I was not at all familiar with Sager’s work, but when I saw Middle of the Night pop up on multiple lists of must read new books over the summer, I jumped on it. Wise choice.
It is an excellent, spooky, freaky, fun mystery revolving around the disappearance and presumed death of a young boy in 1994 and his best friend’s efforts to cope with that loss as an adult, and then deal with weird coincidences that pop up 30 years after the disappearance. It pushes up against the supernatural, but eventually the causes for those seemingly unexplained incidents are relatively mundane. Except for one element…
Lots of twists and turns, especially in the final 20 or 30 pages, when Sager fakes the reader this way and that. Highly satisfying.
After that, I put a ton of his old books on hold and The Only One Left was the first to pop up. You can tell it’s from earlier in his career. It is less subtle and more in-your-face at times. That final stretch, where he offers several solutions for the mystery before the final reveal, is less elegant than in Middle of the Night. But it’s still a cool story, in this case about a 50-year-old murder mystery that has a shocking story that has been hidden in plain sight for those decades.
Cold Shot – Mark Henshaw
This is book two in Henshaw’s Kyra Stryker & Jonathan Burke series. After stopping a secret Chinese weapons program in the first book, here they are investigating a connection between the Iranians and Venezuelans that seems pointed at producing nuclear weapons for one or both of the rogue nations. Henshaw has been described as a modern Tom Clancy. That fits. He doesn’t go into pages-long descriptions of weapons or technology, but does find a way to still provide a lot of detail about such things without derailing his story for too long.
Solid plot, lots of action, the good guys win. What else do you need?
A special, early playlist this week, as we are headed to Denver later today to visit family over the CHS fall break.
“Tell Me Why U Do That” – Grace Bowers & The Hodge Podge
So Grace Bowers is some kind of prodigy. She’s still in her teens, has had an endorsement contract with Gibson guitars for four years, and is already putting out music that sounds like this.
“Clueless” – Beach Bunny
If Taylor Swift was a decade younger and made indie pop, it might sound like this song.
“Catholic Dracula” – Wild Pink
WP’s Dulling The Horns is one of my favorite albums of the year. This song is appropriate for the season.
“Ridiculous Thoughts” – The Cranberries
Speaking of the season, with it finally getting chilly and some days have a more gauzy look to the sky, that means I’ve been listening The Cranberries.
“Circle” – Big Head Todd and The Monsters
For people my age, BHT is probably the first band you think of when you think of Colorado. Currently our weekend plans include a trip up to the band’s home base of Boulder, although weather could alter that. Anyway, their Sister Sweetly was one of those 20-or-so albums that 90% of kids who went to college in the early Nineties had in their collection.
“No More Lonely Nights” – Paul McCartney
It’s kind of crazy how big Macca still was in the early ’80s. Three Number Ones and another #2 in the first four years of the decade. Plus the Beatlemania road show was keeping the Fab Four’s music as relevant as it had been since its initial release. This was his last, biggest hit of not only the Eighties, but his entire career until that random, regrettable Kanye West partnership nine years ago. Written for his film project Give My Regards To Broad Street, it features Pink Floyd’s David Gilmour on guitar. Both the movie and soundtrack got terrible reviews, but this song did ok, peaked at #6 in the US, #2 in the UK. It landed at #38 this week, just its second week on the Hot 100.
Kind of a quiet weekend for us on the personal tip. Plenty of other shit to review on this gloomy, chilly Monday morning.
Northern Lights
Since we live inside the city’s light dome, we weren’t able to just walk out and see Thursday’s northern lights. I was able to get a couple shots, using a long exposure, that showed a bit of the colors.
There were tons of amazing pictures from not too far from us. It definitely would have been worth my time to get off my ass and drive 30 minutes or so to get a bette naked eye view of them. But did I? Nope, despite seeing northern lights being on my bucket list.
Interesting Times At School
CHS parents got this text last Tuesday afternoon.
Screenshot
When the girls got home their eyes were big and they were talking fast. Apparently they were nearly in the midst of all the fun.
C said as they exited campus and headed west, they saw a car that had been pulled over by the police take off through the intersection she had just passed through to the east. Moments later they heard a bunch of loud noises as that car collided with several others that had just come off of campus. That proved these fools weren’t super criminals. Traffic around CHS during dismissal is a true nightmare. It can take you 15 minutes to travel a quarter mile if you hit the lights wrong. Yet these geniuses decided they were going to use that moment to evade cops.
A few of girls’ friends who were behind them got videos of first the car taking off, then the driver and his passenger sitting on the curb in handcuffs.
Word was they were arrested on drug and weapons charges. Awesome.
Two years ago M and C missed driving through an intersection by St P’s where there was a road-rage shooting by about five minutes. Now C and L missed get smacked by a criminal by literal seconds. They’ve obviously been saying their prayers, and/or their dead grandmas are looking out for them.
Royals
Well, it wasn’t unexpected, but after snatching game two in New York, the Royals couldn’t win either of the games at home and lost to the Yankees in four games. Another one-run loss and a two-run loss to end the season. It was pretty much all that was great about the Royals this year – the starting pitching with the bonus of an improved bullpen – and all that was not right – a woefully thin lineup that struggled to score to begin with, but had an even mightier challenge when Bobby Witt Jr. and Salvador Perez weren’t hitting.
The Yankees didn’t blow them out and the Royals didn’t embarrass themselves. Playoff baseball, especially the first two rounds, can be super flukey. That benefited the Royals in 2014. Their special blend of Royals Devil Magic did not make an appearance in this series.
Still, a surprisingly fun season. They got me at least partially interested in baseball after falling out of love with the sport because of how management handled the most recent labor stoppage.
It is probably too much to ask for the starters to be as good in 2025 as they were this year. The bullpen was bolstered late in the season and became a weapon, so pitching in general should continue to be a strength for the team. Now if management can go find a bat or two to plug the many holes in the lineup, we could be cooking with gas next year.
That said, surprisingly, the AL Central could be one of the most competitive in baseball next year. Cleveland is in the ALCS. Detroit had an amazing run late in the season and pushed Cleveland to the bring in the ALDS. The Twins fell apart late but entered the season as preseason favorites. In other words, even if the Royals make smart decisions to improve their roster for next year, there’s no guarantee it will be enough to return them to the playoffs.
KU
Hey, no Jayhawks loss this week! You never know, KU could always find a way to lose in a bye week.
It’s been kind of crazy to see how the teams that have beaten KU have done after knocking off the Jayhawks. Illinois is 5–1 and ranked. UNLV is also 5–1 despite their quarterback checking out. A week after beating KU, West Virginia went to Oklahoma State and destroyed the Cowboys before losing to Iowa State this week. Then Arizona State pulled a massive upset beating Utah this weekend. Only TCU has looked worse after beating the Jayhawks.
Mostly that doesn’t mean shit. Anyone who has watched KU this year has seen how flawed they are, both on the field and from a schematic/coaching perspective. Still, four of their losses have been by a single score. The TCU game was a single-score game until the closing minutes. As many issues as the Jayhawks have had, a few breaks here and there and they could easily be 5–1. While I think us KU fans would be waiting for reality to set in, we would feel a lot better about things.
This week brings Houston, and KU opens as favorites. Get a win and it doesn’t necessarily turn the season around, but it could at least change the vibes. Lose this one? Man, things will get ugly.
In totally unrelated news, Purdue fired their offensive coordinator last week. This week they went to Illinois. The ESPN boxscore was all messed up, but I believe they trailed by 27 in the second half before scoring 30 straight points to take the lead. They gave up a tying field goal at the final gun, then failed to convert a 2-point conversion and lost by one in OT. All from firing their OC. Hmmm….
CHS
Friday night Cathedral took on Southside Catholic rivals Roncalli. This was once one of the best rivalries in the city. Before the tournament success factor was introduced, the teams played in the same class and were often either in the same sectional or regional. In our first few years living here, they always face each other in the playoffs, and the score was usually something like 10–9 or 14–13. And Roncalli often won.
But Roncalli, aside from a 4A state title two years ago, has been kind of crappy since their legendary coach retired a while back. CHS beat them 42–0 last year. This year it wasn’t much better, a 35–6 Irish win. A CHS receiver made an insane catch for an 84-yard TD. He dropped two other sure touchdowns on easy balls. The only RHS points came on their final drive with a running clock and facing the CHS reserves.
The #5 Irish are now 5–2 with a big matchup at 7–1 #6 Warren Central to close out the regular season.
The sectional draw was last night. CHS gets the school across the street from us, who will be 0–9, to open. Then a likely matchup against presumptive 9–0 Lawrence North for the sectional crown. CHS has ended LN’s season the past two years.
Halloween Shit
Both the girls had friends over Saturday to carve pumpkins, eat fall foods, and have fun. Tough to get a shot of all the pumpkins but they look nice on our front porch.
Worth mentioning that L had a young man over she’s been hanging with for the past few weeks. He’s a nice kid. They were joined by another couple. Those four stuck to one part of our house while C and her group of ten-or-so seniors stayed in another part. Seemed like everyone had fun. Once things got going S and I kept to our room to stay the hell out of the way.
Closing Time
We closed the pool on Friday. It was sunny and 80° when the guys were shutting it down, the water still at 78° despite me not running the heater in a week. I think you call that perfect timing. Of course, the girls hadn’t been in the pool since August. I had been using it, but as I’ll share tomorrow, I haven’t been able to get in for a week or so, meaning we closed it a week late. Since I wasn’t running the heater I didn’t mind.
Then Sunday morning S and I first cleaned up the leftover pumpkin messes from the girls then stored away all the pool furniture and other summer goodies into the pool house for the winter. Our pool deck is now naked. Appropriately it was super breezy and gloomy while we were doing that, and 15° cooler than the day before. This week looks super fall-ish, although another warm-up is forecast for next weekend.
Colts
The Colts couldn’t get it done against pathetic Jacksonville a week ago, but did enough to win against the equally pathetic Titans this week. Man, Will Levis is fucking bad. Anthony Richardson, who sat out again, may end up being a bust. I’d rather have a dude that can only play every third game than Levis, who throws some of the worst balls I’ve ever seen. Maybe he figures the game out and turns into a solid QB eventually. But watching him Sunday, I was glad the Colts passed on drafting him a year ago.
The crazy thing about watching the Colts is that if they could ever get healthy, they really should have a plus offense. They have two really good receivers in Michael Pittman and Alec Pierce. Josh Downs showed Sunday that he might be better than those two. And AD Mitchell has loads of potential although he has a long way to go. Old Man Joe Flacco gets them the ball just enough to be dangerous. If you can keep Jonathan Taylor on the field, easier said than done, you have terrific balance. Of course, you can’t keep him on the field and there is no decent backup. The O-line has improved, even losing one starter for the season.
But that defense? Woof. They make just enough plays, especially against a shitty team like Tennessee, to make you think they might be decent. But they aren’t decent at all, even allowing for missing important players up front and being too thin on the back end.
Feels like a season that ends in 5–7 wins and puts them too deep into the draft to get a player that can immediately plug a gap next year.
Fall Break
It’s appropriate the weather has finally changed, as this week is the girls’ fall break. They are in school today and tomorrow, then off the rest of the week. We are traveling to Denver to visit our family out there. It looks like we will have a 20° temperature swing while we’re out there, too, so packing could be tricky. Obviously a lot more about this next week.
“Much Ado About Nothing” – Waxahatchee
A leftover track from her most recent album that got a proper single release this week. In a very Pearl Jam-way, this as good as most of the tracks that made Tigers Blood. I nominate Ms. Crutchfield to be our queen.
“What About The Children” – Gary Clark Jr. with Stevie Wonder
Not a bad pull for a guest by Mr. Clark, huh?
“Slugger” – SASAMI
We have a fantastic new entry in the Crying In The Club Bop hall of fame.
“Grocery Store” – Enumclaw
A very difficult song to search for, as the engines want to tell you about grocery stores in Enumclaw, WA. Maybe it is hard to find info on this song because it has a very 1995 vibe, from before the days when Yahoo, Alta Vista, and eventually Google would change our lives.
“1995” – Starflyer 59
Speaking of 1995, why not segue straight into a song that doesn’t just sound like that year, but is named for it?
“Brakes” – Onsloow
OK, one more. The lead singer of this band sounds a lot like Juliana Hatfield, who was kind of a big deal in 1995 or so.
“Penny Lover” – Lionel Richie
I had another song picked out for this week that I like a lot more than this one. I realized this morning that other song does not have a video. And there is a ton of great trivia behind it. So I’m going to tuck it away for a future RFTS post and shift to this, the final single from Richie’s massive Can’t Slow Down album. Over 13 months or so, Richie released five singles from the album, all of which landed in the top 10, two of which topped the chart. This one peaked at #8. Not my favorite song, nor one of my favorite artists. But as Lionel was a huge part of the legend of ’84, he deserves some run here. It cracked the Top 40 this week at #38 in just its second week in the Hot 100.
Chart Week: October 4, 1980
Song: “I’m Alright” – Kenny Loggins
Chart Position: #8, 13th week on the chart. Peaked at #7 the next two weeks.
Every successful career has a turning point, a moment that elevates it from being run-of-the-mill into something special and lasting. This song, for example, recorded as a favor to a friend for a movie that initially was a bit of a flop, helped turned Kenny Loggins into one of the best known artists of the Eighties.
After a decent run in the Seventies – first with The Nitty Gritty Dirty Band, then in Loggins and Messina, and finally as a solo artist – Loggins hit the Top 40 six times in the 1980s with songs that appeared on movie soundtracks. Four of those would crack the Top 10. His title track for the movie Footloose would become the only #1 of his career.
It’s funny for me to think of him in just that way. That’s primarily because my mom really liked his music and had many of his solo albums. I can go deep on some early ‘80s Kenny! Really, only three of his movie songs had staying power beyond their chart runs. “Footloose,”“Danger Zone,” from Top Gun, and “I’m Alright” were so big, they are what people remember him for, not the eight other Top 40 hits from his solo albums, or for co-writing the Doobie Brothers’ #1 hit “What A Fool Believes.” But it seemed like every summer would bring another Loggins song (or two) that was tied to a movie.
He started on the path to his honorary royalty thanks to another movie connection.
In 1976 he wrote the song “I Believe In Love,” which Barbra Streisand sang in that year’s version of A Star Is Born. Through that project he became friends with the movie’s producer, Jon Peters. A few years later Peters called Loggins and said he was working on a new movie, Caddyshack, and needed a song for the title sequence. Loggins saw an early cut of the movie – one that did not yet include the animatronic gopher tearing up the golf course – and was struck by Michael O’Keefe’s character Danny Noonan.
“… I got the idea they wanted to portray him as a bit of a rebel, even though he had not yet achieved that particular character,” said Loggins. “(He) was trying to figure out where he fit. But at the same time he wanted people to leave him alone and let him find his own way. So I wanted to grab him and summarize that character, and that’s what ‘I’m Alright’ is doing."
I’m not sure I ever got much of that. Probably because I was nine years old when the single was released and didn’t bother to consider the lyrics much then. Or since, to be honest. It was just a really good song that I heard often before, during, and after our move from southeast Missouri to Kansas City in the summer of 1980. I heard it often on the AM radios in my parents’ cars and on the transister radio I received for my birthday that I carried around everywhere.
It also fit Peters’ title sequence perfectly. It followed Noonan as he rode his bike from his chaotic, overfilled, over-the-top stereotypically Irish home to the assumed relaxed and refined environment of Bushwood Country Club. The song is fun, engages the listener, and has some momentum to it that gets you amped for what you’re about to see on the screen. I also hear the rumble of the road in our multiple trips between Southeast Missouri and KC that summer.
When re-listening to “I’m Alright” this week, I thought for a moment that Lindsey Buckingham might have co-wrote it with Loggins. There are so many elements to it that sound like a Buckingham song. The structure, the instrumentation, the layering of the vocals, that hint of country-rock. Hell, the drums, with their floppy, heaviness recall Mick Fleetwood’s work behind the kit, so I guess this sounds more like a Fleetwood Mac song without the female vocalists than a Buckingham solo effort. There might be some common threads in there, but neither Buckingham nor Fleetwood had any involvement in the track’s writing and recording.
Casey Kasem’s introduction for the record on this week’s countdown blew my mind a little. He said sometimes a song will be a hit no matter what gets in its way. In this case, he noted, Caddyshack had not done well at the box office, and the soundtrack wasn’t selling well either. But “I’m Alright” was doing just fine on its own, still climbing in its fourth month on the Hot 100.
It’s wild to hear a transmission from the fall of 1980 claiming that Caddyshack was a commercial disappointment. I didn’t see it then, but it seemed like every kid I knew with an older sibling had seen it. There was much talk about it at the bus stop. Weird that Caddyshack didn’t really become a huge hit until a few years later, when it landed on cable and our generation could watch it over-and-over, memorizing every line, and boring bystanders with horrible immitations of Carl Spackler’s “Gunga galunga” speech.
The song holds up. It’s not just nostalgia for the movie that keeps it in high rotation on ‘80s stations. It’s a genuinely good song, by an artist who knew better than anyone else how to craft a pop tune that pulled in vibes from the film it was attached to.8/10
One more note: when Loggins was recording “I’m Alright,” Eddie Money was working on his own album in a nearby studio. Loggins invited him over to lay down some background vocals. You can hear Money most distinctly when he sings the line “You make me feel good!” in the bridge.
Well, Loggins did not give Money an official credit for his contribution. That started a grudge that lasted at least 34 years.
“I’m not a fan of Kenny Loggins to tell you the truth,” he told Cincinnati morning show host Kidd Chris of WEBN in 2014. “I sang the bridge in that. We were label mates, you know.”
I wonder if they made up before Money passed in 2019.
A busy, warm, disappointing, and significant weekend.
FNL + Party
Friday was a big night for a couple reasons. First, L was having friends over to celebrate her birthday. Seven girls, including her middle school buddy who goes to the rival high school, gathered at our house after school. They are a good group and fun to be around. They are mostly sassy and confident and silly, and while they usually congregate away from us, when we have to interact with them they always make me laugh.
Once S got home we ran them over to Marion University, which was hosting the big Center Grove vs Cathedral game. This was class 6A #5 vs #7. CG came in at 4–2, CHS 3–2. CG had won three in a row in the series and have dominated it over the past decade. In a change, it was moved from the final week of the season to week eight this year for some reason.
It was a wild game.
CHS scored on the first play of the game, a 64 yard run.
Trailing 10–0, CG had an 80-yard TD run.
CHS answered with a 74-yard TD pass.
CG led 30–27 at halftime, and eventually 45–35 with about six minutes to play.
The game ended with this sequence in the final five minutes:
Cathedral touchdown.
Cathedral successful onside kick.
Cathedral touchdown.
Center Grove interception.
Cathedral punt.
Center Grove interception.
Game over.
Huge win for the Irish. Normally you would say these teams are on a collision course for a rematch in semistate. CHS is going to have trouble getting past Lawrence North, who is 7–0 and destroyed #2 Warren Central this week, in sectionals though. They would also likely have to beat #1 Brownsburg between sectionals and Center Grove, and they’ve already lost to them. Anything is possible I guess.
The only bummer to the night was apparently there weren’t a ton of CHS kids at the game. Marion is on the opposite side of the city from school. Since CHS kids come from literally everywhere – something like 80 middle schools are represented in L’s class – you would think that wouldn’t be an issue. Especially for the Center Grove game, which is always huge. But I guess it was an issue. Anyway, L texted us at halftime that they wanted to leave because “no one is here” and it was boring. So the girls were eating cake and ice cream at our house when the Irish made their furious comeback. I kept listening and let them know the result.
What truly sucked was the Royals pitchers walking 80 Yankees batters. The fifth inning was really when the Royals lost this game. That inning went walk-single-walk-walk-foul out-fielder’s choice-walk. Two runs scored, both on bases loaded walks.
You don’t expect to lose in Yankees Stadium because you walked in more runs than you allowed on homers.
The Royals are a resilient bunch, though, and I think the loss will get them more re-focused than discouraged. Hopefully the pitchers are a little more locked in Monday while the hitters can keep generating runs.
Oh, and this ALDS schedule is nuts. Three days off in a five-game series? When these teams played a five-game ALCS in 1980, games one-through-three were played on consecutive days. And that was with a night game on Thursday in Kansas City and a night game Friday in New York. Since the Royals swept that series, I don’t know if an off-day was scheduled before either game four or five. But in 2024, there are scheduled off days between games one and two, two and three, and four and five if needed. Dumb.
KU
Same old same old. A disastrous end to the first half. A lead in the fourth quarter. The inability to stop the opponent when it mattered most. A fifth loss in a row.
Lawrence radio guy Derek Johnson posted this amazing stat on Twitter after the game: In each of their losses, at some point in the second half KU has had at least a 74% win probability. Add those up, and the odds of going 0–5 over that stretch is 0.01%, or about 1 in 10,000. Yet KU found a way to do it. Never say we can’t do amazing things in football season!
I think that stat also points out the truth to this season, something I pointed out last week. KU got just about every break possible last year. This year, though? No breaks. Or when they get a break, they find a way to fuck it up.
The offense and OC Jeff Grimes have taken the bulk of the criticism this year. The offense was fine Saturday. Yes, there were a few bad choices, notably in the two three-and-outs after KU forced turnovers because of hopelessly conservative play calling. One first down late in the second quarter and Arizona State never gets a chance to tie the game going into halftime. Jalon Daniels, who might have had his best game of the year, rushed a throw to a wide open Quentin Skinner that cost KU four points in a four-point loss.
Those aside, Saturday was on the defense. Yes, they forced two turnovers and blocked a field goal. But there were, yet again, massive holes for ASU to exploit all night. Almost no pressure on the quarterback. KU got destroyed at the line on running plays and gave up 313 yards rushing! Not technically on the defense, but they also gave up another long punt return to a player who should have been tackled seconds after fielding the ball by one of three players.
I know they were missing one defensive captain the entire game, and Cobee Bryant left the game late with what appeared to be a bad injury. That doesn’t excuse how bad the D looked as a whole, and has looked all season.
I read a theory this week that the transitional recruiting class between Les Miles and Lance Leipold, which was ranked in the 110s nationally, is what is killing this team. There are a ton of seniors of various types, a lot of freshmen and true sophomores, but not many of those third year players who maybe aren’t ready to start, but have been in the system and can come in briefly to spell the starters when needed.
I have no idea if that explains KU’s defensive woes or not. I am starting to think last year’s performance was a fluke. DC Brian Borland should definitely be under as much pressure as Grimes, because he hasn’t found a way to scheme around talent issues.
I genuinely hated sports late Saturday night. The Royals and KU games overlapped some. I had the Royals on the TV, KU on the MacBook. It was harder to follow both than my attempts to listen to CHS and watch tennis or football earlier this year. Higher stakes, I guess. KU and the Royals both scored at about the same time once, which was fun. The Yankees scored the go-ahead run at nearly the same moment Arizona State tied the game going into halftime, which was not fun.
Oh, a couple of my KU buddies and I had talked about going to this game a while back. We didn’t go forward because, for some reason, tickets even on Southwest were over $500. I was glad we chose to stay home. Not just because of the loss, but also because it was 106° at kickoff. I read somewhere this was the hottest temperature at kickoff for an ASU game this century. And, (in)famously, whatever Sun Devil Stadium is called these days has all aluminum bleacher seating. I can’t believe the game was nearly sold out.
Colts
No Anthony Richardson or Johnathan Taylor, plus a couple key defensive injuries. An offensive lineman breaks his leg during the game. And the Colts hadn’t won in Jacksonville in 11 years.
So no surprise that after giving up their third ridiculously long touchdown of the game, they trailed by 14 late. I went outside to water some plants, figuring my weekend didn’t need any more sports disappointment.
A few minutes later I noticed S looking at the window trying to get my attention. I strolled over and glanced inside at the TV and saw the Colts were kicking a PAT to tie. Apparently Joe Flacco and Alec Pierce did their best to save the day, but the Jags kicked a field goal to win at about the same point in the clock as where Arizona State beat KU. Perfect.
I don’t think the Colts are terrible. But they are definitely on the bottom half of the mediocre middle of the NFL. That middle is so big that any team in that group can beat any other, so the Colts might still manage six or seven wins. I wonder if they would be better served to start thinking about the draft and focusing on getting the best pick possible. Which means as tempting as it will be to keep starting Flacco when AR is healthy, you have to focus on both developing Richardson and determining if he is the man going forward. You can’t delay that question another year while you’re chasing a Wild Card spot with Flacco.
LB
Some milestones for B girl #3.
She turned 16 Thursday.
Saturday we got her travel basketball assignment for next year. She’s with the same coach she’s been with. It does suck that we’ve lost two more of her best friends she’s played with the last three years. We might steal one of those girls back but we’re not confident. Travel ball at the high school level is brutal when it comes to roster building. You have very little say in who you get, as teams higher in the pecking order can “steal” girls if they need them. That happened to one of her besties, and from what I’ve heard from that girl’s mom, she does not want to play with the team that picked her. L is hopeful they can get her switched back to our team, but I’m doubtful.
L is still suffering from the lingering effects of mono, but will try to go back to preseason practice this week. She feels mentally bad about missing two weeks, but also feels physically bad any time she breaks a sweat. Knock on wood I don’t get a call at 6:30 AM Tuesday that she’s sick at practice, or just can’t continue and needs to get picked up.
Sunday she passed her driving test. She’s been doing a great job with her practicing, so there wasn’t much doubt. Her instructor even said “Piece of cake” when they returned. She can officially get her license on Jan. 1, although she’ll obviously have to wait another day.
Weather
A gorgeous, warm weekend to wrap up an unseasonably warm week. Saturday I hardly watched any football during the day, partially because I knew I would be watching both the Royals and Jayhawks at night. But also because I wanted to sit outside and read and enjoy the beautiful day.
All last week they were saying this week would be much different. It is cooling off a little; we’ll be down in the upper 40s for a few mornings. But days will still be in the low 70s, slowly warming back to the low 80s by the weekend. These are the days you have to hold on to because even when they are mild, the Midwest winters will suck the life out of you.
“Perfect Me” – Blossoms
First off, these dudes don’t sound like your typical Manchester band. I would have guessed Southern California first. Then, they said this song is a homage to their love of Abba, Bruce Springsteen, and The Killers. I hear some Killers, the other two? Not so much.
“Drop Me Out” – High Vis
If it doesn’t work because I’m not smart enough to make it work, there should be a GIF of Beavis and Butthead headbanging and yelling “YES!!!!” here.
“Under A Cloud” – Susanna Hoffs
Ms. Hoffs is releasing an album called The Lost Record that features tracks she recorded in her garage 25 years ago. This one eventually landed on the Bangles 2011 reunion album Sweetheart of the Sun. There isn’t a ton of difference between the songs. This one is a little funkier. The Bangles’ version has slightly more dreamy harmonies. Oh, and Susanna is a national treasure that should be protected by an act of Congress.
“On The Floor” – THUS LOVE
I don’t know much about the Vermont post-punk scene. I do know, though, that when I want to listen to post-punk music from Vermont, this is the first band I think of. Like all good post-punk, this song could be from 1984, 1994, 2004, 2014, or 2024. It is brand new, for the record.
“Dangerous” – Liz Stringer
I’ve been down on Spotify’s Discover Weekly playlist lately. However, a few weeks it spit out this remarkable track and it kind of makes up for all the other crap. Stringer is a bit of a cult artist in Australia. Other artists love her, but she hasn’t had a ton of commercial success. Musically, this could be a Ryan Adams song from 10 years ago. Her lyrics are fantastic. I need to dig into her music more, as I’ve read a couple interviews with her and it seems like she’s had quite a life and has written a lot about what she’s been through.
“Edge of Town” – Middle Kids
Speaking of Aussies, my current favorites released a surprise live album last week. I’m not normally crazy about live albums, but I found this one to be quite good.
“Out of Touch” – Daryl Hall and John Oates
I told you there were some big songs left, and some weeks where it was going to be tough to choose what song to share. This week I could have selected Wham’s “Wake Me Up Before You Go Go,” or Tina Turner’s “Better Be Good To Me,” which both cracked the Top 40 at #32 and #34 respectively. However, I couldn’t ignore one of my all-time favs. In just its second week in the Hot 100, it landed at #38. In December it would spend two weeks at #1, the duo’s sixth and final US #1. I will never, ever change the station or hit the skip button when it comes on. Dance on your knees!
What a glorious October morning today was. Made all the more glorious by the mighty Kansas City Royals sweeping Baltimore to advance to the ALDS against the evil New York Yankees.
It’s like the late 70s up in here!
Two tense games in gloomy, Baltimore weather, which made the Wild Card series feel so much like the 2014 ALCS between these two teams. Poor Baltimore. That’s six-straight losses to the Royals in the postseason, a healthy chunk of their 10 straight postseason losses. The Royals won those six games by a combined eight runs. Three times they won 2–1!!!
To make things worse, aside from one bad misplay by MJ Melendez Tuesday, the Royals were flashing leather like it was 2014. Both Melendez and Tommy Pham had catches that would have made Lorenzo Cain proud.
In the Wild Card era, baseball playoffs have consistently been the most volatile of the professional sports postseasons. Home field doesn’t matter as much as in other sports. A couple good pitchers can make up for a huge disparity in total talent. And baseball is just the streakiest of sports. All that is amplified in the current system, which begins with the three-game Wild Card series. One bad inning can doom your entire postseason in a series that short. The Orioles gave up a couple hard singles to Bobby Witt and are now headed to Cancún or wherever.
So while it’s not a huge surprise the Royals got the Wild Card win, neither is it ridiculous to think they can keep things going against the #1 seed Yankees. Now, it would be nice if they could score more than a run or two per game. In fact, I’m going to go out on an analytic limb and say the Royals must score more than that if they want any chance to upset the Yanks. Then again, the Royals pitchers were absolute nails in Baltimore. Who’s to say that won’t continue and a few well timed runners and hits will be enough?
It’s just a lot of fun that the Royals are still alive. Even more fun that they seem to be mimicking the ’14–15 Royals by playing terrific defense, getting great pitching from the entire staff, and using their speed to create runs. They still feel a little flukey. I doubt they care what outsiders think.
It is also worth mentioning that this week’s games were far less stressful for me than those games in ’14–15. I’m sure a lot of that is because I’ve not been as fully into this team as I was those. While I paid a lot more attention to them this year than in the past 3–4 years, my investment still wasn’t nearly what it was before and during that championship run. It would have been a bummer if the Royals had lost both games in Baltimore, or split then lost the deciding game today. I would not have been crushed the way I was after game seven of the 2014 World Series, or would have been if the Royals had lost game four in Houston in 2015.
In those two playoff runs I was locked in, every pitch a super-stressful moment. I missed parts of a few games because of work, family, and kid sports, but I was still following every moment of those games. This week I was able to often be splitting my attention elsewhere, which surely helped my blood pressure a bit.
Anyway, it is October, the Royals are heading to New York for a playoff series, and it would not be completely ridiculous if they were still standing in 10 days.
Another dive into the notebook for a selection of random notes.
College NIL
Shockwaves went through college sports last week when UNLV quarterback Matt Sluka, who tore up KU in week three, announced he was sitting out the remainder of the season so he could transfer and retain a year of eligibility. He claimed that UNLV had not lived up to their NIL agreement. UNLV fired back that they had provided everything promised and he was looking for a better deal elsewhere because of his hot start.
Before we get to the NIL angle, there’s actually another dumb thing that needs to be addressed. In college basketball, if you play one game, you have burned your eligibility for that season. In football, players can appear in as many as four games and maintain their redshirt option going forward.
That is one of the stupidest rules the NCAA, an organization with a lot of dumb rules, has instituted. Before NIL you would occasionally see a player decide after week four he was shutting it down so he could jump to another program. Khalil Herbert did that at KU a few years back, running all over Boston College one week then not playing again that season before jumping to Virginia Tech. I think this might sneakily be the most destructive element of the modern, free transfer era. It’s bad enough coaches have to re-recruit their own players every year. Now you have to worry about whether they’re going to make a business decision before week five that wrecks your season.
I’m all for player power, but I think they have too much power in this situation.
Back to NIL proper. I just laugh at this, and know more of it is coming. For the 100th time on this site, let me remind you that the NCAA could have nipped this in the bud 20 years ago. All they had to do was share a fraction of the money they made from using players’ names in video games, which was the right thing to do on every moral and legal level imaginable, and then allow schools to throw kids a few bucks when they sold jerseys with their names and numbers on them. But, no, they insisted on protecting the “sanctity of amateur sports,” when college football and basketball decidedly hadn’t been amateur at the highest level for at least a generation, and refused to allow any of that to happen. Now we’re in a wild west where the NCAA has no rules or control and no higher authority is interested in stepping in to create ground rules. The result is kids getting paid flatly to play at specific schools rather than profiting off the use of their name, image, and likeness as was supposed to happen. Boosters are funneling money into NIL collectives rather than university booster organizations or general funds.
Congrats, NCAA! You managed to both destroy college sports while trying to protect it, and create a significant financial shortfall for universities at a moment when they face increasing budgetary hostility from the legislatures that fund them. That is some amazing work!
Replay/Refs
Pretty much every game I watch these days refs make terrible calls. WNBA refs might be the worst I’ve ever seen, worse even than high school refs. At least high school refs are out-of-shape, thin-skinned, semi-pros so you expect them to suck. I think WNBA refs make up the rules as they go some nights. Twice in their playoff series the Fever had to use a challenge in the first quarter because the referees assigned a foul to the wrong player. In each case it was obvious an error was made, but the refs made no move to correct their call, forcing the Fever to burn a challenge early. Fortunately, in each case they won and the call was changed. ESPN’s Rebecca Lobo blasted the refs and league for putting the Fever in that situation. A referee mistake should not force a team to burn their challenge.
Refs suck. You know what else sucks? Replay. In so many ways.
We can see a replay on TV and often in five seconds know if a call was right or wrong, then we sit around for three minutes while the refs try to figure it out. And then sometimes the refs still come up with the completely wrong call. The worst is in college basketball, where they will review an out-of-bounds call, realize the initial call was wrong, in the process see there was a foul that went uncalled, but can only change who has possession, not assign the foul that caused the turnover.
Then there are all stupid rules about what is and is not a catch in football. Or how in baseball a player’s body coming a fraction of an inch off the bag for a fraction of a second somehow means he was out. And so on.
I’m pretty sure I’ve suggested this before but I think replay review should only be shown at real-time speed. We don’t need to slow it down to one frame per second to analyze whether a ball moved a fraction of an inch when a receiver hit the ground. If we’re checking the refs, we need to check them at the same speed they made the call.
Yeah, folks will throw a fit if slow-mo shows detail that real time does not. That’s a downside I’m more willing to live with than how replay is used now.
And every review should be a coach’s review, with a limited number of challenges per contest. Give us back our games!
Kids
I forgot to mention the M got her sorority Little last weekend. It was the girl she/we expected, an architecture student from California. They both looked excited in the pictures we saw, so that’s good. We were worried the new girl wouldn’t be as into the process as M and her Big were last year. Looks like she can at least fake it.
We submitted C’s two college applications she plans on sending Monday evening. One to IU, her top choice, and one to UC. M got her acceptance letters from both schools in mid-November of her senior year, so we should know fairly soon.
Our mailbox has been flooded with promotional material from schools for both C and L. This week C got a package from High Point University. When we opened it up, this book was inside.
It’s a legit, hardback book. She hasn’t checked a box expressing any interest in them, so I assume thousands of these went out unsolicited. I guess at a hair under $70K a year, before aid, they can afford to send some books out. Seems like a weird choice for 17–18 year olds, though.
L has been sick for a couple weeks. It’s been so bad that she’s had to skip a few morning basketball workouts. We’re are pretty sure she had/has mono, but when we had blood work done last week, somehow the mono test got lost. There were other indicators that suggest mono so we’re going with that. Official basketball practice begins in three weeks, hopefully enough time for her to start feeling better.
ESPN
The alleged World Wide Leader is having rough times. Last week they laid off Zach Lowe, one of the best sports writers/analysts across all sports, and the finest basketball analyst they had. Another sign all they care about is the hot-take side of “analysis” that can be chopped up into Tik-Tok videos.
Also, last week I was sitting in a waiting room reading their story about the final home game for the Oakland A’s. It was a great story, and proof that ESPN does still allow some long-form journalism to take place under its watch.
But check out how user-hostile the reading experience was.
I’ve noticed this a lot lately. You get roughly halfway through a piece and this footer filled with disclaimers, etc pops up. You can’t dismiss it. You can scroll up and it will disappear, but when you scroll back down it returns. It remained on my screen until I finished the article. It’s not even a freaking ad, just a bunch of legalese that the reader should be allow to dismiss, or better yet, should auto-hide after a few seconds.
Finally, multiple times Monday ESPN showed graphics for the baseball playoffs that were completely wrong. One had the Royals and Tigers flipped, the Royals playing Houston and Detroit going to Baltimore. At least this one you could kind of explain away. The Royals and Tigers finished with the same record, the Royals getting the five seed thanks to winning the season series with Detroit. Obviously someone didn’t know the tie-breaker rules and either gave Detroit the higher spot because of alphabetical order or because they had a better record over their last 10 games. Or because they didn’t bother to look at MLB.com to get the official bracket. Still super dumb, but understandable since ESPN, like much of sports media, has fired many of their experienced editors and replaced them with cheap talent that doesn’t understand context.
Later in the day, though, they flashed a graphic that had Oakland in the playoffs. The A’s finished 17 games out of the final Wild Card spot. Worse, they had them playing the Padres…on the National League side of the bracket. I guess leaving Oakland means the A’s are also switching leagues?
US Open, week two
The non-stop action of week one is more fun, but week two still dominated our TV.
A-
The Americans, season four
In general The Americans is a bleak show. I forgot how beyond-bleak season four was. Thirteen episodes of crushing negativity, applied a little heavier each week. Important characters are killed or deported or exfiltrated or question everything about themselves. It wasn’t as flashy as some of the earlier seasons, but perhaps that makes it more like what spying really is like? Also a reminder that this show kept getting better as it progressed.
A
The Americans, season five
When it initially ran, this was the lowest rated season of The Americans aside from the first year. Now, that meant a 94 on Metacritic so “lowest rated” is relative, but people still complained about its slowness and rather restrained finale. Watching it when you know what comes next changes that. This was indeed a slow year, with lots of long, drawn out scenes featuring sad gazes and exhausted sighs. But it was all about setting up the decision the Jennings made near the end, and how that choice would carry over to season six. It also continued to focus on the tedium of being a spy than the cool, James Bond-y parts of the job. And while the finale lacked fireworks, it had a huge emotional impact. Ten episodes to go, which include several of the best in the show’s entire run.
B+
Pearl Jam – Orpheum Theatre, Boston, 04.12.1994
So fun and interesting to go back and watch this, considered one of their greatest shows of the era, and compare it to seeing them in person last month. A lot of experimentation on stage, with songs from Vs. not fully fleshed out yet in the setlist. Dave A on drums, for better and worse. Eddie weird, angry, and distant. Not even three albums into their career they could still bust out a 25-song show. The video quality is about a D-, but the sound is incredible.
A+
Shorts, YouTubes, etc
How an Interior Designer Maximizes Her 650 Square Foot NYC Apartment
This brings back memories of the two small, urban apartments I lived in alone before I got married. Of course, I was a late 20s/early 30s single dude and put zero effort into decorating or where the furniture would go. What a surprise this video was! You can actually put thought and care into your living space, no matter how small it is.
The Office moments that were NOT scripted
It would be more fun to see how these moments came about, and any breaks they caused in early takes, rather than the finished product, where they don’t stand out as much.
A Tour of Antarctica by Drone
This is nine years old. I wonder what an updated version of this would look like, between the better drone technology and what elements of the film have changed because of climate change.
The Conet Project – Disc one
After reading the two Jeff Tweedy books, I listened to a bunch of Wilco music, including their 2001 album Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, which took its name from this, a collection of recorded shortwave radio spy transmissions. So, naturally, I had to go listen to the Conet Project. Or at least the first disk. Remember, I had a shortwave radio as a kid so this shit is cool to me.
The Ringer WNBA Show
It took me a while but I finally added a WNBA pod to my collection. In my defense this one, hosted by the fantastic Seerat Sohi, is a new spin off from The Ringer’s NBA pod feed. I really enjoyed the episode that looked at the end of the Fever’s season, what they did right, what they did wrong, and the moves they need to make to improve their odds next year.
