JANUARY 21, 2022, KEIZERTIMES, PAGE A13
At-home COVID tests now available from USPS
Every household in the U.S. can now
get four rapid COVID tests mailed to
them for free.
The U.S. government on Tuesday,
Jan. 18 launched a website for peo-
ple to order the tests through the U.S.
Postal Service. Tests will ship at the
end of January.
Ordering tests requires a name and
street address the tests can be mailed
to. An email address is optional to
track shipping.
A Spanish-language order form can
be found online.
There is no identification or health
insurance required to get tests, and
they are available to any U.S. house-
hold regardless of citizenship or immi-
gration status.
The Biden administration is buying
1 billion at-home tests at a cost of about
$4 billion, States Newsroom reported.
The tests are intended to help stem
the recent surge in COVID cases and
hospitalizations due to the more con-
tagious omicron variant, though tests
will arrive after that wave is expected
to peak in Oregon.
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from Keizer —
WE WANT TO KNOW.
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U.S. residents can now order at-home COVID rapid tests through the U.S. Postal Service.
Submitted photo
Disney offers another animated hit in Enchanto
BY T.J REID
For The Keizertimes
It might sound a bit oxymoronic, but
ask any wizard, witch, or Istar and they
will tell you that magic needs to follow a
certain set of rules. What these rules are
varies from work to work, but the under-
lying principle should stay the same:
perform a certain action, expect a certain
reaction.
When this doesn’t happen, the illu-
sion of a fictional world being possible is
shattered and the real force holding that
universe together can be seen behind
the cracks. Disney’s Encanto lacks a
“why” for most of its fantastical narra-
tive of events, leaving one to question
the internal logic of the magic, but it is
a predictably fun animated feature from
the House of Mouse despite this lack of
clear cause-and-effect.
Encanto is the story of a more literal
magical house and the spectacularly
gifted Madrigal family that lives within.
When the magic of the miracle starts to
fade, it falls to the only non-superpow-
ered family member, the quirky Mirabel
(voiced by Stephanie Beatriz of Brooklyn
Nine-Nine fame) to save it.
The only problem is that the why of
anything is never clearly explained in
this movie. Why was the magic fading?
What actions cause the resolution of the
film to happen? Does Mirabel actually
do anything to save it, or is she just along
for the ride? Maybe I’m missing some-
thing, but this movie left me confused
as to what exactly the plot was. You don’t
need to explain the magic, but maybe
tell me why certain things happen.
Perhaps the house and the magic
are there to simply act as an allegory
Review
for the themes the movie explores,
such as acceptance of others as they
are, being more than the gifts you’ve
been blessed with, etc. These themes
were welcome and supplement what
might have been an otherwise under-
whelming plot. Helping matters are the
lively soundtrack written by Lin-Manuel
Miranda, the beautiful animation, and an
endearing cast of characters. It is a large
cast, too, with a great number of main
characters that are nonetheless expertly
juggled so everyone has a chance to
shine and maybe even evolve a bit.
Less welcome are a couple of ele-
ments that made it feel like Disney was
sometimes going through a checklist
of expectations and dutifully crossing
things off.
There are a couple of quirky animal
sidekicks that really only exist to sell a
plushy or two at the Disney Store, for
instance, and if you couldn't see the end-
ing coming a mile away I would call you
incredibly nearsighted. But that’s okay.
If some of this movie was created by a
committee, it’s a committee that clearly
knows what it is doing at this point.
Despite its flaws, Encanto is another
home run by the folks at Walt Disney
Studios. Did you expect anything less?
Encanto is now available on Disney+.