Some more notables that have gone on to their rewards, and were probably overlooked in the usual year-end summaries. Or if they weren’t, they deserve another salute anyway.
Category Archives: Uncategorized
Christmas Greetings 2024
I’m going to be honest; I wasn’t planning a holiday post for this year. After ten years – a darned long and fine run, if you ask me – I’d run out of new-ish things to say. The old stuff (which is still valid, as far as I’m concerned) is all there if you check out the “Christmas” tag in the ‘cloud’ over on the right.
But finding myself in a holiday mood this week, I went looking for “Best Christmas Commercials”. Yes, I’ve done them before, but I came across this one from the UK, and I decided I couldn’t not share it:
“Mog the Cat” is the creation of Judith Kerr (2023-2019), and is the star of over two dozen children’s books. From what I gather, Mog has a tendency to get into or cause situations like the one in the advert, but everything always manages to turn out alright in the end.
Here’s hoping you can have an enjoyable holiday with your friends, family, and neighbors – without having to go through a catastrophe first.
On the 2025 Hall of Fame Ballot
It’s the Hot Stove Season, and all I’m seeing in the baseball press is who’s talking to which free agents. That’s boring. There’s something more fun that we can talk about – the Hall of Fame ballot.
Let’s take a look at all the new players on the ballot.
I don’t have a vote, and I doubt I ever will, but I can still have Opinions.
Generally, candidates can be grouped into a couple of classes / ranks. So let’s do that. Continue reading
Pond in a Jar – 8
There have been some notable changes since I decided to tweak things a bit. Last time I mentioned adding a teeny bit of eggshell to add some calcium to it (it’s a suggestion to help snails grow). Well, I did. Just the tiniest fragment I could manage. I also added some more water from the source pond, and poked at that green lump at the top with a stick. Since it felt rather solid, I reasoned that it might be restricting water circulation. I pushed it around enough to open a ‘channel’ to the rest of the jar.
The results are in.
On the 2024 World Series
There’s a truism in two-player strategy games that the winner is the player who makes the next-to-last mistake. The Dodgers and Yankees proved it in Game 5.
Given that the Dodgers won the first three games, it was almost guaranteed that they’d win the Series (a 15 out of 16 chance without taking anything special into account). But it can also be argued that since Game 1 went to extra innings, Games 2 and 3 were both decided by the score of 4-2, and Game 4 was intentionally a “bullpen game” for the Dodgers (where they used the four “least good” pitchers on their roster), that the teams were evenly matched and the series could just as well gone into Game 5 tied at two games each.
A Halloween Message from Our Sponsor
While Christmas commercials get almost all the love, Halloween isn’t one to stay in the shadows. A whole bunch of advertisers get in with the spirit of the spooky season, too.
There’s one I wish I could find (I’ve forgotten the soap brand behind it), since it encapsulates the mix of horror and comedy that’s so prevalent this time of year. A woman arrives at her isolated old home in the forest, and the first thing she decides to do is take a shower using the advertised brand of soap. Even though she has the bathroom window wide open, the running water prevents her from hearing a mask-wearing, axe-wielding Bad Guy approaching the house. (OMINOUS MUSIC PLAYS) Well, she holds the bar of soap just right, so it squirts out of her hands and flies out the window….. You can probably guess what happens to the Bad Guy; and the tagline is something about how the brand of deodorant soap gives you long-lasting protection….
Anyway, here are a couple of neat spots that I *could* find: Continue reading
Halloween Countdown
Way back in Ye Olde Times when I first started this vanity project, I came across a blog called “Countdown to Halloween”. They were pretty much a “hub” for dozens and dozens of Halloween themed blogs. I had a bunch of thematically appropriate posts ready to go, so I signed up as a “Crypt Keeper”. I got everything I wanted to post out under that banner, so I didn’t sign up in the years following (even though I kept posting a few Halloween-related things each year).
Well, the Countdown has been going on without me, and many of the same bloggers are still active. Many even post year-round!
In addition to all the artists, craftspeople, and reviewers (and assorted personal blogs), here are a few that I think will be worth your occasional time.
Home Maintenance 101
When you live in one place long enough, you find that things around the house start breaking down as much as your car (or even yourself, once you get to a certain age). So a responsible adult has to learn to fix things without having to call in a professional.
This time, it’s the toilet fill valve.
According to the Internet, it’s a fairly simple process. Seven or eight steps, and maybe a half hour in total.
BUT – that’s under ideal circumstances: a clean toilet and bathroom, exactly the right tools, a proper replacement valve on hand, easy access to the things that need to be disconnected, and someone who’s done it before leading you through it.
For random people like me, the procedure is a lot longer and more complicated. Continue reading
Pond in a Jar – 7
It’s been a little over a year since I first embarked on this thing. While I can’t say it’s thriving, it’s definitely Not Dead – so I’ll call it a win.
Not much to look at…..
I sometimes have to fight the urge to poke around in it, trying to make it look “neater”. That big glob of green crap at the top….the mass of “fuzz” at the bottom…. But I remind myself that it’s not dying and there are still critters swimming and crawling around inside it, so my policy of “benign neglect” will continue. All I do is add a little more pond water from the original source every now and then when the level gets uncomfortably low (close to the narrowest part of the neck).
Detroit – 6
It seems that these days, every large enough city with something resembling a waterfront is required to turn that waterfront into a park. Detroit is no exception; their riverfront has been turned into a nice promenade, with scattered trees, grassy areas, and benches. There’s even a small state park to show what a natural riverbank is supposed to look like, with the corresponding environmental benefits.
There are also a couple of party boats and river cruises available – none of which I took advantage of on this trip. No ferries between the two countries; I guess they aren’t needed.
Maybe if I had a party of 200….
Plenty of those electric scooters for rent. I suppose that maybe someday I’ll use one – if the rental company would make them more user-friendly, and post signs at the charging stations showing the rates and where the nearest other stations are, so you’d know exactly what you’re getting into with one. You could even stick a QR code on the sign, that lets you download the app right away! Come on, people! It’s not that hard!
One cool thing of note was a vending machine in the snack area at the Michigan Science Museum – salads in a jar! I forget which one I had (lots of bean sprouts), but it was tasty and substantial. A bit messy getting everything out of the jar into the cardboard “bowl”, though.
Something that struck me was the lack of traffic Downtown – both foot and vehicular. For a major city, it was weird to see so little activity in the middle of the day in the middle of the week. Was everyone off on vacation somewhere? Things were pretty sparse even in the major office complex of the Renaissance Center.
By the way, it’s pronounced “shine-O-la”……not “shin”……
Pure Blather 