Iowa Highway Ends (etc.)

June 6, 1990. “Doc” Emma Brown finds a strange woman at her door who says she’s a time traveler.

“Then tell me, Future Girl, who’s president of the United States in 2020?”

Jennifer winces and gives out a Sam Beckett-esque “Oh, boy.”

Let’s talk about the Hill Valley mayoral election. As we see in Back to the Future, the incumbents are running for re-election in 1985 and 1955. (This component, aside from the 2015 World Series, is really the only element placing the first movie-and-a-third in fall, since there are no Halloween decorations anywhere.) Election Day 1955 was Nov. 7, the week Marty was there, and Election Day 1985 was Nov. 5, 11 days after the weekend the trilogy took place.

City elections in odd-numbered years are very common. What’s less common is having those elections not on a four-year cycle. This means that Hill Valley’s mayor probably serves a two-year or six-year term. Three is a possibility, but an odd one.

Until recently, Iowa had three-year election cycles for school board, but then combined them with city elections due to low turnout. But it would be weird if someone drove around in a car with a loudspeaker promoting a school board candidate.

October 18, 2020: On guard in Knoxville.

The obvious tactic to strike fear in your heart right now is the easiest: the phrase “269-269”.

(I don’t need to do horror movies. I pay attention to current events, I follow Iowa State sports, and as far as I’m concerned the scariest movie of the 21st century is Gone Girl. )

However, there is something even scarier out there — another unraveling thread in the American cultural fabric. From NBC:

Fans of the classic “Peanuts” comic-strip are expressing outrage over the fact that the quintessential animated holiday specials based on the series have moved to the Apple TV+ streaming service instead of airing on network television.

The linked story, like pretty much everything written about streaming video, pays minimal lip service to/completely ignores the fact that millions of American cannot obtain high-quality-livestream-capable Internet access at any price. The best many more can get is to huddle around an iPhone eating into a data plan on an Apple TV+ subscription costing $5 a month. There are DVDs available, but it’s getting harder to get a DVD player.

Whether 10, 25, or 50 years hence, families will not be gathering around any sort of device to watch a classic YouTube unboxing video or whatever. (And certainly not Quibi. What is Quibi, you ask? Exactly.)