Reader’s Notebook, 3/20/19
The First Major: The Inside Story of the 2016 Ryder Cup – John Feinstein Years ago I used to read a lot of Feinstein’s books. His A Season Inside is one of my all-time favorite sports books.[1] But, over time, I found his books to basically be the same format with different details. There were little moments that would appear…
Season’s Greetings!
You may have noticed something very important was missing around here last holiday season. Yes, I never linked to the newest edition of The Hater’s Guide to the Williams-Sonoma Catalog, the annual gut-bust of a read. Good reason for that: Drew Magary, the mad genius who puts those together every year, suffered a sudden and major health issue last December.…
Tourney Time: KU
Mid-March is here. The conference tournaments are complete. The brackets released. It’s the most wonderful time of the year. Yaaay… It can be hard to get tone across in text. If you guessed, based on the opening lines of this piece, that I’m not super pumped about the NCAA tournament, you would be correct. However, unlike some recent years, I…
Friday Playlist
Some more rockin’ tunes this week. https://open.spotify.com/user/224aiwksicafjldlua6nnpo4y/playlist/4GjsHmrTAYLUiLZ6MelxOj?si=-hx5gjLBTL26M0anwNlQtA “Satellite” – The Get Up Kids. This band might be the most successful to come out of the Kansas City/Lawrence music scene of the late 90s/early 00s. I run into people all the time who love them. But I was never a huge fan; emo just never was my bag. But this song…
Going Out in Style
Hey! Another super long post about kids sports! This one is a little special, though. After five years, M’s CYO sports – and likely all sports – career is over. It was not a bad ending. Her volleyball team came back from the brink of losing twice in their tournament, closed out their arch-rivals in the championship game, and ended…
Reaching for the Stars, Vol. 23
Chart Week: March 1, 1986 Song: “Beat’s So Lonely” – Charlie Sexton Chart Position: #26, 12th week on the chart. Peaked at #17 for three weeks in March/April. One-hit-wonders come in all size, shapes, sounds, and types. Charlie Sexton may be one of the cruelest examples of a OHW. Sexton was a bit of a musical prodigy, trained in his…
Friday Playlist
https://open.spotify.com/user/224aiwksicafjldlua6nnpo4y/playlist/0yT7ZiLSBAPGVmDPTCKXx9?si=LXSC2g_VQJuCICOId25t3Q “Don’t Be So Hard on Yourself” – Alex Lahey. We don’t deserve all the great music that Australia is pumping out these days. Last week Julia Jacklin’s newest album came out. Stella Donnelly’s was released today. Alex Lahey is next on the list, with hers dropping on May 17. “In the Capital” – Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever. Man did…
Reader’s Notebook, 3/7/19
I’m in the midst of a mighty fine reading run, so some quick blurbs about four recent books. The Finnish Way – Katja Pantzar I kept seeing this one on the ends of aisles at bookstores, highlighted in the library, etc. and finally caved. I had to know what the hell the Finnish Way was. Pantzar, a child of Finns…
It’s Over
Something was strange in our house this morning. M sensed it. She walked down the stairs, paused, and said, “It feels weird in here. Like I kind of feel like I did when I was a baby, but I don’t know exactly how or what that means.” L was on the couch, whimpering, muttering, “Dad? Dad, is that you? Why…
On the Orthodontic Tip
It’s been a busy couple weeks for two of our girls’ teeth. M officially graduated out of her orthodontic practice two weeks ago. She had her braces taken off back in June but while her teeth emerged beautifully straight, her gums were “angry,” to quote her orthodontist. He floated the idea of some minor laser surgery to clean them up…