Mondaugen’s Miscellany

The past is what we make out of it

The future is unwritten

Avoid over-serious people and seek the genuine smile

What have you thought about today?

(A collection of personal essays on travel, life events, and thought experiments, aiming to engage, amuse, befuddle, and inspire)

Archived blog posts are here

March 15, 2026

I am a big fan of the 2002 TV series Firefly. It hit a particularly perfect balance of humor, action, and social commentary about the value of political freedom.

Even though cancelled after a single season, it strangely enough was turned into a feature film. Serenity, however, did not have the magic of Firefly. In trading Firefly’s just-fighting-to-get-by character for a superheroes-fighting-to-save-the-solar-system character, Serenity lost the plot. Firefly episodes had been another-day-at-the-office in a strange but familiar space Western. The Firefly heroes were little people of beauty, honor, humor, and flaws. The upped stakes made Serenity feel strained.

Even Joss Whedon, much like Ridley Scott, doesn’t always understand the magic of what he makes. What Alien had never made it into Prometheus.

Now, apparently, the former ensemble of actors are trying to bring Firefly back, as an animated series, if I’m not wrong.

Do I want Firefly to return? With all my heart. Were I ever to meet any of the Firefly actors or writers, I would thank them deeply for the characters they brought to life.

But the chances of catching the same Firefly magic are vanishingly small. A new animated series, 24 years on, can only be something else. It cannot possibly have the same heart, even with the original writers, now 24 years older with a different perspective on life.

I wish them well, but fear that in the money-driven, too-many-cooks world of Hollywood, it will just take one powerful idiot to dose the plot with a pound of sugar when it needs a pound of salt.

I will certainly watch if it comes out. I will cross my fingers it is as good as Andor, but with more humor, little super-anxious end-of-world vibes, and just good tales of criminals in an unjust world who do good, sometimes, if they don’t fuck it up.

March 5, 2026

Jackie DeShannon may be forgotten to most of us, but in 1965 she sang “What the World Needs Now is Love”.

As a little kid in the early 70’s, I remember hearing it on the radio. I remember my mom singing along. Sentimental, sappy, naive, even corny and ridiculous, still, its innocent sweetness is hard to criticize. Would the world be worse with more love? I mean, the song isn’t trying to hurt anyone. I’d like to think Jackie and this song would be unforgotten today. Maybe it would help. Curiously, it charted at #1 in Canada, but only #63 in the US (Wikipedia).