Time for our (now) usual roundup of things I read over the past week. First up, a rather interesting history of Autocorrect. It focuses more on the early development of the tool rather than our current, constant need for it in the age of touch screens. The Fasinatng … Frustrating … Fascinating History of Autocorrect Next, an interview with Hall and Oates, who are still performing and making new music.
Following up on the article I linked to last week, debating whether the concept of a “song of the summer” was out-dated, here are my two picks for the song of the summer of 2014. youtu.be/5GBT37_yy… “Girls Chase Boys” - Ingrid Michaelson Unlike Iggy Azalea, this song is being played everywhere from Radio Disney to pop stations to our local, “cool music for middle-aged hipsters” station. So I’ve been hearing it a lot.
As promised, the second of two nostalgia-focused entries. Last week I spent some time cleaning out our attic and some boxes in a basement closet. I don’t have a ton of old stuff left around. I purged much of it when I moved away from Kansas City 11 years ago. But there were still a few boxes with fun memories of my youth in them. The biggest box contained all my old Star Wars and GI Joe toys.
OK, I’m no fan of NASCAR. But this is kind of incredible. youtu.be/xnqjTWUuz…
The first of two nostalgia-laden posts. My apologies; I’m a writer in my 40s. I can’t help myself. This morning I finally wrapped up my review of the old posts here on the site. I won’t promise everything is completely cleaned up. But the number of posts with unreadable HTML segments smack in the middle of a sentence should be fairly low. I didn’t read the posts closely while going through this exercise.
I suppose I owe you a few notes from Monday’s trip to the 4H fair. That’s why we’re here, after all, right? I looked back and, unfortunately, our last trip to the fair two years ago fell in that missing gap in the site’s history. So I’ll apologize if I’m repeating details. If I can’t remember them, I doubt any of you will, either. Luckily it was about 20 degrees cooler than two years ago.
Three-and-a-half weeks of summer left. What an odd week this past one was. Monday and Tuesday it barely reached 70, with the lows at night touching the upper 40s. When it did warm up, it stayed below 80 until Saturday. Needless to say, there was no pool time last week. It looks like it’s going to be more normal this week. We may even have our first 90 degree day of the year tomorrow!
Back for another week of links. I’m digging deeper into the Instapaper archives to pull out some articles I wanted to share earlier in the summer but never got around to doing. Do you like The Smiths? How about a list of their 30 best songs with notes about each from other artists and celebrities? The Smiths’ 30 greatest songs – as chosen by the band and their famous fans
youtu.be/m3a4OTh2Y… “New Moon On Monday” - Duran Duran You know, when you take a look at Duran Duran’s list of singles, it’s pretty solid. It was easy to hate on them, because they wore makeup and dressed fancy and made use of synthesizers as much as guitars. But you have to admit, they had a terrific run of songs from 1982-1986 (In the US) with a nice mini-comeback in 1993.
As has become custom, I settled down just a few minutes after first pitch to watch Tuesday’s MLB All Star Game. I was pretty sure it was on Fox and first pitch was in the 8:30 EDT range. Our program guide even said that the ASG was to air at that time. Instead, though, the MLB Tribute To Derek Jeter Starring New York Yankees Captain And World Champion Derek Jeter (with the 2014 National League And American League All Stars) was on.
Yeah, yeah, the site looks different. Normally when this happens I share a long, detailed accounting of the hows and whys that went into it. Not this time. A variety of user errors piled up over recent months and had things not working the way I wanted. After a week of tinkering I decided to scrap the system I’ve used for the last 11 months and go back to something less fiddley.
Back for part two. LeBron I figured there was a good chance that LeBron would flee Miami for Cleveland when he opted out of his contract. That didn’t mean it still wasn’t a shock when the news officially broke that he was heading home for the next phase of his career. I hated the first Decision and the premature celebration in Miami that came with it. I rooted against the Heat every step of the way the last four seasons.
A few topics of importance that must be addressed. Turns out I wrote more about the World Cup that I expected, so I’ll split it into two posts. The World Cup As tends to happen, the final was a bit frustrating for those of us who enjoy soccer. Another game that went deep into extra time before a brilliant goal saved it from being decided on penalty kicks. It was frustrating because, as the natural conservatism of most coaches/teams took over in the knockout rounds, the beauty of the group-stage of this Cup got sucked away.
OK, time to start something new. I’ve been having trouble sharing all the interesting things I come across each week. I’ll stash them somewhere, in Instapaper or Evernote mostly, then forget about them. So instead, following the lead of a couple other sites I read, I’m going to offer up a post most Fridays full of the interesting things I’ve gathered. As always, we’ll see how long this lasts. Onto the links!
Man, talk about going out with a bang. The girls wrapped up their swimming season Thursday at the annual invitational meet, which featured all six swimming teams that make up the conference they compete in. Fortunately, rather than being held in a four-lane, neighborhood pool, it was at a 10 lane high school pool. Still, we arrived at 9:00 in the morning and walked out right at 4:00 pm. Believe it or not, everyone at the meet who were not first timers like us raved about how well run the meet was this year and how quickly it moved along.
This is utterly astounding. Brother in music and lover of all things Prince Mike A. sent me the link below. If you were ever into Prince, I highly suggest clicking on it and chalking up the next 15 minutes to enjoying pure awesomeness. What will you see if you click? The 1983 performance of “Purple Rain,” from which most of the album version of the song was pulled. I always knew that the song was mostly live, but I had no idea that there was video of the actual performance.
Season Ticket: A Baseball Companion - Roger Angell Perhaps the greatest ever writer on matters related to baseball in the decade I grew up with the sport? Damn right I’m reading this! It only seems like Angell has been writing about baseball forever1. A significant chunk of his writings have come for The New Yorker, where he’s been an editor nearly forever as well. The collections of his New Yorker writings, organized by decade, are some of the finest baseball books around.
Good lord that was a long week. Long because there was much fun involved. Long because there was much effort involved. Long because there was much beer involved. Long because many hours were spent in the sun and water, both sucking the energy from our bodies. Long because, as tends to happen, sleep came at a premium. Long because I married into a big family and when we get almost the entire clan together in one house for a couple days, it’s a production.
Man, where did June go? Are we really over a third of the way through summer? This week is our annual family get together at the LVS. Folks began arriving yesterday and Thursday we’ll all head down to spend a few days in the water. In the meantime, the kids are taking trips to local water parks and pools, we’re having cookouts, and generally waiting for this wet weather pattern we’ve been stuck in to clear away.
I’m not sure there’s any conversation that is more difficult to have with your children than one about death. It’s hard enough for us adults to grasp the concept, let alone put it into words. I’m not sure it’s fair to expect the kids to get it. Our girls have lost a couple great-grandmothers in their lifetimes, although neither woman was someone they saw on a regular basis. They all pay attention now when they hear on the news that some celebrity has died.