Tonight the Kansas Jayhawks officially begin pursuit of their 10th straight Big 12 conference championship. Despite an immensely talented roster, that quest seems rife with concern at the moment.
There’s no denying it: the season has been disappointing so far. Disappointing, not a disappointment. While it’s been far from worst-case - the Duke and Georgetown games were fun - I think this season has been a textbook example of the perils of running a team full of freshmen and limited experience sophomores out against tough competition.
I read 55 books in 2013. Not bad. Not bad at all. Here’s the last of the bunch.
A Christmas Story - Jean Shepherd You Better Not Cry: Stories for Christmas - Augusten Burroughs Shepherd’s work is an annual tradition for me. Before I can watch the movie, I have to go back and read the original essays it was based on. And, each Christmas season, I try to include at least one new holiday book.
There’s no two ways about it: this sucks.
Over a foot of snow. Windchills are currently -40. There are travel bans all over the area, meaning unless you have an emergency or you’re on your way to a shelter, you can be arrested for taking your car onto a road. And worst of all, M. and C.’s holiday break was extended a day. It’s too cold to send them outside, we can’t drive to a mall or the library, and we’re all sick of each other.
A - Many of you have been saying I’m an idiot for a long time. B - Chiefs fan, you might want to skip this one.
I’ve been claiming, for years, that I’ve shed many of my sports superstitions. And that’s true to a point. Back in the glory days of my superstition-dom, game days involved elaborate ceremonies of picking the correct clothes, going through proper pre-game activities, finding the correct seat, saying and thinking the proper things before the game, and so on.
Our girls keep using the word “awkward” incorrectly. For example, earlier this week we ran into their Uncle D at the grocery store and then him again with Aunt J walking their dog through the neighborhood the next day. Both times the girls kept shouting, “AWKWARD!” I had to explain that awkward means uncomfortable, weird, strange, not just an expression surprise. So it’s not awkward to run into people you want to see.
In case you missed it over the holidays, the New York Times had a fun quiz that, based on the words you use for certain terms and how you pronounce those words, shows how you compare to people across the country.
The first time I took this, my most similar cities were Denver and Aurora, CO and Albuquerque, NM. Later I read that it works best if you use the words and pronunciations you grew up with.
Happy New Year! We woke to 4-5” of new snow on the ground, with even more predicted for Saturday night. The girls are excited. I’m excited I can finally get them outside of the house for awhile.
With apologies to all the fans of Epiphany out there, the holiday season has officially ended. Yesterday we took our tree to the recycling pile at the park and packed up all our decorations.
I know none of you probably pay any attention to these monthly accountings of my music listening habits. Like most of what I do here, it’s mostly for my amusement.
First, what I listened to in December. As always, it was a little different that what I listened to the other 11 months of 2013.
Frank Sinatra - 68 Bing Crosby - 45 Dean Martin - 40 Vince Guaraldi Trio - 30 Ella Fitzgerald - 26 Next, a look at the artists last.
That’s what the family calendar on the refrigerator shows this morning. Three hundred sixty-five days down, zero to go. Which means, though the sun will rise in the morning and the normal work-week will continue (for some) on Thursday, today is still an end and tomorrow another beginning.
2013 was, for the most part, great for our family. Three big family trips (Disney in January, spring break in Florida, Boston for a family wedding).
I woke up early this morning, for no real reason. I had been sleeping until 8:00, even 8:30, much of the past week. Something caused me to wake up shortly after 6:00 today, though, and after trying to fall back to sleep, I gave up. I went downstairs, made coffee, and enjoyed the silence of the morning with my current book. S. was off to work early and the girls all kept with their holiday trend of sleeping in.
First, my obligatory annual statement about how fast Christmas flies by when you’re an adult. The time from final dismissal before Christmas break for the girls to about 9:30 last night, when the kids were all in bed, most of the clean-up was done, and we could just sit and relax seemed to pass in a blur. I think that’s because we had a fine Christmas.
As is tradition, we had an uncle and two aunts join us for Christmas morning.
Here we are. Two days left on the Advent calendar. A couple loops left on the Christmas ring chain C. brought home. Done with school for the year. The cookies have all been made. Christmas day menu planned. Yep, it’s Holiday DEFCON level 1.
All three school programs went well. M. shined as Mistletoe the FBI agent in her grade’s The Christmas Files program a week ago. She had one minor hiccup with a line, but caught herself quickly and powered through.
My Favorite Songs Lists are always works in progess. Each January I start a new list in iTunes called XX Favs, where XX = that year. As I listen to music over the next 11 months or so, I toss my favorites into it. A few times during the year I’ll scan the list, delete songs that no longer delight and put some thought into how they would line up if the year ended that day.
Before some kid notes, another holiday jihad for you.
Years ago I sent a Christmas card to the parents of a college buddy. I found out later I had misspelled his mother’s name - I thought her name was Lara but it was actually Lura - and I was horrified. I quickly apologized and she shook it off, saying I wasn’t the first to make the mistake.
There’s a simple act of respect that goes into getting someone’s name right.
A couple articles about Christmas music to share.
First, the Legend himself, Darryl McDaniels, aka DMC, talks about the surprising RUN-DMC holiday classic, “Christmas In Hollis.” I say surprising because an awful lot of people scoffed when it appeared on the first A Very Special Christmas album next to songs by Madonna, Springsteen, Mellencamp, U2, and Whitney. “That’s not Christmas music!” Au contraire!
And I think the importance of food is a big part of the reason why that song was able to touch so many people—Asian people; Hispanic people; Italian people; Catholics and Buddhists and Muslims.
Deep into the holiday season, are we. The DVR has gone from about 30% full to nearly 70% of capacity thanks to all the holiday shows we’ve recorded. The pantry is full of the dry ingredients for our annual Christmas cookies, which we’ll make soon. I’m beginning to run out of new places to put Elf on the Shelf each night.
But our holidays got a jolt of newness Saturday when L.
There is a danger in completing your Christmas shopping before Thanksgiving: the kids change their minds. L. made a brand-new Christmas list yesterday. Luckily one thing on it is up in the attic, so she won’t be totally disappointed.
I know many of you saw this last week, but it was absolutely worth making sure no one missed it. Enjoy Deadspin’s Drew Magary ripping apart his seven-year-old daughter’s Christmas list. Long-time friend of the blog Stacey B.
The era of cheap and easy streaming music makes it easy for anyone to assemble a pretty nifty playlist for the holidays. However, you need to go beyond just your favorite songs. You need to dive into Christmas albums and build sets that can be spun for hours as the soundtrack for your parties, dinners, and Christmas morning celebrations.
The core of these selections should be built around the holiday music of Frank Sinatra, Bing Crosby, and Dean Martin.
Six Seconds in Dallas: A Micro-Study of the Kennedy Assassination - Josiah Thompson
Case Closed: Lee Harvey Oswald and the Assassination of JFK - Gerald Posner
Well, I got a little obsessed around the anniversary of JFK’s assassination. Aside from numerous TV documentaries watched and online stuff read, I came across an Errol Morris film that features Josiah Thompson. After watching it, I rushed to the library and picked up Thompson’s book and I was off.
There’s no real way to tease this, other than to suggest you go look at it.
New Wave Artists Aging Gracefully
Well, not all of them are aging gracefully. Be on the lookout for: Boy George (!), Tears For Fears (???), and Simon LeBon (WTF). I think it’s safe to say that Pete Burns has had the most profound change in appearance. And, if you pay attention to the musical heroes of our youth, it will be no surprise that David Bowie and Susanna Hoffs have aged the best.