When young Ron Howard was Andy Griffith’s son in Mayberry – I had a sense that all was right in the world. Even if Don Knotts upset the apple cart every-now-and-then – we all knew that things would smooth out just fine. And as Richie Cunningham – Ron Howard again brought a sense of apple pie wholeness to the screen! Heck! Richie Cunningham even tamed the Fonz to the point that the Fonz moved in with the Cunninghams.
I’m pretty sure that Ron Howard directed “Cocoon” (hold on, let me google it [yep, he did]) – and I became more of a fan of his than ever: Ron Howard gets me crying like no one else seems able to – like last night, I re-visited “Cinderella Man” – and I was in tears at-the-end (again!). I’m sure there are other movies in Ron’s oeuvre – but I want to focus on Ron’s fascination with Dan Brown.
I have gone-on-the-record saying that Dan Brown may be the worst writer in the English language of all time (Yes. Even worse than me. [I find it interesting that possibly the worst American president of-all-time occupied time and space with Danny Boy])! Anyways, for some reason, Ron Howard seems hell bent on bringing some type of meaning to Dan Brown’s amalgamations of partial theory and assumptions. Sure I find all-of-this-stuff interesting as well, but to be able to wrap up the Illuminati, the Roman Catholic Church, anti-matter, Jesus and Mary, and the Knights Templar – all into nice tidy boxes, seems like, well – only something that Opie and Richie Cunningham could pull off.
As my readers know, I’ve been reading Doonesbury since, forever, and in today’s Sunday clip – Gary dealt with the concept of God in a tone and fashion that I have been doing for over 20 years! What took you so long, Gary?! In today’s Doonesbury proffering – Gary tackled that interesting change in God – when God became much less angry and much more loving – thanks to knocking up Mary and getting Jesus as an earthly son. I guess Mary must have been a hellova good lay to mellow out God so much.
Where’s Doc’s Inn headed with this juxtaposition of Ron Howard, Dan Brown, Gary Trudeau and God? Well, here goes: Ron Howard STILL is that delightful Opie and Richie Cunningham – because he pretty much buys into that world of good and evil – with good eventually triumphing over evil. And even though we now realize that evil can come clothed in a wannabe pope – we still see the good guy victorious in-the-end – even if Professor Robert Langdon is more ecumenical and enlightened than other heroes. And while I’m glad that Gary Trudeau is examining some existentialism as well – he’s going to have to think way outside the box to impress this here writer: c’mon Gary – even “The Da Vinci Code” let’s you know that the new testament is a carefully culled and edited text – with Jesus only displaying anger only once. But careful readings let you know that Jesus advocated home protection – and therein Jesus and I have a bond – because even though I’m no longer an owner of big dogs – I do believe in home protection! So since the Son of God supports our right to bear arms (or is that bare arms) – I glad that we do live in a world that makes perfect sense, as circumscribed by Andy Griffith and Mayberry.