Four books in four weeks to kick off the year. But one of those was a children’s book I knocked out in an afternoon, so I’m feeling like I didn’t take advantage of January the way I should have. Also, I’m skipping one book, just because I’m still thinking about how to write about it. It’s the first time I’ve read a book written by someone I know, and while I liked it, for some weird reason I’m having a hard time putting my thoughts on it into words.
If Super Bowl week is all about absurdity, it gets no more absurd than this: SB Nation’s Breaking Madden creates a Super Bowl of giants vs. tiny people. Even if you don’t read it all, scroll through for the GIFs, which made me laugh until I cried. With just under two minutes left in the first quarter, I was winning 366 to zero. I realized that I was on pace to score 1,500 points in a single game.
This all probably means nothing, and I can’t find a clever way to tie them all together, but there are four rather interesting anniversaries/birthdays that each end in zero, in close proximity to each other. In reverse order, youngest to oldest… Hoop Dreams just turned 20. I remember watching it in a little arty theater in Westport, in Kansas City, where you sat on folding chairs and the film was projected on a small screen.
Sad news from the radio world. Faced with growing competition from digital alternatives, traditional broadcasters have managed to expand their listenership with an unlikely tactic: offering less variety than ever. The strategy is based on a growing amount of research that shows in increasingly granular detail what radio programmers have long believed—listeners tend to stay tuned when they hear a familiar song, and tune out when they hear music they don't recognize.
Overheard on the way home from school yesterday. C.: M.! Did you hear Justin Beaver got arrested?! (She still has a few words where she replaces B’s with V’s. I love that Bieber is one of them.) M. (bored): Yes. L.: Why’d he get arrested? C.: He egged his neighbor’s house. And he snuck out of a club. L.: Oh. He left a club? What’s that? C.: It’s like a place people go at night.
Sadly, all this cold has sapped my brain of writing inspirations. So yet another link for you. This is a good one, though. Grantland offers up the oral history of all oral histories: an insiders’ tale of the making of the movie Swingers. It’s great, although not nearly long enough for extreme devotees of the flick. Still, plenty of great tidbits, including this story about the inspiration for the closing scene of the movie.
I saw this article linked to from a couple sites last week. Both pointed out that, on its surface, it seemed like a silly story about a silly fad. Apparently artisanal toast - at $3, or more, a slice - is the new big thing in San Francisco and beginning to spread to other major cities. But both sites said the story went deeper than over-priced toast and was worth diving into.
I’m pretty sure at some point in the past ten years I’ve written about my mini-fascination with soldiers, mostly Japanese, who disappeared into the jungles of the Pacific during the closing days of World War II and lived for years thinking that the war was still being fought only to eventually learn that peace had been declared long ago. I suppose it’s just an extreme take on the marooned in the wilderness fantasy.
This will cause some of you to shake your heads, perhaps in disbelief, perhaps in disgust, perhaps in resignation. But I must share it anyway, because it’s just so excellent to those of us who follow the Kansas Jayhawks. Grantland’s college basketball guru, former Ohio State player Greg Titus, produces a weekly column in which he ranks his top 12 teams of the moment. It’s an often hilarious look at what happened over the previous week of college hoops.
It’s been awhile since I’ve shared any news from the road. Of course, there haven’t been a ton of really interesting stories from the winter sports season so far. But here are some tidbits to keep you updated on what I’ve been doing. I forget if I shared my experience writing a preview on one of the boys teams we cover. So allow me to repeat myself if I did.
From January 25-27, 1978, the Indianapolis area got over 15” of snow, which came on top of 5” of snow from a few days previous. The winds howled at over 50 mph. Snow drifted to between 10 and 20 feet. The wind chills were below -50. People were trapped in cars on the highways. Amtrak trains were stranded on their tracks. The entire city shut down for three days. The pictures of that time, extra grainy as they came in the low-res, black and white newspaper photo era, are incredibly eerie.
Tonight the Kansas Jayhawks officially begin pursuit of their 10th straight Big 12 conference championship. Despite an immensely talented roster, that quest seems rife with concern at the moment. There’s no denying it: the season has been disappointing so far. Disappointing, not a disappointment. While it’s been far from worst-case - the Duke and Georgetown games were fun - I think this season has been a textbook example of the perils of running a team full of freshmen and limited experience sophomores out against tough competition.
I read 55 books in 2013. Not bad. Not bad at all. Here’s the last of the bunch. A Christmas Story - Jean Shepherd You Better Not Cry: Stories for Christmas - Augusten Burroughs Shepherd’s work is an annual tradition for me. Before I can watch the movie, I have to go back and read the original essays it was based on. And, each Christmas season, I try to include at least one new holiday book.
There’s no two ways about it: this sucks. Over a foot of snow. Windchills are currently -40. There are travel bans all over the area, meaning unless you have an emergency or you’re on your way to a shelter, you can be arrested for taking your car onto a road. And worst of all, M. and C.’s holiday break was extended a day. It’s too cold to send them outside, we can’t drive to a mall or the library, and we’re all sick of each other.
A - Many of you have been saying I’m an idiot for a long time. B - Chiefs fan, you might want to skip this one. I’ve been claiming, for years, that I’ve shed many of my sports superstitions. And that’s true to a point. Back in the glory days of my superstition-dom, game days involved elaborate ceremonies of picking the correct clothes, going through proper pre-game activities, finding the correct seat, saying and thinking the proper things before the game, and so on.
Our girls keep using the word “awkward” incorrectly. For example, earlier this week we ran into their Uncle D at the grocery store and then him again with Aunt J walking their dog through the neighborhood the next day. Both times the girls kept shouting, “AWKWARD!” I had to explain that awkward means uncomfortable, weird, strange, not just an expression surprise. So it’s not awkward to run into people you want to see.
In case you missed it over the holidays, the New York Times had a fun quiz that, based on the words you use for certain terms and how you pronounce those words, shows how you compare to people across the country. The first time I took this, my most similar cities were Denver and Aurora, CO and Albuquerque, NM. Later I read that it works best if you use the words and pronunciations you grew up with.
Happy New Year! We woke to 4-5” of new snow on the ground, with even more predicted for Saturday night. The girls are excited. I’m excited I can finally get them outside of the house for awhile. With apologies to all the fans of Epiphany out there, the holiday season has officially ended. Yesterday we took our tree to the recycling pile at the park and packed up all our decorations.
I know none of you probably pay any attention to these monthly accountings of my music listening habits. Like most of what I do here, it’s mostly for my amusement. First, what I listened to in December. As always, it was a little different that what I listened to the other 11 months of 2013. Frank Sinatra - 68 Bing Crosby - 45 Dean Martin - 40 Vince Guaraldi Trio - 30 Ella Fitzgerald - 26 Next, a look at the artists last.
That’s what the family calendar on the refrigerator shows this morning. Three hundred sixty-five days down, zero to go. Which means, though the sun will rise in the morning and the normal work-week will continue (for some) on Thursday, today is still an end and tomorrow another beginning. 2013 was, for the most part, great for our family. Three big family trips (Disney in January, spring break in Florida, Boston for a family wedding).
I woke up early this morning, for no real reason. I had been sleeping until 8:00, even 8:30, much of the past week. Something caused me to wake up shortly after 6:00 today, though, and after trying to fall back to sleep, I gave up. I went downstairs, made coffee, and enjoyed the silence of the morning with my current book. S. was off to work early and the girls all kept with their holiday trend of sleeping in.
First, my obligatory annual statement about how fast Christmas flies by when you’re an adult. The time from final dismissal before Christmas break for the girls to about 9:30 last night, when the kids were all in bed, most of the clean-up was done, and we could just sit and relax seemed to pass in a blur. I think that’s because we had a fine Christmas. As is tradition, we had an uncle and two aunts join us for Christmas morning.
Here we are. Two days left on the Advent calendar. A couple loops left on the Christmas ring chain C. brought home. Done with school for the year. The cookies have all been made. Christmas day menu planned. Yep, it’s Holiday DEFCON level 1. All three school programs went well. M. shined as Mistletoe the FBI agent in her grade’s The Christmas Files program a week ago. She had one minor hiccup with a line, but caught herself quickly and powered through.
My Favorite Songs Lists are always works in progess. Each January I start a new list in iTunes called XX Favs, where XX = that year. As I listen to music over the next 11 months or so, I toss my favorites into it. A few times during the year I’ll scan the list, delete songs that no longer delight and put some thought into how they would line up if the year ended that day.
Before some kid notes, another holiday jihad for you. Years ago I sent a Christmas card to the parents of a college buddy. I found out later I had misspelled his mother’s name - I thought her name was Lara but it was actually Lura - and I was horrified. I quickly apologized and she shook it off, saying I wasn’t the first to make the mistake. There’s a simple act of respect that goes into getting someone’s name right.
A couple articles about Christmas music to share. First, the Legend himself, Darryl McDaniels, aka DMC, talks about the surprising RUN-DMC holiday classic, “Christmas In Hollis.” I say surprising because an awful lot of people scoffed when it appeared on the first A Very Special Christmas album next to songs by Madonna, Springsteen, Mellencamp, U2, and Whitney. “That’s not Christmas music!” Au contraire! And I think the importance of food is a big part of the reason why that song was able to touch so many people—Asian people; Hispanic people; Italian people; Catholics and Buddhists and Muslims.
Deep into the holiday season, are we. The DVR has gone from about 30% full to nearly 70% of capacity thanks to all the holiday shows we’ve recorded. The pantry is full of the dry ingredients for our annual Christmas cookies, which we’ll make soon. I’m beginning to run out of new places to put Elf on the Shelf each night. But our holidays got a jolt of newness Saturday when L.
There is a danger in completing your Christmas shopping before Thanksgiving: the kids change their minds. L. made a brand-new Christmas list yesterday. Luckily one thing on it is up in the attic, so she won’t be totally disappointed. I know many of you saw this last week, but it was absolutely worth making sure no one missed it. Enjoy Deadspin’s Drew Magary ripping apart his seven-year-old daughter’s Christmas list. Long-time friend of the blog Stacey B.
The era of cheap and easy streaming music makes it easy for anyone to assemble a pretty nifty playlist for the holidays. However, you need to go beyond just your favorite songs. You need to dive into Christmas albums and build sets that can be spun for hours as the soundtrack for your parties, dinners, and Christmas morning celebrations. The core of these selections should be built around the holiday music of Frank Sinatra, Bing Crosby, and Dean Martin.
Six Seconds in Dallas: A Micro-Study of the Kennedy Assassination - Josiah Thompson Case Closed: Lee Harvey Oswald and the Assassination of JFK - Gerald Posner Well, I got a little obsessed around the anniversary of JFK’s assassination. Aside from numerous TV documentaries watched and online stuff read, I came across an Errol Morris film that features Josiah Thompson. After watching it, I rushed to the library and picked up Thompson’s book and I was off.