Month: October 2021

  • ODDS and ENDS: Josh Hawley is Still Stupid, Aaron Rodgers, and Gyms

    “ODDS and ENDS” is my continuing series of random thoughts and follow ups…

    This morning as I was sitting in the car for the street sweeper, and I read Josh Hawley’s Op-Ed in the New York Times. If you have forgotten, Josh Hawley is the Republican Senator from Missouri who tried to help overturn the 2020 Election and was pro-riot at the Capital. You know, that Josh Hawley. As you can tell, I’m not a fan, but out of fairness, I read his Guest Essay, “The Only Way to Solve Our Supply Chain Crisis Is to Rethink Trade.” First of all, I love how conservatives rally against liberal media like the NY Times, but still want their opinions published in the NY Times. Second, the awful trade deals were created by both parties, not just Democrats like Josh claims. Third, jobs going overseas started forty years ago, which clearly doesn’t make it a new phenomenon. And last, if I understand Josh here, he is a person that doesn’t want government telling business what to do, but in his essay he  wants government to tell business what to do. Right… You still stupid Josh. Not for suggesting government regulation. No, you stupid for thinking that if it comes out of your mouth, it’s not a liberal idea. Stupid.

    So, does Aaron Rogers look he’s having the most fun playing football in the NFL?

    I have never been to a gym. That shocked my wife, but I really don’t workout, ever. I might have to join one soon though. Just saying…

  • Thoughts on The Legend of Sleepy Hollow

    As we get closer to Halloween, The Legend of Sleepy Hollow reappears in my life. The first appearance is always when we visit The Great Jack o’Lantern Pumpkin Blaze at Van Cortlandt Manor in early October, just as the weather gets very cool at night, and leaves are starting to change. The Blaze always has a section which is Headless Horseman themed, and every year, the kid asks us who that is, and what is the Legend? On the drive back into the City, we retell the story of Ichabod Crane, and his fateful ride to cross the bridge at the Old Dutch Church. The kid gets a little spooked when we tell her there is a real town of Sleepy Hollow, a real bridge over the Pocantico River, and a real old Dutch Church graveyard.

    I also am fascinated by The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. I had a bit of giddy excitement the first time that I went to Sleepy Hollow after I moved to the area. I think it was the Summer of 2007, and we had rented a car to drive up to Beacon for the day, but I had requested that my wife, who was my girlfriend at the time, drive our car through the town. I also wanted to see the bridge, which is just a cement bridge and not the covered wooden one of my imagination. I wanted to see the graveyard, and the Old Dutch Church, and verify that they were real, and not fictional. It was watching literature coming to life, because the Horseman isn’t real, but everything else was?

    My fascination of the Legend also comes from how Washington Irving created the story. The Headless Horseman ghost has its roots in German and Dutch folklore. The history of Westchester County during the Revolutionary War; how it was a no-man’s land between the British and the Colonists, with skirmishes resulting in corpses left in the woods to be discovered years later. These were stories that Irving heard as a kid growing up in the county. He mixed it all together, along with his observations of how outsiders and homogenous communities deal with each other. Irving created something altogether American from many disparate parts, which still sounds like America.

  • Personal History: Radiohead and Mellowing Out

    I had talked recently about the sociological research which had showed that as a person ages, they become more conservative in their thinking. I wanted to also add to that, and I’m not breaking new ground here, but some people also mellow out, and don’t get as worked up as they used to. For me, music is one of those subjects.

    So, from about 14 to 28, I was pretty aggressive, and can fully admit, arrogant in my music opinions. (My Beatles fanaticism is unshakable; Do not challenge it.) In that vein, the year was 1996, and I fully believed and could conclusively prove that Radiohead was a one-hit wonder with “Creep,” and though a good song, a great band it did not make.

    And then my good friend John would not shut up about Radiohead’s last album, The Bends, which had come out in the spring of 1995. So, for over a year, every time I got in John’s car, I heard The Bends. At John’s place, he would play The Bends. I even remember one time coming back from a party, and John was driving someone else’s car, and he put on The Bends. I remember this clearly, because I started yelling at him to “turn off that lullaby music!” But it worked. His bombardment of that album on me, constantly, consistently, caused me to come over to the fandom of Radiohead, which lasts to this day.

    Though there was one rough patch, when Radiohead released KID A, which I didn’t get, and I didn’t like, and what I wanted was more songs like the one’s off of OK Computer, and the accompanying EP’s. But you know, they released more albums and Amnesiac was ok, and Hail to the Thief was an improvement, but In Rainbows was great, though King of Limbs was like going back to KID A, and then there was Moon Shaped Pool, which was cool.

    Anyway, KID A was the sore thumb for me, and to be honest, I hadn’t tried to listen to that album in maybe fifteen years. So, I got on a Radiohead kick last week, and started listening to all the stuff I liked, ignoring KID A. But I started thinking about the “mellowing” aspect of my life, and maybe it was time to give KID A another try. I mean, I have become very forgiving to 311, so KID A needs another shot.

    And I still don’t like it. Tried again to listen to KID A, and it’s just not my jam. I think I have to just chalk it up to one of those things I will never like in my life. Right up there with fennel, and the US version of The Office. I just don’t like them.

  • Short Story Review: “Not Here You Don’t” by Thomas McGuane

    (The short story “Not Here You Don’t” by Thomas McGuane, was featured in the October 18th, 2021 issue of The New Yorker.)

    The American west is a strange place. I keep thinking that the histories, tragedies and pioneer attitudes of the late 19th century have faded away into our collective American past. Like in “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid,” where they contemplated that the “west” was over and the country was becoming modern. But the reality is that those western histories, tragedies and attitudes still affect people to this day.

    I had to read “Not Here You Don’t” by Thomas McGuane twice. Not that I didn’t understand it, but to verify that I hadn’t missed something. The story is compact, but not lacking in detail. The main character, Gary, is traveling to Montana to bury his father’s ashes on the homestead where his father grew up. Gary deals with the new land owner, and the people in the local town.

    This makes the story sound simple, and perhaps it is, but the story is also playing with the western architype hero, and the changing west. Gary is duty bound to follow his father’s wishes. Gary also displays an honesty of his father’s legacy; he was a good man, though not perfect. Gray knows his family history with the land, and also displays a knowledge that the new landowner lacks, showing that owning it does not make you master of your land. Gary has regrets over a failed love, and he also has feeling of being out of step when he returns home in the East.

    I found myself contemplating that even if we do roam and live far from home, how much of home stays with you? Are we instilled with attitudes from regions of this country that we never truly shake off? Do we identify with places that we really have the thinnest of connections to?

    Hence why I read it again.  Just making sure I got it.

  • Another IKEA Blog

    I think I do have a problem when it comes to IKEA. But in my defense, I wrote a blog back in July 2020 about IKEA’s Algot line that got discontinued, and man, that’s the little blog that could! I keep getting hits on that thing weekly if not daily. So, there is a demand out there for people to hear stories about IKEA.

    That having been said, we had another IKEA weekend, sort of. We are trying to finish off our daughter’s room before Christmas, which we will clearly achieve. This weekend, we had to flip the ladder from the left to the right side of the bed. I then had to take all the shelves down, and patch up all those holes, because we are going to repaint her room. Also, we moved her wardrobe from the corner of the room to be closer to her bed. Basically, that was my job.

    The wife’s mission was to run out to the Paramus IKEA to pick up the ELVARLI shelving unit. (Also, ELVARLI might be an elvish language Tolkien created.) The IKEA website said there were a few left in stock, and what that really meant was that none were in stock. The advice she was given was the check online for the availability, as they aren’t sure when things will be back in stock. (Supply Chain.)

    There are few corporations that have this much pull in my life, and IKEA is one of them. There is the bank my money is in, the media company that controls my internet, and then there is my furniture supplier, who keeps feeding my desire to put all of my life in neat tiny boxes, which will make my small space feel larger?

    I think I am admitting more about myself than I was expecting…