Category: Television

  • ODDS and ENDS: School’s Starting , Bigger Pants, and Goodbye Summer

    (It’s just a kiss away…)

    It just feels like Summer started, but next week, the kid starts up school again. These two months flew by, and though it still feels like Summer out there, the signs have started to show that we are slipping toward Autumn. At the start of the week, the kid refused to speak about the coming school year. Now, today, she told me she is excited and nervous to get back; Excited to see her friends, nervous about what the year could bring. I have been trying to remember what that felt like. The feeling of possibility, of the excitement of learning, the joy of friendships. Out of all of it, it is that feeling of excitement and wonder of learning rings the most true. Boy, if I could get that feeling back – maybe just for a few minutes, to experience looking at the world as brand new. That would be great.

    I had a good time this Summer. There was a big family wedding, and the kid went away for camp. As such, I lived it up. Drank a little too much, ate way too much, but I went to the gym once – you know, balance. When I think back on this season, I will refer to it as my “Sloth Summer.” As such, my pants and shorts have become rather snug around my belly. I don’t like this development, and I know what I need to do. Well, what I should do…not that I want to do it. Which brings me to why I am contemplating buying larger pants and shorts. NO, no, no… I need to watch what I eat, work out, cut down on alcohol, sleep better… But… you know… at some point the weight won’t come back off. At some point, I will need to buy the bigger pants, right? Am I just fight the tide?

    My least favorite season has started her exit from the stage. I said that up above, but it is true – Get Outta Here, Summer! It’s still sticky out, and will be for the rest of August, but it’s starting to get a little cooler at night. We had one day, though it was raining all day, that was in the low 70’s and it was like the best feeling in the world – it just not being really hot out. There are other signs too, like the “back to school” commercials on tv, and crossing guards are back out. Also, I look at empty store fronts, and I can imagine a Spirit Halloween store being there. Soon it will be cooler, and sweaters will be out, and leaves will change. Just one more month to go.

  • Weird

    Funny how one well placed word can unravel a person. The right word, said at the right time can cut to the core of someone, revealing what they fear most. And once that word is out there, being applied to that person, no matter how they try to defend or deflect, that word sticks to them.

    And “weird” was that word yesterday – just slicing through so much MAGA bravado, and leaving grasping Alpha Men with nothing to say except, basically, “I’m not weird! You’re weird!” But it was too late, damage was done.

    And the “weird” label hit MAGA Men at their most vulnerable spot – questioning if their world view was actually normal. The MAGA reaction says to me that most of them, MAGA Alpha Bros that is, know deep down what they are saying and believing in, is abnormal, if not outright weird. I can hear them thinking; “The shit that Trump says; it is weird.” “Maybe I am the weird one, but not in the outsider who’s cool kind’a weird; just the bad weird.”

    What I find most ironic is that this used to be a Trump skill. You know, he’d find that one word that encapsulates his opponent; “Lying” “Sleepy” “Cheating” “Meatball” “Little.” I hate to admit it, but Trump was really good at it. He would throw out a name, it would stick, and no matter how hard they try, that label stuck, and Trump would repeat it, over and over and over and over…

    So, the tables have turned. The bullies are being bullied by words. Poetic justice is just the tip of the cliches I can use here.

    I doubt that “weird” will live beyond this week’s news cycle.

    But it has been fun to watch.

  • ODDS and ENDS: Vacation, Euro Final, and The End of the World

    (And I knew there was no turning back…)

    I had been out of town for the past week and a half. You could call it a vacation, in the sense that I left the place where I lived and went someplace new. I was Texas, but it was a new town in Texas that I had never been to before. It was Sanger, TX which is small town country Texas. It had been over twenty years since I had been in a region of Texas that was so far removed from everything else in the world. Though that far out in the country is not a place I would like to live (I am a City kid, after all) having grown up in Texas, there is something comforting and reassuring about being in that world of Texas. Not that I even spent a huge amount of time in the country, but if you dive an hour in any direction from the DFW area, you hit flat land, dusty winds, and a feeling that the world goes on forever. I enjoyed my time in Sanger. Yes it was small, but it was small town friendly, and a good place to have a wedding. (I was there for a wedding, if I didn’t say that yet.) It was also fun to show my daughter, who is a real City Kid, what the country is really like.

    And as I was in Texas for a wedding, I wasn’t able to finish my Euro Cup observations. Well, though I was rooting for England, I never really thought they were going to win. Spain just looked dominating, and they seemed destined to win it all. Now, I will say that England put up a hell of a fight (at least that’s what the highlights I saw showed) and it was entertaining, but England will always be the bridesmaid of international football. England had better players, but Spain was the better team. I have a very odd feeling that this was Harry Kane’s last international tournament. With Southgate resigning, which was expected win or lose, I don’t see Kane wanting to stick around. Not that Harry wouldn’t make the squad, but something strikes me that Kane is ready to pass the torch, so to speak. Botton line, I thought the Euro Cup 2024 was exciting and fun and well worth paying the cable fees so I could watch all the matches.

    I don’t like being this guy, but lately, it does feel like the world is coming to an end. Hopefully, it will pass after November, 5th.

  • I Think About This Sketch Often

    Everything in this sketch is great. The writing, the acting, theme; all of it.

  • Conan and Walker