the following movies also have a motley crew of characters that will have you laughing until you cry — or until you can get out of quarantine:
• “Dumb and Dumber,” 1994, with Jim Carrey and Jeff Daniels. Down and out and dim-witted, Lloyd and Harry go on a quest to return a briefcase and possibly win the heart of the beautiful and mysterious Mary Swanson. Nothing goes as planned, but everything sort of works out in the end. Carrey dove deep into his character, having a cap removed from a chipped front tooth to make Lloyd’s goofy smile even goofier.
• “Raising Arizona,” 1987, with Nicolas Cage and Holly Hunter. A mismatched Arizona couple – he’s a small-time thief and she’s a sheriff’s deputy – kidnap one of the famed Arizona quintuplets (“I think it’s Nathan Jr.”) when they can’t have a baby of their own. Turns out they’re not the only ones who want the toddler. Some say Nicholas Cage did his finest work in this early Coen Brothers film.
• “Napoleon Dynamite,” 2004, with Jon Heder in the title role. Idaho seems like a separate reality as Napoleon is thwarted in his quest for meaning, money and love by his brother Kip, Uncle Rico, high school bullies, a llama named Tina and his own insecurities. If you ever saw a T-shirt that said “Vote for Pedro,” and didn’t know what it meant, this movie supplies the answer.
• And, to wrap it up, any time is a good time to watch a feel-good Tom Hanks movie, but now might be an especially good time, as we send get-well wishes to the iconic actor and his wife, Rita Wilson, as they receive treatment in Australia for coronavirus.
Check out Hanks’ 1988 movie, “Big,” about a 12-year-old who makes a wish “to be big” and overnight is transformed into an adult. He becomes a whiz in the toy manufacturing and marketing business, but learns that being big isn’t all he thought it would be.
With a running time of almost 2½ hours, “Forrest Gump” is another great Hanks option for passing the time and shedding a few happy tears. The Alabama innocent of the title somehow inserts himself into a series of watershed moments in 1960s American history, verifying along the way that “stupid is as stupid does.”
Turn the page
How better to while away a long afternoon than curled up with a cup of tea, or other comforting beverage, and a good novel? Immerse yourself in a classic or check out a new best-seller.
• “The Call of the Wild.” If you can’t get to the theater for the new movie version with Harrison Ford and his CGI canine companion, check out Jack London’s short 1903 novel about a dog named Buck and his Gold Rush adventures. Stolen from his comfortable life on a California ranch, forced to be a sled dog in the Yukon, Buck sheds the trappings of civilization and learns to trust his primordial instincts.
• “Emma.” The new movie release of Jane Austen’s comedy of manners has earned good reviews. See what the original fuss was all about when the book was published in 1815. The story concerns matters of marriage, gender, social status and more for a group of English gentlewomen. See why Austin called the character of Emma “a heroine whom no one but myself will much like.”
• Best-sellers: Here is a sampling of new fiction getting buzz from The New York Times’ current best-seller list:
“American Dirt,” by Jeanine Cummings: An American bookseller and her son flee to Mexico to elude the head of a drug cartel.
“Where the Crawdads Sing,” by Delia Owens: In 1969, a young woman who has survived in a coastal North Carolina marsh becomes a murder suspect.
“The Silent Patient,” by Alex Michaelides: Mystery surrounds a famous painter who stops speaking after shooting her husband.
• American classics: Revisit a book from your assigned high school reading for insights that your teenage brain might have missed: “To Kill a Mockingbird,” by Harper Lee; “The Grapes of Wrath,” by John Steinbeck; “The Color Purple,” by Alice Walker; “Frankenstein,” by Mary Shelley; and “Moby-Dick, or The Whale,” by Herman Melville (that one will keep you busy for a while).
For more suggestions, peruse “Books That Everyone Should Read at Least Once” and more literary lists at goodreads.com.
• Whodunits: Time will fly as you try to identify the murderer before the final chapter. Check out classic mysteries like Agatha Christie’s “And Then There Were None” or Patricia Highsmith’s “Strangers on a Train.”
Stock up on a series by contemporary authors like Michael Connelly, Robert Crais, Janet Evanovich, Tana French, Sue Grafton or James Patterson. Chill out with Scandinavian noir by Stieg Larsson, Jo Nesbo, Henning Mankell or Camilla Lackberg.
Laugh along with the bumbling investigative antics of M.C. Beaton’s Agatha Raisin or Hamish Macbeth, both of whom also have made it from the pages of many quick-but-satisfying reads to the small screen.
Shirley McMarlin is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Shirley at 724-836-5750, smcmarlin@tribweb.com or via Twitter @shirley_trib. Mary Pickels is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Mary at 724-836-5401 or mpickels@tribweb.com or via Twitter @MaryPickels.
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