Dear Dean Magazine Issue 4
Dear Dean Magazine - ISSUE 4 - by Myron J. Clifton. www.deardeanpublishing.com/subscribe
Dear Dean Magazine - ISSUE 4 - by Myron J. Clifton. www.deardeanpublishing.com/subscribe
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DEAR DEAN<br />
M A G A Z I N E<br />
J U S T I C E<br />
KETANJI BROWN<br />
JACKSON<br />
V O L . 4 | A P R . 2 2 , 2 0 2 2<br />
F E A T U R E D B L O G<br />
" M O V I N G O U T "<br />
G U E S T S P O T L I G H T<br />
E U G E N E L E V I N S O N O N T H E<br />
U K R A I N I A N / R U S S I A N C O N F L I C T<br />
P O D C C A S T : V O I C E M E M O S<br />
M Y R O N ' S H I T<br />
O R M I S S L I S T<br />
L O V E I T O R H A T E I T<br />
M O V I E R E V I E W<br />
M Y F A V O R I T E T H I N G S S T R E A M I N G
CONTENT<br />
JUSTICE KETANJI BROWN<br />
JACKSON, CONFIRMED!<br />
(Includes a FUN themed word game!)<br />
DEAR DEAN FEATURED BLOG<br />
"Moving Out" by Myron J. Clifton<br />
GUEST SPOTLIGHT<br />
"Ukrainian / Russian Conflict"<br />
by Eugene Levinson<br />
MYRON'S HIT OR MISS LIST<br />
MORE GOODIES<br />
Movie / TV Reviews, new podcast "Voice<br />
Memos", Myron's bookshop & more!<br />
DEAR DEAN MAGAZINE | p.2
HELLO FROM MYRON<br />
Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson has a nice ring to it. A nice equality ring. An overdue ring<br />
that finally sounded, echoing from centuries past, reverberating through reconstruction, segregation,<br />
Dred Scot, Brown vs. Board, Civil Rights, and every Constitutional Amendment.<br />
Though her swearing in will not come until June or July, history was made on April 7th, 2022. It was a<br />
long time coming, and it was right on time. President Biden promised to nominate a Black woman to<br />
the Supreme Court, and he delivered.<br />
The war “against” the Ukrainian people rages on as the Russian Military carries out war crimes and<br />
terrorism on a scale folk imagined but maybe didn’t want to believe would actually happen. Read an<br />
essay from a Eugene L., a Russian-American.<br />
You want podcasts to spring into Spring and Summer? I’ve got podcast hosts who will tell you why you<br />
should listen to their podcast. Hear from various members of The Joyful Warrior Podcast Network –<br />
JWPN – and learn why the group is looking to set the podcast world on fire with their unique approach<br />
to podcasting.<br />
It may be 2022, but Period Piece viewing is again all the rage with Bridgerton S2 bringing back the heat,<br />
The Gilded Age pushing boundaries, and a little-known fan favorite, Austenland, still generating laughs<br />
and surprises.<br />
Check out What I Am Streaming. Superheroes with mental health issues? Yes, and yes. As long as how it<br />
is talked about and handled is done with appropriate seriousness and is not exploitative. Check out our<br />
review of Moon Night.<br />
Privileged wealthy people starting crappy businesses that destroy lives is an entire genre now and<br />
we’ve got a look at some of the best “worst” businesspeople who should be locked up and scorned.<br />
Finally, check out the Blog of the Month in which I share my experiences working in the Senior Living<br />
industry. Happy Spring!
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DEAR DEAN MAGAZINE | p.4
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DEAR DEAN MAGAZINE | p.5
J U S T I C E<br />
KETANJI BROWN<br />
JACKSON
Follow Myron on Twitter!<br />
TOTM<br />
Watching white senators lob inappropriate and<br />
insulting questions at Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson<br />
during her confirmation hearings.<br />
Never forget that when white men wanted wet nurses,<br />
Nannie’s, free labor, sex, rape, housekeepers, children<br />
to work the fields, confidantes, mistresses, and<br />
therapists since 1619 they used Black women.<br />
Ever since Black woman got free, they’ve targeted<br />
Black woman more than anyone else for revenge. We<br />
too often focus on white men vs Black men as a study<br />
in all things American.<br />
But I’ve always believed America’s issues are in the<br />
diametrically opposed Black women and white men.<br />
Race, gender, class, and the obvious- colorism that has<br />
its roots in white men raping Black women<br />
The fight against supremacy, racism, enslavement, is<br />
best told through the lens of freeing an entire race’s<br />
gender from bondage and the subsequent codification<br />
of what the partially freed were allowed to do.<br />
The “Ain’t I a woman” age which, truth be told, Black<br />
women still reside as they fight for recognition of their<br />
humanity.<br />
The violence against Black men, while comprehensive,<br />
is, one may argue, not as extensive as that perpetrated<br />
against Black women.<br />
BW birthed two nations Black & mixed & raised a<br />
third -white. And for that, we don’t even honor them<br />
as, what a few of my book’s call - Founding Mothers<br />
DEAR DEAN MAGAZINE | p.7
Follow Myron on Twitter!<br />
TOTM<br />
We can’t even get one Black woman on a coin or as<br />
Governor. None currently in Senate.<br />
And though we have a Black woman as Vice President<br />
and though she beloved globally and by *most of her<br />
party, she is absolutely hated by near everyone else.<br />
The same folk who hated Michelle and now hate<br />
Ketanji. There’s a theme.<br />
I have written that America will not advance until white<br />
men accept Black women as equals. Not Black men,<br />
Black women.<br />
Seeing republicans loudly proclaiming Kentanji Brown<br />
Jackson qualified but refusing to vote for her is a<br />
continuation of enslavement thinking she’s good<br />
enough to raise my children, tend my wife and be my<br />
“sexual” equal, but she’s not human or worthy of<br />
citizenship or any iota of respect.<br />
It’s obvious, isn’t it?<br />
The “threat” imagined is the threat of equality and<br />
equity by the very race and gender they’ve spent 400<br />
years convincing themselves and the world are<br />
neither.<br />
In 2022 we’ve barely started speaking the most<br />
fundamental requests: listen to Black women, protect<br />
Black women, and more than anyone, white men are<br />
apoplectic at that.<br />
But let’s be clear- so are white women and so are,<br />
surprising not a single Black woman, Black men. As has<br />
been said.… “Cis Black men are the white people of<br />
Black people”.. we are most of the problem in our<br />
community. Not our lgbqti+ family, not Black women,<br />
not mixed Black folk.<br />
It is straight Black males who too often just want to<br />
take the place of white men in subjugation of Black<br />
women.<br />
DEAR DEAN MAGAZINE | p.8
Follow Myron on Twitter!<br />
TOTM<br />
White men will feed that and use it to deny us all<br />
agency and true freedom but too many cis Black men<br />
do not care as long as ascendancy is promised. So<br />
whether Oprah is blamed for Oz or Phil, or Jada for<br />
will, or Ciara for choosing a loving man, or even if Kim<br />
is blamed for Kanye or your Black woman co-worker is<br />
blamed for not being a “team player” for going<br />
drinking with all white teammates; when we need a<br />
Crown Act so Black women can comfortably exist,<br />
sorta, in white spaces, when we know we pay Black<br />
women (and Latino women) significantly less than<br />
white men, then America will keep on keeping on.<br />
Ketanji Brown Jackson will be the Supreme Court. Vice<br />
President Kamala Devi Harris will continue doing<br />
outstanding work, and that Black woman, mother,<br />
single, regular old round the way Black girl will continue<br />
being the foundation of a nation too afraid to see and<br />
acknowledge what is holding it up.<br />
Follow Myron on Twitter!<br />
DEAR DEAN MAGAZINE | p.9
Follow Myron on Twitter!<br />
Enjoy!<br />
Click here to PRINT<br />
Click here to PLAY ONLINE<br />
Click here to see PDF with Answer Key<br />
Follow Myron on Twitter!<br />
DEAR DEAN MAGAZINE | p.10
M O V I N G<br />
D E A R D E A N<br />
FEATURED<br />
BLOG<br />
OUT<br />
B Y M Y R O N J . C L I F T O N
M Y R O N J . C L I F T O N<br />
"Moving Out"<br />
As Director of Marketing at a high end senior living<br />
community, I helped many seniors and their families<br />
navigate the detailed and complex requirements<br />
demanded by industry and state regulators.<br />
The labyrinth of forms, medical requirements, calls,<br />
emails, text messages, tours, lunches, re-tours, and<br />
many phone calls at all hours of the day, night, and<br />
holidays from desperate family members looking for<br />
a nurturing and caring guide to help them place their<br />
parent or loved one in a safe, friendly, warm<br />
environment were never ending but always<br />
welcomed.<br />
Meeting a family for the first time was a thrill and a<br />
new puzzle to unravel, a new kaleidoscope in which<br />
to find a pattern, a new equation to solve. There is a<br />
certain thrill in meeting a skeptical family for the first<br />
time and hearing them discuss their needs, and their<br />
parent’s needs—I had to listen for both because we<br />
are not only trying to satisfy seniors, but also their<br />
adult children who are incredibly demanding<br />
advocates for their loved one.<br />
As they should be.<br />
Diane wanted to move her dad from Washington to<br />
California. He and her mom had retired in Washington<br />
State following his career as a professional hockey<br />
player. After her mom’s death, Diane wanted her dad<br />
closer to her. His memory was failing, he was diagnosed<br />
with dementia and was all alone far away from her and<br />
the remainder of his family.<br />
add on dementia, airports, covid restrictions, and<br />
masking requirements, and you can imagine all the<br />
confusion and stress she and her dad experienced.<br />
But Diane did it, and we welcomed her dad, Dave, to the<br />
community one Saturday afternoon. We’d decorated his<br />
room with his favorite hockey memorabilia and family<br />
pictures, put his favorite treats and snacks on his counters,<br />
placed his wife’s favorite flowers at his table in the dining<br />
area, and played his favorite movie that night. All of the<br />
welcome amenities were a surprise to Diane—it is how we<br />
did things, because we are welcoming Diane in as much as<br />
we were welcoming in Dave.<br />
Dave was an easy resident to care for. He was a large,<br />
strapping man, but long past his hockey-playing days. His<br />
hockey career had taken a toll on his brain and his legs and<br />
knees, so that he could no longer stand or walk. He spent<br />
all day in a wheelchair, needed help transferring from bed<br />
to chair, toilet, shower chair, and needed help dressing and<br />
undressing. He only took a few medications, mostly for<br />
sleep assistance, and the caregivers liked spending time<br />
with him. He was only sixty-four but as an avid hockey<br />
player since childhood, his brain endured… a lot. I cannot<br />
say that his dementia was caused by repeated head blows<br />
for thirty years but I have strong suspicions. On most days<br />
the large quiet man with the soft voice would say hello to<br />
me. Though he didn’t know the names of most of the staff,<br />
he had remembered mine.<br />
We spent three months together working through the<br />
move-in process. Moving a senior is always hard, then<br />
DEAR DEAN MAGAZINE | p.12
M Y R O N J . C L I F T O N<br />
The staff noticed that every day around four o’clock<br />
Dave would wheel himself to a wall and stop and<br />
stare. He would sit there for fifteen to thirty<br />
minutes, every day without fail. He wouldn’t talk or<br />
show much emotion. He would just sit and stare at<br />
the blank wall. One day as I walked the community<br />
and saw Dave in his usual late afternoon position in<br />
front of a blank wall, I walked over to him. I stood<br />
quiet a moment beside him but within his view to see<br />
if he would notice and say something. We were both<br />
still for a few more minutes before I quietly asked:<br />
“What do you see?” A moment passed before Dave’s<br />
soft voice replied, “My wife, Mary.”<br />
I stayed with him until he decided to turn and wheel<br />
away.<br />
Later that afternoon I called his daughter and told<br />
her the story. I could hear her voice shaking as she<br />
said, “My mom used to take the ferry to work and<br />
every day my dad would drive to the ferry and wait<br />
for her.” She had passed seven years earlier, and it<br />
had been maybe twenty since he had last picked her<br />
up from the ferry.<br />
Diane was comforted by the story, and I was<br />
reminded that diseases of the mind do not erase all<br />
the joy.<br />
How did I get here?<br />
I worked in the senior industry for seven years, after<br />
spending thirty-four years in corporate America. As a<br />
high-school dropout, to get my first job I lied about my<br />
age and was hired by a major communication company as<br />
a customer service agent in a call center. I was only 17 but<br />
fully ready to be an adult and pay my way at home with<br />
my mom.<br />
In 1984, I was twenty and my mom passed away, and I<br />
quit the job that was paying me $25,000. It was the first<br />
of many times I walked away from a job because I needed<br />
to care for my mental health.<br />
But twenty years later, my successful corporate career<br />
had me traveling 70,000 miles per quarter, attending<br />
meetings and sales conferences, visiting all my assigned<br />
territory locations, and going to company events all over<br />
the Americas.<br />
When my daughter was born in 2005, I took a year off.<br />
After, I resumed my hectic travel and work pace, until<br />
early one morning in 2009, as I tried to sneak out without<br />
waking my four-year-old, she woke up and said<br />
pleadingly: “Daddy, please don’t go.“<br />
And in a child’s act of desperation, she untied my tie,<br />
thinking without my tie I would not leave.<br />
I was crushed, but I left.<br />
Two weeks later I quit the highest paying job I ever had so<br />
I could spend time with my daughter.<br />
After trying different jobs that allowed me time to be<br />
home and not travel, I discovered the senior care<br />
industry. It fit my needs and skills, and I fit what the<br />
industry wanted: Senior management experience, sales<br />
DEAR DEAN MAGAZINE | p.13
M Y R O N J . C L I F T O N<br />
experience and, refreshingly, after being interviewed by<br />
very young managers in different industries, age, as I<br />
was now fifty.<br />
This is an industry that values older workers. When<br />
talking with the adult children of seniors, it helps to be<br />
able to identify with people who have aging parents, are<br />
selling homes, dealing with medical issues, insurance<br />
coverage, and other “grown-up” matters that younger<br />
people may not possess early in their careers.<br />
It’s an interesting industry demographically: Most of the<br />
residents are white women, because women live longer,<br />
and white women tend to have funds and resources<br />
from their deceased husbands and extended family.<br />
Most of the care workers are also women, with a<br />
significant portion being women of color. Most of the<br />
management is white.<br />
Price drives expectations<br />
The senior industry is a growing industry and, more<br />
specifically, the luxury private senior community<br />
industry is a growing industry. We have all read the<br />
stories about the tens of millions of boomers who are<br />
retiring and dying, facilitating the largest transfer of<br />
wealth in history. That transfer of wealth is what is<br />
driving the senior living industry as private companies<br />
vie for their portion of that wealth.<br />
see these things when they visit communities. Add in<br />
grand entrance ways, modern designs and furniture<br />
and appliances, physical and occupational therapy,<br />
and 24 hour concierge—senior communities aren’t<br />
the warehouse-style nursing homes from the past.<br />
Luxury and well-appointed apartments cost between<br />
$4k – $7k per month, with higher-end ones in<br />
exclusive cities going as high as $12k per month!<br />
When you add in the cost of care—some communities<br />
bundle the costs while others itemize—families can<br />
expect to pay an additional $500 to $6k per month.<br />
Most residents have retirement, long-term care<br />
insurance, the proceeds from the sale of a home, a<br />
savings account, and some receive assistance from<br />
their adult children.<br />
Pricing drives the expectations and the better<br />
communities deliver service commensurate with the<br />
prices.<br />
But many communities fall short, and the reason<br />
primarily is a shortage of staff.<br />
Senior communities offering large luxury apartments,<br />
fine dining, transportation to/from doctor’s<br />
appointments, guided outings, and even individual town<br />
car services are standard now. Many add in multiple<br />
highly skilled chefs, all-day dining, in-house cafes’, full<br />
sized gyms and yoga studios, swimming pools,<br />
gardening areas, pet care, full service salons, daily live<br />
entertainment, movie theaters, chapels and libraries,<br />
which are all popular. Some family members expect to<br />
DEAR DEAN MAGAZINE | p.14
M Y R O N J . C L I F T O N<br />
Covid exacerbated the already difficult task of finding<br />
people to become dining and housekeeping employees.<br />
But nothing is worse post-covid than the daily struggle<br />
communities have to hire and retain caregivers. No<br />
matter what any community tells you during an open<br />
house or an interviewing process, the truth is they are<br />
all struggling now with caregiver staffing levels and the<br />
effect that has on morale, timely resident care, and<br />
overall stress levels of the entire community.<br />
Carol hated her large studio apartment and frequently<br />
complained that she wanted to move into a first floor<br />
1-bedroom apartment. She was fairly independent but<br />
she was frequently angry at everyone for everything,<br />
large and small. I encountered her one balmy Saturday<br />
afternoon when I passed her in the hall and she turned<br />
to me yelling “You! You are renting all the 1-bedroom<br />
apartments and I want the one that is empty!”<br />
I knew the apartment she spoke about and though it<br />
was unoccupied, it was not a 1-bedroom. She wouldn’t<br />
hear me though, and through a stream of profanity and<br />
yelling, insisted I show her the apartment right then so<br />
she could prove me wrong.<br />
Quietly answering, “Okay,” I walked with her to the<br />
apartment which was in a different hallway. For the<br />
entire walk, Carol screamed, cursed, and blamed me<br />
for ignoring her requests for years about moving to a<br />
larger apartment.<br />
At this point I had only known Carol for a few months.<br />
We reached the apartment, I unlocked the room and, as<br />
she pushed past me, I stood still as she walked into the<br />
room, her anger still covering her face and body.<br />
Standing in the living room and turning her head to me she<br />
yelled “Get in here!” with so much anger and expectation of<br />
immediate compliance.<br />
I quietly responded, “Please do not talk to me that way.”<br />
Carol’s face registered so much anger but instead of<br />
saying more to me, it was that moment that she<br />
recognized that she was in fact standing in another<br />
studio like the one she was living in, and not a 1-<br />
bedroom apartment like she had insisted the apartment<br />
was.<br />
I remained quiet, preferring to allow her to process the<br />
moment on her own instead of stating the obvious<br />
which surely were not needed in that moment. Carol<br />
looked to me again and stated, this time with a much<br />
softer yet defeated voice: “Put me on the list for a<br />
downstairs 1-bedroom apartment.” She then brushed<br />
past me and stormed off to her apartment where she<br />
opened then slammed the door so hard, I thought<br />
perhaps she had broken the door.<br />
It was a month after Carol had slammed the door when a<br />
1-bedroom apartment became available (this is how we<br />
soften the language to make what we do more palatable<br />
– someone died.)<br />
In the weeks since Carol had screamed and cursed out<br />
me, every time I saw her, I smiled and waved. It was<br />
authentic since I made a habit of saying hello to seniors,<br />
especially those who I had helped move in. At first Carol<br />
did not wave back or return my “Good morning” with<br />
her own. On this day I decided to look for Carol and<br />
show her the apartment. Hearing that she was in the<br />
DEAR DEAN MAGAZINE | p. 15
M Y R O N J . C L I F T O N<br />
theatre playing in the Wii bowling tournament, I<br />
whispered for her attention.<br />
I let her know the apartment was available and though<br />
it needed work, I wanted to give her first chance to<br />
claim it before it went back on the market.<br />
Carol was quiet and then I noticed a tear. She<br />
whispered “Thank you. My husband won’t pay for it but<br />
I appreciate you telling me.”<br />
I told her I would always let her know first when there<br />
was an open apartment.<br />
She went back to playing Wii.<br />
Covid raised already high stress levels<br />
Families rightly expect to get the care and services<br />
they are paying for, and at times, they are unforgiving<br />
regarding the effect covid has had on caregiving staff.<br />
Most families understand, but there are those who<br />
refuse to accept that this industry isn’t immune from<br />
society’s issues, that it is licensed by the state, and that<br />
it is a for-profit business.<br />
Even as companies sent their workers home or set<br />
them up from home offices, caregivers at senior<br />
facilities were expected to continue providing care<br />
even while they were exposed to the deadly virus all<br />
day every day. Families of residents were working from<br />
home and forbidden from visiting family members<br />
during the worst of the pandemic, and it was terrible…<br />
but workers were expected to be at work.<br />
Despite all the “Heroes work here” signs plastered<br />
outside the communities, Americans didn’t actually<br />
treat caregivers as heroes. It feels like they treated my<br />
co-workers as a prop, a fad—sending a brief moment of<br />
thank you with small increases in pay that are supposed<br />
to mitigate the risk of sickness and death for hourly<br />
workers who made so much of the country function for<br />
middle and upper class people.<br />
The appreciation faded quickly, and the extra pay ended<br />
as states re-opened by ending mask mandates for most<br />
of society except senior living. Annual increases for<br />
hourly workers this year range from .15 – .25 per hour,<br />
not enough to make up for losing the pandemic pay that<br />
ended even though the pandemic hasn’t gone away and<br />
certainly the effects of the pandemic haven’t subsided.<br />
The demand to return to work was meaningless to<br />
people who never had the chance to work from home in<br />
the first place.<br />
The imbalance caused the expected stresses as family<br />
members were not required to wear masks in public, but<br />
still required to wear a mask inside our communities as<br />
we are licensed by the state and the states say masks<br />
are required.<br />
All the videos we’ve seen of Americans losing their shit<br />
in Walmart and Target, at train stations and airports, in<br />
restaurants and at bars… also played out at senior<br />
communities with outbursts by family members tired of<br />
us requiring them to check in with proof of vaccination,<br />
a temperature check, and reminders to wear their<br />
masks.<br />
DEAR DEAN MAGAZINE | p. 16
M Y R O N J . C L I F T O N<br />
While most families complied without incident, there<br />
were far too many ugly instances of middle aged mostly<br />
white people yelling at younger mostly women of color<br />
who were doing the jobs required of them by their<br />
middle aged white bosses.<br />
To be a POC and caught in the middle of a class, control,<br />
and health war between white people is not a fun place<br />
to be.<br />
Our staff has spent an inordinate amount of time gently<br />
reminding visitors to wear a mask, stop to sign in to<br />
have their temperature taken, and to show proof of<br />
vaccination, only to be met with anger and derision<br />
snide remarks and ugly looks, before they determine<br />
their desire to see a loved one is more important than<br />
taking a useless stand.<br />
As the only member of the executive team not a woman,<br />
and as a taller and larger Black male, my role evolved to<br />
also provide a type of “security” and reinforcement to<br />
obey the rules or leave. Forty-one years of working my<br />
way up and now I’ve added security to my resume<br />
because Americans cannot be counted on to be decent<br />
people.<br />
Move outs and move ins<br />
uncertainty. Those people in my role who knew to<br />
empathize and understand what families were<br />
experiencing tended to be most successful.<br />
Finding seniors can be a challenge, even without<br />
covid. On average I received forty leads each month.<br />
They come from national placement agents from<br />
companies such as A Place for Mom and Caring.com,<br />
local placement agents, skilled nursing facilities, our<br />
own website, and neighbors who know who we are<br />
and where we are. I maintained four to five-hundred<br />
leads in my database and through phone calls, emails,<br />
and text messages, I hosted three to five tours/retours<br />
a week. By month’s end on average five families<br />
moved in.<br />
Seniors can be afraid to move and may have<br />
apprehensions based on how the older versions of<br />
the senior industry used to look. Warehousing<br />
seniors in large buildings, everyone in a chair or<br />
wheelchair, lined against a wall while a television<br />
blasts daytime reruns. Food worse than school food,<br />
and inattentive and overwhelmed helpers.<br />
As I’ve already pointed out, today’s senior<br />
communities are as far from those images as we are<br />
from horse and wagon.<br />
As a Director of Sales, I have sales goals imposed on me,<br />
Covid was devastating to the industry and to folk like<br />
and for most of my time in this industry I’ve been<br />
me. The national deaths hit the industry hard, and<br />
expected to move in three residents per month.<br />
whatever number you have read, it’s lower than<br />
Attrition is generally two residents per month, so<br />
reality. We have seen residents get covid, “recover”<br />
getting three assures growth, and increasing the census<br />
and then pass away a few days or weeks after. Those<br />
and revenue is the goal of any for-profit industry.<br />
deaths are not counted as covid-related though they<br />
should be. We have seen thriving healthy seniors<br />
I have averaged four move-ins per month, and this past<br />
contract covid, and after recovering they are never<br />
year averaged close to five. I don’t include those results<br />
the same and pass away quietly. And when they have<br />
to brag but to show that there was an environment of<br />
passed away, they have “moved out.”<br />
growth even with covid, lockdowns, and societal<br />
DEAR DEAN MAGAZINE | p.17
M Y R O N J . C L I F T O N<br />
Over the past six months, fifty-three percent of the<br />
move-outs in my community were due to seniors dying.<br />
Most of the remaining move-outs were due to seniors<br />
needing a higher level of care than what we could<br />
provide. Six move-outs per month for a sustained<br />
period shocked the local employees. To uppermanagement<br />
it was only seen as our failure to move in<br />
enough people to account for the move outs. (“Moveouts”<br />
most often mean “death” but not saying so<br />
softens the emotional impact. It turns humans into<br />
numbers and euphemisms. Aside from death, reasons<br />
for resident attrition include the need for a higher level<br />
of care, moving home with family, and moving to a<br />
competitor community.)<br />
It was, basically, business as usual. With my experience I<br />
was not surprised, though I wanted acknowledgment of<br />
the difficulty of the environment and most of all, the<br />
emotional and mental stress of having witnessed so<br />
many deaths.<br />
Exposing glaring gaps<br />
But private companies have growth and revenue For an industry that promotes its humanity, the internal<br />
targets to hit and, covid be damned, they will drive response to overwhelming death has been sorely<br />
performance and hold employees accountable to those lacking.<br />
stretch goals all private for-profit companies push.<br />
To be staff or administrators at the ground level, work<br />
My local executive and I were called to meet with with families for months to get them to move in, get to<br />
executives to strategize about how to increase sales to know the senior for months and years only to see that<br />
counter the high number of move-outs. My role was to senior pass away, and then receive no recognition of the<br />
bring residents in; the executive director, chef, emotional toll we face, exposes a glaring gap in the<br />
concierge, nurse, facilities, activities, fitness, and industry. Staff are expected to go about their day and do<br />
staffing leaders are expected to provide the level of the job, suppress their grief at losing a senior who<br />
care and service the company promises so residents shared personal stories, who cried at being left alone<br />
don’t leave. The directive we were given when faced away from extended family, who expressed humor,<br />
with all of these “move-outs”? Sell more, bring in more anger, sadness, and grief to housekeepers, wait staff,<br />
residents, do more home visits, call more, text more, and other employees.<br />
tour more, get more revenue.<br />
The day they die we are told to move on, get the<br />
At the meeting, an executive, having recognized the apartment emptied and prepared for showing. Clean it,<br />
above facts seemingly for the first time, casually and in paint it, refresh it, and get a new resident in it.<br />
that unique American businessperson response, said:<br />
“Well, you just have to move in seven people per Feeling sad and depressed at losing that lovely greatgrandmother<br />
month then.”<br />
you’ve been caring for the past few years?<br />
Grieve on your own time, don’t be late from your break,<br />
Responding instinctively and from the heart I said and get back to your job.<br />
quietly: “I can’t outsell death.”<br />
DEAR DEAN MAGAZINE | p. 18
M Y R O N J . C L I F T O N<br />
Our community has a chapel that is used by local clergy<br />
for services, prayer, and visits with residents and their<br />
family. The chapel is open to all religious leaders. Our<br />
community receives daily visits from hospice company<br />
reps who find clients in our communities/industry. The<br />
visits are usually short with coffee, fruits, and gifts part<br />
of the tactic the reps use to gain favor with the<br />
community leaders so we will think of their hospice<br />
company when one of our seniors become candidates.<br />
Despite consistent visits from five or more hospice<br />
companies and multiple local clergy, there are no grief<br />
provisions provided to employees to help them<br />
process the grief many experience when they see the<br />
seniors they care for die.<br />
Care has become more difficult through covid; seniors<br />
rebelled against social distancing, lockdowns, and<br />
limited visits from families, and finding and keeping<br />
workers also became more difficult. These and other<br />
factors made meeting company growth goals more<br />
difficult as families kept seniors away from assisted<br />
living and memory care facilities believing they were<br />
safer at home.<br />
And the families of younger employees began asking<br />
them to stop working for senior communities for fear<br />
they would contract covid and bring it home to their<br />
own loved ones.<br />
Acknowledging losses<br />
In trying to recover growth and revenues from two<br />
years of covid, many communities raised rates, following<br />
the script of other industries.<br />
Higher rates pull along higher service expectations by<br />
families, so any issue, not matter how small, is reacted to<br />
with the type of complaining intensity usually reserved<br />
for only the most egregious issues. Families overly<br />
stressed by society’s covid response—whatever their<br />
beliefs- take it out on hourly workers who have no<br />
control over the rules, regulations, or local<br />
requirements.<br />
t took nine months for Alice to finally move in. She lived<br />
independently in a home in a gated community for<br />
seniors. She was a widow, having lost her husband, a<br />
former highway patrol officer, of forty years to suicide<br />
after he found out he had inoperable cancer. She found<br />
him in their bathroom.<br />
Both her adult children had passed as well. She and her<br />
husband had a business that she worked on selling<br />
before she sold her home and moved with us. She and I<br />
talked every couple of weeks before it was finally time<br />
for her to move. She was a self-described “mean old<br />
broad” and she really was. Originally from New York,<br />
she had zero patience and could still curse like a sailor,<br />
she would say.<br />
When it was time to move, she asked me to work with<br />
her moving company, and when they were late to her<br />
home, she asked that I come help. Something the almost<br />
all white executive team does not understand, is what a<br />
request like this means from the viewpoint of a Black<br />
person. I made it a point to not go to senior’s homes<br />
even though it was a requirement of my job to do so. I<br />
never felt safe to be in a senior’s home alone due to the<br />
opportunity to be accused, to scare, to have police called<br />
by nosey neighbors, and other reasons.<br />
DEAR DEAN MAGAZINE | p. 19
M Y R O N J . C L I F T O N<br />
But with Alice I felt safe because she and I had spoken<br />
for months but mostly because I knew the moving<br />
company would be there at the same time.<br />
I arrived and she immediately put me to work as a type<br />
of project manager overseeing the moving company.<br />
We got it done and she moved in to a large 2-bedroom<br />
apartment.<br />
After couple of weeks, I visited Alice to see how she<br />
was doing. I had gotten wind that she was “mean” to<br />
the staff. I knew she could be tough, so I wanted to see<br />
for myself how things were going.<br />
Entering her apartment, I could see plates of uneaten food<br />
litter her kitchen and seating areas.<br />
“I see you are enjoying the food.” I said hoping a little<br />
humor would soften what I knew would be a profanity<br />
filled response.<br />
Alice’s profanity lit of my ears and her apartment. After a<br />
while I asked, sarcastically: “Have you used up your<br />
monthly quota of curse words, old lady?”<br />
Alice laughed and I sat with her for an hour listening to her<br />
complain about everything and anything, but mostly the<br />
food and how it was always cold when delivered to her<br />
apartment which was, per her request, the furthest from<br />
the restaurant.<br />
“Why don’t you go to the restaurant, I am certain it will be<br />
hot when delivered to your table?”<br />
“Because I don’t want to sit with old people who sit in<br />
wheelchairs and who have oxygen tanks!”<br />
Mind you, Alice was in a wheelchair and used an oxygen<br />
tank.<br />
“Okay, look, am going to take you to lunch next<br />
Saturday, okay? I’ll come pick you up at noon so be<br />
ready.”<br />
“Well, okay, then, it’s a date. Don’t be late.” She laughed<br />
as I left her apartment.<br />
I knew Alice was lonely and hadn’t taken the time to<br />
leave her apartment since moving in.<br />
I showed up the following Saturday and Alice was ready to<br />
go. Her hair was done, she was dressed and I even saw that<br />
she had make-up on.<br />
“Come on, mean old broad, let’s go eat.” I said as I pushed<br />
her and her oxygen tank out of the apartment and into the<br />
first of three long hallways leading to the restaurant.<br />
I had prepared the restaurant staff for our visit so they<br />
greeted us upon arrival and sat us at the center table where I<br />
knew she would be able to see everything.<br />
Alice was the picture of manners, as seniors greeted her as<br />
they went to their seats, the wait staff fawned over her<br />
telling her they had been waiting to meet her.<br />
Watching and listening to Alice get to meet other seniors,<br />
pleasantly talk about. the food, the scenery, weather, and<br />
other small-talk, was wonderful. As we ate she talked of the<br />
meal that she was enjoying, the desserts – she had two, and<br />
how lovely everyone was to her.<br />
DEAR DEAN MAGAZINE | p. 20
M Y R O N J . C L I F T O N<br />
After lunch I took her back to her apartment and<br />
thanked her for letting me dine with her. She<br />
expressed her gratitude and asked if we could go<br />
“Once a month.”<br />
“Of course, I’ve love to, I replied truthfully.”<br />
When I returned to work the following Tuesday, I was<br />
told Alice had passed. She had started feeling bad<br />
Sunday, went to the hospital Monday morning, and by<br />
Monday evening, had passed. We didn’t know it at the<br />
time, but she had passed from Covid.<br />
A few days later her lone relative—her husband’s nephew<br />
from Mississippi—came to collect her things. I introduced<br />
myself and he replied “Myron. I am happy to meet you. My<br />
aunt talked about you and said “Myron is so nice.”<br />
We had a good laugh about his aunt, the “tough old broad”<br />
and before I left, he handed me a wooden chest that was<br />
the size of a large breadbox. He said his aunt had left a<br />
note to give it to me. He wasn’t certain where she had got<br />
the wooden chest or how long she had it, but he wanted to<br />
honor her wishes.<br />
I waited until I was alone to read the note. It was written in<br />
cursive of the type older people were taught in school,<br />
flowing curving dramatic lines that added meaning to<br />
whatever words they were conveying:<br />
To Myron — From a tough old broad<br />
That was all it said. I like to think she was laughing a<br />
devious laugh when she wrote it.<br />
I keep the wooden chest next to my bookcase.<br />
Yes, it’s personal<br />
I lost my oldest brother last year in June. He died after<br />
being run over by a very large truck at a gas station. He<br />
was crushed and the driver drove away but was<br />
captured and charged with three felonies. I took the<br />
company benefit of three work days off to attend his<br />
funeral, be with family, and grieve. Then I was back at<br />
work.<br />
My oldest sibling had passed and I was concerned about<br />
the census in my community and achieving growth and<br />
revenue targets. My brother’s death was a reason our<br />
younger sister fell out of sobriety and dove headfirst<br />
back into all her addictions. My other brother and I<br />
navigated lawsuits, our sister’s addiction issues, and our<br />
own families as we tried to manage our brother’s affairs.<br />
I needed time to grieve, to process, to understand.<br />
But I worked in an industry where death creates<br />
opportunities for more outreach, more marketing, more<br />
leads, more phone calls, more tours, and more move-ins.<br />
The abundance of death brought the abundance of<br />
growth expectations, brought more energetic zoom<br />
meetings, more weekly reports and all the standard<br />
corporate actions and activities that are excruciatingly<br />
necessary toward keeping American business running;<br />
to fully re-opening society; getting kids back to school,<br />
and getting growth and revenue accelerating again.<br />
DEAR DEAN MAGAZINE | p. 21
M Y R O N J . C L I F T O N<br />
These are seen as noble and mostly noncontroversial<br />
endeavors accepted in the world’s leading capitalist<br />
society whose economy drives a significant percentage<br />
of the world’s economy, both directly and indirectly.<br />
The executives in charge of the place I work are<br />
wonderful leaders full of compassion, empathy, genuine<br />
concern for leadership staff, who try to make a<br />
difference in the lives of our residents and families. And<br />
as in many companies, there is a disconnect between<br />
the people on the ground working and those in the lofty<br />
offices where company decisions are made in<br />
consultation with financial backers beholden to Wall<br />
Street.<br />
Janet’s family was exhausted from caring for her, they<br />
said. After her husband passed she had moved in with<br />
her eldest daughter, Vivian, who, after a few weeks,<br />
realized she could not fully care for her mom. Janet was<br />
too much and needed more care than they could<br />
provide. Then, Janet had fallen and was now in skilled<br />
nursing due to be discharged in a few days. With covid<br />
running rampant, skilled nursing could not keep noncovid<br />
related patients for extended visits. Working with<br />
Vivian and skilled nursing, we worked furiously to<br />
expedite moving Janet to our community by the time<br />
she was due to be discharged.<br />
are their daughters, daughters-in-law, granddaughters,<br />
sisters, nieces, ex-wives, before they are their sons,<br />
grandsons, nephews. I tell friends and family to be kind<br />
to the women in their lives, because it will be one of<br />
them who will see to you as a senior and to the end of<br />
your life.<br />
I looked and saw that over the course of just a few days,<br />
Vivian and I had called one another forty-two times,<br />
texted eighteen, and traded thirty emails from the first<br />
time I called her to the text she sent saying she was on<br />
her way with her mom—she was following the<br />
ambulance.<br />
Janet arrived on stretcher and was taken to her apartment,<br />
Janet and few family members with her. I was in my office<br />
working with another family when they arrived. I could see<br />
them in the lobby.<br />
The next three days were a blur with each day being<br />
sixteen hours, numerous calls, visits by our nurse to<br />
skilled nursing, buying some furniture because they<br />
could not get a mover on short notice, moving other<br />
furniture we used in one of our models, and worked<br />
through all the paperwork.<br />
I looked forward to getting to know Janet.<br />
After an hour when I had finished with the family I was<br />
working with, I exited my office and saw Vivian and her<br />
family. She walked to me and hugged me, saying “Thank<br />
you” as she squeezed my back.<br />
The work was exhausting but necessary and Vivian<br />
worked hand-in-hand with me and my team. Vivian was<br />
emblematic of the many women like her who do almost<br />
all the work to move seniors into senior living<br />
communities. In my experience the person most likely<br />
to assist and help seniors move to a senior community<br />
“I am glad Janet made it.” I was relieved to have worked it<br />
out with the family.<br />
I saw tears roll down Vivian’s face as she quietly said, “Mom<br />
just passed.”<br />
DEAR DEAN MAGAZINE | p. 22
M Y R O N J . C L I F T O N<br />
I didn’t get a chance to meet Janet.<br />
And my company did not pay me commission on the<br />
move-in because she was…. “Only in the community for<br />
an hour.”<br />
Families often come to us later then is optimal, with<br />
there being a recent triggering event that caused<br />
concerned, alarm, fear, or all of the above. Many of the<br />
signs of declines families tell us they are noticing have<br />
been present for longer than most families will admit<br />
without prompting. It is perfectly normal and expected<br />
to want our loved ones to still be the person we knew<br />
them to be. It can be hard to accept their new reality.<br />
Time to say good bye<br />
I recently resigned from my position as Director of<br />
Marketing for a senior living industry company.<br />
The combination of so much death inside my<br />
community, my brother’s death, and my lack of time to<br />
grieve and process for my own mental health led me to<br />
making the decision to leave an industry that seems<br />
perfectly suited to my skills and abilities.<br />
But sometimes in our careers where we could be is not<br />
where we should be. And for me this is one of those<br />
times.<br />
Earnest had lived in his home for seventy years, the<br />
same home his parents had lived in all their adult lives.<br />
He missed his home but after his wife had passed, he<br />
was no longer able to be alone.<br />
After he moved in to our senior community, Earnest’s<br />
neighbors complained he was having “loud parties at all<br />
hours of the night.” But Earnest, 97, assured us he was<br />
not having parties in his apartment. “I am a retired<br />
preacher” he proudly proclaimed whenever asked<br />
about the loud parties.<br />
The complaints continued though so we decided to<br />
check on him in the middle of the night to see what was<br />
happening. From outside his apartment, we could hear<br />
the “party” Earnest’s neighbors had complained about.<br />
The sounds were not a “party” but Earnest’s chosen<br />
form of entertainment: Adult movies.<br />
We politely asked him to lower the volume and to use<br />
his hearing aids. He asked that we not tell his son<br />
because he didn’t want to let him down.<br />
The way the industry attends to the seniors in their<br />
charge is admirable, consistent in effort, if not in<br />
execution. The same cannot be said for the care the<br />
industry gives to their employees who manage the day<br />
to day operations, activities, care, restaurant, and<br />
housekeeping.<br />
Like everyone else, seniors will be cranky, disagreeable,<br />
sick, mean, bullies, racists, misogynists, and irrational. If<br />
the senior exhibits those personality features prior to<br />
moving to a senior community, then they will continue<br />
them. The communities are not communities of Shanggri-la<br />
that will erase the history of who the person was<br />
and is, even those affected by dementia.<br />
If a senior doesn’t get along with their families, doesn’t<br />
like non-white people, and is disrespectful in their prior<br />
life, they will be the same in the senior community. And<br />
though they will pay thousands of dollars per month, the<br />
people who will be closest to them will be paid wages<br />
that are barely above minimum wage in most cases. The<br />
entry level hourly person will help with bathing,<br />
escorting, dressing, toileting—including cleaning<br />
incontinence accidents that occur in bed, on floors, and<br />
in clothing.<br />
DEAR DEAN MAGAZINE | p. 23
M Y R O N J . C L I F T O N<br />
The industry will continue to grow as Americans age<br />
and the wealthiest and their families seek comfort, care,<br />
and safe environments for their final years.<br />
I will miss the earnest leaders who want to make a<br />
difference in the lives of residents, and the, the<br />
caregivers and housekeeping staff who work harder<br />
than everyone to make certain seniors live quality lives.<br />
I won’t miss the young managers who only see the<br />
numbers we produce, only talk of the families who have<br />
issues with our staff, and who only see half-empty<br />
glasses and last week’s reports. Those managers who<br />
get excited for the next Zoom meeting, but not the next<br />
family discussion where families share their entire<br />
family history as they look for communal acceptance<br />
and warm embraces from the staff the get to meet and<br />
talk to every day.<br />
I will miss the attentive restaurant chef and staff who<br />
work hard to please seniors, their guests, and even the<br />
families who feel entitled to way too much.<br />
But mostly I will miss the quiet old guys who have tips<br />
on how to grow better tomatoes, how to grill, golf, or<br />
play an instrument, the mothers, grandmothers, and<br />
aunties who slip me candy, and those who boss me<br />
around as I am walking by. I’ll miss the seniors and all<br />
their stories, quirks and complaints, their desires for<br />
community or solitude.<br />
Originally published on Myron J. Clifton's<br />
blog, <strong>Dear</strong> <strong>Dean</strong> on April 5, 2022.<br />
DEAR DEAN MAGAZINE | p. 24
R E V I E W , H E R L E G E N D<br />
L I V E S I N Y O U<br />
"A beautifully written story that opens<br />
your eyes to other possibilities to how the<br />
world was created. There is so much to<br />
take in, you can’t just read it once to<br />
reveal all the hidden messages."<br />
Her Legend Lives In You:<br />
The Untold Creation Story Honoring The<br />
Goddess And Our Daughters.<br />
Available on
D E A R D E A N<br />
FEATURE<br />
GUEST SPOTLIGHT<br />
OPINION:<br />
U K R A I N I A N /<br />
R U S S I A N C O N F L I C T<br />
W R I T T E N B Y<br />
Eugene Levinson
E U G E N E L E V I N S O N<br />
In my opinion, war is sometimes needed and justified.<br />
In this case, I don’t think either applies. What we see<br />
here has been a failure of the world to recognize and<br />
contain an individual with absolute power and<br />
ambition. You give him a finger; he will want the entire<br />
arm. Has he ever faced consequences for his previous<br />
improprieties? When allowed to go unchecked, you get<br />
what we have between Russia and Ukraine. Seems to<br />
me, Putin has no fear of any repercussions or<br />
consequences imposed by the western nations. and<br />
that makes him unpredictable. With such unlimited<br />
power concentrated with one person, justification and<br />
reason do not exist and approval is not needed.<br />
In fact, disapproval or challenge is eliminated in the<br />
truest sense of the word – murder. I think the world<br />
has very limited options, mostly hurting the Russian<br />
people and not the elite that they intend to stop. In this<br />
quagmire, the world is walking a tight rope between<br />
what is right and the possibility of challenging someone<br />
that has proven to eliminate anyone standing in his<br />
way for the last 22 years.<br />
Where does this go from here? Unfortunately, I don’t<br />
see this ending in a way that benefits the world. With<br />
reports of big concessions already being made, and<br />
Russia poised to storm Kyiv, seems to me that a pro-<br />
Russian government is inevitable. Despite the bravery<br />
of the Ukrainian people and their president, the<br />
Russian army is too powerful and experienced in<br />
occupying countries and Ukraine is relatively too<br />
young. My concern goes back to Putin’s ambition. I<br />
think he is thinking past Ukraine. Who’s next? Who<br />
else has this emboldened? Who’s going to stop him?<br />
DEAR DEAN MAGAZINE | p.27
MYRON'S<br />
HIT OR MISS<br />
list<br />
You will either LOVE or HATE being on<br />
this list. It's time to call out the good,<br />
bad and the ugly as it happened on<br />
Twitter. We saw it live with our own<br />
eyes, and now it's time to review the<br />
best and the worst... saddle up!<br />
HIT<br />
Baseball season started, and Major League Baseball again<br />
honored Jackie Robinson by allowing all players to wear<br />
Robinson’s # 42 jersey, this year in white or blue. Seeing his<br />
number and all the tributes at the start of each season makes the<br />
opening to the season the best of all major sports.<br />
DEAR DEAN MAGAZINE | p.28
MISS<br />
Baseball season is 162 games long. In 2022,<br />
nobody wants that many sportsball games. Cut it in<br />
half and get on with it.<br />
HIT<br />
Duchess Megan Markle sparkles at opening to<br />
Invictus Games with her doting husband Harry.<br />
Duchess Megan, resplendent in white, with perfect<br />
hem, cut, color, and style, was the diamond of the<br />
event in every way. Oh yea, they also visited the<br />
queen while overseas.<br />
MISS<br />
Literally miss, the British tabloids missed that<br />
Duchess Megan and husband Harry were in town<br />
to visit the queen for the first time in two years.<br />
Lol. There were mad-mad but they can stay mad as<br />
The Duchess once again outplayed, outwitted, and<br />
outlasted the British tabloids.<br />
HIT<br />
Three of the world’s religions celebrated holy<br />
days around the same time of year for the first<br />
time in a long time.<br />
MISS<br />
Three of the world’s religions perpetrated violence<br />
around the world during their holy days.<br />
HIT<br />
Real Maple Syrup.<br />
MISS<br />
All the restaurants serving “flavored” maple syrup<br />
that’s nothing more than disgusting corn syrup.<br />
HIT<br />
A Florida judge put in place by Trump and who was<br />
deemed “Unqualified” by the ABA decided that the<br />
Federal Mask mandate should be thrown out. The<br />
ruling means that airlines and train companies no<br />
longer will require masks but make them optional<br />
for travelers… just in time for summer travel and<br />
with various covid variants on the rise.<br />
HIT<br />
Will Smith slapped Chris Rock.<br />
MISS<br />
The Academy Awards banned Will Smith from<br />
attending the ceremony for 10 years.<br />
MISS<br />
The academy Awards continue to celebrate and<br />
award abusers, racists, rapists, and violent men,<br />
while producing violent movies and television<br />
shows that they say do not cause harm or<br />
violence in society but somehow they were<br />
traumatized by a single slap.<br />
DEAR DEAN MAGAZINE | p.29
it or hate it<br />
MOVIE REVIEW<br />
Love<br />
BRIDGERTON<br />
Netflix Season 2<br />
The steamy period-piece returns to heat up viewers looking for more romance, unrequited love, and class and<br />
caste intrigue. Led by the stunning Golda Rosheuvel as Queen Charlotte – she who serves looks and owns every<br />
scene and who selected her “Diamond of the Season”, the youthful beauty, Charithra Chandran as Edwina<br />
Sharma, her older sister Kathani, played by Simone Ashley, and of course Nicola Coughlan as Penelope<br />
Featherington. Part of Shondaland production, the series is unafraid of telling stories from younger and older<br />
women’s points of view, showing love from many perspectives, and brashly showing regal Indian women equal to<br />
every other high society woman on the show. Ignore any naysayers complaining about HiStOrIcAl AcCuRaCy<br />
because they’re the same folk that can imagine every type of alien living with white people but cannot fathom<br />
imagining Black, Indian, Asian folk living with white folk even though they really did. Enjoy the show for what it is:<br />
smart dialogue, beautiful wardrobes, and various forms of heteronormality sexual situations. Here’s hoping<br />
season three extends the storylines to include love among members of the LGBTQI community.<br />
THE GILDED AGE<br />
HBO Max<br />
Come for Kristine Baranksi as Agnes van Rhijn<br />
and stay for Dennee Benton as Peggy Scott,<br />
Audra McDonald as Dorothy Scott, Carrie Coon<br />
as Bertha Russell, and Cynthia Nixon as Ada<br />
Brook, sister of Agnes. The women navigate<br />
New York City’s immensely wealthy family<br />
dynamics during the late 1880’s when money<br />
and wealth created multimillionaires with New<br />
York’s new-money families. Those families<br />
were initially scorned by the old-money crowd<br />
But money finds a way to make friends out of former foes and snobs. Rich dialogue, beautiful wardrobes and<br />
colors, and enough plots and intrigue, snappy remarks, and snobbish insults to keep you laughing and glued to<br />
your screen.<br />
DEAR DEAN MAGAZINE | p.30
CONTINUED...<br />
AUSTENLAND<br />
Amazon Prime, Hulu<br />
Love it or hate it<br />
I don’t know if this little 2013 movie was released in theatres, but it is hilarious and work a few bucks to rent.<br />
Especially if you love period pieces and making fun and being in on the joke, this is the movie for you. Starring<br />
Keri Russell, Jennifer Coolidge, Ricky Whittle, Jane Seymour, and Georgia King, the movie can be watched<br />
multiple times and I guarantee you will find different absurdities that will have you in stitches. Russell plays Jane<br />
Hayes, a single thirty-something-year-old obsessed with Jane Austen and her characters, especially the famous<br />
Mr. Darcy. She visits Austenland, an immersive “Jane Austen experience” camp and things get way out of hand<br />
much to the viewer’s delight. Try it and let it envelope you in period clothing, strange plots, ad-libbed dialogue,<br />
and delightful nonsense.<br />
THE JOYFUL WARRIOR PODCAST<br />
NETWORK<br />
Greg Howard Jr. is shaking up the podcast game by starting his<br />
own podcast empire and giving voices a diverse and must<br />
needed cast of wonderful voices, viewpoints, and strong<br />
opinions. And a few shallow opinions!<br />
Here is a look at the shows operating under JWPN empire and<br />
what their focus is – find the shows on Apple Podcasts, Google<br />
Play, Amazon music and other places where you get podcasts.<br />
UNAPOLOGETICALLY SHE<br />
Join our hosts Chantay, Eliann, Katie, Lauren-Ashley, & Sara as they discuss art, politics, and pop culture from a<br />
phenomenally female perspective. It’s unapologetically real. Unapologetically She. New episodes every Tuesday.<br />
IT’S LIKE THIS<br />
What happens when two educators and a comedian get together to talk about pop culture? Join Brandon, Eliann,<br />
and Greg to find out each Monday on “It’s Like This…”<br />
COASTAL ELITES<br />
The political buddy show that no one asked for! Join Greg and Brandon every Thursday<br />
to listen to “Coastal Elites!”<br />
DEAR DEAN MAGAZINE | p.31
THE JOYFUL WARRIOR PODCAST<br />
NETWORK<br />
30 QUESTIONS WITH<br />
Best-selling author, comedian, podcaster, and TikTokker Greg Howard Jr sits down with a special guest each<br />
week to ask 30 random questions that mean absolutely nothing in the grand scheme of things.<br />
YOUR LIFE: THE MIXTAPE<br />
Join best-selling author, comedian, podcaster, and TikTokker and public nuisance Greg Howard Jr and a special<br />
weekly guest as they journey through the guest’s life via songs that made them.<br />
DON’T MAKE THIS WEIRD<br />
Best-selling author, comedian, podcaster, and TikTokker Greg Howard Jr talks to people from all walks of life<br />
about life, love, what’s in the news, and everything in between.<br />
VOICE MEMOS<br />
Two long-time friends have informative, yet brief, discussions about multitudinous topics. Join Myron and Jenn<br />
each Friday!<br />
EPI AFTER DARK<br />
The Circus of Scientific Curiosity proudly presents: Epi After Dark. This is a dark adventure wrapped in the guise<br />
of public health and microbiology. Join TikTok's Snack Pax Epi, the beloved field epidemiologist, as he navigates<br />
Epi After Dark.<br />
THE BARBECUE INTERVIEW PODCAST<br />
Biggs sits down to interview a wide array of guests from diverse backgrounds. Everyone has a story.<br />
15 MINUTES OF FAME WITH JACQUELYN BRITTANY<br />
Come join the conversation…it’s 20 Questions, with a twist! New episodes monthly.<br />
JOYFUL WARRIOR MEDIA, LLC is a new business entity that will be<br />
developed to provide audio professional recording, engineering,<br />
production/mastering, talent management, promotion, and training<br />
services to potential digital media properties and hosts within its target<br />
market. JOYFUL WARRIOR MEDIA, LLC is committed to quality media<br />
across the board to people who are tired of the skewed views from<br />
today’s mass media. JOYFUL WARRIOR MEDIA, LLC firmly believes that<br />
quality palatable news commentary and entertainment can be realized<br />
without compromising integrity.<br />
DEAR DEAN MAGAZINE | p.32
MY FAVORITE THINGS<br />
STREAMING RIGHT NOW...<br />
Are we tired yet of movies and series about bad businesspeople who do bad things and then are<br />
glamorized? Yes, yes we are. Look, the stories “can” be interesting but let’s be honest, they are stories of<br />
privileged white people fooling and stealing from other privileged/wealthy white people. Watching to laugh<br />
“AT” I can understand – I do it too - because there’s really nothing to be learned from people who willingly<br />
give hundreds of thousands or even tens of millions of dollars to people who are clearly lying and who you and<br />
I would laugh out of our faces if they asked for money because we know better, dammit.<br />
THE INVENTOR: Out for Blood in Silicon Valley,<br />
HBOMax and The Dropout /Hulu<br />
Elizabeth Holmes found a way to convince investors to<br />
give her /her company billions of dollars for her<br />
company Theranos. Elizabeth said her company<br />
developed new blood-testing technology and it turns<br />
out everything was a lie. HBO/Max has interviews<br />
with her – be mindful of her weird voice which.. I don’t<br />
even know if it is real or? The Drop Out, staring<br />
Amanda Seyfried, and based on the podcast of the<br />
same names, gives background on Elizabeth as a teen<br />
and young woman who was always a liar but cute<br />
enough to fool dumb rich men.<br />
Bad Vegan. Netflix. Sarma Melngailis repeatedly<br />
conned investors to support her new age vegan<br />
restaurant in New York City. Lauded by the elite<br />
restaurant crowds, Hollywood stars, and wealthy<br />
investors – men – who wanted to stare at and try to<br />
impress the quirky, wealthy, skinny blond chef. They<br />
kept giving her money even after she absconded with<br />
millions with her criminal boyfriend, went on the run<br />
from the law, enjoyed crack, and finally was caught<br />
after being caught following ordering a very non-vegan<br />
Domino’s pizza. She’s back in the restaurant business<br />
and the wealthy dummies are still giving her grifting ass<br />
money.<br />
DEAR DEAN MAGAZINE | p.33
Trust No One: Hunt for the Crypto King – Netflix.<br />
One two weeks old, there’s already crypto<br />
documentaries! Lol. Maybe if you watch this, the<br />
crypto people will leave you alone. Or they’ll find out<br />
you watched and think you are “now” ready to learn<br />
about why crypto is the latest Ponzi, er, “investment”<br />
opportunity. Billionaire crypto guys disappears, dies,<br />
people lose money. Ho-hum. Dummies.<br />
The Vow. HBOMax - The so-called self-improvement<br />
group NXIVM was a nightmare of wealthy people<br />
following a wealthy nutcase, Keith Raniere who<br />
turned his cult into what all cults turn into: sex<br />
trafficking, worshiping the cult leader, brainwashing,<br />
and thievery. This one has the added titillation of<br />
having Hollywood actor Allison Mack as a recruiter<br />
for the cult, and actor Catherine Oxenberg trying to<br />
rescue her daughter from the cult.<br />
only then did all his abuses come to light in the British<br />
media. The special highlights how his friendships with<br />
the British royalty and other stars and famous people –<br />
many who knew about his abuses – covered and/or<br />
ignored them. After his death there were 450<br />
accusations, putting him as one of the most prolific<br />
abusers in entertainment history.<br />
WE WORK: Or The Making and Breaking of a $47<br />
Billion Unicorn<br />
Dumb people somehow always find a way and<br />
opportunity to get their money into rich folk’s grifting<br />
pockets. We Work’s CEO, Adam Neumann, found a<br />
way to monetize public workspaces. Lol. And people<br />
fell for it to the tune of billions of dollars.<br />
Jimmy Savile: A British Horror Story. Jimmy was a<br />
pedophile and sexual abuser who was the most<br />
popular TV personalities in England. When he died<br />
DEAR DEAN MAGAZINE | p.34
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OUR WORLD TODAY. LOVE THE<br />
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NEW PODCAST<br />
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DEAR DEAN MAGAZINE | p.36
M y r o n J . C l i f t o n i s s l i g h t l y o l d e r t h a n f i f t y , l i v e s i n S a c r a m e n t o ,<br />
C a l i f o r n i a , a n d i s a n a v i d B a y A r e a s p o r t s f a n . H e l i k e s c o m i c b o o k s ,<br />
t e l l i n g s t o r i e s a b o u t h i s l a t e m o m t o h i s b e l o v e d d a u g h t e r L e a h , a n d<br />
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Katya Juliet Lerner<br />
I N T E R E S T E D I N A D V E R T I S I N G ?<br />
Send an email to words@deardeanpublishing.com<br />
DEAR DEAN MAGAZINE | p.37
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