Three Things Thursday

Stephany does an occasional Three Things Thursday series, so I thought I'd do something similar. I feel like hers is less whining than mine. 

Three Times I've Felt Invisible

1. I have complained about the limited number of self-checkout lanes for more than a handful of items at our local grocery store before and I'm here to do it AGAIN. If the store is going to limit self-checkout to only ONE lane for people with more than a few items and then that lane doesn't work, we're going to have to wait in line for a cashier. Fine. (It's not fine. I want to bag my own groceries.) The cashier did a fine job, although Amy's tendency to chuck items down to the bag means we had to toss a can of tomatoes because there was a brand new dent on it after she threw it. Fine. That's the cost of dealing with a human being who doesn't care about our groceries. 

But the bagger. Her name was Kylie. Was she drunk? High? I specifically said, "hey, those nectarines are very ripe - can you treat them like they're the most precious things on earth?" and then she threw them into the bag. Fine. But then. THEN. She literally threw baking potatoes on top of them. My husband and I both yelled don't, but it was too late. My nectarines were squashed. 

This happened more than a week ago and I'm STILL STEWING ABOUT THIS. Customer service is dead. If I have to checkout at a lane with a cashier and bagger, I'm not so politely telling the bagger to get out of my way and not touch a single item. 

2. It's registration season here at my job. In the afternoon, I do a presentation to all the students in our college to tell them what classes to register for and how do so. So I'm in the computer lab working with students and I say, "hey, can you open X program?" and they say "how?" and I say "how did I tell you to do it?" knowing I told them at least three times and they say "you didn't." AND THEN I SCREAM politely, but maybe not patiently, tell them how to do it AGAIN.

3. I was waiting patiently in line at a local business and when the person in front of me was finished, the people behind me just barreled in front of me and checked out. Like...I was standing right there? Maybe I AM invisible. 

Three Things Happening Right Now

1. As mentioned above, student registration is this month. June sucks at my job. So I'm basically doing the bare minimum in the rest of my life. But don't feel too badly for me because July is going to be a whole lot easier. 

2. Our book club is reading a book by a local author and we asked the author if she'd like to come to our next meeting. We'll see how it goes.

3. My new office chair came in. I'm enjoying it. 

Three Podcasts You Should Listen To

1. Sea of Lies - Some folks on a fishing boat find a dead body. How that dead body got to be there is batshit crazy. There's international fugitives, financial crimes, stolen identities, and incest. What more could you want? Everyone told me to listen to this last year and I didn't because I resist popular things, but I should not have resisted. 

2. Time Capsule: The Silver Chain - I was NOT expecting this. A reporter stumbles upon newsletters from a swingers club in 1970s suburban Minnesota. He starts researching the club and what happened to its members. It sounds salacious, but instead turned out to be heartbreaking.

3. Dirtbag Climber - A rock climber in Squamish, British Columbia is shot dead. Who would want to kill him? Well, it turns out that the suspect list is pretty large because the guy was really a dirtbag. Great investigative podcast. 

Three Photos of Zelda (she is perfection)

MY PRECIOUS KITTEN

Three Times My Husband Made Me Snort Laugh

1. Our car has this feature where it recognizes who's driving and adjusts the seat settings for that driver. My husband recently shaved and now the car doesn't recognize him. He made a new profile with "Summer Ted" as the name and now the car says "Hello Summer Ted" with a pink colored background whenever he's driving. This makes me laugh and laugh and laugh.

2. We were at the grocery store yesterday and parked next to an SUV as per usual. As we were getting out, the SUV guy was emptying stuff out of a cooler in his trunk and one thing was an egg carton and he just flung the water out of it. I looked at my husband and said "I'm surprised you didn't get wet" and he said "well, I wasn't expecting egg water on my foot today, but here we are." AND I LAUGHED SO HARD. EGG WATER.

3. The way he will watch endless videos of Belgian Malinois dogs snapping at air. 

Three Books I Have Requested from the Library

1. Kittentits by Holly Wilson - The aforementioned book club book. It sounds absolutely unhinged.

2. Ella Minnow Pea: A Novel in Letters by Mark Dunn - Kind of a cool premise. Letters keep getting banned, so the book follows suit and doesn't use those letters. I'm excited to see if it lives up to expectations.

3. The Unseen World by Liz Moore - The guest on this week's Sarah's Bookshelves podcast recommended this so highly that I couldn't stop myself from putting it on hold. 

Three Things I've Watched Recently

1. The Princess Bride - When I mentioned to my husband that I'd never seen this movie, but I felt like I had the gist through bits and pieces because it was always on TBS when I was a teenager (baby Fred Savage, rolling down the hill, a torture machine?), my husband was HORRIFIED. So I watched it. I think it's probably the first movie I have watched since before COVID. 

2. Taskmaster - The current season's final episode will be available tomorrow. I'm finding the current season pretty meh, but even a meh season of TM is better than most television. 

3. This guy talking about birds on YouTube.

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What's the last movie you watched? What was the last photo of a pet you've taken? 

A Day in the Life, 5/14/2025

Do you want to know about my day in excruciating detail? Here it is! If you don't want to know my day the tl;dr is that I walked the dog and worked. 

5:30am - Woke up. I finished The Wishing Game by Meg Shaffer while hanging out under my SAD lamp. I'm wearing my BGSU sweatpants. I think I mostly like this book, but I'm going to be honest and say that there are some disturbing aspects of it. It's also a bit confusing about who the audience is - it reads very YA to me, but it's shelved under adult fiction. I'll write a longer review later, but the gist is that I liked this book okay, but didn't love it and I have some concerns about some of the messaging. 

6:00am - Go downstairs to take off Hannah's cone (she has a spot that's healing and we don't want her to mess with it overnight) and brush the cat. 

6:05am - Take Hannah out for her morning walk. It's creepy foggy this morning. I literally just wore my sweats and sandals to walk the dog. No "real shoes" or outerwear needed. Woot!

6:40 - I feed Hannah, tell Zelda what a pretty girl she is, get my breakfast ready, and then eat. This is my usual breakfast of yogurt and granola, some fruit that is cantaloupe and the first nectarine of the season (!), some cranberry juice, and some tea.  

7:10am - Upstairs to brush my teeth, get dressed, and put on makeup.

Yes, we each have a clock and a box of tissues on our side of the bed. 

For makeup these days, I have a real mix of drugstore and fancy brands. This is a lot about makeup, so if you don't care, just skip to the next photo.

I start with elf tone adjusting primer as a face primer. I super recommend this if you have red undertones. It's perfect. I also use elf lock it down eyelid primer. It has a bit of a smell that I don't care for, but it works really well and I only smell it for like five seconds, so for the price, you can't do better.

For my eyes, I have a Half-Baked Naked palette from Urban Decay. Honestly, this palette is not ideal for my skin tone. I thought I would try something new and stray from my Naked2 Basics Neutral palette. Lesson learned. No one here cares, but I am eying the new Naked Eyeshadow Sticks from Urban Decay because I think they might be easier to blend. I'd like to get to Sephora or Ulta to try them out. I use Maybelline Great Lash as mascara and love it.

I'm using Real Flawless from Laura Mercier for my foundation. It's a replacement for a different LM foundation that has been discontinued. It's pretty good and it feels nice, but I wish it had a bit more coverage. 

I'm currently using some Cover Girl blush and it's FINE. It's maaaaybe a tad too dark for me. I literally used every bit of a Tarte sample of paaarty and then Sarah told me about the Tarte 7 for $77 sale, but I dithered too long and the sale is over and I had to just go buy some blush at the drug store. If anyone has spare paaarty that they don't like or need, GIVE IT TO ME. 

7:40am - Pack up for work and then head out.

"Please don't leave me."

Lunch is some guacamole, tuna, and a green bean salad. I have pretzels at work to eat with the guac. My salad has green beans, cucumbers, tomatoes, kalamata olives, and goat cheese. The dressing is a mix of olive oil, red wine vinegar, Dijon mustard, and salt and pepper. I made enough of the salad last night to last through the rest of the work week, so I can just grab and go in the mornings. 

On the way out of the driveway, my neighbors were walking their dogs and they didn't notice me coming down the driveway as they watched to see what another dog was doing so that they could get their dogs by without their dogs barking.  They were standing right in the middle of our driveway. As soon as their dogs saw me in the car, though, they started barking at me. I had a short conversation with them and headed on my way. 

7:45am - Drove to work. I was listening to the above pictured Garth Brooks album. I listened to "In Lonesome Dove" twice, "Rodeo" once, and pulled into my parking spot just as "What She's Doing Now" finished. It's still foggy, so it was sort of a creepy drive. 

8:01am - Unpacked all my gear. Checked email, set up appointments, tried to get ready for some appointments later on in the day. We also debriefed about a training we all went to yesterday. THEN!!

9:00am - DUDES!! The police K9 came to visit my boss. I asked first, but I pet her. She's a German shepherd who is nine and is dog reactive. What a girl. I liked hearing that a dog reactive dog can still be a working dog. 

9:20am - I uploaded these photos and started the bare skeleton of this post. Took far too much time trying to get a photo of myself in my office. I cut off my feet in the photo. Oh, well. 

9:30am - Worked. Here's what I did:

Talked with my boss about a new hire in our college

Sent out a series of emails about one of my students and some work they had completed

Completed a change of status form for next semester because I'm teaching an overload 

Made a phone call to a student

Sent an email to a chair about a tricky advising situation

Sent an email to a student panicking about if they met graduation requirements

Contemplated grading, but decided I didn't want to

10:45am - Met with students, primarily calming them down about end of the semester meltdowns/low GPAs/possible academic dismissal/major changes.

11:45am - Debriefed with my boss about my student meetings. She laughed at how casually I say things like "oh, so you failed that class?" without skipping a beat. Wrote up meeting notes.

12:06pm - Lunch outside! People kept coming by to chat. Good times.

12:35pm - Talked with our janitor. He's starting a landscaping business with his brother, so he was telling me all the details.

12:45pm - Virtual stretch class. My local healthcare group does stretch classes two or three times a week. It's free! It's fun! It's a reason to block fifteen minutes off your calendar to devote to self-care. We talked a lot about snacks today.

1:00pm - More work. Here's what I did:

There's a new software rolling out that is going to change a lot about how we advise and register students. The rollout has been dodgy. Somehow I have been given "expert" status on this software that only sort of works and have to do a training of our summer advisors on it for freshman orientation. That training is next week. I worked on the presentation and diving deeper into the software. 

2:10pm - Co-worker comes into the office to talk about an articulation agreement. 

2:40pm - Back to the PowerPoint. 

3:18pm - Bestest Friend butt dials me. I don't actually know what happened, but I answered and said hello twice and then she hung up on me. 

3:40pm - Brief freakout with my boss because the software isn't working. I need a snack.

4:19pm - Time to get out of here.

I listened to Garth again on the way home. "Burning Bridges," "Which One of Them," "Papa Loved Mama," "Cold Shoulder," and "We Bury the Hatchet." "In Lonesome Dove" is up next for when I get into the car again. I have thoughts on this album. I think "We Bury the Hatchet" --> "Cold Shoulder" --> "Burning Bridges" --> "Papa Loved Mama" is a better sequence for the STORY of Ropin' the Wind. I keep saying that I'm going to write a huge post rating the Garth Brooks albums, but now I'm just giving away all my thoughts about it here. 

Small town life alert: I have an acquaintance whose father just died. I knew the funeral was today, so I was a bit shocked when I saw her walking her mother's dog as I was driving home. I stopped my car (in the middle of the street, as you do in a small town) and talked to her about how she was doing. I will have to text her in the next week or so to set up a time to have coffee.

4:40pm - Hannah and I are out for our afternoon walk. It is a glorious day.

5:30pm - Doing some yoga. This video was too advanced for me, so I mostly just listened to the nature sounds in the background and did my own thing which included a million shoulder stretches and some ab work.  

6:14pm - I changed back into my regular clothes and started making popcorn. We're doing reheated frittata for dinner tonight and the popcorn is just a fun little add on. 

This is my Whirley Pop. I love it. 

6:58pm - I started walking to the library. Seriously, this is such a gorgeous day.

7:05pm - Got my books! I know that I have bragged about our public library before, but it truly is a lovely space.

7:12pm - I'm home with my books. Here are the ones I borrowed.

I then proceeded to lay on the couch listening to the newest episode of Sarah's Bookshelves Live in a vain attempt to get the cat to come cuddle. She was not interested in cuddles, so I got up.

7:30pm - I wandered over to the table and opened up my laptop to start working on this post. I also have to buy my husband a birthday present and figure out an ebook that I can download on my Kindle because I finished The Wishing Game this morning and have no book to read on my Kindle! I also should probably work on my book review post for The Wishing Game, but I'm pretty sure I'm going to run out of time before I get to that, but a girl can dream. 

8:11pm - Gift purchased (a boring shirt he asked for) and two books put on my Kindle - The Beekeeper of Aleppo and What You Are Looking For Is in the Library. I also snagged an audiobook - The New Moon's Arms. Starting my review for The Wishing Game now. 

8:31pm - Collect the trash and take it out. Then I take Hannah for a walk. It's PERFECT WEATHER, but she's not into it, so after twenty minutes, we're done. 

The sunset!

9:10pm - I start taking my evening medications and brushing my teeth. While I'm upstairs, I grab a pet sympathy card for a co-worker who had to put her dog down today (Jack was an adorable guy) and a condolence card to write to the acquaintance who I spoke to when I was driving home today out of the card box. I'll write them tomorrow, but I put them on the table downstairs so I won't forget. 

9:20pm - Into the shower. I'm listening to the newest episode of 60 Songs That Explain the '90s: The 2000s with my guy Rob Harvilla. In the twenty or so minutes I listened, I audible laughed several times and was nearly in tears at one point. The episode is covering Toby Keith's "Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue" and one of the things that made me laugh was Rob's utter disdain at the lack of an Oxford comma in the title. One of the things that nearly made me cry was Rob having to describe what the phrase "let's roll" means in the context of September 11, 2001. I know that Rob's schtick is not for everybody, but it really is for me. 

9:40pm - Back to my laptop to finish this post. I need to fill out my habit tracker still (133 minutes outside today), do a couple minutes of training with Hannah, put her cone on, turn on the dishwasher and then I'll go upstairs to read for a few minutes. Whatever book downloads on my Kindle first is the one I will start. Hopefully lights will be out by 10:15pm.

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What did you have for dinner last night? When's the last time you went to the library?

The Third Gilmore Girl by Kelly Bishop

I listened to the audiobook of The Third Gilmore Girl by Kelly Bishop (narrated by the author). Someone in blogland recommended this to me, but I can't figure out who. If it was you, THANK YOU.

I was a fan of Gilmore Girls and honestly, Emily is the best character in the show. This is a memoir of Bishop's life and it made me love her so much. She got her big break as a dancer in the Broadway show A Chorus Line and never wanted kids, but always has rescue dogs and she's pro-choice and was a smoker for decades and believes in psychics. I adore her and I adored this book. I listened to the audiobook and if you're a fan of show biz stories with someone who doesn't really want to spill the tea and the most scandalous is gets is that she had pre-marital sex, this might be the book for you. 

5/5 stars - I adore Kelly Bishop.

Lines of note:

One of the many comments during those ironing talks that really stuck with me was her observation - not a complaint, simply her truth - once you have children, you'll never be free again. Apparently even as a little girl I sensed that freedom was going to be an essential part of my life because when she told me that, my first and only thought was, well, then, no children for me. (Chapter 2)

I feel like I had this exact moment of my own when I was a young girl. 

Your more likely to look for, as the Garth Brooks song goes, Mr. Right for Mr. Right Now. (Chapter 8)

I think Garth was the only non-Broadway musical artist mentioned in this book. You know what? I love Garth, too!

Don't cry because you think your best days are gone, smile because you had them in the first place. (Chapter 13)

Aging is a privilege. I repeat this to myself daily. 

Hat mentions (why hats?):

Without Kelly, I never would have been able to have a room completely dedicated to hats in the middle of New York City. (foreword by Amy Sherman-Palladino)

sparkly beige top hat (Chapter 3)

Five for Friday, Edition #13

1) We took the Christmas decorations down last weekend. It made me sad, but we had to do it because someone (I won't name names) had puked up a hairball on the tree skirt and the only real way to clean it was to take the tree down to put the tree skirt in the washer. The good news is that the days are getting longer. The bad news is that doesn't help me in the mornings when it's pitch black and I'm walking Hannah. ANYWAY. That's done. Now I have the annual question of "what do I do with the holiday cards" that always involves me stacking them up on the desk in our living room and then throwing them away in a fit of spring clean in April. 

2) Earlier this month, I had a bloggy meetup with Anne and Sarah! Yes, I should show you a photo of the three us being cool together, but this is me, so here's what you get instead. If you also live in southeastern Wisconsin or northern Illinois, let me know. I'll definitely come to your house and make your dog take selfies with me. 

Annabel and me. Obviously we're in love. 

3) I recently went to a class to learn how to clean my sewing machine, something I literally had never done the entire time I have owned my machine. Did you know you're supposed to clean it EVERY YEAR? LOLOLOL. It's clean now. Will that be the catalyst I need to hem the pants?  We'll see! (I think we all know the answer is no.)

4) If you have talked to me in person in the last three weeks, I've probably talked about one of two pieces of media - either the fact that we're watching a show on Netflix called Evil or that I'm listening to the audiobook of Gone With the Wind. 

Discussion with my (lapsed Catholic) husband after an episode of Evil, a show I have taken to calling Demon Detectives:
Him: If I'm dying, I'd like last rites, okay? Just in case.
Me: Okay. I'll do that for you.
(pause while he looks at me expectantly)
Me: What?
Him: And you?
Me: Oh, no. I don't need it. It's all made up. I know what happens when we die.
Him: What happens?
Me: My body rots?
Him: But what about your soul?
Me: There is no such thing.
Him. Atheists. 

Also, there's going to be an entire post (maybe two? or three? or a million?) about Gone With the Wind, but I want you all to know right now that it's a true masterpiece and I now want to be a southern belle who owns sawmills and hates my children. 

5) Let's talk about the cat. Zelda's had chronic diarrhea for weeks, going on a month now. She was on an antibiotic for two rounds and then they did an ultrasound. She had an ultrasound in 2022 when she was diagnosed with IBS for kitties, so they compared it and saw an increased thickening in the small intestine. What this means is one of two scenarios:

a) Her IBS is getting worse. The thickening will continue. This is treated with steroids. Hey, don't worry, your cat who already begs for food ALL DAMN DAY will beg EVEN MORE because she will have the hunger. And the thirst. 

b) It's a slow-growing cancer. This would be treated with chemo and then the very same steroid. About half of the people who start chemo on cats don't finish because the side effects of nausea and vomiting are too bad. PLUS. To determine it's cancer and not her IBS, we'd need to do an endoscopy that would run $2000-$3000. 

We told the vet that we were just going to put her on steroid and move on with our lives. If it's cancer, the steroids will help her symptoms and we're just not willing to shell out thousands of dollars AGAIN. The vet called in a script to Walgreen's and I went to pick it up. 

Pharm tech: That'll be $341. I put the GoodRx coupon on there and everything. 
Me: Excuse me?
Pharm tech: $341.
Me: How many doses is that?
Pharm tech: It's a 30-day supply.
Me: Um. Can you hold on to that for a bit?

I texted my vet friend (I swear I don't take advantage of this relationship!) and asked if $341 was a reasonable price for a month's worth of the medication and she said NO WAY! Don't pay that! She'll fill it at the vet office. The next morning she texted that it was ready and would be $41.42. 

So we learned that I'm unwilling to pay $341 a month for the rest of Zelda's life, but $41 is reasonable. I feel sort of like a bad cat friend, but here we are. 

She started on the steroids and we are hoping for the best. In the meantime, just so you know, her litter box is STILL REALLY GROSS and I'm scooping it three or four times a day. And what a good kitty because she always makes it to the box even when it looks like it was an emergent situation. 

She's never going to "get better" from this, regardless of what it is, but hopefully her symptoms will decrease. Poor kitty.

Hannah on our Thursday walk after work. I just didn't want her to be jealous of the photo with Annabel. 

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What piece of media are you talking about these days?

On Cursing

xkcd, of course: March 13, 2006

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Mid-week last week, my husband came home and talked about how he was leaving one university building for another and he held the door open for three corn-fed Midwestern college students (young women). You know the kind. Stick straight hair (one blonde, two brunette), wearing what looks like pajamas to us Olds, clearly upset about some assessment that had just taken place in their class. My husband reported they were swearing like sailors and using some words that he would never use unless it was a dire situation. He admits that he was clutching his pearls a little bit and was embarrassed at himself. 

We were young college students once. We swore a lot. "Leave the college talk at college" was actually a common refrain when he would go to his parents' house on break. 

But this was different, he told me.

******************

Cut to him reading the news over his morning tea later in the week and reading an article in Vox called "Why the **** does everyone swear all the ******* time?" and it talks about the shifts in swearing over time.

1) Medieval times: The worst curse words were those that invoked religious swearing (zounds = Christ's wounds and was BAD). Words surrounding sex and bodily excrements were normalized because there was no privacy and everyone was fucking in front of everyone, so, hey, not a big deal.

2) By the 15th century, privacy was more of a thing and bodily words became more taboo. By the Victorian era, people called underwear "unmentionables," but in a post-Enlightenment era, religious curses were not at all shocking. 

3) People my age (40 and older) tend to think of cursing as mostly about sex and bodies. Fuck has slowly become less and less offensive, but still most people would probably not ask their boss "how the fuck was your weekend?" on Monday morning. 

4) Young people (younger than 40) don't think that the curses having to deal with sex and bodies are all that bad. They are reclaiming the word cunt (which, I swear to you, I do not think I have ever said out loud and I am typing it here, but am very much embarrassed about it), using fuck with impunity, and shit isn't even in the top fifty of most offensive words.

(The article did not say this, but I think this has to do with the ubiquity of porn in society these days. But I'm an Old, so my hypothesis is based on nothing more than speculation.)

So what is offensive to these young whippersnappers? Slurs. Racial, ethnic, and religious slurs. I'm not going to type them here, but you know the words and phrases I'm talking about. 

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Of course, there are people who never curse. Or maybe they'll happily say "cheese n rice" or "oh mylanta," but would never take the lord's name in vain or let out a swear.  Those people are to be respected. I'm sure they're much more articulate than those of whose response when you (hypothetically) accidentally drop an entire bowl of popcorn on the floor is to say "damn it all," and their minds are probably a much kinder place.

But for those of you who do occasionally or more than occasionally curse, where do you fall in this spectrum? Are you an Old or a Young? Would you be taken aback if some young people started swearing in front of you? What about the c-word? 

60 Songs That Explain the '90s by Rob Harvilla

I have talked about the podcast 60 Songs That Explain the '90s in this very space before. The host of that podcast, Rob Harvilla, has written an accompanying book and you better believe I  put that on hold at the library as soon as I could. 

A few caveats about this book. I was in middle and high school during the '90s, so all of this music talk speaks to me. Harvilla is from Ohio, a fact that comes up repeatedly in this book and I spent most of the '90s in nearby Michigan and the last three years of the decade at a college in Ohio, so a lot of his Midwest pride resonates with me. If you are not familiar with the music or musicians from the 1990s, this book will be a garbled mess because Harvilla assumes a lot of knowledge on your behalf (heaven forbid if you don't know how a particular musician died). 

All of that aside, this book is so funny. I know it's because I could hear Harvilla's voice after listening to every episode of his podcast, some of them more than once, so I can hear the tone when he writes the word Rude and the Stephanie Tanner of it all (look, if you don't get that reference, you should not read this book).  There's not much new here if you have listened to every episode of the podcast (maybe some of them more than once), but he organizes the chapters by themes, so sometimes there's an interesting juxtaposition of musical artists that you wouldn't get on the actual podcast. 

If you like '90s music, maybe you would like this? I really did. 4/5 stars

Lines of note:

Did you ever notice that new music, now, is nowhere near as great as the music you loved as a teenager? And you know what? You're right. Whether you were a teenager in the '60s, the '90s, or the 2010s, you're right. The music you loved as a teenager is the sweetest music you'll ever hear...(page xiii)

Harvilla is generous in his love of music, but he knows that he just thinks '90s music is the best because it's the music of his childhood. And I love this acknowledgement. 

[After Harvilla recounts an anecdote about how Prince threatened Sinead O'Connor and she had to run away from his house to find refuge in a neighbor's house.] I can't tell you how to feel about any of this. I can't tell you how it should change the way you feel about him, or about her, or about this song ["Nothing Compares 2 U"]. There is no true, clean definitive way to Separate the Art from the Artist. (page 72) 

After just having read Monsters by Claire Dederer, this was the second book I'd read in recent memory that tells all of us that we're off the hook for having to make judgments about artists. I think I need to read authors with stronger points of view.

Can I be honest and say that I find Liam and Noel's insults to be more vibrant, to be more musical, to be of greater lasting sociocultural value than most other bands' songs? (page 111)

If I need to explain who Liam and Noel are, you shouldn't read this book. 

Did you know Cher was born in 1946, which was the year after World War II ended? I don't say that to be rude, but to more effectively convey my awe that Cher, at 52, had a massive pop hit the year after "Zoot Suit Riot" came out with 1998's "Believe," an AutoTune exaltation that divided the 1990s from the 200s just as surely as God divided the light from the darkness. (page 141)

Cher is a modern miracle. When "Believe" comes on in our fitness classes, you should hear the multigenerational cacophony the first time Cher sings "I really don't think you're strong enough, no." Dolly Parton and Cher - bringing together the generations. (If you haven't heard the Robbie Fulks version of "Believe," your life is incomplete.) 

What is the single greatest opening line of the 1990s? Let's figure this out. To expedite the process of figuring this out, let's narrow the field down to two choices. Your choices are "Alright stop, collaborate and listen" or "Man, it's a hot one." You pick.

Harvilla really tickles my funny bone. 

One summer in my teenage years, I spent a week at a literary workshop at Bowling Green State University, and my parents both drove me there and back and sat through an hours-long climactic student reading in which I recited a poem about dreaming about being a bean in a bowl of chili. (page 267-268) 

Harvilla shouted out my alma mater in the acknowledgements and I squealed out loud, just like I do every time I see or hear a mention of it in the great big world. (A lady in my fitness class recently came up to me after class and complimented by BGSU tshirt. "Did you go there?" "Yes, I graduated in 1986." Without pause, we both chanted "Ay ziggy zoomba" and then we left to go home. Go Falcons.)

Hat mentions (why hats?):

Best fashion accessory: in a huge upset, the floppy hat with the giant bow on it in the "Borderline" video. (page 9) 

This is referring to Madonna and I can think of at least five other accessories I'd include on a list of Madonna's best fashion accessories from the "Papa Don't Preach" video alone. 

You can buy so many porkpie hats and trombones and Skankin' Pickle records with that money. (page 45)

I have nothing to say about the '90s swing revival.

The Atlanta pop trio of Tionne "T-Boz" Watkins, Lisa "Left Eye" Lopes, and Rozonda "Chilli" Thomas, is, by the numbers and also by the feelings, the biggest girl group of all time, which in retrospect as pretty obvious just based on the riotous video for their 1992 debut single "Ain't Too Proud to Beg": the exuberant primary colors, the giant hats, the baggy pants, the overalls, and of course, the glasses with a condom over the left eye that gave Lisa Lopes her nickname. (page 67) 

I did not know her name was Rozonda. I'm just going to leave the rest of it there. (Biggest girl band? Really? The Supremes? The Spice Girls? Destiny's Child? I love TLC so much, but this seems like hyperbole to me.)

They are led by singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, charming Only Guy on the Album Cover narcissist, and bucket-hat enthusiast Gregg Alexander, who I would've sworn to you was English (it's the hat), but who apparently grew up in Gross Pointe, Michigan. (page 137)

Why is bucket-hat hyphenated here? I've never hyphenated it before? To be transparent to all of you, I do not fully understand how to use hyphens. 

What made Tom Petty so rad to me by 1989? The super-jaunty hats in the dusty, post-apocalyptic video for 1982's "You Got Lucky." (page 240)

WHY IS SUPER-JAUNTY HYPHENATED? I guess I'll be spending the morning looking up rules about hyphens.  

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What is the single greatest opening line of a song from the 1990s, in your opinion? I do think "Man, it's a hot one" is very good, but what about "Yo, I'll tell you what I want, what I really, really want" or "You are my fire/the one desire"?  

Podcast Roundup January 2024

Look, I don't talk about current events or a lot of pop culture things much on this blog because of boring reasons. But today I am going to break my own self-created rule and talk about sports. I have not watched an NFL football game for years because of the following reasons:

1) The jingoistic nature of military flybys, the abysmal way the NFL handled the kneeling/sitting thing for the national anthem, and the overall conservative nature of the organization.

2) The general racism of the NFL. The way black athletes are paid so much less than white, the lack of non-white people in leadership roles, especially visible leadership roles like head coaches.

3) The advertisements that focused on things that I think are terrible for all of us as a country - alcohol, junk food, and gambling, in particular - and that those advertisements are often quite demeaning towards women and/or perpetuate gendered stereotypes.

4) The NFL's policies on concussions for former and current players. It truly is a crime that the NFL destroys strong young men's bodies and minds for profit and then offers no long-term support.

5) I am a Lions fan. There was a really rough patch there when the Lions were trying to defend terrible on-field behavior by their players. It was difficult for me to be a fan of a team that condoned this. And, honestly, it wasn't just the Lions. The number of players getting arrested for terrible behavior off the field for things like drunk driving and domestic violence started to get to me, too.

I know that ME not watching has absolutely no impact on the NFL or its bottom line, but I feel like if a lot of football fans took a stand and the NFL's ratings dropped, it would have an impact. Alas, not a lot of people are following my lead.

All of that being said, I still live in these United States of America and even I know that the Detroit Lions won their second post-season game last Sunday and I have to admit that my Michigan heart  swelled with some degree of pride when I heard the news.  Indoctrination is real.

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It has been since OCTOBER that I last did a podcast roundup. How can that be?! I'm sure you're all on the edge of your seats wondering exactly what you should be listening to.

Earwitness is an eight episode limited series about a man who is on death row for murder, despite having an alibi, and the evidence against him is an earwitness who claims to have eavesdropped on an incriminating phone call. Look, I believe that murderers should go to jail, I really do. But I guess I'm more okay with murderers going free than innocent people being locked up. (My BIL has recently been promoted to a judgeship and we have this conversation a lot and it worries me because he is a great guy, gives me lots of book recommendations, and is generally smart about life, but his pro-police, pro-if there's smoke there's fire takes about the criminal justice system are not encouraging.)

I know you are all so sick of me talking about The Memory Palace, but if you haven't listened, I promise you'll love it. Nate DiMeo's voice is smooth as silk, his storytelling is unimpeachable, and if you like NPR's Unsung Heroes or Story Corps, you will love TMP. A soldier, a Yorkie, and a tale of friendship is the basis of the episodes "Smoky and Bill" and "Smoky and Bill, a Holiday Card." You will not regret taking the time to listen to them. 

So, look, I have to admit that I have not cared for the writing style of Ursula LeGuin. She is a speculative fiction author most known for her Hainish world and Earthsea books. I have DNFed books from both of those worlds, so it is clear that LeGuin's writing style is not for me. But I was riveted by the episode "Prologue to Ursula K. le Guin" from the podcast Imaginary Worlds, a fascinating look into LeGuin's personal background and writing philosophy with a focus on a lifechanging event from her childhood. It didn't necessarily make me want to read more of her works, but it was an interesting story apart from her writing.

Also, I need to do a shoutout here. Stephany and Nicole have been talking about how good the podcast The Popcast is for a long time. On their recommendation, I added it to my list, but what I added to my queue was Popcast from The New York Times, which is mostly Jon Caramanica talking about rap music and while there are occasional interesting episodes, I was confused by their adoration of this podcast. BUT! It turns out that they were recommending The Popcast with Knox and Jamie, which is entirely different. It's fun! It's two friends talking about random stuff! It's two friends not always agreeing, but doing so in an absolutely respectful way! It has a deep backlog, but I want everyone to know I've listened to the last year's worth of episodes in the last three weeks.  It's worth a listen if that's your jam (and it most definitely is my jam).

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What's new in your ears these days?

(My husband has been playing the latest Gaslight Anthem album, History Books, in the car. My favorite songs from that album are "Michigan, 1975" and "The Weatherman" if you're more into music recommendations than podcast recs. As always, my all-time favorite Gaslight Anthem songs are "American Slang," "Biloxi Parish," "Even Cowgirls Get the Blues.")

12.18 Winner - Podcast Roundup October 2023

Bestest Friend and I are doing a podcast project. Every day we will write a blog post on a pre-determined theme chosen by a random noun generator. The theme for the eighteenth day of the month is "Winner."

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What are the best podcast episodes I've listened to in the last month? It turns out that they're all from some of my old favorite podcasts and that a lot of them made me cry. Here you go. 

I know I keep talking about how great The Memory Palace is, but that's because it IS. Nate Dimeo is a storytelling genius. I don't know how he does these short (10-15 minutes!) episodes that make me want to cry at the end of them. "The Six Triple Eight" is another homerun episode for me. Nate doesn't like to give a lot of information about his episodes, but I think I can tell you it's all about a military unit of black women who delivered mail. But it's beautiful. 

Likewise, I have talked about Ear Hustle on this blog so many times that you are probably all rolling your eyes. But the episode "Once You're in the Ocean, You're Going Everywhere" was so incredibly hard to listen to. The prison population is aging and that's true for men AND women. In this episode, they interview some women who are seventy or older about their experiences living in prison and it was absolutely heartbreaking. But definitely worth a listen.

Illustration by T. Rusty Nunes

I feel like telling people to listen to The Daily is like telling people that the National Football League shows games on Sunday, but here we are. I recently listened to an older episode from March 2021 called "The Lonely Death of George Bell" that goes through step by step of what happens when someone dies without a clear will or heir in New York City. I found it to be eye-opening. The role and function of government is wide-reaching and total, friends, and if you don't pay attention to local politics, I don't know how you can sleep at night.

From the folks who brought the hilarious Let's Make a Sci-Fi and Let's Make a Rom-Com comes Let's Make a Horror just in time for the spooky season. Not all of the episodes have dropped yet, but what we have here are three Canadian comedy writers trying to write a horror short. It's such a great look into the process of writing and creating and working in teams. Honestly, it's just great fun to listen to, too.

And, in the spirt of the spooky season, I'd also like to direct your attention to "Haunted Housing Market" from Imaginary Worlds in which the host makes and incredibly argument that haunted house movies are all about the fear/stress of home ownership. It was such an interesting theory about the haunted house genre that I'd never heard before!

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What's something great I should listen to? I take music and podcast recommendations very seriously.

8.25 Relationship - Playlist Throwback

Bestest Friend and I are doing a blog project. Each day we write a blog post on a pre-determined theme chosen by a random noun generator. The theme for the twenty-fifth day of the month is "Relationship."

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Last month, I wrote about how we celebrated our fifteenth wedding anniversary on the twenty-fifth. This month, I'd like you all to see that my husband loves me enough to give me a primer on Radiohead.

In my obsession with the podcast 60 Songs That Explain the 90s, I listened to the episode on Radiohead's song "Creep" and admitted to my husband that Radiohead's back catalog is intimidating to me. 

(I honestly imagine it's the equivalent of someone staring at the discography of Dolly Parton or Garth Brooks and just sort of shrugging. Where would you even start?  I mean, the obvious answer is that you start with Garth's The Hits - although Garth's not on streaming services, so you'd have to buy it and that seems unlikely unless you are a true fan - and Parton's Playlist: The Very Best of Dolly Parton, but this is a serious digression.)

We had this discussion, I took off to walk the dog, and when I came home, this was sitting on the dining room table for me. 

He proceeded to explain to me the complicated system of dashes and asterisks and I feel like my husband just made me a mixed tape and I thought it was the most romantic gesture in the world. Be back as soon as I listen to all of these songs.

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Absolutely unnecessary evaluation of each song (I'm seriously worried about what this is going to do to my Spotify algorithm):

"Creep" - Every generation needs a stalking song, I guess. 

"Anyone Can Play Guitar" - I can 100% see why my husband loves this song. 

"My Iron Lung" - LOLOLOLOL forever at Radiohead. Poor band gets a hit single and then complains about how hard it is on them. This song is hilarious, but I don't think it's supposed to be? I do appreciate the potshots at grunge. It is a cleverly written song.

"Just" - My husband suggested I watch the video. I had no idea what the members of this band looked like, but now I know. And the video was interesting, although I was less impressed with the guitar in this tune.

"Paranoid Android" - Okay, I gave this one the old college try. Two-and-a-half minutes into a six-and-a-half-minute song and I wanted to tear my hair out. It was...noisy.

"Let Down" - This just sounds like noise to me. I can't understand what York is singing even though I'm reading the lyrics at the same time. Huh. The intro and bridge are very pleasant musical interludes.

"Everything in Its Right Place" - No. Just no.

"The National Anthem" - This is screechy. 

"I Might Be Wrong" - I like the album cover art. It's listenable, but barely.

Do you listen to Radiohead? What's your favorite album or song? 

7.29 Song - Riding a Turtle

Bestest Friend and I are doing a blog project. Each day we will write a blog post on a pre-determined theme chosen by a random noun generator. The theme for the twenty-ninth day of the month is "Song."

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I was recently listening to Chris Molanthy, host of the podcast Hit Parade, talking with the hosts on the podcast Culture Gabfest about Morgan Wallen and the ubiquity of his song "Last Night" even though he was supposedly canceled in 2020 for going to a party unmasked before he was supposed to perform on SNL and then using the n-word in a casual way.  ANYWAY. I missed the memo on his un-cancelation because I don't listen to music on the radio and I don't understand how songs become viral (TikTok? YouTube? am old), so it's not like I'm getting suggestions from Spotify for new music.

I digress AGAIN.

I want you to know that even if I did listen to terrestrial radio, I would not listen to Wallen because I am literally offended (OFFENDED) by his 2020 hit "More Than My Hometown," in which he basically sings to a girl that he loves her a lot, but "I can't love you more than my hometown." What sort of message is this? It's better to be miserable in your hometown than with the person you love in another place? WTF? I can't even with this guy. My husband and I heard this song when we were driving to the compost one day and we both stared at each other in horror. 

That's all. Also, I don't listen to Chris Brown, Michael Jackson, or R Kelly, either. I really try not to be too much of a hypocrite.

As a palate cleanser after discussing Wallen, I wanted to show you the cover of Sam and Dave's Hold On, I'm Comin' album, which was on a playlist curated by my husband and made me laugh and laugh when it came up on our drive over the weekend. They're on a turtle! Such bad 1960s photo splicing! What is going on with those poses? It's fabulous.

What's the best musical cover art you have come across?

7.18 Winner - Podcast Roundup

Bestest Friend and I are doing a podcast project. Every day we will write a blog post on a pre-determined theme chosen by a random noun generator. The theme for the eighteenth day of the month is "Winner."

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I have been trying some new podcasts and have stumbled upon some excellent ones, so let me regale you with what's been going on in my earbuds. 

Violation, a collab from WBUR and The Marshall Project, looks at the case of one black man's journey through the criminal justice system, from being found guilty of a murder while he was a minor to prison to attempting to get out on parole. Jake Wideman doesn't deny killing a fellow camper on a trip when he was a teenager, but should he spend the rest of his life in prison for something that happened when he was sixteen? He's been seeking mental health treatment and has a potential stable home life outside of prison. On the other hand, he did kill a child. It's so fascinating and I found myself wavering constantly about what his fate should be and what role members of unelected parole boards should play in life-altering decisions they may or may not be qualified to judge. As someone who strongly feels that life without parole sentences should be illegal, when confronted with parents pleading that their child's murderer stay behind bars, it was sometimes hard to stick to my guns. Very thought provoking and it really made me think hard about my beliefs.

When I saw a new four-episode season of 30 for 30 drop, I was hesitant. Called The Bag Game, this season investigates how a top NBA recruit fell from the rankings after he was caught up in NCAA violations when he was attending the University of Kansas. I don't know why I was hesitant because 30 for 30 has never steered me wrong, but I thought this sounded like a bit of a snooze. It wasn't, though! It was great and fascinating and character-focused. Billy Preston may not have been squeaky clean, but it was clear to me that he deserved better than he got.  Anyway, I am not a sports person, but I like all these 30 for 30 stories and I was super impressed with this one.

I have been trying to find a replacement for the first season of The Adventure Zone, which was the peak of some people playing D&D in a listenable way for non-D&D players. I've dipped my toes into other roleplaying podcasts, but a lot of them are actual play, which is long and rules-y, and some are just annoying bros being annoying bros. The Adventure Zone itself has yet to have an additional season beyond their first that I have listened to in its entirety. So I downloaded the first few eps of Dungeons & Daddies without much hope, but then I downloaded more episodes and then more and then soon I had listened to the entire first season! Just as good as the first season of TAZ and maybe even slightly better because I found myself tearing up a couple of times at the end. I haven't yet dipped into the second season, but I'll keep you updated. 

And that's all from me from podcastlandia. Have you listened to anything great recently?