The snow has finally melted and I can’t believe I’m saying this…
I’m happy to go back to work today.
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Usually when my local school district cancels school for “snow” I laugh, because there’s usually about three flakes on the ground.
I’m from an inhospitable land where it actually snows, like, a lot, and if there’s six or seven inches of snow out there we put on our snowsuits, hop in our cars, and pay it no mind. Unless it’s taller than the Kindergarteners, there’s school.
(If you’re wondering where I grew up it’s Binghamton, New York. Picture where the North Pole is, then it’s just a little below that.)
Today in Loudoun County, Virginia?
Believe it or not, I’d call today a legitimate snow day. So much for my theory that they’re just canceling school for covid and telling us it’s for “snow.”
I guess that’s always an option for next week.
Last week I finally got around to watching The Unseen Alistair Cooke. Apparently it’s more than a dozen years old, but has become available on the PBS app only recently. (And is disappearing quickly too so I suggesting getting on it like now!)
Originally I’d scoffed at the title, thinking I’m a huge Alistair Cooke fan, I’ve seen everything already. The fatal conceit of those who miss out. There were a few things I hadn’t seen before, and though many of the items I had, the documentary was an enjoyable hour on the life and times of one of the most celebrated journalists of the 20th century.
And one of my heroes.
I’ve mentioned before that Math and Musings is basically a knockoff of Cooke’s Letter from America: 15 minutes of commentary per week so insightful that it’s better than listening to 15 minutes of anyone else. (That’s the goal anyway.)
One thing that has impressed me about Alistair Cooke always is his knowledge on many subjects. Like a great editorial writer, Cooke was well-versed in many areas. One item I appreciated hearing in the documentary—that Cooke had at the ready amusing stories (my words) on dozens of topics—is basically the conversational expertise I’ve been trying to cultivate over the past few decades.
I’m still working on my British accent.
I’ve read half a dozen books so far over this prolonged winter break, though I’ll admit one of those books I read twice.
Well, no, it’s two separate books, but damned if the two aren’t very similar.
Leigh Montville and Dan Shaughnessy are two of Boston’s most distinguished and longest-tenured Boston sportswriters. (They’ve done other things but they are Boston guys, no question.) Each of them has published a book recently about his days covering the Boston Celtics. Montville’s memoir covers mostly the 1969 NBA Finals while Shaughnessy’s scrapbook takes us behind the curtain on the Bird-era Celtics of the ’80s.
The two authors ran in similar circles for so many years that their stories often overlap. (Indeed, there are several of the same “scoops” presented in both books.) Furthermore–credit to the Celts on this one–the players, coaches, and management crossed so many generations that we encounter the same characters even if the anecdotes are decades apart. (Red Auerbach was present at the creation and lived until 2006, while Bill Russell and Bob Cousy are still around half a century after their days on the hardwood.)
For what it’s worth, it seems as though Montville put a little more effort into his work. (Though the sections of “I-just-don’t-remember-what-happened” are a little weak.) I get the feeling Shaughnessy put his book together a few months ago when we were all just sitting at home and probably heard his old buddy, Leigh Montville, was cashing in on a book about the Celtics. A certain I could do that! moment no doubt followed.
Did I mind reading the same book twice in a row?
Nope.
Okay… Bob Ryan? Peter Gammons? Lesley Visser?
Come on, one of you write another book quick so I have something to read.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again now: New Year’s Eve is my favorite holiday.
For a further discussion (uh oh, here comes the commercial), tune in to Math and Musings today, available wherever podcasts are sold.
Remember when TV shows followed the school-year schedule? New season starts in the fall and ends in spring?
Yeah, neither do most people.
They probably don’t remember when Curb Your Enthusiasm started either, because it was about a billion years ago.
But more than two decades after premiering on HBO, Larry David’s Curb Your Enthusiasm is still bringing it. And is it me or has it somehow gotten better after all this time? (Maybe I’m just becoming more Larry David-like.) Always benefitting from the fact it was on HBO and not regular cable, Curb is now pushing envelopes not even dreamed of in its early days, let alone those years starting with 19. It’s taken Seinfeld to a new level, has kept up with 21st-century themes, and, mostly importantly, has continued to make fun of things that need to be made fun of.
There are only two shows I watch religiously these days, and they’re both on HBO: Curb Your Enthusiasm and How To with John Wilson. They also have something else in common. With a guest appearance Sunday in Curb‘s Season 11 finale by whistleblower/author Alex Vindman (playing himself), both shows are featuring “actors” from Binghamton University. Yeah, Vindman went to Binghamton, graduating in 1999, just a year and a half before I started. Wilson, as mentioned previously (in an embarrassing admission), didn’t begin his studies until after I’d graduated, but represents Bearcat pride probably better than Vindman or I.
Season Two finale of How To airs Friday.
When I set out to do something I never don’t do it, so saying I had a perfect score on my Christmas list this year is like noting that the earth managed another spin yesterday.
I’ll admit I had one slight change. When going to buy a Christmas tree several weeks ago I noted that my preferred location, Krop’s Crops, did not open until 10 a.m., while nearby Meadows Farms opened at nine. The Farms got my business, because in classic Michael O’Connell Sr. fashion… I was ready. (Also in MJOC fashion was my scoffing at the tree’s price, but who wasn’t doing that this year?)
Hope you had a nice Christmas, dear reader, and I hope you got to everything on your Christmas list.
‘Twas the day before Christmas and all through D.C.,
Two-dollar Big Macs for you and for me!
Let the Wizards keep winning as the Caps rest a while,
And Santa, give the Football Team a reason to smile.
We all could use a bit of good news,
God Bless our teams in their 2022s.
Among the differences between my hometown of Binghamton, New York, and my adopted home of Loudoun County, Virginia, is that the saps in Binghamton had to go to school three days this week while we had to go none!
For a more in-depth comparison tune in to Math and Musings this Friday, special Christmas Eve “from the road” edition.
I’ve heard it said you can’t go home again.
No, you definitely can, though perhaps a part of you wishes you hadn’t.
“Home,” currently, in the place I so often deride, I’m reminded why I do.
But for a handful of people I still talk to, there really ain’t much to it.
Hashtag sad comes to mind.