Author: Matthew Groff

  • It’s That Time of Year!

  • ODDS and ENDS: The NYC Christmas Myth, Cookies, and Mass from the Vatican

    (Midnight is when the day begins…)

    One of my family’s Holiday traditions is for us to watch an episode of Hawkeye each night leading up to Christmas Day. It’s a fun miniseries, that is silly enough, and also plays the right emotional notes for the Season. But one thing that I have noticed watching it year after year is that the production designer went out of their way to make New York City look as Christmas idyllic as possible, especially in their use of snow. There is snow on the ground and falling all the time in the show, which hasn’t happened in NYC in close to twenty years. I think I had one Holiday season, maybe 2007, where there was snow on the ground, and fun snow showers that would pass through. I’m not knocking the designer’s choices with snow, as if you want to make the City look Holiday picturesque, that’s how you do it. It just makes me miss, maybe mourn a little, that the world has changed enough now, that even up in here in the Northeast, snow at Christmas is a rarity.

    Does anyone else think of a chocolate chip cookie as a Christmas cookie? Not that you’re wondering, but I do. My Ma didn’t do a ton of baking, but around the Holidays she did, and that was pretty much the only time she’d make chocolate chip cookies. Yes, she would do sugar cookies, and scotch cookies, and sometimes oatmeal as well. But the chocolate chip was the winner in our house.

    I’m not a very religious person. I was raised Catholic, but as soon as I could get away from the Church, I did. I have many, many issues with the Church, and as I have gotten older, and had a daughter, the more I am sure that I won’t be returning. Yet, every Christmas Eve, I can’t help but watch Midnight Mass from the Vatican. A deep through line of Catholicism runs in me, and for that reason, the traditions and history of the Church still are interesting to me.

  • Wrapping Up the Year

    This has been a busier week than I had anticipated. The kid is finishing up her school week, and the wife is wrapping up her final week at work as well. Then people got sick which throws life sideways. Not that I am complaining, as this is a great time of year, and I do enjoy the fun, and stress that comes along with the week leading up to Christmas, and New Year’s.

    Oh, and I volunteered for a puppet thing around Lincoln Center. (If I gets some pictures, I’ll post them.)

    But being that my family and I are about to start cleaning, and wrapping gifts, baking treats, going to movies, and spending time together, I thought it best to start reflecting over what this blog has been for the past year.

    First of all, for the more than four of you who now stop by daily – thank you for taking the time. This year I earned the most views and visitors that I have ever had, and that also means that every year I have written this blog, views, visitors, and subscribers has grown. So, again, thanks everyone.

    I have started to think that I need to redesign the blog, and maybe even start to change it’s focus. Though I enjoy writing about random things, like I was a blogger from 1999, the truth of the matter is that my reviews of short stories is the true driver to this site. I have no intention of stopping doing either type of post, but it seems that I should make it easier for people to find the reviews I write. I’m not the best at designing a good functional website, but I think it might be time to spend some actual time on working this out.

    On the fiction/publishing front – I did fall short of my goal. In 2023, I got one story accepted and published, so for 2024 I had aimed for getting two stories accepted/published. What I accomplished was one acceptance. Going over my submissions numbers, I saw that I sent out to half as many publications in 2024 as I did in 2023. Not sure how this happened, as I thought was keeping pace with the previous year, but something fell through the cracks. What was most apparent to me was that I am still “playing” at publishing, and not taking it “seriously.” If you want to accomplish anything, you have to put in the time and the work, and I didn’t. I am still proud of what I accomplished with my writing this year, but if I want to earn enough money to buy a new MacBook Air, then I need to work a little harder.

    Did I mention my Merch Store? I’m going to make that “1999” thing a thing.

    As for the next two weeks, I’m going to put up my normal fun Holiday stuff, and then I’ll put up the “Best of 2024.”

    Other than that, again, thanks for taking the time to read this. I hope you had a good year, and are looking forward to the Holidays and 2025!

  • Holiday Beard

    It’s been awhile since I grew the Holiday Beard. It used to be something that I would do annually. Start growing it out during the week of Thanksgiving, shave it down to a moustache for New Year’s Eve, then get rid of all facial hair after the Super Bowl. (This way, I would look normal again for Valentine’s Day, which makes the wife happy.) There was one year for New Year’s, I shaved down to a handlebar and sideburns; don’t care what anyone said, I looked great!

    I decided that I wanted to grow the beard this year… and it’s not going well. Not sure what has changed about me, but this thing is itchy as hell. Like driving me up the wall, making me crazy. I find myself at night unable to sleep for how itchy my cheeks are. I can see how red and irritated my skin is when I look in a mirror. I mean, I know every time I grow a beard, there is a period of itchy face, but this time around, it is particularly annoying. I’ve tried lotions and conditioners, but nothing seems to help.

    Now, I won’t give up on the beard, as I am stubborn in that way. It’s only been 23 days since I stated this process, and I still have about 60 days or so to go. And I really do want the handlebar moustache and sideburns back in my life, in a very desperate way. Sure, this is a grab at holding on to my youth, as I might have more hair on my face than my head. Or, you could say, it’s fun to just do something silly.

  • A Visit to Mount Tom

    One of the things I miss doing in New York, is wandering around the City. Just walking the streets, seeing what I can find, and discovering things. When I first moved here, and I was temping in different parts of Manhattan, I would use my lunch breaks to walk up and down the streets, hoping that something unexpected would be around the corner, or I would find a shop that I never knew I needed.

    This past Sunday, I was afforded an hour up around Riverside Park, and I knew where I wanted to go; to visit Mount Tom.

    See, the legend is that Edgar Allan Poe used to come out and sit on the top of this giant rock, and look out on the Hudson River. This was back in 1844, when he and his wife were renting a room at a farm that was located around 84th and Broadway today. I had read about here, some time ago.

    Rather moody and bleak out this past Sunday. Not the weather that Poe would have gone out in to sit on Mount Tom, but still fun to be in a place where Poe once sat, and thought, and possible even worked.