Month: September 2022

  • ODDS and ENDS: North London Derby, Apple Picking, and My Flute!!!

    (My weekly segment and , you know, I like soup.)

    Here we are – Tottenham v Arsenal. The North London Derby. The #1 and #3 team of the Premiere League go at it. Will Spurs stay undefeated? Will Arsenal stay on top of the League? I won’t know because NBC is showing the match in USA, and I don’t have cable. I have Peacock, and the more I say that out loud, the sillier and more embarrassed I feel. What the hell am I paying for if I can’t watch matches live. (Yes, I sound like a bitter old man, and yes, I will start yelling out a cloud next.) Anyway, I saw a report that Dejan Kulusevski got injured this past week, and might not play. On paper that shouldn’t be an issue with Kane, Son and Richarlison up front and Dier anchoring the back line. Still, it is Arsenal which has been playing really well, and if there is a team that can get under Tottenham’s skin, it’s Arsenal. Should be a fun match, but I’ll have to catch it on the replay, because NBC’s Premiere League coverage sucks.

    Tomorrow starts October, which means I will go apple picking with my family, and I will have flannel on. Even if it is too warm out, I will be decked out in Autumn appropriate clothing, even if it kills me. It just was the season demands.

    Apparently, according to our American Conservative friends, Lizzo isn’t allowed to play an old flute that no one knew existed three days ago. I can’t prove any of this, but I have a feeling that the idea of Lizzo playing the Madison flute probably was thought up by someone in the Library of Congress with the intention of expanding kids’ interest in American history, and Lizzo was all for it. Good intentions, you know… I bet there are a bunch of history nerd at the LoC looking at each other wondering how this flute situation has become “controversial.” I bet the “H.E.R. Playing Lincoln’s Guitar” idea is now out the window.

    (Say, before you head over to another blog, do me a favor, huh? I need you to like, share, comment on, or subscribe to this blog. Every click I get helps an angel keep his wings.)

  • Love What You Do

    I had a conversation about work and working yesterday with a friend of mine who used to be my boss a couple of years ago. It was a video chat, as my friend lives on one side of the country and I’m on the other. Part of the conversation was to catch up, the other was a semi-interview as my friend was doing a little research on the jobs and careers that people choose.

    As we talked, I admitted that I have never had a job that made me excited to get up in the morning. I never rolled out of bed ready to greet the day and tackle work. I have had jobs that I enjoyed, but to be honest, what I have really enjoyed about working is the people I have worked with. I have made some really great friends, and I sure have laughed hard with a great many people. That is what I think of when I share the good memories of being employed.

    I can never get past the thought that my time is being purchased by someone, or an organization, for the purpose of making them more money. Sometimes it is a very equitable exchange, well balanced, thus not causing any friction. Other times, I have felt like I am being taken advantage of, and I don’t want to be there.

    My friend did ask me, what do I think would be the one job that would make me excited to get up in the morning, and I answered, none; I don’t think it exists.

    I do believe there are some people out there that do in fact, find that perfect job or career, and they are sure excited to go to work every day. My mom was a nurse, she always wanted to be a nurse, and she loved being a nurse. I know teachers that are like that, and small business owners – that is totally true, they love what they do.

    But the rest of us?

    What gets us excited in the morning are our kids, or our spouse, or our garden, or sports team, or travelling, or creating art, or whatever. I believe that there is a large group of us who feel and believe that working does not and will not make us happy. Working is a necessary evil to get us to the things that make us happy. Be honest, this isn’t a revolutionary thought. We all know this to be true. Most of us don’t like working no matter what job we have.

    When I finished my conversation with my friend, I started thinking, where did this idea come from that we should be joyous and contented with our employment? That if you are not loving what you are doing, then you somehow have messed up in life. That one’s being has to be related to their labor.

    I think it might be rooted in the question we were asked as kids; What do you want to be when you grow up?

    (But before you go! I need you to validate my labors, simply by liking this post, commenting on it, or even sharing it. It will help keep the unemployment rate below 4%.)

  • Short Story Review: “Easter” by Caleb Crain

    (The short story “Easter” by Caleb Crain appeared in the September 26th, 2022 issue of The New Yorker.)

    (Photograph by Ana Cuba for The New Yorker)

    (I SPOIL EVERYTHING!)

    The short story “Easter” by Calen Crain is set in Ft. Worth, TX, so my interest in this story was peaked rather early. Set in the recent past, or at least before cd Walkmen players, this story has no reason to be set in the recent past, or in Ft. Worth, TX. It could take place anywhere, and take place as far back as 1967, if you replace the Walkman with a turntable.

    It’s not a badly written story, as it does contain one really great line in it, which I will point out in a minute, yet this work taps on just enough modern short story clichés that it did make me roll my eyes.

    The protagonist, Jacob, smokes pot, which appears to be the literary go-to action to show that a character is lost. Besides smoking pot, Jacob has a shake in his hand. Jacob is travelling from Houston, where he was visiting a Harvard classmate, to Ft. Worth to spend time with his mother, grandmother, and his retired doctor and elderly grandfather. Once all are together, granddad notices Jacob’s shake and offers to prescribe a drug to help him. After going to a specific pharmacy, and dinner, the family returns to the grandparents’ home, and settles in. Jacob is called to his grandfather’s bed, where the grandfather is unable to speak to him. In the morning, the grandfather has died in his sleep, and Jacob’s mother wants to know why there is a bottle of pills in the grandfather’s room with Jacob’s name on it. Then we jump to a new section where Jacob and his Harvard friend are driving out of Houston to go shoot guns in the country, because doing something new that might kill you is fun.

    Sadly, Jacob is the least interesting person in the story, and it isn’t a “charming” not interesting. Much time is spent on him being high, even showing that he is bad and hiding that fact when he is around people. (I guess pot has become the replacement cliché that drinking used to be in the 50’s.) He is detached from the world around him and just seems to float from person to person, but we are never given a reason why he is this way. (The hand? Maybe.) The grandfather seems very interested in giving Jacob an opportunity to become something more than himself, which is shown in the comment and the prescription for the drug to help with the shake. But, you can’t build sympathy for an apathetic character who has access to great opportunities in life; Jacob goes to Harvard, and it also appears that this is not a family struggling for cash, so Jacob is just lazy and spoiled. (Cliché) And the grandfather is old, and this is a short story, so we all know that he’s going to die. (Cliché.) AND then, this story does that, “last section has nothing to do with the climax, but recalls a recent event in the past that ties the whole story together” thing. (Cliché.) [For the record: This end of story literary trick with the new section that comes out of nowhere and tries to tie the story together, it should have a name to identify it. I propose “Chick in the Wastebasket.” It’s the last line in “Just Before the War with the Eskimos” which I think is the first story I know of that used this trick.]

    It’s too bad because Crain’s writing is good, and the story contained a few phrases and observations that stood out. My favorite was in reference to the grandfather: “…old people are sometimes a little ruthless about their pleasures – about taking from the world they have survived into tokens that remind them of what they loved about the one they grew up in.” That’s good. That’s really good, and I noted it the second I read it. But one line, even a really great one, can’t save the boat here.

    (I have returned to the short story reviews, and I need your help. If you enjoy these takes that I have, please give a like, leave a comment, or share this post. Eustace Tilley would approve.)

  • Sleep

    We are so tired in our home. Like, sleep isn’t working out for us. Lord knows I try to sleep, but my body just doesn’t want to go to bed. My wife is the opposite; she goes to bed early, but still wakes up tired. Though I feel like I could blame the kid on this one, it’s not her fault. She has started sleeping in on weekends, and even if she does get up early now, she’s old enough to work the tv and feed herself.

    Even when we were on vacation, and we slept hard, but it never seemed like enough. In fact, I don’t think I can tell you the last time when I was sleeping well. Somewhere in college, my grasp of getting restful sleep left me. Classes, long hours in the theatre department, building sets and costumes, rehearsing and performing plays, and then closing out the bar each night. Yup, I should have slept more.

    I keep thinking that someday, I will arrive in the promised land of sleep. That at 11pm, I will drift off, and then wake up at nice and early with the sun, feeling refreshed, and eager to take on the day. The only thing I am eager to do when I wake up is to go back to bed. I might need to start entraining the thought that there is no holy land of restful sleep for adults.

    Honestly, think about everyone you know. How many of them say that they get a good night sleep and feel refreshed in the morning? Now, be honest; deep down you know they are lying to you, right? There is just something unnatural about their behavior. It seems forced. Just like people who claim cross-fit is fun.

    Right now, the wife is sitting on the couch with me and we are both yawning. We are one little snuggle away from taking a solid nap. It won’t happen, but man, it is tempting.

    (Biddie-biddie-biddie! Give a like, or a share, or comment on this post, Buck! Or I’ll make more obscure references to old TV shows! Biddie-biddie-biddie!)

  • Where I work

    I work on the couch most days. The local library was the other place that I would work, but currently that branch is closed for repairs and remodeling, which leaves me on the couch for the foreseeable future. It would be nice to have a desk to work at. That last time I had a desk was two years ago before my wife got her current remote job. Since that time, we did away with the old wooden desk, and my wife has more of a rolling/standing desk she uses in the bedroom. Maybe I’ll have a desk again, one day.

    On the whole, I like sitting on the couch. It is comfy, though that can be a disadvantage when I am tired, and it is quite easy to slink over and take a nap. But being in the living room gives me access to the stereo and the TV which is one way I can listen to music while I work, it has turned out rather ideal

    The other nice aspect of the couch office is that I have a window I can look out of. Currently, I have the view of a construction site that is putting up a sixteen-story condo/hotel. The funny thing is that I never see more than five guys working there on any given day. At this rate, it might take them sixteen years to finish it. But even before the construction, it wasn’t the prettiest view out that window. We live in the back of the building, and for years we just had two empty parking lots and autobody shop to look at. Not exactly inspiring, but it was quite most days. Now, there is the sound of a power tools, between 7am and 4pm, Monday through Friday, but outside of that…

    Still rather ideal for writing.

    (Hey! It’s a new week, which means a new chance for you to give a like, or a share, or even leave a comment on this blog. Unless you are reading this from the archive, in that case; Who won the 2024 Election?)

    (It will take some time, but that joke WILL pay off.)