Mike O'Connell

A bad day at the movies is better than a good day at work. A good day at the movies is simply glorious. Thus was my feeling today at Alamo Drafthouse in Ashburn seeing Star Wars: The Last Jedi. I don’t get to the movies often, so when I do it’d better be damn good. This one was.

Without giving too much away, yes, this eighth installment of the Star Wars series stacks up against those I would call “the good ones.” The story’s there, the special effects are there, and of course the most satisfying part of any Star Wars film: the humor. There are some clever nods to previous films, just subtle enough to be rewarding to loyal viewers.

They’re going to keep making these as long as they keep making money, which is to say until the end of time.

And I’ll be at every one.

The reason I like December so much is that for a few weeks everyone acts the way I act all the time. Constant stream of treats and treating yourself? Yup! Parties where we pretend to be classier than we are? Yup. Monday? Tuesday? Yup, yup, doesn’t have to be a weekend. Getting free stuff everywhere you go? Yeah, and give away a lot of stuff too. With jazzy music in the background.

Make a lot of money, spend a lot of money, have fun. Those are the keys to life.

Winners of six in a row… the Bearcats (ROAR!) of Binghamton University.

With its road win Saturday against Loyola (Maryland—my territory!) Binghamton is turning into a power of the America East.

Look out, Vermont!

Add egg nog to the list of products overrun by bizarre 21st-century variations. When I was a kid there was “egg nog.” Well, I suppose there were two kinds. You could make it or you could buy it. (But once you could buy it, who was still making it?)

Oreos, Triscuits, Pop-Tarts. When I was a kid there might have been two or three versions of these products, tops. (And that was a huge increase from the one version that existed previously.) Candy bars are now getting into the act as well. Even the classics (Snickers, Milky Ways, 3 Musketeers, etc.) have altered versions of the classic form. Reece’s cups, Twix, M&Ms, of course. Heck, even Hershey bars aren’t Hershey bars anymore. And don’t get me started on Hershey Kisses.

Christmastime, naturally, is the great flowering of said blooms. Everything at least has an unusual holiday wrapper, no? And often the items themselves go red, white, and/or green. That’s the magic of 21st-century living. They can make anything taste like anything.

Pumpkin-flavored egg nog? You betcha. Sugar cookie egg nog? Caramel egg nog?

That these products didn’t exist a few years ago is the kind of news that absolutely stuns my students. And you had how many channels on your TV, Mr. O’Connell? Four. But PBS didn’t come in so well.

From four channels to caramel egg nog in one lifetime. I must be really lucky or really old.

It seems not everyone was convinced by Wednesday’s post on this site and the accompanying research of R. Alexander Pyron, suggesting that, in layman’s terms, human beings are the species worth saving here on planet Earth. For not one day later, while perusing the alumni magazine that occasionally arrives at my home (that would be the Fall 2017 edition of Binghamton University Magazine) I stumbled upon this gem in the campus news section:

Physical facilities workers built and installed more than 30 new ramps on the Connector Road to help yellow-spotted salamanders make their annual spring migration from woods to water in the Nature Preserve. Previous ramps, installed in the ’90s, created obstacles for snowplows; the new ramps are cut into the curbs.

Two things I often find myself saying:

1. Where do I even begin?
2. This is not a joke.

Don’t worry, though. I hear the salamanders are going to pay for it. Not up front, mind you, but I understand they’ve worked out a payment plan with the state legislature to reimburse all costs over a multi-year period, perhaps a payment in lieu of taxes arrangement concurrent with their unpaid bills from those “previous ramps.” We should start to see a return on investment very soon.

Thanks for making me look smart, BU.