Another Week: Number 163

February is rarely glorious here in southeast Wisconsin. This first week saw acceptable weather — temperatures mostly in the 20s, with a couple inches of fresh snow on Friday. What was unacceptable and stomach-turning was the relentless, menacing din of the daily news.

On Monday morning, Chris Nanos, the sheriff of Pima County, Arizona, held a news conference to explain that the 84-year-old mother of Today Show personality Savannah Guthrie, Nancy Guthrie, had been taken against her will from her home near Tucson. This set off international anguish, and continuous news coverage from outside her home attempting to fill large portions of every hour with scant new details and exhausting speculation.

Also in the news Monday, Donald J. Trump crapped out of his disasterous takeover of the Kennedy Center and proclaimed that institution will close for renovations for two years, beginning on July 4th. Maybe next he can destroy some of our national parks or something.

Monday evening, Rachel Maddow reported on growing opposition to Trump’s establishment of concentration camps in vast warehouse space across America. Eighty year later, folks still shrug and shake their heads when the gut-wrenching question of public awareness about Auschwitz and Treblinka comes up. How did people not see what was going on? Somehow, though, ordinary companies signed ordinary contracts to build ovens.

On Tuesday, Trump called for Republicans to “take over the voting.”

On Wednesday, the Washington Post gutted its newsroom.

On Friday, Trump tweeted a video depicting Barack and Michelle Obama as apes.

I walked zero miles this week.

Mel Brooks: The 99 Year Old Man! (2026)

There’s a new Mel Brooks bio-documentary on HBO Max, and my mom and I watched it Wednesday afternoon and Saturday night — because the two parts run 3 hours and 36 minutes in total.

Mel Brooks: The 99 Year Old Man! was directed by Judd Apatow and Michael Bonfiglio. Apatow is also the primary interviewer.

This charming profile follows a simple chronological timeline and moves with great energy because scads of clips are packed into it, carefully cut like mosaic pieces bringing color to the overall picture.

Any given anecdote might start with present-day Brooks sitting on his sofa, then cut in the next sentence to Brooks telling the same story to Johnny Carson, then cut to a clip of the exact moment he’s describing, then cut to someone else’s reaction. This editing is beautiful and smooth, and it conjures a sense of omniscience surpassing time.

The biography ping-pongs between Brooks’ career and personal life, including low points when he was broke and his bitterness ruined his first marriage. It includes projects that were not masterpieces, and Brooks concedes frequently that money was among his motivations.

One of the great stories here is Brooks’ marriage to Anne Bancroft, which looks deeply loving, supportive, and galvanizing.

Another is Brooksfilms, the production company that brought us The Elephant Man and David Lynch, My Favorite Year, Frances, and The Fly.

This summary prompted my mom — who found Blazing Saddles quite offensive back in 1974 — to reconsider it.

I was impressed by the way it concentrated the extraordinary scope of Brooks’ life and managed to acknowledge some shortcomings along with his heartwarming triumphs.