Quayle

What's going on in the life of Tommy Acuff

Last weekend, we had our annual gathering of bloggers, at my friend Eric's house.  I'll be honest, I don't know if anybody in attendance is still writing online regularly, outside of the Facespace.  Teresa still does, from time to time, but I think sharing on the smaller social media engines usually suffices for most, nowadays.

Me, too, I reckon.

I was a little sad at this gathering.  A lot of our little tribe have left this plane of existence.  Steve and Kevin are the two I miss most.  Jabu, Denny and Matt, too.  A lot of the old tribe have moved on to other pursuits.  It's not the big raucous gathering it used to be. 

Such is life, I reckon.

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The local theater, the Athens Movie Palace, ran a really fun little promotion this month running some old school horror flicks.  A couple of the Universal monster flicks: Dracula and the Invisible Man, a John Carpenter favorite, Halloween, and last night, Hitchcock's Psycho.

I was really jazzed about the opportunity to see the first three on the screen, and was pleased with Psycho, but come Sunday, I was actually on the fence about going to see.  I'm glad we went....even in black and white, it's very visually pleasing on the Big Screen.

My buddy Steven brought his son Connor, and it was the first time Connor had seen the flick, which he enjoyed.  It hit me that I was probably around his age the first time I saw it.  I'd missed it up until the day Dr. Badger showed it in his film class.  At that point, the movie was about 35 or 36 years old.

For no reason in particular, I noted that an equivalent, in age if not intent, for 2025 might be Field of Dreams?  or Goodfellas?

Time's a funny thing.

(No it's not).

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I did also take the time to watch Kathryn Bigelow's House of Dynamite on Netflix yesterday.  Boy, that's a hard one to Monday Morning Quarterback.  I kept comparing it to Annie Jacobsen's really terrific and horribly terrifying Nuclear War: a Scenario, which deals with roughly the same issue at its start:  an ICBM is launched carrying a nuclear warhead.  HoD's scenario is different in that we don't know who's fired this mystery missile, or where it's headed (to start with).  

My only complaint with Jacobsen's book was how clinical it felt, though that's only a minor quibble.

House of Dynamite is a little different, except that as the movie is basically playing the same 18 minute segment over from various points of view, some of the emotional weight feels incongruous, or out of place....and even tacked on like an afterthought.

That said, I don't know how you improve it, even from my amateur's seat.  It just feels like such a huge, terrifying thing to tackle, that I don't know that you tackle it adequately on Netflix money.

My main quibble is with the decision to leave politics at the wayside.

I didn't necessarily enjoy Idris Elba as the POTUS casting about for guidance in his role as Leader of the Free World, but neither did I think it was off the mark.  I guess that's part of my trouble with the nuclear button in general:  you absolutely NEED a man of conscience in that role, but it's going to be a man of conscience who has the most trouble wrapping his head around the issue.

 

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I worry about things like that with the current administration.

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A lot.

mini golf

Meme Dump

A followup to Sports

Well. Shit.

Saturdays Sports Saturday!! Sports!!!

I worked in grocery for so long, where weekends off were few and far between, that having a Saturday afternoon free to watch football is still a novelty.  Tennessee plays hated Mississippi State this afternoon in Starkville.  It still feels very weird to be able to sit my ass on the couch and watch a football game, if I want, without having to move Heaven and Earth to have gotten that weekend off.  (And funny thing?  if I did have that weekend off, it's usually because I had something else going off that I needed the time off for, so I wasn't watching the games then, either).

When I was with the store, there was a long period of time that we would pipe the radio broadcast over the PA system.  That was made to halt somewhere around 2012, when the Director who would fuck me over a a couple times said we couldn't play the game on the PA, since there were ads for competitors in the commercials.

So, so much for trying to inject a small bit of joy into your life on a Saturday afternoon in the South, where college football is just as important as God, Family, Food and The Second By God Amendment.

There were so many reasons to dislike Big Jim.  That barely ends up in the top 5.

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Tennessee does look good this year.  Prior to the season, I was thinking that an 8-win campaign was in the cards, given the uncertainty with the quarterback situation, after Nico Iamaleava misread the room and fucked off down to UCLA.  Didn't know if Aguilar would have the speed, or the receivers the ability, to run Heupel's system right off.  Fuck me, I guess, because they're a missed field goal against Georgia from being 4-0 right now, with a schedule of games that looks a little more winnable with the offense firing on all cylinders.

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But!  It's still baseball season.

2 Games left in the season.

The Cubs clinched a playoff spot 9 or 10 days ago.  They then went into a 5-day hangover, getting swept by the Reds, who are likewise fighting for a spot, in 4 games.

They've shown a little life in the bats, with Kyle Tucker returning to the lineup for the first time since September 2 or so yesterday.  The put 12 on St. Louis yesterday, with Seiya hitting a grand slam.  

Anything can happen on the field.  Maybe the Cubs can figure out what made them so successful 4 months ago, and do that.  I look at a lineup of guys hitting .245 with 30 home runs, and would be more satisfied, I think with guys hitting .275 with 18 homers.  But that's not the game they play.

That all said, my gut isn't optimistic over how this postseason goes, but I also am not so impressed by any of the teams likewise making the playoffs that I see any of them as unbeatable.  Even Milwaukee, which was so hot from Memorial to Labor Day, lost the season series to the Cubs, so there's always a chance.

And then there's the psychic I read about predicting a Blue Jays/Cubs World Series.....

So, I'm rooting for the Cubs.  And I think the Mariners, over in the A.L.  But I'm digging how the leagues are shaping up, though I'd prefer the Astros be kept out of the final 6, if at all possible......

Random Thoughts

 Sitting here on a lovely late summer afternoon, watching the Cubs clinch a spot in the postseason.  First time since 2020, the teevee tells me, though it feels longer.  That stretch from 2015-2020 was special.  And it was too easy to take for granted.  I think I bullshitted myself into thinking the rebuilding following the dismantling of 2021 wouldn't take long.

Damn, it's felt long.

Not gonna count any chickens before they hatch.  I haven't felt confident about this team's ability to score runs since before the All-Star Break.  And indeed, they've been just a few games over .500 since mid-June.  They've shown flashes of it the last week, but largely we're leaning on Shota, Cade Horton and Matthew Boyd (with Boyd looking very, very tired his last couple or three outings, including his start this afternoon), and a bullpen that's turned itself around nicely since being the only big question mark early in the season.

But I also feel like there's nobody entering this postseason on the National League side that is locked and loaded, that is unbeatable.  Milwaukee has regressed from superhuman the last few weeks, and nobody seems to want to win the West.  I don't think the Mets have the pitching.  The Phillies have looked alive the last couple weeks, but they can fade just as quickly.  It's just gonna take somebody getting hot.

Seiya was back in the lineup.  Hoping Kyle Tucker comes back by this weekend.

Maybe.

Just maybe.....

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Took Thomas to see the movie The Long Walk, which adapts Stephen King's novel (written as Richard Bachman).  It's been one of my favorite novels for a while.

The flick is a pretty solid adaptation of the novel.

It's fucking brutal.

Especially after the week we had in America last week.

It's good.

But it might be one of those movies I don't watch again for another several years.....

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My favorite Robert Redford Movies:

1.  The Sting

2.  The Natural

3.  Captain America:  Winter Soldier

4.  All is Lost

5.  Sneakers

6.  Butch Cassidy & the Sundance Kid

7.  A Walk in the Woods

Putting Winter Soldier up there is probably blasphemy to some.  But it's a good flick, and he's good in it.

All is Lost is a great flick, and I once owned it on DVD, but I don't have it anymore.  I'm thinking I loaned it to my buddy Marty, who died.

In fact, I'm sure of it.

I haven't thought about that DVD in 7 years, until news that Redford passed.

Anyway.  A Walk in the Woods is an underrated little flick.  Shouldn't work.  But it does.  Especially as I wander further into middle age.....

His last movie role was Avengers: Endgame, unless I'm mistaken.  But he did appear, uncredited, in an episode of The AMC show Dark Skies, playing chess with fellow producer George RailRoad Martin.....

Redford seemed like a good dude, and he left an impressive body of work.  May he rest in peace.

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Stopped at lunch at a Burger King today.  I like getting the Impossible Whopper.  I've cut my red meat consumption considerably since my hospital stay in 2022.  I eat it maybe once a month.  But when they do it right at the BK, the Impossible Whopper is nearly indistinguishable from the real thing.

Had a small bit of consternation when I stopped at one in Cleveland, TN:  they said they no longer sell the Impossible Whopper.

When I got to the window to pick up the chicken sandwich I ordered instead, I asked if that was a company-wide decision.  

"I don't know," the young feller at the window replied.

Nothing online showing a company-wide removal of the product.  Hopefully I can still get one, somewhere.....

 It's a weird world.  And only getting weirder.....

A baseball trip

Wandered down to Truist for the Cubs and Braves last night.  The tickets were a Christmas present from my Brother-in-Law and sister.  I was looking back at the MLB Stadium app, and it's possible I haven't seen the Cubs in person since the home opening series for the Braves in 2019.  Now, I say that, and will admit that there's a good chance I saw them in either 2021 or 2022 and simply didn't note it in that particular app.

I'll be honest about something.  I was a little iffy on going.  Trying to save up some money to pay some bills and be ready for Christmas.  But when I mentioned it to Shyam, she was pretty excited about going, so we made plans to wander down.

One of the things I was really looking forward to when the Braves moved to their new stadium was maybe attending a game on a whim.  At the time, I was working in Cleveland, and it was conceivable that I could get out of work around 4, and make it to Marietta in a couple hours, in time for a game, from time to time.   That plan only worked that way once.  Not long after the Braves moved to Atlanta, the situation at Food Lion went sideways, and stayed sideways.  We were a manager short, or I had to help out all over creation, or I was working under a manager who was trying to make me quit.  Or there was a little something called Covid.

But despite my misgivings about taking the team away from the city it's named for, I do enjoy that I don't have to drive all the way through Atlanta to get to the stadium.  We left the house a little after 4 yesterday, and with near perfect traffic conditions, made it to our parking just after 6.

It was pretty night.  The truck thermometer showed 83 on the way down, but by the time we made it to our seats in 337, the stadium board was showing 76.7 degrees.  It would drop into the high 60's with a light breeze.  All in all, a beautiful night for a ballgame.

This is the only visit to Atlanta for the Cubs.  Bitching about the schedule doesn't do any good, but I miss the days 30 years ago when they'd wander down twice a year, so that if you missed their visit, you might try again in a couple months.  Nowadays, you have one shot, and if it's at an inconvenient time, you can hope for the postseason, or wait until next year.  The last couple of seasons, the Cubs visited during a busy time of year.

That's also the case for Shyam and me going to games.  This is the first game in at least a couple years that we've hit at the Major League level together.  Given that our business's busy season coincides with the bulk of the baseball season, it's tough for both of us to get down (and not be exhausted in the doing).  After Labor Day is our best opportunity.  I don't know if April and Lee remembered that, or if it was just coincidence.

The game itself?  Well, I don't want to spoil an all too rare blogamathing post by griping about how little the Cubs are hitting as they limp toward the postseason, nor will I mention too much the oddly haphazard way they deal with injuries to Kyle Tucker.....

The past couple of months, they hit worse with runners in scoring position than just about any Cubs team I've seen.  And last night was no different, except that runners in scoring position were tough to come by.  Atlanta's Elder baffled the lineup the first time through the lineup, with Willi Castro providing the only hit of the first 3 innings....

Shota Imanaga went for the Cubs, which was what I most looked forward to about the night.  I like how the guy pitches.  He depends on being smarter, rather than stronger.  He took the Loss last night.  It looked from my vantage point up in the third level that he didn't look comfortable in the first inning, which was when he got rocked for 3 runs.  Watching the pitch chart the Braves leave on one of their display boards, it looked like he wasn't getting any movement on his splitter....  But that may just be my interpretation from the left field foul territory.

The Cubs lost.  Third in a row.  

But we had fun.  Shyam and I haven't gotten to do as much fun stuff this year.  We made a few movies, and we did our book club with our friend Jill.  But working together, and having a handicapped cat at the house cuts down on a few opportunities to go do.

We both enjoyed ourselves, though.  And promised to go find another outing now that it's cooling down.....

(There is a new mini-golf course near us that we need to try soon.....)

The end of the world as we know it

This was really enjoyable.   As fun as I'd hoped.   A couple of real bangers in there. 

I'll write more.   But this was fun.....

Dwight

Wandered out to a Dwight Yoakam show Saturday night in Chattanooga.  First concert I've been to in a month of Sundays.  The changes in income somewhat whined about in previous posts have lead to that state of being.  But I've wanted to see Dwight in his own show for a while.  I've seen him twice before, once the part of a festival, and once sharing a bill with Willie Nelson.  Wanted to see a whole set from him...

He's got a hillbilly sound and a simple presentation that I enjoy.  He played some old favorites, and a couple new ones.  He encored with Suspicious Minds, which is a favorite song in general, and probably my favorite thing that he's covered. 

Dug the show.  Went with my sister, brother-in-law and nephew.

Had an interesting night after.  Tried to leave their house, only to find both headlights on the car burned out.  Rather than drive home with high-beams, I stayed the night at their house.  Was able to procure new bulbs on Sunday, which did the trick.  I was afraid that something bigger electrically might be awry.  But such is life on older cars......

Random Thoughts

 Random Thoughts, this Sunday the 17th.

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Today would have been my Dad's 73rd birthday.  If you've been reading, you can see that I miss him.  I can only think of the reams and reams of questions I'd like to ask him.

Foremost among them today:  Did you know what the fuck you were doing at 48?

I don't feel like it most days, here lately.

Sometimes I need to be reminded that we're all just bags of water with attitudes and varying degrees of self awareness, and the ones that think they know what they're doing and know what's going on are only deluding themselves.

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Old blog buddy Eric and his wife Fiona are taking a trip to see some Tennis this weekend.  It kinda hit home that Shyam and I haven't taken a trip in a couple of years.  Trying to save up some money, and possibly looking for some part time work in the fall.  Maybe we can change that up.  Even if were just a trip over to Fall Creek Falls or Cumberland Mountain for a cabin for a couple of nights.  

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I mowed yesterday, and then took myself to the movie Weapons.  And I dug it.

I don't want to talk about it too much, because I went into the thing cold, and that was the right way to do it....knowing only what the poster and previews had told me.

It's excellent, and doesn't find a moment to drag in its 129 minute or so run time  (a run time that made me leary for a horror flick.....it's tough for some flicks to maintain suspense and atmosphere for 90 minutes, let alone longer than 2 hours.

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Ranking the Zero Sugar Root beers I've tried in the last few weeks.

Prior to July, I'd only ever tried one zero sugar root beer: A&W.  Which I didn't care for back in the day.  But, when they had a sale on Coke products at Food City, I grabbed a 12-pack of Barq's Zero Sugar, and said that if I didn't care for it, I'd leave it in the cooler at the vats, and let anybody who wanted them have them.

Turns out I liked it.

And I've gone on a minor tasting spree. 

So far, I've only tried 4, 3 of them new.  I retried A&W, which is the only one you can find in 20 ounce bottles, that I've seen.

Anyway:

1.  Barq's.    Delightful.

2. IBC.   Quite good...in fact, were I to blind taste test, it may come that I like it better than Barq's, but it comes pricy in the 4-pack bottles.

3.  Mug.   Good, but not as strong a flavor.  Tastes almost watered down compared to the previous two.

4.  A&W.  It's not horrible, but it's got a medicine-y aftertaste that the first 3 do not.  Now, it's more convenient, because you can't find the other 3 in 20 ounce bottles at your local inconvenience store.  But it's not great. 

Maybe that comes as a surprise, as online, it's constantly rated best.  But those people rating it are wrong, and are probably on the payroll of Big A&W.

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Speaking of Root Beer, I'm up to 11/22/63 in my chronological read-through of Stephen King's work.  This one was a high-water work, and I was really looking forward to it.

So far?  Jake's going back for a Root Beer in 1958 caught my eye.

Also, Jake's a little too gung ho for going back and time and stopping the Kennedy assassination, for my money, but it's still fun......

1.

Cubs

It used to be a pretty regular topic on the blogamathing.

They lost 3-2 to the Pirates yesterday. 

They're 15 games over .500.

That's where they were after 71 games.

That's about where they'll stay. For the next 6 weeks,  I think. 

Unless the stars align,  and Kyle Tucker finds his groove again.   He's the lynchpin.  He's what keeps everybody else from having to perform outside their role. 

The pitching has been good enough.   I'd have liked them to have grabbed one more quality starter at the trade deadline.   Horton,  Boyd, Shota and even Rea were top notch this week.   MacKenzie Gore wouldn't have made a difference if you aren't scoring for him. 

I hope Owen Caissie is worth it.   They didn't want to give him up.   He's highly rated.   I just see a guy who's gonna hit 25 homers and strike out 180 times.   Hopefully I'm wrong. 

It's been a weird summer.  The Cubs doing well was a nice spot.  And it still is,  I guess.   .500 ball since mid- June just doesn't feel the same.  Especially against the Brewers playing almost .800 ball during the same stretch......

Anyway.   Just down that they lost.   

(I'm 48!)

Reading recommendation: When the Clock Broke

Finished this one this past weekend.   Ganz is part of the Unclear and Present Danger podcast with Jamelle Bouie, a frequent but not quite regular podcast listen of mine.   Bouie is one of my favorite writers.... commentators.... thinkers out there.   But in listening to the podcast,  I've come to like where Ganz comes from by way of thought. 

I'd been on the lookout for this one since it released last summer, and was happy to find it on sale on Audible. 

A bit of an answer,  thirty years years after the fact,  to Francis Fukuyama's End of History,  and an unintentional companion to Chuck Klosterman's book The Nineties,  it follows a handful of media and political figures who rose to prominence and perhaps infamy in the early 90s, as the world wandered through Desert Storm, the economic downturn,  the L.A. Riots and the 1992 presidential election and beyond. 

The sections on David Duke and Pat Buchanan were my favorites for underlining the growing power and voice of those who felt underserved by the political establishment.   The same goes for the history and candidacy of H. Ross Perot, in what was maybe the most enlightening part of the book.... despite being 15 and then 19 for his runs, i realized i knew very little about Perot's history. 

Other names that popped to the forefront: Gates, Sister Souljah....Ice Cube.

The section on Ruby Ridge,  and the up close look at a family that lost faith in the American system was actually chilling.....

Strong read.   Especially for those of us who lived through these events,  but still look around and wonder how the hell we got into this handbasket.....

Strong read,  with a lot of good for thought.   I recommend.

Dreams

 I forget where I read it, but there's somebody out there who once said something along the lines that there's nothing more insufferable than listening to someone describe their dream.

George Carlin?  Harlan Ellison?  Maybe somebody more contemporary like Bill Maher?  

I don't remember.  And I guess I don't care because I'm going to use the little bit of time I dedicate to the blogamathing to describing a dream I had the other morning.

And I say "the other morning" because it came in a brief snooze after Shyam got up at her (our) regular time of 5:30 or so.  I'd stayed up a little longer the previous night, and we didn't have anything pressing at the business that needed my attention, so she invited me to stay in bed.  This'll happen every now and then, and most of the time, I recognize that I'm awake and just get up.  Sometimes I'll try sleeping in, and I end up just fucking around on my phone.  But yesterday?  My happy ass just fell right to sleep again.

But it wasn't for long.  Another 30 minutes, 40 tops.

In that little bit of time, I fell into a weird dream.

It starts at my childhood friend Lindsey's house.  We had many a sleepover at his house growing up, usually everybody piling into his family's living room.

And we were there.  Tregg.  Matthew.  Jeremy.  But there were also several members of the group we did Cons with in the late 90's and early 2000s.  My buddy Steven.  the Bills.  Shyam and Diane were there.  And we were all waiting for my friend Stephanie from high school, to celebrate her birthday.

And in the dream, the phone keeps ringing, and I pick it up, and it's my Dad.  "Hey, bud," he says.  "Just wanted to see what you were doing," he says.

"Just hanging out at Lindsey's," I say.  There's a little more small conversation, and then he says "he's gotta go" and like that he's gone.  I remember asking him not to go, and I woke up with the words "I miss you" on my lips.

Just a dream, I suppose.  But it's messed with my mind for about 30 hours now.

I do miss him.  But I don't know where this one came from, out of the blue like it did.  Dad's been gone 8 years, this past spring.  Two Summer Olympiads, One Pandemic and 8 years of the most ridiculous political environment you can imagine.  I think about it a couple times a week that I'd like to talk to him, just to hear what he thought about stuff.....

Anyway.  There's your boring dream post.  Sorry George, or Harlan, or whomever.....

Tree Frog

Sandberg

There's a meme going around about how there is no stronger fandom than that between an seven-year-old and a mediocre player on his favorite baseball team.

And maybe there's some truth for that.  I've still got a lot of fondness for Jody Davis, or Keith Moreland....or even Thad Bosley.

Mine wasn't a mediocre player, though.

I don't know exactly when I latched on to Sandberg, but I definitely remember the Sandberg Game.

I was 7, that June 23, 1984.

I didn't watch the whole game.  We'd been out doing whatever families  with seven- and three-year-olds do.  But we got home, and I saw the last few innings.  I watched Ryno pick that game up, put it in his pocket and say "it's mine, now."

I've since watched the game on Youtube, and it's one of the few things out there that makes me feel like I'm 7 years old again.

Sometime later that season, or maybe the season after, my grandparents were down for a visit from New Jersey.  And Grandpop wandered in to my watching the Cubs.  He asked who my favorite player was, and I said Sandberg.  He said that Sandberg was a good one.  Maybe, he said, the best clutch hitter he'd ever seen.  And he mentioned that Sandberg Game.

He was my favorite player.

I don't have a lot else to say, except that he did it quietly, and without ballyhoo.

In fact, he probably should have had some more ballyhoo.  An abrupt retirement in 1994, that lasted through 1995 might have had something to do with the Hall of Fame questions that emerged after his final retirement in 1997.  Jeff Pearlman called him in a recent video a "generational talent."  And that's right.  He was the best second baseman of the second half of the century, with apologies to Roberto Alomar, and none to Joe Morgan's favorite player, Joe Morgan.  But because most baseball writers revert to baseball card statistics when a player hasn't been in their eyeline for the 5 years requisite for Hall admission, and because he didn't hit 300 homers, or hit .300 for a career, he got overlooked.

I'll always remember fondly going to the Hall of Fame in the fall off 2005, with my buddy Steven, after he'd been inducted that summer.   Enough people raised a fuss when he was excluded.   I still have about a dozen of the postcards of Ryno's plaque floating around in my desk.   I'd like to go back.

My buddy Rob (is Rob still my buddy?.....I feel like I may have fucked up that friendship with my particular brand of standoffishness: I haven't talked to him in a couple years) got me a signed Ryno ball.  It's in my office.  I got a 1990 Donruss and a 1985 Topps card signed by him during his stint managing the Tennessee Smokies.  A few years ago, I completed a set of autographed Cubs cards from that 1985 set, and I'm slowly working on that 1990  Donruss set.....

Monday was a crappy night.  The Cubs were playing the uninspiring ball that they've been playing since before the All-Star Break.  I'm dealing with health annoyances (after a trip to my new cardiologist last week, I'm back in AFib and I'm having to wear a monitor for a month to see how constant it is....and I went for my echocardiogram Monday).  Shyam was still catching up from being sick the week of the All-Star Game, and dealing with having to replace one of the trucks at work.  And it's just so fucking hot.  Highs in the high 90s, with high humidity, but somehow no rain in my corner of Tennessee.

And then, in the middle of that Brewers debacle, there came the Facebooke post that Ryno had succumbed to the cancer that he'd been fighting.

Life comes in and punches a seven-year-old every now and then.

The tributes have been cool.  Hearing fans and opponents talk him up.  Announcers and teammates.  I cried a little bit when I heard Shawon Dunston talk about how special he, Andre Dawson and Mark Grace were to Ryno.  That lifted my heart a little, knowing that those 80's teams were as meaningful to those guys as they were to Tommy Acuff in Tennessee.

But, you still go out there and play.  Keep moving forward. That's one of the things I took from Ryno.  Even when you're slumping (which he did, seemingly the start of every season.....I wonder what his career slash line might look like if you omitted April from his career).   Just put the cleats on....

Files

The First Six Months in Books, 2025

 I looked at my Superman post, and realized that I'd not done the only regular posting I've done on the blogamathing for the past several years.  July's rushing by, and we're three weeks in without my look at what I've been reading in 2025.

So, here we go:  

January

Age of Cage:  Four Decades in Hollywood Through One Singular Career  by Keith Phipps

Decent read.  Good overview of what I admit is one helluva career.  I enjoyed reading it, but with the conscious decision not to pursue Cage for a voice in the overview made this feel a lot of Google Journalism.....

The Immortal Hulk Omnibus by Al Ewing, et al.

I'm trying to keep better track of my comic reading in 2025 (with mixed results, Tommy in July says).  I'd picked up the digital copy of the gigantor omnibus and picked my way through it.  And ye gods, these omnibus editions can pack in 50 or 60 issues of story, so there's a lot there.  What's good is good.   Very good.  Perhaps some of the best Hulk stuff to cross my eyeline in a few years.   The book tends to trail off, or lose energy when it includes a story not specifically written as part of "Immortal Hulk."  Still, quite good, on the whole.....

Duma Key,   by Stephen King

Part of the continuing project to read through all of King's work in publication order.  I tapped out of King for a lot of the mid 2000's forward.  I'd tried Duma Key, but it never caught, for some reason.  I liked this, though, when I finally finished.  There's a lot of King still working through getting run down by the van, and the injuries and handicaps that may come with.  This one's also a look at the role of art in healing.  I felt like there was a lot of Duma Key that is King forgiving himself.....

Strong Female Character    by Fern Brady

I think I may have developed a little crush on Fern Brady during her series of the excellent teevee program Taskmaster.  Even after 7 months of having watched her season, I still get her hastily composed "I'm Fern Brady" song bouncing around in my head.  This isn't quite what I was expecting.  To be honest, I was thinking this was going to be one of those hastily published books that simply transcribe some of the comic's best bits.  Instead, it's a well spoken examination and memoir of Brady growing up Autistic, a diagnosis she received late in life.  Funny, yes, but her advocacy for those on the Spectrum is admirable.

Far Sector,  by NK Jemisen & Jamal Campbell

DC, last year, reintroduced a compact/manga sized series of several stories.  They've called this series "Compact" and they have a really nice $9.99 price point.  I say that because as a mostly casual comics fan over the last 2 decades now, I do a lot of my reading in trade paperbacks.  As the single issue price creeps up, it just becomes more economical to read the trade, which are largely inevitable nowadays.

The problem with that is that the price of trades has crept up, and if it's not a character I'm normally interested in, I may not shell out 20 or 30 bucks to read a story.  10?  That's a little more doable.

Far Sector is what made me love the Compact line.  This is a lot of fun.  Nerfs the Green Lantern concept a bit, but it makes for a better detective story.  Nice SF concept.  Good mystery.  I like Jemisen's work a lot, but this is the first comic work of hers I've read.  I recommend.

Crypt of the Moon Spider by Nathan Ballingrud

I read this initially in December of 2024.  I found myself unexpectedly sitting at the car shop for one of the route trucks, and digging through the Kindle app on my phone,  instead of reading something new, I decided to do this one again.  It's truly excellent.  Ballingrud's fiction instills a distinct sort of disquiet in me.  His collection Wounds is one of my favorite short story collections, and The Strange is one of my favorite SF/Western/Weird books ever.  This one is extremely good, as well.

The Drowning House  by Cherie Priest

Suitably creepy, which is Priest's Stock in Trade.  I enjoyed very much the aspect of a couple childless 40-year-olds having to search for a third.  Halfway expected the missing friend to just show up at the end saying "Oh, I went camping for a few days to clear my head" as one of my friends did once, worrying us all.....

February

Why We Love Football: a History in 100 Moments  by Joe Posnanski

Posnanski's book "Why We Love Baseball" was amazing.  A shining bit of positivity that I needed in November 2024.  Mom got me this for Christmas.

It's a good read, though I couldn't tell if my own enthusiasm for baseball over football or Posnanski's paints the thing.  It's a good read....Posnanski just doesn't seem to have the same exuberance in this as he did for baseball.....

The Boys of Summer   by Roger Kahn.

A re-read.  Read it in the 90s.  Probably during the offseason, when I was missing baseball.  The first third of the book, which is largely a memoir of growing up near Ebbets Field made me jealous all over again of those folks who lived close enough to a Major League Stadium to partake, even irregularly.  The second section is very much a love letter to the sports-writing beats and newspapermen of the 1950's. The book's last section hits a lot harder at age 47 or 48 than it did at age 18.  In this section, Kahn interviews those members of the Dodgers after their careers....when they're managing a factory, or a grocery store, or working construction.  I found myself close to tears a couple of times.  Marvelous book.....

The History of Sound, by Ben Shattuck

This year, Shyam and I at the suggestion of our friend Jillian have started a small reading group.  As of this writing, I think we've just finished our fifth book together.  This one, a collection of short stories, was the first.

And of everything we've read as a group, this is what my mind keeps bouncing back to, 5 or 6 months later.  Good collection of interconnected stories that bounce and play off each other.  I liked it.  There's a wry fatalism that I appreciated very much.....

Just After Sunset   by Stephen King

Continuing project, and whatnot.  I'd read a couple or three of theses stories in other anthologies, or in whatever they'd originally been published.  The rest were new to me.

Twins are a recurring theme for King.  Much the basis of The Talisman and Black House.  A major point of The Wolves of the Calla.  There are stories that are resonant Twins.  Dark Half and Secret Window, Secret Garden both seem to grow out of the same paranoia of fame and artistry.   There's a bit of it in Just After Sunset.  A couple of stories "Gingerbread Lady" and "Stationary Bike" share a lot of the same energy as Duma Key.

Many of the stories were written in close enough temporal proximity to September 11th that you can feel King unpacking those feelings for that event.  And there are another set of twin stories that are musings on what the Afterlife, especially the immediate Afterlife, will look like.  Toward that end, I really enjoyed "Willa" and thought it one of the better stories of his career.  And the best of this Volume.

Good collection with arguably only one turd.

March

Einstein's Cosmos   by Michio Kaku

Kaku's vibe reminds me very much of Carl Sagan's.  His enthusiasm for his subject is contagious.  I learned a lot in this one, even if it is an examination of Albert Einstein's career and teachings....

Horrorstor   by Grady Hendrix

First Hendrix I've read.  Not bad, especially the retail stuff which made me think Hendrix probably toiled in the big box store salt mines for a stretch.  But in the end, it didn't do a whole lot for me.

Don't Know Tough by Eli Cranor

Another one we read for the group.  It's not without its charms, but the small town southern football culture doesn't bear much resemblance to the actual thing......

Redcoat, volume 1   by Geoff Johns, Bryan Hitch et al.

I like Johns.  I like Hitch.  I just didn't get much out of this.  It never really comes together, nor leaves me interested in pursuing the story to see if it does come together.  Feels like it borrows concepts from a dozen different sources without saying much on its own....

Everything is Tuberculosis: the History and Persistence of our Deadliest Infection  by John Green

A pre-order that I surprised myself with.  Strong, accessible look at one of the formative illnesses for humanity.  Interesting look at its role in in U.S. and World Events (we may not have had a first World War without it).  Even more interesting:  its role in forming modern ideals of beauty (rosey cheeks, porcelain skin....)

Focuses even more strongly on advocacy for those in impoverished areas in the planet where the disease thrives, where drug resistant strains are likely to emerge.  Much of the book follows the story of Henry Reider, a young man in Sierra Leone whose treatment (and lack of it) is an exampble of how this beast persists in the 21sth century.

Dry Bones  by Craig Johnson.

Minor Spoilers, here:  It's weird getting attached to fictional people.  So apologies to the people of western North Carolina as I cussed myself silly.  In my want of something light to read, I wandered here.  And not far over the border from Tennessee to North Carolina, one of the characters loses a new husband in the line of duty.  And I cussed a blue streak from nearly Murphy to Andrews.

Good read.

April

2020: One City, Seven People and the Year Everything Changed   by Eric Klinenberg

Tough to read.  Not because of Klinenberg, but the subject matter.  Hadn't realized how raw 2020 still ran for me.  Took me a couple months to get through this one.  

The Lord of the Rings: the Return of the King   by J.R.R. Tolkien

Pippin and Merry have more reunions than Hobbits have meals.

Under the Dome  by Stephen King

King's Lord of the Flies.  A prescient look at the rise of Christian Nationalism.  After the van accident, King was a different cat.  The road back was long.  There's a lot of experiementation.  There's a headlong rush to finish The Dark Tower.  A move from supernatural horrors to the more tangible monsters and traumas we faced in the early part of this century.  A lot of it doesn't feel exactly right.  A lot of it....didn't work for me at the time.  A lot of what I read as part of this project in the last year was new, because I tapped out.  This was the first thing I read back in 2011 after being away for a while (and after Dad lent me his CD copy of the novella collection Full Dark, No Stars).

The book itself is a bit bloated, and kinda scrambles for an end.  The cast is a little too crowded, even if King likes a crowded cast.  Besides Barbie, Julia and a handful of others, they all feel interchangeable, and regardless they're dead by the book's end.

But on the whole, it's a lot of fun.  I'd forgotten just how much Big Jim's fascist playbook comes into play, especially the "Punish Those who didn't Vote for Me" aspect.  It's a little chilling.

First time around, I'd completely missed the odd Jack Reacher crossover....after looking that up, King just likes the Reacher books.....

May

The Antidote  by Karen Russell

Discussion Group.  So far in her career, I've enjoyed everything of Russell's.  I'd initially thought this one quite a bit darker and less prone to sarcastic whimsy, but then I looked at my notes on Swamplandia, and I'd forgotten a couple of the dark bits of that book.  Yeesh, Tommy...... 

Two other thoughts:  this one reminded me a lot of Katherine Dunn's Geek Love for some reason.  Similar spirits?  Definitely not similar execution.  I do think this had much more mission behind it than much of Russell's previous work.

The Blessing Way  by Tony Hillerman

Shyam and I started watching (and finished, actually) the really excellent Dark Winds, which adapts some of Hillerman's work.  I'd never read any of his stuff.  I enjoyed it.  Light on mystery, heavy on action.  I'll read another.....

True Grit by Charles Portis

I'm gonna be honest.  It's in the running for my favorite book.  Favorite line this time around:  "he went there from time to time to pay attention to a lewd woman...."

The End of History and the Last Man by Francis Fukuyama

One of those that I've seen cited from time to time.  Found a cheap copy.  Written not long after teh dissolution of the Soviet Union, it supposes that a Democracy of the informed and involved is the pinnacle of human governmental achievement.  And that personal recognition and glory are bigger drivers than economics.   Hindsight makes for easier criticism.  There a pile of writing looking to counter Fukuyama's supposition, and an even bigger contingent that wants to point and laugh.  At the end of the day, I don't feel justified joining that group except to say that even in my meager reading, the fall of Soviet communism wasn't That Big of a surprise, and the rise of groupings not necessarily nationalistic in nature that grow out of the increased access to fringe ideas afforded by the Information Age turn a few of his ideas on their ear.  Radicalized people taking out Oklahoma City or the World Trade Center, or political movements driven by near baseless propaganda, isn't new, and probably should have been given more thought, especially with the shortening of communication lines.  Not enough credit is given to the role of the Super Rich or the ideation of personhood being given to corporate entities....

Still....interesting read....and there is a healthy dose of "I could be wrong" in Fukuyuma's writing....

Anima Rising  by Christopher Moore

I play Trivia.  A lot.  And one of my weak areas is art and art history.  But I will tell you that what little I know?  I know because of a couple of Moore's books.  This one centers around Gustav Klimt, and the gathering of geniuses in Vienna near the beginning of this century.  And then there's the Bride of Frankenstein......

I liked this one a lot.

Blockade Billy by Stephen King

Fun in a Penny Dreadful kind of way.  Made me think that King had probably read or re-read Boys of Summer before writing this one.....

I will also note that I intensely dislike the accompanying story "Morality."  Never sure of the point King's looking to make, or even if there is one.  Just a sour, sour story.

June

The Three-Body Problem  by Cixin Liu

I've had this one kicking around my Audible library for a while.  Finally used it as a route listen.  Reading this reminded me some of reading Heinlein and especially Clarke.

I read one ridiculous review that bashed the book saying that Science Fiction has moved past this sort of storytelling.  My reply is that modern commercial science fiction has gotten away too long writing space opera and action stories disguised as science fiction, and some modern fans wouldn't know good SF it it were injected into their eyes.

I did have the problem I have with a lot of translated fiction:  I feel like it probably loses some of the poetry in the translation.  The prose does feel flat, from time to time.....

Mice 1961   by Stacey Levine

One year, about 15 years ago, I got invited to a New Years Eve party.  I knew no one except the host and a couple co workers.  I went at the invite of the host, with whom I'd carried on one of the few successful flirtations of my life.  I went to the party in hopes of maybe doing "the sex."  That didn't happen because the love of her life was there despite my thinking they were on the outs.  So, I wandered around this party with people I barely knew.  I left before midnight.

That party is how this book felt.  

It's an odd motherfucker of a book.

We read it for our discussion group, and Jillian and Shyam both agree.

The Glass Teat  by Harlan Ellison

This one feels like required reading.  The tricks that the conman in the White House uses aren't new.  Ellison was dealing with the same with Reagan in California, and Agnew & Nixon in Washington, in 1969 and 1970.  Good stuff.   Very good stuff.  Finding a copy for my nephew.

The Comfort of Strangers   by Ian McEwan

Strong horror vibes in this one.  And for good reason.

Full Dark, No Stars   by Stephen King

The one that brought me back to King after a 3 or 4 year hiatus on the new stuff.

1922 and Big Driver are Strong.  (Parenthetically, the movie adaptations of each are quite disappointing).  I enjoyed the collection, though.  Might be King attempting to exorcise his feelings and vengeance and retribution after his accident.

This one made me think of Dad.  And also of my late friend Gina Fann, who you may find in comments as far back as 2004 under the name "grandefille."  She unexpectedly passed a couple summers ago, but she was likewise a big King fan, and she also enjoyed this one.......

Superman

I took Thomas to see the new Superman movie last Thursday.  And it was great.  Quite good.  This was a great scene.   I had quibbles with how Clark's human parents were portrayed,  but I thought this scene was beautiful. 

It made me miss my Dad.   

And there is part of me that's needed to hear the words of his father's direction said to me for a while.   A long while.....

Clark: you don’t understand pop. I’m not who I thought I was. 

Pa Kent: Parents aren’t for telling their children who they’re supposed to be. We’re here to give y’all tools, to help make fools of yourselves all on your own. 

Your choices, Clark. Your Actions. That’s what makes you, who you are… and I’ll tell you something son.

I couldn’t be more proud of you.

Drinking

I quit drinking about 3 years ago. 

It wasn't an alcoholism thing.  I had an AFib/ Blood Pressure issue in August 2022 that put my in the hospital for a couple days.   A couple of the medications I've been on shouldn't be taken with alcohol, so I laid it down. 

I'd been ramping down anyway,  after Dad died.   He'd been drinking too much in the months prior to his passing,  and it was turning me off.  

But,  I'd still have a beer at a baseball game (the last beer I had was at a Chattanooga Lookouts game in late v July 2022).  I'd have a beer or two at pub trivia.   But I was nearing teetoler status as it was. 

By and large,  I don't miss it.  Rarely even think about it. 

But tonight,  watching the All-Star Game,  a beer might have been nice. 

Several months back,  I went to see friends of friends play music at a local venue.   I knew a couple people there.   A beer might have helped as a social lubricant. 

But anyway.   A beer at a ballgame might be nice.   But I'm not rushing for the stuff. 

Just a random thought.....

In which money is an object

Dang.   The All Star Game will be played a couple hours south of here on Tuesday. 

It's a bucket list thing, but I can't justify the cost. 

Where's John Cena when you need him?

striking the balance

incoming....

Storm incoming,  driving north into Athens

Thoughts on Full Dark, No Stars

I'm not meaning the old blogamathing to become a meme dump, but Spring's busy as hell and whatnot.  There's a big difference, though, in working like botard at the old jobplace, and being busy as hell working for yourself.  I mean, I'm not hating myself and the entire Universe at the end of any work day, so there's that!

The purpose of this post is not one of apology for laziness, but rather to comment on something I read (or listened to, as the case may be.)

I finished Stephen King's Full Dark, No Stars today.

I can't remember what I've written here about it, but shortly after Dad died, I decided to try to read everything Stephen King had written in publication order.  I did it a bit for Dad, who wanted to try to do just that, and didn't get a chance to.  He and I didn't always agree on everything, but we both thought King was a helluva storyteller, and we could bond over those stories.

I went a period, though, around 2008 or so, where I took a break.  It wasn't a conscious announcement of any sort, but I'd been underwhelmed by a lot of what he published following his van accident, and I just wasn't as enthusiastic about picking up new stuff of his to read.

Somewhere around 2011, my XM radio device went out.  It's what I listened to during my commute (which was, at the time, about 45 minutes to work each way).  This is back in the day, by the way, before people had the satellite radio as an option built in to their audio packages.  Mine was a plug in doodad that ran audio to the radio via the auxiliary cable.  My doodad crapped out, and aside from a bluegrass show my friend Danna did on Sunday mornings, there wasn't much I liked listening to on local radio, and I'd gone through a lot of my musical selection.

My Dad was a big advocate of audio books.  I'd done a few in my life, but he was the real enthusiast.  And for Christmas one year (I believe) we'd gotten him the CD audio book of King's Full Dark, No Stars.  He really enjoyed it, and suggested it as something to listen to.

He was right.  It was a helluva good listen.

Well, I'm now 8 years into my project.  I'm 38 years into King's publication career, and drew Full Dark, No Stars.  I was kinda looking forward to this one, just because it was such a pleasant surprise way back in 2011 or so.

It made me think of my Dad again.  He really liked the story 1922.  It had a nice Monkey's Paw vibe to it, that he always seemed to enjoy.  I've always enjoyed King when he's leaning into his EC Comics fandom for inspiration.  1922 is fun.  If Dad listened to a book, he never read it.  But he found a used copy at McKay's and bought it for himself, and read that novella a couple of times.  Don't know why it touched a nerve, but it did.  

As a digression, I finally watched the Netflix adaptation of 1922 this morning.  It stars Thomas Jane, and I'd avoided it after Netflix released it, because it released so close to when Dad passed.  I'm glad I did, because while faithful in structure to the novella, it's missing something in spirit, and somebody needed to tell Thomas Jane to pump the brakes on his accent.....

The other stories are good, but they made me think of somebody else.

Gina Fann was one of the first regular readers and commentors on this here blogamathing.  At least who weren't my folks or somehow acquainted with me in person.   As coincidence, she'd also just read Full Dark after taking a similar break from King.  In her words, she was waiting for him to find the magic again.  And she felt like he'd found it in Full Dark, No Stars.  There were, and are, a couple of stories that start problematically (one with a rape, one with a character with serial killer tendencies), that were often a turnoff for her (and me, if I'm being truthful).  Some writers can't rise above those pitfalls, but King managed it.  It was another reason for her to respect him.

Gina and I stayed friends across a handful of forums.  I'd offered to meet once, when I visited Murfreesboro years after moving away, but she didn't have an opportunity then.  

It wasn't unusual for her to disappear for a period, when work got heavy on her end, or when the political environment got sour.  So I didn't think too much of it when she didn't pop up in the summer of 2023.  In the fall, I sent a note or two to see how she was.  When I didn't get a response, I asked around.  Another friend in something of the same business did some digging.  And sent me the awful news that she'd passed away in August of 2023.

It was a gutpunch.

For a lot of us.  Like I said, she was very much a booster for those of us spouting our brand of witticism and/or vitriol into the void.  She was funny, and smart.  And often managed to get more out of us as writers than we thought we had in us, pushing from afar.

Here's something that I didn't mention:  it wasn't until that fall that I knew that her name was Gina.  I'd only known her as Grandefille since 2003 or 2004.  

She was a good lady, and I miss her, even if we only ever met online....

Anyway....as the book goes.  It was a fun read this time around, too.  1922 is a banger, and Big Driver works as a retribution piece.  Fair Extension might still be the weakest of the four, but it did hit me a lot different in 2025, as I myself am wandering neck deep in middle age myself.

One of the fun (interesting? notable?) things about the project is seeing what themes remain constant, and what changes up over a period of time.  Early in his career, there's lots of wariness about the government and media (which doesn't change much over time), and lots of anxiety about being a good father and husband.  In the 80's, there's lots of worry over substance abuse, celebrity and worries about the dangers to kids.  The 90's, after he kicked the booze and drugs, there's some foundering about relearning how to write....and there are some apologies.  To Tabitha (Gerald's Game), his mother (Dolores Claiborne) and to himself (Rose Madder).  And then there's the accident, when Bryan Smith, nearly ran him down with his van.  There's a lot in the next 10 years that are fallout from that....King learning to write (again), rushing to finish The Dark Tower (which finishes appropriately, but books 6 & 7 lacking the heart of the first 5), and processing the trauma (Bag of Bones, Duma Key).  

I'd flippantly noted when I was reading the Mr. Mercedes trilogy, and Revival, there was lots of cncern about being an aging white man.  There's a little bit of that in Duma Key, and there's a lot of concern about aging and being in a 30 or 40 year relationship in this one.

Anyway.  This one was fun.  And I'm really looking forward 11/22/63, which is next on my list, unless I'm remembering incorrectly.  That one is my pick for the finest thing he's written this century.....

I'm going to try to make myself sit down to write about a couple other things I've read lately:

Shyam, my friend Jill and I are in a small reading group, and the one we read recently was Mice 1961, by Stacey Levine.  I haven't had a book flummox me like this in a while.  Made me slow down while I was reading.  And I felt very much akin to the narrator, who herself was a fly on a wall at a party attended by two very dysfunctional sisters.....

And I re read Harlan Ellison's Glass Teat...and mostly I want to talk about how I probaby wasn't mature enough, even at 22 or 23, to have truly appreciated the gravity of some of the political though in that book, as much as it purports to be a television criticism column......

Maybe I can make myself, gentle reader......

Although there was something pleasing about being able to bullshit out 1400+ words in a little less than an hour.....maybe there won't be so much making about it.....

Top 10

Of course,  after making this I thought of a dozen other flicks that could have made my list.....

Corny

the upside down

Willam

I watched Mallrats this week for the first time in a minute. 

I never had a mall.  The nearest one was a half hour away,  and the nearest good one was an hour away.  So I never was a mallrat.

We did have a dirt mall.   It closed up a couple years ago,  after dying a slow death over the previous decade.   The best socks I ever bought I bought there.  3 pairs for $5.  I still have 2 pairs.   Warm,  and comfy.

I realized that I did have a Jay and Silent Bob.   And a Brody.   I might qualify as a TS, but more likely I'm a Willam.  I kinda did my own thing.   Didn't really get shunned, but wasn't always included.   I've never seen one of those Magic Eye pictures in all my 48 years,  and I've had food stains on my shirt almost always.....