tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-39442022024-03-05T17:07:06.582-05:00Big Stupid TommyAn online journal from perhaps the biggest, stupidest Tommy on all the internet.Tommyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08914790857025063194noreply@blogger.comBlogger3733125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3944202.post-29119654622638185132024-02-06T12:40:00.001-05:002024-02-06T12:40:12.754-05:00A movie made starring people with the birthday same as mine<p> A movie made, starring people with the same birthday as mine.</p><p><br /></p><p>Rihanna and Trevor Noah play estranged siblings, each gifted, but neither having spoken to the other in at least a decade. Their father is assassinated. The father was was a gifted crimefighter, who often wandered into the gray areas to get things done. He is played, using archival footage, by Sidney Poitier. </p><p>Rihanna has become a fixer for the biggest mob family on the East Coast. That mob is led by Chelsea Peretti.</p><p>Trevor Noah is a gifted cop for the NYPD. His captain, who can't handle Noah's mile-a-minute banter, is NBA legend Charles Barkley.</p><p>The assassin is French Stewart. Playing himself. Sick of playing comedic roles his career. </p><p>The soundtrack features work by Rihanna, Chris Thile, Olivia Rodrigo and the late Kurt Cobain.....</p>Tommyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08914790857025063194noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3944202.post-51788262757812747002024-01-28T16:42:00.003-05:002024-01-28T16:50:20.442-05:00Time, and How it Flies<p> 38 years ago, the space shuttle Challenger exploded off the coast of Florida.</p><p>It was a snow day, in my little town in Tennessee. My mother, who was a teacher, took my me with my sister to my sister's regular babysitter. I'm not sure if my Mom went to school anyway to get work done, or just wanted a house without kids in it. But I was at the house of a lady named Eleanor, and I was 8 years old, and obsessed with the space program. The obsession was even stronger, since we'd had classroom material about Christa McAuliffe, the teacher who was going into space. </p><p>I'm 46 now (almost 47!) and not nearly as obsessed with the Space Program as once I was. But it's one of those moments and days I'll always remember. Sitting in the den of Eleanor's home, even after the younger kids had been put down for a nap, watching the news unfold over the course of the day....</p><p>That might have been my first dealing with media saturation. Or fatigue. I remember going home and being somewhat aggravated that it was still the only thing on the television, and lamenting thus to my mother, who suggested going to read a book. This being, of course, the days when we had only 4 channels, and I think the Challenger disaster predates my family's getting a VCR by a year or two. </p><p>Anyway. </p><p>I'm writing. Or trying to.....</p>Tommyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08914790857025063194noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3944202.post-7968550096238518732024-01-06T17:47:00.001-05:002024-01-06T17:47:50.149-05:00Mmmmm.....beans.....<p> That's a good deal.....</p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFh9EIRqgiATnmQabohSYRMdif_Esdj8vZzSTe48ZrZeqeJvnlEobSKm3Fb2cbMiFYqrsKC6ShbCx2-AbUyKXv9pW56J3rwoOWcd3inMG7aeYvrYJc7-NukvEInst8KG5sGmrV7S66r-9u_KvmMP1C3qCx54tm4k6YyVaWuK_nhemTkKHoBYH9/s462/FB_IMG_1704561152109.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="422" data-original-width="462" height="292" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFh9EIRqgiATnmQabohSYRMdif_Esdj8vZzSTe48ZrZeqeJvnlEobSKm3Fb2cbMiFYqrsKC6ShbCx2-AbUyKXv9pW56J3rwoOWcd3inMG7aeYvrYJc7-NukvEInst8KG5sGmrV7S66r-9u_KvmMP1C3qCx54tm4k6YyVaWuK_nhemTkKHoBYH9/s320/FB_IMG_1704561152109.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p><br /></p>Tommyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08914790857025063194noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3944202.post-40638226598144047352024-01-03T09:30:00.002-05:002024-01-03T09:30:45.858-05:002023 Reading Roundup<p>Back in November, I'd said I wanted to blog more. Truth be told it's a low bar since I had, what, 7 posts last year? </p><p>2023 began with a real punch in the gut, and a pretty big life change. Still dealing with it I guess. The quiet times were harder. Sometimes I didn't have an attention span to read. Then, Mom had a stroke in September, and working with that ate in to some of that spare time. Still, got a little bit of reading done this year:</p><p><b>January</b></p><p><i>Light in August </i>by William Faulkner.</p><p>I've always listed Faulkner as a favorite, but I just hadn't read anything of his in four or five years. Pulled this one off the shelf. Originally read as part of Dr. Kerrick's American Lit (or perhaps his Southern Lit) class. This one's brutal. And oddly funny. Calling something "the most human" of somebody's work isn't a great descriptor, but this one seems the largest and most complete examination of humanity, in Faulkner's world. It's a favorite. </p><p><i>Secret Windows: Essays and Fiction on the Craft of Writing </i>by Stephen King</p><p>A companion piece to <i>On Writing</i> which I read in late 2022, it was a Book of the Month Club selection way back when. Part of the continuing project. Mostly a collection of forewords with a couple of essays and articles thrown in. On its own, it's not much special, but I do like it as a companion piece.....</p><p><i>Bullet Train</i> by Kitaro Isaka</p><p>The novel on which the Brad Pitt flick (which I liked rather a lot) is based. More philosophical, and definitely less Looney Tunes than the film adaptation, I kinda liked it.</p><p><i>The Gettysburg Campaign: A Study in Command</i> by Edwin Coddington</p><p>This came from the library of my late friend Kevin Britton. Kevin passed a year ago (give or take a day) in a motorcycle accident. He, our friend Eric and I had gotten together only a week prior at a Tennessee Smokies baseball game. Late in the year, Eric gave me this....it came from Kevin's library. It was fitting, because it seemed like Kevin and I would trade books once a year, and end up reading a couple more based on the recommendations of the other.</p><p>As for the book, it's dry, but fascinating. A strong look at the political and pragmatic pressures on all bodies involved with directing the battle.....</p><p><b>February</b></p><p><i>K: A History of Baseball in Ten Pitches </i>by Tyler Kepner</p><p>I dug this one. I learned a bit, which is impressive, considering that I think I know everything about baseball.....</p><p><i>Glitches and Stiches </i>by Nicole Givens Kurtz</p><p>A bit of Cybernoir. A gift from my buddy Dino. Cyberpunk, in general, isn't my cup of tea, but this one was grounded enough as a noir-ish police procedural that I blew through it in a couple days. Big props to Kurtz for her depiction of Anxiety in the workplace.</p><p><i>True Grit</i> by Charles Portis</p><p>Another re-read. It's turned into an annual re-read, for me. I first read this back in the 80's....my Great Aunt Mae gave me a box of books that had been sitting in a closet at her house. There were a lot of 60's and 70's TV and film adaptations, along with a handful of James Blish's Star Trek Readers, Ray Bradbury's The Martian Chronicles, and a copy of True Grit. I read it, but in all honesty, it didn't leave a huge impression, except for a couple of images (Rooster Cogburn kicking the boys off the porch for taunting a mule; and the finger chopping scene, both of which matched up very well with the Coens' depiction in their film adaptation). It's absolutely a helluva read. Highly recommended.</p><p><i>Number One Walking </i>by Steve Martin and Harry Bliss</p><p>A Christmas gift from my mom, it's a graphic novelesque look at his career, mostly after Standup.....</p><p><b>March</b></p><p><i>Get Ready: A Champion's Guide to Preparing for the Moments That Matter</i> by Buzzy Cohen</p><p>Buzzy's book had popped up in a couple places, but I decided to listen to it after hearing him talk about it on the Jeopardy podcast. Not a bad listen, and not as Jeopardy-centric as I'd thought going in. Good primer in prepwork, especially valuable for those not used to it. I like to think of it as a bit of a Type A Primer for Type B personalities.</p><p><i>The Grand Scheme of Things</i> by Ian Strang</p><p>I've followed this guy on Twitter for a while, and he's a funny cat. Picked up his book, which I enjoyed. It was bit long, but on the whole, I dug it.</p><p><i>The Stand</i> by Stephen King</p><p>I've been doing a chronological read-through of King's work, and I'd not wanted to double back, but for some reason, The Stand has a way of pulling me out of a funk. Add to that, I'm not a great fan of the stuff that King first put out after his van accident, so I jumped into this one. Thoughts this time around? Franny sure gets the short end of the stick in the last 1/3 of the novel....she's largely the heart of the book, if not its conscience. She's relegated to backup character by the time Stu and company wander out to Las Vegas.....</p><p><i>Wait for Signs </i> by Craig Johnson</p><p>A collection of short stories surrounding Walt Longmire. Shyam made this one our route listen.</p><p><b>April</b></p><p><i>The Strange</i> by Nathan Ballingrud</p><p>I think it's my favorite thing I've read this year. A bit of True Grit meets The Martian Chronicles, run through Ballingrud's Weird Horror filter. I give this one a high recommendation.</p><p><i>The Cruellest Month</i> by Louise Penny</p><p>Another series Shyam has gotten me into. I don't know why I keep coming back to the Inspector Gameche books, but there's something affirmative in Gameche's kind nature.</p><p><i>Bone in the Throat</i> by Anthony Bourdain</p><p>It's not bad, but it can't seem to find a balance that it's comfortable with between humor and gravity. In my head, I'd cast Brad Garrett as Tommy's Uncle, using his Jimmy John's commercial persona. His final outcome was great.....</p><p><i>Hell's Angels: a Strange and Terrible Saga</i> by Hunter S. Thompson</p><p>I've had this on my shelf for 25 years, buying it during my initial HST phase. I read 6 or 7 of Thompson's books in that wave, but not this one, for some reason. Pulled it off the shelf and read it. Not bad. It's probably Thompson at his most journalistic, though he admits that he didn't know if it were researching or slowly getting absorbed during his travels. </p><p><i>The Donut Legion</i> by Joe R. Lansdale</p><p>Without meaning it to, this became my doctor waiting room book. Between visits for myself and my Mom, I read this in four different appointment sittings. Good southern-fried romp from Joe. Doesn't set the world on fire...well, except for one plot point.....</p><p><b>May</b></p><p><i>Dreamcatcher</i> by Stephen King</p><p>Part of the continuing project. I didn't care for this one when it came out, and I cared for it less the second time around, in 2023. </p><p>It's not bad, necessarily, so much as it feels like two or three novel ideas welded together. Part of me always wondered if the genesis of the idea didn't come in the 70's or 80's, when a sort of constant background antagonist were the government agents employed at "The Shop."</p><p>I will note that this was written largely during his recuperation from that van accident.....</p><p><i>Shoeless Joe</i> by WP Kinsella</p><p>Another re-read. I'd actually picked up a copy for my nephew, and I decided to re-read it so I could check for objectionable material that I might have forgotten (there isn't much, aside from some sadly casual racism). The Field of Dreams adaptation is superior, but it does lose some of the Magic Quest feel that Ray's journey to pick up JD Salinger and Moonlight Graham takes.....</p><p><i>Found: an Anthology of Found Footage Horror Stories </i>edited by Andrew Cull & Gabino Iglesias</p><p>A Kindle read. Read a story every few days for a couple months. It's a bit of a mixed bag. Too many "transcripts" as a plot device. "Green Magnetic Tape" is pretty effective....and oddly, I liked Andrew Cull's intro to the collection very much.</p><p><i>Pigs</i> by Johanna Stoberock</p><p>An Audible listen. Stoberock appeared on Jeopardy and mentioned her book. An odd, dark fairy tale of a novel....Stoberock turns a good phrase.</p><p><i>Rivers of London</i> by Ben Aaronovitch</p><p>A fun read....we listened to this one while going over the mountains to North Carolina for a delivery.</p><p><b>June</b></p><p><i>Ball Four </i>by Jim Bouton</p><p>Another one that I'd picked up for my nephew. Another one re-reading to check for objectionable content....maybe there is some, but I read this when I was 12, so I'm pretty sure he can handle locker-room talk. </p><p>There is no better book written from inside the game of baseball.</p><p>Bouton is candid about himself, serious and self-deprecating, in his chances in playing for the 1969 expansion Seattle Pilots, and later, the contending Houston Astros.</p><p>There aren't many times I'll recommend listening to the audiobook before I would reading the work itself, but this is one of them. Bouton's rendition of his work is astounding, from getting tickled remembering stories from the season, to getting heartbroken recounting the death of his daughter in a traffic accident in one of the 10-year updates.</p><p><i>Harold</i> by Steven Wright</p><p>Steven Wright's non-sequitur ode to daydreaming in school.</p><p>Harold is a third-grader, and this novel recounts his daydream one afternoon in the late 1960's.....the timeframe is wobbly, occasionally referencing things much later. Our narrator addresses such anachronisms simply: mind your own business.</p><p>Hilarious, and occasionally angry. I was touched a couple of times. In many ways, I was Harold. In some, I still am.</p><p><i>She Rides Shotgun</i> by Jordan Harper</p><p>The route listen. Well put together.</p><p><i>Lock-In </i>by John Scalzi</p><p>A romp. I'm hit or miss on Scalzi, to be honest. I love his SF, but occasionally the geek humor will start grating on me (Red Shirts is one that Everybody seems to love, but I've tried it a couple of times and not gotten through it). This one was fun, though. Interesting premise. Decent enough mystery. I kinda liked it.</p><p><b>July</b></p><p><i>Black House</i> by Stephen King & Peter Straub</p><p>Continuing the project. I remember liking this one a lot at its initial publication, perhaps even more than The Talisman, which had long been a sentimental favorite, and which didn't hold up as well for me with the re-read. Written with Straub while King recovered from his van accident, I'd forgotten just how much legwork this one does laying down some roads for the Dark Tower to travel in its final 3 books. I'll say that it's a lot of fun, and I enjoyed it this time around, but you definitely feel Straub's hand on the pen a bit more strongly than you do with The Talisman. Which isn't a bad thing. Just an observation.</p><p><i>As the Crow Flies</i> by Craig Johnson</p><p>The work listen. Shyam introduced me to the Longmire books. I like the way Johnson turns a phrase. This one follows up a couple of the stronger entries in the series, so far. It's a step back in terms of pace, but damn does it get funny sometimes. </p><p><i>Corrections in Ink</i> by Keri Blakinger</p><p>I've followed Blakinger on the Twitter for a while. Her advocacy for Prisoners has led me down a wormhole that's had me send boxes of books to various prison book projects around the country. This is her story memoir of falling into drug abuse out of a promising skating career. She goes to prison on drug charges, and works to climb her way out. Her advocacy grew out of the fact that not everybody she came into contact with during her imprisonment has the ability, means and opportunity to do so. I liked this book very much. </p><p><i>Don't Fear the Reaper</i> by Stephen Graham Jones</p><p>Stephen Graham Jones is probably my favorite writer I've run across in the past several years. Mongrels and Only Good Indians are two of my favorite books from him, that I've run across. This one is the second book in a planned trilogy. The first: My Heart is a Chainsaw, was fun, but didn't really hit the nail on the head for me. I'm a horror fan, but for some reason, the slasher flicks and the last-girl mythlogy never really did a lot for me. Maybe it was my mood, or maybe Reaper hits the right gear, because this book hits the ground running at lunatic speed and never slows down. I had as much fun with this book as I did with anything this year. Lots of fun.</p><p><i>Breakfast of Champions</i> by Kurt Vonnegut</p><p>My initial Vonnegut rush came somewhere around 1997 or 1998. I read Slaughterhouse Five for a class. I found five or six of his then at the Goodwill, and blew through them in the space of a few months. I have managed almost all of his work since then, but Breakfast was a straggler (along with Deadeye Dick) for his novels. </p><p>While it's not my favorite (Slaughterhouse and Slapstick still top the list), it's still heavy with the surreal cynicism that I dig, but still imbued with a mild, self-deprecatingly dopey optimism that I appreciate, and find more familiar than I'm comfortable admitting.</p><p><b>August</b></p><p><i>The Beast You Are</i> by Paul Tremblay</p><p>A collection from Tremblay, who scratches that weird horror itch nicely. And while it's kinda hit or miss (Most short story collections are), I still found myself appreciating Tremblay's poking fun at his own ambiguous horror history, and his willingness to stretch his legs a bit, and to color outside the lines.....</p><p><i>Demon Copperhead</i> by Barbara Kingsolver</p><p>Lent to me by my Mom. I'd read 2 or 3 of Kingsolver's a few years back. Both sides of my family have roots in Appalachia, in areas screwed over by mining and timber companies. This one has a lot of that same background. And it ended up having a lot of stops and starts for me, because there were several instances where Demon was somebody I knew, or could have known. Was going through things that kids I went to school with went through. There were a couple of things that tugged at me, bugged me as I read, that maybe shouldn't have (Tommy Acuff, oversensitive Southern guy here). Little liberties with geography that muddle just how long it takes to travel in the area....a different view of Knoxville as an Urban Center (that wasn't incorrect, necessarily, but it took a few pages for me to reconcile). Part of me stepped lightly around Demon have a magical talent (again, I had to remind myself that there are scores of folks who don't have talent recognizes or developed because means and opportunity weren't there.....</p><p><i>Secret Stories of Walt Disney World </i>by Jim Korkis</p><p>Jim Korkis was a pretty regular guest on a couple of podcasts I listen to. He's probably written more about the Disney Parks than anybody. He passed in late July. I'd had this one floating around my e-library for a while. It's written in bites, which was perfect, as I was spending a fair amount of time in and out of doctors' offices for mom in August....</p><p><i>Love and Hate in Jamestown: John Smith, Pocahontas and the Start of a New Nation </i>by David Price</p><p>Man. David Price loves him some John Smith.</p><p>I guess that's where the love comes in. </p><p>Strong read, actually. Flows well, with lots of good info and context for the rest of the world. The small miracle that the colony survived at all, given the ineptitude of management in the venture, combined with the uneven relations with the Natives, over the course of several years, especially after Smith was shipped back to England with injuries.</p><p>That said...I think Price would trade a Kidney to go back in time to hug John Smith</p><p><i>Hearts in Atlantis</i> by Stephen King</p><p>Continuing Project. It was the first real backtrack I had to make...somehow, in late 2022, I skipped over this one in my rush to get to On Writing, I think. </p><p>The two novellas that make up about 2/3 of this volume are, in a word, beautiful. </p><p>One of King's biggest strengths is is ability to remember and repaint the thrills, the wonders, the insecurities and vulnerabilities of childhood without too many of life's filters getting in the way in the ensuing decades. Bobby Garfield's story of forging a friendship with the mysterious upstairs neighbor Ted Brautigan is a helluva dark romp through the summer of 1960.</p><p>The second novella, the titular story of the collection, might be one of King's best. It's certainly, of all he's written in the past couple of decades, the one that's popped to my mind most. It strikes me as highly autobiographical, for King. And it reminds me a lot of my Dad. It is the tale of a first year college student who navigates love, the 60s and a neverending game of Hearts in his dormitory. I read this story, this time around, and thought about my Dad a lot, who went to college not long after the story's setting of 1966.</p><p>To underline that, when I pulled my copy off the shelf, I found an old boarding pass for a flight from Knoxville to Denver tucked under the dust jacket around the back cover. It would have been my Dad's from a work trip. </p><p>The final three stories....well, 2 stories and a Coda of sorts for the whole intertwined volume, all worked to please me very much. This is King at his most Altmanesque. I've always liked King's small town work, where people's live intertwine. This one is a similar tapestry.</p><p>In this project, which began just after Dad died in 2017, I'm comparing a lot of my thoughts to those of a much younger dude. I was literally just a kid when I read a lot of King's stuff. There have been a handful of times that things just his differently. But not like this one. I read Hearts in Atlantis near its publication, which would have made me 22 or 23. I'm 46 now, and have had another half my life lived. The whole collection, but especially that second story, hits a whole helluva lot differently. This may be my favorite re-discovery since I started the project.</p><p><b>September</b></p><p><i>James Madison</i> by Garry Willis</p><p>James Madison was a fussbudget. But, an idealistic fussbudget.</p><p>The book was dry as hell. I can fight through a lot of dry stuff. But this one took me a minute.</p><p><i>Everything's Eventual</i> by Stephen King</p><p>In this project, I've tried not to read two works too closely together, so as to preserve each book. But, I actually started this one before Heart's in Atlantis, before realizing I'd missed that one. Since I was a story and a half into it, I went ahead and just read this one. I don't know if you'd call it underrated, but it kinda surprised me how solid it was. My favorites this go around: "The Man in the Black Suit," "All That You Love Will be Carried Away" and the surprisingly effective (and self-loathing) "Riding the Bullet."</p><p>A couple other things of note, and it's just kinda what I notice as I read through his work: His mind keeps bringing a couple things forward: The first is smoking....there's a lot of focus on characters quitting smoking, or relapsing, or wanting to relapse. There are a couple instances of characters buying a pack of cigarettes, smoking one of them and then throwing the rest of the pack away. There's also a bit of spousal drama: fights, divorces, or just general bickering. These two items, I wonder, if they go hand in hand with King's recuperation from his van accident...</p><p><i>Cinema Speculation</i> by Quentin Tarantino</p><p>Say what you will about QT, I do appreciate his enthusiasm. Good essays about his early experiences with double bills in Los Angeles with his mom and stepdad, and with others later in life. Had to mark a couple to watch Joe, which I found on Pluto, and The Getaway with Steve McQueen, which I found for a dollar at McKay's, only to get home to realize I'd already had a copy as part of a complilation with Bullitt and Papillon...</p><p>I listened to the audiobook of this one, and Quentin reads a couple chapters of it, which is fun for his machine gun enthusiastic delivery, but grating to the point of cringe when he emulates dialects. I will say that the second section he reads is a note about family friend Floyd, who wrote the first screenplay Quentin read, and who instilled in him the desire to actually write a movie.</p><p>Lastly, he mentions having caught a few movies during his time living with his Grandmother, but some of what he did catch were at the now demolished South Clinton Drive-In, which I discovered after a search was just a couple miles from where I run my Friday Route. It is now a housing development....</p><p><i>A Damn Near Perfect Game</i> by Joe Kelly with Rob Bradford</p><p>My mom suffered a stroke in early September, and she stayed in a rehab facility in Chattanooga for a few weeks as she recovered. This is one of the ones I listened to as I drove back and forth. </p><p>I like Joe Kelly the pitcher...I like how he attacks on the field. I'm not sure how I feel about Kelly the person. Sets himself up in opposition to the Commissioner's office, but marches pretty much in lockstep with much of the nonsense that the Commissioner has been spouting for years (Our Billion to Trillion Dollar Industry is in Danger of Dying!!! The Game is Boring!!! The Sky is Falling!!!!). Neither Kelly nor the Commissioner can admit the the easiest way to make baseball accessible is, in part, to end the archaic media market/blackout rules.</p><p>The book is not without it's good thoughts, though. Makes some good point about the culture of the game, both at the MLB level and the Youth level (in the latter, specifically that Travel Ball is a little bit of a scam, since so many parents are treating it as a lottery ticket). I also enjoyed the section with ball players, managers and other personalities talking to Joe about why they love the game.</p><p><i>The Great Mortality</i> by John Kelly</p><p>Cheerful reading with Mom in the Rehab hospital. Kelly knows how to turn a good phrase, and even more importantly, preserve and share it when history provides a good turn of phrase itself. Avignon have a scent like a mermaid with loose bowels is just the light turn of phrase I needed in late September.</p><p> <i>Fairy Films: Wee Folk on the Big Screen </i>edited by Joshua Cutchin</p><p>Another that I read with Mom in hospital. My buddy Dino picked this up for me during his travels. Some essays are stronger than other, but I really enjoyed Simon Young's look at Disney through the years, and David Floyd's examination of Close Encounters.</p><p><b>October</b></p><p><i>Moon Over Soho</i> by Ben Aaronovitch</p><p>Shyam picked this one to listen to. It's enjoyable, but not as taut as the first book of his series....almost like the story got away from him a bit, and he had to hit the brakes hard to come to a close. Not bad, but almost felt like it didn't go where Aaronovitch expected it to....</p><p><i>In the Form of a Question: The Joys and Rewards of a Curious Life</i> by Amy Schneider</p><p>Quick read. Good read. I actually enjoyed the FAQ popcorn format, as it underlines the ADD and focus issues she has dealt with. Also touching were her talk of confidence issues and social anxiety. Maybe a bit more frank than I'd been expecting, but that's on me, not her....</p><p><i>Killers of the Flower Moon: the Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI</i> by David Grann</p><p>I've had this one on the shelf for a while, and wanted to read it before I saw the flick (which, as of January 2, 2024, I still have not watched....going to movies was a little tough for a couple months this year). I really enjoyed this one, the way it flowed. Very readable. Definitely will sit with more of Grann's in the future. </p><p><i>the Mammoth Book of Folk Horror </i>edited by Stephen Jones</p><p>The Kindle Read. For what seemed like months. I'd pick a story here and there. Like a lot of these anthologies, hit or miss. The high points: "Jenny Greenteeth" by Alison Littlewood, "Gravedirt Mouth" by Maura McHugh, and "The Devil's Piss Pot" by Jan Edwards</p><p><i>MCU: the Reign of Marvel Studios </i>by Joanna Robinson, Dave Gonzales and Gavin Edwards</p><p>This one surprised me. It's strong. The business of collaborative creativity, and corporate creativity, is one of minor fascination of mine. And, I'm a pretty big MCU fanboy. Others may be experiencing superhero fatigue. I just want them to feed me more.</p><p>It's a pretty even-handed overview, though it does follow the Feige lead in vilifying Edward Norton pretty quickly. (There has always been a part of me that's wondered how the MCU might have looked if Feige & company had found away to play nice with Norton).</p><p>It's not a cheerleading work, though, putting egos like Robert Downey, Jr., on display, and the overall unfairness of some compensation packages.</p><p>I will always applaud any work that takes Ike Perlmutter to task, though. Racist. Sexist. Elitist. Dude nearly destroyed Marvel, and then ran point for turning comics into the speculative shit show that the 1990's were. And going solely by the MCU, the shitshow that was Iron Man 2 and Thor: the Dark World can be laid largely at his feet.....</p><p><i>From a Buick 8</i> by Stephen King</p><p>I got it on sale on Audible and listened while I raked leaves, blew leaves and chopped leaves up into mulch at Mom's house. Which was pretty much all I did in October. I was thinking that this was a re-read, and then about halfway through the audiobook, it stopped being familiar. I pulled my hard copy off the shelf, and sure enough, about 60% of the way through, I found my receipt from where I'd purchased it at the Books a Million in Murfreesboro, TN.</p><p>So, the novel is a bit of a mess, and you wonder if King's still trying to exorcise a demon, since a teenager's parent is killed after being run down by the town ne-er do well.</p><p>Still, I ended up liking it. And I totally let myself get okeydoked for a minute at the end.....</p><p><b>November</b></p><p><i>Deadman's Road</i> by Joe R. Lansdale</p><p>Another one that I listened to while trying to clean up leaves at both my house and my mom's. Ties together multiple stories that Lansdale wrote about the same character (though he does correct Reverend Mercer's name from another in their original publications....)</p><p>Very fun. Nice B-Movie, weird horror vibe wrapped around western settings. I dig it...</p><p><i>The Rise and Reign of the Mammals: A New History from the Shadow of the Dinosaurs to Us</i> by Steve Brusatte</p><p>A follow-up to Bursatte's similar history of Dinosaurs, and it follows his own his own change in specialization in researching the mammal fossil record. Follows mammals from surviving the asteroid strike that took the dinosaurs, to filling the niches once filled by those animals , to dominating ecosystems and eventually the planet.</p><p>An alternate title suggestion: Jaws. Also, Ears. The development of such is what began to differentiate the precursors of mammals before placental birth and the name giving mammaries became a thing.</p><p>Coincidentally, Shyam and I finished The Fall of the House of Usher and Pym's statement about humanity being "a virus" popped into my head when Brusatte talked about the fall of Megafauna on the planet, and the decrease in competing fauna the Earth has experienced since Homo Sapiens took the wheel.</p><p>That all said, I find Brusatte to be an extremely approachable science writer, and takes a raconteur's approach to relating millions of years of history. This was one of my favorite books I read this year.</p><p><i>Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke </i>by Eric LaRocca</p><p>Around Halloween, author Gabino Iglesias listed something like 100 horror recommendations. I found this one cheap. An epistolary novel, it fit my attention span for the fall, which was in Squirrel! mode most of the fall. Two women's lives intertwine via e-mail. And it goes downhill pretty quickly.</p><p>Heavy on alienation, a need for approval. I don't think I've read a horror novel this soaked in melancholy since Stephen Graham Jones's <i>Mongrels</i>. It's short, which is probably best, as I'm not sure the concept holds up in a much longer work. This one gave me a lot of thought. It made me sad. It was great.</p><p><i>Opposable Thumbs: How Siskel & Ebert Changed Movies Forever </i>by Matt Singer</p><p>Maybe it's a little surprising, but I was never a big Siskel and Ebert viewer. I mean, I saw it, from time to time, but it was very much at the mercy of whatever syndication schedule I was living near at the time. I associate the show coming on Saturdays after cartooons, for a while, but I also distinctly remember it coming on the local ABC affiliate Sunday nights after the 11pm news. Truth be told, it wasn't until college that I really started hunting down reviews and reviewers for flicks. And even then, it ended up being in print. Which is not to say I didn't see the show. </p><p>Singer does a superlative job relating what the critic scene was like when Siskel and Ebert came into the scene, and how it changed, especially with their influence. Gene Siskely left us too soon. And I'd have been interested to see how the partnership would have held up in the years since we lost him. I was very pleased with the details of Ebert's adaptation over the years....I liked the book a lot.</p><p><b>December</b></p><p><i>Dark Tower V: the Wolves of the Calla</i> by Stephen King</p><p> Continuing project, blah blah blah. I thought of the last 3 books of the Dark Tower series when I began my project. I love the first four books of the series, and rather liked book 5. But part of the appeal of the series was how different each volume felt. Then, in a rush to finish the series, books 6 and 7 don't have a unique feeling....rather, they feel like continuations of book 5. But, I digress.</p><p>Wolves is fun. Definitely carries a nice Seven Samurai vibe, and I still dig bringing Father Callahan back as a character. Definitely a fun read....</p><p><i>The Chalice War: Stone</i> by David B. Coe</p><p>My buddy Dino got me a copy of this. I started it late in the summer, and then Mom had her health problems and my attention span for reading went to shit. Then, I picked it up again in October, but misplaced my copy. Eventually, it was found in the back seat of the car, where it had gotten left taking Mom to a medical appointment. </p><p>I'm picky with my fantasy. To the point that I might not actually like the genre, sometimes. But, Coe's characterizations are solid, and the rules of the world are pragmatic. It sucks you in, and when I finally sat down and gave it my full attention, I blew through it in a day and a half. Good read.</p><p><i>A Christmas Carol</i> by Charles Dickens</p><p>Annual re-read. Just a banger of a ghost story. For some reason, I always like the trip through the ships at sea and the mining villages.</p><p><i>Surely You Can't be Serious: the True Story of Airplane </i>by David Zucker, Jim Abrahams and Jerry Zucker</p><p>Fun read. Airplane's a fine flick (though I like Kentucky Fried Movie and Top Secret both a little better). Let's get some pictures, boys!</p><p><i>Democracy Awakening: Notes on the Story of America </i>by Heather Cox Richardson</p><p>I ran across Richardson first during the early days of the Pandemic. Smart stuff. Great writer who gives strong historical context to present-day goings on. This one is a look at the rise of authoriatarian strongmen in our own history. And what was done to combat it. And while some history gets glossed over a little bit (LBJ hahahahaha, LBJ), it's still a solid look at authoritarianism working its roots into our culture over and over....</p><p><i>The Stupidest Angel</i> by Christopher Moore</p><p>A re-read. As much as I enjoy the bulk of Moore's work, the early books set in Pine Cove are still favorites. They're just goofy fun. Prior to this, I'd read Lust Lizard of Melancholy Cove and the Island of the Sequined Love Nun, but it was this one that led me to Lamb, which is probably my favorite Moore book: the only one that I'd recommend to any and everybody. </p><p>Angel is fairly well self-contained, though, and don't require reading those books to appreciate this one....Moore fills you in on the particulars pretty well. And there are a couple really good gags that made me laugh out loud even a second time through the book.....</p><p><i>The View From the Bridge: Memories of Star Trek and a Life in Hollywood </i>by Nicholas Meyer</p><p>Not a bad read. Enjoyed the stories of making Wrath of Khan and the Day After. Looking up Time after Time and The Deceivers in the next little bit.i</p><p><br /></p>Tommyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08914790857025063194noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3944202.post-41884139071708412652023-11-13T18:58:00.004-05:002023-11-13T18:58:41.886-05:00XXI<p> 21 years ago, in a galaxy far, far away, I started typing nonsense onto the interweb on this here site. </p><p>I don't visit often, anymore. "Real Life" and all that. </p><p>How's life these days?</p><p>Mom's improving after her stroke. Her therapist is impressed with her recovery, and thinks she's capable of a full recovery. She's about to graduate from a walker to a cane. We wandered to Chattanooga McKay's to trade in a box of books she's been sitting on since the spring. She picked herself up a book and a couple seasons of a teevee show to watch....</p><p>The rest of Life is chugging along. We're running into baby trout season, so the Tyranny of Fishes is impending. </p><p>Doing a NaNoWriMo project, but my writing is rusty. Word count ain't great but any words are better than 0.</p><p>Wandering towards my first Thanksgiving where I'm not looking at a 60 hour work week. That's feeling pretty cool. </p><p>Anyway.... I'm gonna try to write here a little more. We'll keep on trucking.....</p>Tommyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08914790857025063194noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3944202.post-18380913385429693652023-10-13T16:41:00.003-04:002023-10-13T16:41:28.526-04:00Braves...<p> "That is why it breaks my heart, that game--not because in New York they could win because Boston lost; in that, there is a rough justice, and a reminder to the Yankees of how slight and fragile are the circumstances that exalt one group of human beings over another. It breaks my heart because it was meant to, because it was meant to foster in me again the illusion that there was something abiding, some pattern and some impulse that could come together to make a reality that would resist the corrosion; and because, after it had fostered again that most hungered-for illusion, the game was meant to stop, and betray precisely what it promised.</p><p>Of course, there are those who learn after the first few times. They grow out of sports. And there are others who were born with the wisdom to know that nothing lasts. These are the truly tough among us, the ones who can live without illusion, or without even the hope of illusion. I am not that grown-up or up-to-date. I am a simpler creature, tied to more primitive patterns and cycles. I need to think something lasts forever, and it might as well be that state of being that is a game; it might as well be that, in a green field, in the sun."</p><p>From A Great and Glorious Game: Baseball Writings of A. Bartlett<br />Giamatti, © 1998 by A. Bartlett Giamatti.</p><p><br /></p><p>I am a Cubs fan, but my parents' Braves Fandom left me a well-wisher, if only by proximity. It was with a heavy heart that I looked at the score this morning....I could only make it to the sixth last night, and I had a bad feeling about that.....</p>Tommyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08914790857025063194noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3944202.post-17786428525540779412023-10-07T14:44:00.002-04:002024-01-28T16:42:43.974-05:00Thoughts<p> I don't think anybody regularly checks this thing anymore. I don't. </p><p>Just sorting thoughts, really. </p><p>To update, for those curious: about 9 months ago, I got fired. I was said to have made violent statements about an associate. Specifically that I was going to put them against a wall and shoot them. It was a lie, but it was corroborated by another associate. And after nearly 20 years of working like an idiot, I was fired. </p><p>I talked to a couple attorneys. Three, actually. Two didn't want the case and the third wanted a retainer I couldn't afford. Basically, Tennessee is a Right to Work state, and you can get fired for any reason. </p><p>I started working with my wife's family the next week. I like my job. The schedule is better. The general quality of co workers is better. My stress level is a lot lower. </p><p>The pay is the only downside. It's a significant cut in pay. </p><p>I didn't realize it, but I really enjoyed taking Shyam places. And right now, I can't afford it. </p><p>It's all good...I mean, we aren't wanting for anything. Our house and vehicles are paid for. Outside of a little debt for my medical issue last summer, we're good. </p><p>But little things like a trip to Disney or to see a couple baseball games are on the back burner for a while. And to be honest, I'm down about that. </p><p>I'd made tentative plans to go find something part time, to make a little extra money. Try to afford a trip some place. Pay that medical bill. </p><p>Then, about a month ago, mom had a stroke. It could have been much worse than it was. Cognitively she's still all there. Her balance is boogered up though. Needs a walker, and somebody to drive her if she needs to go someplace. So, that's taking some time. </p><p>Things will get better. Her physical therapist tells us to be patient. And I'm sure she's right.</p><p>Still, I'm kinda down. </p><p>I wish I weren't. I feel guilty for feeling this way. </p>Tommyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08914790857025063194noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3944202.post-39734272139084366282023-07-02T20:55:00.002-04:002023-07-02T20:55:40.419-04:006 Month Reading Roundup<p>I guess this is pretty much what the Blog has become, after 21 years. I'd been making the effort to post every month or so there for a while, but I'm guessing I just wasn't up for it, early in the year. Sudden job change, and all that.</p><p>The first couple months of this year, I feel like I didn't have much of an attention span. I also wasn't driving 45 minutes or an hour every day, so my audiobook time was diminished. </p><p>Things have picked up, and I'm doing a little better mentally, so I'm trucking along. There have been a few more re-reads than in years past. Just wanted to revisit a couple things, I guess.</p><p>A quick list of what I've been reading the first half of this year:</p><p><b>January</b></p><p><i>Light in August </i>by William Faulkner.</p><p>I've always listed Faulkner as a favorite, but I just hadn't read anything of his in four or five years. Pulled this one off the shelf. Originally read as part of Dr. Kerrick's American Lit (or perhaps his Southern Lit) class. This one's brutal. And oddly funny. Calling something "the most human" of somebody's work isn't a great descriptor, but this one seems the largest and most complete examination of humanity, in Faulkner's world. It's a favorite. </p><p><i>Secret Windows: Essays and Fiction on the Craft of Writing </i>by Stephen King</p><p>A companion piece to <i>On Writing</i> which I read in late 2022, it was a Book of the Month Club selection way back when. Part of the continuing project. Mostly a collection of forewords with a couple of essays and articles thrown in. On its own, it's not much special, but I do like it as a companion piece.....</p><p><i>Bullet Train</i> by Kitaro Isaka</p><p>The novel on which the Brad Pitt flick (which I liked rather a lot) is based. More philosophical, and definitely less Looney Tunes than the film adaptation, I kinda liked it.</p><p><i>The Gettysburg Campaign: A Study in Command</i> by Edwin Coddington</p><p>This came from the library of my late friend Kevin Britton. Kevin passed a year ago (give or take a day) in a motorcycle accident. He, our friend Eric and I had gotten together only a week prior at a Tennessee Smokies baseball game. Late in the year, Eric gave me this....it came from Kevin's library. It was fitting, because it seemed like Kevin and I would trade books once a year, and end up reading a couple more based on the recommendations of the other.</p><p>As for the book, it's dry, but fascinating. A strong look at the political and pragmatic pressures on all bodies involved with directing the battle.....</p><p><b>February</b></p><p><i>K: A History of Baseball in Ten Pitches </i>by Tyler Kepner</p><p>I dug this one. I learned a bit, which is impressive, considering that I think I know everything about baseball.....</p><p><i>Glitches and Stiches </i>by Nicole Givens Kurtz</p><p>A bit of Cybernoir. A gift from my buddy Dino. Cyberpunk, in general, isn't my cup of tea, but this one was grounded enough as a noir-ish police procedural that I blew through it in a couple days. Big props to Kurtz for her depiction of Anxiety in the workplace.</p><p><i>True Grit</i> by Charles Portis</p><p>Another re-read. It's turned into an annual re-read, for me. I first read this back in the 80's....my Great Aunt Mae gave me a box of books that had been sitting in a closet at her house. There were a lot of 60's and 70's TV and film adaptations, along with a handful of James Blish's Star Trek Readers, Ray Bradbury's The Martian Chronicles, and a copy of True Grit. I read it, but in all honesty, it didn't leave a huge impression, except for a couple of images (Rooster Cogburn kicking the boys off the porch for taunting a mule; and the finger chopping scene, both of which matched up very well with the Coens' depiction in their film adaptation). It's absolutely a helluva read. Highly recommended.</p><p><i>Number One Walking </i>by Steve Martin and Harry Bliss</p><p>A Christmas gift from my mom, it's a graphic novelesque look at his career, mostly after Standup.....</p><p><b>March</b></p><p><i>Get Ready: A Champion's Guide to Preparing for the Moments That Matter</i> by Buzzy Cohen</p><p>Buzzy's book had popped up in a couple places, but I decided to listen to it after hearing him talk about it on the Jeopardy podcast. Not a bad listen, and not as Jeopardy-centric as I'd thought going in. Good primer in prepwork, especially valuable for those not used to it. I like to think of it as a bit of a Type A Primer for Type B personalities.</p><p><i>The Grand Scheme of Things</i> by Ian Strang</p><p>I've followed this guy on Twitter for a while, and he's a funny cat. Picked up his book, which I enjoyed. It was bit long, but on the whole, I dug it.</p><p><i>The Stand</i> by Stephen King</p><p>I've been doing a chronological read-through of King's work, and I'd not wanted to double back, but for some reason, The Stand has a way of pulling me out of a funk. Add to that, I'm not a great fan of the stuff that King first put out after his van accident, so I jumped into this one. Thoughts this time around? Franny sure gets the short end of the stick in the last 1/3 of the novel....she's largely the heart of the book, if not its conscience. She's relegated to backup character by the time Stu and company wander out to Las Vegas.....</p><p><i>Wait for Signs </i> by Craig Johnson</p><p>A collection of short stories surrounding Walt Longmire. Shyam made this one our route listen.</p><p><b>April</b></p><p><i>The Strange</i> by Nathan Ballingrud</p><p>I think it's my favorite thing I've read this year. A bit of True Grit meets The Martian Chronicles, run through Ballingrud's Weird Horror filter. I give this one a high recommendation.</p><p><i>The Cruellest Month</i> by Louise Penny</p><p>Another series Shyam has gotten me into. I don't know why I keep coming back to the Inspector Gameche books, but there's something affirmative in Gameche's kind nature.</p><p><i>Bone in the Throat</i> by Anthony Bourdain</p><p>It's not bad, but it can't seem to find a balance that it's comfortable with between humor and gravity. In my head, I'd cast Brad Garrett as Tommy's Uncle, using his Jimmy John's commercial persona. His final outcome was great.....</p><p><i>Hell's Angels: a Strange and Terrible Saga</i> by Hunter S. Thompson</p><p>I've had this on my shelf for 25 years, buying it during my initial HST phase. I read 6 or 7 of Thompson's books in that wave, but not this one, for some reason. Pulled it off the shelf and read it. Not bad. It's probably Thompson at his most journalistic, though he admits that he didn't know if it were researching or slowly getting absorbed during his travels. </p><p><i>The Donut Legion</i> by Joe R. Lansdale</p><p>Without meaning it to, this became my doctor waiting room book. Between visits for myself and my Mom, I read this in four different appointment sittings. Good southern-fried romp from Joe. Doesn't set the world on fire...well, except for one plot point.....</p><p><b>May</b></p><p><i>Dreamcatcher</i> by Stephen King</p><p>Part of the continuing project. I didn't care for this one when it came out, and I cared for it less the second time around, in 2023. </p><p>It's not bad, necessarily, so much as it feels like two or three novel ideas welded together. Part of me always wondered if the genesis of the idea didn't come in the 70's or 80's, when a sort of constant background antagonist were the government agents employed at "The Shop."</p><p>I will note that this was written largely during his recuperation from that van accident.....</p><p><i>Shoeless Joe</i> by WP Kinsella</p><p>Another re-read. I'd actually picked up a copy for my nephew, and I decided to re-read it so I could check for objectionable material that I might have forgotten (there isn't much, aside from some sadly casual racism). The Field of Dreams adaptation is superior, but it does lose some of the Magic Quest feel that Ray's journey to pick up JD Salinger and Moonlight Graham takes.....</p><p><i>Found: an Anthology of Found Footage Horror Stories </i>edited by Andrew Cull & Gabino Iglesias</p><p>A Kindle read. Read a story every few days for a couple months. It's a bit of a mixed bag. Too many "transcripts" as a plot device. "Green Magnetic Tape" is pretty effective....and oddly, I liked Andrew Cull's intro to the collection very much.</p><p><i>Pigs</i> by Johanna Stoberock</p><p>An Audible listen. Stoberock appeared on Jeopardy and mentioned her book. An odd, dark fairy tale of a novel....Stoberock turns a good phrase.</p><p><i>Rivers of London</i> by Ben Aaronovitch</p><p>A fun read....we listened to this one while going over the mountains to North Carolina for a delivery.</p><p><b>June</b></p><p><i>Ball Four </i>by Jim Bouton</p><p>Another one that I'd picked up for my nephew. Another one re-reading to check for objectionable content....maybe there is some, but I read this when I was 12, so I'm pretty sure he can handle locker-room talk. </p><p>There is no better book written from inside the game of baseball.</p><p>Bouton is candid about himself, serious and self-deprecating, in his chances in playing for the 1969 expansion Seattle Pilots, and later, the contending Houston Astros.</p><p>There aren't many times I'll recommend listening to the audiobook before I would reading the work itself, but this is one of them. Bouton's rendition of his work is astounding, from getting tickled remembering stories from the season, to getting heartbroken recounting the death of his daughter in a traffic accident in one of the 10-year updates.</p><p><i>Harold</i> by Steven Wright</p><p>Steven Wright's non-sequitur ode to daydreaming in school.</p><p>Harold is a third-grader, and this novel recounts his daydream one afternoon in the late 1960's.....the timeframe is wobbly, occasionally referencing things much later. Our narrator addresses such anachronisms simply: mind your own business.</p><p>Hilarious, and occasionally angry. I was touched a couple of times. In many ways, I was Harold. In some, I still am.</p><p><i>She Rides Shotgun</i> by Jordan Harper</p><p>The route listen. Well put together.</p><p><i>Lock-In </i>by John Scalzi</p><p>A romp. </p>Tommyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08914790857025063194noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3944202.post-54561251369153091732023-01-02T11:38:00.000-05:002023-01-02T11:38:02.055-05:002022 Reading RoundupJust a roundup of what I read in 2022:<div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><p><b>January</b></p><p><i>Football for a Buck: The Crazy Rise and Crazier Demise of the USFL </i>by Jeff Pearlman</p><p>When Pearlman's passionate about his subject, he's a good read. And he was passionate about tracking this down. Good read....I wish the current USFL, in its first season, had even 1/8th of the color and energy portrayed in Pearlman's book.....</p><p><i>The Ends of the World </i>by Peter Brannen</p><p>A look through the various eras and extinction events suffered by the Planet....works as an excellent companion piece to Elizabeth Kolbert's The Sixth Extinction</p><p><i>Rose Madder</i> by Stephen King</p><p>The continuing project. This was one of the ones I'd never read all the way through. I think I started it and abandoned it somewhere just after its publication. Actually, not a bad read at all, though I wish King hadn't leaned so hard into mental illness as the genesis of Norman's abusive behavior....almost as if it's an out or an excuse of some kind.....</p><p><i>All About Me! </i>by Mel Brooks.</p><p>Lots of people found new projects during Covid-19's early days....Mel decided to write a memoir about his 70+ year career. On the whole, I ended up not getting as much out of his movie-making stories that I'd hoped, but his adventures in TV before the movies, and on Broadway after, are well worth the read.</p><p><i>Camera Man </i>by Dana Stevens</p><p>The best biography of Buster Keaton I've read. (I've now read three, to date).</p><p><b>February</b></p><p><i>Ballpark: Baseball in the American City </i>by Paul Goldberger</p><p>A nice walk through the history of the ballpark and the Major League. Does get a little repetitive....even if those multipurpose stadiums of the 70's are banal, do you have to use that word so much?</p><p><i>Ronan Boyle Into the Strage Place</i> by Thomas Lennon</p><p>This one is probably the funniest of the three Ronan Boyle books. With one particular interaction having me crack up at a stoplight.</p><p><i>Junkyard Dogs </i>by Craig Johnson</p><p>Quick read. Johnson continues to turn a good phrase....</p><p><i>You've Got Red on You: How Shaun of the Dead was Brought to Life </i>by Clark Collis</p><p>Decent read....good look at the making of the flick....</p><p><i>Based on a True Story: a Memoir </i>by Norm MacDonald</p><p>Damn, but I miss Norm. A re-read. Easily one of the funniest books I've read.</p><p><i>The Green Mile</i> by Stephen King</p><p>The one was better than I remembered.....</p><p><b>March</b></p><p><i>The Lincoln Highway </i>by Amor Towles</p><p>I got this one for Christmas. I'd been hearing about Towles for a couple of books....I liked this one. </p><p><i>The Drive-In 2: (Not Just One of Them Sequels) </i>by Joe R. Lansdale</p><p>Just some good old goofy Lansdale. I'd like to sit back and shoot the shit with this guy, perhaps more than any other author I read.....</p><p><i>The Shark-Infested Custard</i> by Charles Willeford</p><p>Hilarious, and dark as hell</p><p><i>Ghost Story</i> by Peter Straub</p><p>I ended up not caring for this one. Long. Never really coming to a satisfying point. </p><p><b>April</b></p><p><i>George Washington </i>by James MacGregor Burns and Susan Dunn</p><p>A little dry, but a good enough overview of his presidency</p><p><i>Walt Disney: The Triumph of the American Imagination </i>by Neil Gabler</p><p>Creativity as a business endeavour fascinates me.....</p><p><i>Desperation</i> by Stephen King</p><p>I liked this one better than when I first read it in 1996....still, it's quite a bit longer than it needs to be.....</p><p><i>Eat a Peach </i>by David Wong</p><p>Interesting....as much a musing on management as it is a memoir</p><p><b>May</b></p><p><i>American War</i> by Omar El Akkad</p><p>One of my two or three favorite books that I've read this year. I might have liked it even more if we weren't living in a dystopian future already, and perhaps running headline into the scenario outlined in this book....</p><p><i>Hunter Houston and the Molten Menace </i>by Bobby Nash</p><p>A gift from a buddy. A quick read. Nash has a good ear for The South....</p><p><i>The Regulators</i> by Stephen King, writing as Richard Bachman</p><p>Another new one----I'd never made it all the way through this one. On its own, it's not bad. But it doesn't have the same feel as the original Bachman books, somehow.....</p><p><i>In Cold Blood</i> by Truman Capote</p><p>Decided to re-read after catching the Capote flick one afternoon. A re-read. Actually read it for the work itself, instead of for content, in that half-assed resentful way I tended to read assigned works back in the day....</p><p><i>Never a Bad Game: Fifty-Plus Years in the Southern League </i>by Mark McCarter</p><p>Picked up for 75 cents at a local used book store. Bathroom reading, if you wanna know the truth. Also? This one smells of being hurriedly and half-interestedly put together. There's a bit of wikipedia journalism going on with this one.....</p><p><i>Razzmatazz </i>by Christopher Moore</p><p>With two books, Moore's Noir series is edging toward my favorite bit of his work. At the very least, it's made me laugh more consistently than the bulk of his work since Lust Lizard of Melancholy Cove. (And I say that liking the Pocket series a great deal....). Funny, with lots of nice turns of phrase....</p><p><b>June</b></p><p><i>A Better Man </i>by Michael Ian Black</p><p>In a letter to his son, Black speaks on what being a man in the 21st century means. This wasn't quite what I was expecting... though I was quite pleased by what I read.....</p><p><i>Blood, Sweat and Chrome: The Wild and True Story of the Making of Mad Max Fury Road </i>by Kyle Buchanan</p><p>A helluva good read. Probably my favorite thing I've read this year.....</p><p><i>Sapiens: a Brief History of Humankind </i>by Yuval Noah Harari</p><p>My bedtime read for most of the spring... </p><p><i>The Devil Crept In </i><u>by Ania Ahlborn</u></p><p>I wanted to like this a lot more than I actually did. Solid concept. but there were times the writing just felt wooden.....</p><p><i>The Dark Tower: Wizard and Glass </i>by Stephen King</p><p>This one's in my top five favorite King works. It was a pleasure to revisit.....</p><p><b>July</b></p><p><i>Once More Around the Park: A Baseball Reader </i>by Roger Angell</p><p>I'd had this on the shelf for a long time, and started thumbing through it when Angell passed. Hundreds...thousands?....write about baseball, but few approach the poetic, nor have the pragmatic, philosophic eye for the game like Angell.</p><p><i>The Death of WCW</i> by R.D. Reynolds and Brian Alvarez</p><p>Read this one around the 4th of July holiday, which was the second busiest week in my store's history. Needed something light. </p><p><i>John Adams</i> by John Patrick Diggins</p><p>Another quick read. Adams is as close as we got to a Philosopher King. Always fascinating.</p><p><i>Transgressive Horror: Reflections on Scare Films that Broke the Rules </i>edited by Christopher McGothlin</p><p>A Kickstarter collection of essays that my friend Alex had a piece in. Not a bad read...surprisingly good take on Godzilla in there.....</p><p><i>The Library at Mount Char</i> by Scott Hawkins</p><p>This one had popped up as recommendation on a couple sites. I ended up enjoying it quite a bit.....</p><p><b>August</b></p><p><i>Kindred</i> by Octavia Butler</p><p>A re-read...hadn't read it since a SF class in College, and back then I read it too quickly to really enjoy it. I liked it then, but really enjoyed it in 2022. For me, who gets horror vibes from Fish out of Water scenarios anyway, thinks this is as good a horror read as it is SF. </p><p><i>The Pallbearer's Club </i>by Paul Tremblay</p><p>What's better than one unreliable narrator? TWO unreliable narrators! This one's not bad. Tremblay does good work in general....</p><p><i>Noir</i>, edited by David B. Coe and John Zakour</p><p>Part of a Kickstarter....I liked "Basilisk Bluff" and "A Clear-Cut Reason" quite a bit.</p><p><i>Cold in July</i> by Joe R. Lansdale</p><p>I've read a lot of Lansdale, but somehow this one had slipped through the cracks, which is a shame, because it's a Banger. In part, I'd not read the book because I'd seen the film adaptation first, which wasn't a bad flick at all. The book is a lot of fun...</p><p><i>Bag of Bones</i> by Stephen King</p><p>I started this one while I was in the hospital this year. My first time in the hospital. I did have a very nice doctor who talked books with me....coincidentally, this one was one of our favorites. </p><p><b>September</b></p><p><i>The Church of Baseball: the making of Bull Durham </i>by Ron Shelton</p><p>Bull Durham is a flick that I've always kinda enjoyed, but have only really started appreciating in the past few years. Maturity may be part of it, though I'm loathe to try to label myself as "mature."</p><p><i>The Devil Takes You Home</i> by Gabino Iglesias</p><p>I actually read Shyam's copy. I picked it up and couldn't put it down. Claustrophobic. Weird. And with just enough hospital stuff that it felt....proximal? I'll watch for more from this guy</p><p><i>Stephen King: A Complete Exploration of his Work, Life and Influences </i>by Bev Vincent.</p><p>I wish I'd done my homework a little more. It's not bad, but it just felt too much like one of those $18 magazines they sell in magazine stands because they aren't publishing as many magazines as they used to. </p><p><i>There's Just One Problem</i> by Brian Gewirtz</p><p>Surprisingly good read. Creativity and Entertainment as a corporate enterprise always fascinates me. This is a strong look at one organization's creative process, at least over the past couple of decades....</p><p><i>Hell is Empty</i> by Craig Johnson</p><p>Johnson turns a good phrase, but this might be the strongest of the Longmire books, as it doesn't lean on Johnson's gift of gab, and gives us an strong look into the double toughness of Walt Longmire....</p><p><i>the Last Days of the Dinosaurs</i> by Riley Black</p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-size: 15px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Decent entry point, I'd say, into the extinction event story Reads kinda cinematically, looking at the day of the asteroid strike on the Yucatan, the days, months, years and centuries. It's a deeply passionate subject for Black who's weathered some changes of her own in the last few years, some of them nearly as personally cataclysmic as the fate that befell the dinosaurs..</span></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px;">..</span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px;"><b>October</b></span></p><p><span style="color: #050505; font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 15px;"><i>Holy Terror </i>by Cherie Priest</span></span></p><p><span style="color: #050505; font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 15px;">The Lunchtime read for a while this fall...a excellent look back at Priest's short fiction. For my money, she doesn't get enough credit for her weird horror work...</span></span></p><p><span style="color: #050505; font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 15px;"><i>Dandelion</i> by Alex Bledsoe</span></span></p><p><span style="color: #050505; font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 15px;">Nice, unsettling, spooky little story of Southern Deliverance. Alex writes the South admirably, and this one is no different in that respect. This one's strong.</span></span></p><p><span style="color: #050505; font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 15px;"><i>The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon</i> by Stephen King</span></span></p><p><span style="color: #050505; font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 15px;">Man, this one crackles. Remember the fish out of water anxiety? Yeah. This one is a lot stronger than I remembered.</span></span></p><p><span style="color: #050505; font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 15px;"><i>Down and Out in Paradise: The Life of Anthony Bourdain</i> by Charles Leerhsen<span> </span></span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-size: 15px;">Quick read. Not bad. Bourdain was interesting to me in that "creativity as a corporate enterprise" kinda way. I came late to his works (I don't think I read anything book length until after his death).... his TV was always interesting, but Bourdain himself always struck me as a man with an angry undercurrent. When I heard about his suicide, I was saddened, but not terribly shocked.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-size: 15px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-size: 15px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-size: 15px;">As far as Leerhsen's writing, the book flows well, and I like his legwork and self-deprecating humor, but there are a small handful of times where he seems to have an axe to grind with an interview subject.... and in the case of girlfriend Asia Argento, irritation at the fact she wouldn't interview.....</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-size: 15px;"><i>Thomas Jefferson, </i> by Joyce Appleby</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-size: 15px;">Good, but it made me want to go back and re-read American Sphinx</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-size: 15px;"><i>Creek Walking, </i> by Tally Johnson</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-size: 15px;">Quick Vacation read. A bit uneven, but there are a couple good stories in there: "Some Hunts End Better than Others" and "Ferryman, Don't Tarry"</span></span></p><p><span style="color: #050505;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 15px;"><i>Swan Song</i> by Robert McCammon.</span></span></p><p><span style="color: #050505;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 15px;">Damn, I ended up hating this thing, and grudge read the motherfucker to try to prove myself wrong. I was not wrong.</span></span></p><p><span style="color: #050505;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 15px;"><b>November</b></span></span></p><p><span style="color: #050505;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 15px;"><i>To Kill a Mockingbird</i> by Harper Lee</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-size: 15px;">The commute listen. One Sunday early in November, Shyam and I went to a Fathom/TCM showing of the 1962 film version of Lee's novel. It's a favorite flick, and it made me realize that I hadn't gone through the book in a while.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-size: 15px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-size: 15px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-size: 15px;">I was first introduced to the book in Mrs. Lillard's American Lit class. In a stunning case of procrastination on my part, I waited until the night before our discussion and test on it to even start reading it. I blew through the whole book in a couple hours. And for the first time in my life, as soon as I finished, I went back to the front and started it all over again.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-size: 15px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-size: 15px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-size: 15px;">Good books about the South are rarer than you might think, as even Southern writers can lapse into ridicule, even when none is intended. Lee's is neither parody nor ridiculous. Choosing Scout as narrator is an inspired choice.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-size: 15px;"><i>Illuminations </i>by Alan Moore</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-size: 15px;">I was really looking forward to this one, and I ended up not digging it much. Long-winded. A little too in love with the sound of his own voice.</span></span></p><p><b>December</b></p><p><i>The Babysitter Lives</i>, by Stephen Graham Johnes</p><p>This one was a rollercoaster ride. I've only come into his work in the past few years, but Stephen Graham Jones has moved up near the top of my favorite writers list....</p><p><i>A Christmas Carol</i> by Charles Dickens.</p><p>Annual re-read. </p><p><i>A Heart that Works, </i>by Rob Delaney</p><p>Heartbreaking. I don't think a book has made me ugly cry like this in a while. Maybe since childhood.</p><p><i>On Writing: a Memoir of the Craft </i>by Stephen King</p><p>One of the top three books on the creative process that I've ever read.</p><p><i>Fantasticland</i> by Mike Bockoven</p><p>This one had come recommended....sold as a kind of Lord of the Flies in an amusement park. It's got a pessimism about it that I don't always care for (but not one I necessarily say is wrong). </p><p><i>Dynamite and Davey Boy: The Explosive Lives of the British Bulldogs</i> by Steven Bell</p><p>There's a lot more legwork in this one than in most wresting bios, a niche genre rife with Google Journalism. Bell did a lot of background here, and I applaud him. The book itself is a little disjointed, and it's very much two bios in one. A lot of people blame wrestling for destroying folks....but the gist I get is that Davey Boy and Tom Billington were very likely going to destroy themselves anyway.....</p><p><i>Maphead </i>by Ken Jennings</p><p>I dig maps. I always have. I was glad to find a kinship with Jennings, who has a similar fascination. Also, I was pleased that somebody else had the same reaction to the Atlas of the DC Universe that I did, way back in the day.....</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p></div>Tommyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08914790857025063194noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3944202.post-54053571351425796532022-11-13T13:27:00.001-05:002022-11-13T13:27:09.965-05:00Happy Birthday Blogamathing!<p> Four months?</p><p>I know, I know.</p><p>But, I been busy.</p><p>See, my last published post came from July 22, during an insomnia stretch that was possibly related to a health problem that got discovered in August.</p><p>I took a vacation week in August, and I scheduled a doctor's appointment for a checkup, and to check on a little chest congestion. Well, the day that my appointment was scheduled, I got a call that the office would be unable to accommodate my appointment due to a large number of staff out with Covid.</p><p>Later that day, I was asked if I would like to take an appointment at the clinic owned by the same parent company in Cleveland (the town where I work). I said sure.</p><p>I went, and when they took my blood pressure, it was through the roof.</p><p>"Are you being treated for high blood pressure?" they asked. I replied in the negative, since every checkup prior to this had it in the acceptable range...the last couple of years it had crept up to the high end of that spectrum, and I was expecting to have to go onto meds at some point. They checked the pressure again, and it was high enough that they had to send me to the hospital. There at the clinic, they did an EKG. The doctor announced then "You're in AFIB."</p><p>I got to ride in an ambulance. Against my protests, I had to be ridden out on a gurney.</p><p>Let me say this: I felt fine. A little chest congestion that I thought had been related to seasonal allergies. I'd had intermittent insomnia, which I'd later learn might have been part of the problem. Blood pressure not low enough to let me sleep...</p><p>But in the ambulance I rode to Tennova Hospital in Cleveland.</p><p>I can't remember if I called Shyam from the clinic or from the Emergency Room. I know that it was from the ER that I called my Mom and my sister.</p><p>Things that I'd heard, but didn't understand until I experienced it first hand: Emergency Rooms are a mess right now. Understaffed. Overworked. I had to do the bulk of my exams in public, in front of God and everybody. Embarrassing, but then, everybody is there for something, so modesty be damned.</p><p>After 6 hours in the hallway, I would make it to an exam room, which would be my home for the next 30 hours or so. There, I slept little. I was wired from here to Tulsa, Oklahoma. I had to figure out how to pee while maintaining a modicum of decency (i.e. without doing it all over myself or my makeshift bed). Let me mention that last parenthetical phrase....I was still on one of those deluxe hospital gurneys. It would become an issue by the end of the second day....it's not much different than a sleeper sofa. I had a metal bar underneath my ass that was making it more and more uncomfortable.</p><p>It was while I was in the exam room that they gave me full diagnosis: Atrial Fibrulation, and a weakened heart. Their priority was to get my blood pressure manageable and stave off as many of the stroke factors as they could. I was put on diuretics (which made the aforementioned peeing something of an issue). I was put on blood thinners and blood pressure meds.</p><p>At the end of the second night, I was moved to a real hospital room. Shyam had just left staying with me, and was talking to the head nurse, who informed her that I'd be in an actual room when she came back tomorrow.</p><p>It was actually just a couple minutes later that they showed up to move me, which was an adventure in and of itself. The orderly who moved me wasn't able to take his normal route, as they were waxing the floors in the area he normally would travel. As such, we had to go through a waiting area, which was floors with textured tiles. Did I mention that my ass was sore? Because it was. So sore that traveling across the bumpy tile was unpleasant. Against my orderly's wishes, I asked to walk, and explained why. He was against it, but I didn't care. I walked the last 60 feet to the elevators, and rode side saddle all the way to my room. The nurses there started giving him a hard time, and I told them not to....I hope he didn't get into trouble because of me.</p><p>I would spend Wednesday night and Thursday night in room 431 of Tennova Medical Center in Cleveland. You know, the one that overlooks the intersection of 25th St. and Keith Street? Yeah...I could see the Big Lots!!!!</p><p>My numbers got progressively better. My cardiologist (Dr. Marcus Alston) explained that we'd take the next while figuring out if the problem was structural (a defect), mechanical (a blockage), or electrical (a rhythm problem).</p><p>I got home with a new handful of medication to take and a shit-ton of doctors' appointments to make. It wasn't at doctor's orders, but I've made a couple lifestyle and dietary changes since my hospital stay. I've lost more than 40 pounds since August. Mom's been pushing pretty hard since then to get me to join the Y to swim or do some other regular exercise. It's something that I may do after the end of the year. Work continues to be crazy....one minor gripe...the week after I got out of the hospital, my dumb ass ended up working a 6-day week. There have been a lot of those this year.</p><p><br /></p><p>-------</p><p>September saw the heart-catheterization. That was my first medical procedure much more involved than a dental visit, or getting a cut sewn up. That one ended up having to shave my groin just in case they had to go in there....as I would comment under anesthesia to Shyam "a lot of people saw my junk today...."</p><p>The heart cath went a lot more easily than I'd anticipated. And the news was overwhelmingly good....my veins look to be in excellent shape....</p><p>That good news paved the road to a cardioversion, where they shock my heart to see if they can get it back into rhythm.</p><p>I'll write that part here soon. Maybe February? It;s happened, and spoiler: it worked. But I'll write more on that later this week (not February, one hopes).....</p>Tommyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08914790857025063194noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3944202.post-28841378190007017842022-07-22T05:48:00.019-04:002022-07-22T06:01:29.358-04:00Thoughts from the Ass End of the Night, Volume 3<p> Once, insomnia posts were a staple of this here blogamathing. I spent a lot of time in my 20's and 30's waking in the middle of the night, and deciding to type nonsense onto the computer.</p><p>I'm going through a spell right now. I'm not sure the cause, though I have a suspicion I'll detail. I'll just say this stretch, which started last Thursday night, is kinda gruesome and maybe tonight has me a little worried.</p><p>Last Thursday, I woke up around 1 to go to the bathroom, and couldn't fall back to sleep. Went through alternating moments of it's too hot in the room, and then too cold. Tried sleeping on the couch so as not to wake Shyam, and ended up falling asleep in a weird position, which left my neck and shoulder in a pretty good amount of pain that whole Friday.</p><p>The weekend came, and I was off. I was able to squeeze in a couple 7 hour sleep nights. </p><p>Then, Monday, I closed, which was followed up by an 8AM shift Tuesday. I slept about 5 hours. Which is about normal for one of those nights. Wednesday, I also closed. Tuesday, after the All-Star Game, I went to bed, and slept for about 2 hours, before waking again. I was awake all the way until Shyam's alarm waking her. Like I said, I closed, so I was able to sleep from about 7 to 11 and catch up somewhat.</p><p>Yesterday, Thursday, I was off. I was woken at about 6 by thunderstorms. There was a lot of lightning and wind, so I got up to make sure nothing major was coming our way. After heading out for an oil change and a visit with my Mom, I came home and napped for about 45 minutes. Tonight, we went to bed around 10. Around 11:45, I got up to pee, and came back to bed. I slept again until about 1:30, and I've been wide the fuck awake ever since. Twice I've gotten up to go read in the living room, and got myself back to the point of nodding. And as soon as I lie down, I'm wide awake.</p><p>As a minor note, in the few minutes it's taken me to punch these paragraphs out, I can feel myself getting sleepy.</p><p>I wish I knew what was wrong.</p><p>Summer's part of it. It's not even necessarily the heat. It's fucking swampy outside, all the time. Unloading trucks at work lately have left us looking like we're playing basketball. It's uncomfortable to sleep in, even with fans and AC going. I also have a minor suspicion that our bedroom AC unit is about to give up the ghost.</p><p>Another part of it is the shifting schedule. I don't have a set schedule. Haven't for 19 years, at least. I'm used to having to close a bit.</p><p>We lost another manager recently and somewhat unexpectedly. As a result, we had to move our evening manager into that role, which left me grocery manager and me to close the store. I've gone from closing one night a week to 2-4 times. My body doesn't know when to sleep, and I'm having a hard time coping.</p><p>It's 5:47. My alarm's supposed to go off in about an hour. I can feel myself being sleepy. I just don't know if I'll fall asleep when I lie down. </p><p>If I didn't have a pair of new hires to do today, I'd consider calling in....</p><p>Add to that, my boss goes on vacation tomorrow, and I'm working 9 of the next 10 days. I don't have anybody to spell me if I should call in.</p><p>I will admit to having a couple things on my mind. </p><p>My friend Kevin Britton died at the beginning of this month in a motorcycle accident. Eric and I had met up with him just the previous Sunday to take in a Smokies game. Because of work, I wasn't able to attend a funeral service. I didn't think it bugged me a the time, but it might be sticking with me.</p><p>My friend Micah's mom suffered a stroke a little while back, and he's had too much on his plate. It bothered me how difficult it was to get her into a hospital room, and then, how difficult it's been to secure treatment.</p><p>We've been having trouble finding enough help at work. That's not new. That's been ongoing for months. The past couple of months, though, it's been bothering me, as I've seen my hour count start to rise.</p><p>I don't get to see Shyam as often as I'd like. And when we do see each other, one or both of us is too tired to do anything much fun.</p><p>I haven't gotten to see Thor: Love and Thunder yet. That's aggravating.</p><p>I was supposed to be on vacation this week. We had tried to plan a vacation with the family like last year's to Gulf Shores, but somebody had a claim in on this week. About a month ago, that claim moved back a week. I'd like to have gone somewhere with my family. I've gotten to hang out with my nephew once this summer....and he's gonna be starting school again in a couple weeks. </p><p>Meh. Sorry to unburden myself....</p>Tommyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08914790857025063194noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3944202.post-22903168829363306302022-07-01T23:23:00.001-04:002022-07-01T23:29:59.861-04:00Mid Year Reading Round up 2022<p> Just a quick rundown of what I've read, so far, in 2022:</p><p><br /></p><p><b>January</b></p><p><i>Football for a Buck: The Crazy Rise and Crazier Demise of the USFL </i>by Jeff Pearlman</p><p>When Pearlman's passionate about his subject, he's a good read. And he was passionate about tracking this down. Good read....I wish the current USFL, in its first season, had even 1/8th of the color and energy portrayed in Pearlman's book.....</p><p><i>The Ends of the World </i>by Peter Brannen</p><p>A look through the various eras and extinction events suffered by the Planet....works as an excellent companion piece to Elizabeth Kolbert's The Sixth Extinction</p><p><i>Rose Madder</i> by Stephen King</p><p>The continuing project. This was one of the ones I'd never read all the way through. I think I started it and abandoned it somewhere just after its publication. Actually, not a bad read at all, though I wish King hadn't leaned so hard into mental illness as the genesis of Norman's abusive behavior....almost as if it's an out or an excuse of some kind.....</p><p><i>All About Me! </i>by Mel Brooks.</p><p>Lots of people found new projects during Covid-19's early days....Mel decided to write a memoir about his 70+ year career. On the whole, I ended up not getting as much out of his movie-making stories that I'd hoped, but his adventures in TV before the movies, and on Broadway after, are well worth the read.</p><p><i>Camera Man </i>by Dana Stevens</p><p>The best biography of Buster Keaton I've read. (I've now read three, to date).</p><p><b>February</b></p><p><i>Ballpark: Baseball in the American City </i>by Paul Goldberger</p><p>A nice walk through the history of the ballpark and the Major League. Does get a little repetitive....even if those multipurpose stadiums of the 70's are banal, do you have to use that word so much?</p><p><i>Ronan Boyle Into the Strage Place</i> by Thomas Lennon</p><p>This one is probably the funniest of the three Ronan Boyle books. With one particular interaction having me crack up at a stoplight.</p><p><i>Junkyard Dogs </i>by Craig Johnson</p><p>Quick read. Johnson continues to turn a good phrase....</p><p><i>You've Got Red on You: How Shaun of the Dead was Brought to Life </i>by Clark Collis</p><p>Decent read....good look at the making of the flick....</p><p><i>Based on a True Story: a Memoir </i>by Norm MacDonald</p><p>Damn, but I miss Norm. A re-read. Easily one of the funniest books I've read.</p><p><i>The Green Mile</i> by Stephen King</p><p>The one was better than I remembered.....</p><p><b>March</b></p><p><i>The Lincoln Highway </i>by Amor Towles</p><p>I got this one for Christmas. I'd been hearing about Towles for a couple of books....I liked this one. </p><p><i>The Drive-In 2: (Not Just One of Them Sequels) </i>by Joe R. Lansdale</p><p>Just some good old goofy Lansdale. I'd like to sit back and shoot the shit with this guy, perhaps more than any other author I read.....</p><p><i>The Shark-Infested Custard</i> by Charles Willeford</p><p>Hilarious, and dark as hell</p><p><i>Ghost Story</i> by Peter Straub</p><p>I ended up not caring for this one. Long. Never really coming to a satisfying point. </p><p><b>April</b></p><p><i>George Washington </i>by James MacGregor Burns and Susan Dunn</p><p>A little dry, but a good enough overview of his presidency</p><p><i>Walt Disney: The Triumph of the American Imagination </i>by Neil Gabler</p><p>Creativity as a business endeavour fascinates me.....</p><p><i>Desperation</i> by Stephen King</p><p>I liked this one better than when I first read it in 1996....still, it's quite a bit longer than it needs to be.....</p><p><i>Eat a Peach </i>by David Wong</p><p>Interesting....as much a musing on management as it is a memoir</p><p><b>May</b></p><p><i>American War</i> by Omar El Akkad</p><p>One of my two or three favorite books that I've read this year. I might have liked it even more if we weren't living in a dystopian future already, and perhaps running headline into the scenario outlined in this book....</p><p><i>Hunter Houston and the Molten Menace </i>by Bobby Nash</p><p>A gift from a buddy. A quick read. Nash has a good ear for The South....</p><p><i>The Regulators</i> by Stephen King, writing as Richard Bachman</p><p>Another new one----I'd never made it all the way through this one. On its own, it's not bad. But it doesn't have the same feel as the original Bachman books, somehow.....</p><p><i>In Cold Blood</i> by Truman Capote</p><p>Decided to re-read after catching the Capote flick one afternoon. A re-read. Actually read it for the work itself, instead of for content, in that half-assed resentful way I tended to read assigned works back in the day....</p><p><i>Never a Bad Game: Fifty-Plus Years in the Southern League </i>by Mark McCarter</p><p>Picked up for 75 cents at a local used book store. Bathroom reading, if you wanna know the truth. Also? This one smells of being hurriedly and half-interestedly put together. There's a bit of wikipedia journalism going on with this one.....</p><p><i>Razzmatazz </i>by Christopher Moore</p><p>With two books, Moore's Noir series is edging toward my favorite bit of his work. At the very least, it's made me laugh more consistently than the bulk of his work since Lust Lizard of Melancholy Cove. (And I say that liking the Pocket series a great deal....). Funny, with lots of nice turns of phrase....</p><p><b>June</b></p><p><i>A Better Man </i>by Michael Ian Black</p><p>In a letter to his son, Black speaks on what being a man in the 21st century means. This wasn't quite what I was expecting... though I was quite pleased by what I read.....</p><p><i>Blood, Sweat and Chrome: The Wild and True Story of the Making of Mad Max Fury Road </i>by Kyle Buchanan</p><p>A helluva good read. Probably my favorite thing I've read this year.....</p><p><i>Sapiens: a Brief History of Humankind </i>by Yuval Noah Harari</p><p>My bedtime read for most of the spring... </p><p><i>The Devil Crept In </i><u>by Ania Ahlborn</u></p><p>I wanted to like this a lot more than I actually did. Solid concept. but there were times the writing just felt wooden.....</p><p><i>The Dark Tower: Wizard and Glass </i>by Stephen King</p><p>This one's in my top five favorite King works. It was a pleasure to revisit.....</p><p><br /></p>Tommyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08914790857025063194noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3944202.post-64462368184636181572022-06-21T22:39:00.001-04:002022-06-21T22:39:29.155-04:00Yep. 4 months. <p> I been busy. </p><p>Don't ever go salaried in retail. </p><p><br /></p>Tommyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08914790857025063194noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3944202.post-62029171453023026012022-02-27T15:24:00.001-05:002022-02-27T15:24:24.424-05:00Grading the King<p>1Anyway, apropos of only that, here's how I'd grade out approximately the first half of his published novels, nonfiction and short story collections:</p><p>9</p><p>Carrie (1974) B</p><p>Salem's Lot (1975) A</p><p>The Shining (1977) A+</p><p>Rage (1977, as Richard Bachman) C</p><p>The Stand (1978) A+</p><p>Night Shift (1978) B</p><p>The Long Walk (1979, as Richard Bachman) B+</p><p>The Dead Zone (1979) B</p><p>Firestarter (1980) C</p><p>Roadwork (1981, as Richard Bachman) B</p><p>Danse Macabre (1981) B</p><p>Cujo (1981) C</p><p>Different Seasons (1982) B+ (The Body A+/Apt Pupil C/Shawshank A/Breathing B)</p><p>The Running Man (1982, as Richard Bachman) C</p><p>The Gunslinger (1982, Dark Tower, volume I) B+</p><p>Christine (1983) B</p><p>Pet Sematary (1983) A-</p><p>Cycle of the Werewolf (1983) C+</p><p>The Talisman (1984, with Peter Straub) A</p><p>Thinner (1984, as Richard Bachman) B-</p><p>Skeleton Crew (1985) B+</p><p>It (1986) A+</p><p>The Eyes of the Dragon (1987) B+</p><p>Misery (1987) B+</p><p>Drawing of the Three (1987, Dark Tower, volume II) B+</p><p>The Tommyknockers (1987) D</p><p>The Dark Half (1989) B</p><p>Four Past Midnight (1990) B- (Langoliers D/Secret Window B/Libary B/Sun Dog B+)</p><p>The Waste Lands (1991, Dark tower, volume III) A</p><p>Needful Things (1991) B+</p><p>Gerald's Game (1992) B-</p><p>Dolores Claiborne (1992) B</p><p>Nightmares and Dreamscapes (1993) B</p><p>Insomnia (1994) C+</p><p>Rose Madder (1995) B-</p><p>The Green Mile (1996) A</p><p><br /></p><p>Almost arbitrary. You might ask me again on a different day, and I'd give it a different grade. The Shining, The Stand and It are the class of the first half, with The Talisman, Green Mile and Waste Lands coming in just behind.....</p><p>I'm coming up on Desperation, which I don't recall liking much when I read it the first time, and its companion The Regulators I liked even less. But, I've had my mind changed a couple of times in the project....I liked Dark Half more this time around than when I first read it, and Firestarter and Four Past Midnight a lot less......</p><p>We'll see.....</p>Tommyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08914790857025063194noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3944202.post-26669513209423589342022-02-26T22:30:00.001-05:002022-02-26T22:30:23.098-05:00Meme Dump<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjcWOH0XAvM8JTv4o3T-0knkYJ82ZCf3Ab7pR7dRC-vwtx58waThtjfHLCaglNocO1w3NA9irmTXq9R5ITgK7Qw24Angd5J9nNu8WFw7DsBaVj6toc6Fbhuoccsq565dV9WPLA5qr3D5Znql-q5popRJqJReD_0XDmEz5pTTRyIq_gNbKWMEQ=s663" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="663" data-original-width="545" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjcWOH0XAvM8JTv4o3T-0knkYJ82ZCf3Ab7pR7dRC-vwtx58waThtjfHLCaglNocO1w3NA9irmTXq9R5ITgK7Qw24Angd5J9nNu8WFw7DsBaVj6toc6Fbhuoccsq565dV9WPLA5qr3D5Znql-q5popRJqJReD_0XDmEz5pTTRyIq_gNbKWMEQ=s320" width="263" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; 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Couple of these are a bit more taut than I remember. Secret Window, Secret Garden feels like a flipside companion piece to The Dark Half....</p><p><i>The Fighting Bunch: The Battle of Athens</i>, by Chris DeRose</p><p>Easily the best (and most and best researched) volume on the Battle of Athens I've read. </p><p><i>The Searcher</i>, by Tana French</p><p>I liked it, but it didn't hold the same amount of water as most of her work. Had one particular plot point that pulled the rug out from under me, and I just couldn't get into it like her best work.</p><p><i>Who Censored Roger Rabbit? </i>by Gary Wolf</p><p>Fun, if clunky. Definitely a book improved on with its film adaptation....</p><p><i>We Promised You a Great Main Event: an Unauthorized WWE History, </i>by Bill Hanstock</p><p>Meh. Google journalism. But maybe the best you'll find, since a good oral history would be next to impossible.</p><p><b>February</b></p><p><i>The Spy with No Pants </i>by John Swartzwelder</p><p>I think I love these Swartzwelder books more than I love baseball, pizza or professional wrestling.</p><p><i>The Empire Strikes Back: From a Certain Point of View, </i>edited by </p><p>Meh. There are a couple good ones, but four or five months later, I don't remember a thing I read in this.....</p><p><i>Dark Tower: the Waste Lands</i> by Stephen King</p><p>So much fun. I mentioned when I read Drawing of the Three last year that the section where Eddie meets Roland is maybe some of the finest writing King has put to page in his career. But as a story, the Waste Lands is where the Dark Tower finds its feet. It starts cooking with gas, and this remains one of my favorite King books.</p><p><i>The History of the Ancient World </i>by Susan Wise Bauer</p><p>A commute listen....one that I wished I'd read instead. I can visualize a lot, but for some reason, I don't see maps well. I need the visual aid. That said, this is a well put together work, and I'll be reading her follow up on Ancient Rome very soon.</p><p><i>Night of the Mannequins</i> by Stephen Graham Jones</p><p>Quick, fast paced, weird horror. Stephen Graham Jones is moving quickly up my list of favorite writers. I wanted this one to end a little more ambiguously, but I still enjoy this one very much. In a quick Twitter review, I mentioned that it made me want to watch the movie Twister, for some reason. To which SGJ responded: "I can't stop watching Twister...."</p><p><b>March</b></p><p><i>A Song with Teeth</i> by T Frohock</p><p>This might be my favorite new read this year. I love a nice period piece, and Frohock's Los Nefilim covers a stretch in European history (fantastically, using an adverb that works on a couple levels) that I am just now coming to in my personal reading. I'm picky about both fantasy and historical fiction, but Frohock zeroes in on exactly what I've been looking for with this series.....</p><p><i>Medallion Status</i> by John Hodgman</p><p>Hodgman had popped up on a couple of podcasts I'd listened to just prior to this, and in one, he was plugging this read. I like a guy who can turn a good phrase, and for months since, I've been referring mentally to eggs as disgusting snotty chaos.</p><p><i>Sidelined: Sports, Culture and Being a Woman in America</i> by Julie DiCaro</p><p>I've been reading DiCaro's work for years....since way back in the blogging days. We've followed each other on Twitter, and sadly, I've seen a lot of the disgusting shit people say to and about her. Posting my review brought an odd amount of heat from the same trolls. This was a good read, and I've passed a couple copies out to friends......</p><p><b>April</b></p><p><i>T-Rex and the Crater of Doom </i>by Walter Alvarez</p><p>A Kindle/Lunchtime read. As much about the scientific process as it is the end result. Dry, but enjoyable.</p><p><i>American Gods</i> by Neil Gaiman</p><p>A commute listen. My friend Jillian was reading this, and asked if it was worth finishing. It's actually a better listen than a read. Gaiman's work feels better aurally, if that makes any sense. Also, I need to go to Rock City again...I haven't been since the second grade....</p><p><i>Miami Blues </i>by Charles Willeford</p><p>This came recommended by a <a href="https://thebulwark.com/amoral-fiction/?amp&__twitter_impression=true&fbclid=IwAR3rfaiNgLKWeor4S8NU9wNEQZQtz-hGNBw0aM--gC0OnYjr9IeSxJJPlz8">Bill Ryan piece I read here</a>. I dug it. It tickles the part of my brain that digs the Flannery O'Connor, Eudora Welty brand of Southern Gothic. Grotesquely hilarious enough that I laughed until I cried about Hoke Mosely's dentures.</p><p><i>Needful Things</i> by Stephen King</p><p>The last Castle Rock story. This one was a big deal to me back in the day. Reading it now, it represents the best of King's instincts (his love of his small towns, the decency and lack thereof in everybody, King's astute memories of childhood), and also his worst (he gets maudlin, and saccharine sweet at the weirdest times...also, a couple of the threads tying to other Castle Rock works just feel forced...the whole Ace Merrill bit really, really grinds at me). Still, this one ends in a whirlwind, and I ended up liking it very much the second time around, nearly 30 years later....</p><p><b>May</b></p><p><i>American Moonshot: John F. Kennedy and the Great Space Race </i>by Douglas Brinkley</p><p>A commute listen. Digs hard into the politics of the space race. Made me think hard about Werner von Braun.....</p><p><i>Smoke Gets in Your Eyes and Other Lessons from the Crematory </i>by Caitlin Doughty</p><p>I'd had this one on my shelf for a while, and finally sat with it. Good read on the American take on Death, as part of our culture.....</p><p><i>The Dark Horse</i> by Craig Johnson</p><p>I read this one during my May vacation. Does it say much about me that I was more worried for Walt's dog than I was the child when both went missing?</p><p><i>Mongrels</i> by Stephen Graham Jones</p><p>This one's strong. Legitimately creepy, with an air of melancholy that pervades, but doesn't overwhelm the thing. </p><p><i>The Blizzard of '88 </i>by Mary Cable</p><p>A 1.99 Kindle read. Actually kinda neat to read in a very hot grocery store backroom, and thinking that standing, trapped on a pier during a blizzard, to be rescued with your coat frozen to you doesn't really sound all that bad.....</p><p><b>Junes</b></p><p><i>Gerald's Game</i> by Stephen King</p><p>A Commute listen. I liked it better than I remembered, but I still think the ending is a cop out. I didn't like a couple of the revelations in those final chapters. They felt cheap.</p><p><i>The Perfect Storm </i>by Sebastian Junger</p><p><i> </i>I didn't mean to re-read this one, but due to a remodel at work, my attention span was a little lacking. This one, even as much as I like it, reads like a long magazine article....</p><p><i>Some Assembly Required </i>by TJ Condon</p><p>A friend of mine wrote this from her own experiences with her husband's wait for a liver transplant. Tara's a natural storyteller, and this one reads very quickly. She translates a hellish experience with grace and humor. I bought a couple copies to pass out to people.....</p><p><i>Frankenstein</i> by Mary Shelley</p><p>I bought a copy with illustrations by the late Bernie Wrightson, this being a reprint of a Marvel project from way back when. I forget who had the original Marvel copy back in high school, but I always dug it. This is actually my first time through the book itself, though. I made an aborted attempt in the eighth grade or so. I dug it, though, and not just for the drawings!</p><p><i>The Ninth Metal</i> by Benjamin Percy</p><p>The commute listen. There were seeds of good stuff in here, but none of it every really bore fruit. I finished, but I didn't care for this one too much.</p><p><i>Fishing for Dinosaurs and other Stories </i>by Joe R. Lansdale</p><p>The kindle/lunchtime read. I'd read a couple of these in other places and forms, but enjoyed the collection overall. Black Hat Jack is definitely a favorite....</p><p><i>My Year Abroad</i> by Chang-Rae Lee</p><p>Shyam got me a subscription to a book club from Powell's, and this was the first of this year's editions. I liked it...bombastic and funny. I will say that the dialog felt wooden, from time to time, but on the whole, I enjoyed this one very much.</p><p><b>July</b></p><p><i>The Premonition: a Pandemic Story </i>by Michael Lewis</p><p>I'll go ahead and include this one, since I'm re-writing. The commute listen. Lewis delivers an interesting read....the conundrum of the last year is that if your measures work, then everybody will say it was overkill. Of particular interest (and a subject for future reading), how a potential outbreak of Swine Flu during the Ford administration helped shape our country's disjointed responsed to Covid-19......</p><p><i>Apex: The World of Dinosaurs Anthology </i>edited by Jonathan Thompson</p><p>Meh. A Kickstarter that just didn't bear fruit.</p><p><i>Dream Team </i>by Jack McCallum</p><p>I think I had a little Olympic fever when I read this one....that 92 Dream Team was right in my wheelhouse......good read....</p><p><b>August</b></p><p><i>Spillover: Animal Infections and the Next Human Pandemic </i>by David Quammen</p><p>This one had been on my radar for a little while, and it didn't disappoint. Manages to parse out a lot of information without wandering into textbook territory....</p><p><i>Dolores Claiborne </i>by Stephen King</p><p>Part of the project: I'd never actually read this one. I liked this one a lot, especially as a twin to Gerald's Game, which makes sense, since they were both originally part of the same project. King's love of small towns and community shines through.....</p><p><i>Failure is an Option: an Attempted Memoir </i>by H. Jon Benjamin</p><p>I highly recommend this one as a listen....Benjamin's got one of those voices that's just crept into ubiquity in the past decade. Funny read, even if it is a little fart-laden.</p><p><i>Once Upon a Time in Hollywood </i>by Quentin Tarantino</p><p>Read this one on vacation....I think I appreciate the story of Once Upon a Time coming around as a story as much as I do the story itself....and I like Once Upon a Time more than much of what Quentin's done in the past decade......</p><p><i>Goblin: a novel in six novellas </i>by Josh Malerman</p><p>Heavy on atmosphere, but light on just about anything else. Almost felt like a D&D adventure that the setup was more satisfying than the payoff....</p><p><i>The Storm </i>by Dan Jolley</p><p>Two in a row that I finished that I didn't particularly enjoy. The Storm just misses its mark, and manages to sneer a bit at the South. This one made me thankful for the guys like Cherie Priest, Alex Bledsoe and John Hartness who do write the South without it feeling like parody....</p><p><b>September</b></p><p><i>When the Game Was Ours.... </i>by Earvin "Magic Johnson, Larry Bird and Jackie MacMullen</p><p>This was a fun read....again, like Dream Team, talking about Magic and Bird is right in my wheelhouse, even if it wasn't my focus back in the mid and late 80's. Remarkably well put together, given the collaborative effort.....</p><p><i>What Strange Paradise </i>by Omar el Akkad</p><p>I liked this one very much...managed to turn an aggravation into its reason for being.</p><p><i>Nightmares and Dreamscapes </i>by Stephen King</p><p>What a fun read. I always fall back on Skeleton Crew or Night Shift as favorite collection, but there are a couple humdingers in this one. Dolan's Cadillac is a helluva good read. Umney's Last Case is a Twilight Zone episode waiting to be made. But I think my favorite piece is "Head Down," a nonfiction piece about his son Owen competing in Little League, competing their way toward the Little League World Series--I call it one of the better pieces of sports journalism that I've run across.....</p><p><i>My Heart is a Chainsaw</i> by Stephen Graham Jones</p><p>In the space of 4 or 5 books, Stephen Graham Jones has vaulted his way to the upper reaches of my favorite writers list. And this one is just hella fun....crackling with energy......</p><p><b>October</b></p><p><i>Frankenstein in Baghdad </i>by Ahmed Saadawi</p><p>This one had been on my radar for a bit, but I finally sat with it in October. Glad I read it in such close temporal proximity to Shelley's Frankenstein. The wartime displacement dysphoria is strong in this one.....</p><p><i>The Drive-In </i>by Joe R. Lansdale</p><p>Another one that crackles with pure weird energy. I'd read a couple of Joe's before I happened upon this one, but it was reading this one that made me say, all those years ago: "this guy is my kind of weird...."</p><p><i>The Between</i> by Tananarive Due</p><p>Due is another one that's working her way up my favorite writers list. She just does good work, and this one is a lot of fun....it definitely kept me second guessing myself.</p><p><i>All the Marvels </i>by Douglas Wolk</p><p>Not a bad read, and I appreciated his insights on the best Marvels....including calling out Dark Reign as one of the better stories of the spread of fascism.....And I appreciated his not getting involved in the Lee/Kirby debate (I'm not comfortable with the deification of either, for the record). I wish there had been a little more look at guys like Roy Thomas and Chris Claremont, and even Bob Harras and the Lobdell/Nicieza tandem, in building their corners of the shared Universe....</p><p><i>Yours Cruelly, Elvira </i>by Cassandra Peterson</p><p>Not a bad read at all...a late night purchase, fittingly enough. Corny humor, schlocky horror, and cleavage. It's a natural, for yours, truly.....</p><p><i>The Night the Lights Went Out </i>by Drew Magary</p><p>Magary, in 2018, suffered a brain bleed and collapsed. What he presents here is part memoir/part oral history, of his own recovery from a traumatic brain injury. Magary is a gifted writer, whose fiction I enjoy but whose nonfiction reveals his heart. This is in the running for my favorite book of the year.....</p><p><b>November</b></p><p><i>Insomnia</i> by Stephen King</p><p>Damn, what a long book.....it's not bad, but in my second time all the way through it, I can tell you that it still feels about 300 pages long, and possibly more.....</p><p><i>Fan Fiction</i> by Brent Spiner</p><p>Surprisingly funny. Slapstick Noir. Managed to keep my attention despite it being whittled to splinters for much of November.....</p><p><i>Rawhide Down: the Near Assassination of Ronald Reagan </i>by Del Quentin Wilber</p><p>Shyam got this one early in the year, and I ended up reading it. Nicely put together bit of history that I'd read little to nothing about....</p><p><b>December</b></p><p><i>A Fatal Grace </i>by Louise Penny</p><p>We listened to this one on our way to Florida, and on the way back. Penny's dialog is good, and it's hard to think of anybody who writes food better.</p><p><i>The Stupidest Angel </i>by Christopher Moore</p><p>Revisited this one. I don't know that I've enjoyed finding a writer more than I did finding Christopher Moore all those years ago....those early books are just such goofy fun. And this one is no different...even if male protagonists often resemble each other muchly.....</p><p><i>Grave Reservations </i>by Cherie Priest</p><p>A little bit of a Change of pace for Priest....leaning less on the supernatural and SF elements, leaning more on her talent for dialog and humor, and injecting everything into a modern setting. I liked it. And I hope that it's leading to more with these characters....</p><p><i>A Christmas Carol</i> by Charles Dickens</p><p>Annual re-read. I don't know that it gets the credit it deserves for being a spooky story.....</p><p><i>Radiants</i> by David B. Coe</p><p>Quick read, intended for Young Adults. It flows very nicely. Vibes of X-Men and Firestarter....I liked this one. Coe turns a good phrase.....</p><p><br /></p>Tommyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08914790857025063194noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3944202.post-15613456434019220402021-11-13T11:52:00.002-05:002021-11-13T11:52:53.555-05:00Nineteen?<p> Nineteen years.</p><p>Who'da thunk it?</p><p>I'm not here as often as I once was.</p><p>But I'm still here.</p><p>Married Shyam on Halloween. It was a delightfully weird ceremony. My reason: I've used up weekends off for the past 20 years going to exactly the same wedding. If we were asking people to give up part of their time off, we wanted to put our weird little mark on it. Our friend Marc married us in my Mom's backyard. His notes were inside a Flash Gordon graphic novel. My nephew served as ringbearer, while dressed as Yoda. There were costumes. There were nerf guns. Marc read Large Marge's soliloquy from Pee-Wee's Big Adventure. We asked folks to bring a Jack O'Lantern.</p><p>It was a small ceremony, and I felt bad that we couldn't have more folks there, but at the same time, I didn't want to overwhelm Mom's house.</p><p>But, Shyam and I are hitched now. It's not a huge change. We've lived together for four years, and I couldn't being to imagine spending time with anybody else. She's my girl.</p><p>Odd little things? Getting used to wearing a ring. Just the physical act of it, with none of the weight of marriage behind it. I don't wear jewelry. I don't even wear a watch. We have a ceramic Unicorn in the bathroom that Shyam's had for years. It's what she's used as a ringcatcher for years, and I've taken to using it during my shower. I think I've forgotten to put the ring on 3 or 4 times, at this point. And we've not even been married 2 weeks yet.</p><p>Also, names. We hadn't even discussed it much prior to the ceremony. But I did ask her if she was taking my name or keeping hers. She told me she'd take my name, but replace her first name instead of her last. </p><p>She makes me laugh.</p><p>Anyway, a few pictures:</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMtwtrucX0h95jVh7Csgc6kCOltfCLtFOhKiEvlsJBYDenIhSzzLJC3XIImIEOb-kO6JKV9i5R322FCjCU6SIXjC8zV5-Qv5MkMc2v0sBdiW2v0_BynJ9ClD2T1Q7044JyqcuW/s960/FB_IMG_1635725879580.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="960" data-original-width="720" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMtwtrucX0h95jVh7Csgc6kCOltfCLtFOhKiEvlsJBYDenIhSzzLJC3XIImIEOb-kO6JKV9i5R322FCjCU6SIXjC8zV5-Qv5MkMc2v0sBdiW2v0_BynJ9ClD2T1Q7044JyqcuW/s320/FB_IMG_1635725879580.jpg" width="240" /></a></div><div>I wore my Lebowski hockey jersey, although it was simply because my bright orange dress shirt was missing a button when I put it on right before the wedding.</div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3T5-4mwR75uGpZc3dOe-8GuAKqZX_MpPODLwKGyAfdUqRklNs6S11Mr7RuGhKYzR_dI63L7RXvQZsV4IB7LvKnGUwouxfpRkOPwYO0JJNEOHbA00zlC7-FcDLfJavCVsiaBln/s960/FB_IMG_1635725480292.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="960" data-original-width="720" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3T5-4mwR75uGpZc3dOe-8GuAKqZX_MpPODLwKGyAfdUqRklNs6S11Mr7RuGhKYzR_dI63L7RXvQZsV4IB7LvKnGUwouxfpRkOPwYO0JJNEOHbA00zlC7-FcDLfJavCVsiaBln/s320/FB_IMG_1635725480292.jpg" width="240" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiokD6qTgp_tpjuy5DhrTJHiFRUgORxQ8O4X_VrTUkvAcdJlLGRRtw3XuxOdBS9PUZXL-zQE_w0tHbVPCe6k4R-UpHTY4kf4bAEnXWEPFMltnrFVyDYuscJNonnUsrR5pk_4mfp/s4000/IMG_20211031_154522905.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3000" data-original-width="4000" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiokD6qTgp_tpjuy5DhrTJHiFRUgORxQ8O4X_VrTUkvAcdJlLGRRtw3XuxOdBS9PUZXL-zQE_w0tHbVPCe6k4R-UpHTY4kf4bAEnXWEPFMltnrFVyDYuscJNonnUsrR5pk_4mfp/s320/IMG_20211031_154522905.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div>It was completely accidental, but the one on the bottom left seems so frustrated by it all right then.</div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhaLYeOmjKkzqJAocCpwBmQj-D6KMz3Ury3n6_VNI_rtKkuGc7GRjfRkY96LpJ2d4iXuAgy99L3ulZM6Wq8Epgj5INRAG51ftLXXHX7oopv9tcxyfDpU5uyouLGS_Uhq4rzfYmB/s4000/IMG_20211031_144042019_HDR.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4000" data-original-width="3000" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhaLYeOmjKkzqJAocCpwBmQj-D6KMz3Ury3n6_VNI_rtKkuGc7GRjfRkY96LpJ2d4iXuAgy99L3ulZM6Wq8Epgj5INRAG51ftLXXHX7oopv9tcxyfDpU5uyouLGS_Uhq4rzfYmB/s320/IMG_20211031_144042019_HDR.jpg" width="240" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Shyam's folks with us.</div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWnvQFSg7BZMZYRV_erxgxwcPs5goMNVrpkntZDMCyoKGUV3OK6u6Gm6Cs-zqqLbSYwUvym_4bZbvdE-EKQoeZ-VUT4vFE_sfnZI8QnWksb1pzNXsWTGXvNXUC51pao5Tu1sjT/s4000/IMG_20211031_144009010_HDR.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3000" data-original-width="4000" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWnvQFSg7BZMZYRV_erxgxwcPs5goMNVrpkntZDMCyoKGUV3OK6u6Gm6Cs-zqqLbSYwUvym_4bZbvdE-EKQoeZ-VUT4vFE_sfnZI8QnWksb1pzNXsWTGXvNXUC51pao5Tu1sjT/s320/IMG_20211031_144009010_HDR.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjT0vkO9U-UEQW0z9UXT3vXDfFgNao514Vd8kIz0-ZOweyOfQDuL-HG2kmzzc6CQHjn-7LRVvMpS9kq0h9SO5v_FpM6T2jKL2-JIWsA3kbx76DjeZNoE5Bu7w05QpoYE6xq9DzK/s3264/IMG_20211031_135546523.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3264" data-original-width="2448" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjT0vkO9U-UEQW0z9UXT3vXDfFgNao514Vd8kIz0-ZOweyOfQDuL-HG2kmzzc6CQHjn-7LRVvMpS9kq0h9SO5v_FpM6T2jKL2-JIWsA3kbx76DjeZNoE5Bu7w05QpoYE6xq9DzK/s320/IMG_20211031_135546523.jpg" width="240" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Never give my sister your phone. So many selfies.</div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtlfl0Bwvo5Q8rcmZ3ZZtoxKzxDbMlJqbqkUm8cAunVVRYzDwRlOy5-uTwDVHZu_LEP81GBV3bfPr9HFhCwdLxeUCA40_hEfZGverbMyTnw3nVUa36-XnOV1SJZgLqDmpuqbSo/s4000/IMG_20211031_135527328_HDR.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4000" data-original-width="3000" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtlfl0Bwvo5Q8rcmZ3ZZtoxKzxDbMlJqbqkUm8cAunVVRYzDwRlOy5-uTwDVHZu_LEP81GBV3bfPr9HFhCwdLxeUCA40_hEfZGverbMyTnw3nVUa36-XnOV1SJZgLqDmpuqbSo/s320/IMG_20211031_135527328_HDR.jpg" width="240" /></a></div>Those who came in costume...Jill and Chris's daughter was a zombie prom queen.....<div><br /></div><div>So, anyway...we're hitched. We'll be heading to Disney in December for a honeymoon.</div><div><br /></div><div>Anyway, the blogamathing? 19 years of nonsense, and counting.....<br /><p><br /></p><p><br /></p></div>Tommyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08914790857025063194noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3944202.post-46886990604059912092021-09-21T23:24:00.001-04:002021-09-21T23:24:03.460-04:00Thoughts from the Ass End of the Night, volume XX<p> Not really an insomniac's post. Just staying up a bit. I've had my schedule jiggered and fucked. I'm closing all week.</p><p>We had a co-worker quit somewhat unexpectedly Thursday. Walked out. Left us hanging. Quickest way to fill his shifts without upsetting the apple cart was for me to move to his closing shifts.</p><p>I say "somewhat" unexpected. I won't name names, but he'd been acting increasingly erratic for about a month, a month and a half. Increasingly aggressive. Increasingly complaining. Solid employee, good guy. Almost a complete personality change in six weeks.</p><p>Drugs? I think it crossed all our minds. Either introducing new (likely illegal) ones to his system, or removing (likely prescribed ones) from his system without knowledge or consultation with medical pros. It's speculation, but given the abrupt nature of this change, I think it's a valid thought process.</p><p>I dunno. We're going through a remodel. Have been since late April. The biggest part of it's done, but we've had to do two show stores in the past six weeks or so. Extra stress. It's not fun. And the end result will mean a minor change to my duties, as well as the duties of the other managers. These changes involve a department the manager in question was very, very uncomfortable with. I think that had some to do with his decision to leave, as well.</p><p>I'll miss him. And not just because I'm having to pick up all his closing shifts this week, and a large portion of them until we get a new Evening Manager hired.</p><p>------</p><p>What else is new? </p><p>I read and recommend Omar el Akkad's <u>What Strange Paradise</u>. For Christmas, Shyam bought me a membership to a Book of the Month (or every other month) from <a href="https://www.powells.com/" target="_blank">Powell's </a> out in Oregon. This was this month's mailing.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg42P0ejpRXUHbTKaVsCv9gaHrUYqKeVPU1iRaNCMajcp0ei44GAnxmP6Kgo7HunwZVh_Qgasi77L51Nxi0z_038bSIJIDrOf53FBvPVpOYxlGBXxarqqc-D58tGPvELzjTvP0v/s500/What+Strange+Paradise.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="331" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg42P0ejpRXUHbTKaVsCv9gaHrUYqKeVPU1iRaNCMajcp0ei44GAnxmP6Kgo7HunwZVh_Qgasi77L51Nxi0z_038bSIJIDrOf53FBvPVpOYxlGBXxarqqc-D58tGPvELzjTvP0v/w212-h320/What+Strange+Paradise.jpg" width="212" /></a></div><br /><p>I won't say too much, because doing so would spoil a tremendous novel. I'll just say that a couple narrative choices that were nagging at me became clear by the end.....</p><p>------</p><p>It's September 21. The regular portion of the baseball season is nearly done. Last Friday, we hit a Chattanooga Lookouts game, my first since 2019. It turned out to be the last of the the Lookouts' season, weekend rain washed out both Saturday's and Sunday's games.</p><p>We made it to one Smokies game all year, too.</p><p>Our schedules, combined with some medical stuff going on in families, it made 2021 tough to get out.</p><p>Truth be told, I'm getting a little worn out with my work schedule. Not having free time to go do stuff outside of work has been a concern for all of the nearly 20 years I've been with the company. This year, with Covid, the Remodel, staffing difficulties and all the personal shit we've been dealing with, it makes you feel like the only reward for hard work is more hard work.</p><p>------</p><p>While I'm writing, for the first time in a couple months, can I recommend another book? This one, a cook book....</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEguruKEVz1oCU2FIO_tKvB4T83nKA-sY9HKFCZzbxlUX5LVwAeN_0RYye_tvmm_W-H1-Ipre7XsG6mocQqXXRS5jQmsYxZXpe6UWWZd4V7q7_2Sk3JUQfOWBXOiEoCgbnSHoRto/s2048/Bob%2527s+Burgers.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1502" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEguruKEVz1oCU2FIO_tKvB4T83nKA-sY9HKFCZzbxlUX5LVwAeN_0RYye_tvmm_W-H1-Ipre7XsG6mocQqXXRS5jQmsYxZXpe6UWWZd4V7q7_2Sk3JUQfOWBXOiEoCgbnSHoRto/s320/Bob%2527s+Burgers.jpg" width="235" /></a></div><br /><p>I ordered this mostly as a gag, but I've ended up getting more mileage out of this cookbook purchase than any other I've bought. Mostly because it starts with a simple base (even I can cook a burger), but has a handful of interesting twists and ideas. Plus, with our having a vegetarian in the house, I've been able to substitute both Impossible and Beyond burgers with ease into the recipes (Impossible seems to work a little better, it's a difference in percentage points....).</p><p>Tonight's dinner was A Good Manchego is Hard to Find burgers. Grilled shallots, manchego cheese, fig jam. This is the second time making these particular burgers (I had to substitute a plain yellow onion, as we'd used the last of our shallots for dinner this past weekend). They turn out tasty, and a it's a switchup from the routine. There are five or six burgers we've tried from this book, and I think the next one will be a Creme Fraiche/Blueberry mashup....found some Creme Fraische at Chattanooga's new Trader Joe's, which I visited for the first time today.</p><p>------</p><p>Anyway. That's the blog post. Maybe I should get back in the habit of doing this, because I feel a little better having written it. It used to be an every day thing. First post I've done since July, though. We'll figure it out, I reckon.....</p>Tommyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08914790857025063194noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3944202.post-48926734762587576572021-07-09T00:47:00.003-04:002021-07-09T00:47:36.513-04:002021 Mid-Year Reading Roundup<p>Well, I published this, and it looks like I accidentally deleted everything past February. Such are the joys of Blogger. I mean, if this were 2004, I'd talk about moving to another platform, but considering I apparently can't be bothered to write anything on here more than once a month, I guess we'll just shrug it off as one too many wires in plugged into the socket, and just try again. </p><p><br /></p><p>A blog post? What???W?W???</p><p>It's June, and here's a brief roundup of what I've been reading in the early part of 2021:</p><p><br /></p><p><b>January</b></p><p><i>Four Past Midnight</i>, by Stephen King</p><p>Continuing re-read project. Couple of these are a bit more taut than I remember. Secret Window, Secret Garden feels like a flipside companion piece to The Dark Half....</p><p><i>The Fighting Bunch: The Battle of Athens</i>, by Chris DeRose</p><p>Easily the best (and most and best researched) volume on the Battle of Athens I've read. </p><p><i>The Searcher</i>, by Tana French</p><p>I liked it, but it didn't hold the same amount of water as most of her work. Had one particular plot point that pulled the rug out from under me, and I just couldn't get into it like her best work.</p><p><i>Who Censored Roger Rabbit? </i>by Gary Wolf</p><p>Fun, if clunky. Definitely a book improved on with its film adaptation....</p><p><i>We Promised You a Great Main Event: an Unauthorized WWE History, </i>by Bill Hanstock</p><p>Meh. Google journalism. But maybe the best you'll find, since a good oral history would be next to impossible.</p><p><b>February</b></p><p><i>The Spy with No Pants </i>by John Swartzwelder</p><p>I think I love these Swartzwelder books more than I love baseball, pizza or professional wrestling.</p><p><i>The Empire Strikes Back: From a Certain Point of View, </i>edited by </p><p>Meh. There are a couple good ones, but four or five months later, I don't remember a thing I read in this.....</p><p><i>Dark Tower: the Waste Lands</i> by Stephen King</p><p>So much fun. I mentioned when I read Drawing of the Three last year that the section where Eddie meets Roland is maybe some of the finest writing King has put to page in his career. But as a story, the Waste Lands is where the Dark Tower finds its feet. It starts cooking with gas, and this remains one of my favorite King books.</p><p><i>The History of the Ancient World </i>by Susan Wise Bauer</p><p>A commute listen....one that I wished I'd read instead. I can visualize a lot, but for some reason, I don't see maps well. I need the visual aid. That said, this is a well put together work, and I'll be reading her follow up on Ancient Rome very soon.</p><p><i>Night of the Mannequins</i> by Stephen Graham Jones</p><p>Quick, fast paced, weird horror. Stephen Graham Jones is moving quickly up my list of favorite writers. I wanted this one to end a little more ambiguously, but I still enjoy this one very much. In a quick Twitter review, I mentioned that it made me want to watch the movie Twister, for some reason. To which SGJ responded: "I can't stop watching Twister...."</p><p><b>March</b></p><p><i>A Song with Teeth</i> by T Frohock</p><p>This might be my favorite new read this year. I love a nice period piece, and Frohock's Los Nefilim covers a stretch in European history (fantastically, using an adverb that works on a couple levels) that I am just now coming to in my personal reading. I'm picky about both fantasy and historical fiction, but Frohock zeroes in on exactly what I've been looking for with this series.....</p><p><i>Medallion Status</i> by John Hodgman</p><p>Hodgman had popped up on a couple of podcasts I'd listened to just prior to this, and in one, he was plugging this read. I like a guy who can turn a good phrase, and for months since, I've been referring mentally to eggs as disgusting snotty chaos.</p><p><i>Sidelined: Sports, Culture and Being a Woman in America</i> by Julie DiCaro</p><p>I've been reading DiCaro's work for years....since way back in the blogging days. We've followed each other on Twitter, and sadly, I've seen a lot of the disgusting shit people say to and about her. Posting my review brought an odd amount of heat from the same trolls. This was a good read, and I've passed a couple copies out to friends......</p><p><b>April</b></p><p><i>T-Rex and the Crater of Doom </i>by Walter Alvarez</p><p>A Kindle/Lunchtime read. As much about the scientific process as it is the end result. Dry, but enjoyable.</p><p><i>American Gods</i> by Neil Gaiman</p><p>A commute listen. My friend Jillian was reading this, and asked if it was worth finishing. It's actually a better listen than a read. Gaiman's work feels better aurally, if that makes any sense. Also, I need to go to Rock City again...I haven't been since the second grade....</p><p><i>Miami Blues </i>by Charles Willeford</p><p>This came recommended by a <a href="https://thebulwark.com/amoral-fiction/?amp&__twitter_impression=true&fbclid=IwAR3rfaiNgLKWeor4S8NU9wNEQZQtz-hGNBw0aM--gC0OnYjr9IeSxJJPlz8">Bill Ryan piece I read here</a>. I dug it. It tickles the part of my brain that digs the Flannery O'Connor, Eudora Welty brand of Southern Gothic. Grotesquely hilarious enough that I laughed until I cried about Hoke Mosely's dentures.</p><p><i>Needful Things</i> by Stephen King</p><p>The last Castle Rock story. This one was a big deal to me back in the day. Reading it now, it represents the best of King's instincts (his love of his small towns, the decency and lack thereof in everybody, King's astute memories of childhood), and also his worst (he gets maudlin, and saccharine sweet at the weirdest times...also, a couple of the threads tying to other Castle Rock works just feel forced...the whole Ace Merrill bit really, really grinds at me). Still, this one ends in a whirlwind, and I ended up liking it very much the second time around, nearly 30 years later....</p><p><b>May</b></p><p><i>American Moonshot: John F. Kennedy and the Great Space Race </i>by Douglas Brinkley</p><p>A commute listen. Digs hard into the politics of the space race. Made me think hard about Werner von Braun.....</p><p><i>Smoke Gets in Your Eyes and Other Lessons from the Crematory </i>by Caitlin Doughty</p><p>I'd had this one on my shelf for a while, and finally sat with it. Good read on the American take on Death, as part of our culture.....</p><p><i>The Dark Horse</i> by Craig Johnson</p><p>I read this one during my May vacation. Does it say much about me that I was more worried for Walt's dog than I was the child when both went missing?</p><p><i>Mongrels</i> by Stephen Graham Jones</p><p>This one's strong. Legitimately creepy, with an air of melancholy that pervades, but doesn't overwhelm the thing. </p><p><i>The Blizzard of '88 </i>by Mary Cable</p><p>A 1.99 Kindle read. Actually kinda neat to read in a very hot grocery store backroom, and thinking that standing, trapped on a pier during a blizzard, to be rescued with your coat frozen to you doesn't really sound all that bad.....</p><p><b>Junes</b></p><p><i>Gerald's Game</i> by Stephen King</p><p>A Commute listen. I liked it better than I remembered, but I still think the ending is a cop out. I didn't like a couple of the revelations in those final chapters. They felt cheap.</p><p><i>The Perfect Storm </i>by Sebastian Junger</p><p><i> </i>I didn't mean to re-read this one, but due to a remodel at work, my attention span was a little lacking. This one, even as much as I like it, reads like a long magazine article....</p><p><i>Some Assembly Required </i>by TJ Condon</p><p>A friend of mine wrote this from her own experiences with her husband's wait for a liver transplant. Tara's a natural storyteller, and this one reads very quickly. She translates a hellish experience with grace and humor. I bought a couple copies to pass out to people.....</p><p><i>Frankenstein</i> by Mary Shelley</p><p>I bought a copy with illustrations by the late Bernie Wrightson, this being a reprint of a Marvel project from way back when. I forget who had the original Marvel copy back in high school, but I always dug it. This is actually my first time through the book itself, though. I made an aborted attempt in the eighth grade or so. I dug it, though, and not just for the drawings!</p><p><i>The Ninth Metal</i> by Benjamin Percy</p><p>The commute listen. There were seeds of good stuff in here, but none of it every really bore fruit. I finished, but I didn't care for this one too much.</p><p><i>Fishing for Dinosaurs and other Stories </i>by Joe R. Lansdale</p><p>The kindle/lunchtime read. I'd read a couple of these in other places and forms, but enjoyed the collection overall. Black Hat Jack is definitely a favorite....</p><p><i>My Year Abroad</i> by Chang-Rae Lee</p><p>Shyam got me a subscription to a book club from Powell's, and this was the first of this year's editions. I liked it...bombastic and funny. I will say that the dialog felt wooden, from time to time, but on the whole, I enjoyed this one very much.</p><p><b>July</b></p><p><i>The Premonition: a Pandemic Story </i>by Michael Lewis</p><p>I'll go ahead and include this one, since I'm re-writing. The commute listen. Lewis delivers an interesting read....the conundrum of the last year is that if your measures work, then everybody will say it was overkill. Of particular interest (and a subject for future reading), how a potential outbreak of Swine Flu during the Ford administration helped shape our country's disjointed responsed to Covid-19......</p><p><br /></p>Tommyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08914790857025063194noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3944202.post-11803421289578100992021-04-15T23:30:00.000-04:002021-04-15T23:30:09.592-04:00Dreams and memories.....<p> It's odd the things you remember. Dates. Times.</p><p>On April 15, 1994, as a junior in high school, I asked somebody on a date. Spent days working up the guts to do it. Finally got up the courage, and asked. And she thought I was joking, and laughed. I was demolished in that way that only teenagers are demolished. I laughed along, acting like I was indeed joking about such things. Saved whatever face i was looking to save in 1994. I guess.</p><p>I've written about it before, and the person who I asked figured out that it was her I was referring to. She got ahold of my number through friends and called me to apologize. That's been more than 10 years ago. We're cool. We were cool way before that, but it was still decent of her to call.</p><p>Being a teenager is hard. I work with teenagers, and I have to remind myself of that at least 3 times a week, right after I've talked myself out of pitching a 16-year-old through a plate glass window.</p><p>That said, being a grownup isn't much easier. 27 years later, and that one still sneaks into anxiety dreams on occasion......</p>Tommyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08914790857025063194noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3944202.post-51926900607788990152021-03-25T12:35:00.003-04:002021-03-25T12:35:59.500-04:00Wrasslin' and Whatnot<p> Personal Top 10 Wrestlemania Matches</p><p>1. Ricky Steamboat vs. Randy Savage, Wrestlemania III....a 34 year-old wrasslin' match that just holds up. It's as much about the nostalgia as it is the ringwork. In the spring of 1987, I was on the back end of my true believer status, and I hated the hell out of Randy Savage. This was a grudge match, and it ends so satisfyingly. The ringwork, by the way, is top notch. It gets some shit down the line for how much Savage wanted it laid out. I don't care. The end result is still a lot of fun.</p><p>2. Undertaker vs. Triple H, Hell in a Cell, Shawn Michaels special referee, Wrestlemania XXVIII</p><p>Damn. This one's savage. I don't know that there's a better Wrestlemania streak than taker from 25-28. But this one is just savage. With all 3 bodies telling a story of respect.</p><p>3. Bret Hart vs. Steve Austin, Wrestlemania XIII</p><p>Still the best executed double turn in the history of wrestling. Hard to believe this match will be turning 25 next year.</p><p>4. Owen Hart vs. Bret Hart, Wrestlemania X. Just a clinic. Almost a fuck you to Vince. No clowning. Very little showboating, except for the requisite heel stuff from Owen. Just a clinic where two brothers wanted to show who was better...and the best there is.</p><p>5. Eddie Guerrero vs. Kurt Angle, Wrestlemania XX. I miss Guerrero. Very much. He had another one or two of these in him.</p><p>6. Shawn Michaels vs. Undertaker, Wrestlemania XXV. Again, a clinic. This time in Ring psychology. These two play the crowd like a piano</p><p>7. Shawn Michaels vs. Bret Hart, 60-minute iron man match, Wrestlemania XII. Amazing. Just Amazing.</p><p>8. Kurt Angle vs. Brock Lesnar, Wrestlemania XIX. Whoa. Just whoa.</p><p>9. Kofi Kingston vs. Daniel Bryan. Wrestlemania XXXV. This is a match that Kofi and Bryan both deserved.</p><p>10. Bret Hart vs. Roddy Piper, Wrestlemania VIII. So much fun. Bret carries Piper, but Piper holds his own...he's one of the best brawlers in history. Only thing holding this back from higher is a hammy moment when Piper listens to the crowd.....</p>Tommyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08914790857025063194noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3944202.post-64160489293927442522021-03-20T16:57:00.001-04:002021-03-20T16:57:06.222-04:00Basketball, and whatnot<p> Basketball is stupid.</p><p>That's not true. I like basketball a lot. And I like the NCAA tournament a lot. I wish COVID were done, or that I were vaccinated, so that I might find a sports bar and enjoy the first couple of days of the tournament without worrying that I'll take the Lung Crud home to a loved one. The energy of the first two days of the tournament is my favorite thing in the sports world. Watching Tennessee piss its way through its first round loss was made somewhat more palatable by watching Oral Roberts upset The Ohio State University, for a nice 15-seed upset.</p><p>As an addendum to the previous paragraph, I wish the weather could make its damned mind up around Southeast Tennessee....I've been able to use the patio at Buffalo Wild Wings a couple times when it's been warm, lately (Tennessee's game Friday the 12th was one such occasion). Today's weather, hovering in the 50's around lunchtime, did not seem conducive to a pleasant afternoon. There had been plans to take in a couple games today with a buddy, which fell through when he had to work at the last minute. Hard to be mad. I work retail, too....</p><p>What else in the World of Big Stupid Tommy?</p><p>I got to eat lunch with the Uncouth Sloth himself this past week. First time in several years I've seen Ardoug in person...but he and his missus were passing through the area, so we grabbed a quick bite. He's still Rob, and that's as fine a compliment as I can think.</p><p>On vacation this week. Stumbled headlong into this one. My company picked up a few stores in southern Georgia and western South Carolina, and are in the process of flipping them to our brand. I've had to make a couple trips in the past month, one to Albany and one to Hawkinsville by way of Warner-Robins. I'm not used to business travel, though the trips themselves were enjoyable enough. Walking through a Goodwill in Warner-Robins netted a couple neat finds....a handful of 50's pulp magazines, Amazing Stories type stuff. </p><p>Anyway. On vacation. Gotta buy a lawnmower. Kinda want a riding model, what with my being a middle-aged American Man. That decision will come sooner rather than later, as Mother Nature is threatening to turn my yard into the Brazilian Rain Forest.....</p>Tommyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08914790857025063194noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3944202.post-18551680770974102842021-01-21T00:23:00.006-05:002021-01-21T00:23:59.123-05:00Inauguration Day and Whatnot<p> We inaugurated a new President today. Count me among one of those feeling relief.</p><p>I don't care a lot for Biden. But I look forward to not waking up wondering if the incompetent fool at the White House blundered us into World War III. And on the wrong side.</p><p>What's more, it'll be nice to have a guy in the White House who seems genuinely interested in doing the right thing . (For the record, I felt much the same about Obama, and even Bush the Younger....I was always much more concerned about the people surrounding Bush than I was Bush himself). </p><p>Mostly, I look forward to leadership that aspires for us to be something bigger than ourselves. </p><p>Something great.</p><p>That phrase has grated on my nerves probably since 2015. </p><p>Make America Great Again.</p><p>Fuck you. America was always great. We don't need a grifter coming in making himself and his friends richer, telling us he's gonna make us great again.</p><p>Trump is one of those guys who can't tell the difference between fear and respect.</p><p>I wrote in November 2016 that a Trump presidency would not end like those who voted for him thought they would. It was a travesty. From top to bottom. Up to and including the treasonous events of January 6.</p><p>Anyway. Biden inherits The Plague and 73 million assholes who voted for Trump. I wouldn't wish that on anybody. I hope he's up to the task.....</p>Tommyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08914790857025063194noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3944202.post-32706824781672939362020-12-31T20:13:00.004-05:002020-12-31T20:16:00.590-05:00The 2020 Read List<p>Here's a list of what I read in 2020.</p><p>2020 was a challenge on a lot of levels. I had it nowhere near as tough as many, and I don't want to pretend that I did. I will say, though, that from March 12 through about the first of May, it was six- or seven-day weeks, and occasionally 12 and 13 hour days. There were a few other stretches like this. There were periods where reading was difficult, if only because my attention span was squirrely. </p><p>I read more on the Kindle and the Kindle app more this year than in years past. Lunches usually had me staring at a book instead of doomscrolling through the Facespace or Twitter. Better for the mental health, at any rate.</p><p><b>January</b></p><p><i>It </i>Stephen King</p><p>Just a huge, huge romp. Easily one of King's four or five best. Part of my read-thru of King's work. Its scope is amazing. Plus, I wonder if King was struggling with quitting smoking (along with drugs and alcohol) because Damn! Everybody smokes!</p><p><i>Realityland: True-Life Adventures at Walt Disney World </i>David Koenig</p><p>A very interesting read. Picked it up for the Kindle not long after Shyam and I returned from Orlando in 2019. My lunchtime read. The politics and logistics of the venture are just fascinating to me.</p><p><i>The Water Dancer </i>Ta-Nehisi Coates</p><p>Excellently written, with a lot of good turns of phrase. Harriet Tubman is amazing, and I'd like to see this as a movie or series. This one grew on me after I read, but my initial take on it was that it wasn't far enough from Coates' work on Marvel's books to suit me, but I made my peace with it, as well. One of the books that my brain keeps wandering back to.</p><p><i>Another Man's Moccasins </i>Craig Johnson</p><p>A commute listen, and a nice rebound for the series, after the previous volume nearly aggravated me away from the books altogether. I liked the setting, and it made me feel like Walt Longmire might be buddies, after a fashion, with Joe Lansdale's Hap & Leonard....</p><p><i>Cold Storage</i> David Koepp</p><p>Not bad, but not great, either. Parts are definitely well done. But it suffers from following the wrong character.....</p><p><b>February</b></p><p><i>Bucky Fucking Dent </i>David Duchovny</p><p>A Christmas gift from my friend Micah. You know, Duchovny's a funny dude. And this is a pretty decent book.</p><p><i>I Stooged to Conquer </i>Moe Howard</p><p>Moe's autobiography. An immensely clever guy, whose intense love for his brothers shines through. Perhaps the funniest thing I've read in years was the story of a young Shemp and young Moe courting women at the Boardwalk, and Shemp taking a stomach cramp, and mistaking a couple making out under the boardwalk for driftwood. In attempting to use the "driftwood" for a makeshift toilet, he ends up getting his butt kicked and having to clean himself off in the ocean.....</p><p><i>Quincy Harker: Year One </i>John G. Hartness</p><p>A commute listen. I think I prefer Hartness's Bubba the Monster Hunter, as a read, but this was still a lot of fun.</p><p><i>Dog of the South </i>Charles Portis</p><p>The more I read of Portis, the more I enjoy. I wish I'd found him earlier in life, but I'm glad I've found him now. I'd love it if the Coens had adapted this one....</p><p><b>March</b></p><p><i>Carved from Stone and Dream </i>T. Frohock</p><p>If you haven't checked out her work, you should definitely give Ms. Frohock's work surrounding the Spanish Civil War a look. I dig this series a little more with each book.</p><p><i>Heart of Darkness </i>Joseph Conrad</p><p>A re-read. I'd read it in college, but only in the semi-resentful way where you're reading for plot or style points because you're assigned it for a class. Reading it when I did, the week that things started to go insane, it was a nice juxtaposition picking apart Conrad's prose while getting asked every 3 minutes if we had any Lysol or Hand Sanitizer in the back.....</p><p><i>Eyes of the Dragon </i>Stephen King</p><p>Another part of the read-through. Such a fun, fast read. I first read this one late in high school, after I was already 3 books deep into the Dark Tower series, and had already read The Stand two or three times. I kept comparing it to those works, which at the time made it seem inferior. Maybe I'm a little more mature now, or can just see it better apart from those other works. It's a lot of fun. And as an aside, Bronson Pinchot has always been an excellent actor, but he's a superior narrator as well, and I'd love to see him involved with a film adaptation.....</p><p><i>Kaiju Rising </i>edited by Tim Marquitz & NK Sharps</p><p>A part of a Kickstarter way back when. Hit or miss, but there are a couple really good ones in there. "Day of the Demigods" was funny, and threw a couple of curves in there. "Occupies" was a hell of a good concept. And I keep thinking about "The Conversion," too. Just a nice, bleak monster story</p><p><i>Ready Player One</i> Ernest Cline</p><p>I'd tried a couple of other reads, but grabbed this as a bit of mental comfort food. I finished it on March 23, when our business had gone crazy after schools had started shutting down. (Without putting numbers out there, we'd had our busiest week in 14 years the second week in March...and then topped it by 40% the next week, for what was probably the busiest week that my current store had likely ever had, or at least since the blizzard in 1993). As for the book, I still dig it as a grail quest. Cline's not great shakes as a writer, but there are parts of this that let you know his heart and soul are in this one....</p><p><b>April</b></p><p><i>The Splendid and the Vile </i>Erik Larson</p><p>One of the best books I read this year. Larson's strong, but he hits the Churchill bio out of the park. I gave a couple copies as gifts this year.</p><p><i>Under the Black Hat</i> Jim Ross</p><p>More superlative: One of the best wrestling books ever written. Right up there with Mick Foley's Have a Nice Day and Countdown to Lockdown, and Bret Hart's autobiography. Creativity as a corporate enterprise fascinates me, and the efforts of the WWE are no different in that regard. A touching book, ultimately. Jim lost his wife Jan within a few days of my losing Dad. It was amazing how much his grieving process resembled my own in that spring of 2017.</p><p><i>The Deep</i> Alma Katsu</p><p>Katsu has written some really great stuff, but this was a little clunky, for some reason. It had all the elements that usually work for me (I love a nice period piece ghost story). I didn't dislike it, but it just didn't hit exactly right.</p><p><b>May</b></p><p><i>Buzz Saw: The Improbably Story of How the Washington Nationals won the World Series </i>Jesse Dougherty</p><p>I read this one because I was missing baseball.....I root for the Cubs, but Shyam roots for the Nationals. By association, I've become a well wisher, so when the Nationals won it all in 2019, I was very happy, and quite familiar with the cast of characters. Dougherty focuses on the key players, and I especially enjoyed the looks at Howie Kendrick and Dave Martinez. Especially disagreed with the look and conclusions on Anthony Rendon, who I've always regarded (and still do) as a prima donna. Still, a pretty good read....</p><p><i>Ronan Boyle and the Swamp of Certain Death</i> Thomas Lennon</p><p>These are fun, and I hope Lennon gets to publish a wagon full of these.</p><p><i>Misery </i>Stephen King</p><p> A commute listen. King ruminates on fame and fandom. Effectively. This is a strong one. One of the few King books I'd actually not read before going through it this time.</p><p><b>June</b></p><p><i>The Game: Inside the secret World of Major League Baseball's Power Brokers </i>Jon Pessah</p><p>Again, I was missing baseball. A look at the labor and drug issues in baseball for a couple of decades. My take is much the same as it was beginning the book...Look: Owners are by and large ruthless pieces of shit. You don't get to the point of having a billion dollars at your disposal without being something of a piece of shit. At the same time, though, I still have trouble mustering much sympathy for people making six, seven or eight figures a year playing a game, and doing very very little in this same time span for the folks in the minors. It just comes down to How Much Money Do You Need?</p><p><i>Salt and Stilettos </i>Janet Walden-West</p><p>My friend Janet published her first novel this year, and I gave it a read. Maybe not my normal stuff, but Janet has an excellent ear for dialog, which I'm a sucker for. This is a good read, and I recommend it.</p><p><i>Time's Demon </i>DB Jackson</p><p>This series is fun. I really dig the ramifications of time travel for those who are able to walk. And this one's a page-turner. Droe was probably my favorite character of the first book in the series, so it pleased me that she got so much focus in this book.....</p><p><i>The Stench of Honolulu </i>Jack Handey</p><p>I keep going back to this one. I liked this one a lot, after the fact. I do wish I'd read this one, instead of listening.....</p><p><i>The Dark Tower: the Drawing of the Three </i>Stephen King</p><p>Man it may not the best of his stuff, but the initial section with King and Eddie meeting, and ending their leg of the journey fighting Balazar just bristles with energy. I'd always considered Eddie very much the analog for King in the series. Until, well, King himself shows up. There's a lot of heart in Eddie. He was my Dad's favorite character.</p><p><i>Jaws </i>Peter Benchley</p><p>I very much went on a Jaws kick this year. The movie is one I'd watched every couple of years, and remembered each time: Holy Shit, this is good. The first movie I saw in a theater of any kind after a five-month hiatus was Jaws at the Swingin' Midway Drive-In. I picked up the book the next day. It's not a bad read, but that subplot between Hooper and Brody's wife threw me for a loop. The Mob connection, did as well. Glad to see those forgotten in the movie.....</p><p><b>July</b></p><p><i>Shakespeare for Squirrels</i> Christopher Moore.</p><p>One of my favorite writers. And probably the one with the highest batting average, in terms of books I gave a thumbs up to. The Pocket stories are tremendously fun, and this one is no different.</p><p><i>The Drowned World</i> JG Ballard</p><p>A Kindle read. It popped up in a $1.99 or $2.99 sale. Bleak enough to make me dream of it.</p><p><i>Impervious </i>AJ Hartley</p><p>My buddy Dino had gifted me a copy of this one. Definitely not your average fantasy/SF romp. Quite a bit jarring, actually.</p><p><i>Survivor Song </i>Paul Tremblay</p><p>I didn't think I'd end up liking a book taking place in a pandemic while in a pandemic myself as much as I did. Tremblay wanders away a bit from his Weird and Ambiguous Horror Umbrella. I ended up liking this one quite a bit.</p><p><i>An Army at Dawn: The War in North Africa 1942-1943 </i>Rick Atkinson</p><p>I've come to like Atkinson very much. A strong read. Ended up giving a couple copies as gifts this Christmas.</p><p><b>August</b></p><p><i>More Better Deals </i>Joe R. Lansdale</p><p>Finds traction about a third of the way end, and when it does, it tears it up. Nice kinda East Texas noir. I dug it.</p><p><i>The Fifty Year Mission: the First 25 Years </i>Edward Gross & Mark A. Altman</p><p>A commute listen. A look at the beginnings of Trek, through its Motion Pictures from 1979-1991. Not a bad read, though a thought hit me later. I've never had as much use for Gene Roddenberry as some. Except, that's not quite right. I'm just not always comfortable with the deification of creators (this from a guy trying to read everything King's written in order). That said, our editors occasionally come at Gene pretty hard. I'm not saying it's undeserved, and I applaud veering away from that glorification. But the flip side can be just as vexing.....</p><p><i>Devolution: A Firsthand Account of the Rainier Sasquatch Massacre </i>Max Brooks</p><p>This one just jumped off the shelf at me. It was fun, even if spending too much time with the Sasquatch, even on the page, starts stripping away some of their allure.</p><p><i>The Faceless Old Woman Who Secretly Lives in Your Home </i>Joseph Fink & Jeffrey Cranor</p><p>This one just jumped off the page at me on sale. It was fun, even if spending too much time with the Faceless Old Woman Who Secretly Lives in Your Home starts stripping away some of the allure.</p><p><b>September</b></p><p><i>The Tommyknockers </i>Stephen King</p><p>This was the first speedbump I ever ran across when I first started reading King, way back when. It was a friggin' mess. I made a second run at it in college, and got just about as far in. This is one of the books that was on my mind when I started my King read-through. This one took me most of August, and became an Insomnia Read, as I had a mild bout of it back in the late summer and early fall. The book is still a friggin' mess. King himself said in an interview or two that it's about 350 pages worth of book packed into 700 pages.</p><p><i>The End of Everything (Astrophyiscally Speaking) </i>Katie Mack</p><p>I've been following Katie Mack on Twitter for a long time. One of the most educational twitter accounts out there. And she's got a sense of humor that appeals to me, as well. The book is much the same. And I have to say that a highly localized singularity leading to our losing cohesion and fading into nothingness at the speed of light didn't sound so bad after herding teenagers for a weekend.....</p><p><i>The Only Good Indians </i>Stephen Graham Jones</p><p>Damn, this was a good book. Probably the best thing I read this year. A melancholy sort of horror. Whip smart. This is an awesome book.</p><p><i>American Nations: a History of the Eleven Rival Cultures of North America </i>Colin Woodard</p><p>An interesting take on the multiple personalities of culture that inhabit our land. Especially interesting given the varied responses to the pandemic across the country.....</p><p><i>Children of Blood and Bone</i> Tomi Adeyemi</p><p>I liked how this one was put together, even if it got busy for a while. It just didn't grab me, at the end of the day.</p><p><b>October</b></p><p><i>True Grit </i>Charles Portis</p><p>I didn't intend to re-read this one, but Shyam had lent her copy to her Mom, and brought it home when it was finished. I started thumbing through it, and ended up re-reading it over the course of a couple nights. It's become one of my favorite books, in the past few years.</p><p><i>The Answer Is...Reflections on My Life </i>Alex Trebek</p><p>This one turned into an Insomnia Read. I hate to say it, but this one felt rushed. Like they were trying to get it out before Trebek passed....which, sadly, he would quite soon after its publication.</p><p><i>Dune </i>Frank Herbert</p><p>This one had been on my list for years and years. And it took a while to really get moving for me. I liked it, but I'm not champing at the bit to hit another Dune book.</p><p><i>Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief </i>Rick Riordan</p><p>I think this is my first book recommendation from my nephew Thomas. He was reading it, and said he liked it. I found it for cheap on the Kindle, and ended up liking it pretty well. When I told April to tell Thomas that I liked it, he started grilling me about my favorite parts. For the record: The Battle of St. Louis and playing ball in the Underworld with Cerberus.....</p><p><i>The Natural </i>Bernard Malamud</p><p>It was kinda funny reading this one with its undertones of the gods right after reading Lightning Thief. Anyway, Roy Hobbs is a douchebag who reaps everything he sows.</p><p><i>The Dark Half </i>Stephen King</p><p>This one was a lot tighter than I'd remembered. A fine book.</p><p><b>November</b></p><p><i>The Good House </i>Tananarive Due</p><p>Due's short stories seem to show up in a lot of short story collections I pick up, but this is the first novel of hers I've read. It won't be the last. Good blending of supernatural and real world horrors. I dug it.</p><p><i>Answers in the Form of Questions </i>Claire McNear</p><p>Quick kindle read. Published a couple of days after Alex Trebek's passing. Gets a little more in depth into the game theory and buzzer strategies of players than the couple other Jeopardy books I've thumbed through in the past. A good overview, though it hesitates to criticize too harshly....</p><p><b>December</b></p><p><i>Sophie's World </i>Jostein Gaarder</p><p>This was the text book we used for Dr. Bombardi's Intro to Philosphy class. Had a couple points where I felt like I should have been eating lunch on the JUB steps while reading. This time around, I really appreciated the framing device for its story....</p><p><i>The Fifty-Year Mission: the Next 25 Years </i>Mark A. Altman & Edward Gross</p><p>A Continuation of the Trek Oral History, working its way through the Next Generation, DS9 and so forth. The TNG and DS9 sections held my interest pretty well, with the Enterprise and Voyager sections not doing much for me, likely because those shows also don't do a lot for me....</p><p><i>Ready Player Two </i>Ernest Cline</p><p>Eh. It's pretty likely that Cline's a one-trick pony. What might have made this book more interesting would be following a new set of characters, or perhaps Art3mis, as main characters. Instead, we spend the first quarter of the book attempting to reset characters back to their positions at the beginning of Ready Player One. Or their mindsets, at any rate. It's not as horrid as Armada, but it's definitely not as fun as its preceding work....</p><p><i>A Christmas Carol</i> Charles Dickens</p><p>An annual re-read. You know, that section where Marley first visits Scrooge is really well done as a spooky ghost story.....</p><p><i>The Book of Basketball: The NBA According to the Sports Guy </i>Bill Simmons</p><p>The Kindle read. I don't follow the NBA. Not regularly. It's just not my type of basketball, by and large. But, my nephew does. And when he speaks on it, I feel pretty damned ignorant. This one got recommended by a couple folks. I've been reading on it in dribs and drabs. Not a bad book at all.....</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p>Tommyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08914790857025063194noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3944202.post-57236047284731323032020-11-13T15:37:00.004-05:002020-11-13T15:37:58.592-05:0018!!!!!!<p> 18 years ago, I started this bloodletting thing men call a blog.</p><p>I'm not here as much as I used to be, but I appreciate all who continue to visit, seeing if I'm still farting around.</p><p>The answer is: yes. I am still farting around.</p>Tommyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08914790857025063194noreply@blogger.com1