Tuesday Links
I probably should have shared these first three links last week, when we were all still gripped by Olympic fever. Ranking Every Summer Olympic Sport Based on How Terrible It Would Be for the Average Person The Winners and Losers of the 2024 Paris Olympics Merci, Paris: We needed these Olympics As I continue my re-watch of The Americans, I…
Weekend Notes
An Unexpected Trip What started as a boring, uneventful weekend ending up being surprisingly fun. S worked full time all weekend, filling in for a hospitalist who is on maternity leave. She had like 1000 babies to see,[1] so was at the hospital until 5:00 Saturday, nearly as long Sunday. Because of that and the girls being tired after their…
Friday Playlist
“Archbishop Harold Holmes” – Jack White What an idiot I am! White dropped his No Name album on streaming services two weeks ago, and I listened to it a ton after we got home from vacation. Then, somehow, I forgot to include a track in last week’s playlist. Again, idiot. This track is soooo White Stripes-y, with his spitfire vocals…
Reader’s Notebook, 8/15/24
Dynastic, Bombastic, Fantastic – Jason TurbowMy brother in books David V handed me a copy of this on my visit to Kansas City in June. It took me some time to work through my stack of virtual books to crack it open, and once I did, I realized I had read it before, back in 2017. Looking back, I loved…
Family Notes
Catching up on some family stuff from the past few weeks. Back to Campus The biggest event was moving M back to school on Sunday. In every way it was so much easier than moving her into the dorm a year ago. She’s living in the sorority house this year. She and three other girls share a little quad on…
Final Olympic Notes
Strap in for a good, old fashioned, mega post about the Olympics! In a week filled with amazing events and results, it would be impossible for me to not start with Saturday’s men’s basketball gold medal game. The first quarter was nearly perfect, a breathless, back-and-forth, up-and-down, punch-and-counter punch 10 minutes. The US seized control early in the second quarter…
Friday Playlist
A week off means we stick with the extra-stuffed playlists. I don’t hear any complaints. “Summer In The Park Pt. 1” – East Coast Connection Early August used to mean you got focused on how to maximize the last few weeks of summer. Not these days, when most of the country goes back to school well before Labor Day. There…
Reader’s Notebook, 8/8/24
City in Ruins – Don Winslow The final entry in Winslow’s Dan Ryan trilogy. Like the first two, it moves briskly. Also like the first two, that briskness makes it feel only partially formed. It was an interesting writing exercise, especially when compared to his Mexican cartel trilogy, cutting the story to the bone and eliminating anything that didn’t swiftly…
Olympic Notes, Part 1
Tradition requires me to share some Olympic thoughts. I debated waiting until the games ended and publishing one, extra-stuffed post. But the games move so fast that things that struck me in week one are bound to get over-written by events of week two. Hell, the notes I’m about to share may already be fuzzy in everyone’s memories. Guarantee I’ve…
Vacation Notes
Our week in Florida wasn’t perfect, Mother Nature saw to that. But it was pretty good. For the first time in eight or nine years, we drove for a vacation in the south. It was 11.5 hours, door-to-door, and traffic was not terrible on either trip. A lot of travelers, to be sure, but nothing like spring break volume. We…