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Reader's Notebook, 5/19/25

I’m going to delay the weekend notes until tomorrow since we have a rather important event tonight. Fortunately I have two books that I need to share some thoughts about. Surely You Can’t Be Serious: The True Story of Airplane! - David Zucker, Jim Abrahams, Jerry Zucker Truly one of the most fun books I’ve read in a long time. The three men behind the movie Airplane! come together for an oral history of both how their partnership started and the lengthy, arduous process to get their classic comedy made.

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Friday Playlist

We’ve reached what may be the busiest 10–12 days of the year for our family. Thus I’m putting this together Thursday evening, which could lead us in some surprising directions. [open.spotify.com/playlist/...](https://open.spotify.com/playlist/3mT5nGMKrJ0eLbbX4mxa9z?si=33646f35c89c4398) “Friday On My Mind” - Brògeal This seems like a good way to start. When writing about this band, Tom Breihan said, “They look and sound like the most Scottish motherfuckers you ever saw in your entire life…” which might be the greatest description of a band ever.

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Thursday Links

A few more links to pieces some of you may be interested in. I love thinking about how this will delight some Star Wars geeks, and make others super angry. The Phony Physics of Star Wars Are a Blast Sadly I didn’t find this recent interview with Bob Mould until after I saw him last week. What are your feelings right now about the state of the country?

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NBA Notes

Another wild few days in the NBA, on the court and off. Pacers They did it again! Going back to Cleveland for game five Tuesday felt like a sure loss, even with all the Cavs’ injury woes. Take the L on the road, the final punch of the year from the proud-yet-battered #1 seed, and then close out the series at home on Thursday. It sure looked like that’s where things were headed as Cleveland built a 19-point lead early in the second quarter.

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Weekend Notes

Well that was a fantastic weekend! Belated Happy Mothers Days to all the moms out there. I hope you had as good of weekends as we did. Visitors Our good friends Dave and Maureen visited from KC over the weekend. The reason for their trip, other than hanging out at blog headquarters, was so Dave and I could watch Bob Mould play some rock ’n’ roll Saturday night. Maureen was nice enough to share her Mother’s Day weekend with us old men.

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Friday Playlist

I feel like I’m settling into my new groove after the switch to Apple Music, finding a better balance between the old and new music. I think you’re going to like this week’s choices, which includes a couple special tracks. open.spotify.com/playlist/… “Black Confetti” - Bob Mould Hey, I’m seeing Bob Mould tomorrow night! And my brother-in-music Dave V. is coming to town to join me! I’m very excited to see the legend in person…and Mr.

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Reader's Notebook, 5/8/25

I’ve fallen behind again and I just started a book that’s going to take a week or so to get through, so some quick-ish book notes. Charlesgate Confidential - Scott Von Doviak A fun, pulpy novel that takes place over three different timelines in Boston, centered on an old building that has a complex (and haunted?) history. It begins with a mob heist and killing after World War II, jumps to a college student in 1986 who investigates the history of the building, and lands on a detective in 2014 who tries to tie a case he is working back to the weird cycle of past events.

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Wild Night

A crazy few hours Tuesday night. Holy Shit, Pacers!!! I knew the Pacers were in trouble when I saw, about an hour before game two of the Eastern Conference semifinals, that Cleveland would be missing three starters. THREE. How did I know they were in trouble? Because any time the Pacers faced a situation like this in the regular season, they laid a huge egg, either losing to a bad team or having to work like crazy in the fourth quarter to avoid an embarrassing L.

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Tuesday Links

A bunch of good reads to share. When I went to Washington D.C. with L’s class two years ago, one of the most impactful experiences was the several hours we spent in the National Museum of African American History and Culture. It was emotional, made me angry and proud to be an American at the same time, and should be a required stop on any DC visit. Naturally it is under fire because telling the truth about our past offends too many old, white people.

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Weekend Notes

A week after prom and before four consecutive weeks where we will be very busy, it was a nice, boring, lazy weekend. Weather There’s no delicate way to say this: our weather was ass most of the weekend. It rained Friday night into Saturday, then off-and-on the rest of the weekend. The temps slowly dropped from the 70s into the 40s. Sunday was dark and dreary and misty and generally ugly.

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Friday Playlist

As I shared many words about earlier this week, my switch to Apple Music means I’m pulling more songs from the past up into my daily soundtrack. Which means these playlists are going to start including more classics. Which was my intention back when I started them however many years ago. There will still be plenty of new music if that’s why you come to these posts. [open.spotify.com/playlist/...](https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0kTdfdU9VJepf2zcale0k6?si=1de6fba8557f4d1e) “Rock ’n’ Roll High School” - Ramones We are a week and change from having just one high schooler left in the house.

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April Media

Movies, Shows, etc Court of Gold I mostly watched these on our flights too and from Florida. You know what you’re getting with shows like this. Highly edited game highlights. Interviews with the participants and analysts that are aimed at casual fans and thus not super insightful. But, man, the formula works. Last summer’s Olympic basketball tournament was electric and this captured that magic well. A September 5 A brisk, tense, and very well done dramatized look at how the ABC crew in Munich handled the day Palestinian terrorists took Israeli athletes hostage at the 1972 Olympics.

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Never Count Them Out

Good Lord that was a basketball game! The Pacers laid a big, fat egg early, taking nearly seven minutes to score their first six points, blew multiple chances to put the game away in the second half, then somehow managed to come back from being down seven with 40 seconds left in overtime to win game five of their series and send the Milwaukee Bucks home for the summer. Actually, there was no somehow about it.

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A New (Old) Musical Home

As I wait out some morning storms before I head over the gym, it seems like the ideal moment to share (or at least start the post that shares) my latest music project. For months I’ve been thinking about writing a lengthy post about how I don’t upend my digital life as often as I used to. People close to me experienced this when I changed my email address, moved where I published our family pictures, or even adjusted where this site was located far too often.

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Prom Weekend Notes

Another very busy weekend for us, mostly revolving around C’s senior prom. We kicked off the weekend by going across the street to watch the #1 high school volleyball team in the state, FHS, play our local squad. “What a weird way to spend a Friday night,” you might say to yourself. True, true. We have good friends with a senior on FHS and we’ve been meaning to see him play for a couple years.

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Friday Playlist

A slight change-of-pace this week. I’ve been working on a new music project this week that has slowed down my processing of the new songs considerably. (I’ll share more about that project next week.) Plus a couple of these songs/bands are tough to Google, so I wasn’t able to find out much about them. As a result, a slightly more lean playlist than we’ve had recently. We should get back in the regular flow for the first playlist of May.

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Pacers-Bucks Notes

A few thoughts about game two of the Pacers-Bucks series last night. Once again the Pacers jumped out to a big, early lead. Not as much of an ass-kicking as in game one, but there was never any doubt who the better team was. And that was with Dame Lillard coming back. He actually played remarkably well in the first half, then clearly suffered a bit from his long layoff in the second half.

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Easter Weekend Notes

As it is Easter Monday, our holiday weekend continues. Or at least it does for C and L, who have the day off. Might as well keep to the normal blog schedule, though. Let’s run through the days rather than individual events. Friday A lot of work and errands to get ready for the holiday weekend. L had a PT session. M and her boyfriend arrived from Cincinnati late afternoon.

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Friday Playlist

I have an absolutely loaded Friday as we prepare for weekend guests and our extra-large family gathering for Easter on Sunday. Because of that I’m starting this Thursday evening, and I’m not really sure where it’s going to take me after this odd week. Let’s find out together! [open.spotify.com/playlist/...](https://open.spotify.com/playlist/1mlgX0sKC5cwbswK21ve8O?si=c032c2248e424a30) “April Skies” - The Jesus and Mary Chain They’re going to be dark and stormy for the next couple days, at least here in Indy.

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Health and Fitness Updates

A double-barreled discussion of health topics, one about a kid, one about me. A Hospital Visit My week got thrown off its already adjusted trajectory by spending four hours in the emergency department with L yesterday.[1] She’s fine but it was a stressful morning. Her stomach started hurting badly Sunday. She was also hot, sweaty, and looked like hell. She had gone out to dinner with friends the night before and we wondered if she got some bad chicken.

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Tuesday Links

Given that our government is run by a fool who should be on some serious ADHD meds, it is nearly impossible to follow what is going on in Washington as it wildly careens from one insane policy to another every 6–12 hours. Thus, a couple of the articles I’m linking to below were out-of-date almost as soon as they were published. That doesn’t mean they aren’t still worth reading, though.

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Weekend Notes

A pretty chill weekend, at least for me. We knocked out a bunch of yard stuff over the past few days. I installed some new exterior lighting with a huge assist from a friend. S and I ripped out some dead plants and replaced them with new ones. Our lawn crew came for the first time on Friday. If not for all the washed-out mulch from the storms of two weeks ago, our front yard would look like a million dollars.

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Friday Playlist

Yowza! Take a week off and not only does the music pile up, but there are also a couple large events to recognize. So this week’s list is EXTRA large for your listening pleasure. And that’s even with me probably cutting a song or two from my working list as I finalize what I share. open.spotify.com/playlist/… “catch these fists” - Wet Leg LOOK WHO’S BACK!!! WATCH OUT, FOOLS!!! “NW1” - Mên An Tol Whoo, this song cooks!

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Reader's Notebook 4/10/25

I read two-and-a-half books while on break. I admit I had to go back and read a summary of one of them. That’s what happens when you read most of it in small doses on the beach, I guess. The Seventh Floor - David McCloskey The latest entry from the former CIA analyst and host of The Rest Is Classified podcast. This time, operations against a Russian target run into constant obstacles because of a Russian mole deep within the CIA’s leadership.

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Reaching For The Stars, Vol. 111

Chart Week: April 4, 1981 Song: “Take It On The Run” - REO Speedwagon Chart Position: #27, third week on the chart. Peaked at #5 for two weeks in May/June. What makes a song great? There are like a million different things we could talk about when breaking that question down. I respect you and don’t want to type up a post that long. So let’s focus on one specific attribute: a powerful set of opening lyrics.

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Hoops Chat

A lot of hoops thoughts to work through as the college season has come to a very entertaining end. Women’s Tourney Man, UConn roared through the tournament like they were all mad the program hadn’t won a title in nearly a decade. Their performance in the Final Four was as dominant as I can remember any team, men or women, having over the final two games of the season. They eviscerated UCLA and South Carolina with a gorgeous, flowing, democratic brand of basketball.

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Spring Break 2025

Home after a nearly perfect week in Siesta Key, FL for C’s senior spring break. This might have been the easiest spring break we’ve ever had. In nearly every way you can assess it, things went as well, or even better, as we could have hoped for. We were on one of the B Team breaks for C’s class. The largest group trip was to a resort in Cancun. After doing the huge, overseas, resort trip two years ago with M’s class, C was not interested in all the drama that came with it.

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Friday Playlist

Nothing special about this playlist in advance of our spring break. Although it is chock full of great tunes. No playlist next week, as that is our fly home day. Hope everyone has a great week. [open.spotify.com/playlist/...](https://open.spotify.com/playlist/48oYNFd51GDO0joQ07XY0W?si=dff9bb1ef1ca42fa) "Bonnet Of Pins" - Matt Berninger Oh my! Often when lead singers of bands release solo projects, they use them as opportunities to explore new ground different than where their band normally treads.

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March Media

A little earlier than normal so it doesn’t sit in the Drafts folder until we return from spring break. Movies, Shows, etc The Agency Tuuuuuurific! I had read/heard raves for this and was waiting until S needed to get her next Taylor Sheridan fix on Paramount+ so I could watch it. It lived up to the hype. Now, there are some issues with the story, which got a little broad at times.

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Freedom!

A quick kid update. L had her cast taken off this morning. Everything looked great. No swelling, no pain. The doctor said the incision and tendon anchor in her foot all seemed fine. When he had her rotate her foot inward, an action that triggered her pain pre-surgery, she could do so without limitation or pain. She will be in a boot for the next six weeks and can finally put weight on it again.

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