DB

Reaching For The Stars, Vol. 129

Thu, 10 Sep 2026 08:41:57 -0400

Chart Week: September 4, 1982 Song: “Valley Girl” - Frank Zappa Chart Position: #34, 8th week on the chart. Peaked at #32 for two weeks.

Frank Zappa was not a pop artist. Nothing about his music was aimed at earning airplay on mainstream pop stations. If you heard his songs on the radio, it was almost certainly after midnight on shows like Dr. Demento. Over his long, prolific career, he released 40 official singles. Only three of those cracked the Hot 100.

That’s not a surprise given that his music was generally experimental, often intentionally abrasive, and designed to subvert AT40-style pop both in structure and content. He tapped into a variety of genres, often mashing disparate styles into something new that made sense solely (at first) to his ears.

When he finally earned the only Top 40 hit of his career, it came about as often happens with artists who operate on their own wavelengths: because the public completely misunderstood the message in the song.

People my age mostly knew of Zappa because of two of his children, Dweezil and Moon Unit. Both appeared on MTV as guest VJs later in the Eighties. I don’t recall if they were particularly charismatic or better than the regular VJs. However, the first time you heard their names you could NOT forget them.

We first met Moon a few years before her MTV hosting days when she provided the vocals on “Valley Girl.”

Frank spent most of his waking hours secluded in his Southern California home studio. His family was under strict orders to not interrupt him unless it was an emergency. In 1980, 13-year-old Moon slipped a note under the door to his studio saying how she would like to sing on one of his songs.

At first he ignored her request. But nearly two years later, as he was completing his Ship Arriving Too Late To Save A Drowning Witch album, he had a moment of inspiration that required Moon’s input. He recalled her coming home from social outings and making fun of the unique patois some kids her age were using. To Frank, this was a perfect opportunity to mock the spoiled rich kids of the San Fernando Valley whose vapid lives were best demonstrated by the infuriating way they spoke.

He asked Moon to recite some of the phrases she had collected. “Grody.” “Gag me with a spoon.” “Bitchin’.” The extreme overuse of the word “like,” which has plagued teenagers ever since. Together they crafted a song about these kids, Moon providing the lead vocals. It was a pretty basic track, far more conventional than most of Frank’s music. He saw it as the perfect vessel for pop radio, a chance to lure people in and force them to hear a wicked piece of social commentary.

After recording the track, Frank gave an acetate copy to Moon, who passed it on to her favorite DJ at Pasadena’s KROQ radio. The song quickly became popular there. As that single gifted to KROQ was the only one in the wild, other Southern California stations bootlegged it off their signal and added it to their own playlists. Once CBS released it as an official single it spread across the country, cracking the Top 40 for three weeks.

However, most listeners were not taking it for the piece of criticism Frank intended it to be. Rather, they saw it as just another silly, novelty song that filled space between the latest New Wave hits. The average listener might have laughed or rolled their eyes, but few picked up on the deeper message, which pissed Frank off.

“People think ‘Valley Girl’ is a happy kind of song, but it isn’t. I’ve always hated the Valley. It’s a most depressing place…It just goes to show that the American public loves to celebrate the infantile.”

Celebrate the infantile! Wonderful!

Soon Valley Girls, once an esoteric, Southern California subculture, were everywhere. That fall the TV show Square Pegs debuted, with the “cool” character clearly a Val. The next spring came a movie called Valley Girl, featuring Nicolas Cage in his first starring role.¹ One of my friends made, for her project in computer lab, a program that translated Valley Girl speak to standard English.² Older relatives teased me about Pittman Hills Middle School being overrun by Vals.

A funny song, for sure. Or, rather, fer sure, fer sure. As with most novelty songs, though, it grates pretty quickly. It didn’t help that the whole Valley Girl thing was super annoying when it was happening and I’ve never built up any nostalgic pining for it. As much as Frank wanted people to view it as a satirical critique of modern times, I’m not convinced it works that way. Or, rather, if you had no idea who Frank Zappa was, or what he was about, it would not strike you as that different than “Pac-Man Fever”: an older dude trying to capitalize on a teenage fad. Now that I understand Frank’s intent, I can better tune into the sarcasm. But I also view Frank as someone who was very smart, bordering on brilliant, who made incisive critiques based on the paradoxes of modern society. “Valley Girl” doesn’t seem especially astute, and in fact is not far removed from how I and millions of other 11-year-old dumbasses were making fun of girls who talked this way. Shouldn’t a 42-year-old come up with something better than the idiots at the bus stop?

Frank was a legend, but this is, like totally, a 6/10.

Two other notes from this show that blew my mind.

The team that produces these re-broadcasts of AT40 inserts extra songs into the programs, which local stations have the choice of playing or skipping.³ Often they are songs that would become hits but just entered the Hot 100 that week. For example, later in this show they played “Athena,” the final Top 40 hit of The Who’s career, which was new to the chart at #77. Other times the song is to honor a legendary artist who just passed.

Last weekend I was shocked to hear them play Dolly Parton’s “I Will Always Love You.” I downloaded this recording two years ago; it wasn’t the latest over-the-air production released with a last-minute homage to Dolly. The explanation for its inclusion was that Dolly’s movie The Best Little Whorehouse In Texas had just been released, and “IWALY” appeared on the soundtrack. I guess that was reason enough?

This was also one of the shows that was ripped directly from a radio broadcast. So I scanned for the next top-of-the-hour news break, searched the stories in the headlines, and found this re-broadcast was from 2022.

So a show that was aired four years old, that I downloaded two years ago, correctly lined up with Dolly’s death.

Freaky!

Then last Monday evening when I turned on the US Open for the first time, I learned that ESPN, always with its finger on the pulse, selected Billy Idol’s “Hot In The City” as this year’s theme.⁴ Teenagers all across the land rejoice that their music is being recognized!

Guess what song was at #26 on this countdown?

What the heck is going on here?!?!?

—

Co-starring Deborah Foreman, teen crush to millions. ↩︎
Brilliant! I probably changed my mind on what I wanted to write 20 times before half-assing something at the last minute that earned me a B+. ↩︎
Many of my downloads are from a Canadian station that skips the extras and, instead, plays a random song by a Canadian artist from the Eighties in those spots. Makes me laugh every time as there are not a ton of acts to choose from. ↩︎
Several other Idol songs are also used, and Idol and long-time guitarist Steve Stevens appear in some of the opening and bumper packages. Very briefly, I should note. Those dudes, even with tons of surgeries and augmentations, do not look great. ↩︎

NFL Predictions

Wed, 09 Sep 2026 10:20:36 -0400

The NFL season begins tonight, the latest blow in the war of dumb against all that is decent in sports. It’s been bad enough that the season has started on Thursday for years. But adding a Wednesday game so they can play a game in Australia on Thursday, US time, is taking things to a whole other level.

Of course, we know that Roger Goodell and the owners are intent on squeezing every dollar possible out of fans. And that they look longingly to European soccer, which between domestic, UEFA, and international competitions, manages to play games pretty much every day, and think to themselves, “By God, let’s take the most violent sport in the world and do the same thing!” Never mind the toll this will take on players, or the impossibility of formatting a fair schedule when it is scattered across all seven days. They’ve been pushing for an 18 game schedule for years. I feel like that is just a ploy to get the players union to agree to play every day of the week in exchange for staying at 17 games.

Wait, you came here for predictions, not pontification.

I am pleased to share that I’ve actually done some research this year. So these will not be the half-assed predictions I normally post this time of year. Three-quarters assed, maybe?

One thing that really struck me while listening to podcasts and reading articles is how the league has become one that can flip on the tiniest of margins. Strength of schedule plays a huge role in picking a favorite. New England rode an easy schedule to a division title last year. Detroit seems to be in that spot this year. We look at metrics like record in close games, and expect luck, good or bad, to not carry over to the next season. Same with injuries. A team decimated one year will surely swing the other way. And if your team skated through without losing a key player last year? Well, better prepare to lose everyone this year. And so on. In a league that has a bunch of very good teams, but all which also have at least one glaring weakness that could torpedo their seasons, success could come down to who each team plays compared to other contenders, and then how each roster is affected by luck.

Anyway, here are my picks for the season. As always, do NOT take these to your sports book of choice.¹

AFC

East The Patriots taking the division last year was unexpected, Drake Maye making a huge leap and Mike Vrabel taking over turned the franchise around. But their success was largely based on an insanely easy schedule. Which will be much more difficult this year.² Buffalo fired Sean McDermott and brought in Josh Allen’s buddy Joe Brady. They got Allen a potential #1 wide receiver. But, as always, the defense looks suspect, at least beyond the first 11. That said, I’m expecting some regression from the Pats and another elite season from Allen that carries Buffalo to the division crown.

North Baltimore also brought in a new head coach, but Jesse Minter is a defensive guru, tasked with making the Ravens D formidable once again. Is Lamar Jackson washed, or was last year an aberration? Cincinnati really should have fired their coach, but being one of the cheapest teams in the league means Zac Taylor gets at least one more year. If Joe Burrow stays healthy, the Bengals should have enough to get past the Ravens thanks to an easier schedule. Problem is Burrow rarely stays healthy. And while they made improvements on the defensive side of the ball, the offensive live is still suspect, something you can’t have when you want to keep Burrow upright. I like Burrow more than Jackson, but I trust Jackson to have the better year. Baltimore gets the nod here.

South One of the easiest picks to make, Houston. They have the best defense in the league. Their offense wasn’t as bad as you think, at least until the playoffs, last year. They added David Montgomery to fix a woeful running game. Baring multiple serious injuries, the Texans should romp.

Aside for the Colts: I have no idea what to think about the Colts. Everyone says Daniel Jones looked better than expected in camp, nine months off an achilles injury. I’m not sure I trust that to hold up against regular season competition. A lot of national observers think the Colts defense could be good, but that comes with a lot of caveats. I think the lack of a pass rush will let them down. Michael Pittman was flawed, but losing him and spending too much money on Alec Pierce, who was injured all summer, seems like something the team will regret sooner rather than later. Throw in a brutal start to the schedule and I think things are more likely to get ugly than mirror the first two months of last year as a pleasant surprise.

West One of the most interesting divisions in the game! I expect Denver to regress a bit, but that defense is so good they can probably make up for any offensive fallbacks. Like Daniel Jones, I’m not sure I believe that Patrick Mahomes is genuinely 100% healthy. And I think the Chiefs are relying on A LOT of young guys making a huge impact. Los Angeles?³ Well, Mike McDaniel + Justin Hebert should be awesome. I was going to go out on a limb and pick the Chargers to win the division…and then lose to the Chiefs at home in the playoffs. But their schedule is kind of a bitch. Then I looked and the Chiefs and Broncos have the same issue, everyone playing the NFC West and AFC East. Which makes this a coin-flip pick. I don’t believe in the Chiefs at all, but if it comes down to Mahomes vs Hebert vs Bo Nix navigating a tough schedule, I’ll take Mahomes even if his weapons aren’t what they were four years ago. Kansas City

Wild Cards Denver Los Angeles Cincinnati

NFC

East Man, a lot of people are excited about the Cowboys this year. Their offense should be fantastic, for sure. They’ve made some decent moves to shore up their defense, and have the ability to make a trade between now and November.⁴ I think they have too many holes, though, where the Eagles continue to have the most balanced roster in the league. The offensive line isn’t where it was two years ago, but they are making adjustments to account for that. Maybe this is the last year of their current mini-dynasty, but I’m going with Philadelphia.

North True confession: I’ve become obsessed with the NFC North. I’d like to embed with its four teams, happy to watch just their eight games every week,⁵ reading the writers from each city, listening to local talk shows, etc. This seems like the most fun division because on top of all its shared history, you can make an argument, sometimes strained, for every team to win it. And every team could finish fourth. Even if they regress, the Bears should have a great offense. But their defense is trash.⁶ Last year I thought the Packers would start slow, then round into form and win the Super Bowl. That never happened. I think they will, again, improve as we get deeper into the season, the return of Micah Parsons a huge factor.⁷ Minnesota just has great coaching, on both sides of the ball, which makes them greater than the sum of their parts, and primed to steal a division when everyone is beating everyone else up. But I’m going with Detroit, another team that wasn’t as bad as you think last year, was an ill-timed sick day away from making the playoffs, have one of the best offenses in the game, and play an easy schedule.

South Tampa Bay. Nothing else to talk about here.

West This is right up there with the AFC West and NFC North as most fun divisions. You have the Super Bowl champs in Seattle, who even with expected regression should be fantastic. You have the LA Rams, the prohibitive favorites this year. You have the perennially injured 49ers, who are due some good luck and weren’t that far behind the Seahawks and Rams last year. Another coin-flip division, but I’ll take LA, assuming Stafford can avoid injury again this year.

Wild Cards Seattle Dallas San Francisco

Playoffs

I’m not diving too deeply into whether my matchups work, but I have Philadelphia and Houston as the #1 seeds.

AFC Buffalo over LA Chargers Baltimore over Cincinnati Denver over Kansas City

Buffalo over Baltimore Houston over Denver

Buffalo over Houston

NFC Seattle over Dallas Detroit over San Francisco Los Angeles over Tampa Bay

Los Angeles over Detroit Seattle over Philadelphia

Los Angeles over Seattle

Super Bowl Does Matthew Stafford get his legacy-defining second Super Bowl ring or Josh Allen finally get his first. Right now, LA is the more complete team. But they are also the best team that is perhaps closest to disaster because of injury. The Bills will be on a serious run by the time they get to…oh shit, the Super Bowl is at SoFi Stadium! That legendary Rams home-field advantage could be huge!

I kid. The stadium will be at least 60% Bills fans. Josh Allen will carve up the Rams defense and the Bills D will get a last minute stop that gives Buffalo its first Super Bowl title.

I am highly confident in each and every one of these picks, but I remind you, do NOT use them to wager any money you have set aside for retirement, college funds, etc.

Or old school bookie if that’s how you roll. ↩︎
At least that’s how it looks now. We all know a schedule that looks difficult or easy in September can change because of injuries, coaching changes that don’t work, etc. ↩︎
I actually typed San Diego first. Dumbest move in the history of franchise moves. ↩︎
Maxx Crosby, anyone? ↩︎
Excepting Bye weeks, of course. ↩︎
Shout out to KU’s Austin Booker, the only Bears defensive player I’ve heard any national voice say a good thing about. ↩︎
Parsons and Mahomes tore their ACLs on the same day. Mahomes is back now, Parson will miss at least a third of the season. Seems fishy to me. ↩︎

Weekend Notes

Wed, 09 Sep 2026 09:07:03 -0400

Going to try to blow through this rather quickly, taking a day-by-day approach.

Also, I’ll note up top where it, hopefully, does not get overlooked, that this site may be a bit wonky for the next week or so. I’ll explain once things are locked down but if you get errors at any point, please be patient and try again later.

Friday

This was nearly a classic, early fall Friday. High school and KU football, US Open tennis. Despite those opportunities, I was not able to lock down the way I have in the past. C came home for part of the weekend that evening, so we were busy catching up during the beginning of the CHS game. Then I made an airport run to pick up my brother-in-law who was in for the weekend.

By the time I was home CHS had already notched an impressive and unexpected 30-21 win at Cincinnati St. Xavier and KU was up by 30 at halftime. The Venus and Serena Williams match was still on, and I was able to watch them blow a 5-0 lead in the third-set tiebreak. I half-watched the second half of the KU game but nothing to learn from it. Hope they’re ready for this Friday’s opponent!

The other highlight of my Friday was going to the school of two of my nephews and serving as their honorary dad at their Donuts with Dad event. It was the second year I’ve done this event - I also did it at their preschool - and it was again a little chaotic and loud but mostly a lot of fun.

Saturday

The first full day of college football had arrived! We celebrated by taking C and L to brunch at our favorite place. Which, sadly, after years of consistent service has gone downhill dramatically in the past year. Not sure if we should blame the new, private equity ownership group or ICE, but something is very different. The place was not super crowded and it still took nearly 45 minutes for our food to come out. Back in the day (18 months ago), even if it was packed you never waited more than 10 minutes for your food. Something tells me no one in Mar-a-Lago waits 45 minutes for brunch.

I dabbled in football during the afternoon. We watched a lot of the IU game, some of the UC game.

In the evening L had a group of friends over so S and I retreated to our rooms, where I watched the Iva Jovic - Alexandra Eula match on my computer. What a fantastic three-plus hours of tennis! The most entertaining match of the tournament, at least that I’ve seen.

That match ended just in time for me to switch over and follow the end of the Western Michigan - Michigan game. The last play literally made me scream, which S was not enthused about as she had just turned off her lamp and rolled over to try to sleep. I guess the official replay showed that the referee’s decision to put a second back on the clock was legit. But it still seems suspect to me that it took two hours for that replay to be released publicly. Adding to my lack of faith in the outcome was the refs had also missed a clear running into the kicker penalty on Michigan a few minutes earlier. Cue the video of Mark Mangino talking about dollar signs…

Sunday

A real good Arsenal-Chelsea match to start the day. I’ve been trying to watch at least part of the Arsenal match each week. This week I managed to see the one Chelsea goal but miss both Arsenal goals, so it’s been super successful.

One of my favorite things about Premier League coverage is how they stick with the cameras on the field for like 10 minutes after the game has ended. You see the winners congratulating each other, the opposing teams shaking hands, each team acknowledging their fans, and hear whatever the post-game environment is like in the stadium. The announcers often go silent in the early moments before beginning their analysis of the match while the scenes from the stadium continue to pour in. Compare that to our coverage where the emphasis is usually on getting to the next game, sending it back to the studio, or most likely, breaking for commercials. One area the Brits definitely do things better than us.

C headed back to B-town early in the afternoon. A few hours later M rolled into town. She was actually headed to a friend’s house - her empty nest mom was feeling lonely so told her to round up some Pi Phis and have them come use their pool - but stopped by for about half an hour so we could catch up.

I caught most of the Italy-US women’s basketball World Cup game. Holy nerves! This was a game I’ve seen too many times in March, the heavy favorites struggling to hit shots and the underdogs playing free-and-easy. Italy took a lead with five minutes left before the US made a decisive run. The Americans still had to survive a last-second 3 that would have tied the game. Survive and advance, I guess. In addition to missing shots, the US seemed to have zero chemistry, players cutting at the wrong time, or failing to hit cutters, and their offense devolved into whoever had the ball forcing a bad shot. Concerning.

Throw in a little yard work, some tennis, and a little football to make it a full day.

Monday

Sadly my better half was under the weather all day. She was worried it was something she ate, but she, L, and I all had the same thing for dinner the night before. Perhaps one of her filthy patients gave her something last week.

The true highlight of our weekend was taking L’s car in to have a tire with a slow leak checked. Thank goodness they were able to patch it. We just bought M new tires. I did not want to put a new set on a car we bought a month ago. I think most people would gladly pay the tax increase it would take to constantly run teams of street cleaners that used magnets to suck up all the tire-destroying nails and bolts littering our roads.

We also spent the weekend helping her get her college applications in order. By Monday afternoon her full essay was complete, along with her specific questions required by Cincinnati and Wisconsin. She’s just waiting for her teacher and counselor to complete their letters of recommendation for her and she will be ready to submit.

The US women were back in action against Czechia and looked much better, blowing the game open in the first half and never letting up. Amazing what a difference hitting shots makes. Breanna Stewart is incredible. Even with her general awkwardness sometimes I think she’s the best ball handler on the team. And the lineup that featured Caitlin Clark, Aliyah Boston, Paige Bueckers, and Angel Reese? Whooooooo buddy, that is going to be insanely fun to watch as they play more together and mature. Throw in one more shooter and US basketball will be in fine shape as the older generation begins cycling out.

Monday evening, after running my brother-in-law back to the airport, I watched the Jovic-Coco Gauff match. Two games in it looked like it might be a classic. Then Coco ripped off five straight games to take the first set easily. Jovic fought harder in the second set and made it interesting before Coco closed her out. This Jovic kid has a bright future. And Coco is rounding into fine form as the tournament builds to its conclusion.

L was up before dawn this morning for the first official day of basketball workouts. We have some pumpkin spice items in our pantry and fridge. Another summer has slipped by, leaving glorious fall to take over.

Friday Playlist

Fri, 04 Sep 2026 08:00:00 -0400

Fewer songs this week, but I make up for that by including two songs that are a combined 13 minutes long.

“Insignificant Other” - Queens Of The Stone Age

QOTSA does the Atlanta Rhythm Section? And Josh Homme sounding more like Chris Cornell than he ever has. I definitely dig!

“Sweet Devotion” - Queen of Jeans

This song isn’t nearly as good, but I almost felt obligated to slot it in as track #2 this week. I’m tempted to play a Queen song next…

“A Different Kind” - Rakim

The God MC is back!

“turning down flowers” - Slow Fiction

I love the push-and-pull in this track. The music feels like it wants to gallop ahead, while Julia Vassallo’s vocals hold everything in place. At least for the first two-thirds. Once she drops her restraint the song elevates to another, lovely level.

“Tick Tick Bang” - Prince

Timeless, the latest package to be released from Prince’s vault came out two weeks ago. It is rather uneven, as you would imagine, since it covers almost his entire career. Two songs are from right around 1980 while a live track was recorded just a few days before his death. There’s nothing too special on it, but I do enjoy this track. It was originally recorded in 1981 but not released. A completely re-recorded version appeared on the Graffiti Bridge album in 1990. This is the original from ’81. A perfect example of the Funky Filthy New Wave sound he probably invented.

“Cocoon” - Sweeping Promises

The last time I played a song by this Lawrence, KS based band, it was immediately after a song from Prince’s vault. Makes sense to do it again.

“Officially” - Way Dynamic

A nice, end-of-summer song, especially with the lyric about the season changing. This weekend is not the official end of summer, but we all know once Labor Day is behind us it is fall time.

“End Of Summer” Tame Impala

Sadly, it has arrived. Time is undefeated.

[youtu.be/yLvpZwN9O...](https://youtu.be/yLvpZwN9Oko?si=XOetXyFmqptXy333)

“Red Hill Mining Town” - U2

Not a lot of songs about Labor Day for some reason. This one, from the amazing side two of The Joshua Tree, is about a 1984 mining strike in the UK. And, of course, the UK’s Labo(u)r Day is different than ours. But the line is in there and I was scrambling for a video, which made it good enough for me. A strange video. Not sure why anyone other than Bono showed up given how it was shot.

Have a safe holiday weekend!

Reader's Notebook, 9/3/26

Thu, 03 Sep 2026 10:39:04 -0400

After completing nine books in July I totally slacked off and read just seven in August. Embarrassing. Adding insult to injury, my last two books of the month were both strange and unsatisfying.

The Unveiling - Quan Barry
This was included in the 2026 Tournament of Books, which is generally a harbinger of a good read.

The book focuses on Striker, a site scout for TV shows and movies. Her latest job finds her on an Antarctic trip with a bunch of regular folks, or I should say “regular” folks. They can all afford a trip to the bottom of the world so I’m not sure they are truly normies.

While on their first kayak excursion of the trip something bizarre and terrible happens. Barry never makes it clear what occurred - rogue wave, submarine surfacing, nuclear war? - but the group’s main guide is killed and their entire party scattered about. Striker brings the group back together and leads them to land to attempt to make sense of their situation.

Things keep getting stranger from there. Time literally does not move: the sun remains fixed in one spot in the sky, their phones and watches are all stuck at 12:14 PM. There are more strange deaths. The group stumbles into a century-old shelter which is filled with more horrors. Out of nowhere, a sail boat cruises by. When Striker and two of her compatriots explore it, it is both abandoned and all its radio equipment destroyed. As the story progresses we learn more about Striker’s past and an affliction of sorts that plagues her.

Eventually the book gets flat out weird. I wasn’t sure what to make of the final quarter. Was this sci-fi? Fantasy? A psychological thriller? A case study of mental illness? I couldn’t tell you.

Striker is a compelling figure, for the most part, and there was a lot of cool stuff in the story. It was all just too bizarre for me, though.

My Name Was Gerry Sass - Tiffany Hanssen
This, on the other hand, was just kind of boring. The bones were solid but I don’t know that the author did enough with them.

Gerry Sass is a low level hitman for the mob who lives in an isolated part of Iowa when he’s not murdering people in Chicago or Las Vegas. One day two other hitmen take him out. Strangely enough, they put the bullets into his body underneath a deer blind on Sass’ property. A deer blind the local priest just happens to be hiding in. Said priest is left to drag Sass’ body out of the woods and begin informing people of his death.

From there the priest’s life slowly unravels through a series of misunderstandings, bad decisions and terrible luck. We also follow Sass’ college-aged daughter as she first evades the hitmen who come to her home, and then tracks them, hoping to earn a sort of revenge. Along the way she witnesses them murdering her estranged mother as well.

In parallel we learn about Gerry’s life via flashbacks his soul in purgatory experiences. Not sure I’ve read a book that partially takes place in purgatory since I tried to read the Inferno decades ago.

Anyway, all the parts come together near the end that was clear from about the book’s midway point.

There was the opportunity for a good story in here. Sadly, Hanssen missed taking advantage of it.

August Media

Tue, 01 Sep 2026 15:44:51 -0400

Movies, Shows, Etc.

Margo’s Got Money Troubles
This got a more lengthy breakdown here.

A-

Hard Knocks
I don’t think I’ve ever watched a Hard Knocks season in real time. Mostly because I’m not sure we’ve ever had HBO in the summer before this year. As always, I’m aware everything we are shown is heavily edited, in terms of both what we see and how we see it. It was still interesting to get this peak inside the Seahawks’ culture.

B+

Interstellar
After 12 years the memes finally make sense! I would say it’s hard to believe it took me so long to see this, but given how many great movies I’ve missed over the years it’s not really a surprise. Absolutely brilliant for long stretches, a few moments kept it from being perfect. Still, once you get past the first 30 minutes of set-up it flew by.

Rooster
Bill Lawrence doesn’t have many misses on his resumé. This fits into the same general category as all of his recent shows. Wonderful ensemble cast. Above average writing. Funny. Heartfelt. Optimistic. Terrific soundtrack. However, isn’t nearly as good as his other two shows I enjoyed this year, Shrinking and Scrubs. That’s not to say it was bad. Not at all. Lots of great laughs and some fun details in the story. But there were also some big misses in the comedy, and all those misses felt like they belonged in a completely different show but somehow got shoehorned into this script. Still a good watch, and bonus points for keeping each episode tight and close to 30 minutes.

B+

Ted Lasso, season four
Great start! The next three episodes? Well, clearly not back to season one level, but that’s an unrealistic expectation. We’ll see where the next six weeks take us.

Incomplete

Arrested Development, season 2
I’ve re-watched season one multiple times, but think I had only been through season 2 twice before this re-watch. A fine start, meanders a bit in the middle but finishes strong.

B+

Changes: The Story of Sugar
A quick history of Sugar from their 1990s origins to their current reunion.

How Civilization Made History Impossible to Put Down
I was addicted to Civilization II back in the summer of 1996. I even bought a couple of the books that help you play it better. Once iOS rolled around I tried it on the phone, which was dumb, and the iPad, which didn’t match the original. Several times I’ve thought about loading the latest version onto either L’s gaming computer or her XBox but figure it’s probably best I not fall into that trap again. Anyway, a look inside how the game first came to be and its evolution over time.

You Are Looking Live
The first sports theme music I can recall? Has to be the classic CBS The NFL Today theme. I discovered football not too long after the show first transitioned to a live program. I figured that’s how it had always been and didn’t realize I was seeing something fairly new and ground-breaking. This popped into my feed after watching another old NFL Today clip that will be relevant to you in the next week or so.

Courtney Barnett: Live on KCRW
Real good performance.

A thread on Bluesky led me to these playlists of alt and indie rock bands that appeared on three of the late shows of the 1990s. A fine way to waste an evening away by picking out some of your favorites. Also, drummers beat the hell out of their instruments back then!
90s Indie Rock on David Letterman
90s Indie Rock on Conan O'Brien
90s Indie Rock on The Jon Stewart Show

Raising Our Junk Cottage From the Mud
A truly fascinating third chapter in Beau Miles’ efforts to reclaim an abandoned house in the Australian bush.

Josh Johnson: Elon’s Epic Ego Explained
C really likes JJ and had told me about him. I like his message, but his delivery is just a little flat for me.

The origin of every European country's name
Fun with country names.

Podcasts

60 Songs That Explain the ’90s: The 2000s
Guess who’s back after the summer hiatus? Rob returns with a terrific episode about Spoon.

Weekend Notes

Mon, 31 Aug 2026 08:00:02 -0400

HS Football

Week two of the season started better for CHS, but ended with another loss. Up 13-7 on Loyola Academy at the half, the defense fell apart in the second half and the Irish lost 33-19. It could have been worse. Loyola had a long touchdown pass called back on their first offensive play of the game because of a penalty. And one of CHS’ scores came after Loyola fumbled a punt inside their own 5 yard line and the Irish turned it into a one-play scoring drive. It’s the first time in a decade CHS has started 0-2.

It gets no easier, as CHS travels to play Cincinnati power St. Xavier this week. Ohio high school football rankings are impossible to figure out but St X is right around #10 in the two composite rankings I came across.

Practicing For The Future

L worked Saturday afternoon, then had plans in the evening (more on that in the next section) so S and I went out to dinner on our own. We wanted to go to one of our favorite spots, but as it was last minute, we could only get in at either 5:00 or 8:00. We never mind eating early so went at 5:00. We even sat in the bar area, which allowed us to observe there are some interesting folks at restaurant bars at that time.

L’s Weekend

L had a throw-back weekend sports-wise. All CHS seniors have to do a St. Andre Project, which often involves raising money for a cause. L has been collecting books for nearly a year to donate to a children’s charity later this fall. One of her St P’s friends decided to organize a kickball game to raise money for her cause. Seems like she chose more wisely than L!

Anyway, that girl’s event was Saturday. Not many people showed up but L and several of her St P’s friends used it as a warm up for what came on Sunday…

…which was a senior kickball tournament hosted by our old rivals St. S. Originally four schools were supposed to be represented but two dropped out, which left L and her Panther pals to take on the hosts. We did not realize parents were invited so did not go, but were pleased to hear that L kicked three home runs, including a grand slam, to help St P’s romp to an easy win.

Sounds like it was a lot of fun. A St S mom organized the whole thing and had food and drinks for the girls, printed up t-shirts for everyone, and then had Chick-Fil-A gift cards for the winners. They also brought the old St S gym teacher who used to be a CYO official out to umpire the game.[^1]

It wouldn’t be a CYO event without there being some dumb parental behavior. The ground rule at St S is if you kick the ball to left field and it goes into the grass, which borders the football field, that it becomes a ground-rule double. We would use that to our advantage on defense, putting slow girls in left so balls that might be homers turned into doubles when the balls got past them.

Anyway, L’s grand slam went into the grass. Everyone froze for a second but the umpire told her to come on home. Some of the St S parents started bitching about his ruling. I loved him back in the day because he would stop games and make it clear why he ruled the way he did. L said that he turned to the complaining parents and told them, “If this was a real game, you would be right. This isn’t a real game.” Also L kicked it into the grass on the fly and deserved the home run.

Sounds like the girls from both teams, who all go to either CHS or BCHS together, had a great time, which was the most important thing. And none of the high school athletes got hurt!

Tonight is L’s final shift at the ice cream shop before she hangs it up for the fall. Thursday morning is the first basketball practice of the preseason. Beginning next week they will go twice a week at 6:00 AM.

US Open

The Open began yesterday. I missed the daytime action but hoped to watch Venus Williams’ return in the late match. Little did I know that her match would not begin until after midnight thanks to Novak Djokovic’s shocking loss in his first match. When I turned that one on, he was on the verge of losing the opening set to unknown (to me) Argentine Mariano Navone. Djokovic was clearly struggling physically. Soon he was vomiting between points into the towel bins. He somehow won the second and third sets but then fell completely apart, losing the final two 6-2 and 6-1. I had to bail after the fourth set. Had I know the fifth would pass so quickly I would have kept watching.

So The Joker is out. Jannik Sinner is not playing. Carlos Alcaraz is in his first tournament in four months. What we are left with is perhaps the rarest event in sports this century: a wide open men’s grand slam tennis event!

Blog Update

These Monday posts have become less newsy as our lives slow down, and I’ve been thinking about the future of the site. What will I do once L is done with school and there are no more high school sports to talk about, senior events to cover, and so on? Obviously I can still write plenty about college and pro sports, music, and other stuff. But the kid content is one of the biggest poles holding this tent up.

Also nudging my thought process along are some random changes in Wordpress I have not been able to identify that have changed how I publish to the site. For years I could write in a specifically formatted text file, click a button, and the words would be sent to the site as a live post. That quit working a few weeks ago. There has also been a change to the Wordpress blog editor that makes it a much more tedious process to get things to look how I want them to look after I’ve copied/pasted my words into it.

Put those two things together and I’ve started exploring other ways to share my words with the world. I believe I have found one that is pretty easy to use and will cost less than Wordpress hosting. Now the catch is can I import my 23 years of history into it? I believe I can, but further testing is required.

My current hosting package is good through next June, so I’m not in a rush to get this figured out. Meaning you won’t notice anything different until next summer. I’ll keep you updated, because I know you care.

[^1]: He is still a high school ref and we’ve had him a few times. His sister is a retired teacher at CHS who still volunteers at games when needed. It is always funny to see them interact when he is officiating and she is keeping the book or running the clock.

Friday Playlist

Fri, 28 Aug 2026 08:06:49 -0400

For obvious reasons making an adjustment to our format this week.

[youtu.be/6xSEStRIs...](https://youtu.be/6xSEStRIs88?si=0foQfWMxaAln2KMR)

“Jolene” - The White Stripes covering Dolly Parton
I once read a fine summation of the greatness of the White Stripes’ take on Dolly’s classic. Paraphrasing, Dolly’s original was filled with the fear of a theoretical infidelity that had yet to take place, the narrator begging to keep it from happening. Jack White, however, sang it as though the affair had already been consummated, and his narrator was both filled with heartache that it happened and desperate to get her man back.

[open.spotify.com/playlist/...](https://open.spotify.com/playlist/1rSSsRk0K1LodmCrMNaZ0X?si=ad4832aaeb1b44e6)

“august” - Taylor Swift
Good grief, August has slipped away?

“Bobby” - Phoebe Bridgers
Her new album came out two weeks ago, to overwhelmingly terrific reviews. I gave it one listen and, like most of her albums, prefer individual bites to the entire meal. The highlight is this gorgeous, shimmery piece.

“Paperchains” - Westside Cowboy
WC’s debut full length finally came out last week, after over a year of EPs and advance tracks. It was worth the wait, excellent beyond the several fine tracks I had already heard. Including this one which comes across as a British take on the Kings of Leon’s sound. Much better than KoL, too, I should add.

“Fur Elise” - Blondshell
No, this is not Sabrina Teitelbaum’s take on the Beethoven classic. Rather, it is her taking her music to a wonderful new level of emotion and maturity. I especially like the bit at the end, when everything gets cranked up at least 30%.

“The Way It Goes” - World News
Like Westside Cowboy, World News has been sharing music for over a year - they cracked last year’s D’s Notebook Favorite Songs list - but will only, finally release their debut album in mid-October. Also like Westside Cowboy, no two of World News’ songs sound alike. At least of the ones we’ve heard so far.

“Message From The Venus Flower” - Death Valley Girls
This song sounds super fun at first listen. But it grew out of the lead singer both losing her home in California wild fires and her dog later dying. Yeesh.

“Get Me Down” - Nia Archives featuring Jorja Smith
A cool meeting point of a drum and bass revivalist and a modern R&B queen.

“Kind” - Joy Oladokun
“Fuck around and you’ll discover, there’s bloodstains on my teeth.” Don’t judge a book by its cover, folks.

“Tonight” - Social Distortion
I shared the two advance singles off Social D’s latest album, but then didn’t listen to it when it was fully released. I heard this track this week on The Bridge and was mad at myself for not having heard it sooner. Another track that is about the best you could possibly expect from a band with the miles on them Social D has.

“Desperately Wanting” - Better Than Ezra
I also heard this on The Bridge this week, a track I bet I hadn’t heard in 20 years. I forgot how great it was. “At the Stars” is my favorite BTE track, but this isn’t far behind.

[youtu.be/EEzuUCusT...](https://youtu.be/EEzuUCusT70?si=608Txuc01cqNGlPC)

“The Hardest Thing” - Julia Jacklin
I wanted to double up on videos this week because JJ’s latest is something to look at. As my fear of heights has become more acute as I’ve aged, there is zero chance I would ever film something like this if I was a recording artist, no matter how cool the director promised it was going to look.

Dolly

Wed, 26 Aug 2026 08:33:40 -0400

It’s been a little over 10 years since I admitted that I finally understood people who cried when a famous person died. Two years later the death of a much lesser known singer completely floored me. Since then? No celeb death has had more than a momentary effect on me.

As I began getting the texts from all directions Tuesday about Dolly Parton’s passing, though, something definitely moved within me.

I wasn’t a fan of Dolly’s music - I can name exactly five of her songs, and two of those because other artists covered them - but I knew of her immense talent and influence in the country music world. Watching the videos that quickly got passed around Tuesday, especially of earlier in her career, I gained new appreciation for her vocal and performing skills. But I wasn’t going to dive into her catalog the way I’ve done with other superstars who have passed.

No, what got to me was the pure Dolly-ness of Dolly. She was a truly wonderful human being who didn’t hold anyone’s difference against them. She was an advocate for so many good things in life, giving her time and money to help people less fortunate than her. Her library and literacy program has delivered books to over 120 million children around the world since she first funded it.¹ She helped support hospitals and miracle vaccines in the wake of a global pandemic. She somehow managed to speak for people at the edges of society without pissing anyone off. Or at least as far as the public knew; there were never boycotts of her music when she came out in support of this or that marginalized group. In an era when so many people want to amplify our differences to keep us angry and push us apart, Dolly wanted to bring people together to celebrate our shared humanity.

Most of all she seemed to just enjoy life, always amazed at how far she had come from where she began. She reveled in younger artists wanting to perform with her, or cover her songs. It never seemed like ego, but rather true joy in collaboration and finding connection with people who, at first glance, had little in common with her.

In the archives of this site, I know I’ve written at least once about Dolly. In that piece I did not get into how, if you were a boy in the late Seventies/early Eighties, she was the punchline of so many pre-pubescent jokes. We learned, in time, that she had plenty of substance to go with all that style. Even better, she knew exactly what the jokes were and played into/laughed along with many of them. Although, to be fair, things got pretty raw on the playground at Jackson and Norfleet Elementary schools, so I’m not sure she would have appreciated all the jokes.

I’m thankful that while I may not have learned to love all of her music, I did discover that she was a genuine angel living amongst us, a true American treasure. Our country and the entire world are a little bit worse now that she is gone.

One of many wonderful pieces that were shared yesterday was this segment from Dolly’s 1979 appearance on The Tonight Show. It is pure magic. I love how she is both relaxed and a little nervous, clacking her fingernails and jiggling her leg while bantering with Johnny Carson. Her natural charm pours off the screen. She knows she belongs on that stage, and her affection and gratitude for Johnny are sincere. And the song she busts? Amazing.

youtu.be/Z7TL0E-U4…

It is also quite the time capsule to a very different time. Modern talk show appearances are almost always tied to promoting something, every topic has been broached before the show to guarantee interesting interactions, and the overall feel is much tighter. Johnny had more time and longer segments than hosts today have, making this feel like a true conversation that flows naturally. You see his genius for making people feel comfortable and willing to open up in front of the studio audience and millions of viewers at home.

Our fuckwit of a governor cut Indiana’s matching funding to the program earlier this year. Apparently the same thing has happened in several other states. Probably because some rich, stay-at-home, non-vaccinating parent in the suburbs was offended that there was a book about a family with two dads or some other bullshit. Sorry, Dolly would never say something like that and I should follow her lead. Mike Braun is still a fuckwit, though. ↩︎

Reader's Notebook, 8/25/26

Tue, 25 Aug 2026 14:22:01 -0400

Icarus 17 - Charles Cumming
The latest entry in Cumming’s usually enjoyable BOX 88 series. In this one, his master spy Lachlan Kite has been asked by his former co-worker and one-time lover Martha to help find her son, Max, who has disappeared in Athens, Greece.

Max is on the run with his girlfriend, who is fleeing multiple sets of hunters who they think to want to punish her for possessing a tape of Saudi hit men killing a dissident. Max actually seems like a natural at being on the run and handling tricky situations. Turns out Martha never told him who his real father is; it is actually Lachlan, not the man who raised him! Scandalous intrigue!

I’ve really liked Cumming’s earlier books. This one seemed clumsy and far less polished than the previous ones. I wonder if he was under a contractual gun and cranked out a half-assed story to keep his publisher happy. I suppose it sets up a possible extension of the series focused on Max and allows Lachlan to retire?

The Silver Bone - Andrey Kurkov
The Imagined Life - Andrew Porter
I group these two novels, which have nothing in common, together because I had them both listed under the heading Summer on my To Read list.

The Silver Bone has nothing to do with summer. In fact, it takes place entirely in the early spring of 1919 in Ukraine, as various forces are vying for control of the country in the aftermath of both World War I and the Bolshevik Revolution. I must have mis-sorted it when I added it to the list.

In the opening pages, Samson Kolechko, a young engineer, has an ear sliced off in an attack that also kills his father. He salvages the ear and soon learns that it is still functional even though removed from his head, something he uses to great benefit in his new, temporary job with the local police. Having a “remote” ear does wonders for investigating crimes!

Kurkov’s story, which was translated from Russian, was silly and weird and fun. Apparently it kicked off a whole series centered on Kolechko investigating cases in Kyiv, using his magic ear as a unique tool. I’m not sure I’ll read any more of them, but I liked this one.

The Imagined Life, on the other hand, is directly connected to summer.

Steven Mills is a 50-something academic based in Berkley whose life is falling apart. He and his wife have separated, keeping him from his young son. His writing career is going nowhere. In a bid to find some meaning and direction in his life again, he decides to chase some of the ghosts of his childhood. Specifically tracking down former co-workers of his father, who, after failing to get tenure in 1984, abandoned Mills and his mother and never contacted them again. Along the way he confronts the memory of an important childhood friendship that also ended suddenly. Eventually he learns an unsettling truth about what happened to his dad. The book is split between Mills’ travels up the west coast interviewing people who knew his dad and flashbacks to his childhood, those generally taking place during the summer.

Those of us who were children of divorce in the Eighties can find a lot to connect with in Porter’s story. All the secrets our parents kept from us as their marriages were failing. The shame that a lot of us felt, or our families felt, because of the stigma divorce carried at the time. How sometimes as young children we didn’t see clear signs that our parents’ relationship was destined to end. How as we got older, it was harder for our parents to hide things from us, but often our defense mechanisms were to pretend everything was ok.

Every divorce is different, so the Mills family splitting did not line up directly with my parents’ divorce. I was lucky that my parents breaking up was not super traumatic for me. Although I guess it was traumatic when they split for the first time two years earlier and I had to change schools in March. After that, divorce was easy for me. Chalk that up to both my parents taking care to let me know I was loved and in no way responsible for their divorce, and for being kind of oblivious and figuring everything would work out fine. However, this book really resonated with me because even if all the specifics didn’t line up, it brought back a lot of memories of that part of my life.

Oh, as a bonus, a recurring theme in the parts centered on Mills’ childhood is his discovery of Fleetwood Mac, notably his connection with and love for Stevie Nicks. That gave me an opening to discuss the book with L, who also loves Fleetwood Mac. From there she started asking questions about when my parents divorced. It’s not a topic I’ve covered much with my girls. Not because I’ve been hiding it or anything, just because it happened so long ago and they never knew my dad well so it never came up. Anyway, it was a bit of a bonding moment with her. And gave me an excuse to listen to Rumours this morning while putting this post together.

Weekend Notes

Mon, 24 Aug 2026 10:29:13 -0400

Another fairly boring weekend for most of our family, so today’s entry will focus on sports.

Senior Pics

OK, one big family event over the weekend. L had her senior picture session on Sunday. C came home for a couple hours to help her with her makeup. I was allowed to help carry things to the car but otherwise was kept out of the way.

All seemed to go well, although apparently one of the groundskeepers at the location they were using tried to balk at them being on the grounds after they had closed for the day.[^1] Fortunately our photographer talked him out of that and they were able to proceed normally. Another thing marked off both the senior checklist and the list of things S and I will never have to endure again.

HS Football

Friday was opening night for high school football in Indiana.

CHS began the year ranked #2 in 5A. However, the #1 team and defending state champs, New Pal, are in the Irish’s sectional, tempering expectations for this year. While CHS nearly, and probably should have, beat NP last year, I think their talent level is down this year.

They traveled to the west side to take on Ben Davis, who they beat each of the last two opening nights.

The Irish fell in an early 14-0 hole and I started looking at the schedule, wondering if this might be CHS’ first losing season in 23 years. The gap grew to 21-7 before the Irish defense decided to wake up. Midway through the fourth quarter CHS tied it at 27-all. BD scored but missed their second PAT of the night, opening the door for the Irish to steal the win. CHS got into BD territory before fumbling the ball away with about a minute to play. 33-27 final.

I’m still not sure I see four wins on the schedule despite the better second half performance. Of course, that’s hard to determine since five of CHS’ eight games are against out-of-state teams. I know at least two of those schools are really good. A couple others CHS has played in recent years and they’ve been close games. I guess we’ll find out over the next two months.

College Sports

Each time something happens in college sports I think, “OK, this is as low/dumb as it can get.” Then a week later I am shocked when something lower/dumber happens.

This whole nonsense about players suing to get the new NCAA policy of five years to play five seasons applying retroactively is the dumbest. Seriously, LSU just signed a kid who was in two different NFL camps over the summer, practicing with Cleveland as recently as last week.

Eligibility has turned into who can find the right judge to get an injunction, and then wondering how long that injunction will stand.

What the fuck are we doing here?

This applies to KU because it seems like if the current framework remains in place - no guarantee! - Tre White will likely return to play for the Jayhawks this coming season. And Melvin Council has a court date to get a sixth year.

I like both of these guys. I think Tre, especially, could help this year’s squad. But this is dumb on a lot of levels.

Melvin already got an extra year and now he wants another because he couldn’t stick with an NBA team over the summer?

And while I think Tre would be a good addition, what does him showing up and sliding into a starting spot say to the players who spent the summer in Lawrence, bonding, learning Bill Self’s system, getting better together? I’m sure Tre and Melvin, if they return, aren’t going to defer to freshmen. I would be pissed if I was one of the guys who busted my ass all summer and then these two old guys just showed up in September.

I suppose the argument Self might give in response is that his recent teams have struggled because there haven’t been those program guys who knew his system that hung around, and Tre and Mel could provide much-needed leadership for a pretty young squad.

I kind of get that.

It’s not like either of them are three or four year Jayhawks, though. They were both on campus for one rather strange year.

I still think the negatives outweigh the positives. Give the freshmen and sophomores who were on campus the chance to play. Tyran Stokes will be in the NBA next year, but most of the other young guys are not ready to make that jump and are prime candidates to return. If you bring in two more old heads, you pretty much guarantee that the young guys who don’t get to play because of their presence are out the door next spring, keeping the Jayhawks on that treadmill of mediocrity they’ve been on the last three years.

But my basketball head coaching record consists of some mediocre grade and middle school CYO ball, so what do I know?

Fever

It’s been a while since I’ve written about the Indiana Fever. That’s because I stopped watching them for a few weeks. Their games weren’t fun because of Caitlin Clark’s constant tantrums and all the unnecessary discord that went along with them.

In late July something shifted and the team started playing better. I watched parts of a few games and it seemed like Clark had found a way to settle down and not complain about every single freaking call. Then the team got locked in and started absolutely humming. They won 10 of 12 games before their three games in four days stretch this past weekend, when they dropped two straight before pounding Chicago last night.

There’s, of course, a whole new level of stupid discussion around the team I’m not going to get into. Primarily because most of the people losing their minds over it are not serious in their concern for the health of the WNBA or women’s sports in general, but rather looking to manufacture a political controversy to scare people into thinking something that is not a true threat to women’s sports is actually a problem.

What I do want to talk about, though, is how delightful it is to watch Kelsey Mitchell play. I’m ashamed that I had no idea who she was when Clark joined the Fever three seasons ago. We quickly learned that she was a stone-cold killer on the offensive end. At first there seemed to be some tension in how to harness the best of both Mitchell’s and Clark’s games, as there was significant overlap. That has been figured out, and Mitchell is now on one of the league’s great hot streaks. She’s scored 20 or more points in 23 straight games, a league record. One night last week she scored 29 points in 24 minutes, literally on fire as she had to sit out the fourth quarter because she was overheating.

What I love most about Mitchell, though, is how she’s very much the anti-Clark. She rarely complains. She rarely tries to sell minimal contact as some egregious foul. She calmly tears the defense apart with a combination of 3-point bombs and twisting layups in traffic, where her arms seem to extend far past what they should be capable of in order to get the ball past the defense. She plays most of the game with a stoic expression, only occasionally letting a sheepish grin slip out when she’s hit consecutive 3’s or curls in a ridiculous shot in the paint. She helps players from both teams up off the floor. She seems happier for her teammates when they play well than when she’s dropping 30 points on someone. Opponents seem to almost universally respect her. There aren’t normally post-game handshakes in the WNBA. I’ve seen opponents come over multiple times and give her respectful hugs after the final buzzer.

Oh, and she’s currently working on her Ph.D. Well rounded!

Add all that up and she is the perfect backcourt for Clark. Ice to CC’s fire. Steady to CC’s wild. Calm to CC’s, well, not-so-calm.

And I bet most of these people who suddenly care about the health of the WNBA and protecting its players have no idea that Mitchell is about to earn her fifth, first team All-WNBA honors.

If L was ten years younger and wanted to buy a Fever jersey, I would almost insist that she get a Kelsey Mitchell one.

Royals

Hey, the Royals have won eight straight!

Does it mean anything?

Of course not, bad Royals teams always play well this time of year, when nothing matters and the teams actually in the playoff hunt are taking a breath before the final stretch run.

Certainly not enough to get me to pony up for the final month of games. I’m sure ESPN would just rope me into some extras I have no interest in anyway. Also, with another dishonest lockout coming, I don’t want to give MLB a single dollar to think I’m interested. Because my opinion matters.

Pacers

Full NBA schedules came out last week. Tyrese Haliburton’s triumphant return to the court comes…on the road in New Orleans, in a game that will not be nationally broadcast. Insane.

In better news, the team announced their partner for televising their games this year. It is a service called DAZN. A name so stupid there is actually an entry on the service’s FAQ page instructing how to pronounce it. Apparently you say it like “Da Zone.” Oh that’s never not going to be annoying this year.

That said, after not seeing the Pacers last year because of my switch to YouTube TV and Hali’s absence making me not want to buy the package that carried them, I’m back in for the 2026-27 season. I’m sure this brand new service will work without any issues and I won’t be ranting about it in this space.

[^1]: And we paid for access, it’s not like they just showed up and started taking pictures.

Friday Playlist

Fri, 21 Aug 2026 09:08:41 -0400

Going back-and-forth to Bloomington twice this week cut into my new music time. As I begin this, I anticipate it being a little lighter than usual, but we’ll see where the music takes us.

[open.spotify.com/playlist/...](https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0NCsqo5Grrh3oz2UJ4D8Kx?si=b0d98e03eb6b4a0f)

“Marianne” - Fontaines D.C.
New music from Fontaines D.C.? Hell yeah! It continues on the subtler and more melodic path their last album took them down.

“Things Take Time” - Gang of Youths
New music from Gang of Youths? Oh hell yeah! A definite change in direction, although they have never been afraid to surprise us by zigging. Not as impactful as the lead single off their last album, which landed at #3 on that year’s final list. No dates yet but I’m assuming this means a new album is not too far away.

“baby” - Gabriel Jacoby
It looks like I played another Jacoby song last fall and compared his voice to Prince, DeAngelo, and Sly Stallone. (All RIP). This song came out at the same time and somehow I just heard it. Those comparisons remain apt.

“Can’t Get Over Losing You” - The Avalanches featuring Portraits of Tracy
The Avalanches rarely miss. Of course, they also take exceptionally long breaks between releasing new music, which helps with their batting average. The cover of their new album has a humanized iPod and floppy disk with their arms around each other.

“Haven’t Lived It Yet” - The Drin
I read one critic describe this Cincinnati band as being a modern version of The Beta Band. I hear that, although I also hear a lot of Brian Jonestown Massacre. So let’s call them a super druggy Beta Band?

“Dry The Rain” - The Beta Band
Hell, it’s a light musical week, might as well get nutty. Also, go buy a copy of TBB’s The Three E.P.’s.

“Anemone” - The Brian Jonestown Massacre
One of Anthony Bourdain’s favorite songs. Obviously from his heroin years.

“Martini Me Fatso” - Matt Berninger
Getting back to Cincy, Berninger always sounds way more fun when he’s working on his own or on a side project than he does in The National.

Peter Bjorn and John
PB&J’s legendary Writer’s Block came out 20 years ago last week. Chris Deville had a predictably great retrospective of it at Stereogum. There’s an obvious song that I could have played to honor it. While that is one of the most perfect pop songs of the 2000s, I’ve always loved the epic majesty of this track just as much.

“Complete Control” - The Clash
Raise a toast to St. Joe Strummer, who would have turned 74 today.

[youtu.be/Ae829mFAG...](https://youtu.be/Ae829mFAGGE?si=otyH2T6VyoBazUU2)

“Gimme Me All Your Lovin’” - ZZ Top
Frank Beard died this week. He was the subject of one of the all-time great music trivia questions: who was the only member of ZZ Top who didn’t have a beard. I honestly thought Frank Beard was a stage name but that was actually his given name, which makes that note even better!

“Legs” and “Sleeping Bag” were their biggest hits, each reaching #8, but this was always my favorite ZZ song. And it kicked off their run of great videos. At least if you were a 12-13 year old boy.

Weekend Notes

Tue, 18 Aug 2026 08:02:10 -0400

Yesterday was moving day for C, thus the flip of the blog schedule and your Weekend Notes dropping on a Tuesday.

The Flood of ’26

Well, things certainly got interesting here over the weekend on the weather tip.

Our week of torrential downpours culminated with the White River flooding through Carmel and northern Indianapolis Saturday morning. All the water that had overwhelmed the White to our northeast was headed our way. There was a chance of morning rain, but when I went to bed Friday it seemed like it might miss us or be brief.

Yet I was jolted out of bed around 7:15 by house-shaking thunder. That was the first of two heavy storms that came through before noon. Which, again, was just as the White River was already reaching near record levels.

As we watched the news we saw footage of roads not too far from us completely submerged by flood waters. A neighborhood two miles to the south was under an evacuation order. Flood gates we didn’t know existed were being shut to try to protect the Broad Ripple area. Right at the Carmel-Indianapolis line, a road we took to school for seven years was completely washed away. I’m not saying it was under water, as happened a couple times when we lived to the north. I’m saying the road surface and supporting structure beneath was just gone. It will take months, perhaps a year, to repair it.

[youtu.be/VVKae5bFS...](https://youtu.be/VVKae5bFSCg?si=UVsRtMC_FOQyIG82)

About a mile from our old house the same thing happened to another road on Sunday. In this case a bridge was completely destroyed as the river overwhelmed a smaller stream. This is especially concerning because it is shifting the path of the river and dumping much of it into a massive, industrial gravel mining pit. I have yet to see an update today but Monday evening engineers were saying there was a 75% chance that the entire river would divert into the pit until it was full. If that happens, a system that carries most of Carmel’s raw sewage could be destroyed. Ironically this is helping people downstream - at least until raw sewage starts leaking - by diverting much of the river’s extra capacity.

[youtu.be/D8nQJVy7K...](https://youtu.be/D8nQJVy7KOg?si=Up1DPf-YwR-CNopw)

On the news this morning they said it could take up to two years to rebuild this bridge.

We were extremely fortunate. Our house is elevated on our property, and uphill from the nearest bend in the White River. We just had a stream through our front yard, 50 feet from our front door, where the water always collects. Our power went off briefly during the first severe storm last Tuesday, then again Wednesday while repairs were being done near us. All our trees survived. The block directly across from us lost multiple trees, and crews have been working at different houses for several days in a row. Saturday our water pressure got low for about an hour. We don’t know if that was related to flooding or some other issue.

S and I took a walk Saturday afternoon. Just one mile from our house, in an area that is prone to flooding, we came across two homes that had their garage doors open and at least four feet of water inside. These were built similar to beach homes, with no living area at ground level, but their garages and storage rooms have to be total losses.

We’ve lived through a few small floods in our time here, but never anything like this.

Fortunately it seems like the pattern has finally shifted. We’ve had a couple spotty showers the last two days but those daily storms that lined up and trained over the same area for hours over consecutive days have shifted away. For the most part, the next week looks dry and sunny, which hopefully means the people who have been most affected get a chance to dry out and attempt to repair.

Move In Day

Yesterday C and I packed up two cars with all her stuff and moved her back to Bloomington. She is living with a friend she made last year, S, and then S’s older sister A and her friend L. A and L lived in the same apartment last year so it was already partially furnished and appointed when we got there.

The apartment is about 10 minutes from campus, on the southeast side of B-town. It isn’t super bougie the way some are these days, but it is nice enough.[^1] There is a pool, sand volleyball court, clubhouse with a gym, and lots of outdoor common areas. Best of all, lots of free parking so she should always be able to park safely whenever she comes back in the evening. The bedrooms are actually the biggest part of the apartment, which is kind of nice. There’s a grocery store and a few fast food places in walking distance. There’s a stop for the campus shuttle right across from her building.

The move itself was pretty easy. I think the hardest part was loading up here, as I did most of it on my own and it was humid and nasty.[^2] When we arrived, S’s parents were still around and her dad helped us shuttle items inside, which made unloading go a lot easier. I helped C get unpacked and arranged for a couple hours so she had some sense of order before taking her to dinner then heading back to Indy.

As I learned two years ago with M, the sophomore year drop-off isn’t nearly as emotional as freshman year. That was certainly true yesterday and it wasn’t even a proper drop-off. C will drive back home later today because she has an appointment tomorrow to get the second of two crowns put in. Then Thursday S and I will go back down with her to help her do a little more work and so S can see her place.

C will come home again over the weekend to help with L’s makeup and hair for her senior pictures Sunday.

So I guess Sunday evening will be our proper goodbye with her.

So things are finally getting back to normal here. Or normal of one year, I guess. It will certainly be quieter here today, not that C makes much noise. Her car did need an unexpected, rather pricey repair last week. L’s new (old) car goes into the shop Thursday to check an issue that we hope is covered by the warranty. It never ends, even when they start moving out.

[^1]: C has multiple friends paying over twice what her monthly rent is. And I wouldn’t say her rent is cheap.
[^2]: No other comment needed about the level of assistance I received.

Reaching For The Stars, Vol. 128

Mon, 17 Aug 2026 08:06:16 -0400

Chart Week: August 4, 1984
Song: “The Warrior” - Scandal featuring Patty Smyth
Chart Position: #33, sixth week on the chart. Peaked at #7 for two weeks in September.

Who were the biggest songwriters of the Eighties? I’m not talking about Prince, Lionel Richie, etc, multi-platinum artists who wrote their own music. No, I’m talking about the songwriters for hire who cranked out hit after hit for other acts.

Unless you subscribed to American Songwriter back in the day, I doubt most of you could rattle off anyone who got their names in parenthesis next to record titles when they didn’t actually sing the song.

If this was your area of expertise, however, the name Holly Knight would pop into your head pretty quickly. To folks who knew, she was as sure a bet to write a hit as anyone in the Eighties.

Here are a few of the songs she wrote or co-wrote in the 1980s:

“Love Is A Battlefield” and “Invincible” by Pat Benatar
“Rag Doll,” Aerosmith
“Obsession,” Animotion
“Better Be Good To Me,” and “One Of The Living,” Tina Turner
“Stick To Your Guns,” Bon Jovi
“Pleasure and Pain,” Divinyls
“Never,” Heart

She was also in the band Device, which had the fine, minor hit “Hanging On A Heart Attack” in 1986.[^1]

Go check out the Songs Credited section of her Wikipedia page. She wrote a shitload of music!

Knight’s song from that era that has probably survived the best is Scandal’s only Top 40 hit, “The Warrior.”[^2]

(“Only Top 40 hit?!?!” I can hear some of you asking. Don’t worry, we’ll get there.)

“The Warrior” is the finest example of the traits that were present in most of Knight’s songs. Middle-of-the-road enough for pop stations, enough swagger for rock stations. Guitar, but not too much guitar, so listeners of all generations could enjoy it together. Uplifting music and soaring vocals. The entire piece is structured to elicit an emotional reaction from the listener, but never gets too pinned down by its lyrics to be about anything specific. More simply stated, perfect, mindless pop music.

Oh, those lyrics. Yeesh. It’s a good thing Knight could write a hell of a hook because her words don’t often stand up to scrutiny.

“The Warrior” was filled with bizarre lines that seem to point in one direction for the song’s meaning.

Well, isn't love primitive?
A wild gift that you wanna give
Break out of captivity
And follow me stereo jungle child…

Who’s the hunter, who’s the game?

I don't wanna tame your animal style
You won't be caged in the call of the wild

I always assumed the song was about sex, likely of the wild, animalistic style.[^3] But Knight said that in “The Warrior” she made a conscious decision to shift what she was writing about. She wanted to “write about fighting for something, instead of just being against something.”

Uhhhh, OK.

Noble pursuit. But what is her narrator fighting for in “The Warrior”? The whole “shootin’ at the walls of heartache” thing implies fighting, for sure.[^4] But she’s more fighting against heartache, right? Is her Warrior running around, keeping people from breaking up, like some relationship superhero? That might be kind of cool, and qualify as fighting for something, even if it isn’t exactly fighting for peace or keeping kids safe or protecting the environment.

The line that really bothers me, though, comes at the end of the chorus:

Well, I am the warrior
And heart to heart you'll win
If you survive

If you survive?!?! That seems like a pretty big risk! Was Knight saying it is worth fighting to keep a relationship alive, but the process might kill you? Color me pro-breakup if those are the only two choices. To put it mathematically:

Heartache and loneliness > Being dead

No doubt I’m giving Knight’s words too much literal attention. She was hardly the first or last songwriter to pen lyrics that make no sense when you read them without the context of the music and vocals. I think it’s pretty clear Knight wrote with a general idea in her head of what she wanted to say, but the melody was more important than the words she attached to it.

Which brings us to where “The Warrior” really shines: Patty Smyth and Scandal’s performance.

This track cooks from the beginning. Those bold, immediate guitar lines. Smyth’s repeated “Ohhhhhhhs.” Right away you know you’re in for something special. While the band never elevates much from that opening, neither do they lose their initial momentum. Smyth’s voice may not have been quite as powerful as Benatar’s,[^5] but she gives her all to “The Warrior.” It’s the kind of performance that makes you smile because you know she sang her ass off to get there. It is her voice that elevates the track, turning it into something memorable and classic.

The music and vocals combine to deliver the message that I think Knight was going for. To remain positive in the face of negativity. To believe in yourself. To seize the day. To never stop fighting. Etc, etc, etc. Banal, greeting cards/motivational poster type sentiments. While the words may be corny, the music carrying them will make you a believer.

Back to me saying Scandal (featuring Patty Smyth!) was a One Hit Wonder. Some of you may argue against this. I certainly did for years.

Our mistake is thinking that the band’s 1982, New Wave classic “Goodbye To You” cracked the Top 40.

It did not! While it reached #5 on the Mainstream Rock chart, it stalled out at #65 on the Hot 100. Which seems crazy to those of us who were listening to the radio in the Eighties, because it sure seemed like “Goodbye To You” was a hit.

I think what actually happened was DJs (and MTV) knew it was a good song that never got its due and began playing it again after “The Warrior” hit. So many children of the Eighties remember it from its 1982 run, then that second life tricked us into believing it was more successful than it actually was. It also seemed like “Goodbye To You” appeared on a lot of Eighties compilation CDs I bought a decade later, which added to its legend. Great song, but not a radio hit.

“Hands Tied,” the follow up to “The Warrior,” stalled at #41, denying the band their best shot at a second chart hit. Smyth was in the process of leaving the band just as “The Warrior” was breaking, and they never had another shot after 1984.

Jokes about Knight’s lyrics aside, “The Warrior” is a definite classic of its era. Heart to heart, she won. 8/10

[youtu.be/47y5bo8wt...](https://youtu.be/47y5bo8wtqM?si=2ympEEBK4yb367j0)

[^1]: Peaked at #35.
[^2]: Her co-writer was Nick Gilder, most famous for his 1978 #1 hit “Hot Child In The City.” I’ve nearly written about his record a couple times, mostly because from when I first heard it when I was seven until much, much later in life, I was convinced a woman sang it.
[^3]: Whatever the fuck that means.
[^4]: BTW those are some of the funnest bad lyrics ever. I defy you to sing them and not match Smyth’s finger pistols she shoots in the video.
[^5]: No shame there; Benatar trained as an opera singer before turning to rock.

Friday Playlist

Fri, 14 Aug 2026 08:15:31 -0400

Songs about rain, three local/regional tracks, and despite Pumpkin Spice items beginning to show up in the grocery store this week, we keep the summer songs rolling.

[open.spotify.com/playlist/...](https://open.spotify.com/playlist/5VWF8PMGYRSlYo3x8fw6OU?si=33a7d67615744890)

“Rain” - The Beatles
What a week! We’ve been lucky that the truly Biblical rains have been well to the east of us: one area got 17” of rain in about 48 hours! Our sump pump has been working pretty much non-stop, I’ve pumped off the pool cover more times than I can count, and it is raining again as I type this, with more rain expected through the weekend. Jeez.

“Transgender Dysphoria Blues” - Against Me!
Seemed like the right moment to play this again.

“Kick In The Shins” - Radio Free Alice
Watching the news is a daily kick in the shins, amirite?

“Blue Sky Day” - Died Pretty
Following up the new Aussie track with a classic from 1986.

“After” - Just Penelope
Despite a couple indie labels (which I believe are now combined into one) being headquartered down in Bloomington, we don’t seem to get a lot of music from actual Bloomington bands. That’s doubly odd since IU is host to one of the best music schools in the country. These kids are all grads of the Jacobs School of Music, and recorded their debut album in a cabin just outside of town. Doesn’t get more southern Indiana than that.

“All The Rage” - Wishy
Another pretty solid track from Indy’s best indie act.

“Come Again” - Jim James
James is from Louisville, so I guess we have an I-65 corridor thing going here.

“Dead End Street” - Zoh Amba
No idea how to describe this track. And as it has received very little music press coverage, I’m not getting much help. A raucous, electrical take on Appalachian folk? Lo-fo garage with a country twang? Psychedelic Smoky Mountain rock? Mad Lib your own favorite.

“Pin Up Boys” - Westside Cowboy
One of the most exciting new bands of 2025 is about to release album #2. Their first album was filled with a variety of sounds, but this lead single sounds much more American than anything they’ve released before.

“Melodramatic” - Trashcan Sinatras
TS have had a nice little comeback this year, releasing their first album in over a decade that features several nice songs, including this one. Which made it even more tragic that their guitar player since 1986, John Douglas, passed away suddenly last week after a short illness. RIP.

“Rain In The Summertime” - The Alarm
Only a few more weeks to play summer songs, this was an obvious choice for this week.

[youtu.be/ftTOEJfzd...](https://youtu.be/ftTOEJfzdq0?si=MDQAn0ODcFUnhG9D)

“Alex Chilton” - The Replacements
This song has been in my head ever since watching episode two of the new Ted Lasso season. On a show filled with references to some of Jason Sudeikis’ favorite things, I’m assuming he (or another writer) was a big Replacements and/or Big Star fan, thus the Richmond FC women’s team’s assistant coach being named Alice Chilton. Or maybe it’s just a coincidence.

Reader's Notebook, 8/12/26

Wed, 12 Aug 2026 09:03:24 -0400

I’m spending my morning in a dentist’s waiting room while C gets the first of two crowns. What a way to wrap up her summer!

With time to kill I figured I’d go ahead and do my next RN entry based on a single book. Fortunately it gave me a lot to think about and then share with you.

Wearing The Lion - John Wiswell
This has been on my To Read list for several months. The summer of The Odyssey seemed like a good time to tackle it, a re-imagining of the ancient Greek tale of Heracles.[^1] When I say re-imagining I don’t mean Wiswell just took the old texts and translated them into modern language. No, he completely revamped the story, taking a fresh look at its meaning and changing how we consider one of history’s great heroes.

The book begins with a bang. In the first sentence, Hera, the queen of the Greek Olympians, refers to King of the Gods Zeus as her “dipshit husband.” She never stops calling him that for the entire book. I laughed every time. Hera is pissed that Zeus has run off yet again and conceived yet another child with yet another mortal woman. As this child, Heracles, grows, he comes to represent everything she resents about Zeus. She reaches a breaking point after Heracles has started his own family. She imposes a state of madness on Heracles with the hope that he will kill himself during the fit. However, her gambit backfires when he, instead, kills his three sons.

In an effort to learn which god caused his fit, Heracles goes on a quest, which eventually leads him to a king who tells him if he completes 10 great labors, the truth will be revealed.

In the classic stories, Heracles goes on quite the killing and stealing spree. It’s a lot so you can review the details here.

As the Greeks told it, Heracles was this massively powerful and resourceful half-human/half-god for whom these tasks were not terribly difficult. It was more about going on adventures and doing cool things as he proved his worth. He often acts in a state of blind rage. He’s like a 1990s action hero, murdering with little remorse as he attempts to learn who forced him to kill his own offspring.

Wiswell completely flips this.

His Heracles is a thoughtful, sensitive man.[^2] He mourns his children, and genuinely wants to know what god sent him on this path. But he also does not see the need for other creatures to die needlessly in the process. Rather than kill the lion, he tames it, using his great strength to wear it down until it basically becomes his pet cat. He doesn’t kill the hydra, but rather chops off and cauterizes eight heads to keep them from regenerating, leaving a rather sassy snake in its place. And so on. Each step along the path Wiswell takes him on, Heracles shows his humanity and builds a new family to replace the one he destroyed. He is willing to use violence to get closer to the answer he needs, but only kills when absolutely necessary. By the end he is surrounded by a team of magical beings who are loyal to him for sparing their lives and provide as much emotional counsel to him as physical support.

Wiswell does stray from the classic story. A few of Heracles’ labors are glossed over, combined with others, or even skipped. Obviously his Heracles’ core nature is very different than the mythical one we learned about in sixth grade. This probably drives some people nuts.[^3] As with the manufactured and performative outcry about Christopher Nolan’s adjustments to The Odyssey, these are misguided. Ancient Greek tales are myths; they did not really happen. They began as oral tales, passed down, built and re-built, over generations. We know that the story of Heracles changed over the years in ancient times. Some of the stories don’t line up with each other at all. Ancient heroes were molded and massaged to fit each re-telling’s needs. That makes the liberties Wiswell took completely appropriate. Not terribly different from modern comics, where our heroes can live many radically different lives if they remain in print for decades.

It was funny to skim user reviews on Goodreads after finishing the book. Wearing The Lion was rather polarizing. Some folks did not like how Wiswell updated the language to make it hyper-modern. One user was upset that he made his gods curse so often, which made me laugh. Fictional ancient gods dropping f-bombs pushed this person over the edge. Others did not like how he much he adjusted the core parts of the story. Then others were excited about how he did more than slap a new coat of literary paint on an ancient tale.

I was definitely with this second camp. I really enjoyed the book. It made me laugh throughout. As I am not Greek nor a Defender of Western Culture, I wasn’t bothered by the big changes Wiswell made to the story. In fact, I liked his Heracles a lot more than the cold blooded killer of the stories I read when I was 12. His hero was much more relatable to us mere mortals as he lived with his grief and remorse and self-loathing while opening his heart to new, unexpected friends. The story touched me as much as it made me laugh.

A huge component of Wiswell’s (re-)telling is that grief and the many different ways it can affect us. We search for answers. We accept or distribute blame. We repress it or let it burn with an intensity that ruins the rest of our lives. It closes doors in established relationships while opening other doors to new ones. Grief is one complex motherfucker.

Heracles has this immense grief for killing his children, and wants to understand who caused it and why it was necessary. Had he done something to anger the gods that caused it? Was he flawed because of his half-human, half-deity parenting? He just wants answers.

Hera, too, was overwhelmed by grief. In her case because she let the complexities of her marriage anger her to the point where she caused a mortal to kill his own children. She spends the book trying to understand how she could have been so weak, how she can take responsibility for her actions, and what she can do to make her life better so that she never makes such a horrific mistake again.

To the ancient Greeks, the stories we call myths today were foundational to their culture. They helped create common social norms and a shared history for a newly united society that grew from separate, independent city states.

To us, they are interesting insights into how the ancient Greeks lived. It was upon these stories that, for centuries, we developed our own literature, theater, and culture. To act like they were anything more than the Greeks’ version of movies, TV shows, or plays is giving them too much credit.

[^1]: Or Hercules, if you prefer your gods to be Roman.
[^2]: Woke alert!
[^3]: One of them is the CEO of the company that made my car.

Weekend Notes

Mon, 10 Aug 2026 08:20:42 -0400

Our boring weekends got a little more boring over the one just completed. No college visits. Thick humidity rolling in contributed to that quite a bit. I bet I can still crank out 1000+ words about the last three days.

We had friends over during the day Saturday for a pool gathering. These are two families we spent a lot of time with in our grade/middle school days, but have seen less-and-less in recent years. One family’s daughter and C were the best of friends at St P’s but drifted apart when they went to different high schools. They reconnected last year at IU and that was our opening to have her parents, who we love, over. The other family we’ve remained closer with until the past 18 months or so, when the adults both got new jobs that have them traveling quite often. Their son, who was also in C’s St P’s class, is a D1 athlete (non-revenue) so it was interesting to talk to him about what he’s seen and experienced on his mid-major campus between NIL in their basketball program and how the transfer portal and various court decisions have affected his own roster.

Anyway, it was great to get us all together again. We used to have an annual weekend at our lake house and spent who knows how many hours together on the soccer fields.

Friday I took M to Costco to load up on some items for her to take back to Cincinnati with her, while also getting her worn tires replaced. She packed up her car and returned for her senior year Sunday afternoon. It was nice to have her home for three weeks.

This is “work week” leading up to greek recruitment next week. She is a Rho Gamma, which I’m not going to try to explain because I’ll probably botch what they actually do, but it basically means she helps run recruitment week for all the houses rather than focus on her own. When the rest of UC starts classes in two weeks, she’ll return to the company she co-oped for in the spring, taking one online course while working through December. Four (maybe five) classes in the spring and she’s done.

Today is the final day of L’s summer break. Which means she and her classmates will go to campus this evening and teepee the hill leading to campus for tomorrow’s first arrival. A new part of the CHS senior traditions this year is a Senior Sunrise tomorrow morning.[^1] They’re making these poor kids show up at 6:30 to watch the sun come up together before they throw toilet paper at all the students and families arriving for the first day of classes. Five of her friends are spending the night here tonight so they can roll into campus together Tuesday.

C is in her final week home; we will move her into her Bloomington apartment a week from today. Last night she went to say goodbye to one of her high school friends who is heading back to Auburn this week. Then she met another friend to see the new Spiderman movie.

As L was working yesterday, S and I realized around 4:00 that we were all alone. Sunday is normally a clean out the fridge night for us. We realized we could not only go out to eat, but we could go anywhere we wanted without kid restrictions. So naturally we picked a normal spot the girls all would have been fine joining us at. We aren’t good at making quick, unexpected decisions! When we arrived at the restaurant they seated us at what seemed like a special table, a half-circle booth that looked out over much of the rest of the room. We felt like this was some kind of reward to preview what empty nesting will be like in a year. We can go out to eat, wherever we want, whenever we want!

Of course our food came quickly and we were out in like 45 minutes, so didn’t exactly make a night of it. However that gave us plenty of time to go home and…

Ted Lasso

…watch the first episode of season four of Ted Lasso!

Unlike last weekend, when we knocked out all of Margo’s Got Money Troubles over two nights, this was just one episode. So it only gets a special section because of the content of the program.

That episode was a love letter to Kansas City, so of course I loved it! “Daniel Manning Elementary School.” I mean, come on!!! There really should be a school named that somewhere in eastern Kansas. Taking the Brits to Gates Barbecue!!! Walking around the Plaza!!! A Frogpond song!!!! All kinds of other little Easter eggs for people who live/have lived in KC.

S was especially disturbed when Ted picked up a box of his old stuff at his mother’s house and I immediately identified a KU basketball book that was under another item based on seeing part of its back cover for about two seconds. I told her that exact book is in my office closet, it really isn’t that weird. She was not convinced.

And two non-KU specific moments that really put the episode over the top for me. First, Ted and his ex-wife being called to their son’s school to review some disturbing “poetry” that was found in Henry’s notebook. When the principal began reciting it, I started cackling and again got a weird look from S. When I completed the lines, she got even more concerned.

Henry Lasso writing down the lyrics to Public Enemy’s “Black Steel In The Hour Of Chaos”[^2] probably connected with a pretty significant slice of the show’s audience, at least of dudes over, say 45, maybe 50, who listened to late-Eighties hip hop.[^3] Then another PE song later in the show!

Great stuff.

This episode was just setting up Ted’s return to London, so who knows what it said about what is to come. I glanced at two reviews of the first four episodes: one writer thought they were great, another was much more reserved in his reaction. Even if the rest of season four is mixed, I got sucked in by Jason Sudeikis’ lovely homage it his (and my) hometown.

Although, I must register my perpetual complaint about TV shows and movies based in the Midwest for some reason making their characters sound southern. Lazy. Sudeikis should know better and be ashamed.

Now we have a week ahead of making sure we have everything organized that we need to get C moved. That’s going to be kind of a weird process, but more on that next week.

Nearly 1200 words later I guess our weekend wasn’t actually that boring.

[^1]: Senior Sunrise used to be in the spring. Not sure if it has been moved or they are doing one on each side to bookend their last year at CHS.
[^2]: One of the great moments of my life was introducing an older, Black veteran to the lyrics to this song.
[^3]: And a certain female Topeka native who currently lives in St. Louis.

Friday Playlist

Fri, 07 Aug 2026 07:43:39 -0400

[open.spotify.com/playlist/...](https://open.spotify.com/playlist/6EKTR0p52YxDs03Bprnh7W?si=72423cb62d8a4760)

“All The Beauty” - Pete Yorn
I like it better when Yorn makes B+ versions of his best songs than when he goes off on odd tangents. This is one of those good ones.

“MMA” Hannah Cole
When I read that Cole was based in Nashville, I was expecting something that was softer and gentler, closer to indie folk. I was NOT expecting a chugging, mid-90s-esque rocker like this. I’m happy to be surprised.

“My Own Beauty” - Pouty
Dude, speaking of the mid-90s. I’m not sure if the lead singer of this band sounds like someone specific, or sounds like a generic style half a dozen singers from that era had.

“Appetite” - Lifeguard
I honestly can’t believe this band is from Chicago. They sound super Australian to me.

“Nobody” - Computerwife
This reminds me of…

“Cool” - Deerhunter
…this 2011 cover of a 1979 post-punk classic.

“Sorry Mister” - Disgusting Sisters
I wish I head heard this a week earlier. It would be a nice pairing with Getdown Services’ “Cha Cha Slide.”

“All Alone Again” - Jack White
It’s taken some time, but I finally have a favorite track off the latest JW album.

“Sun Has Set” - beabadoobee
Not quite to the end of summer, but the sun is setting noticeably earlier and kids are cycling back to school. It goes too fast.

“Someone Somewhere (In Summertime)” - Simple Minds
On the one hand, I’m thankful that some AI company’s commercial gave this track a second life. On the other, I hate that I think of that commercial each time I hear this now.

[youtu.be/V-czWJxkd...](https://youtu.be/V-czWJxkdZY?si=HGHzFVm8GfLJiIAG)

“Let’s Get High” - Benjamin Diamond
A little different video this week. I’ve been doing some music catalog cleanup[^1] and noticed this song was greyed out on Apple Music. Somewhere, somehow, their license for it had expired. I pulled out the hard drive holding my old iTunes catalog, found the file, and imported it. Alas, I cannot share that with the rest of the world online. So I figured I’d include the video, even if it just shows the album cover.

Anyway, this lovely track is from back in 2005. The file I have was recorded off good, ol’ woxy.com. Because of how the app I used to record their stream worked, I even got about a minute of DJ chatter before it started a new file for the next track. I miss WOXY, although I’m glad The Bridge in Kansas City fills a similar role.

Also, for those of you who have followed my internet music postings for years, this appeared on transmission #11 of the Carmel Liberation Radio podcast.

[^1]: More about that next week, maybe.

More European Vacation Notes

Wed, 05 Aug 2026 12:47:51 -0400

I’ve been sitting on several leftover notes from our European vacation. At this point I doubt I’m going to remember anything interesting or important so seems like time to finally purge them from the notebook.

Good grief, Europe is expensive! I know this isn’t a news flash or anything. It didn’t help that we were staying in bougie places, in touristy areas, where prices are automatically jacked up. But the baseline certainly is higher than home as well. This was reinforced when our credit card statement came earlier this week. Our first breakfast was how much??? Lunch with three drinks and five waters cost what??? Conversion rates are a motherfucker. Rick Steves’ methods are looking wiser.

It struck me that we rarely saw homeless people in London. When we did they were almost always congregated around tube and train stations. Perhaps because we were staying near Buckingham Palace, that area is swept often and they know not to hang out there? I have a feeling the Brits show more respect for homeless than we Americans do and that is some of the explanation as well.

Now Dublin, on the other hand, was totally different. There was a pronounced homeless presence. Maybe Dublin is a magnet while in London they are shuffled to parts of the city outside the center?

We weren’t sure if they were homeless or not, but as we stood near the Ha’Penny Bridge, we saw one rough dude pass a handful of pills to another rough looking dude who passed some crumpled notes back. Our girls first witnessed drug deal![^1] The two that observed it were very excited. “Did you see that?!?!?” They smartly waited until we were well away from the area before bringing it up.

The number of people riding bikes was kind of crazy. Good for them! And a sign how different car culture is in the US and Europe. But, man, it was freaking us out how close some of the big buses come to the bike lanes and neither the bus drivers nor bikers seemed worried about it. I would NOT be able to ride a bike with any confidence I wouldn’t get squashed.

One morning in London when I was walking to a drug store I saw a ton of people running with large rucksacks. At first I thought they were carrying weight to increase their effort. Then I realized, as I kept seeing them, a lot of these folks were running to work and had their business clothes in their packs. Or so I theorized. I sure hope they had showers in their offices!

Speaking of that, only a few times did we run into people who were stinky. M said passing folks with obvious BO was far more common in France. The French are famous for their willingness to tolerate infidelity, with lunchtime assignations fairly common.[^2] Shouldn’t they be the best smelling people in Europe if they are going to get busy during the day?

One of the funniest things we saw came during one of our walks through St. James’ Park. It was late afternoon and lots of folks were out enjoying the warm sunshine, many eating late lunches/early dinners. Along the paths there were occasional horse droppings, from the mounted police I assume? First we found it weird these weren’t promptly swept up. The King’s residence is right across the street!

But what made us laugh was a couple, who seemed rather into each other, sitting there, sharing a cup of ice cream, with a giant pile of horse crap right in front of them. When we got a few feet past them we all turned and looked at each other, all of us saying some form of “What the fuck?”

S used to joke that if I wanted to break up with her when we were dating, I should take her on one of those Cinderella carriage rides around the Country Club Plaza in Kansas City. That was one of her least favorite things in the world and the message would be clear if I signed us up for one. So I asked, “Would that be another way to break up with you, getting some ice cream and forcing you to eat it next to horse shit?” The girls howled! S confirmed that would have been a fine way to tell her to get lost.

On our flight from London to Dublin was a group of girls that were 12-14-ish, all dressed in Team England gear. When we got to Dublin we learned that the city was hosting some big dance competition. Like not cheerleading or drill team, but an organized, team dance thing. I freaking swear that we saw the Team England girls at least twice a day each day we were in Ireland. They weren’t staying in our hotel, but clearly somewhere near us. And the arena hosting the competition was just a few blocks away. Adding insult to injury, all these girls checked their bags at the gate, so we know they had their clothes and toiletries. They just had to wear their team gear each day, I guess.

On our Dublin tour, the guide pointed out a building under construction that the U2 guys were financing. It is to be a culture and arts center. It will, no doubt, be large and striking when completed. There was a huge crane poised next to it, waiting to hoist girders and whatnot as the building grew taller. Our guide said “That crane is there so they can put Bono’s ego inside.” That got chuckles from exactly 15% of our tour group.

There was a couple in that group - a father and his daughter - who were from Denmark. What was crazy was if you asked me where they were from, Denmark would absolutely been the first country I guessed. They were tall, thin, striking looking, but there was something about their limbs that screamed Denmark to me. Now, I do have Danish blood: my paternal grandmother’s family came from there. But I don’t have any experience hanging out with Danes. So I was both impressed and a little weirded out with myself.

Speaking of music, the one thing I’m upset I did not get to do was listen to the radio in either city. Hotels don’t come with clock radios anymore. I needed to listen to current British/Irish bands like World News and Cardinals on their native stations. Or, better yet, find an old school station in London spinning The Clash, Radiohead, etc.

Another story that made a couple of our girls laugh. Thursday evening C, L, and I walked to a store to grab some replacement toiletries. When we returned to our hotel, a gentleman got on the elevator with us. He was acting a little strange, like he wanted to say something but couldn’t. He may have come from the bar so I figured he had just had a few. He got off the elevator two floors below us. As he walked off he muttered, “Have a nice evening.” As I began to return his farewell he said, while completely off the elevator, “Rock Chalk!” I was wearing my sexy-legged, 1912 Jayhawk polo shirt. I shouted “YES!” back to him as the doors closed. The girls’ eyes got big and when we returned to our room they told S and M that “Dad is going to talk about this for like two hours.” Sure enough I texted a couple KU buddies about the encounter as soon as I had a signal again.

Finally, Heathrow airport was rather interesting. The upper area, where you wait to check in and drop bags, was huge and wide open. While it was full of people, its size made it feel like there weren’t nearly as many people in the space as there actually were. There were like a million middle school/high school aged kids from Italy and Spain coming through on school trips. They never overwhelmed the space because of the high ceilings and lack of interior walls.

Then, once you got through security and go downstairs, though? It’s a whole other world. It was like being in an old-school mall the week before Christmas. Shops and restaurants everywhere, super crowded, with gates sprinkled through almost like an afterthought. Not sure why people would buy much after they had already passed through security but what do I know? Our girls did buy $19 worth of Pringles, which was two small cans. These would have cost about $5 at the Target around the corner from our house. Again, Europe is expensive!

[^1]: Not entirely true, as M is pretty sure the dude who lives across the street from her is a dealer. But she’s never seen him actually pass drugs to a buyer like we saw in Dublin.
[^2]: Or so legend has it.

Reader's Notebook, 8/4/26

Tue, 04 Aug 2026 08:06:08 -0400

Well, July was quite the reading month. I knocked out nine books. NINE BOOKS!!! Three were rather slight things I loaded onto the Kindle for our trip that I won’t bother to include here. This entry includes five of those July books and then the first book of August.

Headstone, Purgatory, Green Hell - Ken Bruen Three more gritty, grimy crime novels from Bruen before our time in Ireland. Even though we did not visit Galway, where all his books take place, I was still on the alert for some of his most notable characters to cross our path while in Dublin.

Table For Two - Amor Towles A month ago I read Towles’ Rules Of Civility, which I enjoyed a lot. This is a collection of several short stories and one novella, the novella following one of the main characters from Rules Of Civility after she passed out of that book’s focus.

I also enjoyed these quite a bit. None of them break any new ground, but rather reinforce how easily Towles can whip up these thoroughly charming and interesting characters that the reader quickly cares about. I wish more authors would follow Towles lead in polishing and publishing ideas that may not be meaty enough for an entire novel. I realize in 2026 there is very little market for that kind of work so few publishing houses will be interested in getting behind such works for anyone other than the most successful novelists. One can always hope, though.

The Dungeon Anarchist’s Cookbook - Matt Dinniman Book three in the Dungeon Crawler Carl series, this one set in a level filled with countless subterranean train lines. Too many, if you ask me. I couldn’t keep track of all the lines and stations and the significance of each. But this got pretty good at the end, so I’ll stick around to see what the next level holds.

Big Fan - Michael Schur and Joe Posnanski These two old friends explore what it means to be a fan, not just of sports but of anything, really. There are plenty of serious moments - they speak with a PhD to try to come up with an academic theory of what being a fan provides humans - but most of it is exactly the light-hearted, often silly stuff you would expect from this duo. Their chapter about attempting to get a hug from Mookie Betts is pure, joyful genius. More importantly, it got me back into Joe’s podcast, which Schur often appears on. I listened to it years ago, and I’m not exactly sure why I stopped. Did it go behind a paywall for a while? Was I mad at baseball, their primary topic? Well, I’m still mad at baseball but I re-added it to my always packed queue of things to listen to.

Weekend Notes

Mon, 03 Aug 2026 08:50:18 -0400

Another weekend that, honestly, not much exciting happened in our lives.

Most of the weekend was dreary, from Friday evening until late Sunday afternoon. We got a decent downpour overnight into Saturday morning, enough that the pool cover pump was completely submerged when I tossed it out Saturday morning.

Later in the day we got absolutely pounded, with flash flood warnings dotting all of central Indiana. Our tornado sirens went off around 5:30 when radar indicated rotation near downtown Indy. We never got any true severe storms here, just torrential rain that lasted nearly an hour. I had to run out and grab dinner in the midst of this, and got soaked in the 10 second run from the car into the pizza place. Despite the pool cover being completely drained when this storm began, our pump was again completely submerged about 15 minutes into it, then took several hours to finally get all the water off again. I had to get the sprinklers out the week we returned from vacation, but three storms over the past week have ensured I won’t have to do that again for a while.

I also set a new low in the Old Man part of my life. Sunday morning around 2:30 I got up to use the bathroom. When I got back into bed I attempted to roll onto my left side to get comfortable. However, for some reason my hips did not want to rotate with my upper body. This tension caused my back to seize up. Yes, I somehow managed to wreck my back by turning over in bed. Honestly I might be 75 and just not remember the first 20 years of my life.

I had spasms off and on all day Sunday, so was largely useless. Thankfully it drizzled all morning so there was no need for me to do anything other than listen to American Top 40 and read. I also napped.

Thankfully my back loosened up just enough so that I could make burgers when we hosted my in-laws for dinner.

M went to Cincinnati for about 30 hours, returning after the storms passed Saturday. She got to see most of her roommates for the first time in months and confirmed her room survived her being gone.

Like I said, a pretty boring weekend.

College Visit #3

Friday L and I went down to Bloomington to tour IU. When we were on campus last fall for homecoming she complained that the campus was too big. Which is a fair complaint: IU’s campus is massive. While she went in genuinely interested in learning more about IU, it still felt like it had a lot of ground to make up on UC.

I don’t think there was anything special about the informational presentation or our tour guide. But L came away really liking IU. To the point where she was stressing a little about her decision a little.

As we ate lunch we talked through the things she did and did not like about each school. A big factor was she realized she actually loves IU’s campus. How could you not; IU might be the ideal big state school campus. Its size is still a concern, but seeing that the three buildings she would most likely take classes in - the political science, foreign language, and public policy centers - are all pretty close to each other made her realize you don’t have to cross the entire campus every day. We also drove over to the apartment complex where C will live this year and she was impressed by how nice it is.

L’s ultimate goal is law school. Both of her godparents are attorneys who went to IU and they suggested that IU would give her a better shot at getting into higher tier law schools than UC would. I think she’s going to get great grades no matter where she goes, so I’m not convinced her undergrad school will make a huge difference in where she lands for law school. She’s talked about going away for that part of her life, anyway. If she was dead-set on IU for law school, it would absolutely make more sense to stay there for undergrad.

She’s really impressed with UC’s co-op program, though, something IU does not have. She has no interest in the greek system, so M’s experience in a house will have no impact.

It may well come down to what kind of scholarship money the schools throw at her. IU offered M twice as much as UC, but she loved UC and chose it. L has slightly better grades and test scores than M did, so hopefully each school will offer her a little more than her big sister got.

Luckily she has a sister at each school who can answer some of her questions. And she can visit both once the school year begins. We’re going to try to go to a UC football game in September so she can compare that to the two IU games she’s been to.[1]

We were scheduled to drive to Madison, Wisconsin this afternoon and take a campus tour tomorrow. However, early last week L decided she wasn’t as interested in being a Badger as she was a month ago. I encouraged her to pick some schools to visit her sisters hadn’t been to and was excited that Wisconsin was on her list. It’s kind of a bummer she changed her mind, but it’s her choice, and I’m not mad about not spending 10+ hours in the car the next couple days. And we did visit Colorado State so she added one new campus.

Unless something changed, I think I am done with college visits as a parent. At least until/if L wants help looking at law schools in a few years.

A Good Show

As I noted in my July Media post, Friday evening S and I watched a big chunk of a new series. Then we wrapped it up Saturday evening. I liked it enough that it deserves a bigger blurb than it would receive when I drop my August Media post in a month.

We watched Margo’s Got Money Troubles on AppleTV+. I thought it was terrific. Not quite at the level of Shrinking or the early seasons of either Ted Lasso or The Bear, but aside from those, as enjoyable a TV-watching experience as I’ve had recently.

I loved all the characters. Susie the cosplaying roommate was especially excellent. But Nick Offerman, to me, stole the show. There was definitely some Ron Swanson is his portrayal of Jinx. However, his former pro wrestler and recovering addict had a lot more depth than his classic Parks & Recreation character. I’ve seen enough interviews with Offerman to know this probably more closely reflects who he is than Swanson did.

I enjoyed how the show dealt with some pretty tough issues. Infidelity, inappropriate relationships, out-of-wedlock pregnancy, abortion, single motherhood, drug addiction, being honest to your partner, the choices young parents in difficult financial situations are forced to make, gender double standards, and so on. Perhaps this wasn’t the deepest exploration of each of these topics, but it treated each of them with respect for the characters going through them.

I thought the show was very funny, and often quite touching.

Elephant in the room number one: you get to see Elle Fanning’s boobs a lot. Like way more than you expect going in even being warned you will see them often. What is surprising is how often they are displayed in the act of breastfeeding, or sometimes unsuccessfully attempting to breastfeed. This had to have set a record for most screen time for lactating breasts. I don’t mention that because it was uncomfortable to watch or anything. I just wondered how Fanning was presented with this.

“So, Margo is topless A LOT throughout the series.”

“No problem.”

“Most of the time you’ll have a screaming baby trying to latch on, and we’ll rig up something so you can squirt milk.”

“Excuse me?”

Elephant in the room number two: Michelle Pfeiffer and Nicole Kidman both look amazing. Like so good you have to mention it. Pfeiffer is 68. Kidman is 59. Even in 2026, when age can be altered in so many ways, they both look better than seems reasonable. Of course, when you are gorgeous to begin with that helps a lot.

Margo’s Got Money Troubles isn’t a perfect show. It is, though, filled with heart and mostly really well written. The characters are well defined. There is a fantastic and amazing cameo in the final episode that will please a lot of folks with similar past TV loves to my own.

In short, it might have been the perfect show to get us through a weekend when there was not much on TV.

Baseball

I guess the Dodgers broke baseball again by trading for Tarik Skubal? It doesn’t seem like they traded all that much for him, so I don’t understand why any other contending team didn’t trade slightly more to keep him away from the Dodgers, if not help their own cause.

If the Dodgers re-sign him for $500 million this offseason, now THAT will be a sign they’ve broken baseball. But trading three decent but not elite prospects for (hopefully) four months of Skubal is far from a move that only the Dodgers could make.

And I still hold way less animus for the Dodgers and their wild spending than I ever held for the Yankees back when the “broke” baseball 25-ish years ago.

M isn’t sure this is a good idea. “I think we’re going to suck.” ↩

July Media

Sat, 01 Aug 2026 20:28:44 -0400

This is not as heavy as I thought it would be a few weeks ago. I didn’t watch nearly as many movies on our flights to/from Europe as I expected to. I had tickets to see The Odyssey last week, but a family snafu nixed that. Finally, I was lazy last week. I had a couple other movies lined up to watch but got sidetracked several evenings and never got around to them. We did watch five episodes of a series Friday night, but I’ll hold that for my August entry.

Travel Movies

Britain And The Blitz Each of our London tours touched on areas that were affected by The Blitz, so I added this for the flight home. The most interesting part was how it showed that there was a lot of resentment for Churchill and the government in the parts of London that were most devastated. And even after 40 years of colorized film, my brain is never sure what to think about the practice. I don’t know if it helped or hurt the story this footage told that it had been updated to “pretend” color.

A-

Dead Man’s Wire Before we left I found a list of good movies on Netflix and this, which I had never heard of, was on it. Strange I had never heard of it because it details the 1977 episode in Indianapolis when Tony Kiritsis took a mortgage banker hostage and held him for multiple days, ending the saga with a live press conference. The entire time Kiritsis had a sawed-off shotgun held to the banker’s head, with a dead man wire running from the banker’s neck to the trigger then back to Kiritsis’ body. If any law enforcement officers tried to take him out, he would take the banker out with him. Fascinating story.

I didn’t understand why this movie got such positive reviews. I found it strange. Strange performances, strange choices by director Gus Van Sant, strange accents by several of the actors (I’ve said this many times, the Midwest twang is very different from a southern accent. But you would think this movie took place in Birmingham not Indy, based on a couple actors.). Worse, when I read up on the actual event when we got home, I found one of the most interesting characters - a cool, Black radio DJ who played jazz - was actually a white news broadcaster who was most assuredly nowhere near as cool as his altered movie persona.

B-

Gone Girl This was also on that list, and worthy of a re-watch. One of the genuinely great mind fucks of recent(-ish) movie history. Weird how Rosamund Pike didn’t become a huge star after this, although she’s never stopped working.

Also I’ll note that while we rarely had the TV on in Europe, the first thing I saw when I turned our TV in London on was On Her Majesty’s Secret Service. That was cool. Monday morning I turned on the TV and the first show I flipped by was a re-run of Cheers from the Rebecca years, which seemed super random. Watching Wimbledon and World Cup coverage in England was also very interesting.

Movies, Shows, Etc.

Air Force Elite: Thunderbirds I was in-between shows before we traveled and not wanting to start something new or devote myself to an entire movie, so selected this. The visuals are spectacular and it was interesting to learn how the Thunderbirds train and operate. But the manufactured drama of their training - one pilot allegedly can’t master a part of his routine, a flaw which caused a deadly crash a few years earlier, but he suddenly nails it on their qualifying flight then they perform it better than anyone before them - was predictable for this kind of program.

B+

Earth, Wind & Fire (To Be Celestial vs. That’s The Weight Of The World) This follows the standard music documentary format: group struggles, becomes famous, begins to have issues, breaks apart, comes back together later in life for a new, successful phase. So nothing ground-breaking here. But the music is magnificent, which is really all that matters. As we were watching, and the band got into some more of its “interesting” phases, S looked at me and said, “The Seventies were an interesting time.” Well put.

A-

The Martian Not sure why I waited 11 years to finally watch this. I read the book right when the movie came out, so while I remember I really liked it, I can’t make great comparisons. The movie seemed a little cheesier and more Hollywood than the book, which tracks. I don’t recall thinking this when I read the book, but while watching the movie I wondered if it wasn’t just an updated, futuristic take on Apollo 13. Regardless, it was fun and entertaining.

B+

Something I Did Not Watch (Much)

With this being a shorter entry, I can throw this tidbit in I should have included in a sports entry.

While I watched the first week of the Tour de France, after that I mostly ignored it. Several reasons for that. Of course, spending a week in Europe where we were on our feet and away from TVs all day meant I could not watch. The World Cup was often on during the day, too.

Bigger, though, was that this year Tadej Pogacar was more dominant than ever, taking control of the race early, even when he didn’t have the lead. It was obvious by the middle of the first week that Jonas Vingegaard had no answer for Pogacar’s breakaways in the mountains. By the time we returned home, Pogacar already had a seemingly insurmountable lead. Without having the habit of a couple weeks of watching in place, I never turned it back on. When Vingegaard crashed out of the Tour later that week, that confirmed I had made a good choice to mostly skip the race this year.

Pogacar has established himself as one of the greatest riders in the history of the race. But he’s also rendered it not very interesting to watch. Maybe next year he’ll regress to the pack a bit, or get a virus right in June that saps some of his strength and makes it a compelling way to spend my July mornings again.

Friday Playlist

Fri, 31 Jul 2026 08:00:00 -0400

For the second-straight week I am putting this together and scheduling it on Thursday evening, as I will be out of the house early Friday. Two throw back songs from the mid–90s mixed in with the new stuff, a tribute to a lost troubadour, and a summer classic to round it all out. Happy weekend to all!

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“Dark Summer” - Ceremony
Tom Breihan says that Ceremony are a “California underground institution.” He’s the expert, so I’ll take his word for it. I like the post-punk space this track inhabits. Based on it, you might assume the band was from London, or even Melbourne.

“Spinning” - Soft Science
High quality Dream Pop from Sacramento, of all places.

“It’s A Mod Mod World” - Sharp Pins (Apple Music only)
This band is from Chicago, and this is a new song. Forgive yourself for thinking they were from 1967 London.

“Cha Cha Slide” - Getdown Services
I have a feeling most of you will either think this song is awesome, or crap. No in-betweens.

“Glimpse Of You” - 16 Underground
As I read up on this band, several writers asserted they were part of a burgeoning trip hop revival. That would be interesting!

“6 Underground” - Sneaker Pimps
Did 16 Underground get their name from this song? Maybe. Good enough excuse to play it, a terrific track that is 30 years old this year. Yowsa.

“24 Hr Open” - Picture Parlour
Several songs from Jack White’s new album have been in my highest rotation the past couple weeks. Overall, it is a fine album, if not quite as fine as 2024’s No Name. This track, to me, owes a lot to Jack’s classic sound. Or, perhaps better, is a mid-point between Jack’s music and Grace Potter’s, maybe? Regardless, this is nearly a year old and I feel dumb for just getting to it.

“I Feel Hope Coming” - Alabama Shakes
And another new track that sounds similar to something else I’ve been listening to. In this case, Alabama Shakes taking their sound closer to Leon Bridges’ than it has ever been before. Interesting to hear two very different vocalists perform over quite similar backing music.

“When The Night Comes” - Nicole Atkins
I was sure I had shared some Nicole Atkins music at some point, but a quick search of the archives shows no evidence I ever have. Shame. This is a lovely song. Of course, I’m a sucker for a song with lyrics about Kansas.

“Photograph” - The Verve Pipe
While we were in Europe, Stereogum’s Alternative Numbers Ones entry (subscription required) covered The Verve Pipe’s “The Freshman,” which was #1 for three weeks in May of 1996. I never liked that song. I did like, however, this track, which was a much more modest hit from earlier that year. I was glad that Tom gave it a 7, which feels about right.

“The Feast Of St. John” - Glen Hansard
Glen Hansard died this week, killed in a motorcycle accident just outside his native Dublin. I’m not going to pretend I was a huge fan of his work. That was because I didn’t know it well. I certainly knew of him; he was wildly prolific over his career and many other more famous stars championed his work. I saw he and his band open for Pearl Jam two years ago and was blown away. I was expecting a thoughtful, folky artist and instead they had every song cranked to 11. It was an awesome set. I explored his music a bit after seeing him, and several songs sounded familiar, certainly “Falling Slowly,” his duet with Markéta Irglová, which won the Academy Award for Best Original Song in 2008. So I had crossed paths with his work more than I knew. While he was 56, his only child will turn four in two months, which makes his passing even worse.

This was the song that stuck out most from his show in Indy. That night he said it was about “the fuckers who try to drag you down.” RIP.

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“Summer Nights” - Van Halen
A few local schools started classes this week, which is ridiculous. Many more start sometime next week. CHS is a straggler this year, and L has until the 11th to enjoy a few more summer nights.

Spending Like Drunken Sailors

Wed, 29 Jul 2026 11:29:34 -0400

S and I have been cautiously counting down the various financial milestones we are about to check off as parents.

Earlier this month we had a mini celebration when we paid CHS tuition for the final time. This is also the last year we will be paying tuition for three kids. As a family that chose to send our kids to private school from K–12, we expect no sympathy for that part of our annual outlay. We are lucky we could do it.

That does not mean we are done with the large expenditures for three kids.

Monday we became a five-car family. We could have made other decisions in the past that kicked this can down the road at least another year. However, we didn’t think that far ahead when we let M take a car back to Cincinnati for her sophomore year. Which meant C gets to take a car to Bloomington this year. Which meant L needed a car for her senior year.

It seems quaint that once upon a time households with multiple kids had a single car they all shared. Or didn’t even have a car for their kids and they had to work around their parents’ schedules to even have a chance to drive themselves.

Anyway, L now drives a Kia Sportage and we have five cars filling the garage and driveway until M and C go back to school. Not sure who is happier, L or our insurance agent.[1]

Two of our girls got their mom’s teeth, and we have had a rash of out-of-pocket dental expenses this summer.[2] L has senior pics coming up, and we’re beginning to plan her spring break. She also had a minor, elective medical procedure this week to (hopefully) stop the chronic nosebleeds she’s had for years. M’s car needs new tires.

And we went to Europe.

Our only break is that M will again be working a co-op this fall, thus drawing a regular paycheck while taking just one online class. She’s both setting herself up to graduate with some savings and eliminating one full tuition bill this fall.

S keeps saying we are exsanguinating money, which seems a little dramatic. I keep it to myself (and the readers of my blog) that she’s the one who wanted three kids, to send them to private school, and to take a big trip this summer. If you know her, please do not share these comments, as it may mean the end of this site. And my life, obviously.

This is all extreme first world stuff. S and I both began preparing for long term expenses like tuition and retirement before we met. While it is rewarding to see 30-ish years of planning and saving show rewards, it is also a little overwhelming to be in the midst of it. Especially when so many one-time, or once-per-year, expenses land within a few weeks of each other.

Pretty sure I’ve made this joke in some form each time our girls have gotten their drivers license and we’ve purchased a car. ↩
S gets a lot of cavities. I don’t. Not to jinx myself or anything. ↩

Weekend Notes

Mon, 27 Jul 2026 08:58:55 -0400

It was nice to have a laid back weekend after several weeks of travel and other nonsense. Although a few of us spent time in the car.

Unfortunately, I am still sick. Today will be day 14. I guess this is my punishment for going so long without being ill in any way. Last week I tried one batch of antibiotics we had lying around the house. When they didn’t work, our house doc called in a more potent round that I started Sunday. Fingers crossed I can finally shake this thing and get back to a normal workout schedule. Read on and you’ll learn about the other loose end from our European vacation.

Campus Visit #2

L and I went down to Cincinnati Friday morning for her UC campus visit. As we were walking to check in we heard someone call her name. We looked up and one of her best friends from grade and middle school was walking up with her dad.[1] A nice surprise! We arranged to be in the same group for the tour. Her dad was my roommate when we chaperoned the eighth grade Washington DC trip four years ago, so we laughed recalling all the boys we yelled at that week.

L liked campus a lot. She had some follow-up questions for her big sister who goes there (and used to do campus visits). I’ve felt like UC has been her favorite for some time. This trip reinforced all that. We’ll see if IU can make up any of the gap when we go to Bloomington this week. And we have one more big visit scheduled in two weeks…

Birthday Girl

M turned 22 on Saturday. She celebrated by getting the hell out of town Friday and spending the weekend with several of her sorority sisters/roommates on a lake down in Columbus, IN.

Her big gift was her suitcase finally being delivered after being “lost” for 10 days. The last time I updated you on its status, it was still sitting at the Dublin airport and we had received an email asking where we wanted it delivered. I replied that we were home and it needed to come to Indianapolis, but got no response. A follow up also did not get a response.

S got on the phone Thursday to try to find someone who had an update. While she was on hold M came downstairs and I asked her to check its location again.

“It’s in Toronto!”

That was strange. We assumed Aer Lingus would throw it on one of their direct flights to Indy. Alas, we had no idea how to track the bag other than with her AirTag, so we hoped for the best.

Saturday morning M called us and said the bag was at the Indy airport. A couple hours later she got a call confirming our address and saying it would be delivered within the day. Sure enough, about 1:30, the doorbell rang and a rather grumpy guy had her bag.

I opened it up and everything seemed as it was when we packed it up in London 10 days earlier.

The bag had an Air Canada label on it. I’m not even going to try to figure out how a bag that was left behind by British Airways and ended up with Aer Lingus got shipped home via Air Canada.

A needless stress but at least the saga is over.

Sports Notes

LeBron to Philly?!?!?! The news broke while L and I were eating lunch Friday. I don’t think there was a clear “best” destination for LeBron, but I figured Philly would get beat out by Cleveland or Golden State. I’m very surprised he picked the Sixers. And I’m not sure how that team is going to work. Mostly because I can’t see Jaylen Brown being willing to defer to Tyrese Maxey, Joel Embiid, AND LeBron. I guess this is a true first world problem, getting those four plus VJ Edgecombe to work together effectively. If they can figure it out, the Sixers have huge upside. And the Eastern Conference just got even tougher. It will genuinely be a blood bath this season to earn the right to play Oklahoma City or San Antonio in the Finals.

As noted before, I’m not following the Royals or baseball very closely this summer. But I knew that Salvador Perez caught and then passed George Brett for the all time franchise home run record over the weekend. I’m glad Salvy has gone on a little hot streak lately. Early in the season it seemed like he had aged five or six years in one winter and you wondered if he could be a productive player again. Brett will forever be the greatest Royal. This was a fine milestone as Salvy continues to solidify himself as the second greatest Royal of all time.

All Ireland

On one of our tours in Dublin, our guide told us the story of the upcoming All-Ireland senior football final between Mayo and Kerry. This was important, he said, because 75 years ago, a curse had been placed upon the Mayo team.

When they won their last All-Ireland final, legend had it that the boisterous celebration party passed a funeral procession without showing due deference to the deceased. Someone in the funeral party claimed that Mayo would never win another title until every member of that 1951 team died. In the years since then, Mayo made 11 finals, and lost each one. Four years ago the last member of that team passed.

Our tour guide told us that Mayo had just won to reach the final, to be played on July 26. If they triumphed in Dublin, he said, you could believe that curses are real.

Well, Mayo won Sunday. Every clip I found of the final moments was incredible, even the national announcers succumbing to the moment. But the clip in the Bluesky post below? Amazing. These are the local radio announcers in Mayo, who are genuinely losing their minds. I think you get the point even if you can barely understand them.

[embed]https://bsky.app/profile/gavreilly.com/post/3mrkwbkrei22z[/embed]

Gavan Reilly (@gavreilly.com)

She goes to a rival high school, although they had just hung out together with a group of St. P’s girls a few weeks back. ↩