YOU PICKED A FINE TIME TO LEAVE ME:  Kenny Rogers has died.  Given that I was born in 1970, many musical acts for me are wedded to their associations with the Muppet Show.  John Denver, Harry Belafonte, Crystal Gayle.  But none, for me, quite so strongly as Kenny Rogers performing The Gambler.

BINGING TIME:At a time when many of us are looking for entertainment they can readily binge, and feel they've exhausted what's on Netflix, wanted to offer a suggestion--the CW's Katy Keene.  All episodes of the season are available on the CW app (with commercials).  The show is a spinoff of Riverdale, set 5 years later, and Josie (of "and the Pussycats") has moved to New York to follow her dream, where she shares an apartment with aspiring fashion designer Katy Keene, aspiring Broadway performer Jorge Lopez (who also performs in drag shows at night), and mysterious socialite Pepper Smith (who it turns out is actually a broke con artist).

The show replaces Riverdale's murder and sex with musical numbers, ranging from Christina Aguilera to "My Strongest Suit" from the Elton John/Tim Rice Aida, and uses New York well both as a shooting location and by enabling it to draw from Broadway's talent banks for recurring guest stars (Andre de Shields as a friendly record store owner, Bernadette Peters as Pepper's con artist mentor, Daphne Rubin-Vega as Jorge's mother).

Is it GOOD?  Not really.  Is it incredibly WATCHABLE?  Absolutely, and that's what you probably need right now.

AWAKENING FROM HIBERNATION:We've been quiet around here for quite a while, though remaining connected to many of y'all via social media.  In these times of social distancing and self-isolation, communities like this one are more important than ever.  For that reason, we're having our first ever virtual happy hour via Zoom on Thursday night--9 Eastern/8 Central/6 Pacific.  If you want more details, find me or one of the other Throwers of Things on social media, and we'll share the info you need to get in.  (There's also a Slack many of us have been using.)  And we promise we won't spoil Grey's for those of you on the West Coast.