Jeremy T. Ringfield's Blog, page 279

SF Giants franchise icon Brandon Crawford announces retirement

Brandon Crawford, arguably the greatest shortstop in the history of the San Francisco Giants, announced his retirement on Instagram on Wednesday afternoon.

“Baseball has given me, Jalynne, and the kids more than we ever thought possible, and for that we are so thankful,” Crawford wrote in the post. “I wouldn’t have been able to have the career I did without their love and support every step along the way. I also want to thank my parents, siblings, in-laws, coaches, teammates, fans, and everyone else who guided, helped, and rooted for me throughout my career. Now it’s time for the next chapter, and I can’t wait for the new opportunities and different experiences that it will create.”

The Giants announced that they will honor Crawford on April 26 at Oracle Park. Appropriately enough, they will be playing the Texas Rangers, who are led by former Giants manager Bruce Bochy.

“It was an honor to get to know Brandon as a friend and as a teammate,” said president of baseball operations and former Giants catcher Buster Posey in a statement.

“From the first day we were both drafted in 2008 to our final year playing together in 2021, it was an honor to play alongside him for 14 years. Whether it was the clutch moments like the grand slam he hit in the 2014 Wild Card Game in Pittsburgh, the franchise-record, seven-hit game he recorded in Miami, or the dazzling defensive plays and acrobatic throws he made over and over again, Brandon made his mark in a way few athletes ever do.”

Born in Mountain View and raised in Pleasanton, Crawford, now 37, was drafted by the Giants out of UCLA in the fourth round of the 2008 MLB Draft and played all but one of his 14 major-league seasons in San Francisco.

During his time with his childhood team, Crawford was a one-time Silver Slugger Award winner, three-time All-Star selection and four-time Gold Glove Award winner, helping the Giants win World Series titles in 2012 and 2014. Additionally, Crawford won the 2016 Willie Mac Award and the 2023 Lou Gehrig Memorial Award. Crawford’s 1,682 regular-season games with the Giants are the most in franchise history.

Along with his accolades, Crawford orchestrated some of the greatest moments in franchise history, a list that includes the crowd-silencing grand slam Posey mentioned in the 2014 playoffs against the Pirates, as well as the double play he turned with Joe Panik in Game 7 of the 2014 World Series against the Kansas City Royals.

Crawford’s role in Giants lore began well before putting on the uniform. On Sept. 27, 1992, San Francisco Chronicle photographer Tom Levy snapped the iconic photo of a 5-year-old Crawford at Candlestick Park standing next to a sign reading, “Mr. White: Do what’s right! Keep Giants in SF.” The Giants’ game against the Cincinnati Reds was supposed to be their last in San Francisco, but a last-minute sale kept the team in San Francisco. Two decades later, Crawford helped make his hometown team into a dynasty.

“Growing up in the Bay Area and going to games at Candlestick, I always dreamed of playing for the San Francisco Giants,” Crawford wrote in his retirement post. “Being drafted by my hometown team and spending most of my career with them far surpassed any dream I had as a kid. I definitely pretended to win a World Series in my backyard — but winning two? That was beyond my wildest dreams.”

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Crawford, who spent one lone season with the St. Louis Cardinals last summer, retires with a career .249 batting average, 147 home runs, 748 RBIs and 1,404 hits.

In 2021, a 34-year-old Crawford put together the best season of his career, posting career highs in batting average (.298), on-base percentage (.373), slugging percentage (.522), home runs (24) and RBIs (90) as the Giants won a franchise-record 107 games in the regular season. Crawford finished fourth in MVP voting that season, the only time in his career he finished in the top five.

“The Giants have been incredibly blessed to have had Brandon as part of the franchise for 16 years — really for his entire 37 years,” president and CEO Larry Baer said in a statement. “… As this chapter closes on his career, his legacy in the game will be celebrated by fans, teammates, and future generations of players who look up to him by the example he set.

Canada is already examining tariffs on certain US items following Trump’s tariff threat

By ROB GILLIES

TORONTO (AP) — Canada is already examining possible retaliatory tariffs on certain items from the United States should President-elect Donald Trump follow through on his threat to impose sweeping tariffs on Canadian products, a senior official said Wednesday.

Trump has threatened to impose tariffs on products from Canada and Mexico if the countries don’t stop what he called the flow of drugs and migrants across southern and northern borders. He said he would impose a 25% tax on all products entering the U.S. from Canada and Mexico as one of his first executive orders.

A Canadian government official said Canada is preparing for every eventuality and has started thinking about what items to target with tariffs in retaliation. The official stressed no decision has been made. The person spoke on condition of anonymity as they were not authorized to speak publicly.

When Trump imposed higher tariffs during his first term in office, other countries responded with retaliatory tariffs of their own. Canada, for instance, announced billions of new duties in 2018 against the U.S. in a tit-for-tat response to new taxes on Canadian steel and aluminum.

Many of the U.S. products were chosen for their political rather than economic impact. For example, Canada imports $3 million worth of yogurt from the U.S. annually and most comes from one plant in Wisconsin, home state of then-House Speaker Paul Ryan. That product was hit with a 10% duty.

Another product on the list was whiskey, which comes from Tennessee and Kentucky, the latter of which is the home state of then-Republican Senate leader Mitch McConnell.

Trump made the threat Monday while railing against an influx of illegal migrants, even though the numbers at Canadian border pale in comparison to the southern border.

The U.S. Border Patrol made 56,530 arrests at the Mexican border in October alone — and 23,721 arrests at the Canadian one between October 2023 and September 2024.

Canadian officials say lumping Canada in with Mexico is unfair but say they are happy to work with the Trump administration to lower the numbers from Canada. The Canadians are also worried about a influx north of migrants if Trump follows through with his plan for mass deportations.

Trump also railed about fentanyl from Mexico and Canada, even though seizures from the Canadian border pale in comparison to the Mexican border. U.S. customs agents seized 43 pounds of fentanyl at the Canadian border last fiscal year, compared with 21,100 pounds at the Mexican border.

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Canada is the top export destination for 36 U.S. states. Nearly $3.6 billion Canadian (US$2.7 billion) worth of goods and services cross the border each day. About 60% of U.S. crude oil imports are from Canada, and 85% of U.S. electricity imports are from Canada. Canada is also the largest foreign supplier of steel, aluminum and uranium to the U.S. and has 34 critical minerals and metals that the Pentagon is eager for and investing in for national security.

“Canada is essential to the United States’ domestic energy supply,” Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland said.

Trump has pledged to cut American energy bills in half within 18 months, something that could be made harder if a 25% premium is added to Canadian oil imports. In 2023, Canadian oil accounted for almost two-thirds of total U.S. oil imports and about one-fifth of the U.S. oil supply.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is holding a emergency virtual meeting on Wednesday with the leaders of Canada’s provinces, who want Trudeau to negotiate a bilateral trade deal with the United States that excludes Mexico.

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said Wednesday that her administration is already working up a list of possible retaliatory tariffs “if the situation comes to that.”

Another year, another successful Thanksgiving meal

SEASIDE – The Salvation Army Monterey Peninsula Corps hosted its annual Thanksgiving meal Wednesday afternoon, inviting hundreds of clients to the organization’s chapel in Seaside for a warm meal.

Volunteers worked alongside Salvation Army staff to pull together a classic Thanksgiving meal consisting of turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, macaroni and cheese, corn and more. This year’s meal was only open to clients, many of which are regulars at the Sabu Shake Sr. Good Samaritan Center in Sand City, which offers showers, hot meals and various other services throughout the week.

“Looking at the people here, they’re so happy just to have a place to go and enjoy (the meal),” said Sabu Shake Jr. “It really boosts up morale … we’re here to give them a lift up.”

Sand City’s Good Samaritan Center was renamed in 2016 to honor Sabu Shake Sr. and the family’s continued philanthropic support of the non-profit. Every year, Sabu Shake Jr. and his brother Chris host a Turkey drive, aiming to supply 2,000 turkeys and hams to the Salvation Army.

This year, the community raised nearly $45,000 in two weeks to provide turkeys and hams to people in need, according to Sabu Shake Jr.

Four volunteers worked in back-of-house to create the traditional Thanksgiving meal that served hundreds of Salvation Army clients. (Andrea Valadez – Monterey Herald)

A slew of volunteers helped organize and plate up food for the nearly 240 guests staff estimated would come through the chapel Wednesday. “It’s a beautiful organization. I’ve never seen any organization more well-run than this one,” said John Adamo who has been volunteering with the non-profit for six months.

“It brings fellowship, it brings harmony (and) it brings people together that want to work and help each other out, like the Lord would want us to do,” said Adamo.

Melbra Watts has been volunteering with the Salvation Army for over five years alongside her mother Ruthie, who sits on the advisory board for the organization. “This community is small enough to get your arms around so it just feels good to come out and serve others,” said Watts.

As a seasoned volunteer, Watts advised other community members to try their hand in giving back.

“It’s an opportunity to come together in community and celebrate and give thanks to each other. We’re all integral to the community and we all have our roles,” she said. “It’s a wonderful opportunity to honor each other.”

Steph Curry ruled out for Warriors-Thunder matchup with knee issue

SAN FRANCISCO — The matchup between the first- and second-place teams in the Western Conference lost some luster when the Warriors’ official injury report was updated Wednesday afternoon.

Steph Curry is out for Wednesday night’s game against the Thunder at the Chase Center with bilateral patellofemoral pain in both knees. The medical jargon is also known as runner’s knee, and it means Curry is experiencing pain around or behind both kneecaps.

Curry has been banged up for the past couple weeks, head coach Steve Kerr said Wednesday, and isn’t expected to miss much time. Vice president of health and performance Rick Celebrini called the coach Wednesday morning to recommend Curry sit out the Thunder game, which gives him four days between games. Kerr said the point guard “should” be able to play on Saturday, when the Warriors begin a two-game road trip in Phoenix and then Denver.

“Hopefully this gives Steph the time he needs the next couple of days to get ready for our road trip,” Kerr said. “Obviously, everybody’s got to step up and fill in. We’ll mix and match the lineups a little bit, see what we can do. I’m excited for the opportunity for a lot of our guys.”

The Thunder are also shorthanded as Chet Holmgren, Alex Caruso and Jaylin Williams are unavailable.

Golden State (12-5) defeated the Thunder (13-4) in Oklahoma City earlier this month, though that was before they hit their current snag.

“We had a lot more energy a couple weeks ago,” Kerr said Monday night after the Warriors’ second straight collapse.

Curry is averaging 22.4 points, 6.5 assists and 5.4 rebounds per game. Most recently, he scored 28 points in a loss to the Nets, though every shot he took until garbage time came from behind the 3-point arc.

In an effort to manage the strain on Curry, Kerr has played him a career-low 29.7 minutes per game.

“Minute total is good,” Kerr said. “But at 36, you’re just going to have more aches and pains. Fortunately, the MRI he had yesterday was negative, but he needs some time to clear the tendonitis that’s in his knees right now.”

Curry missed three games with an ankle sprain a month ago but the Warriors won all three, matching their win total without Curry from last season.

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“Steph is Steph, and we all know that,” Draymond Green said earlier this month. “But, for some reason, when Steph’s out, everybody acts like we can’t play. We’re all so sick of it. And there’s been added motivation to win these three. If you think that hasn’t been mentioned, you’re out of your mind. We’re all NBA players, we’re All-Stars, first-round picks, you name it. And for some reason, every time Steph goes out, everybody acts like, ‘Oh man, the world has collapsed.’”

The Warriors have the highest-scoring bench in the league and believe their depth sets them up to withstand absences over the course of the season. But without Curry and De’Anthony Melton, who’s out for the season with an ACL sprain, that depth will be tested.

This season, the Warriors are 2.4 points per 100 possessions better with Curry on the floor than when he’s off, per Cleaning The Glass. The disparity isn’t as great as it has been in years past, but it still registers in the 75th percentile of players.

Notable

— Jonathan Kuminga is set to return after missing the past two games with an illness. The Warriors missed Kuminga’s scoring punch and athleticism in the last few games, particularly in a bunched-up part of the schedule.

“We need him against these guys, we need him against everybody. JK has played a really important role for us this year. I know he would prefer to start, but the way the team is built, what we’re trying to do defensively — what we’ve done defensively to this point – it makes perfect sense for JK to come off the bench and be our scorer off the bench.”

— Lindy Waters III, who has started the past six games for the Warriors, began his NBA career with the Thunder. Head coach Mark Daigneault called him one of the best developmental success stories in an organization full of them. He texted with Kerr when the Warriors traded for Waters and is thrilled that the wing has carved out a regular role with Golden State thus far.

“The success he’s having is something we take pride in,” Daigneault said. “We obviously wish the best for him. I don’t know how he’s doing — he’s never lived outside of Oklahoma. He’s probably eating sushi for the first time in his life.”

Carnival Cruise Line to offer 10 sailings celebrating America’s 250th birthday

By Lacey Pfalz, TravelPulse (TNS)

Carnival Cruise Line will be offering 10 special cruises in 2026 celebrating the 250th anniversary of the founding of the United States of America, all available to book now.

All the itineraries, which range from three to eight days and set sail from the ports of Miami, Port Canaveral, Jacksonville, New York City, Long Beach and San Francisco, will be sailing on July 4, 2026.

On that Independence Day, the seven ships sailing from the East Coast will meet at sea near Celebration Key, the line’s private island in the Bahamas, while the three ships on the West Coast will meet near Ensenada. After the ships come together, guests will enjoy patriotic entertainment, special food and drink offerings and more ways to celebrate the nation’s founding.

“We’re America’s cruise line, and we’re commemorating this milestone in a big way!” said Christine Duffy, Carnival’s president. “Uniting our ships will multiply the fun and make America’s 250th birthday even more memorable for guests who celebrate at sea. The cruises we’re opening for sale today offer great variety, so guests can choose their ideal way to take part in a truly once-in-a-lifetime occasion.”

The itineraries are as follows:

—Carnival Conquest and Carnival Glory both depart on July 3, 2026 from Miami and Port Canaveral, sailing three-day cruises to Celebration Key.

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—Carnival Sunrise and Carnival Elation will depart on July 2, 2026 from Miami and Jacksonville on four-day cruises to the Bahamas.

—The Carnival Celebration will depart Miami on June 28, 2026 for a seven-day Eastern Caribbean Cruise visiting the line’s private island, Nassau, Amber Cove and Grand Turk.

—Carnival Vista will depart Port Canaveral on June 27, 2026 for an eight-day Eastern Caribbean itinerary visiting San Juan, St. Thomas, the private island and other ports.

—Carnival Venezia will depart New York City on July 1, 2026 for an eight-day cruise visiting Celebration Key, Half Moon Cay and Nassau.

—Carnival Firenze will depart Long Beach on July 3, 2026 for a three-day Baja Mexico cruise.

—Carnival Luminosa will sail from San Francisco on July 2, 2026, heading on a four-day trip with a stop in Ensenada.

—Carnival Radiance will sail a five-day Mexican Riviera itinerary from Long Beach on June 30, 2026, visiting Ensenada and Cabo San Lucas.

©2024 Northstar Travel Media, LLC. Visit at travelpulse.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

‘We are time’s subjects’: Author Clock keeps track of the hours, one literary quotation at a time

The Author Clock, created in Chicago several years ago by a local engineer and finally arriving in stores this holiday season, has been forcing me to pause now and then, whenever I look up to see the time. Knowing the time used to be fast for me. But the Author Clock slows one’s relationship to time. I don’t know yet how I feel about it as a daily timepiece, but I can say for sure, that it is not a clock to take for granted. Even the coolest Swatch or vintage Mickey Mouse, after some admiring, gets taken for granted.

Not so with this.

The Author Clock is small and rectangular and housed inside a wooden frame. Its clock face is Kindle gray, and instead of a traditional number-based digital readout or circular timepiece, it shows a quotation from a book containing the exact time of day. The other day, for instance, at exactly 11:32 a.m., the Author Clock informed me that, in James Joyce’s infamously rambling “Finnegans Wake,” there is a character named Marcus Lyons who poetically remembers: “Flemish armada, all scattered, and all officially drowned, there and then, on a lovely morning, after the universal flood, at about eleven thirty-two.”

At 11:35 a.m., it read, courtesy of a passage from the Robert Harris thriller “Munich”: “The Prime Minister’s plane came to a stop at Oberwiesenfeld airport, at 11:35 a.m.”

At precisely noon, Dr. Seuss himself informed me: “And by noon, poor old Horton, more dead than alive, had picked, searched and piled up, nine thousand and five.”

For the practical person, the bold-faced time will be what matters in each passage on the Author Clock, which pairs every minute of the day with thousands of quotations that reference every minute of the day. Its creators, engineer Jose Cardona, designer Luke Gray and editor Yasmin Sara Gruss, partly dug up and partly crowd-sourced 13,193 book passages that refer to specific minutes, then arranged them digitally into the 1,440 minutes that make up 24 hours. Author Clock comes loaded with those 13,000-odd lines; Wi-Fi updates add more. Because there are so many more than 1,410 quotations, it also rarely gives the same passage at the same time two days in a row.

So, now, when I sit at my desk, time is no longer a relentless progress of numbers but a string of random experiences — which, I suppose, is what we often hope to take away from time. One day, at 4:15 p.m., my Author Clock read: “The sun had begun to sink in the west, and the shadow of an oak branch has crept across my knees. My watch said it was 4:15.”  That’s from Haruki Murakami’s “The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle.” At 12:45 a.m.: “It is twelve forty-five. Time for my dwindling medication,” as Deborah Levy wrote in “Hot Milk.” At 10:38 a.m., Charles Dickens even noted the way in which we take for granted ordinary clock design: “‘It’ll be done to a turn,’ said the landlord looking up to the clock — and the very clock had a colour in its fat white face, and looked a clock for jolly Sandboys to consult — ‘it’ll be done to a turn at twenty-two minutes before eleven.’”

This thing is so strange and paradigm shifting, I had to know more.

The concept came to Cardona when he worked as a product-design consultant in the West Loop. He made samples at mHUb on West Fulton Street, a local testing ground for prototype development and magnet for venture capitalists. Cardona adds that the idea for a literary clock wasn’t his alone, then he winds through a history of inspiration:

First, there was the artist Christian Marclay’s remarkable 2010 installation “The Clock,” a 24-hour long film constructed out of thousands of scenes edited together from thousands of movies, arranged so that when you watching “The Clock” at, say, 2:30 p.m., it’s 2:30 p.m. in the movie clip on screen. (Its most recent Midwest exhibition was in 2014 at Minneapolis’s Walker Art Center; since it requires a gallery to stay open 24 hours a day, there has not been a Chicago showing.) Marclay’s work made such a splash (it won the Golden Lion at the 2011 Venice Biennale), it inspired the book staff at London’s Guardian newspaper to attempt something similar using literary passages.

A Mark Twain quote from his book “A Double Barrellled Detective Story” mentioning the time of 12:54 pm is shown on an Author Clock on Nov. 19, 2024. (Stacey Wescott/ Chicago Tribune)

That led to a tech designer in the Hague, using the Guardian’s quotations, assembling a literary clock on a hacked e-reader. He posted instructions online for creating your own clock — which led to a Danish coder creating a literary-clock website (literature-clock.jenevoldsen.com). About this time, Cardona, who had recently graduated college with an engineering degree, was looking for a product to make. “I was an avid reader, I heard about the clocks, I knew someone would absolutely make it as a product. That was six, seven years ago. I’d occasionally check to see if anyone made it yet.” When no one did, Cardona jumped in. Gray, who has worked on many household products as a designer (for Ikea among others), came up with the minimalistic look; Gruss, a freelance editor who taught literature courses at Brooklyn College, began evaluating every quotation.

To fund its development costs, Cardona turned to Kickstarter and Indiegogo. He sought to raise a relatively modest $20,000; he ended up netting more than $2 million.

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He’s since left Chicago and moved back to his native Puerto Rico. About four years later, the Author Clock is now sold in museum shops and book stores; it’s also being offered through AuthorClock.Com. Cardona said he’s sold about 20,000 so far: “We can’t make them fast enough.” The desk size is $199; a larger hangable one is $349.

Both do the same thing. That is, one minute at a time, they offer a kind of history of literature — or rather, a history of how authors have used timepieces as a literary device.

“Initially we wondered if authors even mention time often enough to serve a clock like this,” Cardona said. “Turns out, they do. But it wasn’t always the case. People didn’t live so minute-by-minute until relatively recently.” Reliable, consistent timepieces emerged in the late 19th centuries, and wristwatches didn’t take off with the public until about a century ago. The oldest quotes in the Author Clock date to “The Canterbury Tales” in the 14th century but the majority come from the past 100 years of fiction. “We particularly noticed an uptick in writers using time as detective characters got popular in the 1920s.”

What I’ve noticed about the Author Clock is how we use time to memorialize an instant — to recognize the flat tick of the everyday. Or we need to note the urgency to beat time: Harry Potter racing to his train at 10:45 a.m., Jack Reacher retrieving his assault rifle at precisely 11:34 a.m., Dean Moriarty in “On the Road” promising to return by 3:14 p.m.

Cardona and Co., buoyed by the success of the Author Clock, are already working on a home weather station that uses literary quotations about the weather to provide a local forecast. Weather is often an author’s proxy for establishing an emotional state, he said.

Time, however practical, is more elastic. The Author Clock illustrates how it means something different to everyone. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us — as Gandalf tells Frodo. He says this “after a late breakfast,” Tolkien writes.

But he doesn’t mention the exact time.

cborrelli@chicagotribune.com

‘Moana 2’ review: Sequel hits big screen unable to shake its small-screen DNA

You wouldn’t know from its looks that “Moana 2” originally was developed as a series for Disney+.

In theaters this week, the sequel to Walt Disney Animation Studios 2016 hit “Moana” — so beloved that it’s reportedly the most streamed movie of all time on Disney’s streaming service — boasts the type of spectacular digital animation we’ve become accustomed to from the House of Mouse. “Moana 2” boasts brilliant colors, dazzling specular highlights and stunningly executed sequences.

However, you might suspect the original small-screen destiny for “Moana 2” from its narrative. While telling what certainly can be considered a complete story, the film is plenty interested in setting up yet another adventure for the appealing islander heroine — just as you’d expect from a streaming series designed either to keep going or to promote a future film.

Set three years after the events of “Moana,” its sequel sees the franchise’s namesake character (voiced again, enchantingly, by Auli‘i Cravalho), leading the people of her island, Motunui, with former leader Tui (Temuera Morrison, “The Book of Boba Fett”) — her father — ready to bestow upon the already-celebrated wayfinder a sacred island title.

Moana is honored, but her mind is on exploring — we catch back up with her on another island, pig pal Pua in tow — in the name of finding other people who call her beloved ocean home. A clue found on that island is followed by a vision in which one of Motunui’s original wayfinders, Tautai Vasa (Gerald Faitala Ramsey), instructs her to seek a lost ancient island by following fire in the sky.

Come that fire does, and Moana puts together a crew for this journey important to the future of her people: Loto (Rose Matafeo), a spunky engineer who builds and is constantly tweaking the island’s canoes, including the large one needed for the coming task; Kele (David Fane), an older master farmer who has no real interest in the sea; and Moni (Hualālai Chung), a young man who has learned the island’s history and is designated as a story keeper.

Pau and the colorful chicken from the first adventure, Heihie (a returning Alan Tudyk), are along for the ride, as well.

Moana wishes she also had the help of her big, shapeshifting, nemesis-turned-demigod pal, Maui (Dwayne Johnson), but, as she says, he’s off “demigod-ing.” When we reconnect with the man with the personality-infused tattoos, he has his hands full with Matangi (Awhimai Fraser), a mysterious, magic-wielding and bat-friendly woman who will encounter Moana and give her guidance (and help hammer home a major thematic idea of this story: that it’s worth looking for a new way, even if it means getting lost at first).

Soon enough, Maui, Moana and her ragtag bunch are together to take on Nalo (Tofiga Fepulea’i), the god of storms, who will bring lightning and more in a fight to keep them from finding the ancient island.

Oh, and along the way, the gang runs into some cheeky old foes, who have something special in mind for the heroes.

Arriving in cineplexes not even a week after big releases “Wicked” and “Gladiator II,” “Moana 2” has plenty going for it and is certainly worth the price of another movie ticket.

And yet you can’t help but notice myriad little shortcomings, which may be attributable to the shift from series to film.

A scene from the movie “Moana 2,” the sequel to Disney’s box-office hit. (Disney/TNS)

For starters, “Moana 2” doesn’t give meaningful subplots to any of the secondary figures. Thanks in part to comedian and actress Matafeo, you’re left wanting more of the energetic and confident Loto. (Perhaps SHE could be the focus of a Disney+ series?) There’s certainly more meat on the bone with the quirky Kele, and while the fanboy fawning of Moni when it comes to Maui is as funny as intended, we can’t shake the feeling the Disney folks are putting off a romance between him and Moana for a third movie.

We certainly don’t think we’ve seen the last of Matangi, who disappears midway through the proceedings, or Nalo. (Hint: Stay into the movie’s credits for a tease of what may be to come.)

And while co-writers Jared Bush, who penned “Moana,” and Dana Ledoux Miller — the latter credited with directing the movie along with other first-timers Jason Hand and David G. Derrick Jr. — work to establish how crucial Moana’s success is for the future of her people, the stakes never truly feel that high. The need to find other islanders doesn’t compare with the blight that threatened the island in “Moana.”

Like that film, this one is infused with music. Here, it’s credited to Abigail Barlow, Opetaia Foa‘i and Mark Mancina. The songs are mostly enjoyable — the propulsive early number “What Could Be Better Than This?” sets a cheerful mood — but feel mostly forgettable. There’s nothing matching the quality of the Lin-Manuel Miranda penned “How Far I’ll Go” from the first film, and the semi-annoying Johnson-delivered “Can I Get a Chee-Woo?” is a weak replacement for his “You’re Welcome” from “Moana.”

As we see how far the animated Moana will go, here’s a helpful reminder fans can look forward to the live-action reimagining of the first film, set for theaters in 2026 with Johnson as Maui and Miranda returning to contribute music.

You’re welcome.

‘Moana 2’

Where: Theaters.

When: Nov. 27.

Rated: PG for action/peril.

Runtime: 1 hour, 40 minutes.

Stars (of four): 2.5.

Horoscopes Nov. 27, 2024: Alison Pill, unity is the passage to success and completion

CELEBRITIES BORN ON THIS DAY: Alison Pill, 39; Jaleel White, 48; Fisher Stevens, 61; Kathryn Bigelow, 73.

Happy Birthday: Say goodbye to who or what causes you grief. Unity is the passage to success and completion, and knowing when to move on is wisdom you are best to acknowledge, discuss and use to your advantage when putting your long-term plan in place. Turn this year into one of prosperity, and do what brings you joy, satisfies your soul and helps you reflect on what’s meaningful and important to you. Your numbers are 5, 18, 23, 30, 37, 44, 49.

ARIES (March 21-April 19): Leave nothing to chance or in someone else’s jurisdiction. If you want things done your way, do them yourself. Use your intelligence, experience and ability to process circumstances as you refresh and devise a new plan, and success will follow. A personal change will lead to financial gain. 3 stars

TAURUS (April 20-May 20): Refuse to let anger take over or allow stubbornness to hold you back. It would help if you had a diversion. It’s time for you to take control and initiate what happens next. Don’t expect a high return if you entrust someone to do what’s best for you. Engineer your destiny, and you will reach your goal. 3 stars

GEMINI (May 21-June 20): Refuse to let anyone tempt you into doing something that won’t help you implement your agenda. Outside influences and those trying to take advantage of what you offer will play a manipulative game that can jeopardize your position, reputation and relationships. Size down, fine-tune and stick to your budget. 5 stars

CANCER (June 21- July 22): Don’t play the odds; embark on a path you can control and turn the journey into something that improves your life. A chance to work alongside someone who shares your values and respects and appreciates what you bring to the table will complement your effort. Opportunity begins with insight, and with you. 2 stars

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): Tackle whatever comes your way with force. Use your intelligence to formulate your playbook and accelerate until you reach your maximum capacity. Don’t leave anything to chance or allow anyone to outmaneuver you. Set the stage and perform your script with perfection, control and a winner’s confidence. 2 stars

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): Distance yourself from anyone living large. Curb habits, set budgets and make your ultimate goal the incentive to do whatever leads to victory. Personal and financial gain is within reach if you research and tweak your plans to fulfill your dreams, hopes and wishes. Love and romance are favored. 4 stars

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): An open mind and heart will allow you to gather information from the best candidates. Choose people who can offer the knowledge you lack and boost your chance to surround yourself with the best and brightest people. Communication is your most effective tool to reach your goal. 3 stars

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): Stop before you do or say something you’ll regret. Silence is golden, and listening and tossing possibilities around with the information you gather will help you coordinate a plan that offers positive change where it’s desperately needed. Innovation and high energy will help you master your way to the top. 3 stars

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): Set a budget and consider decluttering your life. Discard or sell off what’s inconsequential to what you want in your life. Be honest about who you are and what you want, and you’ll gain the respect and support of those who genuinely want to be part of your parade. 4 stars

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): Spend more time taking care of personal finances and addressing how you earn your keep and what you can do to raise your value. A positive change at home will give you the confidence and energy to be precise and follow through with your long-term plans. 2 stars

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): Open your door and explore what’s available. Put your energy into the details and turn whatever you do into something that’s got your unique touch. Refuse to let generosity lead to debt. Refrain from putting your health at risk by visiting places that host large gatherings. 5 stars

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): Question everyone and everything. Expect to receive tampered information or poorly written instructions. When in doubt, ask questions and reassemble your thoughts before you push forward. Handle an emotional situation concerning joint expenses with care. Love is favored, but a lack of trust will cause a dispute. 3 stars

Birthday Baby: You are optimistic, chatty and colorful. You are accommodating and resourceful.

1 star: Avoid conflicts; work behind the scenes. 2 stars: You can accomplish, but don’t rely on others. 3 stars: Focus and you’ll reach your goals. 4 stars: Aim high; start new projects. 5 stars: Nothing can stop you; go for gold.

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Blake Snell defects to Dodgers from SF Giants

Blake Snell’s tenure in San Francisco is over, but the Giants will continue seeing him frequently in the coming years.

Snell is signing a five-year, $182 million deal with the defending World Series champion Los Angeles Dodgers, according to multiple reports.

Snell, who opted out of his two-year deal with the Giants in early November, confirmed the news on his Instagram, posting an edited image of himself wearing a Dodgers uniform.

The Giants’ odds of competing with the Dodgers and Padres in the NL West were already slim, but Los Angeles’ addition of Snell only creates a further disparity between San Francisco and its Southern California rival. Snell stands to join one of the most talented rotations in the league, a unit that will likely include Shohei Ohtani, Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Tyler Glasnow.

In his lone season with the Giants, Snell went 5-3 with a 3.12 ERA with 145 strikeouts over 104 innings, tossing a no-hitter against the Cincinnati Reds on Aug. 2.

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Snell’s tenure in San Francisco started slowly, the product of him signing late and sustaining multiple injuries during the first half. In the second half, by contrast, Snell was one of the best pitchers in baseball, position a 1.45 ERA over 12 starts with 103 strikeouts over 68 1/3 innings.

The left-hander was scheduled to start San Francisco’s penultimate game of the season, but opted out of the start given his looming free agency.

“I love it here. I think we can be really, really good. I see a lot of promise. And I enjoy being here,” Snell said at the time. “I want to be somewhere that wants me and loves me and will invest in me to be the best player I can be to help them win. I like it here. I hope it’s here. We’ll see.”

Trump team says Israel-Hezbollah ceasefire deal brokered by Biden is actually Trump’s win

By AAMER MADHANI

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Biden administration kept President-elect Donald Trump’s incoming administration closely apprised of its efforts to broker the ceasefire deal between Israel and Hezbollah that took effect early Wednesday, according to the outgoing Democratic administration.

Trump’s team, meanwhile, was quick to spike the football and claim credit for the rare spot of good news for a Democratic administration that’s been dragged down by the grinding Mideast conflict.

“Everyone is coming to the table because of President Trump,” Florida Rep. Mike Waltz, Trump’s choice for his national security adviser, said in a post on X on Tuesday, shortly before the Israel Cabinet signed off on the agreement. “His resounding victory sent a clear message to the rest of the world that chaos won’t be tolerated. I’m glad to see concrete steps towards deescalation in the Middle East.”

The Biden administration’s reported coordination with Trump’s team on its efforts to forge the ceasefire in Lebanon is perhaps the highest-profile example of cooperation in what’s been a sometimes choppy transition period.

Trump’s transition team just Tuesday reached a required agreement with President Joe Biden’s White House that will allow transition staff to coordinate with the existing federal workforce before Trump takes office on Jan. 20. There has been some coordination on high levels between the outgoing Biden and incoming Trump teams, including talks between Biden’s national security adviser Jake Sullivan and Waltz.

Biden in Rose Garden remarks on Tuesday cheered the ceasefire agreement as a critical step that he hoped could be the catalyst for a broader peace in the Mideast, which has been shaken by nearly 14 months of war following Hamas’ attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.

“This is designed to be a permanent cessation of hostilities,” Biden said. “What is left of Hezbollah and other terrorist organizations will not be allowed — I emphasize, will not be allowed — to threaten the security of Israel again.”

White House officials are now hopeful that a calm in Lebanon will reinvigorate a multi-country effort at finding an endgame to the devastating war in Gaza, where Hamas is still holding dozens of hostages and the conflict is more intractable.

Biden said the U.S., as well as Israel, will engage in talks in the coming days with officials from Egypt, Qatar and Turkey to try to get Gaza talks back on track.

But during Biden’s moment of success in a conflict that has roiled his reputation at home and abroad, the specter of the incoming Trump administration loomed large.

Trump’s senior national security team was briefed by the Biden administration as negotiations unfolded and finally came to a conclusion on Tuesday, according to a senior Biden administration official. The official, who briefed reporters on the condition of anonymity on a call organized by the White House, added that the incoming Trump administration officials were not directly involved in the talks, but that it was important that they knew “what we were negotiating and what the commitments were.”

Trump’s team and allies, meanwhile, said there was no doubt that the prospect of the Republican president returning to power pushed both sides to get the agreement done.

Waltz, in addition to giving Trump credit for the ceasefire deal coming together, added a warning to Iran, Hezbollah’s chief financial backer.

“But let’s be clear: The Iran Regime is the root cause of the chaos & terror that has been unleashed across the region. We will not tolerate the status quo of their support for terrorism,” Waltz said in his post.

Sen. Lindsey Graham, a Trump ally, also gave a shoutout to the incoming administration, while giving a nod to Biden’s team.

“I appreciate the hard work of the Biden Administration, supported by President Trump, to make this ceasefire a reality,” Graham said in a statement.

Richard Goldberg, a senior adviser at the Washington group Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, said the moment magnifies that Iran — which he said would have needed to approve of Hezbollah agreeing to the ceasefire — is carefully weighing what lays ahead with Trump.

“There’s zero doubt that Iran is pulling back to regroup ahead of Trump coming into office,” said Goldberg, a National Security Council official in Trump’s first administration. “It’s a combination of Israeli military success and Trump’s election — the ayatollah has no clothes and he knows we know.”

The Biden White House is also holding on to a sliver of hope that the Lebanon ceasefire deal could help reinvigorate a long sought after Israel-Saudi normalization deal.

The official said a “lot of work has been done” to get such an agreement on track “but clearly where we are in Gaza is holding us back.”

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Biden has said his administration was tantalizingly close to reaching a deal between the Middle East’s two most important powers shortly before the Hamas attack sent tremors throughout the region. He has speculated that the emerging normalization deal was part of Hamas’ motivation in carrying out its attack on Israel when it did.

Just weeks before the attack, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu sat beside Biden on the sidelines of the annual U.N. General Assembly and marveled that a “historic peace between Israel and Saudi Arabia” seemed within reach — a diplomatic advance that the Israeli leader predicted could lead to lasting peace between the Israelis and Palestinians.

The so-called normalization push, which began during Trump’s first administration and was branded the Abraham Accords, is an ambitious effort to reshape the region and boost Israel’s standing.

The Biden White House plans to keep the incoming Trump administration looped in on its efforts and “anything that we will do on this … we won’t do this unless they know what we’re doing,” the Biden administration official said.

Associated Press writers Fatima Hussein in West Palm Beach, Florida, and Zeke Miller and Chris Megerian contributed reporting.