On last week’s Math and Musings I mentioned briefly to my nine-year-old guest the magic of the night before Thanksgiving.
Thankfully he knew nothing about it and I intend to keep it that way for as long as I can.
Santa’s out of the bag and I’ve got only so many secrets left!
Some artists are prolific, dealing in quantity as much as quality. Others, the J.D. Salingers among us, parcel out their genius more deliberately. For some it’s not their fault. Who knows how many more movies James Dean would have made had his life and career not ended at 24? Well, he made three movies and they’re all gems.
It is on that subject that I invoke the name of Nathan Fielder. I’ve mentioned Fielder before, he of Comedy Central’s Nathan for You and HBO’s The Rehearsal.
And that’s it.
(Yeah, yeah, some minor credits, just like James Dean’s uncredited parts pre-stardom, but who’s counting those?)
Enter “The Curse,” Fielder’s latest and his latest home run. One episode in I was hooked. Unlike Fielder’s other projects he is not playing himself, but like his other projects it’s best to go in fresh. And let’s just say there’s a lot going on. Knowing that my wife and son would never watch the thing I tried this week to explain to them the first episode. Twenty minutes later I was still talking and hadn’t even scratched the surface.
Do yourself a favor and watch “The Curse,” somehow presented by Showtime or Paramount+ or Amazon prime or some combination of all of those things. It’s what everyone else is talking about, so why not?
And who knows when you’re going to get another Fielder project.
Never mind the barren trees, never mind the early nights, never mind the colder temps. The true sign of autumn turning to winter is Wendy’s swapping out the pumpkin spice frosty for peppermint.
Yup, it’s on.
For this and other signs of the holidays, check out today’s episode of Math and Musings. I’ve got a special guest who knows a thing or two about food, lists, and celebrations.
Remember last week when I was so happy that the onslaught of political ads would finally cease since Election Day had passed?
(Clicking that link and looking back.)
Well, that was Election Day 2023.
Now I’m already getting ads (text messages, actually) for the next gubernatorial election.
(Pause to reflect how far away November 2024 is.)
Uh, no, it’s actually November 2025.
Sadly it was not satire.
Over the weekend my son suggested to me, out of the blue, that an interesting list would be one which associated a beverage with every month of the year.
My son.
Clearly I have raised him well, if I do say so myself. And I do.
Here’s what we came up with.
January–hot chocolate
February–champagne
March–Shamrock Shake
April–coffee
May–tea
June–beer
July–Pepsi
August–lemonade
September–apple cider
October–Pumpkin Spice Latte
November-Sprite Winter Spiced Cranberry
December–egg nog
A decade ago I started posting at “the web home of Michael O’Connell,” my little corner of the Internet labeled mikeoconnelljr.com.
Among other things the first post noted the “non-pecuniary benefits of having one’s own blog.” I can pretty much say this for everything I’ve ever done: books, TV shows, music albums, podcasts.
Well, such is life.
And for a description of my latest one-off vanity project at my ongoing vanity project, check out today’s episode of Math and Musings.
One of the greater themes of my life has been if no one is letting me do this I’m just going to do it myself. Can’t get a job at a newspaper? Start your own. Can’t get a job on a TV show? Start your own!
I have no handyman skills, though I am Mr. DIY. No one has bought you the gift you want? Buy it yourself. No one has planned your birthday party? Do it yourself! I’ve self-published books, printed my own CDs, and funded my own concerts. Like, an unholy number of times.
For years I’ve been trying to get my biography included as an article on Wikipedia. I may be in the minority on this, especially among teachers, but personally I think Wikipedia is the greatest source of information on the Internet. It’s basically the encyclopedia I would have eventually written myself, amirite?
Well, I don’t need to write the whole encyclopedia, just the one article I want to see. And now it’s here, on my own website, the one I produce myself. Mike O’Connell, maker of content.
My Wikipedia page now lives not at Wikipedia but at the top of the blog I’ve published for nearly 10 years. That it took me 10 years to think of this is a bit disappointing, but hey, I’ve been busy.
Election Eve and I’m damned excited.
(Pause.)
Excited I’m no longer going to receive any solicitation about this damned election.
Today on Math and Musings I’m a bit all over the map. I begin with recounting a few animal encounters, segueing into cocktail parties which then morph into Christmas parties. This is what happens when I don’t have a guest there to ground me.
Pretty much everything I do in life I like to log here as some sort of backup diary. Some day as I’m writing my memoirs if I’ve misplaced all of my books, articles, CDs, actual diaries, and episodes of the podcast, well, I’ll have the archives of mikeoconnelljr.com.
I’ll want it noted that I’ve really enjoyed the first few episodes of the Frasier reboot. I’ve been a fan of Dr. Frasier Crane for over 30 years and this newest incarnation has not changed that fact. Sure, there are some haters out there, but Frasier-haters gonna hate.
Me? When it comes to the voice of Frasier Crane…
I’m listening.