What to do to occupy yourself

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OK, we’re all going to be hunkered down for a very long time, in all likelihood a very, very long while. Sorting your socks, playing Scrabble, rereading “War andPeace” and “Ladies of the Club,” as well as the collected works of Somerset Maugham, attacking all of those long-ignored chores that await you, and completing your 2020 census form can take only so long — perhaps as much as an hour and a half.

So, what will you do to occupy yourself for the remainder of this?

Ah, once again I have stepped, or tripped, into the breech, filled the void, answered the call, used myriad cliches, and generally wasted several hours … all just to bring you the answer to your prayers. So, in the best of American traditions, turn on your television, subscribe to every movie streaming source that you can find (to name but a few: Netflix, Disney +, Vudu, Amazon Prime, Hulu, HBO, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Fandango Now, Movies Anywhere, Crackle, IMDv TV, Hoopla, Kanopy, Plex, Pluto TV, Roku Channel, Tubi, and Pirate Bay — oops, that last one’s a no-no, isn’t it?).

By the way, allow me to point out that I also am assisting you to adhere to the directives of various official sources, not including Jared Kershner — no one seems to be able to figure out what he is doing, including himself.

But to return to the point — yes, I do have one, sort of — I am helping you to spend yourself into the happy situation whereby you must stay home. You will have spent yourself into poverty and now have become unable to go anywhere or buy anything. While others may risk infection by venturing outside the safe confines of their homes, you will be hunkered down in front of your television, instructing Alexa what you next wish to watch. And this solution is available to you 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Perhaps I should open a GoFundMe account to enable me to spread my good deed further and pry even more from your wallet?

Oh, well, above all, please enjoy:

Sports related movies

“The Sandlot”, 1993, Amazon

“Major League”, 1989, Amazon

“Hoosiers”, 1986, Amazon, Hulu

“He Got Game”, 1998, Amazon, Hulu

“Glory Road”, 2006, Amazon, Disney+

“Miracle”, 2004, Amazon, Disney+, Netflix

“Slap Shot”, 1977, Amazon, Hulu

“Caddyshack”, 1980, Amazon

“The Wrestler”, 2008, Amazon

“A River Runs Through It”, 1992, Amazon

“Senna”, 2010, Amazon, Hulu

“The Hustler”, 1961, Amazon, a personal favorite

“Eight Men Out”, 1988

“Damn Yankees”, 1958

“Breaking Away”, 1979

“The Longest Yard”, 1974

“Bend it like Beckham”, 2002

A few great new ones I’m

not sure where to put

“After Hours”, R, 97 minutes,1958

“The Last Black Man in San Francisco”, R, 120 minutes, 2019

“Nebraska”, R, 115 minutes, 2013, a personal favorite

Great movies with fewer

than 10 people in them

“Lifeboat”, 1944, Amazon Prime, a personal favorite

“Sleuth”, 1972

“Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf”, 1966

“Gerry”, 2002

“The Lighthouse”, 2019

“Gravity”, 2013

“All Is Lost”, 2013

Really want to kill time? Movies

more than threee hours long

“Spartacus”, 1960

“Judgement at Nuremberg”, 1961

“Lawrence of Arabia”, 1962

“Cleopatra”, 1963

“It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World”, 1963, a personal favorite

“The Godfather, Part II”, 1974

“Barry Lyndon”, 1975

“The Deer Hunter”, 1978

“Tess”, 1979

“Reds”, 1981

“Fanny and Alexander”, 1982

“The Right Stuff”, 1983

“Once Upon a Time in America”, 1984

“Schindler’s List”, 1993

“Titanic”, 1997

“Magnolia”, 1999

“The Wolf of Wall Street”, 2013

Some great ones on Netflix

“American Factory”, 2019

“American Honey”, 2016

“As Good as It Gets”

“The Ballad of Buster Scruggs”, 2018

“Crouching Tiger, Hidden Tiger”

“The Dark Knight”

“Dolemite Is My Name”

“Donnie Brasco”

“Drive”

“Gerald’s Game”

“Good Fellas”

“Groundhog Day”

“Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner?”

“Howards End”

“Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark”

“Inglourious Basterds”

“The Irishman”

“Jerry Maguire”

“The Master”

“Miracle”

“Monty Python and the Holy Grail”

“Moon”

“Mystic River”

“Once Upon a Time in the West”

“The Other Side of the Wind”

“The Pianist”

“Raging Bull”

“Rosemary’s Baby”

“A Serious Man”

“The Shawshank Redemption”, a personal favorite

“Sin City”

“The Talented Mr. Ripley”

“There Will be Blood”

“Tootsie”

“Tremors”

“The Witch”

“Zodiac”

And now for the TV series…

“Cheers,” Netflix, Hulu, CBS All Access

“Pushing Daisies”, CW Seed, Amazon

“The Wonder Years”, Hulu

“The League”, Hulu

“The Golden Girls”, Hulu

“The Sopranos”, HBO, Amazon Prime

“The OA”, Netflix

“The Mary Tyler Moor Show”, Hulu

“The Bob Newhart Show”, Hulu, a personal favorite, both series

“The Simpsons”, Disney+

“Frasier”, Hulu, CBS All Access

“Supernatural”, Netflix

“Apple & Onion”, Hulu, Cartoon Network

“SNL”, Hulu, NBC

Christopher S. Duckworth has family ties to Hillsboro and Greenfield. He spent three decades at the Ohio Historical Society, where he was founding editor of Timeline magazine, followed by another 10 years at the Columbus Museum of Art. Today, he owns his own publishing company, Brevoort Press LLC.

Christopher Duckworth Guest columnist
https://www.timesgazette.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/33/2020/03/web1_Duckworth-Chris-mug.jpgChristopher Duckworth Guest columnist

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