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Morning Briefing: The Gun-Violence Cycle, George Segal, and Cinnamon Toast Crunch

By Dustin Rowles | Politics | March 24, 2021

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Header Image Source: Getty Images

We’ve gone to this rodeo too many times before not to know exactly what will happen after yet another mass shooting. The playbook has gone into effect after a shooting left 10 dead in Colorado. The Democrats call for gun reform; the Republicans send their thoughts and prayers while accusing the Democrats of politicizing tragedy. When there is a Democratic President — as there is now — we might get a call to enact an assault weapons ban, as Joe did yesterday. Then ghouls like Senator John Kennedy in Louisianna and Ted Cruz in Texas blame everything else except the guns for the gun killings — we don’t ban sober drivers! — but then before you can even get “abolish the filibuster” out of your mouth, you have to remember that Democrat Joe Manchin of West Virginia won’t even support simple background checks. This will play out until the news media finds something else to talk about, and then a day, a week, or a month later, there will be another mass shooting and we will go through this entire vicious cycle again.

I can’t this time. Not until someone breaks the cycle. Not until one goddamn politician figures out how to change the playbook. I am sick to death of seeing the same conversations, seeing the exact same Twitter hashtags, and seeing the same people score wins on social media or cable news instead of actually putting their energy toward a solution.

I am also bummed that George Segal died. He was 87, and he had a nice, long life that anyone would be envious of (he died of complications from a bypass surgery), and I know that he’s known for his roles in a lot of dramatic movies before my time like Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, and I do vaguely remember him from Just Shoot Me, and apparently he even released three banjo albums! But honestly, and I know it was probably a throwaway, end-of-career role he took because he liked to work, but his role on The Goldbergs meant a lot to me and my family — it’s one of the few shows that does Hannukah episodes (and they’re competitive in Beverly Goldberg’s home!) and George Segal is one of the first Jewish actors to rise to the level of leading man without changing his surname. He was charismatic as hell and had that eye crinkle, y’all, that made him terrifically endearing. But mostly I just loved him as Pops, Adam Goldberg’s best friend.

The thing that has given me life over the last day, however, has been the discourse surrounding Cinnamon Toast Crunch, which began here:

Now, if you want to see how the day went for Jensen Karp, you should definitely check out his timeline, but it’s important to know that Jensen Karp is the husband of Danielle Fishel, who played Topanga on Boy Meets World (and Girl Meets World).

This story never stops being amazing.

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